Mirror Art

Jake and I occasionally write notes to each other on our mirror, or to ourselves whatever the case may be.  The first time it happened the kids were a little surprised and wanted to know if they could also write on the mirror.  We have let them sometimes, but not very often.  Well one afternoon I walked into our bathroom to find these cute pictures on our mirror, curtesy of Abbie

(Abbie's is a self portrait or two)

and Ashton.

(Ashton's says famole and is a picture of our family)

Visiting Santa

On the Friday before Christmas we took our kids to visit Santa.  The mall wasn't terribly busy thank goodness and the line for Santa moved pretty quickly.  Overall I think we got a pretty cute picture of all of our kids. And I am happy that I got one of Myles with Santa on his first Christmas.  After that we went to dinner and Myles was super good for his first time in a busy restaurant.  We had a fun evening as a family. 

Mommy Paychecks

You're exhausted, you've been up at all hours of the day and night taking care of this new little person that has come into your life.  You are sleep deprived and sore and not sure how much more of this you can take.  Then it happens, your sweet little bundle gives you that first tentative baby smile and your heart melts and every sleepless night, every muscle ache, and every doubt, melts away and you know that it is worth it.

Mommy Paychecks

The next day you get another one, then another, your heart melting with each and every new smile.

Post Pregnancy

I figured that since I documented my ever growing belly during my pregnancy I would show you what I look like 4 weeks after having Myles.  I am so proud of how I look.  I can't say that I am doing much of anything except taking care of 4 kids.  But it helps that I only ended up gaining 19 pounds with Myles.  Right now I am 3 pounds less than what I weighed when I found out I was pregnant.

Christmas

Jake had to work on Christmas this year (thank you outage) so we broke our celebrating up into three different times. And I realized that I didn't take nearly enough pictures, probably because I usually had a baby in my hands. First was Christmas Eve when we opened out traditional Christmas pj's and also the kids gifts to each other.

The kids took turns opening gifts for Myles.

Ashton had wanted these blocks forever and Abbie remembered and got them for him.

Abbie loving the skirt Lexie made for her.

Abbie picked out Lexie's present all by herself (a sewing basket) this is one of my favorite pictures from Christmas.  Abbie was so happy that Lexie loved her present.

Christmas morning started early for us.... 4 am.  Jake had to be at work by 5:30 so we got up early to see what Santa had brought.

Ashton's favorite present remote control helicopter thing.

Lexie got a massive Lego set that had thousands of pieces (it took 2 days to build the whole thing)

What Myles got from Santa.

(not the swing just everything else)

Then after Jake got off work we opened the rest of the presents under the tree.  I thought it was good to break up the gift opening a little like this, because it gave the kids time to really play with the things they got instead of some stuff being set aside because there were still more presents to open. We may have went a little overboard on the gifts this year, but we were truly blessed.

Abbie's favorite present-her art easel.  

My favorite part of the holiday?  Getting to talk to family back in Utah via Skype!  Maybe one year we will be able to celebrate Christmas in Utah again.

We also got this fun game from Maren's family that we played all day Christmas.

Harry Potter Legos

Snow Day Cookies

This is what we did with the free afternoon our unexpected and silly snow day gave us.

Thumbprint cookies!

First Bath

Two weeks ago Myles had his first bath.  (I know I'm a little behind) Anyway, I made sure to do it at a time when all the kids were home to help so there were lots of little helping hands.  I have never had a baby love their very first bath so much.  

Usually my kids scream through the whole thing, but not Myles he absolutely LOVED it.  He did cry a little at first, I think because he was a little cold, but then he settled in and loved it.  

He cried when we took him out. 

All clean and ready to snuggle.  I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby.

Then I got to have the fun experience of telling each of the kids about there first bath.  It was really fun.

Snow Day!

Living in Utah for my whole life, I have seen lots of snow storms.  Snow is just a way of life in the winter, it's cold and you deal with it.  I thought that was how it was most places that get a lot of snow in the winter.  Not Minnesota.  The kids got a snow day from school today because we had a terrible snow storm.....

Or at least one would think that we had a terrible storm the way that people were behaving.  That was all the snow we got.  3-4 inches and they cancelled school here.  Now, I am not complaining we had a great day at home and I wish we would have more snow days, but seriously that much snow is enough to cancel school?  What do we live in Texas or Florida?  I thought we were living in the "Great While North".  I guess to be fair I must add that it was terribly windy too, but I laughed out loud when went to the window in the morning and saw how much snow we got after the phone call that said school would be canceled.  

Life with a Newborn

I had forgotten how totally consuming taking care of a newborn is.  Here is a glimpse of our first 3 weeks with Myles.

