i wish i had a blog when...

i saw this post of old pictures on my friend ashley's blog and i thought what a good idea. so just for fun and because there's nothing else going on, here's some of my favorite pics before ol' penny came along.

with lana and kris during our amazing trip to europe a few summers ago. we toured london and france in one week and it was the most exhausting and awesome trip ever.

jenny lewis wailing at a show in salt lake for her rabbit fur coat tour.
with paul's sister, kenna, in oregon at haystack rock (where they filmed goonies!)
my graduation day!
at the top of our destination that ONE time we went hiking.
in front of old faithful for our 2 year anniversary trip to yellowstone. (we had our 3 year anniversary in august.)
our christmas card picture a couple of years ago. i'm so excited to take one this year of all three of us!

4 weeks old!

i can't believe it. the time has flown by so fast. in celebration here are some of my favorite recent penny pics.

paul burping penny. i swear he can do it after only one pat on the back. i love penny's smushed face. paul, you need a haircut my friend.

bathtime! (i covered her with a washcloth out of warmth and dignity.)

nap time!

i love that little hand!

sort of lifting her head during tummy time.

the picture our bishopbric forced us to take for the bulletin board. you'd think we were still in a singles ward or something.

in her carrier cave. she LOVES this thing - she'll sleep for hours in it.

POW!

*yawn*

bluh.

taggity-tag

i've never done a tag thingy before. heather tagged me so i'll tell you a little bit about how i know heather. she took me to my first show (the aquabats) and basically is responsible for teaching me how to dance and not look like an idiot (at church stake dances of course) and we had fun dressing up before hand doing smokey eyeliner and figuring out hot outfits. i think the funnest summer in teenage-dom was with heather and her family and friends going to shows and disneyland all the time, going on a road trip to san francisco and eating monkey poo bread.

10 years ago:
1. i was 13
2. a freshman at troy high school
3. blonde with a friendly mole on my cheek
4. loved watching buffy the vampire slayer (i still do...)
5. was also very partial to xena: warrior princess

5 things on today's to-do list:
1. call my health insurance company to make sure they added penny onto my coverage
2. call the hospital to request a form to submit a claim for our supplemental aflac junk
3. do the dishes (probably won't happen)
4. watch another epsiode of the 3rd season of roswell (we bought the 3 seasons when the writer's strike was going on then forgot about them when the strike ended and now i have lots of time for tv watching. this show is cheesy but awesome).
5. go on a walk with penny

5 snacks i enjoy:
1. cheese and pretzels
2. fruit punch sour straws
3. breast milk (just kidding)
4. smoothies
5. reisens (sp?)

5 things i'd do if i were a millionaire:
1. make everyone in my family debt free
2. design and build a house to live in
3. travel ALOT
4. start and own a hip bakery (like maggie gyllenhaal in stranger than fiction)
5. hire a chef to make healthy but yummy meals (ya know, to balance out the bakery goodies)

5 places i've lived:
1. fullerton, ca - until 17
2. old farm apartments in logan, ut - student housing where i met paul!
3. aggie village in logan, ut - first married apartment
4. scary basement with stupid noisy kids above us in logan, ut
5. currently in pretty good apartment in logan, ut - but we are job searching in salt lake so we can move the heck out of logan.

5 jobs i've had:
1. ice cream scooper - baskin robbins
2. smoothie maker - jamba juice
3. bookseller - waldenbooks
4. office assistant - mickelson financial
5. mom

i tag:
1. lana wren
2. tami larsen
3. brittany erickson
4. claire allred
5. your mom

no more oxygen!

we are so thrilled. she finally started breathing well without the oxygen yesterday and we took her tubes off in celebration. now you can see her whole face!

serious face.

raspberry face.

annoyed-to-be-taking-pictures face.

i know, i know, everyone does this - but i still think it's pretty cute!

grandma and grandpa larsen came to visit this weekend. debbie was amazing and helped out so much with cleaning, cooking, and graciously holding penny every available minute. :)

p.s. everyone go out and buy the new acid tongue album by jenny lewis. it will blow your mind with its awesomeness.

penny and max

my sister lana came up yesterday to visit with her baby max and he and penny finally got to meet. i love how max looks like such a giant next to penny - he grew quick! here's their hot dance moves.
my mom was awesome and spent about 10 days in utah helping me with penny. she looks like a pretty happy grandma here. :)

my favorite picture of the week.

introducing...penny suzanne larsen!

sorry it's taken me so long to post pictures of penny. it's been a crazy week but here's the quick summary. my water broke at 2 am last wednesday (which was interesting and weird) so we called the hospital and they told us to come in right away. sure enough i was 4 cm already and i got my epidural pretty quick (which wasn't as scary as i thought it was going to be). after 10 hours of contractions and over 2 hours of pushing, she was finally born on thursday september 11th at 1:30 pm. she weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and surprised us all by having a ton of dark, curly hair. she was doing great but breathing really fast and they found out she had a little bit of fluid left in her lungs. she ended up having to be in the intensive care unit for 4 days and that was a little rough. i cried the first time i saw her all hooked up to wires and tubes but the doctor said this was a pretty common problem. after a few days in the ICU the doctor decided she was doing great but still needed to be on oxygen at home. me and paul were a bit apprehensive to say the least but they set us up with a big tank of oxygen and she's hooked up to a monitor so we can see her oxygen saturation stats. we just had a follow-up appt today with her pediatrician and he said she should only need to be on oxygen for another week or so. hopefully she can get off it sooner rather than later! her nose tubes are connected to a 50-foot cord that goes around our whole appt - it's actually pretty funny to see. but other than that, her health is perfect - she's gained weight already and makes these cute squeaking sounds when she's eating.

so, that wasn't a very short explanation and i'm sure anyone who sees this posting has skipped right down to the pictures but paul and i are so in love with our little penny and i am so grateful for modern medicine and that the hospital took such great care of our little girl. below are some of my favorite pics.



proud papa.
first time holding my little penny.
in the ICU. :(
daddy's first diaper. as you can tell, penny's having a grand ol' time.
alison, me, and jessica. they were visting from california and i'm so glad they were able to come see penny.
grandma and grandpa larsen.
getting a sweet ultra violet tan for a bit of jaundice.
we're finally home!

tummy time.
i love this little girl. :)

no, she's not here yet

oh baby countdown, how you've tricked me. i thought magically once you went down to zero, that *poof* penny would arrive. sadly, this is not the case. as punishment, i've removed you from our blog. nothing's really changed but i do have a doctor appt tomorrow for my 40 week check-up. cross your fingers...

we finished watching the 4th season of the office and it was, needless to say, awesome. not as many special features as the other seasons but the blooper reel is really good. we were gonna save it to watch at the hospital but ended up watching it in 2 days. i keep absent-mindedly humming the theme song under my breath. i can't wait for the sept 25th premiere of the 5th season. i'll have penny by then, right?