Congrats Andrea & Shawn!!

Andrea and I have been friends since high school and she's also Nate's cousin. In fact, she's the one who set Nate and I up on our first date!! I was so happy when Nate & I got married so that one of my best friends would become family! Today Andrea and her fiance Shawn got married -- it was the perfect day for an outdoor ceremony. Everything was really pretty and Andrea looked beautiful! We're really excited for them and can't wait to see what the future holds for the new Mr. & Mrs. Free!

Another Month Older! That Makes it 5!!

Holy smokes! I can't believe another month has passed and Jackobi is now 5 months old! It's amazing to me how quickly babies learn and progress!! Jackobi REALLY loves attention these days and knows when she has it! She also LOVES to play with her toys, anything that makes noise keeps her happy! She has been able to sit by herself for a little while now, but seems to have mastered it in the last week -- she's still a little wobbly at times, but does pretty good!! She's still learning to eat from a spoon and is a 'texture baby' ... anything with a funny texture (which is most baby foods) she has the instinct to immediately spit out. She's getting better though and I've found if I let her hold the spoon and help her, she does much better! Miss Independent already! She's defiantly her daddy's girl and already loves music! Any music as long as it has a good beat. She LOVES her Baby Einstein CD.s too!! Her Aunt Camille was home last week and we also discovered that she ADORES the piano. She especially loves it when we let her pound on the keys ... her smile goes from ear to ear!! Well, that's all for now, I could go on forever I'm sure! Nate and I are continually blessed because of Jackobi and are so thankful that heavenly father sent her our way! I truly don't know where we'd be in life without her! We love you Jackobi!!!

Dress Shopping in Boise!

Nate and I are both SO excited for our friends Jared and Ashley to get married this December! Jared and Nate have been friends since they were just boys, so we were really excited when he and Ashley hit it off so well. We can't wait for some of our BEST friends to tie the knot! Yesterday Ashley, Gina, Wendy and I went to Boise to pick up Ashley's wedding dress (she ordered it MONTHS ago, so we were excited it finally came!!) She's absolutely GORGEOUS in it! We then headed to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch (which is reason enough to go to Boise!!) and the hit the mall and stores around Boise for bridesmaids dresses. After a LONG day of shopping, we finally found the perfect dresses! It was a great day and fun to just hang out with the girls! Congrats again Jared and Ashley! We couldn't be more excited for you!!

Our 4th of July in a nutshell!!

Wow! I can't believe that the 4th of July has already come and gone! I LOVE that Rupert has such a huge, week long celebration!! We started things off with the fireworks on the square, several trips back down throughout the week to visit the yummy food booths and the parade Friday morning. We sat with Ashley and Kenzie at the parade, and boy did Kenzie get A LOT of candy!! It was fun to just hang out with everyone, but was a little warm for Jackobi -- we were happy when she finally decided a nap was needed! Both Nate and I have families that love to get together. So needless to say, we had lunch several times on Friday! First we went to both his Grandma Christiansen's and Grandma Taylor's house and then headed out to the river to go boating for the rest of the afternoon with mine. Jackobi sure loves it outside, so it was a perfect, but tiring day for her! That night my mom watched Jackobi while Nate and I went to the Rodeo with most of his family and Chris and Sara. It's a yearly tradition to go to the PBR and was FUN as usual! We had a great time! All in all, we had a wonderful 4th of July holiday! I can't wait until next year when Jackobi can actually enjoy the fireworks and parade!

More Random Things...

Tagged by Jessica

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was only 14, whew! Growing up, we spent most of our summers out on the river. So I was probably there! I grew up on a farm, so I probably was doing my fair share of line moving and rock picking!

5 Years Ago?

I had just moved up to Pocatello to attend ISU and was working at the Buckle. I was living with my friend Heather Harper (Stevenson at the time). So we were probably making our daily trips to Geraldine's (it's the best little sandwich shop you'll ever eat at!!)

