Daniel and Alexa

Some Daniel Posts

2012-02-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

Daniel has a blog from a long time ago, and for some reason he's decided to write some posts of his own there instead of here (to hear him tell it he has grand plans for that site). Since yesterday, he's written two posts:

More Broken Feet - That's right, I hurt my other foot. Read about the experience.
The Newest Spanish Oak First Grader - Daniel is now working with me at school for the foreseeable future

Perhaps I will tell these stories from my own perspective later. We'll see. It seems I'll have a bit of down time as I recuperate. Yay!

Baby Updates

2011-12-18T21:33:00.000-08:00

If you are tired of baby updates, then this blog post is not for you. Maybe I will get around to posting other parts of our life soon.

Here I am at around 20 weeks. I got a little behind at posting these...

Then, at around 24 weeks. I don't think my arm is really that chubby. It was FREEZING outside, and I'm pretty sure I was just squeezing my arm against my body. I could be wrong though...

The baby is getting bigger every day. It is so fun to be able to feel him moving around and kicking. It is endlessly entertaining to me. I love to poke him to make him move. :)

Here is a picture of him at about 22 weeks. Yes, he looks a bit monkey-ish. He was pretty uncooperative and this is the best (and only) profile picture we could get.

I have shown some real restraint when it comes to buying things for this baby. I hope Daniel realizes how proud he should be! I have only bought a few select things. My most recent purchase was an adorable baby bird hat. I borrowed this picture from the girl I bought it from (mostly because I was too lazy to get up and take my own picture). I think it is even cuter in person, though! It is super soft and cozy.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get a prenatal massage. Heavenly!!! What a nice husband I have to encourage me to get one! Hopefully, it will be the first of many (or a least a few). :)

Halloween, Birthday, and Thanksgiving

2011-12-06T19:32:00.001-08:00

The last 2 months have flown by! Just so you don't think we are completely boring, this is a post all about holiday festivities! Starting with Halloween, we have quite the lineup of holidays: Halloween - 2 week break - my birthday - 2 week break - Thanksgiving - 2 week break - Daniel's birthday - 2 1/2 week break - Christmas.

Back to Halloween...

Sometime in October, we carved pumpkins with Dave and Jessica. Unfortunately, they shriveled up after about 48 hours. Sad day. We spent Halloween night with Skyler and Tiffany. They made root beer with dry ice. It looked cool and tasted delicious!

Daniel made my Halloween costume this year. We stole the idea from Brooke and Ryan. I needed something that I could still use crutches with. The kids at school thought it was pretty cool. (It is a Wii remote.)

We also went to a Halloween dinner at the Robert's house. We didn't take any pictures there, but we did take a picture of our awesome "eyeballs."

Next, my birthday...

This year, my birthday was on 11-11-11. Pretty cool, huh? The broken foot AND sinus infection were not so cool. Still, we did our best to celebrate. We ate at the Cheesecake factory and went to the opening day of Crate and Barrel - my favorite store! They opened their first store in Utah on my birthday!

(I would post a picture here, but we only took one picture that day and it is the most unflattering picture I have ever seen. It probably has something to do with the sinus infection and abundant pregnancy acne.)

I also got to celebrate my birthday later that week with my two favorite little girls.

Then, Thanksgiving...

We started our Thanksgiving celebration with Dave and Jessica. We ate a delicious meal at Tucanos. It was amazing (and way better than cooking)!

We then spent the next couple of days at Daniel's grantparents' house. Lots of family and lots of food. We set up their Christmas tree again this year. Isn't it lovely?

We love this time of year!!

An Exciting Week

2011-10-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

16 weeks down, 24 to go! We found out this week that our little Poppyseed is a BOY! We were surprised - but very excited. We are contemplating changing the baby's name from Poppyseed to Sesame Seed. We think that sounds a little less girly.

Here is a picture of me at 16 and a half weeks. I think you can finally see a small baby bump - IF I wear a very tight shirt.

Sadly, this is what I actually look like right now.

Crutches, boot, and all. Because... I was in an awesome car accident!

Imagine my left foot right next to this door as it was crushed.

Imagine me climbing through this glass to get out of my car through the passenger side.

Right before I saw this is when I climbed out of my car, tried to step on the ground and FELL OVER. That is when I realized that there was something wrong with my foot.

I was the final car in a 4 car accident on I-15. Above are cars 1 and 2. I still have no idea where car 3 is, or how they were involved. What I think happened is this: someone didn't slow down fast enough, and crashed into another car, which then crashed into the side of my car. As you can see, the other cars were worse off than my car. Unfortunately, I was the one that was injured in the crash.

However, I did get my very first ride in an ambulance. It was pretty exciting, but at the same time, not exciting at all.

