Santa!

Lauren got to see Santa a couple weeks ago. She was soooo excited. She barely stood long enough for me to run a comb through her hair. And before Santa's Helpers could finish telling her it was her turn, she RAN to him through her arms around him and hopped in his lap. She was so happy! She never did tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas though....just wondered how he was doing. Very thoughtful kid we are raising, right? Or a brown noser...not sure!

She still hasn't figured out what she wants for Christmas. Every time something cool comes on a commercial she instantly wants that "thing". So I'm sure she's going to be happy with everything she gets!

Santa did send Lauren a video message and informed her she was currently on the nice list. Daddy and I keep telling her that it's still possible to be moved to the naughty list, but she doesn't believe us. Over the weekend we did convince her that we have a direct line to the "Big Guy" himself and she better be on her best behavior! I wonder if I can milk this for another year??!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

On Friday, Daddy got home a little early so we could go get a Christmas Tree while the weather was still clear! We went to Brewers just west of Shelton this year. Nice trees. They are very manicured trees....definitely not what we are use to but pretty none-the-less.

Here's Lauren at the tree farm. I still don't think she understood the concept until we cut one down. She was just concentrating on not tripping in the tall grass and to make sure to step on EVERY mole hill she could find.

Lauren next to our tree. I think she was convinced we were taking the Charlie Brown Christmas tree home and not the gigantic one next to her!

Once home we got it decorated and it's even prettier in the house! An 8.5' Noble Fir looks pretty good, don't ya think?!

Now to make sure it has enough water since we've had to keep the fireplace roaring with 20 and 30 degree temps!

Parade of Ships in Oly

Tonight we ventured to Oly in the freezing cold to watch the Parade of Ships in the harbor by the Olympia Yacht Club. Lauren had on long john pants under her jeans, 2 layers on top plus the jacket, a beanie and gloves.....and she never complained about being cold so I think we had it covered!

The capitol building from Port Plaza.

A boat in the harbor before the parade.

Lauren with her playgroup friend Ellie. We met up with a couple other moms and their kiddos from playgroup.

The start of the parade!

This boat was pretty cool. Some of them had music and motion/action scenes.

During a lull in the parade with another playgroup friend Breanna.

I love this picture even though it makes me loopy to look at very long!

Even though there were only about 10 boats....Lauren had fun. Heck, she would have enjoyed it had there only been two. We heard that this is the last year for this event. It runs again Saturday, so if you are around, make sure to check it out.

Finally an Update!

Wow! I knew I had neglected the blog, but I didn't realize how bad until today. So....here's an update on our Thanksgiving ventures.


First we stopped at Memaw and Papa's so daddy could go watch one of the only Beaver victories of the season against Washington. Then Sunday morning we hussled down to the Ranch because the fam needed help with an elk they got. Here's Lauren running to the barn to see the dead creature hanging from the rafters! Love that she's so into hunting!

She was also stoked to see Cousin Sam. She hasn't seen him since....hmmm....Easter I guess. She loved petting Simon kitty. Biscuit was a bit confused since Simon is the only cat in the world that doesn't run from her.

Here's the Cousins at the top of the hay bales. I had to keep an eye on Miss Adventurous so she didn't topple over the stack...or herself!

One day, Emmy and Nana took us to Bandon. It was sooooo windy! We headed out to the lighthouse/jetty viewing. The picture doesn't show the deep swells that were flowing into the bay. It looked like somebody jumping on a gigantic waterbed!

The waves were so high and the wind was blowing the mist and sand all over the place. I asked Lauren if she wanted to get out...thinking that she wouldn't....but of course she said yes!

Here's a better depiction of the winds velocity with Lauren and Aunt Emmy. We tried to make it to the Beach but the sand starting pelting us in the face like needles! When we got in the car, Lauren told Nana how the wind got her face! I think I ruined my child for the coast.

On Thanksgiving we ran back up the freeway to Memaw and Papa's. Most of my mom's side was there on Friday. Here's a pic of her generation of cousins; Jacqueline, Mom, Darrell and David.

Here's my generation of "Cousins": Blake, Me and Brandon.

All of us together with Lauren too!

If you're wondering by the photo and I haven't spoke to you lately, yes we're expecting again. I'm due May 16th and we find out if it's a boy or a girl on Dec. 29th. Lauren is very excited to be a Big Sister....and I think waiting for his or her arrival will really test her patience!

Here's Gram Gram with Lauren. It's probably the best pic we have of the 2 of them since Lauren's been mobile!

It was a great trip to see everyone. And hopefully we'll get to see everyone for Christmas up here!

