Christmas Morning Pictures

Jay doesn't have too many battles he's willing to wage, so it always surprises me when he chooses seemingly random things to have a strong opinion.

I discovered one of these disagreements on Christmas morning when I preferred the Gollaher family option of having the children dressed and hair done (Lauren's too young to make her bed too) before opening presents so that the photos are cute. I "won" this year because Lauren didn't really know what was going on anyway.

I can see from my sisters' blogs of Christmas morning photos with scattered hair and jammies, that I am the only sibling partial to this tradition. Jay says its part of the memories to have photos in pjs and knotted hair and sleep-deprived eyes.

Help us solve this before next year. Your thoughts?

Christmas Day 2009

We have enjoyed our time in Chicago with plenty of Chloe-Lauren play time and stuffing our faces with Ann-Marie's exceptional cooking. Christmas was no exception. Lauren has enjoyed playing with Chloe's toys, especially the blocks and dollies. We had Lauren open a necklace and a Tigger and Pooh coloring book Christmas morning (light, easy-to-pack presents). She also received a dinosaur movie from Santa. She will enjoy her dollie and stroller from Fof and Grandpa and her picnic table from Barnums when we get home. Mom and Dad also got her a tent with play tunnel.

I made eggs benedict for Christmas morning to carry on the Gollaher tradition and we have enjoyed Hansen traditions of chocolate fondue and Grinch (split pea) soup.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Racing

Chicago Snow

Knowing there would be snow in Chicago (in fact, it really hasn't stopped snowing for a week), we brought snow stuff for Lauren. She enjoyed going out with Ian and Max. At first, she wasn't sure about walking in it (and her boot kept falling off), but once she got the hang of walking in the snow, she was running around having a great time. Here's some shots:

Early Christmas

With the family heading to Chicago for Christmas, we were able to get some early holiday activities in.

Lauren opening Fofa and Grandpa's gift at the family Christmas dinner. The dinner was beautiful and delicious. It was fun to see Lauren open the gift so carefully, small piece, by small piece. Finally we tore off a big chunk so she could speed up the process for the anxiously awaiting older cousins who had to wait for her to finish before they could have their turn. We are excited to play with her new dolly set when we get home. She has been enjoying playing with the same one that Chloe got.


Nuie, Claire and Fof hanging out waiting for everyone to arrive for dinner.
The next day, we went to Breakfast with Santa at Thanksgiving Point. The crafts were for kids a little older than Lauren, but she LOVED playing in this sled. She wouldn't go near Santa or Mrs. Claus, so maybe next year we'll do a picture.

We couldn't leave Thanksgiving Point without going to Farm Country and having a pony ride. It wasn't as cold as it looks here. She wanted to ride "again, again."
We didn't bother with a tree or anything this year, so any presents were opened as they arrived. Lauren loved the blanket from Annette. Again, she had to unwrap it small piece by small piece. We haven't set up her picnic table yet from the Barnums, but are sure she will love it too.

More Smarty-Pants Moments

So I have no reference, but we think Lauren is brilliant.

Yesterday in the car we were listening to her primary songs CD (if I haven't mentioned it before, Lauren MUST have her songs on in the car at all times) and the piano intro came on for one and she said "piano." We've never pointed out instruments in songs before, but she plays piano with mommy and Grandpa.

Also, in the last couple of days she has started forming verbs and nouns together into almost sentences. And to make you other mothers even more jealous of our genius child, she is an angel at bedtime too. When we say "let's get your jammies on," she runs to her room and says "rock" and "sleep" and then "bed" after we've sung some songs and said prayers and lays right down with her animals and blanket without a peep. This is at 7:30 by the way.

She has her moments, but we are so blessed to have such a smart cutie.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving this year in Reno with Becca and Phil and fam. Lauren was mostly good on the drive there and back and the scenery was breathtaking - NOT!

Bec and I cooked and it was truly the best turkey I've ever done. The trick I learned on the Food Network is to not use the pop-up timer that comes with the turkey, but a meat thermometer to know when to take it out. Otherwise, it gets overdone because the turkey manufacturers don't want the liability of the pop-up coming up before it's done. So try that next year if your turkey is always dry.

Other menu items included mashed potatoes, yams (which I got Bec to eat with me), stuffing (in the turkey), cranberry slush, gravy, cranberry-apple relish, Grandma Long's rolls and plenty of apple and pumpkin pie.

It was so fun to hang out, play Wii, do after Thanksgiving shopping, watch Lauren play with cousins Kaylin and Zach-Zach and all their fun toys and also interact with new baby Jared. Bec even watched Lauren so we could go to the temple. I'd never been to a small temple and it was very efficient:). Thank you Bec and Phil! You are welcome at our house any time.

Becca posted more photos and info on her blog, http://phillipandrebecca.blogspot.com/

Becca had crafts for the kids to do. Lauren loved her hat.

The spread

Eating, I mean, carving the turkey.

We wore our new aprons hand sewn by Fof.

Tiara's Wedding

Little T is married! We went to the dinner reception last night and were so excited to share our well-wishes with her. She looked beautiful. Josh and her looked so happy too. Jay bought Lauren a new dress at Costco for the occasion that is quite princessy. Lauren kept playing with the tueling all night. Here are some fun photos. I didn't get any of the bride and groom. Maybe Nuie did, so check her blog.

Lauren loves playing the "panno."

Four generation photo.

Trying to grab the cake with Fof.

She used the possessive form of Fofa as we came close to her house yesterday. Typically as we come up the hill she just says Fofa, but yesterday it was Fofa's, Fofa's. I couldn't believe it.

Lauren Spells Her Name

Before bed each night we like to spell Lauren's name with her. We've been doing this for a while, so she started saying it with us. She is most fond of the "l," which she now points out everytime we pass one on a sign or building. Such a smarty-pants.

