As you all have requested..... more pictures

Here are pictures of Kenya's last day in the hospital.
This is her going home outfit. She sure looks good in lime green!!

Mommy dressing Kenya to go home.

What a fitting blanket Grandma Evans made. It is very colorful and makes Kenya look amazing.

Mom and baby sleeping Monday morning.


Thank you whoever made and posted this sign!! It was nice!!

Kenya at home. She was pondering what life is going to be like.

Isn't she cute! This little outfit is so warm, but HUGE on her. Today, we had to go back to the hospital to get her checked out again for jaundice. She is still improving, but we are going back again tomorrow for another check.

Captain's log...The eagles have landed!

WE'RE HOME!! The hospital was going to keep us overnight, but Kenya has improved so much and Lois is doing so well they let the girls come home to roost. However, now there are going to be a bunch of doctor visits to keep track and make sure all stays well. More pics to come...so keep on keepin' on.

This just in...

The Draper family will be staying another day at the hospital for Kenya's observation. The pediatrician says she's doing very well, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Also, due to the high demand of pictures here are more of them!




Smiling mom, Smiling baby!=>

The Name Game

So we officially turned in the application for the birth certificate, which means had to choose a name...We did. So...What's your guess? Here are your choices:

a. Remi Irene Draper
b. Jasmine Irene Draper
c. Kenya Irene Draper
d. Geraldine Irene Draper
e. None of the above
f. Cletus Lapidus the Fetus






































Okay, Just kidding...You don't really have to guess! Her name is Kenya Irene Draper

News Flash & More Pics

Here are more pics our little girl taken this morning. With Mom and Grandpa holding her. She is now nursing, but the hospital is going to keep her here to give her antibiotics every 12 hours. So we should be taking her home tomorrow afternoon sometime. Lois will be staying overnight also to nurse periodically. Here are the pics.

Captain's log...here are the stats...

Thank you, everyone, for keeping up with the play by play reports. Here are the current stats Baby Girl Draper is 6 lbs, 6oz and 20 inches long... She will be staying overnight in the nursery due to a build up of mucus in her lungs however, she has been improving overall from the delivery. She remains nameless until Lois gets to get a good look at her. That is all for the updates. More to come tomorrow. This has been an extremely joyous experience! Glory be to God, The Eternal Father! This is Robert Draper signing off for the night...Oh yeah, don't forget to set your clocks ahead an hour! Over and out!

Here's Baby....

Here are some pictures of the new baby girl, Robert cutting the umbilical cord, and Lois holding the baby temporarily.

Captain's log...

Okay, I will stop being mean...At 8:57pm Lois delivered a beautiful baby girl...name to be decided later... so don't ask!

Captain's bad...

Oops! Those weren't twins...The second one was just the placenta! Suckers!
It is a beautiful baby....infant....newborn.....to Be continued!

Captain's log...

Twins!!!! We had twins everybody!!

Captain's log...

It's a beautiful baby......with a full head of hair that is....Still not out! Stay tuned!

Captain's log...

At 7: 40 I saw the hairy head! Keep on pushin' Lois!

This just in...It's game time!

She's at a plus 1! I am signing off for now!

Breaking news...

Lois is now dilated at a 10 and is pretty much ready to push. We are waiting for stronger contractions to make the pushing easier. Next stop...baby town!

More guesses...

Shannon Evans guesses 8:47, Jayde gueses 8:01, and Josh guesses 2am tomorrow! Kelsey sorry about the whole "disgusting" guess thing, cuz Josh takes the cake! Just horrible! A.J. Hammond guesses 6:15, Matthew guesses 8:40, and Sam apparently wants to keep the baby if he wins! After all that work, Lois wouldn't even dream of giving it away! Nice try Sam.

Photo News Flash...

Here are some on scene pics of the action here at the hospital. Also Kira guesses 5:48pm MST or 7:48pm EST. Leslie guesses 8:35pm





Lois
Lois and Corinne
Lois and Amy
Lois and Meg

Pitocin update...

It has been brought to my attention that there are some of you wondering if Lois is on Pitocin...yes, yes she is.

