Another year turns for Tessa and Max

Our Tessa Jo Jo Monkey Bird turned 4 years old in October. She is such a character. We love her so! We had a fun princess-themed birthday party. Seems repetitious to say about all of our kids, but its true, they're getting so big, so fast.

Maxwell Ivan turned 6 in October as well. He wanted a knight party. Instead of "pin the tail on the donkey", we did "rescue the princess"/"slay the dragon". The goal was to, instead of placing donkey tails, to use those little h'ordeuvres swords and place them on the poster, attempting to hit the dragon in a vital area. Unfortunately the princess got sliced a few times, but eventually was rescued!

Max is a really sweet kid, of course he has his days, but he is an awesome, independent kid. Love you Max!

All I want for Christmas is my...

This was not the face of a happy kid. Last year Ian woke up with a puffy face one Sunday morning. It turned out to be an abscessed front tooth. He had to have it pulled. We opted to have both front teeth removed for symmetry sake in the future. He tolerated the IV placement and conscious sedation as well as could be expected. We were very thankful for the fine Dentists (Brothers Adam Bushell and Eric Swenson) at Fort Irwin who took care of him.

Front teeth are gone!

Ian got the hang of the O2 mask.
He was even able to give a smile after all of this.
He was making sure that his lion had adequate O2.

more summer stuff

During primary a few months ago at Fort Irwin the Larson kids had the prayer, scripture, talk and song. It was fun to see all 4 of them in primary sitting up there in a row :)

With physical fitness on their minds the Girls dressed up in daddy's PT uniforms. Max displays his gun show and Tessa and Ian were having fun.

Max sports his cotton candy goatee. All the rage nowadays....

South Fork Canyon fun. Beautiful!

Anchor's Away!

We went and visited the USS Midway museum down in San Diego and had good time. We were blown away about how this "floating city" operated. The kids really liked it. We saw all kinds of aircraft and got to sit in a few cockpits. Here Kimbyl and Emma take their turn at the wheel. Thankfully the ship is essentially permanently anchored so no mischief was had.

The flight deck was very cool. Ian loved the Jets! So did Max.
The kids were getting a little rowdy and ended up in the brig. We just let them stew for a while.

Larson Family Night

We try to let the kids have turns giving the FHE lessons. They get pretty excited to do this. Emma always comes up with a great lesson plan and loves to use the dry-erase board. Here she is giving the lesson on speaking kindly. Very sweet.

Max and mommy doing "Who am I?" Dress-ups always get their attention.

Gowny Oatmeally Gravelly Work

Wow! She still can fit in her wedding dress! Kimbyl and Emma had a lot of fun watching Mommy try on her wedding dress. First time in 10 years? She still looks stunning as the day we wed :)

It took Ian a while to get the hang of eating oatmeal. Here is the "after" image from a semi-successful attempt. Notice the clump of oatmeal on the blinds.
Our back yard was 90% gravel which wasn't the most comfortable for us adults, but the kids never let it bother their pursuit of fun. They could run across that stuff barefooted and hardly flinch. Here's Emma, Tessa and Ian enjoying a shadowy corner of the yard with good ol' Frodo.
At least I got one photo of my work. The old MEWC!