Two year time-out

Lots of life stuff happened during this time. TRUST US.

Guess who loves black olives?

Lauren has decided that her new favorite food is black olives. My sisters and I have also always loved black olives, so looks like she inherited these genes from us! She cracks me up.

Who has pretty nails?

My sister Mindy was in town this weekend to help us out, and we decided we needed a little outing out of the house. We decided to try and go get our nails painted! I wasn't sure if Lauren would do ok, but I figured there was no harm in trying. And, what do you know, she was awesome! She picked out her own color (blue!) and sat very still while the lady painted her fingers and toes. The lady even added little white flowers to her thumbs and big toenails. It was so cute. We'll do it again for sure!

Grandma Florida

Very sadly, Lauren's grandma Brewer, Scott's mom, passed away 2 weeks ago. Lauren loved her grandma very much. Her grandma was always smiling and laughing, and always wanted to make sure everyone was having fun. It makes us unbelievably sad that Lauren will never get to know her grandma when she is older, and that Kay will never get to know the amazing little person that Lauren is becoming. We will always do out best to carry on her legacy of smiling, dancing, singing and having fun. I'm very proud that Lauren is a Brewer and hope that she inherently carries on some of these amazing traits. We'll miss you, very, very, very much.

Happy Father's Day

Lauren and I snuck out of the house for a quickie photo session for Father's Day. Here's a funny shot from the shoot. It's Lauren, playing with a ball, with her two favorite stuffed animals (Benny the puppy dog and Chompy the alligator).

What's Lauren been up to?

I've been a little quiet lately, so here's an update on our little firecracker! Lauren is doing great. Talking like a 13 year old, dancing, drawing, singing, and getting in to all kinds of trouble. She knows what she wants. She has opinions about everything. And, she wants to do everything b-y h-e-r-s-e-l-f! She definitely at that stage where you just sit back and watch and laugh at everything that comes out of her mouth. Her favorite items of the moment: a little stuffed puppy dog, her rain boots, and a small Dora flashlight (that she sleeps with).

Here's a few photos from lately:

(Her hairstyle when I picked her up from school the other day--8 ponytails???)

(Listening to daddy's headphones)

(Brushing her teeth in her favorite footwear - her rain boots. She even insisted in sleeping in them the other night.)

(Choosing her own afternoon snack. You'd better not pick it for her---she wants to do it all by herself!)

(Just hamming it up)

Hoppy Easter!

Hope everyone had a good Easter. We woke up, made pancakes, found an Easter basket full of goodies from the Easter bunny, dyed eggs, and had an Easter egg hunt inthe front yard! It's been a fun day.

Time for a first hair cut?

When I was little, I had super long hair. Little House on the Prairie kind of long hair. Looks like Lauren might subconsciously be on the same path. Granted, it is a little damp still from her bath, but Scott says waist-length qualifies for a hair cut. I love my little hippie, prairie child. It makes me oddly sad to think about cutting it.

It's fun being two

Lauren loves her school. This past week was filled with confetti parties, pizza parties, "wear your jammies to school" parties, painting, popsicles, music, water parties, and more. Every day she came home she needed a serious bath. A messy kid is a happy kid, right?

My very own mini me.

2, going on 13

I feel like just yesterday Lauren was a baby. I still call her my baby. Yet, somehow in the past few months she took this huge leap from this baby, thinking about becoming a toddler to being this...straight up little girl.

Today, sitting in her car seat, she just started spelling her name out loud, all by herself, "L-A-U-R-E-N." For no reason, just because she was entertaining herself. When did she learn how to do this? I have no idea. Where'd my baby go?

2 year old personality

Lauren talks - a lot. You can talk to her in paragraphs for days. I recommend that actually, as it will definitely cheer you up. What I love is that she's in that stage where she's starting to pick up catch phrases and start to use them, and has even started to make occasional jokes (which is downright hysterical when she knows she's saying something funny). Here's a few things that you'll hear come out of her mouth frequently:

"Oh my goodness..."

"It's not too bad!"

(When you tell her something is cold or hot and she doesn't agree)

"In a minute...."

(When you ask her to do something)

Animal fun!

Lauren, her Aunt Mindy and I took a quick trip to an exotic animal park about 45 minus from our house. The place is called the Exotic Resort Zoo and is in Johnson City (http://www.zooexotics.com/). We didn't have much in the way of expectations, but man were we blown away! Such an unbelievable experience for our little animal lover! We rode on this little tram / bus through this open range with buckets of food. Lauren got to pet and feed zebras, camels, deer, elk, antelope, buffalo, ostriches, lambs, sheep....you name it. She squeeled for 2-hours straight. Here's just a few pictures detailing our experience. And, to you other Austin mommies, if your kiddos like animals.....take a trip out there, stat! You won't be disappointed.

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Dressing skills

Lauren has a cute way of putting her jacket/coat on in one quick move. The process starts by laying the jacket/coat on the floor. The rest is pure toddler inventiveness....see below.

Snow for a minute

Austin was getting a little jealous of the rest of the country, so this week it quickly wiped away the 80 degree temps, dropped to 19 degrees, and sprinkled a half inch of snow. No worries, we're back to 70 degrees and sunny again today.

Through the eyes of a two year old

Lauren has decided that my phone is her phone. The funniest thing to me is when I look through my phone photos and discover pictures that she has taken without me knowing.