QuACk QUaCk!!

Avery had her first dance recital the day before we left for Utah. It was so cute! I thought she would be a little scared to get up on the big stage and dance by herself, but she loved every minute of it! It was definitely a proud mommy moment. Having Avery in dance has been so much fun and has helped her to come out of her shell. We are going to miss Miss Tracee. She does an amazing job with the kids.

Drew is 16 months!

Here is a list of the words he can say:
Apple

Ball
Baby
Bonk
Bath
ByeBye
Bubble
Moo
Dog
Drink
Dada
Mama
sissy (this is the cutest!)
Paci
Blankie
Whoa

P.U.
NO
Sock
hot
hippo
Ya

Out

Up

Shoe

More

Andrew loves to
1. Pull his sissy's hair
2. Play outside
3. eat
4. Read books
5. Give kisses
6. Give Avery loves when she wakes up in the morning
7. Play with phones
8. Get his diaper changed (yea, right)
9. Cuddle his blankie (he HAS to take it everywhere and cries if I leave it in the car)
10. suck on his Paci
11. Dump out cereal boxes
12. Do everything Avery does
13. Say "Roar" and scare his Daddy
14. Vaccuum
15. Watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the bouncy chair
16. Throw food from his highchair

We had our first little incident on Friday night that required a trip to the Urgent Care. Sweet little Avery Jane was running into the kitchen and tripped. She did one of those full force whiplash falls that little kids often do and smacked her forehead on the corner of the wall. I quickly picked her up and blood started gushing out. I yelled for Andy and he came running downstairs. We surveyed the damage and knew she needed stitches. I started to feel Really faint and nauseous. I've never had blood affect me like that before, I think it was because it was my own little girl. SO sad! We got in the car and drove her to the Urgent Care. The doctor said that it was such a clean split that he could just use butterfly stitches instead of real stitches which would help reduce scarring. I asked him if there was anything else I could do/put on it to help it heal faster and not scar. The only thing he suggested was plastic surgery. Great. She is only 3 and already has to worry about plastic surgery. I remember one of my mission companions telling me how she had gotten a scar above her eyebrow when she was little. She hated it so much that she got a job when she turned 15 and saved up enough money to pay for the plastic surgery herself. I guess I better start saving my pennies in case she decides she wants surgery! Poor girl. Andy took this picture when we got back from the doctors. She has to wear a big old bandaid on her forehead until the stitches fall off.

A Child's Prayer

I Love to listen to Avery Pray. When children pray it is so sweet, innocent, and meaningful in its simplicity. Avery HAS to say the dinner prayer every night. Sometimes she says some really funny things, but last night at the end of her prayer she said:

"Thank you that I am a child of God"

I just thought it was so cute and sweet that she could recognize that knowing she is a daughter of God is something special. I wish I could pray with the faith and innocence of a child more often!

Cute kids

I haven't posted pictures in a while, mostly because my kids turn their backs to me whenever I get the camera out. :( But here are a few I took yesterday for fun

I love Drew's eyes!

Look at those eyelashes. Lucky Girl!!

Here is a picture of my Mom and Andrew from when she was here last week

Giveaway Winner!!

Okay, I still haven't decided on a title for my blog, but the winner for the most creative idea is.........drum roll please..........JESSICA!! I'll email ya. Thanks for all your help guys!

Here are a few other crazy ideas for titles I am throwing around ( in addition to Jessica's LAUNDRY ). Tell me what you think.

  

 1. Bubble Wrapped-this is a funny one to me because if he could, Andy would have EVERYTHING we own bubble wrapped, plastic on the couches, plastic on the carpet,...etc. He would even bubble wrap the kids!

  

2. Oh Happy Day-Don't ask me why, but I have had this song in my head ever since I saw Sister Act (I'm not sure if it is #1 or #2). The one where she teaches the school choir. Random, I know, but I ALWAYS sing it.

3. Sugared Tales- I was trying to come up with something creative by combining "snips and snail and puppy dog tails" with "Sugar and spice and everything nice." This is what I got

4. My friend suggested "Mediocrity" for a title today because I was telling her how I feel I am not really good at anything, I just dabble in a lot of things. She was just kidding of course, but it fits!

Okay, now you can see why I needed help :)

hAPpY BiRtHDaY!!!

You are an amazing husband and father. We love you so much. 

Happy 29th Birthday!!

Love, 

Lauren, Avery, and Andrew

Last Call!!!

Anyone else have any entries for the giveaway? Come on people, I know you are all really creative!! Throw a couple titles my way! :)

In other news, I got dressed for church this morning and Avery says " Mom, how come you always wear that?" nice. ummm, do you think it is time to go shopping for some new church clothes? Does anyone else out there have as hard a time as I do finding stuff? Where is a good place to find skirts and dresses?

