Merry Christmas from W.J.

i just have to throw this picture in here...taylor's favorite nursery song is "no one likes a frowny face, change it to a smile" and this is his rendition of a frowny face.

they LOVE band hero!!!

set them up...knock them down...set them up...knock them down...

i just love my kids!!!

i love seeing them excited for tay!!!

the kids roasted smores over the stovetop. they were pretty tasty!!!

These are mostly the same pictures that are on facebook....we had a way fun christmas (pretty scaled down because of the cruise..) but it was great to all be together and having fun.

"we sailed, far away from shore, AHOY!!!"

so, just in case you think this is a lot of pictues, these are the best from the 200 that we took! we had so much fun and the kids were just as happy to come home as they were to leave. it was an absolute perfect trip and we'd definitely do it again in a heartbeat.



oh man, super excited!!!

me and the girls got our nails done for the cruise. how fancy are we?


literally living my worst nightmare, we had to find a beach before the sun went down and all we could find was DOG BEACH!!! a beach for dogs, are ya kidding me??? btw, i stayed in the car for this excursion!

tay was utterly fascinated by the birds. they just creeped me out!

i loved running on the olympic track. the weather was a balmly 82 degrees...divine!!

the kids played a crazy game of laser tag in a huge inflatable arena on the stage on the ship. they had flashing lights and music and everything. i'm glad i just watched!

taylor turned 2 on the cruise so the wait staff brought him a pie with some candles in it and all sang to him. he's been singing "happy ga-birday to me..." ever since!

we loved the little towel animals our steward oscar made for us every night. we had stingrays, doggies and even these cute lovebirds!

we took a family bike ride around catalina island. i haven't ridden a bike since i was twelve and they put me in charge of having taylor on my bike? yikes!!!
ugh...when we got home even our luggage looked tired!

one down....but more to come...

History of Civ is finally over! After eating up a year of my life, I am proud to announce that I got a big fat "B" in the class. Seriously, it was one of the toughest classes I've ever taken. Mostly because I simply don't care about world history. I know, I know, I know the quote about not knowing history will doom you to repeat it, but I promise I am not going to be bombing anyone anytime soon. Now that I am in "good standing" with BYU, I can apply to the Bachelor of General Studies program there. I'll probably make an appointment for June...yay---bring on the next class!!!

feelin' good!!!!

uh, need i say more?????

RiVaLrY wEeK...

Oh man, this is one of the defining weeks here in Utah. You can't straddle the fence...you can't say you vote for BYUTAH...pick a side. Pick a WINNING side and go COUGARS!!!!

zach is 8!!!

we had a fun little birthday party for him yesterday where he got a new set of scriptures with his name on them, a ton of new clothes and a pretty cool race car set that he and taylor were fascinated with! i can't believe he'll be getting baptized in 2 weeks....seriously?? love my little zachy!!!

ahoy...CRUISE ahead!!!

This is what we did for family home evening last week. we made a chain for our cruise countdown and everyone got to write a "quote" on it...we have everything from bob wiley to cap'n jack sparrow. it's awesome! every night after family prayer, the person who said the prayer gets to take a link off of the chain and we get a pretty good laugh at what's written on it. we're at about 30 days and counting.....

halloween 2009

the kids had fun dressing up to go to texas roadhouse with the fam. zach's school doesn't allow costumes, and we didn't have a ward party, so this was the only time he got to wear a costume. the weather was beatiful so we didn't need coats. cute cute kids!!!

BYU HoMeCoMiNg 2009

Aside from the crappy crappy crappy football game, we had a fantastic day as a family down in Provo. Check out the faces on the kids---happy happy!!!

halloween picture 2009

man, do i love my family!!! what good sports they were to dress as nerds this year...seriously, steve??? we think we might wrap up the tradition after this picture. we've done it for 7 years and have a pretty nifty compilation on our wall. so, hope you enjoy the picture of the nerdy larsens! (p.s. no comments from the peanut gallery now, ya hear?)

halloween pictures

here's the link--we'll post them when we get them.
portraits.pictureme.com
last name: larsen
studio number: 15233

we had fun this year--the boys were super sports!!!

zach and his missing teeth

geez...have you ever seen a little boy with more missing teeth? he has about 5 or 6 teeth all out (including his front ones) and can hardly talk without spitting. he was a little worried that the tooth fairy only left him $.75, but that's okay. i guess she just couldn't scrounge up another quarter in time! oddly enough, annie's teeth don't come out on their own (we have to go and get them pulled at the dentist) and zach's teeth just don't seem to stay in. ah, the joys of being 7!!!

bridal veil falls and a perfect day

Saturday we went up Provo Canyon to soak up the last warm days of the season. We walked the Bridal Veil Falls trail and Steve, Alex and Megan climbed up the Falls. They got pretty high up! After that, Steve and I went to the BYU/CSU game. It was so much fun and the weather was just perfect!!!