4 months old...

Andrew is now 4 months old!!! Holy cow does time fly by. Its kinda funny though, to me it feels like he's been around a lot longer than that. He is such a big boy. His sleeper jammies are size 6-9 months. I think he's about as big as Garret was, I think he's heavier, but I would have to look at G's baby book. He is so happy all the time. He sleeps through the night most of the time, but a couple times a week he will wake up talking at 4 or 5. He does pretty well with tummy time, but will try and eat his hands (common occurrence with him) while he's on his tummy, they are right there after all. So its been fun trying to get him to roll over. We are loving our time with him. He is totally a momma's boy though (thats gonna have to change). He still won't sleep during the day unless he is being held. I guess the one thing we are looking forward for with Andrew is him starting to eat baby food. I think he will love it. We started him on rice cereal today and he didn't like it at first, but he got the hang of it and ate most of what Brent made for him.

Garret still loves his brother and wants to do everything for him. If he were a little older and more coordinated I think I would let him, but for now we just have him get stuff for us or take his diapers out to the garbage.

Brent passed the Utah Bar Exam!!!!!!! He got sworn in on Oct. 13. We are so proud of him.

I have been helping my sister Georgette with wedding stuff. She is getting married on November 13, so in just a couple weeks. She assigned me the opportunity to throw her bridal shower. This was something I wasn't completely comfortable with since I have only been to 3 bridal showers and 2 of them were mine. Anyway so this has been interesting so far and I am just hoping and praying that I can get it all squared away and that it goes off without a hitch. I am also going to start working at night for the next 6-8 weeks at Ziplocal. I used to work there when Brent and I got married until I had Garret. I worked there again temporarily before we moved to Ohio and now I'll be there again. Its the same place, different name. I am excited to get out of the house and feel like I am doing something productive.

2 months!!

Andrew is 2 months old today. I am so amazed at how big he is. We go to his check-up on Tuesday to see how big he is and for him to get his first round of shots. He is overall a happy baby, when he is standing or sitting :P The only time he likes to lay down while being held is when he wants to go to sleep. He had his first cold last week :( We went to Disneyland on the 10th and after we got back to Utah I caught a cold. Garret got it and so did Andrew. I felt so sorry for Drew since he is so young. We are all better now though.
A few things Andrew has started doing this month are, crying more :P He also has started to lick/suck on his hands, like all the time. As I mentioned before he likes to stand. He has been holding his head up pretty well for about a month now, and loves to stand and jump. He looks around at everything. He will watch as people walk around the room. He likes to talk and smile at anyone that will talk and smile at him. We love him so much and are very happy we have him in our family.
Garret is still the same. He is a very good big brother to Andrew. His imagination is very good and active.
Brent and I are doing pretty well also. Got a few more hours of sleep last night :) We are adjusting pretty well to having two kids (I think at least). We are blessing Andrew on September 5 so we are excited to have all the family members come into town :)
I learned this morning that my Grandpa Hale passed away. He has been fighting cancer for a very long time so we knew this was coming. I am glad my dad was able to be there with him and my Grandma. My Grandpa was awesome. He was so funny and so loving. I am glad I got to know him the little bit that I did. He will be greatly missed.

1 month...

Andrew turned 1 month old yesterday. He has been doing lots of things since being born. He has met all of his Johnson cousins and most of his aunts and uncles (still needs to meet Uncle Eric). He still has my whole family (minus Georgette and Shar) to meet. He loves eating and has gained at least 2 pounds (he will take up to 5 oz, he just might not keep it all down). He has grown so much already, I think the Dr will have a heart attack when we take him for his 2 month appointment. He loves to hold his head up, he's not very good at it, but has been doing it for a while and is getting better. He will actually take a pacifier :) He loves to be outside and will even settle for being able to look out of a window. We had him waking up only once a night for about 4 days, but that has changed back to two times a night. He has started to smile real smiles, still working on smiling as a reaction to people playing with him. He likes to be held (waaaay too much). He has a hard time taking a good nap during the day unless he's in his car seat or being held. We are so happy he is in our lives and we look forward to watching him grow and learn.

