Indy Laughlins

Soccer pics - Mallory (U6) - Maddy (U9)

2010-11-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

The patio-and Andy

2010-06-23T05:07:00.001-07:00

Oops got these backward again. They are supposed to be the before and after shots of our patio. Oh we'll...here are the after and before shots. :)

We are really pleased with how it turned out. Dan and I have been enjoying lighting the torches and hanging out there after the girls have gone to bed. Looking out from our patio are only trees and fields (no houses) so it's very peaceful!

Can't forget about little Andy...or should I say big Andy?

Andy at 8 weeks

Andy now at 4 months

He is actually a really, really great puppy!

DISNEY!!!

2010-06-21T06:34:00.001-07:00

We left with my parents for Disney World beginning of June. We had such an amazing time!!! It was the 1st time our girls had been and the were so excited. For us, we took them at the perfect ages. Not too young, but old enough to ride the rides and young enough to be excited to see the the Princesses. We passed by exhausted parents dragging their diaper bags behind them with their toddlers in complete overstimulated meltdowns! YIKES! Yup, glad we waited until they were older! Although I did bring an umbrella stroller for Mallory to ride in when she got tired. I was reading somewhere that you can walk an average of 7 miles in the parks... I'm pretty sure we did.Dad and Mom riding Buzz Lightyear

Maddy and Mallory looking at the castle

Getting ready to watch It's a Bugs Life in 3D. Mallory was ticked that her glass kept falling off.

This was taken at EPCOT. The big ball was in the background, but it was so hot and muggy that day. Our camera kept fogging up. (hate that)

I have some more great pics I'll post later today or tomorrow from our trip.

May- Part 2

2010-06-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

Toward the end of May we made a trip to St. Louis for Evan's (our nephew) 1st Birthday. We spent a day at Kasey's parents house for the party and then drove to the arch the next day with Mike and Kasey and Dan's parents.

Cousins

Kasey and I

Oops! These pics are backwards. We had this tiny little deck the builder built on the back our our house. It was only big enough for our grill so we decided a patio would be much more functional. After calling and getting several bids on the project we settled for a guy who seemed a little "rough around the edges" but his price was CRAZY CHEAPER than anyone else's. To save money, Dan tore out our deck himself and we/he pulled up the sod. Thankfully, the patio was put in while we were on vacation so I didn't have to listen to the noise all day!

Pictures of our Disney vacation and the finished patio in the next blog entry...STAY TUNED!!!!!

May- Part 1

2010-06-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

How did I get so far behind?! May is always a busy month for us with both girls playing soccer. Dan coaches them both and this year took the VP position for our soccer club. Naturally, he did a fabulous job, but it ended up taking more time than we thought! This is Maddy's U8 team. The last game of the season the field was completely under water and the girls were a muddy mess! I had them turn around so I could get a shot of their filthy uniforms. This picture doesn't show it very well. ( I'm actually pretty sure Madison spent more time jumping and splashing in the puddles than she did playing soccer this game)

Coach Dan and his girls

Dan and his U5 team. (Mallory is the one next to him on her knee)

Mallory "schooling" the boys.

The other biggie in May was Mallory's Pre K graduation. Is it possible that my baby is going to be in Kindergarten this fall? Waaaahhhhhh! She (and Maddy) attended a wonderful Christian preschool and I'll miss taking them there. This pic is of Mallory and her teacher, Miss Lori.

Mallory got a scoop of ice cream every time she completed a particular skill ie. writing first and last name, address, phone number, knowing her numbers, alphabet... and at the end of the year if she/they received all her/their scoops the class had an ice cream party to celebrate. Just to brag a little she had her's completed in the first few months of school! :)

Parts 2 and 3 from the month of May to come...hopefully sooner than later.

Puppy and Mono (those two don't really go together!)

2010-04-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I was diagnosed with Mono and have been pretty sick the past few weeks this little guy has helped me keep a smile on my face! I won't be offended if you never have a meal at our house again...

Mallory blowing bubbles, Andy popping them...

That sock will never be the same!!!

This pic is out of order. We cleaned him off in the pool AFTER he found the mud hole in the backyard. Only to have him roll in the mulch and get filthy again!

Ahhh yes and he finally discovered the mud hole in the far back corner of the yard. I was just feeling confident that he wouldn't go back that far...

Now the whole Mono thing: I actually feel a little better today. Slept ALL weekend which felt SO good and I think it just helps knowing that I'm not crazy and I really do "have" something. I can typically push myself through any illness, but just couldn't do it this time. So glad Dr. finally had me take the Mono test. Ready to get through this "rough patch" we've been going through!

March=surgery, infection, another surgery, heartbreak, loss...spring break!

2010-04-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Wow! How do I sum up this past month? The thought of blogging about it was just too overwhelming! I was living a nightmare...why would I want to sit down and type it out?!!!? Wish that writing was more my thing. Ok, here we go:

Dan had surgery on his knee to repair, for the second time, a severely torn ACL and miniscus. The surgery took almost 6 hours and was very extensive. The Dr. had to take out his old "hardware" from the previous surgery cut his own patella tendon and reattach it as his new acl. In order to do that they had to do a bone graft...yadda, yadda, yadda. Let's just say it was CrAzY! After surgery he was in A LOT of pain and seemed to get worse by the day. 6 days post op he was having cold chills and had spiked a fever. We decided to go in and see the surgeon fearing he had an infection. The Dr. confirmed our suspicions and Dan was scheduled for surgery the next morning (exactly one week from his last surgery) to reopen the knee and flush out the knee in hopes of getting out all the infection. It's hard to really explain how sick he was. By the time he got surgery center Friday morning the infection was raging in his body and I have never seen him so sick! It was terrifying!!!! See pic and then story continues...nasty, huh? (dan's knee not Mallory, although she's not looking too hot herself)

Ok, so here's the 2nd part of the story. During all this Mallory came down with bronchitis, borderline pneumonia and was on breathing treatments 4 times a day and by the way, I was running a fever this entire week as well. Talk about being pulled in 100 directions. Dan needed almost constant care and Mallory too. It was hard being everything to everyone Thankfully, my parents helped out. A great friend made us a few meals and cleaned our house one day and of course my Grandma made us a delicious stew as well.
Our next and most difficult blow came after Dan's 2nd surgery. Our dog, Jackson, collapsed and wasn't able to walk or move. He seemed to be almost paralyzed. Dan wasn't able to help me carry an 83 lb dog up from the basement so the next morning our vet made a special visit to our home and helped me load Jackson into the car. An x-ray showed a large mass in his stomach and had probably spread to his spinal cord causing the "episode of paralysis." I was instructed to take him home and let him be with us for a bit longer. Now, up to this point I had been the family rock, but I completely lost it right there at the Avon Vet Clinic! We're talking full blown ugly cry mixed with loud sobs and wailing. In fact, after I had gotten myself breathing again they lead me out a back door to my car. I think maybe they were afraid my hysterics would scare away their clients!! :) Well, our beloved Jackson was with us another 2 1/2 weeks before we had to make the difficult decision to put him to sleep. Hardest thing I've ever had to do. Jackson was my best friend. I'm sure that sounds strange to those of you without pets, but he was just so much more than a dog to me. He was a member of our family! He blessed our lives for 10 years and there will never be another dog like him. Maddy has asked over and over if Jackson will be in heaven when we get there. I haven't really been able to give her a straight answer, but I did say that if God has dogs in heaven our Jackson will definitely be there!!!!
Lastly, after Dan's 2nd surgery and our news of Jackson's tumor we got the new that Dan's Grandpa Harmon passed away. At this point Dan still wasn't walking so making a trip to Iowa for the funeral was impossible that was hard for Dan.

However, the month of March ended much better than it began. Dan's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and invited their sons and families to go along with them on a trip to Naples, Florida over spring break. We had a wonderful time and the weather was gorgeous.

Love Mallory's face in this one!!!

Our airboat ride through the Everglades was one of my favorite parts of the trip!!!

I don't want to end this post without saying how thankful I am for the prayers of so many of you during our difficult month. Although stressful, I can say I felt a sense of peace through it all and that of course can only come through our Savior!!! ;)
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Phil. 4:13

Beach report from Maddy

2010-03-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

The beach is great. It was about 78,79,and 80 degrees. The beach is sunny and breezy. I am loving it!

