first rice cereal

this picture is a lie.

this is how penny really felt about eating rice cereal.
now if that's not a look of fury, i don't know what is.

it was awful. it took me nearly an hour to cram 1 tablespoon of mush down her throat and she acted as if i was poisoning her the whole time. any tips?

4 months!

4-month stats:

* still fits into 0-3 month clothing (i'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow to see how much she weighs...)

* drooling alot more

* yells at her toys (it's SO funny when she does this, i laugh so hard - it's like gutteral grunting and random loud bursts of shouting)

* has pooped on every single pair of tights i've bought for her (yes, including the pair in this picture)

* not remotely close to rolling over

* hair keeps getting redder and redder and i LOVE it (i bought myself photoshop for christmas and i didn't even enhance her hair color at all in these pics)

(p.s. if anyone knows how to do the teeth-whitening thing in photoshop, PLEASE let me know. i've tried for hours and it's so frustrating.)

christmas and other stuff

so, we've been gone for about 10 days and we are soo glad to be back. here's some highlights of our trip.

every christmas eve in the balmforth house we get new pj's. yaaay!

(i forgot to take pictures of christmas but i took tons of video which takes forever to upload. sorry.)

my mom treated us to lunch at ruby's on the huntington beach pier.

penny having a jolly good time in her stroller at the beach.

i got to see some california buddies and it was so fun to introduce them to penny. (jessica, me, rubi, and paige).

i also got to visit with my friend kristine who i haven't seen in a while and meet her cute baby anna. (kristine's husband matt, kristine and penny, me and anna, and paul).

we also drove to LA to visit our friends, chad and brittany. (chad and his daughter paige and paul and penny).

i just thought this was so funny. we made a little blanket nest for penny's bed at my parent's house and this is what i woke up to one morning. it instantly reminded me of the wicked witch's legs sticking out from underneath a house.

and last but not least...kenna's wedding!! they got married in vegas on january 3rd and it was definitely a whirl wind weekend. congrats kenna and gabe! (and can i just say that i LOVED dressing penny in that little gold dress. strangers kept coming up and saying how she looked like a doll. when i was changing her in a casino bathroom a cleaning lady came up and kissed her on the head. sorta scary - what if she was sick or something? - but kinda cute.)

little hand-sucker

Penny has started to suck her hand lately which i think is adorable! Here are some bathtub/hand-sucking pics.

Giving the old hand a taste-test lick.

Almost there...

Bingo!

So cute.

And is it just me, or is her hair getting really red? i LOVE it!

weekend events

1. penny turned 3 months old! she can now hold her head up, loves eskimo nose kisses, and smiles all the time.


her next doctor check-up isn't until january so i'm not sure of her height and weight but, yes, i know she's tiny. here is the same conversation i have with everyone who sees penny for the first time (this includes random people in the store and relatives):

person: oh! she's so tiny!
me: yeah, i know.
person: how much did she weigh at birth?
me: 7 lbs 9 oz
person: how much does she weigh now?
me: i think 10 1/2 lbs.
person: oh! she's so tiny!
me: yeah, i know.

2. my friend and old roommate julie had her first baby, a girl named emerie. good job julie!

3. i took paul to see twilight for his first time and my third (and final time, i promise!) he actually liked it. good job paul!

4. because we're going to california to have christmas with my family this year, we spent this past weekend with paul's family to have a pre-christmas. paul's dad dressed up as santa claus and we took some pictures. i can't stand the cuteness of these pictures!

grabbing santa's beard.

debbie and glade and their baby, casper.

this is pretty much our christmas card so...merry christmas from the larsens!

larsen family pictures

i believe this is the official family pic that debbie and glade chose. it was the only one where everyone was smiling! tami's sister, megan, was working hard trying to make evan and makayla smile.

our first professional family picture! you can't really see penny's gold bow...it kept falling off. next time i'm sitting her up and using a headband instead.

paul's older brother, wes, his wife, tami, and their 2 kids, evan and makayla.

gabe and kenna, paul's older sister.

paul's parents, debbie and glade.

with the grandkids. (now you can see her bow!)

i just thought penny looked cute in this one. sometimes i like candid shots better than perfectly posed ones.

penny's blessing

paul did such a good job blessing penny - it was just a sweet and simple prayer. i loved dressing penny up in her blessing outfit - she looked so girly! it was fun having all the relatives and friends come up and then cramming in our apartment for some lunch afterwards.

before the blessing on sunday, we spent thanksgiving at paul's house and lemme tell you, i've never seen so many people crammed in debbie and glade's home! i know debbie loved it. :) i saw "twilight" again with tami (paul's brother's wife), her sister megan, and debbie. i liked it even more the second time - i think because i knew what to expect so i could focus on what i liked. paul's sister, kenna, and her fiance, gabe, drove up for the weekend and we were able to take a larsen family picture. we also took individual family pics and i'm excited to see how they turned out. i bought a new little beige and gold dress with little gold ballet shoes for penny and it was the first time i'd put her in something other than a onesie - she looked so cute!

my family was in utah, too for the blessing and we got to hang out a bit. we went to kjersti's baby shower (my older brother's wife) and she looked so cute! she's due in january with a little girl and i'm so excited to see her! we also saw the play "into the woods" because my cousin, erin, had one of the leads as the witch. she was dang good and it was way fun to watch her in such a cool role. needless to say, it was a busy jam-packed weekend but i can't wait for christmas in california!