Mother's Day/Aqarium

For Mother's Day Paul took me and the kids to the Aquarium in down town Denver. We had a lot of fun. JP really loved seeing all the fish, sharks, stingrays, and turtles. Rachel loved seeing all the different colored fish.

This is supposed to simulate a flood. The water comes over the wall and gets you wet.








Happy girl enjoying seeing the fish with her Daddy!












JP next to a shark!















JP was ready to dive with the sharks!




We were going to eat in the restaurant at the aquarium but it was all booked up. So we went to PF Chang's instead. It was really good food. We have not eaten there in a while because it costs lots of money. We had a great day and JP loved it so much!

Rachel is 8 months old!

Rachel is such a big girl now! She has crawled a little and then falls. She is so close to crawling across the room. She is scooting like crazy to get to the things that she wants. She got into our DVD's, scooted to the cords and started chewing them.













(The blanket that Rachel is on is the one I made for her)




Rachel is doing much better at eating and she really loves her bananas. Rachel is standing now (with some help of course). She is working on pulling herself up by herself. She has not quite got it down yet. She is also working on going from a laying down position to a sitting up position. She is so close. I think this next month she is really going to put all these things together.

She has started really saying "Dada" a lot. Although she said "Mama" first she does not say it as much as "Dada". She also says "baba". She loves to hear herself scream (just like her mommy at that age).

Rachel loves to be outside. She sits in her jumper and watch's JP play. JP gets real deep chuckles out of her all the time. She also wants to a ballerina...




















She is such a joy to have around. We are really trying to enjoy these moments with her. We know that they will not last long.

Rachel turns 7 months

Rachel is still a really happy baby! She is now up on her knees rocking back-in-forth. It wont be long before she is crawling. She is scooting all over the place. She has a real sweet, calm disposition. She loves watching her big brother play. She really is learning from him and taking in everything he does (good and bad I'm sure). I look forward to seeing what this next month has in store for Rachel.

Here is the three generations of girls...













She feel asleep in Daddy's arms...too cute!













Rachel and Mommy!






























We took Rachel to get her hand and foot prints done. I cannot wait to see how they come out.

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.