Thanksgiving 2011

This past year has been, simply put, amazing. Jimmy and I are so incredibly blessed, and we have so much to be thankful for... especially amazing family and friends -- they are what make life worth living, aren't they?! So here is a special shout out to all of our family members and all of our friends - thank you for being a part of our lives. You mean so much to us, and we are so thankful to have you in our lives.

Here are some photos on how our little family spent our Thanksgiving holiday... James had an incredible first Thanksgiving!

On our way to the Turkey Trot 8K! (James rode in the jogging stroller with Jimmy)



James all snuggled up, ready to go!

Mary Sims, Thomas, Stephanie and Travis were all there -- Jimmy snuck a pic of MS racing cross the finish line!

I'm almost there... Yes I am sporting a 2002 Tridelta shirt for my race... Time to invest in some running clothes? Perhaps.... :)

Our little family after the race... Nice start to a family tradition!

When we got home we put James down for a nap and chillaxed with Sadie and watched the parade.

.. and toasted to all that we are thankful for! :)

Then we got all cleaned up and headed to Nana & Pop's for a big Thanksgiving family gathering! Here's Gigi and James...

Ma & Gigi with our little buggaboo :)

Alden, our future babysitter, with James :)

Family photo :)

Daddy & James

Auntie Joykens and Miss Adeline

Cheese!

Hunter and Joy

It's hard catching a photo of the nieces and nephews... they are on the GO! Here's Hamilton racing around....

Joy & James and a little vino... a nice combo! :)

The hostess with the mostess! Mom always does a fantastic job with these huge family gatherings!

Look at all that food - yum! (Adeline's face is also cracking me up... can u see her??)

"Go Gamecocks."

Zany was a little sleepyhead <3

Everyone making their plates!

Nana & James

Too bad I'm awesome and got the available space located next to my parents at the loft rented out - so this was our last Thanksgiving where we could all eat and be together in one room. In January this is going to be a new cafe in Simpsonville!

James and his other Great-Grandmama :)

The day after Thanksgiving we were excited to spend some extra quality time with our nephews, Hamilton and Zan. It was super special because since they live in Columbia we don't get to see them as much as we like. James loved it too!

I loved snuggling with them watching "a show" :)

... and Uncle Jimbo enjoyed reading some books....

Then after Thanksgiving fun, we celebrated James' baptism... So all in all we had an amazing, wonderful kick-off to the holiday season! Now we are all geared up and ready for Christmas.

James' Baptism

Today we ended the wonderful holiday weekend with James' Baptism at Mauldin United Methodist Church, our church home for about a year and a half. It was a beautiful service, and James did fantastic. We had a lot of family who were there to share in this momentous day and the family who couldn't be there was certainly there in spirit!

Here are some pictures of our special day (thanks Uncle Hunter for doing a fabulous job at documenting our special day!).

Mom (aka Nana) went with me early to get our little man dressed in his christening gown.... Mom's winking at the camera :) Thanks again Nana for all of your help in getting ready and cleaning up after it all... I don't know what I'd do without you!! :)

Family photo in the church :)

Auntie Joy and Baby James....

Both of James' great-grandmothers were there!

Us during the service... (thanks again Hunter!)

Our squirmy wormy being very good!

Video of the actual baptism (the first part we are supposed to be in prayer :):

Yes.. James was squeezing the preacher's cheeks the walk down the aisle :)

The tradition at our church is the preacher walks him up and down the aisle and lets everyone meet the new member of the church... it was so sweet!

Us watching :)

Immediately following church we had all the family over for lunch at our house! Here is James with his Grammy and Grandpa who came up from Aiken just to celebrate his special day....

Nana and Pop with James...

Gigi and Ma :) love this pic!

Sandra, Mom, Grandmama, Gracie and Alden with James

Kircher - Larson family photo :)

I wish this picture wasn't blurry, but still posting it... Any hints to fix the blurriness???

The largest meal I've served in my dinning room! We were able to SQUEEZE 13 around the table.... It was tight, but it was GREAT!

And the kiddo table....

Photo of the table from the other end...

Dad wanted to make sure he got one more that I was in :) haha....

It was a great, special day and we thoroughly enjoyed it. :) My only question now... coming from a born and raised baptist girl... When is it considered "okay" to wash off the holy water?? I don't want to wash it off too soon. I figured there had to be some sort of time frame, right? Haaa... just kidding. :)

My absolute favorite form of exercise....

