Trip to Wisconsin

A huge thank you to my mom for sending me photos from our trip to Wisconsin. I just loved the fall colors while we were there. Seeing a true fall season makes me wish I lived in the "real world" again.

We started our trip by having a quick visit with Auntie Gina, Uncle Allan and Cousin Oliver. Only Uncle Allan was able to travel to Wisconsin with us, but we are looking forward to spending quality time with them this December.





Once we arrived in Wisconsin, we were able to stay with Aunt Cheri. We were very excited to hear that Cousin Renee was going to be coming down with her daughter Ellarae. Ellarae is 10 months old- and what a fun little girl. She taught Leinna how to scream!! One night Leinna was laying on Ella's blanket and well- she wanted her blanket back. In the picture this is right before Ella layed on top of Leinna- it was quit funny.











While we gathered in Wisconsin to remember Gunny's life, it was great to introduce Leinna to the Great-Grandmas!




The trip was great. We are hoping someday we will live close to family again so we can all get together more often. For now, we are thankful for the internet and digital photos so we can keep everyone update with how life is going.

3 Months Old

3 months ago, our little Leinna Daisy was born. I'm so amazed at how fast the time has gone and I can only imagine that time will continue to go by quickly. We had a special visitor this week from our good friends Sara and Amelia. The babies slept the whole time ~ some play date! I'm sure they'll have plenty of play dates in the future. Not much new to report- Leinna's getting close to rolling from her back to her stomach, and it seems like she's getting a tooth! She's got the drooling figured out and it seems like you can see a little white tooth in her gums. She also enjoys sitting up by herself while supported by pillows. Leinna has also really started to enjoy her bath time and love to splash the water with her legs. Here's a few more pictures of our growing little girl.

First Plane Ride

Leinna experienced her first plane ride! We were looking forward to her first airplane ride in December when we head to South Dakota, however we had a death in the family and headed to Wisconsin this past week.

The picture shows Leinna's thoughts about our 12 plus hour traveling adventure! While her attitude to start may seem unpleasant- she proved to be a great little traveler. She mostly slept or ate during the "5 up and downs" before we arrived in Rapid City. The very next day, we loaded her up for a 12 plus hour drive to Wisconsin. Again- she mostly slept. What a blessing!!

I do have to say that it was quite funny the looks I received from other travelers on the plane. The most common look- "Please don't sit by me..." and the look of relief as I passed by the row. The even more funny thing was after the flight the compliments I received about Leinna being so good. As if I had any control over how she was going to travel.

We were thankful that we were able to make the trip back for the funeral. It was a sad reason to get everyone together and yet good for Grandma to have all her grandkids there and to meet her newest great-granddaughter - Leinna Daisy.

Nap Time

As you can see Leinna has a new nap time buddy. Actually, I think this is Bailey's effort towards reclaiming her status as princess of the house. Bailey didn't last long because Leinna twitched and ended up kicking Bailey, which made her unhappy.



Leinna gets a little fussy when she's tired and this past week as found a way to sooth herself. She likes to suck on her left thumb and twirl her hair with her right hand. I tired to capture her twirling her hair, but it doesn't really show up in the photo. Once she finally gets her thumb into her mouth (this is very frustrating for her if her thumb doesn't cooperate) she's out within a minute or two. I love that she's able to self-sooth, but I was kinda hoping she'd be a pacifer kid- because when it's time to ween we won't be able to "mail" her thumb to another needy child. Oh well- guess we'll figure it out when the time comes.

Other news from the Jacobsen family- Papa was gone all last week hunting moose with Grandpa Gary in Fairbanks. No luck with getting a moose due to the warm weather. Momma and Leinna handled the week well (surprisingly). I also started a part-part-time job with the school. I head in to work with two lovely students for about an hour and then the remainder of the time I'm supporting the special education director with admin-secretarial type stuff. It's working out pretty well and Leinna has a wonderful lady (whose name is Wendy!) that takes care of her for the hour in half I'm at the school.

We hope everyone is doing well!! Can you believe Leinna is 11 weeks old- that's almost 3 months!
YIKES!! Time needs to S-L-O-W down!!

