Rachel turns 4 months

Rachel is already 4 months! She is grabbing at toys and is even putting them into her mouth. She drools all the time but her doctor said that he could not feel any teeth coming yet. She is growing well. She now weighs 12 lb 9 oz. and is 23 3/4 in. long. He said she is doing really well for being a month early. She has already doubled her birth weight.

She is getting more vocal all the time. She even cries more vocally. She is also much more expressive with her face.

She is starting to pull her knees up under her. She is still working on lifting her chest at the same time. But we are already at the beginning stages of crawling.

JP makes her smile and laugh all the time. He loves to kiss her and give her lots of hugs.













She likes to drink from a bottle now so I am pumping all the time. I am glad she will take my milk from a bottle. We are going to be starting her on rice cereal tomorrow (hopefully we can get a video of it and post it).

Paul and I love to hear Rachel laugh and as I said JP gets her to laugh the most. Here she is laughing at something JP did.













We cannot wait to see what Rachel does next. I hope we don't miss it. It feels like she is growing up way faster then JP.

And for those of you who just cannot get enough pictures these are for you...

Christmas 2009

Christmas was different this year for us. First, it was the first time both Paul and I were not with our parents for Christmas. Second, it was our first Christmas as a family of four. Third, it was our first Christmas in our house (last year we were in Cali). Fourth, it was Paul's first time celebrating Christmas on Christmas morning instead of Christmas eve.

We had a wonderful time. It was nice being just us four and starting our own traditions. We took our time opening presents and then I made a big breakfast before starting on Christmas dinner.

Jeremiah and Rachel got spoiled with lots of presents. It was so much fun watching JP's excitement as he was opening his presents.





























Rachel had fun too even though she could not open her gifts. She loved watching us and loved staring at her gifts that she received.








JP was so excited he could not contain it...

























































Paul spoiled me with a sapphire and diamond necklace and ring (sapphire is my birthstone). I got Paul a chronological Bible.

It was one of the best Christmas's we have ever had. It was such a wonder day.

It's Christmas Time...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...here we are with the tree we picked out in the bed of the truck. We took the opportunity to decorate the tree while both kids were sleeping. Here is the finished product...



















Here are some pictures to JP's reaction to seeing the tree. As you can see we have the gate up to protect the tree and our ornaments from JP. He is pointing and asking about the lights and ornaments...



















His favorite was the soccer ball. Can you find it?













Here is our house with the lights up and lots of snow.

Rachel turns 3 months

Rachel is such a wonderful addition to our family! Rachel has been up to lots of new things. She is much more aware and alert of her surroundings, she can hold her head up even better now, she is teething like crazy (no teeth yet) so everything is going into her mouth, she loves watching big brother play (especially when JP and daddy are playing), JP makes her smile all the time, she loves looking at her toys and is starting to grab at them, and Paul says she even laughed for the first time (although I didn't get to really hear it). She likes to suck her left thumb to sooth herself. Maybe this means she's a lefty! There's lefties on both sides of the family including me. But one of the biggest accomplishments she did this past month is roll over for the first time! She doesn't do it all the time but she has done it a few times. Here she is trying to roll over...




















She loves her daddy very much. You can see it in the way she looks at him. She just lights up when he's holding her. She loves being in daddy's arms and calms right down when he's holding her.

We are so proud of her and cannot wait to see what this next month will bring. She brings so much joy into our lives. We cannot imagine life without her. Here are some more pic's...

Jeremiah's First Hair(s) Cut

Today Jeremiah went to get his hair cut for the first time. I didn't want JP to get his hair cut because winter is fast approaching and he has thin hair that's short in the front. But Paul kept saying that Jeremiah was starting to look like he was growing a mullet and needed to get a trim. So here we are in front of Jack and Jill Children's Salon ready for JP's first haircut.

Here's a picture of Jeremiah getting introduced to the hair clippers. He was more curious about them than nervous and once the haircut started he didn't pay them much attention but rather watched things progress in the mirror.

Next is a picture of the start of the haircut. You can see the cool blue Mercedes he got to drive.

Next is a closeup of JP during the transformation. You can see the intent look on his face as he tried to figure out why the lady was studying his face so carefully...

Next she's wetting his hair to work on blending and evening out the top.












You can see the look of joy as he makes the 180 degree hairpin turn and floors it down the back stretch...



Cute spiky hair picture I just had to throw in.





Transformation Complete.
No more mullet!!!
Jeremiah's certificate and evidence bag proving he survived. Got to love the mug-shot look he has in the photo.

Rachel is 2 Months Old

Rachel is now 2 months and 2 days old. She is growing and developing really well. We had our two month checkup and first series of immunizations yesterday. Rachel now weighs 10lbs 15oz. (50th percentile), and is 21 1/4" tall (the 15th percentile). Paul did not agree with the length measurement so he decided to measure Rachel himself. He got 21 3/4" tall. So I told Paul to split the difference and say she is 21 1/2" tall.

Anyway, the doctor told us she is on her way to rolling over. He was impressed with how well she can hold up her head and how well she was pushing up her chest while on her tummy. We gave the doctor an update on how Rachel is doing with GIRD and he did not seem concerned. He told us that if she spits us about half an hour after we gave her the medicine to go ahead and give her another dose.

Rachel got three shots and one dose of liquid medicine. She did well with the shots and cried on and off for about two minutes total. We were very happy with how well she handled the shots.














Paul and I decided to take Rachel to get her ears pierced (you have to wait until they are two months old and have received their first series of immunizations). Paul and I picked out her earrings, we got her little round diamond studs. You fill out some paper work, then they mark her ears to let you decide if you like the placement. If you are happy then they go ahead and pierce them. They have to do one at a time with little ones because they do not know how to hold still. The lady was very nice and did an amazing job.

Happy Halloween 2009!

It was Rachel's first Halloween and JP was showing her the ropes. Well that is how to be hot and get upset about it. We did not take the kids out but had a wonderful time handing out candy. If you cannot tell JP was a pirate and Rachel was Princess Bell.

JP did not want to wear his pirate hat. All he wanted was to get into the candy. At one point he got a piece of candy from the dinning room table and was trying to go upstairs with it. We did give him one piece of candy and boy did he love it. He also loved to look out the window and see the kids coming to the door in their costumes. He would get all excited when they would ring the doorbell.








Rachel did well until she got hot and then she wanted nothing to do with the costume and wanted to get undressed.



















The other thing we did was skype with Uncle Scott, Auntie Christine, Cousins Avery & Mia, and Grammy Linda. It was a lot of fun to see the girls all dressed up so cute. We really do miss them a lot. Here is JP getting ready to skype with everyone...Mia was a lady bug and Avery was a bumble bee. They were too cute for words so her is a picture...