school friends...

This is Lauren and her friend from "school," Kate. Kate and Lauren are like peas and carrots at school and the teachers have told me that wherever one is, the other is not too far away! We were invited over to Kate's family's house a few weeks ago and what a great time we had! Lauren and Kate played and were very good about including Josh. Logan stuck pretty close to me, but that's to be expected!! We had a campfire, smores, some Scooby-Doo, a wonderful dinner, a walk to the nearby park and Brian even managed to see Favre throw a few passes thanks to a sneak at the first pre-season game! Thanks so much Joe, Karla and Kate for a great "playdate" for us all!!

family, farm, and elvis....oh my!

Cousin Kelcey, Josh & Lauren watching Elvis

My dad's cousin's hosted the "Lee Family Fall Festival" a couple of weeks ago down in Brownsdale, MN. It was such a fun time! It was held on my dad's cousin's farm and it was filled with food, fun and family! It was great to see so many people that I haven't seen in so long. And yes, Elvis did make an appearance! Seriously, who knew that an Elvis impersonator could keep little children occupied for so long! I may hire one for the next birthday party I throw!!

So, here's to all the Lee's that made it and to those who didn't! We're a goofy bunch, but a family filled with love! Oh, and special thanks to John and Patti and the Weldon girls (and their families) for use of the indoor bathroom for Josh. He was scared of the porta-potty and the last thing we want to do to a boy during potty-training is frighten him!!



" Are you REALLY Elvis?" --------------------------Lauren and Grandma


Elvis serenading my great-aunt Joy----------- Grantie Dana and Lauren

it's official...

We have a crawler!! My earliest crawler out of all three kids! He beat Lauren by a couple of weeks and Josh, well, he didn't crawl until he was about 13 months old.

He's off and going and does NOT want to be held back!

Look out!

thirty years

My lifelong friend, Brooke, came to visit us recently with her family. She and her husband, Adam, have three kids: Kiersten, 3 1/2, Vaughn, 1 1/2, and Bennett, 2 months. Sounds a little like our house, right?! Their visit was so much fun! The kids played and the grown-ups talked and relaxed. Think of that - six kids under four in our house! Crazy! It was a good crazy, though. It took a while for Lauren and Kiersten to warm up to each other, but once they did, they were so cute! I recall them playing "butterflies" where Kiersten was running around calling Lauren "mama butterfly". Josh and Vaughn were loud boys together. Logan was a little cranky, so he napped a lot of the time and Bennett, well, he slept and ate, slept and ate, slept and ate. You get the picture.

I was amazed watching all the kids play together. You see, Brooke and I were 3 years old when her family moved to the neighborhood and her house was two houses away from mine. So, we've been friends for thirty years!! We used to call ourselves "salt and pepper" because Brooke had blonde hair (salt) and I had brown hair (pepper). Sure, we spent our fair share of time fighting over who got to be Daisy Duke, who liked McDonald's better, who got to sing the Michael Jackson part to "The Girl is Mine" (and who got stuck singing Paul McCartney), and a thousand other things. But, we also spent an entire childhood creating memories that were great like walking to Ankeny's or the A & W, playing soccer, kickball and frisbee, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, building snowforts, playing grocery store, singing along to my records, and many, many more things. I think that we both want for our own kids what we had: lasting friendships and a loving, safe neighborhood.

To see our children all play together was really quite a site!

And Brooke and Adam were such troopers. They packed up their whole family to come to Minnesota from Chicago to visit family and friends with their crazy crew and get this - NO dvd player in their car!! They are crazy!!! : )

We miss you and hopefully we will see you soon for playdate number two!

Brooke, Bennett and me

Lauren and Kiersten (Kiersten loves corn on the cob!)

Josh and Vaughn

miss organization

Hmmm.....I wonder where she gets that trait from?!

odds and ends

Here are a few of the latest happenings at our house:

• All three kids stayed with Grandma Marcia and Bumpa Smiley on Saturday night and all went crazily good...
• Lauren's imagination is really starting to take full force. She pretended in the car a couple of weeks ago that her blankie was a baby and then proceeded to ask me where babies come from.....
• Joshua's new favorite word is ridiculous. I thought he learned it from Sponge Bob Squarepants (it coincided with him watching the show) until my neighbor informed me I say it all the time. That's ridiculous....
• Logan is trying so hard to crawl and REALLY upset that he can't. He flops down on his belly and screams at the top of his lungs in frustration.....
• Lauren's favorite Disney princesses at the moment are "Sleeping Bleuty" and "Jasmint" (no, those are not typos)....
• Josh was doing awesome at potty training, going 3-4 times per day in the potty. Now he gets a sticker if he will sit on the potty without throwing a fit...
• Logan loves peas. I think it is his favorite food. He inhales the jar like it's going out of style.
• Brian and I went to my 15-year class reunion on Saturday. We didn't get back to my parent's house until 3am. Needless to say, Sunday was not pretty (especially for me!). Brian was a trooper and changed all the poopy diapers so I wouldn't throw up.....now THAT'S love!!

picnic