Christmas 2010

Prepare for picture overload.... Christmas was fun this year. I was prepared quite early - which is not fun. There is just something fun about last minute gifts! I could never prepare in advance. Christmas officially started last Sunday with the Peavlers getting together for a little early Christmas dinner. We had our white elephant gift exchange and yummy roasts that Chantelle made. It was also the perfect opportunity for Chantelle to tell us that baby no. 2 is on the way :) We're all very excited for her!! 

On Thursday, the Bradford kids that are in the area got together for our own Christmas party. I can't believe how old everyone is getting! We were having fun making jokes about each other and reminiscing. I'm so glad we're not a mushy-gushy family. It's so much funner to make fun and know that we just all love each other. Lots of yummy food and hyper kids!!

Christmas Eve was spent with Shane's parents and sister Shelly. We (Shelly and Tammie) decorated cookies, watched movies, and watched Shelly beat Shane at Nerts :) It was lots of fun - I'm glad we were able to be there.

Christmas Day was fun too! I woke up before the kids and walked back and forth from Chloe's room waiting for her to wake up! Finally, at about 8 she woke up! She loved all of her presents and was so excited about her new kitchen. (I was too until I saw Janell's rendition of the same frame.... Mine looks like I let Chloe paint it compared to hers!)

Shane got the "new" Halo Reach and a new quilt from his Grandma. I got a new camera since mine was started to malfunction! I also got a roaster oven and waffle maker.

At about 11 we went to Shane's parents for lunch and for them to give us their gifts. It was lots of fun to hang out for a few hours. Chloe played with her cousins and we ate...and ate and ate...Tammie got me a new griddle - that I love - and Shane got a backpacking water filter. Both things we needed so that was very appreciated. 

Here are lots of pics from the events. (NOT in order)

(I just couldn't pass this one up)

She was in heaven

Opening a present at the Peavler Party

The foot and a half of snow we got!

Chloe's new kitchen

Santa brought her a Barbie!

The reaction I was hoping for with Shane's new Halo

Christmas Eve at the Peavlers' - Chloe needed these "tights" on

Adam was pooped!

So was Grandpa :)

Bradford Party

one to remember.

So Shane went to the dentist this week and had to get Laughing Gas. Anyway, he got home and seemed to be ok. A little loopy, but otherwise fine. 

The light bulbs on our upstairs landing have been out for a couple weeks and neither of us have changed them. Anyway, Shane grabs some bulbs from the kitchen cupboard, walks up the stairs and changes the bulbs. We talk while he is doing it any everything. Then he takes a nap (more like a coma) for about 5-6 hours. 

I'm gone when he wakes up and he texts me, "thanks for changing the lights upstairs. It's nice to be able to see." 

I truly thought he was being sarcastic so I asked if he was. "No..." I then let him know that he changed the bulbs all by himself and we had a whole conversation and everything. He had no recollection of changing the bulbs or any conversation we had. However, he did remember that I didn't bring him some Ibuprofen....

Johnson Family Christmas Party 2010

We had our annual Johnson Family Christmas Party this week (my Mom's family). I've only been to a few of these in my life, but they are lots of fun! Our family has gotten too big to hold the party at my Uncle Jim's house where it has always been, but this is a great place to have it since the kids can just go into a playroom and not be so much in the way. Here are a few pictures from the night --- Chloe is still terrified of Santa. 

Shane didn't come because he was sick (he actually was!) and when I got there, my Grandma high-jacked Adam and I practically had to tear him away to feed him. And that was fine by me :)

Grandma Johnson teaching the kids about Christmas symbols

Adam thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Grandma!

I had to have my niece, London, hold Chloe down while I took these pictures. Adam could have cared less who was holding him!

Mark and his "get the camera out of my face" face. I think he has had that look for about 30 years!

Adam with G'ma Johnson

Adam with G'pa E. True Johnson - his namesake

Well.... this post may not be as cheery as the last.... When I last reported, I found out that I was able to get two more weeks of maternity leave! About a week later, I was laid off..... Pretty cool, huh?? We have no idea what is going to happen, but there is a "bright" side. I get regular work pay until January 3 then I get a severance - which works out to be 8 weeks of pay.
When I first got the call, it was surreal. I was devastated. Then, after having some time for it to sink in - I was kind of excited/relieved/and still devastated. I hated that job. Even though I was able to stay home with my babies, I still hated getting up and working with these people. Now I get to try and find a job where I can start fresh and maybe enjoy it again. I so wish that I didn't have to work, but unless we magically can pay off my car and Shane's truck and still afford insurance somehow, I will be working for the foreseeable future.
I am SO heartbroken at the thought of having to leave my kids. I have been working from home for a year and before that I was home by 3:30 so I still had a lot of time to spend at home. I have been able to be the Mommy for a year now and it has been amazing. I cannot even think about how hard it will be to start something new. But we have to have insurance and I'm sure we "make too much" to get CHIPS or WIC or anything like that.

