Days at the park

Our Christmas holiday was spent relaxing and eating lots of yummy food. My dad and Lindsay caught a horrible stomach virus. Dad brought it home from Nebraska for the 2nd year in a row....thanks Dad! :)

We went to the park one afternoon and Lauren enjoyed being strolled. She gets a little fiesty at the end and definitely wants out of her stroller but she was a trooper!

She loves her Aunt Lindsay and looks just like her. I promise she's my child!

It was a little brisk on our walk that afternoon but Lauren looks very cozy!

The end of the walk. Typical Lauren. She wants out of her stroller and wants to help push. She is 14 months going on 3 years old

Say Cheese Little Lauren

We are still practicing our "cheese face." And don't be fooled, Lauren really doesn't eat her sandwich like she's supposed to. I give her 1/4 of a peanut butter sandwich. Her typical response??? Oh she licks it, rubs it in her hair, licks it again, and boooooom, throws it to Belle, her dog. Funny girl....NOT :)

"What????? You think I'm going to eat??? NEVER Mom, are you nuts?"

That's my pretty girl, smiling for her mommy. Oh I just love her!

Last Little Gym Class

Lauren had her final Little Gym class of the semester last week. She really loves going there and has so much fun. She gets so excited when we walk through the door. She really knows where we are and wants nothing to do with me when we get there. It's all play play and more play!

There is this really neat inflatable "thing" that is like a trampoline, minus the major jumping effect. It starts out deflated and everyone hops on. Mr. Keith turns it on and it inflates as you ride it. It's pretty fun if I say so myself :) Then the kiddies jump to their hearts content. 

Meet Lauren's friends. To the left if Ellie and to the right is Abby. Lauren would not leave the wedge in the middle. She is a little afraid to jump by herself but she enjoys watching!

That is Keith, Lauren's teacher. He & his wife, Nancy, own the Little Gym here in town. I still think that Keith makes the class. He is outstanding with the kids and Lauren thinks he is the coolest. She definitely doesn't warm up to people all the time, but she really does like Keith. Good thing we registered for his class in the Spring!

This is Ellie enjoyed the awesome ride on this big tube apparatus! 

Now it's Lauren's turn. She loves this fun ride, can't you tell?

Forward roll time!!!

We are so thankful for the friends that we've made at the Little Gym. Most of my new girlfriends are from there and Lauren & I enjoy spending time with them many times during the week. We can't wait until Spring semester!

Happy Birthday Aunt Lindsay

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT LINDSAY!!!

Dear Aunt Lindsay,

You are the best aunt e-v-e-r. Thank you for coming to visit me all the way from Dallas, Texas. I know it's far but I love it when you visit me. One day mommy & I will take a trip to Dallas to visit you too. I can't wait to see you on Sunday & to spend Christmas together. Thank you for making sure I will be a smart little girl by buying me lots and lots of books. Mommy reads them to me every night and tells me that I better have my auntie's brains. She also tells me that I better have her dance moves or I won't take dance lessons. Apparently mommy doesn't have much rhythm :)

Thanks all for now. I love you,

Little L

Santa - good or bad?

The verdict is in.....

Do you think Lauren liked Santa??

NO way! We even tried twice which is why we have 2 pictures. I scanned them so it's a horrible showing but you get the idea.

Lauren wants to chat!

Hi Everyone! Lauren wanted to chat! She likes talking about Elmo these days which is a complete shock. She would get so scared when I would turn on her Elmo but now she is fascinated with him! She says ELMO! every morning when she wakes up, she talks about Elmo in her highchair, and screams Elmo all day long....maybe we should take a trip to the Beaches resorts to see Mr. Elmo next year.

Friday week wrap up!

We have had a busy few days around here! Lauren has been sporting her holiday attire every single day since Dec. 1st. We pick out her cute festive wear before she goes to bed each night. I am making sure we get lots of use out of her clothes!

