Big Girl Haircut!

Lauren's mullet is gone. After listening to Kyle complain about it and Lauren say that her hair was long and itching her back (I am sure Kyle fed her that line), I caved! I must admit, it does look much better! I did almost shed a tear watching those first locks fall down!

The "before" shot of the back!

She got to sit in a pink car while getting her hair cut. She even picked out a Mickey Mouse movie to watch! Each station had their own TV for the little ones to sit still. It is so funny to see her in the morning and remember that her hair is cut. What a big girl she is becoming!

Catching up again...

Jaimie and Mindy got to visit us briefly one night while coming back from a friend's house. Mindy and Lauren seemed to hit it off right away. I can't believe that we haven't hung out with them since my baby shower! Mindy has grown up so much since she lived with us!

Lauren and I went back to Cedar Rapids a few weekends ago to go bridesmaids dress shopping with Kyle's sister, Amanda. I wasn't sure how the day would go on a late nap but Lauren did pretty well and crashed when we were done! We found bridesmaids dresses pretty quickly, I really need to hurry up and order mine!

Lauren has a mullet pretty bad. I decided to braid it into a crown on the back of her head. She enjoyed it!

The fan blowing her hair at the Science Center at the Mall

With all the dress shopping, someone got a little jealous. Thankfully our attendant was super nice and found a dress that Lauren go to wear the entire time. She was in HEAVEN!

Found a Tiara

We switched some pictures in our living room. One frame is really long and includes a picture of me pregnant with Lauren, when she was first born, first birthday, and second birthday. She has been quite intrigued with the pregnant picture of me lately. She will randomly throughout the day talk about things that she did when she was a baby, "Hubba carried me when I was baby, I drank Mommy's na-na's when I was baby...". The other day, we had a conversation that went like this:

Lauren: Hubba carried me when I was a baby all the time.

Mom: I carried you too Lauren, in my belly for 9 months.

Lauren: Yea, I was in Mommy's tummy.

Mom: How did you get out Lauren?

Lauren: (yelled loudly) I wanted to get out!

Mom: Why?

Lauren: I wanted to play and see my Daddy!

Towers and Tight Places

Playing Catch-Up!

I know...I know...I have been a horrible blogger lately. Between working full-time and Kyle at grad school, I don't have much extra time to sit and when I do, it is generally in front of t.v. with a massive bowl of ice cream. Be prepared for picture overload!

Helping Hubba make his coffee!

Her Halloween pose! This girl talked about Halloween for weeks and was so excited that morning.

Our first house, of course, Howard's!

Besties Gabbie and Miyah!

Just being cute!

We won some build-a-bear bucks at a silent auction and have been waiting to take Lauren. She was a little confused at first but Kyle showed her everything and then we went through the assembly line. Putting the stuffing in her build-a-bear!

She followed all the lady's directions on what to do with the heart before putting into the bear's back!

She actually closed her eyes and made a "wish"...hmm?

Brushing all the fluff off

Taking Kodie home!

For grandpa Larry!

Our last nice day we had a campfire and made our supper in the dutch oven.

Standing tall like the tree, I love when this tree turns yellow. My favorite one!

Cheese Face!

At the forest preserve with Hubba. She thought it was pretty cool she got her wear her pajama shirt!

Rough afternoon!

We went to a pumpkin patch nearby and they had these big containers filled with corn. At first Lauren was really hesitant but I just shoved her inside and refused to take her out. Eventually she warmed up and refused to come out...plan backfired, huh?

Tunnels!

Is this for real?

Hurry up Mom, bright sun!

When day when I was doing laundry, Lauren stripped down and posed like this for me! No idea...

Fine Dining

Can you tell that we play hide and seek a lot? She absolutely loves finding new places on her own to hide, she has been quite creative lately!!

We decided to let Lauren decide where to go out to eat the other night. She told Kyle she would like to go a meat restaurant that had chocolate meat on sale. We opted for the local pizza joint instead.

I mixed broccoli and edamame in Lauren's homemade mac and cheese. I told her that Grandma Cindy loves edamame because it is bright green so she picks them all out and devours them. The next day she was eating the leftovers with Kyle and asked them what they were called. Kyle replied that they were a 'bean' but Lauren actually knew that they weren't called that. She looked at Kyle and said, "Hubba, look at my teeth, eddd...aaahhh...maaaa...mmaaayyyy!" I guess we have been working on annunciation a lot lately, I usually tell her to look at my mouth and then repeat something if she pronounces it wrong.

and...Finally, we were talking about different towns that family members live in at supper. Lauren proclaimed that Grandpa and Grandma live in Baboon...otherwise known as, Boone.

Middle Names

Apparently Kyle's middle name of 'Martin' has changed. Lauren said last night at the dinner table that his name was Kyle Mountain Man Rouse!

