Monday, July 7, 2008

Ahhhh, its summer!!!

Yes, yes, yes, I am well aware that I have not updated my blog lately. I am sorry for all of you who try to check every week and have only found victory arms for the last two months. Well, as you may have guessed it has been a little busy around the Lawrence Home, so here is a two month update on what has been going on:

I had my end of year performance for work and got to meet Ukee Washington, that was cool!

Both our moms came out to visit, and spoiled Annalise.
We went to Maryland for Memorial weekend to visit Kevins Aunt, Uncle, Grandma and Mom. Kevin got to drive me and Annalise around the backyard in a little trialer then Annalise went to her second baseball game to see the Nationals we watched some veterans ride around on motorcycles and on Memorial Day Annalise went swimming for the first time with her awesome sunglasses. In the meantime Annalise had been growing some bottom teeth sleeping in her highchair and finally learning how to take a bottle (thank goodness!)


We also had my family vacation in June, which happenend to also fall on Father Day, which is pretty cool since we are getting two new daddies in my family!

During our vacation we went to Kings Island (an amusement park in Cincinnati)


Went to a Reds Game
Played Golf



Did some Community Service

and ate a lot of food, and played with the cousins.


And of course the basbell season continues, we went to a Phillies game on the 18th agianst the Red Sox and got some awesome seats next to the Philly Phanatic.Unfortunately the Phillies lost, but we all still enjoyed it!

Then came the Girls Camp Yard sale, which turned out awesome. We made a good amount of money for the girls so they can attend camp thanks to all of the people who donated stuff from our ward......thanks to everyone!



We also attended the ward picnic that night,which was a lot of fun, I won the womens pie eating contest and Annalise enjoyed hanging out with Grandma, unfortunately I don't have pictures from this, but Alyson Peterson does, so maybe I will have to get those! Then right after the picnic we once again headed down to Maryland for a family Reunion on Sunday. It was a distant "Twigg Family Reunion" that was in "I don't know where", Maryland, and it was a perfectly sunny day.....for most of the time until it started pooring down rain.



The week after that was Youth Conference. This year was our service theme, so we got to clean up Benjamin Rush State Park just off of the Boulevard. It was awesome to see all these kids working hard and not complaining one bit, they were all amazing. We also got to make some blankets for the Lynus Foundation that Saturday morning before the Testimony meeting, which was also a cool project to do.



While I was taking youth home from youth conference Kevin, Annalise, aunt Amy and grandma Lawrence got to go to Terhune Orchards in NJ where there a lot of cool animals to see. Annalise loved the horses apparently. Then we went to little Fabios birthday party, which was also fun, and then I went home and slept for the next 2o hours because I was exausted.



Then this last week was the fourth of July which was also an exciting busy day. We spent the morning at the boy scout fundraiser eating some delicious pancakes with secret ingredients and pefectly made sausuage. Then we went to the Jersey shore to Belmar beach where Annalise got to swim in the ocean for the first time, and luckily the weather heald out for us while we were there. Then we spent the evening in Center City listening to John Legend and watching the fireworks in the rain. It was a nice drippy day.
So there is a summary of the last two months.........I hope you enjoyed it. I promise I will be better this month!! Hopefully life will be slowing down (atleast for a couple of weeks until Girls Camp and my brothers wedding.) Thanks for reading my novel!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Victory!!!

Okay, so I can't help myself. I have been trying to get Annalise on video this week doing her latest move that Kevin calls her..... Victory Arms! I finally got it and I think it is so cute, so here you go:

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lions and Tigers and Bears.........Oh my!

Last weekend we got to take a trip to NY to visit Kevins sister Amy. Despite the chilly air we enjoyed ourselves. After getting up early and driving into the city we picked up Amy and headed up to the Bronx Zoo. Annalise has really been into animials lately......mostly when they make sounds and look like they are dancing all around. She really loved the fish that were in the Tigers pond..... She tried to catch all of the fish through the glass, but she was never able to get one. She wasn't as impressed of the tiger, but Kevin thought it was pretty cool.... Annalise's favorite part of the zoo was tasting french fries for the first time, in fact she wouldn't put them down, so she brought them in the stroller with her.