More guesses and an update

Brother Aaron guesses 9:15pm and Kelsey guesses a disgusting 10:30pm.

The update is that Lois is now dilated to an 8. So keep those guesses coming.

Latest guesses...

Cheri guesses 8:15pm, Amy guesses 8:23, Corrine guesses 8:45pm, Dad (Evans) guesses 7:30pm, Mom (Evans guesses 6:47pm. Keep'em coming!

New incoming event...

Listen up Lois Labor Log Lovers... The polls have now opened...post your guess on what time you think the baby will be born to the nearest 15 minutes without going over...the grand prize is to claim clairvoyance and extreme bragging rights! So shake your tail feather, rapido, haga-naga quickly, move it, get goin' and cast those times!

News Flash...

Lois is now dilated to a 7. She's doing great. That is all.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Okay all you blog followers...the epidural has landed...Nap time is underway...so if you are reading this, maintain cell phone and radio silence until notified. I like to think of this time as...the calm before the storm. Signing off for now... I'm Robert Draper for Lois's Labor Log.

Breaking news...

The epidural has been given and... All is well...stay tuned.

News update

The hiccups have arrived! I repeat...The hiccups have arrived! Over.

This just in...

Contractions are getting stronger, she gets a little nauseous, and she is dilated to a 6! In other news... Lois's mom is very sadistic! She wants Lois to have pain and to cry in payment for Lois's birth! She laughs like a giddy, school girl as Lois squirms in discomfort. Talk about one sick individual! Stay tuned for details... but not too detailed details.

tick... tock...tick...tock...

I know some people are just waiting for some news, but there is NONE!(Kelsey) Just small, steady contractions. That is all for now.

Labor Logging...

As per Kelsey's request, Lois is blogging during labor. So... She was dilated to a 4 and then her water was broken a little after 8am. She is now having small contractions about 5 and a half minutes apart. To be continued....

Its a....

Here are pregnancy pictures of me.These are one day shy of my due date, taken this morning.

Well, it all started yesterday while I was enjoying my last day of work. I got a voice mail from the hospital telling me that they were going to move my inducing up to 7:30am. Okay, that was not ideal, but we will make it work. Robert had to be in class today at 10:15am because he had a presentation.
Last night I was so excited that I was done with work I invited friends to go to DQ with us and have ice cream. It was also the last night that Robert and I would have not being parents so going out sounded great! We had fun!
This morning just after 6:00am the hospital called to tell me that their labor and delivery unit was full and that they would have to bump me back on the schedule to be induced. People say that storms bring babies and it snowed over night so this was not surprising. Anyway, now Robert could go to class and things were back to the original plan. The hospital told me they would call me at about 10:00am to tell me when/if to come in. Well, they called just after 11 and said that all the ladies were still laboring and that they did not want to start me after 1pm. So, here I am at home because those ladies used more than their share of the hospital. Honestly, I scheduled my birth and I am the one to get bumped. How rude! Just kidding.
So, I now have an apt to start at 7:30am tomorrow morning. And they did ask me to call first to make sure there was room. I have been telling the baby all day that it should come out today anyway so that they have to make room, or that is should come in the middle of the night just to spite the hospital and Dr. (Wow, look what I am already teaching the kid. Look out world!)
So, its a...... another day to wait to find out who/what Cletus Lapidus the Fetus is.

Last Dr Apt

Today I went in for my last Dr appointment. I am still dilated at 3 cm. So, Friday at 11 am I am checking into the hospital to be induced. We were planning on it for tomorrow, but it seems to work better with schedules if we do it on Friday. The doc says everything looks good and ready to go. So, in less than 48 hours we may be parents! Really that is the only update. Still no contractions from what I can tell.
Robert has been amazing at working hard to get ahead in school! He is such a hard worker. THANKS honey!
Me, I have 5 hours left of work (tomorrow) and then I am done with work for at least 12 weeks!! There are just a few things that I need to do before the baby comes and I will get those done tomorrow.

Thanks!

