Lauritzen Family Blog: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Hi From Springville!

April 30, 2008
Hi everyone from Springville. We've had a busy few weeks and it looks like it's just gonna get better this month (May).

Spencer is home with me so I keep pretty good tabs on what he's doing. Poor kid gets all the parenal attention he can stand and more! Spencer will be graduating on the 28th and the school wants to keep us all hopping with practices and meetings to make sure everything is ready for his big day. He's been working hard to finish my 4 drawer dresser in woodshop (no, he's not a dumb kid. He gets college credit for that class), and has had early choir days most mornings for the past 2 weeks. He had his choir tour the middle of April and was gone to LA for 7 days. My house was way too quiet! These past few weeks practices have been to get ready for his Masterworks concert tonight at the Provo Tabernacle with Provo High. His choir teacher is not really very good, and apparently couldn't get them ready for this during the 1 1/2 hour classes they have every other day, so he has been going in at 6:30 every morning. Now, if any of you know how happy Holly is in the wee hours of the morning, Spencer takes after her. It's been just fun and giggles every morning (that's sarcasm, for anyone who didn't pick up on it). Spencer also took Keilani (the cute girl that played Ayah in his play) to prom on Saturday night. He was really late asking her, and even later trying to rent a tux and ordering her corsage, so I took it upon myself to order the corsage and call the tux shops. There were 8 other prom's that night, so there were no tuxes to rent, although many shops said they had some to buy. I ordered the corsage, only to get home and find out that he had been responsible and ordered one, too. He gave her the choice which she wanted to wear (the one I picked out :)) and is giving the other to Tara to wear to church this week.

Tara finished her last final today and is coming home on Saturday for the summer. She thinks she did very well in her classes, and even took an art history class from Michael Ballam. She says he's a boring teacher. She is not engaged or married and will not be for awhile if I have anything to do with it. I guess I don't really have anything to do with it, though. She has a beta fish that she got for her birthday about 2 years ago. It has some kind of disease and most of it's fins are gone. He went to school with her like that in the fall, and that silly fish is still alive.

Mark loves his job and is just generally happy. He put a patio in under the arbor he made a few years ago and it looks pretty good. Not super flat, but we like to call it "rustic". He still plays Hockey, although he says it's getting harder and harder to move. I watched him play a few weeks ago and he's about as fast as a slug. He says he takes big strides. He keeps me laughing. He tells me that I better make him look good now by telling you that he usually scores a goal each game. He really is better than most of the kids he plays against, just a bit slower - but he is about 20 years older than most of them.

I'm just busy working all the time- either at work or at home. That's how it should be for moms I guess. Things at work have been super stressful this past week - more so than usual. I'm sure glad I have a nice family to come home to! I love you all!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Posting

Hello all, if you would like to post something please email it to.....

lauritzenfamilyblog@gmail.com

I check it a couple times a day, so your post will be posted the day I receive the email. I have gotten a lot of emails there so far, so I know most, if not all, of you know this. But just to remind you all! Thank you!

Lauritzen Addition!

Just wanted to let you know that a new Lauritzen entered the world Wednesday April 23rd.

Eliza Maree Lauritzen was born here in Colorado Springs at 6:30 a.m. mdt to Aaron and Ann Lauritzen. Eliza was three weeks early and weighs in at 5 lbs 14 oz. Both mother and daughter are doing fine, but father is exhausted.

--Grandpa

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to David and Tricia!! I am not sure how many years it has been. I want to say 14, just by my own memory, but I am not sure. I could be wrong. Either way, we hope you guys have a wonderful day today!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Grandma and Grandpa

This month has flown by. Looks like a fun trip Heidi. Our life here is not quite as exciting.

Spring may come, but then maybe not. It's another ugly day. We have had a couple over 70 though and that was very nice. My seedlings down in the basement look very good. Hope they continue.

I love the blog. I sure hope everyone will participate. So nice to have the pictures too. Thanks Nickell. I hope you'll still have time when Kade comes to stay with you. It is a different life then.

We saw Oliver at Rampart last night. Didn't think we'd ever be there again. Dayna was in it and did a great job. Austin heard they were doing the Wizard of OZ and is excited because he wants to be a munchkin. We talked to Miss May. She remembers all of you 6 younger ones. She did a good job.

We are going to make cards at painting once in a while so that will help with keeping up with the birthdays. Dad is doing about 2 sets of indexing a day. So we do keep busy. We have plenty to do.

We love everyone of you. Keep writing.

--Grandma

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Today is Melissa's birthday! Happy birthday Melissa, hope you have a wonderful day!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Pretty and pretty funny....

https://www.omahabotanicalgardens.org/

--Kristi

Parkinson Family Disney Vacation

We're back and we're super tan!! For those who don't ever talk to me or Dad, our family and Jason's parents and brother went on a Disney land and sea adventure. We spent three days on land at the Caribbean Beach Resort and went to all of the Disney parks. The kids loved Splash Mountain so much that they ended up on that ride three times, which is a lot considering the long lines!! They will appreciate Dad's Uncle Remus stories that much more now.

After the land, we went to sea for four days aboard the "Disney Wonder". I had never been on a cruise before, but I can promise you I will be going again! This was the greatest experience of my life. We went to the Bahamas to Nassau and Disney's own island. We went snorkeling and I even went parasailing! That was so great. The cruise ship has activities for the kids to be involved in from 8:00 in the morning until midnight, so you never even have to see your kids if you don't want to. Of course, we had ours with us most of the time on the beach. The food was amazing, too. I tried escargot and can't recommend it, but at least I can say I tried it. It just tasted like garlic and butter, but the big black slimy thing was not pretty.

