Lily's new cut!

Lily's new a-line hair cut! She did so good and held so still while she was getting it cut, I was so proud of her! She is definitely a girl...after we left the salon she said, "mommy I like it there, when can we go back?"
A side/back view.

Tractor rides!

Dylan and Joe. We have the greatest neighbors next door - they are so sweet to our kids! Any opportunity they get, they try to share anything they have to give our kids a new experience. Our kids call them "The grandma and grandpa next door." They recently just poured new gravel in their driveway and rented a tractor to even it out. They thought our kids would love the experience of learning to drive a tractor, and let them each take their turn learning to start it up and drive it up and down the drive way. Over and over again...
Lily and Joe. She was a little hesitant at first, but ended up loving it!
Seth loved to drive the tractor and now thinks he a pro...even to the point of trying to convince me that he's ready to drive the car already! Thanks Joe and Joan for the awesome tractor rides!

Little Tiger Cubs!

Jared and I decided to be adventurous, and signed up to teach the Tiger Cub Scouts for the month of September (The parents of the Tigers rotate teaching each month). The theme we picked is "Pirates." We had a lot of fun this months and working with these little kids was a blast! Through out the month we made our own pirate maps and even learned how to antique them with tea, we went on treasure hunts, played "cannon-ball tag," made our own pirate hats, and even learned how to sword fight on a plank in the lake up the Manti Canyon, plus lots of other fun things-but here are a few pictures of our fun!
This pictures is during one of our treasure hunts-they are supposed to be looking for trash to collect to clean up our environment to help them earn their "Leave No Trace" badge, but they are being side-tracked by Dylan, of course =) who is absolutely convinced that he saw big foot in the trees and must lead them now on a big hunt to find him.
This was at our last meeting of the month, here I am pictured with all the cute little Pirates! If you look closely you can see my sad attempt at a pirate ship cake, but nonetheless, they loved it at least! Thanks to all the little Tiger Cubs for all the fun!

Lily can fall asleep anywhere!

Happy #8 SETH!

Even Seth can't believe he's already 8 yrs. old! 
Remember when he was little? This is a picture of Seth at 6 months old...he was such a content and happy baby! 
I can't believe how much my little boy has grown up into such a little stud! This pictures is of us on his 1st. birthday! Time flies by way too fast! Seth is growing up to be such an awesome kid! He is such a great big brother and is so protective of Dylan and Lily...they love having him around to play with! He loves school, sports and his friends, and especially loves anything to do with animals...but Tigers are definitely his favorite! Someday he wants to grow up and save all the ones that are becoming extinct, and teach people how to protect them. He has been so much fun to raise and he brings so much happiness into our family...We have been so blessed and couldn't imagine our lives without him! 

Here's a few things about him you might not know: His favorite colors are: Green and Orange. He has a lot of favorite foods (too many to name), but absolutely hates tomatoes.  He loves school and so far this year is doing great! He has tons of friends, and is great at making new ones and helping the kids who are left out, be included. He loves sports, but Basketball and football are his favorite, oh, and UFC fighting :) He someday wants to explore Africa and India (where the Tigers are), and he loves watching animal planet and any re-runs on Steve Irwin. He loves all superheros-but his Daddy is his favorite!

Seth and Dylan getting ready to go to school on Seth's B-day!
Seth wanted strawberries and cream cheese Crepes for his b-day breakfast, so I surprised him and woke him up with his favorite! This b-day was kind of bitter-sweet for all of us...not only is Seth growing up and becoming such a big boy, (8th birthdays are a huge milestone!) but Jared has also been gone for a whole week up to Salt Lake City for work training. He got back the night of Seth's b-day, so he missed our big breakfast, but still made it home in time to have a little party with us! We're just glad he's home safe...we missed him so much! 
Seth actually got to have 3 birthday parties this year...sheesh, you would think he's spoiled! The first was just a little family one on the night of his birthday and also the night Jared got home. This is the second one, with a few of his friends. They're playing a game, and getting very messy in the process! The dirtier, the better...with boys, right?
Getting ready to eat cupcakes!!! Yeah!!!
During Seth's party with his friends I filled up a few water balloons and surprised Seth...well, I guess I kinda soaked him (like really good) ...So, I learned the hard way - you don't mess with an eight year old! Here I am, after he just dumped an an entire pitcher of water down my back...eewww, it was soooo cold, but I guess I kinda deserved it!  The other boys thought it was hilarious and were rolling on the ground laughing =)

Seth's 3rd Birthday Party!

