These Are The Days

Here's Mara. She decided to pose for the picture. Oh, there is a lot going on inside that 6 year old head of hers. Mara is needing lots of hugs and kisses and I'm treasuring that she wants them and accepts them. (The new readers, Mara and Linnea McCrady, brought books out for their lawn party. Love it.)

This picture captures Sonna in true form. She's giggling at herself and entertaining the rest of us. Her direct quote right before I took this picture was, "I just tooted on the timer!". Hilarious child.

Svea isn't one to throw out smiles real frequently. She typically has a rewarding smile for her Mama, Daddy, and sisters but otherwise it seemed as though she might have been storing up her smiles . . . until now. My sister or my mom pointed out to me that she smiles with her eyes. And it's true. Even if her mouth isn't flashing a smile, her eyes often are. But now, at nearly 8 1/2 months, it seems as though her smiles come more freely. She's always been a super easy going, deliciously content baby, but it sure is fun to see her beautiful smile. Svea's latest trick (which includes full body smiles) is peek-a-boo. She even initiated it yesterday using her changing mat. So fun!

Blue Eyed Sisters

Notice Sonna's hands in this progression. All I can say, Svea, is that you will get your payback time when you get older should you choose!

A side story:

Mara told me that a 7 year old boy was bugging her and her friends on the bus. She said, "He kept saying 'Hi'." When Sonna heard this she suggested, "Just say 'Excuse me, please stop saying Hi'."

I also want to add (mostly so that I remember) that Sonna plays out scenes from her favorite movie "Beezus and Ramona". When you get older, Sonna, you should see how much of it you recall. As a new 4 year old, you like to assign roles (you are always Ramona), direct the scene including dialogue straight out of the movie, and your favorite scene to act out is when Ramona is on the monkey bars on the playground. That, and when Ramona packs up her suitcase. You do have a flare for the dramatic.

A Sunshiney Day!

If I haven't mentioned it already, it has been a long winter. So today's warm temperatures and sunshine were most welcomed! When Sonna got to school her preschool teacher said, "Sonna, welcome to our outdoor classroom!". Carol had moved easels, tables and chairs outside and prepared all sorts of activities for the kids to do outside. Carol later told me that Sonna chose to be inside for part of the morning. Hmmm?

Lilly came over after school as she usually does on Tuesdays and the girls had so much fun together. Svea enjoyed the sunny day too!

Svea is 7 Months

Happy 7th month birthday, Baby Svea! We love you and thank God for you. Thanks for your willingness to go to your big sister's swim lessons. Thanks for deciding to eat rice cereal. Thanks for happily getting in your car seat multiple times a day to pick up and drop off Sonna at preschool and pick up Mara after school and run errands with me. Thanks for sleeping well. Thanks for not minding that I only bathe you once a week. Thanks for smiling at your sisters so they know how much you love them too. Your relationship with your sisters is off to a great start!

Lilly comes over after school on Tuesdays and today we had a tea party using my Easter Egg shaped plates and tea cups. I had planned to have a baby shower for a neighbor this week but since the girls were exposed to RSV we couldn't have any babies here so it was postponed (no RSV so far!). So naturally, we had to enjoy the delicious chocolate cake! The girls chose Sleepy Time Tea to go with their cake. I remember drinking that at bedtime with my mom when I was little. A nice memory.

The girls made the little egg nests at Sunday School last week.

Happy St.Patrick's Day from 3 Little Leprechauns

The Letter K Show and Tell

Mara wanted to bring a person to show and tell. I remember that being the most exciting kind of show and tell to bring! I'm sure I brought Becca when she was a baby for show and tell. Well, last week we missed L for 'littlest Larson', and we missed S for 'sister' or 'Svea' or 'Sonna', so today Mara brought her 'Kid sisters' for the letter K. It was very sweet to see her so proud. She held Svea and even put her arm around Sonna. It was a lot of fun! Goodness, there are a lot of stuffed animals and dolls named 'Katie' (wink wink) in Mara's class!

More Valentine's Day Love!

Sweet Svea. Nearly 5 months old.

Svea and I had so much fun helping at Mara's school Valentine party. Look at that spread of sugary goodness! Mara wore a puffy sticker on her forehead that said "Be Mine".

Macie, Stetson, Trystan and Mara share a table this month. She has such a wonderful class.

The breakfast table. Lots of Valentine fun!

Our 3 Girls

I think this was taken Saturday morning while the girls were watching cartoons. It is so fun to see the relationships between the girls. Svea lights up when we pick up Mara from the bus after school and Mara delights in her. Sonna gets many smiles from Svea too but also a very specific cry when Sonna is hurting her or Svea is afraid she's about to. My mom even recognized this cry during her visit when Svea was first born! Yesterday Sonna scraped Svea's head with the edge of a piece of paper when I was looking at the snack sign up sheet at preschool. When I heard Svea's cry I turned around to see 5 scratch marks. It was as if Svea could handle the first 4 but it was the fifth one that put her over the edge. Poor baby! Other times, Sonna seems to be the one to get the biggest laughs out of Svea. They do love each other very much but sometimes Sonna doesn't know how to channel all that love for loving touches. It will come!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year from the Larson girls!

