Swing Swing Swing

Yes, Kanyon has no fear and liked the swings at the park today.

Happy 1st Easter, Kanyon!

Even though Jake had to work all day Easter Sunday, we made the best of it and made it a fun day for Kanyon. Nana (my mom) is out here visiting from NY, so it was bound to be a great day! First thing in the morning we got dressed up and went to Katie's house for a wonderful breakfast. Kanyon loves playing with her cousins...and their new Easter toys.

Logan, Kanyon, & Mason

I found the Bunny.

When Jake got home from work we let Kanyon dig through her basket and see what she could find. I think there were even a couple things in there for her to share with her Dad.

Then to finish the day off, we grilled some steaks up on the grill and watched a movie.

We hope all of you had a great Easter.

The Hunt

Kanyon participated in her first Easter Egg hunt. I think she had a great time! She had so much fun collecting the eggs. Getting her to drop them in her basket required a little "help", but it was a great first experience for her.

Mason & Logan came and had some fun too.

She seriously picked up 2 eggs with one hand....How does an 11 month old do that??

It might look like she is being nice and dropping an egg in her basket...but I guarantee you that she was trying to pull one out instead.

Almost a Toddler

Before we left for Mexico, Kanyon was just BARELY starting to crawl. She would only take one or two "steps" and she'd give up. Now its a different story. I can barely get her to sit still long enough to change her diaper. We fight about this alot and now she thinks its a game everytime I grab her leg to pull her back to me before I have the diaper on. I try not to laugh when she is squealing out of pure delight, but its hard to be mad at a cute face like that! I can already tell I'm not going to be a good discipliner. And the scary thing is that Jake is even weaker when it comes to Kanyon! At first, I was worried for Kanyon, coming to parents like us...but I take that all back. Now I am scared for us having a daughter like Kanyon! She is very strong willed and will not stop at anything until she gets what she wants. That usually means my cell phone or the TV remote. She even fake cries! No tears at all, just alot of noise. Ugh..who taught her that? And I can't keep her off the stairs. She can go up just fine...but going down isn't so graceful. We still need to work on that. I guess I should invest in a couple baby gates for the stairs...or better yet, maybe a cage. (Just kidding!)

La vida loca en Mexico

Cancun, Mexico- I don't think we ever would have come back if Kanyon wasn't here waiting for us. Mexico was sooo awesome! We kept very busy and had so much fun. We went with 4 other couples, all friends of ours. All the husbands graduated high school together. Jake got his first experience being south of the border- complete with crazy drivers, coconut popsicles, and many opportunities for adventure. I am very excited that he had such a great time. Now maybe I can talk him into heading a little further south into Guatemala. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

We stayed at the Westin Resort & Spa. The hotel was perfect - except for at the time of check in, when they didn't have any reservation for us in their system! (Thanks Orbitz) This is a picture of the view we had from our room. I am sure you can imagine how hard it would be to come home after a week of waking up to this. I now sit here, looking out to snow and looking at my peeling skin from being sunburned. Its sad to think so much has changed in less than a week!

As a group, we made ourselves a busy little itinerary. We wanted to make sure that we got everything done that we wanted to. Monday was our "free" day. We spent it on the beach and exploring downtown Cancun. We had a blast at Mercado 28 bartering with all the locals. They love it when someone comes in speaking Spanish. It was fun to be able to use my Spanish again, and brush up on it. I forget how much I love that language and how it helps me to get cheap silver jewelry.

On Tuesday we headed out to see some Mayan ruins at a place called Chichen-Itza. We hired a private driver to take the 10 of us on our 1.5 hr ride out there. I wouldn't go back and do it any other way. We had a fun driver and even sang some kareoke through the "tour guide" speakers in the van using his "tour guide" microphone.

Then on Wednesday the girls all went to the spa for facials & massages. It was heavenly. Then we laid out on the beach until the guys got back. They rented a fishing boat and did some deep sea fishing. Unfortunately, it wasn't extremely successful, and they all got really sea sick. Jake said he'd do it again, but none of the other guys did. Jake caught the biggest fish of the trip- but I think only 2 fish were caught the entire 8 hr trip. This fish is called an Amber Jack.

On Thursday, we took a bus down to Playa del Carmen to catch a ferry over to the island of Cozumel. It was here that we had our SCUBA lessons and dive. I'll be honest, I didn't make it on the dive to the reef...but either did 3 others in our group. There is something a little too claustrophobic about being that far underwater. Jake did it and took an underwater camera with him. He says that it was beautiful. Lots of fish- even sting rays & barracuda. We are hoping some of the pictures turn out- but from what I hear, I don't have very high hopes.

