Norwegian Dinner

Alright, I decided to finally buckle down and update my blog a little. I need to just do it consistently and it would be so much easier! Anyway, November has been so fun...here's just a few of the things we've been up to! (besides getting all of Jake's nursing school stuff in order. Did I mention he got in and we're totally stoked? I think I did but, it's definitely not boring news to us yet... )
First thing's first. I've been doing a few crafts. 'tis true. Here's one of the fun ones I did. This one I did with my sister-in-law Lindsay. They were SO fun and mighty cute if I may say so myself. AND my sisters and I are going to make presents using blocks of wood like this for a craft for next month. I hope they turn out good!

Here's the next craft. This one my sisters, mom, and sister-in-laws did. We've started doing Craft days once a month. This one went by so fast and was so fun! My sister-in-law Rachel has a cricut that cuts out vinyl letters and it worked SO well. THANKS RACH!!! I think it's fun to take pictures after we're done cuz they all turn out so different!

Ok, This next picture just cracked me up. Jake was getting Londyn ready for church the other day and I heard him giggling so I went in to see what was up. This is what I found. Londyn thought it was pretty funny too. She was pulling some funny faces at me.

Alright, here is a picture of one of our little adventures while John and Leslie and the girls were here. We went up to the ranch one day and roasted hot dogs and hung out. It was so fun. Jake and I love going up to the ranch. This picture is of Sophia. She is the sweetest little gal. It was so fun to watch her at the ranch. The other kids were jumping a bunch of the tractors and once they were done, Sophia walked into the mess and started playing with them. Londyn and I were the only other people in the room and I had a great time just watching her play.

This next picture is Londyn sitting in Avri's princess chair. As you can see, Londyn was having a blast. She thought she was pretty neat.

Here is another fun day we had while John and Leslie were here. We went up to the college to the Planetarium. Jake's grandma and grandpa set it up and it was really fun. I think I walked away from it feeling pretty special. It's neat to think that there is galaxy after meteor after planet, etc... out there but, Heavenly Father still knows me personally and I am still just as important to him. Pretty neat to think about.

Afterward we went to Coldstones and topped the night off with a delectible little treat!

Here is yet another adventure we had. The Norwegian/pre-Thanksgiving Dinner.

I look forward to this EVERY year! John and Leslie make a mean Norwegian dinner. It's always SO yummy! I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the food or tables but here is Londyn and her cousins in their adorable Norwegian outfits. Londyn thought she was pretty cool hanging out with the older cousins. It was so fun to see Sophia and Isabel with her too. They were so good with her. Isabel would always hold her so softly and Sophia would come and talk in her sweet little voice to her.

We did lots more fun stuff and yet again, I was horrible about taking my camera and taking pictures. Hopefully this will suffice!

P.S. I took the leap. Bought me some skinny pants. yup, me. I'm proud of myself. and I think they're cute. Jake does too.

P.P.S. This past week Jake has been on a cooking streak. Saturday while I was out doing crafts he made a bunch of pickled eggs....MIGHTY tasty. But apparently, they're a little strong for Londyn's liking. He's also perfected how to make the most tender, juicy, yummy steak. I'm in food heaven over here!

slacking? ...yes...

So...we've had quite a few couple of weeks. Jake's sister Leslie and her husband and kids were here from Norway and boy did we have fun with them and the rest of the family. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon but, for now I just thought I'd put up a little somethin about my baby girl. She is SIX MONTHS. Sad day. That went WAY too fast. But, I must say, she gets more fun with each day. Her personality is blossoming as well as her stubborness at times but, I'll take it all. She is so fun!

I haven't written any of her new tricks very much lately but, here's what she's up to:

• She Rolls everywhere...it's essentially her crawl!!
• says "dadda" no "mama" yet...yes, it makes me sad but, it's fun to see that it makes Jake happy to hear dadda
• she is trying SO hard to crawl, she'll get in the crawling position and then after rocking back and forth, she'll finally fall on her belly and then scoot from there.
• she eats lots of solids and loves feeding herself. She also puts anything and everything in her mouth.
• She has the cutest little giggle still. The other day I was holding her and she fell asleep and then started giggling in her sleep and it was so adorable.
• she loves sitting up all the time or riding her rocking horse
• she pulls herself up onto furniture or my leg now. She's one strong little gal!
• She loves having company around and watching other kids.

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. She is getting so smart though. I love seeing how things just click. I've always thought she was smart and the doctor told me at her six month that she is "extremely mature" for her age. He said she has developed "outstandingly." I'm pretty proud of her! Anyway here's her six month stats...

Head: 17 inches (can't remember the percentile...I think about 80%)

Height: 27 1/2 inches 100 percentile. She's ALWAYS been high in the height center

Weight: 17 1/2 lbs. I think it was the 77 percentile.

She had three shots in her legs and then one vaccine in her mouth. She did really well! I sure love her and am thankful to have her as part of our family!

I went to the cutest little...

tea party today!

I seriously had so much fun! It was at a little house called the Stillwater Mansion.
It was 111 years old! And "Miss Tanya" has kept it so nice and neat.
AND "Miss Tanya" called me "Lady Lauren" and Londyn "Miss Londyn"
She was such a colorful fun lady. She dressed us up in cute hats, pearls, feathers and gloves.

I know that it was supposed to be for the little ones.
But I'm pretty sure I had just as much fun.

Here's the whole gang.

Here's all the sisters/sister-in-laws dressed up.

Like I said. I had a blast with these gals.

This next picture just does not do my outfit justice, it was pretty classy. :)

Here's the girls all dressed up. Pretty darn cute!

