Put Your Hands Up!

Since birth baby Lila has found an interesting sleeping position to be her position of choice. Virtually every time we put her down, sooner or later, both arms creep up and rise up above her head. Lila has been nice enough to let us take shots of her while sleeping to capture her cute poses.

Shortly after birth.

Kissing her guns.

Not sure if this counts but I love the cat heads on her feet!

Finally, today's shot shows off her Valentine's Day outfit she strutted at church today. Ginny and I wonder if this trend will stick or if it's temporary. I can't imagine it being comfortable as she gets older. I've tried it, not that great...

What do an ostrich, horse, and puppy have in common?

Answer: Lila's crying.

She has incorporated each of these animal sounds into different cries. The ostrich yelp comes out when she is cold from being changed or after bath time. The horse neh is at the end of her cry when she's tired and trying to fall back asleep. The puppy sound is in the middle of her eating. I only wish I could record her when it happens but it's so spontaneous I can't.

Just when I think she can't get any cuter:)

Grandma Pope Visit

My mom came for a week and it was so great to have her here! There's nothing like having your mom around. Especially when she took over some of the late night/early morning shifts so that I could continue sleeping:) We pretty much stayed inside watching the show, '24' dvds (my mom was surprisingly into it. She couldn't stop watching and kept begging for more). We also made a few trips outside our tiny appartment. We went for walks, did a little shopping and went to the Temple. Here are some pics of Grandma Pope and Lila.

.

Grandma rocking Lila.

Before we left for the Temple.

Grandma pushing Lila on our walk at the park.

Love these two. Miss you mom!

Our 1st Christmas!

We weren't able to travel to be with family for Christmas due to it being so close to the end of my pregnancy. Chris and I talked about family traditions growing up and it seemed the only thing similar was the fact that our dad's always read about the birth of Christ from Luke 2. So we did a little of both family's traditions and look forward to the coming years as our family expands and traditions continue. We had a nice relaxing morning, then went to a friend's house for Christmas dinner.

.Chris and me on Christmas day:)

.

Chris gave me one of the best gifts ever for Christmas. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE The Cosby Show and Bill Cosby. I grew up watching the show and can't get enough of it. Well, Bill came to CA for a stand-up show and Chris got us tickets...YAY:) We went last Saturday and it was so much fun! Meeting him is the only thing that could have made it better.

I LOVE my husband!!!!!

.

me, Chris and Bill after the show.

Baby Shower

I've been anxiously awaiting my baby shower since we moved to Nor Cal in July. My ole' roomies made the trip from AZ to be here for it!! Ashley's mom, Jeanne has been planning it since July and all her hard work paid off. She has taken such good care of us since we moved here and my baby shower was no exception. I had so much fun and couldn't believe how much Jeanne did for this party. She is amazing and you'll see what I mean in the pics below. It was the best baby shower ever! The only thing that could have made it better was if my mom and sisters could have been here for it.

.

(The ole' roomies) Kathy, Kzimbo, Jill, Ash and me.

The food was amazing.

.

Jeanne made all these fancy desserts herself. She spent a week baking. A week, I tell you! She also made the bread for the sandwhiches and dyed the bread pink and white. We had fudge, toffee, lemon tarts, chocolate covered bananas, a variety of cookies...I'm gonna stop cause you just had to be there.

So I mentioned this party has been in the making for months now, and when Jeanne first started talking about who I would invite, I thought the only people I know are coming from AZ. But as time went on, I've gotten to know some great women in my ward. Everyone has been so nice to me and made me feel welcomed since day one. It was so great to have them at the shower also and offer so much support for the trials of parenthood. Here are some pics of some of the guests.

. Emily and Kirsten with Allie in the back. (I'm one of the Mia-Maid leaders and Allie is one of my girls)

. Some of the young women leaders I work with and another one of my girls, Whitney.

Brooklyn with Jane and Anderson.

Kim, Kathy, Jill, and Chandra. (Chandra is the wife of Chris' best friend Josh)

Yay for family! Kiley, Ashley, me, Shannon, and Elise.

Ashley and Shannon are my sisters-in-law and Kiley and Elise are my nieces (Shannon's daughters). They drove over from Sacramento and it was so great to see them. Wish we could see them more often cause they are a lot of fun.

After everyone ate and chatted for a bit we played some games. One of the games we played was the string game to guess the circumference of my belly. Kathy won thanks to her 1 to 1 ratio trick but she was gracious enough to give it to the next best guesser, since she was the one in charge of the game.

Kathy measuring me.

Since it was Christmas time all my presents were under the tree waiting for me to un-wrap them.

We got some great stuff that we really needed like Butt Paste and a changing table but also some fun stuff like adorable baby clothes...

.

and this beautiful quilt Jeanne made for Lila. I told you she is amazing!

I'm a mommy and Chris is a daddy:)

Sunday, December, 27th 2009 we went to the hospital for some 'prep work' prior to being induced. Here's pics of us before leaving.

.Chris carrying all our stuff.

.Me trying not to look nervous. (but I totally was)

.

In the process, my water was accidentally broken which kind of expedited things. By 11 pm I was dilated to 3 cm. We got a few hours of sleep before they started the pitocin at 4am Monday morning. After experiencing my water breaking and some miserable contractions the night before, I decided to get my epidural when they started the pitocin. Thank goodness for modern medicine! I slept great till about 8am and felt so relaxed. They checked me again and I was 6cm. About 45 minutes later, the nurse came in saying the baby's heart rate was dropping and she checked me again and I was 10 cm. She called my doctor and he was on his way. I had to push through 4 contractions before she came out. It was totally easy, with those drugs of course:) Lila Sharon Johnson was born Monday, December 28th, 2009. She was 4lbs. 10 oz., 17 1/2 in., and incredibly beautiful!! We love her so, so much and are blessed to have her in our lives.

.Me and Lila:)

.She likes sleeping with her arms like this.

She is such a calm and peaceful baby, except when she acts like a savage beast during feeding time. I wish I had a picture of that. It's quite a scene.

.

So long and skinny, like a torpedo.

Don't you think we have the same feet?
.

We love this girl and all the faces she makes!!!!!

.

The proud daddy and...

mommy:)

(Due to being busy birthing a child, I wasn't able to blog about my awesome baby shower or Christmas, so that will come soon.)

Baby Update

For the past few weeks I have been going in for weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests. Our baby girl's abdomen is measuring small and the doctors determined the placenta is not providing/transferring enough nutrients for adequate growth. They have predicted I won't make it full term but it really is a week by week observation. I am 33 weeks and counting. This weeks check-up and growth ultrasound went very well. She is still measuring small so they will continue the weekly monitoring.

.

A cute profile pic of baby Lila

(Did we tell you we finally agreed on Lila? Well, we did:)

A belly pic for those of you who were asking.

Lila's crib, ready and waiting!

(Quilt made by Grandma Johnson and baby lamb from Grandma Pope)