65 and counting

Thanks to some awesome in-laws/ grandparents who are willingly coming up here to watch the kids I'm going to Texas in 65 days!!!!!! Aaron's graduating and I get to pin his wings on. So of course what did I do today? Ran on the teadmill for 3 miles. Tonight is biggest loser so I'll run another 3. I have to look good! (proud Ali? I thought so).

Trapped in the House Day 2

We are having a really bad storm here and school was actually canceled yesterday...and today. So yesterday I finally made a BDU purse that I saw many moons ago. It's just a sample of the real one I want to make. I haven't purchased all the name tags that I need to make the one in my head.

But it gave me something to do during nap time. Now for today...I'm thinking pajamas for the girls. My mother-in-law gave me the pattern moons ago and the fabric but I just haven't gotten to it. So today will be the day.

"Kali I mean it. You better stop or Santa will give you Coleslaw for Christmas." - Caleb Larsen

The things kids say...

The other day Caleb and Kali were fighting with each other, surprise, and I could hear the whole conversation over the baby monitor. I called them upstairs and talked to them about the things that I hear. Now that Caleb's baptized I can say things like "you should know better you've been baptized." So after the talk Caleb starts walking away and I asked him where he was going. In a Eeyore voice he says while he's walking down the stairs, "I'm going to go repent now."

Once There Was A Snowman Who Caused Legal Problems

There's a man who lived in Anchorage and every year he builds a huge snowman. And every year the city threatens legal action against him if he doesn't destroy it.

Aaron and I were watching the news and the story was on about how in the middle of the night someone built the snowman for the man. He said he woke up to this HUGE 16' snowman in his front yard. We really didn't care who built it but wanted to see it. So we went on an adventure one night and found him. Some nice people who found him took a picture for us. Good memories.

Baptism Day

One of the proudest days as a parent.

Caleb's baptism day was a miracle, seriously. I had called the bishop and asked if the previous Saturday Aaron could baptize Caleb. He said that baptisms are only held on the first Saturday of each month with no exceptions because things were getting out of control. Guess what day Aaron left? The first Saturday of the month, January 3rd at 11pm. So Aaron was able to baptize Caleb that day.

It was such a good day. We bought him a new suit as his gift and he was so proud to wear it.

Caleb and one of his good friends were baptized on the same day. Hopefully in 11 years I can take a picture of them together again but going on missions.

Polar Bowl

The day after New Years we went bowling as a family. Backtrack, for New Years I planned a progressive dinner with four other family. So in all there were 17 kids and 10 adults. It was some crrraaaazzzzzyyyyy fun! First we went to one house for dinner, our house for dessert, and then the next house we played some games. One was we raced husband against wives. you have a string hung on the back of your pants by a clothes pin. You then have a clothes pin at the end of the string. Now it only hangs down about 18 inches. You have a empty milk jug on the ground and you're trying to put the clothes pin IN the milk jug- no hands involved! It looked so bad but was hilarious. Okay, back to bowling....

Caleb insisted that he didn't use the baby bumpers so Aaron gave him a couple of pointers.

Kali mommying Jack.

Later Mads dropped this on her foot and wanted to quit. So I would carry it to the line for her and she pushed it on down.

Always in the mood for a picture. It was ethnic hair day and boy did she look cute.

Guitar Hero Fun

For Christmas Santa brought a Wii. Well, it wasn't actually Santa. Aaron went to a company Christmas party and his friend won the grand prize: A Wii with Guitar Hero and Mario Cart. When Aaron was helping him carry it back to the car he told Aaron to take it home and give it to his kids to make it an awesome Christmas. Aaron said no repeatedly and finally Pat said he was going to call me and just mail it because Aaron's stubborn. Long story short, Santa Pat gave us a Wii.

We were trying it out and it's so much fun and addictive! Aaron's super good at it because flight school has been a joke for him and him and Pat are constantly practicing. The kids thought it was great. They kept wanting us to play the song Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

You can't tell from this picture but Jackson was just dancing and dancing. He got a workout every time we played. It was so much fun and I now have the best memories of it. Thanks Pat.

