All about Lauren

So This post will be all about Lauren and the things she says and does.

She is the squeaky wheel. When she was in Kindergarten the teachers loved her little high voice. They always said how cute it was, I told them just come home and wait till she whines about something, then it's not so cute!! She may not tell you what she wants, but she does get her point across. She is my t.v. and movie watcher. She would rather stay home by herself than an outing to the mall. She loves her dog. Her is a picture of her from our family pictures.

Lauren and Bree in their matching dresses. I can still get these two to match. Taryn wanted nothing to do with it.

Some funny things that Lauren has said over the years:
*"The round part of my face hurts"
*"My hair hurts"
*On a walk we saw a fox, Taryn was scared, Tom said they are more scared of us than we should be of them. Lauren then said, like cops, they are more scared of us then we are of them.
*I asked Lauren what she wanted for Christmas, she replied she wanted a big box.
There are lots more. I will add to it later.
This is Laurens friend from Ca.
Lauren is such a sweet natured person. She has a great attitude most of the time. She is of coarse becoming a preteen. For her birthday last Feb. Tom and I got her a promise of a dog. I pushed off for as long as I could and we got her one in Sept. Dodger sleeps with her, waits by the door when the bus passes knowing she will be home any time. The dog loves her. She hates cleaning up the poop, and can talk her dad into doing it when he is home. Walks are not as much fun anymore now that it is cold or raining, or both.
This is about the age of the dog that I wanted to chock him. He still has potty issues.


Lauren also loves to be outdoors. This is at a park in Ashland. A huge climbing structure that is no longer there. I wonder how many kids fell. Lauren loves horse back riding with Grandpa Andersen and even went camping with a friend and her dad and Grandpa in the freezing cold in October. Better her than me.

Lauren is such a great kid and I have been told that more than once. She is very polite, and respectful. She is also very spiritual. She gets up most fast Sunday and bares her testimony.
She loves her family and we love her.

15 months (2 days late)

15 months seems like such a milestone. I know there is nothing special about this number.

Not like 18 months. If you go to our church you know they can go to nursery at that age.

She is pretty much a terror in church. My worst one by far.

Here she is at Kelsey's bridle shower.

Bree is a talker. And a screamer. She will not hesitate to fight back with her "words" when fighting with Jacob, or even the girls. They sometimes forget she is a baby.

Some of her favorite words are:
"no no stop it Dodger" (I yell at the dog sometimes)
"moam, moam, moam" (her version of mom)
"no"
"Grandpa" as she points to the phone
"no"
"thank you"
"bye, bye"
"no"
"baby"
She is a great communicator. She lets us know when she wants something, by pointing, or pulling on our neck.


Bree really tries to get us to feel sorry for her, never works though. She can hold a conversation with you with out saying any real words. She even sounds like she is asking questions.
I think She is going to give us a run for our money. We thought Taryn was high energy, you take Taryn, give her 3 energy drinks and you have Bree. She functions on little sleep. That does not go over very well with me.

Her stats at 15 months are:

18 pounds, 3rd %

24 in. 45th %

Still no hair, and eats everything in sight.

She is definitely the baby in the family, but we would not trade her for anything, well maybe a good nights sleep. I haven't seen one of those in a long time.

Time out out women

2 weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Time out for women in Portland. We had a great time eating, shopping, and listening to the wonderful speakers. Life is really put into perspective after hearing what others go through and still hold onto their faith. I heard some stories of women who had to deal with more than I could ever deal with, I heard of a wonderful conversion story from a women from Sierra Leone who came to America to serve a mission after joining the church the year before with only the clothes on her back and a humanitarian kit in a zip lock bag the Relief Society sisters put together. She received that kit before she heard of the church. That sisters name is Mariama Kallon. She is such an inspiration to others.

Here are some of the women I went with. Bottom row, My sis-in-law Wendy, Lesley, Debbie, Charlene, Kathy, Celestia, and my sis-in-law Kym. We had such a great time with each other.

We went to a dessert bar called Pix in downtown. Lets just say it was an experience, and any upliftment we received on Friday was washed away going to this place. The dessert was good if not a little over priced.
All the selections for dessert. We were in awe.

Over all I can't wait to go again next year. Here I come Reno.

Child labor

I am working on personal progress with Taryn. I never finished the program when I was that age, so now is my chance.

