THE LATEST "SCOOP"

Don't Be Shocked.....

2011-10-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

Don't be shocked......I know it's been forever since I posted anything on here. But, I must show you my two adorable spooks in their Halloween Costumes:

At the end of Halloween last year, we bought Annalise an adorable witch costume. Sadly, she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She went through our costume box and fell in love with the Devil....I mean, the devil costume that was once worn by Lauren. She's a darn cute devil if you ask me!

Lauren Elizabeth has been a bit trickier to figure out. She is finally 14 and can go to our church dances. Well, this past Saturday they had a Halloween costume dance. When you look at the store for costumes for teens, sadly they have plunging necklines and are super short. So, what did we do, we went to Pinterest and searched for just the right costume. We found it! We made a Diction Fairy costume for Lauren Elizabeth. Why is this so perfect for Lauren Elizabeth? She loves words, she loves to read, she just loves it all! Hence Perfect! Anyway, we found the idea HERE, so if you want to make your own Diction Fairy, you can find all the nitty gritty details there. Anyway, we added just a few things to the costume. We put 3 paper flowers on the right of the tutu, made a paper flower hair clip, and made her wand absolutely adorable. Are you waiting with anticipation to see her cute costume?? Here you go......

My two adorable girls! I sure love them!

Progress

2011-03-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about writing this post for a couple of weeks now. Finally decided to sit down and get it off my mind.

Annalise started 4 year old pre-school this past September. She LOVES going to school. She started school knowing 1 letter. The letter A. She knew that's what her name started with and she knew it was an "A". I was a little concerned. I had tried and tried to help her learn the alphabet, but she had no desire. I became really concerned one day when I was in her classroom and noticed how many of the kids could write their full name. Well, she couldn't even write an A.

Immediately made an appointment with her teacher and we went over things with her. Now, keep in mind Annalise was Gross Motor delayed when she was a baby. We knew that would most likely result in a Fine Motor delay, which it did. At the beginning of school, she couldn't consistently hold a pencil the correct way. We'd correct her, she'd get frustrated, it was a viscous cycle. When we met with her teacher, she said that yes
she was behind, but she could most likely catch up and we could re-evaluate things toward the end of the year and determine if she should move onto Kindergarten or if we should hold her back an extra year.

As time goes on, I am so overjoyed that she has made great progress. She knows the majority of the alphabet and can write some of the letters. She still struggles with writing as we work on the fine motor issues, but, she is holding the pencil the write way, she's just not got a lot of strength behind it.

Recently, I asked her teacher if she saw any signs of ADD or ADHD as my sister in law mentions that Annalise reminds her of her son and I believe he has ADHD. She said that she definitely doesn't have ADHD, the hyper part is definitely not an issue, but she does tend to zone out on occasion. But, not anything note worthy. At least for now! But, she then brought up again Annalise's fine motor issues. So, back to working on fine motor every chance we get. Might even be time to get her back in Occupational Therapy.

The progress she has made is huge! I am always very conscientious about where Annalise is at because her Birth Mom and Birth Mom's half brothers all have cognitive learning disabilities. So, if something manifests itself in Annalise, I want to make sure we are on top of it and helping her to be the very best she can be. Getting her the help that she may need up front.

We are so blessed to have Annalise in our lives. She is a ray of sunshine and I love seeing the wheels turn in her head as she learns new things. What a joy she is!

Quote

2011-02-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

I got this quote off of a friends blog today. I loved it and thought it was worth passing on:

"It is not the design of heaven that we be rescued from all difficult situations. Rather, it is the Lord's will that we learn to handle them."

Joseph Fielding McConkie

Family Home Evening

2011-02-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

Like many families in the LDS community, we try really hard to have our Family Home Evening on Monday nights. Some nights we don't succeed, but this past Monday we did it! According to our FHE board, Lauren had the lesson. She found a great story in the New Era about showing love towards your family and how important it is. I grew up in a family where we didn't express our love towards one another or didn't hug each other much. If you were called a geek or a goon, the translation to this was "I love you". I know just a little twisted, but it's how we grew up and we all seemed to survive and are pretty good people. So, in my own little family, sometimes I feel like I go overboard. I am always hugging Lauren and Annalise. Annalise still likes it, Lauren I think tolerates it. I am constantly telling them how much I love them. Again, Annalise loves it and Lauren tolerates it. Since giving the lesson, Lauren has been super sweet and loving. I just love that girl! She is such a wonderful 13 (almost 14 year old, but whose counting? Oh wait, she is!). Anyway, the point of my post is this. At the end of her lesson, Lauren bore a beautiful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She then got emotional and said, "I know that Heavenly Father knows me and answers my prayers." Of course, I got a little teary eyed myself. She is so much better than I was at that age! She is solid and knows what she wants out of life. Anyway, I just wanted to share about my sweet daughter. I am so blessed to have two amazing daughters. Can life get any better?

My Beautiful Benches

2011-01-13T10:54:00.000-05:00

I remember telling you last post about my wonderful Christmas gift Devin gave to me. He built me two benches to act as window seats. He got the design plans from the great website Ana-White. She has amazing and simple plans! I think you should go check them out! But before you go, take a peek at mine. Notice, I made new window toppers as well. I will eventually make a cushion to go on top of the benches, but that's another project.

Up Close

I painted them a yummy Black Suede from Behr using the paint and primer combo paint (which I love) and sanded the edges to look worn. Add the black canvas baskets from Wal-Mart which are filled with a bunch of my crafty stuff. It has really helped me to stay organized. I LOVE my benches and I think Devin did a fabulous job on his first ever wood project. I already have my wish list made over at Ana-White for his next project. Thanks Devin! You're the best!

The Latest Scoop, Of Course

2010-12-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

I guess I should really call my blog the Procrastination Station. I always have grandiose plans of blogging, and then I get easily side tracked. Besides, I do believe our lives are pretty normal, nothing exciting happening here. So, I'll just give you a brief run down of what's happening lately.

Lovely Lauren

Tonight is the New Years Eve Dance at our church Devin and I will be chaperoning (I'm already tired just thinking about it), and Lauren will NOT be there. One more year and she'll have her moment. She's dying to go to church dances but unfortunately the age limit of 14 is enforced by her Bishop (her daddy). It's all good though. She's had a fabulous Semester in 8th grade taking 3 High School credit classes and doing wonderfully well in all of them. One of her classes is a virtual class that she takes on-line. It's Chinese. Over the Christmas Break I've been helping her learn some Chinese characters. Okay, I don't really know Chinese, I just hold the flash cards and tell her if she's wrong or right. It's been fun to watch her learn these. She really gets it! She's been able to translate those characters into English and say the word or phrase in Chinese. I tell you, I'm trying to figure out where she gets her smarts from. She has got it going on!

On the boy front, yup they are still chasing her. She's broken a few hearts already this year by telling them she can't "date" until she's 16. I think the boys like her because 1.) She is cute (I am biased) 2.) She is definitely not shy around boys. She talks and jokes around with them. I have heard she even flirts. But she denies that part! Currently word on the street is that she likes a boy that goes to our church and he likes her too. They sure are texting a lot.....constantly.....

Adorable Annalise

My sweet little baby is growing up. She will be 5 in 4 short months! Time is flying by much too quickly! We pass the elementary school daily and she will say to me, "Mommy, your baby is going to go to kindergarten!" To which I reply, "I know, my sweet little baby, I will miss her!" We do this daily. She is so excited to start school. She loves pre-school, but, she wants to go to the "big kid" school! It's pretty cute! She's learning the alphabet and doing great in pre-school. So very proud of her!

This past fall we put Annalise in dance and she LOVES it! She was a bit shy in the beginning for performances, but now, she does awesome! She has been asking for several weeks if it was time for dance again. We had most of Dec. off and will start back next week. She's pretty stoked about it!

Lisee has learned to navigate the computer and likes spending time on pbskids. She loves the spining wheel as she calls it and loves playing Curious George or Super Why. Considering they are learning games, it's a pretty fabulous thing for her!

Darling Devin
Devin is busy, busy, busy! He just got a promotion at work and is now Director of Applications. Essentially he "directs" all of the computer applications the hospital uses. At least I think that's what he does. He was definitely in the right place at the right time and everything worked out. There was talk of this happening since October and it finally all came through in December. So proud of him!

Tithing Settlement is now done! Hip, hip, hooray! He has been Bishop of our ward now for 1 1/2 years and has survived it all. Between work and church, it keeps him out of trouble and very busy. He works in an occasional golf tournament during work so he gets to have some "Devin Time". Other than that, it's work and church, work and church, throw in a date night with one of us girls, and then more work and more church. We sure do appreciate him and his diligence with church and hard work for us! He's pretty darn great!

Oh, I remember something about Devin. He made for me two bench seats that will go in our Kitchen like a window seat. He built them! I found the plans and he did it and did a pretty darn great job! He can't wait to build something else, and I will let him! I'm pretty stoked about them. When they are finished (I need to paint them), I will show them off. They are wonderful! I'm pretty stoked about them!

Kooky Kathy
Well, I couldn't think of anything good to go along with Kathy. So, kooky it is. It's probably pretty true anyway!

I don't know quite what I've been up to lately. I feel like I've been super busy and yet I can't think of what with. So, we'll just leave it at that! Oh, I know, I gave up Coke back in July and haven't had one since. Very rarely do I drink carbonated drinks. It's wonderful. I'm a water girl. Which is odd to say since I used to hate water. Now, that's pretty much all I drink. Considering this was a New Year's Resolution from like 2 years ago.......well you know, I have no will power. But, I feel like I have accomplished something! Also, since July I have lost 13 pounds. As soon as my treadmill comes (it should be here any day), I will be working on getting my next 5 pounds off. I'm hoping by this time next year I can say that I've lost another 15-20 pounds. I only focus on 5 at a time so it feels not as overwhelming. So far it's worked!

I hope ya'll have a wonderful and safe New Year! One of my many goals for the New Year is to be a better blogger. Hopefully I will succeed!

Love to all!

Giveaway on my Digital Scrapbooking Blog

2010-11-17T14:07:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to point you to a giveaway I'm having on my digital scrapbooking blog, The Latest Scoop, Too. It's for a digital greeting card designed just for whoever wins. If you're interested, go check it out, HERE.

Lauren's 8th Grade Cruise

2010-10-29T16:18:00.003-04:00

One of the big events at Deerlake Middle School is the 8th Grade Cruise. Wow! Can I just say the field trips they go on in Florida are pretty great (Epcot, Sea World, Busch Gardens, etc...). The 8th Grade Cruise consists of the 8th graders getting all dressed up and taking coach buses over to Panama City Beach to have a dinner/dance cruise aboard the Lady Anderson boat. They then head back the same evening. Needless to say, Lauren has been looking forward to this since 6th grade and it's finally here! One of my cute Laurels, Elyse came over at 11 a.m. this morning and helped Lauren do her hair and make up for the wonderful event. Lauren looked so pretty! After Elyse left, she just giggled and giggled over how much she loved the way she looked. Success!!

Elyse and Lauren:

Before we left:

We met at the school and Lauren instantly found some friends. We had to take pictures with her and her friends.

I am looking forward to Lauren coming home so I can hear all the juicy details of her fun event. Plus, I'll have to take a look at all the pictures she'll be taking as well. Can't wait to see them!

Not to brag about my daughter, but I'm going to. This event is known to have 13 and 14 year old girls dressed way older than they should. Strapless dresses, super high heels, and extremely short dresses. Lauren never once asked or tried to get me to get her an immodest dress. When I dropped Lauren off at the school, I noticed the majority had strapless or spaghetti strapped dresses on. Lauren and her friends were the most modestly dressed. Only Lauren and one other girl who went are LDS, and their dresses were both modest. I am so proud of them! Modest is Hottest!! Way to take a stand ladies!

My Sweet Little Helper Girl

2010-05-31T08:56:00.004-04:00

My sweet Annalise who happens to be 4 years old is quite the amazing little lady! Sit back for a second while I set the scene.......

Saturday Devin and I made the trek to the Orlando Temple (4 hours each way in case you were wondering). A young man from our ward is headed out for a mission and was taking out his Endowments. Devin was this young man's Scout Master and is now his Bishop. David (the young man) is absolutely amazing. He will be a fabulous missionary.

