What a great celebration!

So... it's my birthday today. I'm older today than I was yesterday. But on the bright side... I am younger than I will be tomorrow.

How's that for optimism?

I woke up this morning rather sick to  my stomach. I worried that I didn't feel good because I was older. But then I realized that other family members were dealing with the same problem and I didn't feel so bad! :)

But, feeling under the weather did not stop us from celebrating the birth of Liam in such a sweet way. Today, Kristin and David dedicated Liam to the Lord at their church. What a wonderful way to start the day.



Liam and Pastor Ronnie Meeks






He was quite mesmerized!






Mom and Dad looking on.






Along with the rest of the clan!






This is a sweet moment! I love the interaction between father and son






Liam's great-grandmother got to hold him during the service.






What a cutie-patootie!



Hey! Did I tell you I'm a great aunt?

No? Well... let me remedy that and just show off some pictures of the Cutest.Baby.Ever.




Liam discovering rattles for the first time






He's not that impressed!







It is so hard to believe this baby has had a baby!!






My goodness... but he is adorable!







His grandmother... we are calling her Nina... thinks so too.






Liam letting his Aunt KK how he really feels about the humidity in Tennessee







This child can almost get his entire fist in his mouth!







He has some of the best looks!






This look is my favorite!



But first... a break in the action

I realized as I was going through some photos that I did not include the baby shower the family threw for Kristin about six weeks before the baby was born. So... I thought I would share some of the photos with little tidbits of the day, for those three people who happen upon my blog occasionally! :)

After realizing that the wedding shower we'd had a few years ago maxed our home out (too many bodies, not enough space) we held the shower at my mother's church, Stones River Baptist Church. It is a wonderful room that allowed everyone to spread out and visit/fellowship.



Our color scheme... fun boy colors



Kristin picked out a specific pattern from Party City for the decorations. The wonderful people at Julias' Homestyle Bakery in Murfreesboro took one of the napkins, and decorated the cake exactly the same. I love them there. They did Kristin's wedding shower cake and matched my specific colors and designs that time too. Double Score!!



Welcome Little Prince - Liam Alexander
Cake by Julia's Homestyle Bakery, Murfreesboro, Tennessee





Gift table... there were lots of presents!



Candy pieces on the food table.
I didn't take enough pictures of the food table!





Mother-to-be, Kristin
A/K/A my baby



Mother-to-be with the soon-to-be grandmothers, Kim & Jean





I'm a little prejudiced to some of the gifts.
Liam's first little UK outfit from his great-grandmother





And blanket from his Aunt Karen





Bears and blankets



Aunt Sarah and another great-grandmother
Sarah handled the games

Kristin was rather surprised when she received a gift from her brother, Joey. He was not in attendance, but had a special little something he wanted to give to Kristin, for Kristin. Just from him.




Kristin is a little suspicious of a gift from her brother, Joey

When Kristin saw the gift for the first time. Well, let's just say, she threw her little head back and had a good laugh. She laughed hard enough to lose her mother-to-be tiara!



Giggle Box



What, pray tell, brought all this merriment and mirth? Diapers? Baby Wipes? Another Kentucky outfit?

Nope. It was (insert drum roll here)

A jump rope.

That's right. A jump rope.

Now, lest you think her brother is trying to suggest she get her grove on as she is approaching her eighth month. The answer is no. He wasn't. This was an inside joke.

Apparently, when they were much younger, Joey swiped a jump rope from Kristin and made her so mad, that she kicked a hole in the wall of her bedroom. As Kristin begins to enter the newest phase of her life... parenthood... her brother decided to make amends.

But, perhaps my favorite gift of all... The Pee Pee Teepee. It is a cover for when you are changing the diaper of your little boy to keep him from "christening" you. I have seen the Pee Pee Teepee in action. Let me tell you people, it works!



The Pee Pee Teepee

 A good time was had by all. The mother received many wonderful gifts... and we loaded up and got everything to their home in preparation of our Little Prince.

Liam's First Days

So... we finally got our boy here and we were all so excited! He was born here in Smyrna and mother, daddy and baby were all doing great. We got to watch him for about 45 minutes through the hospital nursery window while they measured and monitored and cleaned and swaddled and all those other things that nursing staffs do for babies right out of the womb.



Screaming HELLO to the world!


