Three brothers at their elder brother's funeral

Larry sent this today. I liked it so thought I would post it.

3 and 3 months

Here are kate's 3 year pictures and Eliza's 3 month pictures. They were so cute I had to share.

Uncle Odell

I thought Uncle Odell's funeral was really nice. Incredibly sad--why do we do funerals anyway? They're heartbreaking--but also a time to get together with family and be there for one another during such a sad time. It was nice to see cousins, hear Craig play the piano like a pro (who knew he could do that?!), and be there for Dad. I haven't been to Grandma & Grandpa's grave site since Grandpa was buried in 1995, so it was nice to see their headstone. Here are a few pictures from Saturday:

Odell Larson

Odell Larson had a great life and we all hope he is now happy, he is with his father in heaven. We love Odell and can't wait to see you again!

He is risen, as He said.

Happy Easter to you all!















(first 2 images from delos & misty/mom & dad's trip to israel)

Binkie Fairy

All of my kids LOVE binkies, but Kate took it to an even higher level. It was more like an appendage, a necessity, a part of her. So when she turned 3 on Monday I was dreading taking them away. But yesterday I told her no more binkies and we put them in an envelope for the binkie fairy. The binkie fairy brought her a fairy book and magnets which she was thrilled with. I waited for the meltdown that I knew would eventually come, but she just cried a little at nap time and hasn't even mentioned it since. WEIRD. Next conquest - the potty. :(

Happy Birthday, Dad!

There's never been a Dad (or Grandpa) quite like you.
You're the best.
We love you!

Hope you had a good day.

Happy Birthday Crazy Bones!

Hope you have a very happy birthday, dude.

Hunter, August 18, 2001 (3 years old)

Hunter was born my senior year of high school.
Mom was out of town so I asked Dad if I could skip school the next day (my birthday)
and go see him at the hospital.
He said no.
I went to first period, then went anyway.
Dad was there too.
Whoops.
But I was so happy to see my Crazy Bones.

Love ya Hunter!

NBA Skills Competition

From Delos:

Good news...last night the NBA skills competition people were in Draper, so we took Austin down.  Man there were piles of kids there.  It's a timed course,
you run and hit a layup, dribble to FT line and take a shot there (if you miss any of your shots you can shoot 2 more times, you just move on if you miss
3 times), then you dribbled through some cones, pass to a guy (who passes it back) at half-court, then sprint through some more cones and hit one last
layup.  Well, Austin won the whole competition, had the best time (25.8 seconds including a 2 second bogus penalty because they though his toe might have
been off a circle when he received he pass back from the guy at 1/2 court) and now moves on to state.  I could see the key was hitting your FT on the first
try, so I told him to take his time, not rush it too fast, and he was one of only maybe a dozen kids that hit the FT first try.  Very fun. He'll be in the
Draper paper next week. He got a McD's gift certificate along with his ribbon and a certificate.  I also got McD's certificate because I was the person at
half-court making the passes back to the kids...and I never missed a pass! Congratulations, Austin!

Temples

We know that several modern prophets, beginning with Brigham Young have prophecied that the day would come when Temples would "dot the earth". Yet there have been many periods of history when there have been none on the face of the earth. Anciently we know of one, Solomon's temple. And, when Christ came to earth there was still only one - in Jerusalem - and Christ regarded it as His own (Matt 21:12-13) and His Father's (John 2:14).


Even in modern times, though I'm not terribly ancient (my children will argue about that), I remember clearly from my youth that there were only 8 in all the earth.


And now! I can walk out my front door, and there are three within my view.



















And, within a half-hour drive I can be at three more.

AND, there are 123 more that "dot the earth".

Sometimes I forget what truly remarkable times we live in!

rainbow cake.

looks yummy!

(from here)

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo,
em

a lost generation?

Buried Treasure

When I was set apart as a full-time missionary by Theodore M. Burton almost 48 years ago he suggested that I use the letters I sent home as my missionary journal rather than keep a journal while serving, so as to devote as much time as possible to missionary work. I determined to do that.

