1st Thanksgiving

Christopher's first Thanksgiving. He loved all the food. He ate potatoes, sweet potatoes, turkey and jello.

Christopher is "stuffed" Cute outfit Grandma bought him!

The Larson clan!

We had a nice Thanksgiving at the lakehouse with Chadd's family. It was beautiful outside and I took advantage of that and went on a walk. Some of us played bananagrams while most of the kids and moms went bowling. I had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday so I missed out on the Black Friday shopping. Maybe next year! Chadd went out shopping to a couple stores on Friday morning around 8am with Christopher. He said it wasn't too busy then.

Acolyte

Ashly was an acolyte at church on Sunday. She held the wine cup as people dipped their wafers in there and she said, "The blood of Christ shed for you." She was proud, she said she only messed up twice!!! Cute!

What a great picture!

This one too!

We had so much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks so much for staying with us. You were the highlight of our weekend. Ashly was busy on Friday she went to Youth Night at the school. They had a band and other acitivies. She stayed overnight at a friend's house, but came home Saturday to spend the morning with Grandma and Grandpa. I took Ashly and a friend to the movie New Moon while Grandma and Grandpa went to 33rd Degree Masonic Banquet. Then on Sunday we went to church and afterwards, Ashly made a homemade pizza she had learned to make in her Foods class in school. It was yummy! I officially signed Ashly up to go on the mission trip again next summer. It's in June and they are going to Tennessee this time. Now she has a long year of doing fundraisers to prepare for the trip!

All the while, Chadd's been hunting in Wis. I'm afraid to report, there will be no food on the table this year. There's always next year!!!

Growing

Look at how much the little guy has changed since the summer. He's growing so fast!

Happy Birthday Chadd

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father in the whole world. We love you!!! (P.S. If you happen to run into Chadd tonight, give him 36 birthday spankings...yes, 36!!!!)

9 months old

Wow! I can't believe we are here already...9 months old! I just love this age! Christopher had his 9 month well check yesterday and everything is great. He doesn't have any fluid in his right ear anymore so that means no tubes, yeah! As you all notice, he's got bright red cheeks. The doctor has diagnosed that as eczema from the beginning. It's nearly gone away from his elbows and back of knees, but it just doesn't seem to clear from his face. So we got a prescription hydrocortizone 2.5% and told to use OTC vannicream. We'll see if that works. I had people constantly coming up to him saying how cute his red cheeks are. I had someone in the hallways of the clinic say that yesterday, someone in the grocery store, his swimming lessons teacher said it. He weighs 22 pounds 4.2 ounces (74 percentile) and is 28 inches (37%). Pretty consistent growth, that is what we like to hear. And he's got 6 teeth now, 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

Seat Number Seven

Left foot, Right foot...the 80's are back whether we like it or not!

Neon and blue nail polish!

Jennie is exhausted after a long day shopping with us! We had waaaay too much fun for shopping! We'll definately have to do that again! Christopher was with us in his stroller and he was so good I couldn't believe it. And he met Santa Claus for the first time. I did not have him sit on his lap yet, but we were just walking by and Santa was going on "break" and said hi to us. Christopher just grinned and looked away shy. He wasn't scary to him...yet, just another person that likes to wear red.

Angry face??? I think we were delirious from shopping!

Blake was smiling...even after he found out how much Jen bought :) Love you guys!!!

Went to Lauren's birthday party on Sunday. Here is Christopher with the balloon. It made him giggle.

Oh...yeah, there were lots of balloons!!!! Amy is so clever at decorating!

Even the big kids had fun playing with the balloons!

Friday night we met Mike, Cindy, Steve and Libby for Seinfeld. First we ate at Rock Bottom Brewery, and thanks to the fact that our waitress was Lib's friend we got good, fast service and were out of there in time for the show. We saw Jerry Seinfeld at the Orpheum Theater. This is my third time seeing him and the show was great...I'd go again! I did however, get in a bit of an argument before the show. Actually, I didn't say much, I just counted to seven many times. A lady came up to me and told me I was in her seat. She had seat seven. I told her, "Yep, this is seat seven." and pointed to the empty seat next to me labeled "7" Well let's just say it took over what felt like 5 minutes, and counting to seven many times before her husband told her to sit down. By the way, I was in seat six, just like my ticket said!!! Once she sat down she leaned over and said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to start a fight!" Then she had one of those annoying laughs throughout the whole show...what do you do??? (may I be a nerd right now and point out in one of the Seinfeld episodes, George's friends are having a baby and he drives them to the hospital and they steal his name "Seven" he wants to save for when he has a baby....hmmm!)

