Merry Christmas from the Jacobsens!!

Well, our annual newsletter didn't get put in the mail like usual, but since it's it will be posted Christmas Eve, I'm not late! Here's the 2007 highlights.

C- Eric became Chief Resident for his program and is looking forward to graduating June 30th!

H- Hair! Miss Chloe's hair is much talked about! It is the craziest mess in the morning and with some water and a comb turns into beautiful, blonde ringlets.

R- Ready for a change! We have loved our 5 1/2 years on the East, but we're looking forward to be closer to family. We are not looking forward to leaving our friends in NY, which have become our family!

I- Interviews for Eric. Eric has been offered a few associate positions, but not quite ready to sign. Looking around the Portland or Seattle area.

S- School time for Ella! Ella started kindergarten(a little over two hours) and loves it! Her world is now all about the alphabet, days of the week, and what is written on every sign that we pass in the car. (I never realized how many signs are out there!) She loves to do homework and even assigns Chloe work, which she happy scribbles on.

T-Techno skills-I have gone from rarely checking my email to blogging! Although I never change the background or do anything impressive, at least I am posting!

M- Many visitors! We love to have company and show them around the city. Warning! Only a few more month left to come and visit!

A- April 30, 2008-My official due date! Expecting a baby boy!!

S- Shows! Broadway shows! We have loved each and every one that we've seen. Five total for this year. Our favorite was Curtains.

We have been blessed to enjoy this fun location that we live in and are anxious for what the new year will hold for us! We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Birthday Celebrations Again!!

It's nonstop birthday days around here! Today is Eric's birthday! He's the big 3-0! I thought this would be like any other birthday to him, but upon talking about it last night I came to realize he's not that excited to be 30. He's actually a little down about the number change. I tried to tell him it's a good thing. The number we've been waiting for. It means we are almost done with school and Eric can get this career of his going. "Exactly!" was his response. 10 years of schooling after high school, this guy still doesn't want to be in the real world!


To try to pep him up I give you my favorite things about him!(Hopefully all this gushing won't get me in trouble!)

• He's dependable. I can count on him for anything.



• He's got great style, but in a manly, tough kind of way!



• He loves kid food. Spaghetti-O's with meatballs, Lucky Charms, corn dogs, pizza pockets, and of course the bubble gum ice cream.



• He loves to be at home. Although this means we aren't the most exciting couple around, I do love that he prefers to be home more than anywhere else.



• The only thing he knows how to cook is French Toast, but it's my favorite and comes in handy both for breakfast and dinner!



• He loves to go see a Broadway show, but in a manly, tough kind of way!



• He's a great gifter. Although we have an agreement to just do small things now, before the kids were born I always had something wonderful for Christmas and birthdays. I am very excited to get him working just to see what he'll get me!



• He is so funny! Lots of people don't know this about him because he can be reserved, but he makes me laugh every day. Mostly repeating one liners from TV and movies.



• He's a great, great dad and the girls love him! Every single morning Ella and Chloe open the blinds and wave to Dad while he gets in his car to leave. Ella doesn't leave the window until the car it out-of-sight. Every single evening, when the car pulls up they run and giggle to find a hiding spot for him to try and find them. It's so cute!


• He's the husband I was hoping he would be when we got married! I love to be with him just as much as when we were dating.

Happy Birthday Eric! We love you!!

SHE'S FIVE!

Our Ella Bella is five today! I can't believe it! What a fun, sweet girl we were blessed with! She was an answer to our prayers and rescued me from a year of loss. She has been smiles since she was born. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her and all her ideas! We love you so much Ella! Have a wonderful, wonderful day!!

The First Supper

One of my favorite holiday decorations is this Nativity given to Ella on her first Christmas from Eric's sister and parents. The girls play the cutest little stories with the characters. After they went to bed I was picking up and noticed they had left a snack for Jesus. Such thoughtful girls!

Boy Thoughts

Thank you for all the well wishes and comments! I meant to post earlier, but you know how it goes. Things have been a bit busy around here. The idea of having a boy is sinking in a bit, but still seems so unrealistic. The ultra sound tech said it was definitely a boy and it seemed so weird to hear those words! We assumed we'd get the third girl, although Ella would have been very disappointed. She has been wanting a brother since we had Chloe. I had the camera ready when I told them the news. Big open mouths and lots of clapping. Chloe was just reacting to Ella, but it was cute anyways. This baby is going to be so spoiled by these two!

Trying to get in the mindset of a boy I found myself in the boy section at Ross. An area I never go! I found my first boy clothes to buy! It was too cute to pass up! Striped shirt, jeans, and cool little jacket! He will be styling! Now I just have to find some loafer booties!

IT'S A....

BOY!!!!!!

