Catching Fire Book 2

And on to the 2nd book of the year.. I'm SO super slow at reading.. Jeff has already finished the trilogy... but I'm still staying at it even though it takes forever... these books are SUPER good! :)

Family Weekends are the BEST

Friday was my last day working for SPARC... I had my final Parent's Night Out with all my kiddos... I was so excited for the activity... I had saved up boxes and we built their own "cars" They got to make them into whatever they wanted it was so cute seeing them hard at work and to watch all my counselors get into it... :) I'm sure going to miss all my friends and co-workers... But wish them all well and i know we will still be able to hang out and see one another. YaY.
After the PNO I met up with Jeff and Olivia for her favorite meal, Chicken Nuggets.. She was so excited... We sat and chatted at McDonald's and watched Olivia eat... then came home to relax and get some rest for our big day Saturday.
Saturday consisted of Jeff getting his truck fixed and we went shopping for Olivia and I... Pretty successful day shopping. Saturday Night was Worship at DC... It was AMMMAZZZING.  It was so touching I love being in the presence of the Lord and feeling him being there... It truly is AWESOME. So thankful for such an amazing church family and friends.
Sunday Funday.. Church, Nap, Dinner with one of our awesome family friends Nicole, Bill, and their kiddos.... Followed my more napping... Olivia finally crashed and my quote of today... Hey Honey
"Wanna Make Out"
I know grosss.... lol
BUT seeing how we have a 2 year old that likes to sleep with us at night and wants our undivided attention all day... I feel like I never get any kisses or lovin' Thank Goodness for Naps :)
Tomorrow starts a new journey for me and my family and I'm SO excited to start my new job and to see how everything falls into place. I will give an update on the job situation and how Olivia and I do our first week being together during the day (AHHH IM SOOOO EXCITED TO SEE HER ALLLLL DAY!)
I'm SO thankful for weekends just with my little family to relax and to enjoy one another... Thank You Jesus for all the blessings!

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight. -Proverbs 3:5-6


I'm at a bittersweet point in life... I've prayed and prayed and God has answered my prayers. A  job where I will get to be with my baby girl and still get to do the job i LOVE which is to be with kiddos and be a role model for young little sweet children. 
I say this because I have an awesome job right now, I get to plan afterschool clubs and activities for children and coordinate everything that goes on from clubs to Parent's Night Out to School's Out Days.. BUT I've decided that's not ALL I want to do. 
I want to SEE and be HANDS ON with children ALL day. I want to step out of the office and use my talent and the passion that i have within me. I want to guide children and lead them to be successful and to be positive and loving individuals. 
My new career path is now working at Little Tots Learning Center being a 3 year old teacher during the school year and a school-aged teacher doing a summer camp for the summer months. I'm SUPER excited for this new opportunity which i have prayed for for months. 
The hardest thing I've ever done was to leave Olivia at 7 months to go to work. I know women do it EVERYday.. but this momma did not like being away from my little girl. I feel like i miss SO much. 
SO I'm going to have the BEST of both worlds doing what i'm passionate about AND getting to see my baby girl doing what she loves to do and that is PLAY and LEARN. 
God is GOOD. I'm very nervous about this change as I know it will take some adjusting for our family (especially Olivia and I) BUT I do believe God's path is straight and he will direct us every step of the way. 




Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about EVERYTHING. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for ALL He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live IN JESUS CHRIST. -Philippians 4:6-7

WoW... Time Flies...

A little over a year apart... WOW. 

We had an awesome weekend. Jeff's parents came into town and took Olivia to Chuckie Cheese... while Jeff, Bobby, Hannah, and I went to the casino... It was super nice having a night out and lots of fun... We were looking at the picture we had of Olivia when we first took her to Chuckie Cheese to now... LOOK HOW MUCH SHE GREW!!!
Where has the time gone... My chunky baby in the top picture has turned into a beautiful toddler in the bottom... I'm SO blessed.

Our Sunday Road Trip

Well Saturday evening we decided to make our road trip that we haven't made in way too long... Praying time allows us to be able to make this road trip a lot sooner this time than waiting over a year to do it...
We decided to go and visit Grandma Ginger, who is in a nursing home in Cedar Hill, Mo and Also visit with Grandma Rawson, who is living in Potosi...  From Republic heading up it's about a 3 hour drive up and then back so total we drove about 6-7 hours BUT it was ALL worth the laughs, smiles, and the happiness Olivia puts on their faces...
In our first 2 hours of the trip Olivia got upset and whined until she threw up... (can we say I will NEVER give her milk before a long car ride) it was AWFUL! We stopped got her cleaned up threw clothes away and cleaned her seat... then we were off again...
We spent the time singing, Olivia did some sleeping, and I did a little reading on my first book of the year Hunger Games.... I have a feeling I'm in a spot it's about to start getting good.. We bought the box set and of course Jeff is almost done with Book 1 and I'm only on page like 100.. I'm a SLOW reader ...

Here's a few pictures from our visit with each Grandma!!

Life is BEAUTIFUL!! I'm feeling VERY Blessed!!

Hope everyone has a blessed week!!

BFL-Week 1..

NOT SO GOOD!! :( My motivation level STINKS!! AHH!! Trying so hard to be motivated to eat better... but it's SOOOO hard.. I LOVE JUNK!! Week 2 Begins on Monday and I SO hope I can do better than this week.... I did good for a few days and then Thursday and Friday I FAILED! :/

On another note I failed today when we went to the movies... POPCORN AND SODA... Yikes... BUT hey you live once and my little girl wanted popcorn and it was WORTH IT!! :) We went and watched Happy Feet 2!! It was an ALRIGHT movie... NOT one of the best one's I've watched in awhile.....

