A week old and just in time for Father's Day!

What a fun time we have been having! Our little guy, Hayden Thomas Johnson is finally here and we couldn't love him more. He was 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long and came on June 11th at 2:10 a.m. It's crazy how you can instantly love something in that short amount of time. The story behind how he got here:

Before there was three of us

Finished baking

I had a doctors appointment on Thursday June 10th. That day I woke up ready to have a baby. The whole 9 months I was fine, but for some reason I really wanted him here. I told Andrew that if they said I could go in then lets do it. I had planned on not getting induced the whole time through the pregnancy, but in the end I was SO glad I did. When I got in to the office he asked how I was and so on. And I told him that I wanted to have a baby today. Another reason being Andrew had 6 days off because of how his schedule worked out so it would be perfect. So he checked me and after he got done he said "lets send ya over you're good to go. You're at a 3." It was crazy and we were so excited. He told us to go home and get things ready and eat something and then head in.

When we were driving home we both thought that it wasn't real. We had a lot of people texting us asking how our appointment went, because they knew that we had one that day. We had to tell a few little white lies and say that our appointment had been changed and we didn't know anything yet. (Sorry to those we lied to :) We got home got everything ready and when we were about to leave Andrew gave me a blessing that was so awesome and gave me a lot of comfort and eased my fears of the unknown. Thank you Andrew! I'm so glad that you're a worthy priesthood holder.

"Laboring"

We got something to eat and then headed over. It took awhile it seemed for the nurses to get me all hooked up on IVs and monitiors. We found out after the monitors were on that I was already having contractions. I guess he wanted to come that day too. I started progressing really slow at first. I kinda got worried that it was going to be a really long labor. Dr. Leavitt came in at 10:20 p.m. and broke my water. I was at a 4 at that point. I'm so glad that I asked to have the epidural when I did because I went really fast after he broke my water. I feel like I felt what labor was like and it was plenty long. Hats off to all those pioneer women that didn't have the option of modern day medicine! I could still feel the contractions and so I had to have another dose of medicine. The nurse told me that I was progressing really fast and the epidural couldn't keep up with me. I went from a 4 to an 8 and basically ready to have the baby in around 40 minutes.

I started to push a couple times and then the nurse made me stop and went to call the doctor. She turned my pit down and said that I was going to labor down. I labored down for about 45 minutes and pushed some more. Then I had to wait for about 10 minutes for the doctor to come. After he came I pushed like 3 times and then our little guy was here. It was not bad at all and now I feel like I should get paid to have babies. Andrew was able to catch the baby and he gowned up and everything. He said it was a really neat experience. I'm glad that he was able to do that.

What he has been doing for 9 months inside me

Very 1st family photo

1st real bath

We put aloe vera in his hair to see if the curl would stay. . . it sure does. We had to slick it back later because it was a little unruly. Of course Andrew had his comb on hand ready to do the job.

Andrew has been worried this whole time about what his hair was going to look like. When he saw his head he immediately said to me " Steph, he has curly hair." Now he is TOTALLY obsessed with it. He loves to comb it and he always makes sure that before anyone sees him his hair is combed. My sister-in-laws gave us the comb and brush and Andrew has used that multiple times a day. Thanks Jackie and Jamie that was a perfect gift, more for Andrew than Hayden I think :)

I tease Andrew that he should just clip it to his belt because he uses it so much!

Such a good baby!

I have recovered SO good and have no complaints. I think the after labor effects were more painful than the actual labor (breast feeding and having my uterus contract back down). Those were a little toe curling for a few days buy totally worth it. I call myself Bessy the Jersey cow because I can pump that grade A stuff out! I'm afraid Hayden's going to be chubby really fast because there's a thick layer of cream on the top of the milk when it seperates. Andrew jokingly said that we should scrape it off and make baby butter :)

He has been eating really good and sleeping soundly. Usually Andrew doesn't even know when he gets up to eat because he doesn't cry when he wakes up. Just starts with the little rooting sounds. So basically right now he's been doing what all little babies do: eat, sleep, and poop, and of course make his parents love him more and more every day. We're so grateful that he is here and in our lives. What a miracle little babies are. Now that we have him we couldn't imagine him not here with us. We love being parents and have a lot to learn probably, but we'll for sure learn along the way. It's been so fun working as a team with Andrew. He has been so amazing with him. He helps me out so much and is very selfless. I'm so grateful for the wonderful husband and father that he is. What a great example Hayden has to follow. I love my boys!

