Early mornings

A typical morning in our house.

At 5:45: I race out of bed and speed tip-toe across our creaky, old kitchen floors and into the girls' room. I nurse Riglee back to sleep before her early morning cries can wake up the millie mae. Speed tip-toeing is up there with star throwing and num-chucking in the ninja mom handbook don'tchaknow. 

If I am successful, I put a sleeping Riglee back into her crib and I can now get a workout in before the girls wake up for the day. The speed tip-toe is all important because if I am unsuccessful, the grumpy baby's cries wake up the grumpy toddler which makes mom grumpy and now our entire house is a big grumpy blob of grumps. 

Do not underestimate the power of the speed tip toe. 

After workout I shower, put on mom sweats & a mom high bun and am DYING for the girls to wake up because by now it's been about ten years since I've kissed their sweet smiling faces and also I am getting dang hungry. I like to wait to eat breakfast with my girls but by now my stomach is saying "yo Lauren! Feed me yo! Holla!" {my intestines are gangsters} 

And I just get super anxious to comply because you do not mess with gangsters/I'm hungry. 

Then the girls awake, we eat breakfast, watch Monkey George {what the cool toddlers say instead of Curious George} and then daddy comes home from working at UPS! Upon which time a dance party of epic proportions usually breaks out, music is provided in the form of a screaming toddler and sounds only vaguely like a song from Frozen... {smile}

I think we have the best mornings ever. 

XO Lauren 

A Day at the Yellow Farm

Being from Arizona, i love all things hot & summery. Winter is SUCH a drag in my opinion, and i have no idea why it even bothers to show up at all--let alone every single year without fail. Boise should get some better bouncers up in here. STAT.

Thankfully, spring is slowly slowly beginning to make its appearances & this mama cannot contain her excitement when it does!!! Here are a few photographs to document the happy happy day: complete with a handsome daddy, a 20 week pregnant mommy, an adventurous 15-month-old Millie Mae & a Smokie!

^^ see those cows across the street? they are millie's best friends. ^^

she loves to tell them "mooooooooo!" whenever she sees them".

^^daddy's still got it!^^

millie was super jealous & kept trying to climb the base of the tree until travis came down.

toddlers attempting to climb trees = adorable.

^^darling girl. let's get a closer look at that baby bum, shall we?^^

^^ah! i love that bum!^^

^^ we are the whiting family! i love us!^^

millie is not a fan of family selfies. 

she did not want to be kept from exploring the yard for even a moment. 

^^ I LOVE HIM FOREVER & EVER!!^^

just when we thought the fun would have to end, Uncle Kameron stopped by to bring us a gift!

he made us a swing!!!

can you believe it? i can't think of a more perfect thing to add the farm than a swing. 

so thoughtful of him! he took a burn pen & etched our name & the farm in himself.

we love it! thank you Kameron!!

^^ the best of brothers and OUR SWING!!^^

& happiness prevailed throughout the land. the end.
xo lauren

race for the cure

trav's aunt sharin is currently fighting colon cancer. the family rallied together & wanted to do something for her so last weekend we woke up bright & early, shimmied into our running {leisurely strolling} shoes and joined in on the race for the cure! the race highlights breast cancer survivors but we learned that the color for colon cancer was blue... so we did our best to accessorize accordingly! 

it was a beautiful, sunny day.

perfect for a 5k as a family!

 

^^my mother-in-law, sister-in-law & i getting pumped to start!^^

^^ HA! ^^

xo lauren

more summer mornings

here's a few more photos from yesterday because hello that face.

xo lauren

summer mornings

i do love idaho summers. it's the perfect amount of summer, i'd say.
this summer we wake up every morning at seven am like clockwork. we hate it, and we love it.
we can't go a week without sipping a few lime ricki's.
we sometimes buy a rotisserie chicken from Winco for dinner... but it doesn't make it out of the car.
finger. licking. good.
we make smoothies first thing every morning.
we visit target a lot.
daddy works hard. mommy launders....hard.
and we play in the yard, enjoying the sunshine at least three times everyday.

xo lauren

mother's day 2013

i will always be grateful for this millie of mine. she will forever be the one who made me a mother.

and a mother is exactly what i've always wanted to be. 

the day she was born, everything changed. our lives changed, our hearts grew a little bigger, our savings grew a little smaller and i became a mother. suddenly the world became a much bigger & scarier place because now it is the world in which i have to raise my daughter. suddenly i am more cautious when walking up stairs and crossing the street, because now my entire world resides in a wobbly little body with only two teeth. she is mine to mold & to care for during her time here on earth.

i wouldn't trade the responsibility for anything.

i love being a mother!

