My baby!

Happy Birthday, Jake!! I am so late doing this post. Jake turned 17 on the 17th!! Jacob Boone Larson was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He was born 3-5 weeks early depending on which original date you use. We were so not ready...no car seat, unpainted nursery, etc. Besides being jaundice, no preemie problems. He was 7#, 9 ounces! He would have been one big baby. (I have a sister that was 11#, 1 ounce, so it was possible!) Jake was the only grandchild on both sides for four years until his sister was born. Spoiled? Something about that first baby, he will always be my baby!! Even if he is 6'3"!

I cannot figure out how to flip this picture. But it was an amazing day. We lived in Madison and we went to the farmer's market. I think Scott's sister, Rachel took this picture.

At mom and dad's cabin. May, 1999, just before he turned 7.



Rock climbing at REI in Denver. I don't know if you can see his amazing hair cut. He saw this picture and questioned my sanity, but it was definitely his idea! 2003

Another picture I couldn't flip. Birthday mini golf, 11th birthday.

Family vacation out west. It was so fun. This is in the Badlands, South Dakota. Note the broken arm. 2006

It was so fun watching Jake pitch!

Entering 9th grade, so handsome!

Some of my favorite memories of Jake are on missions trips. This trip was with Scott. They went to Thailand to help rebuild after the tsunami. Keep that heart for others, Jake!

Sorry for you non-hunters. Scott and Jake love to hunt together.

This is the famous Jake pose!

He wasn't so sure he wanted a little sister from Africa, but he sure loves her now!! He barely fits on that slide, but they sure have fun.

I love you, buddy!!

More projects

This may not look like much. This is the view from our deck. Until Saturday it was dirt and weeds. It was so shady under those bushes that not even grass could grow. We cut down the two end bushes, to the left in the photo. We weeded, put in a brick edging, planted hostas and ginger, and mulched it all! The exciting part was that we didn't even have to buy any plants. One of Scott's buddies brought some over and we divided many of our own hostas. Our back door neighbors were so happy that we were cleaning up their view that they brought us homemade cookies while we worked!

Projects

The big beautiful pictures of the kids and our family are the ones that we had taken back in December! They are finally on the wall. The wall with the collage is in our dining room. All of those pictures have been in cabinets for years. Some of them have never even been up on a wall. It is so exciting to walk by these pictures every day, many times a day. (If you noticed that the frame on Scott's senior picture needs painting, I know. I was trying to save money on frames. I was able to get all the frames 50% off at Hobby Lobby! Yeah!)