Back blogging yet again

To rewind a little bit...Mason's birthday party ended up being a lot of fun. We called it Jedi Training Camp. We made each boy a padowan and played different games to train them to be Jedi knights. For lunch we had gallactic pizza and yoda soda (lime sherbet with sprite). Scott and I worked together to create an R2D2 cake. Later on Darth Vader even made an appearance, and the boys got to put their new skills to the test. Interestingly enough, their favorite thing to do was play freeze-dance to the Star Wars songs. Who would have thought?



I got to take a little vacation to Southern California all by myself for my little brother's second wedding fiesta. The weather was incredible, and it was so nice not to have any responsibilities! All of my siblings that were able come also came spouse-less and child-less. We enjoyed going to the beach, visiting Balboa Park, staying up late playing games and laughing so hard we were crying! Scott and the boys survived quite well without me and even got to go out to eat more times than I did!


We got dog #2 two weeks ago. His name is Kaiser, and he's a lab/husky mix. He's a big dog (80 lbs.) with a lot of fur to shed, but he's so wellbehaved and loving. He doesn't even flinch when Tate pokes him in the nose, pulls his tail or uses him as a stepstool to get onto the couch. We had been talking about getting an older dog after the puppy disaster, but it shot up on the priority list after someone tried to break into the house in the middle of the night. I was alone with the boys and felt very freaked out and vulnerable afterwards. Luckily we have an alarm that went off and scared them away. I was sickened by all of the footprints all over our yard and around our house and garage. Thank goodness it has since snowed and covered them all up. Kaiser is so friendly, I don't know how good of a guard dog he'll be, but hopefully we won't ever have to find out.

Thanksgiving was wonderful with good friends. Scott stood up to the task of butchering our last turkey for it. It ended up being a pretty good-sized bird. Tate mostly just enjoyed the chocolate. That's my boy!


We took the boys and dog out today in search of our 2010 Christmas tree (a Larsen family tradition) and to cut some more firewood. It was nice to get out and enjoy the new snow and sun. We've actually had really dangerous conditions this week with two days of freezing rain. Mason's school was cancelled all week! I now understand why Alaskans complain when the weather warms up too much. (One town actually hit 50 degrees!) I would take freezing temperatures over the crazy weather we've had this week anytime.