GiVeAwAy!!

Thanks for all your input about the whole going private issue. For know I have decided to stay public, but take a few precautions. I am going to take our last name off of the blog. Here is where the FUN GIVEAWAY comes in. I can't think of anything fun/create/cute for the title, so I am leaving it up to you guys! :) (Or maybe I am just too lazy to think AND I want an excuse to do a craft project). Just leave a comment with your entry (be nice please), and you can enter as many times as you want. The winner will receive something made by yours truly. I promise it will be good. I will tailor the prize to fit the winner. Possible prizes include: Hair bows and headbands, Cute Fridge magnets to match your kitchen, a crayon roll to tote your kiddies stuff in style, or whatever else I feel like doing (suggestions for the prize also welcome). The winner will be picked next Sunday. Please enter so I don't feel like a dork ;). Thanks everyone!

Photo Tip

****Use your flash outdoors on a really sunny day!***

Why you may ask? Bright sunny days are actually bad for taking pictures because the sun creates harsh shadows. If you look at the pictures of my kids at the park a couple posts ago, you will see what I am talking about (I actually even lightened them a little in photoshop, they were a lot worse). If I had remembered to turn on my flash, the pictures would have come out much better. The flash fills in the dark shadowed areas. The best thing to do is find shade, but if that is not possible, just turn on your flash and snap away! Just thought I would share!

bRoThEr, BuDdY Boy, BoOgEr Boy, DrEwDreW

Andrew turned 15 months yesterday. I can't believe it. He is getting so big. Why do they grow up so fast? He is such a good kid and makes me laugh all the time. I can't get enough of him! 

I found Andrew underneath the deck stairs eating rocks. Gross, but too cute.

This picture seriously makes me laugh, I don't know why. Andrew loves anything that has a steering wheel.  I got this Little Tikes car on a tree lawn (Cleveland talk, I'll explain it later) a few weeks ago, and he loves it! I think it is a combination of the drool dripping dow his face and the daydreaming expression that kills me.

Andrew is such a sweet little boy and wakes up happy from his naps most of the time. today was such a day and I had to capture his cute face.

   

i hEarT PeDipEdS!!

Okay, I just had to share these shoes with you guys. They are my all time favorites. They are called Pedipeds and they have soft soles and are So cute!! I found them online but I think they sell them at Nordstroms.

My Mom got Andrew these ones for his birthday

The Baby girl ones are to die for

They just came out with toddler sizes too


If your kid needs shoes, don't tell your husband and splurge on these;)!!  Here is the link so you can check out all the cute styles

  http://www.pediped.com/Product/CategoryInfo.aspx?cid=23

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

The weather has been so nice these last couple of days! We finally got to break out the short sleeves and leave the jackets behind. We decided to take advantage of the sunshine and headed to the park with some friends.

wE LoVe GrAnDMaS!!!

Both Avery and Andrew have been on cloud 9 because Grandma and Great Grandma spent the last week spoiling them. We had so much fun and enjoyed their company immensely. I just wish I had taken more pictures. We did a little shopping, went to Kirtland twice, ate lots of good food, watched "Enchanted" 4 times, watched general conference, and played outside (Spring is finally here!). It was a blast. thanks Grandmas! Avery wants to know when you are coming back?! :)

The first night we watched Enchanted Andrew snuggled with his great Grandma for a whole hour without moving. It was SO cute. I don't think he has ever stayed still for that long

Playing Ring around the rosies outside the Kirtland Temple 

Avery and Andrew knocking on the temple door waiting for the Grandmas to come out

 

It's all about the Flowbee

Yes, that's right, the Flowbee! We made fun of my brother-in-law for years for using the flowbee. I mean, how good could a vacuum hair-cutting system be?? But, he graciously passed this fine machinery on to us, and now we are huge fans too. Ya, I know, Ha Ha Ha. Go ahead and laugh it up. But, it is cheap, clean, and gives a great boy hair cut. And,  how many people can let their 3 year old cut their 1 year old's hair??!!  :)   Okay, I'm done with the infomercial .

  

Here are some pics of Avery chasing Andrew with the Flowbee and me chasing both of them trying get get a picture.  

PuPpY LoVe

Our Neighbors have two big dogs that like to bark. A few months ago, Andrew started to get really curious about the noise he was hearing outside. So, we looked out the window and showed him the doggies next door. He is now obsessed. He LOVES to climb up on the stool and look out the window at the dogs. I think he would do it all day if he could! It is actually kind of cute, and I love to hear him say daw daw daw(dog) over and over again. 

