The Wild and Crazy Birthday Party

It was a wild and crazy birthday party! We had a bunch of family over to celebrate Lauren's birthday on Friday night.

All day Friday I was in the kitchen making

these Martha Stewart
"Bug Cupcakes." Let me just say this, I have no desire to make these cupcakes again, at least not for a very long time.

It was a lot of work!

Lauren was unsure about the candles, especially because we were telling her not to touch them and that fire is HOT!

She nearly choked on the gum drop head when she put the whole thing in her mouth.

Here Lauren was getting ticked because the paper wasn't coming off as easily as she would have liked. She takes after her dad...and mom.

Here is a video that sums up how she felt about the candles. Pure uncertainty. Thanks to everyone that came and for all the gifts from our family!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

This was the last relaxing, quiet moment of my life... Then, this little girl came along...

Two years have already gone by. It has been years of great joy, plus, wrinkles and gray hairs. Lauren has always been a good, happy girl. We have been truly blessed. I could brag about her all day. She was born at 5:38 A.M. on the 21st of October. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. I will never forget that day. I hope Lauren always knows how much we love her and how grateful we are to have her in our family!

(We'll be having a small party for her on Saturday, so we'll have more pictures then.)

Our House

Here is our house... Here is our house right before my mom, sister Stephanie, and I began the clean up...

Here is our house after the hard work of Jason and those of us I mentioned above...

Needless to say, we are a long ways from being done, but we've started. We love our little house.

Also, I thought I'd include some pictures that Stephanie took while my family was here visiting. We went to the Sacajawea State Park, which is located where the Snake River and Columbia River converge. It has a great little museum about Sacajawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Grandma H. picked up leaves as we were walking around the park. So, Lauren had to pick up leaves because grandma was.
Oh, we love this little girl. She is the sweetest girl ever!

I've Been Tagged

I usually don't follow through on tags, but I decided it was probably time. This is my first tag ever. I was tagged by Terri , so here it goes.
7 random and/or weird facts about me:

1. I have never been able to scream. My voice won't go high enough. I guess I sound like a guy would sound if he were to scream. What do I do if I get scared or startled you might ask??? I suppose I just yell. The funny thing is that there have been times when I have practiced with my sisters in a car, and we just end up laughing because of how dorky I sound. No, I won't demonstrate to anyone who is reading this!
2. I have been on ESPN before. It was during the Great Alaska Shootout (basketball tournament). I happened to be in the crowd with a group of friends and the camera man came to us and told us to get ready to yell, wave, or whatever. It was over Thanksgiving, so some of my family were watching the game down in Idaho, and they saw me on ESPN.
3. I had a mullet when I was in elementary school. I had to follow the popular trends of the 80s, right?
4. While attending CEU back in the day, Sheryl Crow (reason for the song playing right now) had a concert at the college. Well, my friend and I were walking by the gym to go eat dinner at the cafeteria. She happened to be sitting on the grass by the sidewalk that we were walking on, and we didn't even say a word!! There must have been something good cooking down at the cafeteria! Just kidding. Now that I think about it, I think we just said hi, but still, it was just the three of us right there, no one else anywhere. What were we thinking? I wonder what she thought, being a popular singer out in the middle of nowhere, to barely get acknowledged.
5. I have a cracked knee cap or something like that. I landed on my knee on the gym floor during a basketball game. The doctor said he thought it was probably cracked on the left side of my left knee cap. Also, that I might have problems with it later on in life. Great! It's getting later in life and still no problems...keep my fingers crossed.
6. I used to go running a lot. I wanted to keep track of all the places I went running, but I failed to write them all down. Some memorable places have been on "The Spit" in Homer, Alaska, in Fort Nelson British Columbia, and Augusta, Montana, and finally, the beaches of Monterey, CA.
7. When I was younger, probably in my early years of elementary school, I had a short white lady (nightmare) that stood above my door at night. For the most part, I can still imagine what she looked like. I was scared to death of her. Thank goodness I haven't seen her since!

There you have it. That took me a long time to think of only 7 random/weird facts about myself. I'm supposed to tag 7 people now. No pressure, but I tag Anne, Mary, Tirzah, Julie, Sharree, Jen, and Megan, unless you've already done a tag like this.

A Busy Month

It has been a month since my last post. I can't believe that much time has gone by, but life has been busy, busy, busy. The day to move into our house finally came. We have been in our house for 9 days now and we're loving it. We've been cleaning nonstop, or I should say, I've been cleaning nonstop! It's starting to feel more like home. Not only have we been busy, but sick as well. We've had many visitors the last two weeks also. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures while they were all here. Jason's mom, dad, and sisters, Brenda and Elaine, came up one weekend. Then, my mom, dad, and sister Stephanie came the next weekend. We love having visitors and hope to have more soon!
The only pictures that were taken both weekends are the ones below of Lauren and Aunt Brenda on the way back from visiting Grandma Savage and the Hebdon's in Mattawa. Lauren is Little Miss Thing with her sunglasses and phone. I will post pictures of our house soon.