Treasures!

Today I had my last "after baby" check-up with Dr. Gatherum. Yay! We had a c-section to get little miss here and he said that I'm all healed up and everything looks good! So, yeah, I'm happy about that. AND to make everything even better, a little 6 year-old girl gave me a pretty little flower and smiled at me on her way out of the hospital. It was so cute and definitely made my day!

Luckily, Collette had come to pick me up for my appointment since Dan had to work at Tropical Smoothie and we only have the one car. Dan and I have been needing to get a new vehicle for a while now so Dan's been on the search for us. A few days ago, he saw a deal going on at a dealership in St. George and we were talking about going to just look. Well, while I was at my parents' talking with Collette and Erin, Dan called me from work and said that his mom was going to take us down with her to check it out at 1pm.

She came to our house to pick us up and after a quick stop at Dan's uncle's house, we were on our way to St. George. Long story, short...... We ended up getting a new car!! A 2005 Dodge Neon and we love it! And Dan's mom got a new vehicle too! A Town & Country Van! Perfect for helping Steve with his deliveries (he does a courier company). We were all pretty happy with our finds!

Then to top of our day, we got to stop by and see Grandma Rigby, eat some yummy food, and get a four generations picture. I've been dying to get one for Aurora with each set of parents and grandparents. Family is so important to us and I just know these photos will be a cherished treasure for her to have when she's older! All we need now, is one with the Johnson's! What a wonderful day.

Four Generations Rigby Side (minus Grandpa Rigby because he wasn't home!) 

Four Generations Smith Side

Four Generations Barclay Side

Moon Walk

Photo Credit: Melissa Henrie

First things first. The lunar eclipse last night was freaking awesome! One of those times when I'm feeling lucky to be in the "right place at the right time" aka on Facebook bouncing my baby to sleep and seeing KSL's post reminding people of the 'blood moon' at 1am. So Aurora fell asleep in my arms, I kissed her goodnight, put her in her crib, and ran out on my porch to see if I could see the moon... aaaaannd I could! Super clear, too! Yay! What an amazing thing to witness! It was so pretty!

I tried taking multiple pics but they did it NO justice so I had a small debate in my head over whether or not to wake Dan. I then decided that I would wake him but he was dead to the world and mumbled something like "Thad's nice. Take pigdures. Lub you." and turned over instead. Haha. After that, I ran back out to the porch, realizing I'd never get a good pic but that everyone needed to see it so... I posted to Facebook and text my dad. See, whenever I'm up late or can't sleep, I can always count on my dad to be awake too. Yeah. Not that night. haha the ONE night he's asleep at a good time. Bummer.

Anyway, it was really beautiful and I feel happy to have witnessed it. AND even happier that my amazing cousin, Melissa snapped a photo cause I totally stole it. Thanks Melis!

Oh! So this afternoon, I decided to go on a walk. Then I decided "Why not kill two three birds with one stone and go walking to pay rent and pay Brandon for working with Dan?" Well, I then ventured out to do just that thinking it was not as far as it actually was. Uphill. So after an hour, I paid Brandon via Krystel (who happened to drive past me in her car. Booya!) and then called Dan to pick me up/drive us up the hill to pay rent. Plus side is that I found a new part of the canyon trail called The East Bench Trail, which happens to run right past the entrance/exit to the C Trail AND I had a beautiful view of all of Cedar City and the mountains. Aurora slept most of the way but she woke up toward the end and just enjoyed the new sights. She's so cute! I love her as my walking buddy.

After Dan picked us up, we went by my parents' house to visit for a bit and then we came home to do a barbecue and watch Jimmy Fallon with Jeremy, Kaela, and Tasha + kids. Yummy food and fun night all around.

Before Jimmy Fallon came on, we put in The Princess Bride. It took me back to one of my first dates with Dan when we watched that movie at our cabin in Midway. Oh the memories! I loved having Dan by me on the couch to snuggle me like he did when we first watched it together. And after 3 years and a new baby, I'm 100% more in love with him. I'm so happy he's my forever. ♥

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Well, at almost week 14 of Aurora's life, we've hit the point of sleeping through the night (2am and on...) and most days we wake up around 8am or 9am. MAYBE 10am. And SOMETIMES 7am-ish. Yes, I take full advantage of this blessed time in our lives and try not to wake up earlier if I can help it.

