Larson Life

5 Years...

2012-01-31T13:27:00.000-08:00

On January 27th, Nathan and I celebrated 5 years of a very happy marriage together! I still remember everything about that special day. It was so perfect. And I am still so grateful to have found Nathan and so grateful that we were able to be sealed together forever. I'm so glad that he always loves me, even when I wear the same sweat pants five days of the week and constantly nag him to pick up his stuff! Life gets busy and stressful at times, but the good times always outweigh everything else and we have truly been blessed. And one thing is for sure--life is never dull with Nate! He is such a great husband and father and I couldn't imagine my life with anyone else! Happy Anniversary, sweetheart! I love you!

So this is always a busy time of year for me. I've got both mom's birthdays in January...then our Anniversary...then Nate's Birthday a couple weeks later...then Valentine's day a week after that. I always feel so overwhelmed with trying to come up with ideas to make each event special!! This year we'd all been sick leading up to our anniversary and Nathan's been super busy studying for his boards (which he is going to take on feb 6th & 7th). So the night before our Anniversary we both realized we hadn't planned a darn thing. Last minute I was able to pull something together (with a little help from Pinterest!). I brought 5 balloons (one for each year) to his work. Each balloon had a wedding picture that coordinated with a little note saying something I loved about him. His friend helped me disperse them throughout his clinic and then brought him a card (I used our 'thank you' note from our wedding). He then followed the balloons outside to the front where me and the kids were waiting for him with a caramel apple (that's what we had as our wedding favors!). So I may have embarrassed him a little but I'm pretty sure he loved it :). Besides, my husband is not one to get easily embarrassed. We got to spend 15 minutes chatting which was really nice, actually :). When he got home from work he brought me flowers and a card and then we went on a little date to the temple. It turned out to be a great day!

(p.s. I didn't get a chance to blog about that beautiful black suburban behind Nate, yet! It's our new family car :). Nathan's sister, Ashley, gave us an amazing deal on it and we are so super excited to have so much room now! We all love it...I think Sawyer may refer to it as our 'new car' forever.)

9 months

2012-01-29T22:49:00.000-08:00

My little Violet hit her 9 month mark on Jan 11th. Of course, with that, came a little photo session and a visit to Dr. Isac (we get to go see our good friend Isac Simpson now as our kids' doctor! he's working at Phoenix Baptist Family Medicine and he is so awesome! plus our kids really love him) Violet is such a ray of sunshine in this family. We all just love her like crazy. She is always quick to laugh or smile, and she is a pretty good little snuggler too :). She can't decide whether her dad or her big brother win the prize for funniest man alive. But she's definitely decided that her mommy is her 'rescuer'...and, as a result, she has become quite the little Momma's girl. Violet will frequently be seen crawling as fast as she can away from her brother and towards her mom, all while loudly exclaiming "momma, momma!". She's learning pretty quickly to 'cry wolf' even the second that Sawyer comes near her. And once those tears start to come...they flow fast! And they are huge crocodile tears that just sit on her cheeks until wiped away. But she is starting to learn how to hold her own a bit. We keep telling Sawyer that, one day, Violet will be big enough to play more with him. He just wishes she would be able to 'wrestle back'. So do we. Poor girl is gonna be one tough cookie by the time he's through with her! Or possibly one paranoid little girl. We're hoping for the former. ;) But honestly it's the moments when those two just sit and laugh at each other that make everything worth it. I do believe they'll be good friends one day. Sawyer just loves her a little too aggressively right now and Violet just needs to fight back!

Developmentally Violet is just about keeping pace with what Sawyer was doing at her age. She's standing on her own now and occasionally looks like she wants to take a step...but doesn't care enough yet. I'm glad. Sawyer took a step at 9 1/2 months and I think she'll wait a little longer, thank goodness. But that certainly doesn't slow her down much. She still manages to follow her 'open bathroom door radar' as fast as can be and before I know it, the entire toilet paper roll is undone. And the girl is pretty fearless. If she sees something she wants...she lunges for it. Even if it means diving off the couch or the bed or into the bathtub. No inhibitions. Her nicknames continue to evolve. What used to be Vat...then Vat Vat...is now Vilerie, Vilouie, Vilouette, and most frequently, Viley. (And of course, Booogey, to her father). And some of you may remember me mentioning in the past that she was our little wart hog--always stuffy and snorty sounding! Well that is getting a little bit better...but not much. If she has even the slightest cold you will hear her breathing from across the room. And she does this awesome little growl (especially when she wakes up in the morning)...you would swear that Chewbacca was in her bed! We also believe that she has inherited the 'Larson Rasp' (check with Andrea & Erin Larson if you want to know what this sounds like)...her voice is always raspy and low! It's pretty stinkin' cute, actually. And that cute mouth of hers now has 4 1/2 little teeth in it! (the top middle two are about to come through) As far as hair goes, she's got more than Sawyer ever did, that's for sure! I'm so excited that it's growing I can hardly stand it! She's still not the greatest sleeper in the world...but she's definitely not the worst either. She always goes to bed without a problem...but still struggles throughout the night a bit. It's getting better, however, and we're hoping to have her out of the pack n play in our closet soon and into a real crib in Sawyer's room! Wish us luck :).

We feel so blessed to have Violet in our lives. I'm so sad she's slowly leaving the 'baby phase'...but it is so fun to see her cute little personality starting to emerge! Here are the stats from 6 months (I missed posting these) and 9 months:

6 months: 9 months:
Height-- 25.25 inches (22%) 26.75 in (17%)
Weight-- 16 lbs 8 oz (58%) 18 lbs 1 oz (30%)
Head Circumference-- 43.5 cm (71%) 45.5 cm (84%)

I had a fun little photo session with the kids one morning. I'm still trying to learn how to use our camera. Made a few mistakes with these but overall I'm getting better! And practice makes perfect, right? Besides ,practicing is so much fun with these cuties!

Williamsburg

2012-01-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

One of my family's favorite places out east is Colonial Williamsburg. But in the 14 years that my parents have lived in Virginia I had never actually been there when they visited! This time we finally made it happen. The week after Christmas we packed up and spent the day walking around, enjoying the cute little colonial houses and beautiful Christmas decor. It was a super chilly day but we all had a great time.

We borrowed a double stroller from someone in the ward and the kids were happy to be snuggled up next to each other...for about 5 minutes :)

Nate had the great idea of going back to the car to grab Sawyer's new balance bike (which he totally brought on purpose cause I think he was just as, if not more, excited about the new bike as Sawyer). Sawyer was SO happy to ride that thing around ALL day at Williamsburg. It was the perfect place to get in some good practice because there were no cars driving around...pedestrians only...and Sawyer, that is. He got a lot of attention that day from passers-by. Everyone was very impressed by his balance bike skills.

Little Violet was so cold...but she did great snuggled up to me all day. I appreciated the extra warmth just as much :)

Had a nice little retreat from the cold inside the Seasons Restaurant. We had the whole room to ourselves! It was so nice and relaxing...

This picture just cracks me up. Syd jokes that Violet was crying because of her super bad hair regrowth. So Sydney added some arrows for emphasis. I love it.

Once again Sydney did a great job of capturing the beauty that was all around us (pictures were taken from her blog, again...thanks Syd!)

Home Sweet Home

2012-01-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

There is just nothing like my parent's house for Christmas. My mom always does such an amazing job with everything. And Syd did some nice work capturing it all. So I made a little stop at Syd's blog, copied her pictures...and here they are! Thanks for the help, Syd :). Enjoy...

We usually try to do at least one 'German breakfast/brunch' whenever we visit. My favorite...

Christmas in Virginia

2012-01-16T22:30:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of Nathan still being in school is that he still gets quite a bit of time off for holidays and such. We were lucky enough to be able to fly out all together on December 16th and stay through the 31st! That's 2 full weeks! It was wonderful. We were so bummed that Kristie and her family as well as Mitch weren't able to come, but we enjoyed the time we had with my parents, David, and Sydney. It was a very relaxing trip and we all felt that it came to an end way too soon.

The day we flew to VA Nate came down with a stomach bug. Poor guy was just miserable all day at school, then came home and had to help me rush the family out the door, to the airport and on a 6 pm flight with 2 little kids. He lost his dinner on the flight (the dinner that he had forced himself to choke down before we left hoping it would help). Big thanks to the flight attendant for providing him with a 'real' bag (aka much larger than the ones in your seat pocket)! And I'm sorry to say that my frustration about having to be the only functioning adult on the trip led me to be slightly less than compassionate ;) . On the bright side both of our kids did remarkably well and we made it through the 4 hour flight. And no one else got sick (for the next week, anyways!).

The next two weeks were full of all kinds of holiday festivities, an adequate amount of relaxation, and a little bit of barfing (tmi?). Unfortunately Nate's suspected food poisoning made a reappearance a week later when Sawyer woke up on Christmas Eve and threw up all over the basement. He was totally fine the next morning (thank goodness!). I felt nauseous all Christmas Day morning and by the afternoon I was laying lifeless in my bed. Tangent--I even had a super scary moment that night with what we (thanks to Nathan and our doctor friend, Isac) diagnosed as hypokalemia (low potassium). My hands and arms totally cramped up and I was tingling all the way up to my face. I literally could not move my hands or lift up my arms. I was mentally prepared to go to the ER that point. But Nathan gave me a banana, my mom had some potassium supplements, and with some other advice from Dr. Isac I was on the mend within about 30 minutes. It wasn't the first time I'd had the stomach flu but it was the first time I'd had it while breastfeeding so my guess is that's what put me over the edge that time. My electrolytes were majorly suffering. Scary stuff. Anyways, David had it at the same time as me and my poor dad got it next. Somehow my mom dodged it until a week later after we were gone. And Syd had already had it (she suspects) in Utah a few weeks before. Not fun. So that was our little 'upset' for the holidays. But when I think about those 2 weeks, our bout with the flu seems like such a small part in comparison to all the fun we had and all the great memories we made! I'll have to let the pictures tell the rest of the story. And there are PLENTY of them :)

Our first night there my dad's company had their annual Christmas party up in DC. It was so much fun helping my mom get ready for it this year! I brought out the dress that I wore to Andrea's wedding and she totally fit in it! (go mom!) I even helped her curl her hair. All I can say is...bow chicka wow wow.

Sawyer helping my mom with some yardwork.

Our first lazy Sunday afternoon. Sawyer loved snuggling up to Opi (and his IPAD :)) In fact, one of the last presents we opened up from my parents was our very own IPAD2!!! We couldn't even believe it. Totally unexpected and totally awesome! We are so grateful for that gift. It has been so nice to have!

