Successful Santa visit!!

Last year Emily was only a few weeks old when she met Santa and was very sleepy. It worked out well!!

Sleepy baby

But this year Emily is one, capable of running away and is not shy about showing how she really feels about things. So Patrick and I were braced for the worst when we headed out to meet Santa again this year. We got there 30 minutes before Santa and were third in line. When Santa was ready we brought Emily to him and she immediately held on to me a little tighter. Luckily Santa was a jolly old soul (it was the beginning of his shift so I'm sure that helped!) and made Emily smile before she hopped on his lap. She was definitely nervous and fussy but no all out scream like we thought was going to happen!

Emily's nervous face

We're all geared up for Christmas and three days of family fun!
Wishing you all a happy holiday.
The Harrisons

One year stats

Emily's one year appointment revealed that she is growing as expected at 25 pounds and 31 inches.  She's topping the charts and growing steadily.  Patrick also celebrated his birthday this weekend with lots of family dinners.  Lastly, we had our first Christmas celebration with the Harrisons in Brainerd.  All in all, a good start to the month and with only 4 more days of school until winter break, we are looking forward to seeing baby William and celebrating Christmas!

Patrick and his "old as dirt" cake!

Our toddler!

The Harrisons

Emily's first birthday!

We now have a one year old and she's a toddler.  Emily has made the transition to walker, she now walks 90% of the time!  It's a whole new world.  On Sunday we had Emily's first birthday party with family and one of Emily's friends, Abby (and her parents Stefanie and Josh : ) ).

We started by decorating the house a little

Emily's "smash cake"

When Emily's guests arrived she was actually sleeping.  When we finally woke her up - 30 minutes after her party started - she was surprised by the crowd here to see her and was a little clingy.

Once she warmed up, however, she was all about showing off her walking skills.

After a bite to eat we started opening gifts.  She got a little distracted, but she made it through the pile!  She got a lot of cute clothes, fun toys and great books.  We're so lucky to have such generous friends and family.

We ended the party with cake.  Emily spent some time investigating her Bubble Guppy themed cake and didn't seem too interested at first but once she had a spoon she dug right in!

Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes.  Everyone made Emily's day so special and we're lucky to have you all in our lives.

Cool new hat from daddy

"Bye everyone!"

We're now looking forward to Patrick's birthday and Christmas.  Emily slept through her first Santa visit last year...I wonder how she'll react this year!

The Harrisons

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

With Thanksgiving behind us it's time to decorate the house for Christmas!  We don't do too much but just putting the tree up and hanging the stockings are enough to get me in the holiday spirit.  So far Emily has had little curiosity about the tree which we are grateful for but only time will tell if the tree will stay standing and in tact for the entire season!

The Harrisons

Thankful

This time of year gets everyone thinking of what they have to be thankful for.  I am thankful for all of the great family and friends that are in my life.  I am also thankful for the beautiful little girl that I am fortunate enough to call my daughter.  We spent Thanksgiving this year like we do every year.  We started the day with the Turkey Trot downtown.  It was an unseasonably warm morning and we all did great!

We then had our first Thanksgiving dinner at Patrick's aunt Tracey's house.  The food was great, nice job Tracey!  We ended the day at my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner number two.  Again, great food.  It was so nice to see all of our family in one day!

Check out uncle P classin' up the the picture. (Also love Emily's "cheese" smile!)

I love Thanksgiving!!

Epic battle over the wishbone

Obvious winner

We're looking forward to a busy December that includes Emily's first birthday!!
The Harrisons

There's no stopping her!

After weeks of kind of walking, taking a few steps here and there I think we can say it, we have a toddler!  Emily is walking around and loving it!  We set out a fun toy for Emily to walk to and off she went - that's why she took a dive at the end : )

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!
The Harrisons

Friendsgiving

Every year we host a Thanksgiving dinner for some friends and this year was no different except that we had Emily to contend with while trying to cook and clean!  As usual, Patrick did a phenomenal job with the food.  We had standard Thanksgiving fare: turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls and wild rice.  We ended the evening with pie - french silk and a new recipe, maple pumpkin.  They were both delicious!  We'll be eating leftovers all week as well as two more Thanksgiving meals next week and I look forward to it!!

Placecards

Pre-guests photo op

Kiddie table

The whole group

The bird - nice job Patrick!

The Harrisons

Welcome William!

Patrick and I are now an aunt and uncle and Emily now has a cousin!  My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named William on Friday, November 2.  He surprised everyone by being almost a month early but is a healthy little guy!  At birth he weighed in at 5 pounds 10 ounces (tiny little peanut!) and was 19 3/4 inches long.  Long and lean!  I was lucky enough to be able to hop on a plane the morning after he was born to meet him, thanks to my wonderful husband.  I feel so lucky to have been able to be there for the first few days and can't wait to see them again.

The new family

New mom!

auntie!!

My favorite : )

Perfect

With dad

How is this possible???

The Harrisons