Anyway, at one point I called home to check on things. Lauren was babysitting for us until our nephew and his wife came over to take over for her. Annalise gets on the phone and says she cleaned her room and made our bed (Lauren was in our bed when we left, so I couldn't make it.....yes it gets made daily.......I wish). Here I am thinking that maybe, just maybe Lauren decided to help Annalise do something so sweet. But, nope, Annalise did this all on her own. She did a pretty good job! I couldn't believe it. I have never met a little child who is as helpful as Ananlise. She's always wanting to help me with whatever I'm doing: laundry, dishes, bathrooms, picking up, cooking, etc.... Sometimes it's a little aggravating if I'm in a hurry. But, I usually try to let her help me. Lauren never really did this, which explains a lot. She doesn't like to help and doesn't like to clean her room. This could just be a teenage thing. Anyway, don't know how long my sweet little lady will be helpful, but I am enjoying it for now!
I sure love my girls! I can't imagine a day without them!

Genealogy

2010-05-15T21:58:00.004-04:00

So, genealogy........How I'd love to be more involved in my genealogy research. But, every time I try to get into it, I just feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I think it's mostly because my The Newell and Pratt family lines are so well done. Plus, I really am clueless as to where to search. I think the Newell line is to that point where you have to really dig deep into records that I have no idea how to locate. So, I leave it to my brothers Doug and Steve to do. I know, not the best.

The other day I was perusing Facebook (being a "creeper"as some would like to call it) and realized there was a Jared Pratt Family Association Group on Facebook. I decided to join. Further more, it stated on the group page to email a certain person if you wanted to be added to the newsletter mailing and or if you would like to help with the transcription project. I thought to myself, surely this is something I can do. So I emailed the group admin. She promptly emailed me back and filled me in on what I needed to do, if I so chose to be involved. They currently were working on transcribing copies of Nephi Pratt's (Parley P. Pratt's son, Parley is my great, great, great grandfather) Journal that they had received copies of from the Church Archives. I was all about doing this. I was a little nervous because I tried to transcribe records for genealogy purposes for the church before but just couldn't read the writing and became very frustrated.

Nephi Pratt

I got my first pages of Nephi's journal the other day and opened them up. To my delight, the man had readable handwriting, it actually was good handwriting. I seriously don't know how in the last 100+ years mens handwriting has gone down hill. Sorry, I digress........I was ready to go with the transcribing. His journal entries aren't really long, but it's so intriguing to me. I just googled his name and came across this which can be found HERE:

"Nephi grew up to become a mission president over the Northwestern States Mission from 1902 to 1909. He extended to the mission to include British Columbia, when he opened the "Victoria Conference" on 14 May 1903 (See Robert J. McCue, "The Saints on Vancouver Island," Ensign April, 1976). He also organized the Portland Relief Society in 1903, with 6 members."

So, what I am currently transcribing is his journal from when he was a Mission President. It's all making sense to me now, what he's written in his journal! Love connecting the dots.

I may not be finding and doing temple work for my ancestors, but this is the part of the past that really intrigues me, not the dates of birth, death, etc.....but what they were like, the life's they lived, and stories about them. To me this is just as important as getting their names on the family tree.

The very ironic thing about all this, is that this week I've been studying my lesson for my lovely Laurel's that I teach. Wouldn't you know it that our lesson tomorrow is on journal writing? Wow!! I get the importance of it! Amazing!

The Big Day

2010-04-14T12:04:00.009-04:00

Tomorrow is a huge day for me. I'm hoping nothing gets in my way of making it so I can't go forward with my plans. Tomorrow I am getting Lasik eye surgery. I've been waiting since the first of the year to get this done. I had an original date for March scheduled but they had to cancel. Monday night I went to bed feeling crappy. I've decided it's just allergies and since it's not affecting my eyes, I'm having this procedure done. We are having to go to Panama City to have it done, 2 1/2 hour drive. We have to be there by 8:30. So, we'll be leaving at the crack of dawn. Yikes! Oh well, all I keep thinking about is that this is my last day in glasses. On Friday morning I'll be able to wake up and be able to see. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful and excited I am! Life is good!

I also wanted to brag a bit about Lauren. She's such a good student! Really, her study habits are amazing. She makes sure she does what she should, and I really don't have to nag her about it. She keeps on top of it! This is huge! When she was in elementary school, a lot of times I'd have to sit down with her at the table while she did her homework. Not because she needed help, but because she just needed someone there. Now, she just does it. Her hard work pays off. Another term of straight A's! Woohoo! She also gets to attend the first Leon County School Service Summit. She was the only one from her class chosen to attend. So excited for her! In her Civics class each quarter she has to complete a 5 hour service project. For the first 3 quarters she completed over 24 hours of service. Her projects included The Buddy Walk, Organizing a Toy Drive for our Church's nursery, and making quilts for the Ronald McDonald House. This last quarter, she is making newborn hats for the hospital Devin works at. I am so very proud of her and the amazing young woman she is becoming. She loves school (okay, probably more the social life), has a testimony of Jesus Christ and likes going to church, and actually works on her Personal Progress. She's well rounded and just completely fabulous. Lauren, I sure do love you!

Lauren with a bunch of her friends while on
field trip to downtown Tallahassee. They visited
the court house and Capital Building(s)
Lauren sitting in the chair of a Florida Supreme Court Justice at the Court House in Tallahassee

Happy Birthday Annalise

2010-04-05T12:55:00.004-04:00

Today is my baby's birthday! Annalise is 4 years old. I cannot believe it's been 4 years since she was born. It seems like yesterday and yet, it seems like she's always been with us. To read all about our experience with her birth, you can read HERE.

Just to give you some information on Annalise, I asked her the following questions:
Question: "What do you want for your birthday?"
Annalise: "Nothing."
Question: "You don't want anything?"
Annalise: Shrugs her shoulders, "I want a doll highchair, again" (keep in mind, she hasn't gotten one yet)
Question: "What is your favorite color?"
Annalise: "Pink"
Question: "What's your favorite food?"
Annalise: "Spaghetti"
Question: "What is something you like to do with Daddy?"
Annalise: "Read books, tell me an Emu story"
Question: "What is something you like to do with Lauren?"
Annalise: "Make a hat" (I have no idea what this is referring to, other than Lauren is making newborn hats for our local hospital. Annalise doesn't help with these)
Question: "What is something you like to do with Mommy?"
Annalise: "Play with monkeys" (She just got a barrel of monkeys for her birthday last night)
Question: "What do you like to do at school?"
Annalise: "Read books"
Question: "What is your favorite part of church?"
Annalise: "Read books in Sacrament meeting." (She's a bit delusional on this one. She really likes to go through her Aunts purse and put on lipstick and makeup. Mom would like for her to just sit and read books during Sacrament meeting, but no, she does everything except for that!)
Question: "What is your favorite treat/snack?"
Annalise: "Fruit Snacks" (Right......not! She doesn't like fruit snacks and only ever asks for chocolate, and it has to be milk chocolate.)

Yesterday, (Easter Sunday) we got together with the other Tallahassee Ladle's for Easter dinner and birthday presents. Below are some pictures of that. Notice Annalise's straight hair. I ask her every once in a while if she'll let me straighten her hair. The answer is always no. Well, imagine my surprise when she finally said yes. Not so sure that I like it. I like her curls. It's definitely different.

Easter Morning

These pictures were taken when Annalise was a week or so old. Time has changed!
She's such a sweet little girl and such a little princess. We sure are happy that she's part of our family! We love her so much and can't imagine life without her! Just wanted to take a minute and recognize Carrie, Annalise's birth mom. We love her and are so grateful for the sacrifice she made in placing Annalise with us. I know it was probably the hardest thing she ever did.

Our Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T22:20:00.005-05:00

What a fun Halloween we had! Annalise really loved it this year and it was so fun to share in her excitement. All last week she kept asking if it was time to either go get her Snow White Costume or was it time to go Trick or Treating.

I just have to add in here, that Trick or Treating in Florida ROCKS!!!! The weather is perfect and with a slight breeze. We didn't have to bundle the kids up and they could look gorgeous in just their costumes, and not all bundled up underneath. I invite you all to come Trick or Treating with us next year. You'll love it!

At one point while we were out Trick or Treating, she grabbed my hand and said, "This is the best Trick or Treating EVER!" She then kissed my hand and said, "I LOVE it!" It was so sweet. Her sheer excitement made me all giddy! Lauren walked around with the older kids who were with us and didn't trick or treat this year. But, somehow between Uncle Mike and Aunt Annette and The Haslems, she still made out with a ton of candy. She got the best of both worlds!

As we were walking home from our friends house after all the festivities, Annalise made one final statement that just made me giggle. She said, "Next year I'm going to be a WITCH!" She was so excited for next year already! It'll be interesting to see if she changes her mind by next year. Today after church she walked around in Lauren's old witch hat from a previous Halloween. She's already gearing up for it.

Here are a few pictures from our festivities:

Right before we went out

Annalise and Isabell (They have a love hate relationship. Isabell's mom and I are always telling them they will be best friends one day!)The big kids would go sit down on the curb while they waited. The little kids would get their candy and come sit down with them. It was so funny!

Lauren is on the far rightIt was also Isabell's birthday. Here they are playing with Isabell's b-day toys after Trick or Treating.Lauren far right. Earlier in the day she went to a costume birthday party. She dressed up like a hippie. Here she is with Annalise's crown on. My cute girls!

Blog Giveaway

2009-10-27T19:56:00.004-04:00

Okay, I really LOVE blog giveaways! I enter, but as of yet haven't won any. I'm hoping to change that! I want to tell you about a fun blog giveaway at Cristi's Creations. She does fabulous blog backgrounds. Like the one I have on my background. Anyway, she has 4 ways you can win so, run, jump, or just click HERE and head to her blog and enter to win! You won't want to miss out on this one.

Oh by the way, remember that post from forever ago (General Conference weekend) where I mentioned I couldn't get yeast to work? Well, on my final try, I left the dough for many hours to see if it would rise. Well, it did. It just took all stinking day! So instead of enjoying hot and fresh baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we enjoyed them for dinner. Yup, that's right.....dinner! They were tasty! haven't tried making them again, but just may have to. Yummy! Take a look.....

Before Frosting

After Frosted (I guess I'm stating the obvious)

Thanks Carrie for the fabulous recipe!!

It's Official......

2009-10-04T10:29:00.002-04:00

Well, try as I might, I cannot get yeast to rise. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. Let me back up a bit. A month or so ago I had these amazing cinnamon rolls at my friends house.They were so delicious. Just thinking of them makes my mouth water. Oh so yummy.

So, as I was over at her house the other day helping her to pack up, she's moving to Seattle. I made her make a copy of this recipe for me before she packed up her recipe books. Being as today is General Conference and we don't have to be to church at 9 AM, I thought it the perfect day to make them. Well, after 4 tries, I thought I finally had it. I thought it was going to work. Well, the dough has been rising for a while now and it's not really rising at all. It's supposed to double in size, and I don't think it's done a darn thing.

Yup, my self esteem has taken a huge hit over this (said half joking)! It's been years since I've tried using yeast and it will probably be years more before I try again. Sorry Dad, this is one area I do NOT take after you. Arrggghhh!!!!

I settled for a bowl of Wheat Chex for breakfast instead. Not nearly as good or as fattening, but it will have to do since it's Sunday and I can't even go to the store to buy the Pillsbury pop cinnamon rolls. The craving will just have to remain just that, a craving. Bummer!

Yesterday

2009-08-20T22:34:00.005-04:00

Well, so much for blogging about our trip to Utah. I obviously haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

I must tell you about yesterday! Yesterday was a very special day. Little Miss Lauren turned 12 years old. Is that even possible? I just can't even believe it! Let me tell you a little bit about Lauren.......