Our newest family member

2010-03-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off this post. Mostly because I feel like in some way it will seem like we are replacing our Jackson. (which will never happen!) We started looking at breeders online in the Indianapolis area b/c we knew we would definitely get another Golden at some point, maybe even by the end of the summer. Well, long story short this breeder emailed us we decided to take a look and...of course took the little guy home 3 days later. Wow! Not exactly the time frame I had expected. His name is Andrew Jackson and we call him Andy. He's a little stinker, but we are enjoying all of his antics and it does help heal our broken hearts a little.
I couldn't help but post just a few pics of our Jacksy too. Even now the tears come so easily. At church Sunday Madison's sunday school teacher took her in the hallway to tell her how sorry she was to hear about Jackson and that she knew how much we all loved him. The biggest crocodile tears welled up in her big brown eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Life goes on though. The girls are busy in soccer and Dan and I are running them here and there. We have a new sweet little puppy to give our love to, but we will never forget the 10 years we spent with our beloved Jackson.

ski trip 2010

2010-02-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

We spent last week skiing in Northern MI at Nubs Nob. It's in Petoskey/Harbor Springs. My parents came with us. Dan's parents were planning on coming as well, but Dan's grandpa Harmon has congestive heart failure and hasn't been doing well so they didn't feel right about being gone in case something happened. It was a wonderful trip and the girls are quickly becoming excellent skiers! Many of you all are facebookers so probably have already seen these pics, but I decided I HAD to update the blog. So here they are again...This pic should actually be one of the last pics since it happened on day 5 of our trip. Dan had torn his ACL (again) just weeks before we left on this trip, but the Dr. said he should be fine as long as he was wearing his brace. He did fine until day 5 when while skiing he hit a bump and it dislocated! Ouch! It happened 2 more times that day so we had to call it quits and leave a day early so he could get to his surgeon. Long, long story short he has a severely torn acl and meniscus so surgery is scheduled for tomorrow at 2:oo.

Look at those tiny skis!!!! Sooooo cute!

Dan and Mallory getting off the lift. She's a pro at it.

Mal and I

Maddy

Mallory

Dad, Dan, Madison and Mallory

Dad and Mom

Girls in the lodge warming by the fire. Everyday we'd pack a lunch, eat there and warm up a bit before heading back out to the slopes.

Watch out Nastia here comes Maddy...

2010-01-23T17:45:00.000-08:00

Today was Madison's first gymnastics meet. She's been taking gymnastics since she was 2, but Dan and I have been hesitant to put her on team since it is very time consuming and A LOT of money!!! However, Dan designed her gym's website in exchange for lessons, making this team thing more do-able. Anyway, all season Maddy has practiced with the team but had not attended any meets. Long story short she competed today and placed 3rd in all around, as well as 3rd on bars, vault and floor! We were shocked!Way to go Maddy!

Maddy and her good friend Cassidy waiting to vault

Level 3 girls took 1st place and the coach was so proud of Madison that she let her take the team trophy home until the next practice! Woo hoo we are so proud of you, Maddy!

(on a side note I took pics of her on floor, bars and vault, but they all turned out dark! I need photography lessons)

Christmas

2010-01-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I'm kinda late getting this post out, but here it is (finally). We had a wonderful Christmas. Maddy woke up around 6:30 Christmas morning and we somehow managed to keep her in bed until a little after 7:00. We opened our gifts and the girls played around a bit with their presents before we headed to my parents house for brunch. Mmmm... Mom makes the best breakfast casserole. We also have cinnamon rolls, bacon and hot chocolate!
The girls with their stockings

Dan and his new golf bag

Mom and the girls

Mom and I

Dad and the girls playing Gassy Gus.

We left the day after Christmas for Missouri to visit Dan's family. That post will be coming next...get ready there will be a lot of pictures!

Not sure what to title this post...read and you'll see why

2009-12-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

Madison was supposed to be changing into her pj's and instead I saw her running through the hallway wearing only a pair of undies down around her ankles! "Madison!" I yelled "For goodness sake pull up your undies and put on your pajamas!!" "Moooomm, I will in a minute, I just don't want to fart in my underwear..."

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

2009-12-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

We have many traditions in our family that we look forward to and our annual trip to Whispering Pines Christmas tree farm is one of them. This afternoon we bundled up and drove there to pick out the perfect tree.

Maddy and Mal with our tree

Mal adding decorations

and serenading us with a few Christmas songs... I'm totally loving the pink wig!

The tooth

2009-12-05T18:19:00.001-08:00

Maddy's front tooth has been really loose for weeks now. All she can think about is pulling this darn tooth out. She actually wiggled and messed with it so much that the tooth turned blue. (maybe from lack of blood flow...I have no idea) So 2 nights ago we tried tying dental floss to her tooth and attaching it to the doorknob.
Here she is is with the tooth attached to the floss and tied to the door...when we went to slam the door the floss slipped off the tooth! We tried several more times with the same outcome so we gave up.
Well about 30 minutes after we tucked her in tonight (2 days since our dental floss and doorknob attempt) Dan and I hear her footsteps running down the stairs. While laying in bed wiggling her tooth with her tongue it fell out! YAY a little peace about that darn tooth. Then we hear, "Look mom the tooth next to it is really loose too!"
Great...

Staples?

2009-11-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

Mallory loves to sing and is always making up songs. Yesterday in the car her song went something like this:

Ohhhhh Je-sus howwwww I lovvve youuuuuu!!!!! Thank youuuuu for being stapled to the croossss for meeeeeeeeee!

Stapled huh? Maybe I need to go back and review that story! :) Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

Maddy

2009-11-18T14:06:00.001-08:00

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting a few pics from Maddy's b-day. It was pretty basic this year. We took her to her favorite restaurant and then came home for presents, cake and ice cream...

Happy 8th Birthday Madison!!!

2009-11-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

Today is Maddy's 8th B-day. My how time flies! This blond haired, brown eyed beauty has rocked our world from the day she was born. She came out screaming and did so for what seemed like forever. (those of you who had a colicky baby know what I'm talking about) She has more energy than 10 kids put together. Most mornings she's up and "crafting" by 7:00 am. Maddy loves to draw, color, write notes and letters to EVERYONE. We haven't found a sport that she's can't play. While all these are great qualities her Dad and I appreciate her heart for God and her kindness towards others. She's worked hard to memorize Bible verses and (on her own) has learned the Books of the Old and New Testament. :) We are so proud of her and can't wait to see what God has in store for her life as she gets older!
This year we (Dan) made Madison a homemade balance beam. Once completed we realized it would be to long to get it up the stairs and into the playroom. So a 10:00 last night we were pulling it through the 2nd story window! Wonder what the neighbors thought?

Here's the Birthday girl! More pictures to come...

Sick! Sick! Sick!

2009-10-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Mallory turned 5 on Sunday and she had her first "friend party". We did a craft and played a few games. Nothing elaborate, but it was fun. We almost didn't have the party b/c Mallory was sick all week, but thankfully was fever free the 48 hrs before the party! About 15 minutes before our guests were to arrive I started feeling feverish and light-headed so I took my temp. and sure enough it was about 100. I wasn't about to tell all the kids knocking at my door they had to go home so I just tried to keep my distance... Sunday night Maddy started behaving really wildly and out of control. Although, not the typical symptom someone may have when they are getting sick with Maddy it's always a warning sign. Sure enough Monday morning she had a full blown fever and an extremely sore throat. Tuesday I took her to the Dr. mostly b/c I was afraid she might have strep. No strep, but yes to the flu. :( By 7:00 last night her fever was 104 and she was sicker than she's ever been!!! Dan and I started putting cool wash cloths all over her to cool her down and in an hour her fever was thankfully down to 102.5. Today it's only 99.5 or so and she's just about back to her old self. Unfortunately, she's devastated about missing her last 2 soccer games of the season. Poor thing.
So I'm feeling good about finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. with this flu thing and..............Mallory now has a fever. Seriously, Ugh!!!!! What really peevs me off about her having a fever is that I took her to get a flu shot 2 weeks ago and the next day I got a call saying "Hi Mrs. Laughlin. We are so sorry, but the flu mist we gave Mallory was expired and she's going to have to come back in 2 weeks to get it done again." Two weeks to the day was Monday when Maddy was really, really sick. So if Mallory gets what Maddy had it was totally preventable!!!!!! ANNOYING!!!!

So here it is a perfect 75 degree autumn day and we are stuck inside, sick. (I'm still have my fever too btw) AHHHHHH!!!!!!! Well, as soon as we get better I want to put up the pics from Mallory's 5th birthday. I can't believe she's 5!!!!

Stay healthy and get your flu shots everyone. Oh, and make sure they haven't expired.

Blog catch-up

2009-09-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Life is crazy right now at the Laughlin house! We are busy carting the girls back and forth to and from soccer practice and games. Then home to take baths and do homework. Once the girls finally get to sleep I'm ready to just pass out on the couch and watch a little boob tube. :) So I'll catch you all up with some pics of our last 2 weeks.

Mallory started Pre-K and is really enjoying it. I'm loving my 4 hours of peace and quiet twice a week!!! Here she is on her 1st day...

We took the girls to do one of our favorite family fall activities... apple pickin' at Anderson Apple Orchard

Last Sunday was Children's Day at church and the kids sang a few songs for the congregation. Maddy was also part of the worship team, but the pics I took of her didn't turn out.

Also adding to the chaos is that fact that I signed up for another race on October 10th. It's an adventure race for women done in teams of 3 or 4. It involves mountain biking, trail running, canoeing and orienteering. Also they add in a few mystery things throughout the race like zip-lines. I've never done anything like it but it sounds really fun!!! I can't wait!!!! www.nsaar.org

Happy 38th Birthday, Michael!!! (can't believe you're that old!)