 Abbie loves to hold her baby brother, she has been the best helper anyone could ask for. 

 Myles and mom have both been doing this a lot!  

chubby checks!

 Our little glow worm!  Unfortunately Myles bilirubin levels just kept climbing after he was born (due to my antibody issues during pregnancy) and peeked at 19.5 at 1 week old.  We had to get a light blanket for him (thankfully it worked and he didn't have to be admitted to the hospital for more intensive light therapy.)  We had to use the blanket for 5 days before his levels were back in a more safe range and he could go without it.  This also meant daily or every other day trips to the hospital for weight checks and blood draws.  I should have taken a picture of his poor little feet after 6 times but I didn't they were so sad.  

Lexie saves me almost every day.  I don't know what I would do without her.  She is the best baby burper ever!  Not to mention all the other things that she does for me.  She is my extra hand every day.  

Ashton is in love with his baby brother.  He even changes diapers with little to no help, pretty good for a 7-year-old boy.  

Baby Boy

Myles Kelly Lars Christiansen

What a BIG name for such a little guy.  Myles decided to make his much anticipated arrival on Monday, November 19, 2012 at 9:28 pm.

He was 8 lbs 5 oz. and 20 inches long.  

We are in love with him already.

I had a pretty uneventful labor.  It just took longer than I had anticipated, but Myles arrived safely and healthy so that is all that matters in the end.  It was the first time that I have delivered somewhere other than St. Marks Hospital and it was different to not know most of the staff, but still I had some really great nurses that took care of me.  We were blessed that my mom was able to come out from Utah and be here for the birth and his first week.  We were able to come home from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving.  

myles

Mini Footprint Boy Birth Announcement

Personalized cards for babies, Valentines, Easter and Mother's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

Baby Bump-38 weeks and Perspective

The baby bump just continues to grow....  I never dreamed I would be able to take this picture, but here I am 38 weeks pregnant.  There are so many things to complain about, how tired I am, how huge I feel,  how bad my back and hips hurt, how I just want this little guy here.  But I realized something earlier this week and it has made all the difference for me right now.  Yes, I am all those things but more than that I am grateful that my body was even able to carry another baby at all.  I am, gasp, 36 years old, and I really never dreamed that we would be adding another baby to our family now.  That looking back this pregnancy has been so uncomplicated.  It had the potential to be stress filled and hard, and while it was at times we have been greatly blessed.  My heart will always hurt for what might have been, but I am so grateful for all that we have.  We have had our moments like having preterm labor scares at 26 and 34 weeks.  Finding out about all the crazy antibodies I have, and how they might affect this baby.  And, I had to endure 20 weeks of hormone shots that were uncomfortable and made me a crazy woman at times, but without those I think we would have had a very different ending to this pregnancy and as much as I want this to be over I will take this ending to one of those....  

Then there is the whole time thing, yes I want to be done and feel like I am overdue, but in reality my due date is still 2 weeks away.  Just because my body has in the past had a hard time making it to the end I figured this time it would be the same way and our baby would come a little early (or a lot)  but he could still come any time and be "early"  If this were my first or even second baby I would not be feeling like this.  Lexie was 10 days early and that was so cool at the time, now I am dying because I might have to wait that long to have our little one this time.  It is all in how you look at it.  Perspective.   And mine has changed.

The Under Bed

A while ago I mentioned that Lexie was part of the production crew on the school play, well two Saturday's ago (I know I'm a little behind) we went to see the final show.  It was a really cute play and Lexie had a lot of friends in the cast so it was fun to get to see them on stage.  Well here is what Lexie has been doing for the play.  This is her artwork on the flyers that they handed out all around town and it was also on the front of some of the programs.

Inside the program there was a little biography of each of the case members and Lexie ended up interviewing over half of them and then typing it all up and getting it ready for the program.  She put in a lot of hours getting the program just right.  She worked really hard.  I am proud of her for taking this HUGE project on and seeing it through to the end (some of her classmates didn't) to make sure that the play was a success on her side of things.  

Baby Bears

We have been getting ready for the baby and one of the things that we did last week was set up the pack and play in our bedroom with the bassinet insert so that it was ready for our little guy when he finally decides to make his appearance.  We had to move some furniture around to make a place for it, so I had to wait for a day when Jake was off so he could help me.  Well Abbie just couldn't stand to let it sit there unoccupied so she made a bed for our bears.

getting them all tucked in

spinning the bears for them to look at

She is going to be such a good helper for me when her little brother comes, once she gets over her world being rocked.  She's been the baby for four years and quite enjoys that role.  It's going to be hard for her to give it up.