Love Love Love

These Girls!

Yesterday after church, we went home took naps, and after we woke up we headed outside! It was so beautiful out! Becca and Raywho were still in Sunday clothes, but that did not stop Becca from running out in the sprinklers! Cute girl! So she is soaking wet in these pictures, but they were being so cute with Pumpkin that I just could not stop taking pictures. Yesterday was just one of those really good laid back summer days. After we laid the girls down to bed that night Nathan, Pumpkin, and I took a picnic blanket and laid outside on the grass until the sun went down! It was a good day:).

Becca

- Loves Blueberries, and will ask everyday for "bluesberries"
- Calls her self Angelina (from Angelina Ballerina) And talks about herself in the 3rd person lately.
- We usually wait to go anywhere for the day until the girls have had naps. So when Becca wants to speed up the process of getting out the door, she will go pretend to sleep in her room, come out a minute later and pretend to look sleepy, and says "mom I sleep well". :)

Rachel

- Will not eat blueberries, or anything healthy for that matter if she is being asked too! So the other day Nathan was eating some ice cream, and she was screaming for some! Nathan pretended to be scooping some ice cream into the spoon, and instead he filled the spoon full of blueberries! She took the bait, and walked around with a smirk on her face thinking she had gotten her way:).
- Has learned the art of the fake cry, and pout face! Ah I wish you could see this face does, it still makes me putty in her hands, and she knows it! Even if it is a fake cry:).
- We have learned that she gets car sick. We always knew she was a horrible car traveler and now we know why! The other day we went with Nana and Grandpa Lord up to Park City for the 24th of July. Rachel was sitting in the back back with no window, and so up came her whole lunch! Mac & Cheese everywhere! And apparently she had swallowed it whole because it had not even been chewed! YUCK! She was smiling, and one happy camper after she was all done:).

I would like to think I have come a long way..........

The other day I was down in our storage area when the girls were down for a nap, and I saw a box that holds all of my old journals.....hours later I was half sorry I started down that road! My heavens! I could not stop reading! I could not wait to find out what happened next in my life! It was like a real life soap opera! I was laughing out loud, and crying at times. I had butterflies in my stomach all over again reading about people I had forgotten about, that at one point I had HUGE crushes on! I experienced heart braking moments all over again......when at the time these moments seemed like the end of the world. I found myself wanting to go back in time and apologize to people. Most of the time I kept reading thinking about how big of a dork I was! Ah the things I would say or do?! It was interesting though to read about myself, and to remember the person I use to be or so I thought! I found that as I was reading I still had a lot of those same feelings inside of me. The same wants, the same desires, the same dorky ways of expressing myself. Becoming a mother has changed me in a lot of good ways, but I find that it has not buried the other person I was. Maybe in someways, but not many. As I approached the end of my journal reading I defiantly came to the conclusion that I have to set these on fire! If my daughters got hold of these they would defiantly have some leverage against me! I would like to think that If I was sent back in time, I would do better! That I would listen to my parents more! If I am being honest though I would probably do the same things I did all over again...... if I were put back in that setting.

Virginia Family Reunion!!!

I have so so much to tell about this trip! I will try to spare you too many details. It was so much fun! We flew into D.C. on Tuesday the 30th of June, and returned home the following Tuesday. We were so sad to leave, honestly we could have stayed another week, and been happy campers! I guess that thing called work, and reality had to get in the way :(. Anywho we (all of Nathans family) stayed at Kristen and Deans home in Gainesville about 40 minutes out of D.C. We got in REALLY late Tuesday night, but the girls did awesome:). However when we arrived to their house, Becca crashed on her bed, and Rachel was in hysterics and was totally wired because she had fallen asleep on the car ride over, and we had to wake her up to bring her in the house! YIKES! Eventually she fell asleep, and after that it was smooth sailing as far as sleep went for the rest of the trip. The next day Ken, and Angie with their 5 kids arrived, party time! YEA! We went to Museums, went through a really cool cave, did swimming, and an incredibly cool water park. We went to the battle field of Bull Run, which was so humbling. We had an incredible fireworks show thanks to Dean and Ken :).We had Grandpa Lord's birthday party! A lot of fabulous food, and the kids played played played! Becca and Rachel were in heaven with so many cool new toys, and cousins to hang out with from sun up to sun down. At night when the kiddos went to bed, we played lots of games, and had a lot of great laughs! Nathan had us wetting our pants just about every night! This was probably the best family reunion yet! Thanks again Kristen and Dean for hosting, we love you guys, and are missing you like crazy! I know I said it a million times, but I could not get over how green everything was it was beautiful, It was so GREEN:). Here are a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure :).

