A treat for the older boys!

So a package came in the mail today! It is a special gift for Robbie and Kamren from their Nana and Grandpa Larsen! Red California Singlets! They are going to be so excited! I can't wait for them to get home from school!


They came home and I sent them to their room for "not making their beds" and a few minutes later, they were both upstairs in their new singlets! They were so excited, and wore them for a bit. It was fun to see how much they loved their gifts! Great idea Nana and Grandpa! We hope they bring them some luck next month.


Two cute boys!

Showing the California on the side!

Cuties!

Robbie wrote this report for school. I thought he did a great job, also I remember this day. I remember sitting in class watching this happen. Then I remember in our year end program singing a song about it.


Robert Larsen
The Challenger

3…2…1…the Challenger takes off in Florida at 11:38a.m. The Challenger had been delayed many times, but not on January 28, 1986, despite the weather conditions. NASA managers did not listen to the warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching that came with the low temperatures of that morning and they failed to report these concerns to their bosses. The cold weather caused o-rings to crack, this was not known before the launch. NASA managers also knew that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs had a potentially fatal flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but they failed to deal with it correctly. Inside the three engines, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen mixed. If these two substances mix, they will explode.
Things seemed to be going perfect until black smoke suddenly came from the right SRB (solid rocket booster), it had failed at liftoff. Hot gasses came through the booster seals. Booster seals are also called o-rings. O-rings are made of rubber so the o-rings began to burn and wear away. The NASA officials did not notice the problem before takeoff. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, the Challenger broke apart as a result of the leak in one of the two solid rocket boosters that ignited the main fuel tank. The spacecraft exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:39a.m.
The explosion became one of the most significant events of the 1980’s. Billions of spectators, including school children all around the world watched live as the Challenger fell apart. The seven crew members did not survive the incident. The exact times of the deaths are unknown, several crew members are believed to have survived the initial breakup, but the shuttle had no escape system. They are believed to have been killed on impact with the oceans surface. The crew consisted of: Dick Scobee, the flight commander, the pilot, Michael J. Smith, three mission specialist; Ronald McNair, Judith Resnick and Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis was the Challengers payload specialist and Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project.


A Memorial to the Challengers crew stands in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Challenger had taken its last flight. It was a sad day for our nation.

Family Pictures

I probably should not post this, as you will most likely use this for a Christmas card, but here they are anyhow!
We had our family pictures taken in April. It was not as stressful as I had inticipated. I no longer have access to Thayne, as he and my sister are divorced. So this is the first time in a long time I have had to pay "real" photography prices. It was not fun!
We were happy with our final results and the boys did a great job. It is not something I like to do often, I used to get pictures taken all the time when worked at the Studio. I do miss having fun, creative and lasting pictures of the boys. It was always fun to do a quick little shoot with them. Those were the days!

Idaho State Wrestling Tournament

Last week we took Robbie and Kamren to Nampa, Idaho to wrestle. We left Abe and Dave with a sitter, which was nice, but stressful because I have never left them with out their older brothers. So, I was sick from Tues. til Sun. I did not get to enjoy the time as much as I would have liked! That is another story!
Robbie wanted to drop weight to wrestle in the 65 division, and he made it! He tried really hard to not eat any sugar and breads for a week and he did it. Kamren also lost weight, he likes to be like Robbie, but Kamren still wrestled in the 55 division.
Kamren started wrestling at 9am. He won his first match, and his second, then lost his third match...he was pinned! I think that was his first loss in freestlye this year! CRAZY! He then won the next match and took 2nd. It was fun to see him wrestle and all his hard work paid off. He was happy and that is what matters.
Robbie started wresling at 1pm. He has a bye the first round, which ended up hurting his score, but what do you do? He won his first match and his second match, then lost his third on in the second round...he was pinned! I think that was the first time he was pinned in freestyle this year. He won the rest of his matches and ended up placing 5th! He reached his goal of qualifing for regionals in June! He did a great job and we were so pleased with both boys. Oh, did I say that we finished wrestling at 5pm! What a day.

Easter!

