Broken Hearted

The other day we watched Lily and Sophie and the girls had a great time. It amazes me how well they all get along together. Anyway, these friends live more than an hour away, so it's not like we see them all the time, but Anna always claims Lily as her best friend.

Well, now it turns out Lily is moving, even further away. We talked about it during the day and she was sad, but was easily distracted by a grasshopper or something. But that night while T was putting her in bed, she started to cry. Real tears!! She just kept saying, "I don't want Lily to move away. How will I ever play with her?" Her poor little girl heart was broken.

I really have no words of advice to offer her. It's just one of those life things, sometimes friends move away. Poor thing.

Utah County: the greatest place on earth

I love living in Utah county. This is surprising to me, because I grew up thinking that living in Utah county was basically the same thing as living in Parowan-- not a lot going on but farming. How wrong I was!

Last week we met Trav after work and went to dinner at Cafe Rio (yum!) in Orem, which is much less packed than the one in Provo. Then we headed up Provo Canyon for some family fun. I love the canyon!!! The girls loved rolling down the small hill in the park.

Then on Saturday Travis scored us some tickets to dinner and a play at Sundance. It was so fun, and it was probably one of our best dates this year. The play was A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was hilarious! Who knew that Shakespeare was entertaining? We had a blast and it was so beautiful to be up in the mountains watching the play.

I just love how close we are to nature. We also love Spanish Fork and Hobble Creek Canyons, and we have a beautiful river trail right next to our house. I love this place!

A recipe worth trying

I found this recipe for cookie playdough through the blog of my friend. It was easy and tasty. Plus, the whole website is dedicated to using your food storage, and I know so many of my granola buddies would love that!

Sports Nut

I've really never been incredibly athletic. Or athletic at all. I'm intimidated by girls that are good at sports because they could easily beat me up. I did dance, and sometimes I run, but I've never really been into team sports or contact sports. Gym class was just an exercise in humility as the volleyball always seemed to come at my head or the softball landed just beyond my glove.
Then I married Travis. What he carefully hid from me the entire time we dated was the fact that he is really into sports. I'm not complaining at all, because he's not one of those guys who spends a lot of time watching sports or even playing sports. It's just that he really likes them, so if someone says, "Let's play volleyball," he jumps up to play while I try to slowly sink under the table.
I am the sort of person that likes to have fun, but sports have just never been fun for me. However, when Trav and I play together, I have a lot of fun.... until I start feeling guilty that he is absolutely not being challenged at all. This generally motivates me to push myself beyond my limits and then I stop having fun period.
An example of this happened yesterday. We were at a family birthday party and everyone else was kind of doing their own thing, so Trav and I started kicking a ball around like we were playing soccer. I was having a great time, we were both laughing our heads off as we tried to steal it from each other. All was well until I tried to steal and ended up kicking Travis's leg. It pretty much broke my big toe. (Did I mention we were playing barefoot?) Actually, Trav says I just jammed it, but for the pain it's caused me it may as well be broken.
That must be another reason I don't really do sports. Low pain tolerance. Call me crazy, but "jamming" my toe yesterday hurt more than natural childbirth. I slept with a bag of frozen corn on my foot. (I just gave all my ice packs to my grandma last week after she had surgery). I've been taking all the pain killers being pregnant allows. And, still, the pain of it all!
The lesson learned here is that I am not only a clumsy non-athlete, but a huge wimp as well! Maybe this is the reason I only have baby girls....

Three of a Kind

We found out yesterday that our new baby is a GIRL! The ultrasound was great and she is healthy and has all the limbs and organs she's supposed to. We even got some fun 3d pictures of her and she has a beautiful little face.
I was oddly disappointed. After all, wasn't it me that was so worried about how wild boys are? But, after a day to get used to it, I'm feeling good about my little angel inside of me. My girls are so sweet and it will be wonderful to have another. I think I was just really looking forward to all the shopping I'd have to do if it were a boy.
It does leave us in a kind of difficult position as far as names go. We've exhausted our list. Here are the current favorites: Abby, Elizabeth, Brynn, and Maeve (Maeve is Celtic and is really a cool name. Just don't go looking for the meaning.). Trav really wants a different sort of name, because he doesn't want this baby to just disappear in the Larsen line up of girls. He came up with Sapphire. :l
Let me know if you have suggestions. Or if you want to contribute to the wedding fund. We figure we'd better start saving now.

Which Team are you on?

Just wanted to mention that I was at the mall today and saw T shirts hanging in the candy store (of all places). One said Team Jacob and the other said Team Edward. :) I'm on Team Jacob.

I really think it's great that this is a craze, and that I am in on the craze. I'm usually not much for mainstream culture. I've never seen an episode of American Idol, Survivor, 24, the office..... whatever else may be popular. I just got my first ipod and it took me forever to figure out how to use it. I only cheer for sports because either 1)My husband has taken me to the game. or 2) we're watching the game with a bunch of other fans or 3) They're in the playoffs. Seriously, how do you not cheer for anyone that is in the playoffs? I'm kind of lame in that I just like to see people achieve their dreams.... I also listen to country music or FM100 because I am too easily offended by the other stuff. Basically this makes me an outcast when it comes to starting up conversations with new people.
But how great is it that it's a book that people (okay, women and teen girls) are excited about? I can't say enough for reading!! I went to this literacy conference a few months ago and the presenter (a famous high school English teacher) was like, " I don't have required reading lists in my class. " The reason: because she believes in letting people choose what they like to read and then reading TONS of it. Gobbling it up. What better way to improve your reading skills/vocabulary than by reading a lot? And, I've found that the more I read the more my interest in/awareness of other things has increased.
so, mock me if you must, (Travis does) but I am thrilled for this new book.

Counting Down

Only two days left! I feel silly about it, but I am so excited. Not enough to go to the all night party with my teenage cousin, though. I did ask T if he would take the kids for me on Saturday so I could spend the day reading, but he didn't think that was a great plan. Something about family togetherness time. Whatever.

Also, in case you didn't know the Twilight movie comes out in December. On my birthday, which is probably the only way I could ever convince Trav to see it with me.

I want to make you aware that I have a friend who just named her baby girl Bella because she loves these books so much. I feel good that I haven't reached that level yet.