I went to a Girl's Night Out last night for a little holiday gift exchange. There were about 15 girls there and I only knew 4 so it was nice to meet new faces. The gift I received was a Chick Fil A gift card, wooo hooo!! I was excited to pick that one :)

We met at the aquarium for playtime Wednesday morning at 10am with Jill & her little Lauren. Our Lauren's are like twins. They look alike, they are both tiny little girls, dress the same, have the same hair clips, etc. HA we love it!

Todd is back to the friendly skies for a while. He teared up as he left and Lauren cried yelling DadaDaDaDaDa. That's the sad thing about Lauren getting older, she knows when her daddy leaves :(

Here's my girl practicing her "Lauren, say Cheese" pose. She's so sweet and cute that I want to go wake her up from her nap and cuddle...HA, I am NOT doing that!!

Check out that big present. We were surprised when Mr. UPS pulled into our driveway this AM. Aunt Sha & Uncle Kenny sent Lauren a big Christmas gift! We can't wait to see what it is!

Show Us Your Life Friday, Christmas Baking

NEIMAN MARCUS COOKIES

We do love to bake at our house, maybe a little too much!! Todd always gets stuck eating tons of baked goods. I am totally one of those that will bake but I only want like 1 piece so the rest is up to him to eat.

One of my favorite recipes is for Neiman Marcus cookies...Yum Yum and Yum. The easiest thing to do is post a link to their website for the recipe so you can always find it. (I've typed it all out below too)

You can find it HERE

Go visit Kelly's Blog for more fabulous baking ideas!

When I was working as a Pharmaceutical Rep, we had a little cookie party at our office, back in 2006. One of the girls in the marketing department made these cookies. They reminded me of home because my mom and sister have been known to make them as well.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons instant expresso coffee powder

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat over to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy

Beat in the egg & vanilla extract for another 30 seconds

In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients & beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the expresso coffee powder and chocolate chips

Using a 1 ounce scoop, drop cookie dough on a greased baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of the spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake longer for a crispier cookies.

Makes 2 dozen cookies

You won't be disappointed. I could eat the entire batch of these cookies and sometimes I just do :)

Slam those cabinets

Look who knows how to open the kitchen cabinets???? Little Lauren isn't all too interested on what is in the cabinets, she just likes to slam them shut, NON STOP :) It's an every night activity in our house. She could slam them shut for hours if I let her. Poor girlie has so many fun toys but she just prefers the cabinets.

Going in for the slam

HA caught ya!! And on a fashion note, or lack thereof, she protested me putting on pants. I had to cover her feet though as the hardwood can be chilly. I opted for her super cute new Christmas booties!

Baby it's cold outside

She likes to take off her socks, if you can't tell. .2 seconds after putting them on, she battles the task of taking them off. Silly girl. Her cute hat is from good ole' Wally World, I love it. It came with matching mittens. I like it even more than it cost only $6.

Bellie enjoyed playing in the snow. It has been mighty cold up on this mountain! Sorry the picture is blurry, she was on the move. She kept kicking the snow up with her paws and then chasing it :) I hope Belle stays alive forever, she's the best doggy sister!

"Lauren, say cheese"

Oh how I could just kiss that sweet face. Well, I do everyday, all day long. I have been practicing with her to smile every time I say cheese. Even though she's only 13 months old, I'm amazed at how much she understands me. This was the first time she really smiled on cue :)

Taking a break to eat her SPICY pepperoni. That's right, my girl won't eat hardly anything at all but she loves spicy food. She is our child, afterall. Todd adds Tobasco to anything and everything.

Say Cheese Lauren....as you eat your cheese

Wooo Hooo someone is excited to be eating her spicy food!

Forward Rolling, Back flipping, Parallel Bars Girl

Before the Little Gym, we had to hit up the mall with Daddy & try to see Santa one more time. Lauren does not like good ole' St. Nick. Santa invited Lauren to stroll up to him in her stroller & the girl still freaked out. She started shaking & screaming and making a scene so we bailed!

So off to gymnastics class we went, decked out in our Christmas attire. She enjoyed walking the beam with her daddy.

