The Larsen Family

Christmas!!

2012-01-12T07:20:00.001-08:00

We sure did have a Merry Christmas, full of all the regular traditions! We trimmed the tree which we were glad we even found the tree amongst all the boxes from our move!

We were able to make the Christmas cookies, these ones Addi did all by herself! When did she get so grown up?
And then of course Santa found our new house!!

Mom and Dad were spoiled by our mom and dad's!!!

And of course they had to spoil our children as well!
Sure was missing our neighbors!!! But they sent Addi another Harley Shirt which Addi is loving!!
More, more, and more presents, Thank goodness for those Grandparents, they sure make Christmas fun and special!
Trying to pull the kids away from the toys to go to church!
And then what is Christmas without the afternoon naps, snuggling, and a little movie watching!

Even cute little Pierce got to relax and enjoy his new toys!
Hope you all had just as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!

Brielle's Birthday!

2012-01-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

My cute little Briebers turned two the end of November! It was a fun little birthday that we were able to spend in our new house! Brielle loved opening presents but most of all loved diving in literally head first into that wonderful Cake!

She got an Iphone holder, for her to play games on my Iphone without hurting it, from her Grandma Kristi and Grandpa Brent! She LOVED it i'm pretty sure she thinks that her Grandma bought her, her very own Iphone!!
Her Grandma Terry and Grandpa Rick got her her first Baby Doll and oh how she loved it! She carried it around with her for days and would not put it down she loved the binky and bottle that came with and loved putting her down to bed in her crib!! I can't believe how big she is already!!

Mom and Dad bought her a Playhouse for the yard! since we now have a huge fenced in backyard we wanted the girls to have something to play with in it since they love going out there every day for hours!!
Our little Brielle is so loved! She brings every possible emotion you can think of to our house daily, but we sure love having her in our family, she definately keeps our lives interesting! She has been an amazing big sister and loves to dote on her little brother and she loves playing with, bossing and wrestling her big sister!! She has the energy to power the city and the eyes to melt your heart. We sure love you Briebers!! Happy Birthday!

Groceries

2011-12-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

So lately I have been spending more and more for groceries I know it's probably due to my increasingly larger family and a new house so it seems like every time I go to the store I have to pick up something else for the house but even so I'm kinda excited to read this book to see if they offer any new ideas for my shopping to keep my grocery bill down!! Check it out!

Code:

Fort Worth Zoo

2011-11-17T08:58:00.001-08:00

We took off for a little family time last weekend and took the girls to the zoo. We had soo much fun and the girls were in heaven! Brielle loved all the animals and had no fear whatsoever! The Fort Worth Zoo was amazing one of the best zoo's we have ever been to. They had zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, bears, lions, tigers, gators, cougars, leopards and everything else you can think of! We really enjoyed it and will be going back very soon! We are enjoying Texas so far but since we are still in a hotel we still feel like we are on vacation. We close on our house Monday, finally, and then our stuff will be arriving the Friday after Thanksgiving. We will definitely be excited to finally be settled and moved in!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

Of Course once again because of the move our Halloween Festivities had to start early this year! We carved pumpkins last Monday for Family Home Evening. Addi for the first time actually cleaned out her pumpkin, she is always very dainty and doesn't want to get her hands dirty, but we told her if she wanted to carve she had to clean out the inside, so she did it! Addi's is on the far right she knew exactly what she wanted and instructed dad exactly how it should be done to get the perfect face! Our neighbor Adam's pumpkin is next to Addi's and then mine is the far left and Jake's is next to mine!!

We went to the wards party and Trunk or Treat, thankfully they had it early so we were able to go to it before we left! Addi wanted to be Hello Kitty for Halloween and since they didn't have any costumes that I could find we made what we had work and while I was making ears we decided Miss Brie Brie would be a black cat as well, Pierce got a hand-me-down Tigger Costume from Mr. Milo!! They all were sure cute!
So surprised that make-up stayed on Brielle that long!
Cute little girls!!
Best Friends, Addi and Brielle are sure going to miss Isabelle and Anya!

Hello Kitty
Black Cat
Tigger
The kids were very intrigued with something!! Mr. Milo had a matching skeleton costume as his baby sister Pyper, wish I could have gotten a picture of them together they were so cute!

We had a great Halloween, we are so sad to be leaving all of our great friends, We miss everyone so much already!

Happy Birthday, Beautiful girl!!

2011-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

My Baby girl turned five today, She is such a beautiful little girl and although I like to complain that my children never listen to me and are naughty, she really is a very good little girl!! Such a wonderful helper and getting to be so grown up and she never stops talking, I think she believes that she has to voice every little thought that comes into her brain or she might explode, but sometimes the things that come out of her mouth just crack us up!! She has gotten to be so grown up she understands and loves the gospel and tries so hard to share it with others!! She has been going to a Presbyterian preschool and she tells me everyday that she always sings "I Love to see the Temple" and "Follow the Prophet" to her teacher and her friends!! We have lately been trying to teach her the concept of time, she has a hard time grasping that Grandma doesn't come for six more days or that we won't be going to the party until tonight or school doesn't start until morning and so on and so forth!! Jake and I always laugh because, for example we will say "Addi for your birthday we are going to Disney with your friend Isabelle!" and she says "Today?" and I will reply "no, tomorrow", her "tomorrow today", me " no tomorrow in the morning", her "in the morning tomorrow today!" I guess she thinks tomorrow is somewhere in the future and she needs a time limit on it! She loves to help me cook dinner and to clean out the dishwasher (score, I hate cleaning out the dishwasher, I blame my mother, the dishwasher for many years was my job after school!!) We unfortunately are smack dab in the middle of moving to Texas during her birthday so last Thursday we celebrated her birthday, she went to her last day of school and I brought in cupcakes and then when we picked her up from school we took her to Disney World and met her friend Isabelle, it was a lot of fun to be able to go to Disney one last time before we move. We all had a fun time. She simply is just a wonderful little girl, that I love and wouldn't trade for anything in this world!! Happy Birthday my little miss, I love you so much!

Addi's First Day of School

2011-08-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

So Addi had her first day of School last Monday! She was soo excited to finally be able to go to school and let me tell you she wasn't the only one!! I was very anxious for her to start as well. We took her to pick out her clothes for school and it was the first time she has ever got to pick things out herself and then go into a dressing room and try it all on and model it for her dad! She had a blast and she picked out her shirt, pants and her shoes. I'm sure it was a fairly warm outfit for Florida, but she just had to wear it! Her Grandma Terry also sent her some new school clothes that she was so excited to wear the rest of the week as well (no pictures of those, sorry, I guess that's what happens when you have three kids!). She loves school and her teacher Miss Stephanie and she says she is meeting lots of new friends although she can't remember any of their names!!

Of course I can't have a post without a few pictures of my other kids! Mr. Pierce is getting so big already!! Look at those chubby cheeks that are forming!! I've never had a chunky baby maybe my Pierce will be the first!!
And of course my ball of Fire!! She screams every morning I drop Addi off at school and she realizes she isn't going too, but when we get home she is in Heaven, she doesn't have to fight to play with her toys, or fight for attention and she loves that she gets out of the house atleast two times a day, once to take Addi to school and once to pick her up. Brielle just loves to go anywhere as long as we are going!!
My cute kids cuddling together before Church!!

Pierce's Blessing

2011-08-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bitter sweet day, we had the wonderful opportunity to bless our precious little boy, but it felt a little bit lonely since we weren't able to have any family with us, which was sad but it still was a special day. Jake did a wonderful job with the blessing and Pierce was absolutely so precious and seemed so angelic!! Both the girls sat quiet and folded their arms and everything was just perfect! Pierce was so handsome in white and he was so quiet and content!

We are two very proud parents, we love our kids so much and wished that we could have shared such a wonderful day with all of our family, we missed you all!!

Introducing!!!!!

2011-08-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

We welcomed the newest little addition to the Larsen Family on July 27th

Pierce Von Larsen, he was 7 lbs 14 oz. and 21 inches long.

This cute little man came into this world fast and furious. My contractions didn't start until 3:30 that afternoon but they started hard and 3-4 min. apart, I called Jake at work around 3:45 and said that he needed to come home from work, but after I hung up with him the contractions where unbearable and speeding up so my mom called Jake and told him to meet us at the Hospital and she shoved me and the girls in the car. We got to the hospital and finally got all checked in and into a room about 4:30 and I knew that our little Pierce was on his way and I was trying to get the nurse to hurry up and get me an epidural because I was scared to death to have a baby with nothing. I had the sweetest nurse that checked me and said I was at a nine and she was trying so hard to get me an epidural when all the other nurses were telling her it wasn't going to happen. Jake finally got to the hospital around 4:50 (thank goodness there wasn't traffic), and right then I realized that baby was coming epidural or not. Pierce was born all natural at 5:03, we were glad he at least decided to wait for his dad to get there!!

He looks just like his dad!! It is so fun to have a little boy!!!
The girls just love him and just fight over who gets to hold him, even our little firecracker Brielle just begs to hold him and is so gentle and great with him!! Who would've thought?

We are in absolute heaven with our little guy and he so far has been a pretty good little baby!

Our Summer Vacation!!

2011-07-14T05:17:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful summer vacation back in Idaho!! My little brothers wedding was beautiful and so special! The girls loved getting all dressed up and Addi loved seeing Janelle come out in her beautiful wedding dress and she still can't stop talking about when she gets married!

We had almost all the grandkids together the only one missing was our little miss Lily. The cousins loved being able to spend lots of time playing together.
Of course Addi and Corgin are always glued together and love to play together!
The wedding turned out beautiful and it was so fun to all be together!
Of course we had to do some boating on Grandpa's boat while we were there, Addi loved to ride and drive the boat and she like riding the tube until it got just a bit bumpy and then she decided it was a little scary.

Did a little bit of swimming in Grandma's hot tub!Then we went on a mini trip with Rick and Terry to American Falls to visit Amanda and Ryan and to see the Shoshone falls, they were so full and just beautiful.
The girls loved to play on the grass in Idaho because the grass in Florida is just not real grass and not very comfy to wrestle on!

