What a big boy!

Tanner is getting so big so quickly that I had to post these pictures. At eight weeks he went in for his wellness check and weighed 14 lb. 5 oz.!!! Yes, he is in the 95th percentile for his age. No, he doesn't miss any meals. He is such a sweet boy and is doing well sleeping through the night and can make it to 6-6:30am now, hooray! He is also so much more alert and is a smiley baby, although we have yet to really catch it on camera.

8 years!

Happy Anniversary! Here we are eight years and three boys later...it has been wonderful! I love you!

Party, Party, Party

Happy Birthday Carter! Carter turned 6 two weeks ago, but due to blizzard conditions his friend party was postponed until this past Friday. So, the celebration was stretched over two weeks.

We had a family party for Carter when everyone was in town for Tanner's blessing. This was our day to do cake and presents. It was fun to have so much family around to celebrate.


Round two was his actual birthday on April 14. After a minor setback of McKay locking me and himself out of the house with Tanner inside (the fire department had to come and break into the house for us) we headed to Carter's school to deliver cupcakes and celebrate with his Kindergarten class. Carter got to wear the birthday hat and everyone sang to him. Carter just loved it. I forgot to bring the camera, due to the stress of our "setback."

Round three came this past Friday and the weather decided to cooperate this time. We had a pirate party at the park. We did hot dogs, a pinata, and a scavenger hunt. Carter had a lot of fun with some school friends and some church friends.




It is hard to believe that Carter was so little like Tanner only six years ago. He is such a sweet, smart, and thoughtful boy and we love having him in our home.

An Easter Blessing

Tanner was blessed in church on Easter Sunday. It was such a nice day. We loved having so much family in town. My parents were here as well as my sisters Melanie and Megan, my brother Josh and his wife Kyle, and Lamont's brother Bennett and his wife Jenna. We had a great weekend at Carter's soccer game, bowling, playing games, and celebrating Carter's birthday.

On Sunday Lamont blessed Tanner in church. It was a beautiful priesthood blessing, and I am glad that my dad and our brothers were able to join him. I am also grateful that Lamont was able to do this for Tanner. Tanner wore the same blessing outfit that both Carter and McKay wore. Afterwards, we had a nice ham dinner together to celebrate Easter.

The Men (& boys)

Everyone who was at the blessing

Uncle Don, Aunt Susan and family came to join us for dinner.

The Bunny came!

Spring Break?!

We decided to stay home this year for spring break and take it easy. However, spring break felt more like winter break! I think this snowstorm was larger than any of our winter snowstorms. In fact, Carter's school was cancelled for TWO days due to all the snow, in addition to his week off. The good thing about a spring snowstorm is that it doesn't stick on the ground for very long. It also makes for great sledding weather once it has stopped snowing. The sun was shining and it was warm enough that I was getting pretty hot in my coat sledding down the hill. I guess if we want a warm spring break next year, we'll have to head to Texas or Florida!

My little snowman!
Tanner stayed snuggled in his carseat while we did a little sledding.




The boys had a blast!

African Animal Puppet Show!

Carter has recently been learning about Africa at school. They made many really cool African art projects - which we are still trying to find places of honor for at home - and he even learned some Swahili. His class put on a presentation about African animals for all the parents. Carter even had a memorized part about Crocodiles. The video is a song about an African Zebra. Great job Carter!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

3 weeks old already!

Tanner is already over three weeks old now. We have been very busy (hence the 3 weeks to get a video posted)! The recovery has been going great- the best one thus far. It was so wonderful to have both of our Moms in town to help. They were truly life savers and did so much; the whole family loved having them here.

Tanner is such a good little baby and only cries when he has to get his bath. That really wears him out! He is up once during the night on a good night and twice on a bad night; I am trying to catch up on some sleep. Carter and McKay love their little brother. McKay continually comments on how "tute" he is. We have loved having a baby in house again. Tanner is such a sweet baby and we are blessed to have him in our home.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The New Baby is Here!!

