Christmas Faces...

Here's just something to post because its been a little slow on here what with the holidays and all :)

Yay Something New to Post!!!

Happy Birthday Dayna! Dayna turned 10 today! We hope your birthday was lots of fun and we also hope to get some pictures we can post soon! Happy Birthday Dayna, we love you!

Lauritzen Family Christmas

To view full sized pictures click here

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I have been away for so long! We are just partying it up here in California! Well, mostly. There has been some work, but mostly fun! We had a great Christmas today with the our whole family together for the first time in five years! For more about our Christmas go to....

Blair Family Blog

Hope your Christmases were great! Send pictures so we can post them!

Heidi's Line...

"Little full, lot of sap." That was our favorite line this year from National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation". That's Jason's and my traditional Christmas Eve movie after kids are in bed (because it's WAY too crude for little ones to be watching--we have to edit it for ourselves, but it's pretty funny, too). After buying our first real tree this year we had a very similar experience to the Griswolds with getting a tree that's probably a little too full and does have a lot of sap. We probably quote from "A Christmas Story" more than any other movie, though. "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie, I triple dog dare you, you'll shoot your eye out", etc. Every time I watch Ralphie come down the stairs in his bunny pajamas, I hear mom laughing. She loves that part. Also, who among us doesn't find ourselves singing "Jingre Berrs"?

Other "must sees" every year for me are "Charlie Brown Christmas", "Home Alone", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street" (and it has to be the old version with Maureen O'hara), the George C. Scott version of "A Christmas Carol", "The Bishop's Wife", and "White Christmas". Luckily I own all of these movies because they don't show them on t.v. anymore. It's always the horrible Patrick Stewart version of "A Christmas Carol", or the claymation movies every night. I wish we could all get together and watch these movies with some Spanish hot chocolate. I miss Amy waking everyone up and hitting the broom against the ceiling to get dad up. It's fun to see that same excitement in my little ones.

Teresa's Line....

Oh I have SO many favorites, but the one I use most is "Fragile... must be Italian". Every time I see the word "Fragile" I have to say it... its a horrible impulse. It used to drive Keith crazy because he didn't see the movie until this year and didn't know what I was talking about. :) My favorite "movie" though is The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Its the one thing I have to watch every year... OOH and The Grinch! That one is great too :)

Mindy's Line...

The line I use the most is "I can't put my arms down! Ralphie!" from A Christmas Story. It's hard to choose a favorite movie. There are so many good ones. One Magic Christmas was a favorite when I was young, but I can't even find that at video stores so I haven't seen it in many years. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's a Wonderful Life are all great must-sees every year. I just love Christmas!

Question of the Week....

What's your favorite line from a Christmas movie, and what is your favorite Christmas movie?

Amy's Catch Up...

I have been trying to finish a quilt and have not been able to devote much time to the computer lately. So I have lots of catching up to do. The oldest person I remember was either Delos or Eugene, Dad's uncles. I remember going to visit one of them in a nursing home once but I don't remember which one it was. Do you remember, Dad? I don't know how Mindy can remember Grandma Margie necause I don't at all.

I am with all of you on how the world has changed. It is becoming so uncomfortable to be in the world I don't know how anyone can stand it without having a lifeline such as we have in the Gospel. I come across so few religious people these days, even here in Kentucky. I think the music has changed dramatically. I used to say, as we all do I think, that I would always keep up on the latest trends in music and be a "cool" parent. But the music these days is so blah and boring or really crude. I have to look up the lyrics to any song Alex wants to listen to because there is so much trash out there that he sometimes doesn't recognize. Parents are more afraid of their kids these days. I think it is definitely hotter in the summer, maybe that's because of where I live. I remember thinking gas was cheap if it was under $1/gallon. And I don't remember cars being as important a status symbol as they are now. I mean, I know they were, but I think it has gotten worse. The only thing that I know for sure has changed for the better since I was a kid is me!

