B-A-N-A-N-A-S...

(August 26 and 27th)
I made a midnight run to the grocery store. When I walked in the doors, there in front of me were more BANANA'S than I had ever seen!! I swear the cases went to the ceiling!! Our Macey's grocery store was starting a HUGE sale on these banana's and were also going to break a WORLD RECORD!!! 66,000 pounds of the yellow beauties!!! It was a gigantic Banana Castle! The whole produce department was covered in monkey's and banana type items. It was very cool, and I knew the girls would LOVE it.

The next day after Beene got home from school and Julles got done with play group, to Macey's we went! The girls couldn't wait to see the "castle". Not only did WE go, but Keri and Kenadee met us there, and so did Gina and Abby. It was a girls outing to the grocery store!! The first thing Beene said as we were walking in the parking lot was, "mom, I hope they have a mascot!" I told her I didn't think there would be a mascot, and she looked disappointed... but then she saw Kenadee and it made it all better. The girls RAN into the store and their mouths fell to the floor!! Then Beene turned around and said, "Mom, this is NOT a castle!!" I then had to tell her that I just thought it looked like one! But, in my defense... they had sold a TON of them already! They were 11 cents a pound!! People were walking around with CASES of them in their carts!!!

Beene, Kenadee and Julles standing in front of the "Banana Castle"... Abby met us there later on! However, they did think it was Fantastic! (Beene even had to wear her Monkey Pet Shop shirt, to go with the occasion!)

We all split up, and did some shopping. Then, we met up at the Deli, where they were serving Banana Splits!!! So, we all (Keri, Gina, all the kiddo's and I) caved in and got some ice cream and splits. They were delish, and the kids loved laughing and talking together at their OWN table! Jaxson was completely oblivious of any of the goings on, since he was sound asleep in the cart! I am amazed he slept through those 4 little girls and their giggles! All the mom's agreed it was time to go home, so we all went out separate ways. I hadn't gotten very far, when I heard Kenadee screaming, "Jilly-beene, you have to come over here.... THERE IS A GIANT BANANA!!!" Beene perked up and went running to see this GIANT BANANA!!! She then came back to me and said, "Mom, I TOLD you there would be a mascot here!" Boy was I wrong!!

The girla's and the Banana Mascot! They loved him or her... I asked and it didn't say anything, I even asked it to give me thumbs up for girl or thumbs down for boy... and I got NOTHIN'!!! But, it was great anyway! (and really... the night before, the boxes went almost to the ceiling!!!)

What a great time at the store, and with our friends! We couldn't have asked for a more entertaining visit! By the way, they totally broke the record with I'm not sure what, but it was a huge amount of banana's. Lots of people made banana bread that week, I am sure of it!!!

Bear Lake 2009

When I was younger, Grammer would take all the cousins to Bear Lake every July. Usually it was over the 4th or 24th. We would stay for a week, and LOVE every minute of it. Well, when I was 10, we stopped going!

Grammer's birthday is September 7th, and the last few years of her life we would all get together as kind of a birthday party/family reunion for her. She loved it because we would all be together... her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. She loved kids and watching them have fun. We went to Cherry Hill water park a few times, and one year we went back to Bear Lake... it was awesome!!

Now that she is gone, we still party for her special day, and know that she would be tickled pink that we were all together in a place that made so many special memories for us...

So, I give you SOME of Bear Lake 2009 pictures!


The beach... such memories here as a kid! I have a picure of me with my mom when I was just tiny on one of those swings!! What a beautiful view too!!!

Julles, Katie and Beene warming up in the hot tub after playing at the lake and swimming in the freezing pool.

Julles testing out the water... our kids had never been here... WE LIVE 45 minutes away!

Julles and Jason hanging out on the beach together... he had just written "Julles is beautiful" and "Jason is a stud" in the sand!!

Beene taking her first run into the lake... she loved it, even if it was a little cold!

Jason and Beene looking for shells... this has to be my FAVORITE picture of all 400 that were taken!! What a great big brother he is! (and I think that they bring in truck loads of shells every year... I swear there were just as many this year as in 1989... maybe more)

Cute Sisters... Best Friends... having a great experience together!!!

