280/365

Life as we know it has changed forever.
He decided to climb up the stairs for the first time today.
He wasn't afraid. He wasn't tired. He didn't want to stop.  He made it to the bonus room (about 20 steps) in about a minute.  Then went straight for the toys!
Oh boy! Here we go!!!

279/365

It's Late Over Time!

Wow! Crazy Night. 

I had to deliver a wedding cake tonight before late over so I was already in a rush. I felt pretty lucky that everything worked out so nicely.  

Kids were coming over at 6pm

Left LaCaille at 5:40

Got home right at 6:00

Walked in, gave the babysitter money then heard the doorbell rang,

...it was the pizza guy! 

Put the pizza in the kitchen and started cutting up apples and all the cousins showed up.

Whew! Couldn't have timed that any better.  

If the night goes by this perfect, I won't realize I'm exhausted since I went to bed at 3am this morning. 

Thank goodness I have the best nieces and nephews in the world.  They are wonderful kids, great friends, and love to be with eachother.  That makes watching 11 kids under the age of 9 all worth it.  

Late over was awesome tonight.. the kids made spy gear. (they can get so creative)

Ok.. let me see if I can remember all the gear:

 Ear piece 

Spy Glasses

Belts and Headbands

Spy watch

Sword

278/365

Brighton wanted to help me make my bed today.  He did it all by himself.
Way to go buddy! You are such a good helper!

As I'm talking about this cute little guy, I thought I'd share what he said to me tonight as he was sitting on the potty.
Brighton:
"Mommyyyy!!! I need you to get the toilet paper. All my poop ran out"

277/365

Sunday was a wonderful day.
Kaden FINALLY got the confidence to ride his bike!!!!! He's had his bike for over a year and has been a little too timid to ride on his own. We've practiced with him over and over, but he's just been a little nervous.
Sunday we decided to try again.  I don't know what happened, but all that fear is gone and now he's is awesome! He LOVES his bike and rides it every day!
Today Brian picked him up from school so they could go on a bike ride at the park.  He thought he was pretty special to have the one on one time with dad.  For the long ride around the park,  Brian had bought him his favorite "sport" drink.  Gatorade Perfom.

Gatorade Perform is Kaden's drink of choice when he goes up skiing with Brian.  It makes him ski harder, jump higher, and ride down the hill faster.  He never goes to the resort without it.
                                                           It's a miracle drink.
When he got home from his bike ride today, he came in the house and told me how awesome he did bike riding. He said, "mom, that Gatorade Perform totally make me go faster than Dad on my bike! It worked so good! I bet I will be able to beat a purple belt at karate tonight!"
Then at karate, Brian said he was the first to volunteer to spar the higher belt kids and he was in their face the whole time.  He's usually pretty timid when he has to spar (fight other kids) but tonight, he still had Gatorade Perform in his system so he was on fire!!!
I'm so glad we are able to purchase the confidence enhancing miracle drink locally without a prescription.  We really lucked out.

Kade... you are awesome buddy!

276/365

Got a text today with a picture similar to this that said,
"That was scary. But the light is fixed"

With these vaulted ceilings, Brian gets a little creative when he needs to fix stuff. This was probably not one of the safest idea's he's had. And then what do I do? Make him get back up there so I can take a picture.  What is our problem?
To describe the picture:
4 tall kitchen chairs
A 6' table ontop of the chairs
the ladder ontop of the table
Brian at the top of our ceileing just inches away from the stairwell going to our basement. He's literally 3 floors up right now. It kinda looks like a fort my kids would have made, but a lot more dangerous.

275/365

Kaden figured out how to ride his bike today

274/365

There are on occasion, days that I have a clear perspective on what I need to do to have my life run smoothly.  Most days, I feel the perspective is a bit blurry and I don't know where to even begin on keeping my life organized, my body healthy, and my kids living productive, yet fun lives.
But today I had a clear vision.  You know what happens when I have a clear vision?
Psycho OCD Turia comes out to play:
I make lists.
I organize and label everything.
I make job charts, daily schedule routines for me and my family, house cleaning charts, I write down goals,  and I actually try to think about what I will cook for dinner for the whole entire week.... this could go on and on.

