~Halloween 2013~

Once upon a time...

Halloween seems like YEARS ago and I still have never blogged about it! Well, I'll do it now, I say!

Chad and I were super stoked because we had been planning what we would be for Halloween pretty much from the moment we knew Charlotte was a girl...and even before that we knew we would want to do this sometime. Chad and I had met when we did Peter Pan, the play, at our high school and I played Wendy and he played a pirate. We just so happened to have a little Tinker Bell outfit for my build-a-bear (that Chad got me when I turned 17! Who knew he would be using it for his future daughter someday!), and it fit Charlotte like a charm since she was 1 month old. :)

So that's what we did for Halloween! I was leaving to Hurricane with my family late that night to go see my brother in the Red Rocks Marching Band Competition in St. George that weekend, so Chad and I had a sweet, short, little Halloween. He got home about 6, we got dressed, watched a little of Hotel Transylvania, then went to our dear friends, the Anderson's and ate some homemade donuts that were to die for!

The day before we celebrated Halloween with my family since we  were all gonna be getting ready to leave on Halloween to St. George, so we had a little party (that turned into madness with 3 babies). It was fun, despite the chaos. ;)

Chris and Nephew Charlie. :) Jewls, Chris, and Charlie were garden gnomes! 

Charlie and Carter.

Little Pan

Little Carter was Peter Pan, Tom was Captain Hook (which when he put on the whole outfit, Carter was scared of him so that didn't last very long, haha), and Leafy was Tiger Lily. Our little family and there little family didn't even plan to all go together with the Peter Pan theme. Funny!

And our little fam...:)

So presh!

Here's a better snapshot of our beautiful little Charlotte in her adorable Tink outfit.

This was taken with Chad's phone so...not the best quality, but still cute!

Gotta love dressin' up! Next year? We'll keep it a secret till then! 

Hooray for late blog posts. Ciao! 

Love always, 

Ally J

3 months and counting!

       I just had to post some pics of my growin' baby girl! She is already 3 MONTHS old and I cannot believe it. Charlotte is such a sweetheart and smiles like crazy! Little Miss loves making noises and lifting her head up all by herself when you hold her. I just love her to death.

~1 month~

~2 months~

                           

~3 months~

She's still pretty little, but I love watching her little features grow. :) And Charlotte has finally made it into 0-3 month clothes! Hooray! My sweet girl had some little troubles gaining weight in the beginning, but now she is catching up to that weight train. :) I think she's such a great mix of Chad and I. Yes, her eyes and ears are DEFINITELY her Daddy's, but she's got me too! Oh she's presh. 

1 month.
 {Gotta have one unhappy picture, ha ha. Babies aren't always happy-that's for sure!}

                                      

2 month.

3 month.

 ~Faces of Charlotte~

1 month

2 month

3 month

Seriously. I've already said it but I love watching her grow! She's a doll. We love our Charlotte Alisa!

Love,
Ally Jo

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday

from the Johnson's!

Charlotte LOVES her Daddy!

P.s...we like to match on sundays. :)

Of course, one of my goals for this next year is to blog better, but you have to give me a break for the last few months. I mean, baby? 'nough said. :) I'm gonna start fresh and take some posts to highlight some events and things from the last few months, but will take it as I wish. But, I do promise Charlotte's Birth Story part 2 and Christmas for positives. 

PLUS....

Our little family got a brand new spankin' new camera for Christmas! And it is NIIIIIICE. A EOS Rebel T3i (if that's the official name you would tell someone?) to be exact-and we got it for a wicked sweet deal.  It was a big splurge, but we've been dying to have this camera since Chad and I started dating so...we decided to just go for it since it would benefit us super super muchly and can now capture our beautiful Charlotte non-stop. :)  We're pretty stoked about it. So even more reason to blog with a new camera!

Hope you had a wonderful Sunday. We sure did!

Love, 

Ally Jo

~Charlotte's Birth Story~ { Part 1}

{Charlotte's Birth Story}

              Time and time again I've tried settling down to write Charlotte's birth story, but, as all you mommy friends know....just when you make time, the babe decides to get up, cry out of nowhere, or need a diaper change of some sort. Another classic favorite: Finally get the time but want to sleep instead of being productive. Ha! But I've discovered something. Naps and sleep IS productive. I need to remember that forever and never feel guilty for needing some rest!

Anyway....

Charlotte's birth story. I'm beginning to forget little details, so I can't wait any longer! 

{P.S....sorry it's very long. But this is for posterity, people.}

My due date was September 16th and couldn't come soon enough. I was barely making any progress as my appointments with the Doctor started turning into weekly visits at the end. I was praying so hard to just dilate to something or have some change of any kind. But little Charlotte was just so snuggly in there...she didn't want to leave! I was about a 1 and 50% effaced a week or so before and had absolutely no contractions. {Maybe a few once. And I probably convinced myself of that}.You could say I felt discouraged. At the end I was sure ready to pop and have that baby. The fun parts of pregnancy were over and I was very ready to rip that baby out. 

At the appointment before my due date, Dr. Jones set up an appointment for the 19th of September {3 days after my due date} to see how things were going if I hadn't had her already and mentioned that he would induce me on the 26th of September if I hadn't had her by then. {Oh kill me now!} But he guaranteed me that I would NOT make it to my induction date. At this point I didn't know if I could believe him. But I kept my spirits up! 

