A few more Shower Pictures

I feel as though Steph went to too much work to not show off her beautiful set-up! She thought of everything...right down to the ultrasound picture of the baby on the mantle. She is too much! Thanks for everything Aunt Steph!


--- The "J" favors, too cute sugar cookies with green icing and a "J" for the little one! Everyone took one before they left, she even has a little picture frame mat for everyone to sign with a little note to the baby.








-- The boys took a shot in honor of the little one. Not that the baby will get any ideas as he or she will be waiting until they are the ripe age of 21 to drink alcohol, just like mom and dad did! :)








-- Baby Johnson was present and accounted for, not only in my belly, but on the mantle! Steph made a special spot between the fall decorations, it was kind of fun looking up and seeing the little picture!








-- As I told you, she thinks of everything! We had a cake for the baby and a cake for Klein...it was her birthday! We obviously had to get a picture to remember both celebrations! Happy Birthday Klein!









-- Last but not least...THE FOOD! It was all so delcious, she even made little green and yellow name tags so we knew what we were eating. This girl is too much I tell you!

The Johnson's Invade North Carolina

As you can tell from the title, the Johnson family (minus the doggies) packed up and flew to North Carolina for a long weekend. We had such a wonderful time and were completely spoiled by our wonderful friends.
The highlight of the trip (besides seeing all my best friends and the Kepplinger's new house) was our Surprise Baby Shower! Stephanie Diane Kepplinger completely outdid herself and surprised both of us with a lovely shower on Friday night, in honor of Baby Johnson. She had a lovely spread (complete with pigs-in-a-blanket...I stood by the plate and ate most of them, surprising huh?) and beautiful decorations. Her new home is lovely and a great place to entertain! She invited all of our good friends from college and we had a wonderful time! The baby was completely spoiled and has some beautiful new things to enjoy after he/she arrives in the world. We were given some great, soft blankets for the baby and are currently devising a plan to keep Sir Scout away from them. He is going to be oh-so-sad when he realizes they are not binkies for him and will not be taken outside to the backyard.

We had so much yummy food, drinks, catching up with friends and even a baby game! I am proud to say that mom and dad-to-be were on the winning team of "Name that Tune"! As it very well should be :) We both cannot thank everyone enough for the love and support, you all are too good to us!

We also made a trip to the old Alma Mater, Elon University. I have not been back to campus since graduation and Bj has never been. It was so neat to see all that they have done in four years and show off where I went to school and met some of my best friends. Steph, Keith, Bj and I had lunch at Sidetracks and reminisced all of our great times. It was so fun to see the circle we have taken, Steph and I met so many years ago IN LINE WAITING FOR PHOENIX CARDS, right Steph?! and it was so fun to be back where the friendship started with our husband's and the little peanut. I somehow resisted the urge to buy an Elon onesie for the little one...maybe the next trip. After the Elon visit, we were off to Storms wedding.

After our full day of touring Elon, we make the trek to Greensboro for Storms wedding extravaganza. It was so fun to see even more familiar college faces and live it up like we used to. I love getting together with my girls...even though it has been four years it is as though no time has passed. We all have so many new things going on in our lives, but it just makes it more exciting to have good friends to share it with. I had an "Ellen" moment and was just overwhelmed with the fact that we are bringing a baby into this world with so many wonderful family and friends to welcome him or her. We are so very lucky. The evening was great...Little Momma even made a trip on stage to sing (heaven help this poor baby, I am afraid I am already embarrassing the little one...from the womb!). The Cupid Shuffle was the hit of the evening, I can only imagine how cute my pregnant self looked shuffling around :) Once we got back to The Kepplinger's we hit the bed. It was the beginning of the end for the old cankles and me, I don't know why I was surprised come Monday when they still hadn't gone down! Sunday was spent lounging and enjoying our last day together.

Overall it was a wonderful trip, I only wish we had a few more days to spend together. It was so nice to bring Bj along as I love him dearly and enjoy every chance I get to show him off. Thank you again to everyone, you truly are the best friends a girl could ask for!

Missing: My Ankles

I am going to start off by saying that I am sneaking onto the computer for only a moment's time to update this blog only for my dear friends and family...as I should be on the couch with my feet up recovering from our wonderful weekend in North Carolina (more about that to come tomorrow!!!).

