And Then There Were Four...

On January 18th at 3:11am, our little Rachel Catherine was born.  She weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. and is healthy and hopefully happy to be here. One of the most amazing things was when Lauren and Ryan came to visit.  I hadn't realized just how big Lauren had become--she's huge compared to Rachel. Since the labor and everything went well and we were all able to come home the next day, which was really nice considering Ryan and Lauren were at home. I can't say that Rachel is super good at eating or sleeping yet, but we're working on it.  It has been a pretty overwhelming week with Ryan going back to school but every day we figure out a little bit more and things are getting better. Lauren has been having a little bit of a hard time adjusting, though she does seem to like Rachel.  The first day Rachel was home I was changing her and Ryan was reading to Lauren in another room; Lauren heard Rachel crying and stopped Ryan mid-story (which she never does) and ran in and gave Rachel her Piggy, which is a big deal because Piggy happens to be her favorite little friend that she rarely ever shares.  Lauren does get angry with me though, mostly when I don't respond to her needs as quickly as she would like.  Luckily Rachel does takes naps during the day and so Lauren gets some one on one time then.  Mostly I've been so grateful for our ward and my wonderful visiting teachers, who have made sure that we've had meals and that Lauren's had places to go if needed. I'm also grateful for how quickly I felt like I was able to heal. Even though I'm not totally back to normal I have been feeling really good and have even managed to get a few showers this week :)  

Here are a whole bunch of pictures of the blessed event:

Daddy's Girls

Yay for hospital food

Daddy and Rachel

Checking things out

Classic Dad and Baby sleeping pose

Just for scale, Rachel and Lauren's doll

Rachel and Lauren (and Piggy)

Taking a snooze

Our Girls

Catching Up Again...

I'm not really sure how to best sum up the past couple months other than with pictures and some videos.  So here are some from our church Halloween party.  I let Lauren pick her costumes from a few that I thought were cute.  It was definitely no surprise what she chose:

Our favorite red monster

Elmo and Dad

Lauren even got to do some trunk-or-treating, the proceeds of which were heavily taxed by Ryan and I, mostly me though (I like treats).  Besides Lauren shouldn't eat that much candy anyway, and I was sure to save the fruit snacks and other small treats for her.

Thanksgiving was also a blast.  My cousins invited us out to Columbus, Ohio, where we stuffed ourselves silly and watched all the kids run around like banshees.  Sadly I didn't get a picture of that part, but I did get some of the Air Force Museum that we checked out the day after Thanksgiving.

Lauren and cousin Jacque

Jacque is Lauren's favorite

Lauren and Dad checking out the cockpit

The next cool thing that has happened is Bloomington got a whole bunch of snow, which apparently never happens in December.  Missing our Utah winters, we were very excited and got out to make a snowman at the best possible opportunity.  Sadly our snowman didn't even last an hour before the neighbor boys pummeled him to the ground.  At least I got some pictures beforehand though...

First Snow

Quite warm and poofy

Our Snowman

  And finally some randomness about Lauren.  She has started talking a lot more lately and is starting to get a little more understandable.  Some of my favorite things she has said include once when we were at the grocery store and I was getting her some Cheerios, Ryan told her that I was going to buy them; the whole rest of the time we were in the store and all the way home she kept repeating "Buy it, buy it."  I told Ryan that I was always going to take her shopping with me and Ryan said that he was never going to give her plastic (debit/credit card).  Another one of my favorite moments was when we woke up to it snowing outside and so we went downstairs and sat in front of the window snuggled up in a blanket with just the Christmas lights on.  Lauren leaned back on me and sighed and said "Happy."  It was so cute.  She likes to point to her self regularly now and say "happy" and then point to Ryan and I and say "happy" and wait for us to agree.  Mostly though she likes to identify things, and if she doesn't know what it is she'll ask "what's that?"  It's lots of fun and I feel like she is soaking up everything.

Here are two silly movies for your enjoyment:

Arts and Crafts

So I’ve never been one who was very crafty, but being out of school and home all day has allowed more time for some exploration into my long lost or barely existent crafty side.  Most of this is crocheted stuff.  I started learning how to crochet this summer because I wanted to make cute stuff for Lauren.  I found a book at the BYU bookstore on clearance for $5 with patterns for little kids and started trying things.  So don’t look too closely at the crocheted stuff, I’m still learning J

I saw another little girl with a hat like this and that's what made me want to learn to crochet

A little something to make our apartment feel more fallish

Storage pockets

A birthday present for my brother-in-law, Michael

Catching Up

We currently don’t have the internet at our apartment so there is a lot of catching up to do, hence the wave of blog posts.  So I’ll start with the big news first that most of you know anyway, but for those of you who don’t we are having another little girl the end of January.  We’re pretty excited, I can’t entirely speak for Lauren though she doesn’t really get it, but I don’t think she’s opposed to the idea…yet. When we were getting the ultrasound she started clapping when the doctor said it was a girl, I’m sure she had no idea what that meant but just felt like something excited had just been said.  I’ve tried to explain to her that there is a baby in my tummy and she just pats her tummy and says “baby.”  Whenever I even say the word baby she’ll come over lift up my shirt, pat my tummy and say “baby,” or lift up her own shirt and say “baby.”  The best part is when she climbs up on Ryan and pats his tummy and says “baby.”

Lauren is at such a fun age right now, I love it.  She understands and responds to a lot of what we say to her and is getting better at communicating in a more understandable way to us.  She has a very funny and animated personality and loves just being silly.  Going to parks is almost a daily activity and all we do is go down the slides and sometimes swing on the swings. Reading books is still one of her favorite past times and her repertoire has expanded way beyond her baby books and includes books on politics, the Supreme Court, law, geography, religion, and public finance.  It makes me laugh how she will consistently pull the same books off the shelf: the US Atlas, World Politics (mostly for the pictures of maps), Gideon’s Trumpet, Founding Brothers, etc.  She also loves to flip through the pages of our scriptures and the Gospel Principles manual, and points out all the pictures of Jesus.  I’m so amazed every day at how much she is watching and picking up on everything we do and say.  She will automatically fold her arms to pray when we sit down to eat or before we put her to bed, she likes brushing her hair after I brush mine or likes to help me brush my teeth.  Lauren is also a great helper in the kitchen and will carry things from the pantry over to the counter or from the kitchen out to the table, and loves “mixing” things.  It makes cooking take a lot longer but I love how she is so excited to help.  I love being able to be home with her every day and see all the funny things she does.

Lauren and Daddy

SLIDES!!!

The climb up the slide didn't end well

More Pics of Campus

Here are some more pictures of campus...

The library, the outside is supposed to look like stacks of books

The student building that also doubles as a hotel.  It's huge.

This is actually just off of campus, but I love the hanging flowers.