We did a lot of hanging out and just enjoying being with family. Brielle loved her Grandpa Rick!!

We had a blast and are so thankful for everything that all of our families did to make it such a wonderful vacation home!

Memorial Day Vacation!!

2011-06-12T08:34:00.001-07:00

Jake had an off Friday that fell on the same weekend as memorial day so we had a long 4 day weekend and we didn't want to waste it sitting at home so we decided to take a little mini vacation with our next door neighbors, The Smith's!! We had so much fun we got a cheap hotel for one night and we drove out to Siesta Key, which was named the best beach in the U.S. this year, it was gorgous and the girls loved it!!

We played and did a lot of relaxing!!

That night after we cleaned up at the hotel we went out for a quick Mexican Dinner!!

The next day we headed out for another beach day and our friends the Webb's came out and met us and Brielle had a lot of fun playing (or torturing don't know which!!!) with her good friend Milo. Our little Brielle, as you all may know has A LOT of attitude which is very apparent in this picture!!
Milo doesn't usually appreciate the surprise attack hugs!!!
We had so much fun and enjoyed getting away for a little mini vacation, now we are just counting down the days til we get to go home to Idaho for my Baby brothers wedding!!!!! Only 4 more day!!!! Idaho here we come!!

My squealer!!

2011-06-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

Just thought this would be a cute video for the Grandparents!! Last night Jake decided he was going to watch the Documentary "Oceans" made by Disney. The girls loved it suprisingly and Brielle was so animated about it I couldn't tell if she was scared of all the fish and creatures in the Ocean or if she was just very intrigued!!

Easters

2011-04-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

We had such an amazing easter this year, Amanda and our new niece Claire came to visit and we just ate her up. She is soo precious and got the most kissable little chubby cheeks!! Addi loved helping in every way and Brielle just liked to play with her little toes she thought it was so funny!

We had a small little easter egg hunt in our back yard with just the girls. Addi loved looking for her basket! Brielle thought all the easter eggs were balls and she loved finding them and then just throwing them again, that is until she realized there was candy in them, then the claws came out she threw an egg foil and all in her mouth and ran to gather all the eggs before her sister could.

We had to buy Brielle her own little Soccer ball for easter, ever since her sister started playing soccer, Brielle spends the whole game devising a plan to get past us onto that field to get a hold of that soccer ball, hopefully this will keep her occupied!!
We also got three easter packages with all the funnest toys including a cute Donald duck that walks and yells at you when you pick him up, the girls fight over who gets to pick him up!! Thank you Grandma Terry and Oma, you always send the best packages with the best candy ever.Now all we have been doing is devouring every last bit of chocolate in site, me mostly, it turns out that seven months pregnant and way too much chocolate in the house does not end well!! Look at that cute little face chomping down on candy!!!

Enjoying Spring!!

2011-04-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

We are loving every minute of our spring already, Jake finally let me get cable a few weeks ago and I probably shouldn't let my kids watch TV 24/7 but the girls and especially me are loving the wonderful new discovery of Disney and Nickelodeon!!! As you can tell we love our lazy mornings watching TV especially when our buddy Milo comes to hang out while his mom is at school!!

Addi just started soccer, last week was her first practice and she was so excited!! She has her first game tomorrow which should be pretty entertaining but she loves it and loves being able to play on the same team as her best friend Isabelle!!

Of course just a few cute pictures of my little monkey, this girl has spunk!! She constantly has us on our toes! She has learned to climb everything, she climbs onto my tall table, countertops, the bookshelf and the very back of the toilets, she climbs up to the windows and stands in the window sills, and she has already learned to climb in and out of her crib! We can't keep her down she will climb anything in sight!
But she is still so very cute, I guess thats what gives me the patience from day to day.......

Jake's Birthday

2011-03-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

So I know that I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up on my year already!! I didn't want to skip over my wonderful husbands birthday back in January!! He turned 28 and I have to say is one accomplished man!! I am so proud of all he has done for his family and for his self! He finished his master's degree last year and went out quickly and started working and supporting his family. He has worked hard and made it so I don't have to work and get to stay home with my cute girls! He loves his job, and I think he is doing great at it! I sure love this guy and so glad he is in my life! We had a great birthday bash with a quick visit from my mom we were able to go do a bunch of fun things! We went to a practice at Daytona, did some sight seeing in St. Augustine and of course did a quick run to Disney!

South Carolina

2011-01-19T06:09:00.000-08:00

So after Christmas, Jake had a lot of time off, so we decided to jump in the car with Ian and Sara and go to South Carolina and spend some more time with our good friends the Stalveys!!!! It was a blast and we got a white Christmas after all. It only snows like once every three or four years in Myrtle Beach, so we were very lucky to have a day to play in the snow!!! Addi loved it, the only thing she was really bummed about was that nobody had snowmobile's to take her for a ride!!! She was missing her Grandpa Brent and his snowmobile's!!

I've never seen three grown men be so excited to make a snowman!!

One of the days we drove down to a Adalaya Castle it was right on the beach and was so much fun and the grounds were beautiful!!

These boys will always strike a pose for the camera!!
And yes Addi too!!

We had a great Christmas vacation and are now geared up and ready for whatever comes our way 2011!!!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-19T05:09:00.000-08:00

I know I am so behind, but we had a wonderful Christmas this year!! We weren't able to go home to Idaho for Christmas, and this was the first year that we haven't been home and we missed everyone terribly but we also loved having a fun Christmas in our own home and we loved being able to relax and enjoy our presents!! Both of our families spoiled us rotten as usual!!! We loved all of our presents and were so thankful for the amazing gifts. We took the girls to Downtown Disney to see Santa, and they loved it and Brielle didn't even cry!!!

This was Christmas Eve after the girls opened their pajamas!!! Every morning Addi gets up and says mom what are me and Brielle going to match with today? She thinks everything she wears has to match her sister and it is a total break down when she doesn't, I have created a monster!

Addi was so excited for Christmas morning, she had asked Santa to bring her a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. She came up with that all by herself and was so excited that was all she wanted for Christmas. So when she woke up she just about peed her pants when she saw that Santa had given her what she asked for and had left her a scooter just like her cousin Ali's!!

Santa brought Brielle a little car, that she loves she is on that thing most hours of the day!!! It always makes me smile to see them love their gifts so much!!

We were up pretty early, as is tradition with my family!!!! Look at those tired eyes!

We loved Christmas in Florida, Addi got a scooter and was able to ride it outside on Christmas day! It was a beautiful day, we took a walk and let Addi ride her scooter to her hearts content!!

Thank you all for the wonderful gifts!! We had a great holiday!!

Brielle's 1st Birthday!!!

2010-12-16T06:13:00.000-08:00

My cute little Brie Brie turned one on the 30th!!! The year has flown so fast, she has been the most lively, fun little girl ever!! We love her so much, especially Addi. I don't know if Addi was as excited on her birthday as she was for Brielle's, she helped me wrap everything and helped me make a special birthday dinner!! Brielle took right to ripping the wrapping paper, since she is good at destroying everything in her path!!

Her absolute favorite toy!!! Thank you Grandma Terry!!! It is the cutest old fashioned top, but it has what we would like to call a training wheel on it so that the little kids can do it to. It has definatly been the subject of lots of smiles and also lots of tears because every little kid that comes to the house fights over this little treasure!!
Well the one thing I thought Brielle would take right too was eating the cake since she is my little mess maker I thought she would dig right in and take real pleasure in destroying, but much to my surprise she was as dainty of a cake eater as I have ever seen!!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all of our friends. It was so much fun and so nice that we have great friends that live next door to us it makes cooking and and getting ready for 15 people soo much easier!! We were so lucky to have our friends The Stalvey's come from South Carolina for Thanksgiving and we also were so lucky to have our friend Jonny Kelley come as well!!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

We had a Great Halloween this year. Addi got to trick or treat on our Cruise and they did a Trunk or Treat in Jacksonville with the Call's and then we ended at the Annual Rollins Halloween festival with trick or treating down Park Ave. We had a Halloween Party at our friends the Alley's and then the Annual Fried Doughnuts and Charlie Brown Movie in our friends the Water's Lawn!! We had lots of festivities all before Halloween even started!! By the time Halloween came around we loved just sitting out on the Lawn (it was the first semi cool night in a long time) handing out candy to the trick or treaters, in fact Addi was chasing them down the street to give them candy, she loved passing out candy!!

Trunk or treat with Shaefer, he was one cute Yoda!!

Rollins Festival with Milo!!
Ian was so great to come over one night when we had the most beautiful sunset and take some adorable pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes!!

Hope you all had as fun of a Halloween as we did!!!

You've had a Birthday!!

2010-11-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

My little girl has turned the big 4, she is getting to be such a big girl and a big helper, and a very appreciative little girl! She was so thankful for all of her presents and kept saying, "oh my gosh, Grandma spoiled me!!" Which they both did, they gave her so many presents, that I think she should be set for toys for life!! She loved her presents and she was able to have a little Tea Party with a couple of her Best Friends!! It was like a dream come true to her she kept telling me "this is the best Birthday ever!" She wanted to dress up in her new Belle Dress and she wanted her hair just like Belle's, which we tried but this was as good as we got!!

I made lots of little treats and bought them feather boas, and then I left them alone (after a few pictures) to have their own little tea party and they thought they were royalty!!

It was a Great Birthday, Thank you all for the wonderful gifts, she is one loved little girl!!

Oh what a Cruise!!

2010-10-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

We just got home from our first ever Disney Cruise, oh the fun we had, this was my fourth cruise and I have always said that all cruise lines are created equal.......man do I have to eat my words!! Disney knows how to entertain!!! We had a blast, Addi was on overload the entire time, she couldn't stop saying "oh my gosh, I'm sooo excited" for everything we did. We feel so blessed that we got to go and do this, it was amazing!! We started our cruise by checking in.......

and we ended completely exhausted!!!!! But we had a ton of fun in between.
We had towel animals.......

