Samantha turns 9!

Samantha turned 9 this month and because of all the crazy stuff going on, it was extended an extra week. We had cake and ice cream and she got some books and the black boots she's been wanting. She invited a few friends to see a movie and go to lunch for her birthday, but I totally forgot to take a picture of them! It was the easiest birthday ever! They saw the movie then Samantha wanted to go to the food court at the mall so everyone could pick their own meal.
I added a picture of Aaron on his crutches. He doesn't look thrilled, but it 's the only picture I've taken of him post surgery. There is also a picture of Carter playing on Aaron's scooter. If you were wondering what it looked like. The kids have loved playing on the scooter and the crutches. Aaron hasn't loved the fact that he can't drive and has to depend on people. It will end soon.

The Christmas Break that wasn't

We had quite a crazy Christmas break this year. I'll just give a little rundown on the events.
Monday: Ryan had fever and cough
Tuesday: Ryan's still sick so we can't go anywhere
Wed: Samantha is now sick so still no going anywhere. That night Aaron came home from a soccer game and said he thinks her tore his achilles tendon.
Thurs: Samantha still sick. Aaron confirms his fear and is set to have surgery the following monday
Fri: Christmas Eve This day wasn't too bad. Aaron had to work and Samantha was not totally back to feeling well, but we had a great time at the Stevenson's for dinner
Sat: Christmas! This was a fun day for us yay!!
Sun: Samantha and Aaron stayed home from church (she still wasn't feeling all that great)
Mon: Aaron had surgery that went really well. He was crazy coming out of anesthesia. Too bad I didn't have a camera to record the crazy comments and singing :)
Tues: Aaron is on the couch the whole day. Erica is out getting Aaron his scooter (so he can get around easier) and trying to fix his crutches. After the 7th store, she has success.
Wed: Erica has fever and cough
Thurs: Erica is worse. Aaron tries to get around as much as he can to help out while Erica is on the couch. The kids run amuck!! We have to cancel Samantha's birthday party with her friends because Erica's too sick.
Fri: Erica goes to doctor and finds out it's the flu (influenza) ugg!! Aaron and Erica spend new years on their respective couches. Thankfully Ryan and Samantha are taken the the Stevenson festivities and they have a blast!
Sat: Erica and Aaron still on the couch :)
Sun: All family (all but erica) go to gma stevenson's and celebrate Samantha's bday.

That was the entire Christmas vacation for our family. Our home is a total disaster and I think the kids watched more TV, movies and played more Wii than they have in their lives.
I wanted to thank everyone for helping us out. The meals that were brought, the driveway shoveled, the grocery shopping that was done and the kids that were watched. We would not have survived without you!!!
Here's hoping that the 2011 Christmas will be better :) (bring on the flu shot!)

Carter's B-day and Temple square

Carter turned 3 last week and requested to go bowling for his birthday. We had a lot of fun and it was fun watching Carter because no matter how many pins he got down, he would get so excited about it. After we went and got chicken nuggets at Chic-fil-A. Carter wanted chicken nuggets for his birthday and I can only handle Chic-fil-A nuggets so it was a great dinner! Then he opened presents and had cake. He got a pillow pet. He's been asking for one for sooo long so he was super excited about it.
Then next night we went to Temple square with the Larson crew. We ate at Gateway then saw the lights. We chose a weeknight because we don't love crowds and it was perfect. We took Trax to the temple and the kids thought that was really fun. We are really enjoying the holidays this year with our families. We plan to keep some of the traditions we made while living away from family, but are excited about adding some some new (and old) traditions with our extended families!

new books

Well, my original plan was to read one book a month, but we moved and life got in the way. So I just do the best I can. I actually have been reading lately and I did read two books over the summer, but both of them were not to my liking so I didn't finish them. They were the Zoo Keepers Wife and The time Travelers Wife. Apparently I don't like books that are about someones wife-go figure. So after reading those two flops, I decided to read a book I know wouldn't disappoint--Anne of Green Gables. Such a great book. And because I've seen the movie a million times, it was fun to compare and see what they changed from the book. I also read The Help. I really liked this book and luckily went into it knowing nothing about it. I do love doing that with books and movies. It makes them so much more fun to see or read. So I recommend that book to anyone. Finally, I just finished Mockingjay. I have loved the Hunger Games series, but I still love the first book the best. It was hard because I read the books right as they came out so it was difficult to remember little details from the previous books. I'm sure that would have made the book that much better. I do recommend that series to everyone also, but since I was on a waiting list of over 1000 at the library, I'm sure most have read it also. Well, I hope to get back in the habit of reading more, but who knows what's just around the corner!

