Thank-full!

Wednesday - 15 hours in the car brought us to Grandma and Grandpa Great's house in Pleasant View, UT, where we met up with my parents who greeted us with burgers, fries and shakes from the Burger Bar. Oh, yum.

Thursday - A lazy, relaxing, fun day with the grandparents and greats. Nope, no Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Instead we enjoyed my momma's clam chowder and breadsticks. That'll beat turkey any day!

Smashing the BEST rice crispy treats down into the pan with Grandma Great

Drawing with Grandpa Great

Friday - a visit with Granny Mann at her new home in Hyrum, UT, a visit to the cheese factory in Logan, then we headed up to the stake lodge in Ogden Canyon for the Larsen Fam Thanksgiving bash. I have 40 cousins and many of us have kids of our own now. Not everyone was there, but Ty said he thought the final count was 86 people. It was SO good to get caught up with many of these wonderful people whom I haven't seen in years. I loved every minute of it and wished it had been longer so I could have chatted it upwith each of them some more. After dinner we had a fun Christmas party, complete with St. Nick (which Kelly really loved - see picture below :)) and a nativity. Then we settled down (at midnight) for a surprisingly good night's rest.

Traditional decorating of the turkey by the little people of the fam

No wonder I've been getting so many "big" comments lately...32 weeks looks a little more like full-term on me.

Handsome shepherds...although Jack shedded his robe in favor of being a nativity dinosaur :)

She still had the presence of mind to take the orange in the midst of her horror

Saturday - a baby shower (for Marilee) and a bridal shower (for Emily) in the morning, some of the fam went to visit David O. McKay's home, ate some lunch, then headed home to G'ma and G'pa Great's for the BYU-Utah game (yeah Cougs!) Once the game finally ended after some overtime, we headed to Temple Square (picked up Burger Bar on the way...yep, again!) to meet up with a few of Ty's brothers and their families. It was late and a little crazy with all of our little people, but oh, so fun!

Sunday - about 14 1/2 hours in the car this time and then we were HOME. *On the way home Ty asked, "What did you think of the Thanksgiving dinner?" It sounded from his question like he was going to complain about it. Not so. Instead he told me that it was one of the most delicious, memorable Thanksgiving dinners he's ever had. He just wanted to talk about how good it was. :) * It felt good to be back in our neck of the woods - green trees everywhere, moist air. Ahhhh, I love coming home. Especially since it means we can get ready for Christmas and this little man who will be joining us in less than two months!

The Absolute Love of My Life....

Turns 32 today!!!

I am so blessed. I can't say 'lucky' because luck had little to do with it. Heavenly Father very specifically brought Tyler Michael Foster into my life just over 5 years ago. He is my perfect match and very best friend. Today we celebrate his life and glory in the fact that this amazing man came into the world. He rocks our world and simply rocks in general. Happiest of Birthdays, man of mine!

Today the kiddos won't get to give him birthday kisses or hugs because he has class and won't be home until after they're in bed...but we have managed to have QUITE a weekend. It started on Friday when I took him out under the guise of a birthday dinner date. We did go to dinner, but ended up at Springridge Gardens Bed and Breakfast. I'm so sneaky. :) We had a perfect night's stay and a really relaxing morning there, then came back to some very cute kids.

Just after we got home, Max and Kelly gave their dad the cards we'd made . They each had $5.00 they'd been given from Tutu for Halloween, so we decided to put it to good use. Kelly's card invited Dad on an ice cream date after lunch (her treat).

Max's invite was to go on a movie date that afternoon (popcorn was on him). I thought that since his time has been so limited with all of us since school started, one-on-one dates would be the very best gift. We each got him all to ourselves. Heaven.

Umm...can we talk about the fact that my little boy has a jawline?! Where did the babe chubs go?

