Preparing for the holidays...

We put up our tree while Larkyn was napping one afternoon. When she woke up we brought her down to look at it with us. She just stared at it for a couple minutes...

"Woah baby! What is this thing?"

"Hmm...this looks interesting. What does it feel like?"

It only took a few days and Larkyn was into the ornaments. She loved the shiny ones the best and of course they went straight to her mouth! We had to "re-decorate" after a while and our tree no longer had a lower level of ornaments.

Here are some of our attempts at getting photos for our Christmas card! We were going for the JOY theme, so she is holding a candy cane upside down for the "J".

After many attempts, this picture won out!

We didn't have a wreath small enough for her to hold, and we know how much she loves ornaments, so this was our attempt at the "O" photo!

This was the only photo that the ornament wasn't completely in her mouth!

The "Y" was quite tricky. Here are only a couple, but she was all over the place!


We finally had to bring Larkyn's learning table in the photo to get her to stay in one spot!

One family tradition we have started is making Christmas cut-out cookies together. Larkyn even got in on the fun this year! The little stinker was sneaking cookie dough to her mouth. She for sure got a pinch or two to eat. Must have a sweet tooth like her mama!

What a great helper Larkyn was cutting out the cookies!

Frosting? That was a different story! It was all over!

And it tasted good too!

Larkyn's First Thanksgiving...

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Wisconsin with Shea's family. We enjoyed a long weekend of spending time with family, looking through Black Friday ads, eating, shopping, playing games, and taking Larkyn to her first basketball game.

Larkyn "watched" the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV.

Larkyn and Aunt May May looking at the ads. Aunt May May is a Pro when it comes to planning out where to shop on Black Friday!

Did I mention we ate a LOT this weekend? Larkyn tried turkey, bread and jello for the first time. She also enjoyed mashed potatoes and squash!

Did I mention we shopped a LOT this weekend? This year Breally Kate wanted to join us for the early morning shopping spree on Black Friday. So the four of us, Shea, May May, Breally and I, were up and on the road to Plover around 2:30 AM. We began our shopping adventure at Younkers at 3 AM! We followed that up with trips to Kohls, Wal Mart, Lowes, MC Sports, Menards, and ShopKo. Charlie stood outside in the freezing cold to take care of our Target list. (Thanks for taking one for the team Charlie!) We got some great deals and had quite the ride home with boxes and bags packed tightly in the trunk and all around Breally and I in the backseat.

Charlie and Larkyn enjoyed some play time together.

The picture hanging on the wall is a picture of Shea when he was one year old. It is hard to see, but Larkyn definitely looks like her daddy!

I forgot to add Larkyn got her first taste of ice cream! She took a couple licks of a mint chocolate chip dilly bar.

The Cousins...Larkyn, Breally, and Cayden

Breally really had Larkyn cracking up...or did Larkyn have Breally belly laughing???

We went to watch the Langholff girls (Erica and Maisie) play basketball at the high school. We all wore Langholff Builder sweatshirts to cheer the girls on and surprise them! Larkyn even had a mini-sweatshirt to show her spirit! Though we only stayed until half time, the girls played really well and their team won the game.

"Mom, get out of my way...I can't see the game!" Larkyn loved all the action and enjoyed dancing to the music as well!

More pictures from the weekend...

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Winterwonderland in November???

Last weekend we had quite the snowstorm in the south metro/central part of Minnesota! We ended up with 6 or 7 inches of snow and still have snow on the ground. It is beginning to melt around the house, sidewalks, etc. but the grass is still mostly covered! Larkyn wasn't quite sure what to think of the white covered ground and just stared out the window while eating breakfast!

This is a picture taken out our backwindow...

" Mom was so excited to have me try on my new snowsuit...I was excited too!"

What a trooper!

After Larkyn's morning nap we went outside to "play" for a bit.

Larkyn got to feel and taste the WHITE snow! She is always interested in putting new things in her mouth, so she seemed to like it!

The coat is still a little too big, but she'll grow into it sooner than later!

We made a snowman while Daddy cleared the driveway! Thanks Daddy!

"Time to go in Mom! I'm getting cold!"

8 months old!

Though I still have not even posted pictures from Larkyn's 7th month, I thought I would start with the most recent adventures she is taking on and work backward:)

Larkyn is changing more and more each day. She is currently crawling on all 4's--she's graduated from the "army crawl/scoot". She loves to get into anything and everything! Once she started scooting and crawling she began pulling herself up on anything sturdy enough to hold her, including the rocking ottoman! She enjoys pulling up to stand at her learning table to learn her letters, colors and numbers.