5 Months Ago?

Holy smokes, I was 40 weeks pregnant -- just about ready to have little Jacobi!

5 Things on my ToDo List:

1. Get 4th of July goodies ready for tomorrow!
2. Work on Jacobi's baby book
3. Mow our lawn (well, that's more on Nate's to do list, so I guess on my list is making him mow the lawn!!)
4.Go to the eye doctor....my last contact went down the shower drain this morning!! Boo!!
5. Laundry (but if you know me, that's ALWAYS on my to do list!!)

5 Favorite Snacks:

1. DIET COKE! (is that a snack??)
2. Gummy Lifesavers
3. Nilla Wafers
4. Fresh Strawberries
5. Popcorn (I get that from Nate)

5 Things I'd do with a Billion Dollars:

1. Pay off our house and get out of debt!
2. Share with our family
3. Donate to charities
4. Buy Nate & I new cars! (well, a truck for Nate!)
5. Landscape our lawn!

5 Places I've Lived:

1. Poky (Hillside Apartments with Heather)
2. Still Poky, but the other side of town with Sara, Becky and Jamie
3. Twin Falls with Sara
4. Rupert with my parents
5. Jackson

5 Things You Might Now Know about Me!

1. I don't like scary movies! I don't even like Nate to watch them in our house!
2. I'm a picture fanatic! Sorry if it annoys you, but I'm one of those people -- especially with a new baby, I can't stop!
3. I don't like SNL. I know, it's pretty much un-American to not like Saturday Night Live, but I don't.
4. Baseball is my favorite sport EVER!
5. I'm a perfectionist! Yep, I pay attention to those little details that no one notices and let them drive me nuts until it's JUST right!

FiReWoRkS!

I love the 4th of July!! It's my favorite holiday and I wait for it every year! Last night were the fireworks at the square and I was excited (and a little nervous) to see how Jackobi would like them. Nate had to work (bummer!) so my mom and I headed down around 8:00 to meet up with Ashley and Kenzie to eat some yummy Mexican food from the St. Nicholas Food booth. It was a really nice night and even though the park was REALLY crowded, we managed to find a good spot to sit with Gina and Mylee. Mylee is Gina's little girl and is about 8 months old now. It was cute to watch her try to play with Jackobi (who didn't really know what was going on!) It's funny how early on, 4 months makes a big difference in age! The fireworks started around 10:30, and wouldn't you know it...at about 10:25 Jackobi fell asleep. I was a little nervous that the loud noise would wake her up and she would be scared, but she was OUT!! She slept through the entire show (yep, all 15 minutes!! :) ) She was pretty cute all sprawled out on my lap. I guess we'll have to wait until next year to see how she really likes the show! All in all we had a great night. The perfect way to kick off the 4th of July festivities!



Kenzie and Jacobi are already buds!!



Mylee and Jacobi playing...



Grandma Georgia and Jacobi just waiting for the show to start!


and Jacobi didn't quite make it!

First Apples!

Her First Bite!

When Jackobi went into the doctor last week he told me that we could start letting her have rice cereal and any fruit. Since we're just getting her used to new foods, we're just trying out one new food a week. This week, she tried applesauce! She is such a cute girl and gets so excited when we put her in her high chair! She does really good with food too. Everything must be so different and she's getting used to the texture of things, but manages to eat pretty good for us (which if you've seen the rolls on this girl, you can vouch for it!!)


She's still not too sure about the applesauce and cracks some pretty cute little faces when we're able to sneak a spoonful in her mouth!

Shoshone Falls

My sister's boyfriend David has only been to Idaho once before his trip here with Sara so we decided to do a little of the 'tourist' thing while he was here. We went out to the Minidoka Dam and traveled to Shoshone Falls. I had been once before with Nate a few years ago, but forgot how beautiful it is up there!! All too often I think we really forget what a pretty area we live in! We have the river, the canyon in Twin Falls and I even take for granted the fact that we get to see the beautiful sun set every night! You don't get that in the big city! My friend Sara and her little girl Emaiya and niece Tenili met us there and spent the afternoon with us. We had a great trip; just a nice relaxing day!

