Juli + Ammon = Juliammon

Our third child has finally arrived! And what a story we have to tell! As some of you may have seen on the news, "Snowmageddon" hit the east coast this past weekend. Me and Ammon thought it was pretty funny how they were hyping up this storm on the news the few days before it hit. They had been saying there would be "blizzard-like" conditions and tons of snow etc, etc. And we thought- oh, these east coasters always over exagerate. So we went for a little walk Friday night in the snow storm and thought it was fun to shake the tree bows that were hanging down from the wet, heavy snow. And then, while we were walking home we saw two huge tree branches break off the trees from the weight of the snow. And then we thought, oh wow, I hope a tree doesn't fall on us, maybe we should stop shaking the tree branches. But still we mocked- "I've been through a real blizzard of North Dakota and This is no blizzard." So we went to bed that night thinking nothing of this supposed "Storm of the Century."

Well, I woke up the next morning about 4:30 AM with contractions every 5 minutes that were hard enough to make me think something might be happening. We took our time getting ready to go. Why should we be worried? We have my parents 4WD Suburban! The first thing that got me a little nervous was when I couldn't find the phone number to notify my doctor and I needed to look up the phone number online, but the power kept flickering and turning the computer off. I tried 3 times and finally gave up and started searching through some paperwork to find the number. When we finally stepped out the door, what a sight met our eyes. Sure we'd looked out the window, but until we stepped into the knee-deep snow and saw the collapsed trees it didn't seem that bad. So we trudged, with difficulty to the car. It was completely buried. The kids obviously couldn't walk there. We tried to pull them on the sled, but that didn't work very well.

There are 3 of our neighbors cars under that tree. It's still on there today actually.

Our friends who live close by and were planning on watching the kids for us came over to help us dig... but after trying for an hour and a half to dig the car out without success, (and even after putting the chains on) we decided to just walk over to their house a couple of blocks away. The snow was up to the top of the tires and it was thick and heavy... so there was no way we were going anywhere. Walking was hard enough. Luckily, my contractions had slowed down to about every 10-15 minutes by then and I wasn't quite as concerned. However, when they came, they were hard sometimes.

We hung around our friends house for a little while, but decided we'd still better figure out how to get to the hospital eventually, even if my labor wasn't progressing as fast as I thought. (my last delivery with Jensen came fast- only 3 hours from start of contractions to delivery) I crossed our minds that maybe we could just walk to the hospital. It wasn't too far away, and after all, maybe that would make the contractions start up good again and by the time we got there I'd be ready. The walk over to their house wasn't so bad... maybe that would work. We just didn't think Anyone would be able to drive over to get us. I was under the impression that an ambulance ride would cost a ton of money too, so why add an extra expense? I called 911 just to ask how much an ambulance ride cost and when they said it was free we took that option. Aparently the ambulances were all busy though and a fire truck came instead. Since I wasn't in active labor they went ahead and took me over to the closest hospital, Sinai. It's a jewish institution. very nice place.

The fire truck ride was pretty exciting! Jensen loves firetrucks, so he got a kick out of it! Here's our firemen friend. They actually had to leave one of their guys at the house so that me and Ammon could both come along.

I wasn't dilated when I got to the hospital, so we walked around the hospital for 4 hours trying to start the labor back up. I knew we should have just walked to the hospital. My contractions were still only every 10-15 minutes apart, so this was a much slower process than with Jensen. But I had dilated a little by the time we went back to get checked again. What a miserable place the hospital is.

It was all worth it in the end though. At about 11pm that night the contrations all of a sudden picked up full force. I got my epidural by 1AM and at 2:32AM (Feb. 7) we finally found out that we had a GIRL! We had decided not to find out the gender by ultrasound, so that we'd have a surprise and what a surprise it was! Everyone I'd talked to swore that I was having a boy (because me belly stuck out so far... why that would indicate I'm having a boy I'm not sure?). So we proved them all wrong. She weighed 8lbs 2oz, which was much smaller that Jensen's 9lbs 1oz, thankfully. Recovery will be much nicer from the smaller baby.

She is so beautiful! We were surprised to see how much thick, black hair she had. Ryley had black hair too, but not quite so much. Her facial features look a lot like Ryley too.

It will be interesting to see if all of her black hair falls out and turns white like Ryley's too. We called the kids the next morning and I think Ryley was so excited that it was a girl! That's what she wanted. Someone to play dress-up with! They came to see me in the hospital once the roads got a little more cleared off. She loves to hold her and she takes very good care of her already.

Jensen likes to give her kisses and hugs and he always tells us when she's crying.

My dad drove over from West Virginia that evening once they dug themselves out of their driveway. My dad also thought it was important to note that she was born on superbowl sunday.

We decided to name her Evelyn Viola Posey. My sister thought we should have used "Storm" for a middle name, given the circumstances of her birth. But the middle name we picked is Ammon's grandma Posey's name. She's a woman we love and admire.

We came home on Tuesday morning just before the next big snowstorm hit. We're both healthy and So incredibly happy. We feel so blessed. Things really could have gone bad, but it all worked out very nicely in the end.

My mom and grandma Davis even made it down to see us just as the storm was getting wicked outside. They were even having some major car trouble, but they made it alright.

The kids promptly took possession of the balloons and intoduced Evely to real noise.

The girls win the tie-breaker!

We had a great Christmas at my parent's house in West Virginia! It's so nice to have them close by! Have I said that before? My brother Jake was there from Colorado too, so that was bonus! We also got to talk to my youngest brother Jared on the phone from Chile, where he's serving a mission. It was really nice to hear his voice again! They had plenty of snow for us to enjoy at their house, so we went sledding and cross-country skiing. However, on Christmas day we had some freezing rain that put little bit of a damper on our outdoor fun. It didn't stop Ryley from jumping on the trampoline though. She loves that trampoline. We also played a lot of fun games, but Ammon was on a role and swept the board each time (except for Galaxy Trucker- great game, by the way!).