Starting to finish the Basement.

With the new bathroom shelves completed successfully and Matt full of confidence, we have moved onto our next project: The Basement. We thought about using a contractor to finish it for us, so we got some bids in from contractors which pretty much made up our minds up for us that we were going to save a ton of money and finish the basement ourselves. And so it began.
Last weekend we spent a long day up in Provo with the kids buying tools for the project. I don't think Brigham and Sarah will let us go near a Lowes or Harbor Freight store ever again! I don't want to take them again either, there's a lot of stuff that they shouldn't touch or play with there!
This weekend Matt began getting the basement ready for it's big transformation with the sawzall, trimming the metal "pokey things" (proving my ignorance) off the walls and bought studs for framing the basement.
On Saturday Matt cut boards to size and when it came time to break out the air compressor to nail them together he discovered that the brand new air compressor was cracked. So that meant another trip up north (-gas money -lots of time) to exchange it for a unbroken one.
When Matt got home he jumped back into putting a wall together and 5 minutes later Matt sliced his finger with a box cutter. After the bleeding is under control he went to the hospital to get a tetanus shot and luckily didn't need stitches. So after a long day of trying to get a wall up there isn't too much to show for it. But so far we have put in a lot of time, money, blood, and tears into the basement. We are hoping to add some sweat and make better progress next weekend!



This is what we have done so far. The framed wall was already there, Matt was working on framing the cement wall.

New home: our view and the first project...

We've been slowly getting things in order at our house. the last thing that remains is the dreaded "stuff" in the garage! I hope once I go through that, it will never accumulate again so bad... or we never move again so I can avoid it!

Here's the view from our front room window. I love the mountains!

This is our first project on our home: building shelves in the bathroom!
This is the before.

In progress....

TA-Dah! The after.

I'm happy we got one project done on the house! Once spring comes, bring on the landscaping and finishing the basement!

Larsen Christmas Letter 2010

This has been a year of changes for the Larsens with lots of ends and new beginnings. Matt completed a bachelor's degree in Spanish at Weber State University this past spring. He worked various jobs while completing his degree including being a janitor at a movie theater, tutoring elementary students and delivering pizzas. He gladly accepted a job with the State of Utah as an eligibility specialist for the Department of Workforce Services in August. That means he takes a lot of phone calls from people who are applying or having trouble with various government welfare programs. He does a lot of tedious paperwork as well at his job, and he's content with it. He says he likes it a lot better than going to school.

With his new job, we moved from our home of 5 years in Ogden to Ephraim, a small town in central Utah about 2 hours away from Salt Lake City. Matt actually commutes from Ephraim to Manti (7 minutes away). We are currently renting an apartment but are hoping to be closing on a home a few blocks away within the next month.

Brigham is now 4 ½ and proudly writes his name on every piece of paper he can find around the apartment. He has started preschool and loves learning new things. He loves to collect pebbles, sticks, shells, leaves, etc. and puts them in a box for his “collection”. He has wanted to be a mailman, “a boy who cuts hair”, and currently wants to be a guy who fixes cars when he grows up. He is very helpful and kind to his sister Sarah Jane (most of the time).

Sarah Jane just turned 2. She loves talking on Erin's cell phone to imaginary and real people, intentionally and unintentionally. Sarah loves playing with her dolls, dancing, singing, and to say “Me too!” after everything Brigham says. She loves the color pink, which is the only color she knows and dislikes things that are not that color. Milk lids are switched on the milk in our household so that her milk has the pink lid. She is that picky!

Erin is still staying at home with the kids. She has discovered with Matt's new job she finally has some much needed free time! So she resolved this year to find a new thrilling hobby for herself... she'll give you an update on whatever she decides it will be next year, but she swears it won't be cooking or cleaning!

We hope that your family will have a merry Christmas this year filled with peace and joy! We are excited to start our new life down here in Sanpete County! Best Wishes!

Love,

Matt, Erin, Brigham and Sarah Jane

Happy 2nd Birthday Sarah Jane.