I just wanted everyone to know that my brother Chris came home from Iraq last month and I am so grateful!! He served our country and I am proud of him and what he has done! I know that he could have a hard time adjusting back to life here, but I am glad that what seemed to be the dangerous part is over. Welcome home Chris!!!
Thank you Heavenly Father for your protective care over my brother and many others who are serving this country!!!

Baby Update

So, I went to the Dr. on Wednesday and he said that I was dilated 3 cm. I was so excited and thought I was on my way to having a baby and maybe even in February. This made me VERY excited because on Friday and Saturday I had 10 hour shifts for work. I thought the baby would get me out of work. Then on Wednesday night I began "spotting." Again this showed me signs of labor and getting closer to having this baby. I didn't say anything to anyone other than Robert that night because I know you can spot for a week or more before going into labor. Then Thursday I spotted all day and told some people about it. We were all thinking any day now and any time now I would start contractions and labor. I continued to spot through out Friday and I am almost positive that I have lost my mucus plug. So, surely I would not have to work on Saturday is what I was thinking. Maybe I would not have the baby by then but I thought I would be in labor or miserable and have an excuse not to go into work. Well, Saturday morning rolled around and I woke up REFRESHED. I felt sooo great that morning. Which, in talking to other women, have said that they feel that way right before they start heavy labor. Again this was my chance to get out of working a long month-end shift. So, in the morning I went grocery shopping and walked the long way around the store to try and walk myself into labor. While walking it got more and more uncomfortable, but still nothing that would be like a contraction. So, then at noon I went into work. All day I waited for something that I could justify going home for and other associates encouraged me to because I am less than a week away from having a baby and surely I should not be required to work. I felt the same way, but knowing that we will need the money while Robert is finishing the semester and has only one job, I knew the best and right thing to do was to stay at work and get us any money that I could. (Also, I really did feel just fine. If the baby wasn't so sweet to nudge me and remind me that it was sharing a body with me I would not have even know I was pregnant.) The one thing that did suck about working yesterday was that the restrooms were closed down because there was a clog somewhere in the drainage. So, I had to walk all the way outside and across the street to use the restroom and that was about every hour or hour and a half. So, I got home yesterday being tired, but made it through with no baby and still no contractions. (I did have a few pains during the day, but I think it was more gas or hungry pains. It was nothing of what I am told a contraction could feel like.) Today, I woke up and went to church. I have not felt anything that would allow me to think that I was going to have a baby this week. I walked to and from church twice today and I waddled the whole way. As my mom would describe it I was walk like there is a grapefruit between my legs.
I feel like my body was getting ready and the the baby decided it wanted to wait to have a March birthday. Well, I guess that is okay with me as long as it is within the first few days of March, other wise we will be choosing its birthday.

Baby Shower Feb 7

A couple of my friends put together a great baby shower! Meg Hebdon, Jenny Miller, and Natalie Messano did a wonderful job. THANK YOU SO MUCH! A lot of people showed up and we had a blast! We played some fun games and Meg made sure that I had all of my favorite food there. They made rice crispy treats, muddy buddies, cup cakes, and nachoes. YUMMY!

There were 16 guests including myself! Thank you so much everyone for your support and excitement.
We played a game where we had to guest the baby food out of the jar. I did not do so well. Maybe I will learn in the next few years. We also drew a letter out a hat and the each person was to write down as many names as they could think of beginning with that letter. Then I was able to take those names and read them over. The last game we played was to cut a piece of string to guess how big around I was.
The best part about any shower is opening the gifts! THANKS again everyone! He is a picture of the items that we got. Lots of diapers as Robert was asking for and of coarse adorable baby blakets, clothes, binkies, and well you can see the rest.
It was so much fun!! I cannot say thank you enough.

10 year dating spree and counting...

Today marks the day in history that Robert finally got the guts to ask me to be his girlfriend! It was at Mazama High School right before Lois' geometry class ten years ago. Well, the rest is history...
We have been together ever since. There were rough times when we were separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles, but we have learned and grown a lot, only to make life all the sweeter.
(Fall 1999. Mazama High School. Klamath Falls, OR)

It only took Robert 5 more years to get the courage to ask me to marry him on this same date.
(March 13, 2004. Moore Park, Klamath Falls, OR)

Now it is 5 more years after he proposed and yet still seems like only the beginning of our time together. The time that we have spent together seems so short when compared to the eternity that we are sharing together.(October 16, 2008. Near the Idaho Falls falls, Idaho Falls, ID)<=What a mouth full!

