First Day of School!

Okay, okay - I know I have been very lazy about blogging! I am sure you are all sick of looking at the same 4th of July pict. so I will put you out of your misery and share Lauren's first day of school photo's! I found a great preschool for Lauren to attend this year and today was the first day! She was so excited to put on her special outfit (she really wanted to wear a skirt) and grab her new backpack (Barbie) and go to her new class to meet lots of new friends. Her teacher came to our house last week and met her so she already knew Teacher Kim and wasn't nervous at all when I dropped her off. When I saw her after class she was singing a new song about the days of the week, and told me today is Aug. 18 Mom (she said it one -eight). And she got to paint a pict. of a fish at the art station and play with play dough and play with the doll houses. She said she can't wait to go back tomorrow and make more friends!

Ready to get in the car and go to school!

I had a couple other cute pict. but blogger isn't letting me download them but here you go - something new to look at!

4th of July and Birthday Celebration!

I am a little slow in getting our 4th pictures on the blog but we had a really fun 4th of July weekend! It was fun to have Dave home all weekend with us. Unfortunately though, because of his crutches and the crowds at the 4th of July parade, Dave stayed home and Lauren and I went by ourselves. It was a lot of fun though. We found the most perfect spot for two people and it was right in the SHADE! Lauren had a great time waving and yelling Hello to all the different people in the parade. She got such a huge bag of candy you would have thought it was Halloween. After the parade we BBQ'd yummy burgers and hot dogs and got all our stuff together for the fireworks. The fireworks were a lot of fun and we met up with a bunch of friends and all the kids had a great time lighting sparklers and running around waiting for it to get dark enough for the show to start. By the time we got home at 11pm that night Lauren was worn out but it was a really fun day.


Lauren and I waiting for the parade to start!


My cute girl excited for the parade!


Dave and Lauren waiting for the Fireworks show to start!


Enjoying some sparklers before the fireworks show.

We had just as much fun on the 5th too. Dave turned the big 31 on the 5th and we made him a special breakfast for his birthday and opened presents (after Lauren finally woke up at 9:30)! That afternoon we went out to lunch and then came home for a nice nap before heading up to Cedar Rapids and watching a Kernels Baseball Game. We had AMAZING seats - 3rd row and right behind home plate. The Kernels ended up winning and after the game we got to see another fireworks show. We didn't get home until 11pm again that night and Lauren was again ready to crawl into bed but unfortunately for her she couldn't sleep in on Sun. morning since we have church at 9am. I was laughing while I tried to wake her up - she was such a teenager - she kept saying she was too tired to get up and was trying to pull her blanket up over her head.


The birthday boy at the baseball game.

Things got back to normal this week with Dave heading back to school and Lauren and I playing with our friends. Now we are heading off to TX for Dave's family reunion for the next week. Should be fun!

Conversation with Lauren

The following conversation happened today while Lauren and I were driving in the car.

Lauren: Mom, I picked my nose and I not eat my boogers!
Me: Wow - good job. That means you are getting bigger! Way to go!
Lauren: Yeah! But I think Dad still eats his boogers sometimes mom.
Me: No, I think Dad is a big kid too and he doesn't eat his boogers.
Lauren: Oh, okay.

Can you tell what we have been working on with our 4 year old daughter!?!?! It looks like it is finally starting to sink in though. I guess now we need to work on not telling untrue stories about Daddy.

And Conversation #2

Lauren: I want to be 4 things when I grow up.
Me: Really? What 4 things do you want to be?
Lauren: I want to be a Fairy, a Mermaid, a Whale, and a Mommy!
Me: Wow - that's a lot of things you want to be.

Really - how do you respond to a list like that? I knew about the mermaid and Mommy but she threw me with the Whale thing. Maybe we have been reading the story of Jonah and the Whale a few too many times at night before we go to bed.

Surviving the Floods

I wish I could post some pictures of all the flooding we are having here in Iowa but that is our one casulty from this flood - our high speed internet went out last week and it may be another week before it is fixed. But that has honestly been our biggest inconvenience through all of this craziness and I almost feel guilty because so many others have lost so much!

