The Family

The latest Family pictures that we had taken.  And they are already old.

Laura... she looks so angelic here.  Hidden... her horns.  : D

Scott wanted his picture taken this way.  Looking mighty studious there buddy.

Emily's blessing

Emily Jane McLauchlin was blessed on the 12th of June by her daddy, Jeff.

These are just a few of the pictures that my friend took of Emily in her beautiful blessing dress. All three of the girls have been blessed in this dress. It is so beautiful. I hope that one of them will want to use it for their girls.

I thought her cute bare little toes were darling. We love our darling little girl!!

My Birthday Weekend

We have had such a crazy weekend. So much has been going on.

First off on Friday we had a birthday party (finally) for Scott. Nothing like procrastinating (plus I only had a few things going on since the end of March). :D Well we finally did it and I think they had a great time. We had several boys over for dinner and cake. We did hot dogs for dinner. (High class dinner right there!) They could either have chili dogs or regular (with ketsup and mustard). I was surprised at how many liked the chili dogs. Yeay for cheep meals that make everyone happy!

After dinner we rushed right into dessert. Brownies with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Baby M&M's sprinkled all over it. Good stuff! I had some hot fudge sunday cake in the oven because that is really what Scott wanted but by the time I got done feeding Emily, changing her diaper, feeding her again and finally gave up and put her in the swing screaming, the cake was going into the oven late. It came out of the oven as the boys were running out the door to the $3 theater to watch Rango. Oh well, it didn't go to waste. I wish I could say the same thing with my waist. :D

Everyone had a great time. (I think Jeff did too.) Andrew was excited to be included in going to the movies with the big kids and I think that is what he wants to do for his birthday party this year. We made a deal with the kids that we would definitely do a "Friend" party on their odd year birthdays. (That way, I only have to stress about doing a party every other year.)

Saturday was my birthday and it dawned with the sun shining and the potential for temperatures in the upper 80's. We were not at all excited (typed with as much sarcasm dripping as I could manage) since all we have seen for a long time is nothing but rain. The kids were begging to swim (even though we warned them it would be cold) so after breakfast in bed, we packed a picnic and headed off to the lake.

We found a nice spot of shade close to the shore for Emily and me while the kids stripped down to their swim suits and went running to the water. After several deep breaths and some cold shock...

... everyone was in the water and having fun. :)

Jeff and I stayed in the shade for a little bit and enjoyed the beautiful day. There was a cute goose family with 8 goslings that were swimming around the lake. It was fun to watch them and the Osprey that was fishing in the lake.

After some coaxing from the kids, Jeff slowly made his way into the water and with his trusty side kicks, Scott and Amy, swam out to a dock floating in the middle of the lake. They had a great time jumping in and swimming.

Andrew and Laura stayed back at the beach and played.

Emily and I just lazed in the shade.

I just loved this picture of Jeff holding Emily.

Eventually everyone was tired and cold and it was time to head home. I think we could have stayed at the lake all day but Jeff and I had plans for dinner. We came home, cleaned up and Jeff and I went to dinner at Who Song and Larry's with some friends.

It was a GREAT day! (And I am glad to note, that I don't feel any older.) :D

Sir Scotty

Don't tell him that I posted him as "Scotty". He told me that I am the only one that can call him that but I am almost positive that others have called him that. But I guess as long as it isn't his friends (or his family in front of his friends) he is okay. :D

Scott is now 11 years old and he is okay with that because he is getting ready to go into Middle School. Yes! You read correctly. Middle School! I can hardly believe it... my baby boy is no longer in Elementary. It is such a strange thought that he is moving on. I remember going into Junior High and I KNOW I was so much older and more mature than I see him. Strange how a mothers view of her children tries to keep them little, helpless and dependent. Well at least some of the time. We of course are not counting the times that he is driving me nuts and I can hardly wait for him to "grow up!" But I don't think it will matter how old he gets... he will still be my baby boy.

Scott is really enjoying being in with the Scouts now. He had his crossing over ceremony in May, so now it is official that he is a BOY Scout. Not to be confused with a CUB Scout. :) I think there were some of the Pack meeting things that he really enjoyed (like treats) but hopefully he will get to have the occasional treat with the Scouts. He has added that as part of the Boy Scout Law... " A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, brave, thrifty, clean, and reverent. (and HUNGRY!!)" Funny how much like his father Scott is. I asked Jeff to recite for me the Law as I typed it, not knowing before hand that I was going to add Scott's addition at the end. Ya, didn't need to add it. Jeff did for me with a laugh. "We always added that at the end," he says with the twinkle in his eye that I just love. Those are my men! Hungry!!

Yup.... that's my Scotty! Glad to be growing up (complete with the occasional voice cracking when he yells for me), always hungry and goofy as ever! That's the way we love him!! :D

Our Amazing Amy

Yep... Our Amy is amazing!! She is an amazing helper. An amazing 3rd grader (holy crap!) An amazing chef. Amazing at pretty much everything she does. Yup... she is amazing!!

