Photos of the girls!

Our friend Emily took some GREAT pictures of the girls! I'm so excited to get some of these printed up and in frames. She did Daelyn in her blessing dress and some other poses I wanted. I even used some of them to update the profile photos on my sidebar. She posted some of them on her blog too! Click here to see them . . . (You have to look! SO CUTE!!)

Emily Harkness Photography

(then you can tell HER how cute they are too, SO CUTE!!!!)

She is in North Ogden, if anyone is interested in having her do some photos. I think she really captured my girls personalities in these pictures! Thanks SO MUCH Emily! We love all the pictures you took.

Uncle Tony!

Here's Tony with Daelyn and Lily. I thought this was really cute, had to post it!

Violin Lessons!

I've always wanted my Dad to teach my kids how to play the violin, but having moved out of Utah the opportunity had not really presented itself. Recently, Holley expressed a desire to learn, so we asked grandpa if he could squeeze in a couple short lessons during our vacation time. For me this was one of those incredibly awesome sweet moments in life.



Brinley REALLY wanted to play too, so grandpa let her try for a minute too.

Daelyn listening to the music.

LegoLand & San Diego!

Here are some pictures from the Larsen trip to San Diego. Derek, Holley, and Brinley had a great time, and I was glad for all the pictures and videos they got so that I could see just how much fun they had.


Holley on the phone with momma saying goodnight.



Here's a video clip of Brin that I thought was cute.

Daelyn's name.

I just realized I never posted about why we chose Daelyn's name, and I thought some of you might be interested. So here's the story to those of you who care to know.

The origin of Daelyn, is Dale, which is Dereks middle name, and his Dad's first name. We thought it would be special for her to be named in honor of her Daddy, especially since they share a birthday. We were still a little unsure about it though the first day or two, because it didn't really sound good with any of the middle names we were considering.

The morning after Daelyn's birth, I woke up in the hospital room, and the name Brielle popped into my head. Brielle was one of the names that I had on my list of names I really liked, but we felt it might be too similar to Brinley, and hadn't considered it as a middle name, and kind of forgot about it. When it popped into my head that morning my mind immediately tried it as a middle name with Daelyn, and I thought it sounded really pretty. We were still a little unsure, because we've always chosen middle names with a family significance. We eventually decided (after we were home from the hospital a whole day.) that since her first name had the "family significance" factor, we could choose the middle name that we just thought sounded really pretty. and wha La! Daelyn Brielle Larsen!

I also posted a ton of pictures today so scroll down if you haven't seen them yet.

2 Week update!

Okay, here's a 2 week update, and I hope you're all in the mood to look at TONS of pictures cause I have a TON of cute ones! Don't mean to sound too prideful, but I think my kids are SOOOOO CUTE (especially little baby Daelyn)!!!! Seriously, this post probably has as many pictures as all my posts from the last year combined!

I can't believe how fast these two weeks have gone. Here's what we've been up to. . .
The weekend we came home from the hospital, my parents came into town to visit, my dad stayed for a couple days, and my mom was able to stay for two weeks.(She left just this morning.) We were totally spoiled by the ward and friends who brought us dinners for 5 nights. It was great to feel so loved. My Dad brought with him his camera, which is much nicer than ours, so we were able to get some pretty good pictures. The saturday after I got home from the hospital, Holley had her first dance recital. Derek went with her to the dress rehearsal and watched the recital then, so that he could stay home with Daelyn that evening while Grandma, Grandpa, Brinley and I went to the actual performance! I was really impressed with how well Holley remembered all her steps and moves! She did so well!
On monday, Derek had to go back to work, Holley back to school(final week), and Grandpa, back to Utah. Holley enjoyed having grandma here to walk her to and from the bus every day, and on friday she had her last day of school! I guess that makes her an official 1st grader now! She brought home a good report card, on which her teacher commented . . . "Holley is an outstanding reader. She will make a great first grader." We are so proud of how hard she worked, and how much she learned this year, we too are impressed with what a good reader she's become, she reads a verse or two all by herself every night at family scripture study, and has even been diligently having personal scripture study time. Just recently she borrowed an old set of Derek's scriptures cause she was interested in reading the Doctrine and Covenants, and her scriptures only have the Book of Mormon. We are so proud that she is making this kind of personal decisions at only 6 years old.
Saturday, (May 23rd) Derek had an incredible opportunity. A girl who has been in his seminary class for the last few years decided to be baptized and asked him if he would do it. This was his first baptism since his mission, and he felt nervous but VERY honored. That night we went out for dinner to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. (Thanks mom for watching all 3 girls for a couple hours.)
On Monday, May 25th (our actual anniversary, and Memorial day) Derek, Holley, and Brinley left for California for a vacation with Derek's family, (which was planned before we even got pregnant.) We felt it unwise for the baby and I to go so soon after she was born, so my mom stayed here with us. On Tuesday and Wednesday they went to Lego land, and then spent the next couple days at the beach. I've missed them SO MUCH, but it was a good opportunity to spend a quiet week with just my mom, and my new little one. We spoiled ourselves and watched lots of movies and relaxed. She also helped me do some cleaning and some other things around the house. It was a good week.
Mom left this morning, and Derek and the girls will come home tomorrow. So Daelyn and I will have a couple quiet days to ourselves. (which is why I actually had time to make this post.) I'll enjoy this time but can't wait to see the rest of my family tomorrow!
Here's all the pictures (hope you enjoy). . .

Holley's recital.
Her hair wrapped in rags! I think she's so cute with rags in her hair, she didn't really appreciate us taking this picture, but we thought it was so cute we couldn't resist.





On Sunday, my dad took a ton of photos for us. We got a lot of cute ones! Here's a sampling of some of the pictures he took. . .















Here are a few other pics from last week. . .
Brinley came out with these little gloves and wanted them put on her feet. She then started to waddle around the house saying, "I'm a penguin, I'm a penguin!" I have NO clue where she came up with this, but it was SO CUTE!!!!!!




Holley and Sadie after Holley's dance pictures,(which explains her clothes, hair, and the make-up.)

Brinley playing in the rain! I probably wouldn't have let her, but grandma was here, and I'm glad, cause she sure had a BLAST, and look how cute these pictures are!




Daelyn napping on the couch.


Here are some pictures me and my mom took of Daelyn a week ago! I thought they turned out WAY CUTE! You can even see she was still holding on to her little cord stub, it fell off finally the next day.



Holley and Daelyn last Saturday morning, Holley's been such a sweet big sister and wants to hold Daelyn every chance she gets.




Cute pics from last sunday.





Daelyn and her beautiful grandma Mayhue!



Daelyn napping on her Boppy.