He put on quite a show for us! While this is going on, Kristin was being tended to in post-op for the C-section and being sent back to her room. They took Liam back to her to see if he could start nursing, and he apparently latched himself right on! Once the baby was here, a couple more people came to see their first great-grandchild!






Nana & Granddaddy

 Because I know my place on the familial food chain, I went ahead and left the hospital. The grandparents (my little brother is a GRANDPARENT!) stayed to visit with Kristin, David and the baby and I drove across the street to see the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I need to see that movie again. I think it was pretty good. However, I think I was coming off an adrenaline high... so I was so sleepy in that movie that I think I actually dozed a couple of times.

But, that afternoon was officially MY time.

Meeting Liam for the first time

Okay... it was not SOLELY my time. I took the great grandmother with me and so I shared some time with her. Unfortunately, we timed our visit just as they had given Kristin some meds for the pain. She did not feel comfortable nodding off and sleeping while there were people in the room, so we were really only there for about ten minutes.

But it was a GREAT ten minutes.



Nana and Liam

Kristin and David spent the weekend at the hospital. They had Liam on Friday and were able to go home on Monday. Which meant... another day of VISITATION for the family! How awesome.

Of course, I was doing my best NOT to overstay or call constantly. That was very difficult for me because I wanted to know how MY baby (who had just had a baby) was doing. I had to just be careful and text Katy or Kim or John in order to get updates. I know how tired new parents are and I did not want to be a bother.

So on Sunday, after being grateful to the Lord for His great blessings! The great-grandparents and I made an appointment to come up and visit the newest member of our family.



Liam and his Mommy- is there a sweeter picture than a mother and her child?



The new family: Kristin, David & Liam




Liam meeting his great-grandfather for the first time




Four generations



Liam and his great-grandmother

 There is just nothing more precious than this little man.



He's Here!!

It has been a while since I have stopped by here and commented on life. But, life has been busy and therefore I have not had time to comment. Isn't that the way it always works?!

But... I am VERY happy to say that the next generation of my family made his appearance in May.

Finally!

I can also say that now I feel like it is safe to breathe. I have not had children... but I had a couple of moments of complete FEAR. My baby (not birthed to me, but I refer to all my nieces and my nephew as my children, and often, my babies) was having a C-Section because she was percolating a rather big boy. (We grow 'em kinda big in our family) So, I was filled with worry. What if something goes wrong? What if there is something wrong with the baby? It was a time filled with angst and anxiety.

The Lord kindly reminded me that He was in charge of everything... and regardless of what man's purpose is, His purpose is greater and He will complete His work in whatever situation we are found in.

Oh. Okay. I'll just shut up and trust.

So... here's a little pictorial of our day:

I arrived at the hospital first. Mostly because I was told to be there at 7:00 and no one else got there until closer to 8:00. Oh well. I was there in time to take pictures of the soon-to-be parental units arrival.

Momma, Daddy & Aunt Katy arriving at the hospital



Mommy-to-be and Daddy-to-be. So cute!



See these scrubs David is wearing? I bought them. I have to give credit to my good friend, Carey Dean, who gave me the idea for them. I felt like much attention had been given to Kristin and the baby and I didn't want David to feel left out. So, I called my friend Carey, who is the father of triplets plus one, for an appropriate gift for the new father. He told me the best gift he received when the triplets were born, were a set of monogramed scrubs. So... I picked up some scrubs at a local uniform store and found a monogram place here in town and they did a great job!



The scrubs say "David Johnson, Daddy to Liam" and the birth date. Isn't that cool? AND... he looked like he was a doctor and worked at the hospital. As a matter of fact, a couple of the staff at the hospital thought he was a doctor.

So fun!!

We had a number of family members present for the big moment!



Aunt K-K



Katy is here waiting in the hospital lobby while Kristin gets herself checked in. We enjoyed people watching and laughing at each other. It was an enjoyable morning and the hospital staff got a big kick out of our antics.

The family members took up a good bit of the small waiting room at the hosital. As a matter of fact... we took up the entire waiting room. To our credit, the waiting room is rather small. But, we all had fun hanging around waiting for the sound of the lullaby to play over the intercom system (a sign that a baby is born) and tried to just have a good time.