Thanks to Sharon and Glen for watching the kids that night so we could enjoy the show!

Blake and Jennie came to stay with us for the weekend. Jen, Ashly, Christopher and I went shopping at the Maplewood Mall all day Saturday. Chadd and Blake went to Wisconsin to our land. Chadd is getting ready to hunt next weekend which is Wis deer hunting go time! We wish him luck!

Then on Sunday we went to Lauren's birthday, she turned 8. (that would be Chadd's cousin's daughter). The party was great and the weather was beautiful. We went on a nice walk around the neighborhood.

Big Boy, Smart Girl

Christopher likes to crawl up to us and pull himself up on our pant legs. Makes it hard for us to get around the kitchen!

Pretty boy after a bath with his hair combed all nice!

I love how he uses his little fingers to hold things!

He loves his rocking giraffe. Best garage sale purchase ever!

Ashly got on the A Honor Roll again. Whoohoo!

Playing with Linden

We had so much fun watching Linden and Christopher play. For the most part they are in their own little worlds, but at one point Christopher crawled right up to Linden, nose to nose, then crawled away. It was pretty cute! Then, because Christopher gets upset from loud noises (yeah, not very manly....we have to work on that!) when Linden squealed, Christopher cried and cried and cried.

Clapping

Christopher is clapping on his own now. So cute! He just does it randomly. His favorite time to do it is when you are changing his diaper. But he also recognizes the song "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" and he'll clap then. I suppose because his goofy mom has been singing that song to him for about 6 months now!!!

Nice weekend

Getting into my dresser! He's pretty proud of himself when he opens the drawers all by himself!

It's been a low key weekend. Ashly mowed the lawn for the last time of the year. And today Chadd went to Wisconsin to go riding four wheelers with our neighbor across the street. Yesterday we went to the outlet mall and found Christopher a one piece snowsuit. He looks like a big fluffy marshmallow in it! But, as we all know, it is going to be very necessary real soon!

Lock down

He's trying so hard to reach his bears!!!!

There was an incident at Century (middle school) and the high school in Forest Lake today so they took precautions at Ashly's school, Southwest. This is an email from the principal:

Good afternoon, this is Marc Peterson, principal at Southwest. I'm calling with information relating to the lockdown this morning at the high school and Centry Junior High School.The incident involved an unidentified person who entered Century at about 6:40 a.m. Staff members witnessed the person entering the building. The unidentified person then left the building and the Century staff members followed the person out of the building. The person headed west toward the high school. The staff members followed him as he approached an entry door of the high school, at which point, the staff members lost contact with him. Suspecting that the individual may have gained entry to the high school, the high school immediately went into a lockdown, and law enforcement was notified. As buses were arriving at school, students were kept on the buses during the lock down. Students arriving by car were kept in their vehicles during the lock down. A thorough sweep of the building was conducted by law enforcement as they searched every room. After concluding that the suspicious person was not in the building, law enforcement determined that the building was safe for students and staff. At 8:20, students were allowed into school and school began at 8:30.If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at Southwest.

Ashly said since her school wasn't really involved they had limitations, but continued to go to class.

Get better Chadd!

Chadd has been sick all week. I'm glad he is feeling better. He's not 100%, but he's getting there! Luckily, we don't have much going on this weekend so he can continue to rest.

Christopher and I had our second swimming lessons last night and I dunked him underwater. We were told to count one, two, three and blow in their face so they close their eyes and scrunch up their face, then dunk them. It is not recommended to do this more than 3 times in one hour. Anyways, I did that and then just as I watched his face submerge underwater, his eyes popped wide open! Needless to say, he didn't really like it. He just acted surprised, so I didn't do it again. Maybe next time! He seems to like swimming lessons, but there are lots of babies and a lot of commotion so it's hard for me to get a smile out of him 'cause he's so busy looking around. However, as soon as the lessons were over, back in the locker room, he was smiling and talking up a storm.

Ashly made crepes in her cooking class. Conclusion: she doesn't like it! But she's made some good things including chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. She is doing a church activity/fundraiser thing on Saturday at the church.

The gate

Yeah!!! The gate is completed. We now have a safe environment for a crawling baby!!! Chadd made the gate from scratch and I think he did a fabulous job. I think it looks so nice with the other railing. Good job, Chadd!!! And thank you!!!