watching old home videos

and I noticed we mostly take videos on birthdays and christmas. My daddy o gave me the best Christmas gift ever! He had taken a bunch of our old family videos and my sisters videos and all of OUR videos and put them on one external hard drive thingy. So we have one place to save our movies and we can watch them all at home.

So Danny and the kids and I have been relaxing away our Sunday watching videos we took when Addie was a tiny baby. It's amazing how seeing your child on video is so much more real than my hazy crazy memory.
I'm hoping I'm like Brother Harmon in our ward. Danny is his home teaching companion and he is this amazing woodworker. He has a huge shop and he has helped Danny build my christmas gift of built in bookcases by the fireplace. He is this tiny old man and as sweet as can be. He has absolutely no short term memory though. But he has a very vivid long term memory. He will tell Danny all these stories about how he met his wife and took her to disney land on their first date, and how he had a huge workshop at his old house, and how he started building things because during some war they were rationing everything. I'm hoping as I get older the details of my life start to come back as vividly.
We went and visited him 2 nights before Christmas as he was watching "This Old House" and he welcomed us in and showed us all his wooden cars and trucks and birds he's built and then I played his old organ, from a book of folk American songs, that was sitting in his living room which he says he plays just for himself. He had a huge grandfather clock sitting behind him. On his fireplace mantel was a picture of him and his wife, and his son, who was his wife's son that he raised as his only child. As we talked he told us the story of when his wife died. And he cried....and we sat with him. The girls wiggled and marveled at the carved blue jays and cardinals. Then we had to go, and said goodbye, and he walked us out....

Today at church as Eva sat on my lap and squirmed and chatted, she stood up on my lap and looked to the very back of the church and said really loud...."HI BROTHER HARMON!" and waved.

I didn't have a camera but I hope I always remember that little moment in his home.

home baked christmas pics

This week has been relaxed with no school and lots of family time. I'm looking forward to all the Christmas events coming and want to wish all my sweet sweet loves the bestest, merriest happiest, loveliest christmas EVER!

whats goin down at da dotsons

playing with friends
gum drop garland of death

daddy taking eva out for the evening and she felt very very special
bread and cookie baking
tree trimmed!!!

fire crackling.....

i gotta new camera but I don't got pictures

sixteen miles on the erie canal....

a horrible elementary school song stuck in my head!

I've been feeling better. A couple of weeks ago pregnancy hormones were waging WAR on my body and I was crying like almost everyday.

I got through that. Now I'm just a little sappy and emotional but I do have things I really want to complain about....

technology: Why do we use a virtual homeschool when I seriously have a hatred of technology. Addie keeps wanting to get on these little class sessions with other kids and every time I go to do it I have some huge technical difficulty. She always has the saddest look on her face while I grumble and mess with the microphone and break into a sweat.

Also my cell phone which was a FREE phone handed down from Steph started leaking battery acid everywhere and our cordless phone needs a new battery too. So I've been disconnected from telephones for like 4 days. People are always saying "I CAN NEVER GET A HOLD OF YOU!" I tell them to just come over and knock on my door because there is probably some reason I'm not answering my phone.......like I'm trapped with children crawling all over me, or I'm not home, or my phones are all exploding with toxic gas. There is a really good reason I promise.

Besides my technology complaints here is some more things I'd like to do away with.....

1. Twilight(yes I'm a hater)

2. the christmas shoes song (it's just wrong)

3. the christmas song about some guy running into his high school girlfriend in the grocery store (it has nothing to do with christmas except for the very end when they play like aud lang syne)

4. inflatable christmas decor (my children LOVE those with a passion and every time we see one ask why we can't get some in our yard)

things I need more of:

1. gum drop garland that is pre strung

2. snuggling and reading stories by our christmas tree

3. someone to do all the rest of the shopping and wrapping for me
( I am officially the worst present wrapper in the world! oh wait...danny is worst I'm second worst)

love you all!

