we've lost control

that's it, we've completely lost control of our bed.  noah has officially taken it over.  he loves it!

love, laurie

opening day

our children's theatre production of "jack and the beanstalk" opens this morning and we're very excited to welcome hundreds of school students to the theatre to watch the show. 

our stage manager snapped this photo during rehearsal last week and it was funny how noah was so interested in holding the microphone.

even though it's a bit blurry, it's still cute!

love, laurie

mission control

my parents found this adorable little seat for noah and he has been getting great use out of it.  there are so many gadgets on there to keep him entertained.  we jokingly call it his "mission control center" because it looks like he can control anything from there.

love, laurie

cute co-pilot

i often sit in the back seat when we ride in ryan's truck to keep noah entertained.  he is a cute little co-pilot!

love, laurie

ball pit fun

in addition to the penguin toy, ryan's cousin also gifted us the ball pit which his boys outgrew.  noah has been enjoying it, but he's not the only one who likes it . . . 

love, laurie

elephants!

upside down noah wearing elephant print while playing with his elephant toy!  wild little elephant!

love, laurie

someone has taken over our bed

we have completely lost our master bed to noah and leko.  those two have taken over and it's the location where the two of them sleep the best.  glad someone is getting to use it . . . mom and dad are tired, stiff, and sore!

love, laurie

celebrating grandma's birthday

we celebrated ryan's mom's birthday on saturday with some pizza and ice cream cake.  it was nice to take a break from the theatre to celebrate!  some photos from the day . . .

love, laurie

noah, meet penguin

ryan's cousin was kind enough to gift us several toys that his boys have outgrown.  we are so grateful and noah has been enjoying them very much.  one of the toys was a light up / singing penguin that ryan was looking all over for during the christmas season.  we couldn't find it anywhere because it was sold out, so we were really excited that the penguin was one of the toys they gifted noah.  the day we gave it to noah for the first time he was mesmerized.  it was just too funny!

can't believe this little nugget is 7 months old today!

love, laurie

jack and the beanstalk

for the past month we've been hard at work on this year's children's theatre show at marywood . . . jack and the beanstalk!

children's theatre is something that is near-and-dear to my heart and a genre of theatre that i absolutely love.  ryan and i did jack and the beanstalk nearly 20 years ago when we were sophomores in college.  the 50+ year tradition of children's theatre at our university was incredible, so we were broken hearted when children's theatre didn't happen for the past several years.  after many meetings, lots of planning, and tons of budget crunching, we're thrilled that it's back again this year after too long of a hiatus.

we're honored to be a part of it . . . well, a very big part of it!

i'm directing the show in addition to costume designing.  ryan is the university's technical director and production manager, but he's also heavily involved in this show.  together, ryan and i are designing the scenery, props, audio, and lights.

noah's been heavily involved too!  he's supervising everyone and the students call him their "dance captain!"

noah crashed rehearsal recently and sat on the giant's throne while we were rehearsing the castle scene!  we're all really looking forward to this show which is right around the corner!

love, laurie

happy birthday!

happy birthday today to ryan's mom!

love, laurie

happy st. patrick's day!

i always say that ryan has the "luck of the irish" in him because he has such a knack for finding four-leaf clovers.  he's my "lucky charm" for sure, and he has found several over the years.  i have kept most of the ones that he found (by pressing them between two pieces of wax paper and letting them dry out.)

even when we were leaving the sunflower farm after taking our maternity photos 2 days before noah was born, ryan found a four-leaf clover!  i've read that 1 in every 5,000 clovers has four leaves and that your odds of finding one are 1 in 10,000.  the four leaves represent hope, faith, love, and luck.

here's a few of our favorite st. patrick's day recipes from over the years . . .
- irish soda bread scones
- rustic cast-iron skillet irish soda bread
- vegan irish soda bread (with dried cherries)
- shamrock cut-out sugar cookies

wishing you all the luck of the irish today!

happy st. patty's day!

love, laurie

ma, you put me down?!

if noah had it his way, he would have me carry him around all day long.  i had to put him down recently to move his play mat on the living room floor so i wedged him in the sofa with a pillow.  his expression was priceless!

love, laurie

kitten ball

it was so chilly that poor leko had to tuck into a ball to stay warm.  i've never seen him so tightly tucked!

love, laurie

a tribute to garth brooks and shania twain

in addition to the styx tribute band last weekend, we also had a garth brooks and shania twain tribute show at the theatre.  we don’t typically have much country at the theatre so this was something different for us!  

you can see some of my photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

a tribute to styx

last weekend we had a styx tribute band perform at the theatre called "best of times."  this was their second time at the theatre, and the audience loved it!  you can see some of my photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

momma mattress

noah's favorite place to nap is still on momma!  

what a cuteness!

love, laurie

flying saucer

we're very grateful to my parents' friends for gifting noah this hand-me-down saucer toy.  he loves it and has so much fun in it!

love, laurie 

always fun lighting for our leko

of course we love fun lighting, so it makes sense that leko does too.  he always looks so pretty under the different colors of the hue lighting in our bedroom.

love, laurie

tackling dad

when dad came home from work recently, noah was really happy to see him and quickly tackled him.  too cute!

love, laurie

grandpa cuddles

such a sweet photo from a few weeks ago of noah lounging on grandpa taking an afternoon nap.

love, laurie

where's leko?

noah isn't the only one who loves the boppy pillow.  i set it down recently and found leko right in the middle of it!

i also was looking for leko the other day and happened to peek in the bathtub and sure enough that's where he was hanging out!

love, laurie

look, ma, i can eat my toes!

question: how many toes fit in the mouth?  answer: all of the toes.

there may be 3 toes in the mouth in this photo, but this contortionist can fit them all in there!

i need a chiropractor visit just watching him do this!

love, laurie

extra, extra, read all about it!

i'm beyond honored that happenings magazine featured me in a 4-page article in their march 2023 issue!  i mean, wow!!!

the march issue is out now, and you can read the digital article here on pages 64-67.

love, laurie