Bedtime With Anastyn

Skylar cheesing it up as she cuddles with Anastyn.
Londyn practicing flash cards with Anastyn. It's the blind leading the blind, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Our One Night Out

Friday night, we went to eat at the restaurant inside Bass Pro which was Kevin's choice. I wanted to go to the Riverwalk, but we thought we could do that another day. (Little did we know we wouldn't leave the house again for the next three days.) Anyway, here are few pics of us enjoying our one evening that everyone was healthy. The girls
Nate, Erin, and Anastyn
Anastyn rocking away
Grammy Tammy trying to get a photo with her three grangirls which is virtually impossible.
Kevin and me in our unplanned coordinating shirts.

Is It Over Yet?

I would like to write about all the fun we had this weekend spending time with family and going fun places. That will not be the case for this 3 day holiday. It all started Thursday when Londyn got a virus from school. Mom, Erin, Nathan and Anastyn arrived late Thursday night. They spent Friday around the house while I worked, and then we did get to enjoy one night out with everyone feeling up to par. By the time we got home Friday night, Kevin and Skylar were sick, up all night throwing up. By Saturday, Mom, Erin and I were all sick. We were dropping like flies, and fighting for the bathrooms. We've had sleepless nights either taking care of sick children, or being sick ourselves. Thankfully, Anastyn and Nathan have been able to stay healthy so far. I think most of us have now past the throwing up stage, but are all still feeling tired and weak, unable to complete necessary tasks of the day. It's been an ugly three days around the Lawrence house. I'm sorry that my family spent 10 hours on the road to come visit, and we made them all sick and did nothing but lay around the house feeling miserable. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

Sick and Wild

We've only been back at preschool for a few weeks, and Londyn has already managed to contract a contagious virus. (the joys of parenthood) Kevin takes them to school on Thursdays, so I was already at work when the first episode occurred. He graciously stayed home with her until I got home this afternoon, and then he headed to the office. My plans of cleaning the house and preparing for my sister, her husband, Anastyn and my mom to arrive have been replaced by taking care of a sick child and cleaning up puke. I suppose that involves cleaning, just not what I had in mind. Poor baby girl, I hope it's just one of the 24 hour kind.
Skylar, on the other hand, has apparently turned to the wild side. She was begging me to take her picture as she was table dancing to Veggie Tales in her too small, mismatched pajamas. Should I be concerned about this behavior? Is this what happens after only one evening of attention deprivation due to an ill sibling?

Celebrating

My good friends treated me to the Melting Pot Monday evening to celebrate my birthday. What a fun girls night out! Thanks girls, I can't wait to do it again!
Me and Faith
Shannon, Kyler, and Heather

Here Comes Monday

I'm very proud of myself today for accomplishing a couple of things I've not done in a long time. First, I ironed. It's probably been at least a year since I've ironed anything, maybe longer. I'm just not good at it. I would get so frustrated because I would take the time to iron something, and it was barely noticable that I had even touched it. So, I either take things to the cleaners, put them in the dryer, or I just don't wear that particular item again for a very long while. But tonight, I was cleaning out my laundry room, and figured it was about time to go through the "special" laundry pile that had been covering my dryer for quite some time. (Special laundry would include anything that can't be thrown in warm water and dried in the dryer. It consisted of things that had one spot, needed ironed, required cold water, or needed to be layed flat to dry.) So, I started hand washing and ironing, I felt domestic for a brief moment. It was nice. Secondly, I ran. I not only ran, I ran for fifteen minutes without stopping. It's probably been at least ten years since I've done that. I know to some of you, that's nothing, but for me it's quite an achievement. I am not a runner, and I don't enjoy it in the least. I'll walk, lift, and spin, but running is not my thing. I have found it impossible to excercise since I've been back at work. I used to go to the gym early in the morning, but there's no way I can get to the gym and back, dressed and ready for work, and manage to drop the girls off at school and be at work by 8AM. So, I had to find a quicker, closer way to get in some cardio. Unfortunately, running seemed to be the only solution. Anyway, for the first time in a long time, I feel caught up and ready to tackle another week. We'll see how long that feeling lasts!

Savoring Saturday

Today is what Saturdays are supposed to be. Things have been so busy since I've been back to work, I was looking forward to a weekend of rest and relaxation. We slept in, picked up around the house, and had nowhere to be. We ended up taking the girls to get a haircut, had lunch at Los Cabos, strolled the Riverwalk and enjoyed ice cream for dessert. We then headed home and rested for a while. (Well, Kevin and I rested, and the girls played, pretty much defeating the picking up we did this morning.) I always feel like after school starts that I don't ever do anything fun on the weekends. I've discovered that my idea of what is fun just changes. During the summer, I think we need to go somewhere fun, now fun is having nothing to do. It's nice to just be able to do what we feel like at the moment rather than having a full agenda for the weekend. These days are few and far between, so I'm savoring the uneneventfullness of today.