Halloween

So I'm a little late on the Halloween update, but here are the pics. This is Pirate Lauren posing with her pumpkins prior to carving them. She definitely had the "arg!" down.

Looking for treasure from her pirate ship.

Lauren wanted a bat....so mommy found this cool free template online and cheated! But hey, it looks sooooo cool!

Then we did a Happy Face pumpkin.

And daddy did a deer antler smile pumpkin.

On Sunday we went to Union to do their annual Pumpkin trick-or-treat activities.

Trick-or-treating at the cabins....

And more candy!

Then we grabbed some ice cream at a little deli before heading to the Union Fire Deparment's Trunk-or-Treat at the little country store.

Lauren had a great time. We also hit downtown Olympia on Halloween. It was a tad crazy and mom didn't take any pictures because my hands were too full filling out entry slips for the treasure hunt. You were handed an entry slip every time you went into a store and found an "ugly doll". Well Lauren got very good and even started pointing the ugly doll out to the other kids. But we still didn't win the treasure. Definitely found some cool stores to shop at though! So mommy will have to hit those WITHOUT Lauren! Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!

Who does she look like revisited!

So back in January 2009 I did one of those Look-alike meter's online. Lauren was only 3 months, but it showed Lauren looked only 3% more like mommy than daddy. Now that she is older and mommy always gets "She looks just like you"...I decided to do it again. And here's what happened:

Still ONLY 3% more like Mommy. So for those of you saying she looks exactly like me....there's a lot of Jake there too....47% worth!

Pumpkin Patch visit

Friday we ran out to Hunter Farm's Pumpkin Patch north of Shelton in Union. It's the same place we went last year and Lauren was on a mission to find her chicken Judge Judy. However, we still aren't sure we found the "exact" same chicken.

Here we are on the wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Lauren found her pumpkin. I swear she picked the smallest one in the patch!

Still trying to find one for mommy. A lot of the larger ones had rotten spots or weren't quite orange enough!

We thought we spotted the perfect one buried in the brush, but it was a little rotten! Yuck!

Lauren trying to look over the front of the wagon with the other kids! They were so nice to her and made room so she could squeeze in.

Can you spot Lauren in this picture!??

Mommy's perfect pumpkin with mommy's girl.

Petting some of the farm animals. They even had one of Santa's reindeer on loan!! Which was funny because before we left, Lauren said "Are we going to that pumpkin patch?" as she looked at pictures in the bathroom from last year. I answered with a yes and she said "Ok, but let's go see Santa first!" I said that we couldn't because Santa doesn't come out until Thanksgiving. Which she responded ethusiastically "Santa's coming to Thanksgiving!!!???? YAY!"

Climbing in the hay maze on her way to the tunnel slide.

This was the best picture I could get of Miss Lauren coming down the slide. She had a blast but with the angel, pictures were hard to come by!

Wednesday's Playgroup

On Wednesday we had playgroup at Jumping Jacks in Lacey. We opened the place up and had it mainly all to ourselves. That was nice since our impatient 3 year olds don't understand how to wait in line! But on arrival Lauren started shaking! She was actually scared. It took her a few minutes but she finally warmed up to the idea and was off and running with her friends!

Dueling slides with Cassie.

The girls were so fast on the slide that the pictures didn't turn out very well so you'll have to settle with these short videos!

Birthday Party!

Lauren wanted an Angry Bird Birthday party this year. For those that don't know what Angry Birds is....well it's a video game that is mainly used on IPhones but has branched off to computers and game systems as well. This is all thanks for Jake's boss, Tom. He introduced Lauren to Angry Birds when he stayed with us in July and the kid has been hooked since.

So here are the Angry Bird cupcakes I stayed up the night before making. They surprisingly didn't take as long as I imagined! Red birds, check. Blue birds, check. Yellow birds, check. Those bad piggies and the eggs....check, check.

The decorated dining room. It was looking pretty festive!

The party girl waiting for her party guests to arrive.

We did an Angry Bird Egg hunt (i.e. Easter Egg hunt) for the party game. I think the kids enjoyed themselves and everyone got little somethings in their eggs.

The birthday girl with party goer Cassie during Happy Birthday.

All the party guests. This is our Mom's Club playgroup. Left to Right; Ellie, Lauren, Cassie, Alexa (Ellie's baby sister) and Breanna.

They all seemed to have a lot of fun. Mommy's friend Kerry showed up all the way from Oregon, just for the day. Which was loads of help and definitely gave mommy some much needed relief! Thanks so much!