My baby is SEVEN!

And so begins the weeklong celebration of her birthday! Here is a shot of her a few days before her birthday! She is so big! I thought she looked rather stylish-so I snapped a shot.

So here is how the birthday-weekend went:

*Friday...Lauren went to school. She brought treats and had fun passing those out. Matt and I both took the day off so when she was off we picked her up, and we went to say hello to her Pa Pa Leo at work. Then we went to get her birthday pictures taken at JC Penney. (I can't download them so I will have to wait a week until I get them, then I will scan them and post them-they turned out sooo cute!!). Then we went to see the movie of her choice-Gnomeo and Juliet. She loved it and it was, um, alright. Then we went home for a dinner of Ramen Noodles. It was off to bed early for her real birthday.

Growing up, my family didn't have a ton of money...yet for every holiday and every birthday my parents went out of their way to buy us more than we needed as well as going out of their way to make the day super special. My mom would always (and still does) make signs. I am happy to carry on the tradition...and since my handwriting isn't as great as hers...I used stickers:

I used to love to wake up to run to the table to see the set-up that was there for me. This year I was quite proud of what I put together for Lars:

I had a pink-theme, if you couldn't tell.

Close up:

And here she was in the morning, in her bootie-short PJs.

*Saturday. After waking up to the presents above and opening them with the family, she bathed and got ready for her friend party at the West Valley Fitness Center. We had pizza, played, and had cake and ice-cream. I wish I would have gotten pictures of everyone and everything...but these will have to do! Special thanks to my sister Sarah for coming JUST to help me wrangle all the kids...wh0 actually didn't need much wrangling at all...(so we just played some Dance Dance Revolution instead). Here was the DARLING cake that they had for us!!

They have this play grocery store at the Fitness Center, I think all the kids enjoyed it. Here is Jamie and my cute niece Madeleine.

Here is my other niece Bella and Jamie shopping too.

Here is my neighbor Chrystie and Jamie at the checkout. Jamie really wanted to be the cashier, but he was a patient customer instead.

I told him to show me his "I am having fun" face. What an adorable boy.

Not to be out-posed..here is the birthday girl herself, beautiful Lauren!

And now really pose Lauren, yep, that is my girl! If Lauren likes a boy, he is INSTANTLY her boyfriend. Well, at least she CALLS them that even if there is no mutual feeling or agreement for such a title. We were both pleased as punch when her recent BOYFRIEND, Toby actually came to her party! He was such a cute and well behaved little boy!

And he posed arm in arm with Lauren with NO coersion at all! They are both students together in Mrs. Lance's first grade class at Valley Crest Elementary. Matt is such a handsome fella, even if he is in a kiddie chair! Seriously, how lucky am I?

After her party, we went back to our house for a quick nap..then we went to a birthday party for one of Matt's cousin's kid's birthdays. They had it at Bouncin' Off the Walls. It was pretty cool to have our very own inflatables that even the adults could ride down. Even I went down this bad boy a few times. Here is a shot of Matt and the kiddos.

We had pizza again, and cake and ice-cream again. This is Jamie with another "I am having fun" face.

After that party, we took Lauren to her choice...BONSAI. It is a Japanese steakhouse. YUMMMY!!! THEN we came home and finally relaxed, I tried to unpackage and put away her new treasures. Jamie was helping me and HERE is his TRUE "I am having fun" face!!! This will be blackmail material when he has his first girlfriend, I am sure!

Last year I took a picture of Lauren at the end of night. I had to snap another one, after seeing this when I went to kiss her goodnight. Obviously, she was POOPED. She was asleep on the floor!

I can't believe that my baby is seven, although I barely remember my life before her. She is just so precious to me! She is smart, and beautiful, and funny, and energetic, and sweet (it is my blog I can brag if I want to!!).

