The Smiling Larsons

Tired arms, back and heart

2016-04-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

Tonight I let Archie cry himself to sleep. Well, it was more like scream for 20 mins them whimper/cry for another 10 minds before finally selling down and eventually sleeping. With Mike having the shingles he can spread the chickenpox virus. Since Archie has no immunity against the chickenpox, this means I won't let Mike help with Archie. Although the chances of Archie getting chickenpox from Mike are miniscule, I can't handle anything else being added to my plate, so Mike gets shunned. Poor guy. :(
Mike had the day off today and we were able to get a lot of stuff done around the house. Since I was working on stuff most of the day my back really hurts (old injury). So tonight when Archie had been fussing for nearly two hours and nothing was soothing him (not even his favorite: nursing) I just had to buckle him in the swing, turn it on and walk away. My arms had gone numb from holding him and bouncing him and rocking him and swaying him. My back was killing me and I just couldn't do it anymore.
Sometimes one of the hard parts of being a mother is not letting guilt get the best of you. I did the best I could and I think it turned out okay. Here's hoping tomorrow goes better.

Shingles

2016-04-22T18:49:00.002-05:00

Mike was diagnosed this week with shingles. Yes, Mike has a sickness that typically affects people 60+ year old. When a person gets chicken pox the virus that causes it camps out in their nervous system for the rest of their life. Typically it just stays there with no problem. Unfortunately sometimes when people are extremely stressed and have a weakened immune system the virus can manifest as shingles. Shingles are a rash that manifest along the pathways of the nerves. They can be extremely painful because the virus is in the nervous system. Thankfully Mike identified the shingles immediately so he was able to get on anti-viral medication right away. The medication doesn't get rid of the shingles but it should lessen the severity and length of the illness.
Needless to say, Mike has been extremely stressed lately. He was asked to fill in for a fellow resident who was having some health issues and couldn't fulfill his responsibilities. Ironic, right? Eventually Mike was asked to switch rotations with this resident. We were expecting a relatively easy rotation for April with weekends off and people Mike enjoys working with. Instead he is now on a very difficult rotation and he has been assigned to work with a person who is just not pleasant. She is extremely demanding and micromanages everything Mike tries to do. She is often rude and treats her co-workers (doctors and nurses) as incompetent. Mike comes home every day feeling like he's been beaten down.
Thankfully he only has one more week working with this individual. Unfortunately for us he's on surgery rotation next month which will be difficult. We're hoping that Mike is assigned to work with a great, positive team. We're also hoping Mike doesn't pass out in the operating room (this happened multiple times in med school).
So if you could send positive vibes and lots of prayers Mike's way, that would be appreciated. :)

Diabetes

2016-04-22T18:31:00.000-05:00

While I was pregnant with Archie I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Every pregnant mom has some insulin resistance due to some hormones the placenta puts out. This resistance is good because it means if there is limited food for the mother, the body slows down processing food so that the baby can get the most nutrition out of whatever food goes in moms mouth. For most women in a first world country, it's not an issue because there is plenty of food available. Unfortunately for some women their placenta works overtime and builds up too strong of an insulin resistance resulting in gestational diabetes. Many women with gestational diabetes can treat it by eating a low carb, high veg and protein diet. Some women need diabetes medications to help level out their blood sugars. My sugars were great with just diet, except for my morning fasting number. So I took gluberide every night to help my morning sugars. It gave me terrible stomach cramps the first week or so, but it worked.
I didn't tell very many people about being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Partly because I was embarrassed. I (incorrectly) felt like it was my fault and I was hurting my baby with my health habits. The reality was just that my placenta was being an overachiever. :)
My third trimester went really well with Archie growing great and my blood sugars were fabulous. I worked hard to eat right and avoided almost all sugar. I did have a smidge of sugar around Christmas but I had plenty of protein with it so it didn't spike my sugars. ;) I exercised everyday with either a neighborhood walk or a dance party with the family.
For most women with gestational diabetes it goes away after the baby is born. Once the hormone producing placenta is gone, the woman's blood sugars level out. We tested my blood sugars in the hospital and my doctor said everything looked great. I checked my sugars sporadically over then next 6 weeks and they were all in healthy range. I was working really hard to eat right and be as active as I could. By my 6 week appointment I had lost all but 5lbs of the baby weight I had gained with Archie. After my 6 week appointment my ob had me to the 2 hour glucose tolerance test again. Unfortunately it came back saying I had pre-diabetes. This means I have a mild carb intolerance, but not severe enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was obese when I got pregnant with Archie, and being so heavy makes me at greater risk for getting type 2 diabetes if I'm not careful. The treatment in my case is to eat right and exercise. Hopefully I'll be able to lose enough weight to get my insulin working correctly again. I'm down 16 lbs since that 6 week appointment, so I'm on my way.

Archibald Ian Larson

2016-01-21T18:50:00.000-06:00

It's been quite some time since I wrote on this blog, but I wanted to document Archie's birth story and facebook just wasn't the right medium. ;)
Since my mom could only be here for a week for Archie's birth, my doctor agreed to schedule an induction on my due date. That way my mom would be here for as much of his first week of life as possible. I had a few contractions before my due date, but nothing consistent, unfortunately.
The morning of the 18th, Mike and I got up and ready and headed off to the hospital. The kids were all up and playing with grandma, enjoying themselves since there was no school. They wished us luck and said they couldn't wait to meet Squishy (Archie's in-utero nickname).
We got to the hospital, checked in and waited for a few minutes before the nurse came out to lead us over to labor and delivery. Our nurse was a gal named Tina who was on her first day back after being out for 13 weeks of maternity leave. :) She was young and sweet and a great fit for my personality. We laughed and chatted a lot while she went over the necessary information and she got me set up on the IV. At 8:30 I was hooked up to the IV and we started the pitocin. Every half hour for the next 2 hours Tina would up the dose of pitocin for me. It took probably 20 mins before I started feeling anything, but they were just little contractions that were easily managed. At about 9, my doctor, Dr. H, came in and checked me. I was dilated to a 3 (after being barely at a 1 to start with) and Dr. H asked if I wanted her to break my water. I quickly agreed, and she broke my water right then. With my other kids, my water broke during the contractions right before their birth, so it was interesting to have her break my water so early on.

About an hour after Dr. H broke my water, she came back in to check on me. I was doing well and she said we could have a lunchtime baby if we wanted. I laughed, but she ended up being right!

After my water was broken, I got out of the bed and alternated between sitting on the birthing ball and dancing around with Mike. As long as I kept moving I was good. Mike and I were still laughing and joking around with each other. This was actually a great strategy because each time he made me laugh more fluid would gush out, speeding things along. We put on the piano guys playlist and it was nice being able to focus on the songs during contractions. The music beats gave me something to move with too, which was helpful.

