Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year!!!

What a year!!! We had a fantastic Christmas and it was so fun to share our traditions with our daughter for the first time.

The fun started the day after Thanksgiving when we put our tree up. I unfortunately didn't get the chance to help much. After a 4 am trip to the e.r. I found out why. I had vertigo. E.R. trips are now part of our holiday tradition seen as we spent last Christmas night in the e.r. as well.

We had fun learning how to make inexpensive Christmas gifts from friends in our Relief Society, one of which was homemade Hot Cocoa that we made and gave to all of our neighbors. Sophie got to dress in her little santa suit and help us pass them out.

Christmas eve started with Jon's tradition of waiting til the last day to go shopping. He swears you can get the best deals that day. (I think that he just likes to procrastinate, and doesn't want to admit it) We did complete our day with our tradition of driving around and looking at all the lights and than coming home and having hot cocoa while reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

I as usual on Christmas day was the first one awake at 5 am. Christmas is by far my favorite day of the year so I can never sleep!! After waiting a little while I finally woke Sophie and Jon up around 6. (Lots of grumbles and groans were heard.) My most special moment was sitting in front of the tree with my family and reading the story of Jesus Christ's birth that morning before we did anything else. Presents are fun and great but I always want my daughter to know the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. We than continued with stockings and gifts, and as all of you other parents can relate Sophie loved the wrapping paper and tissue paper way more that any gift that we could give her. But mom and dad definitely had fun helping her and showing her all of her gifts. The morning was complete with Jon's other famous tradition of making breakfast for us. He is a FANTASTIC breakfast cook!!! Unfortunately, Jon had to go to work at noon. But Sophie and I still had fun playing the rest of the day. She especially loved "taste testing" all of her new gifts.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas like we did and we pray that you all will receive all your dreams and wishes in the year to come.

You gotta have faith...

This is was emailed to us by a very good friend of mine, and Jon and I thought this was so amazing that we had to post it. If only we could all have faith like this little boy. This little one is going to go far and do amazing things with this attitude. You ROCK Logan!!!

Let's remember the reason for the season!!!

We cried after watching this....

Shout out!!!

Go PACK!!!!!!! We Love You Brett!!!!!! What a year to be a Wisconsin fan. The Badgers had a pretty good season, and the Packers are taking it all the way. That's right I'm calling it right here and now. Brett's back and he's bringing it home for the cheeseheads.

Ok, so there is one other thing good about living in MS. Everyone here loves Brett Favre since he was raised here. (just as a side note, one of his nephews plays for a highschool near us and is actually REALLY good. Might be the next Brett)

She's Rock'n and Roll'n

Well, there is one good thing about living in Mississippi. The beach is literally only a block away. (now that we are out of hurricane season, I can be glad for that) Sophie, played with sand for the first time this day. She loved to hold it in her hand and than slowly open her hand and let it fall out.

There is other BIG!! news in the Larsen household...... drumroll please........... Sophie rolled over for the first time on Friday, and than on Saturday she figured out how to roll from her stomach to her back. Also, she is completely off of all of her medicines and is doing fantastic. She loves trying new foods ESPECIALLY mashed potatoes.

The Shed!!

Oh, my goodness. I have to tell you about this place that Jon, Sophie and I went for dinner yesterday. It is called "The Shed", and it really is made out of a shed. The owner, who is like 27, basically started it out of a rundown shack and over the years has just built on to it haphazardly. You have to envision the "Hillbillies" but with a slightly more updated feel. Every table and chair in the place is different, because they have found most items in the garbage. In fact when we were there the owner grabbed a chair and was going to get rid of it because a leg was broken, but than all of sudden said, "no, we'll just screw it into the wall and make it a shelf." Seriously, no joke. Ok, but here is the great twist about this. They have probably the BEST bbq food I have ever had. It was fantastic!!! And the prices are very reasonable. We had this sampler platter that had BBQ ribs, chicken, pulled pork and sausage in it, plus 3 sides (and their is enough food in this thing for probably 4 people) and it only cost $19. I swear if you are ever in the Biloxi area of Mississippi you have to stop by and try this place. You won't regret it!!

Grazing

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We send these pictures in honor of our family in Wisconsin. We thought it was appropriate that she be a cow. This also happened to be the first time she has ever been on grass. She loved the feel of it, and I love how she really does look like she is grazing in this picture. We love all of you and hope to see you soon!!

This video was taken when Sophie was around 6 months old and I just wanted to share a little of my peanut with all of you. She's PERFECT isn't she!!!

Sophie's 1st.....

Sophie had a ball watching "dada" carve the pumpkin and trying to actually figure out what a pumpkin is. She is soooooo interested in every new thing these days. She loves to touch everything and try to put them in her mouth.

Sorry!!!

Sorry about that weird post before my Halloween post. I was trying to post a slideshow of all our Halloween pics, but OBVIOUSLY I am not smart enough for that yet.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Happy Halloween to everyone!!! We hope that everyone had a blast. We had a lot of fun dressing Sophie up, although I think that she would have preferred we not. Especially since we did it so many times!! I couldn't help it, she makes the cutest little cow ever. (although I am a little bias)

We all enjoyed our trip to the pumpkin patch. All though I recommend going to pick out a pumpkin sooner than two days before Halloween. We drove around for 3 hours looking for a place that sold pumpkins.

first timer

WOW!!! I am such a geek...but not in the I'm really smart way, unfortunately, in the I don't have a clue how to do anything way. Well, I have to thank all of this to my friend Katie, who sent me her blog to look at. If I had not seen hers I probably would have never done this. So, I THANK YOU very much!!! Hopefully, now I will be able to update it and make it look half way decent. For anyone who is now holding your breath....knock it off!!! I want my friends alive. :)

Well, I am going to try and fix this thing. Everyone have a GREAT Halloween and we miss you ALL so much!!!

Love ya!!!