what kind of day are you having?

"It's a two kid day. That's two days in a row", Ryan said tonight. Then I thought about our "one kid days" with Ollie. I guess it's good we have those moments of pure parental happiness and change our minds. But today is definitely a two kid day:)

All About Amelie

well here we are at week 7 day 3 and i can hardly believe how much this little girl is growing. she is really really wanting to talk these days. she takes a big breath and then tries to turn it into a sound and she gets really wiggly and excited at the prospect of being such a big girl. she LOVES oliver. everytime he comes around her, he just wants to snuggle and love her and she gets so smiley. i can tell they are going to be great friends. she has always been really strong and loves to stand up and lift her head all on her own. she is still sleeping great at night, usually just waking up once to eat. she is pretty easy-going except for at night between about 7 to 10 when she has her fussy time. she still hates her car seat but is learning. we're hoping she'll make our drive to utah for thanksgiving bearable:) i've learned that combining the car seat with fussy time is a deadly combination. but actually after about 5 minutes of screaming she's over it and calms down. oliver never let up that fast so we are already hoping for easier sleep training when we cross that bridge. it's pretty amazing to think for 9 months what she'll be like and then before you know it she's here and she's just what we always hoped for. her daddy is especially smitten.

Feeling chubby

I'm pretty sure I heard from everyone that the second time around was harder. I'm thinking I also got amazingly lucky with Oliver and was able to drop the baby weight pretty fast. With Amelie it is a totally different story. Just leave it to a girl. I guess I wasn't expecting to have like 15 pounds to drop at this point and I've never really had to work off that much weight. So lately I have been feeling down about my changed body. Then I realized yesterday how totally ridiculous I'm being. Ok well not totally cause we girls tend to focus whether we like it or not on body image, so I can't completely blame myself. But this job, having babies, is hard. And then you just keep having more and wonder if you're ever going to feel or look the same. Then I had this thought. I don't ever want to feel the same. Having kids changes everything, and thank heavens for that. However I wouldn't mind looking the same to be honest. But instead of focusing on how fast I can lose 15 pounds, I need to focus on gratitude for a healthy body that brought me this amazing baby, a body that through pregnancy and labor, is working well and doing it's job. Frankly my body is pretty amazing and I need to learn to be grateful for it. The weight will come off. Hey, it took 9 months to gain it and it might take 9 to drop it. If I still have a husband that thinks I'm sexy, that's really all that matters. (Oh and as a side note: My amazing daughter slept all night last night. Gratitude Gratitude Gratitude).

A Golden Birthday

superman loves sunsets too

the boys at the pumpkin patch
a view of our house from the beach, it's the white one

the fellas before trick-or-treating. i'm not sure they're really excited.
ryan admiring our most recent project...amelie
sometimes you just need to snuggle at the beachit just wouldn't be halloween without a candy rumage from the parentsthis was what we got to trick-or-treat in. it was perfect weather that night and the neighborhood went all out. we all might have to make this a yearly tradition.the gorgeous sunset from our balcony

this little girl smiles all the time but for some reason it is nearly impossible to get on camera
pete's pumpkin patch in camarillo
we lovelovelove marley

and what a golden birthday it was! turning 27 on the 27th of october was simply the best. my amazing husband has been quite the trickster planning behind the scenes for my bday. it all started monday night when after pumpkin carving at the facer's ryan told me he got a call from work and needed to pick up a shipment of something. strange considering this never happens. but i didn't think much of it other than being slightly annoyed. well he got home and said that he remembered something he wanted to get me for my birthday on the way home and that i needed to close my eyes and come out and see it. so he led me to the front door and said open your eyes and i see standing in front of me one of my best friends mary with her kids, cash and marley. the funny thing is, as i was closing my eyes and walking to the door, i thought to myself, i wonder if mary flew in for my bday...but that was purely wishful thinking cause i really had no idea they had planned that. so anyways mary tells me she is leaving thurs and we have the next few days to have fun. after hanging out with the kids, shopping, and going to the beach, thurs comes too soon and we get in the car to go to the airport. we had been driving for probably 2 minutes when all the sudden i look over and see my husband in a convertible with mary's husband (who was supposed to still be in Boise working). basically i did about 4 double takes and was really confused at why my husband was not at work and more so why he was hanging out with ryan johnson. i look over at mary and i'm like mary, look your husband is here, he's surprised you, and then i notice she's taking pictures of me. so i know this is the real surprise. we pull into a parking lot after the boys and ryan comes over to explain to me that we're going back to where it all started...meaning the beach house in ventura. some of you probably don't know but we actually spent our honeymoon in ventura with all our best friends. this is where ryan first met the johnson's whom he fell in love with, thus the comment, where it all started. i was SO excited and still shell shocked that we were actually spending thurs-tues at the beach house with our best friends. can't get better than that. the best part was looking back on all the lies i had been fed by everyone to pull the whole thing off. i am not an easy person to surprise and quite frankly i've never really liked surprises, but this one was PERFECT. ryan had called the lovejoys even before i had the baby to arrange the house and pitched the idea to the johnson's who went for it without hesitation. ryan said he wanted a birthday surprise that couldn't be beat. man did he out-do himself. i love him.

