Ashley

I had to put this picture of Ashley up, too, because she's so beautiful. Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Ashley is 12!!!

I can't believe I am the mother of a twelve year-old! Ashley has been such an adventure in mothering and the older she gets, the more excited I am to see who she becomes. She had a sleep-over with three friends, and of course her sisters. They stayed up until 5 in the morning!!

Instead of a traditional cake with her friends, she wanted her favorite black and white cupcakes.
Opening some of her presents from us.

This was her favorite. A fun moon chair for her bedroom.

Chocolate cheesecake. Yum.

Crawling!

Emily is now dangerously mobile. Trouble!!!

Our New Ride

Jason and I have wanted a Sienna for a long time, and we finally got one! We traded in the truck and got this nice 8 passenger Toyota. We will be selling our old van and using that money to buy a little sedan. Both purchases will save us lots of gas money, and the Toyota seats 8, so now we have a little more room to expand. The girls love pushing the magic button that closes the sliding doors, the sliding door windows can be opened, and best of all--the A/C works! We love our new van!!!

School Has Begun

Another year of school is here. This year, I have three girls in three different schools. Rachel started 2nd grade in elementary school...

... Melissa is in the 4th grade at intermediate school...
...and Ashley started 6th grade--middle school! We had a crazy first day with a mess up at Ashley's bus stop that has yet to be resolved. They have her walking 1/3 of a mile on narrow streets with no sidewalks during hospital rush hour traffic and the bus went to the wrong spot to pick them up, so she ended up missing it. With some fights with the transportation department, we may get this fixed eventually.

What I Did Today

This is only a very small amount of the tomatoes and jalapenos I have picked from my garden so far. I spent 6 hours in my garden yesterday finding all my tomatoes under a pile of weeds because we were out of town and they got out of control!

I enlisted Ashley in the preservation process. She was the official tomato squisher. I love my Kitchen Aid!!!

Put the sauce on to simmer.

While it was simmering, I mowed the lawn and found a beautiful praying mantis.

Then I finished all my tomato products--6 pints of stewed tomatoes and four pints of sauce. Not a bad day's work with a teething baby.

Lauritzen Family Reunion 2010

It's not often my huge family is able to get together, but through the efforts of two of my nieces, Nickell and Tere, we did it! This is most of the gang. When President Gordon B. Hinckley said "When you save a girl, you save generations", he wasn't kidding! I wonder if my parents knew just how man lives they would be responsible for when they married. I love that they gave me eight wonderful siblings. I love my family!!

We began the trip to Colorado by driving the 30+ hour trip with no overnight stops. This picture was taken sometime around dawn in Kansas. This is how the girls somehow managed to sleep all night.
Emily was in love with Uncle Dave's nose. Gross.

Jason played with his boys (my brothers, brothers in-law, and nephews) at Black Forest Park.

All of us gathered in my parents backyard for mealtime. What a great crowd! Thank you, Nickell and Tere, for getting us all there.