The girls and thier cousin Jack... they could play with him for HOURS!!!

Playing in the sand with cousins... Could it get any better?!

Joseph, April and Laurie hangin out in the condo!! Everyone loved that they were there with us! Great time for Laurie to meet my family... all 24 of us!!!

Jonathan and Jaxson doing what they love to do most... napping TOGETHER!! Those two are peas in a pod!

Joseph and his baby girl!!! He is such a great daddy! He loves that little girl more than life itself! (How could you not though... look at her!)

The Johnson Family... first family picture since the year after we got married... WOW!!!

My wonderful Mom and Dad!!! Thanks for a great time you two!! Thanks for keeping the memories going! We love you more than you'll ever know!!!

Me and my family... my, my we've come a long way!! Couldn't have been born to a better bunch of people!

The whole Morrow Gang, and our cousin Jana and her two kids! What a great bunch... we are getting HUGE in size though...

We can't wait to go back next year and the year after that and on and on!!! Thanks family for a great weekend. Grammer, your memories will live on, and keep growing!

The "big uncle" meets his niece for the first time...

Laurie and April had been in Indiana since a few weeks before I had Jaxson, so they hadn't gotten to see him yet. So as soon as they got back to Logan, and were able to come over, they did!! We had missed them soooo stinkin' bad. We were excited to see how big our peanut had gotten and to give her snuggles!!

I saw her and almost started to cry, I had missed holding her so badly!! Laurie and I did a baby trade off, and we both got some snuggle time with the babies! For so long, April was sooo tiny, and now compared to Jaxson she was HUGE!!! Everytime Jaxson would cry, it would scare her and she would scream and scream!!

Ahhh... look at that face??? We layed them down next to eachother, and she freaked out... this was the only picture I could catch of them while on the blanket! Jeremy has dubbed Jaxson the "big uncle"... very fitting!

A big bunch of babies!!! Jonathan with his grandbaby and his baby... he just wanted to fit in, so he got his cry face on too!!!

All in all, thier first meeting wasn't a huge hit, but they will end up being buddies... we know it!!!

The REAL first day!

Well, the first official day of school came! So did the first official bus-send off... I wasn't sure how I was going to do! But, I had Keri there with me, and we were first times together... we were prepared for anything!

Beene and her best friend Kenadee in the bus line! It was black and white day in the Kindergarten classes, and they all looked so very cute!

The bus started coming down the street, and she looked up at me with really nervous eyes, and i got a pit in my stomach!! I was about to put my little girl on a bus and entrust this lady that I had never met with the life of my little Beene... wasn't sure about that so much!


There she goes... getting on the bus with her Tinker Bell back pack on... looking not so much like my little girl!

I started to get teary... but knew that IF I was going to cry, I had to wait until she couldn't see me! Every other mom there kept telling Keri and I that we were doing great... yeah, that all changed when I looked over at Keri and Mike had his arm around her and she had a big ol' tear coming out of her eye! We looked at eachother and both lost it!! We watched as the bus drove away, hugging eachother and laughing at how we were acting! We said goodbye, and I started walking back home... I started full on bawling!! Then I calmed myself when I caught up with one of the dad's who was walking home too... then I got to my house and started to open the garage and the bus drove back by again, and I saw her and Kenadee's faces plastered to the window with big cheesy smiles on thier faces, and I lost it AGAIN!!! I wasn't crying because I was sad, but that my little girls is growing up, and she is going to experience some fun and not so fun things in this new little chapter of her life. It is going to be wierd not being there to protect her from other kids, and the things they say... but it is all part of her growing up and becoming her own little self!

This was Julles on Beene's first day of school... she was SICK!! She spent the whole night and early morning throwing up! It was quite eventful! She insisted that I take this picture of her and "send it to grandma", and post it on my blog! Poor baby, she was not happy! She layed on the couch ALL day!