Dave isn't allowed up to his office this week so he has been trying to work from home using the slow dial-up internet. We have obviously been avoiding down town IC and Coralville but we live so far from the river that we can still go to most of the places we ususally go to - The Children's Museum, the parks, the outdoor pool, swim and gymnastic classes, etc. We do miss going down to the IC Library and we could go if we really wanted but we don't want to add to the congestion . We are glad that the roads are starting to open up again. We can now drive North to Cedar Rapids and the I-80 East is now open again too. Since Dave can't go to school I thought maybe we should just go down to Nauvoo for a couple of days and go to the Temple and just enjoy Nauvoo but Dave didn't want to travel south because that is where all this water is flowing and the communities south of us are now starting to flood. So we are just hanging out here for the week. Dave should be able to get back into his office on Monday - luckily his office is at the top of the hill directly above the IMU (which is unfortunately flooded).

We just wish we could have done more to help out during all the flooding. I am 5 months pregnant and can't help with the sandbagging and Dave is on crutches so he couldn't help either. We are hoping we can find a way to help once the clean up efforts start. We are just anxious for this water to recede so we can get the clean up started! The Cedar River in Cedar Rapids receded very quickly but the Iowa River will be much slower (last I heard they expect water to continue to pour over the spillway for around another 10 days)!! So even though the water isn't rising anymore it may still be weeks before the water is out of the buildings and clean up efforts may begin. Thanks for all those that have asked how we are doing and are concerned for those of us here in Iowa.

The last few days

We have been playing a lot the last few days and I actually took some pictures of it so get ready for picture overload!



We went to a b-day party for a friend and we got to ride the train, planes, and carousel!


We made a trip to the Children's Museum and Lauren made me some tasty pies and had fun delivering some mail!


We went to story time at the library and then played in the fountain after!


We made yummy banana splits for our treat after FHE!!




And we went exploring in the new dinosaur room at the Children's Museum.

So there you have it - our last week in pictures! Lauren also started swim lessons yesterday and I even took some pictures but haven't downloaded those yet. Today we finally got a break from all the rain we have been getting and we were able to play at the park. Lauren got absolutely filthy because the park was so wet but she had fun running around with her friends.

Dave has finally started going up to campus again this week. He isn't able to stay all day yet because of the pain but at least he is getting back into his school mode again. Now Lauren and I have to get used to not having him around all day anymore.

As for me - I am just busy taking care of my little family and getting bigger everyday. Now that we know we are having another girl I am ready to do a little shopping for her. Fortunately I don't need a lot but I will need some cold weather stuff for her since Lauren was a baby during the summer months. I guess I am a little early to be buying the cold weather stuff but I can having fun looking and dreaming!

We are having a . . . . .

We had our ultra sound on Friday and it is official - we are having a GIRL!! We are very excited about having another little girl in our family. We were especially grateful to see that she is healthy and everything looked/measured right on for her October due date. I was going to put some of the ultra sound pictures on here but they are kind of blurry and after being scanned into our computer I was afraid they would be even more blurry. So just imagine a cute little girl hanging out with her ankles crossed, just chilling while we checked her out from head to toe.
When we got home from the hospital I asked Lauren if she wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl and she just looked at me and said, "Mom, I already know it a girl. I going to have a sister!" Well, she was right. Now we just have to think of a name we can all agree on!
Lauren and I have been having lots of fun this week playing at the park, going swimming at the outdoor splash pool, and seeing the new dinosaur exhibit at the museum. I took a lot of pictures but need to download them so I will hopefully be posting some cute pictures soon!

Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was pretty low key. We obviously didn't go anywhere since Dave is still recuperating from his last surgery. I did have a fun night out with a bunch of girls at a good-bye party for a good friend who is moving away soon! There was a lot of singing, food, and just good times hanging out and talking. I was one of the party poopers who went home from the party early - I was the second to leave the party and I left at 3am!

Lauren and I had hoped to go to one of the outdoor pools over the weekend but the weather turned colder and the pools didn't open so we will just have to patiently wait for the warmer weather to return. We also had some pretty bad storms over the weekend. Luckily we missed the worst of them here in our area but tornado season has definitely started and about 1 1/2 hours north of us 6 people were killed when a tornado ripped through their town. I really, really hate tornado season and I hope this season will be as uneventful as possible!

Dave did leave the house this weekend though - he came to church with us on Sunday! He stayed through Sacrament Mtg. and then stayed to hear Lauren give her second talk in primary! She talked about families and she did a GREAT job! And Monday we decided to all go out to lunch together. That was about as exciting as we got over the weekend. At the restaurant they had a coloring book and crayons for Lauren and in the back of the book was a cute letter she could fill in. It asked lots of funny questions and it was fun to learn that Lauren wants to be a Mystery Superhero when she grows up! If you ask her what a mystery superhero does she will tell you that they solve mysteries!