So, I faithfully wrote letters to my parents and to Carma every week. After we married I thought my parents had given me those letters and I had stored them in a box (with the one's I had written to Carma).

Through some unfortunate circumstances that box was destroyed and, so I thought, also my only written record of my mission. One of the great disappointments of my life - I had always planned to (someday) take those letters and produce my mission journal. I was not absolutely positive my parents had given them to me so on one of our visits to Mom, after Dad was gone, I searched the house with her - literally every drawer and storage area in their house. I wasn't too optimistic because they had moved several times and I was pretty sure they had given them to me many years ago. Anyway, after the search I was fully convinced they did not have them. So, all I had was my memory - which isn't getting better with age.

Thursday, I went up to visit Emily and do a few little jobs for her. When I got home, there was a phone message from Donna saying that in cleaning out the storeroom under the stairs in their home (Mom and Dad's old home in Logan), they had found a few things of mine. They had driven down to attend the Draper Temple open house, and since I wasn't home they left the stuff in a large envelope on the front porch.

I went out and got it. As I began to pull things out of the envelope, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were ALL my mission letters to my parents that I had written from March 1961 to March 1963, along with a few other treasures and letters that I had written to Mom and Dad. I was stunned and excited beyond words.

So here they are:

And below is Elder Harold Hinckley (nephew of Gordon B. Hinckley- "Uncle Gordon" was put into the Quorum of the 12 while Elder Hinckley and I served together) and I in 1962 on the front page of the Jackson County Floridian in Marianna, FL (It was our practice when we went to a new town to write an article about why we were there and to take it with our pictures to the local newspaper - we were a little surprised to find it on the front page!)

And here we are (below), on two occasions, in the Lakeland, FL paper.

And, as you can see, also the picture and write-up of Carma and me in the Twin Falls, ID Times-News in Aug. 1963.

While this won't matter to many others, to me it was a priceless discovery. And, oh yes, I will now compile my mission journal - just like I always planned.

always eat your cupcakes before your bath.

here's why:

Eric Joseph Wolf

And here is Eric with his happy parents, Sara and CJ. He was born Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 at about 4:30 pm Houston time. Weighed 8 lb 5 oz and is 21 inches long. Grandchild number 19 for Dave and Carma (Eliza- below- was number 18). Zion is growing.

Baby Eliza

So here's sweet Eliza (Lizzy to Jared). She was born yesterday January 20 at 6:10 pm. She weighed 7 lb 14 oz and was 19.5 inches long. It was my most terrible labor and delivery yet. But she is sweet as can be.

Last summer a girl named Stephanie Nielson was in a plane crash near Mesa, Arizona. She has a blog called the NieNie Dialogues, and after her crash the blogging community really came together and they have received over $250,000 in donations through various channels in the last 6 months. One of those channels is a blog book, called "something cleverish". I'm convinced they stole the "something" from me (seriously, even the font is the same) but that's beside the point. The editor asked for submissions and compiled a book out of the 43 that were accepted. I was one of them. The book is now for sale, and I feel very proud to be in it. It's not a great post (and it's one you've all read before) but still, I'm in a book. It feels neat. So, if you feel like reading 42 really funny blog posts (plus one not-so-funny one from me), all proceeds benefit the NieNie fund. So there you have it. My first book is officially for sale. Neat.

january family home evening

Last month Delos instituted a monthly Larson family home evening. The second one was last night, and it was great! Since we're about halfway between Draper and Logan, everyone comes to our house...thank goodness. We do enough driving down to Draper these days. Last night, Delos's family had the lesson and told the story of Ammon cutting off the Lamanite's arms. Delos asked David to tell the story, and boy did he ever. He even gave such details as the sound Ammon made when he swung his sword...and many other things. He knows that story very well!

Then we let the kids cut off some "arms" to help the story stick. We played Upset the Fruit Basket, ate cinnamon rolls, and had a great time.



It's a really fun family tradition! Thanks for coming everyone!

Happy Birthday Logan!

are you seriously a teenager now?
I can't believe it.
I hope you have a very happy day!