Life at the Larsons

Before I start, I have to say: THANKS FOR THE SWEATSHIRT EDDY FAMILY- CADEN LOVES IT!!!


Well, I know, It’s been a while since an update on here…
It’s not that I haven’t had a lot to say- I always have things to say… I guess it’s just getting myself to sit down and type it all out. January’s been a LONG month- we’ve had our hard days emotionally, but do our best to stay positive…this month has been full of lots and lots of SNOW! Scott’s been scooping and moving snow, but we’re running out of places to put it!
Here are a few pics-









I am up to 8 snow days and counting that need to be made up at one point or another…my school just sent out a survey of what we’d like to do to make up the days- including SATURDAY SCHOOL- ummm not sure I’ll be voting for that one, but time will tell how many more days we miss, and how everyone votes. We still have February and March to get through- so who knows if we’ll have days added to that. It could make for a short summer vacation. Oh well…

Caden and I have really enjoyed our snow days together- We played games, did a LITTLE bit of cleaning-we got the Christmas tree down and put away at least- he built forts with lots and lots of “boobie traps”, we did a little baking, and He’s done a lot of talking about Coleman…I found him one of the days sitting on his bed and looking through scrap books. He asked if I wanted to come in and look with him. It amazes me the details he remembers and things he has no recollection of. He really misses his other half. We have so many wonderful memories of Coleman-One thing’s for sure- Cman will always be a part of our hearts- forever. Oh do we miss him. Words just cannot explain. There are some days where the numbness your brain puts you in to protect yourself starts to fade, and the pain rises again…it can be a song, a commercial, a smell, a picture, a food, a book, or it doesn’t have to be anything- its just because- that brings the hurt back full force. We know Coleman is safe in Heaven…we just miss him.

Here’s an old video of one of his favorite songs- God, I mean “Dod” must be a cowboy (tow-boe-wee) at heart…Our pastor came to Iowa City to visit and sang this to the boys before Coleman’s stem cell transplant. Coleman loved this song from that point on…oh how I miss his singing. It does make me smile when I watch this though…what a gift he was.



We’re disappointed we won’t be able to make it to this year’s Dance Marathon in Iowa City. We have something else that weekend that we can’t miss…but we’ll be there in spirit! THANK YOU so much to these college students and all they do to help families like ours. They recently sent us a stone in memory of Coleman…THANK YOU to all who participate in this wonderful event~ Coleman loved ALL of the “Dance May-wah-fonn” people! We wish we could be there with you all this year.



Speaking of events- we have our 2nd annual Curesearch walk coming up May 1st. Last year Team Larson ended up raising over $20,000 when all was said and done, thanks to so many wonderful donators! AMAZING!!! I’m not sure we’ll be able to come anywhere close to that this year, but every single dollar gets us that much closer to a CURE- we’ve come to know too many kids who have been diagnosed, continue to fight, or went to Heaven way too early because of cancer…soooo, if you want to be a part of our team- (you don’t have to be there to actually be on our team roster) or if you’d be willing to make a donation, we’d sure appreciate ANY amount…here’s the link we hope you’ll check out…

Curesearch Walk- TEAM LARSON PAGE.


I’ll be posting more info as the walk gets closer. Caden is in charge of designing our team shirts this year. I thought maybe he’d like the responsibility of that- so we’ll see what he comes up with! 
We can’t THANK YOU enough for helping us out!!!

A couple of funny stories about Caden- (there are sooo many to choose from!)
One day when we got out of school early because of the heavy snow, I went to pick him up at daycare…They were outside playing on the snow mountain and taking turns sledding down a hill. He was having a blast! I went inside and got his bookbag and he followed me to the van. As he was getting ready to climb in his door, he YELLED out to his friends, “BYE YA PuSSSS-AYS!” I stood there for a minute- and thought I HAD to have heard him wrong, until he yelled it again- “I SAID- BYE YA PUUH-SAYS!” I said, “CADEN! GET IN THE VAN! GET IN THE VAN!!!” He said, “why?” I shut the door and told him, “you can NOT say that to people! It’s a NAUGHTY word!” He had no idea….yikes. Luckily, I don’t think anyone heard him. *whew*




Another funny- well not for me…but what the heck- I’ll share it…. I fell on the icy steps one morning on my way to work and got a HUGE bruise on my backside to show for it. It was a nasty one…
Caden was looking at it, and so innocently said, “mom? Sometimes your butt looks like it gots bubble wrap on it.” WHAT?!?! ARRRGGG!!! I started laughing- Guess I’d better find a good work out tape with some exercises for my back side! Hahahaha Kids are so honest!

He’s a character- that’s for sure…and I thank God for him every day! He wants a Mohawk so badly, but I keep telling him no…I did let him have one for about an hour one night before I gave him a haircut- but you should have seen his attitude while he looked in the mirror- he really thought he was one tough dude. After the pics- I buzzed it off! I know, I know, mean mommy.




He’s growing like a weed, and has changed so much since he started school. One thing that hasn’t changed is how big his heart is. He was very animate about helping the people of Haiti, and kept wanting to donate money out of his piggy bank every time a commercial came on about it.
The night after Christmas I found this under the tree, still in the box…


I asked Caden about it the next morning. I thought maybe he had forgot it was there- but he said he thought Santa brought that one for Coleman. He was leaving it there and didn’t want to open it. *sigh*

I can see why he said that, it WAS something Coleman would have loved, and I don’t know WHAT Santa was thinking when he brought that one. I finally convinced Caden to open it, but he really hasn’t played with it much.

He got his first report card with all good marks except tying his shoe. He says he’s a FAILURE- and was the ONLY one in his class who couldn’t tie. I told him I didn’t believe he was the ONLY one, and he cried, “well- there was maybe five… or three, but anyways- I FAILED!!!” We’ll have to practice more I guess.

Oh- another thing he’s been in to lately…is Lily the Bear. My class has been following a bear in Ely, MN that has a live web cam in the den. The mother black bear, Lily had a baby bear last Friday. You can hear the bear nursing and everything. It’s pretty cool if you’d like to check it out…

www.bear.org.

So that’s a little of what’s been going on around here lately….I know, not too exciting…
Here’s a video I made for Caden on New Year’s Day. This song makes me tear up every time I hear it for some reason…I think I’m going to start a new tradition and make a New Year’s video each year. Here’s our first:



We continue to pray for all of the families missing their kids- and all the little warriors still battling.
Thanks for checking in on us- your messages mean a lot to us.

Until next time,
Blessings to you all,
FOREVER TEAM LARSON
Oh and on our snow days I was messing around with editing a few old pics…here are some I came up with. I’d like to turn some of these into post cards so I’ll have to do some checking on that…but thought I’d share here-








And a quote I ran across I liked:
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us;
What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."
~Albert Pike

Amen to that.