Happy 2nd Birthday Gracie!!!!

I can't believe my baby turned 2 today. She is growing up so fast that I wish I could just freeze her and make her stay this age forever!!! We had a princess party for her since she's really into dressing up in princess dresses and carrying her princess purse around with her where ever she goes. (And I was worried that she was going to be a tom boy.) Happy Birthday to my little princess!!!!!!!




This is Gracie's princess castle cake that I made for her. It takes so long to make home-made cakes and they have so much junk on them that when you're done no one wants to eat them. It was worth it when I showed it to her and she screamed with excitment.



Gracie's family enjoying the party!!!


Aunt Felicity and cousins gave her this cute Belle dress. I'm sure she'll be wearing it from sun up to sun down.


Aunt Diana and cousins gave her this adorable outfit!!


This is Gracie with her water/sand table that Mom and Dad gave her. Josh put it together the night before which was good because she played with it all day!!! Great entertainment if you're looking for a present idea. I give it 5 Stars!!!!!


Grandma Larsen gave her this car that she LOVES. Our neighbors have one of these and if we can't find her she's over at their house playing in theirs. She wanders off and heads to the two houses in the neighborhood who have these cars. Hopefully we can keep her closer to home now that she'll have one here.

Fun at the Parade!!

Every year I try and take the kids to see the city parade. It is the CUTEST parade around. All of the wards in the area do a float and they are all absoulutely adorable!!! The kids get lots of candy and have a real good time!!




I love this picture of Eli--it shows how intrigued he was with all the floats passing by. He sat in his stroller the whole time thoroughly entertained by the show going by him. It was so cute!!


Noah drinking his pop!! I was lucky to get him looking at me--it's practically impossible with this kid!!!!


Ellie posing for a picture at the parade!!


Matthew, EJ, and Zach enjoying the parade!!

Celebrating 10 years in San Francisco

I thought I would start this post out with going back in time....June 20, 1998-the day we were married. We spent our honeymoon in Australia (most of you know, this is where Josh is from). The bottom picture is the two of us in front of downtown Sydney. I can't believe how fast 10 years has gone by-4 kids later-wow! Thanks Josh for 10 wonderful years (yes there were some disagreements and arguments in that time- ha, ha), I hope the next 10 bring fun times and many more cherished memories!!!!




For our 10 year Wedding Anniversary we flew off to San Francisco. It was beautiful weather while we were there. Everyone kept telling us that this was very unusual, it is usually in the mid 60's this time of year there and it was actually in the high 80's. It was so nice to get away without any kids and just spend some quality time together. Thanks Mom and Diana for watching the kids for us and allowing this to happen!!!!





Alacatraz was an awesome place to go tour, kind of freaky and scary as well. I haven't seen the movie "The Rock" yet but we'll be renting it this weekend so I can watch it.


Fisherman's Warf was a neat place to shop and eat yummy seafood. We spent a lot of our time here!!!


We took a boat ride out to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful!!!!



You can't go to San Francisco and not ride one of their famous trolley's. We took a tour of the city on one. Our tour guide was hilarious. He had our group singing the "Rice a Roni" song as we drove through the streets.



We hiked up a HUGE and very STEEP hill to check out the crookedest street in the US-Lombard Street. It was fun to watch the cars drive down it.


This is us outside the Mel's Drive In, a very famous resteraunt in California. It was a lot of fun to play our own selection of 50's songs at are table.

Tagged by Elicia

3 Joys:

1. Of course my family! My husband, children, mother, brothers and sister, in-laws and extended family!!!! There is nothing more important in life than family and I am so grateful for mine!!!

2. I know you will all be thinking, here we go again--but planting flowers and enjoying watching them bloom big and pretty is definitely one of my joys. I take a lot of pride in keeping my yard up and it is so much work!!!!

3. Vacationing. I don't have the money to do this as much as I would like, but when I do I find it so interesting to visit new places and see different people and how they live. I always come home very thankful for all that I have, epecially when you see other people struggling to get by on a daily basis. (Josh and I just came back from San Francisco and it was a lot of fun! I'll post on that later!)

3 Fears:

I. Probably my top fear would be the ocean. I love to enjoy it from the beach but getting in is not my thing. When I went to Hawaii and we went snorkeling in Hanuma Bay I took one peek into that water and that was it for me. Seeing all those fish and who knows what else swimming around my legs creeped me out--I was out of there in a second!