We got back this afternoon from visiting my wonderful college roomies and best friends in North Carolina. We had an amazing time and I can't wait to write more about it and post the pictures!!! By the time we got back this afternoon I looked down and realized that I was no longer the proud owner of any ankles...they were just gone. It looked as though my knees had taken over my legs and replaced them with tree trunks on top of sausage link toes. Nice visual, huh? Unfortunately the leg swelling earned me my first pregnant visit to the ER. Everything is a-okay, I just got home. They just wanted to make sure I didn't have any blood clots and I am know stuck on the couch with my legs up! I figured everything was fine, but the doctor ordered an ultrasound of my legs (far less exciting than the baby sneak peak ultrasound) just to make sure. He laughed at me when I said I was just an old lady with swollen pregnant legs! I must have outdone myself this weekend because my legs and lack of ankles is unlike anything I have ever seen!

But, it is back to the couch for me and I promise I will post more tomorrow evening!!

Future Music Lover

Growing up, music was a huge thing in my house. I still smile when I am in St. Louis and hear the oldies radio station as I can remember riding in my mom's Oldsmobile station wagon, listening to KLOU -- 103.3. I am sure I liked it when I was younger, but most likely not so much when I grew into my own stellar taste in music...ah, those lovely teenage years. I will also never forget riding in the car with my dad and either having to tell him the name of the band or the instruments they were playing. We may have rolled our eyes then, but now it makes me smile. Those experiences have given me the appreciation for all things music I have now. Just like in my family growing up, music is a huge part of our life now. Bj has always had a love for music and I love how passionate he gets about a song or group he loves. As much as we laugh, I love it when he pulls out the video he has from the last PHISH show and how I can tell it always brings him right back to that place. It is something so important to both of us and something I know we will pass onto the little one.

We were in Aspen over Labor Day weekend at their Snowmass Jazz Festival. It was a great time; a nice weekend and a beautiful day. We went to see Yonder, the closing act, and just really enjoyed the experience. As we were standing in the crowd waiting for the show to start, a man looked at my large belly and asked if this was the baby's first Yonder show. Bj and I looked at each other and laughed when we realized...wow, this is about the baby's sixth musical event...in the womb! The baby has been with us through a week of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Red Rocks, The Boulder Theatre, Aspen, and The Wildflower Pavilion in Lyons. I think it really put into perspective how much we enjoy seeing live music.

Last night we saw a great show at the Wildflower Pavilion in Lyons. It is one of our favorite venues (and will be baby's first music festival next summer at RockyGrass) it is right up the road and a really intimate, beautiful place to spend the evening. This was the first show we had been to since the baby has started moving (and the only one we can sit down to listen to) and it was amazing to feel the little one dancing around! Already the little one has a love of the banjo as he/she went crazy dancing when the banjo was playing. It was also really interesting to see the songs he/she didn't like! I have to throw in that the baby LOVED the two Irish tunes they played! It, of course, made me all nostalgic for the times to come when the baby is in the world and the many experiences we will enjoy as a family. It also made me realize that the baby can hear what is going on in the outside world...I think I will continue chatting and singing to the little darling!

Where are my feet?

So, I realized the other day that if I am standing up straight my feet disappear. For those of you who had the pleasure of knowing me in college, you might remember how excited I was to one day look down and not see my feet. The day has come and I love every minute of it. I much prefer the sight of my big belly...who needs to see feet anyway?

In addition to the sonogram appointment yesterday, I also had my monthly check-up with the doctor. She said everything looks great, I am measuring right where I should be. I am happy to report only a seven pound weight gain overall, she was very happy with that. She told me I could laugh in the face of all the kind people I don't know who tell me how "huge" I look. Never, ever tell a pregnant woman she looks huge, unless you know her, and you are joking. I am the only one allowed to say that I look huge (and maybe my mom and granny, as they pretty much can tell me anything!). For now though it is just growing and housing the little one. We are busy getting a few things figured out around the nursery and just enjoying each day as it comes. Here are a few new belly shots...it is getting bigger and bigger everyday!

It's a BABY!

September 19, 2008 -- Nugget "sneak peak" day!!! I knew that I would have to run home and write everything down...so I didn't forget one little thing! As you can guess, we had our sonogram today...and we are two proud and very happy parents-to-be!! You might still be able to see the stars shooting out of our eyes, we are very much in love with the little one.

Let me first say, it is very hard as a pregnant woman to fill your bladder up to the very top and then be expected to hold it for long periods of time, I can barely do that when I am not pregnant. Once I got over the initial discomfort of having a full bladder (pretty much the minute I laid down on the table and had my belly smeared up with goop) we were in a complete state of awe at the sights we were seeing. I am not even sure I can completely describe what it feels like to see YOUR baby growing and moving inside the belly. I have been able to tell from the constant kicks and jabs that this is one active little child. I may regret this later, but I love the baby for this now. It is nice to feel those movements and know everything is okay and it was so wonderful to see the baby moving all over the place in the womb, confirming my suspicions. We were completely awe-struck when we saw the little legs just moving around all over the place...they looked like little frog legs (they also looked mighty long in my opinion!!). It was amazing, I was screeching in delight screaming to Bj, "did you see that?!". I could have watched the little one for the rest of the day.

