family picture time

in the midst of all the holiday fun, we managed to pose for a few pics while with my family here in california -- quite the feat considering there are 10 siblings, three brothers-in-law and two grandchildren to keep up with (although on sibling, chad, is currently serving a mission in mexico).

we'll post more from our christmas adventures once we get home. hope everyone had a merry christmas!

(you can view more pics from the photo shoot on my sister's blog here)

watch out world: christian is crawling

he's had several of the key steps down for weeks -- rocking on his knees, leaning forward to grab things, pushing back to sit on his bum, even pulling up to standing whenever he can get a decent grip on things -- and last night he finally put all the pieces together. of course, as soon as we wanted to pull out the camera to capture this cute, albeit wobbily moment, he stopped. he sat back with a grin and decided we were now the entertainment. the little stinker always does that when we pull out a camera. he's too smart for us. (for all we know he's been crawling in secret for weeks!)

hopefully we can capture him in action tonight without him realizing it. it's too cute not to have it on tape.

toy rat, anybody?

not the greatest picture but i wanted you to see how much christian LOVES this rat shane let him get from ikea. it fell under his carseat the other day and when i saw it my heart skipped a beat because for a second i thought it was real. kind of a gross play toy but he sure seems to love it. i probably need to get use to it -- i realize that having a little boy means there will likely be much "grosser" toys around in the future.

and yes, for those of you wondering, his name is most definitely templeton, after the infamous overeater from charlotte's web.

bad blogger award

i've been horrible at updating the blog lately. we've taken so many fun pics and video too. it's just a matter of getting it up there. maybe i just need to get one of those photo cards that uploads to the internet automatically..? there's a thought.

for now, here's a cute picture kayla took on her phone of christian the other day. he fell asleep and she needed him nearby while she did her hair so she put him in his toy basket and pulled him close. (and no, that's not a huge bag of trash next to his head, just his "too small" baby clothes that we need to take to our storage unit downstairs. he's growing SO fast. sigh.)

pulling a tanner

short and sweet, but oh so funny (this comes from my sister meri's latest facebook message):

"Every time Tanner doesn't want to do something he lies down on the ground and says "I died." I wish I could do that. Haha."

next time i don't want to do something at work maybe i''ll just "pull a tanner."

*for those of you who don't know, tanner is my darling seven-year-old brother

veteran's day tribute to great grandpa wiley

a local news station in pennsylvania recently covered the closing of an armory named for my great-grandpa robert calvin wiley, a war hero who died in france in 1944.

click here for a link to the video.

we're so grateful for his patriotic example and brave sacrifice. and we can't wait to meet him in the life to come.

seven months old

and still ridiculously cute...

...even if he does refuse to pose with his doting mother

first halloween

check out christian's expression while watching shane carve

not so sure about his pumpkin

hitting it off with his pumpkin

the pumpkin shane carved -- doesn't it look like jack from "nightmare before christmas"?

halloween pajamas made by grandma larsen

ready to trick-or-treat (or trunk-or-treat, in the church parking lot)

the flying monkey

SUCH a happy guy

our little bear cub

**thought i'd update with a few more photos from the day:
(yes, he did decide to taste the bar on the shopping cart. totally gross, i know, but he did it while i was trying to snap a pic so i captured it accidentally. i couldn't resist posting cuz he looks so cute and innocent.)

fall leaves

fall is most definitely here on the east coast. it's times like this that remind me how lucky we are to live in a state covered with TREES. christian and i saw some GORGEOUS fall leaves on our morning run together:
check out my cute work-out partner -- ALL SMILES:
we make the PERFECT TEAM because whenever i slow down he gets antsy till i speed up again. glad someone's whipping me into shape. ;)

solid foods

christian's been eating solids for about two weeks now. he's still not sure if he likes it.

we've been making out own baby food along so way. so far he's tried: rice cereal, zucchini, apple sauce, banana. next up: peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.

any tips for us along the way? we added cinnamon to the rice cereal and that seemed to make it more palatable for him.

his favorite part of eating solids? sitting in his high chair and slurping water in between spoonfuls.

a little 'time out'

went down to richmond this past weekend for a little "sweet assurance" -- the theme for deseret book's 2009 "time out for women" conference. we stayed with my cousin, darla, and her family and enjoyed the company of emily and burke jensen as well.

christian was such a good sport while at the conference friday night and most of the day saturday. the only reason he needed his pacifier was because he would start babbling and cooing TOO loudly at times. he made friends with a little seven-month-old boy who was fascinated by him. it was fun to watch them interact.

mary ellen edmunds was the closing speaker for saturday's session. she served her third mission in indonesia with my dad. she's such a funny, sweet lady. her sense of humor reminds me of my dad and his siblings. i have fond memories of her eating dinner with us back in folsom.

later on saturday we visited the city's folklife festival and enjoyed some scrumptious "bottom's up pizza." on the way out of the town sunday morning, we got to drive down the famous "monument avenue" -- such a beautiful neighborhood. can't wait to get back down for another visit.

six months

yes, six months old today! it's hard for us to believe. we wish christian would slow down all this growing up business but he just won't quit.

some things he's been up to lately:

- sitting up: he's been able to do this for nearly two weeks and he gets more steady all the time -- however, he still needs to figure out the best way to "un-sit"
- giggles: he's already a pretty steady smiler but now he's added giggling to his list of tricks which makes everyone smile
- tickles: he reacts and laughs now when we tickle him under his chin, around his stomach and especially on the bottoms of his feet
- growing hair: it may not seem like much but he does still have some light brown hair coming in SLOWLY. maybe it's more like duck fluff but it's thick enough that he has a visible hairline (and what looks to be a few cowlicks -- like his mom)
- pick-up tricks: he's now able to spot and grab tiny things he finds on the floor -- like my clear rubber bands for my hair -- scary! we're going to have to be more careful about vacuuming around here
- wiggles: this kid won't sit still. we are in trouble once he really starts crawling. he scootches around, rolling and twisting to position himself near toys, cords, magazines, etc. which he promptly puts in his mouth