We dragged out the celebration through Sunday. We had a yummy breakfast, gave him his gifts, had his birthday dinner, cake and ice cream (chocolate cake, frosting and ice cream - SO much chocolate per his request!)...man, we love this guy! Happy, Happy Birthday, Tyler Michael!!! We are so lucky to belong to you.

"I wish..."

"...that instead of liking blood, vampires liked to eat, like, chicken or tuna." - Max Foster

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*My favorite discussion which takes place a few times a day*

"Kelly, do you love me?" "Yeah," with signature emphatic head nod. "Oh. Good."

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We were playing and Max told me that I was going to play Baby Jesus and he was going to be Joseph. He draped a blanket over his head and then told me he was going to give me a blessing. He put his hands on my head and said (in a deep voice, of course, as he was playing a much older man):

"Baby Jesus Foster, I lay my hands upon your head to give you a blessing. You will grow up and someday go back to live with God. We will miss you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I wondered for a second whether I should let him proceed (is it sacrilegious?) but then thought that it was pretty amazing he knew the right words to say and someday he'll be giving blessings for real...so this was just practice.

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Our ward had a talent show.

Ty was doing three numbers with a few different people; displaying his vocal, guitar, and harmonica skills. Max decided he wanted to participate. For weeks he would stand on his "stage" *the back of the couch or recliner* and sing in his most voluminous voice Book of Mormon Stories. I wasn't sure how the actual talent show would play out - Would he be confident? Would he chicken out completely? We got there and the confidence level was still super strong, "No, Mom, you can just sit on the front row and clap" was his response when I asked if he wanted me to stand by him on the stage. The time came. His name was called. I put him on the stage and those big, beautiful, blue eyes were suddenly filled with some serious fear, "Mom, I want you to stand by me." The song started out a little timid, but gained gusto a few lines in. He finished off strong to resounding applause. He had practiced a dramatic bow at home *all on his own, we don't know where he learned to bow like that* but instead threw himself in my arms and buried his head when he finished this time. Was this momma proud? My heart was about to burst.

Your opinion matters! (kind of)

I always do this. I think that I should grow my hair out, I do grow my hair out, and then I eventually cut it and look at pictures of my long hair wondering why I thought I should grow it out in the first place. I have been really trying to get out of Ty what he prefers, but he refuses. He likes it however I have it - long or short doesn't matter to him (or so he diplomatically - wisely? - says).

A few considerations:

• I've really liked being able to do a ponytail
• I've got chubby pregnant face so I'm not going to go super short because then it would highlight the face roundness
• Maybe it's more that I don't have a good long-hair style? I've thought of trying to do the loose-curl look, but haven't tried yet. I feel like a total poser in the world of long-hair girls.
• Or maybe I'm at the second awkward growing-out stage and just need to plow through it?
• I always like my hair when I cut it. Always.

Tyler would warn you that even after giving me your opinion, I'm going to do what I want to do anyway. It's true (and the reason he decides not to give his opinion, I'm sure). But it does help in my decision-making, even if my decision ends up being to go against popular opinion. It's part of my process. So, come on, help a girl out!

**I would give you pictures to help form an opinion, but I don't have any cute ones of me long-haired. I would take a picture today, but I exercised and have no intention of doing my hair. Scroll through old pictures if you must.**

We've been...

building family room forts and hanging in them for several hours. I love doing this with the kids! Next time I need to make it a little bigger, though, because they insist on me sitting in there with them the whole time. Let's just say I can't fit into tight spaces very well these days (see pictures below).

building incredibly tall, complex block towers. Well, Ty has been anyway. Let's be honest - even though we gave these blocks to Max for his 1st birthday, they were really for Tyler. The goal this time was to make it as tall as me...

mission accomplished!

checking out the salmon swimming upstream (no, not at midnight as it appears in the pictures...t'was a Sunday evening about dusk). If you want to see this phenomenon yourself you'll either have to Google it (since our video didn't turn out due to the darkness) or come and visit in early November! It's pretty amazing; I got tired just watching them. We stood at a spot in the river where there was a bit of a "step" for them to swim up. It took a few of them several tries. We cheered them on, though, and eventually they all made it. It made me think of my marathon and also about the upcoming labor and delivery of this little man growing inside of me. I totally know how you feel, little fish! I'm just glad my 'reward' for such hard work isn't death on the river banks.

saying things Mom wants to record (Maxwell T):

Max: Is it sad that a drink of root beer washes out the taste of the pizza and the taste of the grapes? (I know, super healthy dinner...but, hey, I threw in some grapes!)