Robert, I love you!!

Update on Christmas tree solutions.

So, we got one of the bags off line to store our Christmas tree in. It worked pretty well. It seems that it might have even helped store it in a small space. I was able to put it at the top of the spare rooms closet. YEAH!!!!
Because of putting the tree away I began to clean out the closet. I went through every box and junked a lot of things. It sure is nice to have more room in that room because now we might even be able to fit a baby in there in a few months.

Are we going to parents? Really?

So, last night as I was going through some baby items Cheri sent me I was thinking...
"These are cute and will come in handy someday when we have kids. I will just need to find somewhere to keep them." Then, all the sudden I realized that I will be putting a baby in these clothes in just a few weeks. WOW! Is it ever going to seem real before the baby comes?

Then this morning Robert and I were getting ready for him to go to school and he said, "You are having a baby shower this weekend and your not just going to it, it is for you." Isn't he so cute! Robert is going to be a daddy!

I think that we are in for a real shock when we have a baby in our home, I hope that we don't forget about it then.

Pink or Blue?

So, I am not a great blogger and don't know how to do fancy things with my blog, so this is the best I got.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think the baby's gender is going to be. We are hearing mostly boy from people around here. Robert nor I really have any idea.

Okay I figured it out. Feel free to leave a comment as well and/or vote with the poll to the right.

Great Daddy to be! (and other baby updates.)

As you all probably know we are getting excited about having a baby! Along with the excitement comes other emotions as well. We are both still feeling very calm, but also in our heads is the thoughts of being ready with baby stuff, and the anticipation of when it will happen. Really, we are only 5 weeks away and so, anything could happen and this baby could come.
Robert this past week had planned a few days in advance to have our family home evening. So, Monday night came around and I had no idea what we were going to do. So, for the activity he had planned to put together the hospital bag. It was fun searching the house for things that the list suggested. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. So, we are now "ready" to be able to just pick up the bag and get the hospital if needed. Granted we still need to get the house ready and get the car seat and thing ready for when the baby comes home, but at least at the hospital I will have what I need and a few things for the baby.
It was actually a few weeks ago that Robert started to ask me about what is needed to put in the hospital bag and I told him I had no idea. So, then I found a list in a magazine and told him about it. It is nice to hear him express his concerns and thoughts about having a baby. He really wants to be part of it and is doing a great job at supporting me, when/if I need it.
This pregnancy has been very different than I thought it would be. Really, it has not affected or changed our lives much. Just recently I have had the pleasure of the multiple trips to pee at night, but really that is it. It has been such a blessing!

Other things Robert has said that I am grateful he said and shows his support to me:

He as asked when/if I need help tying my shoes.
Tells me it is okay to sleep as much as I do and does not complain about the lack of sleep that he gets.
Doesn't complain when I don't get up at 4:00am to get him some breakfast.
He humors me when I tell him to feel the baby kick or watch my stomach move. (Of coarse the baby always stops and so he does not get to see/feel it very often, but he will do it anyway because he knows that I want him to experience it as well.)
He talks to me about baby names.
He has gone to every doctors apt.
He shows his love for me and tells me he loves me everyday!

Last thing I wanted to mention is that I had a doctors appointment this last Wednesday I talked to my doctor about being induced. He said that he is fine with it as along as I am past 39 weeks. I had to ask him because I think one of the only things that I have stressed out about is going past my due date a week or two and having an almost 11 pound baby. (So, Kelsey I don't think I could be as brave or strong as you.) So, I was glad to hear my Dr. say he would induce me if we wanted. So, Robert and I have begun to think about asking him to do it on March 7 because it works well with our schedule. (That makes it sound so easy to have a baby, but I doubt it will be.) My next appointment with the Dr is February 11 and we will talk to him about it then.

