A Froggy Friend

A few months back, we received a special package in the mail from England. It's always fun to get mail that's not asking for money, and something from "across the pond" is especially exciting.

A month before Eric returned from his mission, my mom and I spent a month in Europe and were delighted to spend a week or two with some "cousins" that share a family history line way back when. These adorable ladies gave us the town tour, opened their homes and hearts to us, and charmed us with their spunk. We still keep in contact, mostly through letters and Christmas cards. After receiving last year's Christmas card and realizing I had added a baby girl to the family, Janet hand smocked a beautiful dress for her.

isn't this adorable?

Apparently her craftiness didn't end there, as this most recent package including a homemade frog dressed in English pantaloons and bonnet that is practically the same height as Alyssa. It's now a faithful froggy friend with her own special place in Alyssa's room.

Don't worry, I've been crafting it up myself. Christmas ornaments, a quilt, a some fabulous SHOES. Posts to come!

Halloween Wizardy

So, I have a master's degree in education. That's cool. But the really cool part? My graduation robes.

Yes, I'm 8 months pregnant in this picture, thanks for noticing!

The minute I laid eyes on that robe I knew I was in Hogwarts heaven--hooray for Gryffindor! Somehow, I completely forget about them LAST Halloween, and ended up joining Alyssa as a fairy.

Not this year, though. I even got Eric and Alyssa in on the act.

Scotty took this picture. Pretty good I'd say!

I'll try to get some better pictures of the full getup. And the best part? Our costumes cost $3. $1 each for the glowstick wands, and $1 for an ugly floral tie from Goodwill that I painted. Awesome! I'll have to take a picture of the hand-stitched Gryffindor crest (thank you, leftover felt).

In case you can't tell from the picture above, Alyssa is rocking Halloween this year as our personal owl. Fits with the big eyes and screeching, I'd say.

My what big eyes you have!

Lest you think Scotty escaped the Hogwarts action, here is the costume he picked this year:

Nope, I didn't make this one! $9 from Kid to Kid

"breathe us fire, breathe us fire, breathe us fire, little dragon!"

They have dragons at Hogwarts right? Little ones? I thought so. I felt a little bad that I made everyone else's costumes, but really, I'm not that good so I never could have pulled of the dragon he wanted. I compensated by hot gluing felt to his trick or treating bucket. Now he thinks he can breathe fire :o)

Happy Halloween!

P.S. In case you are wondering, these pictures are from Saturday's trunk-or-treat at church. I consider it a practice run :o)

P.P.S. Don't worry, the Larsenland Nerdiness continues. We've already started constructing our annual Halloween Candy graphs in excel...

I {heart} Goodwill

I will now pay homage to all the mommy blogs, the fashion blogs, and the cute cooking blogs--you know, the ones that post cute pictures of fabulous creations, a month's worth of groceries for $10.24 or girls that look way too put-together and fashionable to be related to young children, let alone wiping up those bodily fluids and cooking/feeding/cleaning three meals (+ at least 2 snacks) every single day.

Yep, that's me, in a fabulously fashionable shot captured by Scotty, our budding photographer. His favorite subjects are usually his left eyeball and the back of his sister's head, but he sometimes makes room on the memory card for his attempting-to-not-be-frumpy mama and his stuffed animals.

Thanks to April and my cute cousins for noticing this fabulous dress. It's a shabby apple dress, something that I occasionally ogle late at night when I really should be sleeping, but would never even dream of spending $50+ for a dress that is guaranteed to be stretched, wet, and crusty by the end of sacrament meeting, let alone the entire block of church.

Hence the title of this post: I {heart} Goodwill. Dress? $10. Shoes? $4. I'll have to post a better picture of them because they aren't my usual shoe but I LOVE them. Cream colored snakeskin and super comfortable. Also scored on this shopping trip? Two pairs of earrings and a great necklace for fifty cents each.

Hard to beat that. Anyone up for some thrifting?

Still Crafty

My recent excuses for the lack of blogging are as follows: 1) haven't had the camera out much and posts without pictures are lame. 2) Alyssa is a climbing monkey who keeps me hopping all day long 3) life isn't always exciting as a stay at home mom 4) I've been busy doing fun stuff instead of writing about it!

Ok, ok, I just made all of those reasons up. The real reason I haven't been blogging is that football season just started, and we invested in cable. I mean, I'm helping Scotty memorize the entire Book of Mormon, compose symphonies with full orchestration, and recreate the entire artistic career of Monet. And Alyssa is fluent in three languages. Believe what you will :o)

For Alyssa's birthday I decided I wanted to make her a chair. I found this toddler papasan chair for $1 at a garage sale. It was great! except the frame was a nasty pinkish color, the fabric rubbed off when you touched it, and there was a gaping hole on the bottom.

click to see this bigger

Here's what I came up with. I made the cover removable (the top and bottom pieces are only connected on one side and both have elastic hems to hook over the frame of the chair). I figure, if it's not washable, it shouldn't be around children. I also made the top portion fitted so it would stay in place better on the chair and look like a chair even without someone sitting in it. And the verdict? I think she likes it.

happy birthday! happy climbing...

