Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween On Strathmore

For the past 4 Halloweens Strathmore Ave has been a growing hot spot for the Halloween hang out session. We got in the Holiday spirit a few days early by having all those in the household who are able to play with knives to carve the pumpkins.



John's Pumpkin

Bobbie's Pumpkin
Charlie's Pumpkin (done by John)


Chelsea is upset about not getting a pumkin


The whole family


Charlie starts off the evening by posing by his pumpkin (Note: outfit #1)


The festivities really got kicked off at the arrival of Evan-Saurus




Always plenty to eat at a Strathmore party including Katie Laur's 7 layer dip . . .


. . . Bobbie's Bat Cake . . .




. . . and the traditional Crabs and Boh's on the front porch.

Chelsea got dressed:




Time now for Charlie to get into his costume (Outfit #2):
and for everyone to have a turn of getting a picture with him:

Aunt Katie:

And Rhiannon (outfit #3)
All in all a successful night! Trick-or-treat-er count was placed at somewhere above 160, we did not run out of candy, good food, good drinks, good music, and the Sing-Off were enjoyed by all!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

4 Bodies, 1 Couch

The couch in the living room has been getting filled up lately with all four of us crowding around to watch some football. Foolish for us to think that just because we have the baby now that Chelsea will no longer want to be on the couch with us.



It's ok though, there is plenty of room for 4 Ravens fans to fit.

One end of the couch:


And the other end of the couch:


Monday, October 24, 2011

Getting out and about with Charlie

Well we've made it two weeks at home and all in all I gotta say its not as tiring or hectic as I thought it would be.  He's a great sleeper and thankfully he's not too fussy either.  He has his moments of course but for the most part he's a happy little Laur.

As most people would guess, I have already gotten a little stir crazy so we've been getting out when we can.  So far we've made several trips to the grocery store, target and babies-r-us, to the mall once, pumpkin picking, brunch, and a few other ventures.  We quickly learned, after one not so great trip to Costco, that its all about timing.  As long as we feed him pretty close to before we leave he sleeps like a champ for the whole trip unless we pass the 3 or 4 hour mark.  One of my favorite baby items is his Bundle Me. I'm sure anyone that has used this would agree that its easy to get jealous of, I mean who doesn't want to be zipped up in that thing.

Perhaps the funniest story I have is when my mom (Granny as she's hoping Charlie will refer to her as) was visiting last week.  I had planned out a day full of excursions including the Mall to by the new iPhone 4S (which is on back order of course), the grocery store, the frame shop, staples....anyway you get the idea.  Our first stop was the mall where we were going to be using our stroller for the first time besides walking around the neighborhood.  This also meant it was the first time I'd had to collapse the stroller.  Well  after finally figuring out how to collapse it we were off.  Upon arrival I attempted to expand the stroller out and after 20 minutes or so (in the parking lot) of unsuccessfully trying every red lever I could find, mom recommended I bow my head and go to Babies R Us to see if they could show me.  Well I couldn't have looked more like a first time mom carrying that stroller (still collapsed and all) into Babies R Us and then having a 14 year old behind the counter point out the incredibly obvious latch on the side. 

I'm sure there will be many more stories like this to come but for now here's a few pictures from our adventures out...

The costco trip, he was a little unsure about it at first :) 
 Loves the bundle me!
Added Charlie's first toy to the carrier, he doesn't seem to interested in yet but John loves to play with it!
His first pumpkin may be a bit bigger than him,  looking forward to many years to come of picking our pumpkins at Hubers Farm.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Charlie comes to Lauraville!

I've been attempting to write this blog post for a few days now but keep getting side tracked with, well all the things you'd imagine I'm upto these days, bottles, diapers, constant clothing changes, and lots and lots of rocking and cuddling with our little man Charles Patrick Laur "Charlie."

He made his big arrival at 12:28 on Friday, October 7th and weighed in at 7.02 oz.  The past two weeks have been exhausting/incredible/humbling and filled with so much love.  We've had so many guests that I feel like its been a constant party--in a good way!  For pictures from the hospital and his first few days, click here.

Here are some of Charlie's "Firsts" from the past two weeks on E. Strathmore Avenue :)

First ride on his swing--he's a BIG fan! 

First Ravens game and a WIN!

First real bath...he was a big fan of the bath part but not so much the drying part!


First "sharing" experience....for those wondering Chelsea has been absolutely wonderful with Charlie and already seems mesmerized by the little bundle. 

First photo shoot

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Getting back to blogging

"The Tomato Journey," was posted well over 14 months ago and while yes a lot has been happening since then it is still a bit embarrassing that we've let the blog slip so far down the list of "things we really need to get to."

BUT, we've made a commitment to be better (that's the first step right?, making a grand proclamation). We've made some improvements to the design of the blog and added a way to subscribe by email (see widget on right).

While 14 months is a really long time here are a few highlights:

September 18, 2010--Made it official













October 3, 2010--Returned from our amazing honeymoon in Spain











Then there was the first holiday season as "The Laurs," which was a fantastic series of dinners and parties with family and friends. In January we learned that we were EXPECTING our first baby and have spent the last 9 months preparing for his arrival. We're naming him Charles Patrick Laur, after both of grand fathers (Charlie and Chic) and my dad (Pat). More posts to come on the experiences of preparing for his arrival!

Also, in 2011 we've been a part of several of our friends' and families' fantastic wedding celebrations. YAY for weddings :)
  • Sharyn & Jason Grove
  • Yvette Meyers & John Laur Sr.
  • Laura & Ryan Grubb
  • Maggie & Matt Kramme
  • Brooke & Ashley Murphy
  • Lori Smyth & Malinda Davis
  • Lauren & Sunny Bhatia
Looking forward to sharing our updates once Charlie arrives!