tOoTh, hAiR, iCe,

Today CARLY came home from school with one lEsS tooth!

Carly and Lindsey got their haircut today. Both excited to have Shelly Millyard cut their hair. She always does such a gOoD job.
sHoRtEr in the back than the front.

Lindsey got "3" inches cUt off!
A little sHoRtEr in the back too!

I am jealous I need my haircut sO bad.

Getting my haircut is literally oNe of my favorite things to do.

Shaved ice...what we dId for FHE tonight!

Lindsey and I both lOvE pina colada shaved ice!

Yum yum, now let's get hOmE and watch the Olympics!

Lindsey's FIRST fireside

Is it possible, Lindsey is old enough to go to YOUTH firesides?

Tonight our stake had a Youth Recognitions fireside for all youth 12-18 and their parents.

I love it when Erik and I get to be together with our children one on one. It was fun to be with Lindsey and share with her this spiritual night. The speakers were great. The youth conducted the whole mtg. including the music. I love when the youth has this opportunity to develop these leadership skills.

It was also fun afterwards to mingle and meet Lindsey's friends from school. She is such a good girl and is excited about being a teenager and getting to be able to go to youth activities.

Thanks to Uncle Logan and Oma for coming over and hanging out with Conner, Cole, and Carly. Bedtime was 8pm, when we walked in the door at 8:50 Conner was still awake

( Oma & Uncle Logan are softies!). The Olympics were on and they were enjoying them.

It's OFFICIAL Lindsey made it...

Lindsey made the 7th grade volleyball team at her school.

60 girls tried out and the coach only kept 12!

We are so proud of her.

Way to go Lindsey!!

When we got the call she made it Erik hurried and made chocolate chip cookie dough.

This is one of her favorite treats.

Her friend Jasmine made it too! Her mom bought a cake and ice cream and had us over tonight to CELEBRATE! (YUM YUM)

Trying to keep our eyes open...

After Grandpa Larsen's 90th party several of us got together for a LADIES night! We wanted to visit and catch up on life. We are so blessed to have such a close relationships with our cousins.

Lisa Steverson, Me, and Sharleen Russell
Ciminy Alder and Aunt Linda (what a trooper, she was so tired)!
Marlo Alder & Jodi Alder (we went to Jodi's house - we were all excited to see it)
Kaylene Barrus (down from Idaho) and Kristie Memmott (here from Utah) lots of fun stories.
Michelle Taylor (here from Utah) we are the same age! I love being apart of her life now that we are both doing blogs, I check hers daily. She is SO talented.

What a fun night! We were all so tired! Several of us were DOWNING caffeine drinks to stay awake. I loved this time together. I wish we could get together more often. An annual COUSIN'S reunion would be a blast! What GREAT woman to be surrounded by.

Grandpa Larsen's "90" birthday party!

Saturday, August 2 Grandpa Justin Charles Larsen turned "90"! Of course a BIG party was thrown with lots of people in attendance.

Lot's of candles were on the cake - his great grandchildren helped him blow them out! Not only was there cake, but lots of yummy food!

Uncle Mike (Grandpa's youngest son) with two of his friends.
Cassandra, her little girl, Jen, and her little girl (they all belong to Uncle Terry)
Aunt Joyce (Grandpa's 2nd daughter) and Logan
Papa Ron Larsen (Grandpa's oldest son) and amazing DAD!
Lisa Steverson & Jodi Alder posing for the camera every time I came near them.
Lance Larsen, Case (his son), Zak Larsen, and Logan Larsen
Larissa Lopez & Heather Larsen (Lance's wife)

Charlie & Lana Howard (Mike's daughter)
Rick & Cassandra Larsen (Terry's oldest son)
Sharleen Russell, JJ Alder, and Steven's baby boy (they all belong to Joyce Alder)
Ciminy & Steven Alder (Joyce's #2 son) having lots of fun!
Marlo Alder with daughter Cashlee (JJ's wife - Joyce's daughter-in-law)

Heather, Lance, Case, & Crew Larsen (Ron's #5 child)
Lindsey my date for the night - she was a great help!
Carly and Whitney Steverson enjoying their dinner!
Ramie Lopez, Lisa Steverson and her daughter Brynn.
Larissa Lopez, Zak Larsen, and Aunt Joyce Alder

We all wrote a letter to Grandpa attaching pictures of us and put it in this book. It is amazing...a tear jerker if I must say!
What a handsome man...in great health and quite active for a man his age.
Jase Steverson (Lisa's little boy) and Oma Roxann Larsen (Ron's wife)
Logan Larsen (Ron's youngest child) what a stud!

I kept taking pictures of him, he was getting so mad!

Amazing women and role models to me!

Michelle Taylor & Kaylene Barrus (Linda's daughters), me & Kylee (Larissa Lopez's daughter) and Jodi Alder (Joyce's oldest daughter)

Ramie Lopez (Ron's grand-daughter) and Brynn Steverson (Ron's grand-daughter)

the best of friends!
Kassi, Jordan, & Mikel Jensen (Mike's youngest daughter)
Ramie Lopez, Brynn & Ryan Steverson (they all belong to Ron)
The MAN of the night! Eating before all his guest arrive!

Our family showed up at 4pm to swim.
Carly having a GREAT time on the slide!
Lindsey and Case Larsen (Lance's little one)
Ron and Lance hanging by the pool!

What a fun night! All of Grandpa's kids were there, all but 2 great-grandkids, and lots of his great great grandkids. Tons of his friends and extended family came to celebrate with him.

Thanks to all who planned and made it all happen.

Aunt Joyce made an amazing quilt (sad I didn't get a picture of it), she is SO talented.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA, I love you!

a Thursday swim....

It was my turn to watch Lisa's kiddos while she worked with mom. So, Larissa and I decided to take the kids to the POOL. We were having a great time until POOP was found and we had to get out of the pool. That was okay because we took and SNACK break.
While in the pool Cole feel asleep in my arms. We had been at the pool since 9am and it was about 11am I guess when you wake up at 5am by 11am you are ready for a nap. He was OUT!
I changed his clothes and everything and no WAKING up! He was tired.

Fun times...

A fun time with COUSINS!

Friday, August 1 Lana Howard, Zak Larsen, and Kassi Jensen came over with their kiddos to eat pizza and hang out. Lana and Kassi came in town for Grandpa Larsen's 90th birthday party. So we were able to hang out and catch up on life.
Lana has 2 boys, Roper & Rowdy, Zak has 2 girls, Kaylee & Kylee, and Kassi has her first little girl, Makell .
These cousins are so amazing to me. They have had a hard life and have all turned out to be AMAZING people. I love being around them and am so PROUD of their accomplishments.

After we ate pizza and hung for awhile we went over to Zak's house. He just built a new home and oh how beautiful it is. Zak, Lana, Charlie (Lana's husband who just got in town tonight), and I played cards. What a fun time! I love my COUSINS!