The Christiansen Family

September Happenings

The only pictures I have of September are of Brook's birth. I am sure the beginning of the month I was just in survival mode. I was pretty uncomfortable towards the end so I just did the bare minimum of wife and mother requirements!

This is me on the morning of my induction. We knew the baby was going to be big and I never go into labor on my own so I was happily induced. It was two days before my due date. I went in at 6 that morning and was hooked up to the pitocin around 7. Labor went pretty slow for the first few hours. I got an epidural when I was at a 2 so that was nice. It was about 10:30 am. I didn't feel any contractions until the end. At 12:30 pm when the nurse came in to check me I was at a 3. She thought my water had broke. So she checked me again and then accidentally broke my water. Once she did that labor started going faster. My dr came in around 2 pm and I was at a 5 almost 6. The dr asked me what I usually do at this point because she didn't know if she had time to go back to her office or if she should stay at the hospital. I told her I usually progress quickly after I get to a 5. She said I make her nervous that I will go fast so she decided to stay at the hospital. At this point I was starting to feel pressure and the pain just got worse from there. I had a really good epidural but for whatever reason towards the end I was feeling the contractions. From 2 pm until 2:55 pm when she was born I was in a lot of pain. The dr came in every 10 to 15 minutes and I kept progressing. She came in at one point and I was at a nine. 10 minutes later I was paging the nurse cause I was in so much pain. The dr came in and said it is time to have this baby. I pushed 2 or 3 times and she was out. Everyone was guessing how big she was. They finally weighed her and she was 9 pounds 1 ounce 20 inches long. It really was a good delivery compared to some of my other ones. I felt good after. I only had to take ibuprofen and never had to take any other pain pills. She has been a good baby.

Here are her first pictures

The girls were super excited to meet her. They came that night after Dinner. My mom had flown in the night before so she watched the girls for us.

This is Brooke on the day we went home from the hospital.

This is Brooke's first bath at home.

Here are some other snapshots of Brooke her first few days of life.

August Happenings

In August the Girls started school and Sam celebrated her Birthday.

Caitlyn started school first. She is in second grade. She has a great teacher and is learning so much. This is her first day of School.

Elsa started school a week after Caitlyn because they do evaluations with the kindergartners. She is loving going to school. Here is her first day of School picture.

Sam was not talking much so she qualified to be in the preschool at the elementary school. She started on her 3rd birthday. She cried the first day but now loves going to school. She walks right in and sits down. She is sad on Wednesdays because she doesn't have school. She is making great improvements with Speech. She is saying more words. She is still missing a lot of sounds but it will come. I met with her teachers a few weeks ago and they are happy with her progress.

Here are the pictures from her birthday. She got clothes, a sesame street house and some other toys. We also went to Red Robin for her birthday dinner.

July Happenings

July had Elsa's Birthday, a visit from Family and a quick trip to Vegas. Here are the pictures.

Happy 4th of July!

Here are some pictures from Elsa's Birthday. She got clothes and lots of Dora Toys. We also went to Red Robin for her birthday dinner. When I first asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner she said homemade mac n cheese. I convinced her we should go out though. I am always looking for an excuse to go out so I don't have to cook!

Here is Elsa in her new clothes from her Birthday

In July, Wade's mom and sister Tristen with her 2 girls came out to visit us for a week. We then drove out to Menlo Park, CA to visit Wade's other sister Angie and her daughter Morgan. Here are a few pictures from the park by Angie's house.

On Friday we drove into San Francisco and went to the Pier. It was freezing cold so the girls got new jackets from the pier.

Here is the Golden Gate Bridge. I am a huge Full House fan and have converted Caitlyn to it as well. We DVR episodes from Nick at night and I also own a season of it. So on our drive to San Fran we put it on in the car. I told Wade if we were going to be in San Francisco I wanted to go drive by the Full House "House" that they show the outside of in the beginning of every episode. If you google it it gives you the address. So we drove by it. We got a picture but I can't find it. It looks much different in person. I love the Victorian look of homes in San Francisco. After that we drove across the bridge.

That night we went to PF Changs to Celebrate Angie's Birthday.

The kids went swimming at the pool in our hotel.

At the end of July we took a quick trip to Vegas for one of my Best friends Emily's Wedding. At the last minute Wade had to work. I didn't want to miss Emily's wedding so I drove 7 months pregnant with my three girls to Vegas. It was a hard trip but we survived. Caitlyn and Elsa ended up getting the stomach flu the night we got home. It was a tender mercy that Elsa was not throwing up in the car.

This is the only picture I have of the trip. Sam was throwing a tantrum over something that I wouldn't give to her and ended up falling asleep on the floor.

June Happenings

Here are the random Pictures in June I want to document.

In June we went to the Christiansen Family Reunion in Utah.

Here is Wade's Grandpa talking to my girls. He is also so excited to see us and is so cute with my girls.

Elsa has always had the Christiansen genes. She is named afer Grandpa C's Sister. Her name has always fit her. This is a picture of her with the great granddaughter of one of Grandpa C's siblings. The resemblance is amazing so we had to get a picture of them together.

Wade ran the Reno Tahoe Odyssey so I took the girls to the Dollar store while he was gone. These were the treasures they picked out.

Wade's company took us to dinner and then to the Reno Rodeo. It was a lot of fun. Wade decided he wanted to dress like a cowboy so on the way to dinner he bought some cowboy boots and a shirt. He borrowed the hat.

Here is a picture of what most of afternoons were like this pregnancy!

One Saturday we decided to go check Virginia City out and ride the train. It was a neat little city. It was fun to see all the history of the city.

Wade decided to pan for gold. He got three little pieces. We walked around all the shops there too.

May Happenings

In May We had Caitlyn's Birthday and Elsa's Graduation from Preschool. Here are the pictures from those events.

Caitlyn's Birthday was on a Saturday this year. She got lots of fun gifts for her Birthday. She loves High School Musical so she got all the movies. She got clothes and a bead set.

Caitlyn wanted to go to Uswirl for her birthday so instead of a cake I just made cupcakes that had some Smurf rings on them.

The other thing she wanted for her birthday was to go to Chuck E Cheese. Remember it was a Saturday and there is only one Chuck E Cheese in Reno and half of it was under construction. It was a little crazy but it was her birthday so we endured it.

Her next pick was to eat at Red Robin. That is her favorite Restaurant.

The other big event in May was Elsa's Preschool Graduation. Moving to Reno halfway through the School year I didn't think we would find a preschool. I was so happy when I found a lady in our ward had openings in her preschool. Elsa loved going to school. Here are pictures from her graduation.

Another event that happened in May is that Sam moved to a big girl bed. Elsa and her share a room. She did pretty well with the transition. We have had some rough nights here and there but for the most part she has been good.