At about 10 o’clock the nursed upped my Pitocin dose again. That’s when things changed. It took more of my effort to get through the contractions and they were getting closer together. They were about 2-3 minutes apart. I started thinking that I might need an epidural. At 10:30 she upped the Pitocin again. The contractions became much more intense and I was having a hard time breathing through them. They got closer together and felt like they were one right after another. I asked for an epidural because I knew if I couldn’t breathe, I would be able to deliver the baby. They checked me and I was at a 5. I had the feeling that I was hitting transition labor. The anesthesiologist came in and was very professional in doing his job. He was quick and efficient while still being encouraging to me. By this point I had the shakes pretty bad. They raised the bed up tall and had me sitting on the edge of the bed. Mike stood in front of me and I leaned my head on him to help keep me still. The nurse helped hold me up because I just couldn’t do that anymore. He got the epidural in me in about 15 mins. The Cello STAR WARS song was playing while he did the epidural, which was fun because it made me think of Aiden. The epidural helped take the edge of the contractions, but didn’t take the pain away. That’s when I knew I was in transition labor. They laid me back and Mike did a fabulous job of talking me through the contractions. I was shaking uncontrollably but Mike was great about giving me comforting touch and soothing me. At 11:15 I could feel the baby start to descend and I told everyone that he was going to be coming soon. Tina was great and called Dr. H to tell her to come over (she was across the street at her Dr. office). When Dr. H didn’t show up in 15 mins, Tina called again, but also got things prepared and lined up in case Dr. H didn’t make it in time. She had a PA or someone in there who could deliver the baby if needed. They broke down the bed and got everything prepped. By 11:45 I said the baby was going to be here soon because I started having the urge to push. Dr. H still wasn’t there. Tina called again and told the office staff to pull Dr. H out of the patient’s room if needed. She also said “Tell her to run fast!” A few minutes later Dr. H walked into the room, into the bunny suit the nurses were holding. She sat down, checked me and then said “Ok, next contraction we’re pushing!”

The contraction started and I started pushing and things got suddenly quiet. I could hear the song “Linus and Lucy” playing on the play list. With all my other kids they had me push for a little and then they’d say “Stop pushing” which was always hard. So I pushed once, but wasn’t sure if I needed to keep pushing because no one was giving me verbal directions. I asked “do I still need to push?” Everyone said “yes! Keep going!” Then Mike started giving me verbal cues “We’re going to hold your breath and push for 10 seconds. Ready, go! 1, 2, 3…” and I pushed two more times before Archie was born. Once his head was out I heard several people say “Whoa, that’s a big head!” Not really what I wanted to hear when I still had to push the rest of him out, but we knew he had a big head.

Once he was born they put him right on me. He had a full head of hair! His cry was so cute and as I was cleaning him off I noticed a dimple in his left cheek. :) I kept him on me while they delivered the placenta, which Dr. H actually showed us. I didn’t care too much about it, but it was interesting to see where Archie had been living. :) I had two tiny tears that they had to stitch up. I tried nursing Archie a couple times in the delivery room, but he wasn’t too interested. Everyone was curious to see what he weighed, so I eventually let them take him to find out his weight. :) He ended up being 8lbs 10.8oz, which was less than the ultrasound tech estimated (she was guessing 9.5 lbs).

He was my perfect little man! And he was here after only 3.5 hours of labor!

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

2014-07-30T15:20:00.000-05:00

Esther's birthday is just 3 days after Olivia was born and Aiden's is a month later. Since we came home from the hospital with Olivia on Esther's birthday and I was still very sleep deprived on Aiden's birthday a month later, I felt like we didn't properly celebrate their birthdays. I decided it would be fun to throw them an unbirthday party. Esther and Aiden each invited 3 of their friends to the party. After talking with them we decided to go with a BRAVE (as in Merida) party. I love planning parties and had so much fun putting it together. I think the kids enjoyed it to.

See? Here's Esther before the party. I think she's excited. ;) I found this dress at goodwill. It's a pretty good Queen Elinor dress, eh?

I made these posters for decorations. This was definitely a budget party. :)

I made these mini blueberry cakes like the one that Merida gives to her mom to change her fate.

I made this pinata that was very ghetto but fun. It was Mordu (the evil bear from the movie).

Here I am as Merida ready to host the party. :)

Ready, aime...

Gotta have a little sass, right? ;)

Here is Aiden with one of his little friends playing with the "will o' the wisps" we made. In the movie the wisps guide you to your destiny. Notice Aiden's kilt? Ever since we saw the movie last year Aiden has been asking me to make him a kilt. I found some fabric that closely resembles the McKinnon hunting tartan and made him a kilt. He didn't want his picture taken though. :)

We colored BRAVE coloring pages while we waited for everyone to get there.

After everyone was there we went out to the backyard for an archery lesson. Mike and I had made the bows and arrow for each kid. The kids shot their arrows through hula-hoops to make it easier. Archery may have been a bit above the 3-5 year olds level, but they loved it anyway. It was fun making them and we watched Star Trek while making them, so it was actually more like a mini-date night.

With the leftover pvc from the bows I made these marshmallow shooters.

As you can see from this shot of our yard afterwards, we had lots of fun with the shooters. :)

Then we did the pinata. Here's Aiden in his kilt again.

Esther taking a swing at the pinata.

After all the kids had several turns hitting the pinata, I took my turn and demolished it (enbiggin for a great shot of my concentration face).

Here we are eating our swedish fish from the pinata (the bears eat fish in the movie).

Here we all are ready to watch the movie, BRAVE.

Aiden and I (he had ditched the kilt when we came back inside).

Esther and I (She had ditched her dress because she said it was too scratchy).

At the end of the party, each kid went home with their bow and arrow, marshmallow shooters and coloring pages. I had so much fun planning and putting together the party and I think the kids enjoyed it. :) Let me know if you ever want help planning a party. :)

Mike and I after the party was over. :) I'm not going to lie, I was glad to get out of that hot wig and dress (it's July, remember?).

July 2014

2014-07-30T14:44:00.000-05:00

On the night of July 3rd, all 5 members of our family slept through the night. It was magnificent! And it meant we had the energy for all our festivities.

We started off our forth of July celebrations with our city parade. :) It was so fun and such a beautiful day (in the 70's). Everyone had so much fun!

Livvy even slept for about an hour, despite the fire truck and police car sirens going off. She was tired. :)

Esther and Aiden were so excited to see the bagpipers wearing kilts (Can you spot them?).

"Daaad!"

This camel was a part of a chiropractor's advertisement. The sign said "Don't let your back look like mine." It was funny and clever. :)

After the parade we went to Fred's for some swimming, food and hanging out with friends. Livvy loved floating in the pool, but by the time I got the camera out, she was ready for a nap.

Mike wrote Esther a note in a leaf. It was so cute and creative. :)

I found Mike one Sunday morning multitasking. :)

Here's poor Livvy getting a little too much love from her big sister.

Esther is definitely intense in everything she does.

One day out of the blue Esther decided she was going to make lunch for everyone. It was so cute! She's done it several times since then, and I am so appreciative each time!

Aiden decided one day he was just going to help himself to a spoonful of peanut butter. I caught him red handed (and he knew it! Look at that face!).

June 2014

2014-06-30T14:20:00.000-05:00

We started June off by potty training Aiden. We had tried last September, but he wasn't interested. He started showing interest again in November, but by then my sciatica was so terrible, I wasn't hardly sleeping and I didn't want him to regress when Olivia was born, so we decided to wait. But then once Olivia was born I decided we should wait until I was sleeping better. So here we are in June finally potty training Aiden. But I'm glad I waited because he was a champ and caught on super fast. He earned ice cream the first day because he didn't have any accidents and he went 1 and 2 in the potty. Super kid! He had it totally down by the end of the week.