2009-08-31T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Dan's brother, Mike's birthday. Happy Birthday Mike!!!! He's really only 33 by the way. :) Mike, Kasey and Evan drove up for the weekend and we had lots of fun. Maddy and Mal really enjoyed playing with baby Evan...he's soooo cute!!! Kasey and I wanted to get a few shots of the cousins together. As you can see my first attempt didn't turn out so well considering Mallory's finger is seriously half-way up her nose!!!

(can anyone tell me why everything is underlined??? Below it went back to normal...wierd)

Ahhh this is much better

Saturday morning Madison had a soccer game and I did another triathlon. I'll spare you all the boring details and times, but I did much better on the swim (2 minutes faster) and improved my overall time by about 5 minutes! It was tons of fun. Here's a pic of me and my Dad...he's my biggest fan!

My first triathlon

2009-08-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I completed my 1st ever triathlon! It was terrifying and exciting both. Actually the swim was the terrifying part for me. I trained for it, but swimming in a reservoir with hundreds of other people vs. swimming in a clear pool by myself are completely different! Not long into the swim I had a guy literally swim onto my back which of course forced me under right as I was taking a breath. I inhaled quite a bit of water into my lungs. It was definitely a mind over matter thing. I kept saying I can do this, I can do this, I can do this over and over! It's just freaky having people kicking and grabbing you as you are trying to swim. I finished the 500 m swim in 14:00 minutes, not great, but I survived! Oh and did I mention it was 60 degrees out???? After the swim I ran into the transition area to where my bike was. Your time doesn't stop during this so I tried to keep that in mind as I was drying off and putting on my socks, shoes, shirt and helmet. Then you have to run your bike to the beginning of the bike course. I felt like I went as fast as I could, but my transition time was around 3:00 minutes. (not great)

The bike course was 10 miles and I probably should have trained a bit more on a hilly course b/c there were quite a few during the race. Also to make things a little more challenging was that the road was wet and slippery. They kept announcing to take the turns SLOWLY b/c of the road conditions. The bike portion took me 37:00 minutes. Again I headed into the transition area (about 2 minutes) where I took off my helmet and put the bike on its rack and ran out (it seemed like a long way) to the start of the last leg of the race, the 3 mile run.

The run wasn't bad except that the first 1.5 miles were at an incline! Hello, I just swam and biked and now I have to run 1.5 miles uphill?????? Once I made the turn and I knew the next 1.5 miles were downhill I was able to pick up my pace quite a bit. In the picture above I'm just heading out to run and I'm giving Maddy and Mallory high-fives. I was still smiling b/c I couldn't see the hill I was about to run up... The run took me 28:50. The entire race for me took 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Woo-hoo I did it! Maddy and Mallory were my little cheerleaders. It was sweet to hear them screaming "GO MOM,GO!!!!" throughout the race. My parents were there and so was Dan and his parents. It was nice to have a cheering section!
It was actually a lot of fun (minus the swim) and I'm thinking of doing an all girl tri next Saturday with my cousin. It's like giving birth...you forget the pain over time and consider another one. Ha!

Little Laughlin

2009-08-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come for little Mallory to finally play soccer! The poor thing has sat on the sidelines of way too many soccer games and practices and now she's finally out on the field. Tonight was the first practice and of course Daddy's coaching. Our weeks look something like this: Mon. = Maddy's practice Tues.= Mallory's practice Wed.= Maddy's practice Thurs.= Mallory's practice Both have games on Saturday's. (Dan's coaching both girls)Could she be any cuter?????

In other news (and probably the reason I've been a non blogger recently) is that my triathlon is this Saturday morning. It's a 5oo m swim (the part I'm the most nervous about), 10 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. I'm excited for it, but also excited for it to be over. ;) Life has kinda revolved around my training and I feel like all I do is swim, bike, run or just swim and sometimes bike and run, occasionally swim and bike....Ugh! Anyhoo, I'll post some pics of the race on Saturday or Sunday.

A day of firsts...

2009-08-12T18:47:00.001-07:00

Today was Maddy's first day of 2nd grade. She loved it and after school told me she gives her teacher a 14 out of 14! Ha! I asked her what she liked best about her teacher and Maddy said, "her voice." Hmmmm...well ok. Poor Mal was very sad to see her sister go to school and be gone all day she cried for quite a while after we dropped Maddy off. Madison took me aside before school and whispered that I should do something special with Mal since she was so upset. I thought that was sweet. Isn't she getting big? :(So Mal has asked me repeatedly for about a month now to take her training wheels off her bike. I've been putting it off, but decided to give it a try today, hoping it would distract her from missing Maddy so much. No joke...I took them off, gave her a long speech about not getting discouraged, it taking lots of practice, not riding by herself for at least few days, yadda, yadda, yadda... She gets on the bike and takes off down the road totally on her own!!!!!! It was so funny! She kept yelling to anyone who was in their front yard, "Hi! Look at me. I'm riding my bike without my training wheels!!!!!!" Here she is proudly sitting on her bike w/out training wheels. I should have taken one of her actually riding it, but we were late to pick Maddy up for school. :) WAY TO GO MALLORY PAIGE!

Camping at Whitewater State Park

2009-08-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally blogging about our camping trip last weekend. We had a great time despite our wet start! When we arrived at our campsite it was raining so hard we didn't even want to get out of the cars. Dan came up with the idea of backing out vehicles up against each other, opening the trunks and hanging our tarps over them creating a "tent" for us to sit under and allowing us and the girls to at least get out of the car!!!Are we having fun wet...I mean yet?

Hanging out under the tarps, snacking and praying we can set our tents up so we don't have to sleep in our cars all night. The rain did eventually let up allowing us to set the tents up before another torrential downpour that lasted until about 4-5am!!! The girls slept great despite the rain, but when we woke up in the morning to several inches of rain in the bottom of the tent and ALL our bedding was wet. :(

After the flood: we awoke to a beautiful sun-shiny day and hung everything out to dry on our makeshift clothes line.

Drying our out tents

This was a beautiful overlook where we had a picnic lunch

Lynne and I reading our Twilight books

Mud pies...need I say more?

Mallory with bed-head

Lynne making chocolate chip pancakes. Mmmm they were good!

Scrambled eggs anyone?

We had a ton of fun canoeing. The water was pretty fast from all the rain, but we are pretty experienced canoers (is that a word?) and cracked up at everyone else crashing and flipping out of their canoes.

Mal with Grandma and Grandpa L.

This was our last hoorah before school starts on Wednesday. :( So glad we went!!! (despite the rain)

Can't. Keep. Up.

2009-07-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a young family church picnic hosted at my parents house. Unfortunately, we had terrible storm go through the night before and it knocked down a 75 ft. Hickory tree in their backyard so we went with plan B and had the picnic at a park. Many of the families go to our church although we had several that are now attending elsewhere, come to see good (missionary) friends who are here for the summer visiting from Taiwan. Here's our group pic...In other news: that storm that went through the night before the picnic... our next door neighbors house took a direct hit from lightning!!! It was so loud it practically threw us all out of our beds!!!! They were ok, but the 6 firetrucks in our cul-de-sac at 6:00am was a little much! Also, during the same storm we found out that friends from church (thankfully were out of town) but also had their house hit by lightning. The bolt went down their chimney, blowing it off their house and came into their house. It blew out their windows and embedded glass in the walls and floor! It's difficult to explain, but it looks like a bomb went off in their house!!!! Makes me a little more nervous during lightning storms! I've always felt safe in the house. :(

We took the kids to the county fair. Mallory has really gotten brave and actually wanted to ride some big rids! Here we are on the Scrambler. I'll save you from watching the video Dan took of us. You might end up feeling as sick as I did when the ride finally stopped!

Maddy and Mal on the mini-coaster. Maddy's having a blast...Mal is trying to.

All last week Maddy and Mallory were at gymnastics camp. They had so much fun! Mallory was awarded a Great Attitude Award and Maddy the Most Daring Award. That couldn't fit their personalities any better!!!!!

Maddy finally has her round-0ff back handspring!!! I didn't get many good shots of them. They didn't want to stop long enough for me to get a decent picture.

Well, we're leaving today for our annual camping/canoe trip with Dan's parents so more pics to come hopefully by Monday. I'm going to start my no-rain dance this afternoon. Its rained every weekend her 4 weeks in a row!!!!!

Ice, ice baby

2009-07-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

I know, I know I've been majorly slacking in the blogging department!!! It's terrible but any free time is spent training for the tri in August or reading those darn Twilight books Kasey has me addicted to! Anyway, one of the blogs I read has a link to a neat website with lots of faith based activities and ideas for families and children. I'm not homeschooling the girls, but I do enjoy getting ideas for fun things to do with them. I found this "experiment" and we tried it out this morning. The night before I gathered some beads and buttons from around the house and froze them (in layers) in a tupperware container. Oh, and added food coloring. Then the girls were given warm water and salt and were told to use them to melt the ice and extract the beads and buttons. I gave them 10 minutes or so and whoever had the most when the time was up would be declared "the winner". I will say this is probably more of a project for school age children, but Mallory LOVED it! They were really suprised that salt melted the ice. Nothing extravgant, but the girls had fun.