Halloween

I hope all of you out there had a fun halloween. Even though it was raining, my kids braved the elements and came out with far more candy than they needed. We also only had four groups come to our door so we had a ton of leftover candy at the house. This is not good because little chocolate bars are so easy to just pop in your mouth all throughout the day!


This is Carter's popsicle costume. We had so many other options for him, but he insisted on being a blue popsicle. So this was quickly made about an hour before trick or treating. Because it was raining, the costume didn't last all that long, but Carter was ready to come home anyway!


Ryan was a vampire. We would have sprayed his hair black, but the rain kept us from wanting to do that this year. Thus you have a blond vampire. Edward's hair wasn't black and he still looked good, right??


Samantha chose to be Spiderella this year again. We've moved so nobody saw it last year (unless you saw it on my blog). I was happy to not have to come up with a costume for her and she was happy to wear it.

Disneyland

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago and had a great and exhausting time! We stopped in Las Vegas and stayed with friends from Tennessee then went on to Disneyland. We spent four days there so we were able to do all the things we wanted without rushing through things. We loved it and can't wait to go back again someday.

It actually worked!

We recently inherited a kitty from the neighbors when they moved and I told the kids they could have it as long as it stayed outside. Well, just last week it followed the kids to school then just disappeared. After five or six days the kids were really worried so Ryan, Samantha and their cousin Ella made signs to hang around the neighborhood. I took them around thinking (in my so smart adult mind) "this is never going to work". Then a few days later I got a call from some random jr high girl saying she knows who took our cat and she would bring it to us. She never did bring it to us, so I did my research and found out who this mystery person was who "stole" our kitty. Then I drove to the house and told them I was there to pick up my cat. I have to admit that this house and the people there were...how should I put it... a little shady, but I just wanted to get the cat back for the kids. They gave me the cat and I surprised the kids when they got home from school. So the moral of the story is..... sometimes we are proven wrong by our children's faith in what can happen.

First day of school

The kids had their first day of school last monday and so far things have been going great! This is Samantha's third elementary and she just seems to get right in there and make friends. She loves school and it liking her teacher so far :) Ryan is enjoying it and also talks about friends he's made. He just loves the fact that he gets three recesses this year unlike last year only getting one. The kids walk home from school and Carter and I meet them half way. It's nice to walk with them because they get a chance to tell me about their days unlike last year when they rode the bus and quickly ran in for snacks and play time.
Here are some pictures of the first day.

Megan's Wedding

Megan got married this month and I wanted to post a few pics of her big day.

Here she is walking down the aisle with my dad. Unfortunately my dads eyes are partly closed, but I still like the picture.



Ryan was one of the ring bearers and he had to stand still the entire ceremony and I think he did a great job.



Samantha and her cousin Ella were flower girls and my Sister-in-law made these super cute dresses for the girls.




Here are all the boy cousins (minus Rowan because he didn't want to be in the pic). They are all so handsome :)



Kids can only last so long at a wedding before things get kind of crazy!

Nauvoo

On our drive from Virginia to Utah, we spent a day in Nauvoo, IL. We celebrated Aaron's birthday there and then that evening we watched fireworks along the banks of the Mississippi. It was a nice break from the long drive and we learned some neat things about the history of our church.


Looks like my kids would make wonderful pioneers :)


In front of Carthage Jail


This picture makes me smile. Samantha is looking so cute and girly, Ryan is giving Carter bunny ears and Carter is "smiling" for the camera. He is on this curling tongue kick whenever you ask him to smile.


You can't go to Nauvoo without posing in front of one of the statues....right?


In front of the Nauvoo Temple

Last days in Virginia

I am finally feeling like I have some time to blog again! So I'm going to play catch up for a few posts. I told the kids the night before we left Virginia that there will be no fireflies in Utah so they better go out and catch them one last time (boohoo). This made me really sad, but had a great time watching them running around the yard catching them. I could never get a picture of the thing actually lighting up, but maybe I just need a better camera.








