The Schaellings

I'm sorry guys. I got on to do the December post and realized I never did one in November. So I'll try to make this one long and juicy so you feel like you have all the news.

Lillian's chicken pox are gone. It wasn't too bad. She looked rather awful, but they didn't seem to bother her and she didn't scratch them. She still has a couple scars that I'm hoping will continue to fad. The one that seems to be holding on the most is from the first spot I noticed. The first to arrive and the last to leave, I guess. Luckily, she was fairly clear skinned for our family pictures.

Now that was an adventure. Trying to get Lillian and Laddie to look at the camera at the same time was quite the effort. I think the photographer was cursing us from bringing a dog in. We got the feeling that she hadn't worked with pets much since she seemed at a loss of what to do with him. So we got a couple of shots with him and then moved on. But they turned out well, and we're happy with the whole experience. We've pretty much decided to use Penny's from now on even though they don't give you the pictures electronically like Kiddie Kandids. Having a nice scanner makes up for that anyway. We felt we got so many more pictures for the same $ and liked the studio better.

For Thanksgiving, we spent it with Erik's family at the house of their friends Pat and Ivin. Erik had to work until 3 or so, but he got there in time for dinner, and we had a good time. Lillian got a taste of everything I think and sure had a good time just observing everything and everyone. We had it at our house last year, and while it turned out well, I was happy to let someone else be in charge.

The sad news of the last two months is that Erik's Grandma June passed away on December 4. Her health had been getting worse over the last year, so we were prepared, but it's never completely easy I don't think. The funeral was very nice. Trent gave a great eulogy that I think she would have been proud of and her step-son talked about some of the times they shared. I played a piano solo of In the Garden that Len arranged on very short notice. Lillian was surprisingly well behaved and was a trooper on a long day.

So tomorrow Lillian turns 11-months old! She's still not crawling yet although you can see she wants to. She'll get up on her hands and knees, but she can't quite figure out the logistics of moving. But she scoots backwards on her bum quite well and can get back to a sitting position from her stomach. Most mornings I walk in to find her sitting up in her crib. She's acting like she might be thinking about pulling herself up to a standing position lately. Maybe she's just going to skip that whole crawling thing and go right to walking! We still don't have any teeth yet, either, but at her last appointment, the doctor said teething can be anywhere from 7 to 17 months, so we have a while until we need to worry. We have our tree up and she likes to look at the lights. Of course she has no idea what it all means yet, but we're going to have fun with it anyway. I'm sure she'll be more interested in the paper and bows that what's inside them, but that could be amusing, too.

We'll be spending Christmas Eve in Roy at Erik's parents' house after their annual party. We'll probably stay in to the afternoon of Christmas itself and then head home. Hopefully, we'll get some snow, which I must say has been lacking this year. We've had a couple storms, but nothing has really stuck for very long. Not that I really like snow, but a dead, brown Christmas just isn't the same.

Well, I hope you all have a great holiday. My next update should have info from Lillian's next appointment. Hopefully, she'll have put on some pounds. She's actually got a little bit of a of baby pot belly, now, so I'm optimistic!