This is how we spent the rest of the day...and Mallory is swimming completely on her own now!!!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

We are spending a soggy 4th of July together today. We checked the forecast yesterday and knew it was going to be rainy so we decided to do our backyard camp out last night instead. We let off a few fireworks, roasted smores and then slept out in the tent all night. The girls did great, but were up pretty early.
We were invited to my Aunt and Uncle's for a cookout tonight and had planned on actually keeping the girls up and watching some fireworks, but it's pretty chilly and supposed to rain all day so the fireworks may get canceled. I'm glad we did our fireworks last night!!!

Happy 4th of July from the Indy Laughlin's!

Weird weather...

2009-07-01T09:41:00.001-07:00

So it's unusually chilly here in Indy today. Highs only in the mid to upper 60's... The girls asked if they could play in the driveway while I was finishing up the ironing. When I went out to check on them the were wearing jackets, gloves, hats and wait for it... belts from mine and Dan's robes as scarves! I hope the neighbors don't think I sent them out in those get-ups!!!

Myrtle Beach, SC

2009-06-29T18:35:00.001-07:00

We are home and trying to settle back in to a routine after our wonderful vacation to Myrtle Beach. It took us about 13 hours to get there. The girls are gettting older and traveling long distances isn't quite as bad as it used to be. Thank goodness for the DVD player in our SUV! The girls watched movies a lot and even watched the entire Anne of Green Gables series...my all time favorite!!!!! Anyway, we had a great time. We stayed in a condo right on the beach with 2 lazy rivers and a pool. Maddy is our beach/ocean lover and Mallory prefered the pool/lazy river which at times made things a little difficult, but it was fine. We just tried to alternate our time each day between both places. Maddy has no fear and was amazing in the waves and boogie boarding and Mallory practiced and practiced and basically mastered swimming in the deep end! (I still stay close by just in case)

We met a wonderful family staying at the same place as we were with 2 girls about Maddy and Mal's age and the girls had so much fun playing together everyday. We swapped address and the girls hope to stay in touch. Dan and I actually sat and relaxed a bit while the kiddos played which was really nice. Sorry for the picture overload...it was hard to only choose a few. :)Father's Day

Love this pic!

Maddy could have done this all day!

Maddy took this pic of us...

I think that's Mal in the tubes, but Maddy started doing it first and called it the "double cheeseburger"

Mallory spent an afternoon with these girls (they weren't into the ocean waves either) Here they are displaying their mermaid tails

This is Maddy and friend Hayden

Love this one too!

Madison, Auburn and Hayden

Missouri

2009-06-16T18:10:00.001-07:00

Last week the girls and I spent time in Columbia MO with Dan's parents. (and Mike, Kasey, Dave and Sarah) The girls went to VBS at G-pa and G-ma's church each day from 9-12. I was a little worried since they didn't know anyone how they would do, but they loved it and did great! So once I dropped the girls, along with Grandma, off at VBS I drove to the ARC (activity and recreation center) and worked out. Having a few hours to myself each day was awesome!!!! The other highlight of our trip was getting to see our new nephew/cousin, Evan. He's precious and I'm kicking myself for not getting more pics of him!!!! Evan and Uncle Dan (Dan drove up for the weekend)

On Sunday the girls sang the songs they learned during the week at VBS.

When I started uploading pictures I was totally ticked that I barely took any pics while I was there!!!! Errrr! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa the girls and I had so much fun. We are home now, but re-packing our suitcases for our vacay to Myrtle Beach...we leave on Friday. Woo hoo!

In an instant...

2009-06-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

We took a few silly pics of Maddy's soccer team last Saturday. This Saturday is her last game of the season. :)

Sunday was such a beautiful day here in Indy and so before church I took a few shots of the girls dressed in their matching dresses. We had a great morning at church. Dan was asked to speak to the graduating seniors at our annual Graduation breakfast our church does for the graduates (and he did a great job!!) We left church and were going to my parents for the afternoon to have a cookout. Dan asked me to drive him to our house first so he could change and said he wanted to drive separately b/c he planned on leaving my parents early to get some work done. I left with the girls and we were pulling into my parents driveway my cell rang, it was Dan. But, on the other end was a woman telling me Dan had been in an accident, was hurt and that I needed to get there quickly. It was so terrifying. I had no idea what had happened or what condition Dan would be in when I got there! After what seemed like the LONGEST car ride of my life (really only about 5 min) we got to the scene as they were loading Dan into the ambulance. There were two wonderful ladies at the scene, one who called me on my cell and a nurse who kept Dan's next neck stable/still until the ambulance arrived. They assured me that Dan was going to be ok, but that they probably needed to do some x-rays to be sure. (He had cervical fusion surgery done several years back) Long, long story short he's fine, just sore. I just kept thinking how life can change in an instant. One minute we were heading to a cookout to spend the day together and the next I was watching paramedics load Dan onto an ambulance!!! CRAZY! We haven't gotten the official word that the car is totaled, but are pretty sure it is and this week we are trying to adjust our schedules around one car. yuck!

Evan Samuel Laughlin

2009-05-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Our nephew was born on Wed. afternoon!!!! He weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 21 1/2 in. Mom, Dad and baby Evan are home and spending the night together (alone) for the first time tonight. Hope he sleeps better than my girls their first night home. We are so excited to get to Columbia to see him...hopefully very soon! Check here for some adorable pics of the new family!

If she can do it, then I can do it...

2009-05-28T13:00:00.001-07:00

If Kasey can have a baby and upload a video (with music) to her blog just hours later then surely I can upload some pics and post something almost a week after we've been home!!!!

We spent Memorial weekend in Missouri visiting Dan's family. We had a blast!!! Saturday the Morrison's came up for the day and we did our annual giant slip n slide. (with dish soap to make it extra slippery) Ryan and Heather have two adorable kiddos, Savannah 6, and Sawyer 3 who were perfect playmates for Maddy and Mal.

Maddy and Savannah chillin' in the pool

Grandma and the girls

Finally!!! Heading down the road to fish (Maddy carrying a blue bucket of worms she and Grandpa dug up)

Mallory briefly fishing before hooking Grandma in the leg and vowing to NEVER fish again.

Maddy was the winner catching 5 bluegill!

Oops! A little out of order. Back to the kids jumping into the pool

Kasey 2 days before her due date and 4 days before Evan is born. Can I just say the next day she played a mean game of knockout!!!

Last day of preschool

2009-05-14T18:23:00.001-07:00

Today was Mallory's last day of preschool and the parents were invited for a little program put on by the kiddos. They sang a few songs, said the pledge of Allegiance and then received a a (graduation) certificate. It was very sweet. Mallory Paige and her bestest friend, Amy

She was singing this cute bean bag song, but it had motions and every pic turned out blurry. :(

Saying the Pledge

Mallory had a wonderful year and LOVED her teachers. We signed her up again next year for a Pre K class two days a week. I'm a little sad that my Tues. and Thurs. from 9-1 are gone until September...boo!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms (and moms-to-be) out there. I certainly feel blessed to be the Mommy to 2 wonderful children! Although, for me, today felt like every other day. Oh well... :)

Hodge Podge

2009-05-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

This post is a hodge podge of things we've done this past week and just haven't had the time to post pics. I went with Maddy's class to the zoo and had a great time (despite the awful headache I had by the time we got back to school) Can I just say how much I love this pic? The little girl in front of Maddy obviously was not happy about getting her picture taken and I didn't notice the two kiddos screaming at each other in the background until I looked through the pics later in the day. No wonder I had a headache!

The girls at the butterfly gardens

On the very loud bus ride home

While we were at the mall buying a baby gift this trampoline thingy-ma-bober was set up and the girls had fun jumping

We've had a very rainy soccer season so far this year and have missed several games and practices due to rain and flooded fields. Luckily today we finally got a couple games in. Yeah!

Little Mallory is such a trooper spending sooo much time watching big sis play soccer

Maddy and coach Daddy

Mallory's spring program

2009-04-27T17:42:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since Easter!!!! We've been really busy. Maddy's soccer season has started which means typically 1 practice and 1 scrimmage during the week and then games on Saturday's. I'm doing a wonderful Beth Moore Bible study on Esther which I'm working on anytime I get some free time and...I signed up to swim, bike, run in a sprint triathalon in August so training for that has begun. See I have an excuse for not blogging!!!! :)

Anyway, on Friday Mallory had her spring program at school. Her class sang, Oh be careful little eyes what you see. It was adorable and Mal loves being on stage performing. Her teacher said she can see theater in Mal's future. :) I felt bad for her though b/c Dan was out of town visiting a friend and my parents were in Florida. She kept asking who would be there to watch her. Evidently she wasn't thrilled about it only being Madison and I. So I invited my grandparents, which thrilled her to pieces.This wasn't such a great shot. The little boy next to her was too busy making noises in the mic and kept stepping in front of Mallory. Errrr!

