Lauren is 9 Months Old!!

Well, now she is 9 months and 1 week old (since I'm a little late posting this). She is growing up so fast!! It's a happy and sad moment, knowing that she is my last baby. We will be entering the toddler years soon. She brings so much joy to all our lives. Her big brother and big sister do so good with taking care of her and loving her. She is one lucky little girl!

She had her 9 month check-up on Valentine's Day. We didn't do shots this time, because she was running a low-grade fever the day before. I think the cause was probably teeth, but it's better to be safe than sorry. We will do that shot at her next check-up in 3 months. She had a great appointment. The doctor said she was PERFECT!! Those are words we love to hear about our children. I know no one is truly "perfect," but I'd like to say she is pretty darn close. ;-) She is now 15 lbs, 15 oz and is just over 26 inches long. She's still a petite little girl (5th percentile), but she is growing.

What's new with Lauren...well, she got her 1st tooth peeking it's way through her gums. I can finally feel it and see where it's coming in. She is also soooooooo very mobile!!! She is crawling all over, getting into stuff and even CLIMBS STAIRS!!! I think we need to invest in some baby gates and other child proofing items - one of those items should be a new entertainment stand to hide our electronics...Lauren wanted to play the XBox 360 and broke it!! I'm actually a little sad about that, we had the new Kinect and it's really fun. Hopefully we'll get it fixed soon. Lauren is pulling up on everything, and the poor XBox was her first victim.

This last week was a little low-key. We stayed home most of it, but we did go to the park one day and a movie that night. It was nice to relax a bit. I am looking forward to some sunshine and warmer temperatures, because the kids (and me) are starting to miss going to the park. And Jacob is ready to start baseball (and I'm ready to watch him). Since we didn't do too much, I don't have as many pictures this time...enjoy the few I have!! :-)

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures of Lauren!!

I love seeing her BIG BLUE EYES and her DIMPLE SMILE!!

She's such a happy baby!!

The one day we went to the park this week, the kids were digging in the dirt and found some icky worms!! I'm happy to report, we left them there
(even though Ashlyn wanted to take them home as pets)!!

My handsome and sweet boy...and my goofy and pretty girl!!

I LOVE MY KIDDOS!! :-)

Finally Some Updates... ;-)

After a 2 1/2 week break, I'm back!! :-) We've been having gorgeous weather out here, so we've spent a lot of times outside at the parks. The kids love running around and riding their bikes.

Jacob is still doing well at school. Reading, Math and now weekly spelling lists!! He's meeting more friends all the time. I think he's been to more birthday parties this year than ever before. Next month, we'll be planning his!! He's also getting ready to start Little League. I'm pretty excited for him. He has a great coach, so I think it will be a really good year for him.

Ashlyn is really enjoying preschool. She also met a few new friends, and talks about them a lot. I'm hoping to set up some playdates for her soon. I'm still looking around at some gymnastics places to get her in, hopefully we'll start something in the next couple weeks. She also informed me she wants to do dance...and today she wants to take a singing class and tapping. I wonder if she's going to be my little performer!! She sure is a drama queen!! ;-)

Lauren is growing up so much lately. A month ago, she started her inch-worm crawl. And now she is doing the full hands and knees crawl, pulling up, and standing (for a few seconds) on her own. She gets into EVERYTHING. Last week, she pulled up on our TV stand and broke daddy's new XBox! :-( It's hard to get upset at such a sweet baby girl. Now we are shopping around for a new TV stand with doors. Her 9 month appointment is in a week. The doctor will decide at that time if she needs to get blood work done. He may want to, depending on how her weight gain is going. She's been falling behind her own curve since about 2 months old. I think she's just a petite little princess, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Keep her in your prayers.

Below are some pictures of what we've been up to. I'll update sooner next time, so you won't be overwhelmed with our activities! ;-)

Lauren LOVES swinging at the parks!!

Every Friday, we go to a playgroup (called Little Sprouts) at one of the churches. The kids get to do arts/crafts, sing/music, story-time, snack and play with their friends. It's a lot of fun and Ashlyn LOVES it!! Above is Ash getting messy!! And below is her playing with her friend/neighbor, Nico.
They have so much fun together!!

We took the kids to Happy Hollow in San Jose. It's a little amusement park/zoo made just for young kids. They really enjoyed riding all the rides. Their favorite one was the Frog Hopper.

Lauren has discovered her "twin."

She enjoys playing with and looking at the other baby.

I hope I'm not creating a little diva!!

Jacob had a Friday off from school. So he got to go to Little Sprouts with Ash. Ash was excited to show Jacob all the stuff that she gets to do. I think he had a good time!! After this, we TRIED to meet daddy at his new office location. But I didn't do too well driving in the city and trying to find parking. So we decided to just meet him at Pier 39. We walked around for a little bit, saw the sea lions and a magic show, then went home to ride bikes! I think he had a good day off.

Here's baby girl pulling up on the stairs.

She actually climbed 3 steps at the park the other day.

After I pick Jacob up (when Ashlyn is in school), we head to the park.

Lauren really enjoys big brother pushing her in the swings!

And I think he enjoys pushing her too and making her laugh.

We took a hike this weekend at a park called Water Dog Lake. This was our first time here, and I think we'll be going back again and again. It's not too far from our house and it's a nice little hike. The kids enjoyed it too. Even Lauren was happy in the stroller. We'll also be checking out some other trails to explore in the future. It was a nice family outing.

Pretty girl!!

She was watching her big brother and sister ride their bikes when we got home.

This picture shows how much Jacob LOVES to ride his bike.

Now that he can do it without training wheels, he never wants to quit.

It was time to go inside, so daddy had to carry him in - bike and all!! LOL

We went to Uncle Gary's and Aunt Kathy's house to watch the Superbowl.
We got there early so the kids can take a ride on the 4-wheeler and Rhino.
Go Packers!!