spring fever

Laurelei and I have been enjoying the recent sunshine as much as we possibly can! Every sunny day after work I am rushing from school at 3:30 or so to make sure we get some gooD play time in at the park. It seems like Laurelei is growing so quickly, so we are enjoying all of her excitement as she discovers spring for the first real time.

At the park her favorite things to do are swing, slide and cram her little self into any nook and cranny she can find. For obvious reasons, my pictures are mostly of the first one. The rest of the time is spent chasing the quick little booger around!

Enjoy...

Patrice

Losing track of time...

Time is moving so quickly, and with so many project going on, I am terrible about posting all of the amazing things that are happening right now.

First off, Laurelei continues to grow like a weed! Her hair is getting so long we can't believe it. We've said it all along, but we truly were blessed with a happy little baby. With the sunshine out and about, we have been able to take her to the park and go on a few walks. She giggles non-stop and is just soaking it all in. Lately she has added a few words to her vocabulary. She is consistently trying to say her name, which currently sounds like "rah-rah-rye." Everytime she points to herself, or a picture of her self, and says "rah-rah-rye," I just want to scoop her up and smother her with kisses because it is too cute!

Here she is enjoying her new stool and a snack (our current favorite...goldfish.)

Both Ruby and "Rah-rah-rye" have been enjoying the sunshine and walks to the park. They are quickly becoming best friends. The first thing Laurelei does when we walk in the door is go back to Ruby's cage and try to get her out.

Here is Laurelei at James Lane Allen park, right around the corner from our house. Laurelei LOVED the slide. Daddy was nice enough to take her down over and over again, and she giggled everytime!

On another note, something new in our lives has been a new blog project I have been working on with some friends. Just this week we started a new "creative blog" called Lemon Tree Creations.(check it out here) I have been a great deal of fun so far. I get to be creative again, and they even let me draw the little trees for the LOGO below. It was like a breath of fresh air! The girls I am working with are Erin (who many of you would remember from our time in Edinburgh), Tiffany (Erin's friend and my new inspiration for her FABULOUS pillows), Jessica (great coworker and creative kin) and Amy (another contributor that I haven't had the chance to meet yet!) Each and every contributor is super creative and has been creating wonderful things, most of which I am going to convince them to let me knock off :).

Needless to say, however, I have been quite busy with the family, teaching and my newest project. Matt, the world's best husband, has been extremly patient and understanding. He has been helping me with some projects which has been a lot of fun. No matter how late into the night I work, or how crazy my ideas sound, he has been very supportive. I'm a lucky girl!

Well, that is all for now. I hope you will come over and check out our site. Maybe even chose to follow us to see what we are up to in the future! It should be exciting! (FYI, Thursdays are all mine, so visit please! )

New Year, new milestones...

Wow, it has been awhile since I have posted. Let me just say things have been crazy around our house since the new year began! Before even going back to school after the holiday break sickness was plaguing our house. Laurelei started out the new year with a wonderful double ear infection and that was only the beginning! Three ER visits later and things are finally starting to look up. Midway into February we are turning a corner...though now I have a sinus infection and Laurelei has some form of cold, currently undiagnosed. Whew, what a month its been. Luckily we will enjoy the thoughts of our months of illness as we joyfully pay off some hefty hospital bills over the next few months...hmmm...

Anyway, onto the good stuff! Laurele is growing like a weed. She is happier and happier with each day and learning a ton of things too! Beginning this second year in life, having just celebrated a first birthday a mere 2 months ago (nearly), she is really showing her personality.

Among her favorite things to do are....

-sitting on anything and everything of the appropriate height...(Currently she is like one of those machines that should beep as it backs up. She walks backwards, around the house, squatting until she finds just the right seat. I'm going to have to start calling her Goldilocks! Just yesterday Matt and I ventured to target with her and wondered what the little bean was doing as she began clearning a shelf of its boxes. Why, clearing a space to sit down of course! She plopped down and was extremely difficult to move again. It was quite cute though! One of those, "wish I carried my camera EVERYwhere" moments!)

-giggling... (at anything, anytime, anywhere. I mean come on, what is as funny as a banana, puppy, snow, mommy, daddy, seats, lightswitches, remotes, babies, mirrors, pillows...etc, I am sure you get the picture!)

-eating...

-playing peekaboo... (While this is a game we began playing many, many months ago, Laurelei has perfected the art of hide-n-seek. She can hide behind a couch, pillow, table, candlesitck, curtain, finger, dishtowel, cheerio and even under a bed! Nothing gives her a greater pleasure than uncovering herself when we cannot find her. It is a wonderful pastime and makes parenting so much sweeter everytime we see her dracula grin!)

-cutting teeth... (Though our first birthday came and went with not one tooth, we the first one starting poking through within days of that 1 year milestone. In just two short months, we have gone from completely gummy grins to a well rounded 'dracula grin.' Our friend Jarod likes to tell me she is trying to impress me with her 'Twilight" dedication. Her two top teeth has arrived in fang position, while her two bottom teeth are right next to each other, snuggled directly inside the upper fangs. Her smiles are simply too cute now!)

-pointing...

