Labor Day Weekend

For labor day weekend we talked my parents into coming to Rexburg. We had a blast! Sterling and Lisa were able to come too. We had a house full. Rochelle brought her camper and stayed in Rexburg, and Robin made the trek as well. Everyone got here Sunday night and we made plans for Monday. What we decided to do was play kickball at Smith Park in Rexburg. It was so much fun! We were able to include everyone, from the 1 year old to the, well, my dad, I won't say how old he is :) The funniest part was Sterling kicked the ball and my dad tried to catch it. It bounced off his chest and hit Sterling, so he was out. Everyone was rolling on the ground laughing!

After kickball he had a picnic and played on the playground. Preston loved the swing!

Babies Room

So... we are having a GIRL! I am very excited about all the bows and flowers!

A Huge Project

This project started when I painted the front door and then I realized how bed the eve of the house looked. (the reddish brown trim) So that's when the wheels started turning. I told Blake that I wanted to paint it and he was, well, lets say less than impressed with my idea. I agreed that if the Dr said that I could get on the scaffolding I wouldn't do it. He didn't say yes or no, but he didn't say no, so I was in business. Five hours later I was done! It really made such a difference! I love the way it turned out.

It was a messy job, for sure!

Preston loved the clean up!

This is the best picture that I have of the finished product. You may not even be able to tell what I did... But I can! Thanks Lisa for helping with Preston!

Sneak Peak

I have been trying to find some fabric to be inspired by for Preston's room. I am so excited to have finally found something. I just have a few things left to do in his room and there will be a full post of pictures.

Bye Bye Binky

At the end of August we bid farewell to the binky... Blake and I took a trip to Logan for the weekend and on the way home Preston fell asleep with the Binky in his mouth. I took it out and from that point on he only had it to fall asleep. It only took a week of this for Preston to get used to it. I was very happy it wasn't that big of an ordeal. My goal was to have Preston weaned from it so he wouldn't be stealing the babies for him to suck on. I'm certain that will still happen, but lets hope not as often :)

Vintage Shoot With Karen

For Preston's 11 month session I wanted to do a vintage theme. I love the little outfit that Karen put together. Be sure and check out her website

http://karenandersonphotography.com/.

She does such an amazing job with children and has taught Blake and I so much. Thanks Karen! I love the pictures!

True boy at heart... he loves blocks :)

I'm sure that Grandpa Bryan will like the fact that Preston's hair is parted. It kind of looks funny because it is always CRAZY.

SURPRISE!!

This is how we told our parents the exciting news- the middle of July. I'm obviously catching up on the blog :)

Karli and Denise I really didn't copy you... I had to laugh when I saw that on your blogs. I guess great minds think alike!

Preston's Birthday

Preston's Birthday fell on a Saturday this year and Blake was lucky enough to have the day off. It was such a nice day. The day before it had rained like crazy. We were supposed to have Preston's pictures taken that morning, but our photographer came down with the flu... so we rescheduled. It was fun to be able to hang out and enjoy the day.

While Blake mowed the lawn Preston played with his play lawn mower. He loves that thing. He actually got one for his birthday from his Great Grandparents, so he has two. It is a good thing too, he has already warn one out. That is how much he likes it.

I just thought this picture was funny. He has fallen down and doesn't know quite what to think. And I love this shirt, it shows his little muscles :).

That evening we had a BBQ with family. Even though it was just family we had quite a few people. It was fun to be able to host the event at our own house. Thank you to those that came, we had such a great time.

I had fun making Preston's cake. And to make it even better it tasted good too!

As you can see Preston loved having free reign over his cupcake.

What a silly little boy! We don't know what we would do without him. He is so fun to have! Blake and I have definitely learned a lot from him past year. We love you Preston!

Family Picture

Four wheeling with the Johnston Family

While we were at my parents house for Evie's blessing Ellis, Rochelle, and I rounded up some four wheelers and we took a trek in the wilderness. We were in search for the honey combs. We weren't able to get to them... by the time they were in walking distance (an 8 mile hike) there was a big rain storm getting too close for comfort. By the time that we made it back to the pickup to load up the four wheelers we were getting drenched.

Our happy little family. Preston loved being on the four wheeler and observing everything else going on.


When we first started out on the 'trek' Robin, my mom, and I (and our two babies- Macie and Preston) started walking. After about a half a mile Macie started to get a little fussy because she was tired and we didn't have her pacifier. So Preston's pacifier came to the rescue! After walking 4 or so miles we were looking as far as the road went and realized that they weren't coming back for us. We were unaware of how far everyone else was going, which ended up being 20 some miles. I ran back to the car and my mom and sister started back with the little ones. I literally just got to the car and Ellis came around the bend and picked me up... good timing I guess. As they loaded up the stroller my camera had fallen out of the stroller. I was so sad! Luckily on our way back we were able to find it, it was just enough on the side of the road so it didn't get run over! Phew!

