We are back:) Happy 7 month birthday, Lauren!

Family picture when we went to the pumpkin patch! We had a great time even though it was a little chilly and really muddy:) Anna loved riding on the hay ride and picking out pumpkins with Daddy and Lauren was perfect throughout the whole thing. A fabulous day!
Anna at her pre-school Halloween Party. Anna started going to pre-school in September and absolutely LOVES it! She goes 2 days a week at our church and has a ball, loves to talk about her 'friends' and really likes her teacher. So much fun!

Lauren on her 7 month birthday! She is such a sweet baby and is growing like a weed. At her 6 month check up she was in the 92 percentile for height (27.5 inches)! We looked back at Anna's check-up and Lauren is an inch and a half taller than she was. So, we are pretty sure that before long, Lauren will pass Anna up (it's okay, Anna can discuss this with her Aunt Bethie, because Kitty passed her up as well:) She is eating all sorts of fun stuff (we even conned Uncle Drew into trying her cereal when he asked if it was mashed potatoes) and really into playing. The biggest blessing of all is that Anna and Lauren LOVE each other! I mean, seriously, LOVE each other. Lauren gives lots of her biggest smiles when her big sister walks in the room or starts talking to her. Anna is pretty protective of Lauren and even shares with her sometimes and loves to talk to her like Mommy does, it is adorable!

So, while we have been major slackers on posting anything, we are doing well, just super busy! We will try to post more pictures from the fall soon and of course, will post more costume photos after Halloween. Cakes and Aunt Bethie are going to spend Halloween with us and so are Uncle Andrew and Aunt Anne-Marie, so we are really excited about that!!! Happy Halloween all!!

Lauren's first bath!

Doesn't have a clue what's coming:)

Hmmm...not sure how bad this is going to be:)

Figured out quickly that she wasn't liking her bird bath!

Well, she's shiny clean...and ready to be done!

Our sweet girls!

Looks like her big sister in this picture! We go back and forth between thinking Lauren looks like Anna:)

Sweet big sister loves giving Lauren kisses!

In deep thought as she sleeps!

Sweet little girls!

Last Family of 3 outing!

Since I was way behind on updating the blog, here are pictures from our last family outing as a family of 3. 2 days before Lauren arrived, we took Anna to the zoo and she had a BLAST! She loves the monkeys, they are definitely her favorite, but she liked all the animals and would say 'More monkeys, more zebras, more turtles, etc' depending on what we just looked at as we moved onto the next thing. We had SO much fun with her and it was a perfect thing to do before her baby sister arried!

Checking out the monkeys with daddy!

Showing us what the monkeys do:)

Checking out the jaguar!

Mommy, Daddy, look at that!

Lauren Ruth Briscoe Arrives!

Mommy with her sweet new daughter!

Mommy and her girls!

Proud Daddy!

Our sweet Lauren

Lauren Ruth Briscoe arrived at 9:06 am on March 26th. She weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz and was 20 inches long. This was a much easier delivery than her older sister:) We got to the hospital a little before 7 and signed some papers and then 3 nurses took about 15 minutes to get me all ready to go, so then John and I just sat and watched TV for over an hour, waiting to go off to surgery. I actually walked into the operating room where the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal tap and John came in with his space suit on and we were ready to rock and roll. Lauren was out within a few minutes...she was grunting when she breathed, so John went with her to the nursery so they could monitor her there for a bit while they put me back together...they said that with c-section babies, they have a harder time getting the fluid out when they come out because they don't go through the trauma of going through the birth canal. So, that was definitely a little scary for us, but by the time I got to the recovery room, John came in and reported that Lauren was doing great and they would be bringing her in shortly. She is perfect! We went back and forth about how much she looks like Anna. When she was first born, she looked exactly like her, but then seeing her again, we saw some definite differences. She doesn't have as much hair on the top of her head or the dark eyebrows like Anna did and her skin is a little lighter than Anna's and her nose is a little different. But some of the pictures do look just like Anna and a lot of her facial expressions and things she does with her hands remind us of her big sister! So fun!! Anna came to meet her little sister after her nap and she walked in wanting to see Lauren! It was too sweet! She kissed her and was very gentle with her. She was a little wary of Mommy in the hospital gown and bed, but warmed up pretty quickly. She is going to be the best big sister!!! Everytime she came to the hospital, the first thing she wanted to know was where Lauren was. She loves to give her kisses and is constantly keeping tabs on her and what she is doing. It is awesome! John and I feel incredibly blessed to have not just one, but two beautiful sweet healthy little girls. We are so lucky!!! And, we must give a special shout out to Cakes (Kitty's mom) who has been a HUGE help in taking care of all of us and helping Kitty while she recovers from her c-section in lifting and doing all the heavy work!!