LAUGHTER :)

enjoy these three videos of our little man giggling his heart out while at the beach on vacay in October 2011.....

James is SEVEN months old!

Man - that is hard to believe! My little baby is turning into a BIG baby! And his personality... my oh my does James have some personality. Yesterday at church the lady working the nursery kept going on and on about how much personality he has for being so young. When you first hear that it might sound like he was just being bad, BUT when Jimmy walked in there were three babies screaaaaammmiinnnnnggggggg. James was the only one chillaxing with the ladies. :) He is so cool... :)

So, James is seven months. He is eating solids, his favorite right now are sweet potatoes. He gobbles them up as soon as I put them in his mouth. He started babbling just a few days ago and hasn't stopped since. In the mix of babbling he throws a few raspberries in there, which he thinks is so funny. He is constantly moving. He is either standing up jumping in your lap or in his jumper or on his back bouncing his legs -- up and down, and up and down, and... well, you get the idea.

He is almost sitting up all by himself. He will sit there for awhile and play but then if you aren't watching he topples to one side... but it doesn't phase him. He just gets on his belly and continues playing. He's a tough cookie. :)

Everyone gets a kick out of his hair... When he was first born he had a head FULL of black, dark, dark hair. It has since fallen out and now it is a light brown and it sticks STRAIGHT up. Joy likes to call him spikey.

He is still a huge thumb sucker. He always sleeps with it, and is starting to stop sucking it so much out of bed, but it still sometimes sneaks its way in... which is fine by me. He is still small enough that it is adorable (to me).

James gets a huge kick out of Sadie, and she is still warming up to him... but sometimes when he is in his "squawking" phase she will go and hide under our bed. Poor little Sadie-kens, but don't feel too bad for. She is spoiled rotten! :)

We've been up to a lot over the past month - here is a small recap of what we've been up to over the past month:

Spending time with his grandmother's -- here he was with Ma (did I mention he loves all things he isn't supposed to have... i.e. M'as beautiful neckalace?? ha!):

Here he is with his Nana and his other great-grandma after Sunday lunch:

We took a family trip to Fripp Island and had the best time (see more pics and post here)!

We celebrated James' first Halloween (see more pics and post here).

We had our first family photo shoot in downtown Greenville, and got some great shots - this is one of my favs :)

James and daddy:

We celebrated Adeline's 2nd birthday!

Our Columbia cousins were there - Hamilton and Zan! We loved seeing them and couldn't get over how BIG they are getting!

Aren't birthdays the best?! :)

James was taking it all in... Gnawing on ol' Sophie, which is probably his favorite toy of all time (THANKS KATIE! :)

After some bday fun, it was snuggle time with the cousins!

Zan & Adeline <3 so sweet!

Gracie & Hamilton <3

Nana wanted a picture with ALL the grandbabies :)

Can you believe Frannie is 5/6 months preggers? She looks fantastic!

Pic with Grandmama (and Joy's cool lanterns!)

See -- he CAN sit up!

Unfortunately in November our whole little family got a nasty stomach bug... It was NOT fun. I got it first... then Jimbo.. then James. Thankfully James' didn't last as long and wasn't near as bad as ours! But it was still a tough week in the Larson household...

And oh, Miss Sadie... don't you feel bad for her? She has it so rough....

One Sunday night Jimmy and I had an event in support of the March of Dimes. I took a pic with James right before we left in the same spot I took a belly picture when I was 30 weeks preggo (see here - scroll to the very end).

Jam & Cimmy :)

... and Jimbo got a new iphone this month (so did Thomas)... I caught them both on their phones during the event! Ha!

So happy Mary Sims is living in Greenville now! :)

I've taken James on a few jogs in his running stroller... He seems to really enjoy it!

And last but certainly not least - his 7 month photo shoot... Now just a disclaimer - these were rather rushed. We tried to take some pics right before our zoo date with Joy and the girls (which ended up getting canceled due to summer like thunderstorm - in November? Yes... we are in SC). So instead of the zoo we settled for Tako Sushi for some tacos and sushi during happy hour! It was amazeballs!

"Mom! Check it! I'm bigger than the bear now!"

"Whoa. What's this. Gotta - get - it - in - my mouth...."

"Golly Gee Mommy... You're a hoot."

Sadie walked up for this picture - that is what he is cracking up at! :)

Since we couldn't go in the zoo - we took some pics in the parking lot. We weren't wasting our afternoon! :)

James is more interested in all the sounds than the camera... Obv!

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"