Some January photos...

Here are some pictures from this month. Rebecca is getting her first tooth!! It's just barely pushing through on the bottom. Here is her favorite toy to chew on. Poor baby has been fussy and just wants to cuddle all the time. Fine with me! There aren't many things more wonderful than cuddling with a baby. Snoozing with Daddy after a long day of work (for him)
We are so blessed to have another temple built in Rexburg, 30 minutes from where we live. We went to the open house, and it was so beautiful. The church does such a nice job at these events. You can see the heated walkway leading up to the temple. The workmanship in the temple is (literally) perfect. I felt such a sweet, peaceful spirit there and am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful to have the fulness of the gospel on the earth today, which includes temples and the opportunity to be with those we love for all eternity. That means everything to me.

Here is Rebecca's Baby's First Christmas ornament that I made for her.

Rebecca loves her toys and plays so well with them, by herself for as long as I need her to. I can get so much done and she just entertains herself. She makes the funniest noises too!

Sweet baby girl. This was the first time I ever did her hair this way. Now I have to, or it covers her eyes! I'm so glad my little girl has so much hair! It is fun to doll her up.

6 Months Old!

Rebecca Lynn is such a precious baby. I can't believe it's been six months already since she was born. She is growing and changing so much and we are so proud of her. We still feel so spoiled and are told all the time what a good baby we have. On our scale at home, she is 16 pounds. She is 26 inches tall. She's still as chubby and kissable as ever. She sits up on her own so well. She plays with her toys by herself so contentedly, and she lets me read to her. She turns the pages. Seth gets the best laughs out of her.
Here is the sweetest little face in the world!

Happy New Year!!!

Here she is, my beautiful New Year's baby. She is always so happy in the morning, just like her daddy. It makes my day every morning to see her little face smiling at me. My mom gave me these 2008 glasses. They actually light up, but Rebecca was not being too cooperative as you can see, so I didn't turn them on. Seth just shakes his head at the things I do to Rebecca for pictures. I love it though! And she'll laugh with me later, even if she wasn't laughing now! These pictures crack me up.
Especially this one. It's like she's saying, "All right, just take it and get it over with!"

Rebecca will be six months old tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be taking some darling pictures and do a new post sometime next week. She even has a new hairstyle!

Here she is in her little cradle. Lately this has been happening a lot-feet or arms sticking out. Maybe it's time to put up the crib. Every time I suggest it though, Seth comes up with some excuse before saying, "but then she'll be so far away." He really does like having her in our room. Me, not so much anymore, since I hear everything and think she needs me when really she's just moving in the night like we all do. Here's a funny story from last night. Seth says that in the middle of the night, I sat up and started shaking him, saying "WHERE'S THE BABY?" He of course assumed I had looked in her cradle and she was gone, so he frantically looked around to find her sleeping soundly in her cradle. Meanwhile while he was looking for the baby, I had laid back down and gone to sleep. He was ticked. I think it's funny. So does he, really. And I don't remember a thing!

I'm excited for this year. I just feel like it will be a good one. I have so much good in my life, and now I have a sweet baby to raise and teach and love. I've come up with some good resolutions and hope I can stay on track to improve myself in this new year.

Baby's First Christmas

OK!! This is going to be long, but I have a lot to say. Rebecca's first Christmas was absolutely fabulous. Of course she doesn't know it, but it was. We were gone Dec. 22-26. What a trip. I was a little nervous about how she'd do with all the people and commotion and sleeping in different places. But she did just great! She was so patient with being passed around in so many groups of people. She slept at just the right times. She was good at church. She hardly fussed at all! She is just the perfect baby, we are so lucky.
We had our own little Christmas at our house on the 22nd. Rebecca woke up and ate, we put her in her walker and then opened presents. Seth was throwing wrapping paper and bows at her, she didn't even blink. She was so tired! It was funny. Seth and I got some nice gifts. I love Christmas. It is fun to surprise the ones you love.
Then we headed to the farm in Bancroft for the traditional Danish dinner at Seth's parent's house. Here are my cute nieces Emilee and Eve with "baby Rebecca" as they call her.

Here's the Danish dinner, it is so good! The little pancake puffs are called Abelskievers. Very tasty, with apples inside.

We usually do a pinata on Thanksgiving, but most of the kids weren't there this year, so we did it for Christmas. Rebecca got to go first. The kids were so cute and excited.

We did a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun. We ended up with really decent stuff, and got rid of a hideous lamp that has been in our basement.

Seth's mom and all the kids put on a Christmas pageant. It was really neat, with beautiful costumes. The kids all did so well. I love the Christmas story. Jesus came from humble yet magnificent beginnings. Rebecca got to play baby Jesus, which was so special to me.

And here she is, smacking on her fingers (upside down of course) having a great time with Grandpa Wistisen.

Here we are in our house opening gifts before we left.

We got Rebecca a walker for Christmas. Boy was this hard to find! I hate Winnie the Pooh, but we pretty much had no options. It is actually pretty cute, and Rebecca loves the toys. The only problem is her feet don't touch the floor so she just kind of hangs there. I wonder if her feet go to sleep.

My parents gave Rebecca this high chair. She loves to be right there while we are eating.

It was pretty funny to watch her suck on this candy cane. It has the wrapper on, but all of a sudden her expression changed...she made it through the wrapper. She liked it after a minute.