There was a country western theme so both girls wanted their pics taken on the saddle. I tried getting Mal to sit side saddle (much more lady like in especially in a dress) but she wanted nothing to do with it. She grabbed that black hat which was just a prop btw and started swinging that left hand like she was holding a lasso. he! he!

Maddy was much to cool to wear the hat and definately too cool to pretend she was lassoing something. She's a cutie pa-tootie

Great grandpa and Grandma Long

After we took this pic Mal said,"look at my eyes, I didn't want to look at the camera."
Little stinker!

Easter pics

2009-04-13T15:04:00.001-07:00

dying easter eggs

Sad that we don't have any pics of Dan. He was really sick all day Sunday and wasn't even able to get out of bed. He's on a stronger antibiotic and feeling a little better today.

Egg hunt a G-ma and G-pa's

Poor Dan!

2009-04-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

So Dan has been really sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis for almost 2 weeks. He went back in to the Dr. this morning b/c he wasn't feeling any better and was having breathing difficulty. He was put on a stronger antibiotic and given some liquid vials of albuterol and was told to use Maddy's nebulizer. 3-4 times a day he puts the monster mask on and I can't help but crack up!!!! I wonder why the Dr. didn't just have him use his inhaler????

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!

2009-04-09T15:36:00.001-07:00

Thank you G-ma and G-pa Laughlin for the Easter package! Maddy and Mal of course loved the candy and card, but the movies were their favorite. We will take lots of pics of the girls in their Easter dresses!!!!

busy, busy, busy

2009-04-02T17:25:00.001-07:00

Darn! I got these pics all out of order. The girls have been wanting to have a sleep over with each other so Dan and I blew up an air mattress and put it in Mallory's room. Tonight is the 3rd night in a row sleeping together and they have really enjoyed it! Wednesday morning they requested chocolate chip pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse for breakfast so I took a few pics of their breakfast. :)

Sound asleep. Oh, and they've been sleeping in until almost 8:00!! Unheard of in our house!!

Wednesday we met some friends at the zoo. This is Owen, Amelia, Mallory and Maddy. Let me just say all of Indiana had the same idea as we did. The zoo was miserably crowded...

Mallory's favorite zoo animal...goats. What!$#? A goat? Yeah she could spend hours in the goat pen.

Madison was really not into Mom taking her pic! How embarrassing right Maddy?

Wed. both girls have gymnastics and Maddy finally conquered the rope climb this week!!! She got to the top and rang the bell! Yeah Maddy!

And the winner is...

2009-03-31T07:06:00.001-07:00

Mallory spent the morning playing with Jackson. She was playing "who's the most beautiful-ist." I guess she decided Jackson was because he was awarded a trophy. (see above) Also notice the beautiful set of pearls he's wearing along with a glam rainbow bracelet. :)

I'm desperately trying to find things to do with the girls during spring break. Yesterday we went to the Aquatic Center and did some swimming. I was shocked that it was pretty empty there and the kids had a blast! In the afternoon the girls played outside together for quite awhile. It was sunny and about 60 degrees.

Maddy spent the night with a friend last night so Mallory and I are off to the library. It's a rainy day so indoor activities are on today's agenda. Tomorrow we are going to the zoo with some friends from church. Hope the weather cooperates!

Spring cleaning

2009-03-25T15:49:00.001-07:00

Not much going on around here. Just doing some spring cleaning...Here are some pics of Mallory helping out. Of course anytime her heart rate gets above 50 she has to strip down to her undies.

Work it girl!!!!

Last Saturday was Maddy's last Basketball game of the season and she loved it. We are looking forward to next season. Soccer season starts in 2 weeks. Yeah!

Our weekend surprise

2009-03-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend Dan and I drove to the Morrison's for a surprise baby shower for Mike and Kasey. They had no idea we would be there and they were really shocked! My pictures turned out AWFUL so check out Heather orKasey's blog for some great pics. We had so much fun seeing old friends and hanging out with everyone. Thanks Ryan and Heather for letting us stay with you. We had a great time!!! :)

St. Patrick's Day at the zoo

2009-03-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

It was a perfect day here in Indy. 73 degrees and sunny! Maddy's school had an early release at 1:00 so we took an impromptu trip to the zoo. The pictures aren't that great and please excuse all of our pasty white skin, but how many times in March can you go to the zoo in capris and short sleeve shirts?! I checked the weather for the rest of the week and it's going to back down in the mid 50's. Well, we enjoyed it while it lasted!!!

The girls and Grandpa and Grandma Thomas

Yup, we could all definitely use a sun tan.

And now we know...

2009-03-12T09:16:00.001-07:00

Madison's handwriting has been atrocious lately and it's been driving me crazy! Every homework assignment has been barely legible. Well, the mystery has been solved because she brought the pencil home that she had been using...

Note the pink standard size pencil. Now look at the pencil she's been using at school! Apparently, it's "cool" to break and then sharpen the pencil until it's the size of a pea. Errrrr that child!

20/20 vison for a year now!

2009-03-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

One year ago yesterday I had corrective eye surgery and its been AWESOME!!!! Dan knew how much I wanted the surgery, but I would have never spent the money on myself. So HE scheduled me a consultation and I was a candidate...not for LASIK, but for PRK. (Photo Refractive Kerotectomy) Great let's do it, I thought! I was assured the outcome was exactly the same just "a little" more painful and a "slightly longer" recovery period. I was never sure why all the nurses gave me an I feel so sorry for you kind of look when I would tell them which procedure I was having. The morning of my surgery the Dr. explained it would feel similar to falling and scraping your knees. WHAT?!?@#$?!@ Falling and scraping my knees vs. skidding across concrete on my eyeballs were 2 different things!!! And that's exactly what it felt like!!! For 2 very long days I could do nothing but lay in bed and feel miserable. I was not able to see much at all and my eyes were very light sensitive. However, after about 72 hours my and my bandage contacts were removed the difference was amazing. I could see!!!! At the time I was questioning what in the howdy-hoe I'd done, but I would go through it again in a second because the outcome is truly amazing!

I can't believe I'm actually posting this picture. I looked like crap and felt like it too, but it sums up how I felt for 2 days!

B-ball, gymnastics and soccer...in one day

2009-02-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

I put these pics in reverse order of how they happened, but this was our Saturday:
8:30-9:30 Maddy's basketball game
10:30-12:30 Maddy's gymnastics
3:30-4:30 Maddy's soccer foot skills clinic
For those of you who think we're crazy, typically one sport ends before another begins. However, thankfully today was the last day of her gymnastics session and the last day for soccer. Whew!

She's very proud of herself here for winning a poster for juggling.

Today she did her routines on beam, bars and floor

First basketball game ever and she did awesome!

A good movie rental...

2009-02-27T11:29:00.002-08:00

Last night Dan and I rented a great movie! We didn't feel the need to shut it off half way through, I didn't fall asleep, Dan wasn't bored out of his mind... you get the idea. Anyway, thought I'd share with anyone interested in great movie rental. It's called TOUCH THE TOP OF THE WORLD and it's the true story of the first (and only) blind man to conquer Mt. Everest. He was diagnosed with a rare eye disease when he was three and later went blind. (early teens, I think) Anyway, I have an obsession with Everest (thanks Dad) and have read several books about some of the expeditions to Everest. This book is based on an autobiography by Peter Facinelli so I'll be on the lookout for that! Anyway, great movie!

Nubs Nob Petoskey, MI

2009-02-22T16:50:00.000-08:00

We're back!!!! We had a wonderful ski trip up in Northern Michigan. The girls both had 2 ski lessons and were able to ski on their own after that. They were AWESOME!!! Mallory ski's a lot like she sleds, fast and furious. Maddy watched us ski and wanted to learn to make turns down the slopes. Dan's parents went along with us. It was great having them and also having the extra help with the girls! Dan and I are already looking forward to our next ski trip. :)

I had to put this shot in b/c we took it the exact second Mallory hit a chunk of snow and did a face plant!!

Too Busy to Blog!

2009-02-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

This week has been crazy so far, leaving me with no time to blog! We are leaving on Saturday with Dan's parents for a ski trip. So between packing, school, gymnastics, Valentine's parties, parent teacher conference, oh and Mallory's massive sinus infection that's not going away as fast as I was hoping, we are BUSY!

This will be Maddy and Mal's first time on ski's so it should be interesting! They are already signed up for an hour and a half private lesson on the first day. Depending on how that goes Dan and I will take it from there! I haven't decided if I want to mess with packing our laptop so you all might have to wait a whole week before I'm able to post again. We'll see...

Kate is grrrreat!!!

2009-02-05T08:53:00.002-08:00

So I'm big fan of the show Jon and Kate plus 8 and when I heard she was coming to the Indy Home Show I was pumped. A friend from church and I went together to see her. Kate spoke about her family and their fascinating story. I love her and she is exactly the same, personality wise, as on the show. I love that she's "famous" for being a Mom!!!
As you can tell we weren't the only Mom's there to see her!

