Little Lady Lauren

I love having a daughter! It would be great if Matt would let me have a few more but that is a (pointless) post for another day. Anyway, back to the sweet girl I do have.

She got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and ever since we've been enjoying Easy Bake desserts. While munching on a lollipop Lauren easily whipped up a batch of brownies for her brother and herself.

"Easy Peasy" (to quote Lauren)

"super yummy" (to quote Tyler)

Later on that night Lauren rocked out to my iPod Touch while she drew up a masterpiece. Maybe one of you lucky readers will receive a signed piece of Lauren's artwork.
(Send me your request and I'll see what I can do.)

After the bath, my favorite girl asked me to put curlers in her hair.
She loves her some curlers.

Tyler did not want to miss out on any photo opportunity. So although he didn't have curlers he still wanted a picture. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this boy?!

The next morning my favorite boy brought out his new remote control car to play with. (thanks Uncle Todd & Aunt Jennifer!) He prefers to stand on the kitchen chair so the car won't run into him.
Lauren also likes to take cover when Tyler's car is loose.
(also notice her flowing waves after sleeping in the curlers)
While Tyler and Daddy hung out at home, Lauren I went to the beauty parlor (aka USA Nails) to get a mani and pedi. I got a full on pedicure and manicure while Lauren simply had her finger and toenails painted. This was her first time at a nail salon and she was super excited. She was a tad bit nervous but she did great despite the fact that she didn't get to sit next to me during the beautification process.

She chose a purple polish and had a special request for a flower on each of her big toes.
My girl's got style!

That night we had dinner at Dave and Susan's house. Don't tell Lauren this but she mentioned she hoped Ian (Dave & Susan's almost 4-year-old son) would like her pretty nail polish. She tried to get him to notice it by wearing sandles despite the 40-something degree weather. Regardless if he noticed or not I thoroughly enjoyed Lauren's excitement at getting all dolled up. I look forward to many more girly girl moments to come.

Today we had a busy day. We went to playgroup in the morning where we played hard and in the afternoon Lauren's friend Kylie came over to play. Lauren and Kylie had not seen each other since Oktoberfest. Needless to say the three of them (Tyler, Kylie & Lauren) played hard.

So hard, in fact, that this is what happened about 30 minutes after Kylie went home.

Yes, he is again wearing his "punch guy" outfit. I will probably shed a tear when he outgrows this all-time favorite outfit.

Lauren was also very quiet during this time so I took my camera and went a-hunting. Turns out Daddy set her up on his work computer. She probably just finished up some work drawings for Matt but quickly turned it to the game when she heard me coming. ;)

I sure love my little lady Lauren and her little brother Tyler.
Tomorrow we have another big day planned:
lunch at Burger King with Kylie and family and then a mellow New Years Eve with Tera, Troy, Emma, Shep, possibly Ian & Eric and their corresponding families. I'm excited to have company for this holiday.

Happy New Year Y'All.

'twas the day after Christmas

'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house,
the doorbell rang loud when a new box was announced. (the rhyming ends here)

Inside this new box was a gift for each of us!! My Uncle Ken and Aunt Charlotte really pulled out all the stops. Can you guess which gift is for me?!
I opened it without tearing one bit of the Totally Awesome wrapping paper. It was a perfectly fitting Oregon Duck 2010 Rose Bowl T-Shirt. Picture to come another post.

Everyone got to open a great gift as well. Lauren got a Mickey Mouse Yahtzee Jr. game. (which I happened to win the first go around.) Tyler got a Lightening McQueen puzzle and Matt received a very cool 5 DVD set of "Our Planet Earth."

Later in the day we let the Zhu Zhu Pets come out to play. Tyler and Tera had a blast playing with the little hamster scoundrels.

We invited Tyler and Tera and their Daddy, Mr. Mike to come over and play. We played with the Wii:
We did a lot of beaded crafts (thank you cousins Madison and Crisstopher)
and we spent a LOT of time playing with the Zhu Zhu pets. At our house the hamsters like to sleep in the fridge.
They also like to snuggle. Tera is such a sweet Zhu Zhu snuggly girl.

aaahhhhh!!!

and Tyler is too.

finally it was time to snuggle down into bed. We invited Tera to spend the night. At first it was only going to be Tera and Lauren in the guest bed but Tyler asked if he could have a slumber party as well. How could I turn the sweet boy down.

Goodnight all. I'm so ready for bed.

Christmas Rocks!