Amy loves to dance as you can tell by the picture of her dancing to my 90's hair band music on the iPod. :) The "rock on" sign always flashing as the music bumps. There is usually some karate kicks somewhere in her dance routine along with a bunch of ballet. :D

Amy also loves to bake! She made her own birthday cake! I am so glad she loves to do it. Especially with both Grandma and I hovering over her trying to teach her (at the same time) what she needed to do next. She was so very patient with us both. There silently humoring both of us as we passed on our baking knowledge. :D I finally took a step back and enjoyed watching her and Grandma working together to make the cake that turned out fabulous!! She really enjoyed having Grandma there teaching her.

She is also really good at coming up with her own recipes. These are her latest creations. Benyays (don't know how to spell it) but it comes from the movie "Princess and the Frog". She toasted some bread, drizzled it with honey and then dusted it with powdered sugar. Not too bad. I have learned to try her creations with a smile and hope that I can hold them on my face especially with some of her more "creative" creations. :D

She had a great birthday! Can't believe that she is 9! I mean really.... where did the time go? I remember her being Emily's size, Laura's age and going to Kindergarten like Andrew. Now she is in 3rd grade and loving it! She loves her math and writing. She comes home with the most creative stories complete with pictures.

She just got done with track. She did the standing long jump, tug-o-war and softball throw. Her favorite was, by far, the tug-o-war where her school took 2nd. They almost got 1st but her team got tired at the last minute and the other team stole the victory.

She is also doing piano lessons. She just moved on to her second book which she is very excited about. It was really neat for her to look at the beginning of her last book and see how far she had come. Her favorite song for a while was "London's Clock" or something like that. She would go down first thing in the morning and play the clock so that everyone would know it was time to come down for scriptures. Scott on the other hand.... ya... not his favorite. He likes his sleep. "Stop playing that song Amy" would shortly be yelled down the stairs, which just made her play it that much louder. :) That's my girl. Torturing her brothers every chance she can.

Mom... my name is Andy!

So I have come to a horrible realization..... I don't have very many pictures of our Andrew.... I mean Andy! It's not like he isn't there or even quiet. Nope, he is very witty and has quite the way of thinking about things and expressing himself. I just don't manage to get him in too many pictures because he is so very busy. Andy has loved Kindergarten! Thus the reason I think that he has changed from Andrew to Andy. He doesn't mind me calling him Andrew still.... which is good. He will always be Andrew to his Mommy! He just came home from school one day and announced to all of us at dinner... "You can call me Andy now because Andy is short for Andrew."

Andy has enjoyed so many things this year. From going to school and piano lessons (short lived unfortunately), to riding his bike and Beyblades. He is boy thru and thru! Tough as nails (until he needs his mom.) So glad that they never outgrow that!

Andrew is doing so good at reading. He can read most of the words by himself when we are doing our family scriptures in the morning. He is also very good at math. It just blows me away that they are reading, writing and doing math (addition) in Kindergarten. I remember Kindergarten as being a big long play time. Making butterflies or hearts with crayon shavings. Coloring all day long and of course playing outside on the slides. Amazing how things have changed since I was a kid. :D

Laura Lou

Wow.... Where to start with Miss Laura.... She is growing... of course. She loves to have her picture taken! As both my phone and computer pictures can attest to. She sees me take the camera out to capture Emily or various other things and there she is... "Mommy, me! MEEE!!!" "Okay... okay." I say to her. "CHEESE!!" She says and then strikes a pose. Such a little picture hog! But we love her.


Her curls are the best. After the haircutting incident a while ago. (Where a 3 year old aspiring hair dresser named Maddie cut all her curls off to the scalp.) We have done pixxy cuts on her for a while. She is very cute in short hair. But I am glad that her hair comes back curly each time it grows out. It is about time for another hair cut and I am debating about having it done. I love her curls but her hair is hanging in her eyes. Decisions... decisions.

We (okay Jeff) put in hardwood floors while he was home helping me recover from having Emily. It was quite the undertaking. We love them (although keeping them swept and clean is another thing)! Laura found that on the cold days she could hover over the furnace vents and get nice and warm. I remember doing that as a kid too. Only I would twist myself up in the curtains that hung in the front room (much to mom's dismay because I am sure that I almost pulled them down more than once) and shimmy over to the vent. Such a warm little cocoon I had there. It was fun to watch Laura discover this all on her own. And of course when I pulled out the camera to capture it.... well.... a photo shoot then followed.



While Papa and Grandma where here visiting from Utah, the kids convinced them to take them to the school park to play. Laura would not leave the house without her trusty cape that I am sure one of these times that I wash it will totally fall apart. A cute (yellow) pile of strings will be all that will remain of this wonderful cape that Grandma made for Scott when he was Laura's size.

Most of the time this cape and a diaper is about all that is on Laura during the day. It is a sure battle when it comes time to get dressed to go anywhere and she doesn't want to be. So what did I do when I had to take Jeff to the airport first thing in the morning and then rush to the school right after for a meeting (before school started) with Scott's teachers and other school personnel??? I did what any good mother would do! Make her get dressed in clothes fit for public??? Nope!!! I took her in her onesie and the trusty cape! :D Yup... that's me! Mother of the Year! Always has it together! Never seen in public without make up on, hair done beautifully, and the kids looking perfect. Ya.... maybe next year! :) I even got a comment from the Vice Principle at school. Thankfully it was a compliment (I think). She said that it was good to see that not all mothers have it all together that early in the morning. She commended me for not trying to kill myself to have the kids look perfect. Glad my hard work (throwing her in the truck half dressed) paid off. :)