Today, I had to babysit Tyne (Dan's boss at Ernie's cute cute 15 month old son) at 7am soooo I was awake when Dan left for work at 6:30am. Gah! I forgot how it feels to go to bed late and wake up early. It's killer. For those of you lucky souls who've never had the experience. Now. Some of you may think to yourselves "6:30am is not that early." Let me tell you, being a parent brings a whole new meaning to the words 'early', 'late', and 'tired'. It doesn't matter what time it is. It's always earlier than it needs to be, later than it should be, and you're always way WAY more tired than you ever thought you were before you had a child.

Is it worth it? Oh, you better believe it! Being a mom is the best thing I've ever done and I love my little more than anything. Every day I feel so blessed that my Heavenly Father would let me have the chance to raise and love one of his sweet spirits. Seriously, nothing brings more joy to me than being a wife and mother to my wonderful little family.

Anyway... (sorry, tangent...) it was fun having Tyne over and it's always fun to see how other babies interact with my little-er baby. He constantly wanted to touch her and she got a kick out of watching him do things.

After Tyne left, I got a shower and then Dan picked me and Aurora up to go watch Jack and Harlie do the Easter egg hunt in Enoch before going over to Kaela's parents' house for a barbecue. The weather has been so nice lately. It was fun to be outside in it for a little bit. Watching the egg hunt made me excited that Aurora will be old enough next year to have some fun with it.

Oh, and we finished off the night with Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show. He freakin' cracks us up! It's become tradition, now that Jeremy and Kaela live behind us, to go over there to watch it every night. Love it. Love our families!

We have a "Plus One"

GUUUUYYYYSSSS!!! I'm back!

We (finally) got internet at our house again and so after almost 8 months AND a beautiful new addition to our family, I am back to blogging. Ah, I feel so happy about this!

Oh, how I have missed blogging. I have been journaling but it's just really not the same. Blogging combines words and pictures to explain my thoughts while journaling just contains my thoughts. I have loved getting back to actually writing on paper with a pen each day though. It's been nice to have some way to document all the wonderful things that happen in my life.

Speaking of wonderful, we were blessed to have brought our sweet baby girl, Aurora Elise Johnson, into the world on January 9, 2014. She is an absolute joy in our life and we are loving learning with her and watching her grow! Dan and I think that being parents is pretty freakin' cool! Ha! But really.

I can't believe our baby is 3 months old already. Boy, does time fly! She can laugh now and she always tries to sit up. She loves holding on to anything and everything near her hands. AND she's a talker! Well, kinda... she's always always babbling and cooing away. I love her stories. I'm pretty sure she gets more and more beautiful each day.

Today, Dan had to work at Ernie's (the new gas station here) so Aurora and I walked to church at 8:45am. (Oh yeah! And we moved! We live on the East side of town now, near the Canyon Park, so we go to the rock church building-beautiful!) It had rained during the night so the ground was wet in spots but the sun was shining bright and it had just started to warm up for the day. So grateful for the beautiful world we live in and the opportunity I have to be out in the sunshine with my baby girl.

Church was great. There was a baby blessing and the young men's presidency spoke on how the Aaronic Priesthood prepares young men for receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood (Dan's the secretary for the YM so he was supposed to speak too but was unable to get free from work...). Hearing that father give his baby boy a blessing using the power of the priesthood and then hearing talks on the priesthood was so wonderful. It brought me back to a month ago when Dan was able to give Aurora a name and a blessing, as well as all the countless times I've been able to witness Dan or my dad or my grandpa or other men in my life use their priesthood to bless the lives of others and be examples of Christ. I love being married to someone who worthily upholds that gift so our lives can be blessed and we can more fully feel of His spirit in our home. I have such a testimony of the power of the priesthood and I am so grateful to be a participant in it.

