Goodbye, Kalo!

Paul's little sister Kalo came to visit us Monday because she went in to the MTC on Wednesday to go on a mission to Honduras! She was only here for a couple of days, but we loved spending time with her before she left. While she was here we did some shopping, played games, went to Cafe Rio, and went and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was sad to say goodbye, but she is going to be a great missionary. You could tell she was so excited to serve and she's so friendly and outgoing. The people in Honduras are going to love her!

HO HO HO

Yesterday Lauryn and I went with the mom's group in our ward to go see Santa at the mall. Too bad I look more excited in this picture than she does!

What was Paul doing while L and I were gone? Of course, more homework! But, yesterday was the last day of classes for this semester, woohoo!

Family pictures

The most recent picture we have of Paul, Lauryn and I together was taken at Lauryn's blessing, over a year ago! So, right after church on Sunday while we were still dressed up we got Paul's brother Key to come and take some pictures of us. They turned out pretty cute, but we only got a couple where we were all looking at the camera. These are the best ones.

I've been tagged

So, following the tradition of being tagged, here are six things about me that you might find interesting:


1. Up until I was about 13 or 14 I had straight hair. Around that time I got a perm and my hair has been naturally curly ever since. Also, I used to be a blond but my hair got darker and darker as I got older.

(That's me in the yellow if you couldn't tell :)



2. I love the ocean and all things related to the ocean. My favorite color is blue, I think because it reminds me of the blue sea and the blue sky. Dolphins are my favorite animal and I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was younger. Lucky that I married a boy from Florida who's family lives close to the ocean!


3. Like many of my friends, I LOVE to dance. When I was 10 I got a tape player for my birthday and I used to put in my Paula Abdul tape and go crazy when I was alone in my room. Then in college we would always have spontaneous dance parties which mostly involved dancing on the furniture.


4. One of my nicknames is HHH. My brother used to tease me by calling me "Heather the Hungry Heifer" and when I'd tell my dad on him my dad would try to console me by telling me that a heifer was a beautiful maiden cow. To this day my brother still calls me "triple H."


5. I really love to read. When I have a good book it consumes me. I have to limit the amount of books I let myself read or I will completely neglect all other obligations I have, including Paul and Lauryn. My favorite books are all the Harry Potter's, The Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, and The Life of Pi.


6. One of my favorite things to do is eating out. I love being around alot of people and eating good food and being served. Paul loves it too. This is not a good thing for poor college students, but we've really tried to cut back. Our favorite restaurant is Red Robin (bottomless steak fries!!).

Now I tag:
Cassandra
Julie
Courtney
Joanna

All I want for Christmas...

These are just a few things that I would love to get for Christmas. Some of them are realistic and some of them are a little less than realistic, but you never know, right?

#1: A Kitchenaid mixer, with all parts and accessories.

#2: A new imac computer with a printer.
#3: A dress. I really like this one, but I'm not that picky. Anything cute that looks good on me will work!

#4: A Nintendo Wii. Paul and I keep going back and forth on whether we should get one or not. We both really want one but know there are other things we should spend our money on. It's probably a good thing there is a shortage of them or we would have already bought one.

#5: A cruise. Along with this I'd like a babysitter for Lauryn while Paul and I go on the cruise.

#6: A new house!! It doesn't have to be this one, but this one is for sale right now for a small price of $400,000.

#7: So, here are some more realistic things that I'd love to get: good books, movies, cute jewelery (especially earrings), a good CD, cute decorations for our apartment, and gift certificates for my favorite restaurants (Red Robin, Bajio, Macaroni Grill).

Giving Thanks!

For Thanksgiving we went up to see me family in Idaho. It was so nice to have a mini-vacation and for Paul to have a week not to worry about school. He paid for it when we got back, but it was nice while it lasted! Lauryn's favorite things were having big houses to walk around in and watching her cousins play. While we were gone she went from crawler/walker to full on walker. Some other highlights of the week were Paul and I taking the four-wheeler out for a little spin while Aunt Jodie and Mason watched Lauryn and going to the temple to do baptisms for some of my mom's ancestors. I didn't take many pictures, but here are some of them.

Lauryn LOVED grandma's little rocking chair!

Verbal skillz

Here are some videos of Lauryn saying hi and making an elephant noise. She loves saying hi to everyone, including each person that comes in to church as we're sitting there and everyone we pass as we're grocery shopping.

Halloween

So, I've gotten a bit behind in my posting, but I'm trying to catch up a bit. Here are some pictures from Halloween. Lauryn was a bunny, thanks to Grandma Mary for finding the cute costume. During the day Lauryn and I went with a friend to Gardner Village where they had some really cute shops and a petting zoo. We had alot of fun and the girls were so cute.

