Hello Summer!!

Laurel finished school last week and we are ready to have a fun filled summer. Lots of swimming (it is already so HOT), gymnastics, $3 kids movies, story time at the library, and lots of time with friends.

Speaking of school it seems like Laurel just started her first year and now she is all done.

Here she is on her first day of school last August in front of the doors to her school

And here she is on her last day in roughly the same spot. What a difference! She is such a big girl now!

I'm really looking forward to this summer and I'm praying we don't have any broken bones like last summer!

Mountain Vacation

Would you believe my new year's resolution was to be better about updating my blog? Yeah, I claim an epic fail on that goal! I AM going to be better about it though, starting now!

If you have read one of the two posts I did this year then you know that Laurel was sick on her birthday in January. Matt came down with the flu really bad on her birthday and was down and out for a whole week. He has never been sick more than a day since I've known him! Then Laurel got sick again and she was sick on my birthday in February. Then I got sick. Then Laurel got sick. You get the picture. It was a LONG winter. We were finally all well by the end of March. We decided to go on a little vacation to celebrate mine and Laurel's birthdays and Matt and my 8th wedding anniversary. We went to the mountains on our honeymoon so we decided to go up to Helen since it is a pretty short drive (Laurel does not do well for car long trips!).

We had a really good time and did lots of fun stuff.

No vacation would be complete without:

A visit to the Cabbage Patch General Hospital.
I used to go all the time when I was a kid and I was so excited to take Laurel. She loved it and did NOT want to leave.

She loved watching the baby being born and even got to give "her" a middle name. She named it Laurel. :)

A visit to the bear reserve.
The bear pictured here ate Laurel's bow. It fell off into his cage and he ate it right up. Laurel was very upset and was screaming and crying. It was quite the scene we made!

Once she calmed down she fed them some treats.

A visit to the reptile house.
Laurel loved the turtle and fed it lots of lettuce.

Matt liked the snake and Laurel also petted it. I took pictures and kept my hands to myself!

Pink lemonade!

Santa Claus!
Laurel wanted to know why he was not at the North pole.

Trains!
This was an amazing model train display!

A visit to see the beautiful river flowing through Helen

A little hotel bed jumping!

A horse and carriage ride!

Laurel LOVED it!

Ice cream!
Even when it is cold no vacation is complete without a little strawberry ice cream.

Lots of goodies!
We got some fudge and it was so yummy!

Making wishes!

Pictures that we can use to blackmail Laurel in high school!

Dinner on the River!

Breakfast in bed!

Swimming!

And...one more stop to see the Cabbage Patch kids!

It may look like we go on vacation a lot (since there are two vacation posts on the front page of my blog) but that really just shows how bad I am about blogging. This is only the third vacation we have gone on since we had Laurel. The first one was to FL when she was seven months old and between the seven hour car ride and Laurel not sleeping or napping, it was a rough few days. We took a long break and have recently gone on two vacations with Laurel. She is at such a fun age and even though she didn't sleep as well this vacation as she did our beach trip, she did great. She still talks about how much fun she had and will list all the cool stuff we did. She asks all the time to go back, but does not want to see the bears again!

An Oops Kind of Day

Laurel and I are both sick today. She is at the end of her illness and is feeling a lot better. I'm at the beginning of my sickness and I am feeling tired and weak. Therefore all day all I have heard is Laurel yelling and running around like a little nut. I've also heard a lot of, "Mommy PLAY with me" in the whiniest voice possible. So I've been trying to play with her while I'm laying on the couch which is NOT easy.

This morning she wanted to play so I suggested that she sing me a song. She usually sings stuff like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" when I ask her to sing a song. Today she busts out with "I Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum. She has heard this song in the car a few times and that is it. Regardless to say I was half mortified, half cracking up when she sings, "It's a quarter after one, I'm a little drunk and I need you now." You can guess what came next, "What's drunk mean Mommy?" Um, okay let's play something else (and make a mental note to be more careful what we sing along to in the car).

Later today she wanted to play with her little Princess dolls. Then she wanted to draw. I look up to see that she has taken the skirt off Snow White and has her dancing on the pencil she had been using to draw a picture. She says, "Mommy are dolls supposed to dance on pencils?" I start cracking up (inappropriately again) and she then says, "What? Should she dance on the table instead?"

Here is a picture. You can't see because of her hand, but Snow White is in red underwear and red high heels, nice.

I have some days where I feel like a really good mom. On those days we do lots of fun, age appropriate activities. Today is not one of those days, but I can laugh about it at least.

A Very Un-Happy Birthday

Laurel turned three years old today. We had decided not to do a big party like last year, mostly because Laurel is in the prime of her terrible twos. When she is sweet, she is very sweet, but when she is bad, she is VERY bad. I could just see her throwing a huge fit right in the middle of her party. She brings new meaning to the phrase, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!"