Here's Olivia and Mike on a beautiful June morning when we took a morning walk before church. :)

Here's a pic with Mike and the kids.

Family picture. :) I love how it shows the kids personalities. Olivia sweet as can be, Aiden distracted by something, but just happy and Esther so happy to be in nature with her family. :)

Esther saw these pretty flowers and wanted her picture with them.

Here's Esther on her last day of school. Needless to say, she was excited.

Look how much she's grown!

Here's a flashback to the first day of school:

She loved her teacher. He was awesome!

Aiden wanted his picture taken too. :)

Aiden loves to collect rocks.

Esther loves to collect sticks.

We went to Greek Fest here at a local church. The food was delicious and I enjoyed watching the traditional dancing. :)

I did sleep training with Livvy in June and weaned her from her night feedings. It helped SOOOO much and we're all sleeping much better because of it. :)

She fell asleep in my lap and I had to set her down to capture a picture of how adorable she is!

Aiden wanted to hold Olivia one day and I had to laugh at how big she was on his lap. :)

During the last couple days of June I took a quick trip with Olivia to Utah. Mike had been on 2 months of surgery rotation and hadn't seen the kids much, so he took Esther and Aiden camping while I went to visit my family. Several family members were able to come down to see us. :) It was great!

Here I am with my sister! :)

One of my best friends: Grandma Cole. :)

Some of my nieces and nephews with Olivia. :)

My brother and his family came down to see us as well, so we got a few shots of the three siblings (there's 3 missing, but they were in other states).

I left out the bloopers but they mostly consist of me laughing my head off and funny faces from all of us. :)

My sister and I with our girls. :)

Papa with his youngest princess (for now).

Livvy hanging out with her Papa. :)

Papa Sampson with some of his princesses. I'm not sure why Livvy looks so terrified, but it makes me laugh!

Some of my nieces. :)

I was also able to meet up with some of Mike's family, although all the pictures from that outing are on their cameras and phones, so they'll have to email them to me. :)

I love family!

May 2014

2014-05-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

My kids are so adorable!!!!!

Mike and Aiden looking incredibly handsome!

On May 16th Mike officially graduated with his PhD in Bio Physics. He technically finished in December, but walked the line with the rest of the PhD grads in May. He makes one good looking doc!

He kept teasing me that he wanted to put his hood on.

Silly picture with the kids (yes, they're wearing coats in the middle of May. Welcome to Wisconsin).

This is a recreation of a picture from his under-grad graduation. :)

Here's his undergrad picture for a reference:

He spent many an hour here

Look, pretty flowers (ok maybe I made him take too many pictures...).

He said he felt like a wizard with the robe on... :)

"Oh dad..."

She is definitely his daughter!

Here's Mike with his mentor, Neil (there in the middle with him), as well as two other students in the same lab who were graduating with Mike.

Olivia and I went to the graduation luncheon with Mike.

Here's another shot of Neil with Mike.

A friend brought the kids for the actual graduation ceremony. :)

Aiden wasn't interested in smiling for a picture.

Man, my family is so good looking!

Esther took this picture of us. Ha ha ha!

Yes, I kept the kids entertained for the 2 hour ceremony with electronics. The graduation ceremony also included all the MDs who graduation from MCW. That'll be Mike next year! :D

May was also my birthday month, but apparently we didn't take any pictures. Mike and I went on a date and ate good food. :)

We regularly have dance parties with the kids, and on this day, Aiden wanted to do a STAR WARS dance party. We pulled out our Halloween costumes from last year and danced! Here's Livvy being the most adorable Jedi in existence!

Aiden found Mike's old paintball mask and decided it was Darth Vader's mask.

This was the ballet dance party. Esther was tickled pink that Olivia had a purple tutu like her. She loves matching her little sister! :)

Esther took this picture of me with Livvy. :)

Mike has no idea how good looking he is in this next picture that Esther took.

Esther took this picture of me with some mother's day flowers.

Another picture from Esther. :)

At the end of May I did the Color Run 5k. It was so stinking fun and it felt great to be running again! I didn't run the whole thing, but I didn't care. :)

Of course Livvy decided she was starving right before the race started...

Aiden looking cool in his glasses.

Right before the race with one of my biggest motivators. :)

Esther looking absolutely beautiful...

Esther took this picture of Mike and Aiden.

Me right after the purple station.

About to finish...

Whoot whoot! I did it! :)

I am MAMA hear me ROAR!!! :)

Having fun with the color!

Livvy was such a good sport. :)

Esther and I had green hands for a couple days...

For memorial Day we went to Fred's pool. Livvy actually loved the water. :)

She chilled like this for almost an hour. :)

Esther is getting so good at swimming.

Livvy is a super chunk and barely fit in her 9-12 month swimsuit.

Aiden randomly asked for his picture to be taken. :)

Esther and Livvy looking adorable in matching outfits!

Esther gave me this card randomly one day. I asked Mike if he had prompted her to do it and he said she did it all of her own initiative, and even spelled it herself. I'm so blessed! :)

April 2014

2014-04-30T12:19:00.000-05:00

Olivia has been a bit of a fussy girl, but I still love her so much! Look at how adorable she is! She's about 2 1/2 months in this picture.

For the past several years, Mike has been the East Bunny in our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. The kids think it's hilarious, as you can tell by the following picture:

After the egg hunt the kids did not want to sit still and smile for a picture, they just wanted to eat all their candy!

I made these fun pancakes for dinner the day before Easter.

A cute family picture from Easter. :)

This picture with Livvy in sunglasses cracks me up!

Grandma Larson sent us these funny bunny glasses, so we decided to do a picture with our Easter sunglasses. :)

March 2014

2014-03-31T15:23:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately March started out with everyone getting a nasty stomach bug. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour bug so we were back on our feet fairly quickly. We had been planning on blessing Olivia the first Sunday in March, but then everyone got sick, so we had to wait until the next Sunday.

Olivia's blessing was a sweet experience. I had several friends help me by taking notes. I was able to get a fairly thorough transcript of her blessing that way. :) I love my little family. Notice how Aiden and Esther are holding hands in that picture up there? Totally their idea. Love it!

After we got home we may have gone a little loopy, but that's nothing new.

I love Aiden's face in this. :)

I am so grateful to have Mike as the worthy priesthood holder in our home. The dress Olivia is wearing is one that was made in Thailand when my family lived there. My sister, Lesley, was also blessed in that dress, along with several of my cousins. Olivia was too chubby for the dress I was blessed in. :) The blanket Olivia is wrapped up in was made by my Grandma Cole when I was blessed and has been used with both my girls.

And I sure love my precious Olivia. After each of my children have been born, I can't hardly remember what life was like before they joined our family. I love all of my kids so dearly.

I hope she always knows how much we cherish her.

Switching gears here a little. One of Aiden's favorite living scriptures videos is called "Maccabees". It's the story of Hanukkah, along with a brief history lesson. The roots of Christianity were preserved in this bit of history. Some artistic liberty has been taken in depicting the story, but I think for the most part, it is accurate. In one of the scenes, two of the characters are arm wrestling. Aiden wanted Mike to arm wrestle uncle Brian, so of course, we had to get a few pictures. :)

March was a fairly easy month for us, as far as Mike's work rotation went. He had many half days of work and several days off altogether. It was great. During one of his days off we went to "The Domes". The domes are botanical gardens that are enclosed in three glass domes. They are wonderful to visit, especially during Milwaukee's winters.