Taking Responsibility...

We need to work on Lauren taking responsibility for her own actions apparently...

The other day while driving home from Target, I heard her let out a rather loud and long toot. I asked her what the noise was and she did not reply. I said, "Lauren, did you toot?" To which she replied, "No, that was a cycle-bike" (motorcycle). Ummm...no!

Then later on in the bathtub, Lauren let another one rip. When asked what that noise was, she exclaimed, "Bubbles!"

I guess we need to work on taking responsibility for our own bodily functions or maybe I just need to quit asking about them. The good thing though is that she was able to identify something else that could have made that noise in each given situation that was actually appropriate. Creative!

More Funny Pages

I have mentioned before that Lauren loves breastfeeding her baby. She makes us take her shirt off in order to do so, maybe I need to make her a nice cover to ensure modesty. She made us aware the other day that she was feeding her baby "almond milk from her na-na's".

Lauren loves plugging and unplugging our electronics in. She plugged in my Ipad and it made a nice beep. She got so excited and said, "It's a message! A message from the Lord!" (that would be a VeggieTales saying)

The other morning after a day of no bowel movement, Lauren had quite the impressive load to unload. Being the nice wife I am, I decided to save the price for Kyle when he so chose to awake from his slumber. Of course, he was absolutely disgusted that I would leave MY waste for him. Lauren, wanting to take pride for her work, was eager to admit that it was hers. Kyle said, "Wow, that is a man-size plopper Lauren!". The rest of the day she talked about her 'man-sized plopper' and wanting to take a picture to post on Facebook. Where do they come up with this stuff.

While driving to the library, Lauren said, "This car is crazy, Mom! It is driving me so fast!". Little did she know I was in control of the car's graceful movements.

If something is Lauren's favorite, she says it is her "favorite color". Elmo underwear is her favorite color, Pistachio muffins are her favorite color, and Mark that works in the shoe department at Sports Authority is her favorite color!

Wordless...Friday...

warm weather weekends

Seriously...this weather...where did it come from?? I am loving spending our entire weekends and after-work nights outside. There is just something about the crisp air that I love! I have been reading this good book about how kids are not outside anymore compared to when we were younger so I have been trying to be more intentional about utilizing the good ol' outdoors as much as possible.

After getting home from the pumpkin patch, we colored on our pumpkins with twistable crayons that have caps on them. Of course, Lauren has to do everything "ALL BY SELF!" so I enjoyed snapping pictures of her struggling to open the caps without any help.

crayon is stuck!

coloring away

Lauren was refusing her nap last Saturday and I was going to either go insane or fall asleep watching her spin in circles. Thankfully our dear neighbor came by and told us her husband, Howard (Lauren's best friend) was going to be playing his accordion at the ice cream shop in 15 minutes. I strapped Lauren to my back and off we set down the hill for some free entertainment. We stayed for 2 HOURS!

Dancing away! I am sure Howard loved his #1 fan!!

Hunting and Fishing Days

Each year, our local park holds an event called "Hunting and Fishing Days". It is a fun weekend with lots of outdoors kids activities to do, historians, and many taxidermy animals to see! Lauren LOVED all the activities to do that we actually went both days they were open and still didn't get to do everything. Some of my favorite was the "period people" that dressed up, talked, and acted like they were from a specific period in time. Lauren enjoyed watching one gentlemen work on a hide and shave the hair off. We could have sat for hours watching and listening to him (wish I would have taken a picture).

Lauren's absolute favorite activity, candle making. She waited in line so nicely too!

Her first catch! She wanted to sit on the grass and watch mommy climb the wall but I told her "NO!"...that wasn't too much fun at her birthday!

Painting her rabbit foot cast. She slept with it for a few nights :)

Honey stick!

Making her candle. When we went up to get our supplies, I asked the young boy how long it took to make a candle. He told me 1000 dips. I laughed but I think he was actually serious. Lauren did it for about 20 minutes and there was another little girl who was pried away by her dad after 40 minutes. There was a big circle that you walked in, dipped your candle in wax, walked a bit more, then dipped it in water, walked, wax, water...you get the idea.

So happy with her almost finished product! Her wax-filled dress was also glad.

Each time we go to a fair we try and get Lauren to ride on a pony. Each time, she kicks, screams, and cries that she won't. We waited in line forever to have her ride a horse (we had to wait for a specific one with a small saddle) and worried that she would throw a fit when it was our turn...but she LOVED it! I think she got to watch so many other kids ride it and smile that she slowly warmed up to it. Maybe because it was actually a horse and not a small pony attached to a huge metal contraption helped as well. Kyle just stood by her as they walked and she held on tight. Such a young girl she is growing up to be!

So proud!