We went to the mall for a little last minute Christmas shopping. Omi spoiled Sawyer with a ride on the choo choo train. He, of course, loved every minute.

Me and my mommy! ...And this was the only one of these 2 where Violet didn't look like she was being tortured

Love getting kisses from my little man!

My Opi made this pyramid for my mom and it's been in our family forever. Sawyer loved it and would constantly move all the figurines around. I was so happy that he could experience a little bit of my Opi!

In keeping with tradition, we made a trip to Eileen's Bakery one day. Love that place. (ps Nate has food in his mouth...and I think on his mouth)

CHRISTMAS EVE!

Traditional German Christmas Eve Dinner (brats, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes...mmmmm...)

Look at that tree! Picture perfect... And these presents wrapped by Syd?!? Are you kidding me?!!! Just beautiful.

Headed to church on Christmas Sunday (still holding it together before the miserable flu took control!)

My parents and Nate & I got Sawyer a balance bike this year. We had heard a lot of great things about them and decided that it was the way to go. He absolutely LOVES this thing. He is still just as excited about it today as he was Christmas morning! And after just a short time he was picking up his feet and balancing like a pro! I will try and post some videos in a later post. But Sawyer did really well with Christmas this year. He was super grateful for everything and so excited about each thing! The bike was the only gift we got to in the few hours before heading to church. He literally took all day to open his gifts cause he spent so much time with each one along the way!

Thanks to my parents our kids were sufficiently spoiled :) (and so were we!). Violet was pretty happy about her cute little gifts.

Ok I know it's blurry but I couldn't not put up this picture of my dad modeling Sawyer's monster blanket!

Probably his other favorite (next to the bike)...a remote control monster truck! Nice job, Omi!

Sawyer also got a little McDonald's cash register from my parents. He loved playing 'restaurant' with it. Even Vi came to eat!

Just chillin with Daddy :)...love this shot. And Violet was pretty fond of the elmo airplane that lives at my parent's house. She did well sitting up on that thing.

My mom took Sawyer to Funland one morning. He loved it and still talks about the 'scary fast roller coaster ' there, haha.

My mom made a 'nature tree' with Sawyer for the birdies. He would often look out the window watching to see if the birdies were coming to his tree.

Gotta love it

Omi was so good about taking Sawyer out to do fun things.

Pure joy!

I honestly thought I was gonna break that thing!

On our last night together we went to the outdoor mall and watched the Christmas lights show. It was really cool and Sawyer loved dancing to the music!

About to head out to he airport. We all had such a great time...it was hard to leave.

And to wrap it up a very blurry shot of our family on the plane. The flight back was SO much better. No one was sick and the kids were so good again! We were blessed :)

A few days before we went home we made a trip down to colonial Williamsburg. I'm gonna save those pictures for another post! Stay tuned :)

Family Pics

2012-01-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December we spent a nice little evening at Scottsdale Quarter with this cute family...

We took pictures for each other and just enjoyed the Christmas ambiance all around us...

These two boys are way to similar in so many ways!

Extras

2012-01-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Ok I think these are the last of the random 'extras' I keep finding all over our computers. I really need to get organized. Eventually I'll get to blogging about our Christmas adventures!

Just hanging out at playgroup one day...always happy to be munching on something

At the playground...deep in thought

We watched Jake and Mia one night while Kristie and Wes went on a date. It was a perfect opportunity to frost some sugar cookies with the boys. They did surprisingly well and I promise they had a good time despite the blank faces...I swear this has to be the hardest age for pictures...they never want to look AND smile at the camera!

This was while babysitting Tyler one night...I'm so glad those two get along :)

And another last minute zoo trip before we left for VA...it's too bad my kid feels the need to climb over EVERYTHING...including animal enclosures. Yikes.

We made sure to visit the JW Marriot at Desert Ridge again for their gingerbread display. This year it was a Grinch theme. I was actually amazed that Sawyer let the Grinch hold him...usually he complains that he's scary. Maybe he was in shock. Either way, the Grinch gave him a massive lollipop afterwards and that won him over for good. Looks like I'll be allowed to watch the movie again next Christmas ;)

The hotel had a cute little mailbox for 'Letters to Santa' in their lobby. Sawyer thought it was pretty cool to put some mail in there all by himself!

Violet just chillin in the lobby at the hotel.

There are a surprising amount of 'winter festivities' in Phoenix around Christmas time. One of our favorite little out door shopping centers, Desert Ridge, did a Snow Day one Saturday. Nate took Sawyer and they met up with Kristie and her family for a little fun in the snow! They even built a little snowman!

We also got to help celebrate Mia's 1st birthday right before we left for VA. I made the little '1'sie and hat so that she could be extra festive. SUCH a cute little girl! Can't believe she's already 1!

I made over 80 cinnamon stars as a party favor for our Relief Society Progressive Dinner this year. They were actually super easy to make and turned out pretty cute!

Headed out to church one morning...I couldn't resist!

Before Thanksgiving

2012-01-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well now that we're all back from Christmas vacation and it's the new year it's time to play some blogging catch-up. Going through my pictures I realized there were still a couple of events I forgot to blog about. Nate had the week before Thanksgiving off from school so we did a few things around Phoenix before heading over to Las Vegas. Erin came to visit and we went to the zoo with her and Brooke one morning. Always a good time :)

Sawyer finally got up the courage to touch the sting-rays. We were all pretty excited about it!

Another morning we got culture passes to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. Sawyer was so excited about the dinosaurs!

A little unsure of the 'flash flood'

They had a little children's 'discovery' room with lots of educational games and things for the kids. I think that was Sawyer's favorite part of the day. In fact he threw a pretty awesome tantrum when it was time to leave. :/

An old 'settler's jail' at the museum

Thanksgiving Break

2011-12-01T20:47:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving Break we headed up to Las Vegas to be with Nathan's parents. Actually the whole family was there! Brooke's family wasn't able to come because Mark had to work...we missed them! But it was definitely a full house. Nathan's mom has been begging him to help her build two triple bunk beds in the play room for times like this. We went back and forth about doing it before the break but it just never happened. In the end we decided to build them and we all pitched in and pulled together and got one of them built the day before Thanksgiving! The other one Nathan and his dad finished up on Friday. I have to brag about my husband. He practically designed and made up the plans on his own (with a little help from anawhite.com and her double bunk bed plan...we adapted ours from that). And they turned out so great! We didn't have time to stain them yet because people were dying to sleep in them! That'll have to happen later. Despite the chaos, full house, screaming children, and dozens of trips to Lowe's and Target, it was a pretty successful venture, overall. :)

Discussing the plans. I'm not gonna lie, I helped for the first couple hours and then left
the building to the boys and went out with the girls to buy bedding!

Justin and I were in charge of putting together the head and foot boards. And don't
let this picture deceive you...Justin did all the work

Sawyer and Taryn testing out the beds and the new bedding...this is one of the rare moments
these two weren't at eachother's necks!

They turned out so great and the kids love them!

We had an ugly sweater party on our last night to kick off the Christmas season...Andrea came well
equipped with lots of fun 'minute to win it' games for everyone to play! It was a blast.

We also had a white elephant gift exchange...we learned last year to make sure and get
all good gifts for the kids on this one. You can never go wrong with candy...

My little family forgot to pack our ugly sweaters. But we managed to find something decent
in the house...haha

The week before driving to Vegas, Erin came to visit all of us AZ folks. We went to True Foods Kitchen
for Andrea's birthday...

Little Red Riding Hood and the Gang

2011-12-01T18:20:00.001-08:00

We managed to figure out a costume theme for the family this year. I don't think we need a lot of explanation, but just for fun--Nathan was the hunter, I was the grandma, Violet was Red Riding Hood, and Sawyer was the BIG BAD WOLF (imagine this said very loudly in a 2 yr old voice whilst growling). I was getting a little worried when he was still trying to tell me the morning of that he was going to be the grandma and I could be the big bad wolf. But in the end he was happy to be the wolf. We went trick-or-treating like 3 times total (Midwestern school event, trunk or treat at the church, and a neighborhood up the road with Kristie and her family). Sawyer loved it every time. We are new to the whole 'getting mounds of candy in one night for our 2 yr old' thing...so we pretty much just let him eat it all in like 2 days (minus the chocolate which we promptly set aside for ourselves once he was in bed). Nathan decided (as the dentist in the family) that it was better to ruin his teeth for 2 days and be done than for him to have a little every day. I was ok with that because once it was gone I didn't have to deal with the constant struggle to find it/whine for it every day. But anyways, we had a great Halloween this year! Even Violet seemed to enjoy all the tromping around.

Jerai's Visit

2011-11-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this out of order but I need to get it done and I'm missing some pictures for my Halloween post at the moment. The first weekend in November Jerai came down to visit us here in AZ! We were so excited to have her all to ourselves for a few days. The first night she spent at Kristie's getting some fun platinum blonde highlights. They turned out great! The next day we packed up our kids and went to the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. It was lots of fun and the kids did surprisingly well. That night we hung out at my place and just relaxed and caught up. On Saturday Nate and Wes watched the kids so we could all go to Time Out for Women! I've been wanting to do it for a while now and it worked out great that Jerai was here the weekend it was in Phoenix because it was such a fun thing for the three of us to do together. I felt super uplifted and motivated when I left there! That night we grabbed the rest of our families and walked around in Scottsdale at a shopping center and got hot chocolate. Jerai flew back home Sunday morning. It was a perfect little weekend together and I'm sad I don't get to see Jerai more often! We had lots of fun memories to reminisce about and it's neat to see how our families are all growing and going different places yet our experiences as mothers and wives are still so similar! Thanks for visiting Jerai! We love you!

This was at Time Out for Women

At Fashion Square Mall (by the way Jerai is about 20 wks (?) preggo here...
can you even tell?!...she looks so great!

Cute little girl...even with a plug in her mouth ;)

We love our Ergo Carriers!

So I was getting frozen yogurt and Jerai captured a pretty awesome
little scene below...

Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened...
if that kid could just sit still for more than 2 minutes and
quit trying to escape every restraint I put on him! haha...oh well

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

We had a super fun Halloween season this year. Sawyer absolutely loved every minute of it. The Hurst's came over for pumpkin carving and pizza one night and we all had a great time. The little boys picked out the design they wanted and the big boys carved them while the little and big girls sat on the couch and talked :). Perfect.

Alright I'm posting both of these because Sawyer was only in one of them but Violet wasn't looking in that one...

Those boys are so cute

Nathan's pumpkin...way to go honey

I made pumpkin pancakes on the Sunday morning before Halloween! Yummy!

And this is unrelated but these girls were just so cute the other day! Ahh! I can't decide whose cheeks I want to bite into first!

The Playground

2011-11-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

I'm in charge of organizing the playgroup for our ward so now that summer is (finally) over I started things back up again at a playground down the street. We don't usually have a super great turn out so I recruited Kristie and her kiddos to come along the other week! Our boys just have so much fun together and we are all LOVING the cooler weather. It was a great little morning :).

The Deadwood Saloon

2011-11-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

Nathan has been dying to throw another Murder Mystery party with his friends from school. Last October I was pregnant in my first trimester which equals tired, nauseous, and unmotivated. So this year I gave in and we put something together within a couple weeks! It's always a lot of work but it's so fun because both Nathan and I get pretty into it and in the end our marriage is still intact! I consider that some successful party planning :). Everyone that came did so great with their costumes and with playing their parts. I also divided up all the food assignments this time which helped out a ton! It was super fun in the end and we all had such a great time! (And I have to give a HUGE thanks to Kristie and Wes for watching Sawyer for us that night...it was so nice of you guys and so great not to have him in our hair during the last few hours before the party) So here are some pictures of our night.

We made saloon doors in the front! Welcome to the Deadwood Saloon!

Our guests! Aren't their costumes awesome?! Nate did a great job with photoshop here too...

Banana Bread for party favors

When everyone arrived they received an envelope with a name tag, money, and their 'objectives for the evening

Nate's Grandpa Larson in Mesa lent us this horse saddle. Sawyer thought that thing was so stinkin cool!

We made a little 'back porch' scene out of our sun room. We had a fake fire pit and all the food out there.

We pretty much rearranged all of our furniture for the event!

Nathan made the Wanted Signs. Those are the actual people that came to the party as the 'outlaws'. He did a little photoshop magic on a picture of them...I thought they turned out fantastic!

The 'bar'

Everyone drank out of mason jars or IBC root beer bottles. One of the characters was a bartender and he did a fabulous job playing his role in the kitchen all night!

We all ate out of pie tins

Nathan's firepit creation

The poker table

The Outhouse

Right after the murder took place. That's the Marshall taping the body outline! Hilarious...He and the Sheriff then drug his body to the couch!

Most of the boys that were there that night! (A few had to leave before we took this picture)

And here are most of the girls. I was just so pleased with all of the costumes!!!

Kristie did my hair! She did a fantastic job, as usual.

Just my cute kids...

2011-10-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I manage to get the camera out and just snap a few pictures. I don't do it often enough but when I do I'm so glad! Here are a few from the other day...

Love those EYES!

My little Aunt Jemima in her headband...hair would help but oh well, still cute :)

This is so funny because I caught Sawyer one morning laying on the floor with this old camera we have, acting like some professional photographer taking pictures of his sister. I HAD to capture that moment...it was so stinkin cute

And here's Sawyer reading to his sister...he needs to learn how to show her the pictures...

I guess she didn't mind...

Wild West Festival

2011-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had a groupon to go to the Wild West Festival in Glendale the other weekend so we packed up the kids and headed over there. What we hadn't planned on when we bought the groupon was that it would be 98 DEGREES outside still! Ya...not super fun. Sawyer's favorite part was getting to ride on the choo choo train. We could have done that in the mall in the air conditioning! Oh well...it was nice to get out and hang out with some friends.

Playing tag :)

It was too hot...so I got Talmage to chase him around for a bit

Six Months

2011-10-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned 6 months a couple of weeks ago! I just finished looking back on Sawyer's 6 month post and it hit me that with each kid the time seriously goes by faster and faster. It was funny to read about how I felt with Sawyer at that age...everything was so new to me and each little milestone was so exciting! Of course we are still excited this time around, but it's just a different feeling because you've got so much more going on and you are more familiar with the way things work with babies. It made me realize that I really want to treasure each moment and recognize each stage with all of my kids! I love them both so much and feel so blessed to be able to spend my days with them...regardless of how stressful they can be at times. Violet has been such a sweetheart from the moment she entered our lives. She really is a happy baby 95% of the time. The sleeping thing has been slightly more challenging with her, but not too bad really (most of the time--when she's not teething-- she sleeps from about 7 to 5 am, eats, then goes back to sleep till 7). And so far she is keeping up with her big brother as far as development goes. Everything has been about the same this time around. Although she did beat him in the dental department. She just cut her second tooth last week! (Sawyer was almost 9 months before he got his first!) On her 6 month mark she got up on all fours and started crawling! I don't know how I feel about this yet. She's still nice and slow so that's good :). But I'd like her to take a little longer before she gets super mobile. Sawyer was just TOO mobile WAY too fast! She's such a funny girl...laughs a ton and especially loves her daddy (and Sawyer too...they are just 2 peas in a pod...both crazy and animated). Any time Nathan is in the room her eyes lock on him and follow him wherever he goes! If she's in the middle of eating and she hears his voice it's all over...such a distracted eater now! And anything and everything goes straight to the mouth. I just LOVE this age because she is still cuddly but she's starting to become her own little person. So much fun. I love her so much and while these past 6 months have flown by it seems like she's always been a part of our family!

Can't get enough of those big blue eyes

Up on all fours!

...it's hard work

A Zoo-Venture!

2011-10-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had a fluke weather week in the 70s and 80s. It was heaven! October is always my least favorite month here in AZ because you are just SOO ready for fall weather and it just takes FOREVER to cool down. So Kristie and I decided to take advantage and head down to the zoo. We renewed our memberships so I'm sure we will be having many more zoo-ventures in the coming months! It was a beautiful day and the boys loved every minute of it. In true Jessica fashion, I wore jeans and a cardigan thinking that 75 degrees was warm clothing weather! I never seem to learn my lesson because I do it every single year. I guess I just can't wait to get those winter clothes back out! So instead of enjoying the cooler air in my shorts and t-shirt...I sweated it out under the warm sun in my long layers. Sheesh...at least it was super comfortable in the shade!

The boys were pretty excited to take a picture in front of the 'RIO' bird

MY personal favorite...the giraffes

This was the first time that Sawyer actually enjoyed the carousel...in fact he LOVED it! This time he cried when it was over because he wanted to go again.

There's a little someone peeking out from that top window!

This just makes me laugh. Why do I have to grasp the back of my child's shirt to keep him from hurling himself over the railing and down 20 feet into the water? You'd think he'd recognize the danger there...

Ready to Pop!!

2011-10-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to throw Jen another baby shower last night! That's right...Baby Simpson #2 is about ready to make her arrival! This time, I got to collaborate with 2 of Jen's sister-in-laws and another friend. It was so nice not to have to worry about ALL the details. I was in charge of the decoration, Missy did the invites, and Sadie & Melissa did the food. It all came together so well and we had a great turn out! Our theme was 'Jen's Ready to Pop'. I'm sure you've seen this idea before...but I had such a fun time putting my own little spin on it.

I took some pictures before the food got there...sad thing is the lighting was a lot better in the before pictures, but they still turned out ok!

A full view of the table right before we got started...and then another one before the food arrived

Jen scored some great gifts that night!

This was the funniest one...haha

Love you Jen! So excited for the arrival of your little girl! Thanks for letting me be a part of this!

(Oh and a special thanks to Nathan for being the best dad ever and taking Sawyer out for 3 hours last night so I could host in peace...they went to Peter Piper Pizza then he took him to see Cars 2! Sawyer had such a fun night with his daddy!)

Potty Training & Such

2011-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well it's pretty obvious from the title and this picture what I'm about to tell you all. We are now the proud owners of a potty-trained 2 1/2 yr old little boy! I'd been going back and forth about potty-training Sawyer for a few months now. I obviously realized that it was unrealistic with a newborn in the house. But as Violet started getting easier and nursing became a little less frequent and we finished up with the last of our summer vacations, I got serious about it. Frankly, I was just done having 2 in diapers. And Sawyer had been spending a lot of time with cousins his age who were potty-trained so he was definitely 'interested'. I knew there were definite advantages to waiting until he was older and more 'ready'...but I decided I would just try it out and not be too psycho about it and if it didn't work, then oh well...I could try again in six months or so. I went out and bought the undies and made a potty-chart with Sawyer. Then as I was debating which day to start, Sawyer took off his diaper with stinkies in it and ran around the house! That was the last straw for me! And so began our first experience with potty-training. So I sort of followed the '3 day method', and then I sort of went with my own instincts. It worked out pretty well for us! We put him in pull-ups the first 3 or 4 nights just because we were scared and hadn't bought vinyl sheets yet. But I realized each morning that his pull-ups were dry and decided to go for it with night time training too. And so we did! And 3 weeks later he hasn't wet the bed once! He still has accidents during the day here and there (mostly because he doesn't want to take the time to go)...but overall I'm very happy with everything and so proud of my little guy! He's really growing up!

Cheering for his pee pee on the potty! So proud of us big boy undies...

Caught in the act! Eating sprinkles!

One of our 'stuck at home potty training activities'...homemade play dough (no I did not put sprinkles in my play dough. they were in the bag along with the cookie cutters we were using)

I don't even remember why he had blue all over his face that day. An otter pop maybe?

And this little girl wanted to get in on the naked action that week too! She was such a trooper...I had to leave her crying on the floor several times in order to avoid a potty disaster.

Side note: Violet cut her first tooth yesterday at only 5 1/2 months old!

Sawyer loves to cook and bake with me. Also I can't for the life of me keep him from getting up on all the counter tops. That kid is seriously such a monkey! Here he is 'cooking' his fruit snacks. Good thing he hasn't figured out how to turn it on...

Vacation Deja Vu?

2011-09-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

Before this summer started my family was trying really hard to organize some sort of vacation that everyone could be a part of. With Kristie and her family moving and Sydney starting a new job, it was getting really difficult to find some common ground. Not to mention, we couldn't all afford to fly out to Virginia this summer and then again for Christmas. My parents wanted to drive out to Utah and bring David with them (since he never gets to come along for most of our vacations). But Sydney was the only one we could all stay with and that was just not happening in her little 2 bedroom home. We decided pretty much our only option if it was going to happen for us this summer was to beg Nate's grandma to let us use the Ranch for a week. We were so excited when they said yes! So about a month after our Larson Ranch trip, Nate and I and the kiddos were headed back up to Utah for a repeat Ranch week :). It was kind of funny doing the same vacation twice in a month. We did a lot of the same activities but it was different company so there was enough variation to make it just as fun the second time around! The Ranch is just such a perfect place for family gatherings, and we are so grateful to Nate's grandparents for their generosity! We made some wonderful memories there this summer and I'm so glad everyone was able to be there...even David! :) Here are about a million pictures to illustrate our week.

I think this picture tells it all!

My dad brought some super soakers for the boys...they loved it!

Of course we spent ALOT of time on the massive slip n slide...everyone had a blast!

