December Field Trip

For our December field trip the girls really wanted to go see the Christmas lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

 The lights were beautiful and it was so much fun spending time together.  The LDS Church has a lovely nativity display with narration.  I always enjoy listing to the Christmas story along with the beautiful music.










The water features, as always were beautiful with the lights shining over them.

 I love the nativity display on the reflecting pool.  I am so grateful for the celebration of our Saviors birth that brings light to us in such a dark time of year.

 Here are Mark and me.  Our kids have gotten good at taking pictures.

MaeMae was so cute.  She just loved being in the stroller.

                                                   

 We realized the last time we had gone to see the lights was just a few days before Leelee was born.  It had been 4 years.  She had had the flu earlier in the week so wasn't super thrilled with the lights.

These were the new water feature and lights at the City center plaza.  It was a beautiful night and we all had a lot of fun.

Ears pierced...They are getting so big.

DeeDee & MiMi are getting so big and growing into such beautiful young ladies.  We decided it was time for ear piercing.  So, off to Claire's at Valley Fair Mall we went.

They had both been afraid that it would hurt so much.  MiMi decided first that she wanted it done and that convinced DeeDee.

                                     

They were troopers and the little star earrings they got are very cute.  It sure has gotten expensive.  $18.50 each.   I think it cost me $7 when I had mine done at Claire's.

And the Miracles keep coming.

Now, you might look at this van and think,"What an interesting color."and you would be right. We found this wonderful vehicle on KSL.com classifieds.  I was on there looking for a fridge and decided, what the heck, lets look at cars.  We were planning on changing out our van after the first of the year but you never know when a gem will come up.

I was looking at full size vans (which are not plentiful in our price range and the mileage we were looking for) and there it was.  A 1995 Dodge Ram Van 2500 with only 38,000 miles on it for $4500 dollars.

The next morning my Dad and I went to Bountiful, UT to Liberty Auto (which I highly recommend) and we couldn't believe it.  A full size van with only 38,000 miles on it in practically new condition.  The previous owner used it only to haul his boat and kept it in the garage the rest of the time.   I bought the van and when Mark was able to drive it, he was thrilled. The dealer even bought our old van for $1000 and we were able to get the fridge.

The interior was pristine and the captains chairs for the driver and passenger are super comfortable.  My children love having more space.  I cannot tell you what a blessing we feel this is.  I will always have faith that the Lord will always give us what we need when we need it.  Many times it is trials but, I am sure grateful when it is a wonderful blessing.

Now we have a great Field Trip vehicle.  We are all super excited to go camping next year.

Field Trip to Mrs. Cavanaugh's

We were going to take this little field trip last Friday.  I called and they didn't have any available tour space but, Dee Dee still wanted to go somewhere.  I wanted to do cheap and easy so, I got online looking for Free Museums in Salt Lake City.  As I was looking I saw the LDS Church History Museum on the list.

I haven't been in  years and I can't remember if the girls have ever been.  I decided to take all of the kids.  It was great to drive up and park because you can pay for parking on your smartphone.  You can get the app here.  Definitely cheaper than taking all 5 kids on the tracks.  $2.50 vs. $30...I think I will just kill a little bit of the air quality, thank you very much.

 


We got to the Museum and found it closed until Fall of 2015.  Looks like we will have something to go and see next Fall/Winter.  Just across the way is the Family History Library.  I worked there for a few years and loved it.  It has been 15 years since I worked there and things have changed a lot.  It is amazing what technology can do.  I took all 5 kids there.  It was amazing how good they were.  We toured all 5 levels and I even sat down with DeeDee and let her put some info in her Family Search file.

I did make an appointment at Mrs. Cavanaugh's for the following Wednesday.  So, with the help of my wonderful sister to watch my little kids, DeeDee, MiMi and I went to the Mrs. Cavanaugh's factory.  It was really interesting.  We were able to taste chocolate that hadn't been sweetened yet.  It wasn't to bad but was especially good followed by some milk chocolate.

It was fun watching this lady hand dip the chocolates.

The video and the tour were fun.  We love chocolate.  They have a really wonderful gift shop.  They even make their own ice cream.  This was  a great supplement to the Chocolate report that DeeDee put together.

What are we up too and a little gratitude

I know it has been a very long time.  I have been exploring options for earning some money from home.  I have decided to blog.  I will still keep this blog for more personal things and things that don't relate to my other blog.

I am going to launch my new blog that will focus on homeschooling on January 5, 2015.  In the meantime here is a few things we have been up to.

Halloween:
We did trunk or treat in our neighborhood.  Then did trick or treat in Grandma's neighborhood.  The kids had a blast and we were all worn out by the end of the day.

We had our primary program at church.  The kids did a wonderful job.  It was beautiful.

With it being Thanksgiving month I want to share my gratitude to all of you who read and share a little of my life vicariously.  I am grateful for my extended family who is so supportive and loving.  I am so grateful for my children who, despite my craziness, still love me and are such good kids.  I want everyone to know how wonderful my sweet husband is.  He is so strong and works so hard for our family.  I am so blessed to have this wonderful man.  I am most especially grateful for my Heavenly Father & his Son, Jesus Christ without whom my life would be miserable and chaotic.