We celebrated Sarah's birthday at home and then threw her a big family party over the weekend. The party was lots of fun and we had all of Sarah's cousins there (minus the three that live in Washington). Matt had to make a last minute run to burger king to get some crowns for the boys because I had cute stuff for the girls and nothing fun for them! I really tried finding something for the boys before the day of, but the best I could find were plastic swords and I knew much better than to hand them over to a group of wild boys at a party!
I'm so happy to see Sarah growing up and I'm already amazed at how much she changed in just two years! I'm so thankful to have her and her sweet personality in my life. I've really enjoyed hearing what she is thinking about now that is starting to talk! The majority of what she has to say is about treats, Briggy and her family! She is so lucky to have so many cousins around her age to play with! Happy Birthday to our little raccoon, rah-rah, boo-boo, aahh-jane, little girl!

This is Sarah celebrating her birthday with us. She loves her Daddy!

Of course I did a homemade crazy birthday cake for her big party like I always do for both my kids. This year it was a pink and purple pony for Sarah. I used the same cake mold that was used for my birthday when I was a kid and in love with "My Little Ponies". I knew I had better use it this year before Sarah is old enough to choose what cake she wants because kids never choose what mommy wants!

Sarah fell asleep while everyone was eating pizza and I was worried for a little bit that she wouldn't wake up to open her presents and blow out the candles!

Uncle Trent, Aunt Katherine, Cousins Tyler and Peter.

Uncle Jon, Grandpa Larsen and Aunt Rachel

Uncle Nate.

Blowing out candles.

Ready for Cake!

Aunt M, Grandma Larsen and Grandma Brown (a.k.a. Nanni)

We had lots of available help for opening presents!

These are the "Larsen" cousins (minus Olivia and three Washington cousins)
Hannah, Brigham, Tyler, Sarah, Eric, Bella, Peter, Ethan, Clay and Patrick.

Larsen cousins + cousin Lucy and Mollie.

Halloween 2010

We had a great time preparing for Halloween, Matt carved the family pumpkin while the kids painted their little pumpkins.

Brigham L-O-V-E-D pulling pumpkin guts out.

Sarah is our future little artist, she loves to paint, draw and color. She was so excited when I set paint and a pumpkin out in front of her. I love how focused she is, with her little tongue sticking out in this picture.

This is Brigham's masterpiece. I love the colors and the mouth with sharp teeth.

Brigham working on another pumpkin.

Icky hands!

I finally captured an awesome picture of the kids where they are both smiling and looking at the camera... and then Matt has to misbehave!

Proud of my pumpkins!

Our little pumpkin family.

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's home to celebrate halloween and trick or treat with family.

Sarah Jane as a fairy.

Brigham as a dinosaur (holding a gun). I don't think you can find anything more dangerous than that! I call this creature the Brigosaurus!

Looking cute and ready to go trick or treat!

Cousin Ethan the bee and Sarah Jane.

Trick or Treating. It rained the whole time, we only could catch a break on covered porches.

Our family all dressed up except for Matt who is too cool for a costume.

Hay Ride and Pumpkin Patch

We had to break the Punkinaze tradition because we moved too far from it, so we went to the Big Red Barn in So. Santaquin to celebrate. The kids had a blast, there was a kiddie crate maze for them to run in, an old tractor to play on, and a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. They also have awesome ice cream which we couldn't pass up. It's always fun to try their novel flavors like pomegranite, green pineapple or pumpkin pie and to share licks with each other so we can experience each flavor. I know it's not the most sanitary thing in the world, but we're family! We spent a good part of the day there and had a long drive (about 45min.) back to home.
We stopped by a gas station in Moroni for turkey sandwiches from the little kitchen inside. We had to wait over 30 min. for our food, apparently lots of locals go there to eat for Saturday lunch too. It was a pretty rough wait for the kids... or us...in a gas station with lots of isles of candy and a super cool halloween display that said do not touch all over it. A 80 year old lady enjoyed the entertainment that our kids provided, though. The kids can't wait to paint and carve their pumpkins tonight when Matt comes home!

Palisade State Park

We spent the day at Palisade State park. It's about 15 min. away from Ephraim. We had a picnic, took a hike around the lake and let the kids play on the playground. It was a nice day to be outside!

Nice view!