Brace Face

So, Jenny got braces put on not too long ago in January and I thought this was just a funny pic of Jen and Brett showing off their beautiful teeth!!! :)  I really have some funny kids!

My Girls...

They are perfect just the way they are!!  Such beautiful daughters!  Here they are in their matching Christmas dresses!  I think this might be the last year for that! :)  Jenny's growing up!  The boys chose not to take part in the photo shoot so I don't know how many I'll get of them now that I told them that it's their choice.  I told them I'll just photoshop them into our family one that we will get done professionally one of these days!  

PLAID IS RAD!

So, I thought I'd go back to Christmas Eve and post our annual Christmas pj pic!  Dave and I actually got some too this year! :)  Plaid is rad!  NICE!!

Time to Reflect...

Well, I've been going over my goals from last year and one of them was to blog 3 times a month.  I counted up my blog entries and it averaged to almost 2 a month.  Let's see if I can do better this year! :)  I've decided that goals are hard to attain.  You set goals to help you change right?  Whether it's physically, mentally, or spiritually, that's what goals are all about right?  I think so.  So, a nice lady in our ward said that she only sets one goal a year and focuses on that one goal only.  If she has too many, it just ends up being a mess!!  Hmmm, I need to think about doing that next year.  So my goals this year include losing 15 lbs of baby fat, blog more frequently, and read my Sunday School and Relief Society lessons regularly during the week so we are prepared for church with my husband... I think I'll leave it at that!  Here's to 2011!!

Because I'm a Skilled Photographer...

I captured these fabulous shots of Sadie!!

  I know, I'm that good!

I am a poet/song writer!

Follow along if you'd like to the tune of Popcorn Popping!

I looked in the mirror and what did I see?

A short, fat Laurie looking back at me!

Fall has brought me such a great surprise,

A beautiful baby and some big ol' thighs!!

Some extra weight on this little frame,

Wow, it's lame and such a shame!

I wish it wasn't so, but it seems to be,

A rather wide Laurie looking back at me!!

Thank you, thank you very much! :) I got a treadmill from Santa this year!!

To Our New Sweet Baby

To Our Sweet, New Baby:

April 7, 2010: Hello baby! Today you are 15 weeks along inutero. I'm starting to be a little more optimistic about you making it to term. Only 25 weeks to go! Why am I so optimistic? Well, I've had two miscarriages at only 6 weeks both times before getting pregnant with you and that was a long time ago, March of '06 and March of "07. So, to find myself at 15 weeks and counting with you... well, maybe it will work out this time! To find out I was really pregnant was quite unbelievable because ever since Sophie was almost two we decided to try for another one (I guess that would be you!:) without any luck until now. Sophie will be 6 in May. It's been awhile! We, your dad and I, actually haven't told anyone yet but I think we will after my appointment on April 19th. You will be 17 weeks along then and I suppose we better not wait much longer than that to tell everyone the happy news! I don't think Nana or Grandma Dixie would be happy to see me 7 months pregnant at the reunions this summer without me ever having informed them! :) Yeah, I'd better let them know! I think most people will be surprised but happy too! We are planning to tell your older siblings at that time too! I wonder what their reaction will be? Brett would ask ALL the time when his next brother or sister would be getting here and I just told him I wasn't sure and maybe there are only suppose to be 4 kids in the family! I think he will love having you around even though he will head off for college and leave our home when you are only 6 years old. Jenny and Luke will LOVE having a baby around again. It may take some time getting used to a little one again but we can't wait! And Sophie will love the experience of having a younger sibling to take care of and to hold and to wash and to read to and play with. She will LOVE you too!!

April 12th: Tonight I felt you move and kick for the first time! I'm sure of it! It just happened twice, two soft little pokes! This is so exciting! That is one of the best parts of being pregnant! Movement! I'm 16 weeks tomorrow and go in for a check up in a week. Then I have an ultrasound in 4 weeks after that at 21 weeks! Today was a good day! We went to Luxembourg. You and I shared a Doner Kebab and we went to a Military Cemetery today. It was fun but the best part was being able to mark off one more country we've been to!

