Usborn book party

I am hosting an Usborn book party for a friend of mine and wanted to invite you all to take a look at their books and place an order. My children love these books and have a few recomendations.
Isaac recomends any of the dot-to-dot books. These are great because they go up fairly high in numbers and have a counting line at the bottom to help the children. We have had to put these in page protectors because Isaac will do them again and again. Michael enjoys all of the maze books.
Sariah recomends any of the "That's not my......" series. They are touchy, feely books with tactile surfaces on each page.
This is currently one of Serenitie's favorite books.
Here is the link, www.lorilarsen.com
enter the bookstore and then in the upper right corner you will see my name listed as a host. Just follow that link and place your order.
The show will be open until the 7th of February.
Thank you.

President Gordon B Hinckley

It was with much sadness this evening that our family learned of the passing of our beloved Prophet. The 15th president of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. He was 97 and died a few short hours ago.
At 97, I realized the time was coming, yet at the same time, he is one of those men who you just can't fathom not being on this earth any longer. He has been the prophet for the whole of my married life and the whole time Matt has been a member. He is the only prophet my children have ever known....
I rejoice to know that he is with our Heavenly Father and is being told by him that he has been a good and faithful servant.
Now, we patiently await as the Quorom of the twelve apostles chooses and ordains our next Prophet.
Our hearts go out to the members of the Hinckley family.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

Elections

This electorial year I am seeking to be very informed about the candidates and their positions so that I may exercise my obligation as a citizen to make an educated vote and not an emotional one. Pretty hard for me to do, especially this year. But, I am trying....

Here is a great site I found that reallly lays out the issues and where each candidate stands on them, http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html

So far I am leaning towards Romney. I agree with his stand on every issue whereas with others I only agree on part. His track record is very impressive and the things he has been able to do in a variety of instances while in a leadership position are short of amazing. If he can make these kinds of turn-arounds in situations he may be just what we need for a turn-around in our own country.

Found the Pictures!!!!

Finally! the disc somehow appeared at Matt's office. Never would have found it there! So, here they are, a little overloaded on the pictures.
We decided to have Sariah's B'day at the Seattle Children's Museum. We have a membership there and so we got it for a great price, plus free admission for twenty children and twenty adults. We had to bring everything but they provide the room and the clean up. It worked out wonderfully!
Sariah had a princess party to reflect her status in our family. Serenitie is more of a Tom Boy and while I love everything aobut her including this, I did long for a girl that played with dolls, Barbie, liked dressing up and didn't mind wearing dresses, even if it wasn't a Sunday. So, when Sariah came I was determined to get my princess.
The party was a ton of fun and it was great to be able to celebrate with so many good friends, many of whom we don't see that often. We stole an idea from another friend and printed out different pictures of Sariah. Her 3-D ultrasound, a few right after she was born, and so forth, documenting her first year. We mounted them on pink card stock and then laid them out on the table.

Sariah and one of her good friends, Brook. Brook is just a month older than Sariah and so far they get along great.

compliments

Matt and I recieved the best compliment ever!

The midwives love it when we bring all of our children into the appts. Yes, a health provider that is actually dissapointed when you show up sans children, imagine that!!!

Last time when we were expecting Sariah they would hang out in the waiting area with the receptionist. She even helped Seri work on a report on space. (Seri was thrilled to go in this time and see her report still taped to the side of a filing cabinet).

Anyhow, it is a practice of three midwives and I finally had an appt. with the third. She apparently didn't know that I was back again and was surprised, I said something along the lines of "We like it so much here we just have to keep having more children as an excuse to come back".
The receptionist then looked at us and said "Well, in my opinion you are obligated to have as many as you can so that the decent citizens of America are at least equal to the number of derelicts".
Wow! I must say that is one of the best complements I have EVER been given :)