Want to see more pictures??

Hey guys!! Just thought I'd post some more pictures of Elli. Here's me and Elli on Christmas morning with our scraggly tree. (And I know she looks ticked off.....it was too early in the morning I guess!!) Someone put the tree on our porch a few days before Christmas because they knew we didn't have a tree set up. (We weren't setting one up because we thought we were moving.) Anyway, it was fun to have something up when Christmas morning rolled around.

Here's Elli over at Steve's parents house on Christmas morning. She was all tuckered out.

After we brought Elli home, her janudice kept getting worse so we had to put this pad on her back that had fiber optic lights in it. It was supposed to help break down her excess red blood cells and flush them out of her body. It had to be on her 24 hours a day and it had to be plugged in so we weren't very mobile for about 4 days. I am SO glad she is off of that thing. What a pain!! Anyway, here's Steve holding her with the lit up pad up her back that attached to that dang box. We called her our little glow worm!!

Just another of Elli hanging out on our bed.




Here's Elli right after her bath. She was so mad at us for getting her all wet and cold......but she got over it! So sweet and clean afterwards!! :o)


And here's Elli hanging out with my mom. She's leaving tomorrow....what will I do at night time when she bounces her while I sleep??


Anyway, Elli's screaming. Gotta go!!

Ashley

She's here!!

Okay guys........Elli is here finally. She was born Dec. 20, 2002 at 3:33am. She was 8lb 6 oz and 20 in long. I don't have 2 hands to type this so the long version will have to wait. But I wanted to put up some pics for you guys to see. Here is our 1st family photo shoot. Take a look at my puffy eyes and face. After pushing for 2 hours, I thought my head was going to explode.

Here is her first bath at the hospital. She HATED it!! But check out her cone head in the back where she had the suction attached to her head to pull her out. It is all bruised back there and she SCREAMS when we touch it or bump it on accident. It's already gone down a bunch so it'll go away soon.

They took her out a few hours after birth to take her picture. They put a Christmas shirt and red bow on her. That bow sucked taking off.......they really plastered it on.

This was her on our way home from the hospital. I made the hat and it was a bit too big. She'll probably have a big head like me and she'll grow into it next week!!

We have been so tired since Elli arrived. Here's the both of us taking a little siesta on the couch.

She has been pretty alert this afternoon and making us laugh. It has been so much fun having her around for the past day and a half. What a fun little girl!!

Okay, hope you enjoyed the pictures. I'll have to write out the extended version of the birth and stuff.....if you guys want to know. Love you all!!

Ashley (Elli says hi from my lap!! :o) )

The day has come!!

Okay, so it's 5:30 am on December 19th and I can't sleep. I have been awake since 3:30 after only 3 hours of sleep. I realized I haven't updated you guys with the most recent news...so here we go. At 7:30 (in 2 hours) we are heading to the hospital to be induced. I went to the doctor yesterday and I was 2 cm dialated and 75% effaced. A little progress so we decided to go for the induction today. They'll probably put me on pitocin right away to help me progress. From what the doctors say, I could be on that all day before I dialate to a 10. Anyway, we might have our baby by Tuesday night but maybe not until Wednesday morning. We shall see. But I will let you all know how it goes and if she really comes out a girl!! ;o) Anyway, I am so restless and going crazy. I'm super excited and just want our baby to finally be here. If any of you read this today, pray that everything goes well and that our little girl comes out healthy and quickly!! Love you guys!!

Ashley

CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!!

So last night Bryson and I invited his two sisters, Carli & Casey, over to decorate sugar cookies. It was fun!! I think I need to go to the gym after all those cookies!! Here they are....

Carli, Casey, Bryson and me

Bryson and I with our masterpieces

Bryson's pieces of art

My pieces of art

So is everyone ready for Christmas?? We are so excited to take a week off and go to California! We can't wait! Hope all is well with everyone! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Katie

Stubborn baby!!

I keep telling her that if she doesn't come out...her name's MUD, not Elli!!!!!! Hahahaha......just kidding baby!! Anyway, I didn't want to post because I didn't want to bump that dang goose down on the blog. But I guess the goose's moment of glory is over. Sorry. Okay, everyone needs to see how crazy this goose thing is. She has all these outfits like a dress-up doll and most of them are pretty cute and clever. Don't you worry that I tried the outfits on her when I first met the goose. Spoiled goose.....more clothes than most humans. Oh, and Melissa, that Christmas pic is so cute!! Who ever has a Mrs. Claus in their picture? That's pretty special!! Cute!