I have 2 "weddings" under my belt and still no honeymoon. Not even wedding pictures. We have talked about maybe taking some sort of vacation, just the two of us, but I don't know if it will ever happen. By the time we have all our kids raised Payne will be almost 70. Maybe when Alex is old enough to be left in charge for a few days, we'll see. But I am all about the small wedding and just a night in a hotel. I think paying a lot for a huge wedding is really stupid. What a waste for one day!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to Kristi and Lloyd! They have been married for 24 years today! I asked my mom to send me a picture but she hasn't, and who knows if she will. So I just posted it anyway. Maybe I can talk her into sending me a picture and then I can post it later since we don't have a lot of special days this year! Only Christmas, Dayna's birthday and their anniversary. Anyway, congratulations mom and dad! Hope your anniversary was full of fun and no Christmas shopping.

Jeny's Honeymoon...

We kinda had a honeymoon in Salt Lake City, Utah. We got married in West Jordan, so we didn't go very far. We stayed at the Little America hotel in the honeymoon suite, and for our 20th anniversary Mark took me back there, and to walk around Park City, just like we did on our first honeymoon. We have a few really funny memories of those first few days, including the alarm clock going off (we didn't set it, but I guess we didn't un-set it either) and the song that was playing was a Weird Al song called "My Name is Puka" (remember "my Name is Luka?). We also turned on the TV (yes, we really did) and it was on the sci-fi channel playing "the Stuff", a very poorly done movie that I'm sure Dad has seen, and would have been a great Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode.

Heidi's Honeymoon...

Jason and I went to Salt Lake City for our honeymoon. We were poor, but not too poor to do something. We went swimming in our hotel pool a couple times, visited the Hogle Zoo, went temple hopping, and went to Lagoon. We got rained out of Lagoon at about 6:00 that night, but we were newlyweds, so we really didn't care. Between the free continental breakfasts at the hotel and our cooler full of food that everyone gave us for our wedding I don't think we ever had to pay for food. That was nice! It's weird to try and remember a time when there were no kids around. It doesn't seem like my life I'm remembering.

Teresa's Honeymoon

Well, we didn't really have a honeymoon cause we both had to work on Monday. (We were very poor and needed every dime) We did a couple years later get to make up for it though. We went to Devils Den State Park for Keiths birthday/make up honeymoon. We got to rent an old cabin and go hiking in caves and see bats hibernating. It was so neat. Hopefully we'll be able to take vacation one of these days out of state by ourself. It would be cool.

Nickell's Honeymoon!

I am so excited to finally have a question of the week that I have an answer for! Yay! We did go on a honeymoon. We went on a 4 day cruise to the Caribbean and it was incredible! We suggest it to everyone getting married because it isn't very expensive and you don't have to worry about meals or things to do. They have shows every night. We went snorkeling and visited the Mayan ruins. We even got to talk to the LDS tour guide for the ruins. His name was Mosiah, and his shirt was so thin you could see his garments through his shirt. He was the branch president in Cozumel Mexico. He told us about the baptisimal fonts and all the symbolism on the buildings. It was so interesting! We absolutely loved it! It was so much fun. We can' wait to go back.

Mindy's Honeymoon.

We did go on a honeymoon. We spent 3 nights in 3 different theme rooms at the Center Street Bed and Breakfast Inn in Logan, Utah. We liked it so much that we went back for our anniversary for a few years after. But it was bought out by the same company that does the theme hotel in Salt Lake, and went downhill really fast. We tried a couple of other places in Logan after that, but it was never the same.

Question of the Week...

Here's a short one for this week:

Did you have a honeymoon? Where did you go?

Mindy's Catch Up...