Life is so good! These past 8 months have been amazing and so so SO much has happened. Unfortunately, too much to catch you all up on sooooo... if you feel like you've missed out, just look at all the pictures I've posted on Instagram or Facebook and piece it together yourself. Otherwise, I'll (hopefully) be posting more from here on out about our lives and the adventures of the 3 Johnsons! Yay! We love having a third!

It's a....

Well, we found out the gender of our sweet baby on Friday! And we are THRILLED to announce, we're having a baby GIRL!! Yay!

It was so fun to have Dan there with me to see our baby moving and growing! She kicked for us and they even saved footage of that on a CD for us with some other pictures. I could watch those baby feet kick all day! It was adorable! I can't wait to feel her kicking. 

Waiting to see her was torture for two reasons... 1) they made me go in with a full bladder so the wait about killed me! I was going to explode! Lucky for me, my bladder was TOO full for him to do the ultrasound so they let me go before we started haha and 2) they didn't tell us her gender until half way through the ultrasound because they had to do measurements and stuff for my doctor AND he said she's healthy but a little small so he wanted to be sure before saying "it's a girl". 

In the end, we found out and we are just so happy! We have felt like she was a girl from the beginning so it was fun to be right. And now we can get decorating and begin the spoiling of our wonderful, beautiful DAUGHTER! So fun to say that! 

I'm excited to meet her and for her to meet her dad! Dan talked to her this morning and told her that we're so happy to have her and it was so special and cute. Great moment. 

I love Dan so much and I'm so excited for this adventure we're on! 

Korea Korea!

Hello, bloggers! Sorry it's been SO long since I've posted! (We are currently internet-less at our house so with only phone access, keeping up on the blog is a bit difficult) But the last few days we've been spending a lot of time at my parents' house because they have some Korean girls staying with them AND our washer is broken at our house so they've been nice enough to let us bum theirs (Dan's parents too! Thanks!).

So the girl next to Erin is Heejin Moon and the next one is Minji Kim. They are here to attend some classes at SUU and will be staying with my family for 2 weeks. It's been really fun to get to know them. They are the same age as Collette! Kind of. haha I say that because in the United States age is different than it is in Korea! HERE they are 17 and in Korea they are 18 because in Korea, they count the time in the womb as their age so when they are born, they are considered 1 year old. I thought that was kind of cool!

Other things we learned:
-They don't get driver's licenses until they are 20 years old so they were amazed that Collette could drive haha
-They love s'mores!

Things we've been introduced to:
-Korean pop music! They had us listen to a popular boy band from S. Korea called Big Bang and they're actually really good
-Korea's version of string cheese.... uhm.... yuck. haha it tastes similar to bologne... or something. Yuck. (But don't tell them that! They love the stuff!)

Collette and Erin love having them here! It's like one big teenage party at my parents' house all the time now haha lots of screaming and giggling. It's lovely.

In other news, Dan and I find out what our baby will be on August 2nd!! AHHHHHHHH!!! I'm dying! I can't believe I'm already almost to 17 weeks! The pregnancy is going great so far. I'm over the nauseous part so that's great. BUT my hip is hurting like I have a pinched nerve which is not so great. It's ok though because I know it'll all be SO worth it in the end! Dan and I are over the moon excited to be parents and to meet our little "bundle of joy" (seriously though!).

Also, I met with Trish Adams from North Elementary (who I'll be subbing for this school year when she has her little girl) and Lori Bunker (the teacher I did my practicum with) today and I'm starting to get really excited for the school year to start! It'll be like I have my own classroom to start the year off. 5th grade! It's going to be so much fun!

Firework

Well, last night was the Utah Summer Games Opening Ceremonies and I think we worked our last one! We went to dinner at Winger's with Candace and Steve before and then Dan and I sold tickets like always at our usual gate (SE corner). That's the gate that all the athletes line up at and march in. There were SO many soccer teams this year! haha But seeing all those athletes made me nostalgic for when I was participating with my swim team.

