the arrival of Katelynn Ruth. . .

Okay - so be prepared for a lot of pictures :) - oh and a lot of talking, but this is me we are talking about when is there never a lot of talking hahah
So we had another sweet miracle on Sept 3 - Katelynn was born!! It was very exciting and the most stressful thing ever- i guess that is the trade off - i didn't have to get big and pregnant for 9 months - i just got a lot of emotional stress! - but well worth it in the end! We are just feeling very blessed in our home - anyhow here is the story for those of you who do not already know it.

Back in June sometime we got a phone call from Tiffany - a lady that ben had worked with a few years ago and three years ago we was pregnant and we were going to adopt that little girl but tiffany ended up changing her mind when it started to get closer- anyhow so this time when she called and said she was pregnant again and couldn't keep this baby - i was not very optimistic - in fact i told ben to tell her to go away and leave me alone - it just hadn't been that easiest last year for me and i just didn't want to deal with anymore emotional turmoil! anyhow luckily ben didn't listen to me :) So i thought things had been dropped until a few weeks later ben is calling me telling me he found a lawyer and that the dad was going to sign over his rights- so we paid to have that done - and the expense was minimal so i wasn't too concerned- but as things started getting closer to her due date and tiffany still on board with adoption i started to get stressed because i just didn't want to get excited just to be disappointed but on the 3rd at about 4 in the morning we got a phone call from tiffany saying that her water broke and she was at the hospital- so ben being ben was super excited and went to the hospital right then - but then had to go to work around 8
Gracie and i went over around 11 - we had stopped in to drop off a present for tiffany and while we were there she started to complain about feeling the contractions so a nurse checked her and she was dilated to a 10 anyhow so i called mom who came and got gracie and called ben and told him to leave work and come now! anyhow the delivery went really well after 2 pushed Katelynn came out- and it was really neat i was crying my eyes out- and it was super sweet because tiffanys mom was there and kept pushing me right up front saying that this was my baby and i needed to be there to see her born- which was just super sweet of her because i was so worried about over stepping my place and making tiffany feel uncomfortable - anyhow and then at 11:48 katelynn came out weighing 5 lbs and 8 oz and 17.5 in - it was just beautiful!

Well we had planned on having tiffany signing over her rights the 24 hrs later at the hospital - but it was labor day weekend and we could not get a hold of our lawyer or our social worker - that part was slightly stressful because at first the hospital told us we couldn't take her until we had a lawyer-which they were right- but after a quick phone call to my roomie Jenny who had done this a few years earlier we found out that if tiffany handed her to us in the parking lot then we didn't need a lawyer around - so that is what we ended up doing.

Tiffany and Katelynn got discharged on Monday and i have to admit it was a lot more difficult then i thought - i figured i would be super excited to have Katelynn all to ourselves instead of sharing - which is how it felt in the hospital- but watching how hard it was for tiffany to give us Katelynn broke my heart - i just felt so sad for her and so grateful for her sacrifice all at the same time - anyhow but she brought the baby to us in the parking lot and then we took her home - which was wonderful - so on tuesday we finally got a hold of people and they got the paperwork all ready and ben went with tiffany on friday to sign over her rights- which was a sigh of relief!

anyhow we have felt very blessed and so grateful for Katelynn in our home- gracie is just the sweetest big sister and is so great at helping although she tells me all the time that she doesn't do diapers :)


If you look close at this picture you can see my red eyes- from all the crying :)
First day at the hospital
Tiffany right after the delivery
Katelynn Ruth Johnson
Me and my two girls- it is fun for me to use plurals - i never got to before :)
Katelynn getting ready to come home
Last picture at the hosptial

One of our first baths

One day i was in the shower and apparently Katelynn started crying so Gracie crawled up in the crib and started rocking her- it was darling
Gracie with her sister
Us girls- & i have to say i had just gotten done working out and don't look that bad



Me and my snuggler- i call her that because she will actually curl up on my shoulder which i love because gracie never did that all and always loved watching other babies do it - so now 5 years later i get one!

birthday diva

Gracie had her birthday this last month and turned 5! She is just so grown up and such a diva! All she pretty much wanted for her birthday was clothes and not just any kind of clothes but 'rockstar' clothes- anything that is rockstar is cool to her and so i did my best and got her some rockstar clothes which of course she had to try on and demonstrate how she could be darling in them - i love all of her posing - it is just great!

getting a hug from the birthday girl!
For her birthday we took gracie and her best friend megan to chuck e cheese - they were super cute together - but i laughed because they had this ride that would take your picture on it and then some other booth that would take your picture and put it on a credit card type thing- anyhow gracie and megan both did those two things over and over and over again - i ended up with about 20 picture of each of them at the end- but oh well it was cute!


Later we went to moms and had dinner and a pinata! It was a lot of fun!