It took us 5 years of infertility and 1 miscarriage to finally become pregnant with our little miracle baby Lauren. We wanted her so very much (and still do, of course). When I found out I was pregnant, I was nervous and scarred. I was fearful of this pregnancy ending in a miscarriage as well. But, then on New Years Eve 1996, I began feeling so very sick. I had morning sickness that seemed to last all day long. It was not fun! I won't even go into those details, but it certainly wasn't great! The first time I heard her heartbeat, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So, I giggled. It was the most amazing thing to me! Then, at about 14 weeks we had the darn AFP test done. This is where they can test whether or not your baby could have Spina Bifida or Down's Syndrome. The only problem with this test, at least back then is that there is a high false positive. Well, of course, my test comes back that there is a possibility of the baby having Down's Syndrome. I was devastated! Why, because I had waited so long to have a baby, how could I not possibly get a healthy baby? Now, I think had Lauren had Down's Syndrome, it would have all been okay. We would have loved her and been challenged differently by her, but it would have all worked out. Anyway, we ended up having an amniocentisis done and found out that not only was she's healthy with no birth defects, but we were also having a girl! I was thrilled! I wanted a girl so badly and she was coming to us! I found this all out over the phone from the genetcist and was hollering and jumping up and down in my office at work. I left work and went and got pink flower to take to Devin. This was my way of letting him know that we were having a girl. The pregnancy progressed and I still was sick off and on and then began having back problems. I had to wear a back brace or I would end up with severe lower back pain and would occassionally have my left leg go out from under me. It wasn't fun! I was miserable! The brace made me hotter than I already was and it was the middle of summer in Utah. Good times!

I was due on August 13th. A couple of weeks before my due date, my doctor would say to me, "I'm sure you'll have this baby before your next visit." The next visit would come and and I unfortunately would show up to my appointment, still pregnant! This happened for several weeks. The week of my due date, my doctor said, " well, let's go ahead and schedule and induction for next week, but I think you'll go into labor before then." At this point I really didn't believe I would. Sure enough, I didn't and ended up at Jordan Valley Hospital on the morning of August 19, 1997 ready to have my baby.

The nurse started me on the pitocin and a Dr. came in and broke my water. By about 2 p.m. I was having hard contractions (I was determined to have this baby natural). They gave me some pain meds in my IV, which didn't really do much of anything. I felt like I needed to push and told Devin to get the nurse. She was sure that I couldn't possibly be feeling that way, "since this was my first baby and all". She checked me and sure enough, I was at a 9. By this point my Dr. hadn't even been called yet and was clear across town at another hospital. They called him. I gave up and asked for an epidural and they actually gave me one at the last minute. This relieved my desire to push greatly. However, the nurse would have me push until the decided to wait for the Dr. as every time I pushed, Lauren's heartrate would dip way down. Not good! Anyway, as soon as the Dr. got there, I pushed a couple of times and she was born at 4:45 p.m. weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. She was beautiful! I loved her instantly! After almost 6 years of marriage, our dream came true!

Lauren Elizabeth Ladle

Hospital Picture

4 days old (yup, I was insane and took my baby to the mall for pictures at 4 days old. By the time we left, I was hurting!)
Lauren in her blessing dress at 6 weeks old.
I have so many studio pictures of Lauren, I could add more and more, but you would definitely get tired of seeing them all!

Fast forward 12 years......she's still beautiful and there are instances where she drives me insane, but I still love her! She's a wonderful young lady and has so much going for her! She told me recently that her top colleges to get into are Julliard, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. If she can't get into any of them, then she said she will settle for BYU. I said, "you go for it! You can do anything you put your mind to." Only a few short 6 years and we'll know the answer to that one!

Lauren is super excited to be entering the Young Women program at church, super excited to be able to wear make up now, and super excited about her social life. She just got her haircut and looks a bit too grown up for me! But, it was bound to happen. That about sums it up! Lauren, I love you!

Love,
Mom

Happy To Report

2009-06-13T18:04:00.001-04:00

I'm super happy to report that it is official.......Annalise is completely potty trained, even at night! Life is good! She has occasional accidents during the day where she tells me that she "pee'd just a little bit". Sometimes that means she really did pee just a tiny bit in her undies and other times that means she pee'd a lot. She takes herself in and goes all by herself and everything. I have to remind her that I need to wipe her still, especially when it's poopy, but other than that, we are good to go! Sorry if that's too much information for you. Oh well, the things moms get excited about.

Headed toYW Girl's Camp next week. I always look forward to that! Hope everyone is doing wonderfully well!

Time For An Update

2009-06-09T09:38:00.002-04:00

Boy, it sure has been a while since I've been on here. I guess we got caught up with life, end of the school year fun, and who knows what else. Here's what's happening with each of us:

Annalise

Wow, what a big girl she is getting to be. Annalise is talking clearer, has more energy than ever, and is POTTY TRAINED!! It is a miracle, but the deed is done. She was actually pretty easy. A little peer pressure from our friends daughter Isabell who was potty trained a couple of weeks before Annalise and that's all we needed. She now runs into the bathroom all by herself and goes. It's awesome! She's worn a pull up at night, but hasn't needed to for a couple of weeks. So, tonight might be a test run in big girl undies for bedtime. Cross your fingers!

Last week we went to a picnic at Maclay Gardens here in Tallahassee. It was a farwell get together for some friends The Hobsons and The Braithwaites (we'll miss you guys so much!). Anyway, as we were leaving the fireflys were out. It was pretty cool to watch. Here's the conversation that happened in our car:

Lauren: oooo, I see one.
Mackenzie (Lauren's friend): I see one too.
Annalise: I see one

Lauren and Mackenzie start counting to see how many firefly's they can see. Annalise starts counting along.

Me: Annalise, what is it that you see
Annalise: I dunno
Me: You don't know what you see? You keep saying you see one.
Annalise: (Pointing out the car window to something out there) I see that.
Me: What's that?
Annalise: I dunno.

I think she just wanted to play along with the big girls. It was pretty entertaining!

Annalise will be starting swimming lessons next week. Hopefully that will go well. She'll also be starting pre-school in the fall. My baby is growing up. Exciting, yet sad!

Lauren

Is now officially a big 7th Grader!! She passed 6th grade with flying colors and made straight A's through the whole school year. However, there was much prodding, much nagging, and some help. Hopefully next year she'll be able to take a little more initiative! We shall see!

Lauren is super excited to be turning 12 in August. She can't wait to be able to wear make up and go to Young Women's. She is missing girls camp this year because her birthday is 2 months after camp. But, it's all good! She'll live.

Her summer is filled with sleeping in until sometimes past 11 a.m., violin and piano lessons, hanging with friends, and swimming at her friends house. Hopefully we can throw in a few chores like clean her room, the bathroom and hopefully she'll do her laundry!

Kathy

I get to go to girls camp next week with our ward. I LOVE girls camp and always have a good time. I'll be doing the crafts for our whole stake. Should be fun! We are also heading to Utah for 3 weeks on July 21st! We are super excited to see family and friends. We'll be going camping with the Newell family (my family) a couple of days after we get there. That will be awesome! Lauren can't wait!

I started designing digital scrapbooking kits and I am selling them at a store. You can check it out HERE. My designing name is, The Latest Scoop, Too. Tricky, eh!?! I love doing it but am slowing down while the kids are out of school. I get up early and work on things while they sleep in. Good times! I should sleep in too, but my body seems to want to wake up at 7 a.m. uugghh!!

Devin

Busy, busy, busy is how we describe Devin. He did take some time out of his busy schedule a couple of weeks ago to go for a golf lesson (we gave him 3 lessons for Christmas). Hopefully he'll be able to get back there and have a few more.

Work is busy as always, we are just thankful he has a job and hopefully always will. That's the great thing about working in the healthcare field. More job security than other places. Definitely more stable.

This past Sunday Devin was put in as our wards Bishop. (I know, go ahead and pick your jaw off the ground)!! We were a little shocked, to say the least! I have cried off and on for the past couple of weeks and looked like a blubbering fool on Sunday as I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I'm sure we will get used to it, and of course we'll support him as best we can, especially since we know he will be serving the Lord in The Lord's church. 5-7 years seems a little daunting, but we will chug along making the best of it! Good times!

Well, I guess that's our latest update! Hope everyone's summer is safe and fun! Of course we'd love to hear from you!

Time Flies

2009-04-05T10:07:00.005-04:00

Today is April 5th. It may not mean much to some of you, April 5th, but to us, this is the day 3 years ago that changed our lives and brought us extreme happiness.

Three years ago we got a phone call from Annalise's birth family to tell us Annalise had been born. She was 4 weeks early and boy were we surprised. She was born at the home of a wonderful woman in Jacksonville who our birth mom Carrie was staying with while her step mom had surgery that morning. I'm sure Lisee (the woman she was staying with) was a bit surprised to have to deliver a baby that day, but she did amazing!

I was anxious, nervous, excited, and scared! Annalise's step-birth-grandmother told us to come to Jacksonville to see our baby girl. I think the 30 minutes it took for Devin to come home from work were the longest 30 minutes of my life. Not to mention the 2 1/2 hour drive to Jacksonville. We were nervous, what if this were to fall through like the adoption plan in November. Could my heart possibly take it? Could my mental stability possibly endure, that's probably the real question! We made it to Jacksonville and were greeted with this sweet baby girl.

I had met Annalise's birth family, but this was

Devin's first meeting time meeting them.

We stayed that day in Jacksonville and spent time with Annalise's birth family. To say there were ups and downs would be an understatement! It was a roller coaster ride, with my emotions so close to the surface! I felt like at any moment I would burst into tears. We left that evening with pictures of Annalise to take home to show Lauren her baby sister.

The next morning we showed the pictures to Lauren. We told her that we would be naming her Sydney Gloria. Gloria is the name Carrie our birth mom said she would have named the baby, which is after her grandmother that died from breast cancer. We thought this was a way that we could honor Carrie. When we told Lauren the name she was adamant that we could NOT name her Sydney. She was sure her name should be Annalise. We flipped through the pictures again and again and made the decision that Lauren was right, her name should be Annalise! Boy, am I glad we did! She's definitely Annalise and not a Sydney. To be honest, I don't really care for the name Sydney, I mean, it's alright, just not my favorites. Just trying to meet Devin halfway! : )

The next day we did not go to Jacksonville. There was so much going on that we felt the birth family just needed some space. It was hard being here in Tallahassee, and hoping that everything was alright with Annalise. She ended up staying in the hospital for 4 days because of jaundice and some infection she had.

We headed to back to Jacksonville on Friday evening. This time Lauren came with us. Annalise's birth family wanted to have a placement ceremony on Saturday afternoon (don't know what else to call it). They invited their friends and ward members to their church for a service. The intent was for this to be placement of Annalise with us. Unfortunately, Annalise was still in the hospital and we weren't sure when she would be released. We were so thankful that Mike, Annette and Bryan (Devin's brother, wife and son) could come and be with us. By this point I was a wreck and things were going from bad to worse (not with the birth family but with our stress level). I had a break down in Walmart and burst into tears at the photo center. I think the lady behind the camera thought I was crazy or had lost it! Devin and Lauren had gotten locked out of our hotel room because our extended stay was up, yet we weren't quite ready to leave, Devin was supposed to meet Annalise's birth grandfather at the hospital to give Annalise a blessing. We were a mess! But, we made it to the hospital and we made it to the church for the service. It was indeed a highlight and a strength to see some friendly, loving faces in Mike, Annette and Bryan. We honestly couldn't have made it without them! We love you guys! They definitely know the meaning of supporting your family in all things!

We left Jacksonville Saturday evening hoping and praying that we'd get another call saying Annalise was being released from the hospital. We decided to ask for help with fasting and praying from family that this might happen quickly. We headed to church the next day and right before we walked into church, we decided to call the birth family to see how they were doing. They were headed to the hospital to pick Annalise up! She was being discharged! We were so thankful! We went to church and ditched out a little early to make it to Jacksonville by 4 pm so we could sign paperwork and pick up our sweet baby girl.

Being at placement was different than I thought it would be. I was so happy to be bringing Annalise home, yet my heart ached for Annalise's birth family who would be hurting. When it was time to leave, our birth mom let out a cry that about broke my heart! This had to be so hard for her. She is amazing, brave, and our hero! She gave us Annalise, something we could not do for ourselves. We love Carrie so much and are so grateful to her selfless act of love. We are so happy to be able to stay in contact with her. We know she loves Annalise so much and for that we are so thankful!

