Last week

Well, I guess it's time for another catch up post.  Someday I'll learn how to manage my time better, but for now, the free time I have is spent either working, cleaning, cooking, trying to persuade Benjamin to eat, cleaning, and did I mention cleaning?  Toddlers don't bode well for keeping a house in any kind of order.  You'd think with the amount of time I spend picking up around our house that it would actually be clean.  You'd be wrong.

So - last week was a busy one but thankfully also involved some days off for Matt.  Here's a short recap by phone pictures :)

Enjoying a post-church brunch in Wash Park, Benjamin was thrilled to watch baseball on TV:

We had yet another snow-storm, so Matt had to work from home one day (to avoid a 2+ hour commute thankfully!).  Over lunch he brought Benjamin by my office to say hello:

Proof of said snowstorm... this was only the beginning:

Stopping by the Westras for a little catching up and dinner... these boys are pretty funny together:

Wishing Matt's uncle Steve a happy birthday from afar:

Taking advantage of having daddy at home, we hit up our favorite brunch spot, Sassafras over in LoHi:

Friday night we had the VW's over for dinner and game night.  I was very proud of myself for making a delicious Chinese meal, my first ever attempt, of baked sweet and sour chicken with fried rice (thank you Pinterest).  :)  It was a fun night!

AND THEN, we spent much of the weekend looking for a new car {insert audible groan}. Talk about one of our least favorite things to do!  Matt's car (i.e. the car I bought when I graduated college ten years ago) pooped out on us again and it was time to turn her in.  It was a sad day saying goodbye to Dixie - she's been all over the country and served as a great sidekick throughout my 20s.  DC, Chicago, Boston, Maine, North Carolina... such a trooper!  BUT, these snow storms were reminding us that we can't fool around any longer given how often the car holds our very precious cargo!!

SO, this is how Benjamin spent much of his time - playing/reading at dealerships.  He honestly was really great and only had a few tantrums which is not bad considering if felt like we were there forever.

Thanks to a lot of "creative" financing and wheeling and dealing, we finally drove away with a Subaru Outback.  It's like we finally joined the ranks of real Coloradans now that we drive the "official" vehicle of Colorado.  {So far, we really do love it!}

{We also had a bbq with Matt's great coworkers, but somehow in the daze of just purchasing a car, I forgot to take any pictures of it...}

Sunday we celebrated my dad's 55th (that's right, FIFTY-FIVE!) birthday with lunch at our house.  Amber came over early to help me cook and the food turned out delicious (again, thank you Pinterest).  The weather was beautiful and we had a great time celebrating Grampa!

That evening we took a stroll to the local Gelatto shop and picked up some tasty ice cream for the walk home.  :-)  Benjamin was a big fan!

Oh, and Happy Earth Day (Monday) :-)  It snowed AGAIN, but thankfully it's all melted by now.  Good riddance snow!!

Life according to {lots of} pictures

Momma Larson has been a delinquent blogger.  No excuses.  Just juggling life, work, toddler, family, and a lot of random stuff in between.  I've been very thankful (make that extremely thankful) to be back at work, even if it is only 2 days a week and at a job I know isn't long-term.  Turns out taking the better part of a year "off", doesn't pay the bills.  Who knew?  So, back at the grind and trying to figure out the long-term solutions.  In our Bible Study recently we talked about stress and how that can often (or always) be a form of not trusting God.  (We're reading an awesome book called One Thousand Gifts - highly reccomend it!)  So after lots of thought and great discussion, I've been working on not just not stressing, but really, trusting.  We may have a lot of questions these days, but ultimately, I trust that God is at work and we'll get where we need to be somehow. 

SO - I think I've probably done this same titled post before (or many times...)... because I'm lazy and always want to keep blogland posted on our adventures :)  Here we go with the photo recall of life lately...

Matt was in NYC for about five days and had a great time working hard and enjoying the city (color me SUPER jealous... I tried hard to find a flight to get out there at the same time, but alas, I had to acknowledge that probably wasn't in the budget). 
 

And (gasp) he actually took pictures!

Benjamin and I had a great time while he was gone; sometimes there's really nothing like snuggling/bonding with your little one.  I can't even tell you how amazing his cuddles are!  We sent dad these pictures on baseball's Opening Day (which is probably Matt's favorite day of the year):

Oh, and in other news, Benjamin totally has a mullet.  You can see it in all of its glory during bathtime:

Amber took me to get a pedicure (a late birthday present, I think?!), and Benjamin came along for the ride!

Matt got back in time for it to be 70 degrees, prompting me to water the front lawn a bit... which ultimately lead to us discovering a pipe that had frozen last month and subsequently "flooded" part of our basement when I turned the faucet on.  SO, that was F.U.N.

we have a guy coming on Monday to finish the carpet-  we just couldn't do it!

Miss Karen was in town for her big wig job as the head of government affairs for some super awesome space or satellite company (or something super cool like that) and stopped by for brunch.  It was a gorgeous day and we got to catch up (and try to talk her into moving to Denver!).  Love this girl so much!

And in other, other news, Benjamin "talks" ALL the time now.  He jabbers on and on and on... which we LOVE, but of course we're starting to realize this could get quite interesting once we can actually understand what he's saying!  This was him telling us a "story" during dinner one night.  no clue what he was talking about, but it included arm movements and laughs :)

We got memberships to the Denver Rec Center system (we have an awesome one about ten minutes away), so I've been trying to go at least a few times a week.  The elliptical I use has this awesome view, so it's not as painful as it could be!  (If it were a little clearer, you'd see the mountains) They have kid-watch for certain times during the day, which is AWESOME.  Almost like an extra incentive to go (let's be honest)! :-)

We still try to hit up Book Babies at the local library whenever we can, and we usually try to go early and peruse the children's books.  While there this week, we discovered a whole bunch of books on Benjamin Franklin!

Last night I finally got a real girls night out and it was awesome.  I always say this, but I'm so grateful for a group of friends like this who loves one another, supports one another, and eats/drinks with one another (regularly!).  I've been blessed by this group and am grateful for all the great memories.

With Benjamin growing out of his infant car seat (which has been in Matt's car since we installed his fabulously luxurious big boy car seat in my car), we broke down and got a "cheap" booster seat for him to use when taking BW to daycare.  We haven't installed it yet, but Benjamin has loved climbing into it and just hanging out.  He'll bring a book, a toy, a sippy cup... such a funny kid!

And best of all, we finally took Benjamin to a CU football game :)  Well, not a real game, but a Spring game which means a) free and b) kid-friendly.  We headed up to Boulder early and walked around the campus a bit, and I got teary eyed seeing my little boy running along the very same paths I used to run to class on (over 10 years ago!!).  It was a beautiful morning, and everything was just perfect.  Benjamin loved the game (even got to watch Ralphie run right up close!) and even behaved extremely well for the whole half we were there!  What a special day for mom.  When he becomes a Buff in 17 years (hehe), I'll show him these pictures with so much pride!!

Video of the Ralphie Run from Matt's phone:

he kept reaching for the ball like it was his turn or something

When we got home, I made a "play house" out of the car seat box.  Benjamin immediately became obsessed and wanted to go in and out, bringing toys and food in with him.  It was pretty funny!

And lastly, I caught Benjamin just hanging out by the garage door while we were playing outside.  I snapped a few pics, it was just too darn cute :)