Lauren's Birthday part 1

I'm saying part one because family could not come to her party she had last night. I would have had to pay a pretty penny for any extra bodies there. I rented a room at a motel, the Super 8, go figure, because they have an indoor pool with a water slide. then the girls stayed the night at the motel with Lauren.

As you can see from the picture, Laurens favorite color is purple. And Lauren loves watermelon. It's hard to find a watermelon in January in Medford! That was the first thing gone.

Lauren's party was a surprise. She was tipped of by a well meaning friend, but Lauren didn't know when or where it was. I had her aunt Melissa take her to her favorite restaurant, Mongolian BBQ, then to bowling before she was brought to the motel. When she got there all the girls yelled surprise. And Lauren was.

Lauren only got 3 candles blown out the first try.

After eating pizza, opening presents and eating cupcakes, it was time for swimming.
The girls only swam for an hour and a half. I so did not get my moneys worth. Oh well they did have fun.

After swimming, it was more eating, Then french braiding every ones hair, a game of Apples to Apples, jumping on the bed, and singing to music, then to bed before midnight. Amazing.

This was the last of sleepovers for lauren. When my kids turn 11, there are no more sleepovers at friends houses. So I hope she enjoyed it.

Next is the family party on Monday night. Lauren has requested ribs for dinner, so I'm glad it's an easy crock pot meal.

I love days like these.

Days like this don't come very often, but I love them. Bree woke up around 5:30 in the morning, I changed her and gave her milk and we sat on the couch watching the news. Bree went back to bed around 6:30. She has been sick, so she sleeps more. My day started off early, it was hard since I played tough volleyball till 9 the night before. When I wake up that early I get so much stuff done. The girls were gone by 8, by 8:15 I had taken a shower, done 2 loads of laundry, dishwasher emptied and loaded again, dinner in the crock pot. The hardest part of my day is deciding what to make for dinner. I don't like cooking, and Wednesday nights are busy with activity days and mutual, and to top it off, it's youth temple night so we need to be at the stake center by 5:45.
The tv has been off all day, not even Jacob has asked to watch any before school. So here I sit at the computer at 2:15, house mostly clean, (just toys around), 3 kids at school, one baby down for a nap, dinner cooking, and I already redid did my itunes play lists.
I went to LA for part of the week last week and had a wonderful, relaxing time. Thanks to my in laws who watched the kids so I could go. I had Good company, and yes I was with Tom, good food and fun. We went to Disneyland, first time without kids. We went on all the rids our kids won't go on when we come back next week. I got a sweet deal on a 2 room suite next to the park, with free parking and breakfast. Some other things we will do while there is go to the beach, go to Hollywood, per Taryns request. She thinks she will see famous stars everywhere. I understand the LA temple has a new visitors center, so we will check that out. and I want to go to the Griffith Observatory. I have never been to one, and the best part is that it is free. I don't know how relaxing this vacation this will be, but it will be fun. Can't wait to drive with 4 kids that far by my self. We will be stopping in Livermore on the way down, but I'm going to make the trip back in one shot. We'll see.

resolutions

I have never been one to make, let alone keep New Years resolutions. I'm not going to start now either, but I do want to make me a better person in the coming year, so I have decided to come up with a word of the year that I want to strive too. I have also made some goals also, but I won't kick myself if I don't keep them.
My word of the year is content. I need to be happy and satisfied with what I have. Not that I don't appreciate everything we have, and I know we are very lucky to have what we do. I have many conversations with my kids (Taryn) about what is really important in life, and just because someone has a large house or new cars doesn't make them happier. Those conversations are usually when she says we need a new car because our cd player no longer works.
Me being content with my life does not stem for material things, though a bigger house would be nice, I like knowing we can afford the one I have. We moved last year from the Bay Area, and I have had a really hard time with that. I have things I love here, but I feel like I'm missing the more important things there. My friendships were the best I have ever had when I lived there. I don't feel like I have made the same kind of connections here. I have family that I count on, but not the friendships that I want. I have a great calling in my ward and I love the young women, But I'm not involved with relief society all that much, I do try though. My kids go to 3 different school, but I'm not as involved as I want to be there, I play volleyball a few times a week, but don't have the connection with any of women that they do with each other. I have asked myself why I have such a hard time making friends. What I have come up with is I'm pretty introverted, I like my comfort bubble, and I think I come off as being cold.
I think basically this last year I have been waiting for what I had in Livermore, and it's not going to be like that. This year I will try harder at being a good friend, getting out of my comfort zone, and realizing that this is my home, so I better be happy with it.
My other goals for the year is attending the temple at least once a month. This is very doable since I live a mile from the temple.
I want to start an in home business. This is mainly for the tax deduction. My sister in law wants my to do scrapbooks for all her kids. I might start a that up.
I want to get our money under control more. Cut way down on spending. It's kind of hard when you have 2 households in 2 states.
So here is to 2011. Hopefully this is going to be a great year!

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.