Well...my due date came and passed and I was getting super antsy. I was just trying to somehow enjoy the last days I had before I had a baby forever...but didn't really because I was just big and wanted to get to the next phase of life. I went in on the 19th and Dr. Jones said I'd progressed to a 2 and was 75% effaced. Hooray for progress! Dr. Jones said to come back in the next morning and he'd strip my membranes to see if that would help move things along. He also mentioned taking a non-stress test at the hospital sometime that weekend to see if the baby was still okay since she was overdue. 

I got my membranes stripped the next morning {which wasn't bad at all-maybe 5 seconds of it} and prayed she would come soon. I walked some more and hoped for the best! 

Saturday, the 21st, Chad and I got up like normal and planned to go take the non-stress test that afternoon before the BYU game. We both put on our BYU attire to represent. ;) I felt totally normal that morning...but by about noon I started feeling some really intense back pain. Since I had never felt a contraction before, I didn't realize at the time I was beginning to have some mild ones. The pain started from the back and made me stop in my tracks. It didn't feel like what I thought contractions would feel like at all. So I kept second guessing myself! I called my mom and we talked back and forth and she told me they were probably the contractions and that I would totally be having the baby either that day or the next. I thought she was crazy! 

Welp, then they came in pretty intense. Not enough to make me "rush to the hospital", but to realize they were contractions. Chad and I started timing them, but because they weren't close enough apart yet, we decided to go to have a little date and go to lunch at Cravings before we went to take the non-stress test. Our last meal together as parent-less married folk! By the time we sat down to eat our food, they were about 3 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. And they hurt PRETTY bad.

Cravings Bistro in AF. Yum!

Let's just say I didn't eat much of my lunch. Darn. 

We got to the hospital and hooked me up to take the test. I had quite a few contractions during the 45 minutes we were there, and Chad helped me through them with the breathing we had practiced the night before at my mom's. {**Side note** Learn some breathing before you have your baby!!!! It helped me TREMENDOUSLY and I don't know how I would have kept together without it! And have your hubbie learn it too because having Chad do it with me made it so much easier.} I hoped they would keep me, but they told me to come home for awhile and come back if they got closer together. At that point I was 3 cm and 80-100% effaced.

We got home and my contractions got SUPER intense. It hurt real bad. Not gonna lie. I wouldn't like to experience those again, but looks like we want more kids so.....guess I gotta put up with those a bit more! I sat at the edge of the bed at first and Chad held on to me and counted the breathing. He keep a log of the timing of the contractions. They said to call after 2 hours of contractions if they were however far apart they're supposed to be in order to go to the hospital. Ha ha, I don't remember. 2 minutes apart and 45 second long? Or something? 

Sitting at the edge of the bed wasn't quite working for me, so I walked up and down our hallway, got in the shower for a little bit...and eventually found that leaning against the wall when a contraction came and rocking back and forth was the only thing that brought a BIT of comfort, ha ha. I'm glad this wasn't video taped, ha! But seriously...when you're in labor, it doesn't matter the position...whatever makes you feel better you do! I told Chad he needed to call the hospital to see if I could come so he called about an 1 1/2 hours in and they told us to come back and they'd check me. 

Well, they checked and told me to undress and they'd get me hooked up and on my epidural in no time!

Wow, that was fast.

THIS BABY was officially COMING! 

New Mama!

Dear Blog, 

I've missed you!

Don't worry. I'm still alive. 

I've just been helping my little wee one adjust to human life. 

:)

And adjusting to becoming a brand new mama. 

It's a transition to note for sure!

And I've already had plenty of adventures in just

1 month. 

That's right. 

My baby girl is 1 month old!

Good time to get back to the ole blog, eh?

Well, I will be documenting Charlotte's birth story soon enough, but for now, I just wanted to begin blogging again and share just a few select pictures for now. I can't believe it's already been a whole month....it's just flown by but also been extremely slow all at once.  Oh ya. You feel the extremely slow at 4:30 A.M. for her early morning snack. I've come to terms with the fact that I will never sleep in again until all my children are out of the house, or Chad and I are on a vacation alone, ha ha. At least I've accepted it!

Anyway, here's some photos for ya. :)

Resting between contractions...

Chad was so great through the whole thing!
 So lucky to have him for my support. :)

First moments with Miss Charlotte. :)

There are definitely a lot more photos to share, but I just wanted to post a few to prove that I really did do it! I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! I love being a mommy so much....she is my pride and joy.

Yep. I get to look down at that pretty face everyday! Love her guts.

Birth story and new born pics to come soon!

Loves,
Ally

9 months ago

So I was looking through a bunch of my pictures on my computer, and found these photos! I realized I never actually posted them, so obviously I had to put them up! What a way to celebrate the day after my baby girl's due date, yeah?

{Nope, she's not here yet...little stinker. She is overdue!

Stop making Daddy and Mommy wait!}

We're gonna be parents!

I'm gonna be a Mama!

I know I've told the whole story before, but just for the sake of pictures, this was late one night after the shower. I had been sitting on the bathroom floor, waiting for my results. Then the Yes + turned up and I FREAKED. (Happy freak!) Plus a "oh my goodness....we're pregnant...oh dear..." freak. I went and showed Chad and he had the biggest shock on his face, and proceeded to keep that look on his face for the remainder of the night. Ha ha! We've come so far!

Love our baby girl. Can't wait to have her with us soon! {Did you hear that, Charlotte? Soon!}

Love always, 

Ally Jo

Dove Real Beauty Sketches