The Final Wedding

Well, the Great Larsen Expansion is over, at least for now. In 2010 we had two babies (both girls! woo hoo!), three weddings, and a funeral (in real life, not the movie.) We missed the second wedding, as it took place in Utah and I had a baby at 8:04 the next morning. I would have gone into labor during the reception! In my defense, the baby was on her way before those two had even met, so my timeline took precedence :o)

what a beautiful day with perfect weather!

It was wonderful to be in Colorado for the final wedding--Eric's only sister and the baby of the family. I first met her when she was 12 so in many ways she's my baby sister as well and I have watched her grow up. We stayed up talking the night before the wedding and it made me remember all the conversations we've had over the past seven eight years. It was beautiful to be in the temple with his whole family, though I had to be careful not to make eye contact with mom, Bekah, or April because I kept tearing up. Being a mom has made me such a softie!

Bekah's bridesmaids were nice enough to watch the kids during the sealing, so we rushed out to relieve them. Just as I had expected, I greeted one holding a screaming Alyssa outside the waiting room because she was so loud. Also as expected, the other girls gushed about how cute Scotty was and told me all the funny things he had said. Unfortunately, I had my hands full chasing kids around and trying to stay warm so I didn't get to wander and take pictures of the happy couple like I used to. I did manage to snag this awesome family pic while we were waiting for the bride to appear, however. (And yes, I said bride--Grant came out by himself and we had to send him back in to fetch his wife!)

typical larsen portrait: Scotty is laughing hysterically/maniacally, Alyssa is sucking on her hand, and Eric and I look hot and put together :o)

It was fun to have some quality family time during the luncheon and reception instead of running around like crazy people. Now that we have the hang of how to throw a tremendous wedding celebration, we're all done with weddings! The girls were tired by the end of the night, however, and transitioned from perfect angels...

to screaming angels.

Hey, MOM! Why are you taking pictures instead of picking me up and/or feeding me?!

We had a blast hanging out with April, Reed, Parker, Carter, Adam, and Ella for most of the week. The girls quickly became best buds and Scotty LOVED having his cousins around. It was a constant party and sleepover for four energetic little boys--we are definitely feeling the withdrawal around here as an exponential increase in whining. April and I, on the other hand, had a blast staying up late crafting and chatting. Pictures of our creativity soon to come!

Personality

 How's THAT for cute outfit Friday? I never was into leggings until I had a baby girl...they just look so cute on her slightly chubby legs. Also, that flower was my spark of creative work a few days ago and I think it turned out super cute! Especially considering it's the hem of an old shirt and hot glue...

As much as I love snuggling my newborn, it's fun to see her begin to develop a personality of her own. This morning she was full of baby sounds and songs and I spent an hour just cooing with her (until I realized we only had 30 minutes to get the 3 of us ready for church!).

My favorite moment of the day: when she catches my eye and sees me smile, because her face lights up and makes a really excited sounding squawk. Adorable! I must be the best mom in the world to make her suddenly so happy ;o)

Halloween

I love Halloween. As a kid it was my favorite holiday--I got to dress up as whatever I wanted and everyone gave you candy just for asking. What's not to like? I admit that as a mom it's even more fun, as I have more people to dress up and I love seeing Scotty so excited about things. Also, my adorable baby girl is too young to have her own opinions about costuming so I got to pick :o) I think we make beautiful butterflies. Or fairies. Or something else with wings and antennae.

I was inspired by her "bug eye" look :o)

I added elastic straps to a wall hanging decoration and pipe cleaners to head bands...that's "making our costumes" right?

yay for getting to be girly!

proof that she actually LIKED her costume.

Scotty, of course, had strong opinions about picking his costume. We were originally looking for Dash (from The Incredibles, which is an apt description of him) and I even considered making it for him, but then he found this:

this is his "super hero bad guy" face

Totally worth $10. I love kid to kid. Eric didn't have a costume and rejected my offers to construct one for him. He tried this look, but I needed the wings back.

He ended up settling for a t-shirt and shorts, and I teased him that it worked because a Halloween costume is something you're not, and his shirt said "blood donor." He's tried before but never made it through--and therefore doesn't even know his blood type.

Saturday night was truck or treat at the church combined with another ward, so there were TONS of cars. Alyssa screamed all during dinner but promptly fell asleep in my arms in the back of the van. What a perfect angel! I handed out candy while Eric and Scotty made the rounds. After about five cars he told Eric he thought he had enough candy, but after he realized he could collect as much as people were willing to give him he was eager for more!

