We survived Christmas!

We had a great Christmas day at the Larsen's. It was so good to be feeling better and able to eat! My parents ended up coming to the Larsen's with us and it was fun to have them there since they didn't have any kids coming over. We enjoyed getting to know Samantha's fiance, Jon, better. We played a mean game of pounce-Stacy and Sheldon won with Steve and John in a close second, but I am pretty sure that they all cheated!


Davis enjoying one of his new Christmas toys. This turns into a little 'walker' and he is getting pretty good at walking behind it.





Davis did much better at opening his presents on Christmas than he did on his birthday. He actually participated a little bit! As you can see, I think he enjoyed the paper more than the actual presents...whatever makes him happy, right?!

We did have one small Christmas crisis (besides the flu). I wanted to start a new tradition of having Christmas breakfast, so I planned this great egg omlet casserole and orange rolls, etc. Well when I got up on Christmas morning to make breakfast, there were only a couple of eggs left-about half of what I needed to make the casserole. I had bought the eggs only 3 or 4 days before, so someone (I won't mention any names, Steve) had gone on an egg eating rampage apparently. Well, I had a breakdown and told Steve he had better find some eggs, and quick! So he got on his boots and went to 4 different stores, all of which were closed, then finally found some at the Tesoro. Thanks Tesoro, for saving Christmas morning!

A Postponed Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we got sick! Davis had the flu first, then passed it to me and my mom and now Steve has finally gotten it. We had to postpone our Christmas Eve celebration at my parents house since we couldn't keep anything down. We had our own little celebration at our house. Mostly Steve and Davis playing together!

Christmas Time Going Ons

We have had such a nice Christmas season. Steve has been able to take off a few days which has been fabulous and we have enjoyed spending time together and with our family. We went to the symphony kids Christmas concert last Saturday with the Larsen/Black clan and it was beautiful. Davis even enjoyed it (for the 1st 15 minutes, anyway!). The man in front of us kept giving me dirty looks b/c Davis was making noise and I wanted to tell him it was a kids concert for crying out loud. Anyway, thanks to grandma Larsen for the great symphony tickets!

We risked our lives driving through a huge snow storm during rush hour to Lehi to attend the Black Family Christmas party (Steve's mom's family). It had been awhile since the Black's had gathered and it was great to see everyone-once we finally got there-and all in once piece, thank goodness! This is a picture of us with Jake (Steve's cousin) his wife, Megan and their son, Ryder.

Happy First Birthday, Davis!!

We can't believe our baby is one year old! Time has gone so quickly and it is amazing to think he is the same child I gave birth to! It really is incredible they change so much in such a short amount of time.

Davis had such a fun birthday party and I think really enjoyed all the attention! Thanks to our great friends and family that came to the party. He was so cute eating his cake-He kept sticking his face in it and licking it or taking bites. He was sneezing out frosting for the rest of the day!

He didn't care too much about opening presents-I had to open most of them for him, but he has had so much fun playing with all the new toys.

His friend Ethan was more excited about his toys than Davis was!

Grandma Larsen painted this cute rocking chair to match Davis' room. What a thoughtful present. He loves sitting in his new chair.

Davis and Ethan are all tired out after a long afternoon of partying! They finally took a break. Aren't they the cutest?

Dressed Up

Steve and I went to our first GE company Christmas party last night. It was kind of fun to dress up a little and meet Steve's co-workers and have a good dinner.

Fulfilling a Dream!

Hard to believe, but I have never built a gingerbread house. I have always wanted to build one and my dream was finally fulfilled! Last week for FHE, we started a new Christmas-time tradition with the Moons and had a great time decking out our houses. Steve and I quickly realized that we sorely lacked experience as our house was clearly not up to par with the Moon's! I think we are going to have to practice up for next year!

The Davis Scoot

There have been several requests for a video of Davis 'scooting'...it is kind of unique! He broke his leg right when he was learning to crawl, so this was how he adapted and he has just kept at it. I don't realize how different it is until we are at church or somewhere and people are looking at him scoot like it is super weird. I think its cute! So here is a little sample!

Overboard?

On Monday for Family Home Evening, we went to the Riverton Community Center Christmas something or other (I'm not really sure what it's actual title was!) with Aunt Stacy, Uncle Sheldon, Mylee, Tyler, and Grandma and Grandpa Larsen. It was really cute-they had Santa, of course (I guess he came in on a fire engine, although we missed it, being late as usual), scones, hot chocolate, bonfires where the kids could roast marshmallows, art projects, cookie decorating, etc. It was Davis' first night out in the cold this year and I think maybe I went a little overboard with the dressing him warm thing? It's hard not to be paranoid that he is going to be freezing! Thanks for the fun FHE, guys!