*sorry for the poor quality photos -- took them on my blackberry with bad lighting

big yawn

i was trying to capture christian's smile to send a fun photo to shane while in class last night. this is what i got instead. (all that sitting up must be hard to do! he's been at it for nearly two weeks now.)

now all we need is a porch...

i'm loving this idea for rocking chairs by designmom. if only we had a real porch to put them on. some day.

christian the tourist

guess who came to visit me on the hill during lunch today?


christian has been touring dc today with his aunt kayla. he's such a great tourist. we've taken him just about everywhere.


his tag says "house office buildings" because i escorted them under the capitol to the longworth building and then to the capitol visitor center.

tender mercies

did i mention that shane got a job offer at a local law firm? yep, he's now been a "legal assistant" at an employment law firm for two whole weeks now. talk about an ANSWER to PRAYER. (bonus: shane tells me a lawyer at the firm looks JUST LIKE steve carell, aka "michael" from "the office.")

while the new job definitely makes for a more hectic schedule (shane rarely sees christian when he's not just waking up or just going to bed), it's nice to commute into work together again. most mornings we spend about an hour wading through traffic together, which can make for some great conversations. sometimes it's the highest quality time we have together all day, since shane goes from work to his law school classes five nights a week.

another tender mercy: shane's sister, kayla, ASKED if we'd be okay with her coming out for a few months to watch christian for us. she needed a break from school and her life out west. talk about perfect timing. and christian just LOVES his aunt kayla.

counting down till thursday

i really hope you are all getting excited for this:



i know we are. on at 9 pm eastern on nbc. be there.

five months old

still cuddly. still smiley. still christian.

growing like a weed

i'm taking the liberty of back-dating a bit. i took these pics when christian was just four months old. as you can see he's a tumbling, grabbing machine -- as good at snatching items with his toes as with his fingers.

we were a bit late getting christian in for his four-month check-up. so here are his stats are four and a half months old (drumroll, please):


17 lbs, 7 oz. (82%) and 26.5 inches (86%)

free things to do in the district

believe it or not, i picked up a link to this list from mayor fenty's twitter feed (disclaimer: no, i don't follow d.c.'s mayor on twitter, someone i follow does...does that make it any better? probably not).

it actually has some pretty good suggestions. i was already aware of the free concerts at the kennedy center and and the national gallery of art but hadn't yet heard about the rock creek planetarium or the national aboretum. and it was also good to be reminded that the national building museum is a bit of a hidden treasure since it sits away from the national mall just enough to avoid the major tourist crowds.

think he likes sitting the other way?!

i took christian on a little walk tonight for fhe -- shane was off to his first class of the semester -- and we tried out the stroller without him sitting in his carseat. he really seemed to get a kick out of facing the other way although i had a hard time because he was making all these cute noises and i couldn't see his face as easily.

i need my baby to stop growing up! ;) (although, i think he's awfully cute doing it.)

decorating canarian-style

so i really think there are some cute arrangements in here -- with the cool vintage plates and such. however, i was looking over the pics and then it hit me: this is totally a rip-off of canarian style (and probably several other hispanic cultures) where plates on the wall are the norm.

i remember that being so weird to see them on houses -- inside and out -- when first arrived in the canary islands as a missionary. but after a while, it really grew on me. i think i like these arrangements because they take old-school antiques and give them a modern arrangement.

has anyone ever attempted something like this? am i a dork to think it's kind of cool?

two things

got up the guts to chop off my hair while in idaho this past week. i had been considering an a-line forEVER (thanks to folks like katie holmes cruise and victoria "posh spice" beckham) and finally broke down and did it. glad i did -- so far. went a little shorter than planned because the girl told me if i did it would give me 12 inches to donate. i haven't freaked out yet. neither has shane. (although he has threatened yet again to grow a mullet...)

took this pic at the end of the last leg of our flight home from idaho late monday night. we had a great time visiting with shane's family and close friends. it was especially nice to see shane's dad doing well as he continues to recover from his hip injury. as christian clearly illustrates, we're all pretty tuckered out, but we'll have lots to share on the blog shortly.

comic-book style

we were missing shane tonight for fhe so christian and i decided to take a few pictures for him. they actually turned out pretty fun.

the effect is called "comic book" -- if you know shane fairly well, you'll understand why we figured that was kind of fitting. we're excited to have him back home tomorrow night.

farewell to 'nauntie'

natalie flew out early wednesday morning. the fourth of my five sisters, she's grown up around a lot of kids. she came out for an entire month to help us care for christian, filling in the gaps between my and shane's schedules.

this is probably my favorite pic of the two -- i love their matching faces

nat was so sweet to christian, and he just soaked it all in

the night before she left we tried our best to convince her that thai food is good (she's a pretty picky eater at this point)...

...however, as you may be able to deduce from the photos, we weren't exactly successful. she downed the mango but didn't get excited about the sticky rice. (have no fear, shane and i were willing to help her out with that...)

of course, we had to have a final photo shoot before she flew out in our new headbands. we also squeezed in some last-minute kisses for christian.

we know natalie put off a ton of summer fun to be here and we can't thank her enough for her sacrifice. we all had fun getting to know her better and christian is definitely missing his little "nauntie" (natalie, aunt, and nanny).