The Manning Family

For any of you who didn’t know, my Mom left today for Hamilton, Ontario. She decided to move back to her roots and spend some quality time with her sisters and brother. I’m glad for her because I know it’s what’s right for her and she’ll have so much fun going to her old stomping grounds. She’s going to be able to do a lot of family history there too since that’s where our ancestors were.  
 
I threw her a going-away party on Saturday with a few friends and the family. It was a complete success, which is happy. Quite a few people couldn’t attend, but there were enough people to make it a little crazy! We had a good time and a few people stayed until hours after the party was over!  
 
Here are some fun pictures from the party: 
 
 
 
Mom and the Grandbabies 
 
 
 
Mom, some friends and Aunt Eileen 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I had a lady from church teach me how to properly decorate the cake. We still had a few glitches, but it turned out ok. 
 
 
 
Auntie Julina with a happy boy!  
 
 
 
 
Here’s Natasha helping herself to the cake! She’d already had at least one piece that she snagged from Cousin Jaron when he wasn’t looking! 
 
 
 
Is anyone seeing this? Mom made a yummy cake! Hey, Jaron, you didn’t want this right?! 
 
 
 
Is this a pose or what!? For a girl that won’t pose for the camera to save her life, she did a pretty good job here! 

Well, as you can see from the photos, Natasha has been busy! I made a quick 4 min phone call, only to return to the kitchen and find Tasha in the middle of a baking powder and baking soda sand dune! She did get alot of it in the bowl, to her credit, but she was still covered in it. She was mixing up her concoction when I caught her. Boy did she jump when I said her name!!! Funny girl!

Ok, so I promise that I will post a photo of this incident later, but for the timebeing here’s the story.

Sunday, we’re all ready for church, I’m just getting the last few things in the diaper bag. Ammon, Kevin and I were downstairs and all of a sudden realized that it was awfully quiet upstairs where Tasha was. This could only mean one thing……TROUBLE! Ammon ran upstairs to see what she was up to and a minute later I heard…”Uh, Lauren? We have a problem!” I went upstairs to find our little Indian warrior all decked out in what could only be described as warpaint….a.k.a. LIPSTICK! I’m talkin’ dark, like I have to blot it three times when I wear it to not look like hooker! It was all over her eyes and one half of her face! We could only laugh because she looked so serious about the whole thing, probably realizing that she did something she wasn’t supposed to!

Thank goodness for baby wipes!!!

I don’t have a picture of a similar time when she decided to put face lotion on (toothpaste). Too bad!

We’re working on a big project right now and are almost finished with it! It’s been a learning experience for me and fun to do something that uses my brain, other than deciding when to put Kevin down for a nap or what to feed Tasha for lunch! The great thing about it is that we got two more projects out of this one. The lady we’re doing it for wants more work done! Yay! It’s nice to feel like things are truckin along….Speaking of which if any of you out there need any pictures put into a photo slideshow or have home videos to put on DVD, let us know! Check out our eternapix link on this page!

My friend Kylene, a Hawaii roomie of mine, came to visit for a few days last week. It was like a vacation for me too because I didn’t do all the normal house things and all the day to day routines. Ahhhhh it was nice! We went to the Museum of Nature and Science downtown and went through a bunch of exhibits there. Very educational and pretty fun besides! They have the “Best View in Denver” and a cool water fountain thing that sprays water out of the ground (like mini geysers) and the kids can run and play in it. It was right up Tasha’s alley. She got soaked and threw a fit when we had to leave, but had a blast!

We mostly did the single girlie things like shop, talk and watch movies. It was fun to have a flashback to singledom, though I was happy to get back to  my married life!

The night before Kylene left we went to a local diner “Gunther Toodys” and had yummy burgers and homemade milkshakes.

Ever since Ky left, Tasha has been saying “Auntie home, bye-bye Muh (kiss noise)”. So cute!

Yesterday was a very momentous day in the Manning household! Our little guy finally crawled! He’s been trying for the past two months and had succeeded at frustrating himself, going backwards and getting stuck under beds, couches, tables, you name it. It was all thanks to Tasha, who bribbed him with a goldfish cracker (ok, it was really a cheddar bunny by Annie’s). He’s not quite totally confident of his new ability, but I’m sure in a few days he’ll be cruisin’!

What a busy weekend! So much fun though! We were watching a friends little guy on the Monday, so Ammon planned lots of fun activities to keep him busy. We went hiking in the morning up at Massey Draw (about 15 min away). It was a pretty challenging hike, mostly uphill with a few spots that you had to do some minor rock climbing. It was so pretty up there. We saw about 8 deer and a bunch of rabbits and a hawk. It was the kids first time hiking. Kevin LOVED it!! He keep gabbing to Lee (my father-in-law) the whole time, as if to say “Keep going Grampa, you can do it!”. Tasha enjoyed it too, but not quite as much, probably because she couldn’t walk around.

After hiking the kids went in the sprinklers and I went and got a pedicure, which my sweet husband gave me! (nice!) We ended the day by going on a bike ride and playing at a local playground. It was a lot of exercise in one day!

On the fourth, we went to a pancake breakfast that the church was having a local park. Yummy! Free and all the pancakes, sausage, eggs, and hashbrowns you could eat! We spent the day with the Mannings celebrating Ellen’s birthday. It was a fun day and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins.