My Kids

Happy Independence Day!
Her hair is so straight! Ruth has always really liked books but she has recently become inseparable from them. Everywhere we go she has to bring a book. When we go on walks she brings a book. Whenever we get in the car she has to have a book...and she usually likes to bring it into whatever store we're going into as well.

Mommy's firecracker. He's gotten really good at holding his head up and using his legs to stand up on my lap. He can stand for longer and longer periods at a time. It's really funny to watch him practice his standing because you can see how much he puts into it; his eyes focus on a single spot, his fists clench and his arms shake with the exertion.

Ms. Toned Arm 2010. Ruth has enjoyed doing squats along with me this last week as I've been doing my exercise videos.

Mommy's Firecracker against a light background. Speaking of light it just cracks me up how light his eyebrows and eyelashes are...especially since his hair is such a dark brown.

"Lean on me brother, when you need a hand. We all need somebody to lean on."

It must have been really windy while Ruth was out running...or her mother just didn't get around to combing her hair yet. She's been really funny at nap time recently. When I tell her it's time to take a nap she begins gathering things. The other day she got two books, a toy car and her little fox that we call the homba. Once she had all this stuff I put her in bed and she napped happily for 3 hours.

Ruth has become really cute with Will this last week. She thinks that when he wiggles he's dancing and that when he flails around he's trying to tickle her. So she's started to play little games with him and laugh when he does funny things. This gives me hope that they'll eventually be friends!

We're not doing anything this weekend to celebrate the 4th because Brad has to work like a crazy man. He's getting a new computer system installed so everyone has to get trained, plus he fired someone recently and thus is trying to completely train a new employee. So he's been covering lots of shifts for his employees, etc. etc. (For example: today he went to work from 8-12. Came home. Went back to work from 1-5. Came home. Goes back to work from 10 pm until NOON on Monday.)

Sore Muscles

So I worked out yesterday for the first time postpartum...yikes. I did a video called "Boot Camp Training." It involved different styles of push ups, ab work outs mixed in with cardio stuff. By the end of the day my arms started to hurt but this morning I woke up and thought i was going to die! My arms kill and so do my abs. Today I did a video called "Dance Off the Inches." The thing I like about both of these is that it makes working out fun...because I hate to run. I've actually been thinking about going down to the basement to do the dance video again because I liked it so much! So yay for step two in my weight loss plan. I also have a walking buddy, Shirlaine. We're going to go walking occasionally with our double strollers. Hooray, huzzah!

Butterfly and Argentina

So the USA got kicked out of the World Cup today by Ghana. Very sad. But now I can openly cheer for Argentina who I've liked since the beginning! Go Argentina Go!!!


Today after the disappointing soccer game Brad found a butterfly outside. Ruth was totally freaked out by it.

The Last Week

The last week was pretty crazy. Joe, Meg and Brynn stopped by on their way back from their trip to Utah. We were so happy to see them. We had a great couple days being outside, playing at several parks, throwing a frisbee around and picnic-ing...and yes, we brought the doggie along for all the fun.

Brad, Ruth and the dog

My sassy girl

Megan with Ruth and Brynn on the steepest child's slide I've ever seen

They ended up leaving early because I got a fever and had to go to the doctor. I had a weird list of symptoms so it took a long time and several tests and exams to figure out what was wrong with me. After they had done so they needed to get me a shot of the antibiotics I needed to start. I got the shot in the leg and was told to walk around the room to get the medicine moving through my body. As soon as I stood up I got super dizzy and my I couldn't hear anything...like I was underwater. I told the nurse what was happening and she took my blood pressure right away. It took her several tries to be able to get it. She said that my blood pressure had plummeted. Anyways, that was kinda freaky.

Oh, the one good thing that came out of going to the doctor was that I had to get weighed! With my big old sweats and sneakers on I weighed 205...which is 15 pounds less than what I was after having Will!!! So I'm down 15 pounds and have 45 more to go. 45 pounds seems like such a more do-able number than 60...woo-hoo!

Father's Day was uneventful, we went to church, took the dog for a walk and skyped with my parents.

World Cup Anyone?

I am a self-proclaimed "non-sport" person, especially when it comes to watching sports on TV. But four years ago, just after marrying my man, I was introduced to what the rest of the world knows as the FIFA World Cup. This is an amazing event that only happens every four years where the best players from around the world compete for the ultimate soccer trophy. And now I am addicted. The England V USA game today was awesome. But I feel very, bad for Green, England's goalie.

This poor guy let the USA's ball through today. He totally had it (it was practically kicked right to him) and he let it go and it rolled into the goal. Basically, everyone in England hates his guts now.

What's Up

I have neglected to write about all the amazing things Brad has done to our house. Here is photo evidence of one of his projects:

BEFORE: this is a picture we took one of the first times we saw the house, notice the weird closet in the back corner. (we also removed the wallpaper border and painted the walls white.)

AFTER: the closet now goes all the way to the ceiling and has awesome shelves and new trim. I got to pick the paint color. The big shelf that has diapers sitting on it is now used as a changing table for the kiddos it's the perfect height so I don't have to bend over at all. (Thanks to Brian for the idea and Nate for getting the ball rolling!)

Brad also has done a lot of plumbing work so we could get water and ice from our fridge and so that our basement wouldn't flood every time we did laundry or took a shower. He has also replaced all the switches and plugs so that instead of being tan they're white as well as installed ceiling fans in our room and in the living room. And most recently he has sawed off several branches of the tree in front that were threatening the well-being of our roof. That's all I can think of for now.

Here are some pics of what's been up.

Will chilling in the swing, he is getting very chubby!

Ruth and Boudicca playing in the backyard.

Ruth is now sleeping in her big girl bed!

The diet is going well, and I am continually pleased with how well Ruth has taken to new foods, especially veggies. Last night she gobbled up her cooked carrots and whole wheat pasta! As far as new foods that I've made and really liked they include: sauteed zucchini, steamed carrots, (both of which had no butter and only a TINY bit of salt, but a good dash of pepper) and a combo of equal parts Grape Nuts and apple juice that are heated in the microwave for 45 seconds...so good!

Surprise, Surprise, Puppy Surprise

Meet Queen Boudicca. She was born on March 17th so we thought naming her after a great Celtic Queen was fitting. We weren't planning on getting a pooch today, but as we were running around town it just ending up happening. We've been talking about getting a pet for months, and we talked to her owners for an hour to learn all about her and how to take care of her. She's a pure bred black Labrador which is one of the most popular dogs to own because they're so good with kids and easy to train. She's a sweet girl and we're super glad to have her join our family. I call her Buda for short. I'm so excited that we have a dog that can grow up with our kids. She's just two months older than Will.

Updates

My parents came out from Oregon this last week to meet Will and play with us. Here are pictures from our adventures.

Bill Knopp gave us a tour into the canyon, it was gorgeous. Ruth didn't want to share the pear with the ponies. This next picture is of Brad and Ruth in the ancient saunas that people used.

Mom and dad at the top of the mountains.

Ruth playing around with Grandpa

Me and Will hiking to see a waterfall in the south hills.

Ruth enjoying the windy hilltops

Will being a stud

Many of these pictures were taken by my dad, you can see all of them at Lentsphotography.com

So today was day two of "the diet." Yesterday went well, except for the 6 Oreos I ate...they were just sitting on the kitchen table and just before dinner I finally gave in. Today was a funny day and I didn't end up following "the diet" but I still ate healthy food and didn't add butter or mayo or sugar to the stuff I ate (and boy is that hard when you're trying to eat a bowl of wheaties with no sugar). I am the happiest about Ruth's progress; she now eats SPINACH and BLUEBERRIES! I couldn't even get her to eat strawberries a week ago and now she's eating whole wheat bread too! This is huge progress for the little sweetie.

