Take Three...Pregnant Again...Baby Laufer #3

We are so excited to announce that we are pregnant with our third child! First, this was not an accident. Second, we do know how these things happen. Third, we were trying based on the Lords prompting.

If you had asked Paul about two months ago if he wanted a third child he would have told you no. He was happy with having two children. He often said "the world is made for a family of four". Yet he didn't just leave at just that.

Both Paul and I had been praying and asking for God's will in the situation. One night while we were both praying separately about it we felt that God was calling us to have a third child. We were both reminded that children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. So why did we want to pass up on receiving a blessing/reward from God? At that point Paul felt released from the burden of the finances a third child would bring and here we are.

I have already seen my OB doctor who wants to monitor me really closely this time because of the preterm labor I had with Rachel. So I will have more ultrasounds to check on the baby and to see how my cervix is doing. I go for a ultrasound next Tues. 3/16. I will keep you updated.

Here is how the kids reacted to hearing mommy was pregnant...

Happiest Half Birthday Princess Rachel!

We cannot believe that Rachel is already half way to her first birthday. Happy half birthday Rachel! Wow where to start? Rachel is such a joy to have in our family. She just lights up the room with her smile. She is such a happy baby and content baby. She sleeps and naps very well. She is close to mastering sitting up by herself. She is starting to scoot around. She rolls over both directions now and is starting to see that by rolling over and over she can get places.

She absolutely loves her big brother. He makes her laugh all the time. Rachel has the most precious little chuckle when she laughs (I need to get it on video).



















She enjoys standing up (while holding onto something of course). She loves to play with her toys. Her favorite thing to do is be in her jumper and play with all the toys while jumping up and down. She really is getting the hang of it and squeals with delight while she's in there. She is getting more talkative in her baby language. She says a lot of vowel sounds now. She is eating even more now. We have introduced a lot of vegetables and now some fruit to her.

We cannot believe how fast it is going. Everyone tells us that it goes fast but to live it is a whole other story.

More Pic's

Rachel is 5 Months

Rachel loves to eat! We have started her on rice cereal,carrots and sweet potatoes this past month. Boy she loves her veggies. She just cannot get enough of them. Here she is eating carrots for the first time (video soon to come).



























Rachel is staring at her hands and feet now. She is starting to grab at them too. She loves to have her tummy time and is scooting off her mat all the time. She also loves laying on her back and playing with all her toys. Her favorite toy that she sits in is her jumper. She loves it so much she even feel asleep in it.












Rachel is talking a lot more in her baby language. She is getting louder and louder. She loves to get JP's attention and he sure loves to make her smile and laugh. I am looking forward to hearing her say "Mama". JP is looking forward to her moving around more. While daddy is just happy.

She loves her walker. But most of all she loves JP pushing her around in her walker. Here feet barely touch the ground but that doesn't stop her from having fun in it. She loves the music part of it. It is so much fun to see JP and Rachel interact with each other.



















For those of you who just cannot get enough of Rachel here are some more pic's for you to enjoy.

Jeremiah is one and half!

JP wearing the shirt his daddy wore when he was JP's age.

JP is one and a half! He has grown 3 inches in 3 months. He now is 34 1/4 (75th percentile). He weighs 25 lb 10.5 oz. (45th percentile). Our pediatrician told that his weight gain or lack there of is probably do to how active a kid he is and that he grew so much in such a short time. Even the doctor was surprised at how active he was when we took him in when he was sick. I told the doctor that this is calm for him.

JP was really interested in what the nurse was doing when she was getting ready to give JP his shots. He watched the whole time with both shots. I was impressed at how well he handled the shots. This is his last set of shots until he is 4 years old.

JP is saying lots of words now. Some of his favorites are "cookie", "up pleeeeease", "turtle", "taco", "down", and many others. He uses lots of sign language to communicate his needs to us. He tells us in sign language when he's hungry, thirsty, wants more of something, and when he is all done with something. It really has helped us to meet his needs.

One of the biggest things we started working on this past month is potty training. Yes I am surprised too. He was showing some interest in it and we asked his pediatrician at Rachel's 4 months checkup what signs to look for and when would be a good time to start. He told us some of the signs were waking up from a nap with a dry diaper (which demonstrates control of the bladder), indicating he has gone to the bathroom in his diaper, seems interested when seeing mommy or daddy going to the bathroom. Which JP was demonstrating all three. So we got a potty chair and thought lets just see if he's interested. Sure enough he was he went potty in his chair the very next day after we bought it. He has gone several times since then. But our trip out to Cali. messed the progress up. Even though he had a potty chair at Grammy's he was not interested. We are not pressuring him but are trying to be encouraging to him. We will see if he wants to continue to learn or if we will take a break for a while.

JP is so loving to his sister. He hugs and kisses her all the time. When she is crying he goes over to her and pats her genteelly on the tummy. He brings her doll to her and is always sharing his toys with her. It is wonderful to see how much he loves and cares for her. We cannot wait to see how their relationship is going to develop.

JP's favorite game to play his hide-n-seek. He loves looking for mommy and daddy and screams with delight when he finds us. He also loves to chase and wrestle daddy all the time. JP never runs out of energy and is so much fun to play with. If you need to loose some weight then just play with our son and you will loose the pounds in no time.

Here is JP making his first snow angel in our front yard.


JP eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich.


















Here is JP wearing my mom's shoes. He loves walking around in mommy and daddy's shoes. But this day it was all about Grammy's shoes.


















JP being silly with the Tupperware! The girl in the background is JP's cousin Avery.

We are so proud of our son and all his accomplishments. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful son.

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.