Can I go daddy? Big girl and night-night, sleep tight...

I truly love fall, in all it's colors and the crisp feel! It's the only time you would ever see me sportin' red or orange or any other color aside from pink! I have been seeing people with their blogs redone in a scrapbook format. I took at a look at a freebie site and relaized "Hey, I can do that!"... so this blog design is brought to you straight from my computer. Like it?

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Here is the video of her using the fork as promised. I'm not sure what happened but for some reason google didn't upload it right. it was a black screen.




I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Lauren CANNOT sleep without her bear... period. My grandma started it back in April when she visited us, and now Lauren is hooked. She officially has a 'security blanket', only it's not a blanket at all. It's a blessing on long trips in the car though, not much fussing, she just goes right to sleep with her bear. So tonight, I took a few pictures of her before going to sleep in her crib. I feel like I am blessed to have a child who goes to sleep on her own. She even cries for her bed when she is really sleepy. There has been several times I would find her back there, with her bears legs pulled through the bars, holding on and sucking her thumb. Pick her up. Put her in. And off to sleep she goes. In case you can't tell, the hand that is holding the bear in front of her face, has the thumb in her mouth. That is how she falls asleep.




Ahhhh! The joys of being a parent, both to children and DOGS!!! I came home Sunday evening from a church meeting to find that my girls kept themselves entertained while I was gone. They are sooooo lucky that their daddy loves them as much as he does. Lucky. Because the pound was looking pretty good at the moment. But I'm over it, and just waiting for their next trash party!


So Lauren officially moved up in big-girl status. She now sits at the table with us in a booster seat. The high chair is making it's way out the door, and I will be looking for a small china hutch to fills it's empty place. I have so much china and dishes that need to be displayed. I can't wait!






Saturday evening, Levi was taking off for coon hunting. Lauren and I were in the yard playing. She just couldn't stand it, and jabbered the whole way to him. She was waving bye and walking closer at teh same time. It was so cute!




She really loves her daddy...



... but she loves driving his truck even more!



Yes, Levi smokes cigars!


Everything is good here... I spent the day going through Lauren's room and sorting out clothes that are too small and things I know I don't want to hang on to. I am finding that it is really hard to let go of her baby clothes and toys. I have a humongous 'keep' pile and a peas sized 'get-rid-of' pile. I think, what if I need that again?... sad huh?

Tomorrow I plan to donate a bunch of my clothes and the clothes I got at that garage sale. I also hope to get my nails filled. Other than that maybe some lunch and back home. My aunt Norma called the other day and she and my grandma are in Colorado. So on their way back home, they plan to stop and see us. I am excited because this will be the first time my grandma will have seen Lauren.

Well, I'm drained so I'm gonna shower and go to bed. I hope everyone is doing good!

Sonic thief, pumpkin patch, and the white rabbit revealed!

First, I would like to talk about 'Today's Quote'... Is it just me, or does it seem like our community as a whole are getting less and less considerate, and more just down-right rude? It seems like no one says "thank you" anymore. Just the other day, I literally got a grunt from a woman I held the door for at the convenience store. I think, and this is just me thinking (consider how dangerous that is...) that the economic crisis and the terrible news has got people down. They have so much worry and fear to contend with, they don't care if the door is open or slammed shut in front of them. They literally have one thing on their minds... the worry about having to walk in that store and pay the outrageous prices they do. So while I'm sure she had the worry of how much gas she just put in her car, it would be nice to take a moment and give a little thanks.

Had to share a picture of this little guy... he shared about 6 miles on the windshield of the car before he bailed. I know it's hard to tell in this picture, but he was of a larger breed. I think he was from Texas! Anywhoo, he got a free ride with me.

Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled program!


So this week has been a busy, tired, yet good all at the same time. Lauren has made a few milestones... She is saying a lot more words:

• deer
• dog
• thank you
• bye bye
• hi
  
• and just recently she says uh-oh (sorta)

Saturday we did a little bit garage saling, where I found her the most adorable pair of GAP jeans for .75 cents. They fit her great! I also made my childhood dream come true. I remember when I was 15, the worst thing came in the mail for me. A Delilah's clothing catalog. I remember laying on my bedroom floor, drooling over all those beautiful cool clothes, wishing I could point a finger and make them magically appear in my closet. My high school years were boots and wranglers and I suffered from the other kids for it. But being poor, I didn't have a choice. So I take pride in the fact that I still would rather thrift store shop for clothes than to pay retail price, and it's not a priority to even own name brand. I never once have bought American Eagle, Gap, Old Navy, and all those other cool brands brand new. In fact I still wear a lot of western jeans and cute tops. However, this weekend, I found a garage sale where I got to go bananas! A lady with all the name brand had 'fill a box for $3'... I filled two boxes, and later ended up with ALL that she didn't sell. My closet is full! So it was kinda like the finger pointing, clothes magically appearing, all for $6.