Miss Evie's Blessing

Little Miss Evie herself. She is such a beautiful little girl. Emily has always called her Miss Evie... I think that it has already caught on.
What a beautiful family. It has been so much fun watching Owen be a dad. You can see that Miss Evie already has him wrapped around her little finger.
Here are the babies of the family... for the year. First was Keegan, born the end of December, Preston, end of June, Elise, beginning of September, Maci, end of October, and Miss Evie the middle of March. Needless to say that the Johnston's have increased there numbers. Evie is my mom's 25th grand child.

Garden Time

We planted our first garden this year. I am very excited to reap the rewards of a garden this year. It was a lot of prep work this year, more that it will be next year I mean. We rented a sod cutter and removed the grass, brought in some railroad ties, and lots and lots of dirt. But somehow not enough. Blake was such a trooper. There was a little miscommunication on what I wanted done and what he thought we were doing. Thanks babe! There is no way that I could have accomplished what you did.

It is still amazing to me that you can plant such a little seed and produce food from it. It makes me grateful that Heavenly Father figured out all the chemistry and all I have to do it plant and give a little TLC.

Fun Times at the Cabin

For Memorial weekend we were able to go up to the Harris cabin. It was fun to spend time with the family and enjoy the outdoors. We went on four wheeler rides, played lots of games, most importantly go to sleep in.

At the cabin there is a 'pet squirrel'. His name is Hector. Preston was very excited to see him... as you can tell.

Preston definitely loves his Grandpa Bryan. Hanging out in their undies.

Finally warming up to Great Grandpa Harris.

Bath time! Preston won't be able to bathe in the kitchen sink much longer. He is getting too big.

Hair, Hair, Hair

I love having long hair... most days. One of the days that I don't like it is when it is time to clean out the vacuum cleaner. I am sure that many of you can relate to this. Just the other day I had to get a part for this machine so I took it into Rexburg to Vacuum Services and the guy pulled out the best tool for removing hair. It is like an exacto knife, but it has a hook instead of a straight razor. It took me 30 min to do what he did in 30 seconds! Thought I would pass the tid bit along.

Another example of something that I love, but dislike at the same time. I love being able to work out of my house... the only down fall is that little feet track my work all over the house.

Some of Preston's Favorite Things

Preston loves to look at books. It is fun to watch him learn and develop.

A great helper when it comes to pulling the laundry out of the hamper. Not so much help when it comes to folding though! Unfolding... GREAT helper :)

This pan is just Preston's size. For the time being it is the only one that he can actually get out of the cupboard.

Preston LOVES Baby Einstein. And I have to say that when I am fixing dinner, I love it too. When he was in his walker he would muscle through the carpet just to get a better view.

Family Heirloom

This double rocker was my parents first piece of furniture. My dad's brother, Milt, got it for them when he was in Maui. It is made out of the same wood that the ark was made of, gopher wood. My mom said that it cost $100. At the time that they got the rocker my mom was expecting my sister Rochelle. And according to my mom, she was HUGE! Or according to my grandpa anyway. When my grandpa delivered the rocker to my parents, Grandpa George said to my mom, "Even you can fit in this Annette!"

A few months back I saw this sitting in my sisters garage and asked if I could 'take it off her hands'. Leaving the dirty work of transporting to Owen. I got permission from my mom to paint it, and she was very excited. So after a litter elbow grease and black satin paint, here is the end result. I have some great memories of this rocker. There used to be a cushion on the seat and the back, so that is on the list of things to do.

Four Generations

This is my Grandma Lola Beus and my mom. I am so grateful that Grandma Beus is around to know Preston. I hope that Preston can be around her more often to learn from her. She is definitely a fighter. Preston is her 90th GREAT grandchild. When he was born she was 90 years old. What an amazing posterity that she has!

Aden's Wedding

The Johnston clan. All 10 kids were able to go to the wedding. It was really amazing to be able to spend time with everyone.
For the time being, this is the only picture that I have on my computer from the actual wedding. Blake has been begging me to update the blog... so get ready, I have been saving up my posts :)

Trip to Georgia

The trip started out by meeting up with my family (Mom, Dad, Robin, Macie, Raina, Ster, Lisa, Owen, Emily, and Ellis Barlow). Yeah, just a few of us. They picked me up in Tremonton, and then we headed down to SLC airport. Our flight didn't leave until 3, and we got there at 12. If any of you know my family... yes we were early to something! So needless to say that we had a little time to spare. I was quite nervous about Preston flying because he was just getting over having an awful cold. He ended up doing really well. He definitely had his times, but for the most part he did really well. We flew from SLC to Atlanta and then to Birmingham, Alabama. Our final destination was Atlanta but the tickets were a fourth of the cost to fly into Birmingham, which is about three hours from Atlanta.