It's good when I get this clear perspective, even if it's fleeting. I feel like I have to hurry and write everything down that I'm thinking of so that when my blurred mind comes back, I will have a "game plan" of sorts of what I need to do to stay in control.  I wish I could always have a sound understanding of what I need to do to keep my house in order, my family in order and myself in order, but the truth is, it always gets a little blurry.
Today, as I was feeling so great that I had some organization to my life, I realized something I've never really thought of before.  I can pray to stay like this. I can pray for clarity in my life. I can pray for the ability to know what matters most and then prioritize. I can pray for inspiration for my family, I can pray to understand how to eat and live healthier, I can pray for the energy to do it all.
(laaalaaaaalaaaaalaaa) I love it when I have these simple epiphanies in my life.  Life's too hard with the blurred vision that I receive when my life is not in order.  I  need a plan. I know I'll stray from the plan, but the plan itself keeps me focused... even when I may have to tweak it, I'm still focused. I'm still closer to obtaining that sound understanding that I want and need in my life.
So today's life lesson..... pray.  Pray for everything. Not just the basics, but the things that will help me and my family stay happy and focused.  That's the ultimate goal anyway isn't it?
 Why is it that the simplest of answers in life are often the ones I overlook the most?

273/365

 It's conference weekend. I made the mistake of going to Wal-Mart in between sessions today. OH MY GOSH!!!!   INSANITY! You could barley move in the aisle where the eggs and milk and cheese were. Everyone was there to get their Sunday brunch goodies.
As was I.
Utah is a funny place. I had to go to 3 different stores before I finally found frozen bread dough for monkey bread.  I'm sure we are the only state in the country that has a frozen bread dough shortage a couple times a year.

I guess a whole lot of people have the same tradition as us. Next time I'll remember to go to the store much earlier in the week.

272/365

Last week I went to the Relief Society Broadcast. It was such an amazing night. I learned so much and have felt the spirit of that meeting all week long. There were things said in that meeting that have truly changed the way I think about things. I know I was there for a reason. I know there were things that I needed to hear. 

One of the things that was talked about was to enjoy and celebrate the small achievements we see every day instead of always dwelling on the things we don't accomplish.  We were told to realize that the small successes that we see every day are so important and that we should be proud of them.  If we take things line upon line.... or one step at at time, each one of those small successes will be cause for great celebration in our life if we stop and appreciate them.  

Today, I understood that a little more clearly.  Kaden has been struggling with math a bit lately on these 5 minute timed tests he has to take.  He's been getting really low scores and we've been working really hard to practice these tests several times a week and teach him different tips to help him to them faster.  

Well today, we got to celebrate on of those "small successes".  He finished his timed test and only got 1 wrong!! I was so proud of him! He was so proud of himself.  It was great cause to celebrate.  

As I looked back on this, I thought of the talk at womens conference.  You know, this test was just a small weekly test. Nothing big or fancy.  We could have treated this test like another piece of homework that needed to be signed and returned back to school, but instead we cheered for joy! It was a small success, but brought us such joy because we KNEW how hard Kade had worked on improving his math skills.  

It must be a little like how our Heavenly Father feels when we sees true success in our lives.  He's seen how hard we've worked and He's proud of us.  Whether the accomplishment is big or small, it doesn't matter. All that matters is taking time to appreciate and celebrate those small successes we have each and every day and not focus on the other things in our life that may not be as successful. 

Kaden, I'm so proud of you! You worked so hard and you did a great job!

271/365

I wish I had a picture of Brian in a frilly little apron, but he would be even more embarrassed. 

This is the year my hubby grows a beard and looks like Grizzly Adams till the snow begins to fall, 

and he also turns into Martha Stewart and spends days canning. 

Hmmmm.. A bearded Martha Stewart? 