***disclaimer: if you are not immediate family, you may (definitely will) become bored with this picture by picture re-cap of our Christmas Celebration 2009. It will not offend me if you just skim through it or skip it all together.***

I loved EVERYTHING about Christmas this year. L and T are at the perfect age to really enjoy everything that Christmas is about. The only thing I struggled with was Lauren's question, "Is Santa real?" I told her he was real as long as we believe he is. However, he is not like Jesus who knows everything about us and is always and forever in our hearts. Santa is real for only so long as we believe. (what do you think? good explanation? bad? any tips/suggestions?)

Christmas Eve we prepared some reindeer food. Cheerios mixed with Oatmeal topped with some chocolate sprinkles.

L and T took great care in preparing the reindeer food.just look at it

all bundled up and ready to sprinkle it on the lawn

Lauren's Christmas list to Santa
(l-r: butterfly net, Wii, doll, R/C race-car, princess movie DVD)

Christmas Eve dinner was Pizza!
(possibly a new tradition)
Pepperoni for the kiddos

and Thai Chicken for Matt and I.
(basically a peanut butter sauce with chicken, red pepper and cilantro)
we both thought it was not anything special so I'm not including the recipe.
(in all honesty, I recycled it and cannot find it....sorry)
It sure looks tasty though, No?

Christmas Eve Evening we left milk and a cookie out for Santa.

Santa obviously appreciated it.

Before leaving, Santa left our chimney looking as so.
Stuffed Stockings and a Wii game for the family down below.

After the kiddos went to bed Matt and I watched The Proposal. It was an okay movie but we both agreed it was over-rated. It was a chick-flick...not a bad thing but not anything "out of this world."

Christmas morning we woke up at 7:30am.
Here is Lauren after seeing her first gift left out for her.
Lauren's new Big Girl Bike

tilt your head and you can see her riding it
then it was Stocking Time

and open the Wii time
(we named it Wiisel)

the Easy Bake Oven

a bunch of cars
Car Transporter, Optimus Prime, cars, police car, and more cars to be transported

Chloe enjoyed chewing on the wrapping paper (and eating breakfast bacon.)

Tyler's favorite things...
cars and trucks!

Lauren plays with Tyler's new Leapster computer.

and also his car transporter

ahhh...the Zhu Zhu Pets
Tyler and Lauren both got one and they provided hours and hours of entertainment.

finally it was time for Christmas Brunch.
Matt made eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast.
They were de-lish.
Our children are spoiled however, and Lauren asked how this was different than any other breakfast Daddy makes.
Thank you Matt for all the DELICIOUS breakfasts you make us!

after breakfast we moved right on to more Christmas presents.
LEGOS!!

quick, check out one of my Christmas presents
a real handbag...not at all a diaper bag
I feel a bit bitter sweet however, with this transition (from the diaper bag to the hand bag.)

Santa brought us a whole Wii ensemble.

my new PJs

my new Christmas tea towels
(I also received a Halloween tea towel.)

Lauren plays with her markers and also her new beads.

time for some Marble Madness

getting there

complete!

Tyler loves it.

Did you know the Zhu Zhu Pets make sounds like they are going tee tee in their beds? Well they do and this is what Tyler is absolutely cracking up about. It's gross but who can't help but let go and laugh?!

and now it's Wii Time.

Lauren has spent multiple hours on the Wii tonight. I'm going to have to watch out for her.

Here is an attempt to embed a video of Lauren playing the Wii. (She LOVES the Wii....she's been playing it for a total of 2 hours so far.) Matt got a new Ipod for Christmas and he was happy to try it out and record Lauren on the Wii.

While I made dinner the three of them (Matt, Lauren and Tyler) played UNO MOO.
Lauren won and that is a good thing. If she had not won she would have cried. We need to work on the concept of "you win some and you lose some."
back to the car transporter
It was awesome to see Tyler so excited to play with all of his new toys.

I didn't take any pictures of Christmas dinner. Instead I took a picture of the recipes from Paula Dean's cookbook.
Soy-Rubbed Tenderloin

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Brussels Sprouts with Onion and Bacon

After dinner it was time to play some more.
Time to play with the new soccor goal. T and L played with this up until I declared it too dangerous to play with in the house. Now we wait for warmer days so we can take it outside and really appreciate and take advantage of it!

Here is another pair of PJs I recieved for a gift. They are very comfortable...I'm sure I'll be wearing them for the next week or so.

who could refuse another shot of Lauren looking "oh so sweet?!"

finally we brought out the new digital camcorder.

Lauren loves her Christmas presents. We have a few videos we're getting ready to post.
Stay tuned.