Christmas #1

Lauren is so excited!!

Grandma and Grandpa time:

Opening teddy bears from Grandpa in Texas

Lauren got a play kitchen for Christmas:

It's pictures like this that take my breath away. Every once in a while, I see a picture of Lauren where she looks so much older than she is. I feel like I get a glimpse of what she will look like in another year or two. Or maybe I just don't want to believe that she is this old already. Or maybe it's because she always seems to have a phone (real or pretend) up to her ear.

Sick Day

My girls are sick. One with a fever and one with a runny nose and cough. Wow - it's tough with two sick at once. Lauren is in bed with a fever of 102.5. She was at her grandma and grandpa's visiting for the day, when I got a call around noon. Lauren just woke up from a nap and wants mama and to go home. Ok...now that NEVER happens. So I knew she was sick. Brought her home and she layed on the couch for a little while watching Dora. Then she wanted to sleep in the play room. I finally got her to her bed then had to hold Claire who was snotty, coughing, and spitting up. Ah...it'll be fun to look back on this later. Much later.

SANTA!

I think this is the last year I will be able to get away with not going to the Mall of America for a visit with Santa. This was taken at the Mom's Group Christmas party. Obviously...Lauren was NOT having any of it. At least this year I didn't have to sit on his lap. We got a picture with just Claire (thanks Suzanne!) and then with the group. Oh...how Lauren cried. What the pictures don't show is how afterward, Lauren got to talk to him and give him a high-five. She was pretty impressed with him and kept watching him as she made her ornament and ate her cookie. Now she keeps talking about Santa. (Notice that Santa is the same in each of the pictures. You can call him Santa Ed.)









December 2008

December 2007

December 2006

Claire is 4 months!

Four months old - She's such a big girl. I can't believe how strong she is. She loves to stand. Just about to start on solid foods. Lauren is so great with her. So loving. Claire sleeps well at night. Only up once or twice. Not so much during the day. She spits up so often that it interferes with her napping. She wants to be held all the time, and I think I'm sending my chiropractor's kids to college.

I found a friend!

Ok...so Claire is just starting to wake up from her 6 1/2 minute nap, and I think I have just enough time to change a lightbulb in the kitchen. I grab our last extra floodlight bulb, climb like a monkey onto the kitchen counter and reach for the bulb. Now, we've only lived here for about a year so I'm curious about how much dust has gathered on top of the cabinets. I peek over the top, and what do I see? This little guy. First I thought he was a St. Joseph statue for selling the house, but after closer inspection, he looks like a carpenter. Maybe a saint of carpentry...wait, wouldn't that be Jesus? Hmmm. Well, either way it certainly brightened up my day. Edit: Andy just told me St. Joseph is the saint of carpentry. Good to know.

By the way - I had just enough time to get the lightbulb changed. Claire is now asleep on my shoulder. Again.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

First snow! Okay..not exactly first snow, but the first that has stuck. We gave Lauren a big red shovel. A kind of pre-Christmas gift. She worked really well with only one arm. Only about an inch, but plenty to shovel. She was so excited to wear her new snow boots! Gotta love consignment shops. After she gets her splint off next week, she'll get to wear her whole snowsuit...not just the pants.

Hair Trim

So this is Lauen's 3rd haircut. Ever. She was super good about it. I figured what with the holidays around the corner, and all the picture taking about to happen, we should clean up her do. She went with Andy weekend before last to get his hair trimmed and was pretty fascinated by that. I think she thought that was how her hair was going to look, because the closer we got to the Kids Hair place, the more nervous she seemed about it. After I told her she wasn't going to look like daddy afterwards, she seemed better. Poor kid. The world can be such a confusing place!

Even a dolly needs a little help now and then.

For those who pray

About a month ago, I was surfing one of my favorite blogs - Ali Edwards - and came across the blog of Kimberly Reed. Ali Edwards and friends were raising money for her and her family. Now...I don't know this woman other than the fact she is a fellow artist. But her story touched and broke my heart simultaneously. She is a mother of two boys age 5 & 7. Her husband died unexpectedly at the age of 38, and the most recent postings on her blog are of her experience with that. Please pray for her and her boys. Her story made me hug my husband and children just a little longer last night.

Actual Ice Box

This is for everyone in the south... Did you know that where I live, your entire garage doubles as an extra refrigerator in the winter? My inlaws use their car to store extra pies and the turkey at Thanksgiving.

Rainy day forts

What a rainy day. It's 43 degrees here. Too warm for snow...too cold to play in the rain. So we built a fort to ward off the boredom. Lauren's AND mine. Claire was happy to stare at the "busy bee" and suck on her hand. We had a picnic under the fort and played "knock, knock, come in". I'm not sure I know the rules to that game, but Lauren sure had fun with it. She would stand at the 'door' and say, "knock knock, come in" and wait for me to say, "knock, knock, come in". Then she would run away... She would laugh and laugh...Man she cracks me up.

Big Brain

I just can't believe this. Lauren and I were "scrapbooking" this afternoon. She is talking and singing to herself and she starts to recite our address. She's done this before and it baffled me the first few times, but I've gotten used to it. Then...she recites our phone number! I just can't believe the brain on this girl. She'll be officially 2 1/2 tomorrow. My little girl... ahhhh..

Claire is three months old!

Claire is now three months old. Hard to believe. She's sleeping really well - only getting up once a night. She's very alert and would rather stand than sit. When she is sitting, she leans forward to stand. Yep - she'll be walking soon...

bear with me

I'm working on figuring out the whole header, layout, design, etc...bear with me :) Anyone know how to change the color of this central column??

And the envelope please...

Well...it's broken. She has a distal humerus fracture - (broken elbow). Clean break according to the orthopedist. Now she has this splint on for FOUR WEEKS! I just realized she will not be able to fit in any of her shirts. And we're about to get a cold front with temps in the 30's. She had her temporary splint removed this morning and they put her in a more permenant splint (read LARGER). She was so brave. It was a pretty traumatic experience and now she's hanging out on the couch watching Dora.

My poor baby!

My poor baby!! We just got back from Hudson Hospital ER. Lauren fell backwards off the couch and (we think) broke her elbow. I didn't have the heart to take pictures of her tonight..she is too miserable - and asleep by now. She has her poor little arm in a cast and we have to take her to an orthopedist tomorrow. They took X-Rays - by far the most distressing part of the whole night. (for both of us). Daddy stayed back and held Claire who, thankfully, was fast asleep. The X-rays didn't show much except a "grey" area that looked like something "moved"...such as bone... When it happened and we told her we were going to have to take her to the doctor to get it looked at - she said, "get a bandaid"...through the tears. Broke my heart. Thankfully...she sleeps..

Halloween, halloween

Ah...our first Halloween with real trick-or-treating! Lauren was such a champ. She, daddy, Claire and I went out in the neighborhood. We practiced first in the kitchen. Lauren loved pretending to ring the doorbell and she so proudly would say, "trick or treat!" Of course when we got to the first house...no such luck. She just stared - so overwhelmed. Thank goodness it was warm enough to be out for a while. A whole whopping 48 degrees. I heard it was 7 degrees last year, so I guess I don't mind 48. Claire and I joined in for the first 4 houses - then we headed back to answer the door. It is so crazy around here - since everyone has at least 2.5 acres, all the daddys got out their riding lawn mowers...hooked up a trailer and drove their kids around. That and the daddys on their 4 wheelers. Such a strange concept. I thought we were clever by taking Lauren in her Little Tikes wagon..