We also went to a Yankees game which is cool since they are tearing down Yankee Stadium this year and putting up........oh Yankee Stadium, yeah, I guess they couldn't think of a better name for the new one.Annalise even took a little nap before the seventh inning stretch. It was her very first game, and it made mom and dad happy that she enjoyed it since we are both big baseball fans. Well after the game we got to hang out at Amy's apartment and I read Everyone Poops to Annalise and then we had some pizza.......I think it is her new favorite book as you can tell by the look on her face.It was a fun day in NYC.
We are so enjoying having Annalise to brighten up our lives everyday, she is amazing. It was exciting to have my first official mother day yesterday, and I look forward to many many more, (especially if it includes Kevin cleaning the house for me...thanks Kev!).
Well I will leave with a video of Annalise after we got home from eating at Nifty Fifties. I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful mothers day!!

Friday, May 2, 2008

I'm a cheerio girl living in a cheerio world

Well I looked at my blog this week and I realized it has been nearly a month since I have posted anything. So sorry to all of those who look forward to the ramblings of Kelsey and 100's of pictures of Annalise. It has been a busy month and also quite exciting.
A few weeks ago we got to participate in Darlynns recital (one of my girls in young women). Well we were the intermediate distraction while the little dancers got ready. We sang Take Me Out To the Ballgame and Blackbird. It has only taken me six years to get Kevin to perform with me. So a round of applause for him......he was very nervous, and I am sure if you want to see the video Brother Hitchner will put it on Youtube for you. Congrats to Darlynn for putting together a very good recital!!

Annalise received visits by both her grandmas this month. Grandma Stott drove from Cincinnati to visit her favorite grandaughter. It was going to be a nice relaxing weekend.......and then we got a call from Matthew (my brothers) mission president. His knee was not doing so hot......again (for those of you who don't know him he has been out three times now coming back twice for two different knee surgeries.) So this time it looked like the last time to be greeting him home. He has done an amazing job keeping his focus for the last year and a half, and I know he has changed many peoples lives. Anyway, so he ended up coming back home to NJ where he left. Therefore he crashed at my place with my mom while they figured out what to do. And Matt's girlfriend Lauren is currently a nanny in NJ....... so she came too. Well he got released on a Tuesday morning, then by that afternoon they were taking engagement pictures.........yeah, it was an exciting week. So we got to go to many fun places to take pictures here are some of them:


Here is Longwood Gardens (but no flowers in this picture...sorry)

And then we went to the shore where Annalise discovered sand......the best part was eating it, yuummm!




Then we took some pictures on the Princeton campus and train station where flat Ayla came to also. (For those of you who have read the childrens book Flat Stanley you will understand why.)
So it was a very busy week for us, but we had a lot of fun. Then my family left and Kevins mom came into town (actually one night we had all three of them here two grandmas and my brother, maybe we shoud start charging per night.)


Well while Grandma Lawrence was here Kevin and I had a lot of church obligations, so we spent Saturday with the youth at the Special Olympics at Council Rock HS, and Sunday at Ward Conference meetings. So Annalise got to spend a lot of time with Grandma Lawrence (which is good since she fly's accross the country from LA every month just to see her.) But Annalise was having so much fun she would stay up late every night, and get into grandmas make up bag.......


So in the meantime Annalise has been doing all kinds of exciting things, like growing teeth (yes her first tooth came in), rolling around more (but still not that much, she loves everyone to come to her and treat her like the princess that she is), and she has also been improving her facial expressions as you can see:



Yeah, she loves the camera.
And as you can see she has been also growing a lot of hair, and I can't wait until I can make little pigtails....

Well I think I have done enough bragging for one night. I hope to be better about posting more this month, but no promises. Tomorrow we are going to NYC and spending the day with Kevins sister Amy, going to the Bronx zoo and a Yankees game......so the excitement never ends. Happy Spring to everyone!!!