We spent our day at the Pleasant Grove Discovery Park. We met our cousins there and had such a wonderful time. What a blessing to have family that are friends as well! There is something just magical about children playing, sliding, swinging and laughing. It makes life peaceful and filled with true joy. I am blessed beyond!
It’s been almost a 2 month break since I have last made a blog entry. We decided to home school again and I have been pouring my energy into setting up our daily routines, curricula and learning centers! I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!!! I couldn’t be happier! Here are some photos to update family and friends on the last 2 months of “Larson Life”!
Briggy Jr. is almost ready for nursery!
Every morning he joins dado at the piano or does a squatting-dancing-jig making us all laugh.
Thayne loves his new trike in any weather!
Mom and Briggy at Gateway Discovery Museum. We went there for Abby’s Birthday.
Here I am with my Visiting Teacher, Carolyn. Brig and I have been newly called as the Ward Bear Den Leaders!
Ben’s first batch of bread-he was so proud of himself!
We had to call poison control when Briggy Jr. got into dado’s shoe polish.
A homeschooling moment.
Abby diligently studying her music theory.
Ben shoveling Thayne.
Our snow shoveling buddies! They wanted to surprise dad with a clean driveway when he got home!
Buddy #4 warmly watching from inside and cheering them on.
The spaghetti photo for the grandparents.
Abby started dance in January. She is crazy about dancing!!!!!!!
Abby turned 5 in January. She now has her own e-mail and is about to launch her own blog. If you want to e-mail her… contact me and I’ll hook you up.
We finished reading Charlotte’s Web and started reading Alcatraz vs. the evil librarians.
For Valentine’s Day we made these mouse mail boxes and went to the Homeschooling Friends party.
Here’s Thayne with his Valentine’s Box.
Here’s my headshot for Mrs. Utah.
These are the wonderful 26 contestants. I’ve really been impressed by these women and enjoyed getting to know them.
Brigham playing football with Ben in the backyard between pruning our trees. That’s our new goat Sophie.
Ben, Dado, Sophie and the football.
This is our second goat-Annie. Yep, we milk her every night and the kids LOVE it! We’ll see how long that lasts! 
Sophie.
Our first ourside meal of 2009! We are so excited for Spring to help our yard come alive so we can play outside everyday! Looking forward to lots of playdates!
Now if you are still reading…. you must be either my mom, mother-in-law or one of my closest best friends. (or weird internet stalker… why else would you read such a LONG entry?) So if you are in one of the first three categories… leave me a comment and let me know how you are doing! Love Karmel
Happy Cousins ringing in the new year! Below, my brother Dave and his wife Amber joined us for the New Year.
We’ve been getting LOTS of snow here in Mapleton! Above is Ben’s MEGA icicle he broke off of our house. Below are some more icicles from the front of our house. Lots of snow shoveling exercise.
Abby and Thayne playing outside on the first big snow day this winter. Do you love those outfits? Yep… frugal me got those for free!
Here is Ben, Abby, Thayne and some neighborhood kids. Brigham sometimes hooks up this rope and board behind the riding lawn mover to take the kids for rides. Well, when he wasn’t available… they got together, hooked up the ropes around themselves and took turns giving each other a ride. What fun they had! And I had a blast watching them out the kitchen window. I thought for sure they would tire before everyone had a turn… but they proved me wrong!
Ben found the first flower in our yard and put it into Abby’s hair on the first day of Spring. It was a moment begging to be photographed!
Ben was also giving Thayne Scooter lessons that same Spring day…
The effort to clean up this mess was worth it! Ben had so much fun cutting paper and creating his “city”, superhero mask and flying side kick puppet. Oh the joy of children and their creative minds!
Abby went to her first harp lesson today. She is so excited to be learning her second instrument. It was such positive one on one time with her. Abby’s new harp teacher is Anamae Anderson. 
Abby turns 4 years old. We love you little sweetie.
We had a great family birthday party for Abby. Nana and Tama came to celebrate with us and brought Abby a baby bed for her baby. She is a perfect little mama who nurses her baby to sleep each night just like Mama Karmel. She’s been wearing her birthday crown and earrings every day since her birthday.
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Thanks to the Goddard family for inviting us to a Christmas Party with our home school friends. We did a craft decorating Christmas trees, heard a story and saw a puppet show about giving, put together 40 education kits for the humanitarian center, and had lots of fun playing and talking! Ben’s favorite part was “playing with Max Goddard”. Abby’s favorite part was “making my special trees”-she made 2. All 4 our our kids crashed in the car on the way home-a sign of true success. Merry Christmas
Ben got this volcano kit from Cool Aunt Amber back in July and we just now got around to making it and watching it erupt. It was good for several hours of entertainment! Thayne didn’t quite figure out that vinegar and baking soda don’t taste good and went back for several experimental licks-all with the same negative outcome. Ben had to experiment with squirting green food coloring in his mouth.
A few days ago we ventured to the Mapleton City Library. I was quite pleased with myself for taking “all 4″ children to the Library by myself. The trip was a success! We loaded up the stroller basket with books, then met dado at the park for lunch, went to group piano lessons and headed for the homestead. First thing upon entering the house, Ben loaded up all of the books next to himself on the couch and started reading. Within a minute or so, Abby curled up next to him and asked him to read to her. It was definitely a moment worthy of documentation.
Ben and Abby just performed at their Suzuki Piano Recital. Both of them now playing hands together. At our house… we call recitals “gigs”. Our kids want to be just like their Dado. They both played beautifully!
Ben created a basket rope system for getting “very important things” into his tree house. When I saw his creativity… I thought he needed something for the basket besides rocks and sticks. So I made the kids sack lunches for the tree house. Who would have known that such a simple thing could make three kids so excited and giggly and spend so much time together in their tree house munching on their goodies.
Grandma Diny taught Abby how to make these hats while she was here helping with Brig Jr. Abby made both hers and her doll’s.
Ben thought he had reached the climax of childhood jumping off the diving board at swim lessons this past summer!
This was last Saturday morning. Ben decided he wanted to read… and one by one the kids all joined him on the couch (ok, so I added in the little guy for the photo). It was a moment that I was grateful we didn’t have a TV, so that Saturday morning cartoons didn’t rob us of this great book buddies opportunity. We’re so lucky to have such great kids!
When I was taking photos of Ben, he much preferred his funny faces to my boring requests for nice smiles. Here they are…
Brigham Walter Larson Jr. was born September 26, 2007. He joined our family at 5:56 pm at Orem Community Hospital weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. and has been blessing our lives daily ever since! We had 4 days of jaundice lights to get him perfectly healthy. We are so greatful that was the only health problem. Grandma Diny came for 10 days to help us and entertain the kids while we got used to having 4 kids. Then Nana and Tama came for Conference Weekend to share more fun and help with the transition. Life is getting back to normal now and each day is more wonderful with 4!
If you are wondering what to call our new addition… so are we! He answers to any of the following: Brigham Jr., Brig Jr., Lil’ Briggy, baby, baby Brig, or Dado Jr. (that one invented by Thayne).