Carrie (birth mom) changing Annalise one
last time to get ready to leave with us.

Lauren holding her sister for the first time
Lauren showing off her excitement to being a big sister
With our Social Worker, Jim Jacobs, just
before leavng to head home.
Here is our sweet girl today.

Annalise brings so much love and excitement to our family! She sure is a little girl full of life, character and love. We can't imagine what our life would be like without her. It seems she's always been apart of our life. We waited 7 1/2 years for her, and she was definitely worth the wait. We love you Annalise!

Florida State University String Festival

2009-03-08T19:35:00.006-04:00

Lauren and a friend of her's, Mark participated in the Florida State University String Festival. They did an amazing job and worked so hard at. Lots and lots of hours of practice went into perfecting their duet. They performed Twelve Duets k 487 No. 2 by Mozart. Lauren mentioned that when they practiced at school for their strings teacher everyone stopped to listen to them play. They then got an orchestra applause (not quite sure what that is) from their peers. She said it was a little embarrassing, but I could tell she was quite pleased. Yesterday when they were practicing their song, it was amazing to watch as this noisy practice room at FSU quieted down and everyone was listening. As they finished practicing, some of the older kids said to them, that they sounded so good and it was amazing! I am so proud of Mark and Lauren!

I have to thank Mark's mom for all of her help! Marcie is amazing! She is extremely talented with music and sings like an angel. I could listen to her for hours and never get tired of hearing her beautiful voice! She's just a great friend! She's also Annalise's Early Interventionist and is just a wonderful and caring person. Marcie, thank you so much for everything! I just love you and am so happy that you are my friend. I enjoyed our time together yesterday with the kids!

After the performance, we thought it was very necessary to celebrate with ice-cream! We just had a great time together. Mark has got to be one of the most polite 12 year old boy I know. He's just a great young man, and quite a cutie too. Sorry if you read this Mark and get embarrassed! It's true, he's a handsome fellow!

Thanks Valentine family! You guys rock!

Here's a video and some pictures of yesterday! Enjoy!

Practicing in the practice room before their performance.

Nature or Nurture?

2009-03-02T08:09:00.001-05:00

The following was written by Devin and posted on the Ladle Family website. Kind of a funny story!

One of the great psychological debates centers around the concept of nature (you're born with it) or nurture (you were taught it by your surroundings). I submit to you the following case study and let you decide if it's "nature or nurture".

On Saturday, Kathy, Annalise, and I were driving in the car to visit some stores looking for a new computer desk. Just about any time that I announce to Annalise that we are going in the car, we have the same dialog:
Me: We're going in the car.
Annalise: Shopping?
Me: Yes.
Annalise: Walmart?
Me: No.
Annalise: Target?
Me: Maybe.
Annalise: Not Walmart?
--OR--
Me: We're going in the car.
Annalise: Shopping?
Me: Yes.
Annalise: Walmart?
Me: Yes.
Annalise: Not Target?
Me: No, not Target.
Annalise: Walmart?

I don't know why those two stores are so prominent in her mind, but they are. The odd thing is that its as if she is evaluating and pronouncing judgment on my choice of shopping location -- and she's not even three yet!!! Could she be born with an incredible ability to shop and smell out a good deal? I'm just waiting for the day when she starts asking about what item we're going shopping for and then recommending various stores based upon the research that she has already done on the item in question.

Anyhow, as I mentioned, we were driving on Saturday and we are in the left-hand turn lane on Blair Stone turning onto the Parkway (for those not from Tallahassee, come on down and I'll take you for a tour and recreate the events just like one of those Hollywood Star Home tours).
But I digress. As we are in the left-hand turn lane, Annalise looks out her window and sees a Kohl's department store. She immediately asks, "We going to Kohl's?" I reply that we are not going to Kohl's. She then exclaims in a dejected voice, "Oh, man!"

So, I ask you, gentle reader, is it nature or nurture?

Ward Activity

2009-02-15T21:46:00.004-05:00

So Friday night was our big Adult only Ward Activity. I am my ward's Activity Chairperson (gotta love that calling). I have a pretty amazing committee. They all pitched in to pull of an amazing party. We did a cruise theme for our party. We decorated our cultural hall to look like the deck of a boat. We used nautical flags, life preservers, Christmas lights with hanging down stars to look like stars in the sky, and various other decorations. We had a nice buffet dinner that apparently was pretty tasty (I only had green salad and a roll because it was pretty much gone by the time I got to it, which is totally okay). We then had our Bishop who just happens to be an opera singer and performer be our cruise director. He made up some songs that he sang throughout the evening that went along with people or things in our ward. If that makes any sense whatsoever. We then had 3 women in our ward do a lip sync to Dancing Queen. They were pretty entertaining. Then for the finale, we had some of the Elder's in our ward do a synchronized swimming routine. Now, I'm sure you've seen this on Youtube done by other wards. It's pretty dang funny. Here's what our ward did. Hope you get a kick out of it. It's kind of at an odd angle, but it works!

Presenting, the Manly Minnows:

All in all it was a well executed event. People can't wait until the next ward party. There were even comments from people that this was the best ward activity they had ever gone to. A huge thanks to our wonderful committee for carrying out a most wonderful and fun evening. You guys worked hard and it paid off! You rock!!

Happy Anniversary

2009-02-02T15:17:00.003-05:00

Dear Mom and Dad,

I wanted to publicly wish you both a Happy Anniversary! If I've done my math right, I believe you've now been married for 46 years. Wow, that sure is a long time! You've made it this far, you might as well keep on going.

From my perspective, it's been a wild but rewarding ride for you all. There have been more than enough ups and downs (that happens with 7 kids) and you've managed to produce and raise all 7 of us kids and never gave up on us. That in and of itself deserves an award!

I know there were times when you thought it would probably be easier to throw the towel in and say enough, but you've managed to work things out and have stuck together. For that I thank you. The tremendous example you have shown me by staying together and loving each other despite differences is one I will always appreciate. Not everyone can say that their parents have been married for 46 years! Bravo!

I am so proud of you both for making the decision to serve the Lord through this mission you are about to embark on. I only wish we could be there as you are being set apart. Know that we will be thinking of you. I truly believe that you both will be able to touch the lives of the people in this branch you will be serving in. You both are always so willing to help out when you see a need. I have a feeling you'll see lots and lots of needs that you will need to fulfill. It will most likely be hard, but know that you will have the opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I can't think of anything more rewarding than doing His work and knowing you are following His will!

I love you both very much and am thankful for all you do for me and my family. Your emotional support has always been more than appreciated! The way that you treat my girls and love them means more to me than I can express. You are absolutely the best grandparents anyone could ask for! They both love you so much as well and can't wait until they can see you again. I know that they miss you terribly!

Today I honor you, my parents who have survived 46 years and for that I say Thank you!

Love,
Kass

If I remember correctly, this picture
was taken on the day you were sealed
together in the Los Angeles Temple.

Drawing on Carrie Stroud's blog

2009-01-20T18:55:00.002-05:00

Okay, so you know those great pictures we had taken? Well, Carrie Stroud the amazing photographer is having a drawing on her blog click here to view. If you win, you get a free session with her! She even mentioned being in Utah all you Utahns, so go sign up! All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog with what picture you like the best (hopefully it's the one of my families ;) Then you get put into her drawing. If you mention it on your blog, you get two entries into the drawing. So, hurry up, head over there! Quick before you miss out!

Adoption Digital Kit

2009-01-15T08:25:00.002-05:00

Okay, I've been trying to keep my digi-scrapbooking separate from our regular blog about our family, but I wanted for those of you who just check this blog to know about an Adoption Kit over at Stolen Moments blog. It's a beautiful kit and if your life has been touched by adoption, you'll probably want to head over to her blog and download her kit. Go to my other blog (click on blog or click on the link in the right hand side of this blog) to be taken to her blog. You can also see my layouts I made about Annalise's adoption.

Don't forget to check out our new family photo's by going here. I just love them and can't wait to see more than a preview! Can't wait to see what you think.

Hope everyone has a great day! Love to all!

Amazing, If I Do Say So Myself

2009-01-14T18:39:00.002-05:00

Saturday we went with a fabulous photographer (she just happens to have just moved into our ward, convenient!) to Havana, FL to have some family pictures taken. We had such a good time with her. She is a natural light photographer which means she does all outdoors. She tries to find cool walls as her back drops. Well, if you've been to Havana, you'll know it's such a quaint little town with fabulous walls and places that make great backdrops. Well, there is a sneak peak at some of our pictures on her blog. Click here to go take a look. Feel free to leave her some comments of what you think. I'd also love to hear what you think! I think they turned out fantastic! I just LOVE them. Carrie, thank you for doing a job above and beyond. You ROCK!

My Name is Kathy and I'm a Coca Cola Addict

2009-01-07T13:53:00.004-05:00

By the title of this post, maybe you think I'm trying to be silly. But, unfortunately I'm not. I am totally addicted to Coke (the kind you drink, not snort). I could easily replace coke with any type of food and be happy. The problem is, my body knows it and tells me when it's time to have a coke. Yup, I get a lovley headache. I've decided I must change my life-style. No, I'm not quitting completely. That would be insane for me. Done it many times before and I always end up "falling of the wagon". For now I've made it one of my New Year Resolutions to cut down to 2 cokes a day. However, I just started this yesterday. I'm bound and determined to get down to 1 a day and call it a success. I just have to figure out when that 1 a day coke should be in my hand being guzzled oh wait, I mean drunk. Let me clarify my something, I don't mean a big 32 oz. coke from the gas station. I drink the good ole' 12 oz. cans with an occassional 20 ozer from the store. It's pretty sad when you go to Wal-Mart and your daughter who happens to be 2 years old says, "Mommy Coke?" She says this every time we are checking out at Wal-Mart or even Target. That's pretty sad! It's taking a lot of self control, which I tend to lack. But, I'm going to do this. Why, well it leads into some of my other New Year Resolutions..........

On my New Year Resolution list are the following items:

Lose 10-15 more pounds and then call it good. Now dropping down to 1 coke a day will definitely help in this area. My Dr. says that 1 - 12 oz. Coke takes about 2-3 miles to walk off. How sad is that. So, all the walking I do is essentially only working off one of the many cokes I've been drinking. That stinks! I lost about 40 lbs. a year or two ago. But, somehow a pound or two keeps creaping up on me each year. I'm not going to do that again, so I really want to stay on top of this and be healthier!
Potty Train Annalise--Uuugghhh!!! If I could pay someone to do this, I would. I hate doing this. I still have nightmares from training Lauren 9 years ago. We've done this for two days now. Yesterday went okay, only two accidents. Today, we're already up to 3 accidents. Annalise will say to me, "Mommy sad!" I know this means she's had an accident. I just want to give up. The funny thing is, she's potty trained at church. She'll tell me all the time that she needs to go during Sacrament Meeting and a lot of the times she'll actually go. So, what the.....
Be more organized around the house. I'm going to try to be more regular about doing things around the home. I've made myself a chore chart (and one for everyone else as well). I have specific days to do things. For instance, Monday is laundry day. Tuesday I think is vacuum and dust the house. Wednesday is sweep, mop and clean kitchen counters really good, along with sweep and mop entry way and laundry room. And so forth. I farmed off my most dreaded chores to Devin and Lauren. One of Lauren's jobs is to clean the hall bathroom. Devin's is to clean the Master Bath. I figure if I just do a few things a day, I can have them done by noon and have the rest of the day to do whatever. Although, today has taken me forever to do the kitchen and floors. It all goes back to the three accidents Annalise has had!
Visit the Temple Quarterly. With it 4 hours away, it takes real planning to get this done. So, we are going to try to get there once a quarter.
Make contact monthly with everyone I visit teach. This has never been hard for me except for the last 2-3 months, I've totally stunk at it. I really need to get on the stick here and get it done!
Be more patient with Lauren and Annalise-No explanation needed here, I'm sure.
Be better about praying more regularly. That's pretty personal, but, I'm not always the best with prayer. Again, I need to get it together! I know it's helpful in my life when I'm better about this. So, I ask myself why I don't always do it? Hmmm, don't know.