Well David isn't smiling in this picture but I promise he had such a great time the whole week! He just loves to sit out by the pool and pour water out of a cup all day long. So this was pretty much heaven for him!

Taking a break from the fun to feed our faces...loved sitting outside to eat every night!

Even David went down the slip n slide!

And a month later, Violet could still care less :)

The little boys LOVED swinging on the rope swing. They didn't jump into the water but we were pretty impressed that they were ok with swinging at all!

So on Monday we were all headed to our good friends, the Stott's, house for dinner. We stopped at Walmart to buy some arrows for the bow & arrow. Nate went inside with Sawyer and when he came out, half of his tooth had been knocked out! Sawyer whipped him right in the mouth with the shaft of an arrow! So two of Nate's front teeth are temporary veneers right now...not a huge deal that they broke cause he's still working on finishing the permanent ones. But it kinda sucked for him to have to go meet friends and then spend the rest of the week with such a WT grin. We all got a good laugh out of it. (you might need to enlarge the picture to see it clearly)

And here are some pictures from our dinner with the Stott's. We LOVE them so much!!! Thanks again for hosting such a fun night. We are glad we got to finally get together...it's been way too long!

The boys loved playing with little Kaitlin Stott...can you blame them? She's such a doll!!!

The kids were so cute to play ball with David

Us with our 'other' sister, Meghan!

Funny story about our families. Both my mom and my dad's families were friends with Meghan's dad's family back in Germany. Our dad's even knew each other when they were little boys in California! It was so fun to get the two families together!

One of the best parts about our week was how much fun Sawyer and Jake had together! Those boys just get along so well. It makes me happy :)

The domestic deer that lives at the Ranch. He totally comes right up to you and lets you pet him

Such a cute picture of Sawyer with his Uncle Mitch.

Uncle Wes teaching the boys how to shoot the bow and arrow

Dad had the best shot of the week! Split his first two shots right down the middle!

Nathan and I started the Insanity Workout Program a week before going to Utah, so we continued to work out every morning while we were there and managed to gather a couple others every now and then! It's going really well and I'm so proud of Nathan for sticking with this program...it's been super fun working out together in the mornings and he's almost more dedicated to it than I am!

David just had a great time...

We copied Ashley's idea of making surf shacks and took it up one notch by turning it into an adult competition between couples! They were really fun and pretty creative, if I do say so myself! I think Sydney won the prize for being the only one to build her shack on the water!

Nate will probably hate this picture but I love it...just snuggling with our cute little kiddos in the morning

And lastly, some of you may remember how we got our car stolen the first year we lived in Arizona. When we found the car a few days later I was devastated that they had taken the jeans blanket my mom made us for our wedding! Of course my mom promised she would replace it but I never expected her to. Well she showed up at the Ranch with a brand new blanket for us! I love it so much! Thanks mom..you're the best!

Pink Slippers

2011-09-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

So my latest obsession--Pinterest. For those of you not in the 'know'...you need to get on that. But beware, it WILL suck your life away. It basically allows you to organize all of your favorite things that you've found online in one place. And it also allows you to see all of the fun things everyone you know is finding online. That's where you really get in trouble. There are so many INCREDIBLE ideas out there! I could seriously sit and look at Pinterest for hours without getting bored...and then I'll have about a thousand projects that I want (NEED) to do as soon as possible. Haha. But seriously, they've got some great stuff out there. You should check it out. If you need an invite let me know. :) So here is my first 'pinterest' project. Little baby slippers. I just had to take some pictures of little V wearing these after church today. And you can bet I will be making more of these in many colors!

(a tutorial for these can be found at http://www.brownpaper--packages.com/2011/08/baby-bloom-slippers.html)

Here's the little beauty herself ...love this girl!

I had to put this one on there because it is the face she makes every time she catches someone smiling at her. She seriously cannot contain her joy and just rips her mouth open as wide as it will go!

I love my little chubby girl

V is already 4 months?!?

2011-08-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well the title of this post pretty much says it all. I can't believe how fast my life is flying by me right now. My little baby is already 4 months old, rolling over, eating oat cereal...sheesh. Is it true that time goes faster with each child? Well I hope it slows down a little cause I want to cuddle her as long as possible! I just love every little roll (and there are lots!) on this chick! She has been such a wonderful baby. I really can't complain about anything (except for maybe the fact that she is the snortiest thing I've ever heard--as Nate so lovingly described it's like waking up to a warthog next to you!). And just in case you are wondering...she is NOT sleeping with us...don't worry. I just pull her into my bed after her 5 am feeding every now and then and often forget to put her back ;). We all love Violet like crazy. She even puts up with her big brother and for some reason thinks he's pretty dang funny, too! Here are little miss v's stats for her 4 month well-check:

weight--14.3 lbs (64%) height--24 in (40%) head--41 cm (52%)

A pretty average little girl all around. Sawyer came with me to her well-check and I was shocked to see how much better he did than the last time I tried taking him at her 2 week. I guess my little boy is growing up too :). He made sure she knew that she had gotten 'owies' and was obsessed with her bugs bunny bandaids. He was very interested in watching the doctor look over Violet, and was happy to take the lollipop in her behalf! Sadly, I don't have any decent pictures of Violet since we got back from the Ranch, and my camera battery was dead today when I decided I needed to post this blog so I snapped a couple with our Kodak Play Sport...not the greatest quality but it'll do. We are headed to Utah for another fun week with my family this time! I'm sure I'll have LOTS of pictures when I get back :).

Sawyer is quite the little monkey. You will most often find him on top of a counter somewhere or doing some acrobatics between the couch and the coffee table!
And yes, this boy LOVES cheese...
We've also been spending a lot of time in here...as you can see it's not going so well :) He thinks it's more of a jungle gym than a potty place. But I'm just getting him used to the idea...and we have had several successful moments so far!
Couldn't decide which picture of Sawyer racing his cars in the bathroom to post...I picked this one because I just love those lips that he makes as he says 'Vroooom'...such a cutie!
And here's a little video to show some sibling love. Sawyer really just LOVES this girl. He no longer calls her 'Vat' (although unfortunately the nick name has stuck)...but now refers to her as 'Videt'. He is very concerned when she's crying or spitting up...always tells me to go get the 'bitups wag'. And if she laughs or smiles at him he is simply overjoyed. As long as we can keep him from killing her with his intensity I think these 2 are going to grow up to be great friends!

Family Pictures

2011-08-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

Nathan took pictures for the whole family while we were at the ranch this year. He did a fantastic job, if I do say so myself! :) Syd came up to help with a couple of the group shots and anything with Nathan in it. Thanks so much for doing that, Syd! I don't have a finished copy of the whole group together yet. It still needs a little tweaking (like adding in a couple of missing husbands :)). So that will show up some time in the future of this blog. For now here are some others to enjoy! (And our little family pic is the new header on the blog, so I didn't repost that!)

So hard to get a 2 yr old to hold up their baby sister for a shot! These two turned out sorta cute!

All the girls of the Larson family...

The Original Larsons :)

All the grandkids. Notice the helicopter flying above their heads. It was the only thing that worked at this point!

So proud to be part of this group of 'sisters'! Love you guys!

And I just love these ones of Nate and his sisters...great job capturing the 'real' side of them, Syd :)

Larson Ranch Trip 2011

2011-08-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Nathan took this awesome picture of Taryn and I just love it..so much joy

Here we go...the annual Larson Family Ranch Trip. Be prepared for an onslaught of pictures! It is so hard to narrow down the hundreds and hundreds of pictures from the week...but I think I"ve done it! We had such a great time, as always. Nathan and I were pretty excited for Sawyer to really experience the Ranch this year. He was finally be old enough to enjoy a lot of the activities that go on there. He totally had a blast! Between lots of cousins, tons of outdoor time, lack of bedtimes, and unlimited food and candy ...I think it was pretty much heaven for this kid. The four of us slept all together in the same room all week and I was pleasantly surprised at how well that went. It gave me a lot of hope for when I move Violet into Sawyer's room in the next couple months.

We drove up to Las Vegas on Friday evening (July 15th), stayed the night briefly, then finished up our drive on Saturday morning. The kids did pretty well on the drive. We met up with Sydney and Mitch for lunch before heading up to the Ranch that night. The following Saturday night as we were driving home we had a tire blow out while driving at 85 mph. Luckily there were no cars around us because Nathan had a tough time controlling the car between the two lanes available to us. He did great and we were able to pull off and change our tire and make it safely to Vegas where we bought a new tire the following morning. We felt very blessed that everything turned out the way it did. As for all the fun we had during the week...I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

One of our favorite activities at the Ranch--the giant slip'n'slide! Sawyer thought it was so much fun this year...

The guys built a rope swing into the pond this year. Here is Nathan taking the plunge!

Violet sitting on her Grandpa's lap while the kids played on the slip'n'slide...

So apparently I missed this little event below...when they told me Sawyer was hiding under the blow up pool as everyone crashed into it at the bottom of the slide, I was glad I missed it! Good thing he didn't DIE! Sheesh...Sawyer, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious.

Violet chillin' with her aunties

Even little Vi went down the slide with her aunt Andrea! This was pretty much her facial expression the entire way down. Just can't contain the excitement ;)

After the ride...

I just loved all these cute little pictures of Violet...so I narrowed it down to 3 of them!

Taryn and Sawyer getting ready to feed the horsey's. Those two were best enemies :)

A rare, but tender, moment

Julianne and Ned prepared a little Book of Mormon adventure for the kids. They brought costumes and we all acted out the Lehi & family adventure into the wilderness and then to retrieve the Gold Plates. It was a fun day of walking around the ranch and eating dried fruit. Sawyer was a grumpy face that day...so he fell perfectly into character with his Daddy as Laman and Lemuel.

I thought this was the cutest picture of Trenton helping Sawyer take a drink

I laughed so hard when I saw this picture. This is so typical!

Me and my little Lemuel

Erin and little Vat in her costume

Sawyer and his cousins catching baby water snakes

Andrea and I had on the same skirt in different colors on Sunday! Great minds think alike, I guess :)

Taryn and V in matching suits

Macie decorating the table for their little Hawaiian themed dinner...so cute!

Ashley made little 'surf-shacks' with the kids. They loved it! Sawyer especially loved picking all the candy off of them throughout the week!

So the last night before we left Marley discovered a rattle snake on the porch right by the door! Yikes! It was super scary, actually. It was hiding behind a duffle bag with sports equipment in it...probably looking for a warm place on the rock. She heard the rattle, saw the snake, and ran for help. We are so grateful that she noticed it before one of the younger kids got in it's way. It was litterally inches away from the door that everyone went in and out of all day. Super scary. Ned was able to kill the snake with a shovel as we all watched in horror and fear! Really hoping that we never see one of those around there again!

