Christmas Day

Christmas Eve we have the same tradition as everyone else! Pajamas! This year the kids got Character jammies and matching slippers...Hannah Montanna, Spiderman, Disney Princesses, and Cars!Christmas morning the kids have to wait on the stair landing for the ok to come up and see what Santa Brought! This year they thought Grandma and Grandpa Hafen took way to long to get there. Ten minutes is a long time on Christmas morning!Santa got really wrap happy this year and decided to wrap everything...down to the packs of bubble tape in the stockings-and Cam's new bike too! It was pretty fun and made the morning last a little longer...by maybe 5 minutes! Lincoln got a new rocking horse! Cam got a new bike and helmet! Ty made him a jump and he had a blast, even out in the cold! As he would ride his bike up the street to his runway, Ty would try to hit him with a snowball made from what's left of our skiier snowman!
Even Morgan tried to hit the jump! She didn't get a lot of air-her bike is very heavy..really!-
but look at her cute outfit and boots!

Lainee got some fun toys for her magnet board and lots of barbie stuff!!

Morgan got some fun cd's and a cd case from Grandma Kassie.

Santa brought her an ipod and decorations for her room!

Ya gotta love a baby right out of the bathtub with his Grandma in her Christmas Sweater! What a great Christmas!!!

Some other highlights of Christmas were dinner at kami's house! We do soups on Christmas Eve! We missed Clark and Kassie and our newlyweds but had lots of fun! Christmas morning Eric and Kim came over for waffles...Christmas breakfast we started last year and I'm really liking it! We had a turkey dinner/lunch at my mom's and went to a movie in the evening! Are my highlights all about food?? Sounds like me...Merry Christmas!

Tuacahn Festival of Lights!

On the Friday before Christmas we bundled up the kids and went out to Tuachan to the Festival of Lights! The lights out there are amazing! Our first stop was Santa so we could get a picture with all of the kids this year! None of them are shy when it comes to the Jolly old man!

After Santa we went to the Live Nativity! They did a great job and it wasn't too long (we were glad cuz it was really cold) Then we took a ride on the train which had lights all over it too! It was a fun night!

Winter Fun

We are having a real winter! It's been so fun! Last night it was snowing like crazy and at 8:00 (when the bedtime Nazi's - aka Ty and Nat - usually come out) we decided the kids needed to build a snowman! How often do they get this chance? And we were so glad we didnt' make them go to bed because at about 10:00 we got a call that school was cancelled the next day! A cancelled school - Snow day in St. George?...I don't remember it ever happening before! So usually when we make a snowman it takes all the snow on the grass to make a 3 foot snowman. This dude is 7 1/2 feet tall (Ty is 6' 3") and we woke up this morning to the grass completely covered again! So the kids are out enjoying more - in the sunshine!

Cam' throwing a snowball at me! He's smiling even though he lost a tooth just before trying to pull his glove on with his teeth! "It wasn't even loose and now I've lost 7 teeth." Yeah-the kid keeps track of everything, he doesn't forget numbers!! Our steep driveway came in handy!!

That extra little guy is our 5th child, I mean neighbor, Michael!

Linc didn't last to long in the snow so we went inside and cuddled for a bit with a bottle. I try to really enjoy the times he'll just lay in my arms and stare at me. He is getting way to busy to have time for that very often!

Other Winter Fun!Last week was the Santa Social at the kids school! Morgan and some of her classmates acted out "How the Grinch stole Christmas!" Morgan was Cindy Lou Who and said, "Santy Claus, Why are you taking our Christmas tree, Why?"Ty and Linc hanging out at the Santa Social! The line to see Santa was to long but Linc was happy to sit on his dad's lap, as long as he had a cookie!
Monday at school was Festive Sock Day!

Tuesday was crazy hair day! Morgan's class did their play again for the school during an assembly so she had "who" hair again! Wednesday was snow day! You saw their snow clothes in the Snowman pics! They are currently missing green and red day...I don't think they mind. Tomorrow is Pajama Day...I hope!

Lincoln's New Favorite Person

He has bells that jingle and a twinkle in his eye! Linc couldn't get enough of him, it was so fun to watch his little hands jingle the bells and grab at his beard! The cute Santa Claus Ho Ho Ho'd through it all! And how did we get our baby to leave his new best friend and come back to us...a Candy Cane of course!

49ers Football Champs

Cam's flag football team won the Championship this weekend! After beating the Colts, the only team we'd lost to ,- (it was our first game and we got an e-mail from coach Cody apologizing for losing and promising it would never happen again - he was right) - by a large margin, including a touchdown by Roni, we were the Little Valley League champs and got to the play in the final playoff game against the Santa Clara league champs, the Saints! In the final game we got an early lead and it was smooth sailing from there! Go 49ers! Check out the Hardware!

We Read the Book of Mormon

This year in our ward we had a Book of Mormon Challenge. It ended this week and amazingly - so do our little family! We started at the first of the year and read 5 chapters a week. We started out reading 5 chapters each Sunday and that got to be a little much. The last few months we've had the kids ready for school in time to read for ten minutes! It has been so neat to watch their reading progress. Cameron really struggled at first because, even though he is an excellent reader, he has to have things make sense. The scriptures speak so differently than we do that it didn't make sense to him and it would seriously take him almost 5 minutes to read one verse. Now him and Morgan are both better readers. It was good for Ty and I to. We were paying so much more attention so that we could explain to the kids what was going on. I know pride isn't good, but it was a challenge and I have to say it...I'm proud of us!

Happy Anniversary to us!

On Tuesday I got an exciting text from Ty that said - don't make any plans for Friday night or Saturday morning! I was so excited..I love surprises and Tyler finally figured that out! I am glad he told me because I believe the anticipation makes the realization, in other words, knowing there is a surprise is the funnest part. Not having to make the plans or arrange the babysitter is the next best part.

So Friday afternoon we dropped the kids off at my mom's and went to the new James Bond flick - always entertaining! And Ty had gotten me chocolate covered cinnamon bears to enjoy during the movie, mmmm! After the movie I still didn't know where we were going and was just enjoying that the surprises were still coming. Tyler pulled into Cafe Rio and ran in to get a Key Lime Pie (one of my favorite desserts but I could never really pick a favorite). Next we headed to Pizza Hut to get a thin crust plain cheese pizza (We got one of these on our honeymoon and ate it in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at the Anniverary Inn. It's become sortof an anniversary tradition) Our next stop was the Hilton Garden Inn where Ty had gotten us the suite and had already snuck in and had sparkling cider chilling! Everything was perfect! We talked a lot about how quickly 11 years has gone by and how unbelievable it is that we have 4 beautiful children! We know we are "seriously so blessed!" (check out that blog sometime-seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com - so funny) But really we are and we just have to acknowledge it every once in a while. Saturday morning we had a really yummy breakfast at the hotel that gave us the energy to dive back into reality! Thanks Ty - Love you tons! Here's to 11 more plus eternity!

A Special thanks to my mom for watching the kids and taking Lainee to her 9 a.m. soccer game where she dribbled the ball all the way down the field to score the last goal of the season!!

A glimpse into a Christensen Family weekend

So Saturday's are a bit of a challenge for me. I have very social children who constantly want friends to play with. Saturday's are a hard day to find friend's because most familie's have their dad's home and are doing family things. So I've found that the busier I can keep my kids, the easier Saturday's are. Hooray for soccer! The key is finding the balance between being busy and being crazy - which tends to turn me into a hag and that's never good. Somehow things went pretty well this weekend! Here are a few of the highlights of the weekend.

• Got to go to spin. Everyone knows I'm happier when I get in a good workout.



• Ty called and wanted Morgan to come in and work...hooray, got my high maintenance child out of my hair for the day!We actually got to Lainee's soccer game on time...we were even a little early! Afternoon games are definitely better for us! Next week's 9 am game is already on my dread list.



• Lainee was having fun and was excited Alisa came to watch her. She even scored a few goals (one was after the time had run out and the cute coaches just humored her and another was into the other team's goal but everyone still cheered for her and she doesn't know the difference!)

• Cam's game was actually right after Lainee's! I wish all of them were scheduled like that...so nice! He love's kicking the ball in from the sidelines!

• After Cam's game we brought home Connor and Bryn to play with Cam and Lainee. Hooray! we found some friends on Saturday! The kids played awesome and the baby was ready for a nap! Had a few hours to catch up on e-mail, facebook, and housework!