Blog Tag

So my sister-in-law, Michelle blog tagged me...meaning that I have to tell 6 things about myself that I haven't talked about in other posts and then I get to tag other fellow bloggers to do the same...so here it goes (by the way, Michelle, it was kind of hard to think of 6 things!)

1. Most of you probably already know this about me, but I am an obsessive exercizer. In high school I danced-alot. Like 30 hours a week. So when I graduated, I stopped dancing so much and went to college and gained the Freshman 10 or whatever it is! So I joined the gym and have been working out 6 days a week ever since. Even when I was pregnant, I worked out every day until I went into labor and was back at the gym 3 weeks after I gave birth. I love to run and do cycling classes. I am planning to run my 3rd half marathon in March. Working out is my me time, my stress relief and I just LOVE it!

2. I really like to clean. Okay, maybe I don't actually love to clean, but I really like when things are clean. I love having everything organized. My closet is organized by color and season of clothes. I clean Steve's closet and it drives him crazy. But when its messy it drives me crazy! I ALWAYS make my bed-except when Steve is still in it. Lets just say I am somewhat obsessive about the whole having my house clean thing (I keep using the word obsessive and I am starting to worry myself...I was just kidding about being OCD, but its looking more and more that way!) I don't really like to cook, so I think that automatically makes me a not so great wife, but at least Steve gets a clean house, right?!

3. I really really really like Sunday naps. Whenever I move to a new ward, a big part of the decision of whether to move or not depends on what time church is. I hate afternoon church because then I don't get my nap. Last Sunday the new choir director was trying to get me to come to choir practice after church at 1:00pm. I told him I couldn't because Steve had meetings and I had to take Davis home to take his nap. Was he really serious? During Sunday nap time? Forget it.

4. I love to read. Always have. I read a whole set of children's encyclopedias when I was like 8 years old-A to Z, cover to cover. My Dad is a big reader and always has a book. When I was growing up, I would read whatever he just finished. I always have to be reading something. I just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and now I am reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author. They are both great.

5. I really enjoy decorating my house. I am always wanting to change something (poor Steve gets suckered into helping me a lot). I especially enjoy decorating for holidays-I am counting down the days until the day after Thanksgiving so I can put out all of my Christmas stuff!

6. I also enjoy all things crafty (almost all things): scrapbooking, stamping (thanks Jill!) sewing (simple things, usually curtains and pillows for my house-I don't know how to use a pattern!), painting wood stuff, re-finishing furniture (Steve and I refinished our piano, Michelle helped me do a dresser and I did a changing table and dresser for Davis' room), etc. I always have some sort of project I am working on.

Okay, that is it...Now it is my turn to tag Larissa, Natalie and Kristin. Love you girls! Reveal all!

A Wild Man!

It seems that overnight Davis has become a wild, constantly moving, climbing, out of control crazy child! Two weeks ago, he was a calm and held still-once in awhile, at least. Now, he doesn't hold still even for a second. As you can see, he started climbing the stairs. I went upstairs for a minute and apparently he was following me! I'm not sure I'm ready for this!

It's official...I have OCD!!

It's true, I must have OCD! This week I am having a 'Oh my gosh, it is almost Thanksgiving and I am not ready for Christmas yet' stress attack. The problem is that last year, I was pregnant with Davis and he was due to show up sometime right before Christmas. So, since I am off work for 2 weeks in October every year, I spent that time getting everything ready for Christmas. Seriously, I had the cards addressed, all the presents wrapped, the neighbor gifts ready-all before Halloween. It was fabulous. I had such a nice Christmas season because I didn't have to worry about any of it.
Now, this year, I am not so organized and I am frieking out that I don't have everything done. I have shopping to do, just volunteered to do little gifts for all the speech pathologists at work for our Christmas party, we have to get family pictures taken this Saturday for our Christmas cards and of course we have nothing to wear that matches each other so I have to get that together, It's Davis' first birthday so I have to figure out what to do for his party...and then do we really get Davis a bunch of presents since he really won't care anyway? The answer to that is probably yes-I care and that is what really matters, right?! How did October and November go by so quickly? How did Thanksgiving sneak up on me like this?

