Spring Walk

Great Grandpa Alvin, Bracken, and Great Grandma Yolanda (March 2011)

Kids say the darndest things...

The other day my friend Andrea and I made rhubarb blueberry jam together, and it turned out great! Bracken skipped his nap to hang out with us. When Andrea was getting ready to leave Bracken was playing with her tupperware containers. Trying to help him give them back to her happily I said, "Say thank you for letting me play with your tupperware." He dutifully repeated, "Thank you for letting me play with your underwear." What do you say to that? :)

1 Month Old

It's so fun to have a little girl! Chandra is beautiful. Her dark hair is so soft, I love to run my fingers over her head. She is awake and alert a little bit more all the time, and she's usually pretty happy until evening time. She's starting to make cooing sounds instead of just crying sounds, and I love them. It's funny though, even her crying is girly sounding. Much different than Bracken's "take care of me, NOW!" cry when he was a newborn.

Bracken often goes over and sits or snuggles by Chandra and then calls to me, "Mom, come look at your two cute kids. You have a boy and a girl!" When they're both happy I love to read stories to Bracken while each of them sits on one of my legs. Bracken says, "You have two laps, one for both of your kids." He always takes her dirty diapers to the garbage for me and this morning he wanted to help dress her. (Rephrase: he was extremely upset I put her onesie on without him. I ended up taking it back off so he could help me dress her.)

My little sister Breonna came to visit. She's always working so hard when we go to see my family that its been nice to just have her hanging out with us for a bit.

While Bracken played in the swimming pool with his friends, Chandra played on the grass with Brian. It seems like a lot of babies are really bothered by the grass poking their legs, but Chandra loved it.

Our (hopefully) last snowfall of the year. I took this picture a little too early. When they finished playing in the snow Bracken came in to tell me they'd made a whole family of snowmen. Mommy, Daddy, Bracken and Chandra. It was pretty cute. Bracken loves every minute he gets to spend with his Dad.

Going to Work

A couple of weeks ago Bracken took his little backpack and crammed in his blankets, water bottle, some crackers, books, and as many of his toy animals as he could fit. He brought his shoes to me and asked me to help him put them on. Then he unlocked and opened the front door, waved at me and said, "Bye Mom, I'm going to work." I just watched to see what he would do. He headed off down the side walk, past the mail box toward the stoplight. When I followed him to make sure he would be safe, he turned around, held his hand out for me to stop, and said, "No Mom, I'm going by myself." This has become a regular occurrence. On the day I took this picture he came back to the house after walking around for a minute and asked me for his motorcycle. So here's a picture of Bracken on his motorcycle going to work.

Big Brother

Now there are four!

Bracken has been the sweetest big brother. He's already so protective and proud of Chandra. He hasn't acted jealous at all, and just wants to help take care of and love her. It makes me happy!

When anyone comes over he says, "Come see my baby sister Chandra Lia Johnson!" and takes them back to her crib to show her off and tell them about her "tiny, tiny feet" or demonstrate the sounds she makes.

Whenever he hears her cry he holds her hand and says, "Don't cry, baby Chandra. Bracken will take care of you." Then he looks at me and says, "Mom, I'm a good big brother."

He loves to hold her. And hug her, kiss her, hold her hand, pat her head, touch her cheeks...I have to keep an eye on them when Chandra's laying in Bracken's reach just to make sure he deosn't love her too much. I'm so glad he adores his little sister!

Chandra Lia, 3 days old.

It's a Girl!

Chandra Lia Johnson
Born: April 30, 2011
Time: 3:53am
Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz
Height: 19 3/4 in

We have a beautiful baby girl! Chandra Lia was born April 30, 2011 at 3:53am at my parent’s home in Richfield, UT. Everything went great with the delivery. We are so excited to have a daughter, and Bracken loves his new little sister. She is so perfect, tiny, and has a full head of dark brown hair.

She surprised us and came a week early. I had some contractions late Friday night, but didn't think much of them because they were so mild. When Brian came home from working on the ambulance I jokingly told him that we might be needing to go to my parents that night. When the contractions kept coming, we ended up leaving at 1:15am.

Bracken was so confused when we got him up in the middle of the night. He said, "I'm not ready to wake up yet." but then he took 45 minutes to fall back asleep. When he realized we were on the highway going to Richfield he kept saying, "It's too dark, I can't even see any cows." Thankfully he fell asleep before my contractions got especially painful.

We arrived in Richfield at 2:45am. My Mom, Dad, and sister Breonna were in the process of getting everything ready for us. (My Mom is my midwife). My contractions were pretty strong by this point. They had set up the birth tub, but I've never liked the idea of being in the water for labor or delivery so I didn't think I'd use it. Mom checked me and I was only dilated to a 3, so I figured I had a long way to go. Mom wanted me to get in the tub and just try it out. The water relaxed me, reduced gravity on my belly (I’d felt like I had to hold my belly up through each previous contraction), and made the contractions so much less painful there was no way I was getting back out of there, so I actually ended up having a water birth.

Mom checked me about 45 minutes later and I was at a 7. But 3o seconds later I said, "the baby is coming!" I must've progressed from a 7 to a 10 that fast because within a minute her head was out, and with the next contraction I was holding our little baby girl in my arms!

When Bracken woke up Brian brought him into our room and showed him Chandra and Bracken said, “It’s my little sister!” We let him hold her and he just looked at her over and over and finally said, “Maybe…we can take her home?” We laughed and told him yes, we’d take her home. He has been so sweet with her, running in each morning after he wakes up to say, “Good morning Chandra!” He loves to touch her head softly, give her kisses, and hold her hands. He’s such a good big brother.

We've just been spending time with our little girl, loving and getting acquainted with her. We're so happy to have a daughter and little sister, and love her so much already.