Vegas, baby!

A couple weeks ago I started getting the itch to get out of town. Winter can be kind of cold and miserable in northern Utah and I wanted to go somewhere WARM. And then, wouldn't you know it, I was going through the mail one night and there was a promotional letter from The Wynn hotel for a weekend getaway package. The price was totally manageable and it included a 2-night stay, tickets for a buffet, and tickets to see Le Reve, a Cirque du Solet show. The show is what sold me, I love going to see performances! Debbie agreed to watch our kids and 3 days later we were driving to Vegas!!

Our swanky hotel pad. It was sooo nice. The bathroom was huge and we don't keep a TV in our bedroom so it was fun to watch TV in bed. It's the little things, right?

They say Le Reve is one of the best shows in Vegas right now and no kidding!! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. A combination of water acrobatics below and people coming down from the ceiling on wires and all these crazy special effects, my mouth was open in amazement the entire time. Loved it!


We also did a little shopping, ate some delicious things at the Wynn buffet and had an amazing weekend getaway! Thanks Debbie and Glade for watching our girls while we had a fun little break. Vegas, baby!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! Before heading over to Grandma's I snapped a quick shot of the girls in their cute new Christmas jammies in front of our tree. They were so excited!

Penny and Maddie got matching glow ponies from Uncle Wes and Aunt Tami!

We had just seen Frozen (which I totally LOVED) and so we got Penny a little Frozen characters set...

...and then Penny opened the next present from Grandma Balmforth which were the awesome, bigger and better Frozen dolls and Penny totally chucked the little ones we gave her aside, haha. But she actually plays with the big dolls and little dolls together so it's all good.

And speaking of dolls...we totally went for the big ol' Disney princess doll set this year! I've seen it a million times walking by in Target and it's never on sale. BUT, two days before Christmas we were at Target and it was HALF OFF. I mean, how do we NOT buy it?? The pic isn't the best below, but they totally loved it!

Violet with her new princess crown.

More present opening...

Cousin Maddie and Violet with grandma.

And...Penny got a new Hello Kitty bike!! We brought it out at the very end and made her close her eyes and she ran over and gave the bike a big hug, so cute! We can't wait for the weather to warm up so she can ride it.


Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Family Photos 2013

I really loved our family photos this year. For the first time we hired a professional photographer and got some great images! Family pictures are so important, they can be such a hassle to get ready for, especially with little kids, but I am so happy we put forth the effort. The girls were so cute and the weather was nice and warm, it was great! I can't wait to put these photos up in our new home in a couple months!

All photos by Chad Braithwaite, Faces Photography.

Baby Rosie

My sister Lana had her third baby, a little girl named Rosie Charlotte Wren, on November 11th, 2013 and we love her so much! She is a little sweetheart and below are some pics from when we saw her at the hospital for the first time.







I mean, is she cute or what?? Both Lana and baby girl had a great delivery and baby Rosie is now two weeks old! Time flies. Penny was so happy to meet her new cousin, she was practically bouncing in her car seat on the drive to the hospital. Violet was very sweet and patted her softly on the head (with adult supervision, of course). We love you, baby Rosie!

Happy Halloween!

My girls were so happy with their costumes this year! Penny chose to be Mariposa, a butterfly fairy from a Barbie movie that she loves right now. And what do you know, we were walking through the Barbie aisle at Target a month ago and there was one last Mariposa costume. Penny was overjoyed, to say the least. We added some pink shoes and I made her a flower crown, which she loved. At first, Violet was going to be a matching pink fairy but we were walking through a costume shop and saw a little Dorothy dress in just her size. I knew Target had red glitter shoes for girls (because I shop there way too much) and I knew Violet would be an adorable little Dorothy. I made her little blue hair bows and I may have squealed when I first put her costume on her. I like this kind of Halloween where I just buy the costumes! Easy!


Penny with her adorable preschool class.


Grandma Referee with little Dorothy, who stole her whistle.


Parade time! I remember I LOVED the Halloween parades when I was in elementary school.


We found another Dorothy! This picture kills me, Violet looks so happy with her big twin!


Later that evening, we continued our Halloween tradition of trick or treating with Lana and her kids, Max and Elsa. I love this picture! Those kids are adorable.


Larsen Family Halloween 2013, woot woot. I was a cat for the third year in a row (I've committed to have a different costume next year, I promise!) and Paul was a big, blue Smurf haha. Each department at his work competes in a costume contest and his department won this year! I hope it was worth it, because that blue paint took forEVER to come off. (Both girls were scared of Paul when he came home from work, and Penny wouldn't hold Paul's hand the whole night haha).


First house! Waiting patiently...


Violet had the trick or treating thing down right away. She would push to the front of the kids, say "Hiiii!" whenever someone opened the door, grab a piece of candy, and then walk into their house. I had to drag her out of a bunch of houses. Sorry candy-givers! My baby is just too friendly!


And one last trick or treating action shot. The kiddos were so excited this year and, as always, I love watching them experience one of my favorite holidays. Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Penny's Pirate Party!

When Penny told me she wanted to have a pirate party this year for her 5th birthday, I was super excited! Nothing's wrong with fairies or princesses, but who doesn't love pirates??

We had fun putting together our outfits the night before, we didn't buy anything and just grabbed stuff from around the house. Our vests are cut up T-shirts. Fancy, right?

What a couple of good looking pirates!

I'm so glad we made it a dress-up party, everyone looked awesome!

 

Little stinker ran around the entire party and had a terrific time but I couldn't get her to crack a smile for the camera once. I call it her pirate scowl ha!

 

Digging for buried treasure!

Pizza and presents!

The kids got eye patches in their goody bags. Arrrgh!

 

Paul and his dad with Violet.

  

Me and my baby pirate, complete with another pirate scowl. Ha!

It was such a fun party! We decided to have it at our church pavilion this year instead of our backyard and I HIGHLY recommend it. We didn't have to clean our house or backyard and there were already tables and benches there, and a little playground as well. We're so doing this every year, it was so easy and fun with lots of space for the kids to run around. Penny had a great time, she honestly just wanted to be pushed on the swings the whole time (thanks, Grandma!) but took a few breaks to dig for some coins, blow out her candles, and open presents. Love that girl!

Happy 5th Birthday, Penny!

 *Showing me how old she is today on one hand. 

I can't believe I have a five year old! I love this girl so much. Here are some things about 5 year old Penny:

- Current favorite character: Barbie Mariposa (we just bought the costume for Halloween - she's so excited, and asks to see her costume every day)
- Favorite color: pink
- Favorite food: grapes
- Favorite playground toy: swings
- Love baby sister and plays so well with her, except when baby sister swipes her favorite books
- Still a little bookworm, she's been taking a flashlight to bed lately so she can look at books before she goes to sleep
- Loves school. She goes 4 times a week and always comes home with new things to tell me about what she did in class that day.
- Whenever she hears some music she likes, she jumps up and says "Come on, Violet! Dance with me!" Those two girls dancing together is probably the cutest thing ever.
- Kind of shy in public, she still sometimes hides behind me when people say hi to her. But at home, she's full of energy and talks non-stop.
- Randomly comes over and pats my cheek and says "I love you, mom." It just melts me!

I'm sure there are more things I could write, but we are just so happy to have Penny in our lives and I still can't believe it's been five years since she was born. Below are some pictures from that special day...



We love you, Penny! Happy birthday!