Christmas!

Christmas was great! My family came to my house this year. It was a lot of fun being the hostess to my Mom, Kelly, Matt, JaNae, Gavin, Candice, Tad and Roxanne. Christmas Eve we were also joined by Kelly's son Michael and his wife Carly and their little girl Gwen.


One of my favorite parts of Christmas is hanging up the stockings. In my moms family we also hang our stockings on broom handles. I can't quite remember why, lol. But I love it, the stockings actually hang, and there's usually a present or two under it. And each family gets their own broomstick. I felt so grown up having it at our house, with our little family on it's own broomstick. I love it. I have my own little family. :) We had a lot of fun with our full house. Matt got Rock Band for Christmas and I think I was getting pretty good at the guitar before they had to leave, lol. It was so fun! I don't really like video games, but that was a blast! Almost makes me think about getting an xbox... almost. We'll just have to go and visit Matt and Janae more often, hehe.

Family Pictures!

Saturday, for the first time i can remember in at least 15 years, my side of the family took a nice, professional picture! My fab sister in law was just too far away when I could get all my family together. So this time my amazing friend Melissa took them. She takes great pictures, and is starting to get pretty busy with her new photo business. You can check her out some more at http://genuineexpressions.blogspot.com/

the whole fam

the kids

Grandparents and the Grandkids

My brother and his adorable 9 month old Gavin

Matthew and JaNae

Candice, Tad and their child, Penny

and the our single and sassy Roxanne

Ainsley and her Grandma

Ainsley and her Mama

...and we're back

so, lappy's hard drive died.. but the rest of her lives on. We backed up mid september, so we didn't lose everything, and thank heaven for my blog, I posted my favorite pictures here, or i'd have lost 3 months of ains life.. i can't even imagine how awful that would be. As it is, all mu documents, notes, calendar appointments, any pictures i didn't post and anything else i did on lappy since mid sept is gone. But we are optimists over here, and the glass is half full. :) It could have been a lot worse. Its amazing that all that broke was the hard drive.
Thanks for hangin in there with me :) and here are some pictures to tide you over until i can take some more.

Hello?

it's for me!

yummmm

TRAGEDY!!.... again... sigh...

in case any of you are wondering why you aren't seeing me online or why this blog isn't being updated.. or want to call and offer your condolences..

my lappy, the sassiest of all lappy's, after miraculously surviving the water incident earlier this year, finally succumbed to the faults of her owner when she had a fatal accident this afternoon. She fell from my clumsy hands and landed on the concrete floor of our laundry room.. moments later she died in my arms..... *stifled sob* We rushed her to the lappy emergency room, and they are even now preforming a biopsy in hopes of finding a way to revive her frail existence.. but they say there isn't much hope.. now we are just hoping that her organs will be viable to transfer to a new lappy, so that her spirit may live on... though when that will happen we cannot say at this time.

Please join us in the honoring the memory of one who gave so much of herself, helped find the answers to many problems, and was always there for those who loved her . Goodbye Sassy, you will be missed... oh how you will be missed. *sniff*

Half a Year Old!

Aunt Jemima Baby

Swinger

Reading Articles with Daddy

Quiet Time with Mommy

Hawaiian Cuties

My Ainsley Hazel is six months old... half a year! This has got to be the fastest time has ever flown in my life. She's turned from this tiny little helpless being who can barely hold her head up into a laughing, rolling, grabbing, curious person right before my eyes. She makes every day a blast and life seem so precious. Thanks Ainsley, for an amazing six month. I love you.

We also had a surprise vistor today! Sweet Caroline, (my roommate for many years from USU for those of you who don't know) was in Utah (from San Antonio.. where they know what salsa is supposed to taste like) for a few hours today in route to a mission reunion in another state. Well, we got to see her for a quick visit, it was super nice, i miss my lil buddy. :)

Independent Growing Girl!

Lately my little baby has been realizing she can do things herself, or at least try to. I was having the hardest time trying to get her to eat her rice cereal the other morning, she wouldn't open her mouth for me, but she'd put her little foam seahorse in her mouth no problem, so I had an idea. :) I put some rice cereal on the spoon and handed it to her. She immediately put it in her mouth! So I took it from her, put more on the spoon, and gave it back. Back in the mouth. She ate half a bowl of cereal this way, lol.


She also loves her new sippy cup. The top is really soft almost like a bottle, so it's just perfect for her little gums. Although most of the time she just chews on it, she sucks occasionally, and gets some water out both ways. She LOVES this thing, she gets all excited and pounds her fists when she sees it. I help her lift it up sometimes, but she loves that her hands can hold the handles and she can pretty much do it herself. :)
And last, but not least, she's found out that her toes reach her mouth! lol. She's been a big finger fan, and seems quite excited by this new appendage option. :)

SNOW KITTY!!