Animal Sounds

This was just before bed tonight. She's been doing animal sounds for a while, so I decided to capture it on film. My favorite is the fish.

Family Pictures

We went and got family pictures taken at JC Penny's (yeah Phil) this week before I get too fat. Lauren was so responsive and smiled cute in every one. The family photos were not great. Jay was in a weird shadow for some of them and I still looked fat in all of them. My assessment, they take great kid photos, not so much on the family photos (sorry Phil).

Trick-or-Treater Trauma

We hope Lauren is not traumatized for life.

We took her trick-or-treating and it may as well have been the doctor's office. Sure, she thought it was fun to dress as a cow and say "moo," and she loved her pumpkin ("punt-kin") and running around the neighborhood; however, the going up to the doors to beg for treats was a different story. She had a complete meltdown at the first house and by the fifth house of her crying at the door and holding on to me or dad for dear life, we were done. I don't think she understood they were giving her treats, but she was still polite and through her crying still said thank you ("oh-do"). I'm sure she'll catch on next year.

Post Trick-or-Treat:

We came home and enjoyed time with Claire and Nu-Nee who had come up to join in the fun. Lauren had a hard time sharing her toy basket with Claire, who had climbed in. Lauren decided to climb in with her, which I thought was really cute. She read a book to Claire while she was in there and let her chase her down the hall later, so all was well.

Speaking of sharing, I went to Lauren's pumpkin later that night to take a piece of her candy, and discovered Jay re-gifted it to the trick-or-treaters. Share and share alike.

Pre-Trick-0r-Treating:

Before trick-or-treating we showed off her costume and had a fabulous steak dinner at Shaunie and Bart's house. The cousins posed with Lauren in their costumes. Painho/DAd, who was there, suggested we put Brett's costume photo on his mission application. Happy 50th birthday to Bart too.

Before Halloween:

On Friday I had my work potluck where we do a costume contest. I won last year. This year, I decided to use it as an opportunity to go ahead and tell the group my growing secret. With my work in transportation, I decided to accentuate my belly and be a speed bump. I wore all black and put yellow stripes across my belly. Then I had a speed bump sign on my head. I guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought it would be and I ended up having to explain it. At least now I won't have to choose my wardrobe as carefully.

Hope you all had a great Halloween. On to the next hyped-up, commercialized holiday.

Lauren the Blog Star

Check out my photographer friend's new Web site that gives step-by-step tutorials for creating cool effects in Photoshop and other photo tips: http://www.myphotographica.com. She used one of Lauren's first snow photos (see last post) to demonstrate some techniques this week.

She is the same photographer who took the new baby and one-year shots of Lauren. I wish I could afford her all the time. She is the difference between taking a photo and capturing a moment. I highly recommend her.

First Snow

Lauren enjoyed the first snow of the season with Fof who snapped some photos of her trying to catch the snow. We look forward to more snow days this year - especially building a snowman, which is Lauren's favorite song right now.

Play Date at the Park

Our friend Allison and her two cute little boys agreed to not only take Lauren for a play date yesterday, but hauled them all to the park. Lauren was in heaven! She loves swings right now and freaks out when you take her off. When Jay arrived at the park to pick her up after class, he pushed her until she looked like she was falling asleep. She still threw a fit. We have to enjoy these brisk days while they last. Soon the swings won't be an option. Thank you Allison!

It's a...

Jay and I are so happy to announce we are having a baby boy! We wanted to wait to say something until we were half way and knew what it was so the wait would not be as long for the rest of you. We were blessed to have this one come to us naturally (a freebie:) and a complete surprise. Still not ready to tell work, but it's getting harder to hide the bump.

Our due date is March 16 - Lauren's same due date - but we'll have it a little earlier with a planned c-section. Lauren is excited too, she just doesn't know it yet. We're excited to add to the boy cousin bounty with Jared this month and Pick's boy in December. It will also be the first boy to carry on the Barnum name in Jay's immediate family.

waving "hi"

proof of gender

profile

19 Months

I haven't been as active a blogger lately and Lauren is getting so big. We completely missed 18 months all together picturewise, but sure enjoyed watching her grow even if it was pretty uneventful.

She is talking so much now and actual words. She loves books, outside ("side") and music ("sonns") especially action songs like Popcorn Popping, Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She always has to have music on in the car or at home or at Grandpa and Fof's or her DVD of children's songs. She knows many animal sounds, can say her name and many of her favorite foods and is a happy girl. She is so curious and is always asking "What is it?" and "What's that?" We're working on shapes and numbers right now. She's really a great parrot.

She loves playing with her friends Stirling and Monet when Jay's at school. She knows a lot of your names in her family book. She is really good in nursery at church and is learning to share.

She also comes and tells us "poopy" when she's poopy, so I'm looking for advice on if that means it's ready to potty train.

Highlights for Jay is that he started school at Weber State. He is studying engineering. The math is hard to get back into and he could do without his visual arts class (no one likes GEs), but we're so proud of him for doing it. He tries to get in a few shifts a week at the fire station, which will go toward paying for tuition and books each semester and Lauren's care while he's at class. He is a great daddy to Lauren the rest of the days and the two of them have fun while mommy's at work.

For me, I recently had the cool experience of singing in the special choir for the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. I'm loving my job and am coming up on two years the end of this month at my work. It's busy, but that's the way I like it. I'm also happy to have volleyball started up again.

We love our little family.

Jay's Projects

With the basement done, Jay was feeling anxious for a project. Luckily, he had a few requests. He tiled my boss' master bath and did some built in cabinets for Aunt Ruth. Here's some finished pictures: