About to Pop...

My wonderful friends from church threw me an amazing baby shower with such a fun theme!
I said my friends were wonderful, but did I also mention how talented they are? Take a look at this food:


My shower included some friends from the ward.
I was spoiled with gifts (or should I say "showered" with gifts)
I am currently the 2nd counselor in the young womens at church, so a lot of the girls came too!
The said friends
Thanks for such a great baby shower!!!

Phoenix Fun!

I'm in love...

...with my new little niece Katherine Janean Adkins.

She was born on January 5th (3 weeks early), so I had to be patient until I could meet her. I flew out to Phoenix last week for one last trip while I'm still independent to "help" Mindy with the other kids. I mostly just came up with things to do and dragged the kids along with me.

I also drilled Mindy on information to help me be a mommy. She came to help me register at Target and pointed out the pros and cons of things and gave me great insight on what I will need and what I won't.
Compared to 4 kids, having just one seems like a piece of cake. Especially with this little guy running nonstop. I feel bad this is the only picture I got of him, but I realize it is because he was literally, running nonstop:

My one request while I was there was to go to the Children's Museum. Makayla had school, but the rest of us had fun exploring.

Uncle Terry (my dad's brother) and Aunt Marilyn were unexpectedly in town for work, so they came to church with us and spent most of Sunday entertaining the kids. I made sugar cookies we all decorated after dinner!

We also enjoyed the warm (sometimes hot) Phoenix weather by going on walks, playing in the backyard, going to the park, and going on treasure hunts.

I did a lot of preparation for being a mom by holding Katherine. She was so sweet and cuddly. I loved when she was awake and just looking around at everything.

Bruzer likes her too...

I admit I was exhausted last night when I got home, but now that I've had an entire nights sleep, I miss these kids already. I can honestly say I'm MORE excited to have a baby soon.
Thanks for letting me come Mindy and Thomas!

Manitou Springs, More Snow, and a Bigger Belly

Tim and I had been wanting to go to "The Springs" (Colorado Springs) for a while. Yesterday was a nice day and we decided last minute to go check things out. We didn't have a lot of time, and I preferred we do something besides a hike, so we went to the cute town just west of Colorado Springs called Manitou Springs.

We walked around some cute and interesting shops then found a cool arcade with all kinds of games. Tim and I played some shooting and skee-ball then bought a total of one piece of bubble gum and one "Frootie" candy with our tickets. Tim did well stomping spiders (see below).

We learned why the city is called Manitou "Springs" when we found a few natural springs throughout our walk. We enjoyed tasting them.

We also drove through the "Garden of the Gods" (twice, due to one way roads and poor signage) and got a good view of Pikes Peak. I would have taken more pictures, but it was too dark. The Garden of the Gods is a park with beautiful red rocks and short hiking trails. We'll have to go back to spend more time there.

On the way out, we found a Rudy's BBQ gas station/restaurant and had dinner. Tim was super excited, because we only thought you could get Rudy's delicious brisket in Texas.

We had the day off on Monday for MLK, so we took our snow shoes back up into the mountains with some friends from work. Someone made this awesome igloo. Tim went inside and said it could fit 6 people!

The hike through the trees was nice, but once we got to the Lost Lake, it was snowing and windy.

Burr!

Heidi, Brooke, and Todd-Friends from work.

And last, but not least, a picture of my progression at 25 weeks. Our little boy is growing like crazy. I'm still feeling pretty good, but am starting to get a little uncomfortable-especially since he discovered my ribs. Official due date: April 28th.

A Perfect Day

Tim and I took advantage of my weekday off work and went Snow Shoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park.

I realized what this pregnancy is doing to me as I huffed and puffed the entire way-and mostly without even wearing the snow shoes.

I had to take my traditional yoga pose picture.

Calypso Cascades was our destination, but it wasn't much to look at covered in ice and snow (see below):

Once we went home, I made homemade pizza and we watched a cute Family channel movie on Netflix called Pizza My Heart (cheesy, but fun). It was a perfect day!

Partying like it's 1999

We held a New Years party with the theme: Party like it's 1999 (or around there). Basically, we wore clothes from high school.

Ben and Breanne (top right) pinned pictures of themselves in 1999. Emily and Benjamin (bottom left) made their shirts (Emily's says Bayside Tigers). We also played the game of Awkward Family Photos and rang in the new year!

Bring on 2012!

Start thinking in BLUE!

We are having a
BOY!

A Texas Christmas

We had a great time enjoying Christmas in Texas with Tim's family. Mackenzie stole the show the entire week, but I don't think anyone minded. Aubrey made these cute matching aprons so they could decorate cookies together, but Mackenzie ended up pouring the sprinkles everywhere EXCEPT on the cookies while Aubrey raced to catch them.

There was a LOT of cookie making going on all week.

This is the snack table as of Christmas morning:

We took a trip to the San Antonio Zoo one of the days

There were lots of neat animals

We held our first annual Jingle Jog (ok, it was a walk) complete with a speed walking only finish. Awards included highest number of Reindeer counted (there are a lot in Texas) and most Christmastly Dressed (Rod won that with his green leggings, red shorts, and Santa hat). I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed it as much as we did. Aubrey and Tim were the lead competitors, but Tim pulled off a big first place finish. I hope some of the other Larsen's took more pictures of this event.

Tim's family threw us a baby shower one night. There were lots of fun games, but the boys definitely had to do more than the girls.

Above: Boys had to chug juice from the bottle. Below: Race to put the protective gear on and change the baby's diaper.

We got lots of wonderful presents. Thanks guys!

On Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd), the Lotz family started a tradition a few years ago to get fun drinks and have a "wine" tasting party. We followed through with the Larsen's this year and all made our own drinks to taste. Most were pretty delicious.

We had a delicious dinner on Christmas Eve and stacked the (many) presents around the living room Christmas tree.

Christmas morning we woke up (very early) and looked at our stockings then ate this yummy breakfast Deanne made us before church.

Rod made this darling rocking horse for Mackenzie

We were surprised to find a mini-stocking with ours and a Babies R Us gift card

After church, we opened lots and lots of presents. I have to admit, my favorite gift was my new luggage set. Tim went WAY over budget, but I'm tired of hauling duffel bags around the airport and I hope to travel a little with kids in the future, so having rolley luggage will be so nice.

DeAnne made us this beautiful advent calendar. Each box has a magnet to make the nativity. So creative!

Tim got me a game I'll be able to play with the nieces and nephews called Disney Headbanz where you wear these Mickey ears and stick a card of a Disney character or thing and ask questions to find out who/what you are. It didn't stop us adults from playing a few rounds. It was fun!

I received many fun gifts and Tim got new scriptures, some clothes and games. I printed him this train picture from when we went to the train museum. He is making our extra bedroom/my office a "Colorado" theme.

He got me this nice dutch oven so I can make roast like my moms.

Although I hope to get more pictures from the week from other Larsen's to post, this gives you a glimpse of our fun Christmas. We hope everyone had a happy holiday!