Latest...

(Garret and Andrews feet)

I have been meaning to update, but have struggled to find the time. I really wanted to do it on monday when Andrew turned 3 weeks old, but that didn't happen, so here we are. Andrew had his 2 week check-up on the 9th, his dr was going to scout camp the next week so we did his appt early (he was only 11 days). We found out that Andrew is growing very well, I would hope so since he eats like crazy. He had gained all the weight he lost after birth plus 3 oz to make him 8 lbs 4 oz.- 40th %tile He had also grown an inch making him 22"-93rd %tile. And his head was in the 25th %tile. We think he weights about 10 lbs now, just weighing him at home. He eats as much as he can, when ever he can. We look forward to learning more about him as he grows up. (3 weeks old)

Garret is being such a good big brother. He is living up to his word and tries to share everything with Andrew. He loves to laugh at the noises Andrew makes, especially sneezes (he has even laughed in his sleep when Andrew sneezed). Garret likes to take the dirty diapers out to the big garbage bin in the garage. He has been so good and such a big helper, I hope it continues. I finally set up the pool we got him last year for his birthday. He didn't really know how to play in it, I know I'm a lame mom that doesn't take my kid to the regular pool. After his swim suit got wet he tried to take it off and change to different shorts. I had to tell him that his shorts were supposed to get wet, its a swim suit. It was pretty funny. (kinda cold showing off his pool)(Helping hold Andrew)(Helping daddy feed Andrew a bottle)(Wearing socks on his hands, like Andrew)(4th of July sparklers)

Brent is still studying for the BAR Exam which is next week, July 27-28. He is doing as much as he can to help with Garret and Andrew even though he is pressed for time with his studying.

Its a boy!!!

We finally had the baby!!! Andrew Brent Johnson was welcomed into our family on Monday June 28, 2010 at 8:41 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 21" long.

(Only an hour old and already sucking on his hands)

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE BIRTH STORY, STOP READING! JUST SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH OR THE PICS!

I started contractions around 3:30 am that morning and headed to the hospital at 10 am. My sister Georgette was kind enough to take work off to watch Garret for us so Brent could go with me. The contractions were pretty strong so I thought I would be dilated more, but no. The Dr. stripped the membranes to try and help me dilate more. He came back later and checked me and I was just over 2 centimeters. That's when he broke the water and hooked Andrew head up to a sensor/microphone thing that lets you know the heartbeat more accurately. In the next couple hours I only dilated 2 more centimeters. I got some pain meds and then the epidural to help me through the contractions. They gave me pitocin to try and help my contractions get stronger and help me dilate more, I'm glad I got the epidural before the pitocin. They weren't happy about how slow I was going, or that Andrew's heartbeat was not being consistent or reacting how it should to the contractions, so they gave me an oxygen mask. The nurse had me switch sides I was laying on to see if that would help him react better, at that time the nurse also checked me and said I was only a 4+ still. 45 min later the Dr comes in to check me, says I'm at an 8!! That was at 6:45ish. An hour later I was starting to push, then an hour later he comes into the world. Just over 17 hours from start of contractions to delivery. I think my epidural was wearing off a little at the end, I could feel a lot more than I did with the c-section last time. We found out why Andrew's heart rate didn't react well to the contractions or pushing, after his head came out they noticed the umbilical cord was around his neck. There was also meconium in the amniotic fluid that came out when I was pushing, as well as on the placenta, don't know why the fluid was clear when the other Dr broke it. There had to be a respiratory team there to clean him up and make sure the meconium didn't get in his lungs. He was just fine. We are both doing well. I'm trying to heal up from the episiotomy as much as I can before I get home. I told the Dr afterwards that I think I'm gonna do c-sections for any other kids we have. I would rather have a sore stomach with stitches than the area I sit on.