Larkyn also had her first ear infection on the 8th. She wasn't sleeping or going to sleep very well, which was not very typical for her. Monday morning we were up from midnight until 5:30 AM off and on. Every time I put her down to sleep she would scream, but she was fine sleeping in my arms. We ended up sleeping from 5:30 until 6:30 AM in the recliner together. We took her into the doctor that morning and sure enough, her ears were infected! That afternoon we spent more time in the recliner napping and that night she slept all through the night in her own bed after antibiotics kicked in! Whether it was just the ear infection, the time change with DST, or cutting another tooth...we will never know!

Speaking of teeth, Larkyn now has six! Within the last ten days she has cut three more. When she smiles you can see her bottom two teeth and one and a half:) top teeth. The two top I-teeth (next to the "big bucks") have cut through and are making their way down!

Some of Larkyn's favorites include:
Foods--Peaches, peach/apple sauce, oatmeal
Books--Colors, Who Do You Love?, Animals Touch and Feel (anything with things to touch and feel!)
Toys--red bouncy ball (loves to play catch with Daddy!), white beach ball (loves to chase it all over the house!), blankie elephant, and V-Tech walker (not walking with it, but likes all of the noises) Basically anything she can hold and that makes noise!
Places in the house--the fireplace, under the end table, under stools and kitchen table/chairs

Some of Larkyn's newest developments include:
*Crawling
*Pushing herself up to sitting position--she does this a lot! She is also doing it in her bed after waking up in the morning and will position herself toward the video monitor and wave to us! It is the cutest and funniest thing!
*Downward Dog Yoga position (Larkyn will push herself up in the middle of the carpet with her feet and hands on the ground and her butt up in the air—kind of like an upside down V!)
*Waving buh-bye
*Pulling herself up to stand
*Walking with adult hands (not cruising yet!)

*Says "hey" and "hi"...still working on Dada and Mama!

Larkyn LOVES playing catch with her red ball...

Favorite spot--crawling underneath the end table from the living room to kitchen...

Afternoon nap with an ear infection...

"I'm 8 months old today and proud of it!"

"I'm pretty happy today! I'm also getting use to Mama taking photos of me...I now pose!"

"Cheese!"

"Can you see my pearly whites?"

Larkyn measured in at a rough estimate of 28 inches!

A beautiful weekend...

It is hard to believe that one week before the big snow storm we spent the weekend outside in jeans and long sleeves putting up our Christmas lights! It went from Sunny and 50's to Snowy and low 30's in 7 days!

Over the beautiful weekend we were able to take down the fall decorations and winter decorations! Shea got up on the roof and hung the lights from the garage and house. We worked together to cover the front porch posts/rails and our three evergreens in the backyard. Larkyn enjoyed watching from a blanket in the grass!

Okay, maybe she wasn't all that interested in watching us hang lights:)

Halloween 2010

Larkyn had a great first Halloween weekend. She had a Halloween party on Friday at Tracey's, went to HallZOOween with some of our neighbors and friends on Saturday morning, helped Kellie celebrate her birthday at her surprise (costume) party Saturday night, and met up with the neighbors before trick-or-treating on Sunday! Oh, and of course she had a different costume for each day! Actually, Larkyn was only going to be a pumpkin (the costume she wore to the Zoo), but the week before Halloween Janny and Charlie gave us Fred and Wilma Flintstone costumes and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to throw together a Pebbles costume! Then that Wednesday before Halloween Larkyn received a package in the mail from her 2nd cousin (once removed:)) Grace. Betsy (Grace's Mom) had made her a tu-tu and thought Larkyn would love one too! She sure did and enjoyed being a ballerina at her Halloween party on Friday.

"At my party I got my face painted! Can you believe I sat long enough for that to happen?"

"I even baked and decorated cookies!"

"I think Tracey was a bit confused...I'm supposed to be a ballerina, silly!"

"Yah, that's right...I'm standing!"

"I suppose I better get use to this! I can only imagine what the first day of school is going to look like!"

"This is us at the MN Zoo (HallZOOween). I'm the cute little one in the pumpkin costume! The other cute little kids are my friends...Anna, Jack, Joey and Luke!"


"Me, Mommy and Daddy"

"This is my Mommy and her college friends at Kellie's Surprise Party! They call themselves the Church House Girls:)"
Molly, Kim, Jessi, and Kellie

"This is a picture of a lot of my neighbor friends!"

"Flintstones...meet the Flintstones..."

Larkyn and Princess Anna

Falkirk 2010 Babies and Mamas

(Svea-August, Larkyn-March, Ella-June, and Logan-July)

"Here we go again..."

"Auntie Courtney gave me this sleeper for Halloween! I got to wear it to bed:)"

Here are more photos from the Halloween weekend...

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