I told Dan that our kids WILL BE participating in sports and our girls will do dance. He said "If they want to, then sure!" and that's when I told him, "I'm making them!" haha Yeah, I'm one of "those" parents. It was fun.

The entertainment this year was Recycled Percussion from America's Got Talent. They were actually really cool! They play drums on random things like trash can lids and ladders and they are speedy with their drum sticks! It was like they were on fast-forward mode. haha But of course, the best part of the evening was the fireworks. The Summer Games does the best fireworks... WAY better than the 4th of July. Serious!

In other news, I went to lunch with Amber today to The Pizza Factory. It was so fun to chat and catch up! AND she's currently 30 weeks pregnant with her second baby (a little boy!) so it was nice to be able to talk baby and being pregnant with someone who's "in the know". It's been FAR too long since we last got together!

Tonight we're hitting up the rodeo with Collette! Yeeee-hawww!

Tuesday

Tuesday was probably one of the greatest days! BUT I guess, to get the full impact of the why, I'll have to rewind a bit to Mother's Day.

Why Mother's Day, you ask? Well, that was the day we found out that we would have a wonderful new addition to our family! I took a pregnancy test a couple of weeks previous and got a negative so we decided we'd try again on Mother's Day. I woke up before Dan that morning and snuck off to the bathroom then waited the suggested 2 minutes (longest, most nerve wracking 2 minutes of my life!). I smiled with excitement when I saw that little positive and I snuck back into the room with the results where I sat next to Dan on the bed and creepily stared at him until he noticed I was there haha I gave him a kiss good morning and handed him the test. That woke him up! He sat up and then a huge smile came to his face and he gave me another kiss and a big hug! He was so excited! WE were so excited! We were going to be parents!! Happy first technical Mother's Day to me! haha

We decided we'd keep the news to ourselves until after my first doctor's appointment (which was SUPER hard seeing how we visited both our moms/families that day). We did tell my parents that following week though so we could ask some questions and since I'm on their insurance. They were so excited! (This will be their first grandbaby!) BUT we swore them to secrecy too until after the appointment. 

Which brings us to Tuesday! Waiting for that appointment was probably the longest wait of my life! I went to the appointment at 2:30pm and filled out the paperwork before they took me in. At 3pm, I was put in the room to wait for Dr. Gatherum and they handed me a gift bag with some new mom goodies (magazines, books, formula, ect.). I was nervous because it didn't really seem real yet and I didn't know what to expect AND right as the doc came in he was called into a delivery so I waited again. Finally he came back in and I asked him some questions (like if it'd be a good idea to go to Ireland in October with Dan's grandparents for free... it wasn't. Dang. haha) and THEN the nurse came in and they gave me an ultrasound!

It was just about the coolest thing ever to see something... someONE inside me and to hear the doctor say "There's your baby" and then even cooler to be able to hear it's sweet little heartbeat! ♥♥ It sounded like a hummingbird, it was so fast! (177 BPM) I wish Dan could've been there to hear it! He was working at the time so I had to meet him afterwards.

When I left they gave me the pictures of our cute little blob (hehe), I set an appointment for July, and then I hurried off to see Dan at his mom's house. Dan LOVED seeing the pictures and hearing about the heartbeat (he's the cutest dad-to-be). Then we told his family. They were SO excited! Candace cried and they all gave us hugs. So fun! Then we headed to my family's house to show my parents and tell my sisters. Talk about excitement! This baby is going to be SO spoiled by all it's aunts. My sisters have only been telling me they want a niece or nephew for just about forever haha

To celebrate, we went to dinner at Sizzler with both our parents. It was so fun! I hope we can be as great of parents as the ones who raised both of us. We are so blessed to have them! Lucky our kids will have them as grandparents.

After dinner we called our grandparents and some other family members. SO AWESOME. I loved hearing all the screams and excited laughter from everyone! Our baby is seriously going to be loved and spoiled. ♥ We love all of you guys!!

♥ Baby Johnson will be arriving January 2, 2014 ♥