April 19th: Well, today was a great day! I had a Dr's. appointment and dad and I were able to hear your heartbeat! It was strong and healthy, in the 150s I believe. If all went well at this appointment, we had decided to tell your older brother and sisters the news. So, we decided to have a scavenger hunt of sorts and told the kids there would be a surprise at the end of it. They were really excited about it! I wrote clues on one side of a piece of paper and then one word on the other. After the kids collected all the clues, they had to unscramble the words on the back to make one sentence that read: Sophie isn't the youngest sibling anymore! Surprise!! More info. to come on May 17th. Brett was the first one to figure it out and he was very surprised! He went," Oh, I know it! Oh my gosh...( he said mom's pregnant to himself and very quietly as if he was trying to grasp that concept" Then he walked away in shock but with a smile on his face. I asked Jenny if she got it and she said, "Yeah, but seriously???" And after a little help Luke got it and his eyes got REALLY big and he had a big smile on his face too. Sophie started crying because she thought the surprise would be toys or candy! She cried, "Where's the surprise?" I said, "This is the surprise!" Then she started crying harder and said, "That is boring though!!" So, I quickly went upstairs and got some lollipops and that made her happy and then she was trying to comprehend, "the baby in mom's tummy" thing. She kept saying, "Really? Really? For real?" It was so fun! I loved all of their reactions! I only wish I could've captured some on camera. I wasn't thinking fast enough!

April 21st: Luke and Sophie talk about you a lot!! They are very excited!! And they always bless you in their prayers! Love 'em!

May 24th: Well, cute, precious baby, we found out on May 17th

that you are a girl! We are so excited to have you! Sophie and Jenny are so happy and the boys are excited too! Sophie was the first one to feel you kick and Luke was the second. Luke really likes feeling you move around. Today, Brett actually felt you move for a second there! He thought it was cool. I get to feel you many times a day. You are very active! Even at the ultrasound, the doctor said you were very active and it was hard to get measurements because you were such a wiggle worm. The ultra sound was great. You look strong and healthy. I do have a minor placenta previa but the doctor thinks it will move up as you grow and get bigger.

Well, we both are definitely growing! I get excited just thinking about having another baby in our home! We love you!

June 1st: Today you are 23 weeks along and I'm getting bigger which is good! You are getting stronger everyday and your punches and kicks are becoming more pronounced. I think the kids like that! I do too! We have an appointment next week, just to see how much weight I've gained and to make sure you are growing and that my vitals look good. Just the usual. By the way I'm pretty sure you are the most active of all the kids. You sure roll around alot! I'm getting more excited as time goes by! Wow! We get to have another baby! That's amazing and I'm feeling blessed!

Friday the 13th of August: Here we are at 33 1/2 weeks along! Nice belly eh?

September 19th: Well, the last few times I've tried to get on to my blog I haven't been able to because of internet problems but I'm glad to be back!! So much has happened! You had a very busy summer visiting lots of family and friends in the USA!

July 19th we took a flight over to Seattle, WA with Sophie, Jenny and Luke. The flight was nice but I was surprised to find that my ankles swelled quite nicely from the long flight. Needless to say, on the trip back on Aug. 15th, I wore some very tight socks which helped with the swelling alot!

Everyone was excited to see me (and you) and the cute belly of course! I don't look too bad pregnant which is nice! :) I even had Dad take some maternity pictures of me wand they turned out well! We just took them around here in Schauerberg.

Quite honestly, I still can't quite believe that you will be arriving very soon! I'm excited as are Dad and all four of your siblings. Needless to say, you will be loved! I just hope you don't think you'll be too loved! :) I'm still feeling humbled that we get to have you be a part of our family! We've waited quite awhile for you and truthfully, I didn't know that we would be privileged to have another daughter! I'm not sure why I get so many great blessings but I'll take them anyday!

Your due date is September 28th...9 days to go. Although, your "original" due date was Oct. 4th. I had an ultrasound at 11 weeks and when they measured you they said everything measured 6 days larger than they should be so they upped your due date by 6 days. I thought that was awesome! One less week to wait for your arrival! :) But now, I'm thinking

that maybe you will be right on time instead of being a week early like my last two were. I think it's funny that Jenny, Luke and Sophie were all due on the 3rd of the month, April 3rd, Sept. 3rd and June 3rd and that your first due date was Oct. 4th...my body is like clock work I guess! Anyways! I'm thinking you will be here for sure by Oct. 4th! Earlier would be better cuz we all are getting anxious to meet you plus, my body is getting tired!! I am an old lady after all!!:0)

September 25th: You arrived safe and sound at a healthy 8 pounds and 20 inches! And all went well! We tucked the kids in bed around 10:15 (it was Friday night) and no, you won't be able to stay up that late on school nights ever! :) Anyways, we left for the hospital and had you at 3:36 a.m.! Here I am before the delivery. And although I look pretty happy which I was, the contractions weren't pleasant...at all!

And here you are! Just a few minutes old! Awww, sweet Sadie!!

And Dad left around 5:00 a.m. to take Brett to a football game that he couldn't miss! :0) Oh, life is busy! The kids came and visited with you and loved, loved, loved you! And they still do! :) Welcome to our family Sadie! We love you!

