Christmas in Langdon

We had a great time in Langdon for Christmas. We left Saturday morning and the roads were slow going the entire way, so that made for a long trip. We made it there in about 8.5 hours (with 6 stops for the pregnant lady!) Mom and dad's house looks great in town! It was so fun to see the nice new basement and garage. We were last there in June when the house had just been moved off the farm into town. We had our usual pizza noodle bake for Christmas dinner, then opened presents. We got some baby presents. How fun!

Seems like the Symons family can't ever be together without a few tears shed...this time they were happy tears! When we were all done opening presents, Dad handed Mom one last gift. She opened it up and it was a gold wedding band...for him! After many years of farming, Dad started wearing his ring again, which meant alot to my mom. Apparently, (and I didn't know this) after not wearing it through his cancer treatments last year, it was "misplaced, lost, whatever" and so he got another one! How sweet! I can relate, I love when Chadd wears his wedding ring. There's just something about it. Way to go dad! You get the "romantic of the year" award again. Although I didn't think you could top yourself after last fall when mom "misplaced, lost, whatever" her wedding rings (are we seeing a theme here???). Dad bought Mom another ring and got down on his knees and "re-proposed." Hopefully you two will keep track of all your rings now!!!

Everyone is happy and healthy in the family and we couldn't ask for anything more. Hopefully it won't be six months again before we get back to Langdon!

Christmas Eve at Lake Minnetonka

We started out the day with a big surprise for Ashly. On our way to Christmas with Chadd's family at the lake house in Minnetonka, we swung by the Verizon store. She finally got her long awaited cell phone! She was very patient the last couple years as she has seen most, if not all, her friends get a phone. I told her good things come to those who wait, and she got a pretty nice phone out of the deal! Then it was off for some good food and good company. We had Christmas dinner, then opened presents. Sometimes the kids ice skate, but not this year. However, some of them tried some snowshoeing. Ashly played some Christmas music on her flute to entertain everyone. Oh...and I can't forget, Chadd was excited about his knife he got (nice picture!).

I have to say, the next day, Christmas Day, I thought would be nothing special since I had to work. But, it ended up being one of the best Christmas Days ever! When I got home from work, Chadd and Ashly had prepared a feast! We had turkey and all the trimmings and lots of other food, including a pumpkin pie! Then we sat down and opened a few presents, just the three of us. I have a really thoughtful husband and kid(s). Ashly picked out a big wooden advent calender that we can put candy in and reuse every year. I had been talking about wanting one of those...and she put together a neat Christmas ornament with pictures of our family on it, and saved a spot for the baby. And the baby (with Chadd's help of course!) wrote me a sweet letter to thank me for putting up with all the aches and pains and kicks, he got me a gift certificate for a prenatal massage. Wow! Sweet, huh? Then we had one more surprise in store for Ashly. We went and saw the movie "Marley and Me" at the movie theater. What a great day!

I work again today. Then we are off to Langdon tomorrow morning for Christmas with the Symons' Family.

Basement in progress

Here's some pictures of the basement:

1. Chadd (left) and cousin Dave (right) working hard!

2. Computer desk area

3. My hot tub!

4. Fireplace

5. Kitchenette area (the TV/couch area will be somewhere inbetween the fireplace and kitchenette area, kinda full of tools and supplies right now)

6. Bathroom

7. Ashly's room (yes...she picked an electric lime green wall...teenagers!)

Next time I put pictures up it will all be done. I can't wait! It's starting to look real already. Getting some paint on the walls helped, although we need to retouch a lot of that up after fixing some of the sheetrock.

I got approved at work to work half days until the baby is born. My body is thanking them...and so is the baby (I hope)! 56 days to go...or so!

Baby is doing good!

Well, I had my doctors appointment this morning and my doctor says everything looks fine. We talked about my work situation, and since I'm on my feet for an eight hour shift in the lab, she wrote me a note to work half days. I'm waiting to hear back from my manager if they will accommodate that or not. I hope this doesn't get complicated! The time I miss now will be deducted from my maternity leave, but I'm just trying to balance everything right now. All that matters is baby is good, and he's not coming out just yet! Only eight weeks to go...YIPPEE!!!! I will try to get back into life after a week of rest. I am supposed to work this weekend.

On another topic, the basement is still in progress. Currently, we have someone downstairs putting the tiles in the kitchenette area, bathroom, and on the fireplace. On Saturday someone is coming to over to continue installing the cabinetry and doors. I'll put pictures up later.

Meet the Larson's

Welcome to Wyoming, Minnesota! This is to keep our family and friends updated with our family: Chadd, Kathy, Ashly and baby boy due February 13th. I hope to post lots of pictures of Ashly and the baby so everyone can enjoy them as much as we do (and will!). The pictures up today are Chadd and mine's 2nd wedding anniversary on September 30th, and Ashly's band concert last Tuesday (Ashly's in the middle with the braids). I enjoy checking up on my friends that have blogs and thought this would be a perfect time to get started. I am currently on bedrest and off work for a week since we had a little scare last Thursday after work. I was having pain on top of my belly so my doctor sent me to the OB observation room and I was on the fetal monitor for four hours. After more tests, it was determined that I was having contractions two minutes apart. Apparently, that's not a good thing! So they gave me two doses of a medication to stop the contractions and sent me home for a week (I call it house arrest!). I see the doctor on Thursday to see what happens next. I think baby is happy as can be tumbling around in my tummy right now. So hopefully everything will be okay. It's just a looooong wait for me.