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