This is Preston rolling on the yucky airport carpet. :)

Preston and Macie giving each other loves.

Preston was amazed at the city lights as we were landing into Birmingham. And yes, he loves his mommies hair!

This is an awful picture, but I couldn't miss the opportunity of how Johnston's 'dine in'. On our way to Atlanta from Birmingham we stopped at a Wendys and all got something to eat and ate it in our cars. Mind you it was at midnight. And as you can see we rented rent three cars for all of us to fit... comfortably. We finally arrived to Trica's parents house at 3 am. They were so excited to see us. Even at 3 am! It felt like were staying at a hotel. We had our own bedrooms and bathrooms. Food was everywhere! It was great! It was so nice to reaffirm the type of person that Aden was marring. Tricia is a wonderful person- Aden is lucky to have her- and her family is just as great.

The day before the wedding we were able to go and sight see Atlanta. Tricia's sister, Kristen, and her husband were our tour guides. They were great. They were full of interesting facts and placed to see. We started out by going to the underground mall. I have to say that I have never felt like the minority before. We were the only white people there. After that we headed to the Capitol building. It was fun to see the history that is there. We also went to the CNN building, and a hotel that my dad wanted to see. I can't remember the name, but it was fun to go there. He said that when he was activated in the service he stayed there... years and years ago. It was amazing to see the memories of that time in his life come back.
After the sight seeing we went back to Tricia's sisters house and we all met for pizza. There are 10 kids in our family AND in Tricia's! And to make it even better, Tricia and Aden are both the youngest! All of our siblings were there. And I think that 9 of Tricia's siblings were there. It was crazy with people. It was fun because Aden introduced Tricia's family and Tricia introduced us.
After all the eating was done the shears came out and the haircuts began. Aden was definitely first. His hair was so crazy... as you can see from the above picture. I will be posting pictures of the wedding in my next post.

Blake wasn't able to come with Preston and I to Georgia. He was having a hard time letting us go. And by us, I mean Preston. Blake seriously considering asking his mom to take some vacation and keep Preston! I see where the love is. :) But as you can see Preston came with me. My family was so helpful with him. Blake is such an active parent that it was quite a shock to not have him around to help. It was really good for Preston to get to spend some time with my parents.

My dad was so good with Preston! It was fun to see them interact with each other. This is a great picture of the back of some strangers head... but in the background is my dad giving Preston a piggy back ride in the SLC airport. My dad is somewhat of a germa phobe. -I say that with love- and I set Preston down on the floor, the yucky airport floor, to give my arms a rest from holding him, and the next thing I know my dad is giving him a piggy back ride. He was so great to help with him. He is such a great Grandpa.

Here is Uncle Sterling holding Preston on the flight. At this point Preston was getting restless. It was the end of a 3 1/2 hour flight.

Any of you that know Preston know that he is an amazing eater. I have to say that that quality of Preston is my dad's favorite. When you feed Preston this is usually the sight that you see. Mouth wide open asking for more.

Emily helping with Preston. She was such a trooper. We traveled so much and she always had a smile on her face, even with being 8 months pregnant!

After the wedding Tricia's parents took us to Stone mountain for some more sight seeing. Stone mountain is a HUGE piece of granite. And they said that only a 1/3 of the stone is actually exposed. There is a carving in the mountain that measures to be an acre. I am totally making up these facts... but they sound good. They facts are, well I don't remember, but something like what I said. If you want the REAL facts you can google it. :)

We took a ride to the top of the mountain and this is a picture of the carving. It is of General Lee and a horse.

This is a picture of Atlanta's skylight from the top of the mountain.

Tricia's dad sharing his hat with Preston. He thought that was fun.

While we were on this trip Preston started getting really constipated. Poor little guy! We finally got that under control.

Preston's schedule was totally out the door while we were traveling. Poor little guy! Luckily we drove enough for him to get some sleep.

On our way back to SLC. Preston was amazed by my bubble gum bubbles.

On all of our flights the last one was the only one that I got to use Preston's car seat. It was really nice. We each were able to have our own row of seats.

On our way driving to Adrian, Preston was really thirsty! What a cutie pie!

This picture may look familiar to some of you, but for journaling purposes I am re posting it. This is when I started putting Preston on the toilet. This came about because he was constipated and I was running low on diapers, not because I am trying to potty train! Lisa suggested that I try it. It actually helped, because of the position that it put his legs.

While I was at my parents Preston started doing his army crawl thing.
Needless to say Preston really missed his daddy. He was very excited to see Blake after 7 days!