thanksgiving

here is the entire Larson Family, thanksgiving was delayed because of plagues of pink eye, strep throat, swine flu and who knows what else. We still managed to get together and celebrate a couple of days late. hooray!
decorating our christmas tree...and here is the best news...I got to retire my kodak easyshare and let it rest in peace as the designated kids camera and we got a new Sony I dunno what's it called...but it's a huge improvent. My christmas is now complete!
I just liked the raspberries on this yummy concoction Rachel made....
Here are the two cutest nephews in the world! Except for Dane of course...
our humongously long thanksgiving table! I'm so glad Rachel has a huge house to have family get togethers in.....we usually host a family event about 2 times a year and we all are eating on folding chairs and the floor!
Eva's brown eyes are chocolicious!
Oliver again! I need to put some pics of the rest of my neices and nephews on here. We had a good time but it flew by, we celebrated two birthdays, watched Nathan Terry prance around in glow in the dark footy jammies, and ate ate ate until we could eat no more. I'm on the celery, fat free ranch, and lettuce diet until I have this baby! I swear I'm going to break 200 this time. ACCCCCCKKKK!

some recentish pictures

the day we found out we were having a male child.....I ate the meatiest breakfast EVER and eva colored her nose red for the celebration
Stephanie and Everett...sorry for my strange flash!
Child Labor numero 1: Addie frantically sewing on her sewing machine
Nathan's lookin' FIIIIIINE


the last of the fall flowers..........................
Child labor 2: Our pizza parlor...if you order a pizza from us you will get child labor but they are mastering the art of crust making. the secret ingredient is Eva's flyaway hairs..yummy.

thanksgiving again

Hey family peeps

I'm really very hungry for the biggest thanksgiving feast ever. So I'm gearing up for some seriously intense thanksgiving delights.

MOM: I want your rolls like right now. And I want mashed potatoes and stuffing.

RACHEL: I want your jello with raspberries and blueberries in it.

Stephanie: I want some huge crazy pumpkin pie dessert thingy with crunchy stuff on top or something like that.

ME: I want my broccoli salad.

KATRINA: I know you can't bring a single thing because you are working that night...I just want your cute little pregnant bod there so I can look even HUGER and FATTER as I wolf down mounds of food.

Every one else is pretty much off the hook. I know Mark will whip up some special "man food" probably and who knows what Dad will sneak in his pockets for all the kids.

I just want you all to know to please me you have to do your part. And I know you will do your part because you DO NOT want to see my wrath. GOt it?

our night

Let me get one thing clear...and open to the public.

My children nurse way past what most normal children do.

I didn't set out to be a boob nazi or a la leche leaguer or any kind of activist.

Actually I thought in my brain when I had Addie....I bet when they start to get teeth they don't need to nurse. Teeth=chewing food.

right? right?

wrong!!

I didn't set out to sleep with my kids.....I had a little crib set up, with handmade bedding.....and I never once used it. Never once!

I feel like a freak of nature a bit. All these little babes in the world soundly sleeping in cribs and I have mine nursing practically allnight.

And I'm not bothered by that. I think it's the lazy person in me. I avoid conflict, and once Addie and Eva were born I realized they would scream bloody murder every time I tried to make them sleep alone or limit the nursing thing. So I became a peacemaker and said..."What the heck...it's alot easier just to let her act like an ape ..she's happy, I'm happy...peace!"

so Addie nursed a LOOOOOOOONG time. Long enough to have a negotion for the whole process to be resolved peacefully. I'll leave that at that.

Eva is still nursing. And I'm not really bothered. Pregnancy does chemically change things a bit but overall I'm okay. she just does it occassionally. Until lately...until the past couple nights. When she feels desperately hungry at the wee hours of the morning.

Lately, she wakes up at 3 a.m. wants to nurse, until I ask her if she's hungry, then she nods her head. And she says...."I WANT CEREAL AND MILK!" So I go get the girl food. Then she feels perky and wants to read stories, and I say "No no no I'm really tired." Then she wants to turn on the lights. Then she starts talking alot how she wants me to do "cacka" which is some german thing my grandparents and parents did to our hands...like a little game. Then she wants me to do "This little piggy" on all 20 of her toes and fingers. Then she wants me to walk my fingers up her back and act like my fingers are little people walking to the pet store to buy a puppy. This was a game I invented once when I really really wanted her to lay down and relax.