Okay, so none of you need to worry. We are taking the cell phone to the hospital and once we have her, we'll let you all know. It might be a quickie call but we'll for sure call. No worries. But I haven't had much progress. I haven't dialated at all but my cervix is softening. Big whoop.....cervixes can soften for weeks before anything happens. If any of you have seen me get a bit emotional, well, multiply that by about 20 and that is how I have been lately. I don't know what it is but I am a crazy woman now. Always antsy, uncomfortable, happy, excited, hypersensitive.......and a big cry baby. I hate it. Oh, but the doctor did schedule me to be induced on my due date. That's kind of big news. So for sure we will have her by the 19th. I don't have to wait the "one week" after the due date like some. But I am hoping she'll still come early. Like maybe this weekend! :o) Everyone say big prayers that this big baby will GET OUT OF ME!!!!

One more piece of news. Do you guys remember me talking about my older sister Shannon? She's the second oldest in our fam (37 yrs old) and has never been married? If you remember my wedding, she was the grumpy one helping me with my dress and stuff. Anyway, she got engaged over thanksgiving. She's getting married in June. Great huh?? She's like a whole new girl now...it's great. She's so happy and so are the rest of us. Anyway, just had to let you guys know.

'Tis the Season

MERRY CHRISTMAS! And I am wondering the same thing Ash!! Come on we want to know updates!!!!
Well, I had to post a few christmas pictures. The first one is mainly for Ashley because of my moms goose she like to dress up. Ashley had a kick out of it last year and laughed so hard at the ridiculous goose that has 15 outifts!!!!! No joke huh Ashley? Anways, That is our cute dog next to the goose and our tree. The 2nd is of me and my mom at our ward party with Santa and Mrs. Claus. I hope everybdoy is doing well!
I love you all and hope this season is wonderful!! Bobby I need your address. Can you email it to me? And ashley can you email me Christy's address. Thank you!
Love you all!

Bobbie...I was just getting on to ask Ashley the same thing!!! I'm like SOOOO anxious Ashley!! Have you had it? Have you had it?? Keep us posted! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Ashley,
Have you had that baby yet???
Bobbie

Ashley,
Have you had that baby yet???
Bobbie

A few photos

Hi guys,
Here are some pictures of me and my roommate. The one on the left is last year...when we should have been studying but decided to have a dress up party and take pictures. The other one is from Halloween this year...I was a cowgirl...The kids from the clinic loved it. I hope thtat everyone is doing good. Talk to you soon.
Bobbie

Hey Everyone

So I know that everyone thought that I fell off the face of the earth...but surprise I didn't. Things are going great. I am finishing up my last year of graduate school...then off to the big world to start working. I am planning on going to Washington the end of May for an externship and possibly a job afterwards, but nothing definate yet. Well I don't really have anything to exciting to say...my life just revolves around school and sleep. I hope that everyone is doing good. Talk to you soon.
Bobbie

Not even Thanksgiving-ish!!........

........but I just wanted to show you these little things I have been making. Melissa, thanks for the idea from your friend. Anyway, I just bought cheap ribbon, elastic, and little doo-dads. Anyway, these are little headbands for our baby. I just made an assortment of colors because who knows what she'll be wearing the day I decide to put a headband on her.

And here's a picture of Steve and I last week. The belly keeps on popping. And guess what? This last weekend I had a few contractions and I've had a few today. Not like I'm in labor type contractions, just ones to get me ready to push this little girl out!!

Okay, that's all for today. Love you guys!! Enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow!!

Ashley

I know it's not even Thanksgiving....

....but we just couldn't wait to put up our cute new little Christmas tree!! Haha, it's so tiny! But it makes our tiny little apartment seem to homey and Christmasey! We love it! Anyway, hope all is well! Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!! Love ya'll...........Katie

Hot lips and Sunshine

Okay, here are the fish we got! Don't you remember- Hot Lips and Sunshine? They died like a week later. We were bored one day and went to Wal-mart and got them! Anyways, Robin you are here! Post something soon! Ash post a picture of your belly! Love you all!
Melissa

Good ol' Days

Okay, I was going through my pictures tonight and I just had to post these pictures! That was a good year! We had some of the best of times. Whether it was dressing up like the 80's or just sitting around laughing with Jin-ger about who knows what!Probably our stupid questions about Korea. Or eating blue snow, or how we went and bought some gold fish and named them and they died-what a week later? Wow! Those were some good times. I sure miss all of you! I wish we all lived closer so we could go shopping and just be able to laugh and talk and just be together! Well, I love you all! I hope all of you have a wonderful Turkey day this coming week! I would love to hear from Robin, Christy and Bobbie! Love, Melissa

Hey Girls!!

