The Christmas Card that never was

This past Christmas was a bit crazy. We took some pictures mid-December with every intention of sending out Christmas cards, but unfortunately never got to it. So here is the picture that would have been sent out.

Lansdowne Lightning 2010



Matthew & Christopher wanted to do our community's swim team this summer. They have wanted to do it in past years, but baseball and swim overlap for about a month. We have not wanted to juggle two sports, so we've always said, "No." However, we learned a little bit more about the swim team and found out that it isn't required to be at every practice in order to swim at the meets. So we signed the boys up and decided we would swim what we could until baseball was over.


Can I just say, I am one PROUD Mother! Words can not describe, how proud I am of my boys! Their 1st practice we were hoping the boys could swim their requirement to be on the swim team which for Christopher was one length of the pool and for Matthew 2 lengths. Well, at the first practice they spent one hour swimming the length of the pool back and forth over and over again for the entire hour. Needless to say when practice was over the boys were exhausted and not so sure about being on the swim team. I made them go back the following day and they have been hooked on swimming ever since.
They have swim practice every day for an hour Monday -Friday with meets on Wednesday and Saturday. They are making and building some good friendships with other swimmers who attend their schools. Their swimming is getting better and better. So far they have participated in two meets and time trials. At each of their meets they are shaving time off of their strokes. I couldn't be more proud of them!


I think they look adorable in their swim trunks.

Cluster Concert Performance

Wednesday, March 24th Matthew participated in a Cluster Concert performance with his Elementary Chorus group. I dropped him off at Stone Bridge High School at 4:00pm. He met up with his chorus group and they did a rehearsal of their song that they would be performing later that night. Then they went on to rehearse a group song in which they would perform with all of the schools participating in the cluster. The Cluster included our High School, Middle School & three Elementary schools. From the Elementary schools you had the Chorus groups performing which consists of 4th and 5th graders. (Matthew actually goes to school at 7am every Thursday morning and practices before school with his Chorus group.) The middle and High school had their Chorus groups participating along with Band, Strings and Guitar. After rehearsing they feed the kids pizza in the cafeteria.

The concert began at 6:45pm. The performance was held in the Gymnasium of the High school. The gym was jam packed with performers and the audience. The concert was AMAZING! We enjoyed listening to all of the groups perform a variety of pieces. It was actually really neat to watch the string group from the middle school. Matthew chose to play the violin next year. Matthew and I are both looking forward to him learning to play the Violin.


(Matthew's Chorus group is in the top picture, far left. Matthew is up about three or four rows and is sitting in the middle.)

(My close ups of Matthew are on my other camera, I'll loaded them and add them later.)

After the performance we went out for Ice Cream. While we were eating our ice cream cones, I asked Matthew what he thought about all of the performances. I specifically wanted to make sure he was still happy he chose the violin to learn next year. (When we went to our orientation at the middle school to choose an instrument to play for next year. The band teacher talked about choosing an instrument in which you like the sound it makes. The reason being if you like the sound it makes then you are more likely to practice playing the instrument.) Well, Matthew responded to the question saying, "Yes, the violin is still my favorite instrument. However, Mom, I almost fell asleep during their performance." To which I responded that's not good. You can't be falling asleep during your class next year. Matthew responded with, "Oh, Mom it will be different when I am playing the instrument." It was a cute and funny conversation. Matthew loves classical music! He listens to it every night as he is going to sleep.

Cub Scouts

I officially have two in CUB SCOUTS! Wow!

Matthew is just finishing up his cub scouts as a Webelos. He will move out of Cub Scouts in April. Christopher is just beginning in the Cub Scout program as a Wolf. Christopher has looked forward to his 1st den meeting for months if not years. He is especially excited to finally race a car in the pinewood derby race this Saturday.



You know Christopher has a lot of determination! His determination has gotten him where he is today which is a good thing. Well, Ryan bought him his Cub Scout Wolf book and gave it to him during the Winter break. Christopher was so excited to have it! After his birthday he wanted to work on it every waking moment. Well, needless to say he has almost completed the requirements to earn his wolf badge.

I cannot believe this kid! He has such a passion for all he does!

Start your Engines!

The boys love their race cars!

They love to race them around the dining table.

Under the chairs is the pit stop.

MAX Loves Snow

Max has LOVED playing in the SNOW! He can play in the snow for hours running and jumping and chasing the snowflakes. It's been fun to watch him!

Christopher's Baptism

CHRISTOPHER was BAPTIZED on

January 2nd in the

Goose Creek Chapel in Leesburg, Va.

Christopher asked Matthew several months before his baptism to give a talk on Baptism. Matthew did a power point presentation. He did a FANTASTIC job! Several people commented on what a great job he did and how wonderful it was to have Chris' brother speak. I must say I was a proud mommy! (The things these kids are learning in school now days is amazing.)