Garret and Brent are doing well too. I think Garret is a little anxious about this baby brother thing. He is still excited to have him, but is noticing that Andrew is getting a little more attention at the moment than he is. I think too that he is just bored in the hospital room and is not acting like normal. I think once I get home he will do better. He's not used to having me not there when he goes to bed and when he wakes up. Andrew and I will be heading home on Wednesday the 30th. We are very excited and happy to have this little guy with us. He is already showing us his personality. He came out wanting to eat his hands and is always looking for them. He sleeps pretty well, just gets startled kinda easy. My problem right now is trying to keep him awake when I feed him, we'll get the hang of it.
(Mommy and Andrew)(Daddy and Andrew)(The boys)(The whole family)
I'll put some other pics up later of Andrew after we get home.

No baby yet...

We went to the zoo today to try and walk the baby out...so far hasn't worked. The counter on the side of the page is now counting the days I'm overdue :P

June so far...

First off we had Garrets birthday to celebrate. Brent and I took him to a place in Draper, UT called Boondocks. They have mini golf, bumper boats, go-karts, arcade, laser tag and a soft play area for kids. Brent took Garret on the go-karts first, so G could drive a race car. I think he loved it. They let you drive for a good 10 or so minutes. (Go-karting with daddy) Then he wanted to do the arcade. He loves the games that you get to shoot stuff and the car ones. He also loves the Deal or No Deal game (he actually waited 5 min for someone else to be done playing this before he got his turn, he was very patient). Brent and Garret played air hockey. Garret did pretty well until he helped Brent score a few times, he loved it though.(Playing air hockey with daddy) He played in the soft play area for about an hour or so, it had some fast slides and was really big. After we got back to the house we let him open presents and play for a while (a really heavy rain storm came through).(Cheeser showing off the present) That evening we went to McDonalds for dinner with Ralph, Nancy and Dustin. After we were done eating we let G play for a while.

On Sunday we had his birthday dinner with family. We were happy to have all that were able to, come and celebrate Garrets birthday with us. I was glad the rain stopped and the sun came out just long enough for some to eat outside so we had enough room. He loved having Happy Birthday sung to him and being able to blow out his candles.(Birthday boy with his cake)
The other part of June is waiting (not always patiently) for the baby to come. I will be 40 weeks (full term) on Wednesday the 23rd. I wasn't expecting to last this long, but as far as I know I might go longer than my due date. I guess we will have to wait and see when this kid decides to show his face to the world.
(39 weeks) (Mommy and Garret. Trying to show how tall Garret is at 4 yrs old)

Brent is busy studying for the BAR here in Utah. He has recently caught a cold, so studying is really hard for him. We are really hoping he gets over this cold before the baby comes so he can be there and hold the baby sooner than he held Garret. He got sick a day or so after I had Garret and couldn't hold him for a few days.

The Move (pics maybe to come)

My sister Georgette came out to help us on Wednesday the 5. She helped me finish cleaning, packing, etc and helped Brent load the moving truck. We left on Monday the 10th around 2 pm. That night we stayed in Iowa City, Iowa. The next day our destination was Cheyenne, Wyoming. We were going along just fine until we were about 70 miles outside of Cheyenne. We hit a snow storm, well just about a white out. It was really weird, I have never driven in that before, hopefully I never have to do that again. We ended up going about 25 on I-80 for quite a while following a truck and trying to stay in his wheel tracks (thanks to Nebraska/Wyoming for not plowing). We finally made it to Cheyenne and find out I-80 was closed from that point westward, good thing we were planning on stopping there anyway. Nancy had called ahead to get rooms and when we were coming in we found out they were completely full. There was probably a good 6 or so inches of snow on the ground when we got up in the morning, and it was still snowing a little. We were trying to decided how to get to Utah if I-80 was going to be closed and finally decided to go down passed Denver to get completely away from the storm. As we were loading the car we found out that they had just opened I-80 going west, the direction we wanted. This was really cool since I didn't want to be in the car longer than I had to be. The roads were clear and we didn't have anymore problems the rest of the way to Orem. 3 days and 2 nights we finally made it. A huge thank you to Georgette for helping me clean, helping Brent load the truck and for taking care of Garret during the drive. He really loved playing with you in the car. We unloaded our truck on Thursday, had a day of "rest" then headed back out on the road on Saturday. We took a quick trip to Las Vegas to visit with some of Brent's family down there. We came back on Sunday and Brent started his Bar prep stuff Monday.
I am now 35 weeks prego and am started to get anxious about delivering this baby. I only made it to 34 weeks 1 day with Garret so everyday now is new territory. Hopefully I don't have to go all the way to 40 weeks or longer. I have my first appointment here in Utah tomorrow with the same Drs I had with Garret. I'm thinking this nameless kid will be kinda big.