We couldn't be more thrilled, a little shocked, but thrilled!! The baby looks healthy and right on track for 18 weeks! Now what to do with all these girl clothes!!! I'll post more later, just didn't want to keep you waiting!!

Recap

My brother sent some pics to add!

The Macy's balloons- Dora in the background.
Ice skating in Central Park.

Sorry that I only do recap posts these days! There's always something else to do. Also my camera is on the fritz so I don't take as many pictures when we go anywhere. We've had a wonderful November. I am feeling great and back to myself for the most part. I am 18 weeks now and this Thursday I have an ultrasound and hopefully get a peek at what we are having! Stay tuned for that!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with both friends and family! My brother Will and his wife Jackie fly out from California for the week. We LOVED having them here and the girls loved the attention they got from both. We all went into the city the day before Thanksgiving and caught some of the Christmas sites early. The store windows are already decked out and so fun to look at. Jackie, Ella and I also went ice stating at Central Park while the guys and Chloe watched. Eric's highlight of the day was finding a newly opened Five Guys on 55th for lunch. That was Eric's favorite burger place while we lived in Maryland. To top the day off we joined thousands of other people to view the Macy's floats being blown up for the parade. It was way to crowded, but the girls saw some of their favorites before we escaped the madness! I think going to the parade would be less of a hassle than the float viewing. We had a great week with family and are looking forward to living closer to them someday so we don't have a wait a year between visits!

Happy Halloween!

Our two little witches had a blast trick or treating with our neighborhood friends. Chloe was very brave trick or treating in our neighborhood. There is always a ton of kids and the houses are decorated top to bottom. Some very scary. Chloe would be the first one up to the porch and would say, "Treating!" Both girls especially loved riding on their brooms! Chloe was a little confused on what a witch might say. She would shout, "Hee Haw!" Maybe next year we will be cowgirls.

Look What I Did!

A few years back I once thought of myself as somewhat of a craft person. I scrapbooked our photos, created decorations to make our small apartment homey, and even made a Halloween costume for Ella. Yes, that was old Chrissy. New Chrissy has half done projects sitting and waiting for some attention and all new pictures still in their envelope. But that all changed recently! I actually started a new project and finished it! Just in time too! For two years now I've had my eye on a Pottery Barn Halloween countdown calendar. Last year it sold out and this year it was back and in stock for a while. It is just adorable! My problem was, it's $56.00! With shipping and/or tax would have sent it to the $70 range, which although it's cute, I couldn't justify. I told Eric all about my love for this item and the idea of making my own. He kind of laugh and said, " If you want it THAT bad you should just buy it!" He knows my current craft struggles very well! We went to the mall and peeked in to see if they had one on display. As I opened it, I realized it was twice as big as I thought it would be and it didn't come with the items to fill the pockets. For the price, it wasn't what I really wanted. So I made the decision to make my own! With a trip to Jo Ann's, I felt ready to go. This was back in September! You know what happened to me in October. So last week, with my energy up again I finally finished! They girls love it and they didn't even care that we started on the 22nd! Eric was shocked that I actually finished it! I am so excited for our new Halloween tradition! With this craft bug in me now I'm ready for my next project!

Pumpkin Pics

Here's a few picks of the girls and the pumpkins.

Fall Fun

During my no posting strike, we did get out and do some fun things that I need to catch up on. First we kicked off October with a visit to The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. It was fabulous and the girls loved it! Over 4,000 pumpkins carved and lit. It was amazing. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't figure out the lighting so my pictures are all bad, but lucky for me the Internet has a bunch. The next day we headed up north about an hour to get our pumpkin. Visiting a pumpkin patch has been a favorite tradition of ours since Ella was born. Unfortunately, last year it was a complete bomb. I was told about this great country type store here in New York. My friend who told me about it said that her kids loved it. Animals to look at, fun displays, and even hayrides during October. So we loaded up the kids, camera ready to go and pulled up a hill past the Home Depot and Costco(hint, hint) and there it was, our "country store". It was a massive grocery store! As we looked for a place to park, we saw the hayride trailer which takes you around the store and through the parking lot. Along the way, you look at Halloween signs posted on a fence. I tried to take a pumpkin picture, but it was pretty embarrassing. We did enjoy the store and I was able get some grocery shopping in. Thanks to my friend Laura, this year we got back on the right track. The farm was adorable. The girls especially loved all the animals and playground equipment. I loved the cider donuts! Although we were trying to get into the spirit of fall it was so hard because it was about 90 degrees with no shade. By the time we got to the pumpkin patch we quickly picked a pumpkin, posed the girls(the rest of us were a sweaty mess!), and then left. Here's to traditions!

I'm Back!