We just might have a talk show in the making right now!

Despite my teasing, I will reap the rewards:

15 bottles of peaches

18 bottles of pears

6 bottles of Dill pickles

30 bottles of freezer Jam

and 2 batches of Raspberry Ice Cream

yum. yum

Thanks for your hard work Bri.

270/365

Kaden has now been in cub scouts for a month. He LOVES it!!
We've been working hard to help him earn his bobcat.  Tonight he got his first award. Bobcat is completed, now he's working on his wolf. He was so excited. I think he reminded us of pack meeting about 10 times in the last couple days.
Way to go buddy!

269/365

I went into my room today to see Brighton and Connor watching a movie together. 

Bright was lying there with his arm around his little brother. 

Awwwwww!!

268/365

Avery loves to be girly.  And she loves to show off how beautiful she looks to her dad.  

Every Sunday after she is dressed and her hair is done, she goes into wherever Brian is and will stand there and sway back and forth with a cute smile on her face until Brian says, "Avery, you look so beautiful!' She loves the approval of her daddy. 

Today while I was getting her ready for school she looked in the mirror and said, "I wish dad was here to see me today".

I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to show her dad how pretty she was.  We snapped a photo on my phone and sent it to him right away.  Daddy was quick to text back how beautiful she looked.

Avery's smile went from ear to ear. 

There's something pretty special when it comes to the bond a daddy has with his little girl.

267/365

Isn't this beautiful? 

We love our Sunday getaways to the mountains.

A few days ago, we came up here for a quick lunch and hike. WE didn't want Kaden to feel too left out, so we brought him up with us this time 

Sadly, we are coming to an end of summer and I don't think we'll be doing too many more Sunday afternoons in the canyons for a while. 

Brian roasted the BEST marshmallows EVER!!

Oh my gosh... could this s'more get any better? Look at it's gooey yumminess.

We love all the fun little pets we find up here.

(Avery started getting a little nervous when the caterpillar started going down her shirt)

 I love Brighton's grubby little hands.  

 and this kids grubby little smile.  

265/365

My nephew Riley had his 9th birthday party today.  He had an angry birds party. I had a blast making his cake.  The best part was that I left off all the characters and structures and let Riley assemble them they way he wanted. His mom said he kept re-arranging them in different scenarios all day.  

I guess it's my first interactive birthday cake!

 Here's the characters.... all edible of course.

264/365

I've loved blogging every day this year and I'm glad I have, because I think this little guy would be jipped on documenting some of his major milestones. But that being said...... even with me blogging each day, I'm still blown away at what I've missed. 

In less than a week, this little guy has started to crawl and he pulls himself up on everything and he can entertain himself pretty good if there are toys on the floor.  

Man, he's growing up so fast.

His favorite trick is to crawl to the stairs, pull up on the railing and take a few steps.  What a show off!
 

263/365

Today we decided to leave the housework and yard behind and go on a picnic and hike up the canyons.  It was so nice to get away, even if it was for only a couple hours.

Sorry we left you behind Kaden. You were already at school. Next time you will have fun with us too!

262/365

We hung out at the park today after school and the kids found a "pet" they brought home and is now living in a jar in Kaden's bedroom.

Meet "Black head".... the water snake.  If he can stay in his cage, he's welcome to stay.  The first time I see him trying to escape, he'll be going back home to the pond.

261/365

Today we got our family pictures done.  Not just a little family picture, all 26 of us.  Like how Brighton is making a funny face? Avery is sitting in such a feminine way.  Kaden looks shocked that we are taking a picture, I look like a hippo and Brian's ski beard, (ok... he looks pretty hot) Wow... the Larsen's (minus brian) sure added humor to this picture.

260/365

Happy Birthday Shauna!! 

We love you. 

We had a great night with all of Brian's brothers and sisters as we celebrated Shauna's 60th birthday tonight. It was such a fun night. We had a yummy dinner at our house and enjoyed a night full of games and lots of childhood memories and even more laughs.