Also, she now sports pig tails. I was thrilled today when I thought of trying them out and it worked. I also cut a few bangs in front which look adorable.

At her 18 month appointment yesterday she weighed in at 22 pounds (25%) and and I don't know how long but it was in the 50%. Other than still not saying many "real" words she is ahead in development and very healthy. She has started to say "daddy" and "drink" and can say "ball." But other than those all her babbling and singing is still nonsense...and funny. The other day she was telling us jokes in the car; she would start to talk, pause, and then chuckle at herself and then do it over and over. She is very good at running, loves to be outside still, and likes to hold Will and burp him.


And the last bit of news is that we officially have a pet. His name is Jeff, see:

Feeling Good

I've decided to blog about my weight because I need extra motivation. I am about to embark on a 55 pound weight loss battle and I need all the help I can get. I've read in several places that women who return to work are more successful at losing weight than stay at home moms. The reason for this is because women who return to the work place feel more pressure to look good and to fit back into their old work clothes because they have an "audience." So, blogging will create an audience for me to help me stay motivated.

I was weighed as I entered the hospital and rung in at 220, YIKES. Luckily, or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) that is only 8 pounds more than what I started this pregnancy at. I am currently down 6 pounds which means I am only 2 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight. Funnily, I'm not very happy about that. Over the last 4 years of marriage I stopped exercising and eating poorly which these other 50+ pounds are the result. My goal weight is 160, which is still technically one point into the "overweight" category on the BMI chart, but when I was 160 I felt good, I think I looked cute, and all my favorite jeans are a size 12...so that is my goal. I also think it's very practical, I still have to lose 55 pounds to get there and that is a ton of weight.

I occasionally feel overwhelmed with the amount of weight I need to lose, but I know it's possible. I've also read in several places that a woman's body after pregnancy is the perfect vessel to lose weight, because it is the only time in your life that your body WANTS to lose weight. I feel like it's now or never.

My plan is to follow the "Body After Baby" book that outlines exercises and very specific eating plan with lots of yummy sounding recipes. I like this plan because it is tailored for breast feeding moms, i.e. the recipes are fast, easy, very nutritious, helps to maintain your milk supply, and good for the entire family. (So, with luck Brad will lose a few pounds too.) After 6 weeks postpartum I will also begin a more aggressive exercise routine. I'm not exactly sure what this will entail other than an hours worth of very active movement at least 5 times a week.

I feel really nervous about pushing that "Publish Post" button because it means that I'm really going to have to follow through with this. But I know that this is what I want to do for my kids but mostly for me. I want to be active so my kids don't have a boring, fat mom who can't play with them. But mostly I'm doing this for me. I deserve to look and feel good. I know that losing weight will give me confidence to do and try other things as well. As Denise Austen would say, "I'm strong, I'm beautiful, I'm fit!"

(Oh yeah. I posted the above picture because I was ridiculously excited that I could fit into those jeans. They are NOT maternity jeans, and I am 9 days postpartum. I am still wearing a maternity top so that my squidgy belly isn't as noticeable...but still, 9 days and I'm comfortably into pre-pregnancy jeans! Woo!)

Family Pics

Some of the most recent pictures of us:

Will and his awesome faux-hawk

Me with the kiddos in bed. Ruth is really curious about William and likes to hold him and touch his nose and ears.

Brad with the kiddos at the hospital

4 Years in the Making

Our little family, one day before our 4th anniversary. Ruth is 18 months, Will is 5 days and we are on Ritter Island.

What we've done in our 4 years of married life:
Moved to Roosevelt, Provo, the Amenity Inn in Provo, Tigard Oregon, Twin Falls and finally into our house three weeks ago.
Paid off my credit card
Finished our degrees at BYU: me in El Ed and you in Philosophy
Had two children: Ruth in Provo and Will in Twin Falls
Got an amazing job in Twin
Bought our first house
And we've both gained too much weight :)

This is us at an Athlete concert in London, fall 2005. We didn't know what this would turn into!