& thank you to my two mothers, you are both beautiful examples of grace & strength to me!

xo lauren

third wheel

do you see that face? this miss loves her daddy

millie is a daddy's girl. completely. she loves him! they have a bond that is hard to explain. "thicker than thieves" type of stuff. "two peas in a pod". and i'm pretty sure when she gets older she will associate bear growls & lion rawrs with her dad entering a room, which may be problematic if she ever decides to visit the wild. i love watching these two play together, even though sometimes it can turn me into a third wheel...

i've never been so happy to be a third wheel.

xo lauren

travis

this is my guy.
my hubsy-wubs.

i love him. he is so passionate, about so many things. one at a time, but one right after the other.
he loves fly fishing. if he could ask for anything, from anywhere,
it found be from sportsman's warehouse & it would be about fishing.
he has big muscles & he bugs me. and i bug him. we bug each other.
there are so many things about a husband.
he's the only person that can make a wife so happy, and so mad at the same time.
we're coming up on three years this august.
three. years.
that's a long time.
where did all of that time go?
we have seen so much together.
we still have so much to see together.

today, after mills went to bed it was still light outside. we fed the horses some carrots & he fireman carried me to the trampoline, where i showed him my moves. {i have no moves. i jumped around making strange noises & told him i was a walrus. those are my moves.}
then, we came inside and he flipped on the tv & i got to blogging.
husband & wife stuff, you know?

xo lauren

blog fog

you know when you've been gone from the blogosphere for a while & when you come back you just don't know where to start?
that's where i'm at right now. total blog fog.

---------

we are living with trav's parents for the summer while trying to find ourselves a starter home.
looking for houses is like my biggest dream, people. i am straight up dying over here.

trav's parents have tv. we've never had tv in our entire married lives. i must admit i don't find much use for it... except to watch Live with Kelly & Michael. that show is like bam. kelly more so than michael but you can dig it.

we are doing insanity. let's hope we stick to it {because if you've read Peace Love Lauren for any length of time you'll know i have a HUGE problem with sticking to things i start here on the bloggity-blog. which is why...i won't be posting about it. till we're done. let's just forget i mentioned it shall we??}

and we've gone paleo.
because i've seen it floating around on pinterest & then it was on Dr. Oz {TV you've done it again!!} and it sounds intriguing. More like a challenge than a diet, and i HATE diets. ew gross bleh. but i am always up for a challenge.

also, mills is teething. if you have any teething tips, send 'em my way. because THE SCREAMING IN PAIN IS RIPPING MY HEART IN TWO!!!

xo lauren

walkin' as a family

when the sun shines in rexburg, it's kind of a big deal. the sun peeped out his beautiful bright head one saturday & we felt required to make the most of it. insert family walk here! millie & i like to go on runs in our stroller but never with daddy & never outside {we visit the school's indoor track} so this was a very special treat! we walked all around the snow capped park & stopped in deseret book to dream of the new scripture sets we'd like to get. such. nerds.

it was a lovely saturday as a family. have i mentioned that i love my family??



xo lauren

Vday 2013

  

valentines day is the best isn't it? so much love. so much PINK.
our valentines began with a very pink breakfast & a whole lot of dancing to Frank Sinatra in the kitchen. gosh i love our family. think i say that enough? the rest of the day was like a giant box of surprises specially wrapped just for me. trav lined up a group of people to corner me at Sammy's and sing As Long as You Love Me {i've never really been a Beiber fan... until now!} so i was thrilled & a totally happy chick. we went out to lunch and a few hours later were driving down main street. trav stopped the car in the middle of traffic & told me to get out & go in to Form Salon. i was like "whaaaa?" we have friends there, so it wasn't totally random... and when i walked in i was told i was getting an hour massage! SUCH a happy camper!
i love that heart head. so much. the rest of the night was spent at the dollar movie with some pretzel m&m's & my favorite guy.

i hope your V Day was a thing of total joy.
& full of pink!
xo lauren

heart head

 

This was trav's Valentine's present to me this year.
He knocked on the door and handed me a rose.
And when I asked how his day had been,
He turned around and made jazz hands,
Showing me his newly shaved heart-head.

Some people wear their heart on their sleeves.
Travis wears it shaved into the back of his head!
I love that guy.

& here's mine & millie's mommy/daughter get-ups.  we are BFF's
xolauren

whiting family photo

happy almost valentine's from the whiting family! i think this is my favorite family photo of any family, ever.  i may be a little biased but look at us! travis is filled with great ideas.  i vote we recreate this every year as a family! *** today i went running at the school's indoor track  {snow, you are so pretty but when will you LEAVE?} and t & i hit up walmart to buy a bigger pot for walter {our miniature indoor money tree} while we were there i oggled at all of the fancy valentine's decorations. i love valentines day! so much love and chocolate and PINK is floating around everywhere.  travis is real good at valentine's day. he's always got something up his sleeve. read about our Valentine's 2012 & 2011  SPREAD LOVE & STUFF! xo lauren