last month of the year

Christy came over and took
a couple of photos of the
8 month old

she's a fast crawler, has more than a
couple of toofers, "talks', giggles.
she's absolutely the easiest of
our three…so far

mod podge container
for Ellie's head bands
and pretties

wore herself out

say cheeeeeeese

poor lil' girl, she doesn't stand
a chance with her older goofball brother

theeee you WILL get along t-shirt

christmas treats for the kids' school snack
it's like they're all staring at me...

got the tree up, kids' decorated it. you
can see how tall Pooh must be

took the kids to see the dinosaurs in Wausau

merry christmas to me
Chris surprised me early with a
 Canon.

we saw Cinderella at the local
high school. our babysitter had
the lead, Ellie was in awe of her,
as always.

embossing 101
Pooh, age 4

Ellie, age 6

Evie, age 8 months (at the time)

I saw a pretty easy garland on one
of the trees in the PBK catalog,
"I can make that" ugh.
maybe l"ll finish it by next year?

I love it…no, it's not finished

we have been seeing this
particular Santa…with a real beard since
Ellie was one. we make the
3 hour drive because it takes a
while if you want to see the
REAL Santa. so worth it!

Pooh just ran right up and
jumped into his open arms.

perfect shot

ahhh…who da heck iz you?

tradition: after seeing Santa, the kids get
a big cookie treat

hello, cookie. meet my mouth.

this day just SUCKED. suburban took a
crap and we had to have it towed. Pooh
was playing some sort of game by bopping his
head down over Evie, while she was
laying down. As his head lowered, she raised hers.
I thought he had broken his nose because
1) I had no vehicle. 2) there was a
blizzard warning. 3) by the silent, open
mouth cry. the swollen nose and
a ton of blood.  oh! 4) this is also
the day my coffee pot decided to to
take a pee all over the counter top.
sad. day.

Evie: do u c da owie dat Pooh gib me??

this is how I feel when it comes to my babies
rarrrrrrrr

missing the suburban

making a christmas tutu for my little e
it's glitter tulle. I had glitter EVERYWHERE. I'm
still finding it. but isn't it pretty???

courtesy of Christy. yeah, my (now)
9 month old needs some sort of
boobie support. baby bra???

photo shoot. Christy and Katie came
over for the day. they took pictures,
I asked questions, and I took this
on my new camera. I have
photoshop but…not sure how to
use it, yet...

I love this picture. it's like he's trying to ask
her out…and she's shy.

sweet baby girl.
9 months.
she is NOT a picky eater. loves to have books
read to her. loves music. loves to cuddle. loves
her siblings. loves yogurt drops. is starting
to bop and dance to music. 

she lost another tooth.

paper dolls

Ellie's christmas program.
she was wonderful.

Pooh's christmas program, on the eve of
the holiest of nights

YAWN

ummm…can you tell that he was
so ready to call it a night?

realizing that it was not going to end
anytime soon. I'm so proud.

yup, we have an "Elf". so what?
upon returning from church, we
noticed that he had left us a
family gift that we could open
right away: jammies, two movies,
two books, one stuff animal per
kid, and a couple of family games.

gifts are from mama, daddy, tita, and uncle
Sergio. And one special gift from Santa. he
wraps his gifts in a pretty solid color wrapping paper.
I found this red glitter wrapping paper years
ago and have been using it all up these past christmases.
it sucks. because it has all this frickin' glitter
that regular tape won't do. I have to use two sided
tape. read the special instructions people.
it's there for a reason. 

OMG

O-M-G!

it's BACON!! seriously, it IS
a stuffed bacon. you squeeze it and
it says, "I'm bacon".  Uncle
Sergio sent this because Pooh
LOVES his bacon. not Sergio's
bacon…just bacon. 

all she wanted was a bottle

Evie: wat a mess.

it was a American Girl/Transformers Christmas

lutefisk and lefse dinner, it was my late FIL's
favorite. but we use cod in place of the
lutefisk. 

sharks. they were circling around her like
sharks. she freaked out.

Evie, NOT a picky eater. YAY!!!

scat mat.  I stepped on this at least five
 times. you'd think I
would have learned the first time.
nope. took me five times. five!

Ellie received a salon kit,
Evie was her first customer.

ooooo, look at the pretty light.

family night.

thank you, Elfie, for the movies!!

look! it's Cheetara~ per Chris

she gives the best sloppy wet kisses. ever.

she has a total of SIX toofers.

the best Christmas gift. 

November happenings

Oh, crap. Today is the last day of 2012 and I have not blogged for some time. Let's see….
                                                        November

We spent Thanksgiving with family in Wausau and all camped between my mil's
and sil's homes. We drank wine, ate yummy food, Michelle and I took a trip to 
Hobby Lobby and came back to get our craft on. Kids had a blast playing 
with all of their (2nd) cousins and the older kids kept them all entertained. 
It was absolutely lovely.

cousin love.  Julka/Larson/Revie/Witt clan




Pinterest Party

  It all started out with a couple of pins off of Pinterest, followed 
by more than one comment on how we should have a Pinterest party, and wouldn't that
 be fun!?! My friends, Christyand Katie were my co-hostesses(??? is that right??).  
We planned, conspired, pinned, traveled to a hour away Hobby Lobby 
(more than once…with kids! even) but the outcome was oh so worth it! It was a 
very successful (EPIC) event. Since we were going to have more than
work station, we decided to keep the guest list small (figuring 2 to 3 gals 
would be at each table).  Photos are courtesy of Christy and Katie :)

     

pinned it & did it!