During the garale sales, one of the local elder groups had a trailer with some pumpkins for sale downtown. I was able to get Lauren's picture while she admired the 'new toys'.

And here are more birthday pictures...

The Presents:

This is a picture of the name album Grandma made Lauren. It is so precious and everyone absolutely loved it at the party. That should have been a big boost for grandma's ego. It really is beautiful!

We spent Friday with Aunt Terra in Clinton doing some shopping and looking at her new house. My daughter is turning into quite the little thief. She raided her diaper bag a few weeks ago you might remember and stole the chicken nuggets. The other day I came out of the gas shop, put her in her car seat, and noticed she had a container of 'Twang' in her hand that I didn't see. (yes I took it back in and apologized) And now she's resorted to stealing people's sonic drink. While Terra and I were visiting at her 'old' house, we noticed Lauren slipping over to the coffee table and getting a sip of Terra's Vanilla Dr. Pepper. And don't think that Lauren doesn't know a Sonic cup. She can smell them a mile away. She's worse than the dog when we pull in to Sonic, she knows!

I finally was able to get some pictures of the white rabbit that has inhabited our farm for about 6 months now. Maybe longer. We assume that he was someone's pet that got loose, or was intentionally set loose. Either way he hangs around and socializes with the wild cotton tails that also call our farm 'home'. He let me get about 15 ft from him, and that was close enough, off he went.

Also as promised, I am sharing a short video of Lauren learning to use a big people fork. She tried mightily to stab the meat, and when that didn't work, she picked it up with her hand and placed it on her fork. That still didn't work, so she 'asked' daddy to help. She was so proud of herself. keep in mind we hadn't let her have a fork or spoon before, so it was awesome to watch miss independent. She's been wathing us:

(be here in just a moment)

Birthday Party Part II and pampering

<---- Very soon I will have the links enabled to the scrapbook pages. Then when you click on them, they will open up to a larger view... just be patient with me.

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Howdy everyone,

I don't have a whole lot to share today, but I thought I would post some more photos from the birthday party... I'm hoping to get better soon so I can actually accomplish something around our pig sty.

I have to take a moment and give praise to the inventors of bubble baths, chocolate ice cream, and laptop computers. I have never had this luxury, but last night I spent a blissful hour and a half, yes folks, I said a hour and a half, in a nice warm tub, watching 'Made of Honor'. I even enjoyed a glass of ice cream. Talk about pampering! But that much deserved pampering has been accompanied a few days of popping- not pooping- ears, sometimes a runny and then sometimes a congested nose, coughing my head off, and so much more misery. Baby girl and I were up from 3 til about 4:45 this morning...


The Guests:

Incase you are wondering who I'm kissing...
that's my little brother of 13 years, who isn't so little anymore!

So it seems like suddenly my baby really isn't a baby anymore. She walks completely steadily now. She can officially hold her own sippy cup up while in a sitting position. And last night, she tried (almost successful) to feed herself with a big people fork ( I have video-coming soon!). Today we ate lunch with Nana, and Lauren sat up big in her booster seat, and drank a bug juice all by herself... She blows a whistle, blows her nose (or attempts) when I wipe it, I swear she says 'Thank You' when we give her something. It's like all the sudden we went from baby to toddler... while I know all the changes were gradual, I can't help but feel like they happened overnight.

So I have some plans in store for October... I'm going to try A-Post-A-Day. It might be short and it may only have a picture or two, but I thought it would be fun. I feel like I'm wasting time with my blog and what few visitors I have, so I'm gonna liven it up a bit. I love reading other people's blogs. I enjoy their witty comments and talented writing. And while I think that I am smart and on rare occasion even funny, my personality is definitely not set in the tone of my blog. It's always 'blah'. I want people to want to come visit here. See pictures of my adorable little girl and handsome son and walk away with a smile on their face.

I'm no longer keeping the little girl during the day. My number one fan is gone right now. She left this morning for a mini-vacation with grandpa. My number two fan is busy with her own life and two gorgeous boys, three if you count her hubby, and I miss talking to her... So I'm all alone and I need something productive to do. Time to re-vamp something. In the next month I plan to:

• overhaul the blog
• add more info to my photography website (no longer just pictures)
• CLEAN our pig sty!
• teach my daughter something new
• Paint my sunday school room
• teach a scrapbooking class at church next month
  
• TAKE PICTURES

The last will be easy. I have two (possibly three) photography jobs coming up soon, and hopefully with signed releases I will be sharing some of my work with you. I have a new baby boy born to two very cowboy parents (this will be a dream shoot) and I have a horse family in the middle of October. I really love the fall to take pictures. I find it is the time I am most inspired. And sadly, I live in the wrong part of the country for fall. It's hideous here. We go straight from summer leaves to dead trees. Oh! hubby and I might be planning a get away with our children to Ada, Oklahoma in two weeks. So hopefully I will get some beautiful fall pictures while I am there.

Well that about sums it up... I guess I had more to share than I thought!

