Hello?

Well, I'm back. I can't believe I have slacked SO long. So I have set my blog as my home page on the laptop so when I get on I see it right away as a reminder. Life has been good over all. Marc closed up his company after being offered a job at a company that was his paver supplier. It has been a blessing for our family. It means a pay check steadly for us. AND insurance. We haven't had that for 11 years! On the downside, I no longer have the luxury of having Marc at my finger tips. He does travel from time to time but not for very long. He started his job at the beginning of 2012. This year has gone FAST! Taylor is now in (gulp) 9th grade! When did this happen, you ask? That's what I want to know! This last summer, she has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Boys are texting her, they came over all summer to hang out. Thankfully she is such a sweet and humble girl that she had no clue how pretty she really is! And, she has also made the Freshman basketball team this year. She has been a dream child. From the day she was born. Bryce is in 5th grade this year. He is as sweet as ever. We have figured this year that he has a gluten intolerance so that has been an adjustment for him. Well, for all of us. I eat gluten free with him, except for my sprouted wheat toast I eat in the morning. Marc will soon be on the wagon.... like it or not. We found out his real dad had Celiac. Now learning the history of that side of his family, Marc realizes he has had tummy issues for awhile. Just mild, but it makes sense now. So, eventually he is going to have to come out of denial and change up his eating. He is fighting it all the way right now! LOL As for me, nothing really new. Still hitting the gym. Still hating cardio, although I ran stairs all summer and liked those. I loved summer and having the kids home with me. Fall was a bummer when it was time for them to go back to school. But Christmas break is just around the corner so I am counting the days. We are enjoying going into the Christmas season and spending as much time as we can together as a family. I love this time of year so much. The excitement in the air. The Christmas music and the cold (and hopefully SNOW) weather..... I wish Thanksgiving was two weeks earlier to stretch this time of year out........

Happy Valentine's Day! And other such nonsense.

Happy Valentine's Day! This is my least favorite holiday. Not because I am not a sentimental person, or mushy. I am. And I am married to the most amazing man EVER!!!! And what makes him so amazing? Well.... life with Marc is almost like Valentine's Day everyday. And I hate that people focus so much on JUST one single day. I have been married to Marc for almost 10 1/2 years and from day one he has treated me like a queen. And has loved and supported our little family always. First off... when I met him my daughter was only 3. He immediatly loved her as his own. She had asked if she could call him Dad about a month after we were married. When she was 5 Marc adopted her and she is a very lucky little girl. Not only does she has Marc as her dad, but she also has Corey (my ex) in her life as well. Corey and I weren't a good match as a married couple, but I am thankful he is still my friend. And I am thankful he married a woman that I consider to be such a good friend. Family, infact. I love her kids and I am so thankful how this situation has worked out. WOW! Three thankfuls right there in a row! Anyway..... My life gets better and better each day. And I am GREATFUL for my amazing husband who makes EVERYDAY Valentine's Day for this entire family!!! I love you Marc Curtis Larsen. Thank you for coming over and knocking on my door and taking a chance on a single mom living accross the street. Thank you for being MY valentine!!!!!! xoxo

A new year

Well.... here I am. I am alive and we are all well. Life in Utah is still fun. Life is fun. I have been blessed with such an amazing family and the days don't seem long enough to soak everyone in. Taylor will be turning 14 next week. 14!!!!! I swear just a blink ago she was 3. It seems the older she gets, the faster time flies. She is such a beautiful young woman. She is still playing basketball and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to her games. I am so proud of her. Next year she will be in 9th grade...yikes! So I am soaking up every second I can get with her. Her and I went home to Michigan this summer to visit my parents and it was so fun to do a girls trip with her. I think it's something her and I need to do every year. I love her with all my heart.
Bryce is 9 1/2 and keeps me on my toes daily. He has become such a fun and LOVING boy. He loves me like no other. When we go anywhere he wants to always open my car door for me than will ask "Are you all the way in sweetheart?" He is the first to run to me to kiss me and loves date night.... I love the joy that he brings to our family. And the laughter!
Marc has started a new job. He is now a sales rep for the company who he used to purchase his pavers from. The job sort of dropped in his lap. I know he will do a great job. People are drawn to him and know he is a good guy. He has been blessed with a certain way with others. And the timing of all was perfect. We knew it was meant to be. The Lord is always looking out for us.
Well, that's about it for the recap. I have sopme pic's to download and I will post a few recent ones. Love to all... And my goal is to stay current on this blog! :)

