{thanksgiving}

Custom-made bottle holder! Ha

This Thanksgiving we drove up to Spokane to be with Garett's family. It's a grueling 12 hour drive anyway but add a baby and it's ridiculous. Thankfully the way up Anders did extremely well. But the ride home was another story....

It was good to be back in Spokane; I'll always consider it my hometown. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner with Garett's extended family up on the farm. Everything was delicious! I was super excited this year because last year I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and was really nauseous Thanksgiving Day so I ate a salad and a roll. Lame. But this year I went all out and no calorie was left behind. It was glorious.

All of Garett's siblings were there as well which as so fun. Andersen got to meet all his little cousins. We wanted to get a picture of all of the grandkids...you can image how that went with four children under the age of three. You can see some of the attempts below. We literally had three cameras going and took at least a hundred pictures but none of them worked. We had to photoshop one so everyone was happy and looking in one direction!

Playing with the cousins!

Anders was fascinated with Teagan's head the whole time!

Close-up of Anders! Whoa!

One of the many takes...

Anders 5 mos; Jayden 2 1/2 years; Teagan 1 mo; Mason 18 mos

Jayden was DONE!

This is the photoshopped one! Not too bad!

And of course we had to do a little Black Friday shopping! While I was out shopping Garett sent me this! He thinks he's so funny trying to sell my baby for so cheap! Anders is worth at least $100 : )

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{andersen's birth}

Wow it's been awhile since I've written on our blog. I have a lot of catch up to do! Let's start with the newest addition to our little family. Andersen Robert Johnson was born Friday, June 22nd at 9:25 am at the Utah Valley Regional Hospital here in Provo, UT. The whole thing was a crazy blur but I'll write as much as I can remember...

My contractions started Thursday morning. They were close together but not really intense so I decided to go to work instead of going stir crazy at home. Garett dropped me off and went to help out his uncle five minutes away just in case I needed a quick pick up. I sent an email to my bosses letting them know what was going on. They immediately came out and asked if I was insane. But I reassured them that I was fine and that Garett was only five minutes away. They just laughed and kept a close eye on me. I got through my entire shift just fine and went home. By the time I got home my contractions started slowing down. I was not happy about that because I wanted this baby to come now! So I convinced Garett to take me to the gym. Crazy I know but I had read that exercising could speed things up. And it did indeed...

After the gym my contractions definitely sped up! Thank goodness. We headed to the hospital around midnight. When we got there it was a ghost town. I think I was the only one in the maternity ward. It was awesome. Our room was pretty sweet too. It was huge! We had a flat screen TV and a jetted tub. Utah knows how to treat the laboring mother.

Yeah, I was pretty wide!

Before I knew the pain of child birth!

My plan was to have no epidural. I wanted to be able to walk around and move, plus the idea of a catheter....not pleasing to me. Another reason was pride. Haha. Those who know me know that I am competitive by nature. That being said, I had people tell me that they didn't think I could do a natural birth or that the idea was crazy. Naturally I had to prove them all wrong. To prepare for this supposedly insane quest I read up on the Bradley Method. I'd highly recommend it. I'm not a hippie or anything, which is the label most get when they talk about natural child birth; I just wanted to prove I could do something hard. And holy flip it was hard.

Glad someone was able to sleep!

I spent the night walking around the ward, watching movies and waiting. Garett spent it sleeping : ) Which is good because I needed him awake for the hard part. My mom got there around 1 AM. It was awesome to have her there too. The contractions started to become more than unpleasant around 2 AM. Between checks with the fetal monitor I took a hot bath in the jetted tub. Boy was that nice. Loved it!

My water broke around 7:30 AM Friday morning and it brought the PAIN! The methods I read up on and practiced helped so much but it was still beyond anything I imagined. But I HAD to do it! About a half hour later the nurse was doing a check and looked pretty worried. She told me that the umbilical cord was starting to come out and that if it did I would deliver the placenta before the baby. To prevent that I would need to get an emergency c-section. This freaked me out. I DID NOT want a c-section; but if it meant keeping Anders safe I would do it. The nurse (who was the most amazing nurse ever in my opinion) said she would try something. She pushed the umbilical cord back up and tried to pull the baby down because he was just floating around up there. It worked! She was my new favorite person right then.