All of the kids gravitate towards Nathan :)
Licking her fingers after lunch!
This was a cool train ride the kids (and Dean:) took after exploring the cave.
Becca with her cousin Hannah, these two had a lot of fun together.
Ray Ray in her "take up my whole arm floaties", with Chloe, these girls are so CUTE! I just want to take a bite out of those thighs:)
Kristen with Chloe
at the kiddy pool, pool of choice for Becca
I miss these kids, they were so fun to be around.
I love that grin!
Making 4th of July artwork!
waiting for the fireworks to start!
Becca was in heaven with these babies! After she got over the fact that they were not "scary".
This was at Bull Run, so cool to see!
Becca contemplating the meaning of life:) This was not a posed picture.
Raywho and I going down the water slide, by the look on her face I'm not sure she enjoyed it.
Kid size Lazy riverWatching all the kids go down the lazy river, wishing they could go down it too:).
The sun setting on our last fun filled day in Virginia...I feel like crying about now! I think we could live in that place:).

Family in town

My sister came into town with her kiddos, for a few weeks! It was so fun to hang with them! Becca had so much fun having sleepovers with her cousins London and Tyler. She was waking up at the crack of dawn to play with them! Rachel of course was a big hit with London and Tyler, they were always wanting to hold her, and play with her:). We went swimming (when it wasn't raining outside), went to the Library, the children's museum. We went for nature hikes, and just played played played! We sure miss them already:(. Here are a few pictures from the past weeks! My camera died half way through the trip, and I never got it charged, so I missed out on a lot of pictures :(. The Girls had a blast playing in the rain with these umbrellas! However after everyone started getting wacked in the head with them, the umbrellas went into hiding :).

After sidewalk drawing, we had some serious chalk bottoms :)
This was on the roof top at the Salt Lake Library! I was having bad allergies that day, as you can see:(.
I got smarter the next time the kids did some chalk drawing, and removed Rachels bottoms all together :).

This book rocks!!

If you have children this is a must read! I know there are some people out there who are against schedules, for those of you who are not you really really should read this book. It really gives you a heads up and better understanding for infants, and children's need for sleep, and a schedule. It goes through each age group and really teaches you about what it says "healthy sleep habits". This is going to sound like a cheesy testimonial but I have to give it anyway:). We have put this book to work with both our kiddos, and it has been a life savor! Our kids go to bed around 5:30-6:30 p.m. When I tell this to people this they look at me like SERIOUSLY!? The response I get is "oh well your lucky my kids won't go to bed at that time". The thing people don't get is that truly they can and they will, you just need to put them on a sleep schedule. As kids get older there bed time starts to advance to like 8, but that's not until they are around 7 years old. Anyway, the fabulous flip side to this bedtime is that Nathan and I get plenty of adult time, and much needed bonding time with each other! Honestly since we have had kids I have never felt like I have been deprived of me time, or being able to spend quality time with my husband because my kids are in bed getting the much needed sleep they need, and I am getting the down time I need. I know some people also believe it is selfish to let there kids "cry it out" (which is one of the methods in this book). I personally find nothing selfish about letting your child cry it out because you are teaching them to self sooth so they can sleep easier. And it is incredibly liberating for you as a mom to know that when you put your child down (awake) they will fall asleep with out you rocking them to sleep every night. At least that is how I feel:). And they only cry it out for the first few weeks of getting them on this schedule after that it is pretty smooth sailing. Another benefit that the book talks about is sickness. If your child is getting the good sleep that they need, they usually do not get sick as easily. It is so important for little immune systems to get good rest. And we have found that to be true with our kids. They hardly ever get sick, no ear infections Nada! And if they do get sick recovery time is fast. This may not be the case with you, but no matter what time Becca goes to bed, she is up bright and early at 6:30-7 o'clock, but is always much happier when she gets to bed early. Rachel has been going to bed around 5:30 and wakes up around 8 a.m. sometimes 9 a.m.! Anyway I know this got a little long, I just can't help it! When you have info that is so good you just want to share it with everyone so they can benefit from it also! So go to your local library and check this book out or buy it! I think you will find it to be pretty fabulous :). This post was not meant to brag, or to make anyone feel bad! It is simply just to share some WONDERFUL (I think) information! :)