Anyway, there you have it. Things to do! I have a lot of work cut out for me.

Just a side note. Our Christmas was wonderful. As always, we went way overboard with the girls. Although, if you ask Lauren, she probably would tell you she didn't get what she wanted and EVERYONE at school got one. An Ipod Nano. What she really wanted was an IPOD Touch. Yeah right! I made her clarify last night about the everyone at school getting one. I really hate living in a wealthy area. We don't even try and compete with the other families here. It just isn't happening! The sad thing is, we got her a really nice MP4 player for her birthday. But, it didn't say IPOD on it, so it wasn't cool enough! Oh well. On to what I really wanted to say.....

When the kids in my family (Newell family) turn 3 they get a Raggedy Ann or Raggedy Andy doll for Christmas from my parents. It's handmade by my mom. I grew up with a Raggedy Ann doll that she had made and I loved it. The sad thing was, I was horrible about taking care of things, unlike my sister Mel who was really good at that and she still has her doll (Polly Pal). Anyway, Annalise is only 2. But, she kept stealing Lauren's doll. I mentioned it to my mom and she decided to make Annalise her doll a year early! Thanks Mom! She also made one for Annalise's birth mom that looks just like Annalise's. See below picture.Annalise with her Raggedy Ann
and her Birth Mom's

On Christmas morning Lauren handed me a present from my parents. I thought it was a shirt or something. But, as I'm unwrapping it I realize it's a Raggedy Ann doll for ME!! I got all teary-eyed. While it wasn't my old doll, I now had a Raggedy Ann doll that was all mine. I guess I'll always be a kid at heart. Below is a picture of Annalise, Lauren and myself with our Raggedy Ann dolls. Thanks Mom, this meant more to me than I can even express!

Sorry if we look a little scary. It was way too early in the morning to be up! Gotta love anxious kids on Christmas morning!

Well, that's about it for now! I hope this year brings wonderful things to each of you!

post number two by the famous and greatest lauren elizabeth

2008-12-22T10:34:00.004-05:00

hey everyone out there!!!its lauren elizabeth again......um....oh yeah....THANKS TO ALL THE PPL WHO ANSWERED MY QUESTION!!!! now if my mom will only talk with my dad about it......ugh. um.........on saturday i went to the zoo with my aunt and uncle......IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!! thanks aunt annette and uncle mike!!!!!! i got to feed a giraffe and a lorikeet. (an australian bird) i took about 5 million bajillion pics......my mom says she'lll upload them for me.....i pretty much took pics of every animal i saw..........heheh. idk wat to type......oh! could some of you bloggers who are mky moms friends...could u convince her to let me get a blog??? PLZ!!!!!!!??????? at the zoo....i, sadly, didnt get to see a panda....which is NOT a bear, fyi. its in the racoon family. its got opposable thumbs like racoons and very similar markings....but i got a stuffed animal panda with a pink blanket wrapped around it.....its SOOOOO cute!!!!!! i also got a pan flute which is kinda hard to play.... i can only play the low notes. my concert went very well. in orchestra im in first violin again...YEAH!!!!!!!! but sadly im not second chair.....acutally, first violin doesnt exactly have a 2nd chair....we have co-1st chairs...... im kinda mad about that but on well.....um..............idkwtt (i dont know wat to type....)

well '

GFN!!!!!!

-♥-

lauren elizabeth

Tis the Season......

2008-12-19T17:21:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. Tis the Season to be_________(you can fill in the blank if you'd like), INSANE!! I haven't really had a chance to focus on Christmas for my cute family because of the Ward Christmas Party. You see, I'm the Ward Activity Committee Chairperson. It's can be a lot of work. But, I had a great committee who took their assignments and did amazing things! Anyway, our party was last Saturday and we got rave reviews with how it turned out! We broke from the traditional dinner because our ward is so large we can't all fit in the cultural hall. So, instead, we had families bring their nativities to display. We then went on a tour seeing all of the different nativities. After that we went in the chapel for some fun Christmas caroling. Afterward, we had the most delicious dessert bar ever! It exceeded my expectations. Just glad to have it done and now we can move on with Christmas.

Today was Lauren's last day of school for 2008. She won't return back to school until Jan. 6th. That's like two whole weeks we have, I mean get to spend together. Good times. Anyway, this whole week they've had semester finals. We've (Lauren and I) have been a little stressed out about this, not knowing what to expect. But, in Lauren's words, "definitely easier than I thought!" I LOVE web grade because you can stay on top of missing assignments and see what her grade is at any time. Thankfully each class has updated with her final exam listed and everything. Yes, I am a neurotic mom who constantly checks! I am pleased to report straight A's yet again. Phew!! I can relax for a whole two weeks. 6th grade is definitely harder now than what I remember it being! Of course, no pressure Lauren!! Yeah, right!

Annalise is simply adorable! We went to sit on Santa's lap at the mall the other day. Devin met us over there for lunch so he could witness this occassion. Lauren won't go near him and hasn't since she was about 5. Well, Annalise said she wanted to sit on Santa's lap. But, when we got there, she wanted nothing to do with him. She would say, "no sit on Santa's lap." So, he came over to talk with her and give her a lollipop. She took the lollipop turned away from Santa and wouldn't even look at him as he talked with her. She would occasionally glance out of the corner of her eyes to see if he was still close by. What a nut. Before we went, we'd ask her what she was going to ask Santa for, for Christmas. Her response, "a present." I'd ask, what type of present? Her response, "one to open!" Duh me! It was like I should have known that!

Tomorrow will be a great day! Mike and Annette are the BEST Aunt and Uncle ever. They are taking the girls to the Jacksonville Zoo tomorrow. We're talking 2 1/2 hour drive to get there! It will be the perfect weather for it, mid 70's (I love Florida!!). The girls are sooooo excited to be going! Annalise talks about seeing the monkeys. Lauren is hoping for a panda bear, which I have no idea if they have them there. While they are gone, Devin and I are going to finish up Christmas shopping. Yeah!! I love to shop, Devin hates it! Should be a fun time.

About 3 weeks ago Devin got in a minor fender bender which totalled our car because it was so old. Initially we thought they'd pay to fix it, but when it came down to it, it wasn't worth it. So, we had the pleasure of going car shopping (not really much of a pleasure). We ended up with a 2007 Hyundai Elantra. It had low mileage and is a pretty nice little car. Glad that's all over!

There you have it, the Latest Scoop. Just FYI, Christmas cards have NOT been sent out and you'll probably not get one until the New Year. So, it will be a Happy New Year card. Gotta love that!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas Survey

2008-12-11T23:48:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Linnae, my cute sister in law for posting this on her blog. I'm hoping all of you out there who read my blog will also do this. It's kind of fun!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your family and friends.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper for the kids; gift bags as soon as I'm too tired on Christmas Eve to wrap another gift!
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial.
3. When do you put up the tree? First Saturday in December. But, it always has to be December. Devin won't stand for it to be up in November. Silly Devin!
4. When do you take the tree down? I think it's on New Years Day, right Devin?!?!
5. Do you like eggnog? Sometimes
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Barbie Golden Dream Girl. I wanted it sooo badly and got it. But, I don't think I played with it for too long, how sad!
7. Hardest person to buy for? This year, Lauren & Devin
8. Easiest person to buy for? Annalise
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a couple of them
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, however this year it may be a Happy New Year card again.
11. Favorite Christmas movie? National Lampoons Christmas Vacation--It's a must watch every year.
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as I start seeing great deals.
13. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Almond Roca. Tradition of mine and Devin's to always buy this at Christmas time.
14. Lights on the tree? Of course, white.
15. Favorite Christmas song? I don't know if I have a favorite, but I love my Harry Conik Jr. CD
16. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home.
17. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, and Rudolph.
18. Angel on the tree top or a star? Big huge Bow
19. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve, one gift, the rest on Christmas morning.
20. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Trying to buy a new car, while planning the ward Christmas party, while trying to get Shopping done. Unfortunately, the shopping is lacking.
21.Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the Burgundy and Hunter Green for Christmas, not the traditional red and green. I do love the ornaments my parents send to the girls each year as well.
22. Favorite Christmas dinner? Ham, rolls, funeral potatoes, salad, and pie
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace on Earth okay, I'll settle for peace with my family!

Now it's your turn!

Merry Christmas!

Lauren's Christmas Orchestra Concert

2008-12-03T22:06:00.003-05:00

Last night was Lauren's school Orchestra Concert. This is her 2nd year playing the violin, but first year at this school. She is in the beginning orchestra and is LOVING it! We are very proud of her as she made 2nd chair in the beginning orchestra. Way to go Lauren.

Being as so many of you can't come to things like this because you live so far away, we made a video of the three songs they performed. Lauren is in the front row on the left, second person in. The songs they performed were Skaters Waltz, Silent Night, and the Hallelujah Chorus. Enjoy!

Okay, I'm only putting one song on here. It took way to long to upload this video. Thanks for watching!

Thanksgiving Message from Annalise

2008-11-27T11:34:00.003-05:00

Here's a special message from Annalise. Just click play!

We Are Thankful

2008-11-27T08:17:00.003-05:00

At this time of year, how could I not take the opportunity to mention those things that I am grateful for.

Family--This is definitely the top of my list. My own family: hubby and the girls how blessed I am to have myself surrounded by these three amazing individuals. Our family here in Tallahassee: Mike, Annette, Bryan, Michelle, Alyse, and Kristen aka Sicken. We so don't deserve your kindness and generosity! We have learned so much from you all and we can't thank you enough for helping us to settle here in Tallahassee which ultimately helped us to LOVE living here. Our Extended Family: we miss you, love you, and hate that we are far, but we are so thankful to you for keeping us updated, keeping us in your thoughts and not forgetting us. There are times we wish we were closer, but we know we are in the right place! You are all in our prayers and thoughts constantly. We love you all!
Friends--We have friends all over the country, from the West to the North-East, down through the South. Some of you we haven't been great with keeping in touch, but know that you are not far from our thoughts! Our friends are like family to us and we love each of you and are grateful that you have helped us to become better people.
Our Savior--I am so grateful the roll that the Savior, Jesus Christ plays in my life. His example that I try hard to follow and yet fall short on so many levels, yet, He continues to show me grace and mercy and helps me along the way. I know that His Atonement was made on all of our behalf's that we may be made whole; cleansed from our sins and shortcomings, lifted in times of trial and despair, and renewed when life seems a bit chaotic. I love Him for all of this!
Things--I know it seems kind of shallow, but I am thankful for all of those "things" we have. We live in a crazy time where the economy is a little topsy turvy. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their "things". Yet, we are still fortunate to have all of this and I am trying hard to not take all of it for granted, which is kind of hard when you go about your day. This is where I'm going to try to become better.

Anyway this is not an all inclusive list. I am grateful for my life and all that surrounds me. I am grateful for the small and simple, for all things.

post by the famous and greatest....Lauren Elizabeth!!!!!!!!

2008-11-24T17:53:00.003-05:00

hey everyone whos reading this!!!!! this is Lauren Elizabeth here. so the reason im putting a post is cuz' my mom was like "hey lauren, do you wanna put up a post?" and i was like "um.....sure..." so here i am putting up a post. um.....oh!!! i have a question for all the wise people out there. (hopefully thats all of you who are reading this) how old do you have to be to have a blog on blogger? PLEASE TELL MY MOM AND TELL HER TO TELL ME!!!!!!!!!! please.... and if you do.....well, THANK YOU A TON!!!!!!!!!!! um.........so.......everyone.....this is my famous question.......hows life? yeah my friends get really mad at me when i ask them this cuz' i always ask this question when i run out of things to say. (which is VERY, VERY unlikely.....but if it happens i ask them that.) my life is ok if youre wondering... um idk if my moms already said this in a post but i do pirvate piano lessons and violin at school. um......oh!! today we had a sixth grade social (which i thought was pretty stupid) it was the last two pds. of the day.(which happen to be d and e......YAY!!! my least favorite pds!!!! d and e pd. happen to be world cultures and language arts) we watched a movie and ate LOTS of junkfood......my favorite hobby and the highlight of my day.....jk. the movie we watched was the Pagemaster.......it was ok, but i didnt really like it. but otherwise it was really fun cuz' we pretty much just talked and did stuff like that. tomorrow all the students in orchrestra at school get to miss all of their classes for orchrestra day. all we're really doing is taking clinics about string instruments and listen to professionals play and have a combined rehersal for our winter concert. ( which happen to be dec. 2..........just FYI.) um...yeah. oh! this week i only have two days of school due to thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!YAY!!!!! YEAH!!! PARTY!!!!!! ok sorry i got a little over excited. ok this is the end of my post.
GOODBYE FOR NOW!!!!!! (GFN)
-♥-
~Lauren Elizabeth~

Boy Meets Girl

2008-11-19T17:09:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I've never been tagged before, so thanks Tracy for my first tag!

