Baby Will

We are so excited that baby Will is here. For those of you not on Facebook, I thought I should probably get around to sharing the news. Daniel has done an excellent job of telling the whole story.

Sure, there are definitely some unflattering photos, but at the time, I didn't care. Here are all of the many links, or you could just go to http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/ and work backwards.

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/were-having-a-baby/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/all-downhill-from-here/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/but-they-while-their-companions-slept/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/new-life/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/adventures-in-the-mombaby-wing/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/dan-alexa-will/

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-babys-home/

He did such a good job that I probably won't write up the whole birth story myself, but here are a few of my thoughts:

• Labor was so much easier than I thought it would be! I didn't really want to be induced (too many natural childbirth books that I read for fun), but when I had the chance, I took it. And it was so great! The time flew by.
• Epidurals are the greatest thing ever invented. I am not a fan of pain, so I got my epidural after about only an hour or two of hard contractions. It was awesome! They said that it would take 15 or 20 minutes to kick in, but I couldn't feel the very next contraction. It also made me nice and cozy and warm.
• The best surprise of the whole labor process was only having to push for 10 minutes. I had mentally prepared myself for an hour, but I knew it could even be two. But 10 minutes?? I certainly didn't expect that. What a nice surprise!
• The sleep deprivation is so much harder than I thought possible.

Bottom line: I loved it (although I am tired now). It wasn't bad at all, and I got to take home our sweet baby at the end of it.

If you read this far, I will reward you with a few random pictures:

One of the Last Pregnancy Updates

It turns out, I am getting huge! Well, the baby is getting huge. I didn't realize just how big that belly was getting until I looked at these pictures!

Here are the last 3 pictures:

28 weeks - Actually, we forgot at 28 weeks, so this is 29 weeks.

32 weeks

And here is the current one - 36 weeks!!

Here is one of the baby projects I have finally finished - a car seat cover. 

Since I have been pregnant, I have definitely lost my will to craft. You would think I would go crazy making things for this baby (like I have for every other baby I know), but that has not been the case. It might have something to do with being tired, working full time, the broken foot, the other sprained ankle, my love for bubble baths, and just feeling lazy. Mostly the last one.

It is certainly an exciting and crazy time for us. The Pattees (who we are house-sitting for) are coming home in 2 weeks, this Baby Will is due in 3 weeks, and we are moving to Washington in 5 weeks. 

Really, this blog post is just a way to procrastinate moving more things into the basement and finishing my 9 weeks of sub plans for school. We will see how much blogging happens in the next few weeks!

Some Daniel Posts

Daniel has a blog from a long time ago, and for some reason he's decided to write some posts of his own there instead of here (to hear him tell it he has grand plans for that site). Since yesterday, he's written two posts:

• More Broken Feet - That's right, I hurt my other foot. Read about the experience.
• The Newest Spanish Oak First Grader - Daniel is now working with me at school for the foreseeable future

Perhaps I will tell these stories from my own perspective later. We'll see. It seems I'll have a bit of down time as I recuperate. Yay!

Baby Updates

If you are tired of baby updates, then this blog post is not for you. Maybe I will get around to posting other parts of our life soon.

Here I am at around 20 weeks. I got a little behind at posting these...

Then, at around 24 weeks. I don't think my arm is really that chubby. It was FREEZING outside, and I'm pretty sure I was just squeezing my arm against my body. I could be wrong though...

The baby is getting bigger every day. It is so fun to be able to feel him moving around and kicking. It is endlessly entertaining to me. I love to poke him to make him move. :)

Here is a picture of him at about 22 weeks. Yes, he looks a bit monkey-ish. He was pretty uncooperative and this is the best (and only) profile picture we could get.

I have shown some real restraint when it comes to buying things for this baby. I hope Daniel realizes how proud he should be! I have only bought a few select things. My most recent purchase was an adorable baby bird hat. I borrowed this picture from the girl I bought it from (mostly because I was too lazy to get up and take my own picture). I think it is even cuter in person, though! It is super soft and cozy.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get a prenatal massage. Heavenly!!! What a nice husband I have to encourage me to get one! Hopefully, it will be the first of many (or a least a few). :)

Halloween, Birthday, and Thanksgiving

The last 2 months have flown by! Just so you don't think we are completely boring, this is a post all about holiday festivities! Starting with Halloween, we have quite the lineup of holidays: Halloween - 2 week break - my birthday - 2 week break - Thanksgiving - 2 week break - Daniel's birthday - 2 1/2 week break - Christmas.

Back to Halloween...

Sometime in October, we carved pumpkins with Dave and Jessica. Unfortunately, they shriveled up after about 48 hours. Sad day. We spent Halloween night with Skyler and Tiffany. They made root beer with dry ice. It looked cool and tasted delicious!

Daniel made my Halloween costume this year. We stole the idea from Brooke and Ryan. I needed something that I could still use crutches with. The kids at school thought it was pretty cool. (It is a Wii remote.)

We also went to a Halloween dinner at the Robert's house. We didn't take any pictures there, but we did take a picture of our awesome "eyeballs."

Next, my birthday...

This year, my birthday was on 11-11-11. Pretty cool, huh? The broken foot AND sinus infection were not so cool. Still, we did our best to celebrate. We ate at the Cheesecake factory and went to the opening day of Crate and Barrel - my favorite store! They opened their first store in Utah on my birthday!

(I would post a picture here, but we only took one picture that day and it is the most unflattering picture I have ever seen. It probably has something to do with the sinus infection and abundant pregnancy acne.)

I also got to celebrate my birthday later that week with my two favorite little girls.

Then, Thanksgiving...

We started our Thanksgiving celebration with Dave and Jessica. We ate a delicious meal at Tucanos. It was amazing (and way better than cooking)!

We then spent the next couple of days at Daniel's grantparents' house. Lots of family and lots of food. We set up their Christmas tree again this year. Isn't it lovely?

We love this time of year!!

An Exciting Week

16 weeks down, 24 to go! We found out this week that our little Poppyseed is a BOY! We were surprised - but very excited. We are contemplating changing the baby's name from Poppyseed to Sesame Seed. We think that sounds a little less girly.

Here is a picture of me at 16 and a half weeks. I think you can finally see a small baby bump - IF I wear a very tight shirt.


Sadly, this is what I actually look like right now.



Crutches, boot, and all. Because... I was in an awesome car accident!

Imagine my left foot right next to this door as it was crushed.

Imagine me climbing through this glass to get out of my car through the passenger side.

Right before I saw this is when I climbed out of my car, tried to step on the ground and FELL OVER. That is when I realized that there was something wrong with my foot.

I was the final car in a 4 car accident on I-15. Above are cars 1 and 2. I still have no idea where car 3 is, or how they were involved. What I think happened is this: someone didn't slow down fast enough, and crashed into another car, which then crashed into the side of my car. As you can see, the other cars were worse off than my car. Unfortunately, I was the one that was injured in the crash.

However, I did get my very first ride in an ambulance. It was pretty exciting, but at the same time, not exciting at all.

You may remember Daniel's car accident about 6 months ago. Both times, not our fault. Both times, a broken body part for us! His was a broken wrist and thumb. Mine is a broken foot. Hopefully it will heal in about 6 weeks.

Really though, we are very thankful that I was not injured worse and that our baby is just fine.

All in all, it was a very exciting week for the Larsen family.

A Few of My Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things right now...





Any guesses why?

Yes! It is true!



This little blob (more affectionately known as Poppyseed) is due at the end of March, and we couldn't be happier!