wow

Kate Lines took some pictures of my girls for my mom. She has them posted on her blog http://www.katelinesphotographyblog.blogspot.com/ take a look! I am certainly biased, but I think my girls look absolutely beautiful. Also scroll down to the Grace and Claire post to see my adorable nieces. Kate really is wonderful. You try making a two year old sit down and hold still for 2 seconds, let alone holding her squirmy baby sister, and on a super hot day! Thank you again Kate! I love them.

Family pictures

We took this at Jacob and Alexis's wedding a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful wedding and reception.
We have been pretty busy with family and trips up to Snowflake and such. But so far it's been a great summer.

my girls

pretty cute, huh? Bridget gets so excited to see Kate she covers her with kisses! I have to pull Bridget off of her so Kate doesn't suffocate. Crazy girl.

Kate Lines Photography

Kate is amazing! She is the best photographer I have seen. Check out her work, you will not be disappointed! I love the pictures because they are anything but boring! Plus she is doing a free giveaway, how cool is that?
http://www.katelinesphotography.com/

Birthdays!

Kate Laura
April 25, 2009
10:20am
8lbs. 7oz.
21 &1/4inches
Perfect!

Here is the newest addition to our little family! Everything went really well. She came 1 day after her due date. I will put the full story at the end of this post so you can skip it if you want!

Almost smiling! She has a dimple on each cheek!

All dolled-up for her first doctors appointment. Kate had to get the PKU test done (the nurse does a heal poke and fills circles on a paper to run blood tests) most babies scream the whole time because it hurts! Not Miss Kate! She started falling asleep! She's pretty tough already! Bytheway, thanks to my friend, Stephanie Brown for the adorable dress Kate is wearing, I love it!

Sisters! (and Grammy!) Bridget loves Kate. A few hours after Kate was born, Bridget came to meet her. It was the sweetest thing in the world. Bridget's eyes lit up when she saw her, as if she recognized who she is. It's amazing how strong the Spirit is when a baby is born. This experience has strengthened my testimony of the gospel, and especially of Eternal families. P.S. Thanks to Auntie Jen Jen for the dress shown above, it fits her perfect! It is so cute.

Bridget turned 2 April 19th!


Birthday girl with Aunt Laura.


My attempt at a butterfly birthday cake! But Bridget liked it and that's what matters most! She blew out the candles over and over again, I had some camera issues because all I had was my phone-the batteries in our actual camera died.
We kept her party small, just in-town family. We had it at TJ's parent's house. She got a bunch of awesome toys and some clothes. We had a little flower pinata! Bridget was not very happy about hitting it and was much more concerned about the mess than the candy! (typical Bridget!)

Kate's entrance in a nut shell-
I had a doctors appointment Friday April 24 at 11:50. Kate hadn't dropped at all (I even walked around the mall for 3 hours the day before to try to get her to budge!). I had been feeling great, too great. Like nothing was progressing. However, I did feel a little wet so I mentioned it to the dr. They checked and sure enough I had a high leak. Same thing happened with Bridget. Luckily my mom was already in town because my younger sister was flying in from being up at BYU. She took me home (we got Ned's Crazy subs on the way), I got my bags and we met TJ at the hospital. TJ's mom took care of Bridget for us! We checked in around 1:30PM. I was at a 2. They started the pitosin and we waited for hours! Sleepless night. Fast forward to Saturday 6:30AM the doctor breaks my water. Around 9AM I get an epidural-love those things! I am so glad I got it when I did, I progressed quickly after I got it and had some back labor that I could feel for a while despite the epidural already mostly kicked in! 10:06-10:20 I push. 10:20 baby Kate is in my arms! She had the cord wrapped around her middle and around her ankles (like she was hog-tied!) I didn't tear and was up in the shower a few hours later (although my legs were still tingling!) I had a great pregnancy and delivery. But my body seems to fall apart after! I've got a breast infection now and a few other problems I won't go into! I guess it's only fair, it can't all be easy! It is very worth it though. I have to give a shout out to my amazing husband. TJ has been so awesome and has really helped me out. He is a wonderful dad, too. I couldn't ask for anything more.
Also, I have to thank Mom and Dad Lorenzen for all their help with Bridget and all they do for us. And my parents for their help too. My mom stayed with us a few days this last week and then we went up to Snowflake. It has been really nice to not worry about Bridget. She loves her grandma, grandpa, grammy and grandaddy!

Easter fun

(not a big fan of the Easter bunny!)


We painted our Easter baskets the day before. Bridget has never sat in one spot for so long! She loved it. And I think she did a pretty good job!

Projects!

Bridget loves to smell and pick flowers! I don't know if you can really see, but there are those plants that look like bigger clovers growing with all the yellow flowers. Bridget leaves the yellow flowers and picks the clovers instead. She calls them flowers too.


I have to take some time to show off a few projects I have been working on. It really isn't that big of a deal, at least for the normal person who can finish something they start! Also, I wanted to share these because I love hearing about simple DIY projects that save you money. And these were so easy! Anyone can do them!

First the chairs. Our dining room chairs have literally fallen apart. I went garage sale shopping on Saturday and scored these chairs. TJ spray painted them and we reupholstered the seat. I am going to add a thin plastic covering on the seat, not the ideal look, but it definitely will be more convenient with a two year old! Price breakdown-$30 chairs, $11 fabric (thank you Walmart of all places!), $0.88 thumbtacks (I will go over it using a staple gun when I do the plastic for a longer lasting hold), $3.50 for the plastic, $12 spray paint. Four custom dining room chairs for under $60. If you take more time to shop around thrift stores, craigslist, or garage sales I bet you could find an even sweeter deal! We just needed something fast!
Second, my blinds. In our house is a short hallway with a smaller window. We just had cheap blinds there and it looked, well, cheap! I didn't want curtains, so when my awesome sister posted on her blog how to make your own fabric shades I was pretty excited. Her blog is littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com. She posted it February 20- use the blog archive unless you want to look at a thousand gorgeous pictures and get very sidetracked! *side note* this is the best blog for decorating ideas and tips. It inspires me every time I look at it! No picture, but the blinds turned out pretty good. I used a raw silk fabric and you can kind of see the glue, so I recommend some other type of fabric. Look at Jenny's blog to see some really cool examples and the step-by-step instructions.

Third, the alphabet picture. The nursery had a bare wall, so to fill the space I got a large frame from ikea (about $12) (You could probably save a few bucks and find a frame at the thrift store, but I really liked the look and convenience of this one!). I put two pieces of cute scrapbook paper together for the border. I got raised "fabric" letters from the scrapbook store. It was $5 for a pack with lots of extra letters. You can paint or use a marker to color them whatever you want, and they are sticky on the backside. I thought about just using alphabet stamps, but don't have any and I definitely wouldn't use them enough to get my moneys worth! The picture isn't super clear, but you get the general idea. I thought it was a fun, super easy and relatively cheap project for a blank wall.

On another note, here are some family pictures so you can see how much Bridget and I have grown. I hate pictures of myself, especially pregnant, but I guess they are fun to look at when all is said and done. I have decided Freestone park is perfect. You can walk as much or as little as you like and it's fun to feed the ducks! Bridget loves it anyway!



P.S. My due date is 2 weeks from Friday! Coming up!