Thursday, September 04, 2008

Scorching September is Here!

Summer here always goes out with a bang. Today should be about 100. Lovely. Though, despite my complaining, this has been an uncharacteristically mild summer of which we've enjoyed many a park day, evenings spent sitting outside on the deck watching the kids play while I read and Jason smokes a cigar, some swimming, and ice cream.

James is busy being a rambunctious boy; perpetually hungry and only to be satisfied with an endless supply of yogurt, bananas, and apple sauce. In steady ten minute intervals he shouts at us, "OWEEE!" We couldn't figure out why he kept saying that for a while until one day he pointed to the pantry and we learned that OWEE = hungry. He's shoveling yogurt into his mouth right now as I type. You can imagine the mess he leaves smeared on the table.

Hannah has been continuing her ice skating lessons, and I must say, I am impressed with the progress she has made. She's getting much more comfortable on the ice and skates unassisted forwards, backwards, and can go in a circle. So, my three year old has surpassed me in her skating skills.


We've also been doing lots of reading, library trips, coloring, drawing, and learning to write. I had tried to teach her to write the alphabet once before and that ended badly. It involved the letter B and a temper tantrum that didn't come from Hannah but ME! ACK! So I told myself to chill and back off, and then when I read THIS book, and it didn't recommend teaching writing until after reading, I felt much better and less of a hopeless failure. But then one day she was playing with her magnadoodle and busted out a bunch of letters all nonchalant. "Look Mom, I can draw a J!" So we're going with flow and having fun writing with chalk on the driveway and stuff like that.

Hannah had the special honor of being a flower girl for our dear friend Matt's (who is James' Godfather) wedding to his beautiful new bride Teri. As I curled her hair and got her ready, and then watched her walk down the aisle, I couldn't help but feel like a stage mom. We bribed her with a toy and Jason told her, "Just remember this: Walk down the aisle. Throw the flowers. Get a toy." We all said it out loud together ten times. She did succeed with the much appreciated help of her Godmother walking down with her - Thanks again Maria!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and the reception was where Jason and I got married and had our reception. It was so fun to see old friends and visit and gab and then dance like monkeys. Hannah, who was adamantly opposed to any dancing warmed up rather quickly and had to be dragged from the dance floor when it was time to go home. To his many admirer's disappointment, my sweet parents picked up James at the reception so I could eat my meal in peace and not get potatoes au gratin all over my dress, and so I would not have to spend the entire evening guarding the exits. So sorry people, mama needs a break sometimes!

So here is us being fancy in the gorgeous church.

OH! And three announcements for those of you who don't know already:

1. We are expecting our third little one come the end of February.

2. We are minivan shopping. I'm all about stow and go seating.

3. We get to stay in our house! (We had one of those rotten ARM loans that was bout to go berserk on us, and we were able to get a loan modification - Thank you Lord and thank you Mr. Attorney at Law.

11 Comments:

Blogger Mrs. Ham said...

Your last line was so cute...Congrats on minivan shopping!

9:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

YEAH! Congratulations!

As for stow and go, it is great! We have a Chrysler Town and Country and we love it! Good luck!

1:10 PM  
Blogger annie said...

Beautiful family! How wonderful that you will be adding to it. Congratulations on the baby and the house-(ugh, glad that's behind you.) Hope you are feeling well.

1:59 PM  
Blogger Xenia Kathryn said...

CONGRATS Lauren (and family!).

I'm so happy for you. God's blessings for a safe and radiantly healthy pregnancy :)

2:29 PM  
Blogger erin* said...

babies! vans! houses! Congratulations!

I'm glad you danced like a monkey, too. :)

4:21 PM  
Blogger jenny baker said...

it was great dancing at the reception, sorry again for accidently punching you in the face. :) hannah did so well and looked so cute with her flowers.

congratulations about the new baby! whooo! but i actually knew about that already. hee.

i'm so happy you got the loan modification! that's great! i'm sure it's nice not having that hanging over your head.

i had to read that "OWEEE" part about james outloud to michael. that's just too cute.

10:08 PM  
Blogger Jamie said...

Such a cute post. Look at Miss Hannah on the ice! She told me long ago that she was an "ice skato". The family pic is great!

11:41 PM  
Blogger Munkee said...

ok, finally a chance to weigh in. Regarding the mini van, i did graduate thesis worth of research to figure out which van was the van for us. Really, it comes down to two, the Odyssey from Honda and the Toyota Sienna. Both rank very high for comfort (more important than ever for a vacation mobile), reliability, and fuel economy. We went with the Sienna. Honestly, hardly a day goes by where I don't say to myself, "I love this van!" It is a pleasure to own and drive. I actually look forward to long trips in the van because it is just so comfortable! The seats re-arrangeble so in the right configuration sara can move about the cabin freely. The ride is enjoyable whether you're driving or riding in the backseat. I just can't say enough about this vehicle. Oh, one last thing, this is the roomiest in its class. Some of these vans are actually a bit crowded inside. Also, we looked at going the cheap route, since we're not rich, looked into the Kia. Two things about the KIA, it is the heaviest which results in horrible fuel economy, and it is tiny inside. THe 04' Odyssey can have serious transmission issues that Honda cannot fix. Honda's solution was simply to extend the warranty to 110k miles. We intend to drive our van well beyond 110k.

Sorry for vomiting my thoughts all over the page.

Great seeing you and Jason on Sunday!

12:50 PM  
Blogger Lauren S. said...

aaron - thanks for the info. while we initially looked at oddyssey and sienna, both are still rather pricey in the 05 years and up. a good friend of mine has the kia but agrees it's too small. so we are looking at 06 - 07 Grand Caravans and Town & Country to get a little more bang for our buck. Everyone we've talked to that owns one has been really pleased with them. We'll see though, we're not in a huge rush to get a car payment again, and most likely will wait until after Christmas.

So fun see you and Sara!

BTW Sara, sorry I had to ditch you and chase after my little dancing machine. Hope kindergarten at home is going swell!

2:11 PM  
Blogger b said...

congrats!

11:27 AM  
Blogger Bluecanopy said...

:) good to see you too! you ditched me, i didn't notice! i'm used to five second conversations now so it seemed like we had a nice long visit :)

good luck with the van search.

2:42 PM  

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