Meet Our Girl

Chelsea Renee Johnson was born June 25, 2010 at 10:47 am. She weighed 7lbs. 12 oz. and is 19 inches long. We are so in love with our daughter! More pics and a birth story coming soon.

Our baby girl.

Love that gassy smile!



Sweet footie.





And she has a set of lungs!



Cuddles from Daddy.

So in love.

Father's Day

Our Father's Day was pretty laid back. We didn't have much planned because we had planned on being in the hospital (grrr). Oh, well. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather and had a fun day.

We love this man!

We didn't have much food at the house and since I'm not the cook around these parts right now, 'The Boy' and I took Daddy to IHOP for breakfast.

And in the way of pictures, this is the best we could do.

Later that afternoon, Gigi, Pop, and Uncle Mikey came by for a little BBQ. Our poor Daddy had to do almost everything. He went to the grocery store, cooked the food and did the dishes. I owe ya, babe!

The master of the grill!

Hot dogs, lemon pepper chicken and corn...yummy!


Our Daddy and Pop getting ready to open gifts.

Have I mentioned that we loved this man?

'The Boy' helped Pop with his gift.

Pop showing off his home made card from Mikey. I think this is supposed to be a donkey. I did even better by getting Pop birthday cards instead of Father's Day cards. I need to not be pregnant anymore.

'The Boy' and Uncle Mikey.

Sharing a cookie.


Daddy in his new hat.

We love you Dad's and hope you had a great day!

Big Brother's Day Out

This past weekend was our last as a family of three. As over this pregnancy as I am, it is still hard for me to believe that we will be a family of four by the end of the week. We have been doing our best to prepare 'The Boy' for his new role as 'Big Brother' and wanted to treat him to a special outing with just Mommy and Daddy before he reports for duty on Friday.

We started with a quick lunch of chicken nuggets (a major favorite) from "Uncle Donald's" (actually, we had to do drive-thru and eat on the way because we were running late). Then, we treated him to his very first movie at the theater! We saw Toy Story 3 and we all loved it. Then we went shopping with Daddy (he needed a new suit) and played on the playground. We also had our ritual pretzels and lemonade which we get every trip to the mall. In fact, he asked, "where's my pretzels?" It was a fun day and so nice to be together as a family of three :).

On our way to "Uncle Donald's".

We listened to his favorite track the whole time we were in the car. That would be #4...Poker Face.

We got to the movie theater just in time for the lights to go out. He was a little scared for a bit and hid under his "Buh-Buh's".

It didn't take him that long to peek out and start watching the movie.

We let him ride in the rental car while we shopped at the mall. I am pretty sure that this is the best $5 I ever spend there. It keeps him occupied forever. I only do it occasionally when I forget the stroller.

He loves to push the elevator buttons so he got to press them every time.

We also let him ride the cheesy merry-go-round. Well, he sat on it and Daddy pushed it around a few times.

We love you, Bud and we know that you are going to be the best Big Brother!

My Daddy

Of all of the days in the year, the day I miss my Daddy the most is on Father's Day. I miss him every day but, today especially. On Father's Day, I am heartbroken beyond anything that he is gone. I am devastated that I cannot simply hear his voice or see his smile. I would give anything to be able to pick up the phone and hear his voice on the other end.

It's ironic that this is day I miss him most. I hardly ever spent a Father's Day with him in my adult life. He was either away on vacation or I was working and we'd just celebrate later. If only I had known how short life truly is.
It is hard for me to carry on and celebrate this day for my husband and step-dad, both wonderful dad's. I want to make the day special for them without being sad. So, this morning, I gave myself a little time alone to cry and remember my Daddy.

I went through a bunch of pictures to add to this post but decided to put up just a few of us- my Dad, my brother, 'The Boy', and I. I came across this one in a folder within a folder. I had never seen it before. We are at his house in Irvine and we had just finished watching the Superbowl. 'The Boy' was 16 months old and hadn't even had his first haircut yet. That's my brother, Michael, sitting in my Dad's wheelchair eating dessert. This is the last photo I ever took with him. Even though seeing this caused a moment of uncontrollable sobbing, I am so glad that I found it.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you, forever.

39 Weeks

Just one week left! I can't even explain all of the emotions I am feeling right now. I really thought she would be here already but, not only does my body not handle 9 months of pregnancy very well, it isn't cut out for delivering an eight pound baby either. That's right. Eight pounds! Lets back up a bit...

Tuesday afternoon, I was having lunch at Red Robin with my mom and 'The Boy'. As soon as our food arrived, I had an intense back contraction. A few minutes later, I had another. Just for kicks, I asked my mom to time them. They were consistently 10 minutes apart for about an hour and a half. 'Holy crap', I thought, 'I'm in labor...at Red Robin'. So what's a girl to do? Go to Michael's and shop for crafts, of course.

