Presents and More Presents: Texas Christmas Part 2

 Most of Christmas and Christmas Eve were spent around the house enjoying each others' company. We had an amazing dinner and did a short program on Christmas Eve, followed by each of us opening one present.

 Tim got a fun Marble Run from his parents.

Anticipation as the kids are on their way to see what Santa had brought them!

 Lego's and a Transformers Boulder!!!

 Ty got a fun Hungry Hungry Hippo game from Matthew and Mackenzie!

 Lucy got her own set of Lego's because she likes them every bit as much as Ty does!

 Hanging out.

 Such fun and great gifts!

Christmas evening, we ate another amazing dinner followed by figgy pudding. Mmm! Pretty and delicious!

Playing on Christmas and the days after:

Ty got an awesome Nature Kit, handmade by Grandma Diney. He and Matthew enjoyed going to "do nature." We took them to Landa park the day after Christmas (because everyone else was sick), and Ty caught a bee! Luckily, he didn't get stung.

As mentioned above, more than half of the household got sick. Really sick. It was like living in a zombie apocalypse movie when one person after another ended up hovered over a toilet then disappeared to their room. We are so lucky none of our family got sick (we had something similar a few months before, maybe it was the same thing???), but we tried to stay out of the house. The weather was amazing, so we ate dinner at a Greek Restaurant and walked around a great San Antonio neighborhood to see their lights!

Cookies and Horses: Texas Christmas Part 1

We had a great time visiting family in San Antonio for Christmas. Grandma Diney had all sorts of activities planned for us. Many included cookies!

 

To get the full feel of Texas, we got to go to a friend's house and ride horses and see animals. 

There were so many horses and animals running around by us it was crazy!

Making friends:

 

Lucy got a ride too!

Riding Joy, the horse (okay, so I was the only adult who did it, but I hadn't been on a horse in about ten years!):

 

Cowboy Ty did an awesome job!

Fun around the house:

2015 Christmas Card

Happy holidays from the Larsen family! 2015 has been a big year full of changes.

After five years in Colorado, we moved to Nashville in August. Tim graduated from the University of Colorado with his PhD in Economics and started as a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He is having fun teaching so far, and we are settling in to life in the South.

Lucy Belle was born February 27^th and is our little sweetie. At nine months, Lucy gets around by scooting, has four teeth (with two more on the way), and loves food. She is very social and loves doing anything with her brother.

Ty is three years old and is doing preschool with a few friends from church. He loves anything with wheels, going to “Grandpa’s Cabin” (now located only 2.5 hours away), and has just started telling knock-knock jokes.

Tanaya tries to keep up with the kids while wondering how anyone with two or more children can get anything done. She teaches health classes at a few local YMCA’s and helps teach Ty’s preschool.

During this Christmas Season, we reflect on our many blessings from the past year. We are so grateful for family and friends, old and new. We wish you a very merry Christmas!

                                

Warm Regards                                     

The Larsen Family              

                 

A Nashville December

I kept the tradition of last year to try to do something Christmas-y every day, even if it was just a quick coloring page. Of course, this did involve plenty of planning in advance, but we tried to take advantage of everything Nashville had to offer (that was free and for kids). We started the month out with the Christmas Parade. It was lots of fun!

Music city had a few floats with bands rocking out!

 

The kids got to sit on Santa's lap twice!

This time below was at a house decked out with lights just in a regular neighborhood!

 

We got our membership to Cheekwood Botanic Gardens in December so we could see the live reindeer!

 

We enjoyed the beautiful Nashville December weather (while friends were freezing in the snow storms in Utah and Colorado)!

A church in the area did a live "Walk through Bethlehem." It was an amazing event, but it was very crowded.

Fun lights at the Opryland Hotel

 

 I attempted more formal Christmas pictures...

 ...and below is everything in between.

Lucy is 9 Months!

 I just can't describe what a doll Lucy Belle is at nine months. She has the most kissable cheeks and is just the sweetest. Lucy is getting quite the personality. Most of the time, she is content watching her brother and playing with toys, but she is very social and wants to get in on the action! I think Lucy's favorite thing of all right now is dancing. Whenever music with a beat turns on, Lucy starts bouncing and smiling. If we put her in a standing position, she will bounce on her legs or just move around. 

Food is definitely at the top of Lucy's favorites list. She LOVES eating! Bananas, pears, peaches, and avocados are among her favorite foods, but she is just now starting to like chicken. She is very good at feeding herself with her little pincher fingers. Lucy has two teeth on the bottom and two "fangs" on top, and her top front teeth popped through just yesterday!

Lucy is also getting quite mobile. As you can see below, she is practically crawling. She doesn't officially move when on all fours, but rather, all threes. One of her legs always swings around behind her so she ends up in a sitting position. She can also now pull herself up into a standing position (depending on what she holds onto), and can cruise around furniture. Basically, she doesn't like to stay still anymore.

Much to Mommy's dismay, Lucy is still not a very good sleeper. She often wakes up in the middle of the night, or occasionally makes it to 5 or 6 am. Daddy has started jumping in to help, but sometimes Lucy just wants to be social and won't calm down until Mommy feeds her. We are cutting back to nursing three times a day, with the occasional night feeding. Lucy does not like formula, so we hope she'll like cows milk in a few months.

Lucy's 9 month appointment stats:

Length: 26.9"

Weight: 16lb, 12oz

HC: 17.25

Her measurements are around the 25th percentile.

We just love our little messy monkey!

 Thanks for these darling Christmas outfits Grandma and Grandpa!