My Helpers

The boys are such great helpers with Leyla. They want to feed her, they want to hold her, they want to pick out her clothes every day, and they even like to fold her laundry! What more could a mom ask for?! The other day they were helping me fold her laundry and they were fighting over who got to fold specific items. Obviously Owen didn't get to fold this particular pair of pants and he was quite upset about it. Jack's sporting a goofy little victory smile. It's always the same "say cheese" fake smile.

Owen's view of the BBQ

Unlike Jack and Owen's cousins the boys don't have much experience with a camera! We have always been so cautious about ever letting them touch it, you all know the stories that would make us that way. Lately they have both been asking to take pictures more and more (especially Owen) so at the party I finally let him take a turn...being outside on the gras had a lot to do with my decision :)

Volleyball at the company BBQ

You'll notice that I am not in any of the volleyball pictures because I'm basically a wimp when it comes to volleyball. I have bad memories of playing in P.E. in high school! I was never able to make the ball go in the right direction, and that's even if I was able to make contact with the ball when it came my way. The worst part, though, is that it always hurt my wrists! Wimp, I know.

WPA Summer BBQ

Every summer my work has a big BBQ out at the boss' house. It always promises great food and fun times. With pulled pork sandwiches, great quacamole dip, and yummy dulce de leche bites (made by me!) this year was no exception!

August Rush

August was super busy for our family, but tons of fun. It was the first time in SO LONG that Nick wasn't in school and I totally got spoiled by having him with us so much! That has now officially ended because he started school again this week. Boo.

The first of the month brought friends and family to our home for Leyla's blessing. It was fun to show off our sweet baby girl to everyone, and Nick gave a very special blessing to his daughter. Her dress fit perfectly! If we had waited even one more week I don't think it would have fit her. The pink dress she is wearing in the last picture is my blessing dress.

Leyla also had her two month well baby visit and shots. She's doing great and is in the 75% for both height and weight which were:

Weight: 11 pounds 4 ounces

Height: 22 2/3 inches long

She is such a smily girl. Owen likes to lay on the ground beside her and sing her "Owen songs" which are basically odd sounds he puts together in a sing-song sort of way. Cute to watch...kind of annoyng to hear all the time!

We also made two trips to Utah. We first went down to go to a surprise birthday party for some of Nick's old friends. We also spent the day at the Gateway in Salt Lake going to the Discovery Center and playing in the fountains. The next weekend we were back down to attend the sealing of my aunt and uncle (Ben & Stacey) in the Bountiful Temple. It was fun being back there, we haven't been since our own sealing. We then headed down to Springville to spend some time with Murph & Wally (grandma and grandpa). So good to see them.

I'm sure September will be just as busy and exciting so stay tuned!

Our Friends the Phillips

Chris, Jayme, and their two girls came to visit us (and meet Leyla) back in July. It was tons of fun having them here and it's sad that we only get to see them a couple times a year. We were sure excited for them to come see us. One of the days we took them up to my parents house for dinner, water balloons, and a few rides on Coco. Except for the sudden thunder storm it was a lot of fun. We even got to have Jayme's sister, Bree and her friend spend the day with us. They were here more than that one day but of course I have no other pictures :)

Come one Come ALL!

Consider yourself officially invited to Leyla's blessing!

Sunday, August 2nd

9 am

Lakeview Chapel in Pocatello

We will be having a BBQ at noon,

everyone's invited.

Please let us know if you'll be able to make it,

we'd love to see you all there.

So sweet...

She actually looks a lot chunkier here than she actually is,

too cute.

Oh Happy Day!

Last week was rough, to which I can thank all three of my children. Leyla's not the type of baby who will willingly fall asleep on her own whenever she's tired. She's more of a bundled, rocked, shushed, jiggled, bounced, walked, paci in place kind of baby....and sometimes it just doesn't work! As for my boys, they just refuse to obey. They know exactly what they're doing wrong, they'll tell you! They just don't want to obey the rules because "they don't want to". Seriously, how do you teach obedience? To willingly obey not just because that's what's expected of you but because it's the right thing to do? The boys are back to needing almost constant supervision and that's been hard with Leyla being so needy, as well.

