Madelyn 8 months

This little girl has changed so much in the past month. I feel like I don't even have the same baby! On her 7 month birthday, I discovered her first tooth when she bit me. It was...unexpected, to say the least. Her second bottom one popped through a couple days later. She also started off that month by rolling a lot, then progressing to dragging herself, army crawling, scooting, and finally crawling normally! She also learned to sit up on her own. This past week she has started saying baba, dada, and gaga. Lots of baby talk going on around here. She also enjoys standing and holding on to things. 

I love sleeping pictures so much. 

She is learning to be a better sleeper. She makes it about 11 hours at night now- so close to hitting that 12 hour mark! Naps are still a struggle. On a good day she will take 2 1.5 hours naps plus another short one in the evening. 

First time in a restaurant high chair! She is still an eating monster. 

Loving her asparagus. 

She chows down on anything and everything. She mostly feeds herself but often in the morning I will feed her some oatmeal or malt o meal and she eats as much as her sisters (who have healthy appetites themselves). It's nuts. She weighs about 20 lbs now and is in 12 month and 18 month clothing. 

She's started sticking her tongue out at me and it's sooo cute. 

Still loving her sisters although we have to get on them constantly about treating her appropriately. 

And now I have to adjust to her never being in the same place I left her. She tries to follow me around and gets frustrated when she can't keep up. We love our sweet Maddie-girl so much!

We love our sweet Maddie-girl so much. 

Prepping for Christmas

Up goes the tree! Our biggest ever. 

Madelyn was enthralled and we had to move some ornaments up. 

Hot chocolate and candy canes after decorating the tree. The girls are doing their "Maddie smiles".

Our first big snow of the season! About 7 inches. 

Our brand new stockings that I am in love with. 

Festival of Trees. My favorite Christmas event. 

I really have to bundle up to help with pick-up duty at Reagan's school these days. 

I braved the cold and took the girls for a short trip to the zoo with a friend last week. It was chilly but we had the place to ourselves and the animals were pretty frisky! All the lions were hanging out right by the glass. 

Seals!

Afterwards, we stopped by Christkindlmarkt, the German Christmas marketplace set up at This is the Place across the street. Fun but we were very cold by this point! The girls were quickly losing steam and were very glad when Lance picked them up to take them to Grace's birthday party. 

The next night Lance and Reagan went to the Ballet West nutcracker with Meagan and Grace. Always a fun date!

Christmas dresses for church. 

This girl kills me with her killer grip. 

And it's that time of the year again. Christmas baking in full swing!

A Quiet Thanksgiving

We had a glorious little Thanksgiving at home this year. We got back from Colorado just a couple days before, so we were ready to relax and stay in. And that's exactly what we did! We woke up to a beautiful covering of snow, and let the girls play in it first thing while we made breakfast. 

Then we watched the parade and cooked a lot! Meagan came over and we had a delicious meal. 

All the food was a huge hit with Maddie, but she especially loved the mashed potatoes. A relief to me and Lance because our other daughters have refused to tough them since they were babies. 

With Thanksgiving over, it was time to start Christmas! The girls were excited to wear their brand new Christmas pjs that night. 

And on Black Friday, instead of shopping, we made our annual trek to cut down a Christmas tree.

We found the perfect one!

A 12 foot beauty that looks awesome in our living room. Bring on Christmas! 

A Wedding!

I've waited a long time for this. The first wedding in my or Lance's immediate family since we met. My younger brother Evan and Diana got married!

We drove out to Colorado for the short trip. Things went fairly smoothly. (Minus a couple blowouts. Diapers. Not tires. Maddie never lets us down). 

We left after Reagan's school and got in late Friday evening. First things first: 

It wouldn't be a Larsen family get together if there wasn't pie. I think we had 9 or 10 different ones. Dad is the best pie-maker in the world, tied with Mom. 

Tiny twinsie giant babies. Madelyn and Cora, 2 months apart but both off the charts in size. We had fun springing them on Grandpa all weekend to see if he could tell them apart. He did ok. 

My girls love their grandpa.

Since our family has officially gotten too big for my parents house, Sharon and I got an AirBnB a few minutes away. It was tons of fun and nice to have a little more space. Maddie bonded a lot with her cousins. 

We even took some selfies. Just missing a couple of the middle girls. 

All the grandkids together! The whole family was able to be there, besides Stuart who had to work. 

Saturday was the big event! Things were a little wonky. Because Evan is in the Air Force, and being sent to Japan soon, planning the wedding didn't go very smoothly. They actually ended up getting legally married in October in Texas while he was still in training, so this was basically just a celebration of their marriage. 

They started with a small ceremony-type thing. The girls were supposed to be flower girls, but due to a small mix up, that didn't work out. They still looked beautiful and were only a little disappointed. 

Reagan post-tears from hearing the bad news. 

Daryn handleded it better.

The gorgeous couple exchanging rings.

Then the party really got started! For some reason, all the small children thought the best way to celebrate was rolling around on the floor. This was a recurring theme throughout the evening. 

I love this picture so much. 

The first dance. 

Cutting the cake. 

Since Diana is Mexican, we were also introduced to some fun new traditions! There was lots of running around really fast.

And throwing Evan in the air...

And the dollar dance, which the little girls especially loved. 

Sweet baby Cora!

And here's some of the official wedding pics that I snagged. 

All their nieces and nephews!

They love babies. At least Diana does :). 

Siblings! It felt weird without Stuart.

Yes we did this. 

 It was difficult. Evan is a solid guy!

This seems more natural, definitely. 

Sisters! We tolerate each other. 

I did a mini bouquet toss for the little girls. Reagan and Chiara caught it together. 

It was such a fun party! We are so happy for Evan and Diana. We stayed late and partied hard, then headed back to our house and crashed. 

We had a quiet Sunday morning and then church that afternoon after half the family had left. 

We stayed until Monday morning. Evan and Diana came over to my parents house to visit. Maddie and Diana are best buds. 

Then it was time to go back home! We stopped on the way to see the newly dedicated Fort Collins temple in Lance's mission. Pretty cool for him. A great trip overall!