Visit from Aunt Brittany, Uncle Ross, and Caroline!

My brother and his family came down and we had a great visit. Caroline was able to practice being a big sister it was so sweet to watch the two girls with each other. Caroline was very gentle and loving towards Ella. Every time I think of Caroline, Ella, and Laura Grace it reminds me of spending my childhood with my cousins Holly and Hannah. I hope they have as much fun as we did. Anyway we took to the pumpkin patch while they were here and had a blast.

Ella's Baptism

We had Ella Baptized on Sunday October 16, 2011. Reverend Hyche baptized Ella and many friends and family were there to help us bring a new life into Gods Church. Ella did really well she fussed a little, but right before we went to the alter she had started to fill her britches so I understand why she got fussy!

Ella her her baptismal gown. (this is the same one mommy wore!)

Ella's God parents Aunt Casey and Uncle Ross.

 Ella with her grandmothers and great grandmas (just missing NeNe)

 Ella with her grandpas and great grandpas

 Ella with her grandparents

It was a great Ellabration!

Memories

I thought I had for sure posted something else after announcing we had a little girl, but I was wrong. So I am going to sum up all that has happened over the last 3 months!



Ella's first big trip away from home was Lake Livingston! Labor Day weekend the Johnson family headed up to Trinity Cove where we spent the weekend lounging and riding jet skis. Ella just lounged :) It was very strange for me to take my baby to our lake house. This is the place where my cousins and I spent many weekends growing up, and to take Ella to a place from my childhood was very surreal.

Then not very long after her first trip away, she did her first over night away from mommy and daddy. One of my high school drill team friends got married September 17, so Kyle and I spent the night dancing in Houston. Ella spent the night cuddling with Grammy and Grandpa. Not sure who had more fun Kyle and I or Grammy and Grandpa!


Here we are all dressed for the wedding!

While mommy was home with her for her first 6 weeks Ella had many visitors and she loved seeing everybody. Uncle Jerry, Kelly, Kirk, Logan, Nene, Aunt Karen, Auntie Kym and many more came to see sweet Ella. Auntie Kym came by and snapped some pictures for us one day.

And before we knew it Ella was one month old! Mommy took some pictures to remember just how precious Ella was.

It's a girl!

Woops! I did it again I let time slip away. It is easy to do when you are a new parent! Ella Katherine made her debut Tuesday August 9th 2011 at 5:10 p.m. Kyle and I are feeling very blessed and tired these days :) Let me fill you in on how crazy things got leading up to Ella's birth.

It all started when I left my last doctors appointment knowing that I was going to be induced. I immediately called Kyle to let him know that sooner rather than later we would officially be mommy and daddy. As excited as we were and felt we already had a lot on our plates and knew we had to focus and get it all done before our baby was here! SO I left the doctors appointment on Tuesday and by Thursday things got really crazy! We finally did our final walk thru of our home and Friday morning at 8:00 a.m we closed and became first time home buyers. Once we closed we rushed to our apartment where my wonderful best friend and her husband we already loading up trucks full of boxes for us. We started moving Friday morning around 10:00 and it didn't stop unitl Sunday around 10:30 p.m. We had so many helpers that we unpacked boxes, moved furniture, and cleared all the empty boxes out and were completely moved in two our house in only three days! ....Grammy, Grandpa, Granny, Paw-Paw, Aunt Casey, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Paul, Beth, Matt, Uncle Eric, Bryan, Hannah, Mrs. Garrison, Kyle's boss, and our biggest helper of all Kandace were all apart of the madness. But wait it wasn't over yet we knew we would have our baby on Tuesday so Monday Kyle, Kandance, Grandpa, Aunt Casey, and Aunt Lisa all met me at school to put my entire classroom together in only one day!!!! Why? Well my classroom was being used this summer by special education and this was the first opportunity I had to get in there! IT ALL GOT DONE!!! I think Kyle and I put a little to much on our plates but it all worked out.....

