Announcing the Arrival of Zoey Marie Johns!!

Today we welcomed a new chapter in our lives. One as "Mommy" and "Daddy"! Zoey Marie Johns was born via c-section at Texas Woman's Hospital in Houston, Texas on September 2, 2009 at 1:42 pm in the afternoon. Our "Little Peanut" weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Here are some photos from the delivery room of Zoey as she gets her lungs cleaned out and ready to meet her mom for the first time!

Mommy's first time meeting her baby girl!!

Time to Take our Bundle of Joy Home!

Mommy and Daddy were going over discharge orders with Zoey's nurse. See that glazed look on my face, I am trying to think of as many intelligent questions as possible to ask before they turn us lose to care for you all on our own! But you got the clean bill of health from your pediatrician in the hospital, Dr. Kagan. So it was time to take you home!Before we could take you with us we had to get the car seat all set up just for our little Zoey. But you were so tiny, at only 4 lbs 15 oz when we left the hospital, we had to put a blanket in the bottom of the seat just so you would fit. You were too tiny, the car seat straps were swallowing you whole and you definitely were not happy about being put in that seat! But your daddy did a great job fitting you in. Your dad was also a champion swaddler! That was his job the whole time we were in the hospital. He would swaddle you up and you would instantly stop crying. One last family photo opportunity in the hospital while we were waiting on the nurse to track down a wheelchair for our trip to the car.

Mommy and her little girl!!!

Mommy and Zoey all loaded up in the wheelchair, ready to head home.

Mommy's nurse is taking off your little security device, we called it your Lo-Jac...then there was nothing stopping us from making a break for it!!

Your first exposure to the heat and humidity of Texas!Getting all loaded up for the trip to College Park and Clute
Such a nice welcome home! Our friends John, Shauna, Julie and Lindsey had decorated the front of the house for a nice welcome for our little Zoey and also left all sorts of yummy goodies, dinner and flowers inside. It was a such an amazing surprise and reminded us how blessed we are to have such great friends here to look after us!

Getting Ready to Become Parents!

Mommy was getting ready for surgery, having her blood checked and getting her IV's all ready to go. Daddy was documenting with the video camera and stepping in to some very oversized scrubs so he could be in the operating room for your arrival! I think he would have fit in one leg of these pants.

That's our little Zoey spending her final moments all nice and warm and snuggly in mommy's belly! I was definitely a bit nervous about everything that was about to happen, it was such an exciting, yet scary time, but I knew in a few short hours our little Zoey would be here and she would be healthy and safe and so would I!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary Baby....

Well, I am not sure we could have had a more complicated entrance into our 3rd year of marriage, but I do know that there is no one else I would rather be sharing all the bumps in the road with. You, my dear, are without a doubt the strong but silent type. I know at times it can infuriate me when I wish I could get you to talk more, but I also know that you will always be there for me and our family. You are my best friend, my partner in everything and the only person in the world I would want to share my life with. The day I married you I without a doubt made the best decision of my life!

Thank you for loving me, Scout and our little girl so unconditionally. For always putting us first and for making sure we are well cared for. You are an incredible husband, you were an amazing dad to our Scout and this little girl has no idea just how lucky she will be to have you as a dad.

So here is to our thrid year together. May it be blessed with many happy memories and lots of wonderful firsts for our family. But no matter what it holds for us, it will all be better because I get to share it with you.

And maybe one day in the not too distant future when life settles down a bit we can actually celebrate our Anniversary!! I know a c-section class at the hospital and Arby's drive thru was not what either of us had in mind :-)

All my love always....Laura

Baby Shower in Clute

Well, I am very fortunate to have a very special group of ladies here in Clute that hosted a wonderful "Baby Shower Brunch" for me and baby Girl Johns. Jenny, Shauna and Brooke of course went above and beyond and we had the tastiest food, some fun games, cute decorations and YUMMY cookies to take home! It was an especially nice treat for someone on bed rest to be able to get out of the house and be spoiled for a couple of hours and to visit with a lovely group of ladies. And of course I have to also thank my friend Julie for coming over and helping me get dolled up and look somewhat human after a week on the couch and for taking the great photos!! So thanks to all of you ladies for making my shower such a special day. I will remember it always!

Jenny and Shauna prep people for the first game...matching the celebrity to their kids names...

Wyatt, the only male allowed in the shower definitely had plenty of smiles for all the ladies!

Me, loving opening all of the fun little girl gifts!

The mama-to-be and the hosts!!

All the ladies...Julie Tyree, Julie Zielke, Rachel Pearts, Me, Steph Fontanella, Meagan Gimber, Alechia Crown, Teri Hermel, Shauna Grantham, Nicole Mytych, Jenny Heinlein, Brooke Beveridge and Lindsey & Wyatt Neyland

Farewell to My Best Friend

Well, as you all know from previous blog entries, my beloved Scout was recently diagnosed with Hermangiosarcoma. It is a very aggressive vascular cancer. We thought after we removed his spleen and there were no other signs of masses and started chemo that we would extend our time with him, but it was not to be. After just one round of chemo the cancer had already spread to his liver and he was again bleeding into his abdomen. Even after that news we decided to bring him home. We had another 1.5 weeks of playing ball and just lots of loving family time, trying to show him in as many ways as we could how much we loved him!!! But late last week it became evident he had hit the final downturn. He stopped getting up and about and I couldn't even get him to eat home made hamburgers. Then he had a few rounds of vomiting and the final straw came when he started having uncontrollable bleeding from his nose. We had loved him as long as we could and we did not want to see him suffer. So we gave him the last gift we knew how to, a peaceful end. My baby fell asleep in my arms for the last time and I will forever be grateful for his time on this earth and that God somehow led me to be his mama! I know I did a lot for him, but as I told Jay, he gave me so much more. So much unconditional love and companionship at times in my life when he was all there was. I was so blessed by this gentle creature and he will be forever in my heart and never far from my thoughts. I know that when my time comes he will be waiting for me with his favorite ball at the ready.
I also want to say a special thanks to all of you. All our dear friends and family who understood just how much our four legged friend meant to us and for all your support and loving words.
It means so much.

Now we turn all our attention to welcoming Scout's little sister. We will love her with all of our hearts and know that she has a guardian angel already up there looking out for her!

34 Weeks and Bed Rest

So, of all times to end up on bed rest. The hubby is in Aspen, the dog is doing poorly and during what I think will be a routine checkup I find out I have preclampsia and need to go on bed rest. I followed the doctor's orders over the weekend with some help from my great friends who looked after me and then Jay took me back to the doctor on Monday. My BP was still up and there was protein in my urine, a tell tale sign of preclampsia. I was trying to work from home, but sitting up for too long kept spiking my BP as well...so now the doctor has ordered me to stop even that. So, from here on out we will be going to the doctor weekly and I am guessing it will be a week by week thing as to how I am doing and how baby girl is doing...she could come anytime if things get a bit worse....so stay tuned!!

Jay's trip to Aspen

Here are some photos of Jay's recent trip to Aspen to visit his lifelong friend Aaron. They had the ultimate guys weekend, biking 53 miles on Friday, early morning trail run, hiking at 10,000 ft, wandering around Aspen and dining at the St Regis after a dip in the pool!! Baby girl and I just hope next time we can join in on the adventure. A big thanks to the Pughs for being such great hosts. Jay had a wonderful time and these are awesome photos!!

32 WEEKS!!

After staying pretty close to home for the past few months to keep and eye on our first born, Jay and I had a big date night last night. We went to Pesce, one of our favorite seafood places in Houston and lingered over a long meal and then headed to Sarofim Hall for The Phantom of the Opera. We had awesome seats, center orchestra, 10 rows back from the stage. It was a wonderful performance for an off broadway troop and the effects were quite impressive. But mostly, I just love the music!! I think Jay enjoyed it as well. It was nice to get dressed up and have a real date night.

Of course, it was a bit bitter sweet. We came home to one really sick pup. He had somehow managed to get into our bathroom and get stuck there. When he gets sick and weak his bad leg doesn't cooperate well, so he couldn't get up off the tile floor. We tried to take him out, but he just headed back to his bed in the family room and collapsed. His gums were ghostly white again and his breathing was a bit tough for him. It was all eerily similar to what happened when he first got sick. I called the emergency vet at 1 am, which is of course an hour away in Sugarland. They wouldn't really say anything helpful, other than that would have to do some tests and I would have to bring him in... Well, I was afraid if we moved him then, that would only make things worse. So I went with my mother's intuition and it served me well. I guess he knew I had been on the phone with the vet and was toying with the idea of taking him back, so shortly after he acted interested in eating something. We got several hot dogs in him and some cheese and his color was getting better. So around 3am I settled in on the couch and we both slept a couple hours. When Jay got up for his run at 6am we took Scout out and already he seemed to be doing much better. Today he has been much more normal.

It is just very heart wrenching b/c when I called the vet yesterday before our date to say Scout was acting off, he said the chemo is out of his system, so that shouldn't be it and it's too soon since the surgery for something to be recurring...but none the less I have a sick feeling in my gut. It was too similar to everything from before for me to believe that. So I will call the vet on Monday and we will figure out where to go from here. Bottom line is, these glimpses of reality every week or two don't get any easier. I can't imagine a home without my baby Scout...he has been my pal for so long and through so much.

Anyway, enough of my hormonal tirades, here are a few photos of the growing budda....

Scout's trip to the beach....

Scout had been doing really well since surgery and chemo, so we decided he desrved to get to take a ride somewhere other than the vet for a change. So we loaded him up on a Saturday night after the sun was on it's way down and headed for the beach. He had SOOO much fun chasing the ball, of course it only took about 20 minutes before he was pretty beat. He would have played as long as we would have let him. Mom always has to be the bad guy. It was a great night, we all enjoyed the breeze off the water. It made being outside actually tolearable.

It made us forget about all the bad stuff he has been through recently. Here are a few photos from our outing.