Oregon Trip

Last week, we ran down to Oregon to visit Mima and Papa since Mima's birthday is this week. Thank goodness we did since we are snowed in! (Not literally but with 4 inches of snow on the ground at the house....I'll be darned if I'm leaving the place!)

We kept ourselves very busy while Mima and Papa worked Thursday and Friday. Thursday we went and visited Gram Gram, a couple of quilt shops and then we went back to Browntucky and visited Neighbor Jake at the ranch. Jake got one of the babies out of the pen for Lauren to love on! It was very nice of him especially since they are so busy lambing right now. And the fact that Jake's not a big "kid" person....made it even more special!

Lauren attached her self to this one because it was crying. It was bummer lamb and lost it's mommy. Jake thought we needed to take it home. I asked him if he liked being friends with my husband?? The lamb stayed.

Giving the baby a kiss bye. It's a good thing Lauren doesn't understand that Andersen Ranches doesn't raise lambs long enough to become sheep....they are one of the top suppliers of lamb to high end restaurants on the West Coast. I know, right? So we left before they started vaccinating and other things!!!

On Friday we ran to Albany to run some errands too avoid sales tax! Ha! We ran to Coastal to get daddy some shirts, Costco to pick up some cleaning stuff, Joann's....well because it's Joann's, and then to Red Robin to have lunch with Sandy and Carley. Carley is Lauren's babysitter from Brownsville whom we miss tremendously! I'm still trying to talk her into going to college this fall in Olympia and being our live-in nanny!

I worked with Carley's mom Sandy in Brownsville and it was so great to catch up. I miss the girls a lot....but only the work part a little! Lauren was a big fan of the hunting game. She's never had toy guns so it was interesting this came naturally....or from the hunting shows on TV....not sure which one! It's probably 70% genetic and 30% hunting shows.

It was a good trip. We had a good time catching up with everyone. I'm sure we'll be back down that way and do it again soon.

Play Group Birthday Party

On Tuesday we went to Play Group at Carrie's house because it was her daughter Anna's 4th Birthday. Lauren enjoyed the frosting on her cupcake. But instead of seconds....asked for more apple. Thankfully she doesn't have her mother's sweet tooth . . . . completely! Had it been ice cream, we might have had a different outcome!


Singing Happy Birthday....I think there were more "La La La's" than words!

Miss Anna, the Birthday Girl! And she let everyone know on arrival! Super funny!

New Toy!

In hindsight....we should have bought one of these a long time ago. She is definitely Queen of the Trampoline! The videos are funny because even laying down she has to bounce....and she, like always, needs to know how it works. It has music as well that she sings to in her own language and also pretend that the handle bar ends are microphones! The energy she burns in fantastic!

Won't you be my neighbor?

Lauren, like Mister Rogers, would like to know if you would be her neighbor? Last weekend our neighbor to the West listed their house on the market. And last fall the neighbor a house over to the East listed their house. Not sure if it's us or just a coincidence! It can't be us since we've never met either one! But we thought that we'd throw it out there to our friends and family. And the fact that their are 2 houses, just means that more of you can actually follow through since I know everyone is flooding to Washington and there will probably be bidding wars!! Just kidding, but I couldn't help posting.

Neighbor to the West

Neighbor to the East

Mom's Club

Today we had our second MOM'S club meeting. Lauren always has a lot of fun and burns a lot of energy! This video was taken pre-meeting. It's almost as if, she looks at me and is like "You caught me! I'm outta here!" She never wants anything to do with me with all the other kids/entertainers around! And as you can tell by the noise, it can be rather loud when they first get together!

When it's time for the moms' to have their time, the kiddos go next door to a supervised play room. Today the moms discussed the possibilities of a covered playground in Olympia which since we get inches and inches of rain....sounded great! We also made cards for the NICU babies at Providence to congratulate them on milestones such as wearing real clothes, having a bath, no more feeding tubes and lots of other things we take for granted.

Sunny Day pics

It's been very sunny the last couple of days, so we took advantage of it for some new pictures. Lauren's quite the show off.

This little outfit was Sydney's and is super cute. It's amazingly a 3T so it's obvious Miss Lauren has hit another growth spurt.

Prim and Propper portrait pose. Silly kid.

It's been nice to have a break from the rain. It's been below freezing at night but broke 50 the last couple of days.

Play Date with Cookies

On Tuesday we met with a few of the ladies from the Moms Group in Olympia to decorate Valentine's Day cookies at one of their homes. It was nice for Lauren to play with some other kids and nice for mommy to get some adult conversation!

Here's Lauren with her cookie. Mom decorated it and Lauren just watched in "awe". Then she tried to eat it but kept getting frosting on her hands. After two attempts and just getting "icky" on her fingers, she gave up and went to play with the toys and kids....who would have thought she'd be such a neat freak!


Here she is playing. There were 6 other kids, but I think Lauren is the youngest. But she still had a lot of fun.


She really liked dunking things in the basket. It was fun for her to play with some "new-to-her" toys.

We had a great time and were asked to join their Play Group that meets Tuesdays. Sounds like fun and I think it would be good socialization for Miss Lauren!