A beautiful ship.....

We relaxed on the beach......

Celebrated halloween....
Got all gussied up and ate and ate and ate some more!!!!!......
Celebrated a birthday......

Played in the fun kids center.....

Oh and did I mention, met every Disney Character known to man!!!!

By the end it was hard to say goodbye, but we were ready to go home and see our baby girl again!!
We have the most amazing friends ever!!!! Tennille and Anson took such good care of our little Brielle and she had so much fun that she didn't even want to go home with us!!!! Thank you guys so much you are the best!!! All in all I would have to say the best family vacation ever!!!

10 months old!!

2010-10-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 10 months old and of course you know what a handful this little one is, but she is also this families sheer joy!! This little girl doesn't like to walk now she likes to RUN!! She is so silly and of course mischievous!! When I took her to the doctor she was in the 50% for her head and her height but she was below 10% for her weight she still only weighs 15 lbs, but that doesn't stop her from doing anything, in fact nothing or no one stops her from doing anything she wants to. She claps whenever she does anything naughty, she loves to say hi and yes to everyone and everything, she hates anything girly, especially bows and dresses, and she has full speed energy at all times!! We love her to pieces and she is really starting to be and Daddy's girl, wow she really is just like her Mom!!

This is how we wear her out sometimes, it sure beats chasing her around the house all day!! Sorry about the wonderful hair she just got up for the morning!

My Brie is a walker!

2010-09-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

This post is for my wonderful mother!! I can't believe this little girl, she has been threatening to walk for a month and a half now, but now at nine months old, she has really taken off. This little girl is my headache and my joy all in one breath. She is a little terror and as naughty as they come! She is into EVERYTHING!! I just about have a heart attack if someone forgets to shut the bathroom door because this little girl will not be happy until she is fully sitting inside the toilet!! She goes in there and dumps the garbage, unrolls the toilet paper, clears out the cupboard and then can open the toilet seat and with both hands and head decides she is going to find a way to climb in!! I find her splashing so violently that her entire body is soaked with toilet water!! She then will leave straight from doing that and will go to my table that has huge tall heavy bar stools and she will not stop until she has pushed each and every one of those into a different room. Then from there she dumps every last movie we own, off of the shelves and cleans out every last cupboard she can reach in my kitchen, she climbs in the dishwasher and has even been found trying to climb into the fridge!! EXAUSTING!! I have never seen two more opposite kids than my Addi and my Brielle! My little Addi is as prissy as they come, and my little Brielle screams and try to pull off her clothes when I dress her, not to mention the screaming fit that comes into play when I put a dress on her for church!! My Addi is a sweet cuddly girl and my Brie doesn't stop long enough to say hello let alone to get or give a hug!! I hate to say it, my Addi is so loving and considerate just like her dad and my Brielle is non affectionate and a mess just like her mom! I guess I have no one to blame but myself! My Joy does come out in little Brielle every day when I watch her try to master everything her sister does, she is such a smart cute little girl and I have never seen so much personality (or stubborness, again just like me). So I am truly sorry mom I now understand all of your headaches and where I got my nickname "messy tessy" because I think I have found a spitting image of myself and she is driving me crazy!!!

I'm a Big Girl Now!!

2010-08-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since I posted anything. I went home to Idaho for nearly three weeks had tons of fun and did so much and just enjoyed spending time with my little brother. It ended all too suddenly and my sister-in-law was just way too sick with morning sickness to start a trek across the country! So my wonderful mom, who is the pro-driver, volunteered to help and we started on our way not knowing how the drive would go and believe it or not it was awesome we actually quite enjoyed ourselves! I think it helped that Addi was movied up for the journey and me and my mom rolled out a foam mattress and made us a little bed in the van! Only Brielle got a little frustrated but she was quite the trooper! Since we've been home all the classes I wanted to take were all ready full so I decided to hold off until next semester to start school and all the Ladies that were going to do the co-op preschool with me all backed out at the last second, so our once full year has now cleared up drastically! So Addi is doing some swim leasons and we have just been going to the Y every day and enjoying having a car to just go out and do whatever we want! Our little Miss Brie who is almost nine months old continues to constantly amaze us. She is determined to grow up and she is going to do it now! She is one determined little girl. She stands all by herself now and she even took a few steps yesterday! I thought that Addi walked too early at ten and a half months but to my amazement I think my little Brielle just might beat her!

Addi is loving swim lessons, we signed up for a class that was supposed to have 5 kids in it but they only had 2 sign up and then when we started classes the other little girl hasn't ever showed up so lucky little Addi has had one on one lessons and absolutely loves her teacher and of course being the little fish that she is, she has done so well!

I have been looking to get a Twin size bed for Addi for a long time, this little girl sleeps spread eagle and everytime I check on her before I go to bed half of her body is on bed the other half flailing out and her blanket and pillow on the other side of the room. So I was wanting a bed with tucked in sheets and blanket and the bed big enough for her to sleep spread out with out half falling out of bed. I really wanted a bed big enough that we could use forour guests when they come in town but this poor little teeny tiny room couldn't handle it so I found this little Trundle bed on Craigslist and thought it the answer. I could pull out the trundle and have a big bed when guests are here and then roll it back under and just have a cute little day bed for Addi! It was just black metal bars that didn't really match the cute little Bed spread that my mother in law gave me so I Spray painted it with hammered metal spray paint and I'm glad I did, it turned out way cute! We tested it last night, I tucked Addi in told her good night and went back in to check on her before I went to bed and VIOLA still tucked in tight and fast asleep!

Daddy's Long Vacation!!

2010-07-09T05:33:00.001-07:00

Well, we have had a very long vacation!!! It was fun to have Jake home for two and a half months, but it was very stressful. Jake was supposed to start with Lockheed on June 7 th, pending a security clearance and background check! Well the 7th came and the background check wasn't through so they pushed our start date to the 28th and then to July 12th and we finally found out last Tuesday that we can finally start this Monday! Yay, finally! So our long vacation has finally come to an end! We played at the beach, city festivities and LOTS of at home tea parties (Addi's new obsession). We found every possible, no cost entertainment that there was to find in Orlando Florida! The girls and I have some excitement coming up very soon!! My little brother comes home from his mission next Wednesday so me and the girls have one way tickets home, where we will be spending 2 weeks with the family! Then since I have pretty much been without a car for two years, stuck at home with two stir crazy little girls, my uncle is selling us a very cheap but very nice van (I know!!! I'm NOT excited about being a van owner but after two years of nothing to drive, I think I would drive ANYTHING!) So after two weeks the girls and I and a VERY brave sister-in-law are going to attempt the 2000 and something miles back to the sunny state of Florida (wish us luck!) Then from there our lives get even more hectic! Jake is giving me my Dream, I'm starting culinary school, to be a Pastry Chef, this fall and Addi is starting a co-op pre-school that I'm organizing, so between the two we shall be busy, I guess it should make up for two years of sitting idle on the couch!! Well just a quick head's up on what will be happening in our lives! These are just some fun picture's of the last couple months! My poor babies hair grow's like a weed but just down the middle, so she either has a comb over or a mohawk or in this case when the wind is blowing....who know's what that hair do is!!

Our little fish, she LOVES the Beach and she LOVES swimming!!!
We had a fun 4th of July, we went to some city festivities and waited in some weird patches of pouring rain to see some fireworks that were pretty lame!! Then on Sunday we were out in our yard having a BBQ and happened to realize that they were shooting off a HUGE nice firework show over the Golf course right in our front yard!! Good to know for next year, I guess we will have front row seats and no waiting!!

A wonderful little entertaining Jumper that my mom bought for Brielle to keep her occupied!! We have since realized that this little girl will only be happy when she finds a way to climb the walls!!
Addi's many entertaining Tea Parties, Brielle enjoys them too!!
Our friends had a Mustache Birthday party!! So don't judge us please but because of the way Brielle's hair has grown in, we have always teased that she looks like Hitler!! So when our friends said they were having a Mustache party we just couldn't resist!!

Our cute little girls in their WAY cute 4th of July dresses, I never tire of dressing my two pretty girls alike!!
Sorry about the long post, but just a little of what is going on in our lives!!

My over-achiever!!

2010-06-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

My cute little trouble maker is growing up right before my eyes and WAY too fast. She is growing up fast but...... she is learning to do things way too fast. She started scooting at 4 months she was full fledged crawling at 5 months and now she just barely turned 6 months and is already pulling herself up to things!! I've heard that the second one grows up in the blink of an eye but I swear I haven't blinked yet....she just doesn't stop she goes and goes she is into everything and she studies everything her sister does and just wants to keep up with her. I didn't even get to enjoy the baby days and i'm starting into what seems like the toddler stage even though she is only six months, please stop I want to remember you when you were cute and not a terror!!!

There she is cute when she is all strapped in and can't take off to terrorize something else.
Just a cute fun picture of Daddy and his girls since he has been spending plenty of time with them.
Just a few videos to show my little 6 month old's talents!! Bedtime is already a strain with this age, but with my little mover it is extra challenging, I put her down and she immediately flips over and starts crawling to the rails and then she pulls herself up and screams, I found her like this and realized it was time to drop the crib all the way down, didn't think I would have to do that for a few more months... Oh well. Also to show the destruction that she leaves, don't tell daddy I let her suck on his movies, we all know thats a no no!

South Carolina

2010-05-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

We went on a fun little trip to South Carolina and during our trip we stopped by Charleston to check out the sites! It was a beautiful drive, in fact the entire state of South Carolina was the prettiest state I have ever been to, with all the Plantations and just the thickest green everywhere! In Charleston, we took a little boat tour of all the sites, this was the US Custom House, just a really pretty building!

We were able to see Fort Sumter, or what is left of it, it was a lot smaller than we expected but after seeing the history behind it, it was because the entire top half of the Fort had been blown off in battle!
We also got to see the USS Yorktown!
There were Yachts everywhere!!
This was the Bridge coming into Charleston.