Today we woke up to MOUNDS of snow, and more falling from the sky. It was gorgeous! Fred was dying to go outside. Every time I opened the door he just gave me this sad look, like it was my fault it was cold and wet outside, and walked away from the door. After the white stuff stopped falling, he gave in and went out. Two minutes later he's meowing at the door to come back in. Two mins after that, he's meowing to go back outside. This happened all afternoon! I finally checked out the backyard and found these awesome snow tracks he'd been making. He's a little snow kitty! I think he likes the white stuff! It's fun at least one of my kids can go out and play in the snow. :)

My Christmas Present!

I got my present early this year! I've been wanting a new couch for a while. We've just had two chairs and a love seat, that was a bit on the small side, so there was really never room for Tom and I to sit by each other. I really wanted a couch with a chaise, and while I was shopping with my mom, not thinking about it at all, there it was! for a steal of a deal! I called up Tom and he okay'd it, and I got it! Getting it home was quite the process. They don't deliver, so I took Tom's parents old suburban we've been borrowing and drove it the 20 mins it took to the store, only to realize when i got there, only one piece would fit! By this time it was 5 o'clock and traffic was terrible, but i had to turn around and drive the now 45 mins back and get the other half.Fred approves of the couch, he spends most of his time now asleep on it.

Christmas Decorations!

My mom happened to be up after Thanksgiving and so we pulled out all the Christmas stuff and got my house decorated up! I love my house all dressed up for Christmas, it feels so warm and welcoming.. There's nothing like getting up in the middle of the night and seeing the lights on the Christmas tree. So, here's some of my favorite decorations. I'm working on making a big wall collage of family pictures, so right now the wall is bare.. check back later for the final results :)

Thanksgiving Feast and Christmas Wishes

Not our thanksgiving feast, Ainsley's! I decided Thanksgiving was the perfect day for her to try her first real solid food. :) In honor of the day, we started with Sweet Potatoes, for all you yam fans out there. At first she seemed a bit wary, but once she got a taste of them she was gung ho! Another step towards growing up. My little girl.




I don't know if anyone's checked out my link to Beansprout Designs, but MAN, i want one of these bags! Tom, if you are paying attention, this is the one i want :) This lady makes these amazing bags, they are super high quality fabrics, hand made, i love it. She also makes most of the really cute baby head bows you see on Ainsley. I wish I had that kind of talent, I am totally envious of people with such crafty natures and the skills to back it up. Anyway, i thought i'd share, I know every girl likes a cute bag. There's a bunch more at the site, feel free to check it out. :)

BEANSPROUT DESIGNS

Husband of the Year Award!

and the prize goes to.... Tom Christensen! for taking his wife's week long absence to clean the entire house and surprise her when she got home!!

He could have watched sports and ordered pizza, he could have slept in and done nothing.. but no! He LOVES me! He loves me and wanted to do something to make me happy! :D
He called up Kirty and asked her to give him some guidance on how to start. My clean, organized, selfless friend brought her two little kids over to my overly messy house and helped my husband get started at putting it back together. I really want to thank her as well for her amazing willingness to help us out, but she definitely wanted to make known that Tom did most of it, sometimes I guess you just need a little push to get started, i know i do.
So thank you, thank you, thank you to my wonderful husband, who worked 40+ hrs last week and still managed to give me the best surprise I've had in years. My house feels so warm and welcoming. I feel like I have a fresh start and am excited to get on with Holiday plans without that dark cloud hanging over me.

My Tom is such a sweet thoughtful guy, I know I don't acknowledge often enough how much he does for me and Ainsley. He works so hard, but still has time to brighten our days with his warm silly nature. He makes my life interesting, and makes me feel safe wherever we are. Thanks honey, I love you!

Over the River and thru the Woods....

to grandmother's house we go!

This week we went to see the country side of the family, lol. My mom, Kelly, Matt, JaNae and Gavin all live in the same small town. :) It had been a while since my mom and Ainsley had seen each other, and I couldn't wait until Christmas to get them together, so I picked a week and decided to sneak down. The weekends have become harder and harder to get away, when we leave on a weekend it feels like we don't get any days off really, and since we've been teaching our primary class we feel guilty each time we aren't there. So, since Tom works a lot during the week, and didn't really need to go anyway, Ainsley and I took off by ourselves.

It was really fun to see the cousins interact with each other. Gavin's a step ahead of Ainsley, crawling all over and starting to pull himself up and trying to stand by himself. Ainsley was fascinated by him! :) She was staring and smiling at him all weekend. I'm not sure what he thought of her, at time it seemed he was a bit jealous of this new person in his territory, but I think he really did want to play with her, and just didn't realize how much more powerful than her he was, lol. (check out the video)

It was great to see everyone and spend some time down south. I miss those guys so much, and I know Ainsley and Grandma Cinda miss each other more than either can say. Love ya guys! See you at Christmas! LOVE!

Best Buds

Three Unhappy Babies (hehe)

Hangin' with Grandpa Kelly