Graduation...

Saturday May 8, 2010 was the day Brent graduated from law school. The ceremony was very good and short, which was nice. Garret and I are so proud of Brent for finishing law school in 2 years. Brent is now in his bar prep class for the next 2 months or so before the Bar Exam at the end of July.

Travels...

About a week before Brent's graduation we took a little trip with his parents and brother. Our first stop was in Kirtland, Ohio. We had only lived a few hours away but still hadn't made it out. We were able to see the Kirtland Temple and the church owned sites as well.
The next day we drove up to Niagara Falls. That was amazing (and Garrets best day during our trip, I think it had something to do with the fact that he was strapped in a stroller). I have always wanted to see Niagara Falls. I love going hiking and seeing the amazing things Heavenly Father has given us here on Earth. (Looking out at the horseshoe falls, Canada in the back)
That night we drove down to Palmyra, New York. We went to sacrament meeting on Sunday then walked through the Sacred Grove. It was an amazing experience. Brent and I almost got lost just walking around the grove, but eventually found our way out. We also went to the Hill Cummorah and saw the Moroni monument. We also just walked around and took pictures of the temple there in Palmyra. We drove down to the Whitmer farm on Sunday as well. We did a tour there. I know I learned a lot about how and where the church was officially organized. I didn't really know much about church history, even though I had been raised in the church and have ancestors dating back to the Nauvoo days. Monday we did the tour of the Joseph Smith family farm. I learned a lot more about the persecutions against Joseph Smith and the church members. We saw a baby fox walking around on the farm, within 10 feet of us and it wasn't scared. I loved hearing the stories the missionaries told us about different people that had a hand in the buildings that were constructed to look like the originals. We also did a tour of the print shop where The Book of Mormon was first printed. It was really cool to see the equipment they used and to learn more about the process of printing at that time. We also went to one of the locks on the Erie Canal. It was cool to see something from American history, even if we didn't get to see it being used. We went back to the Hill Cummorah and did a tour in the visitors center there as well. Garret was extremely bored by that point and I feel bad that Brent missed a lot on this trip from taking Garret out of rooms and buildings because he would start to get loud and try to run around. I was really appreciative of the missionaries that actually tried to get Garret interested in what they were talking about. (the view from the side of the Smith family house to the Sacred Grove) (The fox on the Smith family farm. There were 2 of them that were born there, but we only saw the one) (Garret in front of the Palmyra Temple) (Lock 29 on the Erie Canal)
On Tuesday Brent, Garret and I drove back to Dayton to continue packing and cleaning the house. Ralph, Nancy and Dustin continued their trip to Sharon, Vermont to see where Joseph Smith was born and I believe they visited a few more places on the way back to Dayton.

28 weeks....well almost 29 now.

I finally took a prego pic with this 2nd baby. I didn't have a camera when I was pregnant with Garret so we didn't take pics except the day before he was born. I was going to try and do better with this pregnancy, but I kept forgetting to take the pics on the day my weeks change, oh well. So I have my 28 week picture from this pregnancy and a 34 week pic from Garret for you to compare.
Probably not the best pictures to be able to compare, but you get the gist. I'll keep trying to remember to take a pic each week so if I get any bigger you can see it. I'll probably just put them on facebook though.

This is what happens when your having fun and not listening to your mom. He was supposed to be getting his pjs but decided he wanted to play for a few more minutes. He grabbed this leap frog toy and reclined back in his chair and fell asleep.

We decorated eggs tonight and I'll put up all the Easter pics another day with the eggs included.

The countdown continues for everything around here, Brents graduation, moving, Garrets 4th birthday, the new baby and finally Brent taking the Bar Exam. I guess we have a very busy next few months.

