Brinn, Brinn, Brinni Boo!

Words can not describe how much I love this little girl! She is such my little mini-me! Brinn is such a helper and little mother with the other kids(whether they like it or not!). She is loving ballet!!! and also loves horses, pre-school, playing with Aidan, and anything artsy like coloring etc. Brinn has a very active imagination and  is always making up (interesting)names for her stuffed animals, hair styles, and dance moves. (More on that later!) Since I now know she is and always will be my only girl, I am trying to hold onto some of the phases and stages she is going through a little tighter! (Tear!)

Brinn on her 5th Birthday!!!

She loves puzzles and loves her daddy even more! I'm pretty sure she was in heaven in this picture!

Brinn loves all things girly! She loves to pick out her own clothes and most days we have arguments discussions about what she is going to wear. At the same time, most the time I think she has more sense of style already then I do!

Enjoying the summer weather!

Putting on a show!!!

                                                                        Oh Yeah!!!

 Love this girl!!!

Halloween

My oh my... Playing catch-up doesn't even begin to describe how much I need to post on here. My problem is that my pictures are being held hostage on my camera because I have no cord to download them onto my computer with and the card in my camera is too small for my card drive(or whatever the right lingo is.) And even if that were not a problem, I also have the issue of not really having a home for them. Our laptop decided to die, which was where we stored all our pictures. So now, even if I could put them on our very old and slow computer I have no program to put them in... FRUSTRATION!!!

But alas, the blog must go on! This is my journal! I write it for my kids! It's where I show-off all my favorite pics, record the cute things my kids say, and just a general day-to-day of our lives. I refuse to let this get pushed to the way-side any longer! If you follow me on insta-gram or facebook you have most likely seen many of these pictures... but like I said: This is for the kiddos!

I thought I would start with these Halloween pictures and work my way back... Be prepared for posting overload! We went with the Wizard of Oz theme this year as a family and had so much fun! We even won first place at our ward Trunk-or-Treat!

When I decided I was going to force let them to be these characters I realized they had never seen the movie... so we bought the book and have been reading it together every night! The kids have been so into it and I think the fact that they were going to dress up as them made them even more excited it!

Have you ever seen a cuter lion?

My Little (and yet no so little any more) Tinman!

And my individual pictures of Dorthy and the Scarecrow are trapped in prison on my camera :(
Overall, Halloween was a big success... now to start planning for next year! How do we top this??? Not sure yet! It was pretty awesome!

First day of school...

Aidan and Brinn both started school this past Monday.

Aidan is going into 2nd grade...


Brinn is going into Pre-K and goes 5 days a week for a half day. She LOVES it!


And I'm feeling so lucky because I love both their teachers and excited about the year to come! And stay tuned... next week I'll have pictures of Owen and his first day of school!

Owen

Owen... oh Owen! This kids is something else I tell ya! Owen is a ball of energy! It's really even hard for me to put into words what Owen is like because he is just a one of a kind! He is so happy and so fun but on the flip side is so much work and such a little trouble maker. He has tried my patience more than Aidan or Brinn ever did. He also, without fail, manages to put a few hundred smiles on my face everyday. He is the type of kid that you can just sit back and watch for hours because he is so entertaining. He does everything in true Owen style. With Owen, there is no walking... it hopping, running, or my personal favorite the sideways skip. Owen is a talker. He talks A LOT and wants to know "why" to just about everything. He has this funny raspy deep voice which I am sure one day will turn into sexy man voice. And he talks loud! Always loud! He loves playing with "the kids" and would wear his superman or angry birds shirt every day if I would let him. He loves the water and has become quite the water bug this summer. But most of all... he just melts my heart. Seriously, when I think about him I feel all warm inside I just love him so much!

Oh my oh my... Where has the summer gone???

