The Birthday Party!

Well Rachel obviously has no idea what a birthday is, but I am pretty sure she loved it! When she woke up in the morning we all came into her room (Nathan, Becca and I) and we sang happy birthday to her with the camera rolling. Then we had a big breakfast with eggs and pancakes. I didn't get any pictures of all the balloons and decorations I put up! But they were so cute:)! Then all of her party guessed arrived around 3. Brian and April Atwood even graced us all the way from Georgia with their new little bundle of joy. When it came time to blow out the candle Rachel was trying to eat the flame, maybe next year we will get it. She loved the cupcake, and I am sure wonders why this event does not take place everyday.

Eating her lunch with Nana Lord

Playing with all the new toys!

April with Bennett

Eating a yummy cupcake

I love this pic. April and Taryn both look angry

Becca caught shoving a 2nd cupcake in her mouth:)

Ethan did not want a pink birthday hat on
And Liz even though you can't view my blog, I had to put this pic up it was too funny

To my Rachel who turns the big 1 this week!

I am not sure who let this happen, but they are in BIG trouble with me!! My little baby is turning 1 this week! I can not begin to describe the joy she has brought into our lives. We call her our little Ray of sun, along with our little love BUG ;). She is so lovable and sweet! I wish you could see the way she adores her big sister. She lights up the second she sees her, and the legs starts kicking like crazy! She loves to be held, she comes crawling up to me all the time tugging on my leg for me to pick her up! How can you resist that? I LOVE LOVE YOU MY LITTLE RAY RAY! Thanks for letting me be your mother :) I will play Patty Cake, and peek a boo with you all day, everyday if you will just stay little forever okay?

Why am I so tired!!!

I seriously do not understand. Some might say well you have 2 kids, so Duh! But honestly they are pretty easy going kids. I know it does play some part in it, but probably a small part. I just need an energy booster! Do any of you have any great tips??? It couldn't possibly be the fact that I have been eating sugar like crazy! Ok yes that might be it:) I need help with that too! How do you make yourself stop eating sugar!?? I would love any wonderfilled advice because I am in desperate need ;) I am thinking of doing another cleanse maybe that would be a good kick start? Ok now I am just rambling, it's late and I'm tired. HA! I guess I need to go to bed sooner as well :)

Love Lauren

good night!

Baby Tag!

This was a fun one, Stacie tagged me on :)

1. Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant?

with Becca- I was in the bathroom
with Rachel- The bedroom

2. Who was with you?

with Becca- I was on the phone with my sister Catherine!
with Rachel- Nathan :)

3. What was your first reaction?

with Becca- "I knew IT I Knew It!!!" I was excited if you couldn't tell
with Rachel- Very excited!!!

4.What was your husband's reaction?

with Becca- He already new I was pregnant, and was upset that I went and bought 3 tests! HA
with Rachel- Was very excited!!!! He was nervous when I was pregnant with Becca because we has no idea what to expect!

5. Who was the first person you told?

with Becca- My sister because she was on the phone with me :)
with Rachel- Nathan

6. Were the pregnancies planned?

with Becca-no
with Rachel- yes

7. What was the nursery theme/colors?

with Becca- Green & pink with yellow
with Rachel- about the same

8. Did anyone throw a shower for you?

with Becca- My parents ward, and my friends
with Rachel- I don't think I had one, I had everything I needed already :)

9. How much weight did you gain?

50 with both! I was huge! I thought I should have at least gotten twins out it, my heavens!

10. Did you get stretch marks?

I call myself tiger butt, because of the stripes on my behind :)

11. Did you crave anything crazy?

no, but with Becca everything smelled bad! Even yummy smells like vanilla! It was so sad, It made me want to throw up!

12. Who or what got on your nerves the most?

people chewing food loudly :)

13. Where were you when you went into labor?

with Becca- Our house
with Rachel- The hospital

14. Did you have any complications?

with Becca- No I just lost a lot of blood. When I stood up after having Becca to go to the bathroom for the first time, blood came pouring out of me like a waterfall. The nurse about flipped out, and Nathan almost passed out :)

with Rachel- I had a couple of things that all happened after the birth. I had a velumenous insertion and an acrete placenta. S0 basically the with the first one the umbilical cord was not attached to the placenta, it was hanging on by the blood vessels, so when the doctor went to tug on it to pull out the placenta it just fell off. So I just kept bleeding ( a lot). Then the second one the "acrete placenta" means that my placenta fell apart inside my uterus. The doctor had to litterally reach all the way into the uterus and fish out the brocken peices of the planenta so that I could stop bleeding (really wanted drugs at that point). Everything turned out ok but I did end up having to have a blood transfusion. (sorry for the details) imagine being there! Not pretty! But worth it :)

15. Did your water break?

with Becca- no
with Rache- Yes

16. Who drove you to the hospital?

Nathan both times

17. Did you go early or late?

with Becca- on time
with Rachel- 3 weeks early

18. Who was in the room?

with Becca- Everyone! Nathan of course, my mom and dad and my mother inlaw. I actually liked having them there, it was such a neat experiance!
with Rachel-Nathan was in the room along with my mom:)

19. Did you video tape it?

no but I actually Wish I would have.