So, Sunday I was super sick and Nick did a great job of taking care of everyone, it was actually a pretty relaxing day (except for the being super sick part, I even fainted- a first for me). Monday was probably the worst day I've had since staying home with all the kids. I couldn't even count how many times both the boys were in time out, they probably sat on their beds or against a wall more than they did anything else the whole day. They even went to bed an entire hour early because I was just done with it. I feel ashamed to say it but I just wanted to give up on them yesterday. I didn't want to try anymore; just give in and admit my failure. Leyla had quite the day, herself. The morning wasn't too bad but between noon and 8pm she had slept maybe 20 minutes.

Guess what she was doing the majority of the time?

Still love her.

On to today, my baby is 4 weeks old, yay! Look what she's doing...

And look what my boys are doing...

They've only been in time out ONCE and it's already 2pm! WooHoo! Oh yeah, I'm totally into letting them dress themselves, does that explain what they're wearing? I should make it easier on them (or maybe me :) and take out all their non summer clothes and stick with t-shirts and jeans that all match...but I don't. What's really hard is they don't even wear the same size of clothes anymore, super annoying with twins! We're going to have to get them separate drawers here soon so that Jack doesn't put on Owen's pants anymore and have them end rght at his shins.

So, yeah, pretty happy day. We even walked to the park for free lunch today and now that it's after 2 I think Happy Hour at Sonic is calling our names! Hope you all have a happy day, too!

What's a weekend without some destruction?

Do you know what dryer exhaust vents are great for? Tennis balls and hoses, turned on full blast. And mom and dad won't notice until they see a steady stream of water coming out from underneath the dryer.

Rub a dub dub

This was Leyla's second bath at home, she doesn't look super happy but she really did like it. There are sadly no pictures from her first bath because it was after midnight and Leyla and mommy were the only ones awake, Leyla was so awake that she was screaming and the bath was the last resort for calming her down. It worked.

Those who have never had a baby, and possibly those who it's been a long time since they had a baby wonder what you could possibly do all day. I mean, all a baby does is eat sleep and poop, right? I, too, naively wondered what I would do all day with my baby. I thought maybe I would get to lay around, hold my sweet baby, and just enjoy the moments. The first week was pure bliss. The second week was a little sketchy, and since then I want to pull my hair out several times a day! She's no longer eating very well and certainly not sleeping well, either. She always acts hungry but will only eat for a couple minutes, and when she does fall asleep I can't put her down because she immediately starts screaming. To add to my frustration, I will try something new to calm her down and it'll work great, but the next time I try it it does nothing. Also, I go back to work in two weeks and I'm suppose to have her on some great schedule to help the transition! Ha! Like that's gonna happen.

Once Upon a Time

Okay, so it was no fairy tale and some of the details are a little hazy but we did end up with our very own little princess. After stripping my membranes four different times with little progress (3 cm by 40 weeks) my doctor decided to let me be induced Tuesday, June 16th. A little background, I had a c-section with the boys and I really wanted to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) this time. Not because I cared to have the birth experience but because I didn't want to go through the pain of healing from surgery. There are pretty serious risks to having a VBAC, and those risks are increased when being induced, but I felt very good with my decision to try. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am and I got settled in the room while Nick went to get me admitted. The IV was started and monitors were put in place pretty quickly but my doctor wasn't at the hospital yet so I was told they would need to wait to start the induction. When a VBAC patient comes into the hospital they require the doctor to stay at the hospital the entire labor process, there needs to be a full surgical staff and anesthesiologist there, as well. So we wait. Not long into the wait my contractions started and were immediately painful. During the pregnancy I would get a lot of contractions when I was particularly stressed about something so I didn't think much of these contractions, I didn't even time them. This went on for probably 30 minutes and then my nurse came in to check on me. I told her I was in quite a bit of pain and she decided to check my even though the contractions were barely registering on the monitor. She was shocked to find I was 5 cm and completely thinned, especially since the induction meds hadn't been started yet. She then said she'd call the anesthesiologist and my doctor and get them there as quick as she could. Another half hour or so goes painfully by and the nurse asks if I want something to help with the pain while I waited, I said yes! Immediately after she gave me the meds through my IV the room started spinning and I felt really out of it. That's when the crazy starts. Leyla's heart rate went way down into the 60's, they started putting me into all sorts of positions to get it back up and put the oxygen mask on me. That's about the time the anesthesiologist shows up. I somewhat remember him going over the procedure and says he'll get started right away. By this time Leyla was doing better, the on call doctor checks me and I am now at an 8. He starts pushing around on my belly asking if it hurt anywhere when he pushed and if it hurt in between contractions. I said yes, that I had a constant pain in my lower abdomen. This being a VBAC the doctor is suspicious that the pain may be from my previous c-section incision (which could indicate the possibility of a uterine rupture) and with Leyla having had the heart rate problem he decides an emergency c-section needs to be done. He then tells the anesthesiologist not to start the epidural because there wasn't enough time, that I would just have to be put out. At this point I honestly didn't care what they did to me, the thought of being put out and not feeling a thing was the most welcome thought! So, they prep me for the surgery and just before they start to wheel me down to the OR my doctor walks in. He quickly checks me and not only am I at a 10 now but he says the baby's head is "right there". He tells me to try a "practice push", so I do, and says we're gonna have this baby right now! Now I know that should have been an exciting thing to hear but I was actually pretty devastated. The thought of having to push this baby out with no pain meds and that there was no choice but to just do it was awful. There's no way to describe the experience. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, and thankfully it was over in about 20 minutes (I know it could have been a whole lot longer!) Leyla Jane Johnson was born at 8:38 am weighing 8 lbs 9 ounces. When the doctor placed Leyla on me I couldn't believe she was actually my baby, it was so surreal. I felt as though I were watching it from a distance, that it was someone else that it was happening to. She screamed...a lot, and did so for quite some time, I felt so stressed hearing her cry and not being able to do anything. We went in thinking we wouldn't have the baby until late that afternoon/evening but there we were, not even 9 am and we had her! The rest of the day went great, I felt great, too, and we were home by 1pm the next day. There are still times I look at her and it just doesn't seem real that she's here finally. When you wait that long for something you're so excited about it kind of catches you by surprise when it gets here. I'm so in love with her. She's absolutely a doll. I can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Short update

