Chime it up, baby!

Mike has been a scoutmaster or somehow involved with scouts/Young Mens ever since we got married. He is fantastic at engaging with the youth and the calling suits him very well (perhaps because he's still a 16-year-old at heart!). Tonight we had our annual scout camp fundraiser and it was in true classic Boy Scout fashion- baked potatoes, chili, cakes, and a talent show. Each scout was asked to present a talent, including leaders! Mike is a very talented man; however, he lacks stage talent! Here he is explaining that he has no talent to really perform.

After much consideration he decided to pull out a Christensen family tradition and play Christmas music with chimes! He recruited his young men as his, "Chime Rockers" and they wowed the crowd with two pieces of Christmas music! He was clever and put together a very funny performance. I thought it was great!

Here is a random picture of Andrew. As I was getting us ready to head out the door this morning, I laughed when realized how much stuff he was dragging around with him. He was ready to go on his bike!

A day in the yard

Yesterday, Andrew and I spent the day outside working and playing in the yard. It was beautiful and the temps were perfect! I was working in our garden and it seemed everytime I went to pick up a gardening tool, it was gone and Andrew was half way across the yard with it! We made a trip to Menards to buy some plants for my new flower bed we built last Fall, and then we spent the rest of the day swinging, sliding, and trying to keep Andrew from picking my tulips!
ps- If you haven't converted to the clear spray sunblock, you really need to! I love not having to get all greasy from putting sunblock on.

pps- Part of the reason we spent most of our day outside was because Andrew is getting molars and he doesn't feel the greatest right now. He loves to be outside and it's a sure way to have a happy/happier boy!

Reality Check

Mike and I have always gotten excited when another young couple moves into the ward. We usually invite them for dinner and are happy about having another fun, young couple to hang out with. Lately, it seems like we invite the new couple over and then they tell us they graduated from high school in 2005 and just got married last month! Yikes! It's just so hard to believe that they're that young and we're not!

To compound my reality check (and instigate my identity crisis), Mike and I bought a minivan last week! While I'm thrilled to have the space, the ease of loading kids in and out, and the convenience of not loading three carseats into the back of a Toyota Camry come this Fall, I just can't believe we're at this stage of life. My minivan experience is limited to babysitting my sisters kids and driving them around pretending I was the "minivan mom." However, the babysitting jobs always came to an end-- the van, the kids, the responsibility of life weren't really mine. I guess reality is setting in as I realize now we have the minivan, this Fall we will have the kids to fill it, and there is a great deal of responsibility that belongs to us!

Friday night I went out to the garage to get something and I kind of freaked out when I saw the minivan--eek, we have a minivan! I think this purchase has launched me into reality, but when I think about it, reality is pretty great! We feel so humbled and grateful for these little ones in our family, especially because at one point I thought we might not have them. I love my honey and I love that he loves our family so much. Things are good...and we have a minivan!

Plans Change

I suppose we're just trying to break ourselves into life with twins when we're forced to be flexible and change plans, because we've had a major change of plans! Many of you know that Mike and I have struggled, fasted, prayed, and talked ourselves in circles, but have finally decided to defer Mike's MBA program one year. We felt like it was a hard decision to swollow, but when it comes down to it, it's what's absolutely right for our growing family. So, I guess we'll be Nebraskans for one more year! The more the decision sets in, the more excited we get about what this next year will be for our family. No GMAT to study for, no school applications, and no infirtility treatments! We're not kidding ourselves, we know we'll be busy with three kids under 19 months, but it will be a year for our family!

Speaking of our growing family- I'm the fastest growing member of the family right now! Mike is constantly amazed at how much food I consume. By 11 a.m. yesterday I had had...

two pieces of whole wheat toast
16 oz 2% milk
1 banana
1 grapefruit
1 apple
1 slice of pizza
1 chicken salad sandwich

And yes, I still had lunch at noon with Andrew. Yikes! Eating this much actually gets somewhat old, but knowing I'm doing it for two more little people to come to our family makes it bearable (so do the nightly strawberry shakes!).

ps- The saddest part of deferring is that I'll most likely be too far along to travel for the Christensen family reunion...and Alisa's wedding! Too sad to talk about...

go grey?

As many of you know, there are a great deal of things I have inherited from my dad- his grey hair being one of them! My dad is affectionately known by our family as the "silver fox." As you can see in this picture, he is so hansome with his silver hair! He is easy to spot in crowds and when he wears a suit he looks so dapper with is silver hair contrasting against a dark suit coat.
So, my dilemma is, should I go grey? I got my first grey hair when I was 17 and they've continued to increase in numbers. In these last couple years they've started to increase exponentially! Right now, Mike says I look somewhat like a skunk because I've got a really big grey streak