We Are Blessed

We are so blessed at this church with wonderful families and also with friends who pastor a local church that have taken an interest in Lauren, they say it's because they have sons who are grown and now away at college and Lauren gives them a chance to buy " girl things". They sent a package for Lauren with some Christmas items with one of our church members and today when we got there they said " We have some things for Lauren in the car and we'll put them in your van after service. Well, what they had for her was this. A Dora Talking Kitchen

Pink Fuzzy Crocs

How blessed our girls are with people that love them that aren't even related to them :) Thanks Ron, Faye, Don, Dianne. We appreciate the gifts.

Birthdays, Cousins and Christmas oh my !!!

We went to Florida for

Lauren's birthday and for

Christmas with the families.

As usual she racked in the stuff

and was happy with it all.

Florida is wonderful at Christmas,

where else can you sit outside

on Christmas eve and eat ice cream. :) We also went back to Busch Gardens and she loved it there. We all had a great trip and loved seeing family again. Her bounty of gifts this year, we need a bigger house
Her party with family
A Dora cake of course

Lauren, Heather and Kim
At Busch Gardens with her "Dudley" cousins

She's 3

Lauren turned 3 today

and we celebrated at

Stone Mountain. Her

"regular" party will be in

Florida Saturday since we

are headed down there

to see family. Our family at the top of the mountain, Atlanta is in the background

This pic is a little dark but lauren was catching bubbles
Lauren and the Snow Angel
Stone mountain at night is really beautiful :)

Pre Birthday Fun Has Begun

Lauren turns 3 tomorrow

and she has already gotten some

fun gifts, the first one is

this ladybug tent from a church member, it's so big it takes up a good part of our living room, she loves this thing. thank you Chyrl.

she also got a card in the mail from her friend

Jiali. Thank you Jiali. And then she got a gift from us, I wanted to get her a puppy but she said

"no puppy mama, pish" ( fish) so she got a 20 gallon fish tank from mama and dada. Tomorrow we are taking her to Stone Mountain Christmas so i'll post pics from that also.

Her fish names are 1,2,3,5,6,7,9,10 : ) more birthday fun tomorrow, stay tuned.

Lauren and Noah

We had our weekly playdate
today with Lauren's best bud Noah.
These 2 have the neatest and sweetest
relationship, they are such great friends already. Soon there will be another playmate when Noah's new brother Jeremiah comes home from Taiwan next month :)

Here comes Noah
The Best of Friends
Wheee

Christmas Parade

These pictures are a

week old but we took Lauren to

our City parade and she had a blast.

I think the last picture says it all.

They said we had approx 6000 people attend this year and it was great. Waiting for the parade to start
They are throwing candy at me, too cool
Floats, marching bands, and more
She fell asleep holding this sucker and would not let it go :)

3 Year Portraits

We took Lauren for her 3 year

old portraits today and I was

surprised when I saw how much she had changed

from her pictures last year. I

guess because I see her every day

I don't always notice the changes

but she is growing up and changing a little too

quickly :) December 2006
December 2007

Too Pink

We took Lauren to shop for new

winter pajamas today and she

had to pick her own based

on color, I held up one pair

and asked if she liked them

to which she replied

"No mama too pink"

So, she came home with green ones

since pink ones are not acceptable :)

Dressing up with Dora

Vicki, Darrin and Ryan brought

Lauren a Dora Dress Up Trunk

filled with clothes, tiara's, shoes,

etc for her gotcha day celebration.

They picked the perfect gift for her,

she LOVES this trunk. Thanks

you guys, you are the best.

Family Day Celebration

We met our friends

from Murfreesboro in

Chattanooga this weekend

to celebrate Lauren's

gotcha day weekend.

Lauren and Ryan had a blast

with each other at the

Aquarium and it was great

spending time with Darrin

and Vicki also. The Dudley Family
Lauren and Ryan
Lauren posing
I love these Seadragons
Vicki and Ryan " playing with Nemo"

Family Day Anniversary

2 years ago we recieved

a wonderful blessing

from China. She is the joy

of our lives and we couldn't

imagine life without her.

Tomorrow we are taking

Lauren to Chattanooga, TN

to the aquarium to celebrate

family day so more pictures

to follow after our adventure. Lauren 2005
2006
2007

More Pictures of a birthday celebration

Five generations
Playing a game

A Birthday Celebration

We headed to North Florida

this weekend for my

great-grandmothers

91st birthday party.

Lauren and her great grandmother Josephine
My uncle Marvin and lauren
Lauren with her Great-Great Grandmother Liddie
4 wheelers, It's a southern thing :)
Family Reunited

So Big

Lauren is getting so big or at least it seems that way, she is really doing well with manners now
such as please, thank you, your welcome and bless you if you sneeze. She is also very loving and cuddly and loves to sit and be held and read to which is neat. she is getting to be really funny also and will carry on a conversation with us now and that makes us laugh considering a few months ago she wasn't talking at all. She will repeat anything she hears, I took her Christmas shopping with me on Friday and she came home and told daddy everything we bought and who it was for :) Thank goodness none of it was his. She still refuses to go to the potty though and will not wear big girl panties at all, even Dora ones. Not sure what the issue is with that but apparently she is not ready.

Trunk or Treat

We took Lauren to something called

trunk or treat, it was fun.

people decorate the trunks

of their cars and hand candy

out of them, Santa was even there. This is my favorite picture of Lauren
Santa at trunk or treat ? Lauren still doesn't like him :)
whoo hoo, candy..... and santa is far far away

I Love A Parade !!!

Lauren's preschool

parade was today for

halloween, all the kids

looked so cute and she had a great

time. She is a butterfly

this year, she picked it out

all by herself. :) It was cold

so she had to wear a sweater

and of course the yellow shoes.

Ms. Rachel trying to "gather" her kids
My Butterfly walking in the parade