Mountain Memories

(4 generations of Larsons)

For Memorial Day this year, my father's family had a little reunion at our family cabin on Mt. Graham near Safford. Some of my very best childhood memories were made at this cabin, and I really want my kids to have the same experiences that I did. We had family travel from as far away as Idaho, and all of the grandkids & great-grandkids had an amazing time catching up & making new friendships.

The kids participated in all of the essential mountain activities:

Bug catching (a big thanks to cousin Reagan for teaching my kids that it's OK to touch the creepy-crawlies. Yuck!)

Making S'mores. I LOVE this picture.Hikes to Cow Canyon. Emma loved hearing Grand-Papa tell stories about how his family really did have cows & pigs here when he was young.And generally just getting REALLY, REALLY dirty. Looking at this face, I can't imagine that my kids were the cleanest kids up there, like Dana told me.And we also engaged in some new mountain experiences:

Lookin' gorgeous in our "princess hair." (Doesn't every mother wish her daughter had one of these beautiful wigs?)

I don't know what posessed Miranda to pack this thing all the way from Utah, but it was the largest & most fun pinata these kids had ever seen.

Thanks to Emilee for sharing her bounty with Frank. These 2 literally ate an entire Wal-Mart bag full of candy.

And thanks to Nana for treating Jack to his very first Sugar Daddy.

The bubble machine was a hit (for about 10 minutes, then they got bored.)

Oh, yeah. I was there, too! (Daddy had to stay home & work.)

And I don't remember 1 time in my youth that I didn't fall asleep just as soon as we hit the road home. It's always been a joke in our family that the mountain air makes you sleepy. What do you think?
And as we drove into the Tucson valley, this is the sight that greeted us. It's great to go visit family, but oh, it's so great to come home.

Strange Coincidences

3 years ago, I bought Emma some shirts off a clearance rack at Wal-Mart. This is her 3rd summer wearing this shirt, but it still fits, so why not? So when I was browsing the dollar bins at Target last week, I was surprised to find a spool of ribbon that matched this old shirt exactly. And I mean EXACTLY. I wonder if they were made at the same manufacturer or something. But whatever the case, I had to buy it & do something special with it. So we looked on the hair blogs & found this cute style. Emma loves it, it makes her feel like a princess. (What else is new?)

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I thought I was done showing pictures of Emma's hair on the blog, but Andy wanted me to post this for his mom. He was trying to explain it to her last night, but pictures just work better.

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Pink perfection. That's what I think of when I look at this picture.

I know it's all uneven, but I was severely dizzy this morning. That doesn't bode well for straight & uniform hair-dos.

So hopefully now I'm really done with the hair stuff. I know it's probably very boring to you all, but Andrew & Emma continue to be fascinated by the stuff I find on the hair blogs, and want to share it with all of you. Aren't you lucky?

Sibling Love

The older the kids get, the more sibling rivalry we have here, so I'm learning quickly to capture the good moments when they happen.

We LOVE our grass!

A common passion- cars!
Family Movie Night. I loved that Jack was trying to get Emma's popcorn all night long.

Jack loves his peas, and the kids love Jack!

Watching TV quietly & not even fighting. Pure heaven for Mommy.

A campout in their bedroom.

Good times at the Merriman house.

Memorable Moments

Frank has really been working on his counting lately. And since his b-day was last week, he's been counting how old he is.

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I'm 3, then I'll be 4, then 5.... etc.

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(Personally, thinking about him being so old makes me want to cry, but that's my problem not his, I guess.)

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But last night at dinner he was counting, then stopped.

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Frank: I don't like getting older, Mom.

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Mom: Why, Frank?

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Frank: Because I want to stay your Snugglebug!

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Oh! Could I love this kid any more?

Hair Success

Here on our blog I've chronicled my journey from a hair-stupid tomboy to the somewhat adequate mother of a hair-obsessed princess. And now I feel that I've truly completed that journey. In the past couple of weeks, I've had dozens of people ask me for advice or tips on how to do their daughter's hair.

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I've arrived!!!!

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I am very quick to lay all credit at the feet of the hair blog goddesses that I worship. But the really exciting thing is that I have found my creative groove. Every once in a while I borrow a hairdo from the blogs, but more & more I find myself coming up with cool looks all on my own.

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So Mom, Amanda, be proud of me. Emma no longer needs to beg for me to take her to Aunt Amanda's house so that she can have her hair done pretty. I've finally become a proper mother for Emma & her girly infatuations.

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Here are Emma's 2 latest favorites. The hairband one caused quite the stir at church last week. I even had the bishop ask me how I did it. Cool!

Little Bruiser

What happens when you roll over, somehow crawl over/under the pillows that are penning you in (without even disturbing them), and catapult yourself off the bed?

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Your very first black eye. To this day, I still have not figured out how he got over/under those pillows. I've even tried to re-create the situation, but he hasn't shown me his tricks. Oh well, no more time on Mommy's bed for Jack!

Monday Madness- LONG POST!!

Yesterday was a totally crazy, busy day. Since Frank was gone for most of his birthday, we had a party for him & his little buddies. And then in the evening, Emma's preschool held their "Promotion Ceremony." We were so lucky to have 4 of the grandparents here for that, THANK YOU for coming over! Emma told me last night that she felt so special to have so many grandparents here.

First, the birthday festivities:

Here's Rowley, Frank, Ben, and Jayden (who wouldn't look at the camera no matter how hard we tried to get him to.)

Once again we enlisted the help of the ball ramp. It's a whole lot more fun to bowl when you're not having to retrieve the ball from halfway down the lane every time a kid throws it.Daddy came to Frank's party for moral support, and babysat Jack for me, too! Mmmmm, pizza & root beer!
OK. Mommy didn't have a lot of time to make a nice cake, but I did attempt some bowling ball cupcakes. Too bad they don't look at all like bowling balls! The kids didn't care if they didn't look like bowling balls, though. Something tells me this kid likes chocolate!

All in all, it was a great party! No clean-up, somebody else did the cooking, and the whole party (minus the food) cost less than $10. Can't beat that!

{Just a little heads-up. There's a great website called kidsbowlfree.com. You can register your kids & they receive 2 free games of bowling every single day until September. It's awesome! Just go to the website & you can see if bowling alleys in your area are participating.}

Now for the Preschool Promotion:

Wow. My very own little graduate!

The caps & gowns are a little much, but who cares when your kid looks this cute?
Emma & Ms. Heidi. We love this teacher! She has done wonders for Emma. I know that the Lord made sure that Emma was in the perfect classroom, and Ms. Heidi was the perfect teacher for her. So even though we literally fell into bed last night & were totally exhausted still this morning, yesterday was just a perfect day.