Love Lauren

Update on the girls

These two munchkins seem to be changing all the time, I can't keep up with them! So I thought I better write down a few updates:).

Becca

Has been saying such grownup things lately, Nathan and I try to hold a straight face. Here are a few things she likes to say.....

We were all sitting up to the table to have dinner and Becca says..

"Sooo I had a fun day" she says this a lot lately so she can dive into to telling us all she did. She will ask Nathan at night to ask her about her day, it is so cute.

Anytime I ask her to clean up her toys she responds with...
"I'm so very tired mom" and does a fake yawn! She thinks being tired somehow gets her out of cleaning, it has yet to work:). She uses the word very a lot, Like this one "mom...I'm so very hungry".

Nathan comes home for lunch a lot now that busy season is over. Becca likes to be like him, so when we go outside to ride bikes she will give me a kiss good bye, and say "I have to go to work now mom, I'll be back for lunch". She gets a very serious look when she says this, and then rides away on her bike and comes back one minute later to tell me the same thing as before. :)


Rachel

Has finally learned to walk! And thinks it is the greatest thing!

She loves me to read books to her. Her favorite book is "Good Night Moon." She will walk around with it all day. She is constantly walking over to me with her book and she opens her arms for me to pick her up and read it to her! How could you resist that!? It is so CUTE! AHH!

She loves to growl! It is so funny! She is always growling, apparently she gets this from me. She likes to wrestle with Becca, and lets out big growls!

Anyway here are a few pics I took of them because they looked so cute!

A new YOU living room makeover!

It all started with me wanting to sell our couch, and then it turned into me just changing the whole living room altogether. I liked it ok before, but it just never felt like me. So I went a little crazy:) I wanted a couch from Ikea because there slip covers are MACHINE WASHABLE! Brilliant in my opinion especially when you have children. We already had a white chair from Ikea that I loved for that very reason, it always looks clean YEA! So the other deal going on at Ikea right this very minute is this.... If you spend a certain amount on living room furniture you get an Ikea gift card in return!!! So because I bought a new couch I got 100.00 from Ikea! YEA again! So anyway I bought a new rug coffee table, lamps and pillows, all thanks to my gift card. I sold my old lamps on KSL (I love that sight) for 70.00, and my old couch for 480.00. I put the money I got from those items towards my new living room. I then painted our armoir and put new hardware on it. So the total amount I spent on my new living room was.........!!! 86.00$$ Fabulous! I am still in the process of making new art work for the room, and making a sofa table for my lamps, but it is just about done! And now here is a before pic of the same room, and the lovely results (I think:) of the new room!

Before Picture of room and armoir

The painted armoir

Mothers Day

So on Mothers Day Nathan had to lead the music in church because that is his calling, and he loves it. So I was out in the hallway with the girls, and it was so cute to watch them! Anytime when we would sing a hymn Becca wanted to get up and dance with Rachel of course wanting to follow, by the end of the meeting Becca had all the kids in the hallway dancing with her (I think the parents thought I was a bad influence:). After church the girls went down for naps, and then my parents and brother Alex came over, and my Dad made dinner! And Nathan cleaned all of the dishes:) Which Nathan usual does anyway. Then we went outside on the patio and just talked and played out by the water fountain. Then Nathans mom and dad came over for a visit. We felt pretty spoiled to have both sets of parents come to our place, I think it should have been the other way around. Anyway Happy Mothers day a little late to all of you Women out there, mothers or not :). I feel so grateful to have 2 wonderful mothers in my life! I just love you guys and appreciate all you do! Here are a few pictures from the day.