Recently

So this will be the last post with pictures for a little while.  Someone stole our digital camera and I don't know when we'll be able to get a new one. Luckily we already had most the pictures downloaded onto our computer, but all the same I'm pretty ticked about the whole situation. I don't even care so much about the monetary value, it wasn't a super nice or fancy camera, but it was more valuable to us in the sense that we could share the pictures and movies with our families that are not close by and whom we don't see often.

All that aside, we had a great couple months.  Both the girls are doing well and growing quickly and we were even fortunate enough to have some family come out to visit.  Lauren was in heaven the whole time and talks about seeing them again a couple times a day.  Here are some pictures from hanging out with family:

Jacqui and Steven with Rachel

Rachel's new dress from Sarah and Steven (Thank you!)

Family picture after blessing Rachel

Rachel and Lauren with Grandma and Grandpa Woolsey

Lauren in her super cute pig hat from Sarah and Steven :)

Hitching a ride on Grandpa

We are all very excited to be able to go out to Utah in a couple months and visit.  Lauren is really looking forward to her party with "tuptakes" (cupcakes), jumping in the grass,  seeing both sets of "Mamer and Papa" (Grandma and Grandpa), and catching balls with Uncle Nate and Uncle Mike.

Some other good news is Ryan got an internship for the summer and we had our first ever spring break!  We didn't do anything super exciting for spring break but Ryan was able to get a lot done. Last good news is that it is starting to get warmer and we have been able to hit up a few parks.  We can't wait for spring to really set in.

Cute Girls

We love our girls:

Quirks and Perks

Lauren's favorite dress

So I really wanted to do this post about Lauren before Rachel was born but didn't quite get to it.  Lauren, being the adorable 20 month old girl that she is has developed some very amusing quirks as of late, I am quite sad that I am not able to capture pictures of all of them, but here they are all the same.  First, she is very in to dresses.  She likes to wear one every day, the same one actually.  It is pink and has butterflies and flowers and if I haven't hid it from her then she insists on wearing it over whatever outfit she has on. And of course it never matches, I've stopped caring and I'll take her anywhere regardless. If she can not wear this beloved dress then she has to wear her jacket, the pink one with flower buttons.  These are her favorites but occasionally she will settle for another dress or jacket.  One that always makes me laugh is when she wears her rain jacket with the hood, she always has to have to hood on.  Lauren also loves to brush her teeth.  This made me very excited because we don't have to fight her while getting ready for bed.  Sometimes I even have to take her toothbrush away from her kicking and screaming. I never thought I would have to forcibly make my child stop brushing her teeth but I just don't want her chewing on it all day and sticking it heaven knows where.  Another quirk as of late has been sleeping with her towel. This started out just to be something she liked to do after she had a bath but now she has to sleep with her towel underneath her in her bed every night and every nap.  She started wailing one night because she did not have her towel in her bed, since she rarely cries when going to bed I hurried up to she what she needed.  She just kept saying "towel, towel" over and over; quick fix, so I hurried and got it.  Lauren is also very tidy.  This is one of my favorite things.  Before going to bed we always clean up all her toys in her room. Just tonight we cleaned her room and then I told her to go get her stories, on her way to get her stories she found at least five little things that needed to be put away or in the garbage.  She wouldn't get her stories until that was done. If anything spills on the floor she will run in the kitchen and get the towel hanging on the oven door and wipe it up.  She will even clean up after me sometimes, putting things in the garbage or closing drawer behind me. (She must get that from her dad).

Lauren and Daddy in the "snack spot"

 Another one of my favorite things is the "snack spot."  At various times during the day Lauren will tell me that she wants a snack, so we go and check out the pantry at get our snack.  I just got really lazy and wouldn't even take the snack to the table, but would just park it right there on the floor outside the pantry.  Now whenever we go to the pantry and get out a snack Lauren will say "snack" and sit down on the floor.  (This spot is especially nice in the winter, since there is a heater vent right there.)
  Lauren has always been so wonderful and helpful.  She loves doing what I do: "helping" me brush my teeth, putting on my deodorant (with the cap on), brushing her hair, and especially cooking in the kitchen. She always insists on sitting up on the counter by me so that she can watch and help mix. Lauren has also been great with Rachel.  She loves to go up and talk to her and show her pictures in our books, especially the pictures of Jesus in her scripture.  She also keeps me informed if Rachel is crying or has spit up some "cheese," as we call it.
I love Lauren so much, her silliness and smiles always make it a good day.  Ryan and I just love to laugh at all the funny things she says and does and the way that she gets excited about anything and everything. Thank heaven for little girls!

We have a static problem

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