Nathan's Photography

2011-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably have no idea, but my husband is becoming quite the little photographer lately. It all started when we invested in a nice camera a little while ago. He's been into video editing and stuff for a couple years...but now he's almost as excited about taking pictures as he is video. And whenever he gets into technical stuff like this...he really gets down to the nitty gritty and learns all he can about it! I've been really impressed with him and all that he's learned about how a camera works and how to take great pictures. So I'm putting these pictures up a few months late but when Violet was born we had a go at our own little newborn photography. We ended up using all of his pictures in Violet's Birth Announcement (which my sister, Sydney, designed!). I just love the pictures AND the design!!! So glad I've got such talented people in my family :). And we just barely got these announcements sent out, too (better late than never, right?!)

Sydkyd

2011-07-15T14:44:00.001-07:00

Ok time to catch up again. As mentioned in a previous post, my little sister Sydney came to visit us in Arizona in June! She just finished up her very last semester at BYU and decided to come down and celebrate with Kristie and I. We just loved having her here! She rotated between sleeping at our place and sleeping at Kristie's...and during the days we all got together for some kind of activity...pretty much consisted of either shopping or swimming. It really doesn't get much better than that! Here are a few pictures to show what we were up to.

This was our day at Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. Pretty much the best mall I've ever been to. The boys even did alright that day. They LOVE their aunt Sydney!

Our little strawberry, Violet, at the pool one day

We spent a lot of time at Kristie's pool. It is an amazing place. The boys have such a great time together and Sawyer actually stays in the water instead of running off to some random place every 2 minutes...maybe it has something to do with the floor being scalding hot and not wanting to run off barefoot. Whatever the reason I'm happy!

Hawaiian Punch & Kristie's shades...

Pretty exhausted after a long day in the heat

The first day Sydney got here we all got together at the pool for a little barbecue...

Dads are way more fun than moms!

We're just content holding our little baby girls!

Best Buds...

One night we put the kiddos to bed and went out to dinner just the 3 of us. That was such a great night! We went to True Food's Kitchen in Scottsdale...AMAZING! All their food is fresh, organic, and healthy. Right up my ally!

This summer Kristie and I bought the Harkins Summer Movie Passes. It was only $7 for 10 movies! Every Thursday morning we take the kids to see a movie...every now and then we make it through the whole movie. Usually at least an hour of it, though. Totally worth it to get out of the house. The week Sydney was here it was 'How to Train your Dragon'. Here we are all loaded up. When did I become such a mom?! Haha

And here is one last shot of our little girls.

Syd it was so great having you here! We hope you can come again soon! We love you!!!!!

Happy 4th!!!

2011-07-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Sort of last minute we decided to head to Vegas for our holiday weekend. Andrea, Paul, Kasey & Erin were all going as well. Nathan's mom had borrowed some jet skis from a lady in their ward so we all met up at a nice little lake about an hour and a half from their home. It was a smaller, less popular lake than Lake Mead and we all had a great time there! The water was really clear and the perfect temperature. And although it was a boiling 115 degrees outside, we all managed to stay cool either in the shade or in the water. Even Violet enjoyed a nice spritzing of water from the spray bottle every five minutes. Sawyer loved playing on the beach and in the water. He was excited about the jet ski for the first 10 minutes as we slowly idled out of the 'no wake' zone...as soon as Nathan hit the gas even a little bit it was all downhill. He was NOT having it. Oh well...maybe next year. And another sad little story from the day...I realized about 2 seconds too late that Sawyer had discovered a block of wood with about 6 nails sticking over an inch out of it. That's right--he totally stepped on one of the nails. Poor guy. He was pretty shaken up for a bit, but overall he handled it REALLY well. There was a paramedic on site who cleaned it off for us (with sterile water--what the heck, where was the alcohol or iodine?!) and gave him a bandaid. In that moment I was very grateful that Sawyer was up to date on all his vaccinations so that we didn't have to worry about tetanus. Yikes. Within 10 minutes or so Sawyer was back to playing in the water and other than walking around on his tip-toes for the past week it hasn't seemed to bother him too much. I'm grateful it all turned out so well.

We spent Sunday trying to recover from Saturday--we were all exhausted! And on Monday we hit up a breakfast buffet at a casino before heading home. It was a great trip and we had a blast hanging out with everyone.

Violet's Blessing Day

2011-07-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

I really needed to post about Sydney's visit before this one, but I still don't have the pictures and I'm trying to get all caught up so I guess we'll just have to do this out of order for now. On June 26th Violet was blessed. We waited to do it this weekend because Brooke's son, Talmage, was getting baptized the day before so Nathan's parents were already in town. It's so hard to coordinate with all the family members when everyone lives all over the country! And it didn't work out to do it when my mom was still here, so therefore she was 2 1/2 months old when we finally got around to it. I was grateful that Kristie and her family were around to represent the Schindler side! :) We had a brunch at our house the morning of, and then Violet was blessed in our sacrament meeting at 11 am. Nathan gave her a beautiful blessing and she smiled up at him during the whole thing. She already loves her daddy. He can always make her smile. I was so glad that she was happy throughout the blessing. We even managed to squeeze in a few pictures outside afterwards. Poor Kristie had to bail before sacrament was over due to Jake having a rough morning...so that's why they aren't in the pictures outside. But we did get a shot with them at the house during breakfast. It was a wonderful day and I feel so blessed to have Violet in my life.

Father's Day

2011-07-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Father's Day this year. My sister, Sydney, was in town visiting (more on that later) and she happened to be staying with us that morning. It was great having her around. We had some amazing breakfast burritos for the man of the day, followed by a relaxing Sunday morning before heading off to church. I got Nathan a dual-sided glasses case. He's always got his glasses and contacts stuff laying around everywhere so I thought that it was appropriate. Pretty exciting gift, eh? Haha. Sawyer made him a puzzle out of popsicle sticks. I am so grateful for a husband who loves being a daddy. He is just so great with our kids! He definitely brings a funny, adventurous, sometimes crazy aspect to this family and we wouldn't be the same without him! And he is such a great example of faith, obedience, and testimony. We love him so much!

I didn't take great pictures that day...but I had to post something.

And here are just a couple pictures to illustrate what a great dad Nathan is to our kids!

Don't worry, I didn't let them drive away ;)

Memorial Day

2011-07-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day Weekend we decided to head up to Las Vegas and visit with Nathan's parents. He had the following week off of school so we took off after church on Sunday and stayed through Thursday. Erin came down to join us as well while Kasey was on a business trip. It was so much fun spending time with everyone...especially Erin because she is going to be moving to Boston at the end of the summer! We will miss her and Kasey a ton but we know that they have such an awesome adventure ahead of them! Overall it was a super relaxing trip. Sawyer has such a great time there and entertains himself really well. He had a blast playing in the back yard and hanging out with grandma. It was just so nice to get away for a few days. Here are a couple pictures from our weekend.

Baby Violet in her patriotic Memorial Day outfit

Roasting some mallows in the backyard fire pit

2 Months!

2011-06-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

This cute little chubby-cheeks up here turned 2 months last weekend! I will admit that with Sawyer I was always so excited for him to reach the next stage. I couldn't wait for him to grow up and interact with me! But now with Violet I think I would be ok if she would stay tiny forever! :) Aside from wanting to know what she'll 'look like' when she outgrows her baby face...I am perfectly happy enjoying the simple smiles, adorable coo's, and squishy cheeks. She has been such an angel so far and we love every minute of her. It's getting easier to get a grin out of this girl and even an occasional little laugh. And it's so funny to hear the sounds she's making because she has got this little rasp in her voice! She's had a lot of issues with nasal congestion so I don't know if it has something to do with that or if it's here to stay...either way we think it's pretty dang cute! And while she gets very little tummy time these days (thanks to her big brother who just loves her to DEATH!), she's doing well holding up her head and standing on your lap. She is gonna be one tough cookie that's for sure! She's already had 2 haircuts...the first on the day we came home from the hospital (I wasn't cool with the baby mullet she brought with her)...and the second the other day when I decided that the dark rim of thick hair at the base of her head was not going to fall out anytime soon and I couldn't stand it all looking so uneven. So I took some clippers to it, not knowing that the guard I was using was super short. So she's close to bald now. But I like it :). And at least it's not as blonde as Sawyer's was so you can at least see that she's got hair! She's such a fun little girl and we are all so happy that she is a part of our family! I'm becoming more and more adjusted to being a mom of two and we have even gotten pretty good at venturing out for some fun summer activities every now and then. Here are Violet's 2 month Stats:

Weight: 10 lb 15 oz (49%)

Height: 22 inches (31%)

Head: 39 cm (54%)

Taking pictures of the two of them is SO DIFFICULT! These were the best I could do yesterday.

I just wanted to show you all how Violet spends her time at the pool. What a sweetheart :)

In other news, my sister Kristie and her family moved here a couple weeks ago! Sawyer is so happy to have his buddy Jake living close by. Those two just love each other. I tried to go help Kristie unpack one day and I think we got maybe 15 min of unpacking done while these two sat still for a show (above)...things are definitely not what they used to be now that we've got 4 little munchkins around :)

This is super random but I thought it was funny. Poor little Violet is getting the rubber ducky forced upon her! Big brothers can be so crazy!

Cute Kids & a Campout!

2011-05-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

I guess the title says it all. I may be biased, but I think these two are pretty cute :). We are doing well over here at the Larson household. I am fully enjoying being home all the time and not working right now (even if I was only working Friday nights before---it's still better not to be doing any shifts!) Sawyer continues to love and coddle his sister...and occasionally bop her on the head. And Violet is doing awesome. She turned 6 wks old on Monday and she's still such a great baby!

He's such a goof...

And again...total goof

I'm mad at myself for cutting her hands out of this picture...oh well. Still looks pretty stinkin cute! :)

So now for the next part of the post, the long part---the Father & Sons Campout. Nathan has talked about taking Sawyer on a Father/Sons since the day Sawyer was born. He wanted to take him last year but I think I was in Virginia with Sawyer so he missed out on that one (darn ;)). Well this year he was determined to take him. At first I was super skeptical. I could just see Sawyer being the next kid on the news who got lost in the wilderness while camping. I was honestly worried Nathan would lose him (more like Sawyer would escape him). But the closer we got to the weekend, the more those fears were replaced with extreme excitement for an entire day of peace and quiet and ME time (well me and Violet time---same thing)! I practically kicked the boys out the front door by the time they left 2 hrs after they had originally planned. I think my exact words as they left were "Take your time in the morning...don't hurry back :)". Ok so I think what I really said was, "If anything happens to Sawyer, don't come back". Haha...and that was that. I might have slipped an 'I love you guys' in there somewhere too. Once they were gone, I couldn't decide if I wanted to sleep, clean, or shop. Since I had to go out and go Visiting Teaching and was already in the car...I opted for the shopping choice. Violet and I went and wandered around Target for an hour and bought some girly clothes...it was wonderful. Then I went and picked up some lettuce wraps from Pei Wei for a little girls night we had planned. My two friends, Jen and Jen came over (since their boys were on the campout too) and we spent the evening talking, watching a movie, and stuffing our faces with yummy food. Perfection. Violet and I stayed in bed till about 9 am (heaven!). And the boys returned around 1030...not quite 24 hrs but close! It was just nice not to have to clean up after anyone for that long!

