Taking a break . . .

Every year my sister-in-law, Karen, makes gingerbread houses from scratch, and all the family joins in on the decorating.  We aren’t going home this year, so we had to improvise, and create our own.  I didn’t dare attempt to make my own gingerbread without Karen’s teaching (next year, Karen), so we bought stuff and and let the girls decorate.  Of course, we had to use Chocolate Frosting, because Chocolate is Natalie’s favorite!

Maejae was blowing kisses while waiting to decorate.

Natalie did a fantastic job decorating, and only ate a few Chocolate pieces.

Maejae – on the other hand – spent the majority of the time stuffing marshmellows into her mouth while daddy calmly monitored her.  At one point Nathan said, “that’s enough Maejae.”  I looked over and she had about 10 marshmellows stuffed in her mouth, and couldn’t even chew!

Natalie’s side is covered in chocolate covered candies.

Maejae’s is covered in marshmellows!!!

They are too silly sometimes.

Christmas is Here!

This year, we decided to decorate our house for Christmas a little earlier than last year.  We did it the Sunday after Thanksgiving – and I’m so glad.  We love Christmas at our house, and it has been so fun to have the lights on our tree light up the living room, and Christmas music playing throughout the day!
Maejae didn’t really grasp the concept of decorating the tree, but had fun watching.  Natalie, on the other hand, REALLY enjoyed decorating this year, and put almost all of the ornaments on the tree by herself.  Nathan had to help her reach the high spots on the tree, but she loved it!

The girls liked watching Daddy put the lights on the tree, but that’s about all Maejae wanted to do.  She didn’t want to help with anything!

Natalie likes to model lately.  This is her modeling by the tree!

Copper got lots of attention, and was told not to touch the tree by Miss Natalie.

Natalie put almost all the ornaments on the tree herself!

Where’s the line to see Jesus

My sweet 3-year old daughter, Natalie, is always saying interesting things to make me think.  Recently she asked why we were having a Christmas party, and I explained to her that we were celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Natalie got very excited and said, “Mom, I’m gonna get Jesus a ladder so he can come down and visit me.”  I told her that was a very good idea!

Then, this past Saturday we had our ward Christmas party, and they had Santa come for the children.  Natalie ran up to me and told me she saw Santa carrying a green bag.  I asked if she wanted to go sit on Santa’s lap and she said, “no, he’s scary.”  So yesterday when we were doing a little shopping for Christmas, Natalie kept asking for new toys.  I told her she’d have to wait and see what Santa would bring her for Christmas.  She said, “No Mom, I don’t like Santa.  Jesus is going to bring my presents.”

Then this morning I woke up to an e-mail from my dear friend, sharing this beautiful music video.  This brings tears to my eyes as I recall Natalie’s love for Jesus, and her innocent joy in this Christmas season! 

May we all remember the Reason for the Season, and spend a little more time reflecting on our Savior’s love for us.

 

Grandma Frisby’s Funeral

Nathan’s grandmother, Vada Frisby, passed away in November.  The first time I met Grandma Frisby was when Nathan and I were dating.  We lived in Pocatello, ID and decided to take a trip to Idaho Falls to visit Nathan’s Grandma.  On the road, a blizzard came through, and as we crossed a bridge, a large SUV slid on the ice, and hit the side of the bridge.  Nathan and I got out, helped the crying kids in the SUV, and called Grandma Frisby to tell her we would be late.  She told us we shouldn’t be driving in the snow, and to turn around.  But, we were already more than half way there, so we kept going.  I am so glad we did, because it was one of the few times I got to see Grandma Frisby.

We took a trip back to Idaho Falls shortly after Natalie was born.  Nathan had told his Grandma when he got home from his mission that she needed to stick around long enough to see his first child.  Grandma Frisby did that, and stayed around even longer!  Here are Nathan’s cherished pictures of Grandma Frisby meeting his first daughter, Natalie.  I also love these pictures!

Our next trip to Idaho falls happened to be more than 2 years later, just two weeks ago.  We traveled back for Grandma Frisby’s funeral services, and had a wonderful celebration of her life.

Grandma Frisby

The Larson Family

The Larson boys with their Dad

The Grandsons were the pallbearers.

All of this snow fell during Grandma’s funeral services.  It was beautiful!

As we were leaving the cemetery I had to stop and think to myself:

Thank you, Grandma Frisby, for your legacy.

