our dancing queen

lauren loves to put on her ballerina tutu and dance. however, she prefers having a dancing partner as opposed to dancing alone. she's very lucky that her daddy finds her hard to resist. so the two of them had a little dance today, and i was able to get a couple of cute pictures!

surviving the winter

lauren asks to go to the park all the time, even when it's below 0 outside (which has been quite often). however there happens to be an indoor park just a few miles from our house. yesterday, after church, we met chad and celia and their 3 daugthers for lunch and some playtime. the playground equipment was geared more for older kids, but the girls had so much fun exploring and running around. with outtings like this, we may just make it through the winter after all!

christmas '08

we had a really nice christmas this year. we went to washington state to spend the holiday with joel's family. a few days before we left we had a little christmas with just the three of us, which was really nice. lauren got so many wonderful gifts that will keep her entertained and occupied for a quite a while. her favorite present this year was any and every book she received. any time we handed her a present before opening it she would always say, "book, book". sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't. i should say she did really enjoy everything she received though.

christmas in the northwest

lauren and her grandma (and mumpy and elmo)

lauren, mumpy and her enormous christmas stocking.

grandpa and the newest member of the family, baby gracie.

there was so much snow in washington that we felt like we were still in minnesota!

megan and chris (who will actually be the newest member of the family sometime this summer, yay!)

my little family

munching on some fresh snow

lauren and her little snowman

and lastly, a shot of the whole family. phew, that was a long post! :)