We went to Myrtle Beach down to visit our friends Bryan and Rebecca Stalvey!! It was beautiful and just fun to spend time with friends!!

They were making these fun little roses out of reeds and grass, of course Addi loved it!
We had so much fun and just absolutely enjoyed our little mini vacation, before Jake starts work!! Now I've got Jake on an endless list of Honey Do's while he's home, he will be so glad to be back to work after I get done with him!!!

JOB....What's that, I've forgotten?

2010-05-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

While we have been in school Jake has kept busy with doing all the school work and trying to bring in a little income here and there with odds and ends like Internships and Graduate Assistantships! We made things work, but had to sacrifice little things here and there and had LOTS of help!! Thank you, we couldn't have made it without all of your support. I am so happy and so proud to announce that after many sleepless and tear filled nights, that our prayers (and I know a lot of yours, thank you for keeping us in your prayers) have finally been answered!! We knew eventually we find a Job but we were so blessed to get the exact one that we were hoping for, nor did we know what an amazing company they would be!! I am so full of gratitude and I know that our Heavenly Father has been looking out for me and my beautiful little family!!

Has offered Jake a job as a Financial Analyst!!! I have never seen a job so perfect for my husband. He is a man who has to believe in a company to work for them and lets just say Jake is a believer!! Someone at Disney that Jake interned with asked him why he would want to work for Lockheed?? Jake said "oh I love that kind of stuff" and she goes "WHAT?? but they make Bombs!!" I just recently watched Iron Man 2 and the more and more I find out about Lockheed I tease Jake that it will be like working for Stark Industries!! He is so excited to start work!! I'm so proud of him! I know through the whole job searching process he took a lot of rejection and abuse and he still kept going back for more!!! In the end it was all worth it! The best part of all of this is he doesn't start until the 7th!! So we get two whole weeks of just spending time with Daddy and the girls are just soaking it up, as am I!!!!

Family Visits!

2010-05-22T05:12:00.001-07:00

I know that I am really behind on my blogs, so I'm trying to catch back up. For Jake's Graduation we were lucky enough to have my Grandparents and both of our parents come and visit!! The girls and us were so spoiled by all of them and we just absolutely loved having all the visitors!! Thank you everyone for taking the time to come and visit and to make sure that we know that we are loved! We love you all and can't wait for another visit!!

Graduation!!

2010-05-19T06:25:00.001-07:00

Jake graduated with his MBA on May 1st!!! Oh what a happy day! We are finally out of school!! I am so proud of him he worked so hard, he was class president, graduated with high honors and was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma for his scholastic acheivements!! On top of all that he was still an excellent father and still always made time for his family!!! I don't know how he had the time to fit it all in but he managed to do it!! We love you so much Jake and we are so proud of all that you have accomplished!

Finally Family Pictures!!

2010-04-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

So we have been planning to do some family pictures ever since Brielle was born but lots of things just kept getting in the way so, since Jake finished school (FOREVER!!!!) last Wednesday we all of a sudden have plenty of time on our hands! Ian took our Family pictures and as always did a wonderful job!!

My Inch worm!!

2010-04-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

So it's bad enough that I have a three year old with the sass of a twelve year old, but I now have a baby that just barely turned four months old and thinks she is seven months! Brielle has turned into my little inch worm. I think that I have my work cut out for me if my four month old is already scooting wherever she wants to be!!! AHHH i'm sooo scared!

Easter and things.....

2010-04-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty fun Easter! I thought that Addi would be way into dying eggs for easter, but she got bored very quick so me and my friends thought we would do some adult egg dying so we wrapped our eggs in old silk ties and boiled them. They turned out sooo cool and a lot more fun than dropping them into a cup of color and then pulling them out again. I wish I had pictures of all the different ones we did but this one definatly turned out the best. So cool!

My cute girl's got some cute easter dresses from their Grandma's! These one's my Mom bought the girls just for everyday cute dresses. Grandma Terry also bought the girls some very nice matching church easter dresses but we have been waiting for Ian to come get some cute pictures of them in the dresses so pictures of those are coming!
Addi just had woken up sorry about the messy face and hair!
Brielle got a fun new Play mat from IKEA, it is just adorable, easy to put away and the toys velcro onto the strings so when they get a hold of the toy they want they can yank it of and play with it! Best find ever Brielle loves it and plays so well with it!
What a cutie pie!
Addi's haul for easter!!
Addi got this new Magna Doodle in her basket, her one toy she takes to church and just about everywhere she goes is her Magna Doodle so I thought this size would be lots easier to haul around. When she first got it she went right over to her baby sister in the swing and began drawing and then came to me and showed me her picture of her sister in the swing, I was floored! My three year old always continues to astonish me with all her drawings. She is a wonderful little artist for three years old. Now her letters and numbers lets just say those don't quite compute but hey you ask her to draw something, anything and she has it down. She is great with a magna doodle but you should see what she can do with markers!!
Jake's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Shaun brought their boys down to Universal Studios so we got to go meet them for dinner while they were here. Of course Bonnie brought presents so she was an instant hit with Addi but she also sounded and looked enough like Grandma Terry that Addi was immediately attached at the hip to her and she cried and cried when we had to say goodbye!!
It is always so great to see Family and we had an awesome night with them. Thank you so Much Shaun and Bonnie!!!!

4 months old

2010-03-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is already 4 months old! The time truly has flown by, I feel so horrible, with your first child you seem to document everything they do and every milestone they make, but with Brielle we were just enjoying her birth and then all of a sudden she is 4 months old and doing so much and I don't think I have documented let alone taken very many pictures! Hopefully she will forgive me someday and hopefully I will be better from here on out! Brielle started out a pretty difficult baby because of her poor digestive system but in the last month we have just been enjoying her smiles and giggles! We started her on some cereal at night and who would have thought it has just been cleaning her out and now she has a pretty regular system and all of a sudden we have a pretty chill baby.....atleast comparative to what we had before. She has been rolling over from her back to her tummy for about a month now and is just starting to roll from her tummy to her back, but she doesn't do it very often because she loves her belly! She is starting to giggle and of course the only one that gets her giggling is her sister she loves to watch her!

We were watching a movie as a family the other night and and this is how I found Brielle. So dang cute!!
She still has tons of dark hair but she is losing her hair along the sides and the back so she either looks like she has a comb over or a mohawk!
I threw a Baby Shower for my friend Becca and this was the Diaper cake I made for her. I made her baby a Tutu and I put it on the bottom layer!
All the yummy food we made!!

Disney and Spring Training!

2010-03-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

Major perks when you work for the Disney's Wide World of Sports, this is where they host the Atlanta Braves Spring Training! We were told that we would get a couple free tickets, but we never realized they would be the front row right on top of the dugout! We had so much fun and it was the first nice sunny day in a while!

Poor little Brie has grown in this Cockatoo hair right on the crown of her hair that no matter what I do I cannot get it to stay down!!
My pretty little girls!
When we were walking back to the car Addi was complaining her feet hurt so her Daddy decided to carry her on his shoulders the rest of the way, this was Brie and my view!
Other wonderful perks of Disney is how often we get to go to the park, we went just a week ago and it was freezing!
Addi makes a pretty cute Snow White!

Addi with her friend Rulin getting to ride Winnie the Pooh!

5th Anniversary!

2010-03-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

So five years and 6 months ago I met this young stud!!

After dating and being engaged for only 6 short months.
We were married!!! One of the happiest days of my life!
Add two beautiful little girls!
Equals five very happy wonderful years of marriage!!

Last Friday was Jake and my fifth wedding anniversary, I can't believe that it has been five years and I also can't believe that it has only been five years! It has gone by so fast and yet I don't remember what life was like without him. It has been a blur from a wedding, to enjoying life as a couple, to the birth of our first baby girl, to being poor starving college students, to graduating with a bachelors, to moving to Florida, to still poor starving graduate college students, to the birth of our second baby girl, to an overrun of dresses and bows in Jake's life, to five years of marriage. We still have a lot to look forward to this year for the first time in our five years together we will finally be done with school this April! Hopefully we will be blessed with a job that my wonderful Husband is working his tail off trying to find right now! We can't wait to see what the next five years will bring! I love Jake so very much and could not imagine life with out him. After five years I have come to know what makes my husband so special. He is the most honest man I have ever met, even with the most hated "honey does this make me look fat!" question he cannot tell a lie! I have appreciated all our lives, him helping to teach me through hard lessons the importance of living a completely honest life even in the little things! He is the kindest most generous man, he is always making sure every last person always feels welcomed and accepted. He is a very loving father and even though I am a stay at home mom and Jake is so busy we hardly see him, it still isn't uncommon that when he is home you will always commonly see him doing dishes, changing diapers, helping get the girls to bed, ironing and even dusting! He does everything in his power to always make sure that I am happy, so if I get in my head I want and or want to do something I almost always get my way because after a lot of nagging he just can't tell me no! I am spoiled rotten with the most wonderful man on the earth. I love him so very much and can't wait for our next five years together!

Lacrosse Game

2010-02-23T12:46:00.001-08:00

One of Jake's co-worker had a bunch of tickets for a Pro Lacrosse game and Jake and I had never even watched a Lacrosse game so we thought it would be a fun little outing so we took the tickets and invited all of our friends. We had a lot of fun and come to find out Lacrosse is almost exactly like hockey but no ice! So we got to see some pretty awesome fights! These are our friends Ben and Lyric and their cute little baby Milo.

This is Ian and Sara and also Becca and Brian. Our friends Adam and Lisa also came but they hadn't made it to the game yet when I took this picture!
My cute little Brielle with Becca, she is so pretty in green! Becca's pregnant with a girl and due in April, we are so excited to have two little girls close together so they can be friends!
This fight got pretty intense, it was a pretty rough sport even rougher than hockey or at least this game was.
This is just a fun little picture I took this morning, I am nursing Brielle and so Addi never gets to feed her and she always begs to get her a bottle, so this morning I let Addi feed her she was so excited!! Brielle was a little trooper!