The girls. :)

The boys. :) There was a model train display that had Aiden captivated. He didn't want to take his eyes off it. :)

Esther showing off some orchids (my favorite flower).

Me and the kids by a waterfall. The tropical dome is probably my favorite.

Esther being her spunky cute self. :)

Me and my sweetheart. We now have documentation of how sleep deprived we were. ;)

Aiden decided that Olivia needed to lay down beside him. Notice he's holding her hand? He loves her so much.

And one last picture because Olivia is just too cute. :)

Since we've been home

2014-02-14T20:23:00.001-06:00

Here's just some random pictures of our life since we've been home from the hospital. :)

Adorable Olivia with a bit of a smile. She smiles quite a bit, but they're hard to catch with the camera. :)

There was one day where Aiden insisted on wearing these glasses and Mike's scout hat all day. He of course didn't want his picture taken, but I insisted.

Did you hear about our adventure? Read about it here.

Aiden was so excited to be so close to the fire truck. :)

Just some of the trucks from the gas company. Oh and take notice of the guy next to the tree. Yellow hoodie with overalls. Totally reminded me of a Despicable Me minion. :)

Late night snuggles with Olivia while I was waiting for Mike to come to bed.

Early morning snuggles with Olivia while I was getting in a little light therapy.

A couple days after we got home from the hospital I came down with the flu. This flu was beyond nasty, so I had to try to limit my contact with Olivia. For the first couple days I would pump and my mom would bottle feed Olivia for me. It was so hard not being able to snuggle and hug my baby. After the first couple days I would wear a medical mask whenever I held Olivia. There was a lot of hand washing and Clorox wiping going on. Oh, I forgot to mention that I got asthmatic bronchitis and an ear infection too. Thankfully my mom was here to take care of all of us. I literally couldn't have done it without her. :)

Grandma Smith sent the girls these matching outfits. So cute!

Aiden wanted a turn holding his sister too. Super cute too! :)

My sister made this hat for Olivia. It makes me giggle with happiness every time I put it on her. :)

I'm not sure why she decided she needed her glasses this day, but Esther insisted on wearing her glasses when she went out with Mike one day. :)

So Aiden insisted on wearing his glasses too, although he hates getting his picture taken most of the time.

My mom with Olivia.

Isn't my mom so beautiful? :) I was so glad to have my mom here to help. Thank you again Mommy (and Papa). I know it wasn't easy for you two sweethearts to be away from each other. :) My Papa mailed cute cards to my mom almost every day she was here. Isn't that so sweet? My parents are such a great example of what a great eternal marriage looks like. :)

Playing with shadows

2014-02-14T19:44:00.002-06:00

When the kids woke up on our first morning home from the hospital, we invited them into our bed. Mike started making finger shadows on the wall and then things got a little crazy. We were all in giggles within a few minutes. :)

Mike's shadow hand would eat Aiden and he'd collapse to the floor in giggles. :)

Been a little MIA

2014-02-09T12:14:00.000-06:00

Right after we got home from the hospital my computer crashed. It wasn't working at all. The 11 year old son of a friend said he could look at it for me. And guess what? He totally fixed it! Ha ha ha! :) It did involve wiping the hard drive clean, but he fixed it for me which saved me a trip to a computer repair shop, to say nothing of the cost of it all! :)
So now that I have a functioning computer again I'll try to update everyone on how life has been since our beautiful Olivia joined our family. :)

Anecdotal post script

2014-02-06T08:44:00.000-06:00

There are a few random things I wanted to remember about the experience in the previous post.
*Plowing the driveway didn't even work! Our driveways are so old and uneven that not even a third of the snow was removed with the plow. When the guys who did the plowing realized that their supervisor was coming, they hurried and shoveled the driveways. Mom and I had a good laugh about that. :)
*When the firemen stepped out of their trucks with axes in hand Aiden froze and just watched wide eyed. I'm pretty sure the moment was going in slow motion for him like an epic moment in a movie. The whole time we were in the van he filled our ears with updates on what the firemen were doing and ideas on what they should do next. Even after they left he asked if we could have a fire on our roof so they would come back. Ha ha ha! No thanks buddy. :)
*It got really dark rather quickly and really cold. The utility workers were all wearing neon yellow hoodies with blue or black overalls. They all had other layers on underneath to stay warm. They also had lights strapped to their heads so they could see what they were doing. They totally looked like they were minions from the movie Despicable Me. :)

Never a dull moment

2014-02-05T21:33:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I was sitting in my recliner snuggling my baby when I looked outside to see a pickup truck with a snow plow on the front pulling into our driveway. Our landlady has a company that she's hired that comes to shovel or snow blow the driveways for us. Today they decided to try to make things go quicker by just plowing the driveways. The problem is our driveway is only just barely wide enough for cars and vans to fit through with little room for error. Our house is right up against one side of the driveway and our neighbors house is up against the other side. As they tried to plow the driveway I commented to my mom that this seemed like a bad idea to me. They finished our driveway and went to do the neighbors' driveway (also owned by our landlady) on the other side of our house, which is also skinny and flanked by our homes. As they were clearing that driveway we heard a crash and crunch and thud. They had hit something on the side of our house. As I wondered aloud about what they had hit Esther said she could smell something. I immediately could smell gas. My mom and I leapt up to get the kids out of the house as the smell very quickly filled the house. As we were getting bundled up to go outside in the 14 degree weather there was a knock on the door. The worker asked us to evacuate because he had hit the gas line. He called 911 and we loaded up into the van. We ended up staying parked in the driveway with the van on to keep us warm.
In just a couple minutes there were 3 fire trucks, an ambulance and a half dozen police cars in front of our house. Aiden was in heaven! As we played in the car, Mike was our runner talking with the emergency workers and eventually the gas company. Aiden was through the roof when the firefighters went inside our house to check it out. Thankfully the smell of the gas is much worse than it's toxicity. Since we were aware of the leak immediately and the fire department came so quickly and stopped the leak, the gas levels in our home didn't reach dangerous levels. This was comforting to know even though we were just hanging out in the car.
It turns out the guy clearing the driveway didn't just hit the gas line, he ripped it right out of the house below the valve.
Eventually the emergency vehicles all left and the kids got bored. Thankfully at that point our landlady called and said to go out for dinner on her. Did I mention our landlady is awesome? So we went out for Panda Express while they continued to work on it. When we got back there were several more utility trucks on site and a guy in a hole up to his shoulders working on it. By this point Mike went inside and said the gas smell had mostly cleared out. Since it was way past the kids bedtimes we headed in and got all kids to bed.
It has taken several trucks worth of utility workers working on it for 5 hours to get it fixed. At least I think it's fixed since the heat just finally turned on. :)
It's definitely not an experience I'd wish on anyone but I am so grateful that we were blessed with safety through it all. I'm also grateful that the guy who did the initial damage had the presence of mind to get us out of the house right away and call for help. Olivia didn't hardly cry except for a few minutes when she was first buckled in her car seat. :) And they were able to fix it tonight so we can sleep in our own beds with a heated house instead of having to stay at a hotel. :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

2014-01-31T19:57:00.000-06:00

Growing up my parents would throw some awesome Chinese New Year parties. They involved some delicious foods, some slightly silly games and some great friends! In college I would throw huge Chinese New Year parties. I even threw a couple Chinese New Year parties the first couple years we were in Milwaukee. But each consecutive winter here has been more and more difficult for me, and so my Chinese New Year parties have been put on hold for the time being. Believe me: when we move to a more agreeable climate I will throw Chinese New Year parties again. :)

Even though I don't throw a party these days, I still like celebrating Chinese New Year. So this year I got my kids dressed up in their cute little outfits and tried to get some good pictures. With 3 kids this proved slightly challenging. Thankfully the kids are so cute, it doesn't really matter that the picture quality is lacking. :) Sawadee Pi Mai Ka!

