The story of Mattie Kate

This is the story of Mattie Kate! I would have never believed how much different her story would be from Blakeley's.....

On Wednesday, October 10th I was exactly 38 weeks.  Justin and I took a half day off to go to my appointment together.  We made a little date out of it and had lunch together.  I was so hoping to be induced, so I wanted to have one last meal just in case it was going to be a long labor process.  At my appointment my docotor asked me when I wanted to have the baby.  Thinking she was just making conversation I said, "Um, today???"  And to my surprise, she said ok! I was already in the beginning stages of labor and had no clue! Once we got to the hospital we had to hang around and wait for my doctor to come back and break my water.  And once she did, BAM! Things were happening faster than I thought possible! Because things were happening so fast, they tried 2 different epidurals that DID. NOT. WORK.  I've never wanted to be Wonder Woman and experience natural child birth, and yet I did! At 9:00 p.m., Mattie Kate Johnson was born! She was 7.5 lbs and 18 1/2 inches (a little shorty compared to her big sis!)  When I had Blakeley I was shocked at her dark brown hair, and with Mattie I was shocked at her bright BLONDE hair! It was also crazy to look at her little sweet face and see myself in her!

 

Mattie LOVED her first bath!! (And she still loves them now!)  We joked that she looked like she was enjoying a spa day. ;)

 

I was very concerned for the moment that Blakeley would meet Mattie.  For months I had become a bit irrational about thinking Blakeley would think I didn't love her anymore when Mattie came. Blakeley was not even 2 and 1/2  yet, and I didn't want her to have any doubt that her Momma still loved her and would take care of her.  I made sure someone else (my mom) was holding Mattie when Blakeley came to the hospital.  I wanted to be able to greet her and hold my FIRST sweet girl in my arms.  Blakeley wasn't too sure about Mattie in the beginning.

 

 

In fact, she was more interested in the balloon sent by my Dad and Joan.

 

 

Blakeley also didn't seem to mind that all her grandparents were around, and she had her Aunt Mags take care of her the first night we were in the hospital (Thanks Mags!).

 

 

And finally, here are some pictures from Mattie's newborn photo session.

 

 

After the way Blakeley has behaved the past two times we've had professional photos taken, I'm not allowed to pay for pictures for the time being....For some reason, she just hates having her picture taken. (Which explains the paci and Hop Hop in these photos).

 

 

Love my baby girl!!

 

My heart is so full. I love my sweet family of 4. God has blessed me more than I deserve. I never could have dreamed of such a wonderful life and family.

 

 

 

New Year

Well it's 2013 and I haven't blogged since the summer! Most of that is due to school starting, being pregnant, taking care of a crazy (fun) 2 + year old, then giving birth to another beautiful little girl, and of course the holidays!!

I'm hoping I can try to blog more...maybe twice a month. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but I am setting the bar low, and my life isn't that exciting so twice a month should be enough. ;)

Here are a few highlights from the past few months:

1.  Mattie Kate Johnson was born on 10/10/12.  I'm not going to post a pic yet.  Mattie deserves her very own post of her special day! :)

2.  Three weeks later it was Halloween! In general I don't get super excited about Halloween, but I was pumped this year because of how well Blakeley did the year before.  I had actually started stressing about it in September because I did not want having a new baby around cause us to miss out on precious memories with Blakeley.  I knew I needed to be prepared with choices of costumes because Blakeley was becoming very strong willed and often did not want to put on costumes.  I had years earlier experienced my nephew Ethan not wear a costume at Halloween, and was going to try my best to avoid the same experience with Blakeley.  In the end, the choices didn't matter.  She kept saying she didn't want to wear anything.  Luckily, I outsmarted her and distracted her enough to just change her clothes with minimal resistance.

 

You are probably wondering what exactly is Blakeley.  Well she is a "princess fairy" to be exact. Her costume managed to come together like this...I found the dress at a consignment.  It was a 2T, and already too short, but for one night I figured it would be ok.  The dress was supposed to help her be Rapunzel" aka "Punzel".  But she also loves to wear wings, and we had a Tangled crown from her birthday.  So we decided to combine all these things into a "princess fairy.  I was pretty impressed with myself because the total cost of her costume was less than $10!

 

We were also lucky to have Justin's parents there aka Buddy & Mimzy.  They helped keep baby Mattie warm and comfy in the stroller.  And got to watch Blakeley in action!

 

Once we had walked most of the neighborhood, we went back home and passed out candy to the bigger kids who were still out.  Blakeley LOVED passing out candy almost as much as she loved getting candy!

 

 

After Halloween, it was back to normal....which was oddly busy at the same time.  Buford went all the way to state for the 6th year in a row, and won this time after losing last year.  Having football go so long into December makes trying to do Christmas activities a little difficult (on top of having a newborn).  But I was determined to do a few things at home.  The first thing was to make a Christmas treat with Blakeley.  I found on pinterest chocolate dipped marshmallows with sprinkles.  This was perfectly easy for me and a 2 year old.  I put the marshmallows onto sticks and dipped them into the melted chocolate. Then Blakeley dipped them into sprinkles. 

 

Blakeley loved this!! She felt like such a big girl helping Mommy "cook" in the kitchen.  She loved it so much that we made WAY to many!!  But it was nice, we gave some to her friends at school and her teachers.  Here is the link to the Christmas treat we made.  I highly recommend it because it is inexpensive and cute!  We were even able to make it into part of her present for her teachers "The Debbies".  She dipped their chocolate marshmallows in chopped up peppermint pieces.  We then bought cute mugs, hot chocolate packets, and put it all together as a warm holiday treat! (Sadly, I didn't take a picture, but it turned out just as cute as pinterest said it would - ha!)

 

We also were able to ride around and look at Christmas lights thanks to Aunt Lucie.  The kids were in their pjs, and we all piled into "Adley's car" aka Aunt Lucie's awesome mini-van (and I am being serious when I say its awesome - I definitely see the appeal now - I know - gasp!)  Aunt Lucie had a great plan of which nieghborhoods to drive in and we got to see some beautiful houses!  There was even one house that has their lights set to a radio station!  For future reference, its off of Mineral Springs Rd near Hamilton Mill UMC.  We will definitely be stopping by that house every year for some FREE holiday light displays.

 

Once Justin was out for Christmas break, we did a TON of running around going to see all of the family!  Blakeley loves it because she loves all the attention and play time she gets with her cousins!

 

Then we finally got to Christmas Day! Here is Blakeley running down the hallway, ready to see what Santa brought her!

She got a play table for her play room, coloring books, "Punzel" figures, a big Tinkerbell, and Tinkerbell slippers, and her princess castle.

Blakeley loved playing in her princess castle that Santa brought!

 

My next post will be the story of Mattie, and that will already get me my two posts for the month of January! yea!