Birthday celebration...finally

Their birthday was Monday.  We celebrated Friday.  After Christmas being nearly 1 week late, this is becoming the new normal.  We celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa B, Grandma M, and the Merrill family.  We ate soups, homemade bread, and salad and then had some yummy cupcakes for dessert.  I took this recipe with evaporated cane juice and coconut milk.  After making the same recipe in Rexburg, I really didn't like the icing.  I have a delicious recipe for chocolate pudding made from young coconuts that is thick enough to spread, so I decided to use that instead of the palm oil frosting.  It was A-mazing!  

We found some high-end tricycles on KSL classifieds and couldn't help ourselves when we learned how amazing they were.

Sydney and Ethan loved the idea of celebrating again.  

Grandma Marchant gave them 2 babies and we gave them a stroller to push--a great combination!  They were instantly in love.

An up-close shot of the cupcake deliciousness.

Just before bed, we couldn't help but take a photo with our dollar store decorations.  They were perfect.

This is the new fun activity around here. Forget pushing a baby when you can push a real, live toddler?

...and then run into things all the time?

We had quite the pile of dishes to do after everyone left and Doug did an unbelievable stacking job.  I had to snap a photo.  Someday, we will have a dishwasher.  But until then, we can admire our masterpieces and take photos of our clean dishes.

Workout buddies

I am still doing P90X and loving it.  I especially love anytime I am on the floor stretching or doing my ab workouts and I get dog piled with hugs.  L-O-V-E

Interviews

Life is exciting these days.  Doug took off for nearly a full week in Newark, New Jersey and Miami after interviewing in Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon.  We are so glad the interviews are behind us and now we wait to hear where we will be starting this summer for a 1-year internship to finish up Doug's program and GRADUATE!  He will then be Dr. Marchant and I will be one happy wife.  

He snapped some fun photos on his trip to Newark where he stayed with a cousin and stopped in New York City a few times.  He saw a Broadway show all by himself and stopped at Times Square and the Statue of Liberty.

The view of the city from Newark.  The World Trade Center used to be in the skyline behind them.  Thanks to Doug's cousin, Cathie, and her husband Sherm for hosting Doug and helping him get around the area.

They also saw a memorial for those who died in the World Trade Center that were from New Jersey.

Rexburg bound

Not only was my niece, Emmeli, performing in a Jr. Miss pageant, but Doug was out of town in Newark and Miami for 5 days...so I headed to Rexburg to see my family up there.  I asked Matt to come along with me for the drive so I could sit back with E&S.  Matt also brought along a cute girl that I got to meet as well that we dropped off in Blackfoot.  We had a great drive up.

...with lots and lots (and lots) of snacks.  Sydney was in heaven.  I have noticed that she loves salty snacks and Ethan prefers sweet.  They will both eat any snack really, but definitely have their favorites.

We arrived about an hour before walking out to the door to watch Jr. Miss.  Poor E&S were overwhelmed by new faces of cousins, aunts, and uncles and were pretty stressed out and then I left them with a few babysitters (with their cousins that were strangers at this point).  I paid for that for a few days, but it was SO fun to watch Emmeli sing, dance, and answer the judges' questions.  She has grown up and I was so happy for her.  She is talented!

The next morning, Grandpa and Grandma invited us over to their hotel for some swimming.  We had a great time.  Ethan and Sydney were jetting all over the place--so much so that I was stressed most of the time trying to keep my eyes glued on their moving bodies.  Ethan even fell into the pool right next to his Uncle Aaron and he didn't even notice...so I became even more hypervigilant.

On the move.

After I was about to change them back into their dry clothes (the pool water was cold) and leave to get them down for a nap, they decided they weren't done yet and ran around in their swim diapers instead.

That night, we drove to Idaho Falls (Ethan and Sydney with another set of babysitters) to see my nieces and nephews perform in a ballroom dancing.  It was amazing!  During the performance, I started thinking about what it would be like in just a few years to be watching Ethan and Sydney dance on stage.  Kids grow up fast!

After Grandpa, Grandma, Matt, and the Kellers went home, we stayed an extra few days.  We had a great time.  Ethan and Sydney seemed to mellow a little with less people around and Sydney was no longer attached to my leg crying.  Boy--that was a welcome change!

Monday was their 2nd birthday and the Sommer family came over to the Christensen's house to a little Family Night and birthday dessert.  We skyped Doug so he could join in singing them happy birthday.  They weren't sure what "Happy Birthday" meant, but they sure liked the song.  After hearing it several times that day, they would always ask, "again!" after every rendition.