Esther is 5!

2014-01-27T19:01:00.000-06:00

The day after we got home from the hospital, Esther turned 5 years old. The first thing she wanted to do when she woke up was to hold her little sister. :) Such a sweetie.

Esther spent a good portion of the day coloring. She is quite the little artist. :)

We now have 3 birthdays in one week. Mike's in Jan 19th, Olivia's is the 22nd and Esther's is the 25th. Aiden began to feel like everyone else was having a birthday but him! He was a little jealous of Esther's toys. Her new birthday toys had lots of little parts that Aiden is just too small to play with. So while Aiden was napping, Esther and I went to the dollar store and Esther picked out some toys for Aiden. She used some of her birthday money to buy them for him. She picked out some construction trucks and some dinosaurs for him, and he LOVED them. They are so sweet to each other!

I had stenciled this shirt for her while I was in labor (the kids were asleep but I couldn't sleep and Mike had done all the housework already) so she had something special to wear on her birthday.

Esther really wanted chocolate chip cookies for her birthday instead of cake. :)

Esther's school teacher gave her this cute crown for her birthday, and she loves it. :)

The day after Esther's birthday some of Esther's favorite people, Uncle Brian and Aunt Anna, came up to celebrate with us. I had baked the cake earlier, Mike made the frosting and Esther dumped the sprinkles she had picked out on it.

It was a bit of a low key birthday for Esther, but I hope she knows that she's so special to us and we love her dearly!

Introducing Olivia Jean

2014-01-23T07:38:00.000-06:00

This is a very long post about Olivia's birth that I started the day after Olivia was born. Scroll down if you're just interested in the pictures. :)

I was scheduled to have an induction today, but yesterday I went into labor on my own (this is the same thing that happened with Aiden). :)

I started having contractions in the early morning of the 22nd. When Mike found out that I was having contractions he notified his superior that he would not be going into clinic that morning. I didn't think I was really in labor because I had been having on and off contractions since I was 17 weeks pregnant. The contractions were still not really painful and very sporadic. Since there really wasn't much for Mike to do for me, he cleaned the house, did the laundry and took care of Esther and Aiden for me. I got a relaxing shower and had time to really get ready for the day. It was actually a really relaxing morning for me, despite the contractions. By 11 o'clock the contractions were about 10 mins apart. They stayed that way for the next 2 hours. Mike felt like he needed to go into clinic, so I told him I'd call him if anything changed. So he went into clinic. At about 2:30 the contractions started getting closer together. By 3 o'clock I was about to call Mike when he walked in the door. The doctor he was working with (for OB rotation) found out I was having contractions and told Mike to go home. Mike went to finish what he was doing and the doctor got mad at him. He said "Go home now and don't come back to work until after your baby is born!" :) What a good man!

By 3:30 I decided that I really was in labor after all. I made arrangements for the kids to spend the night at a friend's house. I told Mike that we could probably take the kids over to our friend's house after dinner around 5. By 4 o'clock I realized we needed to go to the hospital sooner rather than later. I told Mike that and so he started getting food for the kids. By 4:30 I said we needed to go to the hospital now and I was pretty sure I was in transition labor. Mike still had the 5 o'clock departure time in his head, so he was still moving really slow getting the kids food and everything ready to go. Within 30 mins my contractions went from 8 mins apart to 3 mins apart. We finally made it out the door by 5:15. We dropped the kids off at 5:36 and headed to the hospital, which thankfully was just a block away. Mike tried to make some jokes along the way and I remember telling him it wasn't funny and to just get me to the hospital. Poor guy had no idea how far along I was.

Mike dropped me off at the emergency room at 5:40 and he quickly parked the car. I did a very minimal check in and Mike was by my side in a minute. I climbed in the wheelchair the medical escort had and he rushed me upstairs. At one point there were a bunch of people in our way and so I said "Excuse me! Lady with a baby coming through!" I thought I was funny, but the people looked at me like I was crazy. :)

By the time we got upstairs to labor and delivery I was feeling rather lightheaded from breathing too deeply. But my brain was so fuzzy I couldn't force myself to breathe any differently. Thankfully I was able to communicate to Mike what was going on and he helped me breathe shallower and the lightheaded-ness passed. The nurse was asking me admissions questions, but I could not mentally process most of the words she was saying. The nurse figured out that things were moving fast so she asked me to get on the bed so she could get me hooked up to the monitor. I had one contraction sitting up in the bed and it was torture! I deal with pain best when I can move around still (one reason while I didn't want an epidural).

I could feel that it was almost time for the delivery. Olivia was really low in the birth canal. My brain was still really fuzzy from dealing with the pain, so I couldn't find the words to articulate that to anyone. All I could manage was to yell "BABY!" over and over. When my water broke, Olivia almost came out at the same time. I held my legs together to keep her in and yelled "BABY! NOW!" A resident was just outside my door and she stepped in to see if she could help. She had gotten one glove on to check my cervix when Mike said "No need to check her! The head is crowning!" The resident ran in and didn't even have time to put the other glove on before she caught Olivia. She caught Olivia and then passed her over to Mike to finish with the afterbirth. Mike wasn't scrubbed in at all. He was just holding Olivia up to his hoodie with no gloves, no blankets, nothing. There wasn't time for any of that! Mike clipped the umbilical cord and then put Olivia on me. By this point we had been in the hospital for 20 mins, max. Ha ha ha!

Nurses, residents and eventually a doctor came in and soon the room was buzzing with people. Everyone was shocked that I had the baby so fast. Nevermind the fact that I labored at home for 17 hours. There was one nurse who kept saying "You just shot that baby out!" I got a lot of praise because I really did have the baby on my own. :)

Olivia Jean Larson was born at 5:59pm on January 22nd, 2014. She was 7 lbs 6.4oz and 19.75 inches long. She has a full head of hair that is dark brown at the roots and lighter at the ends. Because the delivery went so fast, her head did not get misshapen at all. Olivia has a good set of lungs and she cried for her first hour and half of life. And then she cried again anytime anyone checked her vitals or poked and prodded her. And boy did she scream during her first bath!

Olivia on the scale.

Olivia's first bath.

All the nurses called Mike the baby whisperer because he could calm Olivia down and put her to sleep so easily.

Look at all that hair! :)

Daddy and his newest princess!

The kids were excited to meed Olivia the first time. :)

Esther wanted to hold her right away and actually held her for about an hour.

