Piano Lessons!

Little Lindsay Lu-Lu has had her first piano lesson today! She was very excited. She chose a green notebook for her piano book and just couldn't wait to get to her teacher's house today. She did great! At one point her teacher told her that next week when she comes back and shows her how well she can play her first two songs, then she'll get to pick out a sticker! Then her teacher added that she has PRINCESS stickers! Well, that's pretty exciting for most 5 year old little girls, but my child said this:

"Um, I don't like princesses. I like bugs and dinosaurs."

Luckily the teacher has those kinds of stickers, too!

Linds did great, it was fun watching her today. This is the age that all the girls started piano. Nat is the only one who didn't continue playing... she is the one girl who rides horses instead of playing piano, which is just fine!

:)

My piano notebook! Cool!
Here we go!

Focusing on her teacher.
Only once did she lose her focus.. that's when she asked the teacher..
"Um, what's your dog's name?"


Her first 2 songs!

Lindsay and her teacher.

Awesome!

We had a cool party here last night!

We had a fun BBQ in our backyard last night with 10 families (or more??). It was a farewell to our great friends, the Luke family. They are headed to Indiana tomorrow and we're really going to miss them. We wanted to have a special night for them before they left. It was a great night, everyone brought their own meat to grill and then a side to share! YUM!

I meant to post this picture last! This is one pooped out little guy... he represented all of us by the end of the evening! We were all partied out!
The gal standing and taking a picture is Mandee. She and her husband and 3 adorable babies are moving tomorrow! Waaaaa! Mandee and I have served in YW's together these past 2 years and have gotten so close. I'm going to miss her tons.

People standing around and chatting.

Lots of fun!

Jana!

Blah, blah, blah!

Rosie and Karalee chatting.

What a fun night!

We wish you all the best, Luke family!

The Ultimate Blog

It matters not what the rest of you have done, for I have seen Spamalot in London.

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

MAMMA MIA!!!!!!
This movie was so much fun! I went last night with a whole bunch of friends and we had a blast!

This one is a must see!

Life with Socks

Socks has adjusted to his new life with us just fine! He has never been afraid of us at all, he has been cuddly and loving since the moment we brought him home. It's been great.

Here's a funny story:

My friend was telling her 3 year old daughter about our new kitty and told her how his name is SOCKS.

So she asked:

"Why didn't they name him SHIRT?"

Hee hee!

We're having fun with our new kitty!

These creative guys made a little hat for him!

Hangin' Out.

Comfy kitty.

Christian the Lion

My best pal from high school, Dena, sent me this link. Please take a second to watch, it's under 2 minutes and it is amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc


And yes, it made me totally cry.

Meet 'SOCKS'

Okay, so this afternoon Haley, Nat, Lindsay and I went over to our fun new Payson pool. There was a mighty line when we got there, which is no big deal, so we got in the line and began waiting. A moment later I notice a young girl sitting on the lawn with a cage and some little critters inside... I sent 2 girls over to take a peek at what she had in the cage. 3 kittens! Cute!

Well, after a bit, they were asking me if we could take one home! No, I said. I would love to, but you know that we already have 2 cats, 1 dog and a bird. "But Mom!" Haley said, "If this girl isn't able to give all these kittens away, she will be forced to bring them to the pound, and then they will be put to SLEEP!"

Oh dear.

My girls have the same tender heart towards animals as I do.

I'm so proud!

SOOOO... I say to them:

"Call your father."

He's been in Frankfurt and London all week, but oh well, call him anyway, let him be the one to tell you NO!~

so Nat called, and Nat asked and Nat started to cry a bit when she heard the answer. (not in a bratty sort of way, but a worried kind of way, like... Daddy, if we don't take him home, the kitty is gonna die.. kinda cry)

Then all of a sudden she hands me the phone.

"Just get ONE" he says!

"SERIOUSLY????"

"Yes, but only one"

NO WAY, Cool!

We went over to the girl with the kittens and picked out this one. She said his name was Puff, but Natalie changed it to Socks.

He is adorable, super friendly and purrs incredibly loud! He's sweet, but our other 2 kitties don't think so at the moment, but I know they'll come around and welcome their new little brother to the Lawson home!

Welcome, Socks!

Our new kitty, Socks. The one the girls want to hold so much that they are only giving each other a 10 minute holding limit!

Socks.

Socks has been here about 5 hours and I think he has been held 99% of the time!

Little black fur ball.

By the way.. after we picked out this kitty, we paid the girl $2 for him, then had to drive home to take the kitty to our house! We got him situated and then drove back to the pool for about 3 hours. The girls were anxious to get home, so we didn't stay too long.

What a day!

Swimming Lessons!