*THEN finally ending on Sunday. We went to church, then we went to Sams Club to get her cake and to have a delicious $1.50 hot dog for lunch. Then we cleaned the house real quick and had the family over for cake and ice-cream and present opening! I was really bad and didn't take any pictures. Thanks to my mom and dad, Ashley, Victor, Zander, Sarah, Poopie, Leo and Tina, Greg, Alex, Bella, Maddie, Kristen, Dave, and Ethan for coming over to complete Lauren's birthday celebration. She got such nice gifts and everyone was super generous as always. We have the best family and it was great to see everyone again.

Well, that was her birthday for 2011. I hope that she had a great one and that she always knows how much she is loved.

A day in the life

Alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m. Snooze one too many times. Hop in the hot shower. Paul Mitchell Tea Tree mmmm. Oreo keeps me company with her purring. Kiss the hubby goodbye-he barely stirs. Pack my lunch-fruits and veggies. Try to get out the door at 5:40am. Love my 5 minute drive to work. Busy at work all day long, the day flies by. Eat lunch at my desk, love my afternoon Diet Dr. Pepper. Meetings in the afternoon, I HATE them-so more productive things I COULD be doing. Rush to get a few things done. To-Do List never finished. 345pm..I've stayed WAY too late. Drive my 5 minutes to get Lauren. Visit with the Middletons-so blessed to have them in our lives, "thanks for getting Lauren-see you tomorrow". Spelling test and reading on our drive out-nothing like multi-tasking. This is our mother/daughter time! Traffic on the way to moms. Jamie always so happy to see us. Mom offers for us to stay for dinner-ALWAYS yummy. Dad and Jamie snuggle watching Starship Troopers-what a crazy movie for a 3 year old to love. Takes forever to get out the door-kids don't want to leave. So many excuses and suddenly no one can put on their own shoes. Finally in the car OH NO-Jamie fell asleep. Lauren gets the mail-box 11. Get all the CRAP back in the house in 3 trips. Hurry and bathe the kids. More water OUT of the tub than in the tub. Homework with Lauren-she is so much smarter than I was. 20 minutes of reading-she is getting better every day. Try to push at least ONE load of laundry-so Sunday isn't so bad. A couple minutes of kiddie snuggle then the fight for bedtime. Matt comes home-everyone is excited. One round of "hide and seek"-Matt is the champ. Continue the fight for bedtime. They SOO drag their feet. I don't mind the 20ish "one more tiss" from Jamie, I must admit. My eyes are heavy-how in the world is it 11? Make sure laundry at least in the dryer. Clothes laid out for the next day, make sure all is calm. Asleep by midnight.

Do it all over the next day.

Now, just why am I tired all the time?

Otmel

My last few posts were on Lauren's creative spelling. I thought I would share proof of how darn cute it is! She is a very independent girl and gets herself breakfast daily, she asked me to give her instructions verbally on how to make oatmeal in the morning. She wrote them down with her own spelling. Here are the steps:

1-Put water in bowl

2-Put in microwave

3-Cook 40 seconds

4-Pour Mix

5-Eat

I love the "poor mix"...it must know that it is about to be eaten. By the way, she added #5 to the list herself. She must have had to remind herself what to do with the yummy breakfast once it had been "coced" LOL.

It melts my heart. She has become such a good little reader and it just charms the socks off of me to see her spelling things out, writing notes and such. I compare it to seeing your baby smile for the first time. I love the next level of communication that she has now. I love writing and hiding notes for her and she has even left me a few. She is such a sweetie.

An Oldie but Goodie

I just LOVE this picture! I am not quite sure why. I had a great and fun childhood. I sort of felt like I had two families. This was family #1..just the four of us...sort of like my life now. Then when I was almost 10, my mom had another baby...then when I was 12 my other sister was born (and my brother was out on his own)...so that was my family #2. Now that we are all older it is normal and I couldn't imagine it any other way.

I love how young and happy my parents look. It is funny to truly see how my dad looks like Cheech/Chong. I was such a cute little girl (what happened?-LOL). I also can really see how Jamie looks like me and John. What do ya think?