Some more Funny Lauren sayings, and Evan's hair cut

Look how funny my little girl is!! Haha. Chad got out the camera, and then Lauren just started posing! She is funny. My four year old-look out 'America's Next Top Model' Lauren is in the house!!

To go along with her silly little personality, here are a couple of funny things she has said in the past little while.

BACKSTORY: We went to Best buy to look at some stuff for Chad's computer so he can play all his games better. Like a gaming mouse and stuff like that. While we were there, we also played around. We were checking sound silencing head phones. Lauren tryed them on.

LAUREN: Daddy, say something (shouting it out, because if she can't hear anything then neither can we, so she has to shout. I think the whole store heard her. It was funny)

CHAD: Hi baby girl.

LAUREN: (laughing) Daddy you have no voice in your throat.

BACKSTORY: Lauren and I were cuddling on the couch.

LAUREN: Mommy I want to sit on a star.

ME: If you want to, then one day you can.

LAUREN: I want to sit on the moon too. And I want to make a sand castle out of moon dust. Can we make a rocket ship today?

Funny girl! She always says such cute things and in a really poetic way. She has a big vocabulary. Chad and I have never talked baby talk to her or simplified our sentences for her. I think that that helped her know the meaning of big words and to use them right. And it makes for the cutest conversations! To hear her use her big words in her little voice is so cute.

BACKSTORY: Lauren is in trouble, and time out has not done a thing to bring back my well behaved sweet tempered little angel. So I try something new, I decided to comendear her princess dress (snow white, her favorite one that Grandma Rita got her)

ME(reaching into her closet and pulling out her dress): Lauren, this is now mine.
LAUREN(through tears): But Mommy, it doesn't fit you.

Evan's hair has been getting long, and I have been putting off going into getting it cut because it is alot of money and it grows so fast. So instead, I bought some clippers at wal-mart and decided to try and do it myself. I figured that if I totally botched it, I could just shave his whole head. After all, he is a boy. I would never try and cut Lauren's hair, no way. I tryed to cut Chad's hair for him when we were first married and it looked so terrible!! I would post those pictures, but I love Chad to much to subject him to that humiliation. I will just leave it up to your imagination.

Here is his before picture.

And here are his after pictures. He looks like such a punk. I love it! This picture makes me laugh. When I look at these pictures, I remember Evan's helmet he had to wear. It was totally worth all the money and the drives to Salt Lake. His head is perfectly round. I love it. I couldn't do this haircut otherwise.

I think that I did a pretty good job for my first time :) Hopefully I should just keep on getting better at it. I still am never going to touch Lauren's hair. I will leave that up to the professionals.

Living Planet Aquarium

On monday, we had an electrian at our house from 8 in the morning to 8 at night. All day without electricity! I didn't want to be stuck in the house all day long. So I packed up the kids and we drove all the way to Sandy to go to the Living Planet Aquarium. I have wanted to go there for so long, but never really had the chance. It was fun, but I think that I really won't go again. It is such a long drive for what they have there. If I lived in Salt Lake then I think I would go more often. In 30 min, we were done and had seen everything. Having said that, we still enjoyed it and I am glad that we went. Poor sensitive Evan was terrified the whole time! It was cute! (I think that my little boy being scared is cute! What kind of mom am I?)

Lauren got soo excited when she saw "Nemo". She kept asking "Nemo, where is your daddy?" Funny girl.

Because I am his Mom, and I know him, I can see fear in his face in this picture. He is so sweet. Lauren noticed how scared Evan was and grabed his hand and told him "It's Ok Buddy. Lauren is here." How sweet is that!! She is such a good big sister.

Lauren loved the jelly fish. She just stared at them. When I told her it was time to go (because I have a shorter attention span then my four year old) she told me "not now Mommy, the jelly fish are dancing." So what could I do? I had to let her watch the jelly fish dance, even though me and my short attention span was already bored.

An other picture of "terrified Evan"

They had this pool with all of these sting rays swiming around that you could reach in and touch. Part of Lauren wanted to touch one so bad, and the other part was afraid of those alien looking things swimming around. We went back there three times because she really really wanted to touch one. But the fear part of her won out and she never did touch one. But I am proud of her for trying. She kept asking to go back. Good for her! Maybe next time (if there is a next time) she will work up the courage to reach out and touch one of them.


I love this picture of Evan. He always says "Ohhh.." for everything! It is so super cute. He was saying that right when I snaped the picture. I love it because I see this expression on him everyday.

When it was time to go and we were in the parking lot, Lauren grabed Evan's hand again. She is always trying to make sure her little brother is safe. I was trying to take pictures of it as I was walking to our car and looking out for other cars all at the same time. I am multi-fuctional! Anyway, that is why it is a funny angle.

It was fun. It was a long drive there and a long drive back for just 30 min of fun, but I am glad that I went. It beats a day at home with two kids with nothing to do and no electricity!

Mimi was here

This past weekend was so much fun for Lauren! Mimi came to visit from California. Mimi is Chad's step-mom, but we don't like to call her that. Step-mom makes me think of a crazy jelous hag who locks you in the tallest tower and feeds you poisionous apples. So we call her mom #2 or Mimi instead. She decorates the tallest tower for you and feeds you chinease food and steaks so that you end up gaining 10 lbs after a two day visit. Anyway, Lauren was counting down the days untill Mimi came. I had to tell her how many "naps" she had to take untill Mimi came. On the way to the airport Lauren kept saying things like "this is such a happy day" "this is a glittery day" "Oh what a shiney magical day". My favorite is when she said "clearly, this is a good day." We had a lot of fun with Mimi and I am so glad that we were lucky enough to have her stay at our house. Evan just loved having her here too. I loved it because Evan is such a little crack up. He is so charming and such a funny little kid, but nobody sees it to much because he is afraid of the human race. But since Debbie was here for two whole days, Evan came out of his shell and Mimi was able to see his cute personality. The first night, we went to ABC Manderin for some Chinese with Chad's older sister Shari and her cute kids. Shari's kids didn't know that Mimi was in town. It was fun to see there faces as we pulled up with Mimi in the car! They were so surprised!








