The Tree

We did a tree again this year in my Mom's honor for the Festival of Trees which is a charity that donates 100% of the proceeds to Primary Children's Medical Center. What a neat thing for us as Mom's daughters to do this tree in her name and serving others at the same time. Not to mention that I have a total blast being with my sisters for a day. We had so much fun figuring out the best design, tying bows, cutting wire, and yes even straightening the tree over and over and over again! But it turned out so beautifully and when it is finished it is such a sense of accomplishement!! And my Mom's picture totally adds the extra touch of beauty and class to the entire tree. The title and theme of our tree was "Gifts of a Mother's Love". We did a traditional color scheme and the tree had lots of presents gifts and bows on it. And actually none of the pictures do it justice at all!! Our tree sold for almost 3 times the amount we had paid to make it (actually my dad's company sponsored the tree again this year-Thanks Top Stop!!) and we were all really proud and excited. The cutest little preggo lady bought it and was going to put it in her house. It feels like a piece of my Mom's love and refinement going out into the world. Each time I have left the tree at the end of Festival I feel saddness and loss, but I feel so excited to stand back and look at all the good we did, and to look and feel how proud my Mom would have been and how blessed I was to have her in my life. And in some way the tree represents her and our love and it goes out and on to others. I know it is small and simple but in a way the tree represents to me that my Mom was here, that she lived and loved, and what she represented. I love doing it and hopefully we can continue for as long as we can deal with it! We already have ideas for next year! ;-) Love you sisters who all did this together! It was awesome! (thanksf or the pics from Catherine! My camera cord to the computer has gone missing! UGH!)

My sister in law Aimee, Catherine, me and Dad.
Cute chair we had next to the tree.

The Willis

Dave calls this the "Larson face" :-)

Please enjoy the chub and mohawk on Willis!

Happy Birthday to our little Will!! He is such a sweetheart. I can't believe that he is 2 years old. Somehow it seems like he has always been with us. He has really been such a joy. He is the happiest, messiest, heaviest, funniest, smartest baby that I've had. Will doesn't do anything middle of the road, he is always the extreme. But the one thing about Will is he was such a joy to have as a baby. Maybe because I really needed him after my Mom died, or maybe because I was just more comfortable as a mom, but I really have enjoyed his babyhood. And an added bonus, he was my only baby that really has liked me to cuddle him. Love it! Except for the fact that he has been double the weight of a normal baby, so holding him sometimes is a bit much! :-)

I always kind of feel sad when a baby turns 2 because to me it is kind of the end of their babyhood and start of their childhood/toddlerness. But to me he will always be my baby, a guess like my other 2 as well. I just can't believe what sweet miracles they all are in my life. I am such a lucky mom! Two things I love about Willis are how he loves having his blankie and his binky (which he boths calls Kiki) and how he loves having his shoes on. He is such a funny kid. Happy Birthday to my sweet Will!!!

History

So a while back Mimi (Dave's Mom) discovered something totally interesting in her family history. She discovered that she had a great great great great (or something like that) grandmother who had the name Maren! Spelled just the same way! As well as another ancestor even further back who also had the name Maren. I was totally shocked because either people have never heard of this name or they totally love it. So I had no idea Maren would actually have an ancestor with that name. And the other thing that was so interesting was that in the hospital I was really adamant about the way Maren's name was spelled. Even my own mother wanted me to spell it a different way. But I really had to have it with the M.a.r.e.n spelling. Anyway, then after discovering that we figured out that Mimi's great great grandparents were buried in the Draper Cemetery which is just about 5 minutes from our house. Her great great grandparents were very prominent in Draper and owned a large farm. Her grandfather Peter was known as a great healer through the priesthood and people said that they called on him to bless them before they went to see a doctor. Anyway, so Helen and I set out to find the headstone. The first time we went we must have practically searched the entire cemetery with no luck. The second time we went Helen walked right up to it. She must have some psychic in her! Anyway, it was really neat to see it and see Dave and Helen's ancestors. And in some way to feel a part of it after reading about their lives in history books. They were really strong people and both of them also crossed the plains and sacrificed to be a part of the Church. It was also really neat because the Church has marked their headstones with a special marker indicating that they were pioneers. It says "Faith in every footstep" (That is what those gold square markers are in the corners) What a neat legacy and I'm glad we finally found it!