So we just decided to do a small celebration. That quickly turned into a couple small celebrations. I would bring treats and favor bags to her school on Wednesday. On Friday we would go to the aquarium with her best friend Emily and her mom. On Saturday we would take her to ride a horse, which is what she asked to do for her birthday. Then on Monday, her actual birthday, we would have our good friends over for pizza, cupcakes, and presents.

We were all very excited about these plans. Laurel has been talking about turning three since before Christmas. So Wednesday rolls around and I take the treats and favor bags (which I had spent two hours the night before putting together) to school. Laurel goes into her class, walks up to the first kid she sees and says, "Those are my presents for my birthday. You can't touch them!" See what I mean about the terrible twos? So I explain to Laurel that, yes, she will get a bag, but so will all the other kids. She looks at me like I am crazy and says, "But it's MY birthday!" I leave and she is upset about the bags and I'm thinking, "Why did I even waste my time on those things?" When I go to pick her up from school, the teacher tells me that she has been acting grouchy and might be getting sick. I chalk it up to her being mad about the bags, but later that afternoon I notice she is a little hot. By evening she has a fever of 103 and I feel terrible for sending her to school when she was sick and probably infecting other kids in the process. She is still sick Thursday with a fever so we cancel Friday's aquarium. She is still sick Friday so we cancel horse back riding for Saturday. But by Saturday she is feeling better so we keep Monday's plans.

But today rolls around and now Matt is sick with a fever so we have to cancel those birthday plans too. I told Laurel that her friend's would not be coming over after she woke up from her nap and she burst into tears. I felt like crying with her. She was pretty upset for about 30 minutes, but some presents and cupcakes made it a little better.

I know in the grand scheme of things, this is not very important, but I hate that Laurel's whole birthday has been postponed/ canceled. We managed to have a little fun tonight with a sick Matt and a disappointed Laurel, but I was sad that she didn't get to have a great birthday like the last two years. We have moved everything to this weekend and I really hope it works out. But tonight as I rocked her to sleep I kept thinking about this day three years ago and how much our lives have changed since then. Laurel brings so much joy and energy into everyday life. She reminds me how to have fun and take it all in and I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

Happy Birthday Laurel!! I love you!!

Funnies

Laurel has been cracking me up lately. I'm trying to keep a list of the funny things she says so I don't forget. Here are a few of her latest funnies:

We were taking a walk one day and Laurel turned to me and said so seriously, "Mommy do you know that girls pee pee and boys poo poo?" I tried a few times to explain that this was not correct, but she was NOT having it. I finally just left it alone and let her be right.

Another day we were just hanging out and she asked me, "Mommy do you know what gracefully means? It means when I dance beautifully!"

Laurel takes gymnastics and a week few weeks ago her teacher had her nails painted a pretty color. Laurel made sure to tell Miss Amanda that she liked her nails and then asked, "Did your Mommy paint them for you?"

The other day I was talking on the phone and Laurel wanted me to get off and play with her. After a few times of asking me she suddenly yelled, "You're not being gorgeous to me!" Lately whenever I do something that she does not like (like brush her hair) she tells me that I'm not gorgeous. Nice.

Matt had to take a big test at the end of October for his Professional Engineering License and we had prayed for him to do well the night before. When he got home from the test I asked him if he did okay and Laurel piped up and said, "Did you get first place? Did they give you a ribbon?"

Laurel was being crazy a few days ago and crawling "like when I was a little baby" and she hit her lip. We had just talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus made our bodies and how our bodies can heal themselves. The next morning she drank some OJ and it hurt her lip. She yelled out, "Awww, man! Jesus didn't heal my lip yet!"

I hope these made you laugh! And here is a picture of my funny little girl just cause she is so stinking cute!

Goodbye Summer!

At the end of September we went on a vacation to Tybee Island. It was such fun just having a few days of family time. Laurel loved everything, but her favorites (according to her) were the waves at the beach, swimming in the pool (especially at night), staying up late, playing with Daddy "all day and in the night" and getting ice cream whenever she wanted. Here are just a few pictures of our vacation; I took over 800 pictures and these are a *few* of my favorites.

Laurel loved playing with her Daddy on the beach. They enjoyed jumping over the waves, floating in the ocean, and building sandcastles to name a few. Laurel kept telling me to go sit on the beach chair; no problem sweetie! A lot of these picture were taken from the comfort of my beach chair. It was great for me to watch her have so much fun with Matt since he is usually working and she is with me mostly.

I had to get a few traditional beach shots. Laurel wasn't big on the posing, but let me take a few.

Once I let her run free she had a great time. I LOVE this shot. It shows what a blast she was having at the beach.

A picture with my sweet baby; we had just finished doing "noses" (from Toy Story 3 in case you don't watch kid's movies).