We ate ice cream sandwiches, popped popcorn, worked on a puzzle and watched a movie. The girls were in bed a little after 8PM and I heard the fireworks at midnight but I was too near sleep to crawl out of bed to enjoy them.

The scrapes on Mara's face are from her sledding wipe out. She is a tough kiddo!

We are looking forward to 2011. We trust there will be many blessings and some challenges too. We plan to enjoy the journey!

Sweet Sisters

This is my champion sleeper Svea. She can sleep through anything and typically sleeps in 8-10 hour stretches at night. I know, I know - it's dreamy! (And it could change . . . )

I put Svea down to sleep on our bed while I made an attempt to clean our bedroom. I left the room for a minute and when I came back the girls had crawled into bed with their baby sister.

This morning I took my first shower while leaving Svea with the girls. (Jedd was already at work). I know it was risky but lately Mara has done a really nice job with Svea, plus I was a little desperate for a shower. The girls were eating cereal and Svea was in her bouncy seat on the floor next to them. I took a quick shower and was on 'high alert' but still fairly confident that all would be well. When I came down the hall to check on Svea all I could see was a huge nighttime pull-ups box from Costco that the girls were taping shut. ARE YOU THINKING WHAT I'M THINKING? I rounded the corner and Svea was safe in her bouncy seat.

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Check out our Christmas tree. The ornaments were not where I thought they'd be and I have yet to go back down in the crawl space to find them. I actually enjoy the simplicity of the beautiful white lights, but after a few days the girls took matters into their own hands and decorated it with purple and pink crepe paper. Jedd calls it our Lenten Christmas tree.

Svea joined the decorating scene too.

It's the first day of Christmas break and the girls stayed in their pj's until 1:30 this afternoon. The day started with Mara wanting to clean their room but Sonna wasn't so interested so there was a fair amount of yelling. So we transitioned into a Curious George episode, a trip to the grocery store in their pj's (the powdered sugar expired in 2007!), and then frosted some cookies. Sonna literally could not help putting her fingers in her mouth so I gave up on reminding her not to. :) The girls added several drops of food coloring so we had some rather bright pinks, greens, and blues! Mara wanted to mix pink and yellow so we had a pretty orange color too.

They each did 10 cookies and then Mara suggested they get dressed and go outside to play. Great idea!

Christmas Cookies

Sonna is always on the move. She skips or hops or runs, rather than walks. And here she's multi-tasking. She's a phone talking, cookie baking, lip gloss wearing, Ballerina.

Mara, Sonna and I rolled out Grandma Anderson's sugar cookie recipe. It was a lot of fun once the girls stopped arguing over who's turn it was to do what. They used sprinkles (colored sugar) to decorate the first batch and the rest we left to frost tomorrow. I think spreading it out over two days works best with little ones, especially since it requires a fair amount of patience. We did bells, Christmas trees, stars, hearts, circles/Christmas balls, candles, and teddy bears.

I love this little outfit because it represents Svea's drawer of clothes. The leggings and leather booties are hand-me-downs from Mat and Stephanie's kids, the shirt is one of Aasta's, and the sweater dress is from Grandma Margaret. It has been so fun to have some different clothes for Svea. Mara and Sonna had so much pastel pink, light weight 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes because they were early May babies. I'm enjoying the non-pastel wintery clothes for Svea!

Christmas Carmel Making

Aunt Louie's carmels are a favorite treat! Mara cut the florist paper to wrap the carmels in, Sonna used her nifty new tape dispenser from Grandma Margaret to tape the ends, and Jedd had patience. :)

Delicious!

Svea chillin' in a sweater vest being entertained by sister Mara.

Captured Smiles

This week I turned 35 years old, Mara turned 5 1/2, Sonna turned 3 1/2, and Svea turned 7 weeks old. Svea is generous with her smiles; she even smiles at her sometimes tormenting sister Sonna. Svea seems to be very content in this world. She's such a sweetheart.

Preparing for Baby

This picture was taken two days before Svea was born. The girls love to help Jedd. Jedd didn't want to put the crib up until Svea arrived - he was worried about the girls jumping in the crib and breaking it - but even he got impatient and figured maybe the baby wouldn't come until the crib was up.

Some quotes from the week:

Mara: "Mom, you're kinda bad with toast." (After I burned her toast)

Sonna: "I'm gonna trace my hand."

Mom: "Do you want me to do it for you?"

Sonna: "No thanks. I've got two."