SISTERS!

Well, we have been very busy these days trying to get everything ready for Anna's Little Sister's arrival and keep up with Anna, work and life in general! Anna's Little Sis is all set to arrive on March 26...so we don't have a lot of time to work with! John and Steve will be painting her room in the next week and Kitty will be trying to get everything organized, washed and put away:) We had a check-up and ultrasound last week to check on our little girl and she is doing great! Growing, growing, growing...in fact, they are trying to tell us that she is already 6 lbs! Hard to believe!!! And, she is breech, so we are happy that we are all set with her arrival and have no worries this time around:) Anna is continuing to grow and TALK a ton these days! She says anything and everything we say (so we really have to watch what comes out of our mouths) and actually says sentences now...four words together qualifies as a sentence in our opinion:) She loves to tell who things belong to, Mommy's, Daddy's, Anna's, Boiler's, etc. and loves to watch basketball with Daddy...every team being Purdue of course and looking for Grandpa at every game as well. She knows that her 'Sista' as she calls her is in Mommy's belly and when you ask her what she says, she will tell you 'Boom, boom, boom'...she came to one of Kitty's appointments and got to hear her heartbeat, pretty smart little thing:) And she loves to say, Anna do it! She is feeding herself and actually is pretty neat about it... We've had 2 times of going to the bathroom in the potty (followed by a 'Yeah, Anna!' by Anna), and those have been a big deal, rewarded with M&M's but we figure she will master it when she is ready (or when Cakes comes down and takes care of business:). So those are the big things in our house. Hope all is well with all of you! Here are pictures of Anna and her little sister before they were born...crazy how much they look alike!

This one was Anna...

This is Anna's little sister


Another of the new baby! They look so much alike!

I love cookies:)

Anna and Mommy made cookies for Valentine's Day. Anna had a great time!

Putting sprinkles on the cookies...about half the sprinkles made it on the cookies, the other half made it to Anna's tummy!

Friends and Talking on the Phone...

This is Anna's friend Cooper S. She comes over to play 3 times a week and Anna loves her!

Posing for the camera. Love you all!

Trying to call Cakes on the phone!

Snow Day!

We got ice, then snow the last week of January and got so much that work was cancelled one day and we lost power! So we headed to Steve and Kathy's house where it was warm and took Anna sledding on the golf course with Gretchen, Mark and the kids and all the dogs. Needless to say, everyone had a great time! Anna loved going down the sled (even though she looks a little unsure in the pictures) and kept asking for more! Kitty just watched and cheered everyone on...didn't think a 7 months prego lady going down on a sled would be a good idea for anyone:) We survived the power outage and had a great time in the snow! We were lucky and only lost power for a little over a day and a half, and had a warm place to go for that short period, thank goodness!

Fun in the snow at Grandmommy and Granddad's house!!

Going down the hill with Aunt Gretchen! So fun!

Going down the sled with Daddy...not too sure about this!

Playing in the snow...all bundled up!

Going down the hill with Jack! Hold on tight!!

Happy New Years!

New Years Eve with the cousins!

The guys

Happy New Year!

Check out my new hat!

More Christmas!

Cakes, Aunt Lulu and Anna dancing with Elmo!

Opening food to cook in Anna's new kitchen with Katie, Jack and Elizabeth!

Grandmommy and Aunt Gretchen giving Anna some cooking lessons:)

Elizabeth and Anna going to town!

Christmas Day

Why is my baby in a box? I want her out so I can play with her please!!!!

Much better, she was very hungry:)

Shooting hoops with Daddy & Uncle Drew!

A shiny clean girl in a santa towel (Santa's face is on top of her head)!