While reading scriptures before bed: "Why did God but angels and a flaming sword in Eden's Garden? Is it because those people stole the snake's apples?"
"You can't tell me to stop fighting, mama, I'm not a bad guy. I'm Captain Moroni, so you can't tell me to stop."
"You're not in charge anymore, mama. I think you're all done with that. It's my turn to be in charge."
When I starting running water for Alyssa's bath, he came running: "I need to help, mama! I need to help Alyssa get bathtized!"
Walking into my room with a very full mouth and chomping loudly, "Mama, I don't think you can make frownies tonight because the chocolate chips are all gone." Hmm, very suspicious....
"Nephi's not a bad guy, mama. I need to tell the bad guys to stop hitting Nephi."
With house hunting, moving, and juggling work and family, we didn't get to send out Christmas cards this year. Still, I hope you all know how much we love and appreciate having you in our lives! Thank you for sharing your lives with us. We feel fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful people.
Love from our family to yours, and we hope you have a very Merry Christmas.
I've loved the posts on many of your blogs that say: "here is the view from our house right now" and usually depict feet of white, fluffy snow and buried cars. At first glance I think: wow, that looks gorgeous! and Christmasy! And then I remember that it's cold. And you have to shovel your car out everyday.
My view seems better and better everyday.
Scotty hangs out in the cul-de-sac with his big kid friends. Today they showed him how to use a walky-talky.
He can actually pedal from time to time but mostly walks his bike around. He usually wears his firefighter helmet so he matches the big kids with their helmets.
Doesn't seem like Christmas time to you? What more do you want? Christmas colored toe nails?
At least here you can actually see them... besides, we took Scotty to see the temple lights the other week and it was cold enough that we actually got hot chocolate.
My mom commented that I hadn't updated the blog in awhile. So here you go mom, pictures I took in your hall bathroom! You would think she doesn't get to see this kid everyday ;o)
He's still Mr. Transportation, so I often walk into the bathroom in the morning to discover a demolition derby in the sink or a parking lot on top of the toilet seat.
In case the makeover didn't give you the hint, it is Christmastime in Larsenland! We are celebrating the winter wonderland by riding our bikes in the cul-de-sac and visiting the heated community pool.
Scotty loved picking out a Christmas tree and he brought home that little branch. I had to hook into his toddler bed--he wouldn't sleep without it.
While the big boys were out working, Scotty, Nana, and I decorated the tree. He picked out his own appropriately festive attire. He has permanently borrowed this hat from his Papa becuase it makes him look so cool. Scotty particularly loves the bicycle and tricycle ornaments and often takes them off the tree to store in the back of his bike.
He also likes to play the decorative Christmas horn...
This kid will eat just abount anything if he can dip it in sauce.
We've taken advantage of his robust vocabulary by teaching him important phrases, like "Nana is amazing! Papa Bri is cool!" Yesterday, mom had a new one to show me: "Mama is the best!"
Scotty got really excited, gave me a huge hug, and yelled: "Mommy is a bus!"
Yesterday I attended a regional NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association) Conference here in Phoenix, and it was a great experience. I attended as many seminars and lectures as I could fit in, wandered product exhibits and came home with a bunch of cool science loot (including an egg carton of rocks mined in AZ for Eric, the family's new mining expert). One of the main speakers was the science reporter from Science Friday on NPR and he gave an outstanding presentation on the role of science in the media...really made me think and get a little fired up about Americans who think they don't need science.
Over the past week you probably heard about the couple that "gate-crashed" a white house state dinner and heard "news updates" about a Tiger Woods late-night car crash, but did you hear about this?
President Obama, at a press conference on November 23, 2009: (watch 0:42-1:17)
"And today, I'm announcing that we're going to have an annual science fair at the White House with the winners of national competitions in science and technology. If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you've produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House we're going to lead by example. We're going to show young people how cool science can be."
Watching this I can hardly contain myself from cheering--it's about time!
With house hunting, moving, and juggling work and family, we didn't get to send out Christmas cards this year. Still, I hope you all know how much we love and appreciate having you in our lives! Thank you for sharing your lives with us. We feel fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful people.
