Kelsea's Preschool Party

We had a little party at Little Aviators on Friday, and it went something like this:

Dora jumper (from a company that has $1M liability insurance) - $95

Costco Princess Sheet Cake - $16.99

Thirty-two Princess & the Frog /Spiderman Goodie Bags - $50

Not having to set-up, clean-up or find room for a bunch of                                                                p-r-e-s-e-n-t-s....priceless

And this little girl's happy face is pretty darn priceless also!

A Sneak Peak

at our just turned beautiful FOUR year old

and darling ELEVEN month old

I thankfully just have Disneyland photos to edit!   Check back later this week for the entire Birthday extravaganza!

Ten On Tuesday

So it is Birthday week in the Laughrey household, and to honor our little girl's (I have already been reminded that she is not a baby) forthcoming celebration here are 10 of my favorite photos that our fabulous photographer friend took this past September.  I had not posted them previously since I wanted the photo books I made for Christmas presents to be pictures my family had not yet seen.  Somehow J.J. has magically captured Kelsea's spirit in these photos.  

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. Even a few with me that I adore...mainly because they are so us

7.

8.

9.  And she sure loves her little sister.  

10. Fiercely. And with no concern for reciprocation. I love that about her. 

Ten On Tuesday

1.  I am not a fan of taking pictures on Christmas.  For one thing the lighting is always dismal.  It's still too dark in the morning during the opening of presents and to dark in the evening when the family gathers for dinner (and usually more presents).  Secondly, I like to watch the chaos and excitement of it all without worrying about getting a decent photo.  I have decided that I too need a fairy godmother (yes, we have been watching a lot of Cinderella), only mine shall follow us around, snapping photos of our lives (and while your at it go ahead and download/edit them too Ms. Fairy).

2.  But for now these will have to do.  Proof that we too celebrated Christmas in 2009.  The tree, jam-packed with presents...luckily these were all leaving the house.

2.  Christmas morning:  We tried to convince Kelsea to get out of our bed and check to see if Santa had come yet, thinking that might buy us a couple more minutes in bed before the chaos of Christmas began.   No such luck.  She was too scared that Santa might still be out there,  so we all got up to see what Santa had left us.

3. I at least got one picture of them in their matching jammies.

4.  Lorelei didn't have a clue as to what was going on, but she did enjoy the banging the boxes and eating the paper.  Luckily she had a big sister to help open all her presents.

5. After it looked like Toys R Us had thrown up all over our house, the girls found a nice lap to snuggle on.

6.  Later that day Kelsea asked me why Santa would go on the roof and give the reindeers their carrots and then come back down the chimney and put the half eaten ones back on our plate.   She was also perplexed as to why she couldn't hear Santa.  Hmmm, she is way smarter than I gave her credit for.  I'm going to have to get more clever or more convincing these next few years.

7.  Later that evening we headed to my parents for a delicious Christmas dinner, and getting a picture of the girls in their matching dresses was difficult to say the least.

8.  Especially when this little one just wanted to go exploring,

9. and walking with Grandpa.

10.  And getting one of all four of us--nearly impossible!  But at least most of us are smiling and looking at the camera. Uh-hem, Lorelei, do you think you could work on that next year?

A New Year

It's hard to believe it's a new year, let alone a new decade!  I am stumbling over how to shorten 2010.  2009 was always "0-9", so is it just "10," or is it "0-10," or do I just say the whole darn thing?

We had a pretty eventful 2009 with Kelsea turning three and her baby sister coming one month later.  Wallis and I both took new jobs which have proved to be both challenging and interesting.  Our families have also had exciting news.  My Mom retiring, my brother and sister-in-law's pregnancy,  Wallis' youngest brother graduating high school and starting at Vanderbilt on an Ingram Scholarship,  and his oldest (younger) brother finding out he will be an Intel Officer in the Navy with the completion of his final year at Vanderbilt.

In 2010, we are looking forward to celebrating Kelsea's 4th and Lorelei's 1st birthdays, and anxiously anticipating the arrival of our first nephew!

In 2010 I simply hope to:

read a novel

run farther

stress less

lose the last five 

play more

Here's to a wonderful new year!