Have a great Day!

(There will be more this weekend so check back)

The post you all have been waiting for...

So, officially the saddest day of my life finally came... well not really, but it sure felt sad, yet it felt happy and excited and proud and I was very emotional in general. I'm a complex person...

Lauren's birthday party went really well. Aside from a few ice cream freezer mishaps, and a few people who did not show, overall it was a fun party. We didn't get an official count, but I have counted an even 40 including our family. We planned for about 60 or more, so we have a lot of food left over.

I was surprised at the gifts Lauren received. She's definitely spoiled, and so I am. I was so blessed to have my family and very good friends there celebrating with us.

I'll be sharing more pictures in the next few posts, so make sure you come back...

The Cake Pictures:











I've gotten the 'crafting bug' again... I hope to spend the next few days scrapbooking and all that good stuff. If I can keep from coughing on everything that is. I took Lauren to the dr. first thing monday morning, and she has RSV, basically it's a bad cold in infants. Well guess who she passed it on to? Yeppers, so I have been a coughing, sneezing, and wheezing, sleepless zombie the last couple of days. Other than a snotty nose, and little sleep, miss priss seems to be alright. SO I hope to get some of the 200 and something pictures we took at her birthday scrapped this week.

Along with that, I need to get ready to paint my sunday school room sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Well, I better get around and get something done before Levi gets home. Wish I had more to share, but I wouldn't want to bore you!

Shannon

Levi's Birthday and my chicken nugget thief

I know everyone is anxiously awaiting pictures from Lauren's first birthday... I am happy to announce they will be posted tomorrow.

For now, I will share pictures from Levi's birthday.



Lauren eating some yummy homemade ice cream...





Helping daddy with his presents...





After eating a good steak dinner, and yummy homemade ice cream, one would have thought that itty bitty Lauren would be full. While we were enjoying conversation at the dinner table, Lauren snuck into the diaper bag and found her chicken mcnuggets from earlier that day. She couldn't resist as you can see, and I of course had to take some pictures. It will make an adorable layout!



After dinner we rode with dad down to the barn for a late feeding...





Yes, her rear is wet... she decided for a quick drive in her Cozy Coupe before we left the house.





The greyhounds, Brittany and Black Dog wanted some lovin's

And last I thought I would hsare a picture of one of my Royal Palm turkey hens... out of four, the two hens are the only to survive. We will get some more toms later, but for now, these two make up the biggest of our poultry. You can google an image of Royal Palm Turkeys and see how beautiful they are.



Okay, more than likely tomorrow there will be birthday pictures posted, and lots of them.

For now, I'm off to bed, baby girl and I are both sick with terrible colds. Sorry for the puny post.

Lots of love!
Shannon

for these reasons... I create

This is a little something different... After losing my pictures and not knowing if I would get them back, I was working on scrapbook pages for Lauren's 1 year album ( I am soooo behind). Originally the two page layout was going to be about seeing her bubba again for the first time in about a month. Instead, after wanting to cry looking at these pictures, I realized how blessed I am to have every picture that I do. A lot of people don't take the time to capture everyday moments in their lives. I know for me, it's this warm fuzzy feeling (<---seriously? did I really just say that) to look at these pictures and know what we all looked like, how we smiled, how happy we were to be a family again. I seriously have this fear of one day not being able to remember these small moments in our life...

The journaling reads:

to remember a moment
to go back in time
to record those little things
that make up the everyday
and any day...

to watch their faces
as they look at a page,
see my pictures, and know my words

to express myself
through scrapbooking
and photography
and loving every minute of it

for you (on the picture of both of them)

for these reasons...

I create.

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I don't know if any of you ever read my comments, but grandma, who always posts wonderful comments, mentioned some things I failed to mention about Lauren. She looooves to move and push things around. She especially likes heavy objects, and anything challenging. While she likes me to read to her, she has to be in the mood. She doesn't like anything that keeps her still for too long. If it does she either finds a way to make it more action filled, or she moves on to something else. She pushes limits. You can say no, and no, and no, over and over again. It makes her no difference, she will try her darnedest to do it, get it, or whatever it may be... what I hope for me daughter is that shes keeps her independence and her will. I grew up very weak and always walked on. I didn't stand up for anything I felt. I didn't even find myself until after high school... I hope that both of my kids will stand on their two feet in this ever changing world, and know who they are and exactly what they want out of life.


In the meantime: I am getting busy with birthday celebration plans. I have got to finish her dvd this week, that keeps getting longer and longer. I swear! I don't know when to stop. I worked on the cupcake toppers. I'm sorry but I want it to be a surprise for my guests, so I won't post details until after the party.

My girlfriend and I had made plans to go see the movie, "The Women", came out this weekend. It was a very good movie, not what I thought though. Unfortunately for her, she won't know, she got called out to a doggie c-section. So I sat there with my other friend Amanda. We had a good time.

Well, I'm off to the dentist. I'll post pictures of Lauren later.