Qiuck re~cap

Well alot has gone on.... We got a new puppy named Ally. She looks alot like Roxy. Very sweet puppy. Helped to ease the sadness of losing Roxy. Taylor turned 13 this past January. I have an official teenager. She is such an amazing daughter. It is fun to watch her becoming a young woman. VERY bitter sweet. Bryce is well..... Bryce. He brings much joy to this family. ALWAYS keeps us laughing. He will be moving up in Scouts next month. He LOVES Scouts and works really hard. Marc was blessed to have work thru this winter (usually everything shuts down) and now that Spring is here, work is starting to line up. We are hoping for a good year. I am still doing the mom thing and enjoying every moment of it. School will be out in about a month and a half so I am counting down the days!!!! I love having the kids home and the laziness of summer and no schedule! It is Spring break this week and we head out to Vegas for a few days.... where it will be upper 80's. This year Taylor gets to bring her best friend Tralee. We are excited to have her.... She is such a sweet girl.....

I am still alive..... new post and pic's to follow in the next few days.

A sad, sad day....

Today is a very sad day in the Larsen home. Our beloved dog Roxy died. She was a Boxer and was only 3 1/2 years old. She had surgery today and never woke up. The vet thought she had a blockage in her intestines. But when they got in there there was nothing blocking. They found a major infection in her tummy. About 8 months ago she was sick and we took her in and they put her on antibiotics and she was good to go. Then a little over a month ago she had the same symptoms. So we took her back in and did the antibiotics again. She felt better but never back to normanl. Then on Christmas Eve she was bad. Wouldn't eat, move or anything. Rapid breathing and fever. So we took her in and they kept her on fluids and steroids and did surgery today... The vet said usually when they see an infection like that it's from trauma. But she hasn't had anything happen to her at all. So since that is the case, it could have been a genetic thing. Whatever it is, she will be missed beyond words. We took her home to live with us when she was just 6 weeks old. But we saw her everyday from the day she was born because she was a puppy of one of our friends (and neighbor)so we would go and visit her every single day. She was such a good dog. Bryce and her had a special relationship from the beginning. For awhile he would be the bigger of the two, but then when she was grown they would wrestle and play soccer and sleep together. There will never be another Roxy for sure. We have all been a non~stop bucket of tears today. It is a very, very sad day indeed. I will always love you Roxy.

Fitness photos.....

Ok.... after reading my dearest friends blog (which I check daily and can't wait to read updated posts) I have decided to try to post every 1 or 2 days. Something. For some reason I always thought I could only update when I had pic's to post. WHERE this idea came from I have NO clue! Daily my kids say and do funny things and I need to be more diligent at putting them on here. Especially for my parents to see who are so far away. So that is my new goal. And I also need to post my fitness pic's for my parents, so sorry mom and dad for taking so long.... Love you!

Well let's see. I FINALLY posted some pic's of Bryce on his first day of 3rd grade. He has another really good teacher named Ms. Udy. We have really been lucky with the teachers Bryce as had. He can be a handful at times and we have been blessed with ones who instinctivly know how to handle him. And that results in him loving school. Complete opposite of his sister! Ha ha. Taylor is actually loving Jr. High. We hadparent teacher conferences and she has 7 A's and 1 B. (she has A and B days. 4 classes on A day and 4 different classes on B day) All of her teachers say what a sweet girl she is and they all seemed to really like her. COMPLETELY different from ME!!! I had horrible grades, and was there for social reasons ONLY!!! Hee hee She is on the 7th grade basketball team and is coached by the girls high school bball coach. So they will play together and in high school they will be ready to go. Her P.E. teacher calls the girls on the team "The Chosen Ones". The girls get a kick out of that. She is playing with the same girls she played with last year. They are such an amazing group of girls. I went on the 7th grade science trip to the State Fair (I road the bus and everything) and I got to hang out with Tay and 3 girls from the team and WE HAD FUN!!!!! They are definatly girls you want around your own children.
Marc is in Denver this weekend with one of his brothers for a fun get away. I am proud of him for going. He never goes out unless with me. They will be going to a Rockies game (I miss those) and I think a Bronco's game. So we have been hangin without him. :-( Today I went to a Michigan (Livonia Ward) reunion and it was so fun.... I love seeing people years later and catching up. It's funny that the older I get the more sentimenal I become. I saw Sister Balls today and wanted to hug her FOREVER!!! The Stringhams were there. Kristi Freeman, Alison kolojasniak (she is remarried now) one of her daughters, Amy Snow (CUTE as ever!!) Darren Balls.... it went by to fast!
So now we are back in the swing of school schedules, Bball practice (3 times a week), Scouts (Bryce loves that) and just enjoying our life. I am very blessed.....