When we asked Aiden if he wanted to hold Olivia, he said no and then ran over to the window. "Look dad! We're high up!"

This picture isn't a very good picture but I thought it was hilarious that you could see how wild the kids got after a time. [hint, look at Esther's legs above her head]

Olivia kept pulling her arms out of her sleeves to suck on her hands. :)

Olivia already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. :)

Our first family picture as a family of 5. :)

My sister made this adorable hat, but it turned out to be a smidge big in the hospital. :)

Me with Olivia getting ready to be discharged from the hospital. They actually said we could be discharged after 24 hours because recovery was going so well. We opted to stay another day so I could rest up a little more. With 2 kids at home, there wasn't much chance of us getting much rest at home. :)

Staying at the hospital was actually really nice. Mike was on a rollaway cot instead of the terrible and hard couch "cot". The nurses did a great job taking care of us. They got me my pain meds when I needed them and they were great at passing me Olivia or getting me some more water when I needed it. :)

We brought a bag of Dove Milk Chocolates with us. Each time a new nurse would come in we'd give them a few pieces. :) Every single nurse said "Oh! I love Dove chocolate!" It was great. :) It helped break the ice and they all quickly warmed up to us.

Another perk of being at the hospital was being able to pick up the phone and order my food. The food wasn't spectacular, but it was good enough and I could order whatever I wanted without having to worry about preparing it or cleaning it up. :)

Headed home. :)

Since we've been home Esther has been a great help with Olivia. She loves holding her. :)

Esther helped me give Olivia a bath at home. :)

Aiden came to help too. :)

All clean!

I came downstairs our second day home and found Olivia like this. Ha ha ha! Mike is so funny sometimes. :)

Every now and then Aiden will ask to hold Olivia. He's warming up to her and is a good helper.

Yeah for being a family of 5! :)

Lego Man Birthday

2014-01-20T19:21:00.000-06:00

Mike LOVES Legos so I decided to give him a Lego themed birthday. It wasn't much, but it was fun. :)

The first thing we did was crown him our Lego king. :)

I made these Lego heads out of baby food jars. They were filled with chocolate (that's all Mike asked for his birthday: chocolate).

I also turned two of the Lego heads into salt and pepper shakers (you can kind of see them here).

Please ignore the laundry in the background and focus on the cute people in the foreground. :) I printed out this paper to wrap all of Mike's presents in. :)

I stenciled this Lego-man shirt for Mike. I think he likes it. ;)

Esther colored this Lego person for her daddy.

Another piece of art by Esther.

I LOVE this snowman Esther drew for her daddy. And the blue guy in the upper right is a guy who played in the snow so much that "his coat got full of snow". :)

We all colored Lego people to represent ourselves. The kids helped me color Mike's Lego man and Esther colored two Lego figures of herself. :)

Here I am showing off my 40 week belly. I really should have utilized that "shelf" more. :)

Mike just wanted mint brownies for his birthday. The kids were so excited to share the brownies with him. (and don't they look adorable in their church clothes!)

This wasn't from Mike's birthday, but it's a cute picture of a daily event in our house: Mike bringing the kids down the stairs on his back. During this picture Aiden was yelling "Charge!" as they came down the stairs. When they got to the bottom of the stairs they attacked a pillow and then told me they had beat the bad guys so I was safe now. :)

STAR WARS Finger Puppet Brag Post

2013-12-29T09:46:00.002-06:00

This is just a brag post to show off some stinking awesome finger puppets I made. A friend and I got together and cut out all the pieces (a set for each of us) and then we both went home and stitched them when we found the time. I really enjoy hand stitching crafts like this. It's relaxing and fun for me to make things I know my family will enjoy. The pictures aren't great, but there's a lot of them, so enjoy. :) Ha ha ha!

Han Solo:

Chewbacca:

Princess Leia:

Ewok:

Yoda:

Luke Skywalker:

Obi Wan Kenobi:

Darth Vader:

C3PO:

R2D2:

And since the colors were kinda washed out in the above pictures, here's some with the flash so we can see the colors better. :)

Here's the whole gang. I kinda love how they turned out. :)

Christmas Eve 2013

2013-12-29T09:29:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite Christmas Eve traditions is acting out the nativity story. We have to get creative with only 4 people, but we made it work. :) Here's our version of the nativity story. :)

"And the angel came in unto [Mary] and said, Hail, art thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.... And behold, thou shalt coceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.... And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to they word."

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.... And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, unto Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.... To be taxed with his espoused wife, being great with child."

(Knocking at the Inn. "Sorry, there's no room.")

("But my wife is about to have a baby!" "Well, I have a stable over there you can use.")

"And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes."

"And laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."

"And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them; and they were sore afraid."

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

"And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."

"And they came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger."

"Now when Jesus was born in Belehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."

"When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy."

"And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."

We of course, also did Christmas Eve Pajamas. :)

And here's a picture of the tree Christmas morning. Yes, there's a strand of lights burned out. It happened a week before Christmas and I didn't want to deal with getting new lights and changing it out. :) It still looks good enough for me. :)

We also had this mini tree that I decorated with one of the family gifts: STAR WARS finger puppets. More on those in another post. :)

Here's our cute kiddos on Christmas morning ready to open their presents. :)

Merry Christmas! :)

December 2013

2013-12-26T10:23:00.004-06:00

Here's a quick update on what our family has been doing this December. :)

We kicked off the month with Mike defending his PhD dissertation. The official title of his PhD dissertation is: "Examining Phosphatidylethanolamine Externalization on Cells and Microparticles in Hemolysis and Hemolytic Anemia.” Basically he studies micro-particles (debris) in blood and came up with a way to make blood last longer and be safer when donated. Here he is right before he walked out the door for his defense. He is so handsome! :)

He did great and received great reviews from his committee. And now he's done! :) yeah! He'll start 3rd year rotations in January.

CANDY CANE LANE:
A neighborhood nearby has a huge lights show called candy cane lane. About 300 homes participate by going all out in their decorations. Mike was so excited and tried to get a bunch of pictures, but taking pictures of lights in a moving van didn't work too well. This house was our favorite, mostly because of the Yoda in a Santa suit. :)

Most of the pictures turned out more like this one:

Mitchell Domes:
Milwaukee has 3 indoor botanical gardens that are nicknamed the Domes because they are contained in three domed greenhouses. I love going to the domes in the winter because it feels great inside and I can still enjoy the sunshine. :)
Here's the kids "shooting" their daddy with some sticks they found.

We were all enjoying ourselves. :)

One of the domes has a special theme every quarter. This year's theme was the Nutcracker. I'm always impressed with how much they're able to decorate. :)

Officer W.
We have a friend who is a police officer. We had his family over to dinner a couple weeks ago. We had mentioned beforehand how much Aiden is obsessed with police officers, so our friend showed up in his police uniform. Aiden was THRILLED! :)

Aiden just wanted to play with Officer W's gadgets, not stop for a picture. :)

When officer W was showing Aiden the handcuffs, I suggested he cuff Mike. Aiden immediately got nervous, thinking Mike was in trouble and going to be taken to jail. See how nervous he looks in this picture? So Aiden would only let officer W cuff one of Mike's hands. This actually turned out to be a really good thing because officer W soon realized that he left the key to the handcuffs at home. Oops! I thought it was hilarious and we all got a good laugh. Thankfully Mike was headed over to that neighborhood that night so he stopped by and got the cuffs off.