So, me, pregnant and all, am very relieved when after this whole charade, she rolls over, and falls asleep. And if she nurses a little bit at that point...I don't even care.

And this all should end very soon...especially at night...because in April we will be having a baby boy! I can't have 2 of them at me at night that's for sure.

blackmail pictures posted

OF course I'd post a non scary picture of MUA what do you expect?

BUILD A BEAR ....the joyous place where you can buy your teddy bear clothes that cost more than what you pay for actual human clothes ...




black mail picture # 1.

Rach, you kinda look like you're casting a spell on someone.

cute eva picture break


blackmail picture # 2

this was part of our joint October birthday celebration...my camera stinks :(

and last but not least blackmail picture # 3

and finally a neutral non offensive picture of Eva's baby maple tree...it lost its red leaves and looks a little puny but I have to include a fall esque picture right? right? there ya go!

things on my mind:

1. holiday guilt: What would really happen to my family if I refused to take them to an autumn pumpkin patch this year and blog about it.....would I get struck by lightning? would the children have to go to therapy? would the grim wreeper with a jackolantern on his head come a knockin' and do us all in? just curious about that one. What If I became morally opposed to pumpkins? They're of the devil!!!! I'll just scream that and run every time I see one. Or I'm tired of inflicting pain on poor defenseless pumpkins. I'll tie myself to a large prickly gourd plant and cry hysterically any time someone comes to pick one...."DONT YOU SEE THEY ARE HURTING!!!! JUST STOP ALREADY!"

2. Our version of homeschooling is kind of light on the schooling part lately. You mix pregnancy hormones with the urgency of accomplishing anything productive and bad things happen. Yesterday I ended up sitting on the floor of our designated school room in tears while I colored an elaborate scene in the book Addie was supposed to be working in. I just was tired of everyone yelling at eachother. So I colored and cried. And Eva kept bringing me loads of toilet paper wadded up tissues and Addie colored me a rainbow with a flower and wrote a heartfelt note about how it was my birthday Saturday and she was so sorry she made me cry but she just really needed Eva to give her the paper. Then we all hugged and we were all okay. Happy joy

3. My life seems mysteriously simple but also incredibly exhausting right now. I can't really line the two up...should be very simple....but it's making me so tired. I also love wallowing in my sorrows if you can't tell. I'm not the type to hold it all in. I have to vent. So there I did it and I feel oh so better.

4. I love Danny. He is awesome. Danny deals with 50 kids every day so he totally has his bad days too so when he comes home he is ready to play with and love just being around 2 sweet little girls. I never knew the way our children would make our love grow but I can't imagine not having his energy and excitement for our own little world we live in. He's so excited about our 3rd he tells EVERYONE! Sometimes we watch Addie and Eva as they are asleep and we just like stare at them and giggle and smile like we won the lottery and have the secret to the universe. the secret is our family is the greatest joy in the world and no one can take it from us.....it's ALLLL ours!

so anyways I better head to the bed.... I love you all my family and friends. see don't I cheer up once I vent? That's just how I work!

these girls don't get enough high fructose corn syrup in their diet..........these are way too delightful to them.

I remember loving capri suns so much I would down a whole box of them in one day.

I remember loving every disgusting thing that my mom would never buy......pop tarts,
any little debbie product,
chips,
frozen dinners, pizza rolls, hot pockets. ( I can't get that comedien guy saying "hot pocket" out of my head whenever I see those)
fast food
and airheads, laffy taffy, any kind of gummy, all forms of chocolate, funyons (that is a hilarious name for a food product) and pretzel sticks at the pool.
anyways
It seems like my blogs have been about food alot lately.

So basically....the past month the only foods I could stomach were these disgusting childhood favorites. I didn't want juice...I wanted capri suns. I didn't want homemade pizza I wanted a disgusting frozen pizza roll.

BUT the clouds have parted and angels descended and I have emerged from the first trimester and I truly, really do feel much much better. And my cravings for spaghettios have left me and I am so so so happy about that.

