Goodbye 2013

The Larsen Family Bucket List for 2013:

• Go to the zoo - We had a blast at the zoo this summer! Blake loved the elephants!
• Go to the beach  - One of the happiest times of the year. Also the most exhausting!
• Go on a couples vacation/get-away - Not really.... but we had lots of dates?!?!
• Weekly date nights (at least 3 out of 4 weeks a month) we did the best we could!
• Go to Boone, NC - Rolling this one over to 2014.
• Attend a concert - We loved Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line.
• Start family traditions - TONS!!! :)
• Go to as many sporting events as possible (baseball, football, etc) Durham Bulls Season passes, UNC football games, and more!
• Finish our basement - or at least apart of it (let's be realistic here) - Nope...not even close!! But that's OK, we are thinking about other plans now.
• Take family opportunities to serve others A for effort and room for more!
• Get bikes - including a carrier attachment for Blake Yes!! And we will ride more!
• Create many "firsts" for Blake to have as a 1year old Lots of firsts!!

Wow! What a year! We had such a great time as a family. This year was somewhat difficult on other levels, but that is life! I think we have grown and become stronger because of all of our accomplishments and challenges. Now we get to start our Bucket List for 2014! Let's see what it will have in store for us...

Christmas with Extended Family

We got to spend time with both sides of my family. We didn't get to actually see the Utah side, but we did skype with them and we received lots of gifts from them!!

The Dixon Side...
Everyone was together this year. All 3 little cousins got to see each other too. Very cute and fun!

The Wiggins Side...
We went over to my dads house on Christmas day to celebrate with him, Heather, and Memommy. Blake got all kinds of fun things there, too! We had a great afternoon!

We love all of our family and we know that they sure do love us! We are so blessed! It has been a fantastic Christmas for us! Wish we didn't have to end it.

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Morning!!! Yay!!! The morning I have personally been waiting for because this is the first Christmas morning that we have together with a little one who understands Christmas!!!

Ryan and I expected we would be waking up early. However... we did not think that we would be waking up at 5:30am to the sound of the dog getting sick. Blah... Merry Christmas?! Roxie, our black lab, got sick in our office room. We woke up to quickly clean it up so that it wouldn't mess up any Christmas morning activities. While we were cleaning... guess who else woke up!?!? Blake!! So here we are at 5:30 have Christmas morning. LOL!

We walked into the living room with Blake and he immediately got to see one thing that Santa brought him... a tool set/work bench!! Now he can help Ryan with all of his handy work. :)

 

He then quickly wanted to start opening up his other gifts...with the help of his saw from the work bench. 

 

His next big gift from Santa was his train set! This was the biggie!!! And the train set links up to the car set that he already has. So it turns everything into a little city. And that little metropolis took up our whole living room! Check out his first reaction! Priceless!

Blake also got to open all of his gifts from family in Utah. He got a hot wheels race track from Grandpa. He got another small Thomas the Train set from Grandma. then he also got lots of clothes and things from his aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Rika got us all matching BYU shirts, so we decided we would wear those for our Christmas Day picture! Merry Christmas!!!

We had a very busy morning opening all of our gifts. That afternoon we went to my dads house to celebrate there. I also forgot to show the pictures from Christmas at my moms house. We will post those pictures next!

Christmas Eve 2013

Wow... I had no idea that Christmas with a toddler would be such a whirlwind. As the "big day" approached, I had very little down time to blog each and ever event. So, We will be breaking our Christmas into several different posts... all worth reading! This year was an AMAZING Christmas and we are so ready to share it!

Christmas symbolizes family traditions to me and I want my family to have those great traditions of their own! It is difficult to start family traditions with a little family when you are also still doing awesome extended family traditions too, but I was determined to have Christmas Eve and Christmas morning be just my little family. Not sure if I will be able to get away with that every year, but this year I did. :)

First of all.... Christmas Eve is a very special day to our family. It is the day that Ryan proposed!!!! Without that special day, we wouldn't have this family! You can look back to our post in 2010 for the full details, but lets just say it was the best trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights!!! :)

On Christmas Eve, we let Blake open a specific gift from Utah family. They were his Christmas Jammies! That will be a yearly tradition for us to open on Christmas Eve. Blake was so cute in his. Ryan and I also got some Jammies from my side of the family but we didn't get a picture of us... I was kind of just focused on the kid, LOL!

We also made Christmas cookies to eat and also to leave a couple for Santa! Blake LOVES cookies so we were almost worried he wouldn't leave any for Santa! :)

  

We watched a Christmas movie (The Grinch) and we read Blake a toddler version of The Christmas Story. Then...bed time!! Luckily Blake doesn't quiet have the anticipation for Christmas Day yet, so we had no problems having his go to sleep! I think Ryan and I were almost too excited to sleep! Christmas Day to come in the next post.... 

Christmas Card 2013

Here are the pictures from our Christmas Card for 2013. We wanted to to be a little humorous this year. :)

 

 Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!!

Christmas Lights @ Hill Ridge Farms

We went out to see Christmas lights this year!!! Remember when we went to the pumpkin patch?!?!!? Well... we went back to the same place. They do a festival of lights where they decorate the whole property with lights. It is amazing really. 

It was rather chilly last night, so we had to wrap up good and bring a blanket. Part of the excitement is that you get to ride on a hayride to see all of the lights. They even play Christmas music on the lighted hayride. So fun!! Blake loved it. Ok, Ryan and I did too. They had so many different things to see. Blake would point and then he would also squeal out of excitement!! LOL. He had several people giggling with him. What can we say, our child is the life of any party. :)

They even had Santa there and Blake got to sit on his lap....Blake did great with Santa! He didn't cry, but he was shy. He told Santa he wanted a Choo Choo (train set). When it came to picture time, Blake wouldn't sit with Santa alone, so we turned it into a family picture!!!

Going to Work With Daddy

Ryan had his weekend with the National Guard this month... but this time we go to go too! Well, for one afternoon. His unit had their Family Day/Christmas Party on Saturday.

The afternoon started somewhat roughly. I had to hold off Blake's nap a little until it was time to make the hour drive to Smithfield. He wasn't too happy about that AND he didn't nap in the car very well. Short nap plus place equals a disaster for our little one. He just wanted to whine and cry. Sigh.... That's one of those times that you as a parent just feel like crap. Talk about some serious mommy guilt!

Taylor and I (by the way... Taylor came with us!) put Blake back in the car and we drove around town hoping that he would fall back asleep for a bit. He got really quiet and mellow, but he never actually fell asleep. Thankfully after about an hour of driving, he finally started to show an attitude change. We went back to the Christmas Party and had a blast! I was just thrilled to spend time with Ryan and see some of our friends. Blake loved seeing his daddy...almost as much as he loved playing in the bouncy house!

When did Blake get old enough to play in a bouncy house?!!?!?!?!

We also got to eat a very nice catered dinner and even see Santa!! Blake actually did pretty good with Santa. He was a little clingy to Ryan but he didn't cry! :) We will see Santa again this week, so maybe this was good practice!!