Pink and Ruffles!

We waited a long time for this "best sister ever!"  Caden wanted to take a special picture of his new sister to show his class, so he made this little sign for her and we did a little photo shoot.

She didn't seem to mind the princess treatment.

That first week at home was spent with lots of baby cuddles, and playing dress up with our little doll.

What are you dreaming about sweet Gracie?

The best type of multi-tasking.

Quinn called her the cinnamon bear when we put her in this outfit from Aunt Kelly and family.

All dressed up for her first BYU game.

Grammy set up a fun tailgate party for the BYU vs. BSU football game.

Sweet little dress made by Aunt Erica

Already smirking at mom.  Maybe the ruffles and glitter were a little much for her dr appointment.

My night was made when Clark came home from work carrying yards of pink tulle. One of his co-workers had given Gracie this cute little Minnie Mouse outfit and we had to try it on right away!

She was not amused.

We love our best sister ever!

One Week Old Photo Comparisons

Even though I no longer have the blue bouncy seat, I still wanted to re-create the 1 week photo with Gracie that I had taken with each of my boys.  She definitely belongs to us and looks like her brothers.

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!

Fall Sports

Ethan chose to play basketball this fall.  He's been on a team with his friends Ryan and Grant.  He is a lot more aggressive this season, especially on defense.  He has a sweet jump move on defense that looks like a kangaroo.

Caden chose to play soccer and had an awesome team.  They were really good.  Caden was also a lot more confident and aggressive this season.  He scored 2 goals one game.  He gets really competitive and really into the game.  One day it appeared he was trying to use his arms when he was across the field from the ball to change the direction of the ball.  We asked him about it after the game and found out that indeed yes, he was trying to use the force.  Jedi soccer!

Pumpkin Patch

Fun day at the Pumpkin Patch before our little pumpkin joined the family!  It was a beautiful 90 degree fall day.

Caden had a piece of corn stuck in his ear from the corn pool.

Ethan with his buddy Grant

One of these pumpkin bellies is not like the other

Life of a First Grader

Caden is one in a million.  He's always making us say things like "only Caden."  For example, last week he somehow got inexplicably knotted into his seat belt while sitting in his booster seat.  By the time I climbed back there to see what was going on he had pretty much created a noose that kept getting tighter and tighter around his waist.  I had two friends climb back and try to help, at one point they lifted Caden off the seat in his booster to see if taking the pressure off of him would allow the seat belt to release.  It didn't, he let out a blood curdling scream and started to cry hysterically.  At this point I ran into another friend's house screaming that I needed scissors or a knife.  We got him out just in time with only a seat belt burn all around his waist and a $200 trip to the dealer to get the belt replaced.

In Septemeber Caden came home with the handwriting bear, an award for the student with the best writing of the day.  He was so excited to have the bear, but also acting really funny about it.  He told me I couldn't see his certificate.  By the time we got home from piano he came to me in tears and showed me the certificate.  We don't know how it happened, but the teacher's aide read Caden and presented him the bear when clearly the certificate and award for the day was for Connor.  He felt bad he had taken Connor's turn to take the bear home.  I texted his teacher and let her know what happened.  She was so embarrassed, she told him to just enjoy the bear because he always has good writing anyway.  She then awarded Caden the bear the following week, and this time it was for real!

I'm loving Caden's toothless grin this year!  It has been a little problematic with his speech.  This is a conversation I had with his teacher about that.

Proudest night of his life to share his art talent at the ward talent show!

Only Caden!  He is also the sweetest little boy I know.  He was so excited to every time we went to the store to look at baby girl shoes for Gracie before she was born.  He tried to convince me to buy some gold sparkle shoes by saying, "she is going to be the shining star in our family, she needs these shoes!"  I finally let him pick her out a pair and he went with pink glitter.

While I was pregnant I had a vein in my leg and a blood clot that looked really scary.  One morning before school Caden was sitting on a stool eye level with my leg.  He said, "your leg looks beautiful today mom."  I laughed and said, "you mean scary!"  He said, "that's what I was thinking but I knew I'd get in trouble if I said that."  I makes me wonder what he is really thinking when he hugs me and says, "you look pretty Mom."

A few days ago he was telling me about some drama on the playground among the little girls that he plays with at recess.  I gave a suggestion to solve the problem and he said, "you have no idea about what I'm going through in my life."  He's probably right.  I already know he's smarter than me.  Only Caden!  I love his heart of gold.

3rd Grade Update

Ethan is loving school this year and I am so grateful.  In general Ethan is pretty happy and easy going, there were a few weeks there at the beginning of the school year that I just felt like something was off.  Clark took him out for pizza and they had a good chat and he seemed happy about everything.  I started praying that he would develop a little more confidence in himself.  Well, that prayer was answered.  The end of September Ethan came home thrilled that his teacher had chosen him to be Student of the Month.  The same week he ran for class representative.  He made some awesome posters and gave a fun speech using emojis.  He was ecstatic to be elected.  A few days later the school contacted me to see if they could start testing him for the Gifted and Talented program because of his high test scores.  One day shortly after he said, "3rd grade is my year!  I got voted class representer, I'm student of the month, and I must be like the smartest kid in my class."  We had a little talk about humility and not bragging, but I felt like my prayers for my boy had been answered.

Celebrating the new elected official with some ice cream!

Ethan's teacher has reported to us a couple of times now that Ethan really pushes her to research and learn more because he's always asking questions that she doesn't know the answer to.  I love his scientific mind.

You know it takes confidence to show up to pajama day at school wearing high water Angry Bird jammies.

3rd grade is off to a great start!