Now for the boys' story:

Nate & Sawyer drove to the campsite with Isac Simpson and his 11 month old son, Tyler. Their friend Bryce squished himself in between the two carseats in the back! Seriously. I know. I'm surprised he got himself back out of the car! So as far as I know the evening went really well. Sawyer had a blast running around in the open and playing in the car (almost more than running around). They flew a kite, had a fire, and played with Tomahawks (well I hope Sawyer didn't play with the tomahawks). Another of our friends, Nate Lundstrom, arrived later on in the evening with his 18 month old son, Isaac. They all slept in our 10-man tent. And by slept, I mean the opposite. Well, Sawyer slept awesome, Nathan slept OK, and the rest of the guys were out huddled with their children around a fire at 3 am. That was after Isac had been wrestling with Tyler to go back to sleep for the umpteenth time and finally little Isaac had enough of it and wouldn't go to sleep either. I think Nate L. took off for home at about 5:30 am, after frantically stuffing his gear (including an inflated air mattress) back into his trunk while his son screamed bloody murder in the car seat. So what did the boys learn? Maybe Father & Sons should wait until at least 2 years old. Also--it sucks to go camping in Arizona when it's a fluke 33 degrees at night!! I think the babies were just cold...can you blame them?

All in all it was a great experience for Nathan and Sawyer. It gave me hope for the day that I put Violet into Sawyer's room...sounds like he's a deeper sleeper than I thought!

Nate, Isac, and their friend Bryce who took sitting in the back with 2 kids like a champ!

I'm so glad that Nathan and Isac have been able to continue their friendship down here in Arizona...and now they've both got sons of their own...so great!

Some of the boys with the Tomahawks Nathan made

It's a blurry picture but I thought Sawyer looked like such a big kid out there!

Up at the crack of dawn... (pun intended :) )

2011-05-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

...hope this made you smile :)

Mother's Day & 1 Month Old

2011-05-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm a little frustrated right now because I already wrote & published this post yesterday and somehow it has just disappeared!! I have no idea what happened... So I'll try to recreate it as best I can (at least it wasn't one of my massively long posts).

I had a fantastic Mother's Day this year! Nothing huge...just a great day spent with my family. We were all happy and healthy and the weather was nice and church was wonderful...what more can you ask for?! Nathan did get me some blackout curtains for Sawyer's room in hopes that he would sleep in a little later for me. I thought that was such a thoughtful gift! And he even walked to Costco with Sawyer on Saturday night in 90+ degree weather to get me flowers (cause I had the carseats in my car and was out with Violet). What a guy! I felt very loved and appreciated all day and I couldn't be happier about being the mother to these two awesome kiddos. There isn't another job in the world that would bring me more joy than this one! And thank you to my own mommy and all the wonderful women in my life who are such great examples to me each day!

Outside of church on Mother's Day

I can't get this goof to smile normal for the camera anymore!!

I know, I know...the flower is huge. But I couldn't resist!!

Violet turned 1 month old on Wednesday! She's growing up so fast, haha :)

I just love this little expression...hilarious

Sawyer Turns 2!

2011-05-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday, April 29th, Sawyer Rafe turned 2 years old! I can't believe I have a 2 yr old. It's so crazy how fast the time flies. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from his birthday. We had a super fun day, but I'm still learning how to juggle everything with 2 kids (and that includes carrying around a camera and actively using it). We were going to have a full blown birthday party at the train park, but I decided a week before that that might be a little over-zealous of me at the time. So we'll do a big party for # 3 next year. But we did have a fun little family party for him . Nathan's sister Ashley was in town with her two oldest girls, Macie & Marley. So Brooke and her family, Andrea, and Ashley with her girls all met us at Uncle Glen's amazing pool. We had fun in the sun all afternoon and Sawyer loved the attention he got from all his cousins! When we walked into the pool they all started singing Happy Birthday to him...it took him a second to realize that it was all directed at him...but once he did he soaked up every minute of it with a grin on his face! He also became ALOT more comfortable with the water that day. We have floaties that have a connecting piece in the front of the body...he's never been to fond of it up until now...but his daddy and cousins took him in the water a ton and he is now a Pro. He will even jump off a bridge about 3 ft above the water with no one to catch him below...he sinks down a little and the floaties bring him back up...he LOVES it! Summer-time...here we come!! After our pool adventures we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Larson's house for some dinner. It was a fun-filled day.

So a few words about Sawyer...what an energetic kid! He is still such a busy boy. Now add to that the typical 2 yr old tantrums and stubbornness...wow! I can't believe how easy having a newborn has been compared to what I go through with Sawyer on a daily basis. But while he definitely fights me on many issues throughout the day...I often have to remind myself that if I am patient with him and get his attention I am almost always able to redirect him and keep things under control (almost always ;) )...

And then there are so many fun things about this age as well. He is talking up a storm, and I can pretty much understand everything he says. He is so loving and will ask for hugs or blow me kisses or ask me to cuddle with him at night. He loves reading books now and we sit with him in his bed every night and read a couple. He enjoys singing songs, especially the ones with hand motions. We just started having him repeat prayers with us...it's hilarious because he whispers the entire thing so quietly that we can barely tell if he is speaking...then at the end he YELLS amen! He even likes going to nursery now (thank goodness). Sawyer LOVES trains...we have expanded his wooden Ikea train set and it now fills the coffee table...that is probably his #1 toy and the only one he will spend a fair amount of time playing with. He still prefers technology and anything that belongs to us over any toys. At the Apple Store the other day he was playing with an Ipad and the sales person called her manager over to see the '2 yr old promoter' that was navigating the Ipad as well as any adult. Haha...we are seriously in trouble with this one. He loves his little sister...calls her "Baby Vite...or Vat"...and tells her she is 'so cute' all the time. I am continually impressed with how quickly he learns things and how much he retains. He is constantly saying words that I don't remember ever saying or teaching him. He's a smart kid and full of life. I've c0me to realize that perhaps he can teach me a lot more than I can teach him...and I'm trying to follow his example and take the time to stop and smell the roses. As someone said at church yesterday...the days may drag by, but the years will fly by! With all of the transitions that I've been going through lately, that has been the best advice ever. And with that perspective, the chaotic happenings of my every day life have seemed to diminish and I am fully appreciating the joys that come with being the mother to such a sweet little boy. Happy Birthday Sawyer! We love you!!!!

So I bought the cake from Costco this year..but I did make the fondant cake topper!!

On the morning of his birthday we took both kids to the doctor for well-checks (Sawyer's 2 yr & Violet's 2 wk). Poor Sawyer had to get a vaccine on his birthday :(. He got over it pretty quick and was super excited about his cool bandaid. Here are the stats for both:

Sawyer (2 yrs):

30.6 lbs (80%)

36.75 in (96%)

49.5 cm head circ. (72%)

Violet (16 days):

8lb 1 oz (34%)

20.5 in (46%)

35.5 cm head circ. (55%)

Nothing in Particular

2011-05-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

Just a few more pictures from the past couple of weeks. Mostly the last week before my mom left us. On Violet's one-week anniversary we took my mom to Oregano's in Old Town Scottsdale. We love this place. It is so nice to sit outside there in the springtime. Such a fun little atmosphere. Both kids did amazingly well through the whole thing!

After Oregano's we made a stop at Buy Buy Baby to purchase our very first double stroller! We have been eyeing this stroller for a while now and since we successfully sold our single jogger the week before, we decided to go for it! If anyone is interested in looking it up...it's the Baby Jogger City Select. Pretty amazing actually. My only concern is how well it will do as a jogger. I'll let you know once I test it out! Below is a picture of Sawyer playing on this awesome toy at the store...a mini-roller coaster! If we had a play room I'd be seriously tempted to get this thing.
The day before my mom left she took Sawyer to the zoo! His one year membership expired this past week so I was glad that he got to go one last time. I'll probably renew it again but we don't tend to go much during the summer months anyways. Here he is at his favorite place at the zoo--the petting zoo. Giving the goats a nice brush-brush.

I don't know if Violet is quite ready to play with Daddy and Sawyer yet...poor girl!

For some reason I just can't keep this kid out of the fridge!!!!

My mom made sure to dye some Easter Eggs with Sawyer before she left. I'm glad cause that's about as festive as we got this year! He was a little disappointed that we didn't let him drink the dye...but overall he loved it!

Not the best picture of Violet but I wanted to show off one of my little flower onesies I made. I took a bunch of old onesies from Sawyer and added little flowers to them...so fun! (also, she super reminds me of baby Sawyer in this pic)

My mom went back home on Thursday the 21st. After almost 2 full weeks with her around, let's just say I was not a happy camper when she left! She made everything so much easier for me while she was here. And I loved having her company. I am so grateful that she was able to take so much time to come out and help me. Thank you, Daddy and David, for letting me have her! We love you Omi!

Violet's Photo Shoot

2011-04-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

Our friend Jamie (http://www.jamieharper.typepad.com) took some amazing pictures for us on Violet's 6th day of life. We just adore these pictures and are so glad that we have them to look back on. Thank you, Jamie!

As we finished up Violet's pictures I asked Jamie if she would snap one of all four of us real quick. I didn't even think to put clothes on Violet cause it was kind of a last minute thought. Now that I'm looking at the picture I realize it's kind of odd that she's naked...oh well. I was going to have Nathan photoshop a dress on her but who knows how long it'll be before that happens so whatever...there we are with our little naked baby.

Week 1

2011-04-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Violet will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! I figured I'd better try and get caught up before I get too far behind. Here are some pictures from our first week with Baby Violet, or Baby Vite, as Sawyer so lovingly calls her :).