Shortly after that I was fully dilated and was told to begin pushing. My doctor (Dr. Anderson coincidentally) showed up and 45 minutes later Garett cut the cord and I had Anders in my arms. I was so in shock I keep saying "Oh my gosh" over and over for a minute or so. I had a runner's high, you know that feeling after a hard workout or run where endorphins are being released like crazy. It was amazing seeing this little infant in our arms at last and he was so perfect. His little face was adorable. I was on cloud nine.

I'm one hot mess here!

Admiring him!

Complete shock!      

Andersen weighed 7 lb 13 oz and was 19.5 inches long. He had to spend about a week in the NICU due to some under developed lungs and a few other minor issues. It was hard seeing our little man under so many wires and monitors. He was such a trooper. All the nurses loved him and were great. It was really an awesome experience and we feel so blessed to have Andersen in our lives.

First day home!

Anders with Grandma and Grandpa Plumb

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{gettin' poochy}

I'm fattening up. Or as GGma would say "gettin' poochy". Thank goodness I'm only growing in the tummy area. I did have to come to terms with reality and buy watermelon smuggling bottoms. I bought some maternity shorts at Ross last week because all of my shorts are in Spokane. Man are they comfy! And it is nice to not have to worry about a down zipper : ) Then this week the clothing store Shade was having a store closing sale and everything was 60% off. They even had a maternity section. So I got two pairs of pant/crops (I have been living in these since I got them!), four shirts and a dress for $60. Not too shabby. I just took this picture today so it's the up-to-date photo. I'm almost 27 weeks here. The pants and striped shirt I'm wearing are from Shade.

So far pregnancy is awesome. Maybe I've been lucky. But I'm pretty much enjoying every minute of it. Andersen is super active now. I have been able to feel him moving around for awhile now but this last Tuesday Garett was finally able to feel him! I woke up at 3:30am because my muscles were sore and so I put my hands on my belly, hoping to magically make the soreness go away, and after a minute or so I felt a kick or a punch. This was the first time I ever felt it from the outside. I contemplated waking Garett up but I figured he wouldn't remember it in the morning anyway. Good thing Mr. Anders was still kicking in the morning so Garett felt him then. This whole week I think he has been saying "UTERUS PUNCH!!!!!" over and over and then repeatedly punches or kicks me. I should respond with "BABY PUNCH!!!" and punch my stomach....but that kind of parenting is most likely frowned upon these days and I would still end up being punched. Plus Andersen would probably retaliate by giving me horrendous stretch marks. That is my one true fear about pregnancy (aside from complications or stuff like that). They say that there is no real way to prevent them. But I'll be darned if I don't try. I put this special collagen/elastin lotion on everyday morning and night, I drink a lot of water and I am gentle with my chest and belly skin. I also have vitamin E oil that I used to put on my knee surgery scars to help them fade. So if a mark does pop up it will be drowned in vitamin E! We shall see if any of this does anything. Like I said I have to try so I can say I put up a good fight : )

I think that pregnancy has been the best motivation to stay/get fit. I am determined to exercise regularly and eat healthier food. So far I've been pretty good. I haven't had any real cravings yet, no weird food combinations sound good to me (my old roommate Krista says that is because I already eat weird food...excuse me but my whole wheat macaroni, relish and red onion salad is not weird....it's delicious!). I have also found that the days I exercise I have more energy and motivation to actually do things. So I shall continue to exercise, modifying it as I expand : ) I went swimming today. That was fun and funny. Funny because I've outgrown my swimsuits so I had to wear a sport tank top and spandex. Oh well. The pool felt really good, my body appreciated it. I just like being in the water; it's a good feeling.

