Our Company From Oregon

We had such a nice time over the weekend with Shan's parents and Bryce here. They drove all the way from Oregon and we loved it. On Saturday night, my mom put on a fabulous Italian dinner and it truly was to-die-for.

Our sledding adventure was marred only by little Maddie flying off the sled onto the pavement (middle of the street, actually) and getting a scraped nose. Yes, I thought my heart would stop.

Ward Christmas party and waiting to see Santa.

Peg brought us some fantastic books about Mercy the Pig and the kids LOVED them. She had to read them over and over. Last night, we had Shan's cousins, Cassidy, Katie, and Jordan over for dinner and had a really great time visiting with them.

The Dinosaur Museum

We took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point and had a wonderful time. It is such a neat museum with lots of hands-on activities for little ones. The kids really loved it.

SHARK!!!

Emma's Birthday!

It's true- yes, Emma is FIVE!!! How time flies! I feel like she should still be about 18 months old, but actually she is 5 going on 25. This girl kills us.

Emma has been planning her "Strawberry Shortcake" birthday party ever since she turned 4 last year...

I used a heart shaped cake pan and turned it into a strawberry. It was about the easiest cake I've ever done and Emma loved it.

The girls colored different Strawberry Shortcake coloring pages and added stickers. We laminated them for some birthday placemats.

Have you ever seen such a sweet bunch of Strawberry Shortcake girls? We made straw hats fancy by adding tulle, ribbon, and a strawberry pin. They were so adorable.

Our Daddy is Home!

Hello everybody, it's great to be home! (From Shan)

The Waiting Girls...

Coming through security...

Alex, Maddie, Shan, Marisa, Nana, Jacob, Ethan, Ryan, Emma, Jade, Jenn, & Abigail. Ethan made Uncle Shan a welcome home sign and held it ever so high.

Ryan trying on Shan's backpack.

Happy, happy Emma had a hard time letting go of Daddy.

Dripping with kids

We were a little worried about Maddie and if she would remember Shan. But she obviously did and she won't leave him alone now.

Madeline is Two!!

And don't we love her so. She is just delightful. Shan is going to be shocked when he sees her... in less than a WEEK, but who's counting? Since we are celebrating two, I thought we would blog about twos.

Right now, Madeline's two favorite things are pink and boots.

She loved her Noah's ark wooden toy set, all the animals came in TWOS! Here, she is holding turtle man.

My favorite two things about Madeline are her laugh and her lisp when she says s's.

Her favorite two foods are ice cream and Frosted Mini Wheats.

The two candles she blew out on her birthday pancake.

Her two favorite playmates (at Firehouse Pizza, celebrating Maddie's birthday last night).

Madeline was given TWO doggies- Blue and Sprinkles and was so thrilled, she slept with them all night!

Two best friends. She is my sunshine.

Our First Snowman...

First of all, I have such great memories as a young kid making gigantic snowmen in our backyard. So last week, we got a little skiff of snow and of course Emma and Ryan had to go right out and make a "snowman." They came in and asked me if I had a carrot for the nose. So I cut a carrot sliver and we poked it in the little guy. SO CUTE!!! It's okay, more snow is surely on the way...

Introducing Preston Chandler Larsen

Our newest nephew was born on November 29th at about 2:30 a.m. Eric and Jessica named him Preston Chandler Larsen. He weighed 5 lbs. 8 oz. and is the absolute sweetest and tiniest baby I have ever seen. He is just perfect! Both he and Jessica are doing well.

Preston with his favorite aunt...

Going home (I think they actually have the baby in there somewhere...)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope that all of you did too. Shan got to eat a turkey dinner and three pieces of pie. In his Thanksgiving email, he remarked about how much he has to be grateful for and I had to admire his optimism. He is full of stories about the wonderful soldiers he works with and their good qualities. This year, more than ever, I was grateful for our freedom. Our freedom has an enormous price tag attached, but I feel SO blessed to have the freedoms of democracy, religion, and personal choice in so many other things. Our country is truly wonderful and so are those great Americans we call soldiers.

We missed Shan here so much, but are really looking forward to a wonderful Christmas with him here. Needless to say, we absolutely can't wait to see him.

Shan on Thanksgiving
(he said they found the only two trees in sight to take the picture.)

Emma and Abigail (Jen's little girl)

Jen's gorgeous family

Miss Maddie after waking up from her nap (as evidenced by the drooping piggy tail bun.)

The Spread

The adorable Jessica (Eric's wife) and her gorgeous belly.

Baby Jade

Ryan

Ethan