We are now a family of 4. Whoa. Crazy.

Her Highness (hence forth to be known as Gigi since it is a bit problematic to continue referring to your offspring as royalty) made her appearance last Sunday and it was night and day different from our first experience. I will definitely take going into labor naturally over being induced.
I had been having regular contractions all night, which was not abnormal as she kept giving us false alarms, but by 3:45am I was so distracted by them that I finally woke up and fiddled around the house to distract myself (the only reason why even a part of my laundry was done when she came). As it turned out, we spent the day car shopping instead of laboring. However, by 5:30pm while we were driving away from the last dealership, the contractions changed from "Oo, that is uncomfortable," to "Oh my (insert fake expletive) I am going to die." We got home and luckily Little was exhausted, so we ate quickly and put him right to bed. By 8:00pm we were on our way to the hospital and she was well on her way. Once we got settled in the hospital there was a lot of laughter and plenty of sound effects as we walked the halls through the contractions, one close call with Bryce almost having to slap me out of being ridiculous, and lots and lots of "Keep going honey," and "No, you are not going to die."
We made it through with relatively little damage and eleven hours after it started, we welcomed the little miss into the world (much better than the 36+ it took for Little). 7 lbs 11 oz at 7:01 am.
When she came out, she had a bit of an unfortunate run in with her umbilical cord. It was wrapped around her neck a couple of times and she was a bit purple and not very vocal. I got to hold her for about 30 seconds while Bryce cut the cord and she looked up at me with surprisingly alert eyes and a little sigh that sounded like "Whew, we made it through...now can I rest?" After that she was whisked away to a nearby table where Bryce could see her, but all I could see was five nurses hovering around and pumping air for her. Not the best moment of my life, but in the end she let out a few good hollers and by the time I was sewn up she was back in my arms.
There was only one point where I really lost it and that was after all the shenanigans when we were in the room still recovering and the nurses came in to double check how everything was settling. The first nurse gently prodded my stomach to check how my uterus was settling, and then a second nurse came in and pushed on my stomach as hard as she could without warning me first. Lets just say it didn't go well. I caught myself at the last minute and what came out of my mouth ended up being "mother... of pearl," but it was a close call and I'm pretty sure I scared the nurse.
We stayed at the hospital for a few days and luckily Little was well taken care of at home by my parents (thank heaven a million times for that). He got to come visit a couple of times and the loves and kisses abounded. He immediately started squeezing her and making sure he was a part of taking care of her. That has only gotten more fun--albeit more intense--since we came home. He loves to snuggle and kiss her and he is always the first to announce that "Baby Ginny is awake!!"
We wanted to give her a strong name and so decided to name her after one grandma from my side and one from Bryce's. My grandma passed away in February, so I'd like to think that they waved in passing and she will hopefully get
to meet Bryce's grandma soon soon. We actually have some things from my mom that we used to wear when we were tiny and one of them just happens to be a sweater that my grandma crocheted. We're definitely passing that down. It is so fun to have stories and great memories to share with her about her name and about the wonderful women who it came from.

We've been home now for a week and she is a trooper. She has already slept for five and six hours for two nights since she has been home (knock on all the wood in the world), she's a great little eater, and I feel like every time I look at her she is already changing.
Welcome, welcome baby girl!! We are so happy that you got to come to our family!

So... I know all I write about lately is Little and his silliness, but I can't help it. He's just such a fun little man. The latest funnies have been mostly church related. We've been reading about Joseph Smith and Little is very intrigued. However, some lessons haven't quite gone over the way we thought they would.

We were waiting to drop some food off to Bryce the other day and decided to play on the lawn of the school for a bit. To be accurate, I sat on a bench while Little played. He was having a grand old time circling around a big tree when he suddenly stopped, sat down, and informed me, "I'm waiting for an angel, mom." After a moment or two he came running back over and said, "It's alright. The angel's not coming yet. Maybe he will come later." And scampered off to play some more. He's done something similar before (when he was tired of walking and sat down on the stair to "wait for an angel to help" him down the stairs), but I never put it together quite like I did when he was sitting under the tree just like the pictures of Joseph Smith.