Here we are coming home from the hospital. Sawyer seemed fine with the baby...until I sat down to feed her. That's when the drama began! Sawyer was so upset about this...he spent the next 5 minutes crying and screaming "Eat Da Booby!!" (don't ask me where he got this phrase from?!) while trying to push Violet's face off of me. All I can say is she will be one tough little girl. Thank goodness we haven't had a repeat of that scenario again. Overall Sawyer has done really well with her. He seems to be pretty indifferent most of the time. Occasionally he will try and smother her with loves and we find ourselves repeating the phrase, "Be Soft", many times throughout the day. The worst part has been that Sawyer had a fever the first night we were home and has been dealing with a nasty cold since then so it's been a bit of a challenge trying to keep him from sharing his germs with his little sister (not to mention Nathan and I have both come down with the cold as well).

She's been sleeping in a little Moses Basket that a friend gave me cause we can't find the poles to our pack n play. She seems to be fine with it :).

A cute little moment

Our first doctor's visit for Violet (4 days old)...thank goodness my mom came with me! I don't know that I want to take both kids to the doctor by myself EVER! (at least not until Sawyer grows up a little) Here are Violet's 4-day stats:

7lb 4oz (33%)---already regained her birth weight + some!

19.5 in (44%)---1/2 inch shorter than birth? haha

33.75 cm head circumference (66%)

Violet pretty much spends each day propped up on her boppy on the couch sleeping...what a sweet baby.

We had some visitors! Aunt Andrea and Uncle Paul came to see us Wednesday night and Brooke and her 3 girls came the following afternoon. Brynn and Violet are only about 2.5 months apart...they will be great friends I'm sure!

Jen, Isac and Tyler came to see us too!

Have I mentioned how amazing my mom is at playing with little kids! Sawyer was introduced to a whole new world of make-believe with her around! I was so grateful for all the time she spent with him...he loves his Omi!

Of course she made time to snuggle with Violet as well!

My mom grabbed the camera quick when she saw what was going on here! I guess this is our new life, huh?! :)

So all in all the first week went very smoothly. Recovery has been about a million times better than it was with Sawyer (including nursing...much better this time around). And having your mom around makes everything so much easier! I've been so blessed!

Violet Abigail Larson

2011-04-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

So the big day has come and gone and we now have a beautiful baby girl! We are feeling so blessed and full of gratitude at the arrival of our little Violet. She was born on Monday, April 11 at 12:02 pm. For those of you on Facebook, you have already seen all of these pictures. But for the sake of our family history and for those of you who haven't seen them, here is a nice little picture overload for you!! And for those of you interested in the birth story and all the L&D details...here is my recap.

I had been planning an induction for 4/11/11 for about a month now. Mostly because that is what worked out for Nathan's schedule and for my mom to be there :). I was induced with Sawyer at 39.1 wks and everything went beautifully...9 hr labor and no complications. So I wasn't too worried about doing it that way again. I was 39.3 wks that day and I figured if she hadn't come on her own yet I was going to help her out! The paranoid L&D nurse in me doesn't like to keep them in much longer than that...I feel like there is a point where the baby is safer outside of me than inside. So that was my plan. Sunday night rolled around and I hadn't felt anything other than irregular mild contractions so far, so I knew at that point that the induction was going to happen. This time I requested to be the 5 am induction rather than 3 am like we did with Sawyer. This allowed me a few more hours of sleep which was greatly appreciated!! We showed up at 5 am and my friend Whitney started my induction. She placed a cervical ripening gel around 6 am and within 15 minutes or so I was feeling it!! The contractions were already coming every 3-5 min and were definitely uncomfortable. I remember it happening much the same way with Sawyer. Whitney went home at 6 and Deanna took over. At 7 I was determined to go walk the halls for an hour (which is standard protocol with the gels). Nathan went with me and I think by 7:35 I was dying to go back to my room because I could barely walk through the contractions anymore.

(headed to the hospital--430 am)

(trying to tough it out...starting to think about an epidural)

So I ended up going back to my room to try and work through the contractions a little longer. Anesthesia had 2 scheduled C-Sections that morning so I knew it was going to take some planning to get my epidural when I wanted it. My doctor showed up at 815 and they were still back in the 2nd Section...I told him he could go ahead and break my water even though I didn't have my epidural yet because I didn't want to miss out on my chance for that. Luckily he said he had some things to do at the hospital and he would come back in an hour to break water so that I would have time to get comfortable. I went ahead and put in my request for an epidural. They were finally able to come place the epidural around 930 (thank goodness for modern medicine! I don't know why I ever consider doing it without!). My doctor didn't make it back downstairs until 1030 to break my water, so by then I was happy as a clam with my epidural.

(loved having my mom there during labor and delivery...something about a mother's touch makes everything better)

(resting comfortably!)

So when Dr. Walter broke my water I was 4 cm (we started out at 1.5 cm when the gel was placed). I was happy that I had made some change on my own before getting the epidural and having my water broken. An hour later (1130) I was feeling TONS of pressure and told my nurse that she'd better check me. And I was right--10 cm! It was baby time! Dr. Walter made it back over to the hospital pretty quickly and I only had to push a couple times. My epidural was so wonderful...I could still move and lift my legs and feel some pressure...perfect scenario. At 12:02 Violet Abigail Larson entered the world. It was a special moment and it was so nice to share it with my husband and my mom. I couldn't have asked for a better experience! (And I'm super glad I decided to get my epidural before letting him break my water...I may not have had time otherwise! Yikes!)

Giving her a good rub down! Loving that she's totally got Sawyer's big mouth! And I don't know if you can really tell in any of these pictures, but she had a full head of dark hair! (truthfully it was more of a mullet...super dark and long in the back...much shorter/thinner and lighter on top. I, however, am all for cutting newborn hair and evening it out a bit so that's what we've done since we got home) But we were seriously shocked at the color after having Sawyer come out with bleach blond fuzz. Who would have thought?!?

Silly Daddy

7 lbs 3 oz!! So I don't know if I've mentioned before but around 35 wks we had an ultrasound because I was measuring a bit small. Turns out so was Violet. I ended up having to go in for weekly ultrasounds and NST's after that because she was 10th percentile estimated weight and that is technically considered IUGR (intra uterine growth restriction). Everything else was totally normal and healthy she was just measuring small. Overall my doctor was not worried about her but we had to take precautions just to be safe. So needless to say everyone was a bit shocked when she came out weighing over 7 lbs. I wasn't so surprised because I felt like I was small with Sawyer too and he still weighed 7.15. Anywho...she was a good sized little girl.

Dr. Walter, Deanna, and a Med Student :)...they did a fantastic job

My mom went home shortly after delivery and got Kristie, Sawyer and Mia. Of course my mom thought about flowers when she came back! It was so cute seeing Sawyer walk in holding a little bouquet! I kind of lost it at that point.

So all of those tender pictures above of Sawyer meeting Violet really only lasted about 2 minutes all in all. He was kind of like, "Oh hey, baby...wow look at this room!!!!" Then he spent the next 30 minutes pushing every button (including the call light) that he could find. I've never gone for quite such a ride in a hospital bed before!

Mom with her two granddaughters

My mom and Kristie stayed home with Sawyer for the remainder of our hospital stay. It was so nice just relaxing for a couple days with Nathan and baby Violet...my girls at Estrella took great care of me and overall my recovery has been so much better this time around!

Leaving the hospital with our new baby girl! Excited to go home and be with our little Sawyer again!

So that's it. Violet's birth story. And life continues here at home. It's so weird that we are a family of 4 now...still surreal actually. But we are excited and happy and grateful for the many blessings all around us.

Before the Baby

2011-04-16T14:40:00.001-07:00

Before I get started on all the new baby pictures and the birth story, I'm going to throw in any last pictures from the week before. We had a nice little surprise a couple weeks ago when my sister, Kristie, told me that her husband had accepted a job offer here in Scottsdale! Wes will be starting his new job the first of May and Kristie will move down here with Jake and Emilia the beginning of June. We are so excited! Even though we've only got a year left here in Phoenix I am so looking forward to spending time with my sister and having our kids play together! So kind of last minute Kristie booked a flight down here to check out some housing situations...she wanted to overlap the time a little with my mom's visit, but she didn't want to be in our way once the baby came. So she came out Wednesday night (April 6th), my mom came Friday night, and then Kristie left on Tuesday. It was so much fun to spend a few days with both of them before the big day. While in the hospital on Monday, Kristie watched Sawyer for us so that my mom could be there for the delivery. It was nice to know that my mom had some company at home while I was in the hospital. Kristie was able to come see the baby on Monday before flying home. It really worked out so well. We were so grateful for all of her help as well...not to mention the fact that I got my hair done by my favorite hair dresser before D-Day! :)

So here are a few pictures from that weekend together...

We had to spend one afternoon at San Lagos swimming! Love that place!

One night we headed over to Scottsdale to check out the area where Wes will be working. We went to Chipotle and H&M and just walked around a little...

Just a cute picture of my little man chowing down on his chimichanga!

The next few are from the Lowe's Free Clinic that we took Sawyer to on Saturday. It was his first time and he enjoyed it for a few minutes...but then found himself distracted by all of the other fun things going on at Lowes...we might have to give him a few more months before we try it again.

My mom took him for a ride on the 'Choo Choo Rain' at the mall. (sorry all of these pictures are so blurry...don't know what happened with that)

Cute little Mia and my mom before church on Sunday!

I spent a lot of time just chillin with my little Sawyer that weekend...soaking in our last couple days together before baby girl made her debut.

One final Sunday belly shot (39.2 wks)

She's done it again...

2011-04-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Jamie takes the most adorable duck photos every spring. She took some of Sawyer last year and she's done it again! We have just loved them both times and they are some of our favorite shots of Sawyer! Thank you Jamie for sharing your talent with us!

We also had a few minutes for a couple belly shots...37.4 wks

My Favorite one with me and Sawyer!!!

(p.s. I don't think the picture above accurately depicts the size of my tummy. I was laying in an awkward position with my tummy muscles all tensed up...trust me...I'm bigger than this looks)

We got Sawyer to sit with me long enough for a couple good shots...even that was difficult :)

And a rocking horse...random I know...Sawyer was a fan

Sawyer's Skills

2011-04-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Climbing onto all countertops...regardless of how many times we tell him no....

Not only choosing his breakfast food, but setting the table as well!...
Saying 'CHEEEEESE'...

And caressing one's face like an adult would do to a baby...so sweet...

An Odonto-BLAST!

2011-04-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Every year Nathan's school puts on a great little shindig they call, the Odontoblast. The past two years I haven't been able to go for some reason or another. So I was pretty excited about being able to make it this year! And this year it was held in a hotel ballroom. It's usually a pretty formal thing and everyone gets dressed up and stuff...kinda fun since there are few opportunities for formal events anymore these days. I will say, however, that I was a little bummed to be 37 wks pregnant at the time...but we had a BLAST nonetheless! Good food, great company...and my hubby even won an award! That's right, Nathan finally got some recognition for the 'chipmunk' (personally I don't think he needs any positive reinforcement for that little habit) and for some funny comments he made in class. I guess I'll have to admit, though...I was a proud wife that night and he didn't embarrass me TOO much :).

