Visiting Papa Mike

After my Dad got home from the hospital, I took Lauren for a quick visit since she was pretty worried about her Papa. Hung out with Dad for a little bit, played with the new puppy, and then went to the park to feed the ducks. The ducks were great, the geese were terribly mean to us and would chase Lauren down if she had a piece of bread in her hand. It was crazy! Had a blast at eh park and even played on the toys for a bit, but we left after about an hour. Should have left 5 minutes sooner because as we were leaving the park, some people were setting up a bounce house for a birthday party... and Lauren started crying when I told her she couldn't play in it. Broke my heart. :(

My Daddy

This summer was a little rough for us. My Dad found out he had prostate cancer and after some serious thought and consideration, he opted for surgery. So at the end of August he underwent a "radical prostectomy" and had his prostate removed. It was a looooong day waiting at the hospital. His surgery wasn't able to be started on time, I was exhausted, and he was kinda miserable at the end so I was worried for him. The next day went pretty well, except that he had a fever that they couldn't keep under control...and I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so scared that something was terribly wrong. So I woke up the next morning, took Lauren to daycare, and drove to Yakima and spent the whole day with my Daddy. I must say I was a little disappointed in Yakima Regional. They didn't have him on a diabetic diet so his blood sugar was out of control, had to ASK the nurse to change his dressings ( I could see the wound leaking onto his gown), and some crazy lady walked into his room that night and used his restroom!

He is doing MUCH better, has been back to work for a few weeks now, and lost 38 pounds in the process of all this.

"Catch You Up" Post

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but this new house and busy schedule have us running ragged. Whew! Seems like Summer just came and went this year, but it was a fun filled one for us. I will take this opportunity to simply post pic's of the last part of Summer and then catch you up from there.

Lauren playing on the slide at the Campground...





Swimming with Kylee and Aizlynn at Shelby's birthday party...

Long Overdue

I must apologize to everyone for not posting for a while, but we've had a pretty busy last 4 months. We sold our property and bought a new house in Kennewick. We love it!! We are still slowly unpacking and hopefully will feel a bit more settled soon.

Lauren is growing up so fast. I promise I will post more when I have a little more time.

Lauren And The Things That Come Out of Her Mouth...

Wanted to share a few funny things that Lauren has been saying or doing lately...

* The other day I was dropping her off at daycare and she went running inside towards her old room yelling "Bittney Bittney" (Brittany was her teacher in her last classroom and she loves to say hi to her in the morning), got sidetracked by the water fountain and starts screaming "wa wa, wa wa" (so I have to hold her up so she can get a drink), gets done a takes off running again towards the elevator yelling "button" (she pushes the button on the elevator), gets sidetracked by the buggies and climbs in them, finally gets on the elevator and pushes the button, jumps (literally jumps) out of the elevator and runs towards her classroom only to be sidetracked again by the stairs. I was so tired after that and my day at work hadn't even started yet!

* My co-workers Aaric and Jason both have their children at Lauren's daycare so they see her quite often when they are dropping off their kids in the morning. Aaric comes to work the other day and says "I laugh everyday at your kid...she has her coat on backwards (they had to do this because she kept un-zipping her coat and taking it off outside) and usually has a stick or a leaf hanging out of her mouth". Yep..that's my girl!

* She can say so many things...it's unbelievable! Her new thing right now is "yep!" instead of yes. She could be hurt and bleeding and you ask her if she's alright and she says "yep!" like nothing even happened.

Here is a list of what she says and what it really means:

ug = hug
Gock = Jock
ba-ba = bottle
beebee = binky
wa-wa = water
tup = cup
tiss = kiss
tum = come
aminal = animal
potty potty = she wants to sit on her potty
Tisha = Aunt Trisha
Mo-Mo = Gizmo ( my Mom's cat)

Everything is pretty understandable. She says mama and dada, garbage, truck, bird, dog, kitty kitty, blanket, night night, bye, hi, lay down, tickle tickle, food...there are too many to list. But she said the cutest thing to me tonight. I asked her if she had a good day at school and she said yep. I asked her if she had fun playing and she said yep. I asked her if she was nice to her friends and she said "alec" and "hayden" which are her two best buddies at school with whom she wrestles with on a daily basis. She is such a tom-boy yet such a girly girl at times.

Our Busy and Crazy Lives...

I apologize that it's been so long since I've posted anything, but things have been absolutely NUTTY around here. Here's a recap of what the past 2 months have looked like for us:

* Travis and I decided to sell the property and find something more suitable for our family. Travis finished the drywall in the rooms that still needed it while I started the painting and cleaning. We had new carpet installed and have a 53 foot semi trailer in our driveway that has half of our house in it. Our house is currently under contract which means we will be moving into our rental house until we sell it and find something permanent to live in (all while chasing around a 22 month old)!

* I had to take classes for work to get my "National" pharmacy technician certification. Classes were every Wednesday for 4 hours (during work hours so at least I got paid) with tests every week. To say the least, I was a little stressed out.

* Lauren moved up into the 18-36 month old room at daycare. This has meant a change in her daily schedule and new teachers (who I'm having a hard time with) and a HUGE change in her attitude. The first week she got bit on her back (broke skin through her shirt), the second week she was sent home with an "ouch report" EVERYDAY! She either fell down and hurt herself (0ne day she split her bottom lip open with her teeth) or got bit. She is one tough cookie though!

It may not seem like much to some people, but with our house out of order and trying to keep it clean in case someone comes to see it, I've been EXHAUSTED! So thanks for being patient and understanding!

Valentine's Day with Great Granny and Aunt Kelli

Lauren and I went to visit my Grandma and my Aunt Kelli over Valentine's Day weekend...actually President's Day weekend. We left Travis here to finish some of the remodel (don't worry, he took me to dinner the weekend before) which was a tremendous help to him. We left Friday afternoon and got to Kelli's around 6:00 or so and by the time we got there, Lauren was running a 102 fever and was miserable. She had been battling this illness (runny nose, cough, fever) for about 2 weeks at this point and was on antibiotics so I was a little concerned. She ended up with a 103 temp. at 3:00 am the next morning so Kelli and I took her to Urgent Care just to make sure she was ok. The Doctor put her on Albuterol syrup (an alternative to the nebulizer machine since we were traveling) and said to monitor her breathing and that it was bronchiolitis. Not much we could do since it was a virus...just had to wait it out.

Kelli, Lauren and myself went shopping the rest of the day and had a lot of fun. We went to a fish market for dinner (they had the BEST coconut shrimp) and Lauren had fun looking at all the different types of fish they sold. She was running around the place and even jumped in some random lady's arms that was laughing at her. She is such a stinker!

Another fever in the middle of the night, but a dose of tylenol and a bottle (yes she still has the "ba-ba") and she was good to go. We hung out with Grandma the next day and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and waited for Uncle Barry to get home (he was playing with Mark Gilbert in Walla Walla) so we could play. On our way home from lunch I decided to stop by a store called The Pilgrim's Market ( I think that's what it's called) and check things out. It was like a Trader Joe's (the next best thing I guess) and they had so much stuff! I bought Lauren some gummy Vitamin C's and some organic suckers (which are awesome by the way...made by Yummy Earth) and off we went.

Aunt Kelli made us a fabulous spaghetti and meatball dinner for Valentine's Day! We had a cupcake and then promptly to the tub. What a mess my child can make!

We had an awesome weekend and couldn't have asked for more than spending time with our family who we don't get to see very often...mostly due to busy schedules and such....and lot's of laughter.