And of course a cake- which was greatly enjoyed - as demonstrated by the cake all over the face!

dance recital

Gracie had her second dance recital back in june and she did so great compared to last year! This year she walked onto stage and did most of the singing and dancing! It was just so darling to see how much she has grown up in one year! She had two dances this year - which required a costume change and she was so fun about making sure we had everything all set up and then when we were changing she kept saying 'hurry mom' but even with her hurrying we had to stop and reapply her lipstick! She is just growing up so darn cute and i love that Heavenly Father sent her to our family and lets me get to be her momma!
also as a side note- when did my hair get so long! I've had short hair for so long that when i see myself in pictures i don't recognize myself!

Preschool graduation

It is kind of funny that they do preschool graduation but being a proud mom i was still super excited and loved every minute! hahah
They all sang some songs they had learned the last little bit- and gracie actually sang and did the actions- which is just great that she is coming out of her shyness a little bit more each year!
Gracie with her teacher - Miss Julie- who she absolutely adored!
Gracie and daddy
Gracie with her best friend megan
The family
Gracie with alex & jaquel

kitchen stuff

So i know to those of you who know me - this post will be very ironic because i do not like being in the kitchen that much - but today i ACTUALLY made a lasagna and it made me think about what i utensils i like in my kitchen and since the lasagna is cooking in the oven i have time to post them- so here they are
I love this mouse hand spoon catcher thing- i have no idea what you call it - but i love it because my kitchen stove gets so less dirty and its mickeys hand- totally the best
I love this set of mixing spoons from ikea- its hard to tell but they are small- almost like for a kids play set but it is the perfect size i think - and also the set of three is only $.99 at ikea- i have three sets i love them that much
Can you tell i love ikea- my kitchen wouldn't be complete without these plastic kid dishes from ikea- i originally got them for gracie but i think the small size makes it so much easier to eat the right portion size so i pretty much only eat from them as well- AND they are colorful - it doesn't get much better!

And my kitchen wouldn't be complete without my cute apron my sister made for me a couple of christmas ago - i love feeling cute when i make dinner and not a frumpy mom- although sadly it doesn't get that much use because i usually only pull it out when i actually bake or cook dinner - not just warm up who knows what in the microwave!

anyhow these are my favorite kitchen things - what are yours?

a break in the rain

after so many rainy days gracie was desperate to go outside and play - and after staring out the window and asking me repetitively when the rain would stop - it finally stopped for about 10 minutes - and during that 10 minutes gracie ran outside with her blanket to have picnic with her friend gabe -
i loved it because if you notice the first picture she only has the blanket - and then the second picture there is quite a bit more toys - those two kids worked fast during their 10 minutes and got quite a bit of toys out and pretended to have a picnic - and then the clouds came back and the rain came down and they were frantically trying to drag all of there stuff inside! hahahah- silly kids i love them

what to do, what to do?

So my child is like any other child, i am guessing, and does not like going to timeout or listening to her mother- however, every so often she has major meltdown problems and this last week led to one that allowed me to purchase a new windshield for my brother-in-laws car- so needless to say, after that experience i have decided something must be done!
So any help or advice is nice but in the mean time i have decided to try a button jar- where she can put buttons in for the many good things that she does in order to earn something fabulous - anyhow i haven't decided if i should have her take buttons out when she doesn't listen or if i should focus on the good - anyhow so we will see how it works because really i don't want to have to be replacing any other windshields!

San Diego

Right after alex's wedding our family took off to San Diego for a visit- it was so nice and warm the first few days we were there and went to the zoo that first day- i forgot how cool that zoo is
First of all - i thought it was so funny how the giraffe drank the water - but also it was so cute i loved the baby giraffe right next to the momma - it was only 1 week old- it so little -sort of - it was 6 feet tall!
Gracie playing with her cousins- one of the best parts of going to San Diego was being able to play with the cousins!
Loved the panda!


The next morning we woke up early to go watch ben learn how to surf- gracie was all ready to go - even though i tried to warn her that the water was going to pretty cold - but she was already to go
She kept holding up her shorts so they wouldn't get wet
Ben surfing- he did so good since this was his first time!
Ahh - i love my little cutie!
A couple days later we went to Legoland- i thought it was going to be silly -but it so cool i loved it there
Everything was made from legos and gracie loved the kitty and wanted a picture with it


Our family with a few extra people - does anyone recognize the little boy and the man in the red shirt- no? well thats because they are lego people - i loved it!
They had this place where everyone could make there own race cars and then you have races with lego cars- this was my work of art
Gracies car- she was so proud of it- even though it didn't really go anywhere
The three of us at the finish line- i won - but then gracie came and plowed me over me!
I loved the bathroom signs!
Fun rides made out of big legos!
Hanging out with the old man
The last day we went to Sea World- and even though it was a little cloudy we still sat in the soak zone!
The scary shark zone!- it was cool you went through an underwater tube and the sharks swam all around us and over us- it was very cool - but since i am not that great at taking pictures none of them turned out
Another soak zone! picture
Gracie with her new whale! - and then a picture of the real killer whale!
We had such a fun trip- it was a lot of fun hanging out with the cousins and then seeing lots of fun sights! -