Cute Little LadyBugs

2011-04-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

My good friends, Jen & Jen, threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago! They did such a great job and it had a cute little lady bug theme. It was so fun to get some 'girly' things this time around. Thanks to everyone who helped and came to help us celebrate!

Here is half of the invitation, lol. I thought it was so cute but didn't want to post Jen's address and contact info on my blog so I just cropped out the bottom half. Great job, Jen!

I wasn't too excited about any of the pictures with me in it, but I figured I had to at least post one to prove that I was there :).

Blue Man Group

2011-04-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

While we were in Las Vegas last month Nate's parents took us to see the Blue Man Group. Because they are residents of the city, they get special deals (like free ones) on later, weekday shows that don't sell out. So they got a babysitter for us and we headed off for the 10 pm show! Despite the fact that it was way past my bedtime and I was pretty tired...we loved it! It was super entertaining and we all had a great time. Nathan, especially, thought it was AMAZING. I think it really appealed to the ADD side of him ;). Before the show we hit up a buffet at one of the casinos. All in all it was a super fun night and we were glad to spend some one on one time with Ned & Julianne!

The Blue Men are silent the whole time...no talking...and super stone-faced. So naturally we tried to imitate them for the pictures!

I'm not so good at the blank look.

Drumroll please...Building 101

2011-03-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, Nathan and I took on our first building project while in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. We had been looking everywhere for a twin bed, black distressed, with storage underneath and for a decent price. Some friends of ours introduced us to a fabulous website (www.ana-white.com) that basically teaches you how to build all kinds of amazing furniture for super cheap. We are now totally converted to building everything on our own unless we happen to find an awesome deal elsewhere! It was so much fun just to hang out with Nathan for a few days and build this bed together. And we really were able to work on everything together! I learned a ton about building and I can't wait for our next project! (Now we just need a garage!) Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Just starting out...I was the designated 'measurer' and Nathan handled the Miter Saw.

Putting the basic framework together

Adding the trim...

Towards the end of painting we decided to build the head board to go along with it...originally we were just going to do the base. So it was back to Lowe's for some more wood! Isn't my hubby a stud?! :)

The headboard was actually super quick and easy...so glad we decided to do it!

Sorry about the horrible glare on the paint. Nate's parents couldn't figure out why we sanded the paint off the edges! It was pretty funny. We like the 'distressed' look...must be a generational thing.

And here are the final pictures in the room...we're still working on converting Sawyer's room from all boy to half boy/half girl...so I will be sure to post some pictures of the whole room when I get that done.

Sawyer LOVES his new bed. And I LOVE it too! It brings me joy every time I put him down...makes DIY projects totally worth it!

33 & 35 Wk Belly Pics

2011-03-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

I am quickly (more quickly than I'm ready for!) approaching the final days of this pregnancy. It's seriously crazy how much faster the time flies the second time around! We've been keeping ourselves plenty busy around here. Between finishing up some baby projects, cleaning the house, trying to do fun things with Sawyer, working a shift here and there, church callings, and attempting to maintain some sort of an exercise routine, I'm finding there is not a lot of time left for rest or relaxation. But we are enjoying ourselves all the while and we are all excited and a little nervous for the upcoming arrival of this little girl! We spent the first week of March in Las Vegas with Nathan's parents during Nate's spring break. It was a wonderful time and Julianne watched Sawyer for us everyday so that Nathan and I could build a twin bed for Sawyer. That's right! We built a bed! We are pretty excited about it and have just barely gotten it into his room. The next post will have a run down of that little project--so look forward to pictures of Sawyer's big boy bed!

Here's the baby bump at 33 wks while in Las Vegas

And here I am at just over 35 wks after church yesterday...

Baby Girl is actually measuring a bit small so we had an ultrasound last week and it was fun to catch another glimpse of her before the big day. We've got another one scheduled in a couple weeks just to make sure she's keeping up with her growth...I'm not too worried, however, because Sawyer did the same thing and still ended up weighing 7 lb 15 oz! I'm sure she's just about ready for her little growth spurt here in the next couple weeks!

Ow-ies

2011-02-24T10:03:00.001-08:00

Sawyer got a couple immunizations yesterday and he wanted everyone to know about his 'ow-ies'. And I'm not joking when I say that I think we heard the word 'ow-ies' at least 30 times yesterday afternoon. He's a funny kid.

Birthday, Valentines, and my 'not so little anymore' Sawyer

2011-02-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

WARNING: This is a MASSIVE post. Not only do I have a month to catch up on, but I've decided to write an update on Sawyer as well. Feel free to skip over that if you want to...it's honestly more for me than anyone else. I am working on printing our blog for each year to keep as a family scrapbook/journal so I've felt the need to do some more detailed (aka...wordy) blogging.

First off, at the beginning of February we celebrated Nathan's 29th Birthday! Here's to his last year in the 20s. That is so weird. We really are getting old, aren't we :). He was sick that day so we kept things pretty low-key. I made sure he got his Krispy Kremes, Baked Cheetos, and Beef Stroganoff and he was a happy boy. We just spent the evening at home with the three of us...and we had a good time.

The Low-Fat Lemony Cheesecake I experimented with this year! I thought it was pretty dang good!

The Birthday Table

Next we had Valentine's Day. Again, we didn't do much. On Saturday night we went to Chipotle and Yogurtology with Sawyer and had a great time. We kind of feel like Valentine's Day for us is more of a family occasion because we celebrate our anniversary and Nathan's birthday in the couple weeks leading up to it...so by the time we get to Valentine's Day we feel like we've had enough 'us' time. So Sawyer got his heart-shaped balloon (a tradition my mom started and which Sawyer LOVED), and we ordered a heart-shaped pizza (a tradition Nathan started the first Valentine's Day that we were dating). We then had ice cream and strawberries for dessert. It was a fun little night.

And this is a week after Valentine's Day...Sawyer just loves that balloon!

So now onto my sweet little boy...

It’s been awhile since I’ve written an update on Sawyer. I’m afraid that he’s growing

up too fast and before I know it, I’ll be looking back on this time wondering where

it went! So I guess I should at least try to preserve his toddler years in pictures and

words. After several weeks of being sick (more like months—toddlers really know

how to find all the germs in town!), we are all starting to feel more like ourselves

again and with that comes an increased appreciation for all of the many ways that

we are blessed each day.

When my little Sawyer is well rested and healthy, he really is such a joy to be

around. He has been communicating so much more this past month. There aren’t

many words that he won’t try and repeat after you. And he definitely makes an

attempt to relay his thoughts about everything…it’s just a matter of being able to

understand what those dang words are! But I’m getting better at recognizing the

words and he’s getting better at saying them, so I figure it won’t be too long before

we’re able to carry on a conversation.

This is one kid who knows what he wants! Let’s just say that we’ve had several

sneak peeks into that wonderful world known as the “terrible twos’. His LEAST

favorite things to do: go back inside the house, sit in the shopping cart, go shopping

at all, go to Nursery (only cause it’s in the middle of nap time), hold mommy’s

hand while going down the stairs (or ever for that matter), and let’s not forget…be

told ‘NO’. Fortunately, both Sawyer and parents are slowly learning how to deal

with these situations…and for all those other times, well, thank goodness we’re not

2 years old forever .

On a more positive note, Sawyer has a lot of FAVORITE things to do as well. These

include going to the park, ransacking the library bookshelves, playing ‘horsey’ with

daddy, watching ‘Mo-mo” (elmo), pushing buttons—literally anything electronic,

playing with his ‘Choo-choo Rain’, watching the ‘woof woof’ outside the window,

buckling himself into his booster seat, climbing the shelves of the pantry, hiding in

the fridge, saying ‘bye bye’ to pretty much anything (including the toilet paper he so

lovingly flushes down the toilet while saying ‘bye bye stinkies’…hasn’t quite grasped

what stinkies really are yet), watching videos of himself or other kids he knows, re-

discovering all of the baby gadgets that we are slowly bringing back out for the next

one, giving hugs & kisses, going up and down the stairs all by himself (with mommy

following closely), using keys to ‘unlock’ anything that looks like a keyhole, and

recognizing anything and everything that might be considered an ‘owie’ or might

cause an ‘owie’.

Some favorite foods include: ‘tot dogs’ (turkey dogs), ‘sheese’ (cheese), ANY

fruit, ‘mees’ (broccoli/trees), carrots, fruit snacks, milk, ‘Shjooce’ (juice), yogurt,

cereal, and of course chocolate or candy of any variety. He pretends to like my trail

mix but I’m pretty sure he just picks all of the M&M’s out of the bag. Overall we’ve

gotten pretty lucky with this one…for the most part he will eat whatever Nathan and

I are eating for dinner. He’s not too picky but he definitely has his favorites.

Sawyer takes one nap in the afternoons (in his big boy bed) and generally sleeps for

about 2-3 hours. I will so miss those naps one day! He’s always been a good sleeper

at night, too, and continues to get in about 12 hrs each night. Although lately we’ve

seen a little more manipulation out of him when it comes to bedtime …he will say

and do anything to postpone it if he can!

While his energy level is seriously out of control and he is CONSTANTLY learning

something new and finding something else to get into…he’s a happy kid and super

sweet. He loves to play and laugh, give hugs, and even fold his arms for prayers!

He is going to be such a good ‘big brother’ in a couple months. He loves babies and

as long as we can teach him to be ‘gentle’ I think his little sister will love him too.

Nathan and I constantly find ourselves looking at him in amazement…wondering

how we got such a cute kid! I’m so grateful to have him as my little buddy

everyday…so grateful that I get to stay home with him. Working my Friday night

shift each week makes me even more grateful for that! We love him so much and he

brings us joy and happiness everyday.

I just went through the past couple months of pictures and found a bunch that I never got around to posting. So most of these are a few months old...

You can pretty much assume that whenever Sawyer is half dressed, getting into things, and the house is a mess it means I'm at work and Nathan's in charge ;).

That bathroom drawer never gets old!

This was from Thanksgiving week at Nate's Aunt Sydney's house...they have a farm and Sawyer thought that tractor was pretty sweet. I just love this picture!

Just before leaving for Christmas vacation...we took Sawyer to the Train Park in Scottsdale. We had a blast despite the fact that it was the ONLY rainy day in Arizona that month!

Don't know if I ever posted a picture of Sawyer and his big boy bed (this isn't the best one but it's all I could find for now)

Pretending to be a grown-up :)

Another Father/Son evening...