You may remember Daniel's car accident about 6 months ago. Both times, not our fault. Both times, a broken body part for us! His was a broken wrist and thumb. Mine is a broken foot. Hopefully it will heal in about 6 weeks.

Really though, we are very thankful that I was not injured worse and that our baby is just fine.

All in all, it was a very exciting week for the Larsen family.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-09-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

These are a few of my favorite things right now...

Any guesses why?

Yes! It is true!

This little blob (more affectionately known as Poppyseed) is due at the end of March, and we couldn't be happier!

Daniel Dreams

2011-08-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

Late last night (time unknown), I woke up to see Daniel's head lifted up off the pillow... And a very unusual and very frightening experience began.

-Me: What's wrong?
-Daniel: There is someone in our room. By the foot of the bed.
-Me: Are you serious? (The panic taking over my body because this is actually my worst fear and the very reason I slept with the bedroom door shut and locked all summer.)
-Daniel: Yes. He is holding our ankles.
-Me: Silence. Thinking: I do feel someone holding my ankles!!!

I start moving one of my legs. Daniel grabs it.

-Me: That's my leg.
-Daniel: Oh. Okay.

So it turns out that our feet had gotten tangled at the bottom of the bed. But I really did believe that someone was holding my ankles. And I almost had a heart attack.

-Me: Oh my gosh. I thought someone was actually there!
-Daniel: Oh. Yeah. (Beginning to fall asleep.)

-Me: So what would you have done if there had actually been someone?
-Daniel: I would have kicked them out of bed or something.
-Me: I see.

Thanks Daniel! It was really fun for me after you fell asleep again and I could not. Good times.

A Failed Attempt

2011-07-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

1. Decide you need to stop being lazy after hours of watching Netflix.

2. Get excited about going to the farmers market in downtown Portland.

3. Get really excited because you love the farmers market and you love Portland!

4. Walk to the MAX.

5. Buy ticket.

6. Board.

7. Watch as two people fight about who is more disabled and deserves the priority seating.

8. Notice that the ride is unusually jerky today.

9. Sigh as the MAX stops unexpectedly - between stops.

10. Watch as the lights go out.

11. Listen as they announce that a supervisor is on his way to look at it.

12. Get off when ordered to.

13. Wait as they try to get the train out of the way so another one can come.

14. See that the next one has no empty seats, even before one person from your train boards.

15. Cross the street.

16. Get on train going in opposite direction.

17. Arrive home.

18. Consider it a failed mission.

19. Be sad for the two hours of your life wasted.

20. Go back to watching Netflix.

Time to Get Serious!

2011-07-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

After an extended break from blogging, I am ready to begin again. I'll post some highlights from the past year which may or may not be in order. I can't even remember at this point.

1. Boeing

Daniel was fortunate enough to get an internship with Boeing for the summer. He is working in their Human Resources department in Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately, this means that we have been living in separate states all summer. Boo!

2. Friends

We have made some great friends this year. Jessica and Dave were nice enough to let us tag along to Las Vegas with them. We had lots of fun - mostly eating. Apparently, I do not have any pictures of Dave. Sorry, Dave! We will have to fix that.

We also went on a fun adventure to The Crater in Heber with Skylar and Tiffany. If you get the chance, you should go. It is kind of like a hot spring, but it is in this crater with a dome on top. We also walked out on the frozen lake. It was freezing! And the sun was very bright - this is the only picture of me and Daniel where his eyes are not closed.

I also had some wonderful friends from Freshman year move back into town.
Hooray! But this time they have two beautiful little girls - and I love those girls. We have so much fun playing together. None of these are good pictures, I know... I guess the last picture that I have of me and their mom is from about 3 years ago. Sad.

3. The Car Crash

Daniel was in a car accident! Yikes. Someone turned left in front of him (Grr!), and Daniel ended up with a broken wrist and thumb. After 4 or 5 casts and three months, his cast is finally off! Poor guy. And poor car. He did get a new car, but he also got his first gray hair. We first noticed it at the doctor's office right after the accident.

Look for Part 2 coming soon...

Get Ready for a Bit of Catch-Up...

2010-04-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been about 10 months since our last post. That means that I have felt guilty for about 10 months. Finally, it got to be too much.

Here is what we have been up to:

We went to the Tulip Festival at the Thanksgiving Point gardens with our friends, Brooke and Ryan. Unfortunately, we choose a day that rained (and eventually hailed). Notice Dan's choice of shorts and flip flops. It was an especially fun day for him.

We spent a fun weekend in Arizona with Daniel's whole family. It was fun to be together and to have a little break during the last month of school.

My parents came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. They came to visit my classroom and we had fun showing them all of our favorite spots in Utah.

We were able to go to the Bretzing family reunion near Bear Lake. What a beautiful place!!

The 4th of July weekend has got to be my favorite weekend in Utah! We went to see the hot air balloons and spent that night with our friends, Trevin and Kalisha. Yay for America!

