This is for Linda

Linda thank you for all the A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.outfits for Julia! They have been MUCH appreciated by her (me). The green polka dot outfit is a bonus for my mom, Thanks mom! Sorry for the strange layout and duplicate photo, blogger changed and I'm not willing to figure it out :)

Thank you!!

God Bless America!

And God Bless this little girl!

Happy Mother's Day

Beautiful Gardner

Tiny fingers in your hand
It wasn't long ago
Like a seed showered with love
I began to grow
Then all at once, in the blink of an eye
I became who I am today
But I remember all the little moments
And the big part that you played

You planted me in sunshine,
Sprinkled me with kisses
Held my hand as we crossed those roads
And you granted all my wishes
Protect me from the rain and snow
Point me to the light
And on top of all the other things
That you have done just right
You are,
A beautiful gardner,
Mother

Daisies and daffodils
Even though they're small
They grace the world with such a gift
Standing beautiful and tall
I'm proud to be who you've grown me to be
And there's a tiny piece of you
That I can see inside of me
As I begin to bloom

Planted me in sunshine,
Sprinkled me with kisses
Held my hand as we crossed those roads
And you granted all my wishes
Protect me from the rain and snow
Point me to the light
And on top of all the other things
That you have done just right
You are,
A beautiful gardner,
Mother

Time moves on
That's the way life grows
And all the while
I look up to a beautiful rose

You know it's true
What they say
The seed never falls far
And I can say I'm proud to be
The seed of your heart
Care for me and watch me grow
As I unfold my petals
And nothing can unearth this bond
For a mother's love is special

Planted me in sunshine,
Sprinkled me with kisses
Held my hand as we crossed those roads
And you granted all my wishes
Protect me from the rain and snow
Point me to the light
And on top of all the other things
I give thanks for at night
Is you,
My beautiful gardner,
My mother

What a fun first Mother's Day!
Being a mom is the best thing in
the world, next to being a
daughter and grand-daughter.
Thank you to all the women in my life,
I love you so much!
But mostly thank you to Garrett for
giving me the gift of motherhood and
for making this Mother's Day
SO special.
I love you so much!!

Julia - 8 months

Life on the farm!

UPDATE:

We're in Ogden and doing well. While we enjoy the summer Garrett is still working virtually during the morning and coaching high school baseball with his dad in the afternoon and I have begun my job search in Provo. We are living at Garrett's Grandma's house on the farm. Feels like we are on vacation! She has about 60 sheep out back with 60+ new lambs this year, and just in the last week there have been about 8 born! TOO cute. Easter was awesome, life is good and all are well. Lula had a rough week last week because she is cutting FOUR teeth on top. Poor little snaggle tooth. She rolls plenty but you can be sure she isn't crawling because a certain mother intervenes! I'd like to be settled in our own place before she gets any more moble so she keeps her spot on my hip and EVERY old man I ever see in any grocery store or mall or church house comments on how "my hips were made for that baby"... ummm yep. Thanks?

Hips at work:

Went to the Ogden train station for lunch, and saw the old locomotives. Check out these wheels! (Notice... no hip usage)

Third base coach

Cuddle time in the barn. She just layed on me forever I'm so glad I snapped a pic.

Oh and see all that wool? His grandma dyes, spins, and knits it. amazing. This is the woman who made Lula's blessing dress.

Loved conference. LOVED. IT.

Learning to eat... fun for baby. Not so fun for mommy.

Been using conditioner since 2 months and yet... morning hair still dominates us.

Hello STAN POOLE!

BRAND new, still wet, baby lamb. Aww!

"Sleepy Angel" aka Mr. Friendly, was bottle fed and now is just such a lover.
Yes, a skirt in the barn.. I am trying to integrate but it may take a while.

Holding our Easter Chick Cake Pops with Grandma Messerly

Julia finding her egg

Jade and Sugar Baby

Been great so far and bound to get better!

NEWS

No link to the private blog, who am I kidding? It's hard enough for me just to blog once.. blogging twice on a private and public blog is a little over-ambitious. If I haven't invited you yet, it's just because I'm a lazy blogger, and I may bag the private blog. Hmm...?

Anyways on to the big news!

Garrett has applied and been accepted to many different law schools across the country, and we have made our decision to have him become a graduate of. . .

(Drumroll please)

BYU!

We are very excited and feel that life is, once again, falling into place.

The Lord has definitely heard our prayers and has absolutely prepared us along the way for the decisions we are making today. It's amazing to look back, and incredible to look forward.

We are moving immediately (as decided two days ago), and will enjoy the beautiful summer in Utah!

We have acquired many things here in the Land of the Sun. New dining set, new living room furniture, new car, a whole lot of new/old junk from a whole lot of yardsales (I may or may not be the only one responsible for that) and

THIS SWEET THING!:

Love. Love. Love.

So life is good!

A Festive Dinner

See what freaky little treats crawled onto my table here



See the specific post here

Oh no she DI-ENT!

Oh YES she did! Check it out here





See the specific post here

Old McDonald Had A Farm...