I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Christopher's 1st choice was Grandma, but in the end I ended up giving the talk. I also think in the end Christopher was happy since I related the Holy Ghost to a football game. I even brought all of his football jersey's to use in my talk which were a surprise to Christopher. Christopher LOVED it!

Grandma & Grandpa Marcusen flew out for the baptism. We had a good turn out for the baptism by our ward family/friends. After the baptism we ate YUMMY cinnamon & orange rolls in the gym which were requested by Christopher.



Doesn't Christopher look HANDSOME?

I love capturing a picture of my children right after their baptism. They always have a sweet glow about them.

Happy Birthday, Christopher!

Two days after Christmas we celebrated Christopher's 8th birthday. Since his birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we went to his favorite restaurant for dinner Saturday night. His favorite restaurant is Cici's Pizza. It is an all you can eat pizza buffet. The boys love it because they can help themselves to as much pizza as they like. But if truth be told I think their favorite thing is the all you can eat Cinnamon rolls they get.



Sunday after church, I made Christopher's Birthday Cake.



He requested a football cake. No surprise since that is what his love and passion is right now.



When he saw the finished cake, he was one happy boy!



For his birthday he got two football jersey's. His favorite team is the Colts. His favorite player is Payton Manning.



Christopher is a very passionate boy and with that passion comes a lot of determination! He is a very social boy and liked by everyone. He is also very compassionate! He is always the first one to give up something in order for someone else to not have to go without. He is my pickiest eater. He is one smart boy, who learns things rather quickly. Most of the time you will find him with a football in his hands. He loves to play baseball. Have play dates with his school friends. Play the wii. He enjoys reading chapter books. He can spend hours playing with his brothers.

What a joy it is to have Christopher in our family! He adds a lot of spice to our family mix! I am grateful to have him in our family! What a blessing he is! I'm excited to watch him grow and see where his passion and determination take him.

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas Eve together as a family in our home! We enjoyed our BIG Christmas dinner of Ham & Cheese Potatoes along with homemade rolls. Matthew made a 3 layer Jell-o salad. For dessert we had homemade Pumpkin Pie! Umm, it was all super yummy!

During the evening we decorated a gingerbread house, read the Nativity from the scriptures and just enjoyed some quiet family time together.

The boys kept watching out the window for Santa's elves. They wanted to catch them in the act of dropping off their jammies. Much to the boy's dismay they didn't catch any elves this year!

Right before bed, we sprinkled reindeer food in our front yard. Brr, it was cold!

And right before we climb into bed, the boys put out some homemade sugar cookies and milk for Santa.

Why the empty glass picture? Well, if you look close enough you will see a line made out of tape. The boys are getting smarter and smarter every year. They quietly put the tape on with out Ryan and I knowing. They wanted to see if Santa really drank the milk. You can see that Santa drank the whole glass of milk! Well, those boys are smarty pants and I guess knowing how much Santa drank really wasn't their point in putting the tape on the glass. However, I didn't know their real intentions until later on Christmas day. After breakfast the boys were eager to help load the dishwasher which really isn't a surprise since we usually all help load the dishwasher after our meals. What was unusual was I didn't have to keep reminding them to help. I didn't think anything of it, except what helpful boys they were being on such a special day. Well, as soon as the dishwasher beeped it was done, the boys ran to the dishwasher and pulled out the glass. They quickly pulled off the tape and low and behold they discovered a finger print and not just any finger print, but it was SANTA's fingerprint. They were very pleased with themselves, when they discovered the finger print since that is what they had wanted to do all along.

Pump it Up Birthday Party

Christopher had a birthday party at Pump it Up. We were a little insane and invited 25 of his friends. I know BIG number, I can't say will do it again. As we sat down to talk about who we should invite, Christopher kept giving name after name. Christopher loves his school buddies. He is usually the one in the center rallying them all together for a game of football during recess or to wear a certain football jersey to school on a certain day. He has made some great friends this year at school along with a few others from previous years. Of course he also wanted to invite all of his church friends. Not to mention the neighbor friends. Thankfully Pump it Up has a 25 minuimn attendees for birthday parties. So if I was going to have to pay for 25 we might as well have 25 children there, right. I also let Matthew and Joshua invite one friend each.

Christopher was in his glory for 2 1/2 hours as he ran around with 25 of his favorite friends. All of which were boys except for one. I did make him invite one little neighbor girl who is actually Joshua's age, our two families play all the time together.

The boys played in the two different rooms with the inflatable slides. Afterwards, we went into the party room sang Happy Birthday to Christopher and had cake.

Afterwards, we had a little time left, so Christopher opened up his birthday presents.

Happy 3rd Birthday Thomas

Thomas turned three years old on Friday, November 27th. When he woke up he requested Crepes for breakfast. Ryan made them for him and the other boys since I was out shopping. Ryan put a movie on in the basement for the boys, so he could come out to the garage and see this truck I had bought. I was hoping to have gotten Thomas a one seater motorized jeep, but ended up with this huge black two seater motorized monster truck. Ryan and I laughed and giggled at the size of the F150 truck. We decided there was no way we could hide this big box until Christmas, so we wrapped it up and gave it to him for his birthday. Thomas' eyes were so big as he unwrapped this big present.