Did you know neither she or Jon had jobs the first year of the babies life??? Jon was let go as soon as his company heard Kate was pregnant with sextuplets...insurance reasons... Kate said, "I don't know how those people slept at night." TRUE!!!! Anyway, for the first year b/c of insurance no one would hire him. Unbelievable!

She autographed her book Eight Blessings (great book) for me and the most exciting part is that she took a precious letter that my Maddy wrote to her girls, Cara and Mady!!!! Maddy put her address on it and asked the girls to be her pen pal. hehe! Any other Jon and Kate fans out there?

Oops!!!

2009-02-04T19:54:00.001-08:00

And stay tuned for pics and news on my visit with Kate Gosselin!

PHEW!!!!

2009-01-31T11:30:00.000-08:00

Dan and always get a kick out of the things the kids say. This afternoon we were heading toward downtown Indy and let's just say the factory/smog smell can sometimes be pretty strong. Maddy sniffs the air and yells "PHEW! It smells like 3,000 people let 6,000 stinkers!!!!!" :)

Snow Day

2009-01-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

A BIG thank you to our neighbor who took pity on me after watching me shovel the driveway for and hour and a half. He also plowed our cul de sac because driving through it would have been impossible.

Poor Jackson was a little confused by all the snow.

Surprisingly, Mallory has NO FEAR when it comes to sledding!

I love this one of Dan and the girls

My personal favorite

Heading home

NOTE TO SELF

2009-01-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Before promising the girls to a fun-filled day of sledding, make sure you can get the car out of the driveway!

Snow Snow and More Snow!!!!

2009-01-28T05:14:00.000-08:00

We are up to almost a foot of snow here in Indy and it's still falling!!!! The girls and I put in a couple hours of sledding after school yesterday evening. School is canceled today and Dan is planning to get home early from work so we can all go again. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about all the snow. The news was saying this is the most snow we've had in several years! Stay tuned...pics of of us enjoying this beautiful snowfall later today.

Just Dance Away the Colds!

2009-01-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

This is Maddy with a sinus infection... You can't even imagine the energy she has when she's healthy!!!

Our evangelist strikes again

2009-01-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Before school this morning Maddy got out her Jesus (salvation) tract that we passed out during VBS and started looking through it.

Before long I found her reading it to Mallory on the couch! Love it!!!!

Mallory and her best friend, Jackson.

How in the world did I end up with this much extra time before school this morning? Usually we're running around grabbing library books, sticking homework into folders, reviewing spelling words, packing lunches...

TGIF everyone!

Why???

2009-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

Why do the girls insist on stripping down to their undies EVERY time they play the Wii? At least they kept their shirts on. :)

Ummm... just realized Mal is scratching her booty in this shot!

So cute!

Thinking WARM thoughts

2009-01-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

So Maddy had another 2 hour delay this morning. When we woke up it was -12 degrees out!!!!! The wind chill was -27!!!!! Is that crazy or what?! I'm not sure how successful the 2 hour delay was b/c when I took Maddy to school at 11:00 it was still 5 below. Oh well, it was nice having a more relaxed morning together.

Dan is heading up to Iowa for the weekend to spend time with his Grandparents so the girls and I will be home by ourselves. I'm going to check out some reviews of the the new Doggy Hotel movie...although that would mean getting out in this RIDICULOUS cold weather. When we took Mallory to school yesterday my eyeballs actually hurt from the cold. Weird huh? Bummer that we have snow, but it's just too cold to go out and play. :-(Gross pic of me, but Mallory took it and insisted I post it. She had been styling my hair.

Our playroom is upstairs and it's freezing up there so Mal brought everything down and we played in front of the fireplace this afternoon.

I really hope it warms up this weekend so I can take the girls sledding before the snow melts. We'll see...

Finally some snow!!!!!

2009-01-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

I took this of the girls this morning before driving Maddy to school. It was our first significant snowfall of the winter and it was beautiful!!!! Unfortunately, tomorrow's high is only going to be 0 degrees! Yuck.

A picture for Aunt Kasey

2009-01-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

This is a picture Mallory drew this afternoon of Aunt Kasey (in the red w/ purple hair) and her baby. Ha! Oh and Mal was very adamant that the blue at the bottom of the page is the water that the baby swims around in while in Kasey's tummy. (She knows more about babies in utero that I thought!) A little scary though that the baby is bigger than Kasey...YIKES!

Here she is working on her masterpiece

Wednesday's both girls go to gymnastics. Mallory from 10-11 and Maddy at night from 5:30-7:30. Poor Mallory was freezing in this shot! Class hadn't started yet and the gym was COLD. In other news Madison's good friend Makaela from church goes to a christian school not far from our house and has asked Maddy to play basketball on her team. Makaela's Dad is the coach and practices will be on Tuesday evenings and games on Saturday's so I think we are going to give it a try and see how it goes. Maddy has proven to be a pretty fantastic athlete so far...we'll see how she is at basketball. :-)

To: Madey

2009-01-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

I thoroughly enjoy reading the papers and notes Madison brings home from school. When the boys and girls have free time they are encourged to use the writing station to write stories, notes to friends and journaling. Yesterday she brought home a little note from a friend and I thought I'd share it with you...

I have a friend! Her name is Madey. She is funny. I like my friend! She has fantastick crls in her hare. She's a starickl !!! (I'm assuming she meant hysterical) She's a wunful story to rite about. My friend is fantastick.

I thought the hare part and the a starickl part were cute!!!! Have a wunlful day everyone!!!! :-)

Maddy's tooth

2009-01-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

So about a month ago Maddy discovered that she had a loose tooth. This thrilled her beyond belief b/c she thought she was possibly the only girl in the 1st grade who had yet to lose a tooth. So as many things with Maddy, this tooth became an obsession. "When will it fall out, will it hurt, is it loose enough to pull, what day will it fall out, will it bleed.." and on and on went to questions about he tooth! This morning it was getting pretty wiggly, but definitely NOT loose enough to pull... by the time she got home from school it was dangling out of her mouth. After dinner I gave it a little yank and out it came! Maddy asked if she could take it to school to show her class. I said sure and then she asked if she could wear and outfit tomorrow that matched her tooth....????

FINALLY!!!!!!!!

Back from my Christmas Sabbatical

2008-12-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try and recap the last 2 weeks without boring you all to tears. The week before Christmas the girls both sang up in front of the church and did great. Mallory is a diva!!!!

I left this picture in b/c I almost peed my pants laughing. Can anyone tell me why it looks like Mallory is wearing blue sunglasses?

Maddy singing Happy Birthday Jesus

This next set of photos are of our Thomas family Christmas. My Uncle Phil, Aunt Diane and Ashley drove down from Lansing MI the weekend before Christmas.

Me and my cousin Ashley

Me and my Momma

Uncle Phil and my Dad (brothers)

On Christmas the girls wake up at our house and open gifts, then we head over to my parents for brunch and presents with them.

Maddy and Mal letting Aiden listen to some music

My parents with the grandkids

Me and my sister Rebekah

The day after Chrismas we drove to Columbia Missouri to see the Laughlin crew. We had lots of fun and the girls especially enjoyed seeing Uncle Mike in uniform and taking a tour of the police station.

Mal "cuffed" to the wall

Maddy reading the Christmas story before we opened gifts.

Kasey and I

Maddy especially enjoyed the fake eyelashes she got as a white elephant gift. I took a pic of Dan wearing them too, but he told me I had better not post it on the blog. Ahhh but he didn't mention Facebook!!!!

The children's museum

2008-12-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead! I was excited to take the girls to the Children's Museum today. Now that Maddy is in school, we just haven't been able to go like we use to. We had a great time and so did the million other children and parents that were there! :-)Baking cookies in the Cookie Cafe'

There was an amazing comic book exhibit that the girls didn't really enjoy. They did like trying on the Superman and Batman capes though.

Maddy was thrilled to find a pink and purple Superman cape!

Warmin' up her Dino egg

Water play

Mallory riding the carousel...without crying!

Ice fishing

A little blurry, but it's Maddy sliding down the Yule slide

Mallory went by herself...another 1st!

We don't need snow...ice will do

2008-12-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

The girls are going stir crazy being inside so much. So after school today I had them put on their snow pants and sent them out to play...on the ice. Our driveway has just enough of a slope that they had a blast "sledding." More ice is expected tonight so we may be doing this a lot!

Sunday

2008-12-14T17:38:00.001-08:00

So I really wanted to get a few good Christmas shots of the girls this morning before church in their matching dresses. They would not cooperate!!!! I took about 10 pictures and none of them really turned out. So here are the ones that "will have to do." Maddy with very squinty eyes and Mallory with a very fake smile:

Another painfully fake smile from Mal

This is what they kept doing when I would get ready to take a picture...funny now, irritating at the time.