Fw: Jenny's gymnastics

--- On Sat, 11/27/10, Laurie Layer <[email protected]> wrote: From: Laurie Layer <[email protected]> Subject: Jenny's gymnastics To: [email protected]?subject=My Date: Saturday, November 27, 2010, 11:10 AM Jenny is having a great time being on the gymnastics team. She just started competing in September and is doing well!  We will be traveling all over this part of Germany for her meets this coming year so it will be interesting to see how we manage our time and other 4 kids!   She is looking forward to it!

Oh man, this is taking forever but DAY 5: MYKONOS

Mykonos was wonderful!! This day we just relaxed at the beach and loved it! The island is charming with most of the houses being white so they really stand out against the earth tones. Although, I did spot a few houses that blended in with the hills and almost escaped my notice!

The beach rocked!

Luke finding a chain with a big chunk of concrete hooked to it. He thought it would be fun to lug this thing around for awhile.

We had lunch at a fabulous restaurant right there on the beach! Very nice and tasty!! We had a large Mediterranean Salad, and a variety of sea food. I can only remember the calamari and it was really good!

Dave and I

Busy burying a kid!

DAY FOUR: ATHENS, GREECE

Athens was fabulous! I really enjoyed it even in the uneasy political/economic climate that exists right now. The main thing we did was go to the Acropolis. This was one place that I wanted everyone to go to. Only because I wanted a photo in front of the the Parthenon of the family! I mean, it is the Parthenon!!

Here we are just outside the entrance to the Acropolis.

Here we are in front of the Parthenon! I was surprised to see that they are doing some major restoration on many parts of the Acropolis, Parthenon included. It was pretty warm that day. We liked our water! :)

This is a hill down from the Acropolis called The Areopagus where Paul came and taught the Athenians about Christ! A senator named Dionysius was converted! Cool huh? It was very tricky getting up there because the stairs that are made out of rock are extremely slippery. I guess through the hundreds and hundreds of years, the rock has been worn and is now hazardous to your health! :)

Quite honestly, this was the most fun part for Luke! These slippery rocks were all over the Acropolis too so Luke, and the other kids enjoyed sliding on them. Here is Luke doing just that!

Jenny and Luke in front of the Caryatides on the Erechtheion.

Time to go!!

DAY THREE: CORFU, GREECE

On day three we went to Corfu and Luke and Sophie went to the kids club which, quite honestly, was so nice. No whining=more fun for everyone! :0)

We found a place where you could actually go swimming and everyone was wearing bathing suits! It was so beautiful in more ways than one!

One of the many bakeries! YUM!

This is the entrance to the shopping area in the New Fortress. On the other side of this tunnel was lots of little shops, restaurants, bakeries and such.

The Old Fortress is in the background. It is a really neat city.

DAY TWO: SPLIT, CROATIA

It's hard to know what time it is when there are no windows in your room. We opted for inside cabins but having been on two other cruises, we've decided that the next one we go on will have to be with outside rooms. It is nice to see things from your cabin.

Anyways, Split, Croatia was great. There was an old palace where today there are all sorts of shops and little alley ways that you can get lost in. A maze of sorts and we liked it! We almost went up to the top of the clock tower and then decided against it.

Croatia's currency is the Kunen I think. Shopping in Split is better than Greece because you can get better deals! If only it wasn't Sunday, I would've bought a few things! Like 2 scarves for 4 Euro. Now that's a deal!!

Above are the boys inside the palace walls.

And here is a Croatian Acapella type group of men. I think I got their performance on tape so maybe I will upload it for your listening pleasure! They were really good!

Here's the market!! Those strawberries looked gooood!

We thought the narrow alleys were cool.

Here I am with the kiddos on Mother's Day!

Here are Dave and the kids just inside the gate to the palace square. It was fun looking around but Sophie and Luke were a bit whiney. That's why they got put in the "Ocean Club" for the day when we went to Corfu and Olympia! :)

Mediterranean Cruise: DAY ONE: Boarding the Ship

Well, let's talk boats shall we? We went on a big one and it was fun. Day One of the cruise was in Venice because that is where we boarded the ship. We drove down from Garmisch, Germany which took about 5 hours and the drive was absolutely beautiful! Loved it!

Our day was pretty relaxed and simple. It went like this:

1. Get up and have breakfast.

2. Leave

3. Arrive at the port in Venice after a small detour because our GPS was set to the airport which is close but not too close.

4. Find parking about 50 yards away from where we check in! NICE

5. Drag all our stuff over to get taken up to our staterooms.

6. Check in.

7. Look around.

8. Say good bye to Venice and forget to bring the camera up to take pics.

9. Eat Dinner.

That's about it for DAY ONE. The adventure really started on DAY TWO!!

