Max Thomas Larsen

Our little Max has finally arrived! He was born September 21 at 7:58 pm. He weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long. He's so sweet and we love having him in our family!

 

Turns out life with four kids is hard. thanks to everyone who has helped/will help as we figure this out!

Summer Vacation to Couer D'Alene

 Once upon a time there was a darling little girl whose best friend moved 12 hours away and it broke her heart. This little princess commenced saving her pennies in hopes of one day going to visit her long lost pal. The kind hearted king and queen saw how important this was to their sweet daughter and forsook their own supersweet vacay to Chicago in order to make this trip happen for the princess.
And so, our family trip this year was to visit our friends, the Parsons, up in Couer D'Alene, Idaho. (hereafter referred to as CDA because that's what the locals do.)

 We started our trip by driving up to Idaho Falls after T got off work. We didn't get there till 10:30 pm, and we were starving! So Anna and I jaunted over to the Applebee's across the street and brought back food to our family. Unfortunately, the kids were all so sleepy they barely ate anything, which led Trav and I to pig out on yummy appetizers. No big loss.
I just booked our hotel through priceline.com, and it turned out awesome! We were on the seventh floor, with a balcony that overlooked the Idaho Falls temple. The kids loved it.
In the morning, Trav and I decided to take turns going to the temple. He went and did initiatories and was back within an hour. I drove over and realized I had left my temple recommend at home! It was so disappointing for me-- to be right outside this beautiful temple and not able to go in!! Lesson on personal preparedness there.
Instead, we went to the zoo in Idaho Falls. Thanks to our zoo membership, we get into other zoos at a reduced or free rate, and we have used that to visit the zoo in IF before. We love that zoo! I think it's great because it's small and there's a lot of shade. And a fun little area for the kids.

Here's Eve getting kissed by a goat at the petting zoo.

This is in the kids' area. We have an identical photo from the last time we were there, only it was 1 year old Kate on the chicken with dad back then.

Tigers!

Then we drove FOREVER until we reached our friends' home in Athol, which is about 20 minutes north of CDA. Holy flip, we could see Canada out of our window. It was so far away! But it was amazingly beautiful. their home is located about 5 minutes from Lake Ponderay in this amazing forest. So awesome! They are regularly visited by deer, moose, and chipmunks.
We were so lucky to stay with them. They have a massive house so the kids all got to sleep together upstairs in a loft/playroom area. Amazingly, they all slept at night... and when they woke up in the morning they were all together and started playing once again. The Parsons/Hunts took great care of us too-- how I love waking up to the smell of someone making waffles for me!

This cat, Patches, was amazingly patient. He was lugged around like this the entire time my girls were there.

This is not the best shot ever, but it does show you how gorgeous it was. This is their backyard! A huge field of wildflowers surrounded by forest. So cool!

They live on this little hill which was perfect for racing our coasters down! The Hunt family had just finished a reunion where they all built these coasters and we loved racing down the hill on them.

Anna in Josh's rickshaw coaster. Totally unsafe, thus the helmet.

We went to a little amusement park called Silverwood (kind of similar to Lagoon). The kids loved all the rides. Anna and Kate even mustered up the courage to do their first grown up roller coaster ride..... on a coaster that most resembled the White Roller Coaster at Lagoon (ie old and decrepid).

All the kids preparing for blastoff.

Anna and Addie. BFF.

We went to the water park section and the kiddos were exhausted. Kate fell asleep on the concrete, and our little buddy Cannon fell asleep in a lounge chair and didn't wake up for 2 hours!

This is what Eve did while everyone else went on the scary roller coaster. She rode these airplanes about 10 times and loved it. She even figured out how to get in by herself at the end.

The next day we went to the local farmer's market in the morning. The adults splurged on cilantro pesto on artisan bread for lunch, while we placated the kids with quesadillas from Del Taco. They were definitely on the bad end of the deal!
That afternoon we went to Lake Ponderay with the Hunts (our friends' parents). It was beautiful! The trees came right down to the shoreline.

The girls getting ready for a ride on the UberTube.

This time it was Eve and Cannon who fell asleep in the middle of all the fun. Apparently this happens a lot, so they've set up a little section of the boat for sleeping kids.

Trav and the girls getting ready for the last ride of the day.
That night we took our friends to dinner to thank them for hosting us. It was hard to leave because we had enjoyed ourselves so much and Anna and Addie loved being together. They were so happy and it was so cute to see them play again!

All of the kids together. Cannon and Whit, the little boys, were the ones who convinced me that having a baby boy would be a good thing. They were so sweet and funny the whole time and it makes me excited to have a boy of my own to love!
We left the restaurant a little after 9 pm and drove to Missoula, MT where our next priceline hotel was located. We didn't get there till 1 am, and the only room they had available for us had one double bed. For the 5 of us. I was so worried that the kids would throw a fit when we put them to bed on blankets on the floor, but they were so exhausted they just went right to sleep. What a blessing that was!
It was a quick trip, but it was absolutely fun. We love the Parsons and are grateful to be their friends. And for all the nice things they did for us on the trip. It was wonderful!

More summer fun

 My goal is to catch up on the blog before the baby comes. Because  I may never have time to write again once that happens. So here's some more of our summer fun!

 The girls had their first sleepover with our little friend Gwen. They all wanted to sleep in the same bed, so this is how they started out the night. When I checked on them at 10, Gwen was still awake because she was too hot. No kidding? I scooted her over to Kate's bed and she was asleep right away.

