Girls Just Want to Have FUN!

Getting a pedicure is my kind of FUN!

Last night Kristin, Marissa and I had a Girls Night Out (GNO). We went and had pedicures and then stopped at Marble Slab for a little ice cream before heading home. I have to send out a special thank you to Matt and Jeff for watching my little ones since Jon was on call and didn't get home until after I did.

Here I am having a great time! What's not to love about having someone massage your feet and paint your toenails?

Kristin and Marissa were loving it too!

And even though we eventually had to return home we still have these little beauties to remind us of a wonderful night out!

A day at the pool . . .

I finally took some pictures of us at the pool-you'd think I would do it more often since we go almost everyday. Still, I finally took the camera and snapped a few shots of our little group. The Wallace boys who are usually there too are not pictured-they were naughty and lost their pool time. We missed you guys!

This is where the little kids spend most of their time (on the steps) although the venture out frequently, but not far beyond where their feet touch.

Caden (sitting on ledge) is loving the pool-I wish I had a picture of his face he has the most beautiful smile . . . his whole face just lights up; and he smiles a lot when he's in the pool.

Lauren having fun with her friends.

Will he be the next Micheal Phelps??? :) I guess only time will tell.





Sweet Landon doesn't venture far from the steps when mommy's not in the pool . . . good boy Landon.

It's nice to have friends to go to the pool with . . . it makes keeping an eye on the kids a little easier especially when Daddy's working. This particular evening Daddy was home, but had some reading to do . . . poor guy!

After we finished up at the pool I went and took some pictures of Jon studying

- - -

Man he works HARD! :)

girls in curls

Our summer in FL has been such a wonderful experience. Not only are we closer to our families (grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins), but we are here with some friends we met in Rochester. Lauren has become very good friends with Jocelyn and Ellie; it is so fun to see them all playing together. Saturday night while our daddy played tennis with their daddy, Jeff; Marissa and the girls (oh and Caden too!) came over to watch the Olympics with us for a little while. Marissa was putting curlers in her girls' hair and graciously put some in Lauren's hair too (she’s going to have to teach me one day) so that she would have beautiful hair for church on Sunday too. Lauren LOVED it! And the girls all looked totally adorable!

Lauren, Ellie, and Jocelyn

Reasons I haven't posted in a while . . .

You have to understand that this blog is "my time" and so if I don't have any "my time" then there is no blog. Recently I have spent my time doing a couple of other things.

READING this BOOK

My mother-in-law introduced me to the Twilight series and I've loved it. I really enjoyed reading Breaking Dawn, and while it had some slow areas, some CRAZY areas, and was a bit anti-climactic for me I am happy to have read it. Still, I think Twilight was my favorite book of the series-it was magic.

AND WATCHING The Olympics!

I love the Olympics. I feel so patriotic and united with my fellow Americans as I watch, and cheer for the USA athletes competing - I especially enjoy watching swimming, gymnastics, and basketball.

Chances are the Blog is going to be neglected for a little while.

Our Time in Fort Myers

Our Little Blessing

Jayden (2 months)

On August 3, 2008 Jayden was blessed. It was a beautiful blessing for a beautiful little girl. We were all so excited for Jayden’s special day. Jayden was blessed in the Lehigh Acres ward where Jon’s parents and sisters’ attend church. We are grateful to all of our family and friends who were there; and missed those of you unable to make the trip.



The Sleepover

We had a wonderful time while in Fort Myers visiting with our family (daddy’s side). One of the things I loved most was watching my children playing with their cousins. I love how they are such good friends and are able to pick up where they left off the last time they were together-friends for life.

