What I'm Grateful For

The other day I was sitting in our family room.  I can't remember what I was doing, but I was probably avoiding some work that I needed to do and instead was enjoying a book or trying to get to the next level on Candy Crush.

The back door opened and in came Owen from school.  He yelled "Hi Mom!" before he even saw me.  Right after he said that, it kindof struck me as bizarre.  Why would he say hi if he hadn't even seen me?  Then I realized that he knew I was home.  He knows that I am always home when he gets back from school.  He doesn't need to see me to know that.

It was a small little validation to myself that I was doing something right.  I am grateful for many things in my life.  But today, I am grateful that I have been able to stay home with my kids.

Workin' in the Dark

Since this past spring we have been working on one side of our house. You know, the side of the house that no one sees that is full of weeds and anything else that gets tossed over there? Scott has been slowly, but surely building a new chicken coop. Although he still has the trim and some odds and ends to finish, it is functional and our ladies are enjoying their new home. We have even trained them to use a pet door, so we don't have to open and close the little chicken door morning and night.

Last week we decided that we would put some landscape fabric down, buy some rocks and finish the area. I had this grand idea to shovel rocks for FHE and then go out for ice cream after. That is all find and dandy except that it now gets dark at 5:30. We didn't even get out there until 6:30. But we didn't let a little darkness stop us. We put on our coats and hats, turned on the outdoor lights and shoveled away. We finished just in the nick of time. The cold weather is here to stay I'm afraid.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Although all my kiddos have been telling me what they want for Christmas for several months, this is my first written request so far.  I found this on my bed about a week ago.

 

This one I found on my bed about 15 minutes later.

 

Luckily, I never take any of these things seriously because they change their minds about weekly.

It's good to know that the stores aren't the only ones that like to start the season as early as possible

2nd Annual Larsen Halloween Dinner!

So Proud of my Owen!

Owen was up at 6:30 in the morning the day he was baptized.  He was very excited!  So proud of this good decision he made. 

Meet Skorpy

Because Chase had a compound fracture, the Canadian doctors had to go in and clean inside his arm before they could set the bones.   According to Chase's local orthopedic surgeon, they did a good job up there.  However, they really didn't think twice about how his scar was going to look.  When he had his cast taken off a few weeks ago, we finally got a good look at it.

It is a doozy.  And, to Chase's delight it looks like a bug.  He actually thinks it looks like a scorpion and started to affectionately call it Skorpy.  So the name has stuck.  And now when we ask how his arm is feeling we also ask how Skorpy is doing as well.  Pretty cool for a boy.

It took him about a week to start using it again and now, you wouldn't even know that he had broken his arm.

Behind the Scenes

Turning in all his schoolwork and homework. Yep

Keeping his socializing to a minimum at school. Yep

Coming home from school and doing his homework without complaint. Yep

Having a good attitude about what he needs to do.  Yep

So proud of this kid.