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{valentine's day}

Garett took the reins on this one and was in charge of the plans for the evening. We both got dressed up and went to.......Texas Roadhouse! My honey knows me well. We did the call ahead seating around 4pm and got our name on the list. They said it would be about a 75 minute wait, which was fine because it was the one up in Lehi. We couldn't even get through to the one in Provo the lines were so busy. So I finished getting ready and we left the house around 5pm and drove the 20 minutes to Lehi. When we walked in it was so packed! People were everywhere, inside and outside. It took us a couple of minutes to push our way to the check-in desk and when we checked in they said it would be about five to fifteen minutes. It turned out to be less and we were in our seats within five minutes of walking in. Perfect timing! Then as we are sitting in awe of our good luck the waitress tells us about the Valentine's Day special. It had us hook, line and sinker. We shared a blooming onion and a half rack of ribs for an appetizer, then we were served our salads. Oh! and we also chowed down on a couple baskets of their amazing rolls! Then our meals come out and I'm thinking "holy moly I already ate two meals worth of food!" We both got the BBQ chicken and ribs combo, me with a side of chili and Garett with a side of loaded mashed potatoes. We both had a few bites and were done. But that means leftovers today!!!! We have a half rack of ribs, two chicken breasts, potatoes, chili, the other half of the blooming onion and a couple of rolls to feed us tonight! Hallelujah!

While we were waiting for our food Garett and I exchanged gifts. Both were kind of homemade so we spent a lot of time at Hobby Lobby (my new favorite store). It was a challenge working on these gifts when we live in limited square footage. He worked in the kitchen and I worked in the bedroom. It was pretty hilarious. If he wanted to come into the bedroom he'd wander around with his eyes closed and me shouting "No looking!!!". We also have limited supplies like scissors, tape and glue, so we were constantly meeting in the hall to hand them off to each other. But all of the secrecy was worth it. All afternoon Garett was all grins and kept saying how proud he was of his gift, making me more and more curious! He apparently used all of his creative juices on this one. And it was super creative! He bought a frame and letters on sale at Hobby Lobby, took some scrapbook paper and a couple of our wedding photos and made the beautiful creation you see here.

My gift was homemade as well. We had downloaded all of our texts into Excel awhile ago. And I finally ordered some wedding pictures last month. So I decided to make a scrapbook of our texts and wedding pictures. He really liked it! I took a picture of a couple of the pages. Because it was so hard to work on this with him home all the time I only was able to get two month's worth of texts done. This will definitely be a project that I keep working on....which I can now work on in the open since it is no longer a surprise!

After dinner I was so incredibly full. This baby is squishing my stomach! We decided to actually take a baby bump picture......finally. So this is me at 20 weeks.....mind you, some of that belly may be a food baby : )

Two hours after dinner I could finally eat some of the chocolates Garett got me. They are my favorite! They are the dark chocolate blueberry acia and the dark chocolate pomegranate ones from Costco. So delicious! Thank goodness for the gym because I have eaten a lot. 

I have spent most of my teenage/adult life wanting to see the number on the scale go down. What woman doesn't?! But now it is hard switching my brain to realize that it is okay for the scale to go up a pound or two now and then....as long as I keep the weight gain to the belly region haha. 

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{first ultrasound}

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound! Our doctor is Dr. Anderson in Payson, UT. He's a really awesome guy....he had me laughing out loud a few times during the appointment. Right before he gelled me up for the ultrasound he waves his hand in front of me and says "This was the first ultrasound....and it was even digital." Bawhaha....I thought it was pretty funny. Then he started probing around my belly; that was crazy. I could see an actual baby! I don't know what I was expecting to see...but it was so developed; the doctor didn't need to point everything out because I could tell what most of it was.

We first saw the profile of the baby. Dr. Anderson was trying to get a "cute baby face picture" but the baby's hands were in the way; Anderson said that it must be a boy because it was picking it's nose the whole time. Haha. He said that's how you can tell the difference between a boy and a girl.....boy, I've had it wrong this whole time.... ; ) Then randomly he said "Man that'll prove to be expensive!"; I'm thinking crap what's wrong and he points out a big black void in the baby.....the stomach. Apparently our baby has a pretty big stomach; Anderson compared it to a black hole haha. It makes sense since both Garett and I have endless vortexes for stomachs. I am pretty sure our biggest expense in this life will be the grocery bill.

After we saw the stomach he showed us the heart! That little thing was beating up a storm! It was amazing to see. Then we continued down the body and he froze the image and turned to me and said "Now I'm going to use some pretty heavy anatomical terms here so bear with me." He turns to the picture (the same one that is below) and pointed to the top and said "This is the right knee" then to the bottom and said "This is the left knee" and finally to the middle and said "And this is the weenie." He said that there is no doubt as to what gender this baby is! So we are having a BOY!

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