Everything looks perfect. The technician said I am dead on at 21 weeks and 5 days, so no change in the January due date. The little peanut weighs a little over one pound and has a perfect little heartbeat. We saw little legs, arms, the heart (you can see it beating...it's wild!), the spine, the kidneys, the belly (it looks huge!!) and everything looked exactly the way it should. In my opinion, the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, not that I am biased in the slightest bit. I haven't been able to stop staring at the little pictures they gave us, I wanted to tell the technician to take as many as she could! I already have the little frame all picked out and it will be the first of many in the little nursery.

For one of the first times in my life, I feel as though I am at a complete loss of words. I feel such a sense of pride, happiness, awe, and shock. I just cannot wait for this little baby to make an appearance in the world, on their due date and no earlier thank you. We still have lots to do to get ready (and nugget has lots more growing to do), but I feel confident in both of us. We are walking around with huge smiles and all is well and good in the Johnson household!


Nugget Sneak Peak 1 -- The first profile shot! You see the baby's perfect little head (containing a HUGE and extremely intelligent brain...I can already see that in the womb...amazing.), the little nose, mouth,eyes, ear, neck and body :) Perfect, wouldn't you say?!




Nugget Sneak Peak 2 -- This is a whole body profile shot. On the left side we see the head, the little arm/hand up by the face and the little legs up in the air! Don't those legs look awfully long!? We like to think that is a little wave to mom and dad...a little "hey, how are ya?! can't wait to meet you!" :)




Nugget Sneak Peak 3 -- This one is a little confusing, so here goes. The head is on the right side of the picture and half looking at us, that is the arm up by the side of the face and a full frontal view of the belly (on the left side the LARGE round object). I believe that is a straight view of the belly and a profile of the rest.

Why I love Bj!

I mean...don't worry this isn't going to be anything cheesy from the title :) I was still laughing about a conversation we had last night that just was Bj in a nutshell. His charming personality and dashing good looks are two of the things I love about it, but I also really love his sense of humor. He is just funny sometimes, some people don't get it...but I like to think I do.

We were chatting last night and I told him we needed to think about what childbirth classes we wanted to take. I cornered him and explained all of the different options we had: we could take the weekend long class consisting of 8 hours each on Saturday and Sunday or we could take the 8-week long course with 2 hours a night for 8 weeks. We need to start thinking about it so that he can plan accordingly with work. So, he looked at me (knowing full well that we will be taking one of the classes and being as happy as one would be about taking them) goes..."can't we just get the Rosetta Stone for childbirth DVD's?"

WOW! I laughed out loud and I am still laughing out loud. The best part is that Rosetta Stone probably came to mind first because we saw so many commercials for it while we were GLUED to the Olympics...so see, that is why I love him. Even though I know he would rather go anywhere else than childbirth classes, he didn't say no, he just made a funny :) I know I said I wouldn't get cheesy BUT, I do have to throw in that I also love him for telling me the other day that I looked adorable as a preggy lady...and last night when I was feeling a little self-conscious he assured me that he would love me no matter how big my tummy got because it's our baby in there. He is pretty sweet and I do think I will keep him around for quite some time.

Crazy Pregnant Lady on the Loose!

I am going to begin by saying heaven help this little child if they have inherited my emotions. To say I wear them on my sleeve would be an understatement and I don't know if the world is ready for another emotional crazy lady like myself :)

I think (for the most part) I have been pretty calm the last few months. I was a little feisty in the beginning, I think because I felt so yucky, but have pretty much grown out of that. Like I have said before I now feel like a round, happy roly poly! I will still, every once in awhile (ie: everytime I watch a sappy movie, hear anything about a baby, see someone happy, see my husband when he or I get home from work, see the dogs, etc.) get a little emotional and sentimental. I just can't help it, it's who I am :) Well, last night the emotions must have been too much for me and I just had a breakdown. I decided I wanted to make Cottage Pie for dinner (I am trying to be creative and in doing so use up all the food we have in the fridge to a) not waste and b) try and save money on groceries) we had all the ingredients and I was set. So, I made the meat, with a spoon and made the mashed taters with another spoon. Life was great, until I made the mistake of FORGETTING and ACCIDENTALLY using the meat spoon to spread the taters on top of the meat in my pie dish. I then put the cheese on top and baked the entire thing at 375* for 40 mins. I was thrilled when it came out and proceeded to eat away.

