Part 2

Here is a picture of the finished project. My fireplace is no longer an eye sore! I love the way that it turned out and that it is truly a focal point now! I will have to do another post when I finish the accessories that I will put in the pit. I will also post some pictures of the progress another day, I just wanted Jeff to quit asking me when I was going to post the pictures. :) By the way, thank you Blake and Jeff for your man hours with the mantle, Bryan for the supervision, and Lisa for the motivation and assistance.

And The Stockings Were Hung

I am so excited that I finally have a mantle to hang my stockings. My sister Rochelle and I made these stockings a few years ago. I think that I am going to have to leave them hanging at least a week after Christmas to that I can enjoy them.

Cole"s Baptism

Last Saturday Cole chose to be baptized. It was fun to have the family come up and spend time with them. Mary's parents were able to come up from California. I know that they were happy they missed the snow.
Congratulations Cole! You are such a great example to you family and those around you.

A Little Preview

Here is a few pictures to give you an idea of some of the things that I have been working on. I laid the pen so you can see the size of this crown molding.

I am hoping to have this project done this week. So I will be sure to get some pictures posted of the finished project.
To be continued...

Look Whos Rolling Over!

He's finally done it! Around 4 1/2 months Preston started rolling over, back to belly. He has now, at 5 1/2 months, gotten pretty got at rolling from belly to back. It has been fun to watch him become so much more active and discover new things and new abilities.

Ward Christmas Party

As you can see Preston was excited to see Santa! He is such a good baby, happy to go to anyone, so Santa wasn't any different.

The primary put on a nativity scene. It was so amazing. They acted everything out and sang the primary Christmas songs. And to make it even better for us, Blake, Preston, and I had a part. We were Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.

I was worried that Preston was going to be cranky because it was his bed time. But he was so good, playing with the straw (raffia).
It's kind of hard to see, but on the right of the stage is a choir of stars. In the middle is Samuel the Laminite and the Nephites below him. And to the left is the angels and the shepherds. They were very brave to have the shepherd boys have staffs.

Fun with Grandma Leti

The other day Leticia and I went Christmas shopping and stopped at Wendys for lunch. Every time that we would take a drink Preston would reach out and open his mouth. It was so cute. So Leti decided to let him try to get a drink. It is so amazing to me that children catch onto things so quickly. Preston knew exactly what to do just from watching and observing. He actually started getting the drink up the straw, but gave up before he got anything. Don't worry he didn't drink the diet Coke! :)

New Microwave

When we moved into our house we had to get our own microwave. We purchased a counter top one because we were told that a microwave wouldn't fit over the range. Well I recently found one with the right dimensions. I had been wondering how to make it work to get another microwave and the next day our old one broke for the third time. {I didn't brake it on purpose. If that was what you were thinking} So I thought it was a good time to get the over the range one. Doesn't it look pretty? Blake tried to fight me on this, but I was really hating how much room the other microwave took up. I am very grateful that even though he didn't want to go through the hassle of installing the microwave, he did anyway. Blake is very patient with all of my crazy ideas. Thanks Babe!
Bryan was kind enough to come and supervise and make sure that Blake installed everything properly. Well lets be honest, he did more that just supervise.
Here is the before shot... kind of embarrassing, so forgive the mess.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a little different for us. On Thanksgiving day we went to the fire station in Rexburg and had dinner there. My brother Ellis is a fireman and he was working that day so we were invited to spend the day there. Spending time with those men made me feel so grateful for their willingness to serve and spend time away from their families. Then on Saturday I drove down to Jerome and had a Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my family. It was really fun to see everyone. I didn't get a picture of everyone sitting and eating... because we kind of took shifts on who got to sit and eat. There is just too many of us to accommodate. These two cute boys are my nephews, Chase and Trey. Their dad helped their neighbor move down to Arizona and brought back these gummy jalapeno cactus. It was so funny to watch them running around eating them. They would take a bite and start running and yelling, "HOT, HOT, HOT!!"
My sister, Raina, knitted tons and tons of these hats. It was pretty cute to see all the kids wearing them. The funny part was that most of the boys picked out girly ones. My brothers shut that down pretty quick though. :)
Things tend to get a little hectic when the Johnstons get together. This was Preston's reaction to it all.
Of course there was hair cutting going on. Owen and I thought it would be funny to give him a different style... a cross between a mullet and a rat tail?
Here is Ellis and Hailey at the fire station on Thanksgiving day. You really can't see Ellis in his uniform, but he looks really nice in it.
This is Ellis' gear.You will have to forgive the misspelling of Johnston.

Yummy, Yummy, in my Tummy!!

Preston is approaching 5 months and I have decided that it was finally time to introduce rice cereal. By the picture documentation you can see that he thoroughly enjoyed it!At first he wasn't quite sure what I was doing, as you can tell by the stare down.

I know, I know, I am a bad mother because I don't have a nice 'baby food' spoon. The verdict is in....


We will be making this a daily event!

Laughter

Here are a couple of audio clips of Preston. He is really making a lot of noises and starting to laugh. Blake was making him laugh and so I recorded it on my phone.

Halloween Fun

While everyone was here for Elise's blessing, we has a Halloween party at our house. It was a little early, but this way Grandma and Grandpa Johnston were able to see the costumes. As you can see we had Bob the Builder, a pilot, little Miss October, a two hairdos gone wrong, Tiger, a banana, a pirate, someone from Star Wars, and Gabriella from High School Musical.

The three baby cousins.

Elise, Preston, and Keagan.

The kids were able to play pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern.

Grandma Johnston had a wonderful pumpkin patch this year and brought a pumpkin for each of the cousins. We thought it would be safer to paint them instead of carving them.

TRICK OR TREAT!!

As you can see we had an enjoyable Halloween. If you can't tell Preston was a banana. The only place that we went trick or treating to was to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Harris. {They give the best candy :)}

Bumbo Redemption

As you can see we had a little better experience with the bumbo. I personally think that it is because the bumbo is green, not pink. :)

Elise's Blessing

A few weeks ago was Elise's blessing. I wasn't able to get a picture of her in her blessing dress, but she was beautiful.

As you can see, Hailey is a proud sister.

On Saturday we were able to spend time with each other. It was fun to be together. Here is Grandma with Preston, Morgan, Elise, and Chase.

Max, Cole, and Porter playing video games.

My four brothers: Ellis, Sterling, Owen, and Aden.

All the guys listening to my dad share his wisdom.