We just finished up our fun week of swimming lessons. Nat and Lindsay learned a ton this week. It's been fun watching them progress over the years. Lindsay has gone from the crying little girl in the water, to a super amazing swimmer. Nat has always loved the water and is awesome.

Nat going down the slide, she tried to make a basket as she went down... in this pic the ball is right in her face!

Off the board. Her teacher was out of the water at the time, that's her hand you can see, it looks like she is pushing Nat off the diving board!

Nat the little fish!

Learning to dive.

Off the diving board!

Super swimmer.

He He, I'm So Sneaky!

Hello everyone reading this! This is actually Chloe, I'm the eldest daughter. I just got back from a FANTASTIC week at EFY and i figured my mom wasn't even going to mention it, so I will! I spent the week at BYUI with my neighbor, Jaimee. (this is us)




So it was an awesome week, i had the coolest room mates. We all were best friends by the first night. and the best part is that they all live in utah, so we plan on having a reunion sometime in the future. these are my room mates.






They were just amazing, but this picture didn't turn out as well as i wanted it to......

But this one did!!!! haha, we had so much fun the whole week! How about i break it down? it seems my mom does that alot.....

Monday!

We had family night and pretty much just got to know every one in our company. Unfortunatly, there was a lack of cute boys...but the fun girls made up for it!

Tuesday!

We had really fun classes by the most amazing teachers! it was actually fun to hear about the gospel! then that night we had a dance. it was pretty fun, but they played wierd music.

Wednesday!

More classes, just as fun! then that night we had a games night and cheer-off. it was sooooo fun! basically all the companies made up a cheer and a little dance or whatever and we all did them. our group was called shall know, and so we would yell 'who shall know?' 'we shall know!' Fun as it was, it got so annoying. then that night, we had PIZZA NIGHT! everyone chipped in 5 dollars and we bought pizza and junk food, then pigged out.

Thursday!

This was the really spiritual day, we wore church clothes all day and had really cool firesides and stuff. it was really cool. then that night we had a super powerful testimony meeting with our company. it was really cool, but my mascara got EVERYWHERE.

Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the funnest day EVER! we did a service project where we made hats for poor babies (and i have to say, mine was the best!) which was fun because we just got to sit around and talk! then we had alot of time just to hang out with our company and do whatever! then we had a banquet with really good food and went out and took pictures of everyone! then......we had....AN AWESOME DANCE! this was sooooo fun! i met the coolest people and had such a fun time. then we went back to the dorms and we stayed up until about 4 in the morning!!!

Saturday!

Got picked up WAY to early.

Just Some Pictures.......

(for all you loomis people) This is me with Garrett Penney and Dane Smith! We just happened to go at the same time! i always felt so short around them, so i made them get on their knees.











This is how tall they really are............




My company!!!!!

MyCRAZY couselours!!!! Thats Diane, Danny, and Jessica!!!

Anyway! That was my week! It was sooooo fun and i learned soooooo much! For all you mothers who read this thingy, make sure you kids go when they turn 14. It is AMAZING!!!!!

well.......peace!! (i really don't know how to end these things)

Haley's New-N-Improved Bedroom!

Yesterday all of the girls had someone to hang out with except Haley. She called up several friends, but no one was able to play. So, I suggested that we REDO her room! I loved rearranging my room when I was kid, so we went to town on her room. We cranked up the super cool Bratz karaoke machine (Carrie Underwood!)and began the task of moving furniture, cleaning out shelves and desk drawers and dusting everything in sight! It took all afternoon, but it was so worth it. First of all, my tweener and I spent the day happily together and second, her room looks awesome!!

This post isn't all that exciting, I know, but I just had to show off how her room used to look and how it looks today!

She LOVES it!

How the room looked when we moved in.

This was taken shortly after we painted and deorated her room. We did this maybe 6 months to a year after living here. It went from BOY room to super GIRL room!

Haley loves how we rearranged her bedroom!

The desk was moved onto the "California Beach Wall"

Surfs up, dude!!!

Nothing to block the trundle bed underneath the bed! Before, when you pulled out the trundle bed and were in it, the bird's cage was hanging precariously over your head! Now there is nothing in the way and nothing overhead!

A very clean and very organized closet......

The amazing closet. There are shelves all the way up on both sides. We totally cleaned out this here closet. We ended up taking 3 kitchen garbage bags full of junk out of the room and closet. Then we had our 3 piles: A Natalie pile, a thrift store pile and a garbage pile!

Haley's cool "Bratz" karaoke! She can't wait to get a REAL CD player someday...

Skittles! This bird is awesome, he is in love with his mirror. He's a cutie.

His cage used to be hanging from the ceiling... but now it's on the bookshelf. We gotta watch the cats and make sure they leave him alone!

Haley's new room!

We are HOME!

