Leaving the hospital

I think things went as smooth as possible. We got to the hospital about 7 am and they started the patocin (spelling?) and began monitoring my contractions. It was a little slow going, but around 12:30 I received my epidural and life was good! The doctor came in to check on me at 3:50 and quickly got ready. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes and Mallory was born at 4:08. It was that easy. I'm very blessed and the doctor even said I was meant to birth babies! Ha! Dont' get any ideas because we're not planning to have another one for awhile! :) One other funny story about my doctor. He kept saying I looked familiar and wondered if we went to AUMC with him. I kept telling him, no we go to St. Michael's. He then asked, do y'all go to Auburn baseball games. We informed him that yes, we go to about every single one. It's pretty bad when my doctor recognizes us from attending so many baseball games!

About to leave the hospital with my babies! Love these critters!!!!

Two of our nurses go to church with us and they must have asked 10 times if folks from the church had come by to put the sign up. What a sweet sign! Love it!

My sweet mom had seen these wreaths in Birmingham, but none of the stores around Auburn carried them. So, she got online and found a store in Selma that sold them and she bought us one. How pretty! Thanks Mama Sims!

It's a Girl!!!!

Alright, I'm going to have to get used to this pink, frilly stuff, because I gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Mallory Sims Johnson at 4:08 pm today. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Right now we think she looks like the girl version of Luke.

Luke telling me bye and holding my hand right before Mallory was born. We later found out he wasn't supposed to be back in the labor and delivery room with us. Oh well! What a sweet picture!

This picture does NOT portray an accurate description of what was going on at the time. I had just been wheeled down to a regular room and I was freezing cold and exhausted. Luke was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. I was getting a tad frustrated and really wanted my parents to take him back to our house since it was way past his bed time. I had briefly mentioned to mom that I wanted a picture, but we were waiting on Mallory to get out of the nursery from her bath. Finally, the nurses brought her back to us and we snapped this picture and I think it turned out beautiful. Even Mallory looks content!

We love you sweet girl!!!!

Ready to meet Newbie!!!!

Since I'm getting a tad uncomfortable being pregnant (of course I don't have it near as bad as those poor women who are expecting babies in late August) and can't sleep, I'm ready to meet this sweet angel. We did not find out the sex so I'm eager to learn more about newbie! I think it's another boy, but Tim thinks it might be a girl. We shall see. When we ask Luke if he thinks it's a boy or a girl, he just repeats boy or girl. If you believe old wives' tales, I'm carrying low and the heartbeat has been low. I feel about the same as I did with Luke, except that I crave fruit and sweets as opposed to meat and potatoes.
At 39 weeks, I went to see the doctor and he asked if I wanted things to progress naturally or if I wanted to be induced. Since I've been having contractions off and on, I was ready to be induced. Plus, it will help us get family here to help watch Luke while we go to the hospital. We had some friends on standby here in Auburn, but we really didn't want to call them at midnight to come keep Luke. Here was the only catch with being induced, my doctor wasn't on call for another week. I really didn't want to wait another week, so he called Dr. Harris (whom I've seen this pregnancy) who was on call the next day and he said he'd be glad to induce me. Hooray, we'll meet our baby boy or girl tomorrow! Can't wait!

Big Boy Room

Well, we've been putting off moving Luke from the nursery to his "big boy room" partly because we were waiting on the furniture to arrive and then we had to put it together. But also because it means our baby Luke is growing up. Our nursery is on the same level as our master bedroom so moving Luke means he will be going upstairs. I know he will adjust great, it will be harder on us than him. We wanted to get him used to sleeping in his new room before the baby comes. Apirl 18th was his first night to sleep upstairs and was a champ. Matter of fact, I think he sleeps better up there than he did in the nursery. I had heard that if you make a big deal about the new room, the child will be excited too. And he loves his new digs. Thanks dad for putting together the bunk beds and dresser and dealing with those pesky curtains. Luke thorougly enjoyed helping with the screwdriver and hammer. Check it out....

We had to have an Auburn corner! War Eagle!

Braves game!

