All about us!

These might not all be in order but I had a TON of pictures that I hadn't uploaded and so I thought I would just fill everyone in on what has been going on. Life here is pretty centered around Miss Laurie! She is just so darn cute! :)
What a pretty girl am I! (Oct)

9 Mo! September
Looking up-side-down at mommy
Elaine's Kiddie Kollege class. (don't know the other girl)
All us VA girls went to see Papa by the Dulles Airport. They had a LOT of fun in the back while we drove! :)
Papa relating to his grand kids. Oh and see the buttermilk? :)

10 Mo!!!

Republican Roundup! Yummy BBQ!

Evoly really liked the pony! Kept trying to touch it. General Conference glasses! hehehe

Fun

I found this on my friend Deborah's blog.

1.Did you date someone from your school? Yes I did.
2. What kind of car did you drive? I drove a red Hyundi Excel hatchback. I think. It was great! Except that I was so short I had to practially stand up to hit the clutch!
3. What was the most embarrassing moment of high school? During the beginning of the season pep rally, the gymnastics team was tumbling and I did a front tuck and over rotated and landed sprawled out on the mat…got up and continued but I was pretty embarrassed!!
4. Were you a party animal? Um…No.
5. Were you considered a flirt? I don’t know. No one ever told me that.
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in the band and choir. They were awesome!!
7. Were you a nerd? Don’t think so….
8. Were you on any varsity teams? Yes I was a varsity gymnast.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No.
10. Can you still sing the fight song? If someone started it for me maybe…we usually didn’t sing but we did play it in the band and I could probably sing it to you and do the cheerleading dance !:)
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr ??, Anat/Phys, genetics and other sciences. Sorry I can’t remember his name!
12. Where did you sit during lunch? Usually at a table until my Senior year and then I got to eat on the ‘Senior carpet’ LOL.
13. What was your school's full name? Priarie High School
14. School mascot? Falcons
15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? I went to Homecoming 3 times with three different people only one of which I was actually ‘dating’ exlusivly. Not sure I should name them ;)
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Yes I believe I would.
17. What do you remember most about graduation? I remember being at the ceremony but I also remember the party after! It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends to celebrate!.
18. Where did you go senior skip day? School I think.…but I did skip on other days ;) with my mom’s permission of course. Never did I do it without her knowledge!
19. Were you in any clubs? Hum. I guess gymnastics is a club.
20. Have you gained some weight since then? Um yeah, I guess having 3 kids does that to ya!
21. Who was your prom date? Jared Cooke
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Obviously this survey doesn’t know how old I am… I was planning on it and I did….anyone know how long ago?
23. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Not sure but I know I do this now and I am sure it started then… Don’t be so afraid of what other people think. Have more confidence in yourself. Don’t worry so much!!!!! Work hard!

9 mo!!

Laurie is 9 months! She loves to eat stuff that she can grab and feed herself, not so much the stuff that has to be fed TO her. Hehehe. She stands up on ANYTHING that is taller than her in a crawl. and she is getting braver and starting to do one handed and taking a few steps. She is so very cute and smiles a lot and does cute things for us to laugh about!

Today she started saying...Momma!! She seems to be making the connection! Hurray! I love it, it is so cute to hear!

Brain?

So I am trying to save more when shopping for groceries and other necessities by using coupons and going places where they have incentive deals etc. This knowledge and desire is courtesy of Ana and her actions! :) I am getting excited about it since last weekend I got a box of 92 diapers for $10. I thought that was pretty good. :)
Anyway, in order to fully take advantage of these deals you need to get the Sunday paper with the coupons in it, which I don't. SOOOO, I am supposed to go out Sunday and buy it from a stand somewhere.... I forgot AGAIN for the second week in a row. I am NEVER going to remember that!! So I am looking at people's blogs, ready for this weeks steals and remember that...I can't do anything AGAIN because I don't have the coupons!!!!!!!! UGH!
What is wrong with my brain, I swear on Sunday all of a sudden I think about all the things that are going on and they pile up in my brain and I get overwhelmed and can't think of anything! No wonder I can't organize my house, I can't even organize my thoughts in my brain!!! Sheesh!

Favorite

I have seen people do this before where they have a Friday favorite. Well I am not starting that or anything but today I saw something that I had to dub as today's favorite! :)

It is at http://www.sesamestreet.org/videos . Elaine was watching these videos and one came on, called.....wait for it.......Preschool Musical! HAHAHAHA! Carlos and I laughed. Anyway it is cute and funny. One of those classic Sesame Street spoofs with Muppet's! :)

Patriotic?

I guess we were today. Miriam woke up this morning and while eating breakfast, started singing the National Anthem. So I decided it would be a good time to better learn the song. So we sang a few times before I made her hurry and eat!
Then later during the day, Elaine started humming and singing some words she knew. She hadn't been awake when we were singing earlier so it was funny.
Then after Miriam came home, we all sang it over and over loudly! I like to exaggerate my voice and pretend I can sing like I can't, and it is funny for the girls! :)
Anyway, I am always grateful for this country and Love the anthem! It always makes me feel patriotic:)

School

Well I was going to put more pictures of our FL trip, however, Carlos unplugged our external hard drive and I don't know how to hook it all back up and that is where my pictures are so......

Miriam started school on Tuesday. She really likes it. She didn't get the teacher she thought she wanted but her teacher is really nice. Her name is Mrs. Moore. She has a few of the same friends in her class that she had last year. There is a new music teacher, and gym teacher this year. Maybe she will enjoy gym more this year! She was sad about her music teacher, but I think she will like who ever is there, since she loves to sing!

She was being a bit of a cheese ball!
Isn't she cute!!!!!! (going to the bus)
She gets her very own desk this year!! Hurray! She also sits by two boys, they alternate in this class!




