Christmas!!!

Hey everyone!
Here is our Christmas list for this year, and the lists from the last two years. It just took me about 45 minutes to find the list from 2008 that would help me make sure I did it the right way, so I'm putting all lists here for next year's research. Happy Christmas Thoughts!

Oh, and EVERYONE is invited to my house this year. Especially if you have little children that make Christmas morning fun. If you want, you can just send any children ages 3-14, but if you chose to do this I will only need them from December 23-25. You get them back on the 26th and they will have eaten nothing but candy and mandarin oranges for 3 days.

This Year - 2010

Lori has Mindy

Kristi has Heidi

Jeny has Holly

Amy has Matt

David has Lori

Mindy has Kristi

Heidi has Jeny

Holly has Amy

Matt has David

Years gone by

2009

Lori has David
Kristi has Mindy
Jeny has Heidi
Amy has Holly
David has Matt
Mindy has Lori
Heidi has Kristi
Holly has Jeny
Matt has Amy

2008

Lori has Amy
Kristi has David
Jeny has Mindy
Amy has Heidi
David has Holly
Mindy has Matt
Heidi has Lori
Holly has Kristi
Matt has Jeny

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Love, Jeny :)

Happy Anniversary

Happy 1 year anniversary to JD and Monica!

Hope you had a great day today!

Jeny's post for the blog. Don't say I never post. Even though I rarely do

Do you (without cheating by looking it up) know who was in that movie, and about when it was made?

Mark had a guy from the Bonneville Speedway come to his work yesterday to help with some radios he had purchased for the Speed Races this week. He brought along several tickets and other goodies for the races. Since we are responsible adults with jobs that rely on us to get things done, we took today off and went to the salt flats. I have driven through there, but I have never gone to the state park (woohoo! flat salt land as far as the eye can see.) and certainly never to see the fastest cars in the world zip by.

We did not have much time (it tool 3 hours to get there, and Tara didn't get up until 11) so I didn't get the pictures of everything I wanted to, but here's what I got.

A really fast car. I think this one went about 180 MPH. It was not the fastest car we saw. We saw several that went over 200 MPH, but they were too fast for me and my camera.

Our feet on the salt. All that white all around us is just a big field of salt.

Tara's favorite car.

Jeny's favorite car. We didn't have time to get Mark with his favorite. It looked like a giant red bullet.

Now, don't laugh too hard. I was trying to get a still photo but apparently the camera was in movie mode. But it was the best movie of fastness that I got.

Mindy's Surprises

It's so much fun to read about all your surprises! One Valentines Day not too long ago I came home from somewhere and there were Hershey's kisses scattered in a trail on the floor. They led to a vase of roses and a note that said, "I kiss the ground you walk on." That was a fun surprise. I remember surprising Mom a few times by cleaning up the house while she was gone somewhere. My family has surprised me that way a couple of times too. Another great surprise was when Jason was gone on a business trip for my birthday and he had all of my siblings call me on that day. That was the best!

Dave's Family

Teresa's Surprises Plus Some!

So I know I've been totally lame about blogging. Haven't honestly sat at a computer long enough to even think about it. But I don't work today, so I'm making time :)

Question of the week: I can't pinpoint any particular surprise as a kid because there were so many. Between fun suprises and not so fun surprises, I can't say that my childhood was boring.

As for me suprising someone- the latest surprises I got to give were 1) telling my mother in law that I was planning a trip to Alaska and she was invited (she's ALWAYS wanted to visit alaska) and 2) last week my friend Kevin gave me a copy of Beauty and the beast and the Little Mermaid, so I got to surprise Cassie with those. She loves Belle.

Since the reunion in Colorado, we jumped right back into routine with a couple extras. I was promoted at work, Derek started first grade and Boy Scouts. Cassie's in daycare twice a week and her birthday is coming up next month. I am searching all over Hot Springs for a tumbling class for her because I don't know how much more my couches can take. :) Derek and Cassie have opened their very first savings accounts and enjoy saving and checking on the computer how much money they have. Keith is still driving 2 hours a day for work... on a motorcycle. I have rekindled my love for all things Disney (and by this I mean cartoon Disney, not the new craze of tween sitcoms). We've finally finished our walkway and now I can start on my evergreen/rose garden. We went to Keith's company picnic this weekend at the local theme park. Derek tried the boogie board ride and had a blast (it's a wave simulator- he wiped out twice but still loved it) Cassie got to ride her first roller coaster and loved it. I got our Adventure Book almost caught up (got this idea from Up haha it's a scrapbook of every state our family has been to). Nothing terribly exciting, but never a dull moment. :) Just enjoying what we have and always planning our next adventure.