• Kori called and invited Morgan to a girls night to High School Musical 3. Cam got to go to Jill's and watch kung fu panda with Tanner! I love my niehghborhood.



• We got to go to dinner with Brent and Rachel while their Bailey watched our 2 little ones. I love Outback's bleu cheese chopped salad.mmmm



• Got a call from Bailey that she couldn't get Lincoln in his jammie's (I told you he was squirmy) so she put him to bed in his diaper! I got a little worried he'd be cold!



• Woke up Sunday morning at about 7:45 to the sounds of a happy cooing baby! Went in his room to get him and couldn't beleive how much I loved him just in his diaper. (Thank's Bailey) I had to cuddle with him for about 25 minutes and just feel his soft skin and love his little baby body!



• Decided I'd use a nice Sunday morning to give myself a pedicure! Got my toenail polish off and my toenails clipped when Lainee walked in and needed the works! So her toe and fingernails looked awesome and it was time to get everyone ready for church! Glad my brown high heels are closed toed!



• Church was nice but full of the unexpected -me baring my testimony for the first time in 5 years-how did I get up here- and me being excited to go to Releif Society for the first time in 4 years and somehow ending up in the Nursery-what just happened?-



• After church we had a really fun afternoon of playing games and laughing. We played Rummikub and turned on the Sounds of Sunday on Star 98 and realized the kids have the jingles to the commercials memorized but not so much the actual sounds of Sunday...might want to start playing cd's on Sunday instead.



• At one point Tyler was tickling Lainee and she was laughing her head off. Her laugh is musical! All of a sudden she stopped laughing, looked at Tyler really seriously and said, "Dad, you just made me pee my pants a little bit." Then she ran to the bathroom.



• My mom and dad came over for dinner which is always fun for us! They loved watching Cam and Lainee play balloon volleyball in the living room, Morgan doodle dresses and cakes, and Lincoln just being the cutest baby ever!



• After they left, Morgan wanted a turn to get her nails pretty. This time I was able to get my own done too. What better ending to a weekend than having all 3 girls with pretty nails and piggies!!
  

An Overview of the Last Year

Halloween was really fun this year! Morgan was Galinda-with a Ga-from Wicked, also known at the good witch from the Wizard of Oz by those of you who aren't Wicked Fans. Cameron was a spooky Grim Reaper. Lainee was Sleeping Beauty and Linc was Crush the Turtle! Ty took the kids around in the truck! We wouldn't want them to walk and burn off all that sugar! Just kidding, they still got lots of running in. By the end of the night the truck is full of neighborhood kids and totally low ridin! It's so fun!

Then on Saturday night Ty and I had a party with our friends. We went as Sally and Jack Skelington from the Nightmare Before Christmas. We had a blast!

In october Ty took the kids Repelling! They had so much fun. It was Lainee's first time and she has absolutely - her current favorite word - no fear! We've got a little adreanline junkie - not sure which one of us she gets that from! Really!

Morgan went to but we didn't get any pics of her this time! The picture of her is from when they went in the spring!

September 28th was Lainee's 4th Birthday! It was on a Sundy, which happened to be our primary program where she proudly proclaimed "My name is Lainee! I am a Child of God!" She did so well. We had a party for her the Friday before at Hidden Valley Park with lots of her little friends. The Highlights were her cute Cake made by Jill-the only cake maker-And being Cheuffered to the party by "Saarlelainen" in her Red Convertible "Slugsbug!"

Lincoln is growing up way too fast. Here are a few pics of his first 6 months! Love my binkie baby!

I love this picture! He looks so innocent! Not even...he's very guilty!

Won't hold still to get his diaper changed. He'd rather be standing!

He loves Bath Time!!

I wish I could crawl in his crib and cuddle with him!

He looks so little in this one! Too Cute!

September 5, 2008 was a really special day for the Christensen Family! Katie's Wedding Day! It was so fun to have Clark and Kassie home for a few days. All of the kids looked so adoreable and we got some great pictures! Katie and Scott are the cutest couple...he was definitely worth the wait. The highlight of the day was having Tyler's parents, all of his siblings and their spouses in the temple together! I remember thinking, other than my own wedding day, I've never been happier at a wedding! And I love weddings! Isn't Katie a stunning bride?