Me leaning to the right??? and Maddy with squinty eyes

I took this at our small group tonight. We had a wonderful Christmas party and lots of yummy food! This is Amelia, Emily, Mallory, Hayley and Parker

Nothing to blog about

2008-12-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

It's been pretty slow around the Laughlin house. Nothing exciting to blog about, but I just saw a preview for the movie Marley and Me and I'm soooo excited to see it. Comes out on Christmas day. If you haven't read the book...READ IT!!!!! It's an easy read and absolutely hilarious. It's a true story about the Grogan family and their neurotic dog. John Grogan is the author and he's fantastic! This book was passed around my family a few years ago and I've been recommending it to everyone since. Anyone read it??? What did you think? Do I have anyone who actually reads my boring blog anyway? :-)

A reward for Madison

2008-12-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

Here's Madison on black Friday GETTING HER EARS PIERCED!!!! She's wanted this done for over a year now. I've been reluctant since I wasn't allowed to get mine done until I was 16. But, Dan convinced me we weren't committing some terrible sin by allowing it. :-) So after keeping her side of the bargain, ( she asked me not to mention it on the blog) we rewarded her with the ear piercing. The pics aren't that great. Once we got there our camera's batteries were dead so these were taken with Dan's cell phone.Before

During

After
Her smile looks a little forced. She teared up for just a second after they were finished and then was fine. Good job, Maddy!

We asked Mallory when she would like her's done and she replied, "NEVER EVER!!!!"

Playing catch up!

2008-12-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

Well let's see... We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house. I think I counted about 30 people who were there throughout the day. And ohhhh the food...can I just say how grateful I am that I come from a family of amazing cooks!!! I was so busy grazing, I mean eating, that I only took 2 pictures the whole day! Ooops. Here are girls and their cousins from Chicago. Maddy and Jake and Mallory and Jordan.
On Black Friday we braved a trip out to do something special for Maddy. (More on that later) It was way too crazy for me!!! Maybe if I was without the girls... (and dan)
Sunday we woke up to a beautiful snowfall and after church we braved the sloppy weather and took the girls out to the Evans Christmas tree farm to find a tree. We spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music and decorating our tree. (after the Colts game)

This is for you Mal...

2008-11-25T17:54:00.001-08:00

Here you go Mallory. A blog entry with your picture. This afternoon Mallory said, "Momma please take my picture with my drawing and put it on the blog." It took her several minutes to decide on a pose and finally ended up with these.???The flamingo pose

Play dough and behavior jars

2008-11-22T15:03:00.001-08:00

The girls played really well this afternoon (after a not so great morning). They did play dough for a really long time at the kitchen table!!!! I HATE messes and tried not to freak out considering they had gotten it everywhere. I was recently listening to a family series by Chuck Swindol and he talked about having a creative child (Maddy), but not allowing messes. Creativity and messes go hand in hand so with that in mind I watched as my kitchen and floor turned into a play dough wonderland.

Now I know this isn't a new concept, but I've noticed that I sometimes focus on the girls' bad behavior and not enough on the the good. So I bought these jars and some marbles and whenever I catch them "doing something good" or following directions without a fight, etc. they get marbles put into their jars. When the jar is filled to a certain point they get a prize. It seems to be working really well so far. In fact, that play dough mess you saw...Maddy cleaned up all by herself. I think she knew it would earn her some marbles. ( it worked)

Daddy and Mal clowning around this afternoon. :-)

Lookin' good

2008-11-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

I took these of Mallory right after she woke up this morning. I thought she looked so cute! Wish I looked that good and well rested when I wake up... bet Dan does too! :-)

chewing gum, fingernail and a window

2008-11-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

I've had several "incidents" recently involving gum and the car window. The first was when all of us were driving around together in the car. Mallory tells me she's done chewing her gum. I take it from her and throw it hard out the window so it lands in the grass....only problem, I forgot to put the window down!!!! No one even laughed. The girls and Dan just stared at me with with these shocked looks on their faces. Like I'd gone crazy or something. (Jury's still out on that one) The middle fingernail on my right had hasn't been the same since.

The next incident happened 2 days later. Mallory and I were in the car together. Again Mal needs me to get rid of her gum. I'm driving so my left hand is on the wheel, my right hand grabs the sticky, gooey gum. I roll the window down and try to toss it out. For some reason with my left hand I hit the button to roll up the window (while my fingers are out) and completely smash again (same hand, same finger) my middle finger. So I'm now driving with my left hand while my right middle finger is smashed in the window. Panicky and in pain I keep hitting the wrong button and roll down every window BUT the one that's crushing my poor finger!!!! Obviously, I finally get it out, but I'm not sure my poor cuticle will ever be the same. For now though, I'm keeping Mallory away from gum. :)

Birthday recap

2008-11-16T09:53:00.001-08:00

Maddy's Birthday was Thursday and since it was a school night and Mike and Kasey were coming up for the weekend we decided to do something very small for her Thursday evening and have an actual party for her on Saturday. So on Thurs. we took Maddy to Charbonos (her choice) to eat with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas and then back to our house to open presents.Maddy and Grandma

Thursday night at Charbonos

Her soccer cake

Uncle Mike, Maddy and Aunt Kasey

We've had a tradition since Maddy was very little of taking her picture holding up how old she is. Uh....Maddy????...

Ahhhh there we go. You're getting older not younger!

Mom, Dad, Maddy and Mal

She's 7!!!!

Kung Fu Panda and lip gloss :)

Madyson, Hunter, Madison and Austin
Hunter and Austin are Maddy's favorite cousins! Thanks to everyone who came to Maddy's party on Saturday and to Mike and Kasey for driving from Missouri to visit!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON ELAINE

2008-11-13T07:52:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to Maddy who turns 7 today!! It seems impossible that she's that old. Where did that colicky 7lb 2 oz baby girl go? :) I'll have more pics and more time to post tonight. We love you Madison and are so PROUD of you!

The girls (and Daddy)

2008-11-12T10:39:00.001-08:00

Dan's knee is getting better. He started physical therapy yesterday. He's happy to be doing a little bit of activity on it. His surgeon told us normally he wouldn't allow physical therapy for another 4 weeks, but b/c Dan's such a stud muffin (my own terminology) he gave him the go ahead to begin.

Maddy and Mal before church Sunday. I try to grab the camera and take a pic whenever they're getting along!!!!

Maddy worked very hard with Mallory to come up with the "perfect pose" for this shot.

Maddy's Birthday wish list

2008-11-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

MY BIRTHDAY LIST

1. Fur Real Biscuit dog (checked it out and it's $150...)
2. Pet Shop game
3. owfit (outfit)
4. Wii game
5. mermade (mermaid)
6. Barby doll
7. $20.00 (huh?)
8. wig (? maybe Grandma has an extra one we can have)
9. fack nails (fake????)
10. A toy for Mallory (Awwwwww!)
11. A TV (nope)
12. I Fone (definately not)
13. I Pod (maybe in about 6 years!)

This child just cracks me up!!!! Her 7th Birthday is Thursday. I think we are going to take her out to eat (her choice) and then let her open up a few gifts. We are having her actual party on Saturday while Mike and Kasey are here.

A very random skin condition

2008-11-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

So Mallory has this weird skin thing going on. She gets these patches of dry skin with small bumps all over it (which she calls nipples ????). Yeah, you can imagine how embarrassed I was when in Target she yelled, "Mom the nipples on my bottom itch really bad!!!!!" Anyway, her skin is very itchy and once she starts scratching it she gets these huge welts .... I'm thinking about calling the Dr. this morning because the poor thing is really miserable. Any ideas as to what this could be? The huge welts are what freak me out!!! They almost look like huge hives.

Gross pics of Dan's knee

2008-11-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

I took Dan to the Dr this morning to have his knee checked out. He took the bandages off and so now we all have to look at how disgusting and swollen his poor knee is. Poor Mallory can't even look at it. When she get's near him she closes her eyes! It's very funny.
Thankfully, his knee is "looking good" according to the surgeon. Unfortunately, I think it's been a more painful recovery thus far than Dan was anticipating and for anyone who knows him, knows how hard it is for him to just sit around all day!!! Next Monday we go back in to have the stitches taken out and then just see what the Dr says from there.

It looks even more disgusting in person!

Surgery day

2008-10-31T11:05:00.001-07:00

Today was surgery day for Daniel. He tore his ACL about a month ago playing soccer. We were at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning. I don't think Dan actually was taken back for surgery until 8:30. We were waiting for the cadaver ligament to get there. Ewww! Anyway, the surgeon said his ACL was severely torn. Worse than the MRI was able to show. But, he's doing great and even walking on it a little.Here's the patient

Are those my panty hose?

"yes" please don't to the wrong knee!!!

It was really hard to wake him up!

Still sleeping...Aren't we a cute couple? he he

ZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Finally awake!!! He's got it rough doesn't he? Propped up playing video games with Mike. He actually just called my cell to ask me to make him a pot of coffee....hmmm this might get old real quick!!! Love you, babe!

Trunk or Treat!

2008-10-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was our annual Trunk or Treat at church. The girls and I went and had a great time! Only thing was that it was FREEZING! Brrrrr. I think we had about 100 kids attend the event so we were very pleased with the turnout. Wish I'd taken a few more pics...

