My Boys

And so it seems that I have produced yet another child that looks just like their father.



At least they've got a good-lookin' one.

Back Home

After spending somewhere around 20 absolutely maddening hours in the car with my children over the course of the week, I am glad to be home and I am especially glad that they are all asleep. That said, I sure do love them.





I mean, seriously... how did I end up with such darling girls? Sleep well my clean babies!

Vegas, Baby

When Christmas has passed, the weather in Salt Lake gets colder, and the inversion sets in, it is generally an indication to me that it's time for our annual trip to Las Vegas. When I moved away from home, 10 years ago, I would make monthly visits back here. Over the years things have gotten busier, friends have moved on and I've been coming home less and less. These days, it seems like the annual visit is the only visit I can guarantee. January and February are the best months for us to visit Las Vegas for the following reasons:

1- the weather
It's been a very pleasant 65 degrees (or somewhere around there) and sunny all week, making for lots of fun at the parks with the kids. I HAVE to get a break from the gray months in Salt Lake or I just go insane. My fragile self can't take that much depressing weather without a respite.

2- the shopping
Since there isn't much of a winter here, winter clothes don't sell all that fast, therefore it is a fabulous place to shop winter clearances. People that come to shop here also look to spend a lot more money than I do, so the reasonably priced stores generally have loads of great sales.

We didn't bring our camera, so my mom has been so kind as lend us hers... again. One of the malls we went to has an awesome play area for the kids, making it possible to shop the sales AND play in the sun at the same time. Talk about efficiency.



About half a second after I took this, Jane shoved Lizzy off the toy thing (whatever it's called). Ah, sisterly love.



Lizzy's vocabulary has continued to grow by leaps and bounds. She says the funniest things, I'm going to have to start posting them.



Who has more hair these days... Charlie or Brent?








Lizzy was so ticked that I kept trying to get her photo in the little car. Click on the photo to see her disdain in all it's glory.

My tired babies. Whenever we leave town, my children become even more sleep deprived than usual. They all refuse to sleep in the car and have a hard time adjusting when they aren't in their beds at home. We've had plenty of melt downs, but what can you do? My mom was way cool and rented a room for Brent and me at the casino near their home so that we could get some sleep while the girls stayed with her. How cool is that? It's going to be hard to come home and get back to real life.

Dinosaurus

Uncle Cam came through like a champ and scored some free tickets to the Walking with the Dinosaurs show. He was planning on using them to take his own child, but since Ben usually needs to go to bed around 5:30 these days, and the show didn't start until 7:00, he passed the savings onto us. Thanks Cam!

Jane was desperate for her mommy to take her, so we decided to make it a GNO (plus Charlie, but babies don't count, right?) and invited Emily, Caitlin, Holly and Ella to walk with us with the dinosaurs. I'm SO glad that they could come, we had so much fun. Our tickets were a little off the beaten path, but it turned out ok because Jane was scared until she realized that she was so far away from the real life fake dinosaurs that there was no way they could get to her, even if they had wanted to. That and the tickets were free. Did I mention that we got free tickets?

My camera died before I thought to get any photos of the real life fake dinosaurs, but I mostly wanted them of the kids anyway...




The cute girls in all their glory Jane, Cait and Ella.



Ella must have sneaked away when I got this one. Oh, Thanks for the cute shirt, Jane is wearing it again today. I failed to honor my threats of getting a photo of Holly with the girls because she also had a matching shirt.

Jane wouldn't stop asking questions, it was cute at first. "What's that? What's that dinosaur's name? Why don't they like eachother? Why are those plants growing? What's behind that door? Where do the dinosaurs go? Why is that dinosaur so big? Why is that other dinosaur not big?" and on and on and on. The lady next to us left at intermission, hmmmmm. Anyway, as previously mentioned, we enjoyed ourselves. Hooray for dinosaurs.

My Little Monkeys

I tried really hard the other night to get a cute photo of Lizzy and Charlie in their adorable monkey jammies. Charlie's are still a little big and Lizzy can barely fit her amazon baby self into her's, so I thought I'd try to get a photo while they overlap. Yes, I tried really hard to get a cute photo, tried and failed.







Charlie is almost always happy, but he was NOT pleased to be posing with his sister. Lizzy apparently thought he was much like a doll and kept trying to hold him on her lap and carry him around. Thank goodness she doesn't usually pull that or there might not be much of him left. Oh well, I know they're cute.

Serious Style, Part 2

I had to post this photo of Jane today because I was in the hallway when she was getting dressed. I heard her talking to herself about what to wear, some of her shirts are cuter than others, leggings are apparently very in right now, she likes shirts with hats... and then she must have looked in the mirror because she said oh so triumphantly
"Yep, this looks very cute."

Then she came out with this on:




I suppose there is something to be said for at least putting some thought into it.
Sometimes I get really frustrated at the way she dresses and sometimes I love it, it is SO Jane. I just find it amusing that she is perfectly capable of getting herself fully clothed, unless I ask her to. If she knows I WANT her to change, you can be sure that it won't happen. Ya, a little to much like her mommy in that regard.

New Boot Goofin'

Hip hip, hooray! for winter clearances. I know that I am definitely a Lawrence at heart because I love me a good clearance. I figure it's got to be a Lawrence trait since over the years of shopping with them, I've noticed that clearances seem to be a weakness for my mom's family in general. I went clearance shopping last night and bought some new boots for Lizzy, amongst other things. We bought Jane's a little while ago, but now they were on clearance,which makes them about 72% more appealing to me, so I decided to pick up a pair for Lizzy too. Brent gets so upset with me because he says that I just buy things I don't really need just because they are on clearance. Ya, Brent, what's your point? They were on freaking clearance, what do you expect from me?



Jane and Lizzy love to be "twiners" but those days are quickly coming to an end. The cute coat Jane is wearing was also bought on clearance, but not in the baby section. We're moving on to the big girl section, which is kinda fun and sad at the same time. Lizzy is plenty ahead of the growing curve (She's already larger than most 2 year olds) but I think that by the time she hits size 5, Jane will have realized that being "twiners" isn't as cool as she thought it was when she was in preschool... unless, of course, she takes after her dad and Uncle Cam.

Serious Style

Leslie hardly lets me forget a particular day when we were in grade school that I insisted on wearing both pants and a skirt to school. She apparently mocked me as profusley as a 10 year old can, but I was undeterred. I wore that outfit to school and I'm sure that I thought I rocked it before I left the house... in the long run, it apparently didn't work out very well for me since I never did it again. I maintain that I was just ahead of my time since I see people wearing skirts and pants together all the time these days. Well my girls seem to have inherited my fashion forward way of thinking. They both got themselves dressed this morning.



That's right, girl. You OWN that look.



It's gorge. So unique. So unusual.



Oh, and I got a photo of Charlie smiling. This is how I generally see him, he's all smiles for his mommy. You see, he loves his mommy so much that he felt the need to wear a shirt professing his undying affection. I love you too Charlie.

Christmas

Since it is now over a week since Christmas, I thought it would be a good time to post some of my pictures. I'm a little behind on life in general these days.



Jane insisted on leaving out cookies for Santa.











Oh, Charlie.



A big thanks to creepy Aunt Leslie for getting Jane creepy press on nails that she loves, of course. They get stuck to every random thing, which is really disturbing. I HATE those nails.



Charlie was way into opening presents this year. As you can see, he just tore into this one :)



This is Lizzy's "cheese" face.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!