Seth LOVES his new remote control car! Thanks Wendy and Dan!
Even Dylan and Lily got spoiled with super-cool presents from their awesome aunts and uncles at Seth's 3rd birthday party!
Aunt Wendy and Tara, Andy and Jared, Seth and Dylan, and Lily is dead asleep in the bottom left corner of the picture. You guys are so awesome, thanks for coming all the way down and making Seth's birthday so special for him, and for all the awesome gifts! Dan, we really missed you...maybe next time?
Thank you Grandpa Lance...Seth loves the new Plasma car! We've all had a lot of fun on it. You should see me and Lily riding it down Main Street...I think we've given our neighbors quite a show =) Thanks again...it's awesome!
Dylan driving his new remote control car. He must be a boy-I think he enjoys the power of driving just a little too much!

I did my best to make Seth's birthday cake into his favorite animal...a Tiger! Good things he's still young enough to not notice my very incompetent cake decorating skills.
Can I blow out the candles already? After 3 birthday parties, I think he actually got sick of blowing out all those candles...At least he gets triple the wishes!

Our 1st school field trip of the year!

A  l-o-n-g trip up to Timanogos Cave! What a hike!...3 miles-for our little adventures'!
The hike was awesome and sooo beautiful! The kids did great, even Lily (although Jared's HUGE muscles carried her most the way).
The "Heart" of the cave.
The hike up was beautiful and the kids loved touring the cave. It was 44 degrees inside, but the cool was nice after a long hot hike!
The kids were exhausted after, but it was tons of fun! What a great field trip!

Cub Scout Campout!

Every year we have a big overnight campout for all the cub scouts. Here's Dylan decorating a few nature frames with some fellow Tiger cubs. 
Seth and Lily going for a little ride.
Here's Seth and another Bear cub learning how to make ropes. This year's campout turned out really fun! It got extremely cold at night, but either way...camping is still a blast!

First Day of School!

I guess the boys are just trying to shake any nervous jitters before school starts! 

Back-to-School Sleepover!

You can't tell these cute kids are all Larson's, can you? In my efforts to get my kids super-pumped up for the new school season, we decided to have a few cousins over for a back-to-school sleepover the weekend before school stared! Here they all are, getting ready to eat dinner...Since the theme was all about school, I made mostly finger foods, but tried to go a little beyond just pb&j sandwiches.
To make it "school" themed, I made a pencil cake.
After dinner we settled down in the living room, and later made a huge tent to "camp" in. We made lots of goodies and had tons of fun! They picked out three different movies and asked if they could watch them all. I said "Sure," not thinking that any of them would make it past watching 1 or 2...well, let me tell you...I was wrong! At 1:30am all of them, (except for Emma) were still wide awake (even Lily!) waiting for me to start the last movie. By 2:00am they had all crashed, and I must have not cared how hard our floor was, because I fell right asleep next to them, only to be awaken at 5 am by our dog Max licking my face, along with being smothered by little arms and legs all crossed over each other and in some odd form and fashion we were all squished together. I think I was the only uncomfortable one, they all seemed super happy when they woke up...oh the joys of being a kid!
Lily and Sadie at 1:30am waiting for me to start the last movie =)
For breakfast we made chocolate-chip Mickey Mouse pancakes and hot chocolate with whip cream. Then they all played dress up....the girls wanted their hair and nails painted like princesses, while the boys played "cops and robbers." Thanks to my little nieces and nephews, we had a great back to school party and I think my kids are really excited for the school year to start!

So...who's the real Batman?

Seth and Dylan got invited to a costume birthday party and both wanted to go as Batman, so here are the costumes I came up with. Lily wasn't invited to the party, but "as always" wants to be just like her brothers. I even had a Batman costume for her to go with this mask, but by the time we took the picture she had already changed back into her clothes. So can you decided...who's the real Batman?

A Day of Fishing with Daddy!

Before school started, we wanted to make sure we took the kids on a fun fishing trip. We went up to Lake Yearns (up the Manti Canyon). We all had a lot of fun!
Dylan is pretending he is a "fish," and Lily is about to feed him some bait! Good thing I caught them before he actually went through with it. :) Knowing Dylan, he would have!
Lily is very proud of her first catch of the day!

Me and Dylan (Dylan's holding the fish I just caught, and says he loves the slimy feeling! Later, while rubbing his eye, he asked me if he took out his eye ball and held it in his hand, if I thought it would feel as slimy as fishies do?...where does he come up with this stuff??? I guess I'm glad he's soooo curious and always wants to learn about everything around him! =)
Well...Jared has become quite the fisherman! Over the last few years he's gotten really into fishing and has become quite the pro! We've had a lot of fun together taking fishing trips in the summer, and the kids love the thrill of the catch. For this trip, he insisted that we get up at 4am and make it to the lake by sunrise..."it's the best time to fish, you know!" Well, he was right and in the next few hours we caught 16 fish!!! The kids were very proud, but I think Jared was even happier!