Other than that, things are going pretty well! We have been extremely fortunate for Shane to be so busy at work. He has a few days where he doesn't work, but his pay checks have been more than enough to keep up with the bills (we still need mine to pay it all though). I've been attempting to potty train Chloe, but she is just not having it. I can't force her and I'm trying to just take a relaxed approach to it so she doesn't feel too much pressure. But if she's three before it happens, I just don't know what I'll do! I'm not excited to deal with accidents and changing the sheets multiple times a week (I do have a plastic mattress cover though!)

Adam is awesome. I just fall more and more in love with him every time I look at him. He is really starting to interact with us - cooing and squealing. He and Chloe will just sit and smile and laugh at each other and I know the second I grab a camera, it will stop.... So I can't share that with all of you! I am so grateful that I am getting to spend this time with him so he knows me. I'm still able to nurse him and I just love that time together. I don't love it so much at 2am, but I still look down at him and want to cry because I love him so much.

We went to Logandale for Thanksgiving and of course that was fun! Brian and Janell and their families both stayed at my Mom's too. We had 6 of the siblings and their families on Thanksgiving Day --- my Mom needs a bigger house :) We stayed up late playing Scatergories and laughing/crying and Brian and Dan's answers (Dan - make sure you call Brian 'Willy Wonka' from now on!) I love being at my parents' house, even though it is completely different from when I lived there - it still feels like home!

Anyway, here are a few pics from recent happenings - sorry for the rambling!

Chloe begged for me to lay Adam next to her. They laid next to each other like this for a few minutes :)

Found Shane and Adam like this just before Thanksgiving dinner

Shane is trying to corrupt my children with the evil sport of soccer. It is pretty cute to watch though.

Don't know why the picture rotated, but here is my little Muffin Man asleep on my Mom's couch.

Chloe and her Uncle Brian taking a nap.... 

Getting so big already!

His chin is ticklish so I can usually get him to smile that way

She just loves to give him kisses!

I'm sorry, but this is just one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Updates 11/9/10

We've just been hanging out lately. Shane has been pleasantly busy with carpet and I have just been playing with my little ones. I was preparing myself to have to go back to work tomorrow but I got a call from my benefits department yesterday informing me that my company does offer 2 additional weeks of parental leave at 100% pay. HALLELUJAH!!!! And on top of that, I have the days around Thanksgiving off so I actually have until November 30 :)

We blessed Adam this Sunday. It was nice to have all of our families together - my house can actually fit everyone (if they stand!!!) We all came back here afterwards to have muffins and cinnamon rolls since my church is at 9.

I had my 6 week postpartum visit yesterday - I have lost 30 pounds since Adam was born. Just 40 more to go for me to be happy. I would LOVE to lose 50, but I don't think that is physically possible anymore :(

In other awesome news --- by sister-in-law asked if we wanted her and my brother's mattress that is just too soft for them. So we now have a King sized Beauty Rest that is like sleeping on a cloud....We had to go get all new bedding last night and I think I slept better in the few hours of sleep than I have in months :)

Anyway, here are some recent pics.

Isn't this just precious??!!

I just always love the pictures of babies chillin in their carseats.

Adam with his cousin, Lucie. She is two weeks older...

Our family

Halloween

Adam was Woody (the fatness on his face is misleading - he is tall and skinny!)

Chloe was Little Bo Peep

Chloe with a few of her cousins

Other pics....

I love taking naps with this little guy - he is so snuggly :)

Sorry - I so don't feel like writing a lot today.... I'm starting to get depressed with my fatness and the fact that I have to start work again next week :(

Ok - now that I have posted the birth story, I can catch up on everything else! First, here is Adam in his  "going home" outfit. 

First, when we got home, Shane surprised me with a gift --- a deep freezer! I have been wanting one for a long time and he decided to just get me one! I was totally shocked, but very excited about it. My mom also came in to help me out for a week. It was just so nice to have someone to play with Chloe. I just forgot how tired I would be!! It's two weeks later and I'm just barely getting into a routine. 

I had to go out a few days after he was born - I don't know how people can not go out for weeks after they have a baby... There are certain errands that just have to be run by ME and I can't leave my baby at home. Anyway, Adam did so great. He's a natural shopper, just like Chloe was! Here are just a few pictures from the last two weeks though.

I know it's a girl Boppy, but he's never going to know!

Chloe loves just look at him :)

Ok - tell me what you think of the two pictures below... I took the one of Adam and looked at it and had a total deja`vu! Look at their little noses!