 

Breakfast in the morning with Gwen. They had Cocoa Pebbles and Gwen said to me, "This is great. My mom only lets us have Cheerios because she wants us to be healthy." Not sure if that's a compliment or not. :)

 

 We did a quick little camping trip up Payson Canyon. Oh, how kids love camping! I had been sick the whole week, so I just went up for dinner in the canyon, then took the dog home with me while Trav and the girls stayed in the tent. It took Eve about 4 hours to fall asleep, but other than that, a good time was had by all!

 We did our Annual Eve Celebration (her half birthday party since her real bday is too close to Christmas). She had a color themed party with her little 2 year old friends, in which I learned that 2 year olds are really not able to do a whole lot of party activities. They were good at eating treats, though!

 It was bound to happen. With three little girls, it was inevitable that someday one would find a pair of scissors and do a whack job. Evie found the scissors when I had given the girls the assignment of cleaning out the van. So I had a couple huge piles of hair to vacuum off my seat and floor mats. The little crazy cut her bangs super short (we're still recovering 4 months later), and then cut one section in the back so that it was only 1/2 inch long. The irony was that it was AFTER her  haircut that people started complimenting me on her cute hair. Which I couldn't even look at without cursing.

Now seems like as good a time as any to give an update on Eve. Seriously, she is crazy. I now understand what they mean when they say Terrible Twos. She has so much energy cooped up in that little body and runs around all day long, often falling flat on her face because she decided to attempt diving off the couch or riding her scooter with no hands. She has no fear. She watches her sisters and thinks she is big enough to do anything they can do. If I ever tell her no because she is too little, she defiantly glares at me and says, "I a big girl. Baby Max is little." So there.
Eve loves fruit. We literally have to hide the fruit at our house or she obsesses about it all day long. You might think it's a good a thing for a kid to love fruit, but if that's all they eat..... let's just say it makes a mess.
She has given up on naps. Heaven help me! My older girls napped at least a year longer than this, but Eve just won't go to bed at night if she gets ANY rest during the day. It was taking 2 hours every night to get her to sleep, so we decided to forego the nap and things have improved. It's actually a little fun to have some time that it's just me and her, since both of the older girls are at school in the afternoon. And it's a little aggravating.
Eve hasn't learned the value of nice words or soft voices. She basically yells for everything she wants. Trav says she uses hostility to get her way. We're working on it.
And yet, she is still the cuddliest little thing. She adores her mommy. She adores her sisters. She adores her dad. She doesn't really like the dog, another thing we have in common. :) She builds me up, "I like your shirt," or "You a great mommy." My favorite is when we sing the Happy Family song, she always belts out "We are a happy family" at the top of her lungs. Every night she gives me "hugkiss" when I tuck her in to bed. Whether it's the first or fourth attempt at getting her into bed for the night, I still love those "hugkisses." She loves washable markers and has a very creative imagination when she tells me what the random scribbles on her paper are supposed to be.
The other day she wanted to watch a show, and I said "What about your brain power? Let's read a book instead." Her reply: "I not have brain power. A spider crawled in my ear and ate it."
She's kind of a little monster, but I love her to pieces.

Summer Fun

Have you noticed how it's been months since I posted? This summer has been crazy busy, in fact I feel like I missed it somehow and now we are back in school. But this past week I ran into two old friends separately and randomly, who both said that they keep in touch with me through my blog. So, it's for all my fun old friends that don't already know what our family has been up to, that I post today. (plus, I'm sitting in the hospital getting IV therapy and have some time on my hands right now.)
One of our faves of the summer was swim lessons. I was so impressed with how much my kids learned his year! Last summer it seemed like they just played games, but now they can both swim. Anna can even swim all the way from one end of my parent's pool to the other! Eve and I enjoyed hanging out with our neighbor friends on the poolside while the big girls took their lessons.

Everything about Kate is happy. This kid loves to play, to swim, to cuddle.... basically she loves everything life has to offer.

Here's Anna jumping off the diving board. This is a major deal because last year she was too afraid and just sat at the edge of the pool. Now, it's hard to keep her from jumping in anytime, anywhere. She doesn't even need anyone to catch her any more, she just jumps in and swims herself to the side of the pool. Our Anna is growing up fast!

One night while I was at Relief Society Trav took the kids to the store to buy a slip'n'slide. They love it! Especially Travis!

Our sweet Kate turned 5! This is a photo of all the kids at her bday party. She wanted a Tball party, because she loved playing Tball this summer. She had lots of fun little friends come do Tball and water games that day.

One table full of little munchers.

Anna lost her first tooth! It was so funny because she didn't even realize it was loose, and one day while she was getting out of the car I noticed her teeth looked yucky. I went to scrape some off the tartar off to show her that she needed to brush better and her tooth wiggled like crazy! She worked on it all day and it was out that night! Anna wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy that said "You can have my tooth if you give me a dollar." Hmmm. The next day she kept bugging me to tell her whether the Tooth Fairy was real, or if it was just me sneaking in her room late at night. I kept putting her off because we were always with her sisters, but finally I just took her aside and gave her the whole truth. She didn't seem too upset by the news, so I'm guessing someone else had spilled the beans.
I feel like Anna has grown up so much the past few months. She loves riding her bike and scooter and trying out new tricks. She even gets to ride her bike to/from school-- how big is that? Anna wanted a Taylor Swift CD and worked for weeks to earn the money to buy it. She now pulls it out, puts the CD player on her bedroom floor, and just lays on the floor next to it listening to her music. It's such a teenager thing to do! And she's only 6!!

We loved playing at the Spanish Fork splash pad. I love kids' faces when they get water shot at them. We only managed one time at the splash pad this summer because the weather has been so weird, but it was definitely a blast!