Thingamabobs....I got twenty!!!

2010-02-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

I was in the kitchen this morning and I hear Addi belting the song from "Little Mermaid" so I had to sneak down the hall and barely get the camera around the corner to catch it on video, but it was so hilarious especially when she sings the part about "thingamabobs....I got twenty" she sings the emphasis perfectly. Addi is very shy about her singing when the camera breaks out if only she was that shy in the Grocery Store when she is belting a song at the top of her lungs and yes I have had people come from different lanes to my lane just to see what the crap is going on. Very cute but oh so embarrassing!!

Valentines Day!

2010-02-15T05:00:00.001-08:00

We had such wonderful Valentines Day. We got two wonderful packages from my mom and from Jake's mom, we are loved so much and are so very thankful for the gifts! Jakes mom sent the girls a couple of cute little Valentines day outfits and since we had three Valentines parties that we went to this weekend, my girls were the belles of the ball!! Aren't they so adorable!!

My little Brielle is eleven weeks old today....I can't believe it has been almost three months! She is such a cutie and she already has her daddy's heart the second he walks in the door from school or work he has to hold his baby girl! She smiles and coos all the time now and she has to be where the action is, if we even dare to leave the room where she is at, she demands us back in! She looks exactly like her sister but has her own little personality which to me gives her own look. This is what our little girly looks like when i'm cooking dinner she has to be up on the table watching!

Stir Crazy!!

2010-02-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

Addi is quite the little cook she is always pretending that she is cooking dinner or Birthday cakes or some other little treat. We have been going pretty stir crazy since the car we bought for Jake five months ago, the transmission went out so we are back down to one car. Jake has to travel clear to Disney which with traffic is an hour away, so there is no way I can take him to work and keep the car all day and then go pick him up, so alas me and the girls get on each others nerves pretty quickly!! So yesterday was definately one of those cases so I decided I would let Addi help me make Cupcakes and since Valentines day is coming up we made Red Velvet with red and pink Sprinkles!!

Addi loved being able to decorate them all by herself!!
The sprinkles ended up in a big mound all on one side!!
She actually ate the whole thing instead of just licking all the frosting off. I think she was so proud that she actually got to mix, fill the cups, bake and frost and decorate all by herself. She is getting to be a pretty big girl!!
So I got the best present anyone could ask for at three in the morning!! Anyone that has been around my house (or on the phone) for more than a few minutes can atest to the fact that I don't have the happiest little baby. She is always screaming, which we know is due to her poor little digestive system, but when the night rolls around this screaming gets especially worse so Jake and I take turns all night with not only an awake baby but a screaming and unhappy baby. Last night at three in the morning (after a major blow out) I had the happiest Brielle I have ever seen!! It did my heart good to finally see her smiling and trying to giggle, and although it was in the middle of the night I spent a whole hour just playing and cooing back at my baby, because I knew it was a very rare moment!! I thought that it was so cute I had to get video proof of it for Jake!!

My Girls!!

2010-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Oma bought the girls cute little matching dresses for Christmas and they wore them to church on Sunday and I had to get some pictures, they were sure cute. It is so much fun to have two little girls so close together, my mom used to dress me and Trisha in matching dresses, but Trisha was five years older than me so I'm sure she hated having to go to church in the same dress as her little sister. Addi loved matching her sister and she asked me if they could match with all their clothes!!

My cute little Brielle is already 2 months old and she is soo cute. She is following the same pattern as Addi did the older she gets the fairer her skin and hair gets and she looks more and more like me, where as she was a spitting image of her daddy when she was born.

Addi's new hairdo!

2010-01-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

So I was getting really sick of Addi's long stringy hair it was ok when went home to Idaho but as soon as we would get back to Florida with the humidity I would hate it all over again! So I decided to go get her a haircut, I would have loved to go to my mom's hairdresser because she cuts little girls hair just so adorable and only charges their age, but when we went home my mom was in Lewiston and we were busy so I wasn't able to get Addi's haircut then. I decided today that I was going to get it cut, but it was her first real CHOP and I was scared to just go to a Great Clips or something equivilent so I got this bright idea to go down to Park Ave. in Winter Park (which is this really posh expensive area) and we found a nice salon and I went in a their sign said Children's Haircuts starting at $15 I thought oh fifteen isn't too bad if I get a really good haircut. Well the haircut actually turned out really cute even better than I expected but when I went to pay they charged me $25 REALLY for a three year old! As we were leaving I noticed this beautiful Astin Martin parked right out front, and I thought to myself it serves me right I know better than to go to a salon with and Astin Martin parked out front!! Oh well the haircut is cute and it makes her look so much older!!

Our quick trip home!

2010-01-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry I tried posting this on my phone but for some reason it didn't quite work. We had to make an unexpected trip back to Idaho last Friday. Jake's Grandpa had a heart attack and had gone into a coma, it wasn't looking very good and we were very blessed by wonderful family members, that we were able to hop on a plane to be able to go say our Goodbye's. Well we had been told that it didn't look good and we packed for a funeral. When we got there the next day Grandpa was starting to move a little bit and react somewhat to people in the room. By the second day he had opened his eyes, was breathing on his own and talking a little. It was such a miracle all of our prayers were answered. It turned out to be a pretty awesome little trip when we had expected it to be a very sad one. We had Jake's birthday while we were there and didn't have a camera so I have a few pictures on my phone but that is it. Addi had the most wonderful trip, me, Jake and Brielle stayed with Oma at her house and so that left lots of one on one time for Addi and her Grandma Terry. Needless to say it was a very sad Goodbye, Addi cried and cried through the entire take off of our flight telling me, "I don't want to go home I want to stay with Grandma Terry because I Love her." We got home at 1:00am Tuesday night and the next morning Addi threw herself in bed with me bawling "i'm never going to see Grandma Terry again." She is a little dramatic! I guess we are the cruel parents that take Grandkids away from their Grandparents, I knew they say that kids end up hating their parents I just thought I would have at least until she was a teenager before she decided to hate us!! We were so thankful to be able to be home with Grandpa Hunt while he recovered a bit but it was a very short trip and we already miss everyone!

The After Christmas party in Idaho

2010-01-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

So like I said in my last post we packed up on Christmas day and got on a plane headed home! It was a lot of fun and such a great break. In fact we had so much fun that we forgot to get the camera out for half of it. I only got to see my sister Trisha's family for one day but we were still thankful that we even got to see them. The first day we just spent time with them and visited and went shopping and had a little fondue party all together and then the next morning they had to go home so we had to say our goodbye's sadly. We however stayed and got to spend 13 days with both families we had a lot of fun introducing Brielle to everyone and I hope everyone felt like they got a little bit of quality time with her. Both our families spoiled and took great care of us.

This is my four generation picture.
Grandpa and Brielle!

Grandma with her only Grandbabies!
Like I said we didn't get too many pictures, which I sadly regret, but we had a ton of fun and it was sad to leave, but it was great to get back home. We are now back to facing reality. Jake is back to work and I am back to taking care of two kids alone most of the day, which I am finding to be harder than I expected. Jake starts his very last semester next week, he will have to be pulling close to full time hours with Disney this semester but the bad news is he has to take his classes at night this semester, so we won't see him very often. The good news is he only has to finish 9 more credits and then he will be Graduated with a Masters and done with school forever. I have always looked forward to this day but now I'm scared to death, because now there are no more excuses we have to get a job and be willing to go wherever that job takes us and we have to face the reality of an 8 to 5 job. Jake has started applying for jobs and we are excited to see what we end up with.

Christmas

2010-01-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is so late but Christmas was very quick at our house we got up at 6 and opened presents and then we packed our bags and was on a plane to Idaho that afternoon. So when we got home yesterday from Idaho it was like Christmas all over again, Addi remembered all that she got for Christmas and was so excited. I think everyone needs to have a 3 year old at their Christmas, it was so much fun she was so excited to open everything and she was so grateful and happy for all of her presents.

Brielle got a bumbo from my mom and she already was sitting up so well in it.
Addi ever since her birthday is always bringing out lego blocks stacked together saying she made me a birthday cake, she has been obsessed with birthday cakes so one day when me and Jake were shopping we found this awesome wooden Birthday cake that you were able to make and decorate and knew it would be a huge hit!

Brielle's Blessing

2009-12-11T05:21:00.000-08:00

We blessed Brielle on Sunday when she was six days, some people thought we were crazy but we blessed Addi when she was only a week old and my sister-in-law had made her dress to fit and I really wanted to use that dress again and my mom was in town so it was nice to have some family there!

This is our fun little Christmas present this year. Isn't she so cute?

My two little girls, Addi is such a good big sister!!

Brielle Lynn Larsen

2009-12-01T12:40:00.001-08:00

We welcomed Brielle Lynn into our little family, yesterday at 6:17 pm after only 5 hours of labor. She was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She is a spitting image of her daddy and is a very alert little baby! Addi is already loving being a big sister and is going to be a big help to her mom!

She has her daddy's nose for sure!!!
Brielle and I are doing wonderfully and can't wait to get out of the hospital, I hate being couped up! We miss everyone especially now that we have this beautiful little girl that we wish you could all meet, she is just perfect!! We are very proud parents and think that little girls are awesome!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T05:15:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was such a beautiful day we decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner outside. We had a wonderful dinner everything was amazing and we had lots and lots of food!!

Addi loves our new house for the backyard (which she calls the garden) and this is one of our plants that is growing in our backyard, Addi loves to play with the leaves and they as big as her!!
Thanksgiving night we went down to UCF to see their light show, it was a small show but it was fun to kick off the Holiday season and get Addi excited for Christmas!