Freezing fun

Aaron came home for Christmas around midnight on the 23rd. That morning when we got up we went sledding with some people from church. It was so stinking cold! Clear blue skies and in the shadow of the mountains. Our car said it was -13.

Aaron took Jackolatern down a couple of times and he liked it...sorta. I'm sure he would of liked it more if he could of felt his face,hands, feet, and your snot didn't instantly freeze.

Doesn't she look cold?

The girls played more with their friends than do the whole sledding thing. Honestly, I was on the verge of crying because my feet were so cold. I, stupid me, wore a thin pair of Old Navy socks. I didn't realize how cold it was. I think all-in-all we lasted a whopping 20 minutes outside. Jack and I were so cold. But my wonderful husband totally understood and we moved on to the next fun activity.

Bigger Pans mean less baking

I was so excited last month when my mother-in-law sent me her old bread pans!!!! Look how much larger they are than my old ones.

Of course, I had to start making some bread. I needed to anyways because we were running low.

I always get excited when my bread starts to rise because I had such a hard time with it when I first started making bread.

Yummy! Thanks again Nettie!

Caleb's Birthday

Caleb and some birthday love. Caleb paid his tithing and I made him save half of what he got. He thought that was the worst deal ever. He'll thank me someday.

One of Caleb's present from Aaron and I was the telescope that he really wanted. We looked like the peeping family the next day. They neighbors must of thought we were crazy if they saw us. All of us were at the huge windows in the front of the house looking out across the street. We weren't really starring at them I was just trying to show Caleb how to focus it.
Caleb help make the cake. He was super excited about it. The reason that it's STILL in the pan with NO frosting is because we got home church and did the regular things: ate and took naps. While I was taking my nap Caleb and Madeline decided to eat the cake while it was still cooling.

They ate all around it. Caleb didn't mind. He said it was his cake and this is how he wanted it.

Thinking about his birthday wish.

Thank You Aunt Rosie

Okay, so I'm so sorry Aunt Rosie that this is so late. Thank You SOOOOOOOO much for the Christmas presents! I made them get a picture when we got them in the mail because Christmas morning is always crraaazzzzyyyy and they hate it when I make them stop what they're doing to take a picture. Our two princesses had fun dressing up, Blue was passed around to everyone and I still hear him talking, and Caleb had fun with his planes. Love you!

Great Minds Think A Like

I've talked about the Valiant Theory before so this should be funny. For Christmas I thought it would be hilarious to make this theory into a vinyl saying that some of my friends could hang on their mirror in their bathroom. That way every morning while getting ready they could remind themselves that they were so valiant in heaven. So that day I went to go pick up my vinyl. I went home about 20 minutes later Jodi and Steph come over. I was so excited to show them what I got them and they were so excited to show me what they got me for Christmas. I was like, "me first!" I pull out their little "I must of been so valiant" sayings and give them to them. They just stare at them and look at each other. Then they take this HUGE vinyl saying out and give it to me. "I must of been so valiant in heaven." We all just crack up. I was going to put it up in my bedroom, where this pic was taken, but decided not too because I move my bedroom furniture around too much. So it's over the door where I see it a bijillion times a day when I go upstairs, downstairs, and answer the door. I love you guys!

Caleb's Supercub Tour

Caleb has his SuperCub (choir) Tour today. I was able to chaperone and it was so good. The kids were sssssooooo excited to ride the bus! (Our school has no bus service- walking school).

Our first stop was Wal-Mart. Okay, so Caleb goes to choir practice every single week and tells me how much he loves it. The way he is in this picture is how he was the whole time. His lips barely moved. He would just look at me and smile every now and then.

Mr. B is an amazing teacher. He reminds me of Jack Black in the movie School Of Rock. He just gets out there and dances with the kids and makes funny noise. And the kids even had air guitar solos. Funny!

The group that I was in charge of.

After Wal-Mart and the Senior center we ate at Pizza Man. The most de-lish pizza. (I was so dedicated to eating well that I brought an apple and home made granola only to come home and eat fudge that someone dropped off while I was gone.) After we were done eating we went to go load up on the bus...