They loved their cupcakes made with date sugar and they seemed to be a hit with cousins.  I did find out that the 'do not over mix' instructions were critical to them raising, but they were dense and tasty!

I cannot believe these two cute babies are already two years old!  This last year flew by, especially compared to the first year.  They are the light of our lives and bring so much laughter and joy into our home.  Happy Birthday my babies.

Outdoor Retailer

One of Doug's great friends from high school came into town for the Outdoor Retailer show.  It's a show for any retailer in the outdoor industry to come and discover new active, outdoor products they can sell.  Lanette owns her own company, Cycle Dog, and they make dog leashes and collars from used bike inner tubes.  It's a really fun product that they make out of their home in Portland.  We offered to help them during the show and they were kind to let us and get us passes to look around.  It is just like a mini city that fills the entire Salt Palace Convention Center twice each year.  We were able to get pro deal pricing from several companies and see the new 'stuff' that will hit store shelves this fall.  So amazing.

Thanks Lanette for letting us hang out in your booth for an afternoon!

Another Gem

I heard that the Museum of Church History and Art in downtown Salt Lake was fun to little kids and convinced Kayla to try it out with me (along with a stop at Nordstrom Rack).  Our kids had a blast.  We started in a little room where they could harvest a garden, collect eggs from chickens, and make a meal in a tiny kitchen.  Wish I had grabbed photos of them harvesting the eggs under the stuffed chickens--too cute.

They (Kayla and I) made a tunnel for them to crawl through.

They had dress-up dolls.

And best of all, a Mexican dancing area complete with skirts and hats for girls, and vests for boys.  They had life-sized people dancing and a fun angled mirror so they could see themselves and the dancers behind them.  Sydney surprisingly jumped right in while Ethan observed.  It was adorable.

They hopped in a little truck with two steering wheels to take a spin before we headed home.  We stayed for 1 hour and could've easily been there twice as long.  There was so much stuff to do and it was free.  Built for kids and for parents!

How come I never knew about this?

When my friend, Kayla, and I were trying to think of a fun place to take our kids to play in the winter we struggled for ideas.  She proposed the mall and I discovered a gem.  Tiffany called me that morning to see if I wanted to go to the mall with her.  I told her I was already heading there.  It was perfect.

My kids love Kayla.  They both held her hands (well, Syd held her daughter's hand--an extension of her) and walked to the play place.  They had a blast.

We had to force them to leave to come home.  We even fed them lunch in there (although it was against the rules that were posted--we are rebels).

Thanks Tiff and Kayla for the fun times.

Eating my words

I thought it would a fun Saturday morning idea to take E&S to Doug's church basketball game.  I told Doug that I may stay 5 minutes if I'm chasing them off the court.  Boy was I wrong.

I sat them on the metal chairs and said, "if you get down, we're going home" and I meant it.  

They didn't move a muscle for 40 minutes.  Yes, 40 minutes.  They LOVED it.

"ball"
"bounce"
"running"
"jump"

Then there was the crying every time the buzzer went off.

Interviews!

Now that we're back from Hawaii, the internship interview process is upon us.  Doug has been extended 4 interviews for his internship (summer 2012 to summer 2013).  We were hoping for a few more, but we'll take these anyway.  We have been waiting (and dreaming) of this because this means that graduation is right around the corner and I will need to start calling my husband, Dr. Doug.  I call him "love" most of the time though, so maybe it will be Dr. Love?

Our future destination could be

Salt Lake City, Utah (we anticipated moving from Utah, but one of the interviews is just 45 minutes from our house)

Portland, Oregon

Newark, New Jersey

Miami, Florida

...All over the map, literally.

Couples that work out together, stay together

Doug and I spent many hours of our dating days jogging together.  We would talk about anything and everything along our 3-10 mile routes early in the morning.  From the start, we wanted to keep this alive in our marriage.  We are taking our 'dating' indoors this time with P90X.  We are getting buff and doing it together.  I am loving having time with him--even if it's him saying, "get lower in your squat" while I say, "you need to use heavier weights."

Happy day 1 of our 90 days my love.  Hope you're still loving the idea of working out with me when it's over.  :-)

Firetruck

We knew when we arrived home that we would have a lot of things to do.  The first on our list was to register our cars.  After dropping both cars at the shop, we went across the street to eat some lunch at the grocery store.  While we were eating, we spotted a firetruck.  It was life-changing.

We walked back over to pick up our cars and passed the firetruck and a fireman who offered to let Ethan and Sydney take a look inside. Again, life-changing.  Wish you could see it on their faces--they were thrilled.