Lauren's Quick Turn Around

Last night Lauren woke me up at 3:00 a.m. saying her stomach hurt "so bad!" I asked her if she felt like she was going to throw up...she said no. It felt like sharp pains that wouldn't go away. I made her a bed by me and told her to tell me if it got worse. A little while later she insisted that she had to go to the hospital. I started thinking it must be bad if she's asking to go to the hospital. Was it appendicitis? I had no idea, but she said she'd never felt like that before and had to go. So, at 3:40 I woke up Greg and told him he had to take Lauren to the hospital. She was in tons of pain, etc. I had to stay with Camryn who just had surgery a week ago.

Anyway, Greg said he was driving Lauren to the hospital and she was moaning in the back seat. Then after a few minutes she started talking, "Dad! Look at all the people out! Look McDonald's is open! Look at all the people at Walmart!" A minute later, Lauren broke out in song. :)!!! At that point Greg asked "Lauren--are you feeling better honey?" Lauren, "yeah, it doesn't hurt so much now." Greg parked in the parking lot at urgent care and they decided to wait for 5 minutes to see how she felt. After 5 minutes Lauren said she was fine and they came home. :)
She slept through the rest of the night and woke up chipper for school.

Quotable Johnny

Johnny: Mom! It took a really long time for me to decide which girl to marry!

Mom: Oh? Who did you decide on?

Johnny: Millie!

Mom: Oh, I like Millie. That's a good choice.

Johnny: But mom! All the girls think they get to choose who to marry, but really the boys get to choose!

Mom: Well, it's best if you choose each other.

Johnny: WHy?

Mom: so that you both want to be together.

Johnny: Well, Addie needs to pick someone else, because she wants to marry Josh and he doesn't want to marry her! She needs to looks for someone else!

The worries of 4 year olds! :)

From Minneapolis to Mazatlan Mexico

In March, our good friends, the Gardners, invited us to go to Mazatlan with them for Spring Break. It was pretty hard to leave Minneapolis at this time of year to go to Mexico, but we did it anyway.....
Oh Heaven!!! It was amazing. Just to feel the warm sun again and feel your whole body unthaw, and to remember there really are warm places in the world! Once we got there, we never wanted to leave!
The kids spent hours and hours playing on the beach. We also had bonfires on the beach at night and roasted marshmallows...great memories!
Camryn and Lauren dancing on the beach
Lauren strikes a pose!
Samantha's hair was so curly there. I loved it!
We rented a 4 wheeler (I should say, Greg rented a 4 wheeler--his favorite thing! :) for an hour one day. It was so much fun to ride it up and down the beach.
Johnny is actually driving the golf cart all by himself. The Gardner's house is right next to a beautiful golf course.
A four wheeler and a golf cart in the same day----what a treat for a little boy!
There were beautiful sunsets every night.

Camryn is our boogy boarder and body surfer. She runs right into the water and spends hours in it every day. She's our little fish.
And little Sammy--she was just happy to be outside, exploring the world on her unsteady little feet!

Samantha Turns One!

January 28, 2011! One of the fastest years of my life! Where did the time go?
Happy Birthday cutie pie!
Not sure what to think at first....
Decides to touch it and see what happens...
Finally takes a bite...
Turns out she loved it! :) Way to go! You dug right in. You'll fit in just great in this family! :)
Samantha Marie Stone...absolutely adored by her parents and 3 older siblings. She loves to be right in the middle of the action. Loves to be held, loves her favorite pink fuzzy blanket, her bottle. Loves to smile and laugh and to be anywhere her mom or dad is! We love you!

Christmas 2010

This was our first year staying home for Christmas! Although we missed being with family, it was fun to be in our own home. On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner, then we read the Christmas story and the kids did their favorite Hanks tradition, "the ball!"
Johnny got a fire station from Santa!
Camryn and Lauren both got Nintendo DS's from Santa! They were really excited.
Lauren also got a piggy bank, some wii games and some clothes.
Here they are bright and early waiting to see what Santa brought!

Samantha was not sure what to make of it all! :)
Here they are doing "the ball." On Christmas afternoon we had some families in our ward over for a Christmas Brunch. We also surprised our kids with their biggest Chistmas gift: a trip to Pennsylvania to see all of their Stone cousins and their Grandparents. We left the day after Christmas. The kids were really excited!

Johnny Turns 4!