Just Hanging Out

I love Amelie's little smirk in this picture. Brothers really are pretty funny.Ollie decided to pick up gardening as a hobby today.This is what she loves to do all day. I love it too.

There are so many uses to a Spongebob coloring book with stickers. This was Oliver's idea.
There are two main things that we could not be more happy about. Ok well of course the obvious is having a healthy little girl. But the other two things are SO wonderful. First off, this little girl has yet to spit up. I have not even pulled out one burp cloth, I kid you not. With Oliver we used burp towels, not cloths. Considering our experience with that, this is a wonderful blessing. Could anything be better than that?? Well yes. She sleeps 6 solid hours a night and probably would get more if I didn't wake her up to eat. Oliver, bless his heart, was a horrible sleeper. We heard the second child is easier and boy is it. It probably also helps that I am not nearly as paranoid. I remember when Ollie was an infant, I would jump in the shower hoping that he wouldn't cry so I could at least shave my legs. If I heard him screaming I would actually jump out of the shower in a panic. Ahhh the first time mom. Amelie doesn't have it quite so pampered. If she screams, I continue on, knowing that a little crying never hurt anyone. And I do not get up at night checking to see if she's alive cause she hasn't cried yet. Overall, I am loving the second time around. I highly recommend it.

Photos by Jill

I seriously LOVE this face.

Amelie getting some one-on-one with her grandpa Facer. This picture is pretty precious.
Could my husband be any cuter? I am loving him more and more each day.

This picture basically captures the way I feel about Motherhood. This is definitely going on the wall. Thanks Jill for capturing such a sweet moment.

A day in the life of a worker man

My parents are building a house here and they were pouring the cement up at the lot the other day so my Dad decided it was a more than appropriate grandfather/grandson outing. He took these pictures while he was up there. Oliver is most definitely a worker man. He especially enjoyed throwing rocks over the mountain and everyone enjoyed his help. That is until he threw a rock into the setting concrete and then he was fired for the day:)

Pumpkin Heads

Amelie got to meet her cousin Dane this past weekend. Just get a load of the size difference between Dane and Ami. Don't you love the pumpkin hats? I mostly love the look on Dane's face.


It's still totally crazy to me that I'm a mother of two. I had my first "wow I have two kids" moment today when Ollie was hitting golf balls down the driveway into the street and running after them and I was nursing baby and couldn't run after him. Amelie is a pretty perfect little girl I have to say. She is an amazing sleeper at night which I have to admit Ryan and I prayed for almost every night. Now we are just praying that it will last:) Ollie has now gotten pretty used to having his baby sister around. He wants to hold her all the time. He says "snuggle" and points to his arms, it's very sweet. We are loving life with our two blessings.

Amelie Day 4

Our little Amelie is just pure joy to have around. She is a very content little thing as long as her diaper is not being changed:) I swear she is already smiling at me, and not those "gas" smiles. When she gets wide awake I just sit and talk with her and she totally smiles. She is still very sleepy but when she is awake she seems totally aware and alert. This girl can eat too. The first few days she had almost no interest in eating but now she is always hungry. We are in love with her, that's for sure. Ollie is being a very sweet brother and adjusting well to his new life as big brother. I think he's starting to get over being sick which makes everything a lot easier. I cherish the times at night with him just before bed when I get to snuggle him in bed and scratch his back. Ryan and I are working hard to make sure he always feels included and very loved. His Nana Facer got him his own little baby girl doll and he feels really special to be able to take care of his very own baby. The weather is so glorious and I can't wait to feel good enough to get out and run around. I LOVE October!

How it all went down (aka: longest post ever)

So in true Becky fashion, I must include a description of birth day and I'll really try to hold back on all the juicy details because I know not everyone wants to know. If you do, just give me a call:) Ok so the day started on the 28th at about 3 am when I started feeling some small contractions. They weren't anything too huge but they were coming every so often. By about 5:30 a few had been pretty painful but they were still totally sporadic. Ryan left about that time for work and I said to him, "It might be baby day today, just a warning". I got up with Ollie at 6:15 and just went out to the couch to lay down and watch Spongebob with him. My mom and Leah got up and so we started timing the contractions. Some were 5-6 minutes apart, some were 15-20. It was weird for me because I expected them to just take off like they did with Ollie. So I wasn't sure if I was really in labor yet. Leah, Ollie, and I decided to go to Starbucks to get some cocoa before my 10:15 doctor's appointment. At this point, some of the contractions were pretty painful but still very random.