'09er Halloween

So..this year Halloween was SO fun! Jake's sister and brother-in-law and their adorable little girls have been here from Norway. And every year when they come down, we have a big Halloween party.

It gets pretty intense to say the least.

This year the night before Halloween we decided to go to Boo at the Zoo.
I think it's safe to say that we all froze,
but had a good time doing it! I will say that I felt a little odd trick-or-treating again...(for Londyn of course :]) but like I said, there was plenty of fun had.



After Boo at the Zoo, Jake, Londyn and I went to the London Cafe. We've become fans of the little place ever since we had a hilarious waiter with a thick accent. He told us he was planning on naming his little girl Hermoine like off Harry Potter. He said it EXACTLY how they say it on the movie. Cracked me up. He was sure that they thought of it first though. Anyway, here's a picture of Jake and I. I sure like him! It's been a while since we've had one with just us in it!


Sidenote: I took this picture the other day. Londyn LOVES this little horse Grandpa made for her! When she was on it the other day she grabbed onto the ears and pulled herself up into standing position. I thought it was pretty darn cute.



Then Saturday was full of prepping for Jake's family's halloween party. There was lots of sewing, lots of snipping at wigs, lots of styling wigs, lots of combing wigs, lots of face makeup, boofy hair, and body suits and then finally we were ready! But seriously...I am still finding wads of wig around my house. ugh...human hair is bad but, wig hair that's fifteen times as thick is just disgusting. It was worth it thought cuz Jake made an Awesome Michael Jackson!
{So I was actually supposed to look like one of the girls from the Thriller video, but then we found this awesome jumpsuit at the D.I. and I obviously HAD to use it! It fit the time period perfect. But I ended up looking like dejavu for a few of you out there. Remind anyone of their junior high/high school pictures?? hee hee... Or like Jake's sis Laura says, an 80's dance video girl. or something to that effect.}

Call me a lazy mom but, I just think Londyn's tutu is too cute not to use. So Londyn was a ballerina this year. But, a darn cute one at that!


Here's the whole fam- I'm telling you, these people don't mess around!

I thought this was funny. Jake was rubbing Londyn's back during the party and she sat there and soaked it up for all it was worth! She lasted about fifteen minutes or so. Impressive, eh?

John and Leslie did a fish pond. They've done one every year but, I FINALLY got to participate in it a little! Londyn caught some cute little toys. John and Leslie have spoiled her and all the other little kids since they've been here!

My family usually goes bowling and out to pizza Halloween night. However, my parents had stake conference and my mom had to talk at the adult meeting Halloween night. SO, instead we went on Monday for FHE AND halloween. Needless to say, I stunk. But, at the twenty five cent machines, there was one that had fake mustaches in it. HAHAHAHAHA...makes me giggle just the thought of it...who would've thought to put up a quarter machine with fake mustaches??? Anyway, a few of the boys couldn't resist. My nephew Jason started it and I couldn't resist getting a picture of them all with their fake mustaches. for about all of the men/boys in the picture, this is about as close as they'll get to getting facial hair. hee hee hee...JUST KIDDING of course!

complete and utter relief...

jake got in!!!

to the nursing program, that is,

he's worked his tail off

..and i've been so proud of him..

long nights,

long classes,

endless studying,

gory pictures,

gory clinicals,

big confusing words,

big confusing books....

here we come!!!

congrats jake!

i heart you!

Crafts, Crafts, Crafts...

So today I made this with Kate. (Jake says to tell everyone it's a wreath. Hopefully you could tell that from the picture.) Mine is the one on the right. It was a pretty fun little project. Feel free to stop by and see it on the door!

ALSO

Feel free to check this out!!

As of Late...

We've been doing some pretty fun stuff lately. Here's just a little peek at it all.

Jake's been hunting lately...of course... so Londyn and I have been trying to keep entertained. Here's a picture of one of the weekends when we were out at my mom's house for Friday night and most of Saturday. This is what it's like out there when we go. Londyn gets all the attention! I think it's cute. Luckily we'll be having two more little ones in the family next May!!! So...hopefully she won't get too spoiled before then! This is my dad and all my brothers except Porter. Sure like these men!!! My dad just got surgery done on his shoulder but there was NO WAY that was stopping him from loving on Londyn...

Last Sunday we went up to Jake's Grandparent's Ranch for a family get together. There was a good turnout of people and an awesome turnout on the food!!! Grace and Avri were there to prove it...

Thursday my mom told me that two of my cousins were playing against eachother in a volleyball game. She said she mentioned it to her mom and then her mom and dad got a wild hair to drive four hours to come watch! Pretty sweet of them! Anyway, my grandma came over to see the house on their way and I wanted to get a picture of her with Londyn and then I realized that there were four generations of women so, we did a four generation pic. Wish I would've thought before hand and I might have even got ready for it!!! :) Can you tell Londyn definitely looks like her dad in this picture or what?!?!

Yesterday I had my sisters, mom, and sisters-in-law come over and we did these cute little pumpkins for a "craft friday." I saw them at my mother-in-law's house. Her and a few of my sister-in-laws had done them. I thought they were adorable so we did our own. Had some creative turn out!

Like I said before...Jake's been hunting. Today he went up to Gilmore in hopes of getting something up there. So obviously Londyn and I have been hanging out. She's started doing this cheesy face that cracks me up. This collage doesn't do justice to how cute it is! P.S. did I mention that she's rolling over from back to belly AND belly to back?? She's also eating lots of new foods. Getting SO much personality. It's SO fun!!!

And...I miss my man. Here's just a little snipit of why I like him so much. We always have this much fun together!!!