Visiting the Crazy Kentukians

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip to Kentucky and Indiana. We went to visit Steve's brother Keith, his wife Jen, their kids and Steve's sister Michelle, her husband Christian and their kids. We had an AMAZING time! Keith and Jen's little boy Josh is 9 days younger than Davis. I think this is how babies show their love! They liked to try and take things away from each other. Josh kept beating up on Davis (hitting him in the face) and Davis could not figure out that he is way bigger than Josh and could easily take him (although Josh is much faster and could easily get away!) It was fun to watch them together. I hope they will be good friends when they get older. Such cute cousins!

I think Steve's favorite thing that we went to see in Kentucky was the Louisville slugger museum. They walk you through and show you how they make the bats and which pro players like which kinds of bats. Steve was in baseball heaven.
Another really fun thing that we did was go the Huber Farms in Indiana. It was absolutely beautiful-we were there at the perfect time when the leaves were changing and there are so many trees and it was georgous. The kids had a really fun time feeding the animals, going through mazes, going down big slides, jumping on the big blowup thing, etc. Or maybe the adults had as much fun as the kids. I'm not sure which!

The best part of the trip was just spending time with Keith, Jen, Michelle, Christian and the kids. It was so good to see them and so nice to just hang out. Jen was an amazing hostess and treated us so well...thanks for all the amazing meals and everything else, Jen! We had such a good time and were so glad to have the time together. Plus, it was beautful, perfect weather and great company. We hope we get to go visit again soon.

An Indiana Halloween

We had so much fun trick or treating in Indiana with all of Davis' cousins. They were so cute-Cooper, Dallin, John and Sam ran from house to house and Eva, Davis and Josh brought up the rear.


Davis got a chocolate bar out of his Halloween bucket while we were trick or treating and ended up with his first taste of chocolate all over his costume. He cried for about 5 minutes after I took it away! I think he really liked the chocolate!

Hay Ride

For our play group this month, we went to this cute farm and went on a hayride then they taught the kids all about how to pick apples and then showed them how they make the apple juice and let them try some. Most of the kids loved it, Davis could have cared less! But, he did get really excited about the hayride-he was looking all around, waving his arms excitedly and grinning and jabbering! I was happy that we did something that he thought was great. Because he is so young, I often feel like we go do things more for my enjoyment than for his-he is usually happy doing whatever and doesn't need lots of outside entertainment. I was so glad that he got excited about the hayride and had a good time! It was a beautiful day outside and so fun to spend time with our friends.

Happy (Early!) Halloween!

We went to a Halloween party at Heather and Jackson's house on Friday night. Those of you who know me well, know that I HATE dressing up. Seriously, the only reason I do it is that every year Steve's high school friends have a Halloween party and he makes me dress up. So this year, we made a plan early on. I found this really cute Lion costume for Davis and we were going to be safari hunters. Cute, right? Well, cute until I started looking for safari hunter costumes and couldn't really find anything cool and we ended up with what you see in the picture. Although lame, I thought the fact that we had actually tried to have a theme was good enough. Unfortunately when we went to get ready for the party, I put Davis' Lion costume on for the first time and it was too small. A smart mom would have tried it on sometime before the party. Apparently I am not a smart mom. So, I took the costume back to exchange it and of course they were all out of Lion costumes. I had to settle for a puppy, which I think is just as cute as the Lion but negated the 'theme' that was holding together any coolness aspect that Steve and I's costumes had left. At least we tried, right?!

He is such a cute puppy, isn't he? Plus, he makes these really cute puppy noises all the time which just makes it extra cute!

Our friends, JulieKaye and Travis were looking fabulous in their Halloween gear.

Davis and Fernando and Sharon's son Samuel trying to 'play' together. Really it was more like Samuel attacking Davis (in a cute, playful way!) and Davis not knowing what was going on or what he was supposed to do. You could definitely tell that Samuel has a sibling and Davis doesn't. It was pretty cute but we finally had to separate them so Davis didn't loose an eye! Samuel was crawling circles around Davis even though he 3 months younger and about 1/2 as big!

Team Poop

If you are adversive to poop or stories involving poop, I am going to warn you to stop reading right now! This is one of those 'way too much information' stories, but I have to share...Davis keeps having this problem of getting really constipated. It is honestly the saddest thing ever because he will cry and shake and turn purple when he tries to get his poop out-it just breaks your heart for him! I talked to the Doctor and anyone who has any ideas about how to reverse this problem-I've tried it all-prunes, prune juice in his bottle, mix his cereal with prune juice, bottles of pear juice every day, feed him sweet potatoes and squash, etc. etc. I don't know what his deal is, but none of it works.