I just had to write a few things about Johnny on his birthday. I can't tell you how much I love this little boy. Part of me can't believe he's 4, but a bigger part of me can't believe he is only 4, because I can't believe that there was ever a time that he wasn't a part our family. I can't even imagine my life or our family without him in it and it seems that I've known him for a lot more than 4 years.
Yesterday, we had a speech assessment done on him so he can start getting speech therapy. He was so cute, he yelled out all the answers to every question with such energy and confidence! :) Anyway, after the interview, the lady said to him, "what's it like to be the only boy with all these sisters?!" Johnny thought for a second and said, "well...I have my dad!" It was so cute, because Johnny truly LOVES his dad and feels such a connection to him. Whenever Greg is home, Johnny is his little shadow...following him everywhere and just talking his ear off :) He always says, "We the boys!"
Today Johnny said, "Mom, I can't believe I the birthday boy!" Johnny's present from me today was that I played cars with him on the floor for over an hour---something I never do and should do more of. (now we have to move all the cars over here and fill them up with gas...now we have to drive all the cars to Wendy's...now we ......) Good for all you mom's who do this on a daily basis! I don't know how you do it! Luckily Johnny's usually just as content doing it alone :) I did enjoy it today.
I also just wanted to write about Johnny's prayer tonight. I love hearing what comes out of his mouth/brain/heart..."Heavenly Father, thank you for this day...all about Jesus never die on the cross again and he go up in heaven and he stay there so he safe so the bad men can't never kill him again..."
I love you Johnny!

Lauren (6) and Samantha (1) dressed alike one day :)
Lauren saw that she had Samantha had matching clothes, so she wanted to dress up like twins one day and take a picture. Lauren loves taking care of Samantha and playing with her. She's such a good big sister to her.
My three darling daughters eating waffles!
I love this picture. I still can't believe sometimes that I have 3 daughters! I am so grateful for them. They are so beautiful. I don't want them to grow up! I love to watch them love each other so much and be such good friends. I hope they always do!

Johnny Quotes

Johnny and Millie

I just had to write down some of the cute things Johnny has said lately so I don't forget them. The other night I was saying prayers with Johnny before bed and he said, "I will talk really loud so that Jesus will hear me!" I also have to write a typical Johnny prayer: "Heavenly Father....all about... we don't fight, all about I get to eat candy, all about we play with our friends...etc...amen!" We have no idea where he got the "all about.." but it's so cute when he says it. :)

The other morning I went in to see if Johnny was awake yet and he was just laying in bed looking at the ceiling. I said, "Hey buddy! You woke up?" And he said, "Mommy, I love all my friends and all my family." He is the sweetest little boy. He's just laying there in bed thinking about how much he loves everybody!

Johnny and Millie

One of Johnny's best friends is a little girl named Millie. They love to play together and they go to pre-school and church together and play a lot. Anyway, the other day I was picking them up from pre-school and I looked in the back and saw that Millie's seatbelt was already buckled (she usually likes help) I said, "Millie, did you buckle your own seat belt?" Johnny said, "No, Mom, I got it for her." Johnny had climbed into the very back seat and buckled her seat belt for her and then climbed up to the middle seat and buckled himself in. :) I hope he always treats girls like that! :)

Right now Millie is over and she and Johnny wanted to watch "Rudolph," but they were worried there were scary parts. Johnny said, "Mommy if it's scary, I will cuddle with Millie so she won't be scared."

Other Quotables

Johnny follows Greg around the house all day on Saturday and Sunday. If Greg goes out to shovel the driveway, Johnny goes out to help him. One of his favorite sayings is, "We the boys!" He always asks Greg if he wants to be in his "candy club." and he's always saying, "Come on dad, let's fight!"

One of the greatest compliments Johnny can give you, is to invite you to his birthday party (in May :) He always says, "Mom, I love you. I'm going to invite you to my birthday party!" (He's also been known to get mad and tell me I'm NOT invited to his birthday party--but not very often :)

2 more things: The other day Johnny came downstairs and said, "Mommy, I did get scared in my room and I did say a prayer and Jesus did answer my prayer."

Johnny's favorite thing to do at bedtime is to have Greg and me lay by him and talk about all of his favorite kinds of candy. :) He gets so excited talking about it :) Then when we're about to leave the room, he wants to know how many more days until Easter (the next "candy" holiday!)

Lauren

Lauren just said, "Mom, what does "snow forts" mean when they say it in church?"
Kristy: "Snow forts?"
Lauren: "Yeah, ...(then she sings)..."evangelists and snow forts..."