spaghetti girl

every child has a famous shot of him or her eating spaghetti and making a mess. so i thought i'd post a few of lauren after she recently enjoyed a yummy plate of spaghetti. i really don't think she can get any messier than this, at least i hope not! :)

a nice night for a walk

this evening joel, lauren and i went to a park that we'd never visited before. some friends told us about it, and what's great is that it's only a few miles from our house.

so we stopped and got some jamba juice since it was still pretty warm this evening.

joel's taking a turn pushing the stroller, (usually he mans the camera).

and this is why. he is an amazing photographer!

we never came across any swings at this park, which is lauren's favorite thing to do, but she did end up having fun playing with some bark chips.

lauren also loves being a big girl and pushing her own stroller. she hasn't quite mastered the steering aspect yet, which can be a little dangerous for any unsuspecting pedestrians.

we also stopped for a brief moment to watch some remote controlled boats. i think lauren was wanting to swim with boats instead of watch them, so we couldn't stay long. but it was a great little outing on a warm july night. we have get out while we can because summer won't be here for too much longer. :(

girl's night!

joel went to the new batman movie with a bunch of guys tonight, so a few of lauren's friends who are also her cousins came over to play. they were all very good and had a lot of fun together.

ian who is 13 months is on the left, lauren's in the middle and then ava, who will be 1 in about a week, is on the right. they are all so close in age which is great!

after playing with toys for a while we decided to go for a walk to the park.

even though ava can't walk yet, she is an amazing climber who really gets around!

ian is so close to walking on her own, but she still managed to cover a lot of ground with a little help from her mom.

lauren thought she'd do a little digging this evening.

well, we finally managed to get them all in the same place for a quick photo. thanks for the fun night, girls. i hope we can do it again soon!

coffee helper

one of lauren's special "jobs" is to assist her daddy make his daily pot of coffee. this is a very important job which she takes very seriously (as the pictures will prove).

in order to properly get in the coffee helper role, one must first put on his or her coffee helper hat.

to begin the process, lauren inserts a coffee filter.

she then supervises the grinding of the coffee beans.

she helps daddy count the coffee scoops, with backup spoons in hand in case she needs to intervene.

she carefully puts the coffee in the filter.

all that's left is to turn on the start button.

the green light is on signaling the conclusion of yet another coffee making success. and she'll be back on the job tomorrow, hat on and spoons in hand, to begin the process all over again. :)

becoming a big girl

lauren thought she'd try something a little daring tonight and use a spoon to eat her dinner. she did a great job and was quite proud of herself. (i think it also helped that she had two very enthusiastic "cheerleaders" clapping at every bite). i will take you step by step through this very exciting and somewhat tense process.

she starts her approach with a good, angled grip on the spoon.

do i really want to eat these peas, she thinks, pausing for a moment. oh, what the heck, it always makes my mom and dad clap and cheer. so here goes....

she then puts the spoon in her mouth with the greatest of ease. remarkable! since she was on a roll, she decided to follow her dinner "act" with a proper demonstration on how to blow one's nose. again we were rather impressed.

our sweet little baby is growing up! (and yes, joel and i could use a little more entertainment in our lives)!

me, my mom and mccain

yesterday my mom and i attended a town hall meeting hosted by senator john and cindy mccain. it was a small gathering consisting of about 600 women. he told us what his plans are if he were to be the next president and then answered questions from the audience. the whole meeting lasted about 2 hours. we had to be there pretty early and waited in line for about an hour and a half in order to get in. but it was worth it. i've never been a huge john mccain fan, but i definitely think he is a MUCH better candidate than obama. i may not agree with everything mccain has to say, but he shares many of my views and beliefs. so i hoping that on november 6th i can say i saw president, not senator, mccain in person! :)

here we are waiting in line. it was a beautiful morning though, so we had fun hanging out and talking with other women.

here we are again waiting for the mccains to make their entrance.

a quick shot of a secret service agent looking tough (and rather handsome).

and here they are!

senator mccain answering some one's question.

cindy mccain was looking lovely as she greeted the crowd after senator mccain had concluded the meeting. i think she would make a wonderful first lady.

senator mccain shaking hands and speaking with the crowd.

one more shot of mccain and............

one more shot of the secret service agent! :)

a fun night out

last thursday night joel, lauren and i went over to my cousin nate's house. he and his wife, liz, have a beautiful little daughter who is about two months younger than lauren. we had a delicious dinner (thanks liz!) and then we went for a long walk around their cute neighborhood, stopping on the way home for desert at dairy queen. the girl's had fun playing with one another, but it was impossible to get a picture of the two of them together. they are always on the go!

here is a shot of ava being silly.

they did stop for a few quick seconds to give each other a stare down.

and then they were off again!

lots of fun new toys to check out.

thanks nate, liz and ava for a really great night!

a week of fun

well, lauren has had quite a week. she and i were back at my parent's house spending as much time as possible with my sister and her kids who leave for new jersey on wednesday. we are so thrilled for them as they begin this new chapter in their lives, but we will miss them very much! lauren has had a great time with her cousins and can even say remi and elle now. (micah and toby are still a little too tricky). but she really loves them all. so here are some highlights of our time together........

swimming!

you can't beat swimming on a hot summer day. here are some beauties cooling off in the pool.

weeeeeee!!!!

lauren is getting her first swimming lesson. (i think she is a very willing student).

strawberry picking!

one evening last week my dad and i took cody, micah, toby, elle and lauren strawberry picking. it was a beautiful night with a cool breeze which kept the mosquitoes away. we managed to pick 6 pounds which was pretty impressive considering how many berries didn't quite make it into the buckets. but that's the best part of strawberry picking!

someone's eating on the job!

here is sweet little toby and lauren who is too busy to look at the camera.

miss elle, always ready to strike a pose.

lauren and gramps "battling" over a nice patch.

lauren did not contribute much to our 6 pound haul, but she sure had fun!

4th of july parade!

on july 5th my mom and i took micah, toby, elle and lauren to a parade in town. it was a hot day and the parade was very long (we left after almost 2 hours), but the kids had a great time waving at all the floats and getting lots of candy.

nonnie and toby waiting for the parade to begin.

elle and toby with candy bags in hand.

a cute shot of lauren taking in all the action.

micah and toby ready (and probably hoping) for a float to pass with candy. those are the best!

the princess floats were elle's favorite, but she gave everyone an enthusiastic wave.

nonnie and lauren taking a break in the chair.

lauren was great at finding any candy that the big kids may have overlooked, even though there wasn't much that got by them!

and i will conclude this very long post with a shot of my mom and sister looking as lovely as ever!