May 20, 2006 outside the Medford, Oregon Temple

Just over a year later, vacationing in Seattle, Washington

Another year later at an Isotopes ball game in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was a couple months pregnant with Ruth.

May 2009 downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ruth was about 6 months old.

Today these were delivered to me. The card said "To four great years of growth and love. You are the Northumberland of my England. -Brad" I wasn't going to explain what this means but I want our kids to understand its significance. He's saying that I am the best part of the best experience of his life. It's sort of like saying you're the apple of my eye.

The Last Week or So

Aside from bringing home baby and having an easy and fast labor I've had a fun past week or so. Last Thursday my new friend Shirlaine threw a little party with other girls from church so I could meet some more people, how nice is that? She had super yummy munchies and we had a blast chatting while our horde of children ran around her house and backyard. (This ended up being a really great thing for us too because Ruth got a chance to get used to her house before "the night.")


Friday was another great day. Ruth and I spent a good amount of time outside playing on her car, picking dandelions and going on a short walk around our neighborhood. That evening we got to go to dinner with Jennefer and her fun family (she's basically the HR person for Brad's company). We had such a nice time chatting and eating. Jenn told me I should hurry up and have the baby so she could come see him before they had to go back home to Utah...hahaha...funny right?! Luckily, about 24 hours later I got a visit in the hospital from none other than Jennefer! I thought that was too funny for words.


After we got home from our evening's activities we headed out to the backyard. We had a fabulous time running around, playing with Ruth's giant pink ball and taking pictures. This one is about 7 hours before my water broke.

We put Ruth to bed and I laid down in bed to read while Brad did more home improvements. LUCKILY, on our way to bed Brad mentioned that we needed to put some plastic down under our sheets to protect our new bed if and when my water broke. (We were expecting my water to break to start labor because that's what happened with Ruth.) So we got some giant trash bags under my side of the bed and went to sleep around 11. Then at about 3 in the morning I woke up to what felt like someone throwing an enormous water-balloon on my lap. It was a very shocking way to be awoken. After sitting up and realizing that my water had broken I "ran" to the bathroom and rinsed off and put some clean sweats on, as well as the biggest pad you've ever seen. Again, luckily, I had pulled out all the things we would need for the hospital and for Ruth to spend the night at Shirlaine's that day. Why had the trash bags and the hospital bag stuff all gotten done literally hours before we needed them? I don't know but I'm SOOOO glad that they did. We got Ruth out of bed, grabbed our bags, dropped her off at Shirlaine's house, went to the hospital and got all settled, checked in, birth plan in place, monitors on, etc. by 4 am.



When we got there I was dilated to a 2. At about 5:30 I got in the shower for about 5 minutes until I couldn't stand how much the contractions had picked up. They checked again and I was a 4. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. He was great. I responded very well to me when I told him I was having pain, he would make adjustments and I have recovered from that much better than I did from my first epidural with Ruth. This time around the epidural didn't slow my contractions down so no pitocin was needed; they checked me again in 2 hours, 7:30, and I was at a 6. By this time all the excitement had worn down and Brad and I were tired, and since I had that wonderful epidural in, we could both sleep. Just before 9 I woke up and was having lots of pressure. The nurse came in and said I was complete and ready to go, and the pressure was from the baby's head. I was so shocked that in just over an hours worth of sleep my body had worked so hard! I woke Brad up and said, "We're going to have a baby." He just sort of smiled and was like, yeah. And I said, "No, honey. We're having this baby in the next couple of minutes." His eyes shot open and he sat up, we were both surprised how quickly this had all happened. Dr. Crandall came in just after 9, we pushed 3 times and Will came sliding right out. 6 hours of labor brought us our darling little guy. This was such a great labor too. I had no complaints about our experience with Ruth, I really enjoyed it. But everything this time around was even better. The entire hospital staff was SOOO friendly, helpful and genuine. They didn't act like this was just their job but were truly caring and helpful. The labor process was comfortable and enjoyable and only having to push 3 times was marvelous.