Happy Father's Day Andrew!

Before we're full time parents. . .

Andrew and I have been trying to "fill our canteens", I guess you could say, before the baby comes. We have been having a lot of fun doing it too. The beginning of the year or something like that Andrew has been going with my brother Bryan bear baiting. Our house at one point was a popcorn factory where Andrew was popping garbage bags full of it to take up to the bait sight. To attract the bears you have to have a bait sight so they'll come and then you shoot them. I learned all of this through them. I didn't quite understand why Andrew kept on wanting to go up there and help bait the bears when supposedly he wasn't going to shoot one. He told me that he was doing it to "enjoy the great outdoors." Ok, and I bought it. Well "enjoying the great outdoors" really paid off for him because he was able to get his first bear. All and all I was really happy for him. He had a good time doing it too.

The mighty hunter

My dad was able to help too

Now that Andrew has his bear we've been able to do other things as well. One thing that we've been doing is playing Tiger Woods golf on the Xbox. I'm not a big gamer but ever since we got that we have been down playing that together all the time. It's been so fun. It's also made us want to play real golf. We think by playing it on the Xbox it's made us a ton better on the real course. . . right. We've been able to go quite a few times (for us anyways) since the courses have opened this year. There's a course in Shelley that is really fun and cheap to go to. We went memorial day with Andrew's family. They were so nice to let a 8 1/2 pregnant girl tag along with them. It was SO fun and we all did really good too. Andrew's dad Todd was the only one to think about taking a picture so he did on his phone. It didn't turn out the greatest, but I still wanted to post it on here.

Andrew, Me and "Hank", Grandpa Johnson, Jarom, and Todd

Inbetween everything else that's been going on Andrew has been stressing about putting our garden in, but we FINALLY got it all done. I told him not to worry about it because there has been tons of rain and frost. So on memorial day we went up to town and got all of the fencing (to keep the dogs out) and plants to start. We were out there all afternoon. We're glad that we finally got it done though.

Andrew preparing the spot

The finished product

I feel bad because Andrew did all the work and I just kept him company basically. But it was fun being out there accomplishing something together. So the next 2 weeks we're going to really live it up before our little guy comes and turns our world upside down, in a good way :)

Pregger updates and graduation hoopla

The little kid FINALLY graduated from Shelley High School and from seminary. I keep on telling her now we can actually do stuff and we don't have to worry about her having to be back for some practice or school. The fun has begun! Good job Kinz, we're proud of you!

The gang at Seminary Graduation

(minus Andrew, dang work always getting in the way)

-The four of us-

(Us other 3 trying to figure out where Bryan came from :)

Getting ready to put on her "Hogwarts Robes"

When I first saw the graduation gowns I asked where she was graduating from and where her wand was. . . they were weird looking graduation robes. You'd have to see them up close. You'd know what I was talking about.

It was fun because Kinz got to graduate with her cousin Lacey too

Cade in a few years

Kinz with her two most favorite family members

Prego Update

I went into the doctor today for my check up and everything seems to being doing fine except that I'm measuring small. I know it's something every women would love to hear. . . . just not when you're pregnant. He said that I'm measuring around 35 weeks when I'm supposed to be at 37. He said I shouldn't worry about it. He then told me that some women carry them different and the little guy could be hiding or could have dropped more. The dr said to keep tabs on how much he moves, because if he doesn't move as much then that's when it's a problem. Well, as of right now I don't see that being a problem. I swear he stretches and does leg exercises while trying to make more room  (maybe that's why I'm measuring small, he's buring calories in there!) He's going to check me next time and if I'm still not measuring on then we'll do an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. I'm not going to worry about it too much because there's not much I can do. It was really funny because my mom asked me if I wanted to go exercise with her tomorrow morning and I just said that I couldn't because I'm working on getting bigger. . . I said that while I was eating some ice cream. Good excuse I know :)

4 weeks and counting!