The evening looks to be filled with going outside and playing with the pups, playing with Olivia, and games with Jeff... Oh How I LOVE the weekends!!! BEST FAMILY EVER!! <3 Muah!

Body For Life Started Yesterday!!

If you are looking for an awesome way to eat healthier and get fit this is the perfect combination of books. We are on Day 2 and my arms are a little sore from the upper body work out yesterday. But i enjoy my 5:30am runs with Stacey on Tues./Thurs. It's always refreshing to talk with her about her days and we kind of are each other's motivator! 

I'm not going to say this is EASY..  It's NOT!! You have to be a PLANNER and PLAN PLAN PLAN. It makes it so much easier to have a meal plan! We know what we are having each day! Jeff is also doing this with me which makes it SO much easier!!! 

Anyone do anything different or have any good recipes that are pretty "clean" I would LOVE to try some new recipes. I visited Clean Eating There is  A LOT of good stuff on there!! 

Happy Tuesday!! 

Update On Life....

Things are starting to slow down for us.... We are always super busy between November and January. We start out with Thanksgiving, Jeff's Birthday, Christmas, LOTS OF TRAVELING, and end with our Anniversary. It's SUPER nice to be able to end it with such an AWESOME time and be able to now go and do something even if it's only an over night stay only 45 minutes away. I thought it would be fun to add some fun into the mix of our week and I did my first pinterest with Jeff...

A SURPRISE TRIP-- For you that know me I kept this surprise trip from him since before CHRISTMAS!!! I know I couldn't believe it either... Here's our room where we got to relax:

Like my post before said it was a BLAST!! We don't do this often enough!!

I did get an AWESOME Anniversary Gift from my best friend... Check out this little guy.. He was waiting so his birthday could be my Anniversary!! WHAT A BLESSING!! 

The beginning of 2012 has been AMAZING so far.. God is up to something and I can feel some good change coming up... I've been praying for a change for about 6 months and i feel like things are moving the right way. If everyone can keep praying the next few weeks until God reveals everything to me and my family. <3 

US

We just celebrated our 4th anniversary together on Thursday! All week since Sunday I got this idea from pinterest... (ill show this idea on a future post) Used a pill box and each day had something I'd do for him and Saturdays paper said "Pack Your Bags we are going on a surprise trip!"
I surprised Jeff with a one night stay in Branson. As we lay here in bed thinking about getting ready to head back home I feel so relaxed. It's so nice to get little time outs from life and remember the "spark" that sent me falling head over heels in love and letting us enjoy each other. I thank God for him everyday he is the best husband and daddy.
We had lots of fun walking around Branson. We went to Tanger, went to the Stone Hill Winery and wine tasted (still dont love wine), walked the Landing and the water by the Landing, we ate a decent supper, and played UNO and just laughed and reminisced about college and how things have changed since the beginning! I LOVE thinking about how giddy I got when he would get on AOL and send me a chat message and how my heart skipped beats when I seen him!
Since we had Olivia she's been our main focus and sometimes we forget about the "us" so that is something we are going to start working on this year reminding each other about the love we have for one another and not just assume each know we are going to show it!
I'm so blessed and can't thank God enough for such an awesome husband!

Life is GOOD!

Here's to 2011... and a NEW YEAR 2012!!

2011 was an overall wonderful year... Our family was very healthy throughout the year and we have been blessed to be able to spend lots of time with each other and enjoying some of the small things we haven't in the past...

2012 I am going to make it a higher priority that we see family more, especially ones we don't see often. I miss having family around, but it makes us thankful for the time we do get together.

2011.. We celebrated 3 years of marriage, celebrated Olivia's 2nd Birthday, Hank joined our family on July 25, and we have been blessed with Jeff's new job and side job....

The START of 2012..... Happy New Year!!

With LOVE-Jeff, Lauren, Olivia

Kisses to Bring in the NEW YEAR! 

Just being US!

We celebrated with friends for our New Year's Eve... 2 of my favorite girls (BESTIES)  and their husbands....

Two of My Best Friends... Heather is 40 Weeks Pregnant and BEAUTIFUL!! 

*Goals for 2012*

1. Get my Family eating HEALTHIER... (and for me to work out more)

2. Read Some Books 

3. Spend more one on one with my husband

4. Spend more time with our loved ones...

5. Expand Our Family and Give Olivia her "sista or brotha" <3

I pray that ALL my family, friends, and everyone has a VERY blessed year! I pray this is your BEST year YET! 

Merry Christmas 2011

I'm a little behind we have been SO busy with Christmas and a week of work and lots of play time with all of Olivia's new toys... Christmas was great this year... Olivia is a TON of fun and SO much fun to do life with... I couldn't ask for a better kid!! Seriously.. <3

Thursday Night was Christmas with the THREE of US! I am SO thankful for my little family...

Friday: We traveled to the bootheel and did Christmas with my dad and spent the evening hanging out enjoying family time. Saturday: Headed to the Muse Christmas and then to My Mom's For Christmas and hung out all night Sunday: We went over to the Rawson's and did Christmas... BUSY BUSY! Left early and got home in time to relax on Monday...

Enjoy Some Pictures...

And Here We are Going Home! We want to thank ALL of our family for everything. Olivia had an AWESOME Christmas!! She is one very spoiled, rotten, and BLESSED girl!! We LOVE each of you!!

Packed to the MAX!! 1 Beautiful Baby, 2 AWESOME dogs, and 2 EXHAUSTED parents.... BUT BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!