Video Fun!

I took two cute videos of Lauren this week. Of course I think they are both cute but you'll have to make it to the end of the first one to see the cutest part (in my opinion).

What else is new? We welcomed a new member of the dinner club last Thursday! Ella Joy was born to Tim and Stef. She is beautiful and healthy. Unfortunately I had a nasty head cold when the dinner club got together at the hospital to meet Ella so I didn't get to hold her. I'm feeling much better now so I will soon have to get my hands on that cutie pie :)

In other news...we have now signed a lease for a two-bedroom apartment for mid-May through November. Also....we have an accepted offer on the lot we wanted!!!!! Yay, yay, yay!!! It's in a beautiful new subdivision and our lot is across the street and two lots down from a really nice playground. I know where we'll be spending much of our time in the future. We're moving full-steam-ahead with the builder and we're on track to break ground on or before May 1st. Wow. Hard to believe but so exciting for us.

Have a good rest of your week. We're looking forward to spending this next weekend with Karlee and Matt. Should be lots of fun!

~M & L

How could I forget?

After uploading so many pictures, I completely forgot to mention that we are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest member of the dinner club. Tim and Stef are expecting Ella any day now. She's actually 4 days late already :) We can't wait to meet her and Lauren is already asking if Ella can come play!

Another long overdue post!

Sorry its been so long since I last posted. We've been very busy with the sale of our house and with selecting our builder. Just when we thought we'd made a decision about the builder we are going to use, we got a very attractive and competitive bid from another builder. So....we are in a bidding war with two builders who are battling for our business. I guess it's actually a good problem to have but I really would just like to get moving with one builder. Our goal is to make a final decision by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

So, what's new with us? We attended Sophie's first birthday party a few weeks ago and the two girls enjoyed trying out Sophie's new wagon. Despite everyone's best efforts, Sophie refused to touch her cake. Poor Rachel put hours of time into making it and Sophie wanted nothing to do with it.
For Christmas, Lauren got some dress up clothes from Mimi and Boppa Steighner. Here she is trying on her earrings. She even convinced Daddy to try them on for awhile but I missed the photo op. Sorry :)

Lauren loves talking on the phone now and recently pretended to be talking to Mimi and Boppa. Too cute!

Thanks Aunt Karlee for the pretty hat!

Lauren's latest favorite thing is taking showers. Here's a cute shot from a recent shower. She stands in there and twirls around while singing the ABC's. My mom made Lauren this adorable Sesame Street fleece blanket. She loves it and now sleeps with it every night.
Enjoying her book with Boppa Lucas.Pushing her ATV since she's too nervous to actually ride it. Well, actually, she's brave enough to ride it but we have to disconnect the battery first.

Have a good work week!

Love,

M & L

Long overdue- A video post!

What's new with Lauren? Her language has totally taken off.

Yesterday, she counted from 1-10 perfectly without a word of help from Chad or I. We both heard her and nearly fell off our stools!! Of course, I grabbed the video camera and the above video is the result of that second attempt. Not as good as the first, but that's okay.

Well, anytime she falls, she giggles and says "Booby trap!". We have her daycare provider, Christa, to thank for that :)

After Culvers frozen custard tonight, Lauren exclaimed "Me happy!". Then she proceeded to dance in the booth and sing "La la la, Elmo's World, la la la, Elmo's World!"

When you ask her what's in her tummy, she says "A baby boy". I have no idea where this came from!

Anytime you try to help her with something, she responds with "No, me do dat." She's become little miss independent!

We taught Lauren what green and red stop lights mean. Now she tells you at least a block away what color the light is and she's either yell "Stop!!!" or "Go baby go!!!". Just what we need- a backseat driver who's only 2!!!

We had Lauren's friend Sophie come over to play today and when Rachel Sophie's mommy knocked on our door to drop off Sophie, Lauren yelled "My friend! My friend!"

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now :) Have a good rest of your weekend!

Love,

M & L

Accepted Offer!

Yay! Today we reached an agreement on the sale of our house with a scheduled closing date of April 9th!!! The buyers would like us to rent back from them through the end of May, which works out well for us anyways. I'm glad we don't have to hurry and move out right away. It'll be sad to leave but as Chad reassured me....it's time for bigger and better things :)

We plan to build our next home which is why we're okay with renting back from the buyers for awhile. We've picked a lot that we really like in a subdivision about 25 minutes northeast of where we live now. The lot is a corner lot on a cul-de-sac and it's directly across from a large neighborhood playground. I'm SO excited about it!! I'll let you know how things progress. I'm guessing we may put an offer in on the lot soon (contingent on the successful closing of our current house).

G'night!
M & L

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

I took this photo this week when I let Lauren have her first taste of candy hearts. Too fun :) The following pictures are all from Lauren's 2nd birthday photo session.I took her there by myself and she started crying hysterically as soon as they called her name for us to come be photographed. This was the same reaction she has every time we go to the pediatrician. Luckily, the photographer was able to distract her and get her smiling in no time. Still, I can tell that she had been crying by looking at some of the pictures. Oh well.

We are looking forward to Sophie's first birthday party this weekend. Lauren picked out her present....nobody will be surprised when they see it!!!! Also, BIG Dinner Club news came early this week. Another baby will be joining our Dinner Club family in September to the proud parents Derek and Sara. We're so happy for them! That brings the Dinner Club up to six couples and six kids. It just may be time to start hiring babysitters when we go out to dinner. Either that, or we're in for a future of Chuck-E-Cheese and Stonefire Pizza!

Have a good weekend!

Love,

M & L

Teaser...

New pics coming this week, I promise. Sorry it's been awhile. Hopefully these three can hold you over while you wait :)Have a good night!
Love,
M & L