You know AFTER I finished eating I realized the mistake I had made involving the meat cooking spoon contaminating the cooked taters. I immediately burst into tears convinced I had poisoned both the baby and I with e-coli and how was the little going to handle it when they are SO SMALL!! I called Bj sobbing and snotting and made him promise me I was not a bad mom and assure me that there was no way I had given us both e-coli...all while explaining it can just be hard sometimes making sure I am doing everything I can to protect our baby. WOW! I give him a gold star for his performance because he was wonderful and assured me as many times as I needed that we were both okay.

After this, I had to get myself ready for bed and assure Sedona that I was okay (she is awfully protective of me in general and even more so when I am upset...the sweet dog). Bj called back a little later and made sure I wasn't still crying. I was laughing about it by then...it was just so funny! I could not get it out of my head that I had done something harmful and apparently it was all too much for me in that moment. I was relieved when I got in the snoogs and laid down to feel the little one dancing around in my belly. It made for a good nights sleep :)

I was telling my co-workers this story today and they said it was too funny not to blog about, as I would want to remember this in the years to come...so there it is! The crazy pregnant lady at her finest!

One Year Together

I was going through some pictures on the computer (I have been so bad about snap-fishing lately, silly work keeping me busy!) and realized I never sent out our pictures from Telluride. It brought back such a flood of emotions looking at them, seeing all that has changed since our first visit to Telluride. As you know, we got engaged in Telluride (both of our first time to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival) on top of the mountain at the St. Sophia station. I was shocked and it was the best June 14th I have ever had, just perfect. It was so nice to go back with even more wonderful news to celebrate.

We had such a great time talking on the way about all that has happened in just one year of marriage and all that we have to look forward to. It was so special to be celebrating our one year anniversary in the place we got engaged, while also celebrating that we found out about our nugget the month before! It was a beautiful week, the weather was perfect and the music was great. It was also nice to enjoy each other and our friends without any of life's everyday stresses. We stole away for a romantic dinner and reflected on our life, it was really nice. I am pretty happy he is my husband, I kind of like him.
At the end of the trip I noticed the "Nugget Theatre" and couldn't resist taking a picture as we are having a nugget of our own.

A Funny for the Day

Like I alluded to in the "Snoogle Thief" post, we dropped Scout and Sedona off at Chad's new house (Thanks Chad!) for the night while we went to Vail and Aspen last weekend. We were also given a tour of his new place. It is so nice, we can't wait to see all he plans to do to it!

Well, one of the things he has installed is a doogie door in the sliding glass door leading out to the backyard. It is one of the ones that goes right next to the sliding glass door, therefore making the original door not open quite so wide. All great and good when you don't live with a pregnant woman. I think Bj and I both realized at the same time (while I was trying to rip the door open) that it wasn't going to open any further and I was barely going to make it through. Yes, the large and in charge pregnant lady could BARELY MAKE IT THROUGH THE DOOR AND HAD TO TURN SIDEWAYS. Looks like I won't be going back outside at Chad's house until the baby comes! It was hilarious and made me really happy we had our doggie door installed in the bottom of our door or else it would be a long nine months with no going outside.

The Snoogle Thief

As I have already talked about (and most likely told you about) I LOVE my snoogle. As of right now, it is the best thing ever invented for pregnant women. I am just sad that I was not the one to think of it. I love it so much that I am bringing an extra large suitcase to visit the Kepplingers in North Carolina JUST so I can pack the snoogle and sleep in comfort. I have already warned Aunt Steph about the snoogle, though I don't think any warning is enough for the sight of me and this belly! :)
With that said...we share our house with the two cutest monster dogs. One of whom is pretty convinced that all dogs live as comfortably as he does and finds nothing wrong in cozying up with his mamma's snoogle. WRONG! I will gladly have him rest his head on it, Sedona too (Bj too!), as long as I am the one snoogled up in it. We left them for the evening and when we can came home Scout pranced upstairs and got himself all comfy and warm in my snoogle. He looked like he was the one almost five months pregnant after a hard day at work. It was pretty funny, we were laughing really hard as we took the photos. He is even posing! We thought these were too cute not to share...you also get to see the snoogle with someone much cuter than my large pregnant self in it! Bj even positioned him exactly the way I sleep in it! I will have to write more about sleep in a later post as I look pretty funny heaving myself and belly out of bed, it is getting a lot harder I tell you what. It is all worth it though, I love the site of my big belly (and our bed is the most comfortable one in all the land...thank you Denver Mattress!).