An awards dinner is set for next week and our goal as a young womens presidency is to have each girl complete at least one experience. I have been slacking a bit lately on this. Taryn has a lot already done in the knowledge, so of course I thought she could accomplish the 10 hour project as well in a weeks worth of time since we have a 4 day weekend. Taryns project is planning a menu, shopping list and shopping then doing the cooking. I should have had a little more say in what goes on the menu, but I wanted her to have fun with this as well. Lets just say there is not too many healthy things on the menu. No chicken. I think this is the longest I will go with out eating chicken. Lots of ground beef, steak, and cheese. What else do you really need.

We wrote out the list, I showed her how to put foods in the categories. Now you may think why I haven't showed her how to do this yet. I hate shopping and I want to get it done as fast as possible. I know the things I need and most of the time don't even need a list. Then I had to show her to look at labels, check prices, and get the bread and chips last so they don't get crushed. We got home a I let her have the chance of splitting up the meat in to the portion sizes.



Something I hate even more than shopping is cooking. I always have. I have to tell you a little story. When I was 16 or 17 I was really in to playing sports and doing things that were not "girly". That scared my dad I think. One day my dad told me that if I don't learn to cook I would never find a man to marry me. Well my teenage rebellion in me, (I know I was wild)
I thought, well I'll show you, and I refused to learn to cook. I did get married, and my poor husband had to eat shake'n'bake chicken for a year. He lived. I have no patience when it comes to cooking. I love the crock pot and one dish meals. My girls are always asking if they can help, I never say yes. I don't want to take the extra time to tell and show my kids how to do it. Well, I'm getting a crash coarse now. Taryn has been doing all the cooking and getting the hang of it. She really likes it. I think I will be using her mad skills more. I am getting plenty of babysitting for free also in the name of personal progress. Lauren is only 16 months away from free labor also.

Primary Program

So the kids had their primary program this past Sunday. Taryn was overjoyed she no longer had to participate. Lauren is count down the years left. Just one more year Lauren. She did very well. She was the second speaker and I worked with her not to speak too fast. Even though my beautiful daughter was up there, Jacob stole the spotlight. I guess since it was his first program I wanted to watch him more. He didn't sing very much, and hen they were singing, he rested his head on the edge of the podium. Jacob did sing follow the Prophet like a champ. He also liked to talk to the new twin girls that just moved into our ward. They are in preschool together so they are fun to watch. It was Jacobs turn to get up for his speaking part and he nailed it! Jacob had to say the line "Jesus went about doing good, for God was with him". He may not have know what was going on for that 45 minuets, but he knew when he went up to the microphone what to do. Great job kids.

I just got done sewing Laurens Dorthy costume. I am not a seamstress, and this little project stressed me out so much. At one point I just pinned it on her instead of taking measurements. She wanted it a little shorter than I had sewed it so now she has to wear leggings with it. At least she will be warm, cause Toto, I don't think we are in California anymore. We will be lucky if it's 50 degrees for the trunk-or-treat on Saturday. Jacob is a construction worker. Big stretch I know. Taryn is a redneck, another big stretch I know. I really wanted Bree to be a pig, but my sewing days are done for now. We have a warn monkey costume. That will work for this year.

Jacob

So I am always thinking I do too many posts on Jacob. And I do. It's not that I

favor him, or that it's because he is my only boy....He just says the funniest things,

and acts as if the world revolves around him. Which it does. Here is Jacob at his cousin Kelsey's wedding reception dancing with two girls. There was three, but she left before I could get a picture. I don't even know who these girls are. Ladies man already. It's the hair.

While we were setting up for the reception, Jacob was taking two of his three boy cousins to look at the creek behind a building. They look so enthused. He told Jesse (in the grey) he was going to change his name to Bruce. Jesse just got off his mission, and there is already one Jesse, so this Jesse had to change his name. Sorry Jess.

Jacob and his grandma sitting outside the temple talking about where he might serve a mission.

Jacob is convinced he will serve up on the mountain where his grandma and grandpa live, or while driving on the ice road, AKA: ice road truckers. Then they were talking about who he might marry. All the girls in the family need to watch out!

Jacob with his Grandma and grandpa.

They spoil him rotten!

I need to write down all the things he says, I always forget till later.

Field trip

Jacob had his first Field trip today. He even got to ride on the bus all by

himself. Jacob was so excited for today. He picked out his own pumpkin, but the

rule was he had to carry it on his own.

Bree just completed the trip with her stubbornness.

once she gets on ground, there is no way you can put her back in the stroller.

The prefect pumpkin. He wanted a bigger one but could not pick it up himself.
On the hay ride, pulled by none other than a John Deere.

I wasn't able to stay the whole time due to Bree needing a nap, but

Jacob had a great time and is loving pre-school. Jacob tells me he wishes he could

go all the days. Hopefully that attitude stays around for the next 12-15 years.