Now onto BABY! We left the house at 4:30 a.m. and we were in our lakeside view room but 5:30. The pitocin was started at 7:30, the doctor broke my water at 10:00, the epidural was administered by 11:00 (I will again try to see what labor is like, it hurts and epidurals rock) Then before we knew it is was time to push.
It took no time to get her out! I was told I was ready to push at 4:45 and Ella was here at 5:10! It was such a great feeling to finally meet our daughter and to finally know we had a daughter. We stayed at St. Luke's for 2 days and then we brought our sweet angel home for the very first time. We are learning a lot as new parents, losing sleep, and realizing that our hearts grow bigger every day. Ella is a great night time baby for the most part she usally sleeps 3-6 hours before her first feeding (6 hour nights ROCK) Right now since I am on maternity leave I do the feedings during the week and Kyle does the weekends, but I only have a few weeks left and then we will really have to work together so we can survive the week! Ella has captured our hearts and continued to change our lives for the better. She will be 4 weeks old tomorrow 9-9-11.

DO YOU FPU?

What is FPU, you ask, Financial Peace University, of course! Kyle and I have been spending our Sunday mornings attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes and I must say that we are both avid Dave fans these days! It is a 13 week course that informs you about family budgeting, avoiding and staying out of debt, what you should know about marketing as a consumer, what types of insurance you need, how to understand mutual funds, college planning, retirement planning, and of course building wealth and giving!  I love it! Kyle and I have weekly budget meeting where we discuss down to every last penny where our money goes and if its not in the budget then we wait until next month and plan for it or it if it's not able to work into the budget then we don't need it. It is hard to do sometimes but patience and support from each other has kept impulse buys away and one day we know that our money will work for us! My favorite Dave quote "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else!" I use this often to remind myself that while a brand new care would be awesome, that it is in fact just a vehicle to get us from point a and b and if we don't have the cash for it then we don't need it! We have started using the envelope system, if you don't know what this is our how it works then my advice to you is find a Dave Ramsey course near you and GO! Our sweet baby is not even born yet and we are looking into ways to have college paid off early and hoping to have bought and paid off a house by the time we are 40 (maybe a crazy goal, but I believe that if I work the system the system will work for me!) We are also wanting to purchase our first car in the next few years paid for in CASH 100% so for now we are patiently saving and waiting and this is all possible because we have set up an emergency fund (Dave's Baby Step #1) and are Saving 3-6 months worth of our salaries (Dave's Baby Step #2) to give us room for the times when things happen! WOW! Did I mention I really like these classes LOL!

---Baby note! I have a doctors appointment tomorrow at 4:00 for another routine check up no ultrasound this time but I do love to hear our baby's sweet heart beat! I am looking forward to wrapping up the school year and focusing all my energy on our baby sometimes I find myself wandering into the nursery to sit and rock and quietly think about who are baby is and even though everyone has their opinions about us not finding out the sex of our baby (even me at times :) it is truly wonderful to be so curious about our wonderful gift!

20 Weeks! And Wow have I been busy!

Sorry it has been so long since the last post! My sweet sister in law reminded me I needed to update more often, so Casey I hope you enjoy reading this!

First let me defend myself by saying that the TAKS test is only four weeks away and my time has been dedicated to my students. (Which might I add has been a slow process, but my sweet babies are growing and moving and I am so proud of each of them :)! Kyle and I have also been attending Financial Peace University on Sundays and spending most of our free time together working on budgets, goals, and preparing for "butter beans" future. I highly recommend this course for everybody! We have also been living life by celebrating birthdays, mourning the loss of loved ones, cherishing family moments, and praying for the save return of loved ones. So although I let my posts pass me by I promise I have not been slacking in other areas!

Spring break came and went, Kyle worked and I of course enjoyed the refreshing break and needed some time to refocus on why I loved teaching so much!  :) I did however spend the Tuesday after spring break sick at home with what I can only guess was a stomach bug...YUCK! It was awful, and because life threw me for a loop my first week back into the swing of things the house work went out the window, laundry overflowed, and birthday shopping had been postponed to the point where I became a last minute shopper!