Apparently the haircut made her actually feel like cooperating for a few pictures.

I'm sure the haircut helped, but she's always my poser.

The Long and Short of It

Why I do this, I don't know. I felt it was time to take the girls in for a haircut. I rarely ever even get their hair trimmed, but it really needed to be cleaned up a little. I hate paying for just a trim, and the girls have been begging to cut their hair short ever since I cut mine off in December. So, I got up this morning, made an appointment and off we went. I really love long hair on little girls, the pigtails, ponytails, braids, and just being able to pull it back. (It pretty much just looks stringy in this pic, but you know what I mean.) Even though it's just hair and it grows back, the thought of cutting it off was painful. I now understand why my mother wouldn't let me cut my hair off until I was in high school.
Londyn was first, and insisted that she keep cutting it shorter.

The final unfixed product, but shorter as you can see. It's not terribly short, but enough to make a difference. Every girl needs a change now and again, right? They were thrilled, I'm hoping I can figure out a cute way to fix it. (I know my mom is cringing as she is reading this. Sorry mom, it'll grow back.)

Pocket Change

When we were at church Sunday, the girls both had taken their purses that they had filled with our community change cup the evening before. They said they were going to give it to God, and I was thinking about how sweet that was. Apparently, neither were quite as generous as I thought. When the collection plate came around, Skylar had reduced the massive amount of coins she originally had to like 3 pennies. I don't think she knows the value of money very well yet, but she does know that she can buy a soda at Kevin's office for a dime, so she certainly wasn't giving up any of those. Londyn on the other hand seemed to be quite generous, she was still planning to give all her money. However, on the way home, I heard them talking and Londyn told Skylar "It's ok if you give all your money to God, he'll give it back to you anyway." I'd like to think this was a spiritually mature statement demonstrating her understanding of God's blessing, but I'm pretty sure she was referring to the occasion when she thought God actually left money in her bed.

A red bell pepper is like.....

..an ear, according to Skylar. Last night as I was diligently trying to make dinner as well as get ready and get to church by 7:00PM, my sweet children wanted so badly to help. (It's a rare occasion when they actually see their mother cooking a meal.) As I was chopping away at the peppers, onion and cilantro to make pineapple salsa, they are both climbing up the drawers to get on the counter to help. I let them both try to use the chopper, but they just weren't quite strong enough. So, Skylar resorted to analyzing the red pepper, questioning about the seeds and such. I try to encourage her, thinking she may actually become brave enough to taste this newly introduced vegetable. Wishful thinking. She informed me that she might try it if didn't look so much like an ear.

The Cheetah Rug

You should be so proud of me for saving my birthday money for 3 whole days so I could buy this rug. (If you know me, you know that if I have money allocated for spending, it burns a whole in my pocket and I spend it immediately for fear of it being confiscated and used for something necessary like food or bills.) Anyway, it's one of those you love it or hate it kind of things, but I'm pretty sure I love it! I wanted to buy a runner for my entryway, because I already had a living room rug. When I went to Pottery Barn to look for a runner, I realized they only sell the runners online. However, they had this rug in an 8X10 for half the price it was selling for online, and the runners were still full price. I just couldn't pass up such a good deal on such a fabulous rug! (Grandma, I know you're disapointed that it's not a picture of the girls. If I would have thought of it, I would taken a picture of them on the rug. That would have been much cuter.) If you are interested in a 5x8 Pottery Barn red, green and gold rose rug that I love, but doesn't match any other room in my house, I can hook you up.

Olympic Inspiration

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Olympic gymnasts over the last week. They are constantly trying to flip around the yard and the house. The hands free somersault seemed to be the favorite front yard event of the evening. I am beginning to think that I should enroll them in gymnastics, but I've already committed to dance for the year. I'm not ready to give up another night of the week, so we're sticking to front yard flips for now.

My Birthday!

Yesterday I celebrated my 29th birthday. Kevin asked the girls Thursday night if they wanted to shop for a present while I went to work. Skylar insisted that they did not shop, that she would make me something. They LOVE playing with the gift wrapping stuff I keep under my bed. Anytime I say we need to get a gift for someone in their family, they grab some of their toys and put them in gift sacks or wrap them up and give them to us to open. This gift giving goes on for quite sometime, so I got to open several "gifts" from the girls. This year it consisted of a singing mermaid, a tea pot, some sunglasses, and a few other miscellaneous items. They get pretty excited about giving away their toys as gifts to Kevin and I. I'm not sure they would be so generous if they didn't know they would get it back. Anyway, we celebrated the day by going to the movies, a car show, eating cake and then Kevin and I went shopping and to dinner.

