Happy #13 Superkid!

Oh how I love this face and the 13 years I've had to adore it.

He we all love to celebrate around here!

Especially when it involves clobbering the birthday boy with his own gifts!

13 Ways we love you:

1. You are finally earning your keep! You are a great babysitter for your siblings while Pops and I catch a date.
2. You are a fabulous artist! We love your sketches of boats and gangs of thugs.
3. Your brain is a sponge. You soak in more information and retain it better than anyone I have ever met. Once you hear something you almost never forget it.
4. You are interested about the world and love to understand how it works.
5. You are determined to create a new rocket fuel and constantly ask me chemistry questions to fulfill your quest.
6. You laugh easy. You see the humor in the world.
7. You enjoy being with our family.
8. You put up with piano lessons. I think you actually enjoy the time spent with the Larsen's.
9. You are a camel, you politely refuse non-pizza food and devour pizza. Gotta pack up your reserves for the non-pizza days!
10. You are kind to others and have a nice group of friends both at church and at school.
11. You love a good fictional book.
12. You love non-fiction too.
13. You are the perfect big brother for our family! Everyone admires you and loves to be with you!

We love you Superkid! Happy Birthday!

Pokemon Go!

Tadpole is obsessed. Pokemon is all the rage of the 4th grade and this kid is an expert. He loves to lure you into a battle. He'll crush you every time!

Hartford Temple Day

This really is an incredible year! 

I can't believe we have the opportunity to go to 2 Temple open houses in just a few months. There likely will not be another on the East Coast during our children's childhood. So we had to seize the opportunity! 

We went to see the beautiful Hartford, Connecticut Temple.

The only sad thing about a new temple in Connecticut is that it takes about a third of our patrons and temple workers from the Boston Temple. Pops is going to miss his friends that would drive 2-3 hours twice a month to work in the Boston temple.

And as luck would have it, Abizella's very best good friend was in the tour right behind us!

It is such a gorgeous building!

While the girls chatted the boys tumbled and played on the lawn and splashed in the fountain.

It was a treat to go to the temple as a family!

Next we met our Read cousins for lunch at Olive Garden!

We had a fantastic time catching up and hearing about their daughter Kyla's adventures since she graduated from High School and moved to Utah.

We just didn't want it to end- so we HAD to order dessert ;)

We love these kiddos!

Thanks for meeting us cousins!

We love your new temple!

Dudes

The big dude and the little dude.

Blades

I picked up another pair of blades from a co-worker and it sparked a wheeled revolution.

Abizella has been teaching her brothers all the right stuff.

We spend a lot of time on our rumps- but it's all good.

This little guy wants in on the fun too!

Family, Isn't It About Time?

Pops was a man a mission. 

A mission to get the basement to a place where he could install the flooring on Conference weekend. 

He did it. Electrical, lighting fixtures, dry wall, sanding, and painting.

And he got the flooring in by the end of the 1st session!

The kids were super pumped to pull out every blanket, pillow and stuffed animal in the house and put together puzzles all weekend.

That lasted until flooring was done completing the Pokemon battle arena.

The two big guys got all dressed up for Priesthood session and the little guys begged to go too...

This is the early crowd that got up to make the cinnamon rolls. Abizella took over the reigns.

The cinnamon rolls have never been better!

We had to limit ourselves to just 5 each (oink oink!).

Then back to the puzzles...

And I started my own project. I have scholastic narcolepsy. Every time I sit down to listen to something I fall asleep. This year might be the first that I listened to all 4 sessions without one blink of sleep!

Jaws took on his own project of learning to roller blade!

But the best part of all was just being together!