For weeks all Beene talked about was that she was only going to ride the bus TO school, and that I was to pick her up and bring her home! (that was all my fault by the way... I was telling Jonathan one day about a little boy in our neighborhood who got off on the wrong stop and luckily another nieghbor saw him walking home and picked him up. Well, I didn't notice that Beene was in ear shot of that conversation, and that pretty much TERRIFIED her!!! OOPS!!) SO, I went to the school to pick her up, and she was MAD at me, she WANTED to ride the bus home! So, I drove home and met her at the bus stop!

Talk about the best feeling in the whole world... having your little girl get off the bus and RUN into your arms and give you the biggest hug and kiss ever and tell you how much fun they had and how much they missed you!!!

Beene and her cute friends!! These 3 girls sit together on the bus. Thier bus driver gives them assigned seats, and what better people to be paired up with, than these cute girls!!!

Well, we survived the first day of school! ALL of us did! She loves school, she loves her teacher, she loves the bus, and she loves being a big girl!!

"First" day of Kindergarten!!!

Kindergarten had Orientation on the "first day" of school. We were assigned an hour of the day to go with Beene and meet her teacher for the first time and get to know her classroom. We were scheduled for 9:30... MY ALARM DIDN'T GO OFF!!! I had set it for 7:00 PM!! Oops... we woke up at 9:25... not enough time to get a little girl ready for her first day!!! So, I called he teacher and made arrangements to go with the second group of kids at 10:30!! I was mortified that this had happened on her first day!!! You can bet that we'll have two alarms set from now on!!!


My super sweet Beene in her first day of school picture complete with backpack... she insisted that my purse be in the picture!!

We met Miss Melanie for the first time, and Beene got really nervous... I have NEVER seen her so shy before!! We got our scavenger hunt page from her teacher and off we went to explore her classroom and all the fun things there were to find! I was very happy to find that there is a bathroom in her classroom... when kindergarteners gotta go, they gotta go NOW!!! She thought it was "cute" because the potty is kid sized! She found her cubby, and her seat, which is at the YELLOW table, her favorite color! She also found that her good friend Macie from our neighborhood sat next to her... that made her pretty happy! Most of the kids from our neighborhood are in one of the other classes, so it was nice that she was by someone that she knew.

After we finished the scavenger hunt, Miss Melanie had the kids to the rug, and gave the mom's some paper's to fill out. She talked to the kids about how their class would go, and they made a run out to where the bus/parent's pick them up, and learned that they couldn't ever leave the line unless they gave Miss Melanie a ticket (a high five), that way they were always safe!!! She sat so quietly and listened to every word that was said! They learned a song, and started to learn some of the names of the people in her class! I would say, it was a very good experience for her!

She got to hang her back pack on her hook... she was soooo proud! She was beaming!!

My big Kindergartener!! She makes my heart happy!!!

Jillian and her teacher Miss Melanie! She loves her, and talks about her all the time! She hopes she never has another teacher EVER!

She will ride the bus the next day with all the other kids! What an adventure!

Back to school night!

On August 19, we had Back to School Night! I can't believe I have a kindergartener!!! I know, I know, I am a grandma... but I have never done kindergarten before!!! We went to the school, and usually they have the classroom open so the kids can see where they will be going on the first day, but the kindergarten rooms were locked up tight!! We did have fun though taking a tour of the school, learning where the bathrooms were, and the most important one to Beene was the LIBRARY!!! She had to find out WHEN she was going to be able to check out books... so we met the librarian and found out she got to go the next week. She was beaming! I think Miss B, the librarian and our Beene are going to be good friends!!

We found her class, and her name on the wall... very exciting!!!


This is our beaming little girl standing under her hook!! She is so excited that she has a hook!

She rides the bus, so we took the route she would go from the bus to her class several times so she wouldn't get lost! She did fabulously!!

The school even had thier mascot "Oreo" the panda there greeting all the kids! I didn't get a picture of her with him, because there was a line of kids... you would have thought it was a disney character!!!

She was so excited that she started school the next day, she could hardly stand it!!!

Shout Hooray, I'm 29!!!