Mom

Dear Mom-

Two years has gone so fast. It seems like just yesterday that you were here with us. Yet, I can't believe how much has changed. Hopefully I've changed for the better in many ways. I hope that you would be proud of me. I appreciate so much now, and more every day, for the things that you taught us. To be a good person, to hold your head up high, to be Christlike, to be honest and true and full of integrity. To mean what you say and say what you mean. To be kind to others, even when they aren't kind to you. To be graceful and clean, even though I haven't fully mastered these yet, at least not as well as you had. To be refined, to enjoy the arts and to enjoy expression through music and dance. To be dignified and respectful. All of these qualities were a part of you and a part of what you taught us as a mother. You taught me so much through service. I can't believe the endless service that you rendered to others. Never wanting any credit or asking for appreciation. Just doing it out of love and thoughtfulness. Your unwaivering energy to get things done I still marvel at. Everything you did was perfection! From your home to your children. Your mission here on earth was to raise children up unto the Lord and to teach them of His gospel. I know you did that and did that to perfection Mom! Even though having you gone is such a rip off, has changed our life completely, I know that you wouldn't want to be any other place than in heaven and serving our Heavenly Father. I know that you have a great work to do! Once in awhile, check in on me though! You would love the kids, how sweet they are. With Matthew's baptism and Will's curly locks and billboard and Maren's sassiness. You would have loved it. And hopefully you get to see some of it now and then. Mom, I look forward to the day we meet again. Until then, may I live the kind of life that you taught me to live and that you would have counseled me to live. I still hear many of your words of advice in my mind. I love you Mom!!

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

love-

Margaret

FAMOUS!

Finally our youngest son has put the Stone Family on the map!! Will is on a billboard!!! It's off of the freeway near Centerville/Bountiful You can see it on I-15 going South around the 500 S. exit (not sure if this is Bountiful or Centerville- sorry Northerners!) . My sister Andrea spotted it on Saturday and we were so excited. We knew he was in the running, but didn't know he was chosen for the billboard. This pic was taken by my cousin Emily when he was about 2 months old. I always knew my children were model material, but now the world knows! ;-)

Matthew's Baptism

We were so blessed to have Matthew Baptized on Saturday November 1st. It was such a special day. Dave got to baptize and confirm him. Matthew is such an awesome boy. He has been looking forward to this day forever! We looked up about 6 months ago the day he would be baptized and he would go around and tell everyone for months "I'm getting baptized on Nov 1st". He was just so excited and full of enthusiasm that day. He even had to get "dunked" (as Matthew put it) twice and didn't mind a bit! I am so proud of him and the good decisions that he makes. He is such a good boy! We are so lucky to have him in our family. He is a good example to all of us. I also love days like this, baptisms, baby blessings etc. cause I know for sure my Mom is there. It is awesome to think of her being there and to try to feel her spirit around me. I know she would have been so proud of him. I'm just so thankful for the gospel and thankful that my sweet little boy has a testimony too. He tried to bear his testimony on Sunday. It was really sweet but funny. He got a new set of scriptures for his baptism and he went up and tried to read a scripture to the congregation. Dave had to go up and rescue him. But it was still really cute! And he did a great testimony as well.

My Dad and his wife Gail.

How many kids have their Great-grandparents at their baptism? These are my Mom's parents. My grandma and grandpa Eskelson. Opa and Mimi.

Spookie Ookie

I had to entitle the post that because this is what Will said all during October. I thought it was totally cute! Just thought I would share some of picks from Halloween. Carving the pumpkin, trick or treating and school parades. It is all a lot of fun! Not to mention the HUGE amounts of candy we have, now that is dangerous!

Matthew at the Halloween parade! He is a Star Wars Clone. Don't get him confused with his blue clone he was last year ;-)
Carving the pumpkin. All my kids literally gag at the guts, except for Will we discovered this year.

But he still doesn't like his hands dirty.

I love this pic of Will and his expression. It's like "why do I have to walk around to get candy. Can't I just eat this piece!"

Maren with her dance class. You have to give Maren's teacher props because she wore that chicken costume the whole time of class!! Can you imagine how hot that would be!! I would never make it!

Stay-cation

Dave took off a couple of days of work and we were able to go do some fun things around town. On Monday we went to our yearly visit to the pumpkin patch at Engh Gardens. If you haven't been there you should go check it out. It's free, although we think they jack up the pumpkin price, oh well.:-) They have a small maze to go through and they have a pirate ship that they've built. And lots of pumpkins in all sorts of different shapes, colors and sizes! They have pumpkin varities there that I have never seen before! This year we got one big pumpkin to share with the whole family. Then on Tuesday we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. It was a lot of fun. I hadn't been there for a few years and it was a lot nicer than I remembered. They had this little cave the kids got into. They had a sand and water type sandbox thingie where you could make floods, lakes etc. by moving around the sand, trees and dinosaurs. They had a sand pit that was for an archeological dig where you could uncover fossils, totally fun! Then after we took our yearly trip up to the Alpine loop. We have done this since the year I was pg with Matthew. We love taking a picture at the top and comparing them year to year. And we love gathering leaves and taking a small hike. It's an awesome family tradition! We had a lot of fun, sad Dave can't take off more days.

Will and our family pumpkin!




Matthew in the corn maze.




The kids in the cave at the dinosaur museum.

Our hike in the alpine loop.
This picture is mostly funny to me because my boys hate getting their hands dirty. It really cracks me up!!

Kids playing in the sand at the dinosaur museum.


My little archeologists. Kids at the top of the Alpine Loop. (Will was asleep.)