The Christiansen Family

christiansen exchange

this year we met up on Christmas Eve for the Christiansen gift exchange. It was a fun night full of lots of laughs. It was the perfect way to start off our Christmas celebrations & helped the kiddos get tired out before Santa's visit that night!

oreo's

the week of Christmas I was busy baking & wrapping ::
in effort to keep Kashton content, I bribed him.

let's just say oreo's were a hit. a huge hit.

love my chunky monkey. ♥

deck the halls

Just about as soon as we could manage, once Thanksgiving was over :: Christmas prep was in full swing in our house! This year we let Jackobi pick out her very own tree for her room. And yep, you guessed it ... pink was her choice hands down. It turned out to be a pretty cute addition to her room! {and Kashton only managed to sneak two candy canes off her little tree the entire month of december!} & when I say sneak I mean sneak! he's such a little turkey! He would crawl in, grab one and go hide while he tried to eat it! We're going to have our hands full with this one!

When he wasn't busy stealing candy canes, Kashton's absolute favorite thing was our Christmas lights. From the moment I plugged them in he was in love. I normally wouldn't mind too much, but he was constantly trying to eat them (as he does everything) :: so it was fun keeping him away from them each day. :)

but how do you resist this face!??

in the mix of things we managed to celebrate Jackobi's favorite

two year old's birthday :: happy birthday hadley!!

dressed as princesses & making crowns ::

what more could a girl ask for??

A few of us went to The Nutcracker :: it was such a fun afternoon and I absolutely loved taking Jackobi. It was so magical for her. She loved the costumes and dancing, it will be a fun little tradition for years to come!

We had lots of fun at Nate's work party this year. There was a clown making balloon animals :: that was definitely the highlight of Jackobi's night.

Kashton was less than impressed with his first encounter Santa.

Jackobi wouldn't come within ten feet.

Our December was definitely filled with candy canes and christmas trees ::


::friends christmas party::

we hope you had as much fun

decking the halls as we did!

gobble, gobble

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year! In an attempt to keep things simple, we just went to Nate's parents house on Thanksgiving. It was such a relaxing day filled with family, fun and lots of food!!

LOVE my little turkeys!!

Nate had to work Thanksgiving night (boo) :: but my sister was nice enough to come and keep us company while he was gone! The kids were both wired from candy, but tired from turkey so it was sure nice to have an extra set of hands :)

The day after Thanksgiving is marked with the traditional "Caring and Sharing" at the Rupert Civic Center and the lighting of the square. It was cooolllld, but we had a blast. It's such a great way to kick off the holiday season!

one of our many blessings this year is our families.

we're so glad we are able to share such special moments

traditions and memories with them! ♥

the rest of my list ::

wow ... I'm a horrible everyday blogger. the holiday traditions and festivities seemed to start early this year and we've been so busy soaking in every ounce of them. I do have so much to be grateful for. It seems to me, that everything I stick on my thankful list stems from these things. so in an effort to get caught up in the blogging world, here are my favorites ::

my little family of four :: i couldn't imagine loving them more than i do. the capacity of the heart to love amazes me. mine couldn't be more full.

nate :: yes, he deserves a number all to himself. i'm grateful for him. for the wonderful husband and father he is. for working so hard to provide for us. (and reminding me every day that it's important to play hard too.)

kashton turned {ten} months old the week of thanksgiving. that's something to give thanks for in and of itself! he is so full of life and love. his smile makes my day. he is a little crawling machine and so curious and into everything. i love that he reminds us to enjoy and take notice of the simple things.

jackobi is my sweetheart. she is such a good helper and so concerned about everybody and everything. she loves to love and is so good at it. she makes us laugh so much. she is silly and keeps us on our toes. her little imagination has totally blossomed and it's fun to remember just how fun "make believe" is. the Christmas season has already been totally magical in our house.

i'm so grateful for a gospel that teaches me about our Heavenly Father and His plan. i'm grateful for second, third and even fourth chances.

i'm so thankful for the Christmas season.

i love the magic and spirit it brings into our home.

i'm thankful for the birth of our Savior.

we're celebrating {extra} hard this year.

a reminder ::

this week has been a crazy week already. December in general has just been a whirlwind of shopping, Christmas parties and holiday festivities. Today I was complaining to Nate, my dryer has been broken for two weeks :: it's seemed like an eternity. It's fixed now and life is good. I was a little irritated this afternoon after all was said and done, how could it take TWO entire weeks to get my dryer fixed?? It's been a total pain.

I guess sometimes when you forget just how blessed you are (yes ... even for a dryer) you get knocked back into reality. At least I got a good reminder tonight. Nate went into work and found this note in the break room: {read it ::}

really??? was I just complaining about my dryer??

reality check.

Nate did some checking.
the four children are 5, 4, 3 and 2.

That really hit it home for me.
I instantly imagined my sweet babies.

I can't imagine wanting water or heat for Christmas.

I'm so glad Nate's boss found this family & they've been able to help brighten their Christmas.

gifts, food {and} money have already been sent their way.

now that is what Christmas is about.

festival of trees

Jackobi had her last dance performance of the year at the Festival of Trees last weekend. It's been so fun to watch her dance and light up when she gets to go on stage. To say she loved it would be an understatement. Here's a couple of video's ... sorry for the horrible movement on one of them ... it was hard to video with Nate's phone and attempt taking pictures at the same time! I guess a good lesson for next time is to pick one :)

{good girlfriends}

:: thankful number thirteen ::

These girls are the best. I can honestly say I've never had such a good group of wonderful girlfriends! There's never drama, just amazing and supportive friends who I know I could count on for just about anything. I love that we're all in the same stage of life and can compare notes as we raise our children. and I LOVE that we can all get out for a kid-less night and enjoy each other! I am so, so thankful for each of their friendship. I've been so blessed. ♥

kleenex {and} fuzzy socks :: thankful # twelve::

well ... I'm behind in my whole "thankful" list. We've been sickies in our house, so if I really wanted to get caught up I'd be thankful for: countless boxes of kleenex, baby tylenol, humidifiers, multiple warm baths a day, chicken noodle soup (even if it has to be princess shaped noodles) and days spend in our cozy, warm home in our jammies and fuzzy socks. yes, we're thankful. who wouldn't be when you have these two crazy kids making you smile even when they're sick?? here's hoping we get our "quota" of sick days out of the way early in the season :: it's possible, right?

♫♪ music :: thankful #11 ♪♫

I love good music.

I love the ability it has to entice every emotion.

These are a few of my favorites.

Little Jackobi, like it or not will learn to play the piano.

I can't wait. ♥

{cousins}

I'm so thankful Jackobi and Anna have eachother. They're so fun to watch together and I love that they're so close in age. They love, play, fight & protect eachother like sisters. It's a pretty sweet little relationship. I'm glad they get to grow up together ♥