I have been so blessed to have had such a good pregnancy! I'm so thankful that I've made it this far and have had no complications. What is really weird to think about is he could come anytime and be developed and ok. It's crazy how fast it's gone by and how close it is to Andrew and I becoming parents. It doesn't seem real.

The Hosts

My sister-in-laws and family threw me a baby shower and it was really fun. They did such a good job and I can always count on that. We were TOTALLY spoiled and are basically set for "Hank" to come.

I got SO much good stuff! I was sweating afterwards because I was trying to open all the presents fast and It was almost overwhelming. I'm so grateful to everyone that came. I know a few had to travel to get here and I'm so thankful for them that made the effort. Thanks to everyone that brought stuff that I'll need. Experienced moms are the best!

We were able to have it at Liberty Square, where I work, and it was barely big enough to hold everyone. Andrew came with me to help everyone set up and he kept on saying that this was his first baby shower that he's been to. It was cute. Thanks again to all my family that helped and made it a fun memory!

Sneak Peak!

Today we went in for our 3D ultrasound. It was so fun to see our little guy. We were really debating over whether we should do it or not, because we wanted it to be a surprise when he came out. A few reasons why we ended up doing it were:

*Andrew has had several dreams that he came out with a full set of teeth. Once with a gap inbetween the front teeth the other he came out talking.
*I had a dream that he had an extra finger on his right hand and an extra toe on his right foot.
*Andrew had another dream that he came out with an unruly mop of hair.
*We thought it would be fun to have for baby books and for him when he got older.
*We have the technology so why not take advantage of it.

We were able to somewhat see that he doesn't have teeth, doesn't have extra toes or fingers, and she couldn't see any unruly mop of hair on his head, so finding all this out was worth the peace of mind and money :) Maybe we'll both stop having crazy dreams. We were a little worried however, because the first thing the tech said to us was that the baby is in control and she can't help if he doesn't cooperate. Andrew and I looked at eachother and had flash backs of our 20 week appointment and thought it was going to be a total waste of our time doing this because last time he didn't hold still very good. He did really good, but started acting up when she started pushing on my stomach to get his feet to go down out of his face. He was like in a pike position or something! I told her she better watch out he'll start getting mad. Sure enough, he started on the move. I guess he doesn't like to be pushed around :) It was so fun to see him and it makes us want him here a lot more. It also proved how amazing technology is!

Him in the "pike position" His little feet are so cute!

Baby room and 3rd Trimester

Andrew and I have FINALLY finished the baby's room and now we just go in there just to look at it randomly. We do have to say we're pretty proud of ourselves, because of all the sweat , blood, and tears that went into it :) It was funny after we got it all finished and everything set up Andrew said that it looked like someone professional came in and did it. I told him that we were professional after all that. We figured it took us about 10 hours to do or more. We lost track after that. We had to seperate it into days so that it could all dry before we taped and caulked the other set of stripes. I do have to admit that I was quite the stickler on trying to get it done, because our house was in shambles. We had things moved out, paint stuff everywhere, things waiting to be set up. It was driving me crazy, so a lot of weekends we didn't do anything but paint. We had a lot of fun doing it together though.

My massage room cleaned out and before it turned baby

Already 10 hours into it probably at this point

Finished product

I decided that I should probably take a picture of my increasing tummy so I can remember with each pregnancy. I've had people tell me how "cute" it is, but I've also decided that it's always cute on someone other than yourself. I have been extremely lucky to still be feeling really good and able to do everything. It has started getting harder to put on my socks and shoes though. I really feel for those Biggest Loser people now that couldn't do that either. Andrew laughs at me when I have to bend over and I sort of grunt while trying to breath. I'm sure it's really attractive. All in all I can't complain and am really happy with how my body is dealing with being pregnant.