We had a great visit with out families in California. Here we are at the beach in Santa Cruz...
A really flattering picture in San Francisco...
Another beach (Rio del Mar, I think)...
And even indoor skydiving at iFly. WOW!

We went to Zion National Park and Cedar City, Utah for the weekend with Kalisha and Trevin. We are at the top of Angel's Landing - it is a miracle I survived that hike!
The Shakespeare Festival was really fun! Hopefully, that will become a tradition.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to us!

We went in the Provo Canyon to take some pictures. The leaves were beautiful!

Look at our Christmas tree decorating skills!

Whew! There you have it - part one of the last 10 months of our lives. Bonus points for you if you made it this far!

Duck Walk

2009-05-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Alexa and I went on a duck walk the other day to find things that I could take pictures of with my new camera! She was especially fond of the cute baby ducks.

So fond, in fact, that she was filled with an immense desire to pet them. The ducklings were not, sorry to say, as keen on the idea as she was. As friendly as she tried to be, they ran from her...

Slipping and tripping frantically...
We caught another duck taking off almost gracefully. I'll have to work on my angles.

Bored with the ducks, we went downstairs in the MARB to check out the fish they have in tanks on the lower floor. I think this one was quite fond of me.

Afterward, back up the elevator.

And then down the stairs. I hate these stairs. I have to climb up them every day to get to class. It's a very sad thing.

And that was our duck walk! It's a great thing it's summer.

Easter

2009-04-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

This Sunday was Easter Sunday. It was the first Easter that Alexa and I spent by ourselves. I don't plan ahead very well. We ended up talking Saturday evening about ways that we could celebrate, and the best thing that we could come up with was an Easter egg hunt.

Alexa hid her eggs while I was at work, and I hid mine when I got home.

The rice bowl was one of mine...

As was the pocket of the apron...

I also thought that I was pretty clever hiding an egg on the edge of our first scrapbook...

Failing to notice that she had already hid an egg further in the pages of the book

I thought of hiding an egg in the bowl of the mixer, but Alexa had thought of that first... So I found her egg early (don't tell her).

There was also an egg with the oranges

Now, Alexa was kind of mean. Do you see any egg in this picture of my closet?

Neither did I. I needed a hint to find the egg in one of my rolled up sleeves.

But I did one better. Do you see an egg in this picture?

Ha! She never would have found that one!

What was in the eggs, you might ask?

Well, I might answer, "PEZ candies, IOU's, and clues to extra presents."

These clues led to, for me, plastic dishes (I keep breaking the solid ones we got for our wedding) and for Alexa, cute shoes for summer (you can see which spouse is favored in this household).

But it was a fun hunt all the same, and we had a great Sunday meal compliments of my sweet wife (we were too hungry and forgot to take pictures).

A Few Christmas 2008 Memories

2009-01-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas break in California. We spent time in Clovis (with Daniel's family) until Christmas afternoon, and then we went on to Morgan Hill.

This video was taken early Christmas morning. I was VERY hungry...
Warning: You might find this a little boring, and I will not be offended if you do not watch it.
Also, sorry it is sideways.

Here are a few photos:

I was so happy to be eating, I didn't even care that Daniel was taking pictures of me!

This was taken on Christmas night. It is one of only 3 pictures that we took the whole time we were in Morgan Hill. :(

Merry Christmas!!

Hand Slap Game

2008-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

On night in December, we got together with our great friends, Trevin and Kalisha. It was getting late, and the boys came up with a crazy idea. Daniel has informed me that this game actually does exist. I'm not sure I'm convinced.

Please enjoy this fantastic video:

Here is the best photo from the night:

We love hanging out with them!

Birthday Fun at the Dinosaur Museum

2008-12-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

On Daniel's birthday, we took a trip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

They had so many fun things to do!

One of our favorite things was the 3-D movie: "African Adventure." Really, we just wanted an excuse to wear the glasses!

SHARK!
Daniel is always getting me to take silly pictures.

Look at us discovering fossils!

Hooray for the Dinosaur Museum!

Happy Birthmaka!

2008-12-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

This past week began a week-long celebration. Of what you might ask? Well, for those of you that are familiar with the OC, the term "Christmaka Bar Mitzvahka" will be relatively familiar. That blending of Christmas and Hanukkah became the inspiration for the blending of Hanukkah with another famous day- my birthday!

And so, let's chronicle the days of the celebration and see how sweet my wife was to me this year!

Day One

Day One saw me gain two important assets. The first- Ped Egg (as seen on TV)

As you can see, not only was I thoroughly surprised, but also supremely pleased at receiving such a fun gift! I've already tested it out, and boy, is it fun.

Also, Alexa gave me (not a toothbrush, but) a car scraper. That's just me being silly. As usual.