One of Tim's coworkers bought a Braves package which included several Braves tickets. On a whim, we decided to take in a Sunday afternon game with Michael. It was such an easy trip from Auburn and although it was hot, we had a blast. Tim wanted to call one of those golf cart people to give me a ride so that I didn't have to walk so much. But, even though I'm 8 months pregnant, I feel really good and decided I could handle walking. It was probably all the dippin dot ice cream I ate at the game. Luke kept saying Auburn baseball game, thinking we were at a game in Plainsman Park. We had to keep explaining to him, that no there are other teams besides Auburn, and this was a Braves game. He had fun taking in the sights. Right before we left, Tim bought him a Braves baseball which he loves. Look at that smile in the picture. Priceless!

Easter and A-Day Game

If the A-Day Game is any indication of how football/tailgate season is going to be this fall, we're going to have sooo much fun! Luke loved running around the tailgate spot and eating all the yummy food, especially the brownies. He and Parker played so well together and looked adorable in their matching #1 football jerseys. No, we didn't plan that either! :) As you can imagine, Luke is all boy and loves anything sports related. He loves chasing balls, playing hockey, swinging his golf club and baseball bat and running the bases. He wears me out with all of his sports!

Look how pretty the azealas were around campus! They were taller than I was!

We also recently celebrated Easter. We went to the lake on Friday night and spent the weekend with the Sims clan. We took a boat ride and enjoyed spending time with my parents, Mark, Madeline and my cousin Katrina who is living in Columbus, GA. We woke up early Sunday morning so Luke could check out what the Easter bunny brought him. We went to Easter Sunday mass with my family and then headed to Clanton to eat lunch with Tim's dad and sisters. I'm sad that I don't have any pictures with my family from our time with them at the lake. But these pictures were taken at Paw Paw's house. Notice all the cousins about to take off for the massive egg hunt! So much fun! Luke was able to actually hunt eggs this year and was super excited to find an egg. He would get distracted and become more interested in finding out what candy was in the egg.

Snow in Auburn!!!

I cannot believe we've gotten snow in Auburn the past three years...even if it was just a dusting in 2008! Yes, my cousins in Minneapolis would be laughing hysterically at us getting excited at 3 inches of snow, but it's no small feat for the deep south! We drove around campus and enjoyed watching the students playing in the snow. If only it had snowed while we were students. The above picture is our tailgate spot. We'll have to remember that when we're sweating to death for the first tailgate in September!

Luke enjoyed the snow in small increments. Poor thing, he got cold and wet and could only stand it for so long. But he did enjoy building a snowman, complete with one of his pacifiers that he just gave up! Yea for no more pacifiers! Tim even built Luke a snow fort which was destroyed by Dansby a short while later. Gigi came down to experience the snow with us. She made her "famous" snow ice cream! We had a blast! What is it about snow that makes us all feel like kids again?

A blog post - hooray!

So much has happened since I've last blogged, so I'll try to get everyone up to speed. Going all the way back to January, we celebrated Luke's 2nd birthday. We had friends and family over to our house for lunch and then headed to the firestation! The firemen gave us a tour of the station and even let us hop up on the truck!

Then, everyone came back to our house to help Luke open presents and eat cake.

As if that wasn't enough in one day, we squeezed in an Auburn/Kentucky basketball game. Although Auburn gave the Wildcats a close game, we ended up losing. We did see Ashley Judd though. Pretty cool!

Happy New Year from the Outback Bowl!

Tim and I were fortunate to take a trip to Tampa to ring in the New Year and watch Auburn play in the Outback bowl. With a second baby on the way in May we know this is probably the last trip we will take by ourselves for awhile. Paw Paw graciously watched Luke while we traveled. We had so much fun meeting up with Walt and Cat. These pictures are from the parade through Tampa's Ybor City. Auburn and Northwestern's band played and there were tons of floats tossing out candy and beads. We rang in the New Year with Mike and Debbie in downtown Tampa. We also walked on the beach. Can you believe we were able to put our toes in the water in January? The temps were in the mid 70s. However, notice our gear in the next picture. Yes, the weather was less than cooperative during the game. It was chilly and rained intermittently throughout the game. No fun! But, thankfully Auburn won the game (of course, it only took three times) and it was well worth it!

Tampa was a fun city for a bowl game. We felt like the bowl game was the "big" event in the city for the day. We've been to Orlanda and it seems like the bowl game gets lost in the city with Disney World and other events happening in the city.