Sorry for not posting for a while. I felt bad at first and then it began to lose its importance. I am now trying to work my way back and try to catch up on all that I've missed in the blogging world. First of all my excuses. What on earth have I been up to? To tell you the actual truth, not much at all! But I do have a great excuse. I'm am 13 weeks pregnant! Due date is April 30! I apologize to all my friends and family who are finding out via my blog, but am the worst person to call anyone! That was one reason not to do my blog because I hadn't called this person or that person, but I finally realized I'd never get around to making all the calls anyways. Again sorry about that! Because of the pregnancy, there has been a battle raging at my house. Me vs the couch! I have tried to talk myself into posting or viewing other people's posts, but then the thought of me doing that or just laying on the couch watching TV, the TV always won! I have been so tired, but not sleepy tired like I was with my past pregnancies, (especially with Ella). This time around it is just pure laziness! Now that the first trimester is over, I'm beginning to perk up a bit and feel a little more like myself. So hopefully this will jump start me back into the outside world. I have been the worst friend hiding in my house! Ready or not here I come!

Ella's First Day!

The wait is finally over! What did Chrissy and Eric decide to do with Ella in the Fall? Well, with much stress and thought, we decided to go ahead and put her in Kindergarten! But it's more like a practice Kindergarten, Pre-K that we don't pay for. With most schools around here going full day, we happen to live in the boundaries of a half day kindergarten. Two and half hours, barely! That was what we were going to do for preschool, so this just saves a lot of money. We have already decided that when we move she'll repeat Kindergarten again in the new school so her age will be like the others. We hope because of the changes in environment that she won't mind. So far she has really liked it! First day of school, she walked right in and was good to go. I didn't even get a chance to get choked up! There's a few things that I worry about, but so far she has been doing great! We have a meet the teacher night tomorrow, I'll let you know how that goes!

Chloe has made sure not to be left out of the fun.

Catch up!

Sorry for the lack of post! We have had some news worthy events, I've just been too lazy to tell you about them! Here's a few post to make up for it!

We recently checked off another of our "things to do in NYC before we leave" list and with some friends walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, almost! We made it half way and decided that was good enough and went and got in line at Grimaldi's Pizza instead. Eric was not a big fan of the height mixed with traffic below us and keeping up with four kids. The weather couldn't have been better though and the views were amazing! In the pictures, Ella is posing as the Statue of Liberty, so that will need to be our next family outing. We brought the pizza to a park right on the water and the kids played for hours. It was a perfect day!

Camping Fun!

It was a big weekend for Ella! She has been waiting all summer and finally she got to go on her first camping trip! This weekend was the ward camp out and we decided to just have Eric take Ella up for Friday and then Chloe and I would join in the fun on Saturday. (Chloe would not have had any fun on Saturday without getting her full nights sleep, so her first camping trip will have a wait.) Poor Chloe was very unhappy that Ella was leaving without her though. I tried to make it up to her with a fun night with mom. They had a great time and Ella loved every minute of it. Eric was a ready for a nap by the time I saw them at 9am, but he had a good time too. On Saturday we played on the beach (Chloe's beach skills are much improved since the beginning of summer!), splashed in the lake, and Ella even had her first canoe ride! She looked so tiny sitting in the canoe. She was so brave and even went without us! We thought today would be bad due to the lack of sleep on Friday and busy day on Saturday, but she's been doing just fine! Too bad we don't live near Gaby and Cody, then we could go all the time! (Right, Gaby?)

10 years

This weekend marks the anniversary of Princess Diana's death, and with all the news covering that event I thought about that weekend 10 years ago and it was truly the hardest I had ever faced at that time. Not specifically because of her, but that just added to it. That weekend I had to say good bye to Eric for two years while he served a mission and leave the comfort of my parents home and move into the dorms at college. There's nothing like taking your ID card picture after bawling for the entire two hour car ride down! It was an awful weekend and when I met up with a friend at school that night and she told me what had happened to Diana I had the most unsettling feeling. Here I was away from home, no Eric, new roommates, and now the world was mourning the loss of Diana. It was so hard to get happy, even for me! This reflection just made me realize how grateful I am to my life now. Although we have rough days and life's not perfect, having Eric and my girls keeps the other stuff manageable. I am so grateful not to be 19 again!

Cabin Fever

So last week Eric went out of town for a good friends wedding and the girls and I stayed here. Right after he left, I got the cough that he had and then two days after I sounded better Chloe got it. With the weather being a little rainy lately, we had been stuck in the house for too long! So, I got the girls all dressed up in their rain gear, (which I now know snow boots on Chloe do not make good rain shoes), and we headed outside for a rain walk. Chloe was loving the puddles! The girls had a blast and I felt like I was back in Oregon again. We even came back inside and had hot chocolate! Could it really be August? Today, the humidity is back and the ac is on. The hot chocolate was fun while it lasted though!