The shoes...

The other night I went to water the lawn a bit when Lauren wanted to play outside. She loves to water the grass so not a problem I can sit and watch. Since it was still hot she had to have shoes on because her feet would "burn". So she went inside and forgoes the usual Crocs and comes out with her princess high heels. It was hilarious to watch her walk around watering the grass in the heels. Jeff was just thinking what it would be like when she is 16 and I don't even want to think about that!

4 years later...

I knew from the moment we looked at our house for the first time I wanted to do some sort of landscaping in the front corner. Well this spring after cinch bug infestation and the front lawn dying I thought it would be the perfect time to start the project. The grass was already dead right so we didn't have to dig it up. We put the plants in, spread the compost and today we had a landscaping company come out and do the rocks. I absolutely love it. I am already planning my next project to put rock around the the crepe myrtles...Jeff is just thinking there goes my new computer money!

Pea Shellin' Time

Well this year Mom decided to plant purple hull peas and let's just say she has had a bumper crop this year! She brought over a bunch for us to eat...the catch was we had to shell them first. So while we sat in the living room (way to hot outside) we shelled and shelled until our fingers turned purple. Lauren even joined in on the fun although she like to eat them as fast as she could shell them. She also ate some of the others as well. It was something fun to do and something not many people do anymore. I remember Nanny and Paw Paw picking peas and more peas. We had so many that they had an automated peas sheller, where was that on Saturday? That's okay because we ate them on Father's Day along with Jeff's favorites: deersteak, fried squash, rice, and brown gravy. What's even better is the leftovers I have been eating!

Sprinkles

Well this is the infamous "Sprinkles" dress that Lauren loves to wear. The first time I put it on her I asked her if she liked her new dress and she said, "It has sprinkles!" I guess small polkadots do look like sprinkles. If you are wondering why Lauren has a camera too, it's because everytime I want to take a picture of her she runs to get her camera to take a picture of me too. It is the only way I can get her to somewhat smile for a picture. As I am typing this I realize that she has grown so much. We put the door knob child protectors on just as she was reaching the knob and now she is as tall as them. Boy does time fly!

Prayers

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Our Father

Please Jesus Bless..

Guardian Angel

Hail Mary

Glory Be

Act of Contrition

Hail Holy Queen

These are the prayers that Lauren and I say every night. Her favorite is Hail Mary. I love to hear her starting to say the prayers with me and then skipping a few words before she says the next. At the end we say who we love and let's just say that Goofy has been replaced with Minnie.

Sea World!

Well we finally made to Sea World and it was a blast! We had such a good time and Lauren loved all the animals! We started off on Friday afternoon and saw the Shamu Believe show, it is pretty amazing how big they are and how beautiful they are too. Lauren's eyes were so big! Next we made it to the dolphins and the shark tank before stopping off at the coral reef exhibit to see Nemo. That was it for Friday so we headed to Pappadeux's for Jeff's etoufee fix. Let's just say Lauren didn't agree with the sit down dinner so she and I played outside and looked at the waterfall. Saturday morning Uncle Nick joined in the fun we stopped to feed the sea lions first before heading to see the penguins. Then Nick and I rode the roller coaster twice and what made it so much better was that we didn't have to wait in line at all. The ride was awesome and so smooth. It made me feel so young again. Lauren then got to feed the alligators and watch the turtles take a ride. The afternoon was spent at the waterpark and we had a blast. It was overcast and windy so it was a little chilly. It was time to go when Lauren started shivering and lips turning blue, but she wanted to stay so bad. A stop at the souvenir shop and then it was time to go. It was a fun time had by all...now to start planning our next trip. As Jeff says, "I don't like to sit still."

Lauren's 1st Tea Party

Lauren had her first tea party on Friday afternoon as I was trying to pack for our family trip to Sea World. I was getting all the food and coolers ready to be packed for the big adventure and Lauren of course had to right in the middle of it. So she took one of the coolers and made a makeshift table and then pulled up her two chairs and brought the airplane along for another chair. You can see that only the most important people were invited. Of course there was Goofy he was the first to arrive, then came Cutie, and then Puppy flew up on the plane. She had so much fun giving them cookies and coffee. I went to go get the camera to take a picture and she had to get hers as well. We had such a fund time that evening we even forgot about dinner.

Yesterday I while sitting on the porch at Hilltop Lakes I smelled smothing sweet. So I looked around and found an old Magnolia tree and could see all of the blossoms. So I walked over to take a look and to smell the beautiful blossoms. The smell was so sweet and clean. Such a beautiful flower and it brought back such a great memory. Jeff and I took a vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas one summer and I remember walking down the street and all of the magnolia trees in were in full bloom. The air was so sweet like today. It seems like ages ago that we went on that vacation. We stayed at a cabin on one of the lakes, rented a boat, and just relaxed! The evenings were so peaceful just sitting on the dock and fishing. Oh I wish we were there now!

Why do I bother?

It was the normal frantic Monday morning. You know the coaxing of Lauren out of the bed, this morning all she wanted to do was get in her pillow case and hide, the dancing around as we try to dress her and the smearing of apple sauce on the counter that was actually suppose to go in her mouth. All this and we are finally in the car on the way to school. Then like everyday she says, "I don't want shoes Mommy!" Then their they going flying off and then one sock two sock and little toes are in the air with Lauren saying, "Look Mommy ! No shoes!" So then once we get to school I am on a scavenger hunt looking for two sock and two shoe and then wrangling two feet and keeping the one shoe on while I put on the other. Today I thought why do we even bother to put the socks and shoes on before we get to school and I said because that is what normal people do. Well we are not normal so tomorrow sock and shoes when we get to school!

At least they were Baked!

After viewing the sequence of pictures from above you can see that our ride home from the Grandparents was interesting to say the least. After being in the car for four and a half hours Jeff and I were pretty much open to anything Lauren wanted to do as long as she stayed in her car seat. It started off as a fun game in that she was handing us potato chips to eat but she had to name who would get to eat them. Then I teased her because she said that a chip was for Daddy and I ate it. So she began to tease me and eat my chip. I went to get my camera to capture her adorable smile and then I heard it. Lauren dumping out the remnants of a crushed bag of potato chips. She was so excited at first and intrigued but then she got mad and the waterworks started. At this point we were in Navasota and I told Jeff to floor it. It was only a matter of time before she started throwing the chips because she wanted them off of her. Then the salt got in the cut on her finger and the yells became screams. We finally got her calmed down and at this point we were exiting to get to the house. Then she decides to put the chips in her pants and crush them. Ok she is two I don't even try to understand her thought process, but they were baked so no grease stains. So let's just say that the last two minutes of the ride Jeff and I were laughing hysterically while she cried. When we pulled in the garage I jumped took her clothes off and all she could say was, "Let's play Mommy!" Gotta love it!