20 Weeks!

September 8, 2008 marked the beginning of my 20th week. Woo-hoo, we are half way there! We both cannot believe how fast it has gone, it seems like just yesterday we were all grins and tears...finding out for the first time. I don't know why it ever surprises me anymore how fast time flies, I am sure next year I will be writing about how I cannot believe our baby is going to be one in a few short months. Craziness!

Things are great! We are both so happy. I think Bj would agree...we would be rich if I had a dollar for every time I tell him how I excited I am for this little baby Johnson to make its way into the world.

I have been on a terror lately, tearing the house apart trying to get things organized before we switch the office to the nursery and the basement to the office/den. It has been so fun though, seeing all of the things we can use around the house in the nursery and dreaming our big dreams for the little ones first room. Bj has definitely been the sweet husband/dad-t0-be and appeasing my terrors...ie:moving all the furniture from room to room and humoring me looking at paint colors! He knows how I am though and I am pretty sure he loves me for it. We have been so fortunate and offered Blu's old crib (Thanks Angelo, Erin and Blu!) and have a bookcase and night stand handy from the guest room. We only have a dresser left to search for and the rocking chair. As all of you already know about me, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love piecing together what I can and seeing how it comes together...I don't know why I ever thought the nursery would be any different! Next up is organizing the closet...fun stuff!

We went and registered for some fun stuff over the weekend and it got us even more excited! We had NO idea there was so much fun stuff out there for baby and OH MY was Babies 'R Us a site to behold...we had never ventured in there. Aisles and aisles of stuff, it was a great store and very organized I might add.

Other than that, we are enjoying the season changing over into fall. We can't quite believe September is here, but are enjoying the cool weather. It already has me excited for fires in the fireplace! We are still working away on names...they are tough I tell you. We only have one to pick too as the middle and last name are taken. Oh well, I know we will come up with something that suites us and the little one just fine. Just a little under two weeks until the sonogram...we can't wait to see what the little one is up to! I can feel him or her moving all around in there and the belly is getting mighty big. I had someone tell me the other day that I definitely look pregnant now, and even though I may have felt big before (I know this is not the last time I will say this) I AM really big now! It amazed me going through my pictures and looking at the difference between today pictures and second trimester pictures. Crazy stuff! I have only gained three pounds thus far and feel like most of it is going to the old belly, with a little leftover for my face, of course. I can't wait to put them all together at the end and see how much I have grown. Oh, one more craving...THE OLIVE GARDEN. Not sure where it came from, but I can't get enough of the place. The soup, salad and breadsticks combo is a bit more than I can handle, I think Bj will kill me if I drag him there one more time. Oh well, it's good and cheap at least :)
I think that is about all we have, stay tuned for more. Hopefully one of these days I can get a family photo on there...we need to flag someone down in the street to take it for us!

Pink or Blue?

It has been funny the last few weeks, as I am now very evidently pregnant, more and more people have asked what we are having. To which I follow up with, "It's a surprise!" some people are shocked that we are holding back and not finding out, and others think it's pretty cool.

I have always thought that as the mother and hotel for the baby that you would automatically have the intuition and know deep down whether your baby is a boy or a girl. Right...now that I am in that position I can honestly say we have no idea. Right now we are working on 50/50 boy or girl. I am sure some people know and some people don't, I think it is great either way. It's just funny. Once we tell everyone that we are waiting for the little one's arrival to find out, they share their story with why they think one way or the other. It has been pretty interesting to hear what people think. From heartbeat counts, food cravings to mood changes. All very plausible, but still not giving us any indication one way or the other. Not that we would listen to it anyway, we are perfectly content waiting a few more months for the little one to show his or her sweet face.

The only thing about it I will say is that more than not we both say "he" a little more when referring to the baby. But, when I dream about the baby (it has been happening a lot these days and more and more with my dad in the dreams) I dream they hand her to me for the first time and say "here she is!". So, don't know what to say about that one...we are still going strong at 50/50! :)

We do love the poll though, we can't wait to take one closer to the due date and have everyone guess weight and gender, it should be fun!

Thank you Greg!

Uncle Greg was kind enough to give me this shirt and I felt as though it warranted it's own spot on the blog. I had to make sure we got a picture before I couldn't fit the belly in it anymore. The belly feels like it gets bigger and bigger everyday...the little one is certainly under construction! According to baby center, we are in for some rapid growth the next few weeks! All I have to say it watch out :)

As you can clearly see...Hotel Little Mamma is expanding daily with no vacancy! Not quite sure how the little one is going to fit come four months from now!

Thank you Uncle Greg, we love the shirt and are pretty excited about our little one growing away in there!