Pigtails and Park Fun!

I know it's been awhile since I last posted on here. Enjoy new pictures of Lauren's first pigtails, first trip to the dog park in 2009, first trip to our neighborhood park in 2009 and our kitchen remodel update :) Showing off her very first pigtails and her new spring coat.
New appliances and our kitchen ceiling is almost done. Just needs to be painted around the top. (Ignore the messy countertops. Those are about to be replaced too. Woohoo!)

Getting in one last cuddle before leaving for a busy day of daycare.

Yesterday afternoon, it was FINALLY warm (in the 70's), so we went across the street to the park to have some fun!

Okay...I guess these pictures are from the day before. We went to the park two days in a row. One day was 50 degrees and the other was 72. That explains the different outfits!

It was nearly bedtime last night and Lauren cuddled up to Westin and was almost asleep against him.

Oh! Here's a crazy story for you (the short and sweet version). On my drive home from work yesterday, I realized I was following a driver who was impaired in some way (I had a pretty good idea what the problem was seeing as how it was St. Patrick's Day). He was going 40mph in a 55mph zone and was swerving all around. I decided to follow him a short ways to watch him and then I called authorities. I followed the driver until the squad cars showed up. To make a long story short....he is now behind bars for his 3rd OWI offense and for driving with a revoked license. Not exactly how I expected my afternoon to go (I ended up in the police station filing a witness statement) but I was proud of myself for going with my gut and calling the police. Glad I did! Then it hit me how scary this really was-- I had Lauren in the car with me and it was 4:00 in the afternoon and this guy was drunk driving right in front of us. Makes me realize that we're never as safe as we think we are on the roads.

Have a good night!

Mindy and Lauren

Our big weekend~

For our fun weekend getaway, we packed up the car and headed north to the Wisconsin Dells along with three other couples and their children. We shared a 4-bedroom condo with 8 total adults and 8 children under the age of 5! Sounds kinda crazy but it was a blast! We stayed at the Wilderness Resort and enjoyed their three indoor waterparks. So although the outside temps were in the 30's each day, we were oblivious as we explored the wavepools, kiddie pools and waterslides indoors in 80 degree bliss :-) So it was a much-needed weekend spent in swimsuits and flip-flops. Woohoo!

Lauren was in awe. She just didn't know what to think. The place is HUGE and there is water and screaming kids everywhere.A good idea in theory...Getting ready to try the lazy river with Daddy.Not very happy about the lazy river... My tired sweet pea.Breakfast Saturday morning. I made french toast sticks for the kids and belgian waffles with scrambled eggs for everybody else. Yum :)(Sorry Dave, I had to do it.) Dads of daughters will sympathize with Dave. Here he is just before he left on a run. Check out his interchangeable "Hannah Montana-High School Musical" headphones. The guy is lucky he didn't get robbed in the parking lot.

Lauren ended up having a little too much fun. She tried her best to keep up with all the other kids in our condo and wore herself out. She ended up with an ear infection and a really high fever that we've been battling since Monday morning. Poor thing.
The best cure for illness? A comfy chair and a good book.

Have a good night!

Love,

M & L

These two are up to no good.
Marching down the hallway with her drum. What a goof!
Lauren's first ponytail!
Feeding the kitty.
Reading a good book with Grandpa Gary.

Lauren was really sleepy and went in and laid down on Westin's bed. I thought she looked so darn cute :-)

We have a very busy weekend planned and we can't wait to tell you all about it in a few days with LOTS of pictures. Stay tuned...

Love,

M & L

Finally an update!

I love her crooked smile in this picture.

Uh oh. Looks like somebody discovered the joy of girl scout cookies! Check out how determined she was to get to the cookies :)

Tongue out...sheer determination."Mmmmmmm...Peanut Butter Patties. Yum!"

Every night when I bring Lauren home from daycare, we have a little routine. We take our coats off, put our stuff down and feed the pets. I feed the cat while Lauren pushes Westin's food container over to his dish. She knows this routine so well that if I pause to do something else, she'll go to the kitchen pantry door and pound on it until I open it to get the pet food. Here she is pushing Westin's food over to feed him.

"Shhhhh...."

Things are crazy busy around here. We have made a decision to try and buy a new (bigger) house this year and we have set a goal for ourselves to list ours on the market by May 1st. So....we are hammering away (literally) on some projects around the house to spruce it up a little bit. We put all new hardware on the kitchen cabinets and bought stainless steel appliances, although those haven't been delivered yet. We took out the oak grid and flourescent lights in the kitchen ceiling and replaced them with recessed can lighting. Tomorrow we are going to go shopping for a new kitchen countertop. Why is it that we waited to update the kitchen until we were ready to sell the house? Why didn't we do it earlier so we could enjoy it? Oh well. This next picture is just to remind you what the kitchen ceiling looked like before. The second picture shows you what it looks like tonight.

In other news, our dinner club recently added it's second pint-sized member! Our friends Andy and Rachel had a baby girl last Friday and we're so happy for them! Tomorrow I'm going over to their house for a few hours to provide some much-needed relief so they can take a nap. I remember really needing that when Lauren was born so I'm trying to help them get some sleep :)

My parents were going to come this weekend to see us one last time before my dad leaves for spring training. We ended up postponing their visit by a few days because I need a sitter for Lauren Tuesday night. By having them wait and come on Tuesday, they'll watch Lauren for us in the evening. Chad has a dinner meeting that night and I've been asked to speak to the school board as an advocate for implementing 4-year-old kindergarten in our district. I'm actually really nervous about it. It'll be televised and written up in the newspaper, not to mention the fact that I'll be presenting in front of my superintendent, principal, and several other administrators. I just hope I don't cause them to say "um, we hired HER?"

In "Lauren news", she is doing well sleeping at night lately. She goes down for bed around 8:30, gets up briefly between 5 and 6a.m. and usually goes right back to sleep for another hour or two. She's still napping twice a day but I think we may be getting close to cutting down to one nap. We'll see. She has added two new words to her vocabulary. In addition to "Mom? Mom. Mom? Moooommmm? Mom!!" and "Dada and Da" She also now says a modified version of kitty and doggie, although they sound more like "ki-E" and "da-E".

Off to bed. Have a good weekend!

Love,

M & L