On Friday, we hired another driver to take us to Tulum to see some more ruins. Those were really cool cause they are built right on the rocky coastline. After we were done at Tulum, we drove up to a place called Akumal and some of us did some snorkeling there. Here there were big sea turtles to be seen...and pretty close to you! Jake actually got in trouble for trying to chase one. Leave it to him to be the one to do that.

The rest of the trip was not planned out. We spent alot of time at the beach and playing in the water. We really had a great trip and can't wait to plan another one. If any of you are thinking about going to Mexico...don't think twice, just go! You won't regret it!

Trying to Keep Up

I know you are all probably sick of me saying that Kanyon is growing too fast, but its true. Here are just a few pics to prove it.

(I just love her expression in this picture. I think she's had enough of the camera.)

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On Saturday night we went to The Roof with our friends Peggy & Kalli. It has almost turned into a tradition to go as our Christmas dinner together. You can blame Kalli for making us eat our Christmas dinner in February. Tell her she needs to come visit more often! We always have so much fun when we get to hang out! On this night we had bellies full of wonderful food and we were so happy to be spending time together.

And the best part about it.. I got to wear my green shoes!!

Its the best that I can do..

So, I have been experimenting a little bit with Kanyons wild hair. But seriously..there is only so much I can do.



I tried this bow thing... it SOOO didn't work!

So I tried a different kind of bow. I thought this one worked pretty good until Jake came home and said that he didn't like it. But I should have guessed that. He is partial to the hair that sticks straight up.

A little side note: Kanyon loves to eat! And she makes a really cute humming noise when she does it. Today she had her first baby biscuit- and hummed all the way through it.

First Post of '09

Dear Friends & Family:
Yes, I know I need to update my blog more often. We are all just going to have to come to terms with the fact that I am a bad blogger. I keep saying "We need to take more pictures of Kanyon", but just saying it doesn't help me get pictures of her to blog. I am infamous for always having a camera and NEVER taking a picture. I'm sorry...its just a character flaw we're all going to have to accept.
BUT...to surprise you all...here is a new entry.
So far 2009 has been good to us. Jake hasn't been laid off, and with all the lay offs the company has had....well, that means there is more work for Jake's crew to do and they can stay busy all day long. The mobile spa business I have is proving very successful. I love it and women love it. I actually had some random lady yesterday order $65 of makeup off my website. I thought that was great.
We are finalizing our plans for our trip to Cancun in February. We are going with 4 other couples and have a long agenda of things we are going to do there. See the ruins, learn to scuba dive & snorkel, and the guys are going to go deep sea fishing. Jake is mostly excited about that one!
Kanyon is such a sweet little girl. She gets kind of sick of me by the end of the day, but when Dad walks in the door, she is all smiles and wants to play. She is growing like a weed. Her hair grows and acts like a weed. Always standing STRAIGHT up...or out if its on the sides of her head. I can wet it down and when it dries, POOF! Straight out again. Kate says that a girl is never too young for hairspray, but that doesn't help either. Right now we wear alot of hats when we go out... :) She is starting to think that she is too old for naps. When 9:30am rolls around, I can usually feed her some fruits & a bottle and put her down for a nap. No Problems. This past week has not been so easy. She doesn't want to go to sleep, probably afraid she might miss out on something. But the time that she is awake she is miserable because she is so tired! Silly little girl. I have to just pick her up, stuff a binki in her mouth and rock her till she falls asleep. That usually works. She has one tooth now and is starting to learn to pull herself up on things. She isn't crawling yet, but I think its coming soon. (...hopefully not TOO soon). Hope all of you are having a great January.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

We hope that all of you had a great Christmas and that you are looking forward to a wonderful 2009. Have fun & Be Safe.

Love, The Christensens

Days & Days After Christmas

We finally made it back from Price on Monday, the 29th! So we had another unwrapping party, this time at our own house. Kanyon had a great first Christmas and now she has so many toys that move, flash, and make noises that she doesn't know which one to play with first.

Its hard to believe that we just got done celebrating Kanyon's first Christmas. Time flies too fast. Every time I say that I am reminded of how old I am getting. Now I think about 2009 and it blows my mind. Thanks to all our friends and family that helped us through this eventful 2008. We love you all.