Boy Meets Girl TAG!

Might as well join in!This tag is called "How I met___."

1. Where did you meet? Salt Lake Community College-Institute

2. What was the first thought that went through your head when you met? What an idiot. He teased me and teased me about the classes I took in High School. So, I tool a few Home Ec. classes, I'm sure he's grateful now!

3. Do you remember what he was wearing? I'm sure it was dockers and a button down short sleeve shirt. Until I got a hold of him, he didn't have the greatest of taste in clothes, no offense Devin if you're reading this!

4. Where was the first time you kissed this person? By my car at his house.

5. Where did you go for your first date? Well, that depends on who you ask. I say to a movie and Pizza Hut. He would say an Institute dance.

6. How long did you know this person before you were a couple? a couple of months

7. How did he ask you out? For the movie and pizza, he just asked if I wanted to go after I came and watched him play Volleyball. If you're talking the dance, I believe I asked.

8. Has this person ever proposed to you? Yup!

9. Do you and this person have kids together? 2 lovely little ladies!

10. Have you ever broken the law with this person?????? Does running a red light count?

11. When was the first time you realized you liked this person. In November of 1990, at the dance.

12. Do you get along with his family? Yup!

13. Do you trust this person? Yes, I sure do!

14. Do you see him as your partner in the future? I sure do.

15. What is the best gift he gave you? Him - for eternity--good answer Tracy. I'll say that and also my Greg Olsen limited edition signed print he gave me for my first Mother's Day as well as my sapphire and diamond ring he gave me while we were on our cruise.

16. What is one thing he does that gets on your nerves? I can't think of anything right now.

17. Where do you see each other 15 years from now? Getting ready for our baby to graduate from High school, ready to spend our empty nest years together!

18. What causes the most arguments? Kids

19. How long have you been together? 18 years

20. Are you married? I sure hope so! Of Course

21. Who do you tag? Suzi, Heather, Linda, Kim, Linnae

I Heart you Devin!

Prayer

2008-11-14T13:23:00.002-05:00

Annalise is quite the funny little girl. Every time she lays down for bed, whether it's nap time or bed time, she always wants to say prayers. Don't know if it's a stall tactic or not. Today for nap time she needed to say prayers. Here was her prayer:

Heavenly Father,
Lisee go night, night
Wake up,
and watch Strawberry Shortcake.
Jesus Name,
Amen.

It was very clear what her intentions are for after nap time. Now, let's just hope she will go to sleep. Anyway, I couldn't help but chuckle and think the simple minds of kids. I just love her!

Crazy Couple of Weeks

2008-11-04T21:44:00.004-05:00

Wow, I've been so busy keeping up my digital scrapbooking blog with all my new LO's, that I haven't taken time to post on here. So, first I'll just tell you to go take a look at my new LO's by clicking here. Of course I'd love to hear what you think. I'm definitely enjoying the whole digital world. Can't believe I've been missing out on that for the last several years! Anyway, here's what's happening in my families lives:

Annalise

What a funny little character! I honestly believe we have our own little comedy show going on with her. She says the funniest things and just acts crazy. Just tonight she said to Devin, "Lisee fall down" as she proceeds to throw herself on the floor and just giggles. Her phrase that we had her saying at the Trunk or Treat and Trick or Treating was "Groovy Baby". Her meow is this long drawn out thing. I just need to get it on video so you can see how funny it is! Her face is hilarious to watch as she meows. What a nut!

Just today she was looking at mine and Devin's wedding pictures on the wall. She proceeds to tell me that it's "mommy and daddy at the temple". I then tell her that she's been to the temple. Her response, "Someday". I then try to tell her no, you've already been, when you were 4 months old, you just don't remember it. She responds, "Someday". I finally figure out that she's remembering the line in the song I Love To See the Temple where it talks about going there someday. I just smiled. What a sweetheart! She loves that song and breaks out singing it any time she sees a temple. Or anything that looks like a temple for that matter.

She's just great about blurting out in the middle of Sacrament meeting "Lisee poo poo in potty". I then try to hush her and tell her that she doesn't need to go that she has a pull up on. She just proceeds to yell it louder and get more upset when we don't make a move to take her out. Yup, she wins, we take her out. Sometimes she'll pee, but most often it's her way of getting out and getting a drink. I'm on to her little tricks. I can see right through them.I love this dress! This is a dress that
my Mom and I made for Lauren
when she was about Annalise's age.
I cannot believe it fits my baby.
It's one of the few dresses I have of
Lauren's to pass on to Annalise.
I just love it! She looked so sweet on Sunday!

Lauren

Oh, our sweet little Lauren, or so people tell me. Nah, she's pretty good, she just has some issues with raising her voice very loudly at us. Some people would call it a scream or yelling. I know, people don't believe me, but it's real! Lately she's been leaving all of her projects (research papers, book reports, 20 definitions, etc...) to the night before the due date. Yup, it's caused much grief in the Ladle home. But, tonight I think she was finally getting why it wasn't such a good idea. We'll see how long that lasts!

On a good note, we received her grades for the first quarter......drum roll please......Straight A's. She did it! We were a little nervous about Math, she was right on the edge. She pulled it up and did it! We are so very proud of her! She says her goal is to get straight A's all through Middle School. She's ambitious, and she just might be able to pull it off. Since she is on the A Honor Roll, the prinicpal takes the kids to Cici's Pizza for lunch. So, that's what she's doing tomorrow. She's so excited to be missing class and going for pizza. Hopefully she remains motivated.

We found out that for a short time she had a "boyfriend". He broke up with her over email which was traumatic for her. I think she's realized it's just not worth it! I asked her what she did with her boyfriend. Her reply, "walk to class together." I asked if they held hands or you know, kissed. Her reply, "ooo, no Mom!" So, I'm taking her for her word. We'll see. Last week an 8th grader asked her out. She told him no! phew!! If we survive Middle School, I think I deserve an award!! On a funny note, she wanted to go trick or treating with a "group of friends". The group ended up being a girl-friend from school, her boyfriend and some 7th grade boy. When we told her it sounded too much like a double date and no, she wouldn't be going, we were quickly told that "we were ruining her social life!" How's that for you?? She quickly go over it and went with a couple of girls (her BFF's) from church. Oh brother!This was taken at the pumpkin patch. Every year my family goes to the pumpkin patch. Since we don't live in Utah, we don't get to participate. My lovely mother sent the invite along with some money for us to take the girls to pick out the pumpkins. They (okay, Lauren) picked out 3 small pumpkins that you couldn't even carve, but they had so much fun! Annalise just ran around and had a blast! Lauren loved picking up the biggest pumpkins to see how heavy they were. Good times! Thanks Mom & Dad!!

Devin

Is just as busy as ever with work and church. One of the managers in the IT Department left and so Devin is the interim Manager overseeing this group along with the System Architects. So, that's brought on a whole bunch of new headaches. But, hopefully they will be hiring a new manager soon.

Devin is our Wards Mission Leader. Saturday we had a very nice baptism, his first in this position. He did a great job conducting that meeting. So, kudos to the missionaries and all who helped with this baptism. Exciting times!

Kathy

I'm just up to being a mom, trying to get the house work done (not always succeeding), keeping up on the laundry (don't do too bad in that area), raising kids, and doing a few hobbies here and there. I've made these adorable frames with scrapbook paper. (See picture) I really like the way they've turned out. I'm making them for a lady in our ward to have sold at a craft fair benefiting the group home her disabled son lives in or is somehow associated with. I showed them to her on Sunday and she now wants me to make some for her to give to her kids. They are a huge hit. I think I need to make me one or some for my family.

Cute aren't they?!?! I just buy plain wood frames that I paint (the small one is $1.00 at Michaels and the larger one is $3.43 at Walmart). They have to be squared off corners, not rounded. You roll scrapbook paper around a pencil or dowel, secure it and then glue it on. I usually always add ribbon and some sort of charm. You can't really tell, but both have snowflake charms on them. I also bought some of the small ornaments at Walmart that go on the really small trees to use as charms. You get like 4 for $1.00. Can't wait to finish those. We also made the smaller frames for Activity Days one week when I was filling in. We then put in the center I Am A Child of God and used a heart charm. They turned out beautiful. When then talked as a group about how we all are children of God and that we should always show love and kindness to each other. Anyway, I love these frames! Hope you like them and can do something similar. I'd love to see what you create! Good luck!

Anyway, that's The Latest Scoop from the Ladle home.

I'm Freezing!

2008-10-29T00:09:00.002-04:00

I just have to tell you......I'm FREEZING!!!! We have had unseasonablly low temperatures here in good ole' Tallahassee, FL. Right now it's midnight and a whopping 39 degrees. I have officially broken out the flannell pj's. Usually this isn't done until closer to Christmas. I know all you Utahns are going to give me a hard time, but when you acclimate to a warmer climate, you will understand the agony I am in with this darn cold weather. 60 degrees no longer feels cool/warm to me. It's down right cold!

Okay, I guess I will stop my whining for now. I'm just hoping it warms up for Halloween so we only need our light weight jackets and not our heavy coats! ; )

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T18:02:00.004-04:00

The other day Annalise went with her friends from playgroup to the Pumpkin Patch. Below are the pictures from this great time. Annalise asks daily if we are going to the Pumpkin Patch again. Good thing we are going Monday Evening for Family Home Evening!

Annalise and Isabell

Tedra and Isabell

Annalise

Annalise

Annalise

Kathy and Annalise

Trunk or Treat

2008-10-25T17:13:00.005-04:00

This morning at our church was our annual Trunk or Treat. Like I mentioned in a previous post, Annalise was a Hippie which she ended up being absolutely adorable. Lauren was a hobo and looked pretty hobo-ish! Good times! Below are the pictures of our fun time.

The little Hippie, Groovy Baby!

Taking a stroll, no care in the world.

Kristen dressed up like a studious college
student. Oh wait, she is one in real life!

"Sicken" (this is what Annalise calls Kristen)
and Annalise. Kristen couldn't go anywhere
without Annalise wanting her. "Sicken"
she misses you!

Our little friend Ryker with his daddy!
Ahoy Matey, aaarrrggghh!

Hobo Lauren

Rustin, Lauren, Mackenzie, and Jessica

Princess Isabell

The Gang

Lauren and Rustin

New Blog, The Latest "Scoop", Too

2008-10-21T14:20:00.002-04:00

I've just created a new blog strictly for digital scrapbooking stuff. This way I can keep my family stuff separate for those of you who don't want to read all about my latest and greatest scrapbooking layouts, finds, etc..... So, to visit my new blog, click here and it will take you right to it! Enjoy your day!

Creative Team Member

2008-10-20T07:35:00.006-04:00

Wow, what a fun week this has been. I have really gone gang busters on Digital Scrapbooking. Even went as far as applied to be a Creative Team Member for Digi-Designs by Nicole. She actually picked me as one of her team members! I couldn't have been more surprised. Anyway, I get first hand use of her FREE digital scrapbooking kits weekly; I create a layout using the kit; she posts my layout on her site. It's kind of fun. Go check out her free kits here. You can also see my introduction and layout on her site. I LOVE her designs, plus they are free. Doesn't get much better than that!

Anyway, here is my layout that I created for her kit which is called "Celebrate!" Here is a sneak peak at the papers in her kit.

