Last Saturday was...

I'm still in complete denial that she is already four years old!! Next Sunday she will go to CTR 5!

Anyway, I thought I'd better get her birthday post up before the end of the year-- tomorrow :P

Back in September, we went to the Inside Scoop for my birthday and ever since then, Allie has been asking to go again for her birthday. So of course we took her! She got a hot dog and pink icecream. What else could a little girl ask for?

A movie too!!

After lunch at "The Icecream Store" Dustin and I took her on a date to the movies!

We saw the Princess and the Frog. It was waaaaaayy cute. Allie loved it. I loved it. And Dustin said he loved it too. I think he just loved being out with his girls!

after the movie we came home and had a party!

Allie got lots and

and had lots and

I'm sure I'll be back next year at this time blogging about how I can't believe she is already 5... but its true! Time really is flying. Allie is growing up into a beautiful little girl and I can't stop her!! Before I know it she'll be going away to school or getting married and I'll be like the dad on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, "Why you want to leave me?"

So I'll just treasure her lugs and kisses and be happy with the fact that she still climbs in bed with us every night!

Love you soooooo much little girl!

Christmas Time

December has come and gone so fast my head is still spinning! It was a great month filled with fun.

Some of our Christmas highlights were...

The whole first grade put on a Christmas program. They each took turns saying lines from The Night Before Christmas and they dazzled us with their Christmas Caroling!

Holiday baking! This year the kids jumped right in to help decorate the sugar cookies. They did really good and only took a bite out of a few. ;)
I even tried making fudge this year. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! I think we watched A Christmas Story too many times though because Allie kept calling it "Oh, FUDGE!"

One of our family's Christmas traditions is to read Christmas stories every night by the Christmas tree. We read from our Christmas Countdown book, The Grinch, The Night Before Christmas and lots others but our favorite is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! We also watch Christmas movies and fall asleep in front of the tree almost every night.

Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family. We always have a huge Hardy Party with my Grandpa Glen's brothers and sisters and their families. Its quite the ta-do, matching shirts and all! The night of Christmas Eve we had a delicious steak dinner at Grandpa Glen and Grandma Shirley's. We played the white elephant game and that crazy game where you roll dice and when you get a certain number you put on gloves, a hat and scarf and try to unwrap a present with forks. We got a little crazy!! Back at our house we unwrapped our Christmas PJ's and read the Christmas story from the Bible.

Christmas morning the kids woke up to lots of fun things! No trampoline this year.. but Allie got a Princess table from Santa and the boys got a Cars play tent {among other things!!}.

But I think Mark was the most spoiled this year. He got a tractor for Christmas! Isn't he the cutest??! Someone needs to break it to him that cowboys don't have binkies. Any volunteers?

Here we are in our Christmas PJ's. They boys got Transformers jammies and the girls got Pink jammies!

We had a very Merry Christmas. We truely felt the spirit of love and giving. Allie was great to remind us that it was her and Jesus' birthday!

I hope we can all carry the Christmas feeling with us throughout the year!!

HAPPY {almost} NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy Birthday Allie!!!

On this day in 2005 Allie was born!!

 

2006 - 1st Birthday

2007 - 2nd Birthday

2008 - 3rd Birthday

2009 - 4th Birthday

I cannot believe it has been four years since that cold and rainy day in Reno when she was born.

Allie has grown up into a beautiful little preschooler!

She is a delight to have in our family.

She is daddy's sunshine and mommy's little helper!

We love you Allie!!!

P.S. Christmas pictures and more birthday pictures will be posted soon!

Its a really good thing he's cute...

Mark has had some... um.. *tummy troubles* on and off for the past two weeks.
I'll spare the gory details but I'll just say his #2 has been more like #1.

Yesterday after cleaning up yet another mess, switching to lactose free milk and pounding down Pedialite.. I finally took him to the doctor.

When I called they asked me to bring a sample diaper to the appointment. I thought ok, cool they are gonna check it out and fix him right up.

WRONG.

They checked everything.. no fever, no strep, no cough, no runny nose, no rash.. no nothing..
Sooooo...
They gave me a tube and told me to take it home and fill it with Mark's *samples* and bring it back to be tested.
Gross. Gross. Double Gross.

Well the next time Mark did the dirty I attempted to acquire some *samples*.
Mark watched me as I umm.. worked, he pointed at me and then pointed to the diaper and then he pointed at me again.. then he shook his head and said, "EEEEWWWW!"

Yes, son... ew. But I'm doing this because I love you and want you to get better.

The things mom's do for their kids.

Its a really good thing he's cute.

Anyway.. I hope the test comes back with happy results and Mark just has some tummy troubles.
Keep your fingers crossed.

Cuz, I really don't want to do that again.

Christmas Music

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!"


That's what I woke up to yesterday...

When Grandma Gaye went on her mission she let us borrow one of her keyboards for the kids to practice on.

Allie loves play it all day long!
Lately she's been playing Christmas music.

Sometimes it gets a little loud and I ask her to turn down the volume and
once she said, "I'm playing Jingle Bells and singing to Jesus, he has to hear me!"

She even sports little feetie jammies while she plays.

Hopefully she didn't inherit my ear for music.. or lack of one that is!

Thanks for letting us borrow your keyboard Grandma!

Maybe when you get home from Texas Allie will be ready for lessons!!

What Does Lauren Love?

Well hellooooooo my friends.

