Recently...

I haven't blogged in FOREVER! Whoops... Well anyhow, here's what's been going on in my life. Enjoy these 5 recent photo's.
Random side note: I just realized that my blog title "Friends.Family.Everything." is spelled wrong. I forgot the "Y" in "Everything". I'll try to figure out how to fix that!

I just had my last dance competition of the season; bittersweet. I love competing and being with my dance girls, but I like to have a break. At my comp. this weekend, I won three 2nd places. In the picture above, I won Gold, High Gold, and Platinum!! Triple Yay!!

My dad took me to a Kerri Roberts concert for my birthday (which is May 16th..oh and ignore the picture quality). Kerri Roberts is a Christian artist and she signed myCD! She's an absolutely amazing singer! Exciting!

 Good times at dance...Lindsay and Alexis decided that we needed to keep hydrated, so they bought a trillion drinks. (:

This is my friend, Michelle, and I at dance.

To end it all, I edited this picture of Ava playing in the sand. She's cute (:

Looooong Night.

The other night I went on a trip for my friend, Jalen's, church. We had a blast! We went to a hockey game (they lost 4-5  in over time), had a guest speaker, played games, went to an athletic center, where we played badmitten and had a bouncy house!:), went roller skating, and last but not least, bowling. We left at 5pm on Friday, and got back at 7am on Saturday!! Talk about being exhausted! I took a 5 hour nap when I got home! But it was worth it:) I loved it.

A New Friend (Part 2)

Sorry for leaving you off there. I might have accidentally hit the post button. But now I'm here to tell you all about our newest addition (even though we've had him for about a month, but I've been too lazy busy to blog about him.) So here it goes.....

OUR NEWEST ADDITION IS...

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DRUMROLL PLEASE....

 This is Ace! Well, if you ask different members of our family, he has a different name, but  I call him Ace(:

My dad and Brady went out to a farm, and fell in love with this adorable little kitten. We already have 4 chickens, a dog, and a rabbit, so why not throw in a cat?

Reggie isn't to thrilled...but he'll get used to it.

 Ace is much loved. Luckily my best friend, Rachel was over at my house when Brady came in holding a cute little bundle of fur! That was an interesting sleepover!

Not sure how old he is, hasn't been to the vet yet, but we'll take him soon.

Isn't he cute?

So come on down and visit our newest little bundle of joy!

Last Splash

It's the last splash of summer. School starts tommorrow. So yesterday, we had our last hoorah before school. Labor Day was today, so yesterday we had a picnic. It was nice to get to see the whole family on my Mom's side. Usually my mom's brother and his family are unable to come to our party's and picnics because of their busy schedules. But they were finally able to come!
We got in the pool for the last time of Summer 2011. The pool will close after Labor Day. It was very chilly at first, but was nice after you got used to it.
We had some fresh corn on the cob, chicken legs/wings, and fresh fruit. Mmmm....I love that kind of eating!
It did start raining near the end, but we got most of our fun out by then. All in all, we had a great day.

There was a very competitive game of keep away. Girls against boys of course. But I got out halfway through because it got a little too competitive.

 There were smiles...

 ...And kisses...

...And perfect cathches.

 ...And smiling cousins...

 ...And girls eating pickels...(Doesn't it look like she's smiling?)

 ...And friendly throws...

...And then, we got mad. So I got out. But everything turned out ok. Everyone came out alive!

Happy Labor Day.(:

Ready, Set, HIKE!

Yesterday, Brady had his first football game. Brady, my little brother, who is 6 and only weighs 39 lbs, out there playing rough and tough football. It's a scary thought. But surprisingly, he did really well. When we first put on all of his pads, he was like a little robot with stiff arms and legs. His head was like a bobble head with his helmet. But of course, my dad loves it. My dad played football all the way up to college. This is my dad's dream. But Brady loves it too, of course. The first day Brady put his pads on, Dad threw the football to him. Brady fell down. My dad was wondering why he didn't get up. Brady said, "Daddy, I'm stuck!"

So Dad had to help him up. He is past his days where he can't get up, but he's still a really small guy. But most of his team is really tiny, too. We lost the game, but that's ok. Our little guys played really well, even though the coaches had to take them to their spots, and when music played, they danced in the field(: Here's some pictures I took from the day:

 Brady's number 22, standing beside Daddy.

These cheerleaders were so adorable! They were going to do a cheer for the other team.

Brady's heading toward the huddle, standing near Daddy (with the folder).

Brady is the 4th one from the left, waiting to go out to play. Notice how small most of our team is?

I'll end this with the cheerleaders, they were just so cute.

GO TEAM!

A Few Bruises But...

For us, it's the last week of summer. Last week of freedom. Last week to do whatever. We've gotta make it last, right? So yesterday, we got together with friends and had a little before-school fun. My dad took Ashley and her friend Briana, and Brady and my cousin Wyatt to go see "The Smurfs". So while Dad did that with the younger kids, Mom took my friends Rachel, Michelle, Casey, and I, and Breanna and her friend Maggie to the skating rink. We had a blast! We had tons a few falls, and I have to say that Casey took the hardest fall. But no one broke anything! So I call that a successful skating trip. My camera died part way through, so I only got a few pictures. The only really annoying thing about going skating during the summer, is you have to go on a Friday night. Not a nice, calm Sunday afternoon, because of course, no one's open! But instead you have to go with all the wild teenagers. Some of them were very annoyingly speeding past us and making us loose our balance, but let's put that behind us. Enjoy the pictures!

