Just some more pictures for your viewing pleasure

I just thought I would add some more pictures from the last week or two:

A couple of pictures from our trip to Amarillo earlier this month when we dropped Hunter off. We stopped by Cavendars Boot City on the way home and got Lauren her first pair of boots and a pink hat. I have a surprise in store for later:




This is a picture of my little copy cat. She found the old duck call and grandma's house. So I thought it would be funny to blow it and scare her... only it didn't work, and after I gave up and handed it back to her, she looked at it, looked at me, and decided to try it as well! She's learning by leaps and bounds:



This is another cute thing she does lately... she puts objects in boxes or her truck and pushes them around. This day it was the baby inside a book box. At home the other night it was a pink pig in the back of the yellow Tonka truck:





She also got to try her first cupcake. It's practice for her upcoming birthday! She had so much fun with that cupcake. (In picture number three, she is offering some to papa who came in to see the fun):







Finally, Papa brought a little car by that the other kids all played in over the years. She was so fascinated with it. She just played and played in it, on it, around it:

Devestating Loss at the Fry House...

No, no one died or got hurt, but something died... my computer... along with ALLLLLLL of my pictures and video.

Now those that know me, know that I am not a half*ss person when it comes to my computer and precious pictures. I did have everything backed up on an external hard drive. And guess what? It died too!

So what happened you ask? Well, last week I started noticing problems with my main computer, and thought I better back it up and get it ready to go to the computer guy. While backing everything up, the internal drive transferred a bad sector to the external thus leading to it's departure as well. Only I didn't know this until AFTER we cleaned the main computer off and deleted everything. I was fortunate to have backed up Lauren's baby pictures, birth videos, and such to my laptop, but that's it.

So at this very moment, I am hoping that my drives have reached their destination at Temple Texas to be 'operated on' and see if my files are recoverable. This doesn't come at a cheap price either! $400-$600 dollars to be honest. So I have a couple of photography jobs coming up and I hope to make enough money to help pay for these precious memories retrieval.

With that said, all else is well here... I am posting a few pictures of recent that I just happened to not delete off my camera:



Just a couple of pictures from Vacation Bible School




Driving lessons with dad! The last picture is my favorite, he was whispering in her ear. The funny part is when I try to take her away from him, she clings to him for dear life!!!





And last but not least, we spent a few minutes down at the barn with the boys before they went coon hunting. Hunter introduced 'Gator' and 'Sally' to Lauren. She was quite fascinated with the dogs and the way Hunter talked to them. She listened so intently to everything Hunter said.

Oh! We will be walking any day, we are trying right now!!!

She turns loose of things, and if she doesn't think about it she'll let go and go to take a step, suddenly realize what she's doing and immediately plop down. She is still scared, and not quite understanding of what's going on. But she does know she wants to move, she just hasn't figured out the key ingredients.

Also on the 'Lauren Front', she has been extremely fussy and cranky the last few days. I checked to see if she might be getting another tooth in. I didn't see one, but a few days later, I felt towards the back of her lower gums and felt a tooth sticking out. So we are skipping all the front ones, and are now getting our far back teeth that we aren't supposed to get until between 14-18 months. But ofcourse like her mommy, she just can't wait on things!

Other than that, we are planning a huge BBQ in honor of the princess and her one year birthday coming up! I am planning on about 25-35 guests, most adults, a few children to attend a cookout that will be for her birthday, Levi's birthday, and our 4 year anniversary.

With all of that said, I guess I will go for now, and I will post something as soon as I know on the file/data recovery.

DON'T forget, if you hate checking the blog with no new posts, I can set you up to receive instant notification so you don't have to wonder. Just shoot me an email or a comment! Thanks everyone!

After the fourth...

On Saturday, the day after the Fourth Celebration, we mosied on down to the lake to meet up with some of Levi's kind folks. We had a really good time. Hunter got to go out on the boat and ride the tube. It was quite comical as he had a rough time. It started out okay, but the lake was rough, and as soon as we got up to speed, things got a little bumpy for him. His little legs just flew everywhere! Then, he somehow shifted, and he started taking water inside the tube... thats when we stopped.





After the boat, we joined back at the campsite for some really good food and some of grandma's homemade ice cream. We gave Lauren a taste and once she figured out how good that stuff was, she was literally grabbing the bowl and trying to drink from it.





Here is a picture of me and the 'J' man in the backseat of the car, on our way to Cordell.



Ok, so we are going to travel back in a time a little bit. Just a few pictures I wanted to share. First is Lauren in the car on one of our recent trips to Hereford Texas. She 'learned' how to play peek-a-boo... she pulled her blanket up over her head, while we all said "Where's Lauren???"... then she would suddenly jerk it down, and we'd say, "There she is!!!!". That was followed with giggles and then she's do it all over again.

The other picture shows her sleepiness and how she 'sucks' on her thumb. She only does this when she is really tired, and she rarely ever actually sucks on it at all.




This is a really cute picture of a friend's little boy and Lauren at their cookout... His daddy and Levi were pretty good buds during high school (read: got into a lot of trouble together), and we jokingly warn the couple that their son will not be allowed to date our daughter! and vice versa... watch us eat our words in about 16 years! ha!



Finally, somethings about Lauren and what she's doing now... Her Aunt Sarah bought her this awesome garden play center for a whopping $2 bucks! And I must say for only $2, it's in excellent condition! Lauren just absolutely loves it! She loves to open and shut the gate repetitively.






Lauren also is now:

• clapping her hands
• waves bye-bye a lot better
• fake coughs (all-the-time!)
• loves to open cabinets doors, drawers, anything that will open and shut
• mimics us

Other than that, not too much else to report. Check back in a few days, I will be posting a cute video of her and her pepper/fry fits!

Hope all is well!

let's play catch up!

Ok, so I gotta play catch up since it's been almost a month since I have posted. I apologize to my blog watchers and friends for not posting nor visiting your blogs (I'll be checking in and posting comments as soon as I completely get this blog posted). I just absolutely haven't had much time... Those of you with kids can understand I'm sure. Plus it didn't help that since my surgery life has just been busy overall!

So the next couple of posts are to catch you all up on what's been going on...

Starting with July 2nd, these pics are too cute. I had a dowel rod in the front yard I picked up at the local lumber yard to fix one of her outside toys with. She had more fun with that dowel rod, than she probably has with the toy that needs to be fixed!

Also here are some pics after the fun with the dowel rod, we went to grandma's house and sat out in her yard with a snowcone... mmmmmmmm!

She is so dang cute!!! I just can't get over how much cuteness pours out of my darling daughter... really, I'm not biased at all! I know there are cute kids all in the world, but mine is the cutest! hahahah!

The next day, we were down at the barn, and Pa had the tractor out. So the kids played for just a minute on it... they were worn out, can't you tell?

Then of course, the next day was the Wonderful Fourth of July Celebration... even though our small community continues to diminish, our 4th Celebration stays strong. Every year the festivities include pet, talent, and horseshoe contests, a turtle race, a parade down main street, bingo, free swimming, and a street dance to top the night off. This year Hunter and Levi decided to ride Festus in the parade... I seriously had my doubts, they didn't come up with the term 'Stubborn as a mule' for no reason. But I was pleasantly surprised by him. In fact Levi said that the only two mules did better in the whole parade than the horses did.

Lauren enjoyed watching the parade and I think she was secretly wishing for someone to throw some candy to her!

The rest of our 4th was ok, we had a cookout at a friends house and finished the night with fireworks.

I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a while... however, I do have many more posts and lots of pictures to come, so make sure you check back!!!

We hope that everyone is well!

Shannon