Halloween Part I

This year's Halloween gave us too many good pictures and stories for just one blog, so over the next week or two (barring a new baby joining us sooner than later) I will try to throw out some little stories and pictures. I hope others will share their stories too. If not, you will have to forgive me if most of the stories end up a little Tyler focused.

2006 was the year of the themes for each of the families. Winning the award for the best overall costumes would go to the Laurence family for their re-creation of the Peter Pan cast. Captain Craig Hook was the scariest, spooking both Morgan and Tyler. Melissa Smead led a troop that also included Wendy Madison, Tinkerbell Mackenzie, Peter Pan Clayton and Tiger Lilly Morgan.

The Kent Besaw family got the award for the most "obviously home made" costumes with their two parent purple dinosaurs (complete with purple tails) that accompanied Tyler's cute Purple Dino/Dragon costume. I wasn't too fond of my Biceratops costume, but I did try to be a good sport. Tyler insisted that all three of us had to go as Purple Dinosaurs and this homemade costume sure beat something goofy like Barney.

The Guth parents didn't show up to the costume ball dressed up, but both their children were adorable. London wins for best props as her Dorothy basket that held Toto was adorable. Little Kennedy was the best Good Witch any party could hope to have. She sure seemed to have a good time taking it all in while sister London loved handing candy out to the trick or treaters.

Of course, it was great having grandma and grandpa Besaw there as well. The kids all love them so much. We sure did miss the Carl Besaw family but knew that they were having a great time as well. We will look forward to seeing some pictures from them soon.

Look for more pictures and/or Halloween stories to be posted in the near future!

Cougar Football & Stair Surfing

Let us first announce that we should be able to do more emailing and blogging because we finally have DSL at home. In fact, right now Jamie and Kent are writing this from their couch while Kent watches the World Series. Isn't modern technology truly amazing.

Kent is enjoying his new job and is getting to feel at home in his new office. Surprisingly, he doesn't even mind the commute all that much as he has listened to a few good books on tape. School is also going fairly well for him, although his current class is a little heavy on theory and not so much on application.

Jamie is anxious to get little Bohonkus' feet out from under her ribs. She is a real trooper, most days, but is a little apprehensive about life with 2 kids while Kent is still in school. Its a case of "ready or not here he comes."

Tyler continues to be a joy to all who spend time around him. He has a few new favorite games, but his favorite toy is still his daddy. Tyler LOVES to play what he calls COUGAR FOOTBALL. Basically, Tyler throws the ball off of his dad's head and then they both scramble after it. It usually results in a lot of tickling, wrestling and laughing. Tyler adores his cougar T-shirt and even though it is short sleeved, we came up with a way for him to wear it year round (as seen in these pictures).

Another favorite game was discovered when Kent and Jamie were cleaning the carpets. The only dry carpeted area was the stairs. Morgan was visiting and she and Tyler figured out how to "Body Surf" down them. They would then climb back up the stairs repeating, "Almost to the Top, Almost to the Top." Then when they reached the top, body surf back down saying "Whee" the whole way down. When Kent was recruited to join the "fun" the result was a couple of pretty nasty carpet burns.

As funny as this game may sound to this point, this is only the tip of the iceberg. That night when Tyler said his prayer (which he no longer accepts help from his parents to do) he said, "Thank you I learned to play almost to the top almost to the top, WHEEEE!" It took a lot of effort for his parents not to laugh too hard in the middle of the prayer.

Another funny story that came from the newfound "stair surfing" skill was when our hometeachers came to visit the next day. Tyler has been slowly coming out of his shell and is not as shy towards adults as he was just a month or so back. When the hometeachers were here he had one cornered and reading stories and playing lightsabers. Then, he pulled him away to make sure that he showed him how he played "almost to the top!"

Tyler is definately a real Ham and we love him for it. I guess its another case of like father like son.

We love you all and look forward to more blogging from us and everyone else.

Life at the Laurences

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long. Looks like Adam and Annaka are doing well with their new school schedules and activities. What a great looking party pirate Adam! Sounds like it was a lot of fun!

Things have been insanely busy around here right now with preparations for the primary program, keeping a huge primary staffed and functioning, volunteering at the kid's school and just being a mom and dad. We can relate to Annaka feeling like there is more homework because we're experiencing that as well; especially now that Clayton is learning to read and has that to do each night! But over all life is going really well. Mackenzie and Madison have a piano recital on Monday that we've been preparing for. Is Annaka doing piano still now she's taking violin? Clayton loved finishing out the soccer season and now we're debating on whether Melissa's schedule can accomodate Jr. Jazz Basketball. Between Craig's two jobs and three church callings we are lucky to have time together to do anything other than the necessary home cleaning/maintenance stuff with him, but we are really proud of what he does to provide for our family. Being the Emergency Communications person for the ward he recently got his HAM Radio license so we should set up a time with you California Besaw's to practice!

I know it's taken me forever, but here is the information for our Cousins Christmas Exchange:

Annaka gives to Clayton
Adam gives to Morgan
Mackenzie gives to Kennedy
Madison gives to Tyler
Clayton gives to Adam
Morgan gives to Annaka
Tyler gives to London
Baby Besaw gives to Madison
London gives to Baby Besaw
Kennedy gives to Mackenzie

We discussed a $15 to $20 price range so hopefully that is still okay with everyone. We are looking forward to all being together in November! Hope you are all still doing well!

Love -The Laurences

Greetings from California

I know it has been a while since we added a post to the blog so here is our attempt to try and catch you up on what has been happening with us. We have been very busy with a new school year starting up, activities for the children, and Adam's first big birthday party with all of his friends.

I can't believe Annaka is in 4th grade! Here she is posing for her first day of school:

She is enjoying school even though she has considerably more homework than she had last year. She is also a class representative on her school's student council and will be helping out with several activities throughout the year. Annaka is also on the drill team at her school and started violin this past week. She finished her summer tennis lessons the first week school started back. Since her mom won't ever play tennis with me, I'm hoping Annaka will.

Adam started back to school a couple weeks after Annaka. Because of his late birthday, we decided to have him do one more year of pre-school. He is going 5 days a week so kindergarten shouldn't be much of an adjustment next year. Adam is also playing soccer for his first year. Here are some pictures of him in his soccer uniform and with his team:

Adam turned 5 on September 14th and a week later we had his pirate themed birthday party. Amy made a pretty cool pirate ship birthday cake and Adam got some early use out of this years Halloween costume.

For his party we played games like musical islands (the pirate version of musical chairs), pop the cannonballs (black balloons), and took the kids on a treasure hunt that led to treasure chest pinata. We all had fun, although we felt really awful when we found out two days later that Annaka and Adam had scarlet fever and quite possibly were contagious the day of the party. Thankfully we haven't heard of anyone else getting it, and the candles Adam blew out were not on the cake we served to the guests. Whew! After a couple of days home from school and a round of antibiotics they were back to their regular activities. We hope all of you are well and send our love to each of you.