Dance Recital

Last night Lauren performed with her dance class. She danced to the song "Happy Tappy Elmo". I wish I knew how to add a video to the blog, but I don't...so pics are all I have to share.

Lauren did an awesome job. She was so excited! Although I'm not sure if she was more excited about the dancing or the dressing up. The girl sure loves to get all dolled up.

Horseback riding on the beach

There's a hole in your head!

Lauren has had a loose tooth for a couple of weeks now. We told her to keep wiggling it to help it along. We were brushing her teeth the other night when I noticed how incredibly loose it was. I gave it a little tug and ta-da! She became a little upset when I told her there was a hole in her head, but then I mentioned the tooth-fairy and all was forgotten.

Next morning, 5:30 AM, Lauren SCREAMS, and runs to my room. Freaked me out! She showed me the envelope with her name on it. She was so excited! I believe my response was "uh-huh". I DO NOT do mornings. Especially suddenly awakened mornings. My poor kids. So she opens the envelope and is disappointed to see 4 silver quarters. "Ah man. I wanted pennies." I told her I would let the tooth fairy know next time. I think that can be arranged.

Last Week of School

Hooray! I finally have something to blog about. Whenever somebody asks me "What's New?" My answer is always nothing. Same old same old. And I mean it. A sickness here a crisis averted there, but...really...nothing new.

However, this week was Lauren's final week of Kindergarten, which gave me an excuse to dust off the ol' camera.

So on Tuesday the Kindergarten classes get to have Sprinkler Day. All the 5 and 6 year old get wear their swim suits to school, run around on the grass through the sprinklers, then dry off in the sun while enjoying a popsicle. That was the plan. Well when I got there it had to have been at least 100 degrees outside. The parents were all standing around the edge of the grass observing the chaos at hand as if the children were monkies in a cage. Girls running around screaming....boys SITTING on the sprinklers...doing what...I can't say. I tell you I could not find my daughter in the sea of children for at least a good ten minutes. Absolute organized chaos.
I took off after a few pics. I was melting.

These are the pics I got of her and some of her friends.






Today was Lauren's last day! Whoo Hoo! Not sad at all. Lauren is psyched to go into 1st grade, and I welcome the break of getting up early to do her hair and make her lunch. Does that make me a bad mom? I'm not a very pleasant morning person.
We will, however, miss our wonderful teacher Mrs. Teves. Lauren absolutely adored her and I think she does a fabulous job. I highly recommend her to anyone. She will be retiring in a couple of years though, but I "convinced" to her to stay at least until Thomas is in Kindergarten. Wink Wink.


Lauren's class had a small party to kick the summer off right. They played a few games, and had WAY too much sugar. End results.


Let the summer begin!

Slacker

Yes...that's me. A blog slacker. However, in my defense the last couple of months have been insanity. My time has been consumed by illnesses, surgeries, holiday drama and an awesome hacker who was kind enough to fill my computer w/ 3 lovely viruses. Sheesh!

Late November Danny and I celebrated his Birthday at Disneyland. By ourselves. No kids. It was...peaceful. A huge thank-you to my step-mom, Sheila, for always taking such good care of my children. So, since it was just us two we didn't get a whole lot of pics taken. We always wonder why we end up at the Magic Kingdom when we have a chance to go away together without the kids. We think we get some kind of weird satisfaction out of watching other parents battling their children when we don't have to. It's bizarre.

Mid December Lauren had her Christmas dance recital. She did a wonderful job performing on stage! She knew exactly what to do when it came time to throw out her arms, tap her toes, or shake her little tooshie. It was fun to watch! We are so proud of our little Boo.

Lauren is in the green sweatshirt. She said it was cold on the stage.



Refreshments after the Recital. (This is her silly face.)


Telling Santa she wants a princess bike.


Danny told the kids that Santa requested chocolate chip cookies this year...so that's what he and the kids did on Christmas Eve. Where was I? Saying goodbye to my youth as I laid in bed with a thrown out back. Seriously not the best timing. So Danny made cookies with the kids and Lauren insisted on putting out carrots for the reindeer. That's our Lauren. I wish I had gotten a pic of the gnawed on carrots scattered throughout our house on Christmas Day. Who knew that Rudolph came into your house too?!?!

Christmas Eve


Christmas Day! This was right after they walked in the room and were ecstatic to see Santa had brought them bikes!




I usually wait until New Year's Day to take the tree down, along with all the Christmas decorations, but this year I was ready to do that chore much sooner. I'm POSITIVE in a few years I will miss telling the children to stop flicking the tree lights on and off, or constantly saying "no" to the baby whenever he sees the little red ornament as a shiny new toy. But not today.

So begins another year...

Happy 2009!

