daddy attempts to fix hair

this morning we were in a hurry to get out of the house, so i asked joel if he could get lauren ready. after getting her dressed, i informed him that she needs to have her hair fixed as well (a task joel repeatedly tells me he doesn't know how to do). I reassured him that it is not that difficult and since he has a little girl he has to learn how to fix her hair. so he bravely gave it a try.....

this is the before shot.

he begins with a little detangling spray. off to a good start!

he runs into a few snarls. lauren is not enjoying this too much.

"are we done yet, dad?!" obviously not.

so they continue on. and finally.....

..the after shot! i don't know what looks more funny, lauren's hair or her "smile". but i have to give joel some credit, at least he tried. and i'm thinking (and hoping) he'll only get better with time. :)

sewing with aunt missy

last week my brother and sister-in-law moved in with us as they are starting a new life in minnesota after living in south africa for the past year. we are really enjoying having them here and being able to spend so much time together, something we've rarely been able to do in the past. lauren is especially loving her uncle jeremiah and aunt missy time. they are both so good and patient with her. and joel and i are having fun watching lauren develop a relationship with them (which didn't take long to do). missy is a great seamstress and is always sewing something(she's promised to give me lessons). so the other night lauren wanted to take a closer look and see exactly what missy was doing with this strange machine. i think she was rather impressed.

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! :)

big sister in training

yesterday lauren and i got to watch my cousin's three month old daughter, kiera. lauren loves babies and really wanted to hold kiera. little kiera was fairly willing and let lauren hold her for about a minute. lauren was very sad when it was my turn to hold kiera and would protest everytime i took the baby off her lap. it was really sweet to see how happy and content lauren was just having a real baby to hold. she's going to be in for such a wonderful surprise this summer when "her" baby arrives!

my family christmas

this year we are going to spend christmas in washington with joel's family. so this past saturday we had a small christmas with my mom, dad and two brothers. it was also my mom's birthday. we had a really nice and relaxing day. my mom made some great soup and enchiladas. there was a roaring fire in the fireplace. very cozy! joel and i also told my family that we are going to have another baby this june. they were really surprised and excited! it's a secret that we've been keeping for a while, so it was so great to finally get to share the good news. i got a few pictures of our time together, but of course the camera battery died! i hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!

three cool dudes, cody, preston and my dad (who always wears shorts indoors, even during the winter).

lauren got a really neat baby doll from nonnie and gramps.

this is the first doll she's ever had that has hair, so she was pretty fascinated with her.

she even came with her own tiara, very cool!