Later that night, I took Lauryn trick-or-treating to some of neighbors. She got alot of candy, most of which Paul and I ate, but she did enjoy a few suckers, some with the wrapper still on!

Lauryn's Birthday!!

So, this is a couple of weeks late, but here are some pic's from Lauryn's birthday. I think she had a fun day, even though some of my attempts to make it special failed. Unfortunately there was bad weather so my ideas of going to the park and going to the farm at Thanksgiving Point weren't going to work. So I tried to think of some indoor alternatives and came up with the kids play area inside the mall and the pet store, neither of which Lauryn found very entertaining. The play area at the mall isn't much fun for babies and the pet store was stinky and pretty lame. But at least we had some fun just being together. Lauryn did really love all her presents though. It was so fun watching her open them and play with them. We let her have macaroni and cheese for the first time for dinner, which she loved. She ate so much that when cake time came she wasn't interested. I ended up making her a star cake, which kind of turned out, but I guess it didn't matter because all she did was poke it a few times! So now we have a little one year old, I can't believe it!

Lauryn's first year

Lauryn is one today!! I made this page showing some pictures from her first year.

Getting so grown-up!

It's almost Lauryn's first birthday and I can't believe how much she's changed in the last year! Since she won't keep bows or headbands in her hair, I started giving her pig-tails. Paul thinks she looks like Pikachu, but I think they're cute. She hasn't started walking yet, but she can stand all by herself. And she loves to play with our cell phones, especially when we have them play music for her. She bounces up and down to the beat, it's so funny!

Look-alike meter

Can you believe it? Everyone always tells us that she looks just like Paul, but the look-alike meter doesn't lie my friends!

Buddies

Lauryn's friend Ella came over to play last week and then Lauryn went over to Ella's house. While she was over at Ella's, Paul and I went out on a date. I think we've been on about two actual dates since Lauryn was born, so it was pretty exciting. We went and played tennis and confirmed that we both are really bad at it, but both really enjoy it! We each won a set, but I'm pretty sure Paul was going easy on me.

It was almost impossible to get a shot where both girls were looking at camera, but these are the best ones. Don't they look so cute in their almost matching outfits!

Back to school

I decided that maybe I should post something about Paul and I, since I only ever post about Lauryn. Well, last week Paul went back to school full-time. It made me realize how much I enjoyed starting school each year. There are so many exciting things about a new school year: meeting new people, meeting new teachers, buying new school supplies, learning different things. In elementary school my favorite thing was the smell of new big pink erasers, remember the "pink pet" kind? Well, since there will be no starting a new school year for me ever again I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through Paul and my children. But it isn't quite as fun to have a husband in school. Paul is really trying to finish this April and is currently signed up for 20.5 credits. He had to get special permision to take so many. I think he's crazy, especially since he still plans on working 18 hours/ week. But really, I'm very thankful to have such a hardworking and dedicated husband. I just hope I get to see him sometime this semester!!

Waving and Kisses

Lauryn's coolest new tricks are waving and giving kisses. She's so funny. When she waves she looks at your hand waving and then at hers to make sure she's doing it right. And she's very willing to give kisses, even if she's fussy or crying she'll stop long enough to give us a kiss and then go back to being upset.

FFR 2007

We had a family reunion on the Farnsworth side a few weeks ago. We had a great three days with the family. The festivities started out Sunday night with a talent show featuring song, dance and even karate. On Monday, we went to the children's museum in Salt Lake City and then headed up to Snowbird to do the rides up there (Alpine Slide, Zipline, Bungee trampoline, mechanical bull, and the tram). Paul's fear of heights was definitely tested, but in the end, he conquered it and even rode up to 11,000 ft. on the tram. The next morning we had the family olympics where Paul excelled at the water balloon toss and I excelled at trying to feed a baby and participate at the same time. Well, I didn't really excell, let's say I managed. Tyler did a great job hosting the reunion this year, which only adds on the pressure, because Paul and I are in charge next year. I think Paul is trying really hard to graduate before then and move us to Florida so we won't have to do it!!


These are some pictures from the children's museum. It was really fun and I was surprised at how many things they had for Lauryn to enjoy. They even have a little space only for kids under 1 year old.
























Paul and our nephew Cole built this awesome bridge out of these magnet things. My favorite part of the museum was where you could be a weather forecaster and a news anchor.

This last picture is of Paul on the mechanical bull, I was very amazed by his skills until he told me that he had asked the operator to go easy on him so he could impress me.