Aiden had so much fun playing with the gadgets from officer W's belt.

THE JINGLE BUS:
There is a Christmas bus called the jingle bus that drives through downtown and lets you see all the Christmas lights down there. Aiden loves buses and so we decided to ride the bus for a family outing.

There ended up being a bit of a wait, but never fear, there was this animatronic symphony of teddy bears that kept the kids attention for quite a while. :)

Esther and Mike on the jingle bus.

Mommy and Aiden on the jingle bus.

Here's Aiden showing his Cole blood by putting olives on his fingers. I'm pretty sure he ate half the can of olives that night. :)

LARSON FAMILY CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
Every Christmas season we host a low key Christmas concert. Basically we just invite all our friends to join us and we share our musical talents. We have more friends than we have space at our home, so we had it at our friend's house this year. Thanks again E family! :)

After church a couple weeks ago we tried to get a family picture with our family looking all snazzy. As you can see it didn't go over very well with the kids. :)

Oh well! Such is life! (please be sure to note Aiden's socks: one red, one green. It was totally his idea)

We went out to play in the snow and after I had bundled Aiden up he was wandering around the house saying "whoo whoo whoo!" He makes an adorable owl if you ask me. :)

Esther looks about like this every morning when we bundle her up and send her off to school. They have outdoor recess unless it's below 5* F. Brrrrr!!!!

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
Esther's school put on a cute Christmas concert. Esther had so much fun practicing the songs. It was fun watching her perform, although we snuck out of the concert after her class was done performing (there were 4 other grades performing and no available seats for this pregnant woman).

CHRISTMAS EVE SLEDDING!
We got all bundled up to go outside and build a snowman, only to discover that the snow was too powdery. So we grabbed the sleds and headed over to a nearby hill for some sledding instead. Mike pulled the kids up the hill, which they loved. :)

Aiden had so much fun trudging through the snow.

Esther is a pro at making snow angels. :)

I had to take a break and rest on the sled. Sledding at 8 months pregnant isn't the easiest thing to do. :)

I love spending time with this guy! Can you see the icicles on my eyelashes? It was a balmy 12*F. :)

Mike went down by himself and managed to take a spill. The kids thought it was hilarious. :)

Aiden went exploring by himself and managed to get stuck. He said "rescue me daddy!"

So Mike mounted a rescue effort and got Aiden unstuck. :)

Aiden and I took a fun and it was super fun. :)

Here we are going for another run. :)

Here I am with my kiddos. I sure love them! :)

November 2013

2013-12-25T20:28:00.001-06:00

I'm not very good at keeping up on the blog, but here's some pictures to show what we were up to for the month of November. :)

We started November out with making a list of some of the things we are thankful for. :)

Some of my favorites were "obedience", "priesthood blessings", and "the temple". I've got some pretty smart kiddos. :)

Aiden found this hat of mine (I have a hat fettish...) and he loves it! He calls it the helicopter hat. :)

We had some friends come visit for a little. Aiden loves Miss Sadie. :)

And so does Esther. :)

We started our Christmas count-down to Christmas. We had been telling the kids that Christmas would come sometime after it snowed. So right after the first snow Aiden exclaimed "It's Christmas now!" We had to explain that there were still many more days and it would probably snow a lot more before Christmas. The count down helped with the wait. :)

Aiden sucks his thumb whenever he is tired or needs some extra comfort. I came down one morning to find him snuggled up with Mike reading a book. I love his cute elf ears. :)

Aiden colored this buldozer on the magnet pad. He said he did it by himself (although I can't positively confirm that since I was in the other room...). :)

Esther has become quite the little illustrator and LOVES coloring all day, every day. :)

Grandpa came for a visit and Esther decided to be his shoulder angel (anyone else seen studio c?).

Esther and Aiden are always rough housing with Mike. :

Brian and Anna joined us for a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. We are so thankful to have them close by in Chicago. :)

We set up our little Christmas tree. :)

I managed to start a fire under our burner. In college this would happen quite often and we would often be found yelling "fire! fire!" while cooking. It brought back some funny memories. :)

One thing I don't have a picture of is that I was put on partial bed rest in November. I have an old back injury from 2 years ago and as our little girl grows bigger in my belly I have more and more pain in my back. I also have sciatica in my right hip and that hip keeps sliding out of socket. So I'm not supposed to lift more than 10 lbs and I just have to be careful with what I do. Thankfully I have a great chiropractor who I see several times a week and she keeps me in shape. :)

Halloween 2013, Boo at the Zoo, Pumpkins, MCW Trick or Treating and STAR WARS Costumes

2013-10-31T20:32:00.000-05:00

This is quite possibly the world's longest post, but I'm too lazy to break it up into multiple posts. So brace yourself for lots of pictures and incredibly cute kids. :)

Every year the Milwaukee county zoo puts on some fun Halloween events that we like to go to. This year Grandma and Grandpa Larson happened to be here for the weekend of one of the events. Brian and Anna drove up for that night as well. :) Since it was an outside deal, the kids wore their jackets under their costumes.

Princess Leia with her bubble blaster. :)

Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker (obviously he needs some more training so he knows not to hold his light saber like that). :)

Cutest kids around, if I do say so myself. :)

Aiden threw on the cheesehead while he was waiting for everyone to finish getting ready. It's a pretty awesome combination. :)

Spontaneous hugging at the zoo.

1-2-3-Swing!

Esther said her princess hair was scratchy, so uncle Brian wore it for a while. :) She's got him wrapped around her little finger.

1-2-3-Swing with Grandma, Anna, and Brian

Esther was tired of walking so Mike threw her up on his shoulders and suddenly they had a whole new costume. Esther thought it was hilarious.

A couple weeks ago Esther had her first school field trip, and I got to go with her. It was a trip to a farm and picking out pumpkins. We were warned that we would go, rain or shine, and so we tried to prepare accordingly. It rained for the 3 days before the trip and was raining most of the time we were there (although the sun peeked out on our way back to the school).

Esther didn't care that it was raining and was thrilled to be riding the school bus. Let's hope she's still thrilled when she's 14. ;)

Esther loved that they painted this hay to look like a pumpkin and asked me to take a picture. We went on a tractor pulled hayride (thankfully there was a canopy to keep out some of the rain). We also went on a mini-train ride. The kids loved it and didn't really care about the rain.

Since it had been raining so much, the fields were too muddy to go pick our own pumpkins. So we went to the part of the farm where they sell their pre-selected pumpkins and chose from there. I tried to convince Esther to choose one of these nice little pumpkins (knowing I'd have to carry it back to the bus, which was parked a ways away

She did not like that idea and instead chose a much bigger pumpkin, just like the rest of her classmates. I was able to get a second pumpkin, so Aiden would have one too.

Here we are learning about pumpkins, and how certain animals survive the winter (adapting, migrating and hibernating).

We had fun at the farm!

When it came time to decorate the pumpkins, Esther insisted that we carve and paint the pumpkins. So Mike and I carved the pumpkins and the kids painted them. It turned out to be a win win for all of us. :)

"My pumpkin needs lipstick, mom."

