LAUREN RIDES A SCHOOL BUS

Lauren started preschool this week.  We weren't planning on starting her until the fall, but went ahead and started her so she could be around kids, since she is surrounded by adults most of the time.  Anyway she has loved it so far.  Her first day she told us she made a friend named Katelin, which she was excited about cause that is her cousin's name.  Katelin also has glasses just like Lauren!  She thought that was VERY COOL!
Today her school took a field trip to a petting zoo.  The high school's FFA club always does a petting zoo every year at the school.  I told Lauren that her field trip was to the school I went to as a teenager, so she kept telling everyone.  She thought the petting zoo was fun and she said she got to feed a horse some hay and she got to pet a bunny.  However the best part to her was riding the school bus.  It's funny how riding a school bus is so exciting to little kids.  She told us that the bus drove all around town and she saw Pizza Hut and McDonalds, and they went over a BIG bump (speed bump in the high school parking lot).  After the field trip Allison (her aunt) picked her and Ellie (cousin) up and they went to play at their house for a while.

Other news... This last weekend we did a ten mile cattle drive, which included three hundred cows, 7 cowboys, 1 1/2 cowgirls (me and Lauren)  and two people driving trucks to stop traffic.  10 miles doesn't seem that long, but at "cow speed" it takes pretty much a day.
Sorry no pictures this time.  I've been bad about forgetting to take my camera with me places.

Short Update on the Family

So pretty much this blog is going to be mostly about Lauren, because... well let's face it, she is just way more interesting than Brad and I.  However, a little news about Lauren's parents first.  Brad preached last Sunday night.  It was nice to hear him, and he did a great job.  Today is our 8th anniversary!  Eight years ago the weather was much nicer than it was today.  Kind of hard to believe we've been married for eight years already.  *Thanks Brad for another wonderful year together.  I look forward to many more with you.*

Ok, now some Lauren news.  She has still been so into dancing.  I went searching in my old bedroom and found a couple pieces to some old dance outfits.  She is so entertaining :)  Hopefully one of these days I will get a video of her dance moves.  Oh, and Lauren is starting to like coloring!  Her Sunday School and church teachers will understand the how this is good news.  We'll just say that Lauren did not like to color at all, so I would pick her up from class and she would hand me the prettiest colored pictures (colored by her teachers).

Lauren has a chore chart now that she gets to put stickers on when she does something.  Last week, her new chores were dusting and washing dishes. (we do not have a dishwasher, so I've been teaching her how.)  She has done really great and seems to like helping out.  Another thing she gets a sticker for is for being polite and minding her manners.  One night when we were doing her stickers I asked if she had been polite that day.  I think she had some trouble with her attitude that day, so when we got to that "be polite" I let her choose if she got a sticker or not, and she said she didn't think she should get a sticker for that. I was very proud of her for being honest. 

Here's a couple pictures of Lauren posing and one of Brad earlier today out in our snowstorm here in northern MO.