At this time of year I hope we will all remember the things we are most thankful for.

September Field Trip

In September we took our field trip to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah.  This is the Aquariums new home and it was the first time I had been to the new building.  Both DeeDee and MiMi had been their on summer school field trip.  We all were looking forward to it and it didn't prove to be a disappointment.

We took our little friend Cici with us and we all had so much fun.  First, the older girls wanted to be eaten by the Megaladon Shark teeth.  The littler kids didn't want to get near them.

They had a really beautiful Orca picture area.  All of the kids had fun playing on the Orcas while I took pictures.

It was fun to see all the animals they had at the old Aquarium building in the new building you could tell they were able to make better and more

interesting exhibits for their animals.  The river otter exhibit is better than the one at the zoo.  The 3 brother otters at Loveland just love to play.  It is so fun to watch them.  The Jellyfish exhibit was also very beautiful.
Next, was the penguin exhibit.  Once again, they took the old exhibit which was nice but kind of small and made it bigger and better for both the penguins and the patrons.

 This was the only picture I could get My Boy to pose for.  He was just running around looking at everything and having so much fun.  We moved on to the South America exhibit.  What an amazing thing.  It was beautiful and included birds, snakes and lizards as well as the fish.  They have a really fun rope bridge for everyone to try.

 At this point MaeMae was really tired.  I had forgotten to bring the big stroller and she would have slept the entire time if I would have had it. Oh, well...(*sigh*).

 The last exhibit is the coral reef exhibit.  They have built a glass tunnel for patrons to walk through and go under the sharks, turtles and other fish.  DeeDee took these great pictures.

All of the exhibits were beautiful and enjoyable to view.  The staff was willing to answer any question and share knowledge with us.  It was wonderful.

Each of the older girls was able to check off their Aquarium passport.  It was a great school field trip day.  I somehow managed it all on my own.  I look forward to my Mom being retired so I can take her to these things.

The Larsen Family 2014

It was time again for family pictures.  So, our family and my brothers family went for a Sunday picnic to Murray Park.  My brother Aaron the hobbyist photographer and full time graphic designer brought his nice camera and took some lovely pictures of our family.  It is so nice to have MaeMae and our new dogs.  Our family feels complete.

 We had a heck of a time with my boy.  He simply refused to smile.

 He did finally break a smile when his cousin started jumping around to catch the babies attention.

 Sweet little MaeMae 5 months old

 Big Sis DeeDee.  She is my helper. 9 years old.

 My free spirit. MiMi. 7 years old

 My very sober child, LeeLee.  3 year old.

 That's My Boy.  Love him so much! 2 years old.

Mark & Ruth.  Still in love after 13 years.

Perler Beads

I bought DeeDee a container of Perler Beads for her and she has enjoyed them immensely.  She even has started making her own patterns.  These are a couple of the things she has done recently.  My favorite is the cupcake.

 

Lapbook Reports

As promised here are the pictures of my 4th grader and my 2nd grader with their reports.

DeeDee chose to do a report on Sea Lions.  She loves sea mammals.

She chose what pictures she needed to match her report information.  I am so proud of her.

MiMi wanted to do Butterflies.

I walked her through it and she learned all sorts of new things.

They both had a lot of fun and I am so very proud of both of them.  

The great thing about doing it in this form, is that it folds up and you can keep it in a file drawer to look at later.  I need to get a file drawer organized for all the lapbooking we are going to do.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This year I turned 38 years old.  I have had some interesting age realizations recently.  I dropped off our cute little sister missionaries after going with them on a visit and realized I was old enough to be their Mother.  I am a Mother to 5 beautiful children.  I had my last baby this year (Thank Goodness!).  I am an Aunt and loving it.  I am a Wife to a man that is so perfect for me that I constantly marvel at that realization and thank God for him everyday.  I am a Granddaughter who was lucky enough to grow up with all 4 Grandparents (and one is still living).  I am a Decendant to many wonderful and amazing people.  I am a Niece and a Cousin who is so grateful to have grown up knowing my Aunts, Uncles & Cousins.  My life is full of miracles.  My life is full of the Spirit of God.  MY LIFE IS BLESSED.

Thank you for your support.

The girls made some super cute potholders for all of our friends and family who contributed to our school.  And of course I forgot to take a picture of the potholders.  We did get pictures with a couple of our helpers. (And of course I forgot to take pictures with all of them).

Thank you Aaron & Bronwynn

Thank you Stephanie.

Thank  you to Grandma & Grandpa Thorup, Grandma & Grandpa Larsen, Matt & Christine Oldroyd & John & Lisa Overbaugh.  We love you all and are so grateful for your help.

I love my LeeLee

I am homeschooling my older 2 children but, I don't have any qualms about sending my 3 year old to preschool.  I just need to get her out of the house.

I walked her to her first full 3 hours of preschool and when I left I was grateful for the feeling of motherly concern and hope I had for her.  She can really get on my nerves sometimes.  I love her.