Dedicatory Addie Birthday Post

Addie turned six today and I look back at my one year old blue eyed baby. Addie didn't walk until 18 months this was one of the first times she really stood up....

the strange outfits I put on her lasted until she wisened up at about two and started dressing herself......(i like dannys expression)

here we are today on the day of her birth

I never realized that my childrens' birthdays would be more important than many days....but they are. I think about that September sunny day Addie was born (really exhausting and difficult) and the moments we had when she was first born....she was really alert and I remember exclaiming about how beautiful she was and how I loved her so much as she stared at me with furrowed eyebrows. Addie's always been my serious girl, taking in the world before jumping in, watching and waiting but always happily so. She's never been moody and she is my sweet, pure love. Physically,she's tiny but she has a wise, big, spirit in her.

happy birthday!!

cell phone talking...a newfound hobby

She's become a reader, and a writer, and is all business everyday as she files her papers, and writes every color she can think of, and spells out long journal entries and makes her business calls to her cousins.

I need a new camera!!!

That sweet, fine and lovely camera I got for cheap at Sam's club six years ago...well it just ain't what it used to be. The screen is foggy...there are flecks everytime I take a picture and it looks like snow is in people's hair. I know this is an affect the professionals strive for......but.....I need one of those awesome new digital cameras with like 30 megapixels that makes EVERYONE look like a professional photographer just by tilting it a funny angle and zooming in. I also want it to take video too....soooo I guess I need to start hunting on the net.

So until then expect some crappy pictures!

This month has been difficult...if you haven't been able to tell that from my posts. I just am so sick of feeling like I am dying of cancer. I'm very, truly, extremely happy we are going to have a new baby shortly but this is the hard part for me. I would seriously rather be huge with back aches, and hemmrhoids,(how on earth do you spell that) and unable to go from a sitting to standing position than this early pregnancy junk. So I called my Doctor and said...."I feel so sick can you please help me!!" and they said...."Eat protein and a carb every two hours!" And then I said...."I'm throwing up my proteins and carbs!"
and then they told me to drink milk! That is like asking a vampire to eat garlic or something. BAAAAAAAAD! Milk, water and juice are really hard for me to drink. So I am basically always dehydrated.
So the nurse said..."Well we can call you in a special medicine that might help."
and I was very relieved....but the paranoid side of my brain was like.....OH NO this is going to make my baby have some bad deformity! So I asked her if it would make my baby deformed
and she was like "NO! We wouldn't tell you to take something that would do that."
and I was like...."Right of course." But inside I'm a little suspicious.

So I took it last night....I didn't think it helped for a while...but I got through the evening without throwing up...I even ate some bread and sat at the table while everyone ate dinner.

So I guess it works a little.

what's coming up

That sounds disgusting I know....I blessed this pregnancy with my first episode of puking tonight.
I feel horrible, I look horrible, I pretty much feel like this baby is the boy in the bubble and I'm the bubble and I don't do much but protect it from all harm for a while before letting it out of the bubble. But this bubble isn't a happy bubble. anyways bad analogy.

Today while I was having school with Addie I heard a message on my answering machine. It was from the Drs. office I go to saying that I should call them back because they have my test results. I had NO idea what test results they were talking about. I've been to this dr. when I had the girls and they never call about test results.....as long as they're normal. Then I remembered they took like 3 containers of blood from me. And I started to panic....The baby has trisomy 18 and its not going to live past birth! What am I going to do? How can I bury my own child the second it's born? What kind of casket should I pick out? Or it could have down syndrome..or it could have spina bifida or something..... I started crying and ran down the stairs to get the phone and call them immediately.

As I was on the phone the nurse paused for a really long time and she was like...."You have a UTI so I'm calling in a prescription for you."

"I do???" I was almost ecstatic....."But I don't even feel like...any weird feelings....like I don't feel like I have a UTI....are you sure?"

"Yes" she said. "We're sure. Now where do you want your prescription sent to?"

My mind is a fragile and troubling thing right now.
I need that sign....Stay calm and carry on....

20 things that make me sick

1. tomatoes (WHY??? I love tomatoes...it's tomato season.....yet I can't even handle making eye contact with one of those guys)

2. bananas (strange)

3. anything fried (for the best)

4. cheese (BAAAAAAAAD)

5. milk (even on cereal....)