Me: Is it sad to you?

Max: Well, yeah, it seems sad. I think so.

And we've reached the end of an era (11/2/09). Max has always pronounced restaurant "restaur-not" and I have always loved it. The other day we were driving and he asked what one building was. I replied that it was some type of restaurant. He paused for a minute and then asked, "Mom, how do you say restaur-not?" I cringed and tried to pretend I didn't hear because I knew that once I told him that would be it - the end of restaur-not. The little man persisted, though, and I finally answered with a sigh, "Restaurant." "Oh!" responds Max. For the next two minutes he quietly said it over and over until it was ingrained. I don’t imagine we’ll ever hear his cute voice utter the word restaur-not again. Such a sad day. And that is precisely why I will call cheese tortillas 'cookietillas' and respond, "Otay!" to Kelly for as long as I can.

squeezing hands while driving to watch the salmon (Nov. 8th) as we realized it was the 5-year anniversary of Ty's very romantic marriage proposal...and my acceptance, of course. Reminiscing and kissing followed.

The Good Life

or pumpkin-picking this year we went to the quaint pumpkin patch we'd gone to the previous year. Except this year, because of some torrential rains we'd had a few weeks previous, it was a mostly empty field with a few rotting pumpkins scattered. Nice. Max's face in the picture below shows how we felt about each pumpkin once we rolled it over to find nothin' but the guts. So we ended up going through a big bin they had full of pumpkins they'd shipped in; grocery-store style.

But you can't sit on a tractor when picking a pumpkin at a grocery store...
and you can't ride with your pumpkins in a little wagon to the check-out counter...
or have the fun familial bonding that Mom makes the family go to a pumpkin patch for.
We had a speed-carving session on Tuesday night (our new FHE night due to Ty's school schedule) because Ty had some guys coming over to practice for the upcoming ward talent show.
Halloween Day was a blur. I finished the kid's costumes that morning, we did major grocery shopping, went to a friend's baptism, got in costumes, went to Max's friend's birthday party, packed into the van and went to Trunk or Treat at the Church, hit up a few neighbor houses on the way home, then ate dinner, had the traditional hot chocolate/cider and donuts, and finally relaxed for a few minutes. It was a good day, but I hope that next year is more calm and I get to do some of the other traditional Halloween things I like to do, such as a creamy clam chowder dinner with breadsticks. Mmmm...I missed that.

Here is the final product of my costume-making - Super Max (NOT to be confused with Superman, thank you!) *and will you please note the muscle shirt that I made myself with batting, some material, a needle and thread? I was quite pleased with my ability to form a six-pack! Who knew I possessed that talent?*
Super Kelly was THRILLED to have purple hair! Anytime anyone said the word 'hair' and looked in her direction, she would point to her head and excitedly say, "Purple!" The girl is really into colors and pink and purple are the favorites. She, sadly, ended up with many shades of purple. That was hard for a minute for this neurotic mom...but I got over it. Especially since she only wore the mask for the few minutes it took to snap these pictures.
In non-holiday-related news, I hit 28 weeks, start of the third trimester! I've already gained the 20 pounds that I gained my entire pregnancy with Kelly, so I'm feeling a little large and in charge, but just so HAPPY to be carrying this little man. I have felt his spirit so close these last few days especially and I get teary-eyed every time I think about him. It's a miracle that I feel privileged to be a part of...even if it means buying the value-size Tums and downing two several times each day.