Sorry for the long blog, but I will try to keep everyone posted.

Christmas Tree Storage Help

So, our Christmas tree is still up in our apartment. I put away all the rest of our Christmas decoration a few weeks ago, but the box that our tree came in was so torn up and out of shape, that we tossed it out. Now, we are not sure what to use to store the tree. Any suggestions? I found that online they have tree storage bags, but I am not sure how well those work.

No new updates. Robert started school and I am still working. Just under 7 weeks till my due date!

Back in Rexburg

Well, we are home safe. Thanks to all of you who were praying as we traveled today! The road were not as bad as they could have been. So, tomorrow back to work for both of us. We are praying for all of you still traveling. Drive safe!

Draper 2008 Christmas card and letter.

Well, another year past and we are moving along quickly in life. I finished school in July and graduated with a BS in biology. That sure is nice to be finished. I love going to school and am sad to know that schooling is over for me, at least it is for awhile. Robert will be done with school next year. He is going to have a BA in communications and an emphasis in advertising. We are a little nervous about this because of the way the economy is right now. He is a little discouraged because his teachers all tell him that the communications field is not such a good field right now because it is the first to go when companies are doing budget cuts. So, if anyone has any job offers or suggestions for internship PLEASE let us know. We are excited to be able to see the end of our days at BYU-Idaho. One last winter in the Rexburg cold. There really is not much to report on for this past year. We have had some fun as you have noticed through our previous posts and enjoyed our family time! We have been married for almost 5 years and been in love for almost 10 wonderful years.
Well, with that I guess we will announce that we are building on to our family. I am between 6 and 7 months pregnant. I am due March 7, 2009! We are SO excited! We have been trying for quite awhile for a child and feel so blessed that God has decided to grant us this opportunity in life. My pregnancy has been a breeze! I really feel no different, other than the movements that I began to feel around Thanksgiving. It is fun and yet so surreal. We are not finding out the sex of the baby. We want you all to stayed tuned until after the baby is born to find out.
Really, that is all the news that we have. Check back for updates and more information as often as you would like. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoy the short week left in the 2008. And thank you to everyone who sent us a Christmas card of their own this year. It's always nice to get some mail other than bills and junk!

The green wrench that almost stole Christmas

So, Robert and I were planning on going my family's house is Libby, MT for Christmas. On Sunday we were headed to Idaho Falls to pick up some friends from the airport and a wrench light showed up on our dashboard while driving. The car began to loose power and chug. Our friends flight was delayed because of the snow, so we turned around and didn't drive our Fusion. Needless to say that was an adventure trying to pick up our friends from the airport.
Here is that side story.... Meg and Brandon Hebdon were suppose to fly in Sunday at 10pm into the Idaho Falls airport and had asked us to pick them up. They called because their flight was delayed at about 8:30pm. No problem, we were just going to pick them up at 10:30pm instead. So, we left and that is when the car dash light turned on. Well, Meg text me and said that their plane should land in IF at about 12am. Okay, Robert and I left again, this time in our metro to pick them up. Well, we get almost to Rigby and Meg text again saying that they plane could not land, and they turned around and flew all the way back to SLC. Finally, I picked them up the next day at about noon. Those poor guys, they have one of those nightmare holiday travel stories to tell.
Anyway, back to out Christmas plan store.... So, we called Monday morning to get the car in the to dealership because it is under warranty and of coarse they could not get us in until Tuesday at 1:30. We were wanting to take off Wednesday, Christmas Eve after Robert got off work in the morning. The weather was not looking good because we had had snow storms all weekend and they were suppose to continue through Christmas. It was looking very unlikely that we would get out of Rexburg fro Christmas. We were sad! But, the car turns out that nothing huge needed to be fixed and all turned out well. Robert and I decided to go ahead and go to Libby when he got home from work on Christmas Eve. The drive was not bad and we made it here in under 9 hours. (Usually in the summer it take about 7 and 1/2 to 8hours.)