Only to of found that our bus driver parked it in some really deep snow and got it stuck. So we sat in Pizza Man for 35 minutes longer and sang more songs.

Need some Vitamin D

This is a crappy picture but you get the idea. So I'm started to get a little tired of the dark. I took this picture last Friday at 10am. STILL DARK! Okay, so we did have some cloud cover because it was going to snow but still. It's like this at 10 and dark by 4. It makes me want to have a 24hr nap.

Winter projects

So I finally finished a sewing project. It's a holiday snowman! You really can't tell from this picture but it's 50 inches tall. Great to hang on a door for winter.

Kali's Christmas program

Today was Kali's Kindergarten Christmas program. It was super cute. They sang a couple of song and Kali grinned the whole time. I totally forgot to put her in something red but oh well. She did a fabulous job.

All Madeline cared about was that after wards there were having cookies and hot chocolate. Of course we stood in the back near the table because we had a stroller so Madeline snuck over and got a juice. That's all she could think about. I think it was totally obvious that I either 1) don't give my children juice or 2) that I starve them because she drank 3 of them!

Jack was just awesome and chilled out the whole time. Poor kid. We found out last week that FOR SURE he's really allergic to peanuts. So I really have to watch what we give him especially when we're going potlucks.

Here's our proud singer. Good job Kali!

Law of Compensation

Okay so now that it's on private I can finally start blogging again. Sorry about that little disruption.

SO I got the best advice the other day. I mean this is the kind you have to write down to read over again, especially you MOMS! I was telling a friend about some of the upcoming trials that I know my family is going to go through with Aaron being gone. I was upset about it but one thing is for sure: The Law of Compensation! Elder Wirthlin's talk last conference was amazing. Actually I just gave his talk as a lesson for my VT this month. It's entitled: Come With May, and LOVE it. If you are doing all that you can be doing and faithful to the Lord he WILL compensate you. The kicker is it's on his TERMS and on HIS times table.

Okay on with the advice, so I was just talking away and my friend shared the most "light bulb" moment that I needed right then.

She said her dad shared this experience with her many years ago. He was working at BYU and riding his motorcycle on a four lane road. A little boy, about 8, wanted to cross the road so the car in the right hand lane stopped for the boy. He, the woman's dad, was approaching the left. A car pulled up behind the car in the right hand lane and couldn't see the boy and became impatient as to why the car had stopped so it swerved around the car to pass it. Her dad said at that moment the boy had begun crossing the street. In his mind he saw the little boy get hit...but he didn't. As the same moment that he SHOULD of stepped out in front of the left hand lane, where the impatient car was passing, the boy paused for a second. Not because he was looking for cars. He just paused. And during that pause is when that impatient driver passed. And then the boy just kept skipping home. Her father was shaken up but moments later it was reaveled to him that because of that mother's faithfulness that boy was saved. LAW OF COMPENSATION! As stay-at-home mom's sometimes we feel like "where are our blessings?!" We do our visiting teacher, read the scripture, try to raise faithful children, do the laudry, are taxi drivers, have a calling, and on and on. While we are sometimes frustrated wondering, "Lord, where are my blessings? Why don't you help me?" That day that mother was helped and will never know it. Her child was saved! Our blessings come sisters but most of the time we don't even see them. Maybe today it will be that your child doesn't develope a cancerous cell in their body. Maybe it will be that your husband gets home safely from that drunk driver on the road. This story brought me to my knees the other night. How grateful I am for the Law of Compensation.

UPDATE: Going to Private

Someone from my past found my blog so that's why I'm setting it to private. Aaron and I agree that setting it to private will secure our family's safety. I just thought I would give a little explanation why because many have emailed showing concern. So, next Monday is when you'll have to start logging in.

Going to private

I never wanted to do this but I'm being forced to set my blog to
private. If you would like to still have access please email me your
email address to jessica_e_larsen@yahoo.com. Sorry guys. I feel
horrible about this- it sucks.