Blake's 8th Birthday and Baptism

My little boy is growing up before my eyes!  On June 24th he turned eight, then the next day he was able to be baptized.  As an answer to his prayers he was able to have his baptism the day after he turned 8.  His baptism should have been two weeks later over the 4th of July weekend, which we would have be out of town for.  So he would have had to wait to be baptized until August!  That was too long for him to wait, so he started praying to be able to have his baptism as soon as possible. 
I received a phone call from a friend who's sons birthday was close to Blake's and she was wondering if we would like to have their baptism together, at an earlier date.  Her parents were about to leave on a mission and would miss his baptism by a week if they waited until July.  We were able to get permission to do it early, Blake was able to have his prayers answered.

Right before his baptism my sister Camille came by to give him his special birthday gift.  She made him a baptism book.  It is a scrapbook of his baptism day, so he can always remember this day.  He was very excited!  All that attended the baptism were asked to sign it, so he could remember who was there. 

Blake's Nana made him this amazing Lego cake!

After his baptism we came to our house for dinner.  Blake had requested chicken sliders for the dinner, so Doug had to work hard at the grill in the summer sun.  All of his Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Grandparents attended.

Blake and some cousins and Grandpa.

Aunts and Cousin's

Samantha and baby Trey

Grandma and Grandpa Larsen

 

 

 

 

Blake and his Uncle Brett.

 I am so blessed to have such a great and beautiful family!

Easter Sunday

This year our friends the Kauffmann's decided to start a new neighborhood tradition!  Easter morning Sunday brunch and Easter Egg hunt.  It was a great success and a lot of fun for everyone.  We had almost all of our neighbors in attentance and the food everyone provided was excellent. 

This was Katelyn's first official Easter egg hunt, and she was content with the first egg she found! All of the men helped hide the eggs in a few of the yards and I think there were plenty of eggs to go around.  What a great time we had with good friends and neighbors.

                          

After the brunch we went to church and then the Easter Bunny left something for my kids!

 We had a wonderful Easter, we were able to spend time with friends and family.  With a little church thrown in I think we were still able to teach the kids why we celebrate Easter and the wonderful gift the Savior gave us.

Disney Land day three

Peter Pan ride

Toy Story ride

California Adventure

Our second day at Disney land we decided to go to California Adventure for half of the day.  We had to go pick up fast passes for the laser water show that night.  We went on screaming over California, that was the kids favorite roller coaster.  Then we went on the new Toy Story ride, the longest wait of the whole trip!  We spent about 45 minutes in line for that ride, but it was well worth it.  We all got three D glasses and you got to shoot carnival type games throughout the ride.  The ride stopped multiple times while we were on it so we got to have lots of practice.  
Then later that afternoon we went back to the hotel and had dinner in the lobby before going back for the lasers light show.  We weren't very excited to stand and wait for the laser water show that night, it was kind of cold and we were all tired.  We were very glad that we toughed it out and stayed!  We should have known it would be amazing!  Water shooting out of the lake with laser lights and fire and music, it was amazing.

Hotel lobby from our floor, kids eating dinner

Laser show

Day two at Disney Land

Wednesday March 2nd we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and went to Disney land!  The weather was great, jackets in the morning and then it got warmer as the day went on. 

Alyssa and Blake riding Alice and Wonderland ride.

Yummy breakfast!

Blake trying to drive a car, scary!

 This was their favorite part of the day, Jedi training!  They do this a few times a day, so we got there early hoping Alyssa and Blake would be picked to participate.  They come into the crowed to see who is most excited to come up on stage and be trained.  As you can see both my kids were picked and they were so excited!  First they were given their Jedi cloak and light saber.  Then they were taught a basic Jedi sequence of moves.  This would later come in handy.
Then to all of our surprise Darth Vader rose up out of the ground ( I didn't see that coming).  Then each of the kids got to try there moves out on he and Darth Maul.  Alyssa was first out of all the kids, you could tell she was a little nervous.  They both did a great job and had a lot of fun, in fact Blake had to get a light saber as his souvenir to bring home.
After that fun adventure we rode lots of rides, as far as the crowds go this was the best day!  The kids had a lot of fun!

Pirates of the Caribbean

At the end of our first day at Disney Land Doug wanted to go to California Adventure and ride Tower of Terror.  We thought the kids would love it!  We thought wrong!  While we were waiting in line Alyssa started to panic and didn't want to go, which made Blake have second thoughts about going.  We got to the top of the building and told her there was no other way down if you didn't ride the ride.  So we made her get on the ride( what horrible parents). We ended up paying for it!  They both survived but said they would never do it again!  I think it's the scariest ride there, so at least they tried it.  After that ride we were going to do a few more but Alyssa said that ride made her sick, so we packed it up and called it a day!

First Day Disney Land

Alyssa on the plane

Blake on the plane

Doug and I decided to surprise Alyssa and Blake with a trip to Disney Land!  We had our parents take shifts with Katelyn so that we wouldn't have to take her with us.  Everything worked out perfectly, the kids had no idea.
We checked them out of school early on the 1st of March and told them we were going to lunch with their grandpa( since he was the one driving us to the airport!).  Then as we arrived at the airport we told them we were going to Disney Land!  They didn't believe us at first, but then they were very excited. Blake hadn't been on a plane since he was a baby, so he was very excited. 

When we got there we went strait to the hotel, we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Anaheim.  We had a great room in the corner that was a perfect one bedroom with a family room and  pull out bed for the kids.  We didn't to too much our first day, just got settled and let the kids go swimming. Great start to the vacation!

Doug and the kids at our hotel

School Days!

As you can tell from the below picture, it was crazy hair day at school.  My kids got to dress up each day doing something different while promising to be drug free! They loved crazy hair day!

 Later that day I was able to go into Alyssa's class to teach Art through the Ages.  This is a fun program that volunteers put on throughout the school year teaching art history.  It is always fun!  Although I think this project was one of the best ones I've done.  One day you teach the history and the next class time you do an art project that goes along with the history.  On this day we were doing Abstract expressionism.  the kids got to use spray bottles and paint to see what they could create.  It was messy but fun.

Here is Alyssa creating her masterpiece.

New Years Eve

 This Christmas break we had strep go through my family!  So much fun!  Blake was diagnosed a few days after Christmas, and he was nice enough to share it with me.  So in this picture I had been on antibiotics for 24 hours, but still wasn't feeling well.  We went to a teppanyaki grill  restaurant with my family early in the evening. 

The kids loved the fire and the flying shrimp! Which I have to say I was one of the only ones to catch one in my mouth!  What a talent!  After dinner the kids went to Nana's and Doug and I went home to rest.  Not the most exciting New Years ever. Oh well 2011 was coming anyway even if we didn't celebrate.