You raised great children, including my wonderful mother-in-law.

Your children have raised great children of their own; one of whom is my husband and Eternal Companion – a wonderful man.

Your Legacy lives on . . . and we Love You

It’s that time . . .

Happy Birthday Nathan!

 * I told Nathan to smile a while back, and this is what I got.  One of the many reasons I love him . . . he makes me laugh!

Today is Nathan’s 29th Birthday.

Right now he is out with the missionaries.

Today he will be working on a website to help us make money.

Then he’ll spend a lot of time with us, and some friends.

Tomorrow he will be waking up early to let me sleep in.

Monday he will be back in the clinic, working like a good student.

Multiple times this week, he will turn to me, make me laugh, and run away.

In about 1/2 hour, he will make my children laugh.

Before each day is over, he will remind me (once again) why I’m special.

And Forever and Always, He will be MY husband.

He will be the one I get to love!

And I will try my best to make him laugh, and smile, and feel special.

Cause that’s what life’s all about!

Happy Birthday Nathan.

You’re the best Hubby and Daddy we could ever ask for!

Trunk-or-Treat

This year’s Trunk-or-Treat we did a Princess Castle to go along with our Royal Family.  Nathan loves to hand out candy so he spent most of his time doing that while I took the girls around to get candy.  Maejae got tired of trick-or-treating so she played in the castle while Natalie and I finished up.  It was a lot of fun, and Natalie got too much candy!

As you can see, Natalie even got candy from her Daddy!  And, Maejae is eating hers in the castle!

I just think this is a cute Picture of Natalie.  She decorated a sugar cookie, and was so proud of it!

 

      

These are some of the games at the trunk-or-treat, and our friends handing out candy.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing . . .

This year, I decided we’d do another family theme for Halloween.  I know that it won’t be long before my girls have their own opinions about what they want to dress up as, so this year is probably our last year of family themed Halloween.  Natalie chose our theme because she really wanted to be Cinderella, and dress up like her Cinderella Princess doll. 

I had planned on making all of our costumes, but my mom found a Tinkerbell costume for $1 at a garage sale for Maejae, and I found a Cinderella costume at Big Lots for $10 for Natalie.  Those were cheaper than it would have been for me to make their costumes, so we went with it.
 
Along with that, came mine and Nathan’s costumes.  Natalie decided that I would be Snow White (something I have wanted to be since I became a mother 3 years ago - because Snow White is my favorite Disney Movie), and Nathan was going to be Cinderella’s Prince Charming.  Now – adult costumes are EXPENSIVE!  So, I decided to make ours.

I took a trip to Goodwill and JoAnn’s.  This is what I came up with:

This is a old yellow graduation gown I got for $2.50, and a blue sequined shirt I got for $1.50.  I got both of these at Goodwill.  Then, I bought a scrap of red sequined fabric for $1.25 and some blue scraps for $1.00.  I had great ideas for these pieces, and at only $6.25, I knew it would eventually become the perfect Snow White costume. 

 

This is Nathan’s costume.  We had an old white church shirt that was a tad too small for Nathan’s neck, and had a stain on the pocket.  We used a pair of his slacks for the pants and I made removable side strips for them.  Then, I bought the blue fabric for $5.00 and the gold trimmings for $4.50.  So, all in all – Nathan’s costume would cost $9.50 . . . not too shabby for Prince Charming!

The results . . . Amazing!

Halloween Craft Night

Every now and then, some of my friends and I like to get together for Craft nights. 

This month, I hosted the craft night, and we did Halloween Crafts!

 

This is the wreath that I chose to teach the girls how to make.

  

These are some of the other crafts we did.  I didn’t get pictures of 3 of the crafts, but we had a lot of fun, and we each made 6 different projects!  Our houses were much more decorated, too!

Arizona finally had a good storm!

A couple weeks ago, we finally had a good storm.  Our house was nice and peaceful, with the girls napping, Nathan on the computer, and myself sewing.  All the sudden we heard thunder, and then pounding on our house.  Nathan and I ran up to the girls, who were awakened by the large hail hitting their bedroom windows.  Then, we all watched the hail storm as it passed through our neighborhood.  A lot of ward members got their windows broken so we were very lucky to have survived the storm with no problems!  All of our porch items got blown to one side, but it wasn’t bad at all.  All in all it was a fun storm to watch and Nathan had fun playing in the hail!