Name poll...

We put a poll up so you can give your opinion about the names we "agree" on. These are just the first names, we kinda have a middle name picked out, but it depends on what we decide for the first name.
28 week prego pic coming soon, I took it I just need to upload it.

Cute kid....most of the time

I took this picture before church a few weeks ago. I thought he looks so grown up and cute.

We got him a tent for Christmas and he loves it. I set it up in the dining room and he wanted to sleep in it. I moved his mattress from his crib to the tent and he has been sleeping there on days that he behaves and does what he is supposed to. Yesterday was a day he wasn't allowed to sleep in the tent, he had a rough day.

An update with potty training. He is doing ok with it. He has been waking up with a dry diaper/pull-up everyday now for the last week. We are still having problems with him wetting his pull-up during the day because he's not telling us when he needs to use the bathroom. I haven't tried underwear with him yet because of this.

We took a trip to Utah for a day because Brent had a job interview in Idaho. It was worth the drive to visit a few family members even though we weren't there for very long. We don't know about the job yet. Brent is for sure taking the Utah Bar in July though. Brent will be graduating on May 8 and we're are planning on leaving Ohio on May 10.

We are almost in double digit days before the baby comes. We still don't have a name so keep those suggestions coming :P Garret is still really excited to have a baby brother. Everything seems to be going alright according to the doctor. I think Brent and I are both a little nervous to have 2 kids. We'll get over it though.

Potty Training...

We have started potty training for real this time. Garret and I went to the school supply store and bought a chart and stickers, he chose everything. He got to put of 4 stickers yesterday. We are starting out easy, anytime he pees he gets 1 sticker, even if its just a drop or 2, he also gets a m&m. When he poops he gets 2 m&ms, 2 stickers and a hot wheels car he had taken away a long time ago(he's been trying to earn them back for awhile). When he fills up a row of stickers (25) he gets to pick a treat or small toy from the store. We are putting the pee stickers on a row and the poo ones on another row, so he doesn't earn the rewards as fast. Once he gets comfortable enough that he isn't wetting his pull ups anymore, then we will let him pick out some underwear.
I'm debating whether we will take stickers away if he has accidents or if he will just have to clean it up. We will gradually be changing the rules for how he earns stickers. Once he is going on a more consistent basis then we will only give him candy and stickers if he pees a lot(not just dribbles), then change it to a time period and stuff. I hoping by the time the chart gets full he will basically be good to go. I think there's 35 or so rows with 25 box's in each row.
Brent tried to show him how to stand while he goes, but when I tried to help...it didn't work out so well. He has the interest to stand, which is totally fine when Brent is home to help, but I don't know how to teach him all that. Anyway, we are currently in day 2 so we'll see how this goes. I'm already tired of it, being pregnant doesn't help. We have also drilled into his head that he has to use the toilet all the time before baby brother will come. And once baby brother does come he has to keep using the toilet so he can help change brothers diapers, if Garret is in diapers still he can't help (he's really into helping...a lot).
Sorry this was really informative of our plan, but I find if I write it down I'm more prone to stick to it.
Brent and Garret went with me to my dr. appt yesterday. They got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Garret got really excited. He got a huge smile on his face and started doing his little dance thing he does when he gets excited. Garret keeps asking me to take baby brother out of my tummy already. He says he loves his baby brother and will come lay his head or his hand on my stomach. He is being really cute about it. We still don't have a name for this kid though, not that its a big deal yet, we picked Garrets name a couple weeks before he was born. Anyway, we'll keep ya'll updated on the progress of things, and I'll try to post some prego pics or the ultrasound pics or something.

Last couple of months.

