Holiday Happenings

Happy 30th Birthday, Daddy!

This past week we enjoyed a few special celebrations in honor of Geoff's birthday.

Friday night we went to a park district event called Magnificant Moonlight Night. A local Italian restaurant catered in a fabulous meal and then we had the opportunity to take a horse drawn carriage ride around the snow covered park. Lauren was very unsure at first, but then calmed down and really enjoyed the ride.

The reindeer however, were another story! Ever since I took Lauren to see Santa a few weeks ago, she is scared of people or animals she is unsure of. As you can see in this photo, the reindeer really spooked her.


On Saturday afternoon we took Lauren for her first train ride. Lauren and I have met Geoff at the train many times throughout the summer, so she knows what a train is and gets very excited when it blows its horn and cruises into the station, but she has never riden on a train before. Lauren was so excited during the entire ride.

Lauren enjoyed staring out the window the entire train ride.


We brought The Polar Express and read it to Lauren as the train traveled north.

On Sunday night we decided to go get a Christmas tree. We debated about it for a few weeks because we weren't sure how Lauren would react to the lights and ornaments, but decided to go for it today, as it's only the Christmas season a few weeks out of the year. So we went to Home Depot, the place to get trees in Chicagoland, and found ourselves a little balsam fir. We are just waiting for the branches to drop so we can decorate it tomorrow night. It fits very well in the corner between the chair and couch and hopefully out of Lauren's reach!

Teeth, Birthdays, and Cookies

As promised, a photo of all six of Lauren's teeth. Grandpa Hanson took this great photo on Thanksgiving.


Lauren loved spending time with Grammie Sue this past weekend.


We celebrated Grandpa and Daddy's birthdays.


Lauren had her first chance to decorate Christmas cookies. She ate most of the frosting and sprinkles and really liked mushing her hands in the frosting.

Thanksgiving 2009

Lauren was all dressed and ready for the Thanksgiving feast before the turkey was quite ready. So she entertained herself using her stroller. She is becoming quite the pro with this stroller now. She gets around the house very quickly and is even able to get herself unstuck if needed. On Thanksgiving morning Lauren took 10 steps by herself between Geoff and Grandma Hanson. We were all very excited!


The Thanksgiving feast! Geoff prepared almost all of the food and it was delicious.


Here's what happens if you put a whole bag of potato peels down the garbage disposal. Thank goodness Dhruba came over for dinner and was able to fix the potato peel jam so we could wash the dishes.



Looks like someone had a little too much turkey! Lauren loved all of the dishes at our Thanksgiving feast except cranberries. She still does not like fruit.



Hanging out in Grandpa's boots

Chicago Children's Museum

This morning Lauren, Aunt Stephie and I spent some time at the Chicago Children's Museum. We were able to get a discount on admission thanks to Aunt Stephie's job and had a great time!


Playing in the water. Do you like my green raincoat?


Throwing snowballs with Aunt Stephie


Climbing up the rollers


Hiding in the flower with Mommy


Looks like it's nap time!

Lauren hit another big milestone Friday afternoon! We were visiting our friends Jillian and London and were able to be a part of their play group. As Lauren was busy interacting with all of the other kids, I noticed her legs start shaking a little bit. Then she moved her left foot and then her right. HER FIRST STEPS!! I was so excited and all of the other moms clapped for Lauren too. She hasn't moved her little feet since, but I know she will again soon.

Another fun moment happened when we were in the car on our way home from shopping Thursday evening. Lauren sneezed twice and I said, "bless you." Then she made a pretend sneeze sound and I said, "bless you," again. She kept making the fake sneeze sound and I kept saying, "bless you," until she just started laughing like crazy. Needless to say, I started laughing too. All weekend long she continued fake sneezing and laughed when I said, "bless you."

I am still working on getting a picture of her 6 teeth and will post it soon.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Music Music Everywhere!

Here are a few clips of Lauren's continued interest in music. She LOVES to sing, dance, and clap to all kinds of music, as well as play her little instruments. Do we see a future percussionist?

Flower Girl

As mentioned a few weeks ago, Lauren was a flower girl in Aunt Stephie and Uncle Jon's wedding. She was fascinated by all the bubbles and enjoyed being pulled up the aisle in her red wagon by Daddy. Oh, and the gold shoes she wore in the wedding and has been fascinated with ever since are too small now. Guess I know what Lauren wants for Christmas this year!


Mini photo of the flower girl and the beautiful bride.


Rehearsing for the ride up the aisle.


Spending time with Great Gram.


Here I come!



If you want to see many other FANTASTIC photos from Steph and Jon's wedding, here's the photo link: http://www.pictage.com/706868

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun carving our huge pumpkin and trick or treating!


Wow! Do you think I could fit in this huge pumpkin?



Yup, looks like it!



Daddy's masterpiece all lit up.



But I don't want to be a flower...



Okay, if you say I look cute then I LOVE my flower costume. Especially with my gold shoes!



Trick or Treating with Mommy, Grandpa, and Uncle Jon



Waiting for the next trick or treater to come to my house.



I love playing with all of my candy!



Yea right Mommy! I will get to my candy even if you say I can't have it.