We also found the time to play some rousing games of Pretty Pretty Princess!

Doesn't Dave look great in yellow jewelry?!?! After I took this picture he said that it better not show up on our blog. But I think it shows what a great Dad he is to play Pretty Pretty Princess with his little girl. Luckily I was the one taking the pictures so there isn't one of me to put on here but I will tell you that I was the big winner and loved wearing all my purple jewelry!

Survival Mode!

Do you ever feel like you are just living in survival mode sometimes? It has felt like that for the last couple of weeks but hopefully we will be past that soon. Dave had surgery again two weeks ago and is finally starting to get over the worst of it. He can get around a little better and he isn't in constant pain so he can sleep at night again. I have been trying to keep Lauren happy and occupied so he can rest but I am trying to survive allergy season and it has hit me hard this week! I never had a problem with allergies until I hit my 20's and now a couple of times a year I get hit hard. Fortunately I found some medicine I can take while pregnant but unfortunately - it doesn't seem to be helping much. I just hope the worst will be over soon because I have been feeling so horrible lately and I feel like such a neglectful Mom to Lauren. At least Dave has been feeling a little better this week and he has been great to let Lauren climb up on his lap (on his good leg) and read books with her and play computer games with her and snuggle with her.

We have had a lot of amazing people helping us out though and we are thankful for all the help! We have had meals brought to our home, friends call to see how we are doing, and people take Lauren to their homes so she can get out and play for a bit. Lauren is such a social little thing that she has loved being able to get out and play and that has probably been the biggest help of all. So thank you for everyone who has helped us out through both of these surgeries!

A "Hairy" Experiment!

A few weeks ago I had this idea for a fun way to make Lauren's hair curly. It didn't turn out quite like I thought it would!

First - we wound her wet hair up into tight pin curls

This face pretty much summed up how she felt about the whole idea!

Then when she woke up the next morning - we pulled out the bobby pins and unwound her hair. Hmm - the finished look wasn't quite what I thought it would look like!

Just a little out of control - poor thing looks like she just put her finger in a light socket!

But after A LOT of work the finished product wasn't too bad.

So with the help of a curling iron and a water bottle, we were able to tame the "Crazy" look and turn it into something cute she could wear to church! But I don't think we will be trying this look again any time soon!

Tag . . .I'm It!

Tag! How To Play This Game of Tag. Post these rules on you blog. Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Here it is...

Joys
1. Of Course Dave and Lauren are my greatest joys (also my greatest pains but we are focusing on joys here)
2. Friends - Being so far away from family is hard but having good friends really helps!
3. Trips home to visit family. They don't come often (once or twice a year if I am lucky) but we LOVE spending time with brother's and sister's, Grandma's and Grandpa's and cousins!

Fears
1. Lauren getting a serious illness. When I see pict. of sick kids I just can't imagine what it is like for the parents of that child and I hope I never find out.
2. Big roller coasters! I am a chicken - Disneyland rides are about as exciting as I like to get!
3. Spiders and cockroaches! I sometimes have nightmares about them - they really gross me out!

Goals
1. Learn to cook better. I love to cook but I would like to try new things.
2. Learn how to use my Photoshop program I got for my birthday 6 months ago!
3. De-clutter my house before our next baby is born.

Obsessions
1. Blogs - take up way too much of my time!
2. Reading! I love to read and poor Lauren is constantly asking me to put my book away.
3. My TV shows - AI, Dancing with the Stars, The Office (just to name a few).

Random Facts
1. I currently have 3 church callings (none of them are that hard).
2. My bedroom is currently the bedroom (bed, dresser), office (desk, bookshelves, computer, filing cabinet), music room (full size electric piano), storage room (boxes of Lauren's clothes, pictures, computer software, etc.) and recreation room (TV). I can't wait until we have a BIGGER house and my bedroom can just be a bedroom!!
3. I LOVE dill pickles. I love them so much that after I eat all the pickles I will then drink the pickle juice. In the summer our outdoor splash pool sells frozen pickle juice for .25 and Lauren and I (yes, I passed this love onto my daughter) will buy it and we love it! This summer I think we will be making our own pickle Popsicles!

Since I am not sure who has done this before - I tag anyone who wants to do it! Feel free to answer these questions yourself on your blog so we can all get to know you a little better!