Last few days in Salt Lake (Tues-Fri, January 6th-9th 2009)

TUESDAY, January 6th
On Tuesday night, we went to dinner at our FAVORITE Chinese restaurant, Asian Star. Gary (the owner) always takes such good care of us there. This was the first night Reagan seemed to be back to her healthy, happy self.

Avery at dinner

The "big" kids - Makenna, Reagan, Blake and Alyssa

Makenna, Blake and Alyssa

Silly Larsen kids ~ Reagan & Makenna

The ENTIRE Family! I don't know why we've never done this before, but we never have someone else take a picture of our whole family. Luckily, we snapped one this time as we were leaving Asian Star. It's pretty amazing that our little family of 5 has grown to a large family of 14!

After dinner, my dad was swinging the grandkids ...

... and throwing Makenna up in the air

WEDNESDAY, January 7th

Avery stepped into the fridge and refused to get out! We all know how much Avery LOVES food!!

Camille brought her girls over because we thought we'd be saying "goodbye" and heading for the airport ... we ended up changing our flight from Wednesday to Friday to allow more time for Reagan to recover from her stomach bug.

Makenna, Avery and Samantha

Makenna, Avery and Samantha

Reagan finally woke up and joined the kids ... even though she seemed okay the night before, she went back to being listless and sick on Wednesday

Makenna, Reagan, and Avery giving them "loves"

FRIDAY, January 9th

By Friday, Reagan seemed to be doing well! Phew! It was a long couple of days with her being sick. I love the above picture of her, once again in her favorite dress-up dress!

Benee and Alyssa

Benee brought the kids over on Friday morning to say goodbye before our flight.

Reagan and Benee

Reagan and Benee

Blake was so annoyed with all the girls and their dress up clothes, so my mother made him this fabulous cape that is reversible, red and black!

Nana and Avery

My parents took us to the airport and everything went SO smoothly! We got right through security and when we got to our gate, the gate agent was more than accomodating, allowing us to get on the plane with Zone 1 to get the girls situated. We were slightly delayed to push back from the gate, but only about 25 minutes. Reagan sat in the window seat and spent that time watching the planes out the window and coloring. By the time we took off, she was getting very sleepy and she quickly fell asleep sitting up, staring out the window. I wish I could have found my camera to take a picture ... she didn't move from that position for 2 hours!!! Avery was a little reluctant to fall alseep in my arms, but she finally gave in as well and slept for about an hour and a half. With both girls sleeping, John and I both put on our headphones and watched the in-flight movie!!! The movie was called Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni and it was really funny. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure it was a once in a lifetime kind of situation where we were able to relax and watch a movie while flying with a 3 and 1 year old! I felt like we were due, since our flight TO Utah was so long and painful ... the flight home was a quick 3 1/2 hours and it honestly couldn't have gone better.

Sunday and Monday in Salt Lake (January 4th and 5th)

After going to bed really late (because Reagan was so sick), I woke up early to make it to breakfast with Natalie and Jami ... we had already made plans and I didn't want to cancel, so I had to take Avery with me. It was a fun morning at the Cottonwood Market Street, except that Avery wasn't very happy to be sitting for so long, listening to boring mothers talk.

Natalie, a very tired Amanda, and a grumpy Avery

This is a horrible picture of me and it turned out really dark, due to the bright background, but I just had to post a picture of my cute friend Jami.

Sunday afternoon, my grandparents (my dad's parents) came over for dinner

Benee and Avery

It's always been a tradition for my mother to make won-tons on New Year's Day ... this year, it took a couple days for them to be made, but they were definitely worth the wait!

Sunday dinner with everyone except John and Reagan (who were downstairs in the basement being quarantined, due to Reagan's nasty stomach virus)

After dinner, we headed over to my aunt Collette's house ... I finally got to meet my cousin Amber's newborn daughter Hadlyn!! As soon as I held her, Avery was immediately jealous and insisted that I hold her too!

Hadlyn Collette Boyd was born on November 12th, weighing 4 pounds, 6 ounces. She came 6 or 7 weeks early, very similar to Reagan. She was absolutely precious!!

Grandpa Mann (my mother's father) was there and little Samantha walked over to him, offering her fist ... she's been trained to "give bones!" It was pretty funny because my grandpa didn't understand the whole concept :)

Doug, Hadlyn, Benee, and my Dad

Amber and Neal Mann

Camille feeding Hadlyn ... doesn't my sister look beautiful in this picture?