I thought I should post a couple more pictures of Leyla for those of you who haven't been able to see her yet. I don't have many on the computer yet so it's not a great selection, but I assure you this blog will be bombarded with her adorable face from here on out.

We took her back into the nursery at the hospital for a quick check up and doc thinks she looks great. She's down to 8 lbs even and ever so slightly jaundice but he didn't think either of those things were cause for concern. He didn't expect her to get any worse since she's eating so well. I know not many people have heard the whole birth story, I apologize for not having talked to so many of you and updating you so I promise to get that up soon with some more pictures. Thanks for everyone's love and well wishes, it's truly appreciated.

Leyla Jane Johnson

Here's little Leyla just a few minutes after she was born. That is, it's her first non-naked picture. We'll post more soon.

Fashion Advice

The other morning I was in the bathroom getting ready for work when Owen walks in.

Owen: Mommy, what are you doing to your hair?

Mom: I'm making it straight so it's not silly anymore, like an iron.

Owen: Oh! Then it'll be beautiful, like a princess!

Mom: Exactly like a princess!

Owen: But mommy? (sounding a little disgusted) Your shirt's just not cute and princesses only wear cute shirts. 

I tried not to be offended by my 4 year olds fashion advice, and to his credit if you combine the pictures below you'll get a pretty good idea of what I looked like that morning- definitely not my cutest. 

Smashmallow please?

The boys LOVE to go camping. They started asking about camping a few months ago when it was still way too cold and for a few weeks everyday I'd pick them up from daycare and they'd ask if it was time to go camping. My parents decided to take them on a little overnight trip in their camp trailer and I think that took care of their camping fix, for a  while at least. There's a little town about an hour away called Lava Hot Springs. Yup, you guessed it, there's actually a hot springs there! We love going down there but really don't seem to find the time to get there too often. So the boys got to sleep in grandma and papa's camp trailer, go swimming, play outside, and eat a whole bunch of "s'nores" (no, that is not a type-o, they refuse to believe they're really called s'mores). We probably won't get a whole lot of camping in this year with the new baby coming (I kinda hope I won't get any camping in!) so the boys are pretty dang lucky their grandparents like taking them so much!

Too late to post Easter pictures?

I think that as long as the event happened within the last 6 months I'm safe to post about it. Anytime after that I may as well wait until the holiday comes around again, right? We really did have a great easter weekend, it was one of the first really nice weekends we had here. The boys had fun finding eggs outside and eating candy all day and I had fun eating the yummy pineapple upside down cake I made! We also dyed some eggs but I had forgotten to buy eggs so we had only had 8 to dye! Oh well, I don't think they actually ever got eaten, we left them up at my parents house.