 It's hard to get a good picture when you can't see the screen(:

 It's also hard to get a good picture when you have 4 wheels under your feet(:

But it's easy to get a good picture when you have a good friend taking it(:

To Make You Smile(:

I just thought that I would post a few interesting things that happened this week. No pictures, just my fabulous writing for my 3-4 readers.
Breanna and Ashley had a Dr. appt. We finally arived, (late of course) and exited the truck. (Our van has been in the garage for almost 2 weeks now due to hail damage, we've had to borrow our grandfather's truck). As we're getting out, we here a "BEEP!" I turn around, and see that mom has beeped the horn while getting out of the truck! Way to make an entrance, Mother.
The next interesting thing, takes it's place at home. I was looking for Brady. When I finally find him, he tells me, "Lauren, just call me Justin." I was confused so I asked why he wanted me to call him that and he said, "Because I just really like that name." Oh Brady, I love you <3
I hope I made you smile!

GET YOUR LEMONADE!

Yesterday, Brady and the neighbor boy, Patrick, decided they were going to sell roadside lemonade. This is funny, because both of them have the attention span of an ant. They made signs, got a little stand, which was actually our piano stool, and served up some lemonade. They even made a whopping $1.86!! But that seems like a million to them(:. It was actually really cute and I went out and bought some lemonade for a nickel, yes I know, how generous. Brady even starting picketing along the road. But luckily, we have very generous neighbors. Here's some pictures I snapped:

Ferris Wheels, Funnel Cake, and Fireworks, Oh My!

Yesterday we had a great time at the county fair. Well, technically it wasn't our county's fair, because our county's fair is much more expensive. But we took a ride over the mountain to another county fair that was much cheaper, and much more fun! I haven't been to a fair in a long time because it's just too expensive. I go to the fair in town for the karaoke contest and just to walk around with my friends but I haven't had the full fair experience in a long time.
When we pulled in to the parking lot, Brady was amazed. "IT'S HUGE!" Were his only words, along with 'COWS! THEY HAVE COWS DAD!" Brady is a huge animal lover. No matter what it is. He would have been satisfied just looking at the animals all night instead of riding rides.

When we first got there, they were having some type of 4-wheeler race. I have never been to one so I don't know the technical term for it, but it was very loud, and the noise got kind of annoying during the evening. But we made it and I even snapped a picture:

After watching, we really needed something to eat. So we went to the least expensive food vendor and got some old-fashioned chicken strip baskets, and hot dogs. It reminded me of my previous days at the baseball field concession stand.

Now of course, we had to go see the animals. Brady was begging us. So we went into all the barns and saw all the animals. Rabbits, pigs, cows, sheep, and horses. You may find this odd, but I really love that fresh barn smell(:

 Brady loves the sheep!

I felt kinda bad for this little horse. His name was Stubby. He looks like a Stubby, don't ya think? But he sat there all huddled up in his little corner the whole time. Poor little Stubby.

Doesn't this look just like Donkey from Shrek?

There were these people sitting in the barn with a little foal. How cute!

After the animals we got on some rides and got some ice cream! The chocolate milkshakes were really good! One of the best I've had. Then we settled in for some fireworks. The night ended with a BANG!

Do, Re, Mi...

Last night was the karaoke contest at the fair. My friend Emily and I entered. Last year I was the winner in the 12 and under category. But this year, I moved up to the 13-17 category, which  I think is a huge category. I wasn't expecting to win anything. My predicition was true, but I wasn't upset. I'll get them next year!  I just thought I'd post this video of my entry. Enjoy!

New York Here We Come!

So if you were wondering where I had been for the last week, I was in.....*drumroll*.....NEW YORK!  I know what you're thinking, "New York City?" Psshh...are you kidding?! Like my family woud survive a week in the city. I don't think so. We just barely survived a week in the Adirondack Mountains! Well, not exactly my family, but we'll get to that later. But we had a great time with our Grandparents on both sides and my great Aunt and Uncle that we only get to see once a year!
It takes a really long time to get there. REALLY.LONG.TIME!! But we survived!!
Our week consisted of......

WATER PARK FUN!!

So Pappy Joe hasn't been to a waterpark in a long time. That was very obvious. He was having problems getting into rafts, and out of rafts. He got stuck in a raft and......FLIPPED A RAFT! Congrats Pappy....haha.

FAMILY BONDING!

MINI GOLF!

Dad was the winner, Pappy Joe won second place, and Brady won third!

AND ANIMALS!

We saw these really cute fawns(: We also went to a petting zoo(:

Hope you enjoyed our trip to New York!

Note: Ok, you caught me. Some of these pics are from last year. BUSTED!