With all the snow and super super cold temps (like -13 with wind chill), I’ve pretty much been trapped in the house. Not really a lot to post about, but here’s some new pictures for you to stare at. :) Willow will be 4 weeks old tomorrow, and in exactly 1 week, we will be on an airplane flying back to Washington for Christmas! Yaaaahooooo!!!!

Willow is 3 weeks old today! My parents are back in Washington, Royal’s back at work (although, he really didn’t take any time off when she was born, so that’s not that new), and so far both kids are mostly clean, dressed, and really most importantly, alive! So far, so good :) Here’s to making it through another week….

It finally snowed today!!! It seemed a little freakish to me, being from the northwest where the weather is very consistent, once it gets cold, it stays cold, usually rainy and cold, but pretty much every day is about the same. Yesterday, here in Wichita, it was 60 degrees. Even when the sun went down, it didn’t cool off, it was still about 60 degrees outside. So, maybe you can see how surprised I was this morning when I woke up and it was snowing outside. I checked the weather and today’s high is a whopping 30 degrees. What the heck? A drop of 30 degrees in 1 day? It just doesn’t seem right. However, the wind is blowing here today like there’s no tomorrow, so while the temp outside says it’s 26, the wind chill drops it about down to 11, so when Jayden said he wanted to go outside and play in the snow, I wasn’t that excited. So, I enlisted Papa, especially since today is Jayden’s last day to play with Papa… :( sniff sniff

Papa was freezing!

Once they came inside and warmed up, Jayden decided he needed to wear Papa’s clothes so he could go back outside and make some snowballs.

Here are a bunch more pictures for poor Aunt Kay-kay (and the rest of you who are complaining silently about not getting to hold and stare at little Willow).

Here’s Willow at 8am this morning, we were just rolling out of bed.

Here’s Papa and Jayden at 8am this morning, they’d been up for a couple hours. Jayden, after a failed attempt to get mom and dad out of bed at the crack of dawn that got him put back in his own bed, managed to sneak out of his room and go downstairs and wake up Nana and Papa.

Jayden’s been real protective of Willow. If anybody he doesn’t know very well comes over and tries to hold her, he tells them to put her down and give her back to mom.

Jayden loves to get his back scratched. Lucky for Papa, you only need one hand, so he can drink his coffee with the other. :)

Willow wanted her back scratched, that’s what she’s staring at.

Here’s what Willow was doing while I took a shower this morning. Sleeping. Shocking, I know. There’s just nothing like the newborn coma…

Later on, she woke up for awhile. I told her we were going to the yarn store and she got real excited.

What? What is this? I actually made it in a picture???

Willow got so excited for the yarn store, she wore herself plum out….asleep again…

I know this is a little late…but give a girl a break, I just had a baby. :)

Let’s just say that Jayden and Willow were less than thrilled to have to root for the cougs, obviously Royal’s purple and gold blood has been passed on. :)

(I didn’t even ask him to frown, he did it all by himself)

Jayden was a little shocked that an actual baby came out. We’d been talking about it for months, I’m just not sure he thought it would ever happen. He goes to sleep one night, then wakes up the next morning and there’s a baby???

And in the spirit of the Apple Cup, Willow is dressed all in purple!

GO HUSKIES! However, Royal (a UW grad) has a bet going with his sister Lisa (a WSU grad) that our kids have to be dressed in the winning school’s colors, pictures taken, and then put where everyone can see. So…stay tuned…

She’s here!!! This one was a quick one. Royal even described it as a little bit boring. He had to do a lot more work with me during Jayden’s birth, and Willow pretty much showed up before Royal could get in on much action. I woke up at 1:20am feeling like someone had just kicked me in the stomach. While laying in bed I counted 3 contractions about 5 minutes apart. I got up, walked around the house a bit and then at 2:00, I woke Royal up and told him we should probably call our midwife. Royal called Michelle and told her my contractions were 5 mins apart, then he had to call her back 20 mins later to tell her my contractions were now closer to 2 mins apart. Michelle kept calling every 10 mins or so while she was driving to check on me, knowing that things were happening fast. I was ordered to lay down to try and slow things down and was told to not push if I was feeling a little “pushy”. Michelle and her assistant Carrie got to the house around 3. They came running in the door, as my contractions were working me over at this point, they set up their stuff and by 3:43am, little Willow made her entrance into the world! Hallelujia! Only 2 hours! I am so thankful, I had been praying for a quick and “easy” birth. I think it was harder for me to decide to have my 2nd baby at home, as I knew exactly what I was going to have to do to get it out. With Jayden, there was definitely some ignorance, you just have no idea what it is going to be like until you are there. But I am so glad I had Willow at home and Jayden slept through the whole thing!

Willow was named after her Uncle Willie (and really her Papa too, as that is who Willie was named after) and Elizabeth is my middle name. She also happened to be born on her Nana’s birthday.
She weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 19″ long.

What a difference 2 1/2 years makes. Right after Jayden was born, all my brothers and sisters piled onto my bed with me and the new baby. Now, I am miles away from all of my siblings, and while Kaylee, Joanna, and Jordan were able to join by computer, it just wasn’t the same. I wish they could of been here. But here is a picture of me and Royal and Willow right after she was born.

My parents are here in Wichita now, awaiting the arrival of the next Lovingfoss and spending lots of time with Jayden. And with my mom, came the last pieces to the nursery. She had sewn up the valance and panels for the window, the crib bumper, and the crib skirt. So, here are some updated pics of the finished nursery!

November 10th, 2008

Categories: Life, Kids | Author: Rachel | Comments: 5 Comments |