Loooong time no blog

Well, I've successfully managed to let the blog go unattended for several months. It's not that there hasn't been anything going on to write about. In fact, we've been sooo busy that I cannot find time to write. But, today as Tim is out golfing and Luke is napping, I actually have some time to blog. Ok, here goes, the BIGGEST news from the Johnson household is that we are expanding! Hooray for another baby! I'm due in late May and so far the pregnancy is going smooth and the baby seems healthy. We did not find out the sex at our ultrasound so we will all be surprised come late May. We did found out with Luke and I wanted to be surprised for this baby. Tim went along, although at the end of the ultrasound, Tim asked the tech is she knew the sex and she said she did know. There was a split second of wanting to know, but I'm glad we stuck to our guns and didn't find out.

Luke is talking so much right now. It is so cute to hear him say new words and put simple phrases together. He is becoming such a big boy. While he does get a little "testy" at times (think terrible two's), he is still a sweet, laid back child. We are blessed! He is really into sports...loves football and basketball. He will even get a three point stance and wait for us to say, "down, set, hut" and will start running with a football. He loves going to Auburn basketball games. If only, all Auburn fans could be as excited about attending games as Luke. He loves going down to see Aubie. He's still a little bit afraid of him, but gets tickled at him from afar. Luke is loving Elmo and Handy Manny. Thank God for the portable DVD player that is in my car to keep him entertained to and from school in LaGrange!

Here are some updates from the end of 2009:
This is embarrasing, but going all the way back to October we had a great Halloween season! I was able to meet up with some of the moms from the area and we took our kiddos to a pumpkin patch and petting farm. Luke loved the animals. This year Luke dressed up as a dinosaur/dragon...still not sure exactly what his costume was! Luke had a parade of costumes at his school and then we went trick or treating in downtown Auburn. We also hit up a few houses door to door so he could experience "real" trick or treating! :)

November
Football and tailgate season was winding down, but we did have everyone in town for the Iron Bowl. Although Auburn lost in the last few minutes of the game, we had a fun time with friends and family. Since the Iron Bowl was the Friday after Thanksgiving, we had my family come to Auburn to celebrate turkey day. I actually did the majority of the cooking (with some help from Mom) which was really fun. Heck, I even did the bird! We made a quick trip to Clanton for Thanksgiving lunch with Tim's family. As always, it's hectic, but so great to spend time with family. Another large milestone for us in November was Luke's first haircut. If you know me, I put off getting Luke's haircut as long as I could. I wanted him to still look like a little one and not a little man. However, after putting a baseball cap on him and seeing that he had a mullet, I knew it was time for a trim. So I took him to a lady in LaGrange that cuts hair on children and she did a fabulous job and was so good with Luke.

Before

During / After - God Bless that sucker for keeping him happy

December
Tim and I celebrated our 5th (yes, time flies) wedding anniversary. We went to dinner at Warehouse Bistro and went to see The Blindside. This was the first movie we have seen at the theatre since before Luke was born. We had fun decorating our house for Christmas and madly bought gifts for everyone. The Sims clan spent the holiday with us here in Auburn. It was soo nice not to have to travel two separate places to see family! Luke's BIG gift was a cozy coupe car. However, the gift he has played with the most is an $8 over the door knob basketball goal. He is obsessed! If we only knew that would have kept him entertained so long!

Woo Hoo and a visit to see Aunt Madeline

I successfully defended my thesis and now have my Ed Specialist degree from Auburn! Yeah! It was very intense and nerve wracking, but I survived! No, I don't have any desire to go back for my PhD. I just want to enjoy time with my sweet family!

A week after I finished my school work, we took a trip to Jacksonville, FL to visit my sister, aka Aunt Madeline. We had a wonderful time! We drove through the night and arrived at about 1 am. We worried Luke would get restless in the car so we planned our drive at night, knowing he would sleep most of the way...which he did! We took a trip to the zoo and Luke loved the animals and the train ride. Fun times. We also went to the beach. This beach experience was much better than our previous attempts. We took Luke to the beach in April and he wasn't walking and hated the sand. This time around, he was all over the place and loved digging in the sand. He also loved splashing in the water with dad! I think we will have many more beach trips in our future.

This last picture was taken on the river front near downtown Jacksonville. Apparently, there was a Star Wars Exhibit and we ran into these paratroopers. Needless to say, Luke was scared to death of them!

Fun times at the 4th party

Oh, how I love the 4th of July! Even better, we have an annual party for friends to come watch the fireworks which shoot off at the park at the bottom of our subdivision. We can literally see the show from our front lawn! Fun times. Here are some photos of the festivities. Can't wait til next year's party!