I love hanging out with John and Shari! Every time I see them latley though, I can't believe how big their kids are! When I first met Chad, they were 6,4, and 2 years old. Now Sammie is looking so much like a teenager, so tall and pretty. Rylie also gets prettier everytime I see her, and Dallin (oops, D.J now) is racing motor cycles and getting really fast. That night at dinner he brought a trophy that he had won in a race just that day. I can't believe how big they are! It just makes me realize how fast my own kids will grow. Before I know it, it will be Lauren who is looking more and more like a teenager! Ahh, I gotta stop thinking about it, I am freaking myself out! The next night, Debbie took us to Lonestar Steak house on our way to drop her off at the airport.





And then it was time to take her to the airport and say good-bye. We need to live closer to Mimi and Pop Pop so we can stop saying good-bye so much! It was so great to have her here and we truely hope that she can come and visit our house again soon. Lauren has been talking about it ever since she was here.


Taking pictures of Mimi, Lauren and Evan outside of Lonestar.



Here is Lauren dancing around at the drop-off area at the airport. Lauren is dancing all the time everywhere. If anyone knows of a good place to take dance lessons, let me know. We did the terrece school of music and dance, but they really didn't teach her anything. Let me know if anyone knows of a good place.




We love you Mimi and we can't wait to see you again soon. We can't wait untill Vegas! Lauren just told me to tell you "I lobe mimi the best that I can to make your heart loved the best." And that is a direct quote because she is sitting right next to me as I write this. Love you so much :)

Hoggle Zoo

Mother's Day wasn't as bad for me as it was in years past. So I think that that is a good thing. I have tryed so hard to deal with all of this on my own, and I just can't. There are other things in my past that I have kind of buried and ignored. That just isn't a healthy way to deal with things. Even though you think you are fine, every now and then all of these supressed issues with come out with avengance and ruin a perfectly good day. I look at Lauren and I really really don't want to give her material she can take to a therapist all because I think that I can "get over" things on my own. The truth is, I am not on my own. I have Lauren and Evan to think about. And Chad as well. As much as I want to do this all by myself, I havn't the tools to do it. Chad tries, but he doesn't either. I just don't want this to follow me my whole life. I think that deciding to go see a therapist doesn't show any kind of weakness. It dosen't mean I am crazy or broken. I think it shows stregth. My mom isn't the only thing that has invaded itself on my well being. This other "invasion" was deep and shocking. I have seen girls that have gone through what I did and have come out on the other end as drug atticts and gothic loving drunks. So considering all of that, I think I have done pretty well, but I still have scars to deal with. My head says that I never did anything wrong, while my heart still thinks that there might be something wrong with me. I know that there isn't, but I feel that there is. I don't know if I am making any scence. I hope that maybe if I am this honest with all my raw emotions and issues, I hopefully will help someone ealse. We all have our little Gethsemanes and crosses to bare. But nobody ever said that we have to carry all of our baggage all by ourselves. Besides, I would rather be a survivor and show the example of stregth to my kids then to be a marter. I am trying to be honest, while still maintaining a certin leval of annonimity. But I truely hope that my honesty gives you strength. We are all on a journey together. We all want our kids to have better then we have. We want to be happy and loved, and understood. We should all be here for each other. There is no such thing as a perfect house, perfect mother, perfect wife, or perfect children. We are a community of women who do the best we can with what we have. Who cares of our hair isn't dry by the time the visiting teachers knocks on the door? I would hope that all my friends wouldn't worry about the land mine of toys littering their living room when I knock on the door. I love figer prints on mirrors and jelly stains on walls. We need to give ourselves permission to not be perfect. It is our imperfections that make us characters and interesting. Giving that rational, then I have got to be the most interesting person out there with all of my imperfections. I want to learn to embrace them. And you thought I was going to talk about Hoggle Zoo, I thought so too. I guess it is better late then never.

We went to Hoggle zoo :) It was a good day to go to because the weather was perfect, well, in the 60s. But the animals were out and moving. I always love going in the spring time to the zoo. I am not a fan of walking around in 100 degree weather watching animals to nothing because it is to hot for them too. It was a lot of fun. Cats were pacing, bears were playing, monkeys were leaping from tree to tree. It was very fun. I loved watching Evan's reaction to the animals. He would actually squeal with delight. And Lauren was so cute. She loved "teaching" Evan about all the animals. I love it when she takes on the big sister-protector roll. Here are some pictures of our day at the zoo.





Chad got pictures of Evan running to me. I love it. Moments like this makes everything worth it. He is such a tender hearted loving sweet boy. I am very lucky to be his mom.



You gotta love this picture of a Garaff that Chad took. He is turning into a really good photographer.

You can't go to the zoo without getting an ice cream cone. I love this picture of Lauren and Chad "sharing" their ice cream.


And, of course, you really can't go to the zoo without taking a picture next to the big bronze gorilla.

It was a good day. I love spending time with Lauren and Evan. They are my favorite people.