The Baby's Room

2009-11-11T15:02:00.001-08:00

I promised my mom as soon as I finished the baby's room I would post some pictures. When you're pregnant with your first kid everyone is so very cautious to make sure and not get anything too gender oriented so that you can use it for every kid whether it be a boy or girl. Well I was the same way with Addi and then we moved clear out to Florida, so of course none of my baby things came with me. So when we found out that I was pregnant with another girl and we needed to get all new stuff, my husband told me that we couldn't afford to purchase anything new. So I went crazy on craigslist and garage sales and I decided that since it was all cheap things that we wouldn't take with us when we moved I was going to go all out girly!! I also decided I wasn't going to settle for a modge-podged room with random things all over. So even though I had to buy all used I went crazy making things myself and repainting everything in site. The crib was $30 and an ugly light honey and was pretty banged up, so it got a fresh paint job. The lettering was free from my mom's Cricut, the curtains were $10.

I sewed and quilted the crib quilt and bought all my fabric on sale for $12. The bumper, sheet and bed skirt were $25.

These dressers were going to be thrown out by a couple in our ward, so we took them off of their hands and they got a fresh paint job as well to match the crib. The paint for the dressers, crib and the walls totaled $30.
The rocking chair and cedar chest I already had. The baskets on top of the dressers were $5 and the rug was $20
So my grand total for a brand new baby's room starting from scratch was $132. I love garage sales and craigslist!

My little model

2009-11-10T17:51:00.001-08:00

I know that you are probably getting tired of all the posed shots of Addi, but our friend Ian is such a good photographer and he brings his camera with him everywhere and he loves taking pics of Addi all the time, so he gives us all these shots and they are always just breath taking that I just can't help but share them!

So I hate putting this first picture up, because I feel huge but I'm due in three weeks so I guess I should be huge, but I think that it is a cute picture of the rest of my family!

Oh and she sure knows how to pose and she always can ham it up for Ian but whenever I try to take a picture of her she won't even look at the camera!

So just a few fun pics of my beautiful little girl and hopefully soon I will be able to get some shots of our new little girl as soon as she decides when she wants to make her grand debut!!! We are pretty excited and I'm pretty uncomfortable and ready for her to come whenever she decides she is ready!!

Grandma Terry came to visit!!

2009-11-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

So, this week was so exciting Jake's mom came to visit for Addi's birthday and we have just been having fun and running her all over the place. I hope we didn't wear her out too much!! We took her to our favorite place to visit in Florida, St. Augustine! We had a lot of fun we went to the Fort and walked around and then went to the Lightner Museum and toured and saw all the fun 17th and 18th century stuff and then we headed out to walk on the beach and it was pretty chilly so we didn't stay too long there.

We also went to Disney World the day after Terry arrived, it was a lot of fun but of course unbearably hot! We hit the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot, so of course we were all pretty pooped by the end of the day, especially Terry and Jake since they had to push both Addi and me all around the park!

Addi had so much fun playing and spending time with her Grandma Terry, whenever I would come around to see what was up Addi would say "please will you leave, Mommy" she just wanted all the quality time as possible with her Grandma.
We had so much fun, and we were so grateful that Grandma Terry came to visit. Of course she spoiled us all rotten! Thank you Terry, for everything you did for us we enjoyed ever last moment, and hope you will come back soon and maybe bring Rick with you as well!! We love you and hope you had a safe trip home.

Halloween!!

2009-11-03T05:03:00.001-08:00

Sorry, we have had an full week and I'm just now getting to posting Halloween. Addi had so much fun and was the cutest little witch ever!! In the morning we took off to the Winter Park Fall Festival where Addi got to trick or treat around to all the businesses, and it was sweltering hot!!! We burnt out quick and went home and had some lunch and cooled off and then ventured off to Rollins to the Halloween Howl to meet Addi's best friend Lucy so they could enjoy Halloween together! We didn't last very long there either it was just way too hot!! It was a new thing for us to have to cut Halloween so short because of mid 90 degree weather!!! It is just not supposed to be that hot for Halloween!! Addi still enjoyed it anyways and got enough melted candy to keep her happy for a while!!

Happy Birthday, Addi!!

2009-10-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

It was a very Happy Birthday yesterday for my cute little girl, she had so much fun and was so happy for her Grandma Terry to be here with her. We took her out shopping during the day for some clothes and shoes and then when her daddy got home from work we had a pizza party and opened presents. She got spoiled rotten and had more presents than any one little girl should have. She has lots of people that love her and she misses everyone, Thank you for all the fun presents she loved it all.

She had been begging for a bike for her birthday, so mom and dad broke down and bought her one!

Her Grandma and Grandpa Larsen bought her the cutest little Dora tent, she loves it!
So I made Addi go on a scavenger hunt to find her present from her mom and dad, this was right at the end when she found her bike she was pretty excited!

Party!!

2009-10-25T17:29:00.001-07:00

So Addi won't be officially 3 until Thursday, but with all the hustle and bustle with Holiday plans we had a fun birthday party for her with all her friends Saturday! She had so much fun and was definitely loving every last bit of attention! Her Grandma Terry is coming for a visit on Tuesday so we will still have a fun family party on Thursday for her but she has made so many friends here in Florida we just couldn't leave them out! Addi got way too many gifts but she absolutely loves them and has been playing all day with all of them!

We had lots of fun food!

She is definitely her fathers child she had to give everyone a hug and thank you after every present she opened! We were happy that she was so grateful, her Oma would be proud!

She got a little passionate with her thank you for her friend Nathan!!
We wanted to get a picture of all the friends at her party, we got most of the girls, but the boys didn't want to be apart of all that girly action!

It was a lot of fun and now Addi can't wait for her Grandma Terry to come so she can go to Disney, the beach and have another party!

French Addi!

2009-10-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Just a fun post of my cute little girl. I have had this dress for a little while and I love it, but it never gets cool enough here for her to wear it. On Sunday the temperatures just radomly dropped to 69 degrees. It was so beautiful we loved it and Addi got to wear her fun french petticoat dress to church. She thought she was pretty hot stuff, she even came home and posed for a ton of Pictures that Ian took, I haven't gotten those from him yet, so you just have to settle for a quick snap shot that I took on our way out to church!

Package!!

2009-10-08T10:36:00.001-07:00

We got a fun Halloween package from Grandma and Grandpa Larsen!!! Thank you so much it was so much fun and as always Addi was so excited to have a package. I loved all the new Halloween Decorations they look so good in our new house, thank you!!! Addi loves her new little play suitcase, she comes out of her room with new stuff packed in it all the time and says i'm ready to go to "Hidaho."

These are Jake favorite part of his night, while he studies in the den every night there are always about two to three frogs that join him on the windowsill. They like the light from the house because it attracts all the bugs and then they just sit there and soak up the light and eat their midnight snacks!!!! It is quite entertaining to watch, I think Jake gets distracted from his studies pretty easily!

New House!

2009-09-25T05:51:00.001-07:00

We are just loving our new house, everyday it feels more and more like home. We have very friendly neighbors that are always coming by introducing themselves and letting us use their lawnmower's and our neighbor has a whole backyard full of chickens, that reminds me of my childhood!! We feel soo much more safe where we are now and we feel like we are much closer to everything, church, Jake's school, and the freeway! So we don't have the whole house finished quite yet but most of it. Bare with me there are a lot of pictures but it is for my mom she can't come see us until after Thanksgiving and she wanted lots of picture's so she could invision the lay out of the house. This is the front view of our house, it is chocolate brown stucko with a one car garage and we have the biggest tree in the front yard, it is nice to help keep the house cool, but it scares me during Hurricane season, if even one limb came down I think it could take out our entire house or at the least one of our cars.

This is our front room, it is pretty small but we don't have much stuff so it is perfect for us!

Our dining room, we were just glad it was big enough to fit our enormous table.
The Kitchen, you can't tell from the pictures, but we have pretty high ceilings and my cabinets go clear to the ceiling, it is awesome I have so much space that I still have empty cabinets but really bad because in each of them there are four shelves and I can barely reach the first shelf so I have to have a stool to get to any of my kitchen stuff!
Yes, I know I took a picture of a hall way, that seems really stupid but I spent a whole day painting this hallway by myself. I am proud of it, so back off!
One of our bathrooms I didn't take a picture of the other one because it really is so small I couldn't get a good picture of it.

This is Addi's room, I had fun decorating it because her last room was huge and it looked like I had thrown a toy bed in a huge room and I never even got around to doing anything to it so I really wanted to decorate this time, so it would feel more like home. We also have two other rooms but the Master Bedroom is painted a horrid shiny red and we still need to paint over it and do some decorating and the baby's room is still overtaken by empty boxes from our move and we still don't have a crib yet. So I will have to take pictures of those when I finish them.

This is our fun den it was supposed to be our fun music room but my piano didn't fit in here and before I knew it our fun extra room that I was so excited for turned into Jake's man cave and I don' t have a single thing in here! I love this room because it has windows around the whole room and Florida is so green it is pretty peaceful.

This is our backyard and our screened porch. Our backyard is huge but it doesn't have anything in it, but Addi still loves just to run in the free space anyway so that's good. Our porch needs some major cleaning but we loves it because in Florida we love to sit outside in December and January it is the nicest time of year to be outside!

Sorry for all the picture's but we just love our new place and know that is hard for people to come and see us so we wanted to share with all of you!

Catch up!!

2009-09-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I have posted anything, we have been busy busy.......well Jake has. A couple of weeks ago, I had been having a rough couple of days and was being pretty homesick and so my Mom and Dad decided to, at the last minute, just whisk me home and take care of Addi and I. It was such a fun trip and it was so nice to get away and not have to think about or worry about anything but spending lots of time with my family! Thank you sooo much Mom and Dad you made my whole year! While we were there we didn't tell Jake's family we were coming, so we got to go and surprise each of them! It was also Terry's birthday and we were able to go on a great little family vacation to Island park! Both sides of the family spoiled and took great care of us. We are so very thankful for very loving families that do so much for us, thank you so much. While I was away Jake called me one day and said that at the last minute we were supposed to move into our house. We were planning on moving as soon as I got back, well my wonderful husband decided he was just going to do it all himself and have our house all moved into so that when we got back we would have a new home. He worked really hard and had to pack and move everything without me, thankfully we have a bunch of awesome friends that helped him and when we got home we were all moved in! I have been horrible with taking pictures I completely forgot to even bring my camera to Idaho with us and so I have no pictures from there.