My gymnastics girl didn't just walk the beam, she learned to do a forward roll on the narrow piece of wood, talk about giving her momma a heart attack!

So we played on the bars where I could keep my grip on her :)

Lauren could play peek a boo on the bars the entire 45 minutes we are there. Talk about giving your arms a work out...

Her other favorite activity is the balls. She will never play with Todd or I, but she will play with everyone else....I don't get it :)

Show Us Your Life Friday, Christmas Trees

It's Show Us Your Life over at Kelly's Blog today. I've skipped a few Fridays as I haven't had anything too interesting to show but this week is Christmas trees. With this being Lauren's 2nd Christmas, she is very aware of the tree in the house. Excuse the bare spots in the tree :) Lauren has figured out what ornaments are so I've had to decorate everywhere else BUT the bottom. We also had some lights go out....oh well.....new Christmas tree, here we come when the big sales hit after Christmas day.

I decorate with red and gold mainly. We always love to display our special ornaments that we've collected over the past 5 years as well. I'm going to Wal-Mart tomorrow to get a nice pretty bow with tons of ribbon for the top. After looking at other trees on the tour, I MUST make changes :)

Our Alaska ornament. Our new tradition is to get a new ornament for every place we visit. Lauren gets a new ornament for all the places she visits as well. I want to give them to her in a big box when she gets married & has her own tree.

Lauren's Charleston, SC ornament from his visit to Charleston. She has been many times since then as we have family there but she only has 2 from there.

We have a ton of airplane ornaments, of course. We had to pick and choose the ones to display as there are so many.

My little ornament thief, caught in the act!

13 Month Well Visit

Ha Ha, That's what you get mom for leaving the diapers within reach

What??? You think I did something wrong?

HAHA take that Mom and Belle is going to help too!


Lauren had her well check visit at Dr. Friddell's today. She also had 3 shots :(
Her stats at 13 months are:

18.4 pounds (4th percentile)
28.5 inches long (14th percentile)

We are just happy and thankful she's on the charts :) Go Lauren Go!
Her weird eating habits are normal so that was comforting to hear. We just have to try our best and work with her on liking food. She will stay on formula until her next check up at 16 months as we know she likes it :) We just love our little tiny, big personality baby girl!

Thanksgiving Recap

We just arrived back to Chattanooga from our Thanksgiving holiday (Lauren & Court). The pictures sum up our nice holiday! 

Lauren had a mall date with her friend MJ. MJ's mom, Lisa, & I worked together at Alliant and Sciele Pharma. as sales reps. It was so nice to catch up at the lovely Lenox Mall in Buckhead.

Lauren practiced her stair climbing at Grammy's House. She's quite good at this talent!

Auntie Lindsay dressed Lauren in the mornings. Here she is sporting a cute little Carter's outfit, matching socks, and a fun headband. Lindsay would be a great mommy to little girls!

On to our cousin's house for Turkey Day. Lauren got lots of loving from my cousin Kenna. She also enjoyed calling China and other countries via mommy's cell.

Sporting new mommy and me shoes. We both thought we'd bring out the new pairs of kicks for the special day :)

Lauren practiced her walking with her daddy

A little family photo action in front of the beautiful tree

2 best buds. This is Kenna's daughter, Olivia. You can't see her face because Lauren thought she would squeeze it so hard to show her love....poor Livie

Kenna and her other sweet child...Mr. Ace. He is now 6 months old and was sporting a cute Gobble Gobble rear end outfit

Lauren was happy the Friday after Thanksgiving...ready for her second round of food. Not quite, she ate zero bites almost all week but whatev, she was happy!

Sweet Belle was super tired and slept with her daddy, as usual. She is like our 2nd child

Loving on daddy as he was about to leave us for the pretty skies

Practicing her "Lauren, give a hug" with her Grammy

Cheesy grin with her grandpa...she's smitten

Way too tired from the festivities. Jumping and socializing makes a 13 month old super sleepy. PS: My mom and I about died laughing in the floor after we realized she was being quiet and not jumping. This is what we saw....