First Day of School

As Leinna approaches her 10 week birthday on Tuesday I'm continually amazed at how she changes. Her new tricks include wanting to sit up and hold her head on her own- which she can do pretty well- still has a few weeble-wobble moments. Leinna also is starting to put some weight on her legs when you hold her up to "stand". She continues to bless us each day with stories, smiles, giggles and a plethora of facial expressions. I'm truly intrigued with the infant mind and often wonder what she thinks about throughout the day.

I've been given a great opportunity to work with a few students at the school for about an hour each day and then additional two hours of work from home. So, Leinna tagged along with me on our first day of school as my child care wasn't set up to begin until Monday. Hopefully her expression above will not continue to be her thoughts on school :>)

Leinna's been attending church with me, but this Sunday we started helping with Sunday School again. It was so much fun, and Leinna seemed to really enjoy all the kids.

However, when we got home from church and Sunday School, Leinna was mighty tired and took a nice long nap!

The last bit of news for this update is this:

Could this really be true? My iPhone has an app for weather and I couldn't believe when I checked Cordova's weather for this week and there is predicted sunshine every single day!?! So far today was beautiful so we'll see if this continues throughout the week!

Fall has arrived!

Fall has arrived! While we've been enjoying some great sunny weather, the air has that fall chill to it. The fall season is my favorite time of year! I love when the leaves change colors and the flowers have the faded color look to them. This time of year is also my favorite because school gets started! Since I resigned from my teaching position, I'm finding it a bit strange this fall season. However, I'm enjoying the time with Leinna and teaching her new things.

Leinna celebrated her 2 month birthday on Monday. It's so amazing to watch the new things she does each day. Within the last week or so- she's definitely found her voice. She will tell you stories and jokes (at least momma thinks so). Leinna's stories are when she vocalizes for a longer period of time. Momma even thinks she uses different sounds to convey the different parts of a true story plot. When Leinna tells jokes, she usually squeals at the end of her vocalization to let you know that you too are suppose to laugh.

In addition to telling stories, Leinna also had her well baby check-up appointment today. She's measuring 24 inches long and weighing 12.3 pounds. The doctor didn't have a chart available to show how she's doing compared to other 2 month olds, which doesn't really matter as long as she's healthy right? We're starting to get a morning and night time routine- but the middle of the day is still a mystery as to what to expect. The morning consists of waking up between 5:00 and 5:30- eating and then we read stories and she tells me about her dreams. About an hour to an hour and half later she's ready to take her morning nap. This nap last any where from 2 to 3 hours. After nap she eats again and then we get ready for the day. After this the day is a mystery until our night time routine.

One thing we always try to do at some point in the afternoon is tummy time. When Leinna is on her tummy she likes to roll over some days and other days she likes to scoot herself around in circles. She also loves to lift her head and check things out. Koda decided to supervise her tummy time one afternoon. After taking this picture, I can't get over how small Leinna looks next to Koda. Enjoy it now Koda because before long, Leinna will be able to crawl all over you and then she'll be bigger than you!

Our night time routine includes play time with Papa. Here, Papa thought it would be funny to play with Leinna's ears. Poor little girl, this picture will haunt her for life! After play time with Papa, we usually go walk the dogs. Then it's bath time, a bottle, a little more play time, and then a bottle before bed sometime between 10:00-10:30pm. We are blessed with a wonderful little girl who likes to sleep- she's out for the night until we start another new day!

Quiet house today...

Grandma and Grandpa Emerson left last night and it was a very quiet house today. So quiet that Leinna and I spent much of the day out and about. In fact Leinna had her first non-family member babysitter today- Mrs. Dillydally! Leif and I had a meeting to attend and Mrs. Dillydally was happy to have Leinna hangout in her classroom with her for about an hour. I must admit that it was weird not having Leinna near by for that whole hour!

Below are a few more pictures from the time with Grandma and Grandpa. Oh- also a huge thanks to Ms. Susan Harding for taking great family photos while they were here! We are sad that Grandma and Grandpa's time went so fast, but looking forward to a month long visit in South Dakota during the month of December. It will be so much fun to introduce Leinna to cousins and both sides of the family!

Leinna's sweatshirt says, "Grandpa's Little Deer" with a deer patch sown on and little camo cuffs added. Needless to say, Grandpa loves to hunt and fish!

Grandma had so much fun talking to Leinna during car rides. Leinna loved having someone other than the dogs in the back with her!

Generation photo taken by Susan Harding

Family photo taken by Susan Harding