"I love to look for rainbows..."

July 4th was a VERY special day this year. Since Jacob turned 8 this year he was able to make the choice to be baptized. He was so excited for this day to come and it made it so much more special that we got to have SO many friends and family members there (not to mention the fireworks that followed) Something else special that I hadn't realized is that Jacob and I share our baptism dates. We were both baptized on the 4th of July! At least that's what my church records say :) pretty sweet!


We had tons of family in town for Jacob's special day, Heidi and her 6 kids were up from Phoenix as well as Mom of course, Mike and his family came up from Colorado Springs, Clint and his family came up from South Denver and Chris and Julie even drove all the way up from the army base in Colorado Springs just for the baptism and then had to drive right back afterward. It was so sweet to see so many family members sacrifice so much to be there for Jake. To thank them we threw a huge 4th of July Bar-B-Q so we could all be "fulled up" for the rest of the day's festivities. It's a good thing we've got a big lawn ;)

Jacob, Matthew, Sam and Zac

Hayley, Audrey, and Ashlie

Heidi and Mommy

Mom gave Jacob his very first official set of Scriptures with a letter she wrote to Jacob that had her testimony of the Restored Gospel and the love that our Father and Jesus have for him, they both had some tears in their eyes as she read it aloud to him. It was sweet to see how much Jacob truly appreciated and felt her testimony.

We hadn't been home from the baptism for much more than an hour I think before Jacob made a pretty bad choice and was feeling really bad about what he had done. The sweet part is that it gave us the chance to remind him what he had just done in getting baptized and that now he had the chance to repent and to be forgiven of what he had done wrong so together we said a prayer and Jacob with his sweet and tender heart cried pretty hard through the whole thing. You could feel how sincere his prayer was, how sorry he was and how badly he wanted to be forgiven. It had been raining pretty hard for a couple of hours and was raining when we began the prayer but as Jacob finished we turned around from his bed and saw the most beautiful rainbow either of us had ever seen it was a double rainbow that was so bright and vivid and reached all the way across the sky, and we were both reminded of the primary song we had sung just a couple of hours before that.

When I Am Baptized

I like to look for rainbows
whenever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of
an earth made clean again
I want my life to be as clean
as earth right after rain
I want to be the best I can
and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized
my sins are washed away
And I can be forgiven and
improve myself each day
I want my life to be as clean
as earth right after rain
I want to be the best I can
and live with God again.

I love you my sweet angel Jacob, you are such an amazing example to me and I know how much your Father in Heaven loves you and is so proud of all the wonderful decisions you make each day.

Of course we had to hit the Loveland fireworks show, all of the family had headed home by this time but as Mom went down to spend time with Mike that just meant that it was Heidi's turn to come and spent a week with us, I LOVE IT!!! I think this was the best year as far as our spot goes, we were able to see the rockets launch from the ground and explode almost right above us, it was so cool! These are our pictures of us waiting for them to start. The rain had made it a little chilly so we brought along some "queso" and lots of bug spray. I love you Heidi, I love it when you come and all of the sweet memories it leaves us.

Gail!!!

Just before coming up this summer Mom found out that an old family friend from California was living not too far south of me so we met up with Heidi and her family and Mike and his family at Gail's house for a visit (I used to thing that Crystal Gail was "our" Gail so when she would show up on Sesame Street and stuff I would run through the house telling everyone that Gail was on TV... it never occurred to me that they looked a little different) We LOVE Gail and it was so good to visit with her!!!

These pictures of Mom with Gail were just too cute so I put them all on there!

Look at how TINY Mom is! ... SO cute!!!

Mike, Gail, Me, and Heidi

Us Larsons

Jacob's 8th Birthday!

We had so much fun with Mom here. One of the things she wanted to do was go up the canyon and sit by the river. So up we went, there is a pretty sweet park about 20 minutes up the canyon from here so we packed a picnic and went to play.

The kids found this REDICULOUSLY huge lady bug... I love you Jacob, you are so Darn cute!!!