What a crazy time we had! Eric's parents came up from Calf. on Friday! As you read before, Monday we finally finished the basement. so it was crazyness getting things put all back together! We went to dinner to Applebees, it is tradition do go there the night his parents get in. Saturday the boys wrestled in Pocatello, Eric went down early to weigh them in, I stayed home with the litte boys, and Eric's parents went down around 9:00am. Both boys took first place, it was fun to wrestle with their grandparents there.
I took Abe and Dave to an egg hunt at the local grocery store, as we had a huge storm, snow and all! YIKES!!! Snow on Easter is not unusual, but a storm like we had was not. That night Eric and his dad went to the Preisthood session, then we just chatted and got things ready for Easter!
I could not find the baskets, so the boys each made their own, it was a lot of fun and they each put a lot of work into it. It was fun. I did this Friday before the folks came in!
Easter was a blast, the boys were so excited. I don't think we have found all the eggs that the Easter bunny hid! It will be fun finding them all year long. The boys ate candy, played with their toys...I think the big winner was cars that grandpa got them that drive on the walls. they played with them all day! We ate waffles, strawberries and whip cream, then watched conference. It was wonderful. We then died Easter eggs, shot the bb guns and had a snack before we watched the second session of conference. It was great to be at home and be together all day. It was relaxing and wonderful.
We had a big ham, potatoes, jello, salad, I forgot to make the deviled eggs...fruit and rolls. It was a wonderful and peaceful day.
Monday Eric's dad left after playing Big Game Hunter with the boys on the x-box, flying robbies helicopter and playing with the cars. Dad was really enjoying himself and did not want to leave. It was fun seeing him bond with the boys.
LeeAnne stayed until Tues. afternoon. We had a great time. The boys loved haveing her here and were so glad to have a snow day on Tues., yes we woke up to about 8 inches of snow!
We are glad to be back to normal, we had pinewood derby last night and that went well. robbie took 3rd place. We had to turn his car backwards...it was dead last when he raced it forward. Crazy how weight placement makes a difference! Who knew?
Pictures of his car are on my facebook page.

Changes

Last November we started on a project...one that has lasted until last Monday! It has been fun, stressfull, happy, sad, sweat and tears. It is called our basement. For the past 6 months my home has been in utter limbo! We have been painting, moving things, getting rid of things and then just waiting for things to be done. We hired out th sheet rock and texture. I primed and painted, which was always a challenge with at least 3 little ones running around. Plus, I wanted something different so I had to figure out what that was. I made three panels on the wall and crackled them. IT was fun and nerve racking all at the same time. Then I wanted a book shelf with color stripes behind...stress! We hired out the trim work and the building of the book shelf, all of which I love! Carpet came last Monday and we started moving things downstairs and getting Easter decor out, a little late, but at least I got it out!
Now we are enjoying the extra room, we only have to get the doors cut down a bit and we are all done...until we tackle the bathroom. I can wait to have construction going on in the house again. It has been dusty, messy and I don't miss it! I am so happy with all of it and glad that it was not just in my head that it would all come together. I'll have to take some more pictures of it all done...this is just the long process! Thank heavens is it over!

New Year....new recipes...new hobby?

So I have a goal to learn or try new things in the kitchen. This past week or two I have been in love with trying recipes from Deceptively Delicious. A cook book my sister in law Tiffany sent me months ago.


I'll admit,I was afraid of the unknown and the new ideas she has in the cookbook! When Eric was gone in Jan. I watched Julie and Julia...not being the brave soul that Julie was I didn't think or want to do what she did. But in some odd place in my brain it looked fun and challenging! Something to make the days different. Maybe I need hobby!
Many of you know that I enjoy cooking and baking, there is something satisfying about seeing your finished product and better yet, having it devoured by your family! So, I have tried new things and my family to my amazement ate it all...Eric has been out of town, so it has been the prefect time to try something new.
So far we have made brownies with spinach and carrots, breakfast cake with squash (this is the only one we didn't love, I know what I need to do to make it great!), peanut butter with carrots, chocolate and cream cheese, sloppy joes with sweet potato and squash, peanut butter and jelly muffins with carrots, lemon ice cream sandwiches, chicken nuggets with broccoli, and in the oven right now is ginger bread with broccoli and carrots and it smells GREAT!!!

This soup I am going to try next week. It look so good.


Lemon Ice cream sandwiches....yummy!