Daniel's Name in Lights

This is a picture of our TV screen......why would we take a picture of the TV screen?

Take a close look:

Closer....

"Best Boy Electric - Daniel Folger"

My brother has been living and working in NYC for a few years now as a production assistant for TV shows (Celebrity Jeopardy, The Amazing Race to name a few) and for commercials (Shaq most recently), music videos (Beyonce, JayZ, Rhiana (I've probably butchered all of those spellings)), and documentaries.  Every now and then we get to hear a "cool" story or get some swag from a shoot, but this is the first time we've actually watched a show and saw his name in the credits.  This is from MTV's game show, "The Substitute" (which Jon thinks was poorly edited, based on the stories Daniel told about production).

Jaidyn

My cutie-pie god-daughter, Jaidyn

Lauren's Dedication

Lauren was dedicated at church this morning.  Jon introduced her to the congregation and told everyone how my Friday morning Bible study had prayed for me to not be induced and how God answers prayer! (although sometimes in humorous ways!)  There were a few other families who participated and Pastor Hattenfield told us in his message about the responsibilities we have as Christian parents.

After church, we had cake and punch back at the house to celebrate.  I managed to get a few pictures of Lauren with some family, but somehow I didn't get pictures of her with her Grandma & Grandpa Woolley or the Ely's-- I must have gotten distracted and then she went down for her nap.  Rats.

Delicious cakes made by babysitter Lisa.

Hannah & Grandma Folger during the church service

(we let her come up from the children's class so she could watch)

Pastor giving his charge to the parents

Jon introducing Lauren and talking about God's way of answering prayer!

Mommy, Daddy & Lauren

Hannah with "cleaning Lisa."

It was brought to our attention this weekend that our cleaning lady is more like extended family when she came to Lauren's dedication (and brought gifts for both Lauren AND Hannah).  Lisa is such a great part of our life and we're glad she took time out to come join us at church!  I've said it before and I'll say it again - we'd get rid of our cable to keep her!  She first starting cleaning for us in the summer of 2007.....when we first got pregnant with Hannah, so she's really seen our family grow (and our house get messier!).

Aunt D, Uncle Josh & their favorite nieces!!!

Our squirmy wormy girls makes pictures hard

(and of course, you can't get all 4 of us to smile at the same time!)

Hannah & Jaidyn had fun playing after church

Aunt Patty, Susan & Lauren

Grandma & Grandpap Folger with their girls.

Gotta' love Hannah's "smiles" these days.

 

Lauren with her Pop-Pop

Touch a Truck - 2011

My mom and I took our girls and Rachel's boys to touch a truck at the rec center this year.  When we walked in, the lady at the gate thought that all four were mine!  Although I may want to have more than the 2 kids that we have right now, I don't think the age spread on the 4 of them is what I have in mind ; )

The kids were really well-behaved.  Gavin and Hannah were good listeners and the babies were good in the stroller together.  I'm glad we got our minivan so I could easily have all 4 carseats in the vehicle.  The weather was a little dreary, but it actually made exploring the trucks so much better than last year.  There were fewer people there, so we got a parking space right away and the kids didn't have to wait in line to climb in the trucks.

While we were there, mom got to climb in the ambulance that took Lauren & I to the hospital when she was born, and I went up to the firefighters to ask if the guy who helped with our delivery was working and they asked if I was a friend.  I told him that "no, he delivered my baby" and the two firefighters standing near there both said "oh, you're the family on Castleknock!"  Apparently, our family is well-known to the Dublin fire department (even at the other stations!).  Too funny!

Grant and Lauren

Hannah & Gavin get firehats

Hannah LOVED getting to be on the schoolbus

Smile!

Gavin wouldn't let me get his picture, but Hannah was all about exploring the bus.

And, this is the best picture we got of all 4 of the kids all day!

Gavin gives the peanut a high five!!!

Gavin "driving" the bulldozer

Hannah "drives" the bulldozer

Little girl, big machine

Hannah & Gavin on the tractor

Hannah entertains the babies

Gavin, Mom & Hannah

 

When we got home, Grant got his first taste of watermellon

Reading with Daddy

 

Hannah and Daddy reading bedtime stories

Happy Lauren

Here are some pictures of our happy girl, Lauren.  She is developing quite the personality.  She's a great eater and at dinner time as long as you put food on her plate, she is happy.  The only food so far that we've discovered that she doesn't like is tomatoes, which she (and Hannah) must get from her dad!  She is finally starting to self-play a little better, she really loves crawling all over the place (especially after Abby), and she loves to "talk"....well, it's actually more of an ear-piercing shriek.  She does it both when she is excited and mad.  She has a way of letting us know when she is not getting what she wants, that is for sure!   It is a lot of fun to watch her play and interact with her toys, Abby & Hannah these days.

Crawling with baby

Yeah!  Mommy's home!

She is cruising! Walking won't be far behind... She does great walking behind things on the carpet, but toys with wheels are a little too fast on the wood floors.

(but she's having a hard time understanding why the lion won't go anymore....since she pushed it all of the way into the back of the couch)

 

She's not in the dog cage (in this picture)....just waiting on me to come upstairs for her bath.

Dress-Up Hannah

Hannah is wearing just about every piece of dress-up clothing in her toybox.  The first picture is showing off her layers.  The second picture, she is a "butterfly elephant ballerina going to a tea party."  We have no concerns with her ability to make-believe and pretend play, that's for sure.

Homemade Popsicles

 

Hannah loves to make homemade yogurt & strawberry popsicles!

Morning with Gavin & Grant

We got to spend a few hours with our nephews while Rachel & Ryan got some time to themselves on a Saturday morning.  Lauren loves watching baby Grant, and Hannah loves playing with Gavin.  Having all four of them isn't that bad....

Grant & Lauren checking each other out

Grant (6 months)

Lauren (10 months)

Brothers!

Gavin (2.5 years)

Band-Aid Bandit

Jon was at basketball.  Lauren needed to eat and was being distracted every time Hannah came in her room to talk to us.  I asked Hannah to go sit in her room and read a book while I finished feeding and putting Lauren to bed.  When I got Lauren to bed (not more than 10 minutes later), I went in Hannah's room and saw her cuddled up under a blanket on the chair in her room.  This is what I saw on her bed: 

If you're wondering, "Is that an entire box of princess band-aid wrappers on Hannah's bed?" then you would be correct.  She was so proud of herself!  Take a look.

Close-up - I believe there are 13 on her legs.

But let's not forget the one on her nose.  Did she get this from a breathe-right commercial???

The funniest part of this is that she wouldn't let us take them off.  They had to fall off naturally or she would start screaming because she said it hurt to get them off.  I think Lauren managed to get the nose one off in the morning before Bible study, but she wore the rest of them for days.  Of course, sometimes I'd "accidentally" catch one with a fingernail in the tub, but I think it was 5 days before the last one came off.  

Our band-aids are now stored in a new location.