Christmas Break with the Larsen Family

On December 22nd, Daniel flew in and came to my house. We left the next morning to go to Clovis. As soon as we got there, we packed up and went to Disneyland! There were 11 of us (we missed the few that weren't able to come).

Disneyland:

Lyla and Will were dressed and ready for Disneyland!

 It was an early morning.

 It was also a rainy morning, but after that, the weather was beautiful.

 Will took a nap in his stroller - for the first time EVER.

 We had to take a picture on a car in Toontown.

 Will liked his seat for the parade.

 (John and Dad Larsen)

(Joe, David, Will, Daniel, Mom Larsen)

 This was our only character picture - and Will was sleeping.

Here are the wonderful parents that made this trip happen! 

We took a quick break for some duck watching. 

It is a miracle that we got a picture where all three of us are smiling. Hooray for Disneyland! 

Will had fun clapping at lunch.

We thought that Will was sleeping in his carrier, but then a little hand sneaked out!

California Adventure:

We loved the Toy Story ride! 

Unsurprisingly, Daniel beat me. It must be all of that video game practice. Although, I was significantly more accurate with my shots!

 Family picture!

 Here is his cheesy face on Christmas morning.

Here are Hilary and Bradley while we were waiting in line for the new Cars ride. The wait was 2 1/2 hours for most of the day, but we went in the Single Rider line later and the wait was maybe 30 minutes - much better!

The grandparents were nice enough to watch the kids while we went back to the park that night. It was such a fun date night!!

After a few awesome days at Disneyland and California Adventure, we returned to Clovis and had some fun there.

We enjoyed spending time with Grandpa Larsen. 

We also enjoyed our time with Grandma Larsen.

Here are the newer grandparents with their crazy grandkids!

It was a busy, fun, and exciting Christmas break!

Christmas Break with the Harthun Family

 Let's start off with the cutest pictures ever. They are already 2 1/2 months late, so I won't even take the time to edit them. My sister, Kylie, had this idea and made it happen

Daniel was nice enough to let Will and I go to California for two whole weeks without him. We missed him, but it was so much fun to be able to spend that much time with my family.

Here are a bunch of pictures (in no particular order):

 He discovered that he could climb stairs.

 He really liked tearing up magazines.

 He was so excited to clap, open presents, and sit in Grandma's special little chair.

 He really enjoyed eating Cheerios out of Grandma's hand.

 He spent some quality time bonding with Austin over manly things like computers and remote controls.

He was absolutely obsessed with the bus that had lights and children's voices coming out of it. 

 He took some snuggly naps with Kylie.

He loved clapping with GG (although not in this picture - the Cheerios were too tempting). 

 He finally got to meet our wonderful friends, Janie and Allan.

He loved that Papa Pete. 

His Grandma was always so fun.

He got a new hat that was knitted by Aunt Vicky. 

 We actually had people around to take pictures of the two of us.

While other people played with Will, I was able to sew this sleep sack for him - including a zipper and snap (which was tricky and almost got the best of me!).

He did not care for Santa.

The library had a window that was just his size.

 He loved reading books with me.

He loved reading books with Kylie.

He decided that he HATED baths.

Finally, after several screaming baths, I discovered that he just wanted me to come in too.

We had so much fun in Morgan Hill.

Mukilteo Beach

Will and I took a quick trip to Mukilteo Beach this morning. Although there is not sand to play in, there is a lot of interesting driftwood and rocks. We are lucky to have such a beautiful place so close to us.

Will liked watching the ferry.

He didn't really like posing with me, but we got one. You can see the ferry right behind us now.

He liked just standing by his stroller best of all. He loves those wheels.

Hopefully, posts about Christmas break and Disneyland will be coming soon...

Proof...

William walks!

He took his first lunging step from the coffee table to the couch back in December at my family's house (around 9 months). Then, he started taking a few steps at a time a couple of weeks ago (around 10 months). Now, he is pretty much a pro!

A Crazy Toddler

There has been a serious lack of blog posts around here.

Why?

Will has turned into a toddler overnight. The following pictures show what happened in the space of about 5 minutes.

He now pulls out everything he can get his hands on. He is now extremely good at standing, pretty good at walking, and somewhat good at climbing. All of those new accomplishments have increased the number of things that he can reach. Unfortunately.

My day is spent running around after him and picking up everything that he pulls out. Or, sometimes, I just leave it all out and then quickly run around and pick it all up right before Daniel gets home. Or, occasionally, I am so tired that I don't pick it up at all (and then Daniel helps me).


My solution:
Stay out of the house as much as possible.

Here we are at the mall. He was crawling like a maniac all over the place.

(This cheesy smile shows off his 7.5 teeth!)

Here we are at the library. We got to Baby Storytime on Tuesdays. These pictures are a couple months old, but we do go every week.

Here we are again at the library. Sometimes, we go just to play with the puzzles and read some new books. Oh, did you notice that it is the exact same outfit as our mall pictures? Yep. It was our second outing that day.

Here we are at the pool. These pictures are a few months old, but I will get some new ones next week.

(Will and Annika both sleeping after a day at the pool.)

Will is a really social baby. He especially loves to see and "talk" to other babies and kids. He can be pretty delightful (when he isn't pulling out every object in our house).