Nicole releases her kit over 5 days. Here's the schedule of her releases:

Monday: Paper
Tuesday: Embellishments
Wednesday: Alphas
Thursday: Insta Scraps
Friday: Add ons

If you haven't started digital scrapbooking and want to, her kits are great to begin with.

Today I'm going to post some ways to get started with digital scrapping. First, I must get Lauren off to school. Good times!

2 Cute Scrapbook Page

2008-10-15T21:32:00.003-04:00

Here is the latest and greatest scrapbook page. I've used paper and elements from here, which is a free kit! I also used a template which can be found here. I tried using the brush tool to create the inked edge look, but I don't know if it's quite right. Hopefully I'll get it down soon!

Spirit Week

2008-10-14T08:30:00.004-04:00

This week at Lauren's middle school is spirit week. Yesterday was twin day and she dressed up like triplets with her two good friends Mackenzie and Jessica. Today is school spirit day.

Lauren happens to be part of the Student Government as a classroom representative. So, she's required to participate. Even if she weren't required, she'd still go all out. She wanted me to buy blue hairspray for her hair. The only problem was that Annalise was sick yesterday. Ended up taking her to the Dr. to find out she has an ear infection in both ears. Good times! Needless to say, we only went to the store yesterday for medicine. Lauren wasn't happy about this. Remember, once they become a "tween", they can't see past the end of their noses. Very self-involved. After throwing a huge fit-screaming at us, I wonder why I break my back trying to figure out ways to help her out. But I do. We took acrylic paint and painted her face as well as painted blue and green stripes in her hair. As I'm doing it I make little miss tender head swear up and down that she will not freak out when it's time to wash it out of her hair and brush it out. I'm sure she'll still have a mini break down. Oh well. At least for today she looks very school spirited.

I am proud of her for not caring what anyone thinks. One of her friends will be like, "that's stupid", the other will think it's pretty cool. What a girl!!

Below is the evidence of what we did.

Stripes in her pony tail. I guess that's pretty obvious!

Go DMS Bucks!

You can't really tell, but we have stripes in her bangs also.

Primary Program

2008-10-12T18:13:00.002-04:00

Today was our ward's Primary Program. Linda, if you're reading this, I thought it was great! The kids did amazing and the spirit was definitely felt.

Devin was under the weather and not able to be there. Lauren was up participating in the program. I struggled with Annalise through the first half of it. Annalise does this fake cry when she wants to leave Sacrament Meeting. She of course started doing this just as Lauren was about to sing with a quartet. I in complete frustration am trying to tell her to watch sis as she sings. Annalise just got louder. So, I pick her up and was headed out to the foyer. Trying to hold the tears in until I got into the foyer. But, they started before I could get out. The great thing about it, our Angel, my wonderful friend, and the girls aunt, Aunt Annette came to the rescue. She met me at the door and took Annalise with her for the rest of the program.

I have to say it was wonderful to be able to enjoy the rest of it. The only thing was the tears, I could not for the life of me turn them off. I began analyzing why I was practically sobbing. I came up with my list of reasons, but they sound kind of silly. The first was because Devin wasn't there. He missed Lauren's last Primary Program. The second reason was because it was Lauren's last Primary Program. She'll be turning 12 next August and heads off to YW's. This makes me a little sad to think she's growing up. Just for the record, I remember shedding a couple of tears at my last Primary Program when I was growing up. Why, I don't know because I like every other child could not wait to get to YW's. The third reason I was a little sad was because Annalise will never be in Primary with her big sister. Now that may sound ridiculous that I'll be sad about that, but for some reason it's sad to me.

I ended up crying through the closing song which was I Am a Child of God. After the closing prayer, our Bishop wanted to say a few words. I maintained control during his comments, but then he had us sing one more song How Firm a Foundation. Which I cried through that. I'm starting to think I'm a little crazy. Maybe I am. What can you do?

Anyway, there you have it. Got to love it!

Sisters Scrapbook Page

2008-10-07T22:59:00.003-04:00

Annalise and I decided to go out and play in the sand table while we waited for Lauren to get home from school. Annalise was having so much fun, I couldn't help but grab the camera and snap a bunch of pictures. Lauren soon came home and began playing with her. They had a great time burying their hands, pouring sand, and much more. It's times like these that I wish we could stop time. We were living in the moment and created memories that will be forever treasured. I think this is some of what we learned in General Conference, enjoy the now as it slips by all too quickly!

I created a scrapbook page using a template from this site. Boy, I can't express enough how much I LOVE templates! They make the digital scrapbooking a breeze, especially for newbies like myself! I'm sure you're all sick of seeing my pages, but, I'm having fun doing them and posting them! So, as I like to say, It's All Good!

Grammie's Dress

2008-10-07T14:30:00.003-04:00

Here is my 2nd template scrapbook page. I love these templates! I still need to play with the whole shadowing effects as I'm not quite sure if they are the right levels or not. But, it looked okay to me. I also put the wrong date down. But, it's all good.

The template I used for this layout can be found here. I did change a few things and left some of the embellishments off.

Template Digital Scrapbooking

2008-10-06T22:22:00.003-04:00

Okay, I think I figured out template digital scrapping. I think I really like it! Here's my one and only layout I've done this way. Boy, do I have a lot to learn!

Halloween

2008-10-06T14:08:00.002-04:00

Since we are finally in the month of October, we can now begin to figure out Halloween costumes for the girls. In the beginning I thought Annalise would make an adorable lady bug. But, the more I got thinking, I decided she would make a great Hippie! I found some very cute huge hippyish flower fabric at Wal-Mart that I'm going to make some bell bottom pants out of, we'll then make her a tie-dyed t-shirt to match. I'll figure out some sort of peace necklace and then to top things off, we'll use her hair to our advantage and give her a huge Afro, take some of the fabric I bought and make a head band to go around her forehead. I can picture it now, it will be quite fun! Stay tuned for pictures.

Lauren has decided on her own to be a Hobo. Not sure what that will entail just yet, but I'm sure she's got a plan and will hopefully share it with me before the week of Halloween.

As for me, I think I'll dress up as a Desperate House Wife (this entails no dressing up on my part, as I already am a Desperate House Wife). Devin will probably be his usual, Osama Bin Ladle. Yup, he has a kind of outfit that makes him look like he should be on the FBI's top 10 terrorist watch list. When he dresses up in it, no one seems to know who he is. Hmmmm......Good times!

Dating in Middle School? What's that all about?!?!

2008-09-30T13:46:00.002-04:00

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. A week or two ago, a boy asked Lauren out. Now, I'm still not sure what he meant by that. Did he want to go on a date with my daughter? Did he just want to go together, you know, steady? I'm just not sure. Anyway, she was taken by surprise and told him she would have to think about it. (My thought is what's there to think about?!) She came home from school that day all nervous. I asked her what was going on. She proceeded to tell me the story. I said, well, what are you going to do, hoping that she knew exactly what she needed to say. She's only eleven! So, we talked about it for a little while. She finally came up with the answer that she wasn't allowed to date until she was 16. So, if he wanted to ask her out in 5 years, she would go on a date with him. Too funny!

Well, fast forward a couple of days. I see an email between her and a boy that SHE likes. At the end of the email she writes, Luv, Lauren Elizabeth with a ton of hearts all around it. I scroll up to see his reply which includes, "Hi Baby." I keep scrolling and then he's calling her "honey." What the.....??? Did I say these kids are only eleven, maybe twelve if they are lucky, but Lauren is definitely only eleven, and barely at that! Yikes.

Fast forward to last night. She had to write a paper on why the Declaration of Independence was important to her. So, she's writing the usual stuff, freedom of the speech, freedom of the press, freedom to worship how you want to. Her very last statement is something to the affect of, because of the Declaration of Independence, you can have a boyfriend or girlfriend if you want. I chuckle at this and am thinking what in the world?
So, I ask her why she would put this.
Her reply, "Well, I really want a boyfriend, everyone has one!"
I said, "What does that have to do with the Declaration of Independence?"
She said, "It just does." Or something like that.
I said, "Not everyone has a boyfriend, how about Mackenzie or Jessica?"
Lauren's reply, "Mom, you know what I mean, they don't, but everyone else does."
I just left it at that. This is precisely why I think 6th grade should still be in elementary school. Middle school suddenly causes them to want to be way too mature for their age. I just want to get it through to her eleven year old brain that there is plenty of time for this boyfriend stuff and to just have fun. But, what do I know, I'm just the mom. I must be old fashioned as well. I just don't get it!! These are the years you hope and pray all of the things you've taught them have stuck with them and they GET IT!! I know she's bound to not always make good decisions, you just hope with the important things they'll do the right thing. I can tell my prayers will be more intense these coming years. Oh boy!

Florida State University the Seminoles Football Game

2008-09-23T19:51:00.005-04:00

So, we've been in Tallahassee for 6 years now. The sad thing is, last Saturday was our first time being at an FSU football game (FSU vs. Wake Forest). Devin got a couple of tickets from his co-worker and took me for my birthday. Now, I'm not much into football anymore, not like I used to be. But, being in the stadium, the atmosphere, even I must admit it was pretty exciting! Our seats were almost to the top of the stadium, but we still could see pretty good! Not too bad at all. I took some video (see below). Unfortunately, our zoom on our camera is not the best. But, it's still kind of fun to watch.

The bummer thing about this game is that we lost, it wasn't pretty! But, what can you do.....can't control everything. Oh well. Hopefully next time we go, they'll win. Go FSU!!

My 2nd Digital Scrapbook Page

2008-09-23T19:46:00.003-04:00

Okay, here is my 2nd digital scrapbook page. I need some constructive criticism on this. Feel free to post everything that I'm not quite doing right.

I Did It!!

2008-09-22T16:18:00.003-04:00

I did it......It's a miracle......I finally completed my first scrapbook page!! Boy, it sure did take a while.

Devin got me the Photoshop Elements 5.0 for my birthday. This is exactly what I had wanted (it helps that he asked for a wish list). Boy, is he good or what?! So, I went to a tutorial that my sister in law, Tracy pointed me to and I did everything exactly like she did in the tutorial. So, there isn't much originality in this scrapbook page! That's okay though because now I can do it. I'll post my next page on here and we'll see how it goes! Good times!

Stay tuned for blogging about card making, some great recipes, and the FSU football game.

Help Needed!

2008-09-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

I'm just throwing this out there because all of my friends are highly intelligent and marvelous brain stormers! Have I sufficiently sucked up to each of you yet??

I am my ward's Activity Chairperson. I don't have a committee as of yet, but would like to start planning our Ward Christmas Party. In the past we have had a dinner. Here's the problem, our ward is so large now that we won't all fit in the cultural hall for a dinner. So, what do we do? Our Bishop suggested maybe doing something missionary or service oriented. But, I don't have a clue as to what to do. So, I'm throwing it out there to you all. Any ideas for me on what would make a great Christmas Party for close to 200+ people? I'm open to any idea!

Your help is greatly appreciated should you choose to comment!

Robby and Brittany's Open House

2008-09-13T08:14:00.003-04:00

The open house for our Nephew Robby and his cute wife Brittany turned out really nice. It was held in the Brokaw-McDougall House which is an old, old home here in Tallahassee. It was absolutely beautiful! There wasn't much decorating to do because of the wonderful character of the home. It was just lovely!

Annalise had a delightful time running around, twirling in her dress, letting out little yells (okay, maybe not so little), getting drinks of water, biting the cup and cracking the glasses (yes, several of them). She was hyper and definitely on one. But, thanks to the James' family who came to our rescue and offered to take her home with them and let her play with their new little puppy. I wasn't sure if she'd go, but she did, much to my surprise! I put her in her car seat in the James' van. She looked at me and said, "mommy sit." Meaning, mommy get in the car now. But, I told her I needed to go back into the house. She was fine and apparently had a blast playing with the puppy! I can't thank the James' enough. They are some of the best people you would ever meet. Always willing to help out at a moments notice. Seriously, you won't meet people who are much better than them. As a side note, they are waiting to adopt and I sure hope it happens for them soon. Check out their profile here: James Family Adoption Profile If you know of anyone looking to place their baby, this family would be the perfect family!