It's Katie! Thought I'd stop by and say HI and post a few pics. Nothing too new and exciting going on, but life is treating me well. I am no longer an employee of American Family and am loving my new job. I just type for a company in California. I do everything from home so it's been really nice. I have to keep myself busy and find OTHER things to do around the house or outside of the house every once in awhile otherwise it can get pretty boring. But it's been fun because I get to meet up with my sister whenever she can get together for like lunch or something, and my cousin too and Bryson and I can go run to the store together whenever we want and go walk around the mall just for fun whenever we want. It's just very nice to be able to be on my own schedule. So life is great! As I posted in a comment on Melissas post, we no longer are moving to Vegas. We just don't want to leave the nice mormon atmosphere quite yet. And Bryson for sure doesn't want to go to a non LDS school. You know? So we'll be staying up here in Provo at least through the summer and then we don't really know where we'll go. We're kinda thinking back up to Rexburg. It's the nice lds school atmosphere still, plus Bryson will probably be able to get through school at a much quicker rate up there then here in Provo, since BYU here has been kinda gay. Plus, we kinda miss Rexburg. We haven't really made too many friends here and we both have more friends up there so...we just want to go back up there. So those are the tentative plans for now. Plus, I want to babysit Ashley's baby!! :) So here are some pics...........

For my birthday, Bryson took me out for a really nice dinner and then we went on a Haunted Train Ride through Provo Canyon. It was a lot of fun. This was us waiting to get on the train.
For Halloween Bryson and I made a Green Ghoulish drink (i saw it on the Food Network) and we got some pizza and watched scary movies. It was fun! No worries...we did get in the Halloween spirt and got dressed up...but it was just for ourselves! ;)
Bryson is taking a Humanities class and so we get to go some fun concerts and then some not so fun concerts....this was one of those not so fun ones.
Now this last pic is kinda gross, but kinda funny. Well, maybe not. Anyway, the other night Bryson and I were goofing off while we were brushing our teeth...long story short...somehow I lost a huge chunk of my toenail! The pic is kinda blurry...but you can see...it was SO painful! I've never lost part of my toenail like that before!
Haha...anyway, okay....well, so when is everyone going to post? It looks like it's just Melissa, Ashley and I. ASH...it's getting SOOOO close! Are you nervous? Excited? I'm so excited for you! Well, I hope all is well with everyone! It'd be nice to hear from EVERYONE! It's been so fun hearing about Melissa and Ashley! I LOVE YOU ALL!!
-Katie

Uncle Lissa

Okay so here are a couple recent pictures. Just from Halloween and Donalds family came up to see us awhile ago. That is me and my cute niece. She calls me Uncle Lissa! She doesn't quite get the whole aunt-girl, uncle-boy, so... I am uncle lissa to her. The rest of the nephews and nieces call me aunt moo moo but not her. It is so stinkin' cute! Oh, and yes I am dressed up as an 80's girl and the 2 guys at work were Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World. It was so funny the customers all day gave them looks like-Who are you and why are you dressed like that?

So how is everybody? I love your belly Ash! That is so awesome! Are you so exctied? Do you know about the apartment yet? Katie-how are you? Any news on vegas? Robin where are you??? How are you doing? Kristy and Bobby are you there??

Well I love you all! Have a great week and post!!!!
Love, Melissa

Okay guys, here is our Halloween pictures. Steve was the artist for the evening. If you didn't want to see belly...too bad!! Here's to bearing it all. Anyway, this picture was taken at 33 weeks, so 7 more weeks til we can pick our lil punkin' from the patch!! I can't wait.

Okay, not sure if you wanted to see a naked belly, but this is how big I am from the side. I'm popping out, huh?? She's like 5 pounds now....little chunk!! I also found out that I have like 8 extra POUNDS of blood running through my body. Crazy huh???!!

Anyway, how was Halloween for everyone else? Any spooky things happen? Did you have trick-or-treaters??

Ashley

Stinkin' pictures!!

Okay, so I don't know what the deal is but I tried posting Halloween pictures but the site won't let me. It keeps saying "page cannot be diplayed" or something. Ughh!! Oh well, I will try tomorrow. Sorry guys.
Ashley

Guess What???

I gave my two weeks notice to American Family Insurance! After two years....I'm finally free!! WOO HOO!! I got a job with the insurance claim service I used to work for in California, or at least some of the people I worked with there....long story....anyway, as a typist!! So I get to do all my work from home now, I'm getting paid the same I was getting paid at AmFam and have opportunity to get a raise soon, AND it's all on my own time, I can wake up when I want, type when I want, go to the gym when I want, hang out with Bryson when I want! It's great! Well, technically I have two more weeks and THEN I get to do all that! I have been doing both for the past two weeks, pulling around 70 hour weeks between the two of my jobs and it's just been killing me. So...I quit AmFam! I'm so excited and just so relieved!! Anyway, just wanted to share my exciting news!! Plus, I was tired of not seeing anything new posted on here! :) OH...and for those who know my brother...his wife just had their third baby girl today. Avery Elizabeth Orme. I'll see if I can post some pics.