The rest of the hospital stay was great. The hospital food was good, Will started nursing right away with a great latch, I had NO pain other than mild cramping in my uterus while Will nursed, and my bleeding had nearly stopped by the time we left Monday morning! Labor, delivery and recovery has been so much easier this time around! I still am needing to take it REALLY easy at home. My bleeding picked up because I was trying to get up and down too much to play with Ruth and go to the kitchen and what not. So today I've been letting everyone bring stuff to me in bed so I can get completely better.

In other extremely lucky news, Paula and Kristen and Nate were all in Salt Lake this weekend. So when we called and said we were having a baby, they said they could come up the 3 extra hours to hang out for the week and help us out! I was a little worried that it might be hectic with them and their two kids, but it has been such a blessing. Nate has been able to help Brad with some projects on the house. Joey, who is a year older than Ruth, has kept her entertained with fun new games to play (like running up and down the stairs barking like dogs among other things!) and Paula and Kristen have helped keep things clean, cooked food, run errands and taken me to Will's Dr. appointment. And now that my hormones are crashing and I tend to be an emotional wreck about everything (like last night when I didn't bring enough diapers into my bedroom to keep Will clean and had to cry about it) (or this morning when we prayed over the breakfast Kristen made for us and I bawled) it has been nice to have the extra help and not have to worry about anything but making sure Will isn't losing any more weight.

So, thank you Brad for keeping the blog up to date with our news. Thank you for being a wonderful daddy. I'm so glad Will looks like you, at least his nose and chin anyway.

Thank you Shirlaine for being so generous, after all I've known you for about 3 weeks. I can never repay your for being able and willing to take Ruth in the middle of the night and then again and again offering to help in whatever way you can.

Thank you Paula, Kristen and Nate for coming out here, rearranging your schedules and being willing to do all the things you're doing for us.

Thank you mom and dad for your support and encouragement. On Mother's Day you told me that these kids were lucky to have me as a mom and those words have kept ringing in my head, I'm trying to live up to them.

Thank you Tia for your frequent emails, especially right before Will came. That was much needed bolstering. I can't tell you how much your friendship means to me. I'm so glad we both decided to marry these wild Laws boys.

Thank you Jennefer for the wonderful gift, it was so generous and those clothes are just adorable! I hope you had fun shopping!

Thank you everyone else for your emails, comments, thoughts and prayers. I'm so happy to be a mom of two. I already know that it's not going to be easy, there will be many more tears from me and the kids but I really can't imagine going back now. Being a mom is so fulfilling and I am so happy I get to stay home and care for my babies.

I love you Ruth. You've become such a big girl. In the few short days that I was in the hospital you changed so much. I feel a little sad because you haven't wanted to sit in my lap and read books like we used to do every day for hours. I know that you are adjusting to Will and I can't wait to see you two play together. I can't believe that you are 18 months today. You still don't say many words although you're trying to say ball, breakfast, and thank-you. You don't walk anymore, everywhere you go you like to run. You're still figuring out what to do in our backyard but you love to be outside and ask to go on walks in your stroller everyday. Your newest thing is that you love balls, the big plastic ones that bounce well. Every time we go to the store you point and shout at the balls. I've given in twice now and gotten you a giant pink one and a smaller purple one. You love to watch me and daddy bounce them high or kick them up in the air. You also like to pick dandelions, but not when they are yellow, only after they've turned into puff balls. The other day you picked a big puffy one and stuck it in your mouth!

I love you Will. I am so thrilled that you are here with us now. You are such a handsome boy. I love to hold you and stare at your little face. You have your father's nose and your grandpa Lents' upper lip and great-grandpa Nelson's chin. You are a very calm baby. You really only cry during diaper changes. You are always very eager to eat and you are a very good eater. I am so excited to continue to watch you grow and develop and see your personality come out.