Buffalo Princess

I should start off today with a funny anecdote. If you've seen the most recent season of American Idol, you might know what Lauren was talking about. Anyways, she dropped her pacifier on the floor of the car last night and exclaimed, "My nuk fell on the ground! Pants on the ground! Pants on the ground!" Where the HECK did she learn that?? She makes us laugh so hard every day. Today, we drove past a beach at a nearby lake and Lauren turned to me and said, "Mommy, that's awesome!!". Then she begged us to stop and walk on the beach. Needless to say, we spent some time getting our feet wet :)We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings last night and Lauren loved the princess crown they gave her. I happened to have my camera in the car and had to get a picture :) Chad's parents are visiting this weekend and recently bought a toy for themselves. Here's Lauren driving Boppa's "race car"!

Our home building project is moving along nicely. They poured the basement walls this week. Here's what it looks like today...

The cement bump outs in the front will eventually be our front porch. It's fun to see it start to resemble what we've seen on drawings for so long now!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love,

M&L

Moving Day....

Today was the day....we moved out of our home and into an apartment. We'll be here now until the new house is finished which will hopefully be around Halloween. I'm really sad to say good-bye to our old house. It has so many memories for us. It was the first home we owned and it's where we brought Lauren home from the hospital. The new homeowners will have a new baby in July- it's weird to think that our house (which isn't our house anymore) will have a newborn in it this summer. I hope they take good care of it (the house...but I guess the baby too!).

Before we moved, we enjoyed one last bonfire with some of our Dinner Club friends.

Lauren tried s'mores for the first time but spit it out and told me it was yucky.
Lauren and Sophie giggling together at the kids' table.
We had fun on a recent "final" visit to our neighborhood park. This park is one of the main reasons why I'm sad to leave. Lauren calls it "my park" and I know she'll miss it too.
Jumping over every. single. yellow. line....Taking a sobriety test...Checking her toes for woodchips. Somebody else loves this park just as much as Lauren does.

I mentioned the other day that we broke ground on the house. Here's the view from across the street. And below is the view of what the basement looks like so far. On Monday, they'll pour the basement walls.

Have a good rest of your weekend. Lauren is staying with Mimi and Boppa Lucas all weekend while we move. We miss her and can't wait to see her tomorrow night!

G'night!

Love,

M & L

Yay!

We broke ground officially yesterday and the excavation is already complete. We now have a basement hole that has been dug and tomorrow the basement footings will be poured. Monday they'll pour the basement walls. Yay! I'm so excited to see it--I'll go check it out and get pictures tomorrow night.

Speaking of tomorrow night, we pick up our apartment keys tomorrow and will move this weekend. I'm really excited for our new house but a little less so about our new apartment. I'm also very sad to say good-bye to our first house. So many memories...

I'll update again soon with pictures once our internet is up and running at our apartment.

Good night!
Love,
M & L

And It Begins!

While I'm not sure if you can call this the official "breaking ground", we DO have the silt fence in and a gravel driveway for the machinery. We applied for the building permits over 2 weeks ago, so we should receive them any day now. Then the real fun will begin :) This is a view of our lot taken from a block away. Ours is just to the left of the existing house. It shows the lot surrounded by the erosion-control fencing. You can see that there are still very few houses in the neighborhood. I'm so excited to see the progress!

We return to apartment living next weekend. We'll keep you posted on how the move goes!
Love,
M & L

Breaking Ground!

When we signed the contract with our builder, they told us it should take around 5 months from start to finish. Well, we broke ground this weekend and I'm a little worried it may take more than 5 months to build this house. The builder on day one was...well...a bit slow.







Meet our builder:
















That's right! Lauren broke ground on our new house this weekend! We let her take the first scoop of dirt and begin the hole that will eventually become our new home!!!!"I doubt anyone will mind if I move this stake and increase the size of my future playroom a few feet..." This will eventually be where our house will stand! We picked a spot on the street to stand each time we take a "progress picture". It will be right where this picture was taken. So we'll consider this to be the "before" picture!
Our lot is a corner lot on a cul-de-sac. This picture was taken while standing in the cul-de-sac, looking at our lot.

"Better get a jump start on the landscaping while we're here, Dad."Across the street from our lot and down two lots, is the neighborhood park. It even has a doggy drinking fountain! This will be the site of many future memories, that's for sure!

Can you see Lauren in the photo above? She was too excited to play at "mine new park" to wait for Mommy :)

The real ground breaking is hopefully very, very soon. We are now just waiting for the building permits. Then the fun begins!

Love,

M & L

(Many new pics below)

Baby Geese!

Feeding them some of our bread. They came up SO close to Lauren. She loved it!
I love the outfit she's wearing above. Love, love, love it. This was the very first day she wore it and her daycare provider fed her spaghetti...without a bib. That outfit became a one-time wear :(
Love,
M & L
(I uploaded many new pics down below yesterday, in case you missed them...)

Spring in North Prairie!

Love,

M & L

(See many more new pics below)

Mimi & Boppa!

Dave and Karen (aka Mimi and Boppa Steighner) came for a visit last weekend, along with Ryan and Jenny. We all went out for a nice dinner as a belated birthday evening for Chad. Lauren enjoyed having everyone here and got lots of cuddle time in with Mimi & Boppa! Here is a little bit of photo-fun with them :)

Lauren, Mimi, Boppa, Nemo and Marlin :-)
Thanks for coming to visit us!
Love,
M & L
(Many more pictures were added today. See below...)

Have YOU hand-washed YOUR car lately?

Our neighbors gave Lauren this Barbie Corvette Convertible as a hand-me-down a few weeks ago. Not sure why it has bullet hole stickers on it. We're just goin' with it. It was free :) Daddy had just finished washing my car. Lauren wanted him to wash hers too so he took the opportunity to teach her how to do it herself! See below for more new pictures I uploaded today. Enjoy!

Love,

M & L