The contractions continued though inconsistently and my mom thought we should head to the hospital but I told her they weren't close enough and that I wanted to go home and lay down for a bit. 'The Hubs' came home and I decided to take a nap. When I woke up, nothing. We went for a walk and...nothing. I went to bed, slept the whole night through, woke up and...nothing. Stupid false labor!

Wednesday night, I woke form a sound sleep to go to the bathroom and had a pretty good sized contraction. I decided to go back to sleep considering what had happened the day before. About fifteen minutes later, I had another one. Then I fell asleep for the rest of the night, woke up and...nothing!

My appointment with Dr. D. was Thursday afternoon. I was so sure that all of those false contractions would have moved things along at least. Nothing! Well not nothing. I dilated another half of a centimeter. But in my pregnant mind that pretty much equates to nothing. So I am dilated 1 1/2 centimeters, 50 % effaced, and my cervix is unfavorably high.

She asked me if I wanted any help to get things moving along to which I said, "Of course!" For the past few weeks we had discussed inducing on the 18th, which was the following day. I was so hoping to walk out of that office with my papers and go home to get ready to go to the hospital in the morning.

Dr. D. did an ultrasound to determine position and make sure that my fluid level was still good. This is where things went bad. She is face up, just like 'The Boy'. My heart sank. I knew that there was no way she would induce with my cervix high and her facing the wrong way. I didn't want her to at that point anyway. Pushing for two hours again doesn't fit into my birth plan.

'The Baby' was given an eviction date and I left the office sobbing. She has exactly 6 days to sort her self out in there. I have one more appointment this coming Wednesday morning. Chelsea, if you and my uterus can't figure this out in the next few days, I will see you on Friday. And if you don't like the fact that we are evicting you form your cozy home, I will see you Saturday...end of story!

Soakin' Up the Sun

Last weekend was hot and we spent most of it shopping and preparing for 'The Baby' who has yet to make her appearance. I was at Target, picking up a few last minute things, and I saw a mob down the outdoor toy aisle. Of course, I flipped because we hadn't bought any of our summer toys yet and I knew if I didn't snatch some up, they'd be gone before I had another chance to get any. I bought some fun stuff to take to beach and a sprinkler for the backyard.


Of course, 'The Boy' saw the sprinkler and begged to play with it all week long. Our neighbors were doing construction in their backyard this week so I told him he'd have to wait for the weekend.

The day started out gloomy but, right after lunch, the skies cleared and it was perfect weather to play outside. It took 'The Boy' a while to warm up to the idea of running through cold water but eventually he did it and had a blast. Here's to a summer filled with outside fun!

Daddy, setting things up.

Our new sprinkler.

Someone decided that he'd rather mow the lawn.

The water was cold and he wasn't so sure of the sprinkler so he pushed his big wheel around for a bit.


Finally warming up.

He brought all of his outside toys over to the sprinkler for a "car wash".

The car wash.

Taking a bike ride.

Yay! He finally started playing with the sprinkler about a half an hour later.

38 Weeks

"I'm a planet." -Juno

Pooliside at Pala

Gigi and Pop (my mom and step-dad) were staying at Pala Resort for the night and invited 'The Boy' and I to hang out in a cabana by the pool the next day. Of course, we could not pass it up. The pool at the resort is a very relaxing area and the cabana is set up with couches and a TV which is great with kids.

The pool view from our cabana.

Someone was very excited and not willing to wait for his sunscreen to dry.

He went in with Pop and freaked out for a minute. Then he jumped back out. He wanted his Mommy to take him swimming. I think it's time to start those swimming lessons again.

Swimming with Mommy. We sang songs and twirled around before I let him go on his own. He was fine when he realized he had his life jacket on. A little bit later, he even asked to take it off.

Floating around with Pop.

Gigi, getting ready for a swim.

Someone wasn't too happy to get out. We swam for hours!

Enjoying our delicious lunch. 'The Boy', helping me with the condiments. I ate the yummiest crab cake sandwich.


'The Boy' insisted on dressing his hot dog by himself.

His masterpiece. He ate about a quarter of it and it was the quarter that didn't have the pool of mustard on it.

We swam for another couple of hours. It feels so nice to be in the pool. I don't feel pregnant at all until I try to swim for more than a lap. 'The Boy' loves to be in the pool and we don't really have access to one at home (aside form the kiddie pool). We had an extremely fun day.

Napping. Wouldn't you after hours in the sun?

Thank you Gigi and Pop! You can invite us back anytime.