Here are the kids being "box boy and girl". They had to get creative with activities in an empty house. By the way, we had packers this time and after that, I don't think I will ever pack a box again. It was soooo nice! The only bad thing was that we had no control over when our things arrived to our new home. They were late getting there and our car just arrived today. Only 26 days after we left Virginia!! Arrrrggg!



Last picture in front of our home. We'll miss you Virginia....and Tennessee....and North Carolina!!!

Book #3 I Capture the Castle

Ok, so I thought I would read one book a month and so far I am a month behind. I feel like my mind has been so wrapped up in our coming move that reading has been put on the back burner. I will be flying to Utah by myself in a few weeks so I'm almost positive I will get some reading in on the plane.

So this book was read by my former book club and for some reason I didn't read it that month. I remembered most of the ladies liked it and I'll have to agree. There were some great parts in the book and some made me chuckle out loud (you know that's a good sign). There were a lot of things said that I just had to agree with. It was an enjoyable read and I didn't have to think hard like the previous book, but it wasn't mindless. So this is yet another book that I recommend reading. I have to admit, that if I don't like a book and don't recommend it, it means that it was so bad that I didn't even finish it. No use in reading something you don't like, right?
Happy reading my fellow book worms!!

Fortune Cookie

So we went to look for a home at the beginning of the month and came home empty handed. Let's just say that we have been a little stressed about this lately. Well, Aaron and I (and Carter) went to PF Changs last week for lunch and this is what we got in one of our fortune cookies.




Is that not the best thing ever! I know it says within the year, but I'm thinking within the next two months will do just fine. So now I am a true believer in the Fortune Cookie!!!

Washington DC Temple trip

Just recently we went up to DC for a temple trip. We stayed in a Hyatt Regency hotel (that we pricelined and only payed $50 for). It had an indoor heated pool and it was right on top of a metro station. How nice is that! Although it rained the entire time, we had a great time. Aaron and the kids swam while I went to the temple. Then the next morning the kids and I went to breakfast and walked the temple grounds while we waited for Aaron to come out. After, we took the metro and returned to the Natural history museum (the kids favorite) then ate at the Old Post office
I've always loved the DC temple, but this trip confirmed that it is my favorite. It is so beautiful and I'm sure it's even prettier in the spring and when the sun is shining. I'm glad we were able to make this trip because we will be moving out west soon.

Book #2 A Tale of Two Cities

This book took me forever to read! Even my husband was excited for me to finish. I read it back in 9th grade and remember liking it. Well, I did like it, but what I needed was my English teacher so I could really discuss what was going on. To be honest, I haven't read a classic novel in quite a while so I actually had to THINK about what I was reading!! (not quite the same as the Twilight series). I don't know if any of you have read this, but I do reccomend it if you are thinking of reading a good classic. I think the first half of the book was a little hard for me to get through and keep track of who was who. Oh, but once it got going I really enjoyed it.
I think my next book will take a little less brain power. I have to many other things to think about right now :)

Ryan's birthday and Ice skating

Ryan turned 6 last month and we celebrated together as a family. He really wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese's for his birthday, so we braved through a very busy chuckie cheese and had a good time. I made him a Lego cake because that is what he's obsessed with lately. I think it turned out ok, but on one of the pictures you can see that someone (nobody admits to it) took a nice chunk out of the side of the cake. Ryan got a lot of fun things, but especially loved the Razor scooter. I keep watching him ride and hoping that he doesn't come running in with a broken arm!!
The following weekend, we finally went ice skating for Samantha's birthday wish. Samantha did great until she had two big spills at the end and was ready to get off the ice. Ryan kept falling and falling and was all over the place! I found out later that he was trying to be like the speed skaters in the olympics! He didn't want to start at beginner; he wanted to be the best from the time he hit the ice! He came home with two huge blisters on his legs. He didn't complain once because he was so focused on being a speed skater. And we did take Carter out on the ice (briefly). He actually had ice skates on, but that didn't last long. All in all, we had a good time together and maybe next time we'll leave carter home and try roller skating :)