                          Each guest were asked to bring an appetizer that they had pinned off

                                                                         of pinterest.

Jenny I. brought Taco Bites
Recipe herehttp://christenehouston.com/my-blog-posts/412
(I hope I linked it correctly)
She also made fruit salsa with homemade chips,
my taste buds were exploding!
Recipe:http://thethreadaffect.com/2012/06/30/fruit-salsa-with-baked-cinnamon-chips/

Asavari brought Chicken Taco Cups
Recipe:http://www.rd.com/food/chicken-taco-cups-recipe/

Christy made Taco Pizza on Crescent Rolls
Recipe:http://realmomkitchen.com/5301/taco-pizza/

Jenny S. brought stuffed mushrooms.
Recipe:http://www.mountainmamacooks.com/2011/02/bacon-and-cream-cheese-stuffed-mushrooms/

Carrie brought a beer dip
Recipe:http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Beer-Dip

my SIL brought veggies and dip
aren't they cute?

Katie made these yummy treats
Recipe:http://www.iheartnaptime.net/chocolate-fudge-cookies-with-candy-cane-buttercream-recipe/

and this Fruit Punch with Sherbert
http://beverages-mix-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-glow-punch.html

party gifts, courtesy of Christy

adorable and festive

eating and mingling

hello, Katie!! 

seriously, this punch was that good!

 We had four crafts to accomplish this night. The first was a body scrub.

 http://pinterest.com/pin/239394536413754608/

super easy and all natural ingredients.

we are so hot…and you can
see my smokin' black bra

The second craft was a nest egg necklace. Extremely easy (ahem, once Katie
showed you how to make it) and very beautiful. I made a couple as Christmas
gifts.http://www.sarahortega.com/2011/05/diy-bird-nest-necklace.html

                                         

this is the one I made for myself. lovely, isn't it?

The third craft was a earring or photo holder,
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/04/framed-burlap-earring-holder-tutorial.html

   

this is mine, I LOVE it!!!

 The last craft was a vintage christmas ornament.http://pinterest.com/pin/239394536413837816/

the pin off of pinterest takes you to Etsy but
it was pretty easy to figure out what we
needed to do. We found cute Christmas
scrapbook paper at HL, Katie chopped, sanded,
 drilled a small hole into what will be the
 top of the wood blocks, and precut the paper.
Then we SPARKLE mod podge the paper on to
the wood. Added pretty ribbon.
 And waaaala!

very vintagey. very sparkly. very
merry christmassy...

these were the party favors I made
for everyone

everyone were asked to make a pinned craft
(winter or Christmas theme), wrap for a gift
exchange.

upon arrival, each girl was given a number.
drawing a number to see who gets to go next.

the NOEL that I made

winnerwinner!!

no, she didn't get two gifts. my niece was not
able to make it, so she drew for her.

Pinterest planners.

We Pinned it and Did it Party!



  But the party is not over, yet! We are in the midst of planning a kids'
Valentines Pinterest party. Good times.

monsters

Today started out as an ordinary day: wake up and realize I had hit the snooze button, one too many times because <gasp!> the 8 month old was still snoozing. As were the rest of my little family. I jump out of bed and announce "time to get up, we're going to be late!". Our last name does start with L and I often refer to our tardiness as "running on L time" aka Larson time. I know. I HATE being late and try to avoid it. So, as I rush the morning showers, toast "home made" waffles (HA!), make the coffee (ahem…push a button), dress the kids-making sure they're presentable. Chris takes Ellie to school every morning, on his way to work. I kiss both of them goodbye, tell them I love them, and to have a great day.

Today, Pooh and I had a play date. My friend came over with her little girl, the kids would play, she and I would craft. Win-win. Little did we know, as we compared stories about our adventures in parenting, vented about meltdowns, and laughed about some of the funny things our kids do to make our day…something horrible had happened in another little town. In a little school, like the one that Ellie goes to. Probably, in a class similar to hers. There had been a shooting in a kindergarten class, killing at least 20. 20 kids. It just sickens me to think how scared and confused they were. What their parents are going thru this very moment. My mothers heart aches. My first instinct was to rush to Ellie's school and pick her up. I held back. Instead I cried and hugged the babies I had with me. Then I packed them up and drove to the school and waited an hour until she was let out. I saw, as they went on to the playground, Ellie noticed me and waved and blew me kisses. Emotions rushed over me as I frantically waved back and said a prayer for those that are suffering from today's horrible tragedy, for the little souls that are now in Heaven, for their parents' loss, and for my own little angels.

We're planning on driving to Appleton tomorrow morning, to see Santa. It's become a family tradition and "Santa" now refers to us as "the little family from Rhinelander". We've been going since Ellie's first year. And now we have Evie. I'm excited because I got the girls matching tunic/dresses. Ellie and Pooh are excited to see Santa and to ask for a special gift.

As I was tucking them into bed, Pooh innocently stated: "mama, I afraid of monsers"
This has been going on for over a week now. He's been a little afraid of the dark and going upstairs by himself at night. I remember Ellie going thru the same thing. She's still a little apprehensive about being alone upstairs at night. So, I was a little surprised when big sister Ellie, quickly responded with: "Pooooh, there aren't any monsters. Right, mama?"
What did I say?…"of course not! There are NO such things as monsters."
And the whole time I am saying this, trying to convince my middle one and reassuring my oldest one…I am thinking, "yes. yes, there are monsters. And, I fear, I can't always keep you safe from them"