Tanner Cole Larsen was born yesterday at 8:30 am. Everything with the C-section went smoothly and both Melissa and Tanner are doing well. Although a week early, Tanner weighed a whopping 8 lbs, 4 oz., and is 20 3/4 inches long. The boys are of course thrilled and are such proud big brothers. Melissa's mom is also here which is a huge help. We feel so blessed and love to see our family continue to grow.

Getting Ready for the Baby

Only one week left until the new baby is born!! We are all so excited, especially the boys. Tonight we looked through pictures of when Carter and McKay were born. It was so funny to see their reactions. I think they don't realize they were once a baby too. They'll make great big brothers and it will be so good to have a baby in our home again.

Carter's Blessing Day



McKay's First Day



The New Big Brother

Loose tooth?!

It is official that Carter lost his first tooth last night. This is not a posting that I expected to be doing today. In fact, I didn't even know that his tooth was loose. Yesterday evening he told me that there was something behind his tooth that was bothering him. I thought maybe it was a canker sore and told him it would be fine. Upon looking closer I discovered that he had a tooth half way in behind his baby tooth on the bottom. I am not sure how I missed this! I know, I know, thoughts of the bad mother syndrome start creeping in. I had just helped Carter brush his teeth the other day and he had never mentioned anything about this before. Once I saw this, I knew that his tooth needed to come out as soon as possible so his new tooth would have room to finish coming in.

Last night after brushing, his Dad got a good look at it and started wiggling it and pulling on it quite a bit until he thought he could get it to come out. I remembered that my grandpa used to tie a knot out of dental floss and attach it to my tooth and then pull. Lamont decided to try the same with Carter's and it was only a matter of minutes before it was gone.

Carter was surprisingly brave for Carter and was very excited to leave his tooth for the tooth fairy. I am happy to report that the tooth fairy left him two fifty cent pieces, which he thought was very cool. He was also excited that he would make the February calendar at school for lost teeth and couldn't wait to get to school this morning to tell his teacher.

One month and counting...

I finally feel like I am in the home stretch of this pregnancy. Since we know that we will have to do a C-Section we already have the date scheduled for (drumroll) Feb.28! We will deliver at 39 weeks. I feel about ready to be done with this pregnancy,normal fatigue and aches and pains, but I realized that have hardly done anything to prepare for his actual arrival. I have not even bought a single diaper and most of my baby stuff is still all boxed up. All of a sudden time is catching up with me! I guess it is a good thing that we have so much boy stuff already. It is just a matter of locating it and cleaning it. Also, I need to make a list of things to buy such as diapers, wipes, blankets, pacifiers, baby wash, ect. and then just go shopping. Yeah, I am starting to get excited for his arrival just thinking about it. Now for a name...

Holiday Whirlwind

It has taken me a long time to get our Christmas posting up; I think I am still recovering from all the holiday travels. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and it was so nice to have a break from work, school, and church callings - but sometimes I feel like I need a vacation from the vacation. Also, it is just hard after a long break to get back into the swing of the things. So, now that I've had a moment to breathe here is a synopsis of our holiday break.

We travelled to Utah on Dec. 19 to attend Lamont's brother, Bennett's wedding. Everything was beautiful and wonderful, despite the anxiety of travel delays by many. It was so nice to have the whole family together for this important day.




The boys and I had one more day in Utah before it was off to spend Christmas in Texas. We had a Christmas brunch and present opening with my family before Lamont had to drive back to Denver that afternoon. The next morning the boys and I flew to Dallas.



Lamont worked another day and then drove all our presents down to Texas - he is quite the trooper with all the driving. When then spent a nice Christmas with his family in Sherman. We followed the family tradition and Carter and McKay hid from Santa Christmas morning. Carter was excited to see Santa bring in a kitchen for him (just like in his dreams he said) and McKay couldn't wait to ride the bike that Santa brought for him.




Following Christmas there was an open house to prepare for: lots of Cheesecakes to be made and decorating to be done. The open house was also beautiful and turned out really well.




It was then onto New Years. Carter was so funny about preparing a 2009 party for us all to participate in. The party consisted of Chinese food, games, ice cream, and fireworks. He made us all 2009 signs to wave about as we sang "We wish you a happy new year." The next day it was time to make the 12-13 hour trek back home, which brings us back to all the Christmas take down here. Whew!