While we were down there Jonathan and Lauren had a couple of sleepovers; Lauren spent one night at her cousin Cami’s and then another night we had all of the “little” girls (Cami, Riley, and Reagan) spend the night with us at Granny’s and Grampa’s house while Jonathan spent the night with his cousins Bryce and Brandon. I don’t have pictures of the boys . . . I totally slacked on the picture taking and now I’m so bummed! Live and learn I guess, but here are some pictures of the four girls the morning after their sleepover at Granny’s. I spent the morning braiding their hair and loved every minute of it! Lauren doesn’t normally let me braid her hair, but because her cousins wanted their hair braided she let me – YEAH!

Reagan (3), Lauren (4), Riley (6), and Cami (6)

Lauren looks sad because she didn’t want her picture taken. When probed a little more she communicated that she was sad because her braids were not as long as the other girls’; I told her we could let her hair grow out and one day her braids would be long too – that made her happy. I love my sweet, sensitive, beautiful little girl.

A view from behind.

Say “CHEESE!”

One of the kids’ favorite memories was when Dampa (Landon’s version of Grampa) took us to Chuck E. Cheese’s for lunch. Does anyone know what the “E” stands for? I think it stands for “EATS”- you know Chuck EATS Cheese. :) Anyway, it was their first time going and they loved every minute of it!

Here are a few pictures of our very FUN afternoon-

Landon having the “TIME” of his life –pun intended.

Landon and Lauren taking a drive together.

Jonathan, Lauren, and Landon all riding the merry-go-round.

Grampa and Jonathan shooting dinosaurs. Grampa confessed to being a little sick after this game (it moved a lot).

Now we can add Chuck to the list of things Landon is afraid of . . .so that's dogs, birds, and Chuck.

Lauren enjoyed hanging out with Uncle Jordan for a little while.

Jonathan riding the wave runner, he really seemed to like all of the “moving” games.

THANK YOU GRAMPA!

to Granny's house we go . . .

This weekend we are visiting Jon's family in Fort Myers. We left Jacksonville at 3pm yesterday afternoon (thank you Jeff for covering Jon's pager so we could leave early). After 5 and a half hours of driving and a stop at McDonald's we made it!!! The trip was relatively uneventful with the typical whining and fighting kept to a minimum. The only "bump" in the road so to speak was the fact that Lauren gets carsick occasionally . . . oh yeah, my beautiful, sweet little Lauren got carsick. Now normally I would not blog about what I consider to be a disgusting subject, but the way it all went down had me in stitches.

Imagine if you will driving on I-4 through downtown Orlando at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon. Bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eye can see. I was driving while Jon was napping; after breaking for like the hundreth time Jon woke up and gave me the 'be careful, your going to kill us, stop accelerating when you know you'll have to stop again in 2 seconds, your driving me crazy with your driving' lecture. The kids are beginning to wake up from their naps . . . and then it happens; without warning Lauren starts puking all over herself and and the backseat. On most trips this would have made me want to cry instead of laugh, but this time I was the one driving which meant Jon was the one who had to deal with it . . . or so you'd think.

Here's what happened; because we had hung the portable DVD player between our seats Jon was unable to climb to the back of the van to help her, but thankfully he has long arms and was able to hand a bowl back to her after her initial upchuck. He then proceeded to "coach" her through the experience. It went something like this:

"Lauren, get it in the bowl! "

"Honey, quit crying and lean over the bowl. Good girl . . ."

And once she was finished puking . . . she started crying again because she had puked in her hands and all over her lap. And this is when I started laughing, not at Lauren, but at how Jon handled the situation. So here goes . . .

"Stop crying, I don't have anything to clean you up with."

"Do we have something to clean her up with?"

"Here Lauren, here are some wipes. Just clean yourself up."

"Okay, now pick up the chunks and put them in the bowl. See that one pick it up and put it in the bowl."

Meanwhile Lauren starts gagging while she picks up the "chunks." And Jon responds, "It's not a big deal honey, you just puked in your hands!"

After a few minutes of "pick up the chunks and put them in the bowl" and me laughing so hard I was crying, I was able to pull off the road and get the mess cleaned up. Yep, that's right, I still ended up cleaning up the seat, the floor, and my sweet little girl.