So here's a few pics from our trip.

Our first day at Magic Kingdom

The Caribbean Beach Resort

Captain Jack Sparrow and the actual "Flying Dutchman", Davy Jones' ship in "Pirates II"

I'm a pirate...ARRRRR

Snow White (Rachel was terrified of Dopey

The Bruce Family April 2008

Well, April is almost over, so I guess I'll go ahead and blog about our month. It has been pretty busy, but so much fun. Derek and MaKayla have started softball and t-ball. Between their practices and games, we stay pretty busy. They both love the sport and are continuing to get better every time I watch them.

We had a surge of very bad storms at the beginning of this month that left a lot of the state pretty messed up. Between the tornadoes and the flooding, much of the state was considered a disaster area by the federal government. It has perked up quite a bit though. Everything has turned green and all our flowers are blooming. The birds and insects are out in full force, our favorite being our woodpecker friend (as Derek calls it).

He is enjoying all the animals around our neighborhood and considers all of them his friends. Meaghan turned 8 on the 18Th and had a huge party. She got Littlest Pet Shop toys from everyone. Both her mother and I are flooding in these little pets. She's loving it though.

Cassie is growing so fast. She has cut her first 2 teeth this month and is attempting to crawl. This is a surprise to all of us, because she really has no desire to move at all. She knows if she fusses enough, her brother will give her whatever she wants. It's pretty funny how she has him figured out. :)

Not much is going on with Keith and me. Keith is still working and I'm still hanging at the house with the kids and taking lots of pictures. I hope everyone is doing well. Love you guys!

--Teresa

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Ask and Ye Shall Receive....

I really liked Amy's idea for the food storage blog. So I started one. Here is the link

http://lauritzenfoodstorage.blogspot.com/

I also put the link under the "other fun links"

Update

This is Amy and family. We have had an exciting month. Joshua had his tonsils removed 2 weeks ago and just went back to school Monday. His voice sounds a little bit funny but I think It will go back to mostly normal once he's completely healed. He can still sing well, at least.

We had a 5.2 earthquake last friday, the 18th, at 5:37am. I think it originated in Illinois but we felt it strongly enough to wake everyone up. What a strange feeling, like someone was at the bottom of my bed bumping against it repeatedly. We heard there were aftershocks but didn't feel them.

So last week when Josh was home I told Alex my goal for the week was to finish his quilt top since his mink blanket is getting too warm. I figured with Josh here I would be able to get some sewing done during the day. The picture below is proof that I was sadly mistaken. While I was in the basement thinking the kids were all playing together and everything was fine, Joshua and Emma were all the way upstairs playing with each other and Zachary was in my room "playing" by himself. What you see is not lotion or cream but PURE cocoa butter. It is still in the front of his hair and everytime I use my phone I smell it. This is why I stay up until midnight -it's the only time I accomplish anything!

Our weather s been beautiful for a few weeks now and everything is in bloom. I love Spring!!!!! I have a huge bleeding heart bush and it is covered with flowers. And my friend has 3 huge lilacs can pick from to have fresh and great smelling flowers in my kitchen. There are some advantages to living in Kentucky.

I just got 400 pounds of wheat and I am so excited about it! I bake bread usually twice a week now and the kids love it. I would like to propose setting up some kind of site where we can share food storage ideas and ways to use it. Maybe another link on the blog? Does anyone think that would be useful? already given me some ideas and I am really doing well getting more prepared. And I think now that we've felt an actual earthquake Payne doesn't think I'm so nuts. I also think that the possibility of a trucker's strike is getting more and more real with gas so high. This blog idea is great and I hope everyone will contribute regularly. Thanks Nickell for getting it up and running!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Apostle Song

Because this is the first video we have posted, I just thought I'd let you know, that you may have to click the play button more than once. This is for all video posts. It doesn't always let you play it after clicking play once. It is usually a two click thing.

--Tricia

A work in Progress

As I mentioned before, I am still working on this blog, and making it look amazing! It is in progress still....just so you know.....

Monday, April 21, 2008

Happy Birthday Mindy!

Mindy turns 33 today! We hope you have a nice relaxing birthday!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

A fun addition!

I have created another blog, that I have linked to this blog. (to the left) This is where we can share recipe ideas!!

http://lauritzensyummyrecipes.blogspot.com/

A day at the Zoo!

Shannon and I went to the zoo today with her cousins and my sister-in-law. It was so much fun! I thought that Shannon would be interested in the animals, but she was really more interested in all of the other kids. She really is very social. She didn't want to be in her stroller, so she walked most of the time, holding hands with her cousin, Hannah, who is also in these pictures. We rode the little train and everything, and after we had been there for 4 hours I had one sleepy girl! She only stayed awake in the car until we left the parking lot. It was pretty cute.

--Holly

Happy Birthday Amanda

Today is Amanda's birthday! Happy birthday! Hope your day is great!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Pictures

I love pictures, and I think they really add to these blogs. Below is the reason I need personal pictures of everyone in each family. On birthday's, and other special events, we would like to post a picture. One wedding picture per couple would be great too for anniversaries! Since everyone lives so far away from each other, we don't get to see each other very often, and this is a great way for everyone to see eachother, and eachother's children growing up! I promise a picture makes a huge difference! Please send them! Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for already sending theirs!

More to come later....

This is the new blog. More will be added, and it will look better eventually. This is a start though. Please participate! It will be way better, and more exciting if everyone participates!