Okay, I need your help. It seems that more and more people are going private with their blogs. I was against it before because I really enjoy blog surfing and I hate it when you think you have found on old friend, and click on their link only to discover you can't "spy" on them because their blog is private. Some people have mentioned that they are going private because they were getting lots of random people looking at their blog, and some would look several times a day. I must admit that I am probably one of those "scary blog lookers" who shows up a ton on the blog trackers because when I get bored, I like to go to a blog and check out all the links they have on their blog. Which, requires visiting the same blog several times a day. I love to check blogs a lot that have fun craft ideas, recipes, or links to other cool sites and stuff. I would assume that others are doing the same. So, for me, the blog tracker statistics are not enough to scare me into going private. If people really find my life that interesting, I really don't care how many times a day they check my blog. :) I don't know, maybe I am too trusting or something because I really just don't care who looks or how often. So the question is, should I care? Do we all need to be more careful in the blogging world? What things do I need to take into consideration as far as going private or not? Has anyone out there had a problem with identity theft or other problems because of the information on their blog? What is your opinion? Of course everyone needs to do what is best for them and their family. For me, i have not felt the need to go private, but seeing so many others doing it has made me think twice about it. Please share your thoughts!!

Photoshop fun

We just downloaded Photoshop (Andy gets the professional version for free from his school, how cool is that! ) and I am trying to learn how to use it. I think I might be messing up my pictures more than fixing them :) Here are a few attempts at black and white conversions. It is a good thing my kids are cute because you will be seeing a lot more of them now! ;)

Hoppy Easter!

Big and the Magic Washing Machine

***Sorry this is a long post for journaling purposes. Feel free to skip it!


Avery slept in our bed for the first few months of her life. One of my FAVORITE things was that she would hold on to my finger while she slept next to me(she still holds my finger while she falls asleep. so sweet!). After a few months, we decided that is was time to transition her to the crib in her room. I read on line that you can make the transition easier by putting something familiar in the crib that has the mother's smell on it. She loved the soft blanket that we had on our bed under the comforter. It was a pink velour type blanket, so I decided to put that in the crib for her to lay on. Well, she became very attached to this blanket and it officially became her "Blankie." Until she was about 18 months old, she carried around a QUEEN sized blanket everywhere she went. It finally occurred to me that, duh, why don't I just cut a piece of the blanket off to take places with us so we don't have to lug the whole thing around. And thus, "Big" and "Little" were born. We called the piece I cut off "Little", and the rest of the blanket was referred to as "Big." Well, after lots of lovin',both Big and Little started to get very ratty. I knew it was time to do something when I repeatedly got comments like "Wow, you can tell that blanket it is really loved." We were getting ready to go on a trip to my parents' house in California (summer '07) and my mom had recently purchased some of those big ol' new front load washer and dryers. I was trying to think of a way to switch out Big which was not going to be an easy task for a 2 year old who is VERY attached to her blanket. The idea came to me of a "Magic Washing Machine." Before the trip I started telling Avery that Gramley had a Magic washing machine, and that if we put Big in, it would come out brand new. She was a little hesitant, but started warming up to the idea, and actually got excited about it. When we got to California, we put Big in the washing machine, sprinkled some magic fairy dust(glitter) on it, and started the washer. We watched it spin around for a few minutes and then headed off to play with some toys. While we played with toys, Gramley snuck into the laundry room and cut a heart out of Big. She then sewed that heart onto the new and improved Big (a cute new cuddly blanket that we bought), and put it in the dryer for a few minutes. When the dryer beeped, we ran back upstairs to see what happened to Big. Avery opened the dryer and was excited, but a little perplexed. We showed her the heart, and she started to gently rub it on her face. A few minutes later she came to me and in the sweetest voice said "Mom, can we ask the magic washer to give me my old Big back?" A part of me wanted to give in and just give her the old blanket back, but I didn't. She never cried or complained. She carried around her new Big and constantly rubbed the heart on her face. When she went to sleep, she always made sure the heart was right next to her face. It took a few days of "talking up" the new blanket, but it actually worked! She still talks about gramley's magic washing machine and how it made her blanket new again.

This is Avery Showing what is left of Little

This is her New Big
(sorry I took this picture at kind of a funny angle)

P.S. How funny is this girl! She sleeps with a sleeping mask on!

I finally got my new camera(Canon Rebel Xti) and I am having so much fun with it! I have so much to learn though. Photography is a lot harder than it looks. I'm trying to figure out how to use manual mode so the exposure isn't quite right in the photos, but I'm working on it! Here is the first round of shots. What do you think?