Stay-cation

We all enjoyed the vacation days Scott took earlier this week. We can't remember a time where we ever took days off of work to just sit around and hang out at our own house, without any company, but it was a wonderful success. We did all kinds of relaxing, eating, going to favorite parks, and the boys even caught the drift and started sleeping until 8 a.m. It was glorious.

It has been about 40 degrees during the day here lately. I am sure you can image how it pains a mother to see her two year old running around in that weather wearing a short-sleeve shirt. But if you have known many two-year-olds, you can probably imagine how it happened that he was wearing short-sleeves.

 Joseph loved the teeter-totter. Isn't it cute how Ian's head is peeking out from behind?

We ate pizza at our favorite park, and then left the box nearby while we played. We returned to find some very grateful squirrels.

 One of my favorite things about his park is the lazy-boy swings. And one of my favorite things about Ian is that he loves to wear anything belonging to Daddy.

Joseph loves to be swung high. He laughed and laughed and was so sad when it was time to go.

We also made a return trip to 7 Acre Wood and the boys were in heaven. I was thrilled that we were the only people on the entire 7 acre property, the entire time.

 

There are balls of all kinds strewn across the property and miniature football goal posts, basketball hoops sand volleyball nets around too. Here Scott is setting Ian up to kick a field goal.

Ian showed the animals the football. I had been really excited to hang out in the petting zoo part, but a nasty ram kept hooking Scott's legs with it's horns, so we skipped it. At least the horses, donkeys, fawns, sheep and mules were nice. 

 

 Scott beat me at a game of tether ball. Joseph then played with the incredible ball-on-a-string for at least 10 minutes.

The boys and I had some adjustments to make when Scott went back to work. It is still evident who the fun parent is and we can't wait to play some more this weekend!

A Merry Christmas

My great-grandma began a tradition of making matching stockings for each of her grandchildren. My mom then made them for us, and for our first Christmas as newlyweds I made one for Scott. They are kind of a lot of work! Thankfully my mom considers it a grandma's job and made stockings for each of the boys.

This was our very first Christmas celebrated as just our little family. We sure missed our loved ones spread across the country but enjoyed starting a few new Larson Family traditions.

We started a Christmas morning tradition of eating a picnic breakfast upstairs. The boys didn't sense the urgency and enjoyed an unusually leisurely breakfast, taking turns rocking themselves over in their boosters and laughing over spilled milk. We finally just dragged them over to the staircase to see what they were missing downstairs.

Ian starting to realize that something had happened downstairs...

Joseph made a bee-line for his stocking and plucked out a dish scrubber. For him, that is about where Christmas began and ended, and he was entirely satisfied. How on earth did Grandma know? Bizarre. Here he is saying "Whoa...!"

Ian was delighted to finally open a present, after it had been forbidden for the last several weeks (especially the package of marshmallow roasting spears for Scott that Ian Would. Not. Leave Alone.)This was a bubble mower that his Daddy picked out. Ian dragged that thing all over the house in the box until we finally opened it.

Driving a "Life is a Highway" car all over the rug. Is any little boy not obsessed with Lightning McQueen?

Joseph was finally coerced into opening a present. Ian on the other hand began opening present willy-nilly until we finally reigned him in and explained that he could only open presents with I-A-N on them.

The aftermath.

We learned some lessons this year:

* It feels like Christmas as soon as you eat a Hillshire Farms sausage on crackers.

* It feels like a really good Christmas when your wonderful husband makes sure you have See's Candies all the way out in Houston.

*If you tell Ian not to divulge what people are getting for Christmas, he will say "Hey Mom! Mom! Shhh.... a pillow.... sshhh... and shoes...it's a 'stuprize' on Christmas Day, Mommy". True to his word, he gave me a pillow and shoes.

*If you are used to celebrating Christmas Eve dinner with lots of family and friends who usually contribute side dishes, but you decide to have Christmas dinner just as a family, you may sit down to dinner before you realize that you have only prepared a ham and rolls and that no sides have materialized.

*If you decide to buy ingredients for Christmas Day dinner at the very last second and you decide to bring along two toddlers with you, you may forget a few ingredients. And they might possibly be vital ones, such as the tostada shells and chicken. So then you just eat leftover ham on leftover rolls and your good friends forgive you.

*If you don't buy enough scotch tape, your presents will end up looking like this beauty, wrapped in blue painters tape:

Scott's presents for me needed no tags -- the blue painters tape was a giveaway.

And lastly, if you have such a relaxing, lazy, holiday week that you can take two naps in one day, you may end up so rested you can't sleep at night so you get up at midnight to blog about the holidays. Now that is a sign of a good vacation!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas too!

Family Pictures

Here are a couple of my favorites from our first-ever family pictures. They were taken at a local park, the day after it snowed -- it was so cold! We watched someone land a model airplane in a tree over the pond, and the whole scene created when they tried to climb the tree and remove it, then paddle a kayak across the pond to fish it out was quite a distraction to Ian and Joseph. But Koni is wonderful and I am thrilled with how the pictures turned out. When Ian first saw the pictures he was confused about Koni not being in any of the pictures.

Hopefully we won't wait four more years to get them done again...

Meeting Santa

Santa paid a visit to our ward Christmas party earlier this month, and when Ian heard Santa was giving out treats he wanted to go meet him. We hadn't mentioned Santa yet to our kids, so while in line we gave Ian a quick explanation. He seemed to think the whole thing was strange, but was still eager to go get some candy.

We told him he could give Santa some ideas about what to bring for Joseph. I was surprised Ian wasn't nervous or hesitant about this at all as he is usually shy and unpredictable with strangers. And when the 2 kids in line in front of Ian screamed and cried and never made it onto Santa's lap I figured Ian would follow suit. Instead, Ian hopped up on Santa's lap and immediately declared "Please bring a book for Joseph".

Joseph on the other hand refused to turn his back on Santa. He stared Santa in the face and refused to turn for the camera. A fair response to a stranger covered in white hair.