Happy Birthday Lauren!

At the age of two, Lauren is now officially a "big girl". We celebrated by eating a teddy bear, jumping on the bed, and going fishing. And what birthday would be complete without a visit to the doctor's office? With sympathies to Jackson, we have also had our share of the flu (sorry if we gave it to you...looks like these cousins are good at sharing). But it didn't keep us from having a fun day. So far Lauren is doing pretty well with her big-girl bed, although it didn't take long for her to figure out her new freedom. As for the new pet fish, Allison has taken the liberty of naming it "Rainbow Red Fish", but if you ask Lauren, she will tell you its name is "Fish".

Watch Lauren try to blow out her candles.....

Polka dot shorts

Lauren has a new obsession these days (besides apple juice and "hot-gogs" with ketchup). A while back, we were given a small stack of kids DVDs that were purchased at the dollar store. I don't think we have even tried all the discs yet because most of them are just junk--really old cartoons or puppet shows that are pretty weird. But there is one disc among them that has gotten a lot of mileage as of late. It's called "Polka Dot Shorts". If you want more info on the show you can click on the link, otherwise you can be satisfied in knowing that it's a weird Canadian kids show. Anyway, there are several episodes on the disc, but they only last between 5-10 minutes each. Not that we watch it all day long, but Allison has gotten to the point where even she doesn't want to watch it any more (if that tells you anything). Lauren, on the other hand, is constantly begging to watch it. And me? I can't get that dumb theme song out of my head and it's driving me nuts! If anyone out there happens to see more episodes at their local dollar store, maybe you can pick one up for us to add a little variety :) We have the "Tasty Tales" disc.

Feeling crafty

Yay! I just finished my little project: a blanket and pillowcase for Lauren. So, naturally, I need to show it off now. We are planning to move Lauren to a "big girl" bed for her birthday and the bedding is a part of her present. Don't look too close because I will tell you now that it's not perfect--the nice thing is, she won't know the difference!

Bad hair day

I couldn't resist the photo opportunity this morning when Lauren woke up with this great hairdo. I also thought it would make a great lead-in for a post about our week.

Saturday was a low point for the girls' basketball team as they aquired their first loss in 43 games, ending their season and chance of a repeat state championship. Needless to say, it was not the happiest day for those involved. However, we were able to leave early for our trip up to Cleveland, which was not a bad thing.

On our way up to Cleveland, Lauren got sick and threw up in the car...not fun. But we are pretty sure it was just car-sick since she seemed fine the next day. Although we didn't learn too much, we did have a good visit and Allison didn't want to leave ("...but I love Katelyn"--in a whiny voice).

While Lauren seems to be doing fine, Allison has developed a bit of a cold/flu. So she has just been miserable the past few days. I am glad to say she did make it to preschool today (she missed yesterday). So far this month she has missed more days than she has gone. Oh well.

Well, not the most exciting post but now you know what we've been up to! As a side note, it looks like we will be naming our new baby "Darkalavla".

Happy Valentines Day

Hope everyone had a great valentines day! We love you!

Sit Down!!

Lauren is a goofy kid, we will admit. But she is always good for a laugh and never ceases to amaze us with her quirky personality. For the past eleven months or so, she has refused to sit in the bathtub. That's right, she stands up for her baths. I personally have given up on trying to get her to sit but Matt still tries to convince her it is a good idea. Maybe she will figure it out at some point, or just transition to showers (who knows, maybe she will sit in the shower). We still like her either way.

SECTIONAL CHAMPS

Yep, it's that time of year again...hoosier basketball is in full speed. The Oregon-Davis Lady Cats are on the road again as defending state champions. With their sectional win on Saturday, they are 24-0 for the season with a 43 game winning streak. If you want to follow along with us, here are some articles and video clips you can check out... I'm sure we will update again after Regionals next week.

News Articles:

NWI Times

Post Tribune

South Bend Tribune

Video Clips (Fox28 News):

Sectional Semi-Finals (Friday) --right at the beginning

Highlight/Fans of the night (Friday) --if you look REAL close you can see the band in the back of the fans from "fans of the night" at the end of the clip

Sectional champs (Saturday) --near the end

Fun in the snow

We had a fun time playing in the snow today...no preschool again :(

The rains came down

We have had a crazy winter this year. Super cold temps followed by much warmer days. A snow storm comes, followed by a rain storm. The first week of school back from Christmas, many schools had delayed starts and even had to close because of flooding. Our poor Yellow River in Plymouth has flooded over again... which means? Well, for us, no preschool today...AGAIN. We will be hopeful for tomorrow but we shall see... (Photo courtesy of the Pilot News)

The candy jar

I try to take the girls to the library once a week (usually on Tuesdays), mostly just to give us something to do. Well, this week they had something new there...a giant jar full of valentines candies. Allison was mezmorized by it. Next to it was a shiny box with a hole in it--and papers to sign your name and guess how many candies were in the jar. Of course, winner takes all, and after explaining this to Allison, she was anxious to put her vote in. I asked her how many she thought were in there. She replied, many times, "there's a LOT!" Finally after counting as high as she could, she came up with her answer: 17. We wrote her guess on the paper and put it in the box, and tried to make our way to the car. Well, aparently I didn't do a very good job of explaining the game to Allison because she became very upset. She thought she got to have the candy after guessing, and when she didn't get the candy, she was not happy. She started crying loudly and two librarians came to make sure she was ok. "Did she get hurt?" they asked. "Nope, she just wants the candy." SO, on the way home we agreed to make some valentine cookies (with PINK frosting of course). The girls seemed to enjoy it (Lauren mostly just ate...cookie dough, frosting, and the baked cookies) and I tried my best to let them just have fun.

"M" is for Mixer

For those of you who don't know, Matt got me a mixer for Christmas. This was one of those things that I've always wanted but never thought I'd actually get. I must say, we are pretty excited about it and find ourselves looking for opportunities to use it. So, instead of writing about our kids' most recent accomplishments or whatever it is you are supposed to talk about on a family blog, I decided I would share about our new favorite toy.

Why I love this thing:

1. It's great for making bread. In this picture, it's kneading up dough for 3 loaves of bread. We haven't bought bread at the store since Christmas (not that we will never buy it again, I have just enjoyed being able to make my own so easily). And the kids actually beg for pieces of bread when I am slicing it up.

2. Mashed potatoes are a breeze. So much easier than with our hand mixer and they turn out great.

3. MORE POWER. This thing can make something like 8 pounds of mashed potatoes and mix up to 14 cups of flour. And I don't feel like I'm going to burn the motor out doing it.

Ok, I don't want to bore you all but now you know about my new obsession. So there you have it. I love my mixer!

Snow Day!

Well, as predicted, no preschool today. Bummer. With the amount of "bad weather" days we have been having we are starting to wonder if we get a refund for tuition. Don't you think we should? At least Matt doesn't have school today either, so maybe we can find something fun to do today (or at least get something accomplished).