MYLES

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Life...

Things at the Christiansen house have been super crazy! Life seems to be going at the speed of light.  Jake worked outage schedule (75 hours a week) through the first week of the new year, and I stayed busy figuring out how to take care of 4 kiddos and getting the hang of my new calling.......... Primary President.  I was sustained as the new primary president when Myles was 4 weeks old-right before Christmas.  To say we have been busy in almost an understatement.  Oh and don't forget that we needed to celebrate Christmas too!  I am tired just thinking about it.  Oh wait I am always tired lately..........to many middle of the night wake ups for this momma!  Although Myles is sleeping much better this last week or so, sleeping from 10-11 to 3, then awake to eat right back to sleep and them up when my alarm goes off at 6:30 to start getting kids ready for school.  But you probably didn't come here to listen to me complain about how busy we are did you?  I can't say I'd change it though even if I could.
Jake has had the whole last week off and has helped me get caught up on a bunch of stuff that has been piling up around the house , and I finally had my whole presidency at church together for the first time since getting put in so I feel my stress level going down and I can finally get this blog caught up.  I recently printed off the first two years into a book that my kids have LOVED looking through, so much so that I printed 2011 off and we got it this last week (kids loved that one too).  I want to make sure that I get everything that I want documented so I am going to go back and do some make up posts for things that I just never got to so that last year has everything I want in it before I print that year.

More Myles

Here are a few shots of Myles to show how much he has changed since he was born.

3 weeks old

1 month

with Abbie and Ashton

hanging out in his swing

with Ashton- they were both wearing socks on their hands and hats because it was cold.

5 1/2 weeks 

6 weeks

Two Tired Guys

This was how I found Jake and Myles last night after dinner.

This was after a LONG day of work for Jake.  Man, I am so thankful for how hard Jake works to support our family.  His hard work and super long hours sometimes lets me stay home with our beautiful kids, a job I LOVE.

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!