The other thing is that lately Little has been informing me, "My Father wants me to do ... (fill in the blank)." At first I thought he was talking about Bryce seeing as he was using it for things like, "My father wants me to eat gummies." or "My father wants me to play with toys for five minutes." And then he started actually talking about Bryce and said instead, "My dad wants me to play." That is when we figured out that when he's referring to "my father," he is actually referring to his Heavenly Father. And although I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father doesn't want him to eat gummies all the time, I'm am equally certain that I have the sweetest boy on the planet.

In other news, we're still waiting for the appearance of Her Highness. She's making more progress than Little did after we had already been in the hospital for 24 hours though, so I'm counting that as a good thing. Everyone keeps asking if I am ready for another baby and I'm not completely sure how to answer. Do I have all the diapers/clothes/gear and what not? Yes (at least as far as I can remember). Am I ready to see her on the outside and stop the abuse of my innards? Definitely yes. Do I have any idea what on earth we've gotten ourselves into? Nope. Ah, well... another adventure I suppose. We are definitely excited to meet her, that is for sure.

...have all the snow you could ask for and more.
We had a great many plans for Little's birthday this year. Enter: snow storm. Exit: all of my plans. This wasn't your average Virginia snow storm (where they cancel everything for one snowflake). This was a wake up with the power out, use flashlights until 10:00am, snow everywhere, trees falling snow storm. It was a Utah worthy snow storm. Everything was cancelled of course, but this time it was actually for good reason.
Though the storm ruined all of our plans, it still made for a fun-filled birthday extravaganza. Little woke us up early with an exclamation of, "Oh my laws above!" which usually means it is going to be an interesting day. Turns out it was just because he had to go potty, but still... Upon discovering the power outage I grabbed a flashlight and that turned out to be one of the highlights of the day as Little carried it around "helping" me with it. I eventually had to take it away because I'm pretty sure we used all the battery power in a couple of hours, but it was fun while it lasted.

Once it was light enough, we immediately headed out to play in the snow, and by we I mean Bryce and Little, but I joined in for the last part. There were snowmen, an attempted tarp sled, plenty of snowballs (thanks to Bryce for teaching Little that it is fun to throw snowballs at mom), and lots and lots of layers.
When Little decided it was too cold, we came in and lounged around until the power came back on. After which, I hurried as fast as I could to cook the birthday cake/brownies just in case the power decided not to stay. A cake which turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself. (Sorry for the naked Little pictures, but I'm ridiculous and decided to dress him in a white shirt even though I was making a chocolate cake, not to mention the fact that he refuses to wear pants these days as he says he is "too busy to wear pants," so he ended up in his underwear and apron eating cake. Pick your battles, right?).
Little decided that he wanted a bulldozer cake and I'm pretty sure he asked me 1,200 times if it was time for his bulldozer, but when it finally was, life became a bit traumatic. Mostly it was because Bryce had the nerve to cut a piece out of the cake and Little--obsessive perfectionist that he is--was not having it. Bryce definitely was in big trouble for defiling Little's cake. We finally convinced Little to eat some of it, but it took a whole lot of time and effort, and it was only allowed after we agreed to let him have the whole cake in front of him so he could take bites out of it without threatening the structural integrity of the whole. I love that Little is so intense about stuff like that, but sometimes it can be problematic. Hilarious, but problematic.
Other than that the day was filled with bird watching, playing with Daddy, and being his usual silly self. I guess it was a good day though because around 5:30 Little looked at me and said, "My head is fuzzy." and informed us that it was time for him to go to bed. This coming from a boy who usually fights with all his might to stay up and bargain for that two more minutes of play time tells me that he was more tired than I have ever seen him. I guess that is what happens when you pump a child full of sugar and then let him run around like crazy all day long.
I'm so proud of my little man. I feel like he grows up more and more every day and I'm just so happy to be his mom. He's got a kind little soul, a huge heart, and he keeps us laughing all day long. I love his whole self and I can't wait to see what he becomes. Seriously, could there be a cuter child? I think not.