Happy Birthday to me on August 13th! I turned 29... one year closer to the big 3-0!! It was a very great birthday for me... my mommy was here still, and she doted on me and we STAYED HOME!!! It couldn't have been any better for me!

Jonathan took the girls to pick me out a cake... "Daddy... this is the most perfectest cake for mommies birthday!!!" I loved it!! I love when they pick them out for me! They even picked out beautiful princess wand candles for me!

Jonathan grilled chicken just for me!! It isn't his favorite thing to make... but for the last two years, that is exactly what i've wanted for my day, and he did it without complaining for a second!!! It was even more of a special treat because my mom got to eat it too! My dad isn't a chicken fan, and so they NEVER eat it! Well, it was fabulous as always and we ate it up as fast as we could!

Then it was time for singing and cake!! The girls sang me a beautiful birthday song, and assisted me in blowing out my candles and helping me with my wishes! What great girls I have!

The part they LOVED the very most... licking the bottom of the duckies clean!!! You think getting the frosting off the candles is good, you should try this... it is fantastic!!!

Can I just tell you how loved I felt on my birthday??? I got birthday wishes from everyone in my family... and facebook birthday's are the best ever!!! I think I got a gazillion birthday wishes from lots of friends new and old!

My 28th year was full of surprises and fun, and I hope that this 29th one is full of fun, bright new things! ** and no more babies!!!**

Cute baby pics!

Sleepy boy in his B-E-D! For the first week or so he was here, he would be sound asleep and you would mention that you were going to put him in his bed, and he would wake up crying! However, if you didn't say anything and put him in there, and he woke up and realized where he was, he would cry!!! But, if you spelled it, he didn't notice!

How cute is that little monkey butt?? I love it!!! I love how they curl into tiny balls when they are newborns!

I couldn't resist another monkey shot! SOOO cute!

I know my photography is far from professional, and I wish that I could have gotten him some newborn pics done that were fancy shmancy, but these will suffice!

Coming home!

This is what Jaxson looked like on Sunday morning when I went down to the NICU to feed him!! He was wireless, all except his little foot moniter (which is a MUST). The nurse that we had was wonderful... I forget his name, but his face will forever be etched in my mind! He had dressed him in "the ugly" shirt... you see, in the NICU, when a baby is well enough to be dressed, they have super cute little preemie outfits that they put them in... and he was dressed in the little long-sleeved shirt and diaper that "well babies" wear in the normal nursery. Dr. Armstrong hadn't been in yet to see him, so the nurse said that this was a subliminal message to the dr to let him go home! I was ALL for that! He ate like a champ, and I went back upstairs!

This is what Jaxson looked like AS SOON AS Dr. Armstrong gave the green light to let him go home with me! I don't think that elevator could have gone any faster to get me down there to dress him and get him ready to go! I called Jonathan and told him we were just waiting on him to come get us! Boy was it a great sight to see not only Jonathan coming to get us, but my mom, Jason, and the girls! We had quite the entourage! I love his shirt... IT IS SOOO TRUE!!! Home we went!

I don't think we had been home more that 5 minutes and Beene was begging to hold her little brother! This was the first time she had seen him out from behind glass!! She was in seventh heaven!! She kept kissing him and talking to him! It was precious!

Julles was next in line of course! She too was loving this very moment! He was now real to her, and she was NOW a big sister, and happy to not be called the BABY anymore!

Baby Jaxson

Jaxson Boxley Edward Johnson was born on August 7, 2009 at 5:03 p.m. He was 18 1/2 inches short, and 6 pounds 3 ounces. He was exactly 20 days early! However, he was very WELCOME!!

We love him OH SO VERY MUCH!! He is my first baby I have ever been able to bring home with me from the hospital! Can you say excitement?! I have never been so excited for a "to-do list" before! Breathe on own... check, eat... check, poop... check (and all over the nurse!!!), bili levels low enough... check, and finally pass hearing test... check!!!

I think he may be the most loved little baby brother in the whole world. His sisters think he is fantastic, and dote on him in every way! They tell me on a daily basis how much they love him and how cute he is! We'll check back with them in their teenage years, and see how much they love him and if they still think he is cute! :)