Better Late Than Never

Last week, my brave husband decided to get his tonsils taken out. That's right. My 30 something year-old husband had a tonsilectomy. He has had throat and earache problems as long as I've known him. In fact when we were dating I suggested he get the darn things removed, but he blew off the idea w/ a comment about his being too old. So now, 7 years later, I'm enjoying my "told you so" moment. A week later the old man is still in excruciating pain...and we're all suffering. Lauren came into our bedroom the other day w/ a sore throat and said "My throat is bleeding. I need a slurpee." Oh the things they will do just to get a slurpee.

October

Where did October go? I can't believe we're already half-way through November. That is just craziness to me. I obsess and obsess over the kids' Halloween costumes, making sure I have everything they need for the look they're going for and then the month just flies by. (To tell the truth I love Halloween. I know it's a big fuss over just one day, but I love the "feel" of Halloween.) I found THE cutest costume for Nathan. He was our little stinker. Baby costumes are THE BEST! Thomas went back and forth forever about what he wanted to be. When I was looking at costumes online first he wanted to be a race-car driver, then he wanted to be a UPS driver, then he wanted to be a cowboy, then he wanted to be a doctor...and so on. So for sanity sake I made up his mind for him and made him a pirate. He seemed satisfied w/ that. And, of course, Lauren just had to be a princess...what else?




We headed over to Disneyland for a couple days. I enjoy seeing Disneyland all decorated for the holidays. We just happened to be going to same days as my sis and her family (her son, Jonathan's b-day is on Halloween) so we had a great time hanging out with them. Tell you what...I would love to hire a Disney decorater to come decorate my house for a holiday. Totally worth every penny.



Lauren's school had a parade for all the kids to show off their get-ups. I think every single little girl, except two, in Lauren's class was a princess. Holy cow! We have got to be more creative next year.




So after Lauren's class "activity" she was totally psyched up for trick-or-treating that night. We planned to go out a little after dinner and then over to Jon-Jon's b-day party. So much for plans. Nathan decided that day would be a good time to get the flu. Of course. So Nathan and I stayed home and watched "Ghost Hunters" and handed out candy while the other 3 went around the neighborhood. It is a good thing we went to the trunk-or-treat or Nathan never would have gotten to wear his awesome costume. Too cute. Cami has already called dibs on it for next year.




So that was our October.

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Our baby turns one today. Nathan was, by far, my most difficult pregnancy. Everyone kept telling me that meant he was going to be an easy baby. I just laughed it off and kept my fingers crossed. To my surprise, and utter joy, everyone was right. Nathan is SUCH a good baby. I couldn't possibly ask for more. When we were deciding whether or not to have more kids, our concluding thought was that we couldn't end on a better note than Nathan. He is always so happy, always smiling and laughing, and so...chill. (He gets that from his father). He brings such happiness and entertainment to our family.

Tag...I'm it.

Lisa tagged me a week ago, and I'm just now sitting down to actually put this in writing...since not much else is going on. Here goes.

3 JOYS
1. My husband
2. My little girl doing so awesome at school
3. My boys getting so big

3 FEARS
1. Losing a child or my husband
2. Me getting sick
3. Birds


3 GOALS
1. Go back to school to get a nursing degree
2. Learn how to sew
3. Learn to RELAX!!!

3 CURRENT OBSESSIONS
1. Blog surfing
2. Project Runway!!!
3. Eating healthier

3 REGRETS
1. Wished I had gotten a different degree
2. Leaving the Y
3. Not going on a REAL honeymoon

3 FACTS ABOUT ME
1. I got in my only at-fault car accident the very day I got my license.
2. I absolutely LOVE Disneyland. If I could go there every day I would.
3. I've been bitten by a black widow.

I tag Susie, Sarah B., Amanda A., Devon, & Wendy

Oh the DRAMA

Okay, so we had our first "issue" at school. We're off to a great start. Yesterday Lauren came home from school w/ somebody else's lunch bag. (I put Lauren's name in hers and this one had nothing.) I ask her who has a bag like hers and she says Ellie does. So, we're in luck since we know Ellie. So I call Jamie and ask if Ellie and Lauren got their bags mixed up. Jamie says no, Ellie has her bag. Okay, no problem. This morning I packed Lauren's lunch in a big freezer bag (since we don't have any brown bags) and I take the no-name's lunch bag w/ us. I gave it to Lauren's teacher and told her the situation. She says she'll take care of it. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

I went to go pick up Lauren this afternoon....and when she comes out the door she is in TEARS. Not little tears, like full on hysterical tears. The teacher is w/ her and explains to me that she also asked Ellie if she and Lauren mixed up bags, but Ellie says no it's not hers. This sends Lauren over the edge. She is soooo distraught that we can't locate her lunch bag. The teacher says she will check w/ the other little girls in different classes tomorrow. But me, in my infinite wisdom, went to Target this morning and purchased a new lunch bag, because I knew locating said bag would probably be harder than one would think. So as we are driving home Lauren is still hysterical which sends Thomas into a crying fit, and I'm ready to drive the car off the road. We get home...I show her the new lunch bag... and she immediately stops crying, smiles real big, and says "Thank you Mommy". Oh the DRAMA!!!!