Our Christmas

Our festivities started with a bang as Caroline and I made some Christmas cookies!

Making a mess with mom

Next we headed to Dallas to spend Christmas with the family. Since my parents and Dallin all just got back from thier missions this is the first time we were able to get together and see everyone. We had almost the whole family together too, it was so much fun!!

Here is Caroline meeting grandpa Foote for the first time
Christmas morning

So excited to see Bekah

playing dress ups

Sisters!!

me, Lee, Sarah, Em, and Jenn

Hanging out with Sarah, James and Ava

sick

Dear cold and flu season....please leave our house, you are not welcome!!! I want happy and healthy kids.... and mom please!!!! Plus I want to feel well enough to blog about our awesome holiday season....so heres to hoping we all get better!! not so sincerely, a very tired mommy

Grandma Foote

My parents have been gone on a mission to Kosrae for the past 23 months and just got back last week, we were so excited and lucky to have my mom come out for a few days to meet Gunner and Caroline for first time!! We had so much fun, it was too short!!

mom lost no practice at how to be an awesome grandma while on her mission, Caroline still asks when she is coming back to visit!

***Warning, the picture may not be suitable for all ages***

The Annual Cutting Down of the Christmas Tree

It has been a yearly tradition to cut a Christmas tree each year. With the addition of our son Gunner this year, we were able to cut two Christmas trees instead of just one.

Merry Christmas!

Sisterly Love

While we were in the hospital with Gunner, Caroline was in Dallas with her cousins, (shout out to the family for helping with her). Brett drove down yesterday to pick her up so she could meet her little brother and we could officially begin being a family of four. Here are some pictures of their first meeting together. She so far has loved him, she can't stop saying baby, baby, baby! She is always wanting to touch him and is very fascinated with him.

The Man Has Arrived

Gunnison Carl Larsen ("Gunner") arrived at 1:42 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. Linnae was induced at 4 am and gave birth a while later. Everything went smoothly, the little guy was just not in a hurry to pop out. Mom and Gunner are both doing great. Thanks to all who have offered prayers. We are all very excited to have Gunner join the fold. Here are a few pictures of the little tyke.

Lots of News

Caroline and her bestie Bekah on their last days together, good thing they are cousins and will see each other often!!

mommy and Caroline

Well to start, we are FINALLY finished with Brett's six month training program. I say we because it has truly been a joint effort to make it through this long journey for our family!! I am so glad to be in the next phase of our life, and to have Brett home with us at nights, not just on the weekends!! We are now residents of Louisiana, yep the past two weeks have been quite chaotic for us, we went from Brett finishing his training and still not knowing where we were going to be relocated, to the company finally telling us we were going to be in northern Louisiana, to having only a few days to pack up our things, find a place to live and be there for Brett to start work. Needless to say, it has been quite the stressful time for me- I would be lying if I didn't say this has been a really hard transition for me. I have known all along that we would be moving at the end of this whole thing, I guess because everything happened so fast it didn't really hit me until we were already here, away from family and living in a totally new and foreign place. Even though where we live is only a few hours away from Dallas neither Brett or I had ever even been to Louisiana before now. The past six months have definitely been a test of my faith. I have learned I have to trust in my heavenly father and his plan for our family and things will work out, (even if it isn't what you had planned). We have now been able to settle down a little, just in time for things to get all crazy again with a new baby right? We were able to find ourselves a little duplex that will do for now and a really great doctor which was my biggest worry about moving at 36 weeks and we have been able to meet a few nice families in our new ward already. We are enjoying exploring our little town and life with just the three of us before we become a family of four.
As far as a pregnancy update goes, I am doing well, 38 weeks along now, bigger everyday. I have been able to see my doctor here 3 times now and feel really lucky to have someone I like. The baby is 6 pounds already and I am dialated to one and a half centimeters so we are just in the waiting game of things to see when this little guy is planning to show himself to the world. Also, we have finally decided on a name for him- Gunnison Carl Larsen will be his official name, but he will go by Gunner. We can't wait to meet him!!