Even though Mom was pretty tired after our trip up the canyon that morning she insisted on taking Jacob to Chuck'e'Cheese's for his birthday. The kids had a blast, and we were able to sit and chat, you can't go wrong with that.

Sheesh what a long day, after we got home from the pizza place we had planned on lighting off some fireworks we had (another thing Mom wanted to do even though she was SO tired). So we curled up in our blankies and let the boys do all the work.

Tough guys :o)

The best Birthday EVER

So for my birthday Mom and I went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Red Rocks amphitheater in Denver.
This is one of those times that I mentioned that I just don't think I'm ready to blog about, but I will say that it along with the day I got married and the birth of my three children, it was one of the sweetest experiences of my life.

It's funny if you know why...

So Beautiful and so amazingly Green!!! the picture doesn't even do it justice

And then we found out that Pres. Monson was there... so amazing!

I'm so glad when Grandma comes....

Mom was able to come and visit again this summer, after finishing radiation and months and months of chemo she was a little more the worse for wear but the girls (and I) loved to just snuggle and watch movies and Little House on the Prarie...

Read books together....

and sit in the beautiful sunshine....

A day with the Sixes (like that's rare, ha ha ha ha)

One of the things I love most about living in Loveland is that we live only a couple of miles from a beautiful lake. Every summer they truck in extra sand so they can be sure that there is a big beautiful sandy beach for the kids to play on.

Ha ha ha... This is right after "Australia" came out on video... we thought the part where Hugh Jackman dumps the bucket of water on his head is funny (translation for me... "hot" ha ha) so here's Jacob pretending to be Hugh (not that he ever saw the movie but this picture is way more cute than the picture of Shannon trying to do it LOL)

Here's Shannon trying OH so hard to be Wolverine.... Oh good times lol

Sand castles, dams, bridges, waterways... all a must :)

Father's Day!!!

My Silly Girl!!! We were getting ready to make our Father's Day craft and Ashlie (still potty training) needed to go... so we had to bring her "toidie" out into the kitchen so she wouldn't miss anything, I love you Ash!

The kids... all ready to bestow their gifts on their daddy


"High Five!"

They each made their Daddy a wallet and a pint size rock model of themselves wearing t-shirts that say "My Dad'dy' Rocks!"

The kids helped me make Lawn Mower cupcakes... man they look good!

We love you so much Todd!!! You are the best Daddy in the whole world, and I love you every day for the amazing Dad you are!

Relay For Life

I did my second Relay for Life in June, the first since Mom was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, these are the luminarias we made for Mom with pictures and phrases sent from all of her kids and grandkids....
The kids came with Todd to support me and have fun at Relay, they always have fun things for the kids to do,
The Luminaria Ceremony, they play sappy cry music that makes you bawl your eyes out as they scroll the names of those who are being walked in honor of... or in memory of....

All of us with our cry faces right after the ceremony was over. I did okay until Mom's name came up on the screen, then everything that her name being up there meant hit me like a ton of bricks and knocked the wind right out of me. Thankfully you are never alone at Relay and I was instantly swept up and supported by amazing and loving friends. I love you guys!!!

"I CAN!!!!" - Steve comes! - and we hike!

"I Can!!!" ("I SAIL... ... I just let the boat do all the work") ... well kind of. The grocery store had raspberries and strawberries on sale DIRT cheap so Annette and I decided to be brave and try our hand at freezer jam. It was sooo easy and so very very tasty, we had fun!

At the beginning of the month my brother-in-law Steve rode up to Colorado (from Phoenix) with his brother Wayne on their motorcycles. I LOVE Wilson's and it was so much fun to see them pulling up on their "matching" bikes in their matching riding outfits, they let all the kids sit on the bikes (they were SO excited) we had a blast staying up that night talking and laughing and then kicked them out (ha ha jk) the next morning. You guys are welcome ANY time!!!!

We did some more hiking in June, we took this picture after we hiked around a lake just outside Rocky Mountain National Park. After we were done we decided to drive all the way across the park and got some ice cream in Grand Lake one of our most favorite small towns in Colorado. We even saw a Moose that day but I don't think we have any pictures... BUMMER