So we all headed to the Doctor to find out if there was anything going on. By this time I was about 4 days overdue so we were going to discuss what to do at the appt. So Mom and Leah walked around the hospital while I waited 2 hours to see the Doctor. Don't ask me why, but I have to wait forever to see my Doctor and usually it's annoying, but that day I was like, ok really, my water might break right here in the office. I was actually sitting in the office breathing through contractions. At this point I was sure I was in labor, but was also confused at why my contractions were still coming so random. The last thing I wanted to do was be checked and be sent to labor and delivery and not be progressed enough and therefore be hooked up to pitocin. My plan for this labor was to go natural so anyone who's been hooked up to pitocin knows that it's much harder to pull off a natural labor when you're being given meds to bring contractions on right on top of each other. Luckily when I finally saw the Dr. he said that I was 5-6 cm dialated and definitely was in active labor. He told me to go up to labor and delivery (his office is in the hospital, right beneath labor and delivery) and get checked in. I was relieved to know that this was it but also nervous that this was it, you know. I was also starving.

If you've been in labor at the hospital you also know that they don't let you eat. I don't know who's genius idea this was, but how am I supposed to work that hard with nothing to eat, seriously. So I made my very nervous mother take me to Quiznos to get a sandwich before checking in. Ryan was already on his way to the hospital from work so when we drove up to the hospital he was walking up the path and you couldn't have wiped the smile off that kids face, it was so cute. So we got checked in and I got hooked up to the monitors and given an IV. I think it was about 1:30 at that point. The contractions definitely were picking up and about an hour after arriving at the hospital the nurse checked me and I was at a 9. I was so surprised to be at a 9 because I felt like I could still manage the pain pretty well. Then I turned over to my side and that's when all hell broke lose. I had a little breakdown at this point because pushing without meds made me really nervous. I asked Ryan to give me a blessing and he did and I felt so comforted by him and my Heavenly Father. I can't remember how many prayers I said through the whole experience but there were a lot.

So then came true transition and my contractions were on top of each other and very intense. Since I was going so fast, I thought getting through that last centimeter would be quicker but it took about an hour to get from a 9 to 10. The main reason for this is that my water bag would not break. After about an hour the nurse was surprised it wasn't breaking on it's own and told me to start pushing with each contraction. I still hadn't felt the need to push so this was really uncomfortable. I had heard from anyone going natural that pushing was such a relief and so I kept waiting for this urge to push and get some relief. Well that water bag was not budging and looking back I just wish someone would have broken it when I was at a 9. That would have helped things move along much better. Finally the doctor got there and immediately broke my water and unfortunately there was meconium (when the baby has a bowel movement in the womb). This can be dangerous for the baby if they swallow it and get it in their lungs. I was scared of this happening because I was overdue so it put a little stress on the whole situation.

Once he broke my water the whole room erupted into action. I got put in the stirrups and it was time to push. Only problem was that the baby's head hadn't come down enough to give me that natural urge so it felt very weird and wrong to push at that point but I knew the Doctor was concerned about the meconium and the baby so I just pushed. I remember saying that I couldn't do it and the Doctor was like, well you don't really have a choice. It only took about 10 minutes to push her out but man, that was the hardest work I have ever done. I did feel a few of those unbelievable urges to push and thank heavens for those because that's when my body just took over and did it's thing. The minute she came out was the best kind of relief I have ever felt. It is an amazing feeling to know that first off, it's over, and secondly, I actually did it. I remember the first thing I said was "what a relief!" and then I said "I'm never doing that again".

I couldn't hold her for almost 45 minutes because they were very concerned about the meconium and she was coughing and choking it up for a while. Honestly I was so tired after pushing her out that I had to kind of bring myself back to earth and realize that I had this new little baby. I started getting really anxious and annoyed that they wouldn't give her to me but finally they did and I just instantly loved that little thing. I thought right away that she looked like Oliver. She was so rolly and chubby, just like Ollie was. It's always amazing to see this little person all the sudden arrive when they were just seconds before in your tummy. I don't think much of anything can beat what a miracle birth is. So overall it was quite the amazing experience. I wanted to do at least one of my births natural so now that that's over with, I'm not sure if I'll do it again or not. It is nice to know that in case I don't have the option for meds in the future, I can do it on my own. Whether I want to if given the choice, we'll see:) I'm recovering really well which is one of the best parts about doing it natural. Amelie is also doing really well and sleeping a lot. Nursing is good but totally kills. Ollie was pretty natural as far as latching on well but she takes a little more work and practice. She is really starting to get it though. And the uterine contractions while nursing that come with the second are pretty intense, I was surprised. Ollie had been sick, perfect timing huh? So it's been a little challenging being there for him and her but we're managing pretty well. He is very sweet with her but not so gentle. I think he's just testing his boundaries a little which is fine. It's a lot for a kid to get used to. Ryan is amazing as always. I KNOW that I would not have been able to do that labor without him. He is such a peaceful strength to me and I'm even more in love and grateful for him than ever. He is IN LOVE with his little girl. If you didn't know, Ryan has been waiting his whole life to have a little girl, seriously. So basically we couldn't be happier with our new family of four. Life is pretty amazing. As far as more pictures go, I will work on it. It's taken me a few days to get this post out so things might move a little slower than usual. Thanks everyone for everything. There is a lot of LOVE.