On to baby news the real reason why you started reading this in the first place.

I have felt the baby! There really is a baby! The doctor, family and friends had all been asking the question "Have you felt the baby yet?" and "NO!" was always my answer until....I FELT IT! I was sitting at home watching t.v. over the break when all of a sudden the baby wanted to let me know it was there! I immediately reached for my phone and called Kyle to let daddy know that baby was on the move. Unfortunately Kyle is unable to feel the baby at this point and for now it is truly and mother baby moment (which is a perk for me!) We had a doctors appointment on Monday March 21st and the doctor finally did an ultrasound! Kyle was not able to be at this appointment, but I saw our baby and butter bean is perfect. The nurses are all so funny they think I am crazy for not wanting to find out the sex of our baby, but the ultrasound tech made me turn my head when she got to the thigh portion to avoid me seeing anything....It was hard to turn away, but I am glad I did because our baby will give us the best surprise when it is ready to make an appearance in the world so until then I will do better to keep those of you interested updated!

MOMMY AND BABY @ 20 Weeks

Mommy is doing great and so is baby!

Cravings: WATER, WATER, and MORE WATER, especially lemon water ( Kyle loving continues to refill my water glass whenever it is empty!), That is really the only thing that I have to have HONEST!

Mommy has gained 8 lbs so far.

Sleeping is a little uncomfortable and I am starting to feel the heat a lot.

Baby is moving and the doctor said the baby seems to have all the important pieces. 

TAKE A LOOK FOR YOURSELF

 

14 Weeks Today

Well last time I posted I had let you know that we would be going to our second doctors appointment, which was great! However, as a first time mom I had only ever seen movies and tv shows showing women going in for ultra sounds never realizing that at some appointments you do not have ultrasounds! This appointment I had a doppler placed on my belly and we got to hear the heart beat! 155 beats per minute!! WOW it sure is ticking fast! Old wives tells say that this is an indication that it is a girl, but this momma still feels that this baby might just be a boy! At 3 months pregnant I was happy to leave knowing that I had only gained 2 lbs, because the changes in my body made me feel as though I had gained like 200!

In other news...Kyle is officially a mechanical engineer! WOOHOO! He got the call this last Thursday from a company called National Oilwell Varco. The greatest part about this job is that his office is located right here in Conroe. So my husband will not have to make the dreaded drive into Houston and he will be close to me and baby! We are so excited about all the excitement in our lives right now! It is hard to believe that things could get much better than this and I thank God everyday for the wonderful plan he has for our lives.

We are honestly trying to take more pictures, but Kyle and I aren't that cute! Soon this blog will be filled with lots of wonderful and precious baby pictures! We will be going to our next doctors appointment this Tuesday (February 15) So I will fill you in soon. :)

14 Weeks

-Mom feels excellent!

-Bed time comes every night around 8:30!

-Still think pizza and pasta are yucky!

-Baby poking out more than before!!!

11 Weeks

We have our second doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon and Kyle and I are so excited to see our baby again we both feel like it has been way to long since the last time we saw butterbean! I have been really blessed throughout this pregnancy my biggest complaint was that I was exhausted the first 10 weeks, with a little nausea, but other than that it was pretty easy to endure. I have since gained a lot of my energy back which is a great feeling.   My belly is starting to poke out and with that has come some insecure feelings because my clothes are not fitting the same that they used to. Part of pregnancy I know but right now I just look a little pudgy instead of cute and pregnant! We are still wanting to wait to find out what the sex of our baby is until we meet him/her for the first time, but it is very discouraging when most stores we have looked in have either pink or blue gender neutral is defiantly not the in thing, but we really want to do it this way so we will make it work.

Mommy at 11 weeks

-Energy has returned

-Can't stand the sight or smell of pizza or even most pastas.

-Craving: Chicken Nuggets and Jello! 

-Kyle is still being really patient!