Elaine will start her Kiddie Kollege with the county next week. It is two days a week for 3 hours each day. She is sooo excited! I am interested to see what a few hours at home with just Laurie will be like. It isn't long but.... ;)


This is us waiting for the bus on the first day! We waited for almost 45 min! We weren't sure what time we should be there so we went at 205 and then the bus was about 10 min late(got there at 245)!!!! So we were really early and it was hot!

finally

We are finally feeling better here. The girls are well, except their eyes are still a bit bothersome, and I am feeling better but my pain is still there just less. So anyway, that is good, I think we will go to DC tomorrow and see my brother! Yeah!

pain

I started the antibiotic.

sick!!!!

I hardly ever get sick! Well last Sat my body decided to give in and get sick! But I am not the only one! Elaine and Miriam are also sick! It is awful!!!!! :( I have a swollen sore throat, fever, chills, achy body and stuffy nose! I went to the Dr yesterday and they took a strep test, it was neg. So they took a mono test and it was neg. Then she gave me 600mg of Motrin, and a 'just in case' antibiotic! (I decided not to take) Then the girls had their appts and the Dr did the strep test for good measure and then said, it was just a virus...so good/bad news! Bad cause there is nothing we can do!! We feel a little better today cause we have eaten but I am hot and sore! I think there is something going on but I didn't want to take a antibiotic 'just in case"! Anyway, hopefully we feel better by Sat, we are supposed to see George in DC!!!!

My little princesses

On Monday(11th) we decided that we would wait in line to meet the princesses. There were three of them in this line and the wait was about 60 min. We may have waited longer!

First 15 min
Half way there!
At this point I got out of line and traded with Carlos, because Laurie had woken up (couldn't take strollers in and she was sleeping) and I had to feed her.

Getting a little bored. (Only Daddy can get them to make these faces! LOL)

I was still feeding baby and didn't know how close they were so I went to fill water bottles....and I didn't make it back in time!! :( So Daddy went in with them.
Make way for Princess Aurora. I think this is Miriam's favorite
Cinderella!!! I think Elaine was just in awe that she actually met her!!!! Hehehe

Princessly advice.
Belle
Being a good Daddy he accepted the call to get in the picture with the Belle...was he standing in for the Beast?! Hehehe.
Anyway, they had a good time and had the biggest grins on their faces when they got out!

Unfound

When I can find my cord to my camera, then I can download picutres of our trip. Sorry.

Florida fun!

We just got back from our almost week long visit to Florida. We visited family and had a great time. We were grateful for Mary-Carmen driving there with us and helped the kids!
Ana, Carlos' aunt, got married and this was her reception. It was nice. The (second) cousins, Aaron, Joseph and the girls, had a lot of fun together! We ate lots of cake and danced, swam, talked, watched Olympics etc. We were there Sat and Sun.
Then we went to Disney World. Jen (my 'sister'), her hubby and parents, all work there so they were able to let us in. I will not give you a play by play of what we did but we arrived on Monday and Linda let us in to Magic Kingdom. We spent the evening there, making sure we went to It's a small world! (at Miriam's request but in honor of Dad! HEHEHEHE). We enjoyed our time and the girls got to wait in line to see three of the princesses!!! We stayed for the parade and fire works! Got home very late!
Then on Tues Jen & Corey, and Lucca met us at Animal Kingdom. It was so great and the girls had a good time. Our favorite things were the Safari and the Lion King show! Definite must sees! Then we went back over to Magic Kingdom where we met up with Izana (and kids) and Sherrie who were there and spent the evening with them. It was more relaxed and nice. We convinced them to stay until late with us and stay at our hotel with us, and then we went back to our place at an earlier hour and got ready for the next day departure.
Thank you to Jen and her family! Thank you for all those who helped us!
Our drive home was really good actually. The girls did well. I was able to drive some and everything went pretty smooth. We felt like we used more gas for some reason but its all good! :) Anyway, we had a great trip. The house was in great condition when we got home! ** Carlos went back to work and is,I am sure, tired. We missed a lot of Olympics so we need to watch gymnastics tonight and stop missing stuff!:) I will do pictures later. (as always)

** Our friends Patrick and Leigh Acosta moved to Texas but before they left they needed a place to stay so they spent a few nights at our place while we were gone and they graciously cleaned up and we came home to a nicely cleaned home! THANK YOU!!!

WHAT!?!

So Laurie started army crawling a week ago or so, and yesterday I saw her trying to pull herself up on something! So today while I was busy for a few minutes I tried to put her down for a nap only to find in 15 min that she was not only not asleep but that she was STANDING in her crib!! WHAT?! :) She is 8mo old!

Buddies!

Here is a picture of my friends from home! Marci, Stacey, Jen, Megan. We are playing Whoonu.

Some of my favorites

you asked for pictures...

There were so many pictures I just couldn't decide which ones to put, so there are a LOT but a LOT left out as well! Enjoy! GG and girls
My cutie friend Hillary and her son Raleigh (i also got to see Brooke but forgot to take a picture of her! :( and she is cutie pregnant! :))
Sisters (minus 1)
Cousins
learning to crawl

She had a blast in the back carrier at the beach! :)
Seaside aquarium They had fun touching stuff
Fun in the sun
Rock Band at Nancy's!
Fun new outfits! Lainey looks like an 80s rocker!

old GG dress and something on her head(not sure what it is ;))
beautiful beach
she loved the sand. too bad she wasn't in it more!
group shot
I personally think this is a good pic of me, sorry Laurie that you don't look better :)

she did get on the horse but we only have video of that.
Elaine went on Crown 3 times I think!
Crown really liked her so we thought we would stick her up there for a bit
eggs from Lynnette and George's
Victorian era clothes at the Flavel house in Astoria, OR.