Mallory the lion

Maddy the cowgirl

Another note from Maddy

2008-10-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

Madison slipped me this note after school today.

To Amanda

This is the best day. You give me courij and stranth evore day. I think of you! Mom you are speshl to me.

From Maddy

Doesn't get much better than that!!! I give her strength and courage??? Oh my. How cute!

Better late than never!!!

2008-10-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to post these pics all week, but just never found time to....so a week later here they are! Dan's parents came up last weekend for Mallory's b-day and they were also able to see Maddy's last soccer game of the season. Dan's mom got some really good action shots of Madison. I did not! So here's a cute one of the team and coach Dan.

On Sunday after church we went to a nearby park and spent the afternoon. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful.

Grandpa and Grandma Laughlin

Fall break schmall break...

2008-10-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Madison is on fall break this week. Monday she went to school from 9-12:00. Today from 1:00 to 3:40 and tomorrow 9-12:00. Then she's off Thursday and Friday. We have gotten into such a great routine and this weird week is throwing us off!!! The girls fought all morning, Maddy ran around the house jumping, running, hollering, cartwheeling, somersaulting, skipping, flipping... get the picture? Errrr. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better, but I'm taking the girls to get flu shots after school so I'm thinking probably not. :(

fyi: It's 9:00 and Maddy is still awake. What do you think she's doing? Dancing. Good grief we put her to bed an hour ago. Where does she get her energy?

Ok on a positive note Dan and I went to Maddy's parent/teacher conference this evening and her teacher had nothing but positive things to say about Madison. At the end as we were leaving her teacher said that she understands we are a family with great faith...b/c Maddy talks about it quite often. :)

Mallory's 4th B-day!

2008-10-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Mallory's 4th birthday. I really can't believe she's 4 already. It seems like just yesterday that I was at the hospital pushing .... ewww anyway, we had a fun party. Both sets of Grandparents were there, my cousin Justin and his wife, Melissa, came over. I've probably posted way too many pics, but here they are anyway:

"Ok. Smile, clasp your hands together and lean to the right."

Pin the tail on the pony

Maddy kept cheating...

The cake!

Mal feeding her Baby Alive

Thanks aunt Kasey and uncle Mike for my High School Musical 3 bear!

Our fam

Mallory's favorite toy was this doll. (she poops and pees...really!)

Wii've created a monster

2008-10-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

So Mallory is LOVING our Wii. She could play it all day if we let her. (we don't by the way) She's allowed to play it once sometimes twice a day for 15 minutes. Anyhoo, the girl gets way too into these games! Here she is playing Carnival mini golf... she got so hot and sweaty playing that she had to take her clothes off to cool down. See her jeans, shirt and socks on the floor?

I thought the girls looked cute all dressed in purple today.

Date night with daddy

2008-10-14T15:04:00.001-07:00

Tuesday's are my kickboxing night. The girls and I head over to a local church from 6:30-7:30. This evening when Dan got home from work he surprised the girls and said he wanted to take them to a movie. They were really excited!!!! (they better be b/c dates with daddy are the only one's they'll be going on!!)

"This is very mysterious!!!"

2008-10-13T18:07:00.001-07:00

About 8:00 last night our doorbell rang. When Maddy and I answered it the was no one there, but sitting on our doorstep was a little black bucket of Halloween candy and other goodies!!! Inside was a cute note and a picture of a ghost (phantom)on a piece of paper. The note said:

The phantom ghost has come to town

To leave some goodies....I see you've found
If you wish to make this a happier fall...
Continue this greeting, this phantom call.

First, post this phantom where it can be seen
And leave it there until Halloween.
This will scare other phantoms who may visit--
Be sure to participate, you won't want to miss it.

Second, make two treats, two phantoms, two notes like this,
Deliver them to two neighbors who may have been missed.
Don't let them see you, be sneaky, no doubt,
And make sure they put their phantom ghost out.

Next, you have only one day to act, so be quick!
Leave it at doors where the phantom hasn't hit.
Deliver at dark when there is no light...
Ring the door bell and run--and stay out of sight!

And last, but not least, come join in season.
Don't worry, be happy...you need no good reason.
Be cool, have fun, and remember-- don't be seen!
By the way, here's wishing you a Happy Halloween!!!

So Madison was super excited about our visitor and kept saying "this is very mysterious." She was dying to know who rang our bell and left us the treat. We actually left the house for school early this morning so we could drive through the neighborhood to see what houses had their phantoms taped on the door. Anyway, about 8:00 tonight we all hopped in the car and took our goodies over to some neighbors. Maddy "rang and ran". (rang the doorbell, ran to the car and we took off) These people who come up with these things are insanely creative!!! Heather M. is this kind of what your neighborhood does?
This is what was outside on our doorstep: I really have no idea what Maddy was doing in this picture!!!!

Weekend recap

2008-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Mal at the park

Dan and the girls

Poor Mal and I weren't feelin' so hot here... I had an awful headache and Mallory had the "runs"

Mallory, Emma and Maddy playing together after church this afternoon

Golf cart ride with Grandpa and Grandma

TA DA! Mallory's new bed

2008-10-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Mallory's daybed was delivered today! I've never been a big daybed person, but Mallory's room is so small it seemed like it would work best. Anyway, this is the pic of her room with the toddler bed. Her room up until this point has been pretty boring. I'm excited to start hanging things up and decorating a little more.

It was hard to get a good angle of the bed. Her room is so small that if I stood at the wall across from it I couldn't get it all in the picture.

The pink and blue flower things at the end there are canvas pictures I'm going to hang above her bed. It's hard to see, but the bed also has a trundle that we are using for now, as a drawer for toys and storage. Eventually it will be nice for sleep-overs.

Now please Lord, help her to sleep all night in it!!!!!!!!!!

crafts galore!

2008-10-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Typically the second Madison comes in from school she drops her backpack and gets out the markers, scissors, glue and construction paper and starts creating something. Here she... crafty little thing!

Nothing much

2008-10-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I've gone so many days without blogging!!! Honestly though, it's been pretty dull around here. Mallory's 4th b-day is about a week and a half away and I've got nothing... No decorations, no presents, nothing. I'm an absolutely terrible "party planner." Luckily we know a lady who can make the most amazing cakes and honestly, money wise, it's as cheap as making the cake myself! Mal wanted to have a mermaid party and this morning she's changed her mind and wants a My Little Pony party instead. So maybe we'll look around for some things this afternoon.

Mal has been sleeping in a teeny-tiny toddler bed and Dan and I decided it's time for a bigger one. We should be having it dropped off and set up tomorrow afternoon so stay tuned for some before and after pics of her room.

Sisters

2008-10-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

It's an amazingly beautiful day here! Upper 60's and sunny. Mmmmm! I sent the girls out to play while I was cooking dinner. I kept looking at them out the window playing so nicely together. I think Mallory was the "old lady" with the cane (stick) and Maddy was assisting her by tying her shoes and carrying her up the hill. It was sweet and it proved that they CAN play together without fighing. The pics are kinda grainy. I was trying to be sneaky so they wouldn't see me and stop playing together.

What is wrong with me???

2008-09-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try this new recipe from my Taste of Home magazine...so this morning I made a list of the things I needed and Mallory and I headed off to Wal-mart. I needed a 2 gallon ziploc bag to mix the cereal and powdered sugar in, but instead of writing down a 2 gallon ziploc bag I wrote down 2o gallon! Well, anyone in there right mind would see 2o gallon and think that must be wrong! Why would I need that HUGE of a ziploc bag for mixing cereal and powdered sugar???? Oh no, not me. I search for several minutes and finally find a 2o gallon box of ziploc bags and away I go. (yeah they actually make them that big) Anyway we get home I start making the stuff. Time to use the ziploc bag...Holy crap this thing is HUGE! Now it dawns on me that I probably grabbed the wrong size. DUH! Well, I bought it might as well use it... This bag is as big as Mallory. Poor thing. She was watching me shake this ginormous bag and looking at me like I was crazy!

I didn't even notice that the lady on the front of the box was carrying 2 sleeping bags and a pillow in her 20 gallon ziploc bag! Seriously, what was I thinking?

Anderson Apple Orchard

2008-09-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite things to do in the fall is go to the apple orchard. It's a tradition I always did as a kid and now Dan and the girls love it too! There's a number of orchards around here, but we love Anderson because we can drive through the orchard eating...I mean picking apples from the trees. There's also a pumpkin patch and raspberries to pick. Unfortunately, everyone from the state of Indiana decided to show up too so we didn't go through the country store and get cider or an elephant ear. Boo hoo! Here's a few pics:Mallory did NOT like her raspberry!

Golden delicious apples are the family favorite

First, just the way Mal was holding the apples cracks me up! Then if you look at Dan in the background...what was he doing?

Apple in one hand, raspberry in the other. Mmmm!

Wii had fun tonight!

2008-09-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

The girls played a round of bowling

Litttle lefty

They also played some carnival games that were really fun. :) Dan and I are going to put the girls to bed and play some tennis...then watch the presidential debate. Have a great weekend everyone!!