Sunday night there was a neighborhood carnival across the street so we ventured out to meet some neighbors and find out where the kids lived. We found at least one house with a potential playmate!

Of course, being the math nerds we are, we created not only our traditional Halloween bar graph charting the goods, but we compared last years loot to this year's. I find it interesting to see which candy got more popular and which virtually disappeared.

In case you were wondering, M&M's and snickers were on the rise this year, while Milky Way, KitKat, Whoppers, and Tootsie Rolls were down. Scotty's not too big on actually eating it, and he prefers the chewy and hard candies as opposed to chocolate, so Eric and I are having a good time with the bucket currently sitting in our pantry. We're excited for next year!

P.S. Eric, if you don't dress up, you don't get any candy. I'm not exempting you from THE RULE next year...

Learning to Pose

No, I didn't forget cute outfit friday. I just was a little preoccupied last week with potty training. Yes, that's right, Scotty is finally potty trained! I say finally because he turned 3 a few months ago and also because I spent weeks working with him at the beginning of the year with no progress. This time around it took 3 days and he caught right on. He hasn't had an accident in two days, including naps and nighttime so I think we're in great shape! He still had no interest or motivation to be "a big kid" but cutting out the diapers completely seemed to work fine.

Friday night we took him out to Red Robin to celebrate. It ended up being a dinner full of miscues as Alyssa was hysterical. Eric scarfed his food down while I held/rocked/bounced a fussy baby and when we attempted to switch she started screaming. Eric ended up taking her out to sit and wait in the car while Scotty and I finished. Of course, that was when Scotty decided he needed to get to a bathroom right then so I grabbed my diaper bag and hustled him to the bathroom. Fortunately I caught out waiter's eye on the way and told him we'd be back, as I didn't want them clearing our table or thinking we'd skipped out without paying! Overall a nice evening out as a family....or something like that! Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from going crazy.

And now for Cute Outfit Friday, featuring both Larsen ladies. Our blog also got a new look so if you're reading this via email or RSS feed pop over and let me know what you think!

out and about--before she got crazy

"what are you lookin' at?" - strike a pose

"hey look! i'm still cute!"

"not so sure about this..."

"ok, just kidding, i still like you mom"

adding a little flair

her best attempt at a sassy face

kissy face (hmm, I'm starting to remind myself of TAMN)

the Larsen girls. I think her eyebrows are the same shape and color as my mom's...

My "cute outfit friday" only it was Sunday...

On Saturday I took some "me time" and checked out a local craft boutique. I decided I needed an update to prevent frump mom from setting in so I got a trendy little fabric headband (click on the picture to see it larger). Coming in handy already as those baby fists snatch my hair tightly and don't let go! I also picked out a gorgeous necklace and bracelet that Eric is giving me for Christmas :o) He considers it a win-win situation as I get exactly what I want and he doesn't have to stress about finding the perfect gift amidst busy days at work and traveling. The only downside is that I don't get to show them off for a few more months!

A Mother's Reward

 First things first, here is cute outfit Friday. This was actually Sunday but it's the last newborn thing that fits so I had to document it :o) And I left my feet in the picture because 1) my toenails match and 2) you can see what size she actually is. Though she is growing so fast she's starting to feel heavy to carry around! She has her 2 month checkup on Monday so we'll get the official weight but I think she's at least 11 pounds already.

Also, here is a mother's reward for the first two months of constant nursing and little sleeping: sweet baby songs and smiles.

thinking i'm pretty interesting

oh look, a doggie!

ok, what were you saying mom?

a cute smile!

how about a REALLY big one?

just to prove it's not a fluke....plus i'm a cute little monkey

  I also have to get Scotty in on the cute outfit Friday action because I found the perfect shirt for him:

 

He likes it because it has robots.

I like it for the caption. (click on the picture to see it big)

"I don't have a mute button." Isn't that the truth! Of course, his uncensored commentary cracks me up. I got a total gem yesterday:

"Mama, I'm going to be Batman for Halloween. But I think I'm going to be Hercules for Christmas."

Cute Outfit Friday

So my sister in law, April, posts a picture of her adorable little baby Ella in a cute outfit once a week. This is brilliant for several reasons.

1. Girl clothes are ridiculously adorable
2. Girls are rare in our family and we might not get another one!
3. I forget to get the camera out and take pictures otherwise

So, this will ensure that I at least get a picture of Alyssa every week.

Here it is, cute outfit friday. We celebrated the "finally cool enough to wander outside occasionally" weather with a sunshiny outfit.

 

Ignore the drool on her chin, she was sucking on her hands :o) She's almost always sucking on something. She still loves to snuggle, but often times I discover that she's been licking my shoulder the entire time I've been holding her...

 

I love this expression! She LOVES to look in mirrors and reacts enthusiastically to the baby in the mirror's funny faces :o)