Life Like This

So, it's busy season. Eric is on day 12 of working 19 days straight, Saturday and Sunday included, so that about sums it up around here. The kids have been great and well behaved despite suddenly losing their dad to the work abyss. Because Eric had to work last Sunday, he wasn't able to come to church. Of course, it was Stake Conference and I just wasn't feeling up to chasing two kids around the wood floor for two hours by myself, so we had mini primary at home. A few days later, I was reading Scotty a story from the friend about a girl who discovers that her new friend doesn't go to church. After a little tension, the story resolves by the girl deciding that she can be friends with people even if they don't go to church. I asked Scotty what he thought about the story and about being friends with all kinds of people, and he thought for a minute before replying, "I think that's a good idea. I will still be friends with daddy, and he can still be my daddy, even though he doesn't go to church."

You miss one day and you're out around here, apparently!

Fortunately, Eric had two weeks off for Christmas before busy season kicked in so we had time to do lots of fun things.  Like the train park (complete with 2 different playgrounds, a carousel, a train museum, and a train ride).

And the zoo, where the bear was actually moving around. And then trying to break the door down....

And of course, Eric and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary in best way we know how: college football. The Insight Bowl (Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Oklahoma Sooners) was played in Tempe on the 30th so we took it as a sign.

ASU stadium

We ended up sitting on the Oklahoma side. Up in the boonies :)

Cadets from the Air Force Academy did pregame jumps

Some of the few who stayed till the end! It wasn't a very even game....

Thanks to mom and dad for watching our kids overnight, Grandpa Woodhouse for the giftcard for dinner, and Grandpa and Grandma Gould for the extra Christmas cash to help with the tickets :) I'd also like the thank the Iowa Hawkeyes for finally scoring in the fourth quarter to make it more resemble a bowl game. we had a great time!

The Best of Christmas 2012

Larsen Family Christmas 2012: The Highlight Reel

• Homemade gingerbread house, complete with chimney and lots of candy sampling (thanks, mom, you are the best Nana ever!)

•  Christmas Eve Nativity Play, complete with adoring and adorable shepherds and their sheepdog

• Christmas Jammies!

•  Pillow Pets from Auntie Misty and Uncle Drew. Complete with handlebars for jaunty rides around the kitchen....

•  My dad made this cradle for my dolls when I was a little girl. I repainted and stenciled it and made a patchwork doll quilt for Alyssa.

•  Great time with family

•  a healthy sense of humor

•  and, of course, some really cool toys to play with.

Now, if only I can get my NOOK to synch up with my computer so I can actually use it....

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Capturing a Christmas Tree

To: whom it may concern, more specifically "color-specific" people who feel we Phoenicians deny our children of a "true" Christmas experience due to the general dearth of a certain "omnipresent" color that isn't technically even a color...

I present: The Arizona White Christmas, aka the Great Christmas Tree Adventure. Also known as "I don't think Eric will ever do this again but the rest of us had a good time."

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we piled the kids in the car with plenty of snow gear, grabbed our tree-cutting permits, and headed out for a two-hour drive to Heber in search of an authentic Christmas tree. After two days of constant snow prior to said adventure and quite the amount of fluff falling all morning, the original road was closed, forcing us to drive an hour farther north to the top of the rim, where we found beautiful frosted snow, plenty of trees, and even some sunshine.

It didn't take too long to pick a few trees and dispatch the boys with a saw and some clippers to capture and drag them home for dinner, err, decoration. Meanwhile, mom and I played in the snow with kids making snowmen, snow angels, and having a great time until Scotty finally admitted he was cold.

Merry Christmas!

I dedicate this post to shoes

As Cinderella once noted, "the right shoe can change your life." I'm not sure I'd take it that far, but this little project was pretty cool. I first got the idea from a craft blog nearly a year ago and was dying for the chance to try it myself. I found the perfect pair of boring heels for $3 at Goodwill, but never got around to fabric shopping.

Over Thanksgiving we were in Utah with most of the Larsen clan and the girls decided we wanted some fun projects, and this was perfect. Well, at least I thought it was perfect--a few of the patterns were tricky to make but we stuck it out!

Serious chaos

 Here is the whole layout. We didn't think to put them in the same order, so I tried to label them. Sometimes it's hard to connect the "before" with the "after".... It's a super easy project involving mod podge, fabric, cheap shoes from goodwill, DI, or your closet, and an exacto knife. Want more info? Click here for a flats tutorial, here for a heels/wedges tutorial, and here for the original inspiration. For what it's worth, we used outdoor mod podge because it's more water proof, and we decided that heels are much easier to make patterns for than flats. You only need 1/8 yard of fabric for a pair of shoes and it's easier to match up abstract designs than stripes.

Click on this to see it BIG

The guys were great sports about of crafting. Mostly because they were shut in with a bunch of computers playing Command & Conquer Generals for an entire day.

So, anyone else have a pair of still comfy but rarely worn shoes in their closet that need a $2 makeover? :o)

All I Want for Christmas is...

1. You (baby).

2. my two front teeth.

Funny, how these two are currently related. Actually for Christmas I want some quality family time. And a Nook. But for THIS week (early Christmas, maybe?) I want my sweet little girl back from the Tooth Harpy. Since that present isn't looking particularly promising, I'm preserving my sanity by finding the humor in the situation. Sit back, and enjoy some Christmas season melodrama. With subtitles.