The Christiansen Family

[she's two]

I can hardly believe our little girl is already two years old!! Jackobi is such a sweet, sweet little girl!! I can hardly believe how loving she is sometimes. It makes me so happy! She loves to give hugs and kisses and snuggle up with us lots! She loves us to play one-on-one with her and is always telling us to 'c'mon' and wondering why we can't keep up! She melts our hearts when she tilts her head to the side and says 'peeese ....' that gets her just about whatever she wants! Yes, we are wrapped around her little finger pretty tightly!

Jackobi is growing and learning so quickly! I still am amazed at how quickly children comprehend things! She has become a pretty good communicator and we usually know what she wants or doesn't want. She's talking a lot {okay, all the time!} and beginning to put words together in phrases. She's knows most of her colors, (we're still working on saying them all) and we're working on counting! She loves to do puzzles and color! It's so cute, she colors SPECIFIC objects and doesn't just scribble everywhere anymore. So fun! Her little imagination is growing and it's fun to watch her nibble on her play food or listen to her have lengthy conversations on her play phone!

She's working on getting her 2-year mollars and other than that has all of her teeth! She is a really good eater, but unfortunately has discovered my favorite food group, SWEETS [sigh]. Luckily she likes to brush her teeth!! She REALLY loves fresh fruits and vegetables, and much to Nate's dismay ... hamburgers AND sandwiches (his two LEAST favorite things!!)

She loves to sing and dance and can be quite the little entertainer! She'll sing just about any song out there, even if she doesn't know the words! I love her little voice! She especially loves to sing action songs. She dances lots too, especially at Casey's basketball games. Oh how she loves the band!! She has such a fun and silly little personality. She loves to laugh and has an infectious smile!

Jackobi is such a sweetheart and I'm proud to be her mommy! Her sweet little spirit enriches our lives everyday! I can't get over how such a small little person can make you want to be better and give all you have to them. She's such an amazing little girl and we love her so so much!! I can't wait to watch keep growing!

Good Food ... GREAT Friends!!

I am SO BLESSED to have such sweet friends! Today Laura got the girls together and we all went to lunch to celebrate my birthday! I had the best time!! I felt like we were being pretty brave to take 5 children out on our lunch date, but they were all REALLY GOOD & fun to watch interact with eachother!!

Becky, Tyson, Felicia & Evie

Peyton, Laura, me, Jackobi, Maybree & Courtney
It was so cute to watch Jackobi and Maybree 'hang out' next to each other. Maybree thought it was quite entertaining to try and feed Jackobi her french fries! What fun friends our little girls will be! I can't wait for Peyton to get a little older so she can join in the fun!

It was a fun afternoon & nice to do something different! These girls and their kids are just darling, I'm so glad I have them!

Valentine's Cookies!!

Jackobi has really liked playing with her play doh lately ... rolling it out, cutting shapes into it ... all that fun stuff! So we decided she might really enjoy helping Grandma make some sugar cookies for Valentines Day! And BOY DID SHE!!! She liked cutting out the shapes, but her favorite part, I think, was scooping up the cut cookie shapes with a little spatula and putting them on the pan. Funny huh? Who would have thought that was the fun part!

She really honed in on her decorating skills too! This was the only cookie she really decorated, and it was for her Daddy ... I'm convinced there's SO MUCH sugar on it to make him sweeter! :) But seriously, about 1/2 the sprinkle jar went on the 2 cookies Jackobi touched. Funny! He enjoyed his sugary treat later though! She was so proud to give it to him!

Displaying her masterpiece!
I love all the fun new things we're getting to try as Jackobi gets older! She's SO MUCH FUN!!

Jackobi's 2nd Birthday Bash!!

Jackobi's official birthday isn't until Wednesday, but we decided to celebrate it this Saturday so more of our family could be there!! She was really shy at first [I mean REALLY shy] and wasn't sure why everyone was staring at her. But after we sugared her up with a cupcake she was good to go!! She got so many fun toys & cute clothes, she's set!! We got her a play kitchen which she absolutely LOVES!! I thought she might be too young for it, but I was wrong! She has already played with it for hours! It's so cute to watch her little imagination run wild!

All in all, it was a great day!!
Enjoy her smilebox of party pictures below! :)

Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Jackobi's 2nd Birthday!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Jazz Game

Nate, Jason, Ramon & JoEllyn went to the Jazz v. Mavs game last week! They had really good seats & Nate said the game was awesome. (Even though Nate was rooting for the Mav's and the Jazz ended up winning.) It's fun having a pro team pretty close, maybe next year the Jazz will draft someone Nate actually likes so I can convince him to go to more games!

Birthday Weekend!!

Since we were in Vegas over my birthday, my sister made sure the ENTIRE weekend was filled with special things to help me celebrate! When we got to her house, she had balloons and two tickets to The Lion King show for me! FUN!!

The next night my mom and I went to the show while Sara took Jackobi to the Shark Aquarium. The show was AMAZING!! It's so neat to see how they put together the costumes and everything. Definitely a very fun night!!

Another day we went to see the LARGEST chocolate fountain in the world! It's actually in one of the casinos. SO NEAT! And they have some YUMMY treats!

We had to try some out! Jackobi really liked the chocolate crepe, especially the whipped topping! She wasn't afraid to dig in!

My actual birthday was the day we came home, so we swung by The Cheesecake Factory before we headed to the airport!

It was SO nice and warm the entire time we were down there, I was spoiled and we got to eat out on the patio and soak up some sun before we came back to cold, snowy Idaho!

I had SUCH a good birthday weekend!! My sister and mom were so nice to make me feel special all weekend long!!

Trip to Vegas!

Last weekend my mom, Jackobi and I flew out to Las Vegas to visit Sara!! It was such a FUN and EVENTFUL trip - jam packed with lots of fun things! We were supposed to fly out Thursday, but there was so much fog in Idaho Falls that our flight was canceled. We had waited in the airport for several hours with the initial delay and such, we were READY to get a hotel and call it a night!

So we headed to the nearest Red Lion and did just that! It actually turned out to be a fun night! My mom taught Jackobi all about jumping on hotel beds and she was SO HYPER (Jackobi, not my mom ... well ... maybe a little of both!) That we didn't get to bed until LATE!!

The next morning we had an early flight and were finally on our way!!

Grandma & Jackobi climbed the stairs over and over and over @ the airport! Funny what entertains little kids!

When we got there, we grabbed a quick lunch @ Panera and hit the mall! I had some birthday money to spend so it was NICE to have more of a selection than what we can find back home!! :)

That night we headed down to the strip and did the 'tourist' thing!
Jackobi had fun dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower and LOVED the Bellagio fountain show! We watched 3 different shows throughout the night!

We also thought the Botanical Gardens would be fun, but Jackobi thought otherwise! The theme was the Chinese New Year and since this year is the year of the tiger, they had a huge flower tiger and Chinese man. You can see the look of shear TERROR on her face! She HATED it! We couldn't even walk past without her getting really nervous!

A panicked Jackobi ... looks like she was holding on for dear life!

With the exception of the Botanical Gardens, it was a fun night sight seeing on the strip!

Goose Hunting

This is how Nate likes to spend his Friday and Saturday mornings!!

I'm sure glad he never brings home the geese they shoot!

Casey's Biggest Fan ...

We're #1!!!

Oh how I love having a little girl to dress up ... Jackobi loves her tutu!!
We've had fun going to games so far this season!!

Minico v. Burley

Minico 68, Burley 50

The Minico v. Burley game is always full of so much emotion. It's fun to watch!

Congrats on a BIG WIN!!!

SLEDDING!!!!!

We decided to take full advantage of the snow on New Years Day and take Jackobi on her first sledding experience! She had SO MUCH FUN!!!!! She hardly weighed enough to keep the sled down and kept tipping over, but luckily she thought that was part of the fun!

Trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. We couldn't get her to point her face towards the sky and actually catch one. Maybe next year!

She had us pretty worn out by the time she was ready to go inside! That afternoon she took a FOUR HOUR nap! Apparently sledding was hard work for her too!

♥ her ...

Many Changes for 2010

As Nate and I reflect back on 2009, what a great year we've had!! We've made many memories and had many firsts. We have felt an abundance of joy as we've watched Jackobi grow and learn! She brings so much happiness to us!! I can hardly believe she'll be TWO in less than 6 weeks!! We've learned a lot about ourselves and grown as individuals and as a family. In 2010 we hope we can improve ourselves and do better each day! For us, 2010 we already have lots of changes in store! After a lot of thought and prayer we have decided to sell our house.

It was a really hard decision to come to [I've actually been in a little bit of denial about it!]. You hate to say that you can become so attached to something so materialistic, but we have. We love our home. We've made so many memories here! Nate built it, it's our first home together, it's where we brought Jackobi home to. We love our Ward and neighbors. Things like that are hard to leave! Regardless, this is something we feel like we really need to do. Although it's not 'officially' on the market yet, we hope to have it listed by the end of January. On the flip side of things, when we sell our house, this brings about another big change for our family. Nate has always had the desire to return to school and further his education. By selling our house, he is able to work less and continue his education. Something that will make him happier and life better for our family in the long run!! We're excited for this change and new challenge!! Sometimes change is hard, but we have been so blessed in our lives thus far, we know that we'll be taken care of!! So here's to 2010!