I have been doing lots of unpacking, putting my house in order and a little painting (which I suggest never try to paint by yourself, no latter, while 7 months pregnant, I have never been so sore in my life, i'm laying on the couch unable to move) so I will post some pictures of the new house soon I just need to get a little more things in order. We are loving our new house though we have a huge covered porch (which is a must in florida), a very big fenced in backyard, and a garage, oh a garage I never new that such a tiny thing would be the best luxury in life!!! The only downfall to our house is that the entire house is tiled, yes bedrooms and all, it has been a huge challenge to keep clean and it is not the most comfortable thing to kneel on for your morning and evening prayers, just little things you don't think about. When we first came home Addi wouldn't play with her toys or anything, I thought that maybe it was because she was adjusting to the new house but then last saturday we broke down and went out a bought a big rug for our living room and the minute we put it down Addi had her shoes kicked off, bringing out all her toys and laying down literally making snow angels in the carpet, she was so happy for some comfy carpet to sit down and play on, it looks like we are going to need a few more of those rugs so that our daughter can feel a little more at home!

Jake is now started back up again at school and once again is realizing that he is taking on way too much!! I try to tell him every year that he is packing on too much of a work load but he never believes me until it is too late. Thankfully he is only taking 12 credits this semester, but he is also still working for Disney about 20-25 hours a week plus drive time which takes him away a lot longer, he was elected again as co-class president and then he has also taken on a Consulting Project for the pro golfer Annika Sorenstam, he will be helping to create a marketing plan for her golf academy. It is a lot for him to take on all at once but we are hoping that all of these little things he is doing will help for us to stand out when it comes time to find a job in a jobless economy! I know he is working hard but sometimes it's hard to be a supportive wife when it makes for pretty lonely days and night. Last night I asked Addi what she wanted for dinner and she told me no, we can't eat, we have to wait for daddy and she stuck to her guns she refused to eat without her daddy. Needless to say she fell asleep waiting and didn't have any dinner that night. We really look forward to Sunday's so that we can atleast have one day out of the week to spend together!

Miss little Addisyn is growing up way too fast and is becoming quite the little priss! She loves to go out to the backyard and pick flowers for her mom, she also is coloring and drawing all day long and of course loves to watch movies and lots of them. I know that I shouldn't let her watch as much as I do but sometimes the days seem longer every day and I just don't know how to entertain her while I work on some of my other projects, so I guess the movie's can stay for now. She already misses her Grandparents and is let down a little every time she sees what looks like any of their cars, but she is loving being home again and her and her daddy have developed quite the little bond. Every time her dad leaves she tells him not to go and has to give him big hugs and kisses atleast twice before he can leave. It is so great for me to see, sometimes I forget what a wonderful bond us stay at home mom's get to form with our kids, that I realize sometimes the dad's feel a little left out sometimes. Addi is getting more and more excited to have a baby sister while we are slowly starting to set up the baby's room, eventhough she wasn't too excited to have to give up her rocking chair. She kept telling me that it was in the wrong room and she wanted me to help her move it back into her room and I told her that she needed to give it to the baby and she just kept crying and saying but it's my chair! We have lately been putting her in that chair for time outs you would think she would be more than happy to get rid of that chair, but no I guess it will be a little more of a challenge to have two kids than I think! Addi's birthday is also coming up soon and she knows it, she has been planning what she wants to do and she is very excited for a birthday cake and has told me and jake many times that she needs a birhtday hat! So it will be an exciting birthday for her this year! Well that is what we have been up to lately, sorry it is kind of a boring post, no pictures, just letting every one know what our life in Florida is like!

Randomness!!!

2009-08-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

I was told by someone (mother) that I was in dyer need of a new post. Thanks to her I am always motivated to keep atleast one post every week or two or I know that I will be pestered until I do!! Just kidding, Mom! Anyways since I don't really have anything to post I just picked some fun pictures. These first are of Addi and her best friends! Yes she thinks that they are her own personal friends and no one else's so sorry all kids out there these friends are taken. As well they should be with Jake being able to get into the Disney parks for free and Addi is still under three so she gets in free as well and me well i'm not so lucky, so Jake takes Addi almost every weekend for an hour or two and they have to visit these guys EVERYTIME! So like I said before I think my daughter earns the right to "Best Friend" status, she is a very dedicated friend!

My Daughter has the BIGGEST brown eyes ever, just like her daddy!

My friends and I threw a Baby shower for one of our friends and so it gave me an excuse to get out my Cake making box that I haven't gotten out for a very long time. It was so much fun to make a Baby shower cake I've only ever done Wedding Cakes so it was a lot of fun to be able to get creative. I was making the baby with fondant one night while Jake and I were hanging out and I had all the limbs and body parts just hanging out on the table drying and Jake said he was going to take a close up picture of the dismembered baby and put it on the birth announcements when our baby is born and tell everyone that she didn't come out quite exactly how we expected but we will love her just the same!!

This is my "show off picture" I might just be a mom bragging and proud of her daughter but this morning Addi was sitting on the couch drawing with her magna-doodle and then came bringing it to me and said she drew a picture of Daddy. I was floored I have never seen her draw like this, usually it is just scribbles and lines, but no she drew this all by herself. I think it is pretty awesome for a two and a half year old but like I said it may just be a proud mom talking!!

Precious Addisyn

2009-07-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

I got a great little birthday present, our friends the Stalveys offered to watch Addi while Jake took me out for a great dinner at Epcot in Japan and to watch Fireworks afterward. While the Stalveys watched Addi, Brian took some really nice professional pictures of her for a birthday present for me! They turned out wonderful, we hadn't taken nice pictures of Addi in so long I was about to break down and just take her to Walmart to get them done. I'm so happy for these they turned out sooo much better than Walmart's would have!

This is one of the first pictures Brian took, he said she just got up on the couch and posed like that. Pretty seductive, i'm a little scared for her to grow up!!

Little ADDItude!

2009-07-13T06:22:00.001-07:00

So, it's here we are definately finally out of the terrible two's, my little girl is a beautiful well behaved girl.....but......even though we tried to keep it from her and everyone said that you couldn't.......she is now a princess with quite the prissy attitude! This first picture was right after I was trying to do her hair and she kept telling me to stop pulling her hair and that I was being naughty! So when I was finally done she marched off into the hallway and I found her just a pouting!

Everyone told us we couldn't keep away the princess stage! They were right, but I do have to say we were doing a good job of it until I went into nursery one day to check to see if Addi needed to go potty and I saw a huge box full of dress up princess clothes and all the girls prancing around in head to toe princess clothes and accessories!! Thank you to the Nursery staff for sabatoging us in our quest!!

Addi has become quite the little fish she just loves to swim and she isn't scared of anything as long as she's got her waterwings on. She begs to go swimming everyday, I got sick of smelling like chlorine so most of the time I sit on the side and watch and now Addi doesn't even like me to come into the pool anymore because she is scared to death that I might "help" her. She always says to me twenty times a day, "Mommy don't help me, Addi do it myself." This is teaching me a good lesson in patience in everyday small tasks. Our Sunday afternoon's are turning into fun game or movie time with our friends and of course our Addi always needs to be the center of attention and she LOVES to play with the boys and have all of their attention.

4th of July

2009-07-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

I've been really slacking lately. I'm just now posting our fun Fourth of July. We had a great fourth, our friends the Sheldon's and us, went down to Mickeys retreat which is just a fun park with a swimming pool, lake, tennis courts, sand volley ball courts, paddle boats and a DJ. Mickeys retreat is just for the employees of Disney so it is really relaxed and not too crowded. After we hung out at Mickeys retreat we headed out for some dinner and then went over to Sea World to watch their Fireworks. We had so much fun that we didn't get too many pictures.

Addi loves Baby Roulon she sat and held his hand everywhere we went in the car!

The DJ was playing some weird Regae music and Addi was dancing away to it!

Disney World and Family!!

2009-06-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

So my Mom and Dad and also my sister Trisha and her family came to visit me last weekend and go to Disney World. Jake and I have been in Orlando for almost a year and this was our first time going to Disney World and it was awesome! We all just thought that Addi would be so shy around all the Disney Characters, but she really wasn't she just thought that it was soo neat and she just kept begging to go find Mickey Mouse.
Her Daddy even let her go see the Princesses. Even though her dad has never let me get the movies for her the second we walked into that room Addi turned to me and said "mommy that's Cinderella!" I laughed so hard, her daddy tried to keep it from her but some how she still learned about those princesses!

And finally after a long, long wait we got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. It was well worth the wait to see Addi little eyes beam at Mickey Mouse. It was like a star struck baby she was a little nervous at the first but she got so excited really quick!

The boys got a little bored waiting for the Parade and Fireworks to start.

Addi sure does love her Grandpa Brent. He was such a sport to hold her on his shoulders so she could see the parade.
All in all I think we had a pretty fun time and it was so much fun to have my family here to visit!

Friends and School Vacations!!!

2009-05-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Jake didn't have to start at Disney for a few weeks and our friends Jon and Gretchen that are in Dental School in Milwuakee had only a few days break before they started back up, so they flew into Orlando and we had a few fun packed days. We drove about 4 hours to go to Naples and the beach there was like paradise, so we stayed clear until sunset and it was just beautiful.

The everglades were just barely outside of Naples so we drove out. I thought that this sign was great the only crossing signs I have ever seen living in Idaho is for deer, so I was blown away when I saw a Jaguar crossing sign. I won't lie it kinda scared me to get out of the car!
Jake finally got to see a Gator out in its natural habitat! You may have to blow up the picture to see it, but I promise its there.

While Jon and Gretchen were here there was a shuttle launch so we drove out to Titusville to watch it. It was awesome to be that close you could feel the heat and vibrations of it even though we were across the Indian River which is about thirteen miles away.