The oldest person in the family that I remember was Grandma Margie. I don't remember anything of her except for that deathbed visit that Jeny wrote about. I must have been very small, but I do remember seeing her in the hospital with lots of wires and tubed coming out of her. It must have been a traumatic experience for me, because I don't remember much of anything from my really young years. Mom, when did she die?
Everyone else told how the world has changed. I agree that even kids don't have as much time as we did when we were kids. It seems like they get home from school and I'm on them right away to get homework done, practice piano, then we eat dinner and it's bedtime already. Technology has come a LONG way. Remember Kristi and Lloyd's first mobile phone? Big, clunky thing compared to what everyone has now, and they were considered rich for even having a car phone!

Baby Leah

I got to meet Leah tonight. We took her newborn pictures. She wasn't very happy for most of them, but we still got some really cute ones.

How the World has Changed for Heidi

It's all about perspective! The world probably isn't too different now from what it was 25 years ago, but it sure seems that way to me. As a child, everything was beautiful and I wanted nothing else but to travel. I wanted to see everything! Ok, I still do. I never paid attention to politics and still try to avoid it when I can, so I'm not sure how government was back then. I do remember Reagan was great and very well liked. I remember AIDS was a relatively new thing and a big topic of discussion. I think Greg Louganis was responsible for that. One big thing different about the world then was that time moved more slowly. I had all afternoon and summer to coast bikes and scooters down Rusty Hinge. Now there aren't enough hours in the day to get anything done and I'm always behind. I miss time. I miss it a lot. It just seems to me like the world is falling apart a lot faster now than it was then. We've been seeing signs of the times for a while now, but they are more frequent now. California is burning up and will be gone soon. Time to get out, Kristi.

I think we didn't get the response from last week's question because we had already talked about our grandparents. Also, lets face it--it's December. You want to know how many millions of things I should be doing right now rather than writing this?? Better get busy.

Jeny Playing Catch Up

I think everyone is just pretty busy and that's why we didn't get any responses, but since I jsust sit around most afternoons trying to think of things to do to keep me busy, I'll give both of these a try.

The oldest relatives I remember are either Grandma Margie or Grandpa Black. I don't know which was older, they both were just super old.

I remember visiting Grandpa Black, but the memories are a bit fuzzy (since I was so young, not because I'm getting old!). He seemed really skinny, and was very kind. I remember playing hide and seek in his house. I think Lori and Kristi suggested this game so I would go hide and they wouldn't have to play with me anymore. I hid in a trunk at the end of a bed, and once inside I couldn't get out. I do remember feeling a lot of panic. I banged on the top, and I'm sure I was crying. It seemed like forever before someone came to rescue me, and that someone was grandpa Black. He was the only one that cared that I was stuck, because he loved me.

I went on a trip to Montana with Grandpa Breckenridge when I was a young teen to visit Grandma Margie. Supposedly I look a lot like her, but when I saw her I did not want to look like her. She was old and in the hospital with tubes everywhere. She had all these super old and crazy family people around her, and one of them kept telling Grandpa that I needed to leave because I would get Grandma sick. I think that was Aunt Ida. I wasn't sick, Ida was just a bit . . . eccentric. Grandma Margie didn't really say much, and died very soon after we got home from that trip.


I don't know what to say about how things have changed since I was a kid because everything has. We used to walk to school with our legs. The only time we got a ride was when Mom heard a siren and thought we were dead on the side of the road. We walked home from school and went to Primary on Wednesday after school. Sacrament Meeting was in the evening on Sundays, a few hours after Sunday School. We didn't have computers or video games - we actually played outside a lot. We even played outside when it was raining sometimes. I loved that! We used to sleep outside sometimes, and I don't know if parents now would even consider that. Too many weirdos. We had about 5 channels on the TV, and 2 of them were public television, so we didn't ever watch them. We changed the channels on the TV by getting up, going to the TV and turning the knob. The first time we had a remote, it came with a very long wire attached to the VCR. I remember for about the first 2 years of school I always wore a dress, and so did everyone else. We got chicken pox, Kristi got measles and I got the mumps, and we survived. Mom didn't work outside of the home, and neither did most other moms. That was very comforting to me. Swear words included "butt", "shut-up", and "stupid". I didn't really know there were other bad words until I hit junior high. We very rarely ate out. In fact, I remember visiting McDonalds as a family and being a little embarrassed because Dad made a bit of a fuss about how much it cost, but it was a real adventure!