I am so not good at keeping this blog up to date. Oh well. Now to update on the last couple of months. We traveled out to Utah and California for Christmas again this year. We all needed the break from the freezing cold and to see our families. Garret really enjoyed playing with all his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We were fortunate to see everyone in the family except my sister-in-law who is in the military serving in Korea at the moment, we were sorry to miss her and can't wait till she gets back to the States. Before we left for Christmas I learned that my Great Grandma Swann passed away on Dec. 12. She was 103. I decided not to go to the funeral because of the drive and the funeral was going to be held on Brents birthday, plus I figured there would be a ton of people there and most of them I didn't know. My dad was able to go with my brother Seann and 2 of my sisters. I feel bad for not going, but I know she'll forgive me. We were lucky to have her around as long as we did, not everyone can say they knew a Great Grandparent.

While in Utah, Garret loved playing in the snow with his cousins and uncle Dustin.

(Christmas Story anyone? I kinda felt bad bundling him up so much, oh well)(helping the cousins get snow for their forts)

He didn't want to come in when the other kids did. He learned how to throw snowballs and tried to help them make forts. We even got to see some of Brents cousins on New Years, it was nice catching up with everyone. We also got to see some of our friends at Chuck E. Cheese's. It was Garrets first time there which was funny because he didn't want to sit and play games, he would run up to something, I'd put a token in, and he'd run off. It was fun trying to catch up with them, I didn't really get a chance to talk too much because of chasing around G, but it was still fun.

We had a pretty warm Christmas in California with my family. Garret enjoyed playing with all of his cousins there as well. We had a little fender bender on the freeway shortly before getting to my parents house, but everyone was fine and the cars didn't get too hurt. We were definitely being watched over and blessed the accident wasn't worse. It just put a little damper on the rest of the trip, having to deal with insurance and then repairs when we got back in town.(Our cars damage, kinda hard to tell because its dark and the car was dirty, but basically the dent and black stuff was the damage)

I was sad we didn't get to see all of my extended family that we usually would see, hopefully next time. We were able to see my friends from high school. It was so nice catching up with them. I'm glad their lives seem to be going really well.

(all of my nieces and nephews, Alex, Hannah, Ammon, Mathias, Olivia, Emily, Deborah, Gwendolyn and Garret)

Garret was excited about his Christmas gifts. We gave him a tent, new blocks, a blanket with a road on it (so he can drive his cars on it), and when we got back to Utah we gave him a wooden train set (thats what he was looking for on Christmas Day and was kinda wondering where it was). My parents gave him a remote control bulldozer. He also got a Diego boat from his cousin Cooper and Brents parents gave him some church clothes and Cars (Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson). All of his gifts were a big hit and he has played with everything at least once a week. I think he enjoyed Christmas. I'm not sure he wanted to come home. He always asks to go back to Nama and Papas house. I think this trip he finally made the connection that he has 2 Namas and 2 Papas.
Garret is now a sunbeam at church. Brent and I are the teachers of that class. It has been interesting so far. It is definitely a learning experience for all of us. Garret will have his first opportunity to talk in the microphone this sunday as he gives his CTR moment from this week. He has done a lot of this so far this week to talk about. He loves volunteering for jobs around the house.

Brent has started his final semester of law school. He will graduate on May 8, 2010. We are very excited for this to happen. We are just hoping and praying now that he will get a job before graduating and that we won't have to stress out about where we are going to move anymore. Its really unsettling to be so close to being done with school but have nothing set up yet for afterwards. He has started the application process to take the Utah Bar Exam in July.

The only other news we have is that we are expecting a baby at the end of June. We did an ultrasound last friday and found out that its a boy. Garret was pretty upset at first, but he has accepted the fact that he is not getting a sister this time. He really wanted a sister, every time we would ask if he wanted a baby sister or brother he would say sister. So now he is excited about the baby brother and says hi to it and rubs and pats my tummy. Today he told me to take out baby brother from my tummy. I told him we have to wait until around Garrets birthday to take his brother out of my tummy. Everything with this pregnancy is going well so far, I have not had any problems at all. We are very thankful to be able to bring another child in the world to take care of and we hope we will do a good job. The only problem now is picking a name. We have no boy names picked out, but of course we have girl names. I really tried to take a picture of the ultrasound picture, but my camera isn't good for that, so no ultrasound pics to share, sorry. It looks pretty cute though.

I will try to do a better job at keeping this updated. I just usually don't have anything to say.