Two weeks ago

somebody turned 10 months old. And although there were plenty of pictures snapped to document this double-digit milestone, the holidays (among other things) interfered with my ability to actually post them! 

So here's a few updates this month:

Weighing 21.5 pounds (with clothes on and a huge meal in your belly), so lets just call it 20.5 pounds instead.   I'm sure your taller too, but measuring you is just not as easy as it once was so I think we'll wait until your one year appointment.  Hard to believe I'm writing one year.

Eating everything (that you can feed yourself).  We are buying a lot less yogurt.

Two new teeth have appeared on the top with two more on their way, which is making you a little grumpy.

We have made it halfway through flu season with just a couple runny noses.  In fact you still haven't been sick with anything other than a little cold.  Yes I'm knocking on wood.

You enjoy waving at just about anyone, and smile and giggle as if pleased with your new found talent.

You can stand without holding on to anything.  

You scream in delight when you are walking (whether it's us or a push toy you are holding on to).  Not that we are trying to encourage this kind of behavior.  We are perfectly content with the crawling phase.  

You have rekindled a love of the pacifier.  You had not used them in over 2 months and just when I was thinking about packing them up you discovered all their glory.  Sure makes diaper and clothing changes much quieter.  

You love giving us kisses, the mouth wide open kind.  I guess the puckering of the lips is a hard thing to learn at this age, which is okay by all three of us who can't seem to get enough of them!

And of course the same day Lorelei turned 10 months old, our not-so-baby-girl turned 47 months.  31 days (17 now) away from turning 4. Gosh 4 sounds so old (relatively).  Just a year and half left before "real" school.  

After taking pictures of the two of them, I got the ole "Mom I'm done taking pictures."  And begging and pleading proved unsuccessful.  I'll have to hold Disneyland over her head at next month's photo shoot. 

Ten on Tuesday

1. Penny update:  still waiting for it's arrival.  Looks like we will be taking Kelsea to get an x-ray this week.

2. We went ahead and saw Fantastic Mr. Fox on Saturday.  It was fantastic.  I think Wallis and I might have enjoyed it more than Kelsea.  Maybe if there was a princess thrown into the mix she would have been more excited about it?

3. While Lorelei was napping on me I asked Wallis to take some Thanksgiving pictures of the family before it got too dark.  This is what I came home with.  Not really what I had in mind to remember this Thanksgiving by...

I think Kelsea might be a better photographer than Wallis...

4. Inspired by an article I read on Thanksgiving, I spent my Sunday afternoon furiously making over our refrigerator.  I must have been feeling guilty about our Thanksgiving feast, but whatever the inspiration was, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Here's the full length view:

And a close up of the yummy, healthy stuff:

5. Wallis was nice enough to make this delicious recipe from the same magazine.  We (actually that would be Wallis) is going to try this one on Saturday

6. I ate a cricket today.  

Are you asking why?  All for 100 points.  Want to know what the points are for?  Okay read on.  We (my office at work) went on a very thorough scavenger hunt through downtown Long Beach this afternoon.  This included a session of Dance, Dance Revolution, a game of Skeetball, a three seat bike ride, dressing up in a sumo wrestler bodysuit (hilarious), many pictures of random paraphernalia and several stops to stores/restaurants to find our next clue (12 to be exact).  I must admit the cricket eating place (Hot Licks) was my least favorite, and the "sour cream & onion flavor" didn't really help the fact I was eating a dried-up, crunchy bug.  Was it worth it?  Yes, we won. :-)

7. Lorlei will no longer let us spoon feed her (so much for all that baby food I just bought!)  This is what it looks like when she feeds herself.  

8. Due to the fridge makeover consuming my Sunday, I didn't quite get to the Christmas decorating as planned.  We at least got the advent calendar up tonight, so Kelsea will be happily surprised in the morning.

9. I still have two more November magazines before I get to my December ones.  Does anyone else have this problem?

10. Uh-oh, Kelsea is awake and crying and coming up the stairs...which means she will be snuggling with us tonight.  Does anyone else have this problem?