I can't remember what I took away from Avery, but she was obviously very upset about it. This is a funny age because she wants to explore and discover all kinds of new things ~ when I take away dangerous items or expensive/breakable things, she gets VERY upset and throws some pretty incredible temper tantrums! Rather than getting frustrated with her, I should just take pictures and video of her dramatic displays so we can laugh about them later :) Lately, we've been calling her the "drama queen" so often, that even Reagan calls her that!

Thankfully, Avery's tantrums are relatively short and she goes back to being her sweet self ... she was soooo cute with Hadlyn! She stood next to my mother for the longest time, hugging, kissing and loving little Hadlyn. I took so many pictures, but here are a few of my favorites.

Avery loves playing with baby dolls ~ she hugs them, squeezes them, kisses them, and drags them all over the house. She was desperately trying to get my mother to release Hadlyn so she could take her :)

Sweet cuddles

Giving "loves"

The other purpose of our visit was so that I could see Collette's newly remodeled kitchen and living room. It was all gorgeous! We also indulged in some delicious desserts.

My cousin Amber, her mother Collette, and my other cousin Molly (Molly is the little sister of my cousin Sara who lives in Brooklyn)

Cute picture of the Siebenberg Family and my dad

Camille and Samantha ~ When Sam gives her cheesie smile, she loves to show her teeth ... she can be such a little ham!

Grandpa and Avery ... Avery's poor little cheeks were so dried out from the dry desert climate

Sweet Makenna

Uncle David and my dad ~ I fell in love with this dark brown tile they chose for the floors ... it almost looked like leather and it gave the room such a warm, cozy feel.

MONDAY, January 5th

On Monday, I went to my friend Melissa's house for a playdate. We've been friends since 7th grade, so it was wonderful to see her!

I was so bummed that Reagan was sick because Melissa's little boy Andrew is almost Reagan's age. This little boy has already endured so much in his short little life ... he's already fought off a rare form of pediatric cancer! My heart goes out to Melissa for having the strength to watch her baby go through chemo-therapy ~ I simply can't imagine going through something so traumatic. Thankfully, all his recent scans have come back clean and he's healthy and thriving.

Our other friend Allison came over too and brought her youngest son Ashton, who's the exact same age as Andrew. Their two boys were so cute and played together so nicely. Allison and I have kept in touch over the years, but haven't seen each other in about 7 years! She was living in Kansas City, and then St. Louis while her husband Benji was completing medical school, and then his residency. We never seemed to be in Salt Lake at the same time, so we used email to stay connected during that time. It was so nice to finally see her in person and catch up!

Although Avery was well overdue for a nap, she was a trooper and kept up with the boys

Playing in the Snow

Last night when we were driving home from Autumn and Chad's house, it was snowing pretty heavily and the roads were snow packed. When I woke up this morning, I noticed how beautiful everything looked outside with a fresh layer of snow. I took the above picture from my parent's front porch ... growing up in Salt Lake, I certainly took the beautiful, CLOSE mountains for granted. They simply blended into my surroundings and I had no idea how rare and special it was to live right at the base of such a large mountain range. Whenever I come home to visit, I now notice their beauty and grandeur.

We kept telling Reagan she could play in the snow, so today was the day we finally made that happen. Benee brought Alyssa over to play with Reagan and they had a wonderful time!

One thing I've been meaning to write about is that I got a new camera for Christmas!! My amazing friend Christie just got the brand new professional Canon and no longer needed her back-up Canon Rebel. Before posting it for sale elsewhere, she offered to sell it to me at a great price. John agreed to buy it for me for Christmas, which couldn't have made me happier! I've got a really nice SLR Canon camera from back when I took a photography class in college, but of course, it takes film ... totally impractical. I've been dying for a digital SLR so I could play around with aperatures, shutter speeds and ISOs. As everyone knows, I love taking pictures of my girls, but with my little point-n-shoot, I always have to use a flash, or they come out blurry. I want to be able to take more pictures using natural lighting to avoid using a flash whenever possible, so I really need an SLR. Anyway, this new camera is perfect for me. I don't plan on becoming a professional photographer anytime soon, but I'm excited about learning more so I can take better pictures of my little beauties. Nothing would bring me more pleasure than to be gifted enough to capture their personalities and charm in some quality photos. Today was a fun day to try out the camera, since it was sunny and we were outside. But I must say, it was really COLD!!

(Yes, I was also lying on my belly, flat to the ground in order to take the above shot!)

My dad was so cute - he came outside and helped them build a snowman :)

Soon after we came outside, Alyssa thought it would be funny to put snow in my hood. Apparently, Reagan was watching and thought it would be funny to do the same to Alyssa.