Love, Katie

Fall

Well, here are some new pictures of us. We went to the afternoon session of Conference yesterday and it was so awesome! The best part of the whole thing was the song at the end-"WE thank thee O God for a Prophet" and when we all stood up! WOW! I could hardly sing because I was so emotional! To think we do have a living porphet on this earth and I was in the same room with him! IT was so Awesome and such a testimony to me! And then we were also pretty close and on the side that Pres. Hinckley walked in and out on. So we got to see him wave his cane and he was so cute! Oh man! I love that man! The Conference picture is when we were all singing!

The other 2 pics are up the canyon. I wanted some nice pictures with the leaves. Since we don't have kids we haven't had good pictures since we were married so i thought it was about time!

Anyways, Christy congrats on your baby!!! And does anybody know how Bobby is doing? I wish she would post!

Well i love you and miss you guys! Have a great day and post more pictures! I love all of them!
Melissa

I'm here, I'm here!!

Hey guys.......I'm back in the game now!! I explained in the comments of Katie's last post so refer to that if you want to know where the heck I've been. Okay, now brace yourselves. I have pictures to show you guys but beware...my middle is pertruding. Kinda weird...I know!! :o) So the first picture is of me at 25 weeks along. So a little more than 3 weeks ago.

Here is our last ultra sound of our little girl. It's a picture of an ultra sound so it's not that clear. But she's 23 weeks at the time and the doctor said she was about 12 inches long and about a pound and a half. Not too big yet. So this u/s is of her facem which is on the right side and her torso is on the left. And, yes you can go ahead and comment on her nose. I'm hoping it's just a bit smashed and she doesn't actually come out with a black nose.....ugghh!! :o) heheheeee

Oh, and Steve and I are thinking about calling her Elliana Grace Johnston. (And that's pronounced ELL-EE-AWN-UH. If you have suggestions for a better was to spell it, let me know. I have thought and thought about how it should and would be pronounced.) Then we'll just call her Elli for short. So where did I find the name Elliana, you ask??? Well, Katie used to babysit a little girl named Elliana in California and I always thought it was such a cute name. Then, Katie and I would always talk about how we wanted to name our first little girls, Elliana. It just stuck and now I am really going to be using the name. And Katie, my Elli better have a cute little Elli friend to play with one day!! ;o)

Okay, so since I have been pregnant, I have been having these weird motivations to sew different things. I'll post some of the things I have made. It's been too much fun. The first is this little clutchy/blankie thing. And yes, I cut a beanie baby in half to make it. But it's super soft and so is the material in the middle. So nice to touch and pet. And in case you're wondering, it is NOT and CANNOT be used like a bear rug. I was trying to explain it to my sister over the phone and she said it sounded like a bear rug she would play on or that we would mount to the wall. Grrr....what a brat!! :o) heheheeee But, after seeing the picture, did you guys get the idea?? The second is a cover for the swing. We got an old swing from my sister Jodi but it had this old 80s color-swirled design all over it. It was ugly. So I made a new cover for it. Steve said I needed to make it with neutral colors so our future "boys" could use it too and not be stuck in some pinky pansy stuff! The third pic is of her blessing dress. That was really fun to make but kinda hard to sew something that small. My fingers were too big to maneuver it at times.

Okay, I still have more pics. I hope you're not too bored. Steve and I drove to Washington and stayed there for 2 weeks to visit family. It was such a nice break to get away. This picture is me and Steve at Pike's Place, the old open market in downdown Seattle. Good thing my morning sickness is over or that fish behind us would have gagged me!!

Okay, enough photos. So, the update with us is about the same. We're just living here in Rexy. Steve has a new job at the hospital in shipping/receiving (which he loves so much more than Melaleuca) and I am subbing here and in Sugar City. It's pretty fun and I'm glad I have this semester to do it before little Elli comes.

Oh, and I heard from Christy and she had her baby. I don't know when she'll be on next so I'll fill you all in a little bit. They named him Bryson (Bryce) Joseph Darrington. He was born on Sept. 17th at 2:10 am. He was 8 lbs, 13 ozs and 22 inches long. She was more than a week overdue and WAY ready to have him. Everything happened pretty fast, once they got to the hospital, but I'll let her fill you all in on that and post pics herself. Pretty exciting though!!

Anyway, can't wait to hear more from everyone and keep this thing going!!

Ashley