And Shane's baby sister, Tracey got married last weekend:

Adam's Story

It's been a few days since baby Adam was born and I think I have enough time now to document the story. It's going to be long and detailed. I didn't really document Chloe's and I regret that so if you don't want to read the whole thing then DON'T! ....

I had my 40 week appointment on Monday, Sept 27. I was very anxious since I had not been progressing for 3 weeks and this was kind of my last chance. I needed to be at at least 2.5 cm to be considered for induction. After the doctor discussed all of the possibilities of what might happen, he checked me. ----- TWO AND A HALF CENTIMETERS! I felt my face flush and my heart started racing because I knew that they would break my water. So he said that they'd call the hospital right now and put me on the schedule to be induced in the next day or two. FINALLY.

We go out and the nurse is already on the phone with the hospital. When she is done, she tells me that I am 4th on the list for the next morning. Down-side (that we figured out on our own): Tuesdays are the scheduled c-section day so more beds are filled up making less space for the elective inductions  (which is what I was). The nurse said that if I hadn't been called by 8:30 the next morning to call the hospital and start making inquiries. Needless to say, I didn't get the call so I had to call. When the lady answered, she was incredibly short with me and basically said that I would get called if/when I got called. Shane begged me to call when noon time came around so I did and I just asked for the person in charge of the scheduling. Thank goodness they sent me right over and she was actually working on my case right then. She had put in a call to the doctor on call to ask what time was too late to have me come in (they don't like to go past noon since it could be such a long process). I got a call back about an hour later saying that the doctor thought it would be best to wait until the next morning to call me. And I would still be #2 on the list.

I was so disappointed. I needed to get out of the house so I put Chloe in the car and we just went to Sonic and got some lunch and drove around for a few minutes. I came home and Shane was just playing FIFA (Soccer) on X-Box and I just went upstairs to hang out. I went to the bathroom and then came out to sit on the bed and just adjusted my position and...*pop*

"What was that????" I hopped up and sat back on the toilet thinking, "I have total bladder control so I don't know what that was! Not to mention I just went to the bathroom!". When I sat, more clear liquid just came out. Of course my mind automatically went to water breaking but there just wasn't that much there. I called my sister who is an RN for labor and delivery but got no answer. So I called my mom - who has not experienced this in over 24 years - just hoping she would remember! And she didn't really.... So I called the doctor's office and they just said I should go into the hospital to be checked since I was supposed to be induced anyway. All this time, I am still sitting on the toilet just wondering if my water really did just break. When I got off the phone I yelled at Shane to come upstairs and he said he was playing a game. I said that he needed to turn it off and he was up within 10 seconds. I told him what was going on and he was kind of reluctant to believe me at first but  came around really quick. We got our stuff together and met his mom at the hospital to get Chloe. I was feeling no contractions and I didn't know what to expect. Since I had been in before with this pregnancy I didn't have to go through all the check in process and she was able to get us a room right away.

The nurse came in and got me all hooked up and everything and we were waiting to see how far I could progress on my own without any pitocin (I'm not able to use the normal amount since this was a v-bac and they had to be careful with my uterus). After about 2 hours I hadn't progressed at all but I was having contractions. I decided that I would go ahead and just get my epidural now and see if that helped me at all. Let me just say, I love epidurals. I wasn't even in THAT much pain, but it was so nice to experience no sensation at all. I was able to get some sleep and I finally started progressing at about 10:30-11 pm. The nurse would come in every 90 min or so to check me and when she came in at about 4:50 am she went to check and guess what ---- THERE HE WAS. She hurried and paged the doctor and started getting everything ready for delivery. They had me get started with the pushing but after one push she decided that we had better hold off since he was so close.

The doctor was in the room within just a few minutes and after 30  minutes of pushing (and no episiotomy!!) out came baby! The umbilical cord was kind of bunched up on his chest so the blood flow was a little cut off and he was really pale, not to mention he had his first bowel movement before he was born so they had to bring in some respiratory people from the NICU just to be safe. Anyway, they took him over to the little table right away to get him cleaned off and everything. He was crying so I wasn't worried about him, but they wanted to take him to the NICU anyway to make sure his blood-flow was ok. Shane went with them while I was getting all cleaned up and everything. It had only been about 30 minutes since he left when I got into the wheelchair to be taken to see him. We wheeled all through the NICU looking for the "big baby" when they told us that they had already taken him down to be bathed.

The nurse went ahead and took me to my room to get settled in. Baby came in just a few minutes later and he was just perfect. Poor Shane had to go to work so he left us and we got to know each other. Anyway, that's the story of his birth. I'm sorry it is so long, but I never documented Chloe's so I needed to do this!