Matt and Laurel watching the sun set on the pier. I love how relaxed she looks in this picture (that is rare for Laurel!).

Laurel swimming on our last morning. She always makes me hold her in the water, but she was swimming like a little fish (if fish wore floaties) with her Daddy.

We had such a great time and we are happy for Fall (even if it still feels like summer!)

Adventures With Casty

Here is a picture of my sweet baby right after she had her super cool pink cast put on!

This blog post has been a long time in the making, but every time I started to write it I would get upset and put it off. I HATE that my baby got hurt. I HATE that I wasn't fast enough to catch her and keep her from getting hurt. As a parent you want to keep your child safe from harm and pain and when you can't it is hard to accept.

Here is our story:

In the beginning of June, Laurel was coloring at the table in her booster seat like she does every day. I was right next to her getting more paper out of the drawer where I keep the art supplies. Laurel leaned forward to get a marker that had rolled away and fell out of her seat and on to the hardwood floor. I saw it happen and I couldn't grab her in time. It really didn't look like a very bad fall, but she was crying so I picked her up and went to sit down and turn on the TV for her (TV cures all aliments in our house). I knew something was wrong after a minute when she wouldn't stop crying. Laurel is a drama queen and she always cries when she hurts herself, but she always stops really quickly.

I started to think something was wrong with her right arm because she wouldn't move it and was was holding it with her left hand. I called Matt who had taken the dogs to the vet. He was 30 minutes away and told me to just wait until he got home and she was fine (I've called him many times in a panic before). I kept thinking that she was really hurt so I called my dad who is a nurse. He told me it could be broken, fractured, or a bad bone bruise. Matt got home and thought she was fine. I told him that she has NEVER cried for 30 minutes before and she was NOT fine. So we headed to the urgent care. Laurel fell asleep in the car so at least she didn't cry the whole trip.

We got to the urgent care and proceeded to sit and sit and sit. We are still discussing if her arm is hurt. Matt thinks she is okay because she can move her fingers. I think she is not okay because she won't move her arm and (the biggest factor) she has sat in our laps this whole time and not wanted to walk around. She ALWAYS wants to, "go walk around!" Matt did carry her outside for a little bit and the Chick-fil-a across the street had a bouncy house for their kid's night. Laurel kept saying she wanted to go jump even though she wouldn't walk or move her arm. Poor child!

Finally after several hours we get called back. Laurel fights like a wild monkey when they try to X-ray her arm. The nurse tells me it is most likely not broken if she can fight like that. I think, "Lady, you don't know my kid!" She will fight you until the death if you try to hold her down. The doctor comes back after looking at the x-rays and says that is looks like it is not broken, but the radiologist will check it and call us back in the morning. They put an ace bandage on it and send us home.

So we head home. I give Laurel a quick bath, wrap her arm back up, give her some tylenol, and put her to bed. She goes right to sleep and I think everything is okay. But she wakes up every hour ALL night long. In the morning I know something is wrong for sure. All she wants to do is sit and watch TV and she still won't move her arm at all. The radiologist calls and says that her arm IS broken, in two places! I was not surprised at all. My mom intuition had been telling me that all along.

We take her back to urgent care and they put her arm in the a splint and then we go to a specialist who decides she needs a cast. Laurel has been sitting in our laps and not moving much throughout this whole ordeal. The SECOND the cast was on she jumped up and started dancing and acting like her old crazy self. We are very lucky that she did not mind the cast at all. It did not slow her down in the least. She proudly picked out her pink cast and loved to show it off and have people sign it. This was a huge blessing since I envisioned weeks of her crying and begging to have it taken off.

The only issue was her not being able to take her nightly bath. We also couldn't go swimming of course, but I let her watch lots of movies and have picnics in the living room to make up for it. She was so spoiled after the cast came off three weeks later. I've just finally finished weaning her off all the "brave girl treats" she was getting. She also totally regressed on her potty training so I've basically had to start again from square one.

I'm just so grateful that her arm is fine and one day after the cast came off she was using it just like normal again. Here are a few pictures of Laurel's adventures with casty.

This was the second day of having her cast. We were playing animal zoo which is her favorite game.

Showing off her cast before church.

Just playing in the house one rainy day.

More animal zoo.

At Red Lobster. Laurel loved the lobsters.

Laurel with her cotton candy at Sesame Street Live.

At one of her doctor's visits. We learned her cast had to stay on another week, but Laurel didn't care. She was so happy to get a sucker for being good during the x-ray

Yay! Finally the cast comes off. I thought Laurel would be scared of them cutting it off with the saw, but she thought it was cool. They asked us if we wanted to keep her cast and we were like, "No! It stinks; throw it away!"

Waiting for the doctor right after her cast came off. You can see she was still holding her arm like it was in the cast, but in less than a day she was using it like normal.

Yay for brave girl Laurel! Hopefully we will not have any more injuries for a while!