Sophia Lynn Turns Six!

Sophia is six...hmmm, that's strange. Time truly goes whether you are looking or not huh? Sophie is such a sweet girl! I love this age where birthdays are fun and exciting and oh so special. Here are a few tidbits about Sophie's 5th year:

1. She finally stopped wearing pull-ups at night! Thank goodness. She was definitely my oldest child to be in pull-ups. Maybe that was because she was the baby! :)

2. She learned to ride her bike sans training wheels.

3. She can read like no other! She's amazing. She was doing a little test with her teacher the other day and she got through all the words up to 3rd grade! You go girl! I really think letting her actually read the scriptures with the family every night truly helped her along!

4. Tinkerbell is her favorite Fairy of all time!

5. She does chores and she does them well. Some of her favorites are watering the flowers and plants and cleaning the windows.

6.We have a ritual every night where we hug, kiss on the lips, then she kisses each of my cheeks and my nose. Every night.

7. She doesn't care if the boys see her underwear when she does cartwheels, summersaults or some other gymnastic move in her pajamas. I don't think I like that!

8. She loves to write stories and read them to me.

9. She and Luke are great friends.

10. She and Jenny play school together often and they love it! Jenny even has a surprise box where she can get goodies for a job well done!

Well, there's a few things about my beautiful daughter. I love you Sophie! Sophie said tonight, " Starting tomorrow, it will be a whole other year til my birthday. That really stinks" ! And I'm thinking, "Don't grow up too fast! Our childhoods really are gone before we know it because we are so anxious sometimes to be older than we are!"

The Ladies Search For Mr. Darcy!

Ok, so I FINALLY got all the pictures uploaded so now I can talk about them! Here are the 4 ladies starting our trip! Joni, me, Dana and Stephanie! Dana was so kind to let us all have a sleepover at her place the night before take-off!

The first stop was Jane Austen's house in Chawton. This is where she actually wrote most of her books. She lived here with her mother and sister after her father died. This is where she became sick and was really her last home. Although, she did move to Winchester to be closer to her doctor but only lived 2 or 3 weeks there before she died.

Just a really neat street sign pointing us in the right direction!

All of us again right outside the kitchen. Kitchens were separate back then because of the heat they produced!

This is really the size and style of the table Jane would write her books on. Wow! Today, we have huge tables to spread things out on...well, actually, we have laptops don't we?

This is the house where Jane died. They aren't sure what she died from. Possibly cancer. She was so young, only 41!

Here is her grave in Winchester Catherdral. We had to have Mr. Darcy in the picture! Jane was one of the last people to be buried here.

Winchester Cathedral

On our way to our next stop, we passed this famous site so we literally had less than 5 minutes to run from the parking area to where we could get a decent picture of Stone Hedge. Very interesting huh?

Here I am in the halls of Harry Potter's Hogwart's Castle. They actually used this area I think in #1, #2 and possible #4. This is Lacock Abbey. There were parts of P&P that were filmed in the streets of Lacock which is a very charming little town!

The claim to fame. Mr. Darcy wanted to be a part of that!!

Lacock Abbey in the Spring! So beautiful!!!

BATH

Bath was so amazing! I love this city! For all of you die hards, I'm sure you will recognize

"The Cresent" which Jane describes in her books, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. We also walked down "The Circus" as well!

The Upper Rooms

This also is mentioned in her books and of course were part of the films.

Stephanie posing with Mr. Darcy in the Jane Austen Historical Museum! :)

We love you Mr. Darcy!

The way this street looks today...

and the way it looked back then.

At the end of this street you will see someone getting dressed after taking a dip in one of the baths! We couldn't see in, although, years ago they did have windows where you could see! I guess they changed it so the bathers could have some privacy! :) Also, this is one of the streets that they transformed in Persuasion.

THE PUMP ROOM!

Enough said right?

Here's the pump and the famous water coming from it! I tasted it. Gross is all I have to say! Warm spring water is not my cup of tea!

This place was so busy and the reason is because the rolls are to die for!

Sally Lunn Buns are amazing!!

Here we are in Bath with our totally awesome tour guide. She knows everything about everything! I was very impressed that she did our tour in high heels! Wow! If you ever need a tour guide of Bath, Dana has her number!

Another cool street post with directions to here and there!

I can't remember where Jane was born but this is an Abbey in the town. It is not however the one that her father and brother took care of. This was our last stop before heading back to the starting line! It was so fun! Thanks so much to Dana for inviting all us for a super fun, never to be forgotten weekend!