Here we are on Christmas morning opening presents.

Rebecca liked the wrapping paper the best.

I can't remember the last time we had this much snow at Christmas. It was so beautiful on Christmas day-tons of snow and a bright blue sky.

Every year on Christmas day, we go to my grandparent's house in Bountiful for yummy food and singing Christmas songs. I never knew how much I loved this until I was on my mission. I returned from my mission the next Christmas (Dec. 23) and was so glad I only had to be away for one Christmas. I'm not the best singer, but I love to listen to these beautiful songs about the Christ child. I'm impressed with my Grandma's piano playing skills. She is so good!

This is the last year we'll be there in Bountiful on Christmas day. I'm a little sad about that, since it's the only time I really ever see my extended family anymore. I'm looking forward to starting my own traditions with my little family though.

Above: Rebecca's legs are so strong! She stood up against this couch for such a long time and smiled and laughed at my mom. So cute.

Below: 4 generations!! Rebecca Lynn, Me, My Mom and my Grandma Nelson.

Merry Christmas! We sure had a great one, it was so nice to spend it with all the people we love so much. We are so blessed to have wonderful families.

5 Months Old!

Last Christmas was not so good. I was horribly sick--morning sickness. When we got out our 4 foot tall fake tree we've been using, the stand was broken, so Seth bungee corded it to a nightstand so it would stay upright. We put the lights up and that's as far as we got on decorating last year. Let me just say, it was pathetic! Anyway, this year I was determined to do better. Way better. We got a great deal on a new fake tree and it is 7.5 feet tall and really nice. My favorite thing is that it is pre-lit. That is the only way to go!! So nice, just put it together and plug it in. I love my ornaments and I'm a little worried about next year. Rebecca will be old enough to do damage. But this year was good, all she could do was look! And she loved it! It's so funny to see her looking at lights, it's like she can't decide which one to look at. So cute.
So here is our little Christmas baby on Dec. 12-five months old.

The month of December has been wonderful. I can't believe it's almost over already. Rebecca is growing and changing every day. She is getting so strong. She sits up pretty good by herself, for a little while (she still falls over a lot). She makes loud wet noises when she is happy, it is pretty funny. She takes much shorter naps and loves to be awake and doing whatever we are doing. She loves her toys now and reaches for them. She can pass toys from hand to hand. She lights up when Seth comes home from work. She loves music and sways back and forth while standing on my lap when music is playing. She has the sweetest little smile and such a great personality. She is so easy going and fun to be with. She is a great shopping partner too! We love our little baby so much. Here are a few of her accomplishments this month:

Rebecca sucks on her fingers upside down. It's so funny looking!

Here she is rolling over!!!

And she found her feet. Lately she loves putting them in her mouth.

Thanksgiving

I have been thinking about my wonderful life lately. I have so much to be thankful for. My heart is so full of thanks at this time and I wanted to write down the top ten things I'm thankful for this year.
1. This beautiful world. Specifically my little spot of this beautiful world. I love Idaho Falls. It is such a good place to live. I like how there are so many nice parks to go walking at. There are always fun events in the community. And plenty of good places to shop. The temple is 3 minutes from my house.
2. My body. I have been amazed with it over the past year. It has grown a child, delivered the child, and now makes food to feed the child. Amazing. I'm grateful my body is healthy too.
3. Marriage-what a blessing. I'm so glad I have someone to share this life with, to work towards worthwhile goals with, to laugh with, to struggle through trials together with, to take care of and to have take care of me.
4. I have a husband who cleans! I do not know anyone else who can say this. All my friends complain about their messy husbands. Not me. Just last week, Seth got down all my decorative plates and pitchers off the top of our kitchen cabinets and cleaned them. Then he cleaned all the windows in our house. Also, he is a handy man. That is the only kind of husband to have, in my opinion. A neat handyman-I'm so blessed!
5. Children (specifically mine!) Rebecca is the sweetest little person I have ever known. What an honor to be her mother, to help guide her through this life. I have so much to learn from little children-they are so trusting and innocent and carefree and honest and loving and forgiving. Children just make the world a better place.
6. I am grateful that my little Saturn still runs! Oh, we have had way too many car troubles over the past year. My car has a horrible transmission problem, but it still gets me where I need to go. I'm tempted all the time to curse my car, but I'm trying to remind myself lately that I'm glad I have it. Without it I'd be walking!!
7. I am grateful for commandments. I'm so glad our Heavenly Father didn't send us to this Earth and then leave us alone wondering what we're supposed to do. Commandments keep me safe and happy and I am glad to follow them, because of all the blessings I've received. I know God keeps his promises. Over the last few months, I've gained a stronger testimony of tithing. The windows of heaven have truly been opened and we are ok!! I know we always will be because God will take care of us if we do our part.
8. I'm grateful I was born in America. How awesome is that? I could have been born in Afghanistan and be in the middle of poverty, disease and war. I love my free country and I'm so grateful for those who put their lives on the line to keep it that way.
9. I'm grateful we were able to insulate our house a few months ago and so now I won't freeze this winter.
10. I'm grateful I'm not pregnant, because last year on Thanksgiving, I was barely pregnant and I think I ate a roll and a few bites of potatoes. I'm going to pig out this year!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! BE THANKFUL FOR ALL YOU HAVE!!!