Its NoT OvEr YeT!!

So I thought I would just check in....We have had such a crazy holiday!! I was so lucky this year to have my whole family with me for Christmas. First my sister and her husband are moving in to my neighborhood only 2 homes down from me...but there has been a few problems with the loan so they had to move into my basement for about a week until their home has closed. Then we had my parents staying in our office and my Grandpa staying in the nursery with Tatum in our room. Oh and my little sister totally got the shaft and had to sleep in the basement on the bean bags. So as you can see we had a full house! It was a lot of fun though...waking up on Christmas morning with everyone together.

So after a crazy but fun Christmas day we decided to battle the crowds and headed for Tai Pan. Two hours later and spending way too much money, we rushed home just in time to head for the airport to send my Grandpa back home to Cali. Since we were already in Salt Lake, we decided to go to Temple Square and watch the Joseph Smith movie (which I really recommend if you haven't already seen). We then went to the Lion house and had dinner and walked around to look at all the lights. This is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time.

The next day we woke up and went up to Logan to visit my other Grandparents. We drove up there and had lunch with them and visited for a little bit and then drove back home. It was a short trip, but nice to see them. So this now brings us to today. Eric had a few things to do at work, my parents went looking for some land to buy, and I am home stressing out trying to get ready for our next adventure...CAliForNia!! We are driving down with my family today and spending a whole week in the sun by the beach.

We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and will see you in a week!!!

LaRseN PaRtY!

Last night we had our annual Larsen Christmas party which was held at uncle Steve's barn in Alpine. It was a lot of fun...we enjoyed some yummy soup bowls with brownies and ice cream for dessert (my favorite), while the kids played some fun games that included a "SnOwBaLL FiGhT" out of cotton balls. Then we did a gift exchange...Aunt Julie had us and got us a pillow case and an apron with a picture of Tatum on it. Tatum loved the gift and just sat there laughing at the pictures of himself! We then finished the night off with a live nativity that was very entertaining. Below are some pictures from the night along with some pictures of cute baby JaMeSoN, who joined the family a little over a week ago!

Oh Christmas Tree...

After much deliberation, we have finally gotten our TrEe! This year we were unsure whether we should get a fake tree or a real tree. Eric's family has a fake tree and my family has a real tree. Well we looked around at some fake ones and didn't really find one that we liked, so we decided to go with the real thing...and here it is....







I love the Christmas season so much and it is probably my favorite time of year. Eric and I love to drive around at night and look at ChRiStmAs LiGhtS, its just so magical with all of the snow everywhere. But another thing I love is to decorate my home with all sorts of Christmas decor. Because of this, I tend to go a little overboard with the decorations and GifTs. I just cant resist going to all of those cute decorating stores and buying something. Well here are just a few things that I have done around the house to help us get into the sPirIt of the season...Tatum even has his own nativity!

Congrats Eric!

When our neighbors Jake and Stacy moved out a few months ago it was a bitter sweet moment. We were so sad because one of our closet friends were moving, but excited because it meant there was an opening on the planning committee. Well for months Eric was trying to get Jake's old position, when finally all his hard work payed off. Eric is now the newest member of the planning department in Saratoga Springs!! He was so excited and has so far loved to be apart of this team. Well tonight the City of Saratoga Springs held its Christmas Party. They had it at the new Noah's building in Lindon. This building is so neat! They have a ton of separate rooms used anywhere from receptions to racquetball. On the roof of the building they even had free ice skating! It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed catering from Tucanos while they gave out awards to all the firemen and police of Saratoga Springs, we even met the mayor! We had to take Tatum with us because we couldn't find a babysitter, but he seemed to have a great time.

Here are some pictures of us enjoying the night. Now the ice skating rink looks a lot smaller than it really was. It wrapped around the roof and had a ton of twinkle lights around, it was really neat!