Cousins

7/3 Cael and Cordon

Carter, Lincoln, & Cael 10/31

Lucky, lucky boys. Cael has Cordon on my side who's a month older and the other two on Mark's side! Oh, the fun they'll have! It makes me smile just to think of it!

HALLOWEEN 2008

Our first Halloween in UT since 2003 did not disappoint. The weatherman had us tricked into thinking it was going to be warm and well, Vegas like. It wasn't, but it was very festive and fun!Trick or Treating! The older three went with some friends with chaperons Mark and Frank. They went for a while before it got dark, got cold, rained and generally lost all appeal. Try as I might, I could not talk them into going out again to get ME more candy ;)
Lindsey and Maddie making spudnuts. They were delicious as usual, but they don't look as pretty as other peoples (namely Dixie Page). We found out delivering them to the Page's that it's their Halloween tradition as well. It's a good thing I have high self-confidence, because otherwise I'd have been totally humiliated by my idol, Dixie. :) We traded donuts which might end up being a tradition as well!
Mark is a fantastic jack 'o lantern carver. The kids put in their requests and Mark goes to work. Bet you can't guess which one is Madi's? Payton chose the Long Horn; Jono went with the Pack. This year we made the boys put forth a real effort to dig out the seeds. "Ew, their slimy. My hands are getting dirty." We just laughed as it dawned on them that this was part of the job description. The Ward Party was the only picture I had of Cael as a little Lion. We had thrown around the idea of dressing him up as Kale (think green and leafy), but as time would have it, he ended up a very cute lion. I'll be cropping out Madi and Jono for the scrapbooks, but thought you'd get a kick out of their faces like I did!
THE LARSEN COUSIN'S Halloween party! All 23 plus one yet to be born. Molly and kids hosted and everyone had a great time!

Madison's THREE!

No, we can't believe it 's OCTOBER 12th either.

"...it's my party and I'll cry if I want to." Too much attention and wanting Hot Cocoa fueled the short burst of tears right as we were singing to her!

Cael, the man - looked too cute, I couldn't leave this one out!

Madison had a fun birth-week celebration. It started with Grandma/pa Ogden fulfilling her dream of cowboy boots. We took a trip to Brown's Boots in Richfield where she picked them out herself. A little disclaimer: I did a little dissuading from the pointy toed, silver jeweled beauties - so not practical for the everyday wear that they are getting. Lisa and Chet bought her the pink cowboy hat and let her keep the change. She's always been a cowgirl at heart, but now she looks the part. Thank you so much!

Sunday, her actual birthday, we had the Larsen's and David to a birthday party. Due to the FOOT of snow we had in our backyard, we changed our plans from a Sundae Bar to a Hot Chocolate Bar. She loved her presents, but the highlight was that her cousins came to play with her. Payton made her a "hammer" which is what she told Grandma about 1st - you should have seen the look on his face - satisfaction, joy, love...priceless.

I made the horse cake, which took longer than I thought it would, but worth every second. Except for the second that Alexa asked, "What's her cake?" Payton answered, "It's a horse." Alexa puzzled, "Where's it's head?" All I could do was laugh! Thankfully, everyone else figured it out. Sweet Ashley even complimented the carrots, "Oooh, those are a NICE touch!"

We had a very fun, chill(y) evening celebrating our certainly darling Madison.

...for now!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Dynasty - Free family tree

Payton's 50/50!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free genealogy - Descendants

NEW PICTURES OF ALL

Just some pictures to catch you up on the cutest kids in the world. Cael is growing fast and is a GREAT baby. We love our kids and are grateful for the every day lessons they teach. Enjoy!

Cael's Blessing Day

We had a very enjoyable, family filled Sunday. We loved sharing Cael's blessing day with 54 members of our families! Walking into church a lady said, "You've got a BIG family!" I wonder what she thought when the other half showed up? :) We appreciate all the support we felt from our family. We had lots of brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. with us. We loved having Grandp/ma Ogden and my Grandp/ma Bradshaw, but missed Grandp/ma Larsen who are on a mission. Cael was patient and quiet as usual. Mark gave Cael a beautiful blessing full of promise for the future. Everyone came for brunch at our home after the meeting. I predict he'll sleep all day today to make up for being awake so much of his big day. We love celebrating special days with our favorite people!!! And as a side note - Cael smiled for the first time to none other than his DAD yesterday. This makes 4/4 kids giving Dad the first smile, if history holds true, mine will come in a couple of long weeks!

It's finally starting to sink in...

We have FOUR kids! All so unique, all so sweet, all so full of life. We are so blessed to have four fantastic children.

Oh the pressure!!!

Blogs should be fun and laid back, right? Au contraire. I'm so not feeling it. Mark started this whole thing and I get to finish it...or is there ever really a "finish?" I guess that's why I haven't "logged on" yet; once you start, it's a commitment - with an audience.

Excuse #1 We've been an unusual busy since Memorial Day Weekend when we were officially back to together as a family. Usually, we're busy with church and driving one place or another, but that hasn't been so. We spent A LOT of time getting our Vegas life finished up. And in addition to moving in to our new house and just enjoying each other's company, we've been working on a complete kitchen remodel. No, it's still not finished, but a "little thing" slowed us up, literally.

Excuse #2 Cael Corwin Larsen was born on July 3rd at 5:26 AM. He weighed 6 lb. 14 oz. and was 19 in. long. He has a different, but familiar look - more like Mark than our other's have been, which thrills me. He seems to have his calm personality too! There's nothing wrong with a 90% Mark/ 10% me baby! Hopefully it lasts. He is a pleasant bundle of joy and the focus of the household these days. Everytime he's not in sight we hear, "Where's baby Cael?" We might have to start hiding him.

Excuse #3 well, I'm out of good excuses so here I am.

I AM BLOGGING!

I figured that since Robert and Susan can manage a blog so can I. I will get my wife on it and she will make it look pretty. This is my first ever blog and so I am having writers cramp. Hopefully I will get a feel for it and soon be writing for days.