We are finally home from our fun 9 day excursion to CA. We had a blast and were able to spend time with my family, Gene's family and tons of friends. We attended the sealing of our friend's daughter at the Sacramento Temple, which was very special. Then we went on a few adventures. It was a great trip. We got home Sunday at 6:30 pm and immediately began getting Chloe ready for EFY at BYU-I at 7 am the next morning. Does this family ever slow down?! Nope! Gene is off to Germany this Friday for 9 days!

We love CA and miss our family and friends!

Brittany and Aaron. Don't they look wonderful!

Mr. and Mrs. Gene Lawson.

Sacramento Temple.

Chloe surrounded by all the boys.

Heaven help us.

Lindsay and Nat with their favorite "Uncle" Brian. Does this guy look familiar, Shannon?! ;)

Lindsay dancing with the bride!

Capitola, CA. Our most favorite beach of all times! Grew up going to this beach, so did my mother. Not only do we love the sand and the water here, but the little shops all over Capitola are so much fun. We have a favorite Mexican Restaurant and ice cream shop here.

We love it here!

SOOOOOO many memories! :) Lindsay Lu-Lu, the beach girl. She kept doing sand angels and ended up very, very sandy indeed!

Nat has to collect 17,000 rocks and shells every time we go to the beach.

See the blue beach house in the distance? That is the house that is owned by a distant cousin of my grandma's. I grew up going to this beach house, my girls have spent weekends in this beach house, it's been in the family for years. My mom and her family went to Capitola all the time, my mom has cool pictures of this beach from the 1940's and later. This beach is very near and dear to our hearts.

Sisters.

Watch out for that wave, dudes!

Decorating mini sand castles.

GREAT AMERICA, Santa Clara, CA

For you CA people, remember how it used to be "Marriott's Great America" then I think it changed to something else, but now it's:

California's Great America!

Woo Hoo!

We had a blast here, spent the whole day riding rides and splashing about in the huge water park and getting soaked on the water rides!

The Demon is STILL there!! Ahhhhh, memories!

Fun day:

Haley looks a tad too big for this miniature drop zone ride, don't ya think?! :)

My girls LOVE this yellow, spongy guy!

Three of my darlings!

Drying off after having fun in the big ol' water park! Thankfully, no one stepped on her!

In the gift shop at Great America... I told you this kid loves bugs, right?

A day with my two wonderful step-grandpas! My mom and I drove out to Orinda to spend the afternoon with Johnny, Walt and my sister Laura. It was a delightful day. Walt's health isn't doing so great, so this visit may have been my last. I hope not, but he's just not doing well.

These two men are all that I have left, as far as grandparents go! I lost my grandma back in 1995, so these guys are it! They are truly remarkable men and will always have a special place in my heart!

Toasty spa... there used to be a diving board here, but I guess it was too dangerous, so years ago the diving board went bye-bye and this yummy spa took its place!

Having fun at Grandpa Walt's pool!! I grew up going to this house and swimming and playing in the cool backyard, it's so fun seeing my girls jumping into the same pool I did a million times through out my life.

My two step-grandpas! Johnny on the left, Walt on the right. Both have been very important people in my life! I love 'em both!

Orinda, CA (very close to the Oakland temple)( FYI):)

Chloe being coached by my step-grandfather, Johnny. He coached girls and boys tennis at Miramonte H.S. in Moraga, CA. (my mom's high school) His teams were #1 for years and years. Back in the day, Johnny used to take me out on the courts for some pointers! Now he's teaching my girl! :)

4th of July Fun Run!

Gene's awesome sister, Ann, and her adorable grandson, Peter!

"Fun Run" on the 4th of July. My niece organized a fun 5K for friends and family and almost 60 people attended! It was awesome! Everyone had a blast.... I finished the 3.45 mile run in 35 minutes! It seemed to be easier to run in CA at sea level! :)

Random photo:

Gene and the girls all dressed up for their Daddy/Daughter evening.

(This was obviously before our big trip, but still wanted to post it!)

Girls Camp!

Our stake attended camp at Heber Valley Camp. It was gorgeous and so much fun! This year's theme: "To Eternity and Beyond!" The girls made their own super hero capes and we got them cool orange leg warmers and super nice hoodies with this year's theme embroidered on them!

We had a blast!

My amazing camp director and super wonderful 1st councilor! I love these gals!

Lots of eating is done at girls' camp!

They whittled their own sticks to roast their hot dogs! My girls are so talented!

I had to leave camp a day early so that we could take off to CA to make it to the wedding in Sacramento! Talk about crazy, the second I got home from camp I immediately began getting ready for the next trip! Crazy, crazy, but so much fun!







What's up with all of this

extra space!??????

What

the

Heck?!

:)

The

End