When I got home from Chicago last week, Davis had just finished a serious bout of the said problem. Steve talked about nothing but poop for days so it must have been really traumatizing! Last night I realized why-it is really a team effort to get the kid to poop! We had to give him one of those supositories, Steve holds his legs while I help Davis get it all out, if you know what I mean! Who knew one baby could hold so much poop? Steve said that he hopes that we can get this issue worked out so we aren't still helping him poop when he is 17! Honestly, it is amazing the opportunities and new heights that parenthood will bring you to. The duties have no boundaries and are never ending!

A Roomate Reunion in Chicago

I just got back this morning from visiting Carrie Thompson in Chicago. It was such a fun trip and was so wonderful to be able to spend time with her and Lindsay Winkler (we were all roomates at BYU). We missed our other roomate, Tepoe. We stayed with Carrie at her sister, Tina and Brother-in-law, J.J.'s home in the suburbs of Chicago. They were so great to let us crash in on their home and I really enjoyed getting to know them and their cute kids better. The first picture on this post is us at the train station-we missed the train 2 times trying to get to the city, so we spent a lot of time there! We did a lot of shopping, toured around the city, ate yummy Chicago style pizza, and the highlight of trip was attending the Navuoo Temple where Carrie took out her endowments. There is nothing like being in the temple with people that you love! I was so grateful to be there with her! The temple was beautiful and I really enjoyed all the sights in Nauvoo (it was my first time there). It was really amazing to be where Joseph Smith was and learn more about him and that time in the church. It helped me realize (again!) how blessed I am to be a part of the church. So, it was a great vacation and I loved being able to spend time with my wonderful friends. Steve and my mom were so great to take care of Davis while I was gone.

Gardner Village

Our play group started off the Halloween season by going to Gardner Village to see all the witches. I think, as the picture shows, Davis could really care less, but I had a great time and the other kids loved it! My favorite witch was one that was supspended ('flying') over the river on her bicycle, and she was actually pedaling. It was pretty cute. This one was great too! It was a fun outing.

Painting

So we spent the weekend painting (and watching conference, of course! Wasn't it great?!)...we painted our bedroom...Steve is such a lucky husband and loves that his wife gets bored with things quickly and is always wanting to change something or have a new project! So we painted and it seemed like it took longer than it should, but I really like how it turned out. Davis, as shown in the picture, spent a lot of time in his 'jump up' because we couldn't let him scoot around amidst the painting supplies and wet walls. Lucky him. I actually hadn't put him in there for a long time, because well, he had a broken leg...but before that, he didn't really like it when we first got it. He has since, however, learned to actually jump and I think he enjoyed himself for the first while he was in there. He was a good sport.

Good Books

I just finished reading another book by Shannon Hale (Princess Academy) and wanted to recommend her books, if any of you have not read anything by her. My personal librarian, Samantha (my fabulous wsister-in-law) recommended Shannon Hale to me and I have enjoyed them so much I think everyone should read them. My favorite is the very first one, "The Goose Girl", but they are all charming...easy reads, but very sweet stories that are quite uplifting. So anyway, I highly recommend them. So I need a new book to read...Anyone have any recommendations?

We Love Our Cougars

I'm glad to have a happy game to report! I was starting to get a little worried about good old BYU (just a tiny bit worried..). As you can see in the pictures, I am starting early trying to win Davis' allegiances to the 'right' side since his Dad sometimes likes to promote another school. Unfortunately, I haven't put hats on Davis since the middle of the summer and now he won't leave it on. We had quite a struggle to get the picture, but he WILL be a fan!

New Teeth

So Davis got the 1st of his upper teeth a couple of weeks ago but just barely cut the 2nd one. We have been calling him 'snaggle tooth'. As you can see, he wasn't super cooperative in showing the snaggletooth, but it was so cute, I had to share the pictures!

Our New Family Blog

I was inspired today when I was reading up on our friends, the Ellis', blog and thought I might as well create our own! I think it is a really fun way to keep everyone up to date on what is going on in our lives, so I hope you enjoy and I hope I can keep up on it!

The big news today is that Davis got the splint off his broken (or what used to be broken) leg yesterday. It was an exciting moment and he kept clapping his hands after the Doctor took it off! So, he is a free man! He kicked his cute little leg the whole way home from the Doctor's office and he has been scooting all over the house ever since. He has discovered that he can push doors and they move and he is having a great time with those.

Modern Display hired a controller yesterday and he is starting this week, so we are excited for Steve to train him and not have to spend so much time trying to keep things afloat there. Hopefully the transition will go quickly and Steve can just work at one job. We'll see how it goes.

I think that is all for today...check back often and I promise to stay on top of posting and keep you all updated on what is happening with our family!