We had a great Christmas with family. Kira flew home from CT, and Josh and Shannon and his two girls came over from Kalispell. Christine, my sister in-law was here too. It was fun! We relaxed, ate, played games, and enjoyed family time just as Christmas should be. It snowed in the evening on Christmas Eve and all morning on Christmas. It was wonderful. We will be headed back to Rexburg Saturday or Sunday. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.
These are pictures out my parent's window on Christmas Day! Enjoy the view!

The beginning of Christmas vaction

Yesterday Robert finished his last class in the afternoon and is done with school until the beginning of January. We are both so excited. Funny thing happened last night. I got off of work early and we were wanting to celebrate. However, it was graduation night and Rexburg is packed with parents and others celebrating. So, we decided to stay in. We watched some Christmas movies and we were both falling asleep just after 9pm. Boy are we losers. The first day of vacation and we got so bored that we went to bed earlier than we have in months. We got a good laugh at ourselves.
Below are This and That curled up for a long winters nap. Aren't they so cute! I guess we keep our house a little cold because even our cats wrap up in blankets.

Here is our tree. The weather beat us! On Monday night for family home evening we got out the fake one and put it up. Don't get me wrong I think it looks great, but the pine smell is missing. I guess we didn't spend any money and our house looks good.
This is a sunset just the other day. Robert took an amazing picture of it. It is my favorite color, orange! Today though we woke up to about 2 inches of snow. YEA! But now we are going to have to get snow tires. That is a budget killer.

O Christmas Tree

Robert and I were going to go get our first "real" Christmas tree yesterday, but he had church meetings in the morning and so we put it off until this morning. Well, we woke up to snow just barley covering the ground at 4:15am when Robert got up for work. We were okay with that and were still planning on going. I was a little excited about the snow because that meant that we would see all the trees and things with snow. It would make it just a little more special. So, I went back to sleep and got up just after 7:00 to be ready to go when Robert got off of work at about 7:30-8:00. It was snowing again. Robert called and said that there was a lot of wind and he was sliding around on the roads a lot when going to work. So, it has been snow which I like and am not sad about at all. The only thing is....
No tree today. Hopefully it will be soon that we get our tree, but we don't have many decorations and the house looks a little bare. We are counting on our tree to make our home look a little more like Christmas.

The rest of our Thanksgiving trip.

On Wednesday my sister Amy flew in from Texas to spend the holiday with us. That day we ate at an Indian buffet in West Hartford where Kira lives. Great food. That was all the excitement that day.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we got up and started making dinner. What a wonderful dinner we had. Kira was asked to have 4 missionaries over for dinner and they showed up right before dinner was ready. We played some games throughout the day and ate and ate and ate.

Friday morning we drove back to the JFK airport in New York City and began our travel back west. We left super early thinking there would be holiday traffic and it would take a twice as long to get to the airport. Well, it didn't. We arrived at the airport just after 10 am and our flight did not leave until almost 3 pm.We got into SLC at about 9 pm and stayed with our friends, the Loeras. The next day was just a day to chill and relax. After it got dark we went to temple square and looked at all the Christmas lights. What an amazing spirit of Christ there was. There were 2 nativity scenes set up in life like size.

This was gorgeous! It was a nativity set floating on the water with candles floating in it. Above is a close up of Joseph, Mary and Christ. Below shows the SLC temple's reflection in the water.

Here is the other nativity they had there. There were wise men to the east and also shepherds to the west. This scene was big. There was every detail of the story and as people gathered around, over an outside speaker, the story of Christmas was told. Also, at the end modern prophets bore their testimonies of this wonderful occasion.

A picture of the SLC Temple from the street as we were leaving. Beautiful!

After the lights we drove the 3 hours home and arrived safely to our cats at about midnight Saturday night. It was so sad to know it was over, but great to be home.

Icing on the cake in Boston.

Here is a picture of Boston at night from the dock of the ferry that we took to crossed the harbor and get back to the car. Thankfully we did not have to walk all the way back to the car!



After getting to the car we went to the Boston temple. What a wonderful place to end such a perfect day. The temple of coarse was wonderful and beautiful. After the temple, home we went. We got back to Kira's place at about 1:00 am.