Decoration Day

Hannah and I recently purchased some new ornaments for our Christmas tree. She has been so excited to decorate! The girl loves to makes things fancy and dreams of hosting her own party. She is always making lists of people to invite and dreaming up ways we could improve our home. While I hit the early morning day-after-Christmas sales, Jordan and the kids got started with the tree. It was so nice to come home to the tree already done. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Larson Home.

Reading Time

Our kids are big readers and we have attempted many forms of lighting for them in the past. WE HAVE A WINNER! Jordan installed these fluorescent lights from IKEA just above their bunk beds. No more rigging flashlights up with string for us! The boys love to get cozy in their beds and hit the books! To our surprise, they are actually excited to go to bed now. Some of our current favorites are: Josh - the Ricky Ricotta series. He is reading them for the third time. Sam just finished The Black Stallion and enjoys the Secrets of Droon series. For those of you with boys, let me know what series your boys enjoy. Sam has been through most everything, and it can be a challenge to find things that keep his interest but are age-appropriate.

Box Full of Fun

I have been reminded again how much fun kids can have with a box. Ben recently outgrew his infant car seat (fyi, he still only weighs 18.5 pounds), so we purchased a convertible seat.....good thing we had $150 to blow at Babies-R-Us. Anyway, the kids played all kinds of games with this box. I think I added up a total of 6 hours of good, clean fun. My favorite was a magic show they rehearsed and performed for us last night. I will attempt to put up a segment on this blog. Let's just say I am definitely rethinking my Christmas list. Who needs electronic gadgets when you could have a cardboard box.

Happy Thanksgiving

So I've had a lot of things on my mind lately and I haven't been as good at blogging as I should be. To any point, here is a picture of Josh dressed as a Pilgrim. Can I just say how annoyed I am getting at the increasing trend to take God out of every holiday. Instead of Thanksgiving, we are calling it "Turkey Days." Even better, Sam had an assignment in school to write about what famous person you would invite to Thanksgiving dinner . At the bottom of the assignment was a note, "If your family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, just write about who you would invite as a dinner guest." Who doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving and what is the possible reason for getting rid of this holiday too. Too bad that Sam didn't read the assignment very carefully and thought he was supposed to write about a dinner guest, not Thanksgiving guest. After he had crafted such a careful paragraph, I decided just to let him turn it in. I'm sure the teacher thinks we are vegetarian atheists.

Charades Anyone?

Our kids love to play charades. Tonight was no exception. We have had to get pretty creative to keep the older boys interested. Josh gave a particularly convincing role this evening as a dung beetle (past performances include chameleon, three-toed sloth, and barnacle). What boy wouldn't enjoy an animal that actually rolls up and throws its own poo. Josh, like always, you continue to keep us laughing!

Halloween Fun

So I posted these pics on my old blog the night before I freaked out and deleted it. So just in case you didn't get enough of Halloween, check out Sam as a football player, Josh (yes, that is Josh) as a vampire, and Hannah as a witch. I think their costumes really reflect their personalities.

PS I am already ignoring the #1 rule on KSL....DO NOT PUT UP PICTURES OF YOUR KIDS. Hopefully the disguises camouflage their true identity...

PSS Ben had a lion costume but he hated it. He went as an angry baby this year.

Why Not

Why not walk up to a woman dressed like the Statue of Liberty on a corner just outside Central Park.....I'll tell you why not, she'll grab your hand and put you on a box and force you to wear her crown. Somehow Liz was coerced into the picture too. The other two friends managed to stop laughing long enough to get pictures. Fortunately for us all my embarrassment can be preserved for posterity.

PS I am still waiting for more pics from my friends to post. Hopefully there aren't any of us at 2:00 in the morning in our hotel laughing our guts out!

Good Read

I am just finishing My Sister's Keeper. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Here is a synopsis:

My Sister’s Keeper is a poignant, uplifting, emotional, sad, triumphant, passionate, heartwrenching and extremely powerful story about the Fitzgeralds, a family united in their love for each other but divided on exactly where the boundaries of family obligations, love and sacrifice should end. But it is, ultimately, a story of two sisters, the unbreakable bond they share and how totally entwined they have been all their lives until a crucial decision threatens to tear them apart and ends up changing all the lives forever.

If you are in the mood for a good book, pick this one up and let me know what you think!

A Little Paranoid

Okay, so after a story on KSL news about blogging, I totally freaked out and deleted my blog. A few minutes later I realized how much information was on that thing and how many hours I had spent blogging. It was definitely a knee-jerk reaction, but hey, when you're a mom things that have to do with safety and your family freak you out! Anyway, I'm over myself now, but if you are an axe-murderer, psychopath, serial rapist, child molester, or any other freak of nature get the hell off my blog! That being said, I have learned a few tricks of blogging and will be a little more discreet with the information I put up. Anyway, what could I do without a place to vent about life. I didn't realize how much I like posting until my opportunity was gone.