With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there...

Check it out here

See the specific post here

8 Weeks of BaBy!

A photo for each week. See them HERE.

See the specific post here

Family Photos

Took a few more pics (of course) of the baby!

See them here

GOING PRIVATE & a Slideshow!

I almost did it once, but didn't. This time I am going to follow through. Maybe it's unnecessary but the mama bear in me says to keep things under tighter wraps. This blog is going to stay public but it will link up to our new private blog. Please keep this as the link on your own page so that old friends who are newcomers to our blog will be able to find us and can leave their email in a comment and I can give them access too. You may have been one who left your info long ago when I almost went private but just in case .. please leave it again!

TO DO LIST:

1. Leave email in comment

2. Check out Julia's photoshoot slideshow from my P.R.O. friend at one3photography HERE

I took some pictures...

And I have a feeling that taking pictures of this little "angel" may be my new addiction.

So tiny

So precious.

So. In. Love.

Little Lula, as we so affectionately call her, has quickly stolen our hearts and become our everything. We wouldn't have it any other way.

She is here.

Julia Shelly Messerly

6 lbs 9 oz

20.5 inches

Born on August 22, 2011 at 1:34pm

She took 30 hours and a couple of scares to get here, but all 6 lbs 9 oz are perfectly healthy and wonderful. The quick version: My water broke at 7:30am Sunday, we were sure we would have a baby by that evening. But I didn't progress hardly at all, even through hard contractions. Then the baby went into distress with some of my contractions and I still wasn't progressing, so at 2 am the doctor wanted to take us for an emergency c-section. But her heart normalized and we prayerfully continued. Garrett watched the monitor anxiously and encouraged me to rest. He was so supportive and strong, and I don't think he got much more than a blink of sleep all night. We had a few more scares that night and morning, but finally they told us we were near the end. Monday afternoon our sweet angel was born. The cord was wrapped around her neck which was likely the cause of her distress during some of labor.

What a horrific, spiritual, emotional, humbling experience.
But she is worth it, we are so incredibly in love with her, and would do it all again.

Nine.

Nine months - wow, I am so glad I am not an elephant because they
are pregnant for something like 2 years.
(21 months - thanks wiki)

She is as big as... an edible arrangement!
Garrett surprised me with this bouquet for graduation - yes it is all real fruit cut into adorable floral shapes and some covered in white or milk chocolate! Sound delicious? It is. Look it even came in a festive porcelain graduation cap with diploma! LOVE it!

NINE WAYS TO KNOW YOU ARE READY TO HAVE YOUR BABY:

(These may or may not have all been conjured up from personal experience)

1. You finished everything on your "to-do-before-baby-comes" list so you made a second one. Then you completed that list so you made a third one. Then you completed that list so you made a fourth one. Are you hearing me? Nuff said.
2. You get stuck in absurd positions trying to
painfully roll in and out of bed
3. There is a space about the size of a plate on the middle of your belly that is numb from stretching; feels just like my lips do after I get a cavity filled. The urge to scratch an itch is just not as satisfyable on a numb belly!
4. You waddle
5. You have tight shoulders because you compensate for waddling by holding your arms out about 3 inches away from your body... yes, a waddle and a flap...
quack quack quack!
6. You think about things like how grateful you are to not have a pregnancy that lasts as long as an elephants.. and you blog about it
7. Kids in their mom's shopping carts down the isle point and yell out, "Look mom that lady has a baby in her belly!"
8. You walk up to the salesman at Best Buy to ask a question about a camera and he greets you with, "Well Congratulations!" ... um haha.. thank you?
9. You are done with school and got to graduate, you are done with boards, you got your board results and PASSED!
I am officially a Physician Assistant - Certified! "Whew"

So basically we are ready for this baby to come. We have tried all the old wives' tales but nothing works ha - spicey food, jogging, stairs, we even googled some pressure points to induce labor.. nothing. She will come when she is good and ready, and we will be ready because it will be good to have her.

PA Graduate. I AM one!

With 26 gruelling months behind us
of sweat, tears, and blood (seriously!),
we are official graduates of the

A.T. Still University
Master of Science
in Physician Assistant Studies program.

~Boom Baby~

But I don't know who had more sweat, tears, and blood..
me or him?
It has been long for the both of us, no doubt about that.
I NEVER could have done it without him!
I was only sustained because I had
his support, encouragement, and cooking.
WHAT. A. GEM.
So grateful for him. So in love with him.
My parents and grandpa Johnson made the trip
and they all dressed in blue by coincidence - that happens
to be my school colors! We had a FABULOUS weekend, it was
perfect; everything I hoped it would be.

I feel so loved, so blessed, and so grateful.
Thank you to all my family on my side AND Garrett's side.
I have needed you all!


But I'm not done yet... I still have my boards.
Oh and a baby to birth sometime in the near future.
I plan to take my boards this Saturday if I don't have
her before then!
She and I are on a race to the finish.


I'll keep you posted on who the victor is
and cross your fingers that it's me!