28 weeks

Our all time high

In a couple of weeks I'll be into my 3rd trimester and it seems like this pregnancy has gone by surprisingly fast. Everyone always asks how I'm feeling and honestly I don't have anything to complain about. I guess I heard all of these horror stories and just expected to not be able to do anything. I've been able to do pretty much everything that I usually do. I just have to adjust a few things due to my increasing soccer ball of a stomach. Which brings me to the subject of my post :)

Andrew has been a really good sport through the pregnancy. He's been there for me whenever I need anything emotionally and physically. He's always telling me how cute I am with my tummy and sympathized when I couldn't fit into some of my clothes. However, some of that sympathy turned into empathy when recently he's been having some trouble fitting comfortably into some of his pants as well. When his clothes started "shrinking" I showed him some famous stretches that probably every girl knows how to do to make their pants roomier. Because everyone knows that pants straight from the dryer don't have that broke in feeling yet :) He did them and it seemed to work. But it started hitting home when he couldn't do that with his church pants. He can still fit into them, but they're really uncomfortable. Just this last week after church we compared how we both had marks on our hips- mine from my nylons and his from the pants.

So on Monday I told him that I was going over to my mom's to do yoga. I asked him if he wanted to go do it with us. He probably would have totally shut me down, but his dad has done yoga in the past and told him how much he liked it. This yoga is pretty advanced though and it's an hour and a half long. It's an actual work out yoga. He really didn't want to come so I didn't force him, but I was really trying to get him to go. What did it was when he got on the scale and weighed himself. It was really funny actually because all of the sudden he said "Oh my heck Steph. I'm at an all time high!" My reply was "So am I. I know how you feel" :)

After that reality check he went a little crazy. He decided that he was going to run over to my parent's house and do yoga. He didn't think the yoga would be that hard . . .  little did he know. He was a pretty good sport and did most of it. I think he has an appreciation for it now.

Our yoga date- doing the tree pose

I'm so thankful for Andrew and the fun guy that he is. He always makes me feel like I'm #1 in his life. Eventhough he has so much going on and things that he's dealing with in his life right now. I so appreciate him for that. He even has gone as far as gained weight with me through the pregnancy. . . what a guy! I love you Andrew!

Ultrasound=Hunting, Hunting, Hunting!

We found out Wednesday that we are expecting a very active little BOY! We're so excited! The appointment went really well. Everything was as normal as she could tell. However, it was really hard to get pictures, measurments, or anything for that matter cuz he was ALL over the place. The ultrasound tech had to figorously tap my stomach with the wand a few times so we could get a picture. I don't know if that helped. It probably egged him on. We were able to get a DVD of the whole thing and there's evidence on there of what I've been feeling for about 6 weeks. . . kicking. Maybe I'm just a first time mom and don't know anything, but I swear he's going to come out running. I'm a little worried :)
After we found out that it was a boy, I'm pretty sure a blank stare went across Andrew's face as he was imagining all the future hunting trips and etc that they would go on together. He has lots of plans. What was really funny too is Andrew said to me " I don't want to make the baby's room a "baby room". I want to make it a "little man's room". I thought that was pretty cute. If it would have been a girl I don't think he would have been as actively involved in the decor of the room.

Now that we know what it is it's kind of a reality check. Names, furniture, and essentials come into place. My brother has lovingly named him Hank until we can come up with one. Thanks :) He along with Andrew has big plans for our "Hank" and Cade. They're going to be best buddies. Tiffany and I have already mad a pact. We're going to have to stick together for sure. We're just really glad that everything was normal and he's a healthy little guy.

20 weeks with his foot by his face. . . getting ready to kick I bet :)

This and that from us!

Christmas and all the holidays seem so far in the past that I feel a good review will just have to do. I also noticed that I am one of the worst picture takers so I pretty much have no pictures of the holidays to post. I hope I get better when special occasions happen with our kids.

We had a really fun Christmas and New Years. All our family is from here so it makes it really easy to jump around to all the families. We enjoyed Christmas with both our families and the day after we headed up to Island Park where we just hung out, played lots of games, and ate lots of good food. After Island Park we headed right into our big New Year's party. I did take a few pictures of that. I love New Year's!

Us celebrating. . . and Mom and Dad in the back. We don't know what they were doing?

The two love birds. Those glasses though, I can't take him seriously :) It makes me laugh every time I see these pictures.

Bry and Tiff with Cade's baby monitor. Reminding us that we'll be doing that very samed thing next year! P.S. Cade slept through the whole hoopla too.