Tay and I at the Zoo
Bryce at the Zoo..
First day of 3rd grade.
Bryce home from school...
Bryce (8)

Jr. High....... (sigh)

Today my world changed a little. More than I would like it to actually. My baby (shhhhh.....don't tell Bryce because HE thinks he's my baby)has entered the world of Jr. High. My first born. My beautiful 12 year old who fights me about make~up (I want her to wear mascara), who has the best boys in our ward wanting to hang out with her, who made the 7th grade basketball team (her new gym teacher asked if she was one of the "chosen 12" and I had to keep from bursting when I said "yes!")and who now wears a shoe size bigger than mine. She has begun a new journey. It will be a fun and exciting one. Also mixed in will be tears and heartache. I PRAY she has good friends and the not so good ones from last year will go a different way. She has ALWAYS been such a good girl her entire life. I don't think she has ever even been grounded. NOW.... let me say she is a COMPLETE opposite of me!!!!!!!!!!! By 12 I was a BRAT!!!! I LOVED boys, make~up (fighting with MY mom to LET me wear it.. haha)and was ALWAYS getting grounded. So HOW did I get such a great kid? Well either the Lord REALLY loves me alot.... OR I am in for it with Bryce!! Ha ha So today as I watched her walk up the street (we live about a block away from the Jr. High)I was filled with joy and love and a bit of saddness for me. Time is slipping away and my children are becoming young adults WAY too fast. Then I think.... WHEN did I get to be alost 42????? And I remember when I was her age 42 was SOOOOOOOOO OLD!!!!! Lol (Sorry mom and dad). So I am going to sit back and enjoy this new ride with her. Let her know I am ALWAYS here and love her little guts out!!!!!

My baby is growing up too fast!
She is a bit nervous...

There goes my baby......

Manti Temle
Driving down south in Utah....
I LOVE fluffy clouds!
Bryce fell asleep...
Another cute one of my niece..

We had a great time camping at Cherry Hills. Swimming, Putt Putt, good food and family..... S'up hottie....
Grandma cooking breakfast...
Bryce
Sweet Kari Ann

Catch up again.... random pic's

Marc and Grandpa camping..
Bryce and Kari Ann camping....
Doing stickers
The fort made by Taylor and Bryce from boxes and duct tape....
Bryce ready to sleep out front

So pretty.... The Great Salt Lake....

Sunday Drive

We took our Sunday drive today out thru Eagle Mountain to Tooele (too-will-a)stopping at Saltair on The Great Salt Lake..... the water was warm and STINKY!!!!! It was funny to walk out to the water. The ground had so much salt on it, it was crunchy when we walked. It sounded like broken glass. I love our Sunday drives. I look forward all week to them! And we never know where we will end up. That's the part I like!
Last night we went and watched fireworks outside the BYU stadium. Carrie Underwood performed and we could hear her from time to time. I LOVE her. But not enough to sit for hours in that stadium. I did it years ago when Tay was a baby and it was the LONGEST time EVER!!!!! So I am more than happy to just watch the fireworks at the end of Stadium of Fire. The kids love going. Last night they kicked the soccer ball around and Taylor and Marc threw the football. I love to sit and people watch. It is a tradition we do every year. And I love July because the 24th is Pioneer Day and we always head to SLC and watch the parade. We go to the same spot every year.
I can't believe we are already into July. June flew by! Bryce did a great job at reading camp. He LOVED Scout Camp. Taylor went to girls camp (first year) and had so much fun. We missed her but knew she would have an amazing time.... and she did.
Other than that we are still plugging along with day to day summer stuff. I am still hitting the gym Mon. thru Fri. Tay babysits her brother and makes a little extra cash in the mornings. We bought a summer pass to the rec pool and have gone a few times. That is always fun. We are going camping in a few weeks with some of our in~laws and we can't wait. I am still trying to make it back home to Michigan with Taylor before she starts school... Looks like Aug. will be the month. I am teaching the 12 year olds Sunday School and absolutly adore my kids! Marc is in young mens and the boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!!! He is also staying busy with work. And again, with so many out of work we are truely greatful and feel so blessed. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are!!!!