He was even more excited to find out that it was a motorized truck aka Monster Truck. He was a big helper and helped Ryan put it all together.

He sat in it with Joshua and they pretended to be driving it. The battery would take 36 hours to charge, so he would not be able to drive it until Saturday morning. He didn't seem the least bit disappointed, he had fun just sitting in it.

For dinner we went to Red Robin. We had them sing to him. He smiled and liked it, then started to get a little shy.

I can't believe my baby is three, where does the time go. He is such a sweet, happy, social little boy. I am so grateful to have this little guy a part of our family.

Black Friday Shopping

I awoke early this morning to go shopping with Emily and Penny in hopes of catching some great black Friday deals. We mapped out all the places we wanted to go the day before and met at 3:30 am.

Our first stop was Kohl's. We stood in the freezing cold line outside for about 25mins. Once the doors were opened, we made our mad dash into the store and went our separate ways to get the items we were hoping for. It was a success! We were out of there in about 20 minutes.

We then headed for Walmart. The store was already open, but the door busters were not for sale until 5:00am. This store was actually high on my priority list as I was hoping to get a motorized jeep for Thomas for Christmas. Once we were in the store I waited until 5am in the jeep line at which time they were going to hand out tickets. I was #8 in line and they had 16 jeeps to sale. I waited patiently in line chatting with the other customers while we waited. Everyone was extra friendly. At 5am I got my ticket, grab a few other items and went to the cashier to check out. While I was paying for my items, I was told that I would need to drive back behind the store to pick up my item. I asked if I needed to do that now or if I could come back later today. The lady told me that since I had already paid, there should be no problem coming back later and picking up the jeep. As I left Walmart I asked the person checking my receipt at the door again if it would be okay to come back later and pick my jeep up. Once again, I was told that should be fine. I had paid for the item, so Walmart would have to hold on to the item for me. So we loaded up the suburban with our goods and headed to the next store.

It seemed we were having perfect luck as all of us where able to get the door busters we were hoping for. A few hours later after shopping at several other stores, we decided to go back and pick up my jeep from Walmart.

Once, we pulled up we were told that they had over sold the jeep and did not have a jeep for me to pick up. I was told that I would need to speak to Gary the manager and he would take my name and phone number. They were hoping they would get more in, but could not guarantee it. I then switched stories and told Gary that I was hoping to give this to my son today for his birthday and was disappointed that they had over sold the item. The manager was very apologetic and said he would make it up to me. He ended up giving me my pick of all the motorized vehicles on the shelve. I ended up picking out an F150 Ford Truck aka a MONSTER TRUCK! The price on the shelve was $360.00, I paid only $88. I scored big time! Later while Gary was helping me load it into the back of my suburban, he told me I had scored big time today. I agreed with him thinking in my mind about the truck verses the jeep while he continued to speak about scoring big today because of the free twine they were giving me to try down my back window. I chuckled because he wasn't meaning the truck which is exactly what I was thinking. This by far was my best deal of the day.

Us girls had a fun morning. You should of seen the back of my suburban. The third row seat was folded down and we filled the back with all of our purchases. When I pulled up to have the Ford F150 loaded in the back. I told the gentlemen that I would need to do a quick rearranging. When I opened up the back they couldn't believe their eyes. I told them that is what you get when three women go shopping on black Friday morning. They chuckled and helped me move the sacks up front. I wasn't sure where we were going to put everything but in the end we did manage to fit everything in.

Thanksgiving 2009

We enjoyed our annual Thanksgiving feast at our house with our friends who have become our family.

We had thirteen adults, fourteen kids and three babies over. We enjoyed good company as we ate yummy food.

Thanksgiving was a very relaxing day. Ryan took Matthew, Christopher and Joshua to play Turkey ball in the morning while I prepared the turkey and other food. Our friends joined us at 1:00 and we began our feast. After our meal we sat around the dinner table for hours talking about the answers from questions each couple had been asked prior to Thanksgiving. Cheryl had made cute place mats with everyone answers. The kids played happily outside and downstairs.

Later we enjoyed 8 different pies for dessert.

Then the women went through the Black Friday ads and mapped out our shopping plans for in the morning. The guys sat around talking and watching a football game. It was a very enjoyable day one of my favorite! We have so much be thankful for. I am grateful for this day of thanks!

Claude Moore Birthday Party

We had a little birthday party for Thomas. He invited three of his friends. Since Tommy loves water, I thought it would be fun to do the party at the Claude Moore swimming pool. They have a little toddler section with slides and fountains along with a big pool with a lazy river and a whirlpool. Thomas had fun playing in the water with his friends. He loved showing off how he can swim all by himself.

We had fun eating cupcakes and opening his presents.

His favorite toy was a Thomas the Tank car carrier that he got from Easton.