We did miss Em and Trent during the major celebrating. Hopefully they'll be able to be there next year. We have had a lot of fun and our share of craziness too. I can't believe that we're already half way through January.

I have gone to 3 doctors appointments and everything seems to be going good with the baby and myself. It has been so fun because I started feeling the baby move a couple of weeks ago. I am a little nervous though, I think this little one does the olympics in there. It's either just a very active baby or we might have an ADD kid on our hands. Just today Andrew was able to put his hand on my tummy and feel the baby move too. It has been really fun that way. I am feeling SO good I can't complain at all. I honestly sometimes forget that I'm pregnant. Because before being sick was a constant reminder. I am such a hypocrite because I love it when everyone else posts pictures of their pregnant bellys. . . just not of mine :) I will post a picture in the future, it's just that right now I'm in the not so good stage. All the mom's out there know what I'm talking about. It's the "I really hope she's pregnant and didn't just enjoy the holidays too much" stage. Oh well, I guess it's part of being pregnant.

What's really fun is that we get to find out what we're having in 2 weeks! We're so excited. My dad has been really funny about us finding out what it is. When we first told him that I was pregnant his first question was "When do we get to find out the flavor". After my last appointment I told him that we would find out in 3 weeks. So I called him the other day and right when he answered he said "Has it been 3 weeks yet?" It's pretty funny. So we're really excited to find out what it is so we can actually start planning and maybe getting somewhat ready for our little one to come!

Our "LITTLE" secret

Andrew and my time as a married couple without kids is starting to come to a close. . . June 17th roughly! Yep we're going to be parents. We're really excited about it! What I'm excited about at the moment is that I'm starting to not feel as sick. THANK HEAVENS! It has been pretty rough, but then I kinda think I'm a wimp when it comes to being sick. . . all day long! Forget the "morning sickness" where is the "day sickness" that everyone forgets to tell you about before you get pregnant. I thought that I'd be ok since practically none of the women in my family got that sick. Well, there's always one isn't there and the one being me. My mom kept saying to me that she felt bad that I was sick, but had no idea how I felt. Being sick has constantly reminded me that I am pregnant and it's unfortunately been a constant reminder to Andrew as well. He has been such a trooper and has helped me out SO much! I couldn't have done it without him.
One morning he made me breakfast and had everything sitting out that I needed including my vitamins. Then he asked me to say the prayer and I started saying it and mid prayer I started bawling because for one the hormones I'm hoping had to do with it and I was just so grateful for him. It was funny looking back on it. He was probably thinking "what have I done to her."
I really don't care what we have, but Andrew really wants a girl. It's pretty cute. I have always thought I'd have a girl first and a lot of my family thinks it's a girl too. Regardless of what it is it'll have cousins close in age on both sides of the family. Only time will tell though. It was also fun telling everyone. Some of the reactions we got were priceless.

I know that things happen for a reason and Andrew and I both know that this little blessing has come to us when it was supposed to. We're both just really excited to start our family. We have been able to really grow and get to know eachother through out the years. We will always look back and cherish that time we had before we had kids. I'm so thankful I have Andrew in my life to share this with. It'll be an adventure for sure, but we think we're as ready as we can be for it!

Our little gummy bear at 8 weeks 6 days

The Roadtrip up North

We had a ton of fun at state volleyball this last weekend. Eventhough the girls didn't win state they still played good and it was a memorable experience. My whole family got to go up and watch and it was fun all being together. Even our little nephew Cade made the trip and was a real trooper.

Inbetween games we went to the floating green in Coeur d' Alene. It was closed for playing, but we probably wouldn't be playing anyways because it was like over $200 to play and it was freezing cold. We all just wanted to hit a ball to see if we could make it on the green. It was funny because there was a club sitting on the tee box. We all swung and acted like we were teeing off.

Trent went searching for golf balls. I honestly don't know how some of them got right there. Way bad shots :)

It is so pretty up there. It doesn't seem like it's Idaho really. Trent served his mission in Spokane so we went and drove around looking at some of the places he lived. It was nice having a guide. It was fun seeing where he served.

Andrew and I with our little volleyball player after her last state game. We were so proud of the kid! It was a fun family trip!