Jennie & Ernie's Wedding

Yesterday my cousin Jennie married her sweetheart Ernie. It was a beautiful ceremony & getting the whole family together always proves to be fun!! It was great to see some of our out-of-town relatives and catch up with everyone. Congratulations Jennie & Ernie!! We wish you all of the happiness in the world!!

The happy couple's first dance!

My little family...


Just us girls!!
Sara, Grandma Bellem, Mom, Me & Jackobi and Sara!!

Welcome Sara & Dave!

My sister and I are so close, it's been hard since she moved to Las Vegas (which was a few years ago!) but we manage to keep in really good touch. She only makes it home a few times a year and I'm SO EXCITED to have her visit this weekend! Her and her boyfriend Dave are staying with us - it's going to be great (especially since I hear Dave makes some mean cheesy eggs!!) They're so much fun to be around -- hopefully we'll be able to make it down to their place in Vegas soon (Dave.s neighbor is Wayne Newton! How cool is that!??)

Swing Time!

We're so glad that the weather has finally turned nice! We love summer time and Jackobi has quickly learned that she LOVES it outside! Her Grandpa Christiansen bought her a swing for her to play on while at their house and we were finally able to test it out!! At first I don't think she quite knew what to think, but the verdict is in and she LOVES it!! It's pretty darn cute to watch her eagerly kick her legs with excitement! I'm sure we'll have lots of fun using it this summer!

Happy 1st Father's Day Nate!

Today was our very first Father's Day with our little family!! Nate is such a great daddy to Jackobi! We've already decided that he's the 'cool/fun' parent out of the two of us! Jackobi sure loves her daddy too; she's just to the age where she's really starting to interact and play with things and they have a ball together! He can make her giggle SO hard! I'm so lucky to have such an amazing husband who is such a great father to our daughter - I know I'll never have to worry because we're always priority #1 to him and that's just the way I like it!!


It was a wonderful day -- we're so lucky to live close to both of our families and got to spend time with each of our families. We went out to my parents and had a BBQ with my dad's entire family -- we don't do huge get-togethers with his family very often, so it was nice to get to see everyone! Then we went to Nate's parents house and spent the rest of the afternoon there. All in all, we had a great day!

Father's Day was a fun day for us -- Thank you Nate for all you do for Jackobi and our family!!

The Quickest 4 Months EVER!

Jackobi was officially FOUR month's old yesterday and I can hardly believe it!! She amazes me each day -- we are so blessed by having her in our lives!! Watching her learn and grow is the most rewarding thing I've ever experienced! She's just learning how to sit up by herself. She can sit for a few seconds by herself, but then tips -- she tries so hard! Jackobi is such a happy baby, her smile is priceless and her little giggles are the most precious thing ever. We're so blessed by her!

Weekend at Chris & Sara's

This past weekend we traveled to visit our friends Chris and Sara in Idaho Falls. They just bought the cutest little house in the nicest neighborhood -- it was fun to go and see everything! Saturday morning Jason came up and the guys all went golfing -- it was freezing, but they all had a good time (once they could feel their hands again!) Jacobi did so good traveling -- she loved playing with Chris and Sara and was such a good girl!! We had such a nice little weekend get-away!

Sara & Emaiya's Visit!

This past weekend Sara and Emaiya came down to visit Jackobi and I!! We had so much fun -- Emaiya and Jackobi played together and were so much fun to watch! Jackobi likes to have another 'small' person around -- she would just watch and stare at Mya! And Mya loved her little friend 'Tackobi' (she can't say her 'J's very well sometimes so calls Jackobi - Tackobi -- it's cute!)We went to dinner for Sara's birthday & had a great visit! I'm so happy to have such a great friend!