I am happy.
I have a fire in my fireplace, I just ate a cookie and the laundry is all folded.
My husband will be home from work soon and my kids are playing happily in the next room.

What could be better?

Not much!

I'm super happy about some other things too!!
Want to know what they are? Here goes...

in list form of course. Its just how I roll.

1. My Funky New Christmas-y Blog Look
I wasn't ever super happy with my last design. I'm not sure I'm totally in love with this one either.. but we'll try it on for size. Its colorful and fun. Just like me.. "I'm not crazy, I'm colorful!" If you can name the movie that came from I'll give you 10 cool points!

2. This Book

I am dumbstruck by the awesome-ness of this book. I literally could not put it down for a week. I cooked with it, I slept with it, I ate with it... and so on.
Its all about the missionaries who were called to the Hole in the Rock settlement. It follows about a twenty year span.. from the main character David living in England, working in the coal mines at age 6 to him coming to American, falling love and gaining a testimony of the Church.
Read it, you'll love it.

3. This Book

Do you have little boys? Do they always wake up with cowlick hair?
Well I do and yes.
In this book we find out how little boys get cowlicks at night.. well from a cow of course!
I think I'm going to get it for Mark for Christmas.

4. I sewed!!
Don't mention how crazy I look in this picture.. I know.. it was late at night.
See the cute little black ruffle at the bottom of this super cute dress? I added it!!
The dress was too short, so I fixed it right up! Modest is hottest, you know!

5. The Temple

Ok, you caught me... the dress is my sisters. I want it really bad though. I made it modest for her, so she could wear it to the temple! Ashley went through the temple for the first time last Friday and she's getting married tomorrow!

6. My Hair
I got my hair done the other day. And I loooooove it. I'm so blond. I joked and said I look like Lucius Malfoy, but after looking at this picture, I've decided I'm way cuter than Mr. Mean ol' Malfoy.. I'm just similarly as blond.


7. Iron Man
Yes, I think I'm the last person on Earth to watch this movie. But I thought it was really good. It was just the right amount of cheesy-ness and action mixed in. Plus when we were watching it Dustin looked over at me and said,
"What's that guys name?"
"Robert Downey Jr."
"Really? I like his Christmas music."
"BAAHAAAHAHAAA HAA! You're thinking of Harry Connick Jr!"
"Oh. Shut up."
(not the Iron Man)

8. This Movie

Speaking of Rob Downey Jr... I want to see this movie. Anybody else?

9. An Award

My super cool, hot mama blogging friend Connie gave me this fun award! Thanks girl!!!

10. This Picture

OK... so this picture doesn't make me happy but it does make me laugh!

I hope the holiday season is making you happy and not stressing you out!

The End.

Dear John

In the movie, Stranger Than Fiction, Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman (two of my favorite actor, by the way) are discussing literature. Dustin Hoffman, who is a literature professor tells Ferrell that there are basically two different types of books -- comedy and tragedy. When Will Ferrell asks what that means, Hoffman replies, "In a comedy you get the girl, in a tragedy you die."

The latter pretty much sums up Dear John for me. No, John doesn't die, but he might as well have. Nicholas Sparks writes the saddest, true to life, no sparkling, no fluff books. And apart of me loves that about him and a part of me absolutely hates it!

Dear John is about two young people who fall in love. John Tryee is a soldier on leave from Germany who meets Savannah Curtis, a do-gooding hottie. They fall head over heals in love after John rescues her purse from the Ocean. When John's leave is up they keep in contact through letters. But the time apart is hard on both of them. Just before John is scheduled to be released from the Army, 9/11 hits and he reenlists. Separating him from Savannah for two more long years. So, life happens and life sucks sometimes... and I'm not going to ruin the ending for you (more than I already have) so let's just leave it at that.

I'm still going to see the movie though... cuz holy Channing Tatum. I love your face and your abs.

Happy {or sad, whatever} Reading.

Then End

Its beginning to look a lot like...

We've been ready for Christmas since September when Allie started begging to watch Elf and the the the THE Grinch. And now, finally its Christmas time!!!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we busted out the big ol' box of Christmas goodness... making a huge mess of the living room in the process.

Dustin got all Clark Griswold on me!

We watched Frosty the Snowman

Pretended to be Rudolph!

Hung lights on the house

and sang "Santa Claus is coming to Town" the whole time we decorated... but I don't think Mark got the message.

On Saturday we chopped down our Christmas tree!! It was sooooo flippin' cold.

Allie didn't mind though! Neither did Estefan, but he was to far away to get a picture.. I didn't want to stray to far from the nice warm truck!

Mark and I got out of the truck for a minute but we hurried and got back in!

Family picture.. oh so sweet!

The kids did most of the decorating. So all of the ornaments are on the lower half of the tree and many are on a single branch. But we like it that way ;)

Hooray for Christmas!!

Happy decorating!!!

Have you ever wondered....

what was Edward doing, in his 100 years as an immortal, before he met Bella?


I just about died when I saw these pictures!

You can find the original ones and more here.

1. Worked.. even Vamps gotsta make a living

2. Watched a Movie

3. Kicked it with Marilyn {ain't no thang}

5. Was just another Beatles fan...

6. Went to Woodstock.. of course.

7. Jammed with Kurt

P.S. I loved New Moon. For a review go here or here. These girls said it better than I ever could.

P.S.S. I'm seeing New Moon again tomorrow. Oh, yeah.. I'm that cool.