Last and finally, Addi was invited to go to Baby Rulin's first birthday. She had soo much fun and is still singing Happy Birthday a week later.

It's good to be Home!!

2009-05-07T16:30:00.001-07:00

So as you all know I was in Idaho for a few weeks while Jake was in Buenos Aires for school. Anyways it ended up that we were away from each other for two weeks and four days which is the longest we have ever been apart. So needless to say it is soo good to be back home with each other. When me and Addi got home Jake had a little surprise for us and he took us to Sea World which I have been begging to take Addi to Sea World ever since we moved here. We had so much fun and the best part is that for residence you pay for a day and then get to come back the rest of the year, so I am so excited to be able to go back again with Addi through out the summer when we will be bored while Jake is working!

Addi just loved the Shamu show, but not quite as much as the dolphin show she loved that the dolphins danced to the music in the water, she was just in awe! It was a great trip.
The very next day we went out to the beach to spend the day. Addi is the biggest beach bum I have ever seen this was the only way I could get her to leave her Grandparents and get back on the airplane to come back home was with the promise of going to the beach as soon as we got home, and she did not forget my promise she reminded me the very next morning!

Family Goodbye's

2009-04-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

We have been saying our goodbye's at the Simonson household. My brother and his family is moving to Pennsylvania next month and my other brother is leaving on a trip to New York and my sister is headed back home to Washington so even though I still have 6 more days here I had to say goodbye to most of my Family today. This was also the last time we will have all the cousins together in a long time so we had a fun day playing and eating.

Finally a haircut.

2009-04-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

So I finally cut my way tooo long hair that was getting so nasty and was half blond and half brown. The very next day that I got in to Idaho I went to the lady that used to cut my hair and we chopped it. I think we cut a good 10 inches off to cut out all the blond and now it is finally back to my natural hair color. So if I didn't look exactly like my sister before I sure do now.

More Easter Fun

2009-04-13T06:57:00.001-07:00

Just a few more easter pictures. Yes, Addi had two Easter dresses this year. Her Grandma Terry spoiled her so much this year. This was her Church easter dress and she looked so cute in it.

Addi got a big bubble wand and a kite in her easter basket so we took her out to blow bubbles and to fly her Sesame Street Kite.

Addi found a little sand in the middle of the grass and she stayed in that hole forever.

This is Addi this morning. She has learned a new trick from watching "Yo-Gabba-Gabba" I may not be able to potty train my child, but she can hang a spoon from her nose!! What can I say...she is extremely talented!

Happy Easter!!

2009-04-11T16:35:00.001-07:00

So, Rollins College had an Easter extravaganza and so we took Addi and her friend Lucy to it. It was so much fun they had a big jumparoo and lots of booths where you could get ballon animals, make tissue paper flowers, get your nails painted, get necklaces and they also had a big huge easter egg hunt. We thought that Addi would be kind of scared and shy to do the egg hunt but no way when she saw all those eggs she took off pushing and shoving with the best of them. She had a lot of fun and she looked so cute in one of her easter dresses that her Grandma Terry sent her!

Bowling

2009-03-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

We went bowling the other night and Addi just loved it she couldn't wait for her turn every time.

I can't believe how big she is getting her hair is so long and she crack us up every day with the things that come out of her mouth.

This is Addi talking on my bluetooth to her Grandma

We are employed!!

2009-03-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

So we weren't supposed to get a phone call until April 10th, but Jake got a phone call today from Disney telling him how impressed they were with him and they wanted to offer him a position. He will be interning with Disney's Wide World of Sports in the Finance division. I am so proud of him, the HR rep said they were inundated with applicants for the limited positions they opened up and we truly were not getting our hopes up for this internship, but we feel so blessed that we got it. Jake is beyond excited and so am I. Congratulations honey!! I always knew my husband was smart, so it's exciting to see that other people think so too!! He has been working his butt off ever since we started Graduate School it is soo great to see it pay off!!

He is a pretty good looking business man!!!

Giggles

2009-03-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

Just some quick giggles for the Grandparents!!

Gatorland

2009-03-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

So we went to Gator Land yesterday with our friends the Sheldon's. We had a way fun time and Jake finally got to see all the Gators he wanted. Since we moved here all Jake has wanted was to see a Gator because they are supposedly all over, but we have been here now eight months and he still had yet to see a Gator, so I took him to Gatorland. It made him happy but he informed me afterwards that he still needs to see a gator in its natural habitat for it to count, so the search is still on I guess. This picture was just of all the Baby Gator's and Addi kept saying "ohhh how cute."
This is me and Cheyenne, we were just enjoying the day out of the house!
This Alligator was just a little too close for comfort, for me.
They had these Giant turtles that I kept trying to show Addi, and she would just say "big rock" I guess they weren't moving enough for her to tell the difference.

These were Lucistic Alligator's they were all white with these Creepy deep blue eyes.
We went to a gator wrestling show and it was really awesome but this guy was so stupid!

They also did a gator jumparoo show were they get the alligators jumping for their food they are supposed to jump pretty high but by the late show that we went to they weren't jumping very much.

Potty Training!! Arghhhh.

2009-03-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

This is how my day goes every time we try potty training, I'm pretty sure I have now officially traumatized my daughter of ever going potty.

So, I know that everyone has heard it or experienced it themselves, but this is the worst thing that I have ever had to do as a mother! The terrible two's I can live with, the tantrums I can tolerate, even the struggles with begging my child to please eat her vegetables I can some how find the patience, but POTTY TRAINING, I just can't do it. I'm ready to pull every last hair out of my head. Everyone says don't rush them you will know when they are ready and then they will pretty much train themselves, whoever says that to me again I swear I will scream. I have read and read all of the signs of when your child is ready, MY CHILD IS READY, but my child is the most stubburn child I have ever met!! For an example of how stubburn she is, I pryed her mouth open to make her try a green bean once and when we finally got it in her mouth I told her she could not spit it out and instead of just eating it she held it in her mouth for 3 hours, no joke. She can keep a diaper dry all night and even during naps, and when she poops in her diaper she brings me a diaper and wipes to change her. If I ever walk in on her stooped in the corner pooping she screams at me to get out so she can have her privacy. So the signs are all there, so we get all ready to potty train, and I have done this at least 6 times now and I am not happy to report that not a single drop of pee has made it into the toilet, and by the end of the day I am screaming and crying and dragging my daughter into the bathroom to even try again. I'm at my wits end and I know everyone says that don't worry your child won't be attending Graduation in diapers, but I really do think that mine will because I have traumatized her for life of the bathroom. If I even mention the word toilet or potty training she says "no mommy, no potty train." I have tried the bribes, the treats, I have tried the sticker charts (in which my child didn't like because the sticker was stuck to the chart forever and she sat and cried while trying to pry the stickers off), I have tried pull-ups, I have tried cold turkey and just panties, I have even tried just letting her run around naked all day, I've tried the little potty and the seat that sits on the toilet, I have tried water running and a warm washcloth on her legs and I have tried every last trick I can think of and I am about ready to lose it. So even though I have pretty much tried everything, please any ideas! I am about ready to fly her to Pocatello and tell my mom not to send her back until she is completely potty trained, because i've had it.

4th Anniversary!

2009-03-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

These are just some really cute pictures that I took of Addi down by the Dinky Dock by Rollins College.

Today was our 4th Anniversary and we had a lot of fun. Yesterday we dropped Addi off at my cousin's house and then we headed off to St. Augustine. Jake had gotten us a room at a Bed and Breakfast. It was a beautiful room with tons of gorgeous 1800's furniture. We got all dressed up to go out to a fancy dinner, and me being the clutz that I am, in my high heels and dress I fell down the bed and breakfast's stairs and twisted both ankle's and needless to say by the end of the night my ankle's were swollen with ice bags on them and Jake making a run to find me Ibuprofen! He was very sweet and great to me even though I ruined our romantic evening. I love him very much and have had a wonderful four years with him!!!

The Beach and Friends!

2009-02-18T08:12:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since I've posted, i've been stuck to the TV, because with our new TV it has a place to hook your computer into and for those of you that know me well, know that I like to have cable because I watch the Food Network 24/7 and when we moved to Florida Jake put his foot down and said no cable. However, now that I can watch the internet on my TV I have straight streaming from the Food network site and needless to say I haven't done much lately but enjoy having my food network shows back!! We have started to get a little bit of a social life going though, this is Addi's favorite new friend his name is Roulon but Addi calls him "baby lulon" he is a good sport and seems to tolerate Addi's many hugs and kisses and of course her stealing his toys.

Last year for Ian and Sara's wedding I made their wedding cake for them and when we moved to Florida Sara had to leave the top of her cake behind and last monday was their 1st Anniversary and she was heartbroken that she wasn't able to eat her wedding cake for their 1st anniv. So we decided to duplicate the top layer. She said that everyone had it backwards that instead of saving your cake just save your decorater!! At least it was better tasting than a year old freezer burnt cake!
Last week we decided that we needed a Girls day out at the beach! Sara and Becca took off work in the middle of the week and the four of us went and laid out and played in the sand and water! Addi loved it and can't wait to go again!

Project!!

2009-02-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

Anyway this first picture is just a funny picture! Addi went to a birthday party and loved the party hat she got but she could never put it on herself. So one morning she was running around playing and this is how she was wearing her party hat!!!

I have been getting so bored and so I decided to start a project, I am not a good sewer but my dad bought me a sewing machine a few years back, (I guess he was hoping I would become domestic) so I decided I would try using it. I made some baby blankets and then I decided to tackle making Addi a dress. It's not wonderful and was a way easy pattern but I think it turned out alright.

Dance Off!!!

2009-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

So, this is a movie i've had for a little while but it wouldn't upload for some reason, but I finally got it to work. This was when we were home for Christmas and Addi would follow everything her cousin Ali would do. I caught them doing some pretty sexy dance moves. Ali is pretty dang funny!!!!