20. Did you have any pain medication?

with both they gave me Phentinal (or how ever you spell it) It basically just relaxed you, it didn't take away any pain.

21. Did you have a c-section or natural?

Natural with both

22. What was your reaction to the birth?

I was in love with both my baby girls!!!! And so glad the pain was over :)!!

23. How big was the baby?

Becca- 7lbs 1 oz
Rachel- 8lbs 12 oz

24. What was the baby's full name?

Becca Elizabeth Lord
Rachel Lauren Lord

25. Did your husband cry?

Not that I can remember

26. When is the next one coming?

not any time soon ;)

27. If you could, would you do it all over again?

Yes I would!

Becca 10 minutes old!

Rachel

I tag everyone that wants to do this!

A few things....

First off I have a confession to make. I love the movie "Cheaper By The Dozen". I bought it the other week at wal-mart for 5 dollars, and Becca and I have watched it about 3 times already! Why do I love this movie... Because it is completely cheesy, and I love a good cheesy movie. And it has a lot of fuzzy warm heart felt moments :). So I feel better now having got that off my chest.

I also wanted to write down a warm fuzzy heart felt moment of my own. I love my husband and little girls! They are just the best. I woke up yesterday after having a wonderful Sunday after noon nap (thanks Nathan :). And I found Nathan with Becca & Rachel in Beccas room playing with toys, and it just made my little heart melt to see them all in there playing together. And did I mention it was snowing??? Yes I love the snow! It was one of those little moments I know I will remember always.

Lastly I wanted to share a few things the girls have been doing in recent days.

-Becca Put together a (big) puzzle together all by herself today (she was so proud) She made Rachel come over to see her masterpiece :).

-Becca has also had an obsession with the sacrament prayer lately, all day long she pretends like she is blessing (her basket of fake fruit). I don't know why this suddenly came about, but Nathan and I try real hard not to laugh. She also calls everyone Jesus. Last night we tried to have a little lesson with her, and we asked her who her sister was (family was the lesson). She whispered "Rachel is Jesus".

-Becca also started Primary this month (cry). She was so excited. This girl loves kids like you would not believe. Any time we go anywhere, she says hi to them. The best is when they are like 6 years older then her, as she will shout out to them "HI KIDS"!!!!

-Rachel, has become the master of the stairs, and wants to stand on her feet all day. She doesn't want to be on the ground.

-Rachel can eat like nothing I have ever seen! She truly could eat all day!

-Rachel also like Becca is a blanket baby, however she tries when ever the chance permits to take Beccas blanket and loves to get a rise out of her! And believe me she gets one every time.

They have both really come to enjoy each others company (Becca not as much as Rachel). It is very sweet being the mother to watch these girls. I feel thankful everyday for my family.

Rachel doing a little art, and tasting of course of the crayon.

Rachel is the one that bullies Beccas around.

Becca on her first day of Primary

Love Lauren

Please visit this site

Change up!

I have no idea what is going on with me but the last week, I decided to change somethings in our house! I found the coolest table at DI for 25 dollars. I thought it would be great for a buffet table, so Nathan and I fixed it up, and I think it turned out awesome, I wish I had the before pic! Next we wanted more seating off the kitchen, so we found some chairs at KSL for 150.00 Then I found I was wanting to paint, so I made some art work to go up our stairway. I then decided to paint some lamps I had green. And then if that wasn't enough I decided yesterday to go color my hair dark (thanks Chelsie for doing my hair)! I think I am done for now. This last week has been a fun one!

My two girls have been so much fun lately. Becca refound her costume from Halloween, and has been sleeping in it the last 2 night. She is afraid we will hide it somewhere if she takes it off! So I had to take some pics of her and Rachel eating breakfast (Becca in costume). I say it all the time, but they are so CUTE! I can't stand it sometimes :)

My new hair
The artwork I did
The table from DI, and the lamps I painted.
And the chairs
Becca eating breakfast in her costume

Christmas at Island Park

This year for the second time we went to Island Park for several days over Christmas, with my parents, and little brother Alex! It was a lot of fun (they get a lot of snow :). On Christmas Eve day we made the 4 hour drive up. We sang Christmas songs and enjoyed the snowy drive through a winter wonderland! It does not get better then that seriously! So we arrived to our cabin, and put Christmas lights up outside on the deck and all over inside, and of course we brought a tree :). You get your own personal hot tub out on the deck, which we used everyday. We watch Christmas movies, did some sledding, ate lots of fabulous food, and enjoyed watching the snow come down in heaps! On Christmas day alone we got 3 feet of snow! A Christmas Eve tradition at my house growing up was this... My dad goes outside some were and hides the baby Jesus in a manger. He also would hide the 3 wise men. So at each figure he would put some Christmas lights by them, and tell the story as we went a long. Then when we came to the baby Jesus we would sing some songs. I love this tradition, so my dad did the same thing at Island Park (only the baby Jesus was covered in a lot of snow by the time we found him :). Sorry this is going to be a very long post with pictures, I hope you enjoy! I also hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Love Lauren

Behind me in this picture is our car covered in snow!

My little brother Alex

Searching for the baby Jesus Christmas Eve