Day Two

Day Two continued the fun with Zebra pens! These are quite possibly the greatest pens in the universe, but for some reason they are hard to find here in Utah. Nevertheless, my wonderfull wife found both the ballpoint and the gel versions.

Day Three

Day Three saw me getting a knitting kit! These are the circular kinds of frames that allow you to make beanies. I am very excited. (Man, do I look goofy in this picture of what?)

Day Four

The day before I thought that I was going have to wait before I started making beanies for lack of yarn. But little did I know that the very next day I would be getting some fantastic colors to work with!

(The funny thing is, Alexa didn't think that I was seriously going to make hats for myself. She thought that I was going to continue a ward project and make hats for charity. That can certainly be on the agenda, but so will personal beanie making...)

Day Five

To end off the birthday celebration, I got a big hymnbook! It's spiral bound, so it will even stay open all by itself. Yay!

(Alexa got herself a hymns-made-easy book).

Today

Today, just the day after my birthday, I finished my first beanie. Isn't it great? I think that I will wear it tomorrow.

Doesn't it look great!?! I'm so proud.

Happy birthday to me!

Gingerbread Houses

2008-11-23T19:52:00.000-08:00

Alexa and I bought a gingerbread house and set out to build it this Sunday. But, knowing how our attention could wane after the tedious work required to assemble those gingerbread houses, we planned ahead and put in the movie Elf.

But it didn't play, so we had to watch it on the laptop.

Here is our set before we began

And here is the house after we glued all the big pieces together! (for future reference, it's better to decorate all the pieces first. this assembly step should definitely be the last one).

Of course I had to sample the frosting as we went along. For all those that are curious, the beautiful handiwork on the roof- yes, it's mine.

Alexa has the deft hands, so she was the one to put the star on the tree...

...and most of the ornaments on the hard side of the tree.

And, more or less, this is our finished house! We also added a candy pathway

Ta da!

We set the timer for one last picture, and I couldn't resist smearing my gorgeous wife's face with some leftover frosting.

She was not very happy about that. Seriously.

So I let her gunk my face up. Aren't I nice?

A Happy Birthday!

2008-11-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

We had a birthday party this weekend! Now, Alexa's birthday actually isn't until the 11th, but because of the trauma caused from the Chap stick Incident (see below), we decided that early festivities were appropriate.

We started with a package that came in the mail from Alexa's family. She was excited about the Costco gift card, but ecstatic about the persimmons and guavas that were in the box under the present.

She was kind enough to model a winter jacket that she received.

I thought some children's books would be fun too, seeing as how Alexa is going to be an elementary school teacher and all!

I guess she was getting tired of all the pictures.

But she got over it with the excitement over the sign that she gets to make for our front door. If you have any ideas for a good set up for the sign, let us know.

Happy birthday Alexa!

A Sad Day for Us All...

2008-11-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

There was a tragedy in the Larsen home last evening. It started like most other Thursday nights, but by the time Alexa and I had gone to bed, we had been numbed by the devastating loss we had experienced.

Alexa, the sweet wife that she is, usually volunteers to do the laundry all by herself, often while I am gallivanting at Hogi Yogi. I was home this time, though, and tried to help her cart the massive volume of clothes around the corner to the Union Square Laundry room.

Later, when the clothes were done drying, I went to go pick them up. To my surprise, when I opened the dryer we'd used for our darks, I found this:

That's right. Amidst our clothes was this stick of chapstick. I, not knowing the harm it could cause, laughed as I got back to our apartment. "Hey, babe, funny story. Guess what I found in the dryer?"

Alexa, knowing the problem chapstick could cause, was less jovial. To make a long (and sad) story short, more than a few of our clothes had greasy chapstick spots. A few of the casualties are pictured below.

Alexa wasn't going to be much help that night. Like a rookie soldier seeing her first dead comrade, she was a bit of a mess. I sent her to bed before the psychological scarring became permanent.

With the new found calmness in the apartment, I set to work, breaking out the big guns- Spray 'N Wash...

... And then washing the clothes by hand in our sink, and laying them out to dry all over our living room.

Sorry to say my efforts weren't very effective, but then today we used some dish soap and the washing machines (that had been closed by the time we needed them the night before), and saved most of the clothes.

But it was still a sad day, and one we won't soon forget!

Picnic!

2008-10-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Alexa and I have decided that on each month-anniversary of ours, we'll go for a picnic with some of the neat picnic things that we got from our wedding. This past October 16 was our second picnic, and a fitting subject for our first post!

Alexa was in charge of laying out the blanket on the grass at Rock Canyon Park...

And she put me in charge of setting up the table...

But, through all our hard work, we got a pretty good set up!

And the eats weren't bad either! We had chicken filled pitas and strawberry lemon sorbet...

Which we stored in in "Cereal-on-the-Go" containers :)

But that wasn't the only "dessert" that was on the menu...