Gracie is here!

It was an adventure getting Gracie here!  It was not the easiest pregnancy.  A few weeks before she was born I developed a good sized blood clot in my leg and was put on blood thinners.  It was extremely painful and I was so ready to be done with the pregnancy.  One thing that always brought a smile to my face was looking at her closet and dresser.  We were so spoiled by the ladies at church that gave me a beautiful baby shower, and by Clark's co-workers.  Gracie officially has more clothes and shoes than anyone else in the family.

On October 8th, early in the morning Clark and I headed to the hospital after a night of no sleep and consistent contractions.  After 12 hours of labor I was given drugs to stop the labor because the doctor on call did not want to do my c-section after finding out about my existing complications and issues.  I was so disappointed to walk out of the hospital with empty arms.  On our way home Clark noticed there were several fires sparking along the highway and jumped out with our trusty blanket to help put them out (several others joined in right away) and stopped a tragedy from occurring.  I stayed in the car and called 911.  After that we picked up our boys from a friend's house and learned that Ethan had passed out at a Primary activity (2 Oreos was not the breakfast of champions).  Caden was ticked that he had missed his final soccer game and that we came home without his baby sister.  The one good thing that came from all that was that my mom changed her plane ticket and flew into Colorado Springs the next night.  I met with my doctor on Monday and had developed high blood pressure and few other problems so he scheduled my c-section the next morning...instead of making me wait until the 17th when I was originally scheduled.  I'd never been more excited for a surgery in all my life!

The night before we painted pumpkins and made sure to paint a little one for baby sister.

On our way to the hospital on Tuesday there was a gorgeous pink sunrise.  We took it as a good sign that we really were going to meet our baby girl that morning.

After a long and complicated surgery, our little miracle was born at 10:02 am weighing in at 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long.  We were all in love immediately!  Gracie Mae Johnson was named after her great grandmother and great-great grandma.

The proud big brothers got to come meet her that night with Grammy Tammy!  They brought her the little dog that they had picked out for her.

This was their first glimpse of their little sister.  I love those smiles!

From minute one she already had her Dad wrapped around her little finger.

The boys spotted a double rainbow at our house on their way to come meet Gracie for the first time.

We stayed in the hospital until Friday.  We were both ready to break out of there.  While we were there she got a reputation among the nurses for being "hangry."  It was hard to keep our little 9 pounder full and when it was time to eat she turned into a little gremlin.  I loved the sleepy, sweet baby snuggles in the hospital.

Little Diva

All dressed up and ready to go home.

We think she likes it here!  We are so glad for the little piece of heaven we got to bring into our home!