The Next Elder Larsen

My brother Evan left on his mission today. I miss him already :(. But he is going to be an amazing missionary! The folks of Columbus, OH better watch out because they wont even know what hit them. After lots of last minute scrambling over the past few days to make sure he had everything, we dropped him off at the MTC looking like quite a stud. Because I am often an emotional wreck, I had to hold in the tears while my parents easily maintained self-control. Typical. I couldn't help it! He is the closest brother to me in age and he is just so awesome and hilarious and handsome. I will miss him a lot. I can't believe Reagan will be all grown up by the he gets home. She may even have a sibling! Two years is a long time... Anyway, here are some pictures we took before he left.

The proud parents
Gazing into the vast unknown:

I'm his favorite sibling! (my words, not his)

Of course, Reagan wanted pictures with everyone.
It's the circle of life!

The man himself:

2 minutes to say goodbye at the MTC:

They took him away.
Goodbye forever.

I was sad. I will miss him a lot, but I am so proud of him! I'm not sure it's something that I could do. We love you, Elder Larsen!

Fall Family Fun!

Reagan is such a lucky girl. Over the past two weeks, she got to see all four grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, and two cousins. She is so spoiled with attention, but still manages to maintain her sweet disposition. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures with the first batch- we were too busy having fun, and before we knew it, Lance's parents were gone! That same day, my parents came out to take my brother Evan to the MTC (more about that in the next post). Reagan LOVES it when her grandparents come. She gets held all day! Lance's parents were nice enough to babysit one night while they were here so we were able to go on a triple date with our friends! It felt great to have a little break and get out of the house. When my family was here, we spent most of our time getting Evan ready and hanging around the house. Reagan got basket rides from Grandma:

Faster, Grandma, faster!

Of course, we watched the football game.

And we celebrated my parents' birthdays a week early!

We had a picnic in the mountains with the gorgeous fall colors:

And just had a great time visiting!

We all loved every minute, but I think Reagan had the most fun! She was so sad to see everyone leave today! She had to take a long nap to sleep it off.

Go Cougars!

Reagan's got her game face on.

Marissa tried to steal her to take her to the game. Almost worked.

Also, today is my half birthday. We'll be celebrating at Pizza Factory. Yum.

First Autumn Weekend

We had such a busy weekend. I'm still tired! Saturday morning, we hiked to Stewart Falls with our Webelos Cub Scouts. They did great! I love that hike- I think it was Lance and I's 4th time. Unfortunately, that baby fat is still hanging around and I think I was the slowest hiker this time. Plus, I carried Reagan all the way up. It was exhausting! Like being pregnant but worse, because she was heavier! It was such a beautiful morning, and the views were incredible.
Downsides: Reagan got very fussy because it was hard to feed her while we were hiking, and when we got to the falls, an unleashed dog ran over knocked her half-full bottle into the dirt. I was so mad- it is so inconsiderate to let your dog run around, especially if they aren't trained. Even though she wasn't full, Reagan was so tired she fell asleep on the way down. We forgot to bring a hat for her, so we had to improvise to protect her from the sun.
I think she liked it. Also, the tree that Lance carved our names in to when we were dating two years ago had fallen down and it looked like our names had been half clawed off. Sad. We got home from the hike in the early afternoon and had just 20 minutes to feed Reagan before Becca and AJ came over to babysit her because we were going on a zipline! There is a new zipline in Provo canyon, and it was sooo cool. 5 different lines going down the mountain, and they were really long and fast, and it was just gorgeous. It was just too bad that we were so tired and hungry from our hike that morning. I think I could have enjoyed it more. No pictures cause I didn't want to lose my camera. We spent most of Sunday resting and playing Ticket to Ride with Marissa. I hate losing. Ugh. We had a little more drama today when I realized I had lost my wedding ring. I was soo sad, and looked for it all day. When Lance got home, awesome husband that he is, he went through the entire trash can and found it at the very bottom! My hero! I love my ring so much and would be heartbroken if I lost it.

3 months!

Reagan turned 3 months old last week! Here are some super cute pictures we had taken at JCPennys.



Her great-grandmothers bought her a bee costume for Halloween. So cute, but unfortunately we knew it would be too small by Halloween, so we took a few pictures in it. Adorable!
She also had her 3 month doctors appointment this morning. She was so happy and talkative the entire visit, and she even spat up on me 5 times! How sweet. The doctor was very impressed with her awesome baby skills, and said we can start giving her solids in a month! She did great up until the minute she got her shots. She screamed for 5 minutes, then slept for an hour.

Stats:
weight: 12 lbs 10 oz (53%)
length: 24 in (58%)
head: 39.2 cm (25%) - small head- why??

Skills:
~ sleeps 9.5 hours at night
~ eats 5 times a day
~ loves standing
~ sits with trunk support
~ grabs/bats at toys, puts them in her mouth (she loves her crinkley elephant)
~ rolls onto back occasionally
~ rolls onto tummy regularly (just started last week, now she's a champ!)
~ very smiley, talkative, and interactive
~ starting to laugh
~ has done great with babysitters- hooray!

Here she is after the first time rolling onto her tummy- she looks surprised at her abilities.
We think she is just the greatest thing ever :)

What We've Been Up To

We've been busy the past week. Here is just a sampling of our activities:

The fire safety awareness fair!

Reagan's first fireman!

And first fire woman!

Playing in her gym

And bath time!

And just because I'm proud of them, the racecar treats that I made for our Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby a couple weeks ago:

Yesterday Reagan turned 3 months old. We got some official pictures taken, but we wont get them till next week, which is also when her doctor's appointment is, so I'll do another post then. But Reagan celebrated by rolling onto her back for the 4th time, and Lance and celebrated with apple dumplings. Yum! Also, today, with lots of effort, Reagan rolled onto her tummy for the first time! I know this might seem mundane to most people, but it was exciting for us! She is so strong!

Un-Labor Day Weekend

We had the best, most relaxing weekend. We were able to do tons of fun things and still catch up on our sleep.Friday we went up to the mountains and cooked dinner. We were planning on making a campfire, but it wasn't allowed at the place we went, so we ended up using a a grill by a pavilion. We made tin foil dinners and broke in our dutch oven!
And by broke in, I mean my sister already used it. But this was our first time. We were right by a river and it was a lot colder than I though it would be. I only brought one blanket for Reagan and I was in sandals.
It got pretty chilly by the end. But the food was so delicious and the charcoal fire was warm.

Her first fire!
We will raise her to be a little pyromaniac

Success!

Saturday was, of course, the first BYU football game, so that was a priority. The game got off to a slow start; even though Reagan slept through the first 2/3s of it, she still got to see the first BYU touchdown. I'm not sure she was impressed. Luckily, we won 14-13.
The game finished just in time for us to meet Lance's sister for dinner in Midway. We went to a Mexican place called Tarahumaras. I'm not a big Mexican food person, but apparently it was good eating. Sunday we hung out with Marissa, and Monday we grilled kabobs, went shopping, and watched Bachelor Pad- always a winner. We wanted to tube the Provo River, but it was a little chilly and cloudy, so we opted out :(. Still, a great weekend. Too bad we had to go back to the real world today! Although I love being a mommy, so I can't really complain :)