Friday, March 20, 2009

Beautiful Boston

Chris had a work conference in Boston at the beginning of the month and my in-laws lovingly volunteered to keep 3/4 of our kids if I wanted to go with him. I don't know if they thought I would take them up on it but I did. And I am so glad!! Since Chris would be in meetings all day, I invited my mom along and we had a blast!


This is the view out of one of the windows in our hotel room. Well, out of the upgraded room we received. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I could have actually stayed in the room all day long and been perfectly happy.
Being in Boston made me miss the city. I would LOVE to live there (as long as I could vacation in the south during the winter).


On our first night we ate at the Ol' Union Oyster House which is the oldest restaurant in America. It was one of JFK's favorite restaurants and we actually got to sit in his favorite booth! It even had a sign! (unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me)

We got cannelloni from Mike's pastry shop and enjoyed exploring the city. I would love to go back today!!!




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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Five years ago today Luke came speeding into our lives and our life has never been the same.

He is the calm in the midst of our crazy life. He is laid back and easy going; our tender warrior and family dreamer . He is loving and kind, gentle and fun.
He plays a unique roll in Team Larsen for sure!

He brings so much joy and we are thankful to be celebrating his life today!!

We are blessed that God has given us such a wonderful gift!

Happy Birthday Luke!! We love you!!

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Friday, March 6, 2009

Fun with zip ties...

Yesterday was beautiful here! The kids really enjoyed playing in the yard and I was thankful for a little break while I prepared dinner.



One problem...boys...and their fascination with the garage.



Normally the door to the garage is locked but for some reason yesterday it wasn't. That meant that I had two curious boys rummaging through the shelves in the garage. They came in wearing swim goggles and carrying the super soaker which was my first clue. After asking them lovingly to keep their precious hands out of the garage, I noticed Luke had also grabbed a couple of zip ties. He LOVES zip ties and will spend long amounts of time connecting them to make various rocket type ships.





A little while later I noticed that he had put them on as bracelets. That wasn't really a problem until he decided he was done wearing them and he tried to take them off. Can you tell where this is going?? For those of you who don't know, zip ties tighten but don't loosen so the more you pull them the tighter they become. Now imagine a 4 year old who is in a panic trying to get zip ties off of his wrists. What does he do? Continues to pull at them, obviously magnifying the problem and causing them to become tighter and tighter.



Now, enter...calm laid back mom. I freaked out! His hand were beginning to turn a dark shade of redish blue and he was screaming. I was in a full panic and not helping anyone else to remain calm. I tried to cut the zip ties off with scissors but I couldn't get the scissors between the zip tie and his wrist with out him screaming in pain. I tried a knife but that was just too scary. There's just something creepy about sawing with a sharp knife at your child's wrist. I was beginning to have images of a 4 year old with a missing front tooth and only one hand. Not the picture I wanted to share of my mothering ability.



In a panic situation, what do you do but call your husband who is at work and can do nothing to help. And that's exactly what I did. In a full panic. And what did he say?

C: Just cut them off!

Me: But I can't because it hurts his wrist!

C: It doesn't matter, you just need to do it!

C:Do I need to come home right now??!

So, back to the scissors we went. My heart was racing. Luke was screaming. Kate was talking incessantly (because that's what she does). John Patrick was crying hysterically. Caleb was...well..probably getting into something he wasn't suppose to, I'm not sure.

But, we got them off!

You can rest easy knowing the my 4 year old will indeed see his 5th birthday with BOTH hands in place. Praise the Lord!

Note: Don't allow your kids to wear zip ties as bracelets, even if it seems fairly harmless at the time. Take it from a seasoned mother of four.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Frugal Ramblings

I have decided in order to spare my family from my ramblings about saving money and such, to start a new blog devoted to all of those random thoughts. That way the family and friends that want to keep up with Team Larsen don't have to wade through non family discussions. :) If you want to check it out go to www.fundamentallyfrugal.blogspot.com

This blog will now be fully dedicated to all things Larsen. lol!

Coming soon...a day in the life of Team Larsen.