How the World has Changed for Teresa

I don't really know if the "world" has actually changed in 24 years. I know my views on the world have changed as I have transitioned into adulthood and now have my own kids. My biggest shock factor since becoming an adult is not being tied to the military. Most of my memories are living on an air force base or in an air force community. We were always allowed to go outside and play by ourselves and pretty much go wherever we wanted (as long as we told mom first). We never worried about bad people trying to pick us up, social inappropriateness, or any kind of danger. But like I said, that's probably because we lived on base. I won't let my kids play outside alone cause it scares me to death. Granted, we don't live in the best neighborhood. I remember we were aloud to say the pledge of allegiance in class and when something bad happened, we bowed our heads in silent prayer, not a moment of silence. Religion wasn't taboo when I was a kid. TV is the biggest difference I think. I remember people talking about sesame street being inappropriate for kids, but sexy beer and tobacco commercials were not, and it's just gotten worse. On the bright side, gas is cheaper now than it has been since I started driving! That's awesome :) We didn't have internet when I was a kid. That's a pretty big one I almost missed. My kids love the internet. Derek loves the Gabba Gabba and Cars movie sites. He plays the games and watches little video clips. Internet is very cool. I have noticed (this may be just lliving in the south) that people just dont go outside... at all. The adults stay inside, therefore the kids stay inside. I dont think I could have dealt with that. I really liked being outside. (Not to camp or anything though, I never have liked sleeping with bugs). I guess alot has changed since I was little, but when you're a kid, your view on the world is a little convoluted, so I can't really say for sure.

Question of the Week...

Nobody responded to last week's prompt. Let's see if you like this one more.

How is the world different from what it was like when you were young?

New Header.

I was taking pictures of my Christmas tree so I could post some pictures on my blog, I took a picture of my favorite ornament, and I loved it. I thought it would work great for a header. Since I already made a Christmas one for my blog, I decided it should be the header for this blog. What do you think?

So Weird

Okay, the strangest thing just happened. Payne was looking for our family website and he typed in lauritzenfamily.blogspot.com

by mistake. You need to check it out. If you look at the right side there is a Kristi and Lloyd blog, but it's not our Kristi and Lloyd. It goes to the Payne Post, and one of their kids is Kylie. And they're LDS. Do we know these people?

Sisters

Shannon met her sister last night just after we got home from the hospital. She didn't quite know what to think, at first (most likely due to the fact that we were all standing around with cameras and she felt the anticipation). She quickly warmed up to her and is very much in love with her now. All day today she has been telling me that "she loves her Leah." She even gave her a kiss and said, "I love you" without any prompting from us. The other picture is just to show how dang skinny Leah's little legs are. She is tiny!

Leah is Here!!!

She is finally here! Leah arrived last night, December 3, at about 7:30. She weighs 6 lbs 9 oz and is 21 inches long. Holly will send more information when she feels like it.

Happy Belated...

Jordan turned 20 on Sunday. I didn't forget, I just didn't get around to posting it. Anyway, happy birthday Jordan, we all love you and hope your birthday was full of fun!!

Question of the Week

Thanks to Heidi and Tere for last week's question of the week. I somehow hurt my back last Sunday and have been down in bed ever since. My family did Thanksgiving dinner, pies and all! It was great, but all I could take just to sit at the table to eat it with them. Thank goodness for good drugs. Anyway, I probably still shouldn't be sitting at the computer to write this, so here's the question for this week:

Who is the oldest person in your family you remember knowing when you were a child? What do you remember about that person?

From Lori

Hey, that baby counter on the Emerson blog is just MEAN! It says, "I should be here by now." Yeah, like Holly hasn't already been thinking that for the last few weeks! Make sure to let us all know when Mom & Dad's #32 is here...we're thinking about you Matt & Holly!