6. lettuce

7. cereal except fruit loops

8. noodles

9. sauce

10. butter or bread

11. cucumbers (I had a grand idea to make cold cucumber soup a couple of weeks ago.....unfortunately it all got poured down the garbage disposal....just the thought now doesn't make me feel calm)

12. onions

13. salsa

14. dog food (the smell...although when I was pregnant with addie I was falling asleep while the t.v. was on and I saw a commercial for what looked like some very gravyful beef and I said..."Danny that looks so good!" it was a dog food commercial!!!

15. juice

16. chocolate (how could my body go this wrong???)

17. ramen noodles (for the best right?)

18. anything with meat (excluding chicken pot pie...I ate that last night and for some reason wasn't bothered)

19. peanut butter

20. any food that emits any kind of odor



so for the list of foods that don't currently make me sick..........

1. yogurt

2. peaches

3. chicken pot pie

i must reveal....

Addie started our second year of homeschooling........................as Addie and Eva and I spend the day driving eachother a little nutty i wonder what possesses me...........

We went to wegerzyn gardens......

My Eva isn't going to be my baby forever........a new one will join us in about 7 months!
(decided to let it all out because I need sympathy. I feel really horribly sick.)

Addie's journal

Addie started writing in a journal and she will sit in the corner of the couch penning her thoughts and eyeballing me over the top of her journal. I of course was curious what was in the journal.....
and now I'm publishing it for all to see!

I am 5 mi name is Addie.

I lake mashrooms.

I love Eva and i love mommy and i love daddy.

dogs and cats are my fafrit animols.

my vacashin was fun.

we whent to the stor and I got new shos and eva got sadals.

I wont to go to the dentist. I'm going to the detist this munth.

eva is my sister we play.

me and lena play we have fun.

at chrismas i want a camra and i want a fone.

i'm the crazy mom

yesterday Rach and Steph and Katrina and all 8 kids came over to play. We went to wegerzyn gardens....it has a pretty cool childrens garden with a waterfall, and a stream, and a sandbox and lots of amazing plants. I ran into some other mom's I knew when Addie was a baby, and I ran into our old story time lady who was at the dayton library when we lived in Dayton. There were only about 3 kids who went to storytime and we were religious about it so we got to know her really well before she left and started driving the book mobile. Anyways that was a tangent....

It's great getting all the cousins together because they have a ball. They were running wild all evening outside. I'm glad they will have all these memories together. So anyways, about once a year I have Lena and Dane have an unaccompanied overnighter at my house. They are all still kinda young and they all want to sleep in the same bed. So I put them to bed but Dane was bouncing like mad and I kept having to fix his bed so he didn't fall down the crack by the wall. After they settled down, they all 3 wanted me to rub their feet, then their backs, then they wanted me to tell them stories. I was getting a tad on the tired side......I was like...Okay. Once thei r were three princesses, Brenda, Carla and Anastasia. (the 2 first ones kinda sound like factory workers). They lived in a huge castle that was made of glass. And there were no doors and no windows. They couldn't bounce a ball in their castle because it would shatter. Everyone in the whole village would watch them while they ate dinner, played, and took baths. They got sick of it and they decided they were going to smash their castle down and so they did. THE END. the story of a tired mind.

They finally fell asleep around 12:00 and I went to bed and read for a little bit. At 3 o clock I heard some voices. Nooooo!!! Then the voices kept getting louder and louder until they were shrieking and bouncing. I remember being at slumber parties as a child and at some point in the night a very angry parent would come storming in and start yelling threats that if we didn't stop we were all going home. I would always think in my mind "wow what's wrong with them??" So I became the crazy mom and I stormed in there and I caught Dane in the midst of a huge pillow fight. And I said "YOU GUYS ITS 3 in the morning you are going to wake up Eva if you don't sleep you all are going to be too tired to play in the morning and I'm going to have to take you home!!!!" then I stormed out.