Lauren was the gift taker last night, but wasn't too sure about doing that. There were people she didn't know and she was a little embarrassed or something. But, she eventually got the hang of it.

All in all, it was a lovely evening! Good food and tons of it left over. We'll be eating lemon bars, truffles, cookies, etc.... for days!

Robby and Brittany standing next to the quilt
my parents (mostly my dad, yes he quilts)
made for them as a wedding gift. It's in
brown's and turquoises, their wedding colors.

Me (Kathy), Annalise, Robby, Brittany and Lauren

My cute niece Kristen standing over
the air vent posing like Marilyn Monroe.
Kristen is absolutely a riot! I just love her!

Much Ado About Nothing

2008-09-11T21:40:00.011-04:00

Well, I am blogging again. I am dedicating this update to Suzi. Why, you may ask? Well, mainly because she's wondering what we are up to. I guess that's why.

Devin and Kathy
Devin and I went to San Diego for his nephew Robby's wedding. He was married in the San Diego LDS Temple. The ceremony was very touching. They got married on Sept. 5th, which was one day before mine and Devin's seventeenth wedding anniversary. It was a great way to spend our anniversary. The pictures above are of the happy bride and groom--Robby and Brittany. Then below that Devin and I are dancing at the reception. Me and my cheesy grin!

Tomorrow evening is the open house here in Tallahassee. So, I'll post some more photos from that on Saturday, hopefully! For the reception I made a box to hold the cards and gift cards that they get. I kind of like how it turned out, so you can see it below. I took a wood photo box that you can paint and painted it chocolate brown. I then took some scrapbook paper and decoupaged that on the sides and top of the box. It didn't quite look finished so I took ribbon and made it look like one of those photo ribbon boards that you can put pictures in . Glued buttons where the ribbon intersected and painted a huge wooden knob type thing to use to lift the lid off of it. Let me know what you think. I think I just may do more boxes like these. For it being my first one, It's not too shabby!

Lauren
Lauren is doing pretty darn good in school right now. I just checked her web grades this evening to find all A's! Okay, it's not even mid-term yet, but hopefully she'll keep it up. I will admit that Yes, I'm a neurotic mother and check the web grade several times a week. My friends keep telling me I need to just let go a little and let her be responsible. But, for some reason, it's just not in me. I want her to be so successful that I'm a little overboard about it all. Hopefully I'll learn to relax. I should start saving now for the therapy she's going to need because her mother is psycho!!

Lauren is the C Period Representative for her C period class. This means that she's part of the Student Government Association (SGA). Well, she decided to run for the 6th Grade Representative. In her middle school, each grade doesn't have a class President, VP, etc.... They have 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Representatives, President, Vice President, and Sentators. It's kind of different. Anyway, she decided to run, so we made the posters, her friends made fliers, we made little candy things to hand out, we did it all. Well, she found out today that she didnt' win. She was pretty upset. She was up against 10 other 6th graders for this one position. I tried explaining to her that the odds weren't great (yup, that's the pessimist in me) for her to win. I even went as far as saying, don't be upset if you don't win. Of course, how could I be so stupid to suggest such a thing?!?! She was upset. I then reminded her that she said she wouldn't be upset. To which the reply was, "well, I don't remember saying that.". Anyway, she'll get over it. At least she's still part of the SGA. Good times!!

My dear sweet 11 year old is so very moody. My advice to all parents with girls is that when they turn about 10ish, send them away until they are 18. Boy, these changes/hormones are killing me!! I think I will possibly go insane. I just don't know from one minute to the next which Lauren I'm speaking to. Gotta love it! It's probably a good thing there are 8 1/2 years between Lauren and Annalise. By the time Annalise is 10, I'll hopefully have forgotten these glorious years and will be once again clueless! I sure do love her despite her craziness!

Below is a picture of Lauren with her friends. I took her and her two friends to the movie for her birthday. We saw Kung Fu Panda. Lauren is on the right.

Annalise
My silly little Annalise. She's such a riot! She is definitely showing signs of being 2. Yet, other times, she's as cute as can be to the point it's terribly hard not to do whatever she wants or give her whatever she wants. I just love her and can't help but give her tons of hugs and kisses, all the while she giggles and giggles! Lauren taught her the Primary song that goes something like:

I love mommy she loves me,
We love daddy yes sirree.
He loves us and so you see,
We are a happy family.

Well, I had a bunch more typed up about Annalise, but I've lost it and can't remember what I typed! Dang it, I'm sure it was good. Anyway, the top picture of Annalise is of her sporting her new dress Grammie Marcia made for her for the wedding. It's absolutely adorable on her!! It's especially cute with her little Afro that she's got going on. I just love it!! The bottom picture of Annalise is her showing off her Dora band aids. No, she doesn't have an owie. She just said she wanted her "Dora stickers." So, being as I can't tell her no because she so darn adorable, I let her have band aids as stickers. Yup, it's official, I'm a pushover!!

Well, I guess that's about it. I'll post more about the wedding open house as well as tell ya'll about the cards I'm making for an Enrichment card class that my church asked me to do. Should be interesting is all I'm gonna say!

Bye for now!

Free drawing at this blog

2008-09-01T20:55:00.003-04:00

So, having a daughter who's hair is very naturally curly, I'm always looking for new ways to do her hair. Anyway, I've come across a few. Today I came across one where you can enter a drawing for free hair stuff. So, go here http://girlydos.blogspot.com/ to this blog and she tells you how to enter! Good luck! Also, if you tell her I sent you to the giveaway, she just might give me a prize! You can always hope!

Video of Tropical Storm Fay and Other Ramblings

2008-08-23T13:10:00.006-04:00

This was taken yesterday evening.

This was just taken today (Saturday, 8/23) at 1:20 p.m.

Notice on the left in between the two houses, the water gets to be deeper. We have flash flood warnings, tropical storm warnings and tornado warnings galore! Good times.

This weekend is our Stake Conference. Hoping things settle down so we can head to the adult session tonight. Devin has to be at the Priesthood leadership portion this afternoon as well. We are getting a new Stake President this weekend. I feel bad for the General Authority who had to fly in to Tallahassee for this wonderful weather. Hopefully he won't get stuck here. I'm sure this will be a memorable weekend for him!

Tropical Storm Fay Update

2008-08-23T13:02:00.003-04:00

Well, we survived the night. We could definitely hear the wind all night. Power went out a couple of times, but didn't stay out.

I needed to go to my sister in laws house this morning. She lives a short 3 minutes away, so I knew it wouldn't be too bad to head over there. Saw a couple of trees down, lots of tree debris, and lots of water. I think we are in the worst of it right now. Usually the first bands that come through are minor. Then the eye comes through and it's not really anything to write home about. But, you then get the back or eastern bands that come through and that's usually the worst of it. So, at times we have bad wind and of course it's still raining! On my way home, I needed to pick up Lauren's friend who is spending the day over here. Lots more trees down in her neighborhood. Their garage has water coming into it. My friend Kim said it was pouring into the garage. So much for weather flashing. Doesn't seem to be doing it's job. Their basketball standard also blew over and the base looks like it's bending in half. Thankfully our home is still in tact thus far!

I'll be uploading some short videos I've been taking. I seem to miss the worst part of the wind and rain, but you can kind of get an idea of how it is. Just multiply it by a bunch and that would be how windy it gets.

Tropical Storm Fay

2008-08-22T14:50:00.004-04:00

Well, here we sit at home on Friday afternoon waiting for the wrath of Tropical Storm Fay. School was canceled as the original forecast showed Fay hitting Tallahassee at around 2:00 p.m.. But, Fay is a little slow and it appears she won't hit until closer to 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. It appears that wind speed is about 45 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. You can get tons of information about Fay at:

http://www.noaawatch.gov/2008/fay.php

It's times like this that I'm thankful to have a backyard that is useless and all hill. It means that our home shouldn't flood. Although, this will hopefully not be the worst storm we've lived through considering it's only a tropical storm. One never knows. Things can always change.

Whenever these wonderful storms or hurricanes are looming over our heads, it takes me back to helping with hurricane clean up in different areas. Following the destruction of hurricane Dennis, (which I believe was only a category 1 hurricane) I took some of my Young Women out and we helped with clean up in the Shell Point, FL area. It's one thing to see the destruction on TV. It seems almost unbelievable. But to see it in person, the horrible smells of rotten fish, the sobbing of grown men as they survey the destruction to their homes and personal belongings, but at the same time their shedding of tears is also because they are alive. Dennis wasn't even the worst. Devin helped with the cleanup from Katrina in Louisiana. He said it wasn't pretty! It's just absolutely amazing (obviously not in a good way) to see the trail of horror these storms can leave. Before living in FL, I didn't think twice about tropical storms or hurricanes. Now the mention of them in the news causes you to constantly watch and wait, knowing you can't do much but be as prepared as you can. Gotta love the counsel the LDS church gives on being prepared and having 72 hour kits and food storage!

I ask only one thing from all of you who read this, please pray for those families who will fall as victims to this horrible storm. Please pray that the storm will dissipate and there won't be any further destruction, that no more lives will be lost. Please just pray!

Depending on how hard we get hit over night, I'll post pictures of the aftermath of Fay, if possible. Stay tuned!

I Love To See The Temple

2008-07-11T17:38:00.003-04:00

Annalise loves the temple! The last time she was at the temple was when she was sealed to us, which was in August of 2006. But, she can still spot a picture of the temple and will proudly say "temple, temple!" We can be driving down the street and any church that comes into her sight, she says "temple, temple!" We try correcting her and say, "that's a church, not a temple." But, she just replies back with, "temple!" So we've quit arguing with our two year old and every church is now a temple. The latest development/spotting on temples occurred after we purchased new pull ups (Annalise refers to these as her "undies"). I decided this time to buy the Huggies brand instead of the other brand I usually buy. The pull ups have the Disney Princesses on them and are oh so cute. Annalise began inspecting her new "undies" and found that lo and behold, "temple, temple!" On the back of Huggies brand pull ups happens to be Cinderella's castle. But, since we no longer argue with our two year old on what is and isn't a temple, she now has "undies" with the temple on them. The funny thing is, is that when she looks at her "undies" and spies the temple, she puts her hands on her eyes like binoculars and starts singing, "I love to see the temple, I go there someday." She then asks for Mommy to finish singing the song for her. The simple mind of children. How can you not love them?!?!

Why a blog/Summer so far

2008-06-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

So, I ask myself, why a blog? Because everyone's doing it of course! Nothing like a little peer pressure to get you moving in the right direction! I honestly can't think that we are that exciting of people that others will want to read about, but, I do have two kids. Sometimes they do/say funny things and that can always make life interesting. So, we shall see. I'll leave it up to you all to decide if we should stay or should we go!

Our summer this far has been pretty uneventful! It's hot, it's a little humid at times, and of course Lauren (10 year old almost 11) is already bored. She completed her summer reading and book report for school already (this is required work for all middle and high school kids. What happened to summer vacation with no homework?). So I can't tell her to get her homework done anymore. But, I can tell her to go practice the piano, get your room picked up, get your chores done. To this the response usually comes in some sarcastic form or a little bit of a yelling match. Good times, good times! To anyone who has pre-teens, I'm open for suggestions!

Annalise (2 year old) wakes up daily with a simple questions....."Swim?" Sometimes the answer is yes other days the answer is no. She then replies with a nod of her head, "Morrow!" Meaning tomorrow. She is absolutely adorable and I can't imagine her being a pre-teen. But, I remember thinking that about Lauren also. Nah, they are both great girls! Can't imagine life without them.

The first day of summer vacation I went on our Young Women's High Adventure overnighter. We had a good time. We went on a 5 hour canoe trip down the Santa Fe River. I personally didn't see any gators, but others said they saw baby gators. We "camped" (term used very loosely here in Tallahassee) in a hotel and the next day went to the beach in St. Augustine. I love the beach and really enjoyed this one! Can't wait to go back. Other than this fun trip, I just wake up at 7 a.m., go walking with my friend, then back to the kids and our usual crazy stuff.

Devin just works hard for us and is a fabulous dad! He's great about letting me get out and have some me time. I'm hoping he'll be able to take some time off and take a break. We shall see!

Well there you have it!