Aiden was obviously enjoying himself. Do you see the "A" he made?

Esther's finished product.

Aiden wouldn't hold still for a picture, but here's his finished pumpkin.

Aiden was only looking at the camera for a split second, so I'm amazed I was able to get this good of a picture. :)

Aiden's all lit up (it kinda scared him).

Esther's all lit up.

Here we are at our church Halloween party. I was R2D2, Mike was Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aiden was Luke Skywalker, and Esther was Princess Leia.

Esther got to have a Halloween party at school today and I was able to go and help out. I didn't want to "dress up" per-se, but I kinda have a thing for costumes, so I threw on one of my witch hats.

Esther chose to go as Cinderella for her school party. She looked darling in this winter cloak too. :)

Here she is after school. She asked Mike to take a picture of her and posed herself. :)

Mike's school has an indoor trick-or-treating event every year, which is quite possibly my most favorite thing that the school does. All the offices decorate and pass out candy, so all we have to do is dress up and go around to all the offices. There is always more candy than we can handle and we never make it to all the offices because the kids bags get too heavy. I love that it's indoor too. This was an especially appealing feature this year because it's been raining all day long (and still is).

Princess Leia makes another appearance.

Luke Skywalker wouldn't pose alone, but was willing to hang out with his sister for a little while. His light saber is an emptied out bubble wand. It was the perfect size for him.

Here's the whole family again. All the grown ups loved the STAR WARS theme and most of the kids had no idea who we were. Our own kids haven't seen any of the movies and only know a very rough plot involving space and Darth Vader as the bad guy. Actually, Aiden called him "Darth Mater" today. I think someone needs to come up with a mash up of Darth Vader and Tow Mater (from Cars). Email it to me when you make it happen, ok people?

I had so much fun making everyone's costumes. Here's a little bit of a close up of my dress. When I wore it for the ward party, I wore the hoop skirt and petticoat, but it was hard getting through the hallways when they were crowded. So for the school trick or treating, I opted to go without the hoop skirt. :)

I made my hat too, and it had flashing LED lights in it, but they didn't really show up in the pictures. I had fun bejeweling my face. Ooo! Sparkly! :)

Here's a quick video of the flashing lights so you can appreciate the coolness. (And so I can remember it in future years) [the video is only working for me about half the time, so sorry if you're having the same issues...]

One of our friends and neighbors was also dressed up in the STAR WARS theme, so we snapped a quick pic with the kids. Yeah, 3 kids waiting to go trick or treating aren't the most patient photography subjects. :)

And here's my belly at 28 weeks. :)

I love my little princess already. :)

For dinner tonight I tried to make a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern pizza, but I should have taken a picture before baking it. The cheese made the olives slide in every direction so it looks more like a zombie pizza with it's face falling off. Which I guess is still appropriate. :)

Happy Halloween Ya'll!

June Doings and Playing Hookie in Chicago

2013-09-07T20:29:00.001-05:00

Pretty much as soon as we found out we were pregnant, I was nauseous. It was miserable. So in June and July, the kids got away with some things that I probably would have put a stop to had I been fully functioning.

On one particular day the kids had piled up some pillows and bean bag chairs and were jumping off the TV stand onto the pile of softness. It was actually rather entertaining to watch. :)

No one got hurt jumping and I put a stop to it after a half hour or so... :)

After I told him to stop jumping, Aiden started playing with his duplo legos. He was on his hands and knees and reaching over some legos to get just the piece he needed. One of his supporting hands slipped out from under him and he face planted it onto some of the legos. We ended up in the ER and because it was such a perfect half circle slice, we were able to just do liquid stitches (think super glue) rather than traditional stitches. This picture was taken after the ER where his chin was completely numbed up. :) I'm so blessed that he's such a happy kid.

Our dear friends and down the street neighbors moved in June. Boo. :( Aiden is in love with little miss Sadie and always calls her "my Sadie baby". I love this picture for so many reasons. Aiden had grabbed her hand and insisted on sitting as close to her as humanly possible. Sadie was cheesing it like she always does, and check out Esther's awesome photo-bomb. :) Ha ha ha!

It's not the best picture of me and Mel, but man, I sure love that woman. :)

We didn't want Sadie to go, so we kidnapped her for a bath and some pre-bedtime playing. Aiden was showing her the bum technique on the piano, one of his favorites.

Trying to get a picture of 3 kids is always such an adventure.

They all snuggled up to Mike when it came time for stories.

And one last hug for little miss Sadie.

In June I decided to get a real haircut. I shaved my head in September of 2011 and although I had had a few trims to keep it looking decent, hadn't really cut my hair. Here's a picture of how long it had grown in the 20 months I was growing it out.

This is an extremely sentimental picture for me because we have pictures of my siblings mowing the lawn with my Grandpa Cole. And here's my Aiden Cole mowing the lawn with his bubble machine, showing daddy how it's done. :)

You can't see the head of this stem, but it had a flower on it. "Here's mommy!"

Esther's turn mowing the lawn with daddy. :)

Every spring my Grandma Cole plants purple pansies in her flower beds. I told Esther she could pick out some flowers for our planters and she picked these. Great minds think alike. :)

We were babysitting some friends and the girls thought they were so big taking care of little miss T.

Aiden needed a turn too. :)

One Monday morning Mike went into work and then came back a couple hours later saying he needed to go down to Chicago because there had been a mix up about materials with a researcher he's collaborating with who is down in Chicago. Mike's boss told him to make a day of it and take his family down with him. It was a wonderful mild day and so we quickly packed the kids up and were off!

As you can tell, Esther could hardly contain her excitement. :)

I like to drive when I'm pregnant because it cuts down on my pregnancy sickness.

Stopping at Giordanos for some delish Chicago style pizza. Check out my cute new haircut. :)

Having a ball!

This pizza was so good. :) And if you order a personal pan it comes out super fast (as opposed to the normal 45 mins for the large size pizza).

Walking around Millenium Park. :)

Aiden was fascinated by all the bees in the pretty flowers. :)

I LOVE this picture of me and my sweet boy. :)

Of course we had to stop at the spitting fountains. Esther didn't find them as fun as I thought she would... :)

So many tall buildings! Makes us glad we don't live in a busy city, but close enough to visit. :)

I loved how so many of the buildings had such beautiful architecture. Click on this pic to appreciate the details more. :)

At Navy Pier. Aiden wanted to run in the water, but it was a little too cool for that. At one point Aiden took off running away from Mike and there was a group of college kids that were cheering him on and laughing at how he almost succeeded in escaping. I wasn't really worried about Mike's ability to catch Aiden, so it was kinda funny. :)

At the stained glass museum in Navy Pier. Super cool. Aiden was starting to get tired, though...

I'm not really sure what Esther was doing here, but it's funny. :)

Aiden was done before we could do any of the rides at the pier. Maybe another time.

Literally within a minute of getting in the stroller he was out and he slept the whole way home. :)

It was such a fun day in Chicago. We didn't plan any of it and just walked wherever we felt like it. We saw so many fun things and enjoyed the beautiful weather. And my pregnancy sickness wasn't an issue that day, despite the random smells we often stumbled upon. ha ha ha... And the researcher Mike was working with got us $10 parking downtown (our bill would have been $50...). I hope we can have another fun day in Chicago. :)