Family Fun Night

This was my first full week back at work, and it just stunk. I didn't feel good, I was stressed out, and completely exhausted from sitting through meetings and trying to get everything done that goes along with the first days of school. I wasn't a very fun person this week, so I decided to make it a priority to enjoy the weekend with some quality family time. The weather was absolutely beautiful this evening, so we enjoyed a little time outside riding bikes and taking a walk. We then retreated indoors for a heated game of Chutes and Ladders and Olympic entertainment.

Olympic Hopeful

Skylar trying to give the Olympic gymnasts a run for their money. She was inspired by the USA gymnastics team, especially the floor performance.

A Little Bike Ride

Chutes and Ladders

Before the game.....

And after the game.(Can you guess who won?)
Londyn grinning, trying not to to gloat about her Chutes and Ladders victory.

It absolutely cracks me up how upset Skylar gets about losing. She rarely ever cries or acts out, but she is just enough of a perfectionist that she cannot stand to lose, especially to her sister. If she even begins to think that she won't win, she immediately gets in a bad mood and starts pouting. She actually cried real tears from losing Chutes and Ladders.

A Walk In the Park

One of my friends asked me to take some pictures of her family, and I was already thinking I wanted to try to get some photos of the girls, so we made an evening of it. It was a beautiful day yesterday, it never got much above 80 degrees, so I'm glad we were able to take advantage of it and spend some time outside. I have come to the conclusion that I am not patient enough to be a photographer, especially with my own children. I get way too frustrated. They try, but I can't seem to get a genuine smile, as I'm sure you'll notice in the photos below. They were also very distracted by the water, they kept wanting to take their shoes off and wade. As you can tell, I gave in.

Cruisin'

The girls got to enjoy cruisin' around the neighborhood this evening in their princess convertible. After two years, Skylar has actually become quite a good driver. As I was standing back watching them I heard the the car puttering, or so I thought. I was thinking the battery must be dying, so I start walking in that direction to push them back to the house. I was informed however that there wasn't a problem with the battery, but the car was out of gas. So following a few more puts, the car stops, Skylar gets out to pump gas and get a drink at QuikTrip, and they are on the road again. I wouldn't recommend the Princess Pontiac Solstice if you are looking for something with good gas mileage, they had to fill up like twelve times in thirty minutes.

School Girls

So getting up early and back to school has been a bit of a challenge. Nothing we can't handle, but these are the tired looks I've been getting as we walk out the door. I know neither of these pictures are worth much because they were obviously way too tired to cooperate, even when bribed with candy. I just thought they looked the part with their skirts, backpacks and pigtails, so I couldn't restist the photo op. Speaking of pigtails, it has been their favorite way to wear their hair for the last two years, and the waves from the braids the day before is just icing on the cake. Yes, I am aware that they look like cocker spaniels, and let me tell you they are proud of it. Every time I braid their hair, they ask me the next day if I can fix it like a doggy. Little do they know!
Londyn giving it her best shot, but not quite able to pull off a genuine smile.

Ambition

I had a bit of a rotten day today, slightly irritable for no apparent reason besides having to be at work, and the fact that I was trying to run errands in 105 degree heat which ,as I'm sure you can imagine, is quite uncomfortable. When I went in to pick up the girls at school I became increasingly irritated at the fact that it was water day at school and I didn't know, so my kids were the only ones that did not have bathing suits. I know this probably isn't that big of a deal, but I read their daily sheet everyday, and I never saw anything about it being water day. I try very hard to make sure I'm in the know as to what's going on, because as a teacher I complain all the time about parents not paying attention to what their children are doing. I begin to question my decision to leave the girls there for another year due to the lack of organization and communcation, and the fact that I would really like to take them to Miss Helen's but it's extremely inconvenient. Yes, I know it's still summer to them, and they've apparently had a water day every Tuesday for the summer, but I didn't know, so it made me feel like a really crappy mom. Anyway, all that to say that at dinner we had the conversation about what they wanted to be when they grow up, and Skylar's desire is to be a McDonald's "cooker", and Londyn has chosen Sonic as her future place of employment. With this kind of ambition, or lack thereof, I am no longer worried about sending them to my school of choice. I think they'll be quite successful in those jobs with or without the perfect preschool education.

Seven Years Later...

So, here we are, seven years, two kids, five moves, and twenty pounds later (that's 20 more for me, less for Kevin, give or take). If you would have told me seven years ago that our lives would be the way they are today, I never would have believed you. A lot has happened in seven years, and every year has been better than the last. I never cease to be amazed at how God has worked in our lives. I could not have married anyone more perfect for me, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!
Us 7 years ago on our wedding day
Us today, do we look like we're aging?