Kristi's Surprises

The time I most vividly remember being surprised is when we had recently moved to Colorado. I was in mourning at leaving all my friends behind and probably moped around for the better part of every day. Sometime near my birthday I was going to Casa Bonita in Denver for my birthday dinner. Dad said he had to stop by the airport to pick up somebody that was flying on for work. It was way before airport security was so tight that you couldn’t walk in the front door without a ticket in hand. We walked with him to the gate of the “co-worker who was flying in” and getting off the plane was my BEST friend in the world Leota Pearson (yes that’s her real name). I was so excited I couldn’t speak!! One of the best surprises ever!!!
AND I remember surprising Mom and Dad for their anniversary a few times. One time I made my first cake, chocolate. It looked like something we scooped out of the cow pasture and that is not an exaggeration. I don’t even remember if it tasted good, actually I’m not sure anyone even tried it. It looked that bad!

The other time was when we set up a dinner in the back yard of our Livermore home, I believe. Small table, red checkered table cloth and candles. Then we thought we were so clever by setting a stereo to play music out the window while they ate. Lori and I were the waiters and when we were not taking the food out we were hiding behind the couch and watching everything from the window. Oh how we giggled when they started to dance. I don’t know why we thought it was so funny to see them dance. It felt like the scene on Parent Trap when they are trying to get their parents back together.

I’m sure there are more but that’s it for now.

Happy Birthday!

Jeny had her birthday on the 11th!

And Ashley turned 12 yesterday!

Happy Birthday to both of you! Hope you had great days!

Mom's Surprises

Hey guys, we need some blogs on this. If you don't want to answer the question write something about what you are doing.

When I was surprised as a child, my father made a play house for me when I was 4. I saw it before Christmas, but Christmas morning It was all lit up with little lamps. It was very fun. When I was an adult, of course it was the Mothers Day you came home. That was the best. Another surprise that was wonderful was when Amy showed up at the temple when Holly got married.

I'm trying to think of when I surprised someone. The first Christmas I gave Ann Steele a Christmas gift. I made her a cabbage patch doll. She burst into tears and cried. She said no one had ever made her something. The time we gave the kids tickets to Disneyland was a huge surprise for them. I like surprises.

Did You Know?

In August of 2008 we had 43 posts on this blog? Not only were there 43 posts but there was an average of 3 comments per post.

This is the sad part.

In August of 2010 we had 7 posts with an average of 1.8 comments per post.

Now you can blame that on me. Sure, go for it. I combined most of the birthday's in 2010's August in to one post BUT I also was the sole contributor of THREE out of those seven. And by sole contributor, I mean, it wasn't something I posted because of a birthday or anniversary or anything like that. Just stuff I felt like posting. The other four posts, were birthday's or anniversary posts. No one sent me a single thing to post in August. So go ahead and blame me but know that I post more than you do. AND I post on my own blog also so that's no excuse. (Also I don't want to hear any of this "but I'm really busy" stuff either.)

We have started the question of the week again. It died the first time because we got barely any responses. Let's not let that happen again OK?

Come on. Post something. I dare you.

If you have forgotten, you send blog posts to lauritzenfamilyblog@gmail.com

Happy Birthday Yesterday!

Yesterday Lydia and Katrina had kind of a big birthday!

They turned EIGHT!

It's great to be 8!

Happy birthday cute girls!

We can't wait to hear about your baptism!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 23rd Anniversary to Mark and Jeny on the 5th of this month!

Heidi's Surprises

Yea for the question of the week!

One of the most fun surprises I remember as a child was when my parents took us to the airport to "watch the jets". I thought it was a cool idea to go watch airplanes, never thinking there could be another reason for us to go to the airport. I was having a great time looking out the window at all the planes, watching all the different people, when Lori and her family walked through the gate. That was so much fun to see them, and so completely unexpected! I especially had fun playing with Tere while they visited.

I think we all agree that surprising Mom on Mother's Day takes the cake for best of all surprises. I can't think of any good one's I've done lately. Maybe I'm too boring for that now.

-Heidi

New Quest of the Week:

Tell about a time when you were surprised as a child. Also tell about a time you surprised someone.

Happy Birthday

Heidi and Holly had their birthday on September 1st!

Happy birthday guys! Hope it was great!

Heidi turned 33!

Holy smokes! Holly turned 33 too! AND on the same day! Crazy.