Golden Dragon

This is a rite of passage for a So Cal boy. While rummaging through a bunch of Joseph's old keepsakes, we found the same picture of him in his soccer uniform at age 6. Pretty fun! These pictures are from David's game on Saturday. While he's not the most coordinated, he sure tries really hard. He's informed us that stopping the ball is his favorite part of the game.

Keeping up with the pack:

Moment of ball contact:

All-too-frequent collision on the field!

Go Golden Dragons!

Darth Vader

If you've ever been around James, no explanation should be needed.

Look who's

WALKING! She even tries to dance a little, but balance is still a tricky thing and often leads to floor collision. It's so cute to see this little head teetering around. Good job Ruth!

What a good daddy does...

I came into the room the other day to find this: DADDY ROBOT

King James. Doesn't he look stern?

on guard!

Family

We sure enjoyed having family in town. My mom was so sweet with the kids and brought such a fun sense of humor. She also made 4 batches of cookies, which were gone in one week! My sister brought her family from SLC, so the kids were in cousin heaven. We called it an unlucky vacation for them, because unfortunate events kept happening all week, beginning with the shutdown of I-15 due to fire and ending with Southern California's major power outage. For both events, they got to experience So Cal traffic at its finest. We did have some fun outings to the beach and lots of playtime.

The handsome guy in the middle of the picture is my brother. He drove down from L.A. for Sunday dinner. On the far left is my sister, Jessica, and the far right, is my mom.

Grandma with the Larsen bunch.

Sisters! Blond and brunette.

Cute nephew, Bryson

Cute niece, Adelaid.

On the front porch

For the first day of school, we've begun the tradition of taking photos of the kids on the front porch. It's sure tough to get active little bodies to hold still long enough for a decent shot, but these expressions are worth the effort.

First day of school

Yes, school has started and David is now a kindergartener. So far, he loves it! .. although, it did take a while for him to get used to the idea of going to school EVERY day. With the start of school also came the start of soccer (I'll have to picture later). He feels like such a big boy. I am happy to see him grow.

David with his sweet teacher, Mrs. Weller.

Huntington Library

We had the pleasure of having my mom and sister, Jessica, in town over Labor Day. Though it was a HOT day, we ventured to Huntington Library. You know those days that are extremely exhausting, yet fun and memorable? That's the kind of day we had.

The kids enjoyed the children's garden

Ruth and I next to this beautiful bust of grown-up Ruth.

The only thing that saved me, was our ice-cream break, compliments of Grandma M! Looks like James appreciated it too!

Why we love summer...

Well, just as I am settling in and REALLY enjoying the unstructured days of summertime, school is almost here. The good news is that David has late start Kindergarten, which means no early morning rush at our house. The bad news that our days will now be packed with school, soccer and piano (for David), and dance (for me). I guess that it is good to get back into a schedule... and I am excited for David to start so many new adventures.

Here are a few clips from summertime:

Nothing is cuter than a baby with a chocolate chip cookie. No nuts for this girl... she seems to have an allergy to peanut butter. :(

My kids have such wonderful creativity (they must get it from Joseph). David constructed these helmets out of Duplos:

Ever since we remodeled, our hummingbird family has disappeared and we've had no more baby hummingbirds. I feel really sad about it. We have, however, had a few encounters with baby lizards. They are so cute (as far as a lizard goes)!