Ok, so I am really not going private! Mitch doesn't want me to since it is a great place for friends he comes into contact with to see what he has been up to the last few years. I promise to update with pictures soon. I have been trying to figure out how I want to continue with this blog. I love posting pictures and showing what is happening, but I would also like for it to be like a journal of my life and the things I am experiencing . . . not just the good,  but the bad and most likely the UGLY!! But, maybe I will have a separate blog that is just my writings and expressions! Stay tuned . . . .

Going Private!!

I am going to go private. If you want to still be able to see this blog just leave your email address and name. Thanks!!

Catch up!!

Well, I haven't blogged for a while because nothing new, that causes me to take pictures, has happened. My kids are all just finishing up their basketball season and doing well in school. BJ's basketball team tied for first place, which is awesome because they were all in Kindergarten playing in a 7U division. All of the other kids were 1-2 years older and his team did so awesome. It's fun to see new talent and skills develop. 

The last month has been completely crazy! My husband left town on Feb. 14, the same morning my grandma passed away, for a 4 week trip all around the East coast doing Kohl's department store's bathrooms. He had 3 crews out doing the grout in every bathroom from Ohio to New York and Pennsylvania. I will tell you that their hands are so sore! Well, he came home last Friday night at 7pm, went to bed at 8pm and then got up and left at 5am to Denver for another Kohl's job. He came back Tuesday night at midnight and then left for work Wed. morning and flew out early Wed. night to St. George for a 4 day golf trip with a friend and a bunch of his friends. I hope they have a great weekend!!

So during this time, I have kept the fort up and running and the kids have been such great helpers! Keeping the business running from this end, the house, kids and everything else is exhausting. But I am very grateful and blessed that I was given a lot of patience and endurance during this time . . . which I still need:) I definately have seen a new perspective on how stressful my husband's work life truly is and I am so grateful to him and amazed that he has done this for over 11 years! I know that it isn't easy, but nothing is that's worthwhile!! So sweetheart, thanks for everything and have the best weekend ever!! I love you!

I had to post this picture from the fall. These are all of the leaves from one week that we gathered to the street. Luckily, I don't have to bag them just blow them to the street and the city comes and sucks them up with a vacuum type machine. We have 5 trees in front and 3 in back. It is a ton of leaves! The kids have so much fun gathering them up and sliding into them on the slide.
One side of my yard, the small side by the driveway.
The other side that goes in front of my house! See MJ sitting there? That tells you just how big the pile is!

CJ's basketball team. I took this picture myself instead of paying to have someone else do it! I love my camera!
Most of the player's on BJ's team. Missing a few, but they are an excellent team!

CJ's best time of the night! He was the only one who beat the boy who won first place and he did it twice. His car beat everyone's car at least twice!
One of his many first place finishes!!

CJ at his pinewood derby, spreading the wheels apart for his next race. He worked so hard at making his car a lot faster than last year. He got 5th place overall and did all of the work he could do himself! It was a great night!
His car is #6!
MJ got a huge bonk from the coffee table. It then turned into two black eyes and he looked beaten. 

CJ playing with the Upward organization with the Parkway Baptist church. He seems to enjoy it! It is a very positive approach to the sport:)

BJ is playing with the Jewish Community Center and loves the friends he plays with. His team is playing against first graders and have only lost 2 games. He is #11.
Our great little family having a blast skiing at Deer Valley!


My little baby niece. So beautiful!

Cute, Cute nieces and nephews!

Love those curls!!
She didn't like the snow too much!
The Larson's getting ready to go down the HUGE hill:)

SKI TRIP TO UTAH!

AJ- 11 years
BJ- 5 years
CJ- 9 years
MJ- 3 years
I love these kids! It was the best time skiing with all of them. MJ learned so quickly and now it is great not having to leave him home! We had a great time skiing at Sundance, Park City, Deer Valley and Grand Targhee!

Christmas 2008

MJ with his dad! This is the only Christmas photo I have . . . too crazy!
At the ward Christmas party the primary kids did this play and it was darling!

Our trip to New York was wonderful and fabulous! It was my first time there and I loved every minute of it! It was just a girls weekend and we went with Mitch's mom, his sisters and their daughters. We also saw the Nutcracker and ran into Kelly Ripa who was with her kids! We also had a crazy experience in Chinatown and we are glad we survived that one!! We did get some great knockoffs:) The highlight of the trip for AJ was Mary Poppins as it was for me!

NEW YORK CITY TRIP 2008!!

We also saw Mary Poppins the musical and it was so good! This was my first Broadway production and the song that I came home singing was "Practicly Perfect" it was cute and fun and totally reminded me of myself:)

Times Square was amazing and crazy . . . I loved all of the lights, but was glad I didn't live nearby since you would never be able to sleep!

Dum dum give me some gum gum!! At the museum of Natural History, very big and very cool.

Up on top of the Empire State building. It was extremely windy on the other side of the building and cool to see all of New York and New Jersey.

This sculpture was on top of one of the twin towers. It stands for World Peace and it survived the collapse. There is now an eternal flame that stands next to it in the park where you get on the ferry for the Statue of Liberty.

This museum was very cool and I wonder if my ancestors came through here on their way to the west!

At the Statue of Liberty with the city behind us . . . such a beautiful sight.

On the ferry on our way to the Statue of Liberty.

We are so tiny next to this huge statue . . . it was so cool to see this in person.

AJ and her cousins on the ferry . . . we had to sit on the top and it got very cold.

We spent Monday night at Radio City and saw the Rocketts Christmas Show with the Nativity at the end. It even had real camels, donkeys and sheep. It makes you want to pick up dancing . . . I think I might be able to kick my legs up that high:))

What a cute little "New Yorker" cruisin around Dylan's Candy Bar!

Monday morning we had breakfast at the American Girl Cafe and the girls had a blast shopping afterwards!

Tree at Rockafeller Center . . . this was the first night and it was so cold! The line to ice skate was crazy so we just watched and walked around the beautiful promenade.

The cousins playing on the escalators in Trump Towers.

Me and AJ had so much fun shopping by ourselves before the rest of the family arrived. We had dessert at Serendipity's. It was so neat inside the restaurant with tons of bizzare trinkets:)

This was AJ's 3 scoops of ice cream . . . it was huge! She barely even ate any of it!

I just had to try the frozen hot chocolate! Looked very cool . . . but didn't taste all that great! But it was still tons of fun experiencing new things:)

Dylan's Candy Bar . . . this was so neat and the kids had fun picking out their favorites.

Thanksgiving!!

Big helpers peeling potatoes!! We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. We stayed at home and had one of my husbands employees with his 3 kids over for dinner. It was relaxing and lots of yummy food! My kids had a fun FHE making these yummy apple turkeys. For the snack, they got to eat them:)
Cardinal fans!! These were in my daughter's camera. They were from September and we had tons of fun watching them play the Marlins!

Love these kids!