Whilst I was waiting on Kristin to have her baby, I ran downstairs to have my first mammogram. I would like to take the time to smack all the women who told horror stories of how painful an experience this was going to be. It was not bad AT. ALL. The staff at Stone Crest were very friendly and courteous. The technician who did the mammogram was very nice and professional. The total amount of time I was there was probably about 30 minutes, and I was able to get up to the waiting room just about five minutes before the baby was born. Soooooo... no time to really worry for me!

And then finally... we were awarded with this:

Daddy and Liam!

Liam Alexander Johnson was born at more than 9 pounds and 21 1/2 inches long. Daddy David did a great job in the surgery room and so did Kristin!

Our first good look at Liam!

But, I think this is my favorite first glimpse picture:

The Look of Love

I'll share more soon. There is much more to tell.

Yep... it's been a while

The past few months may have been some of the most difficult months I have endured in a while. I was so overwhelmed with school that I really imploded. I took nine hours of classes on top of starting a new job with a new law firm.

It was beyond taxing. I found that I got up in the morning at 5:30a to get to work by 7:00a and work until 4:00p. Then I would get home by 4:45p, eat a quick bite for dinner and begin schoolwork/homework, etc by 6:00p. That would typically go into about 1:00a and the cycle would start all over again. Unless it was the weekend... in which I hit the turbo thrusters and stayed up until 3 or 4a, sleep until about 9a and start the process all over again.

Insane. It was completely insane. It was so insane that I am not sure what occurred during the last semester as far as anything else in the world was concerned.

Have I learned my lesson? Yes. I've learned a few. The first being that I will not take nine hours and work full-time. Sorry... I'm just not the young girl who has the ability to do that sort of thing anymore.

Second... I have to keep a balance in my life. I only see my friends through Facebook. Seriously. Therefore, I will make a concerted effort to get out of the house and see actual live, breathing people this semester.

Third... no procrastinating the homework this semester. This happened last semester mostly because I was always working on some project or another and I really spent the semester putting out the fire that was close enough to burn me.

This semester I will be taking two classes. I already feel like I can breathe easier.

Our family did lose and gain a member during the semester. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, our 10 year old toy poodle developed a heart condition that was going to be a chronic problem and we chose to put him down. This was especially difficult for my father, who really adored that dog.

So, two weeks later, I searched for a replacement dog. I tried a few rescue places and found other poodles, but they were all aged and we just did not want to get too attached to another dog that might not be around that long.

Off to Craigslist I went and found a wonderful little miniature pinscher puppy down in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We contacted the owner, made the arrangements and the next day I drove to Chattanooga and picked up Bella.

She's captured our hearts. And most importantly... we ALL love this dog. The last one was not as thoroughly loved by all members of the family. Here is Bella with Dad...



So... we have enjoyed getting Bella accustomed to our home life and she has made the transition really well.

And now... back to the books.

Yes... I'm a Proud Aunt.

I am proud of all my nieces and nephew. They are all individually wonderful people. But tonight... tonight we will focus on Joey.

He's the only boy. He's taller than I am now. That makes me a little sad. He and I went to see the A-Team movie for his 15th birthday and I let him drive my car back from Mt. Juliet to Smyrna.

That made me a little sad too. But, he did a great job.

He made the football team at Blackman High School. He's a Blaze. (That's the mascot)

I went to and graduated from Smyrna High School. Many, oh so many years ago. I am a Bulldog.

Blackman and Smyrna played each other tonight. It is a big rivalry. They were playing to see who would get the number one slot in the state. I decided I would wear a purple shirt, but an orange overshirt. The purple representing Smyrna (Purple & Gold) and the orange for Blackman (Navy and Orange).

However... in comparison with the other oranges in the crowd, my shirt was not orange enough. I promise I tried to represent both teams somewhat equally. I was told by two of my nieces that I failed horribly.

Oh well.

The Blaze kids know how to have a lot of fun. Here are some of the students pre-game.

They were full of spirit.

The Smyrna kids were too. But I wasn't close enough to get pictures of them. They pulled off a pretty cool effect: when the football team hit the field, the SHS kids all threw baby powder up in the air. It looked like smoke (as if they were putting out the Blaze... get it?)

Clever.

But this... this is what I came here for: my boy Joey!!

(He'd probably want me to say, my Man Joey. But, I can't do that yet.)

Number 99!!!

You can see my Alma Mater represented on the other side there.

(Insert a quiet Go Dawgs here)

Smyrna won 24-7!! Oh. Sorry Joey. I mean... Blackman was ROBBED!!