I felt like the mean mom but that was the last sound I heard until 7 a.m.

our getaway

we escaped life for about 4 days and spent some time together in a little cabin on Lake Huron. It was pristine and much needed escape from everything. It was just the perfect little small town, with a park with crazy plaster animals, little shops and restaurants and just a quiet spot to relax.
We went up to my grandparents on Hubbard Lake and I didn't even take any pictures. It was good to see my grandma and grandpa and breathe in the pine tree air. We went to a great aunt's 50th wedding anniversary and the kids danced in their dresses to the live folk band and we stayed at the illustrious alpena holidome and swam in the pool to our hearts content. So now back to real life......danny's slaying 5th grade dragons and I'm watching lilia and the girls as they turn the house into a scary doll paradise!

we had danny's dad's viewing and funeral yesterday and today.

it was kinda hard and we are happy that part is over with. danny gave a talk at the funeral and he did a really great job. I don't think I could've done that myself but he pulled it off. I played the piano for it and it went fine.

Alot of people came to the viewing to support Danny and he was surprised and really happy they came. Friends from school and old friends from the Dayton Branch and new friends from the ward...... Thank you to everyone who has helped him and all of us during this time.

The kids do not seem to get it really and I guess that's just how kids are. they are too little still, I think. Eva did say "Bye papa Jack" as we were walking out so maybe she gets it in her own way.

The things I've thought during this....

you never know when or how someone's life might end and the worst feeling in the world is to put things off until it's too late.......

there are always going to be good things and bad things about anyone and it's probably always better to think of the good things, especially with family.

how good it's made us feel that so many people have called us, and made us food, and just been there for Danny.......I don't think we ever really knew what people need when someone dies and now I think we have a better idea.


one little thing I wanted to get up and say at his funeral but I didn't do it........

Jack was this tall kinda scary guy........people would say he was a "man's man" but his appearance was a bit of a facade because he was really a gentle guy. He had crazy farm cats that would come around his house and he would always act really annoyed with them and kind of yell at them...but then around the front of the house he would always put a plate of cat food with a stone in it so it wouldn't blow away in the wind. Then inevitabely the cats would have kittens...which would really seem to irritate him. But he would prepare a whole little box for them...then if the cats were bad moms he would keep carrying them over to wherever the mom was. I remember he made a whole house for the cats with a carpet in it around the back of his house so she had somewhere to put her kittens. But the whole time he'd be grumbling and complaining about it a bit and telling them what to do...."Look at that mess you've got yourself into!! You need to take care of your kittens!"

they live in the country so they have mice and cats......one christmas eve we were over helping them decorate their christmas tree and having a nice little time when Jack saw a mouse running through the living room. It got cornered against the wall and instead of him killing it he made Danny hold up this huge long rug so they could guide it out the front door and try to scoot it out. This took like 5 crazy minutes and then danny was the weak link and he raised the rug up too high and the mouse ran under and slid under the bedroom door. His dad was like..."Danny!!!"

anyways just a story I had thought of.

dannys dad

died in a car accident last night. He was known to our kids as Grandpa Jack. Today Danny is going to try help make all the arrangements with his brother and his dad's wife, Vicki. We'll miss him alot. He was a farmer and a retired factory worker. He ran out mega-dairies, helped his neighbors, cleaned the local church, mowed a bunch of peoples yards, attended a one room school house in darke county as a child, and lived on the same property he was born on.

On fathers day he proudly showed us his new flat screen T.V. and he just bought himself a brand new car.He was the kind of person that never sits down. He always had chores going on and he came from the mindset of use everything until it literally falls apart, and then just duct tape it back together. On fathers day he was out in his straw hat that was duct taped on the top...and I said..."Danny get your dad a new hat PLEASE!!!" But he loved that hat and I think he probably had a bunch of new ones hidden away somewhere but the duct taped one felt the best.

Danny is doing okay...it's weird having someone close to us die suddenly. I've never really experienced it before. We do have confidence that his spirit is eternal, that he is in a different place and that it is part of our eternal plan to take this step. It has brought Danny alot of peace and comfort.

2 year old examination

a sparkler examination

a baby cousin examination

car sleeping examination

cousin examination

whiplash examination.