Here are some pictures of little Tucker from the past 2 months (in backwards order but oh well.)Tucker is such a mellow easy little guy... seriously. He has brought so much joy and love to our family! A couple things about Tucker:
- When he cries, he cries for me... literally "mooooooommmmmm."
- He is a cuddle bug and while this makes it harder to get things done around the house... oh well. He won't let me sit and snuggle him for hours and hours forever. (In fact as I type this right now he is snuggled in my arms.)
- He only wakes up once in the night to eat... and then normally snuggles in bed with me the rest of the night ;)
- Doesn't mind lots of noise...which is a good thing in this crazy house.
- He loves to be swaddled.
- From the very first day he was born I felt like the baby whisperer with him. I just seemed to know what he needed, what he liked, how to calm him down, etc. Maybe it's just because I am more practiced in my mothering skills.

Tucker Grant Larson

Here are a few pictures of out newest little guy Tucker Grant... We are so blessed!

Our Garden...

We have talked for a couple of years about wanting to start a garden... so we decided this was the year! The kids were SO excited about it and so far it really has been a fun family project and exciting to watching our little seeds grow and grow!Planting our seeds...

Moving our little sprouts into bigger cups...
Owen showing off Dad's new planter beds!
A group effort to get this thing up and running...
And here is our garden a few weeks later...

Tired Kids

This was a few months ago... but needless to say this is how my kids look many times when we come home from Grandma's and Grandpa's on the weekend.
And then often times... lucky me... get's to haul them into the house by myself.
Sweet Dreams Kiddos!!!

While the first graders away... the kids will play

First Bloom

We have the most gorgeous rose bush in our front yard... This was first bloom of the season! Love spring!

Looking Forward!!!

My oh my... it's been awhile again since I last wrote. So just to help you understand why I have been such a blogging slacker I submit the following photos:

Everyone had the flu, including Aidan twice! And when I say everyone, I'm including both David and I in that...



Aidan had some weird rash.. ended up being fifths disease. (It sounds worse than it is.) It's actually very common and besides the rash he had no other symptoms.


Owen had strep, or what we thought was strep, with a fever up to 103.6. He was miserable! The doctor put him on meds while he sent his culture away to be tested. He then called back two days later to say it had come back negative and to stop the antibiotic. Luckily by that time he had started to feel better. I'm wondering if he also had fifths disease and just had somewhat different symptoms... although he did have lightly pink cheeks for about 2 days before fever/sore throat.

And on another fun note.. we had to completely replace the transmission in our van... gotta love car problems. They are always so much fun!

So, needless to say, we are looking forward to some healthier (knock on wood) and exciting times ahead (Uncle Austin coming home, family in town, and let's not forget baby brother will be making his arrival in June:) )

Happy Birthday Little Buddy!

Can't believe my little guy is 2... Where does the time go?







Owen is so full of life and personality. He can be so naughty, on purpose, but will then turn to me and smile with that little grin of his and my heart just melts. (He does however, spend a fare amount of time in time-out;)) He never walks anywhere... it's always a skip, hop, run, or jump. He will talk your ear off and I'm finally getting to the point where I can understand a lot of it. He loves singing, being one of the big kids (or so he thinks,) nursery at church, balls, and his monkey (which he chews on while he is falling asleep.) It is hard to put into words just how FUN and CRAZY Owen is... but spend five minutes with him and you will understand. I am truly so blessed to be his mom, or momma, as he calls me. Can't wait to see what the future holds for this little guy... I'm sure it's larger than life!

Guess who is binki free...

This guy...

But on the flip side, he now wakes up every morning at about 4:15 for the day.... AAAahhhhh!!!

Owen also thinks he's a big kid now. HHHumm...I say maybe not big but definitely a kid... not my little baby any more!

Remember this picture?

Today that pile of wood looks like this... after many many hours of hard work by my awesome hubby. (Well, lets not leave me out. I know for sure I screwed in at least 3 or 4 screws and helped sand a little ;)

It's got a lot character and I love that about it even more! So now, come for dinner. We have plenty of room for everyone.