-understanding everything mommy and daddy say... (I have to say, Matt and I were a little freaked out by how quickly and accurately Laurelei started to respond to our words. It's as if she went from knowing and understanding basically nothing, to knowing everything! Some recent sentences she has responded to are: "Time to take a bath." (by trying to take her clothes off while standing next to the tub); "Do you need a diaper change?" (going into the bedroom, getting a diaper, laying down on the floor); "Are you hungry?" (running to the kitchen, pointing to snack cabinent uttering "more!"); "Naptime." (shaking head no, and standing from a previously lounging position.) These things seem so basic, yet a month ago she simply stared at me like I was a babbling monkey when I tried to talk to her, it's so weird!)

Our little miracle baby is a true joy! I am loving everyday of motherhood. Oh, and we are currently completely outgrowing 6mo clothes (nearly!), how exciting is that? On to the big girl wear...fashionista in the making for sure!

Sorry for the marathon post, its been awhile. I am going to try to upload a video or two today!

A little reflection...

It is hard to find time during the holidays to really sit down and get much of anything done, but I am taking just a few quick moments today during (what I hope will turn into...) nap time to reflect on everything my family has experienced this past year. Okay, well maybe not everything, but the big things at least.

On December 16th Laurelei stormed into our lives in a big way! Two weeks early and with a big scare we welcomed the arrival of our little drama queen. It is hard to think back to those first few days of fear and uncertainty and not thank God for the beautiful little girl we have today. Even in her first year of life she has beaten all of the odds to become a happy and healthy little girl. It is absolutely impossible to think about life would be like without her, and such a blessing to know that God protected our little girl so that we wouldn't have to.

As the year went on we celebrated out first family christmas together. It seemed surreal, which is either completely related to the excitement over our week old baby, or our complete lack of sleep... Next came many tears as I went back to work, jubilation as summer came and I could be home again, complete fun as we ventured out on our first family vacation and many, many months of watching Laurelei grow with such joy in her big blue eyes!

She has been so much fun to watch grow. She stomped through every big baby landmark (except teeth?) like it was nothing! Crawling at 5 months, walking at 10. She never ceased to amaze us with her determination. NOW, she is feeding herself with a spoon. At 12 months! What an amazing little bugger. I have a feeling she is going to be a genius...

What a year it has been! Through job loss and job gain, rounds of sickness and health, excitement and sadness we have loved every second of our blessed lives. I feel so lucky to have Matt and Laurelei to make me smile everyday! And now with our new puppy Ruby thrown in the mix I can trully say my life is FULL, and I am loving it!

I've taken off!

Finally, some new videos...

Laurelei has been up to A LOT these days! Unfortunately, we have once again lost our digital/ video camera charger and haven't taken a video of her in a couple of months! It is crazy to see how different she is from one video to another. If you scroll back to the last video blog entry, you'll be amazed at the difference! She is so much more responsive and animated, it is hilarious! She has also gone from cruising around furniture to taking steps and walking almost on her own. The walking videos don't show all that she can do because if she saw the camera, she was over walking and just wanted the camera out of Matt's hands. The one time she walked all the way across her room, Matt the camera missed it sooo (well, we won't get into that here.)

This first video is of Laurelei and Matt playing a little chasing game that Laurelei just freaks out over. If either Matt or I even look at her and giggle, she starts running and screaming to the other parent. It is hilarious. She LOVES to be chased!


This is Laurelei just being Laurelei. Exploring something, throwing something, eating something, saying a little something. She is too sweet!



These next two videos are Laurelei taking a few steps, she is going to take off before we know it! I can't believe she has grown so quickly. It truly does FLY by...

what she's been up to...

Laurelei is doing so many new things these days, it has been fantastic! We've had a busy fall so far, and we have NO plans to slow down!

First off, Laurelei has been into kissing everything as I have written about before. Lately, she will pick her anything you ask her to and shower it with kisses. She also still kisses her reflection in the mirror. That being said, guess what the first thing she did at the pumpkin patch was...

We took Laurelei to the pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago and had too much fun. She LOVED the apples in the orchard. Laurelei couldn't get enough of the apple "juice." Anytime someone would take her apples away, she would just freak out!We have entered the stage of hide and seek and peekaboo. Matt and I chase Laurelei around the house and she just giggles when we catch her! She also loves to hide herself in closets and behind cabinent and bedroom doors. It is too cute when she open the door and you "find" her. She gets soo excited! I love it!

Much to Matt's chagrin, Laurelei also likes to remove all of the books from just a few shelves on our bookshelf. She has torn a few covers which really hits him hard...

Finally, one of my new favorite things is how Laurelei learned to sniff things. While outside today looking at the mums on the porch, Laurelei had her first hands on experience with flowers. After she tried to eat them with little luck, I demonstrated how they are supposed to be smelled. She then took it upon herself to disect many mums and sniff them. She makes the cutest sniffy face, as you can see below. The noises she makes are also priceless. As soon as I get my video camera charged a video will be sure to follow!

We are 10 months old and counting. Just a tipping the scales at 18lbs. In other news, Laurelei took 2 steps this past Friday, with others here in there. We'll keep you posted with any updates relating to walking! It certainly won't be long now!