2. Mice and Spiders!!!!! Probably mice would be the worst. We had a mouse in our house back when there was still fields around us and we (Josh) were up to 4 am trying to trap that thing. I was not going to sleep until it was out of my house. (Josh of course was the one trying to catch it while I sat on the back of the couch scared to death!!)

3. Although I love to go on vacations I get very fearful of being in strange places that I'm unfamiliar with alone. I'm scared of being in a hotel room alone!!!

3 Goals:

1. To be more patient!! I would love to have more patience with my kids and just live in the moment!

2. Attend the temple more regularly-like even once a month! I know this is so important and will bring so many blessings!

3. Finish the Book of Mormon by the end of this year. We have awesome Sunday School teachers who challenge us every week to keep reading and finish it by the end of the year so I really hope to be able to accomplish this goal!!!

3 Current Obsessions:

1. Finishing "Twilight." I was feeling left out by being the only one in the universe who hasn't read these books so I thought I better get cracking before the movies come out and I'm totally lost. It's hard for me to find the time to read though.

2. Probably blogging would be one of my obsessions. I really enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and staying up all hours of the night reading and checking them out.

3. Walking in the mornings. I love the way it makes me feel all day and it gets me out of bed and going in the morning. (I struggle with this in the summer when the kids are out of school-I get real lazy!)

I TAG SHELLEY, EMILY (SO SHE'LL UPDATE HER BLOG) AND LAURA!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the BEST, most hard working dad in the world!!!!!!!!!! Josh is such a great father and each one of his kids love and adore him. Matthew wants to be and do everything his dad is and does and he loves throwing the football around with him. Zach likes to help his dad with whatever he's doing and he loves to compete with his dad at the Wii. Ellie loves to climb on her dad whenever he's sitting or laying on the floor, she loves him to read her stories before bed time. Gracie ADORES her dad and when she hears his truck pulling into the garage she runs to the door and gives him a big hug and kiss with an "I wuv you da da." Thanks Josh for everything you do for our family and for being the father that you are. We love you!!!!!!









I am also very grateful for a wonderful dad who I love and miss SOOOOOO much!!! My dad was such a people person and likeable guy. He had lots of friends and loved to throw parties whenever he had a chance to so he could be with them. I think I inherited my dad's love for flowers. I find the same gratification that he did when people compliment me on my yard and I love to work in it as did he. Some other traditions that I've carried on to my kids that I did with my dad are BYU football games (Matthew's so obsessed with loving BYU and hating Utes that I truely believe this is in our genes), watching every episode of I Love Lucy over and over again, no matter how many times we've seen it, vacations, bike rides, going to the movie's and lots of fun summer activities (especially fun times on the 4th of July). I think about my dad whenever I'm doing these things and wish he was still with us everyday! Elizabeth





Fathers Day is a great time of the year to remember the man that has sacrificed so much and who has always been there for his family. I have learned so much from my dad and it has helped me through my time as a father. I have learned that family comes first and to do whatever is needed to make them happy. Yes, hard times come and decisions need to be made and I am grateful to a dad who showed me that with inner strength and a lot of faith, anything is possible.
I love you dad and want you to know that I'm the man that I am greatly in part to you. I struggle every now and again, but you are still the rock that I look to to weather the storm. Thanks for all that you have given to me and for being a great dad! Josh



I also took the kids to see Grandpa Larsen yesterday to wish him a Happy Father's Day. We looked through his book of rememberance and I was amazed at how much he could recall about all the pictures and the stories that went with them. He told us stories about his childhood, the war and being married to my Grandma. He may look a little feeble but he sure still has his mind. I asked him if I could take a picture of him with the kids and he said it was too hard for him to get a shirt on so we just compromised and put on a tie. I thought it was a pretty cute picture even with Gracie crying.

Turning 30!

Today was my birthday and I turned the big 3-0! I don't want to sound like a party pooper but I was kind of depressed and sad all day, not because I didn't have plenty of people coming by bringing me presents and wishing me a Happy Day but I guess because I'm just sad that I've hit another era in my life. I guess we're only what we feel and I still feel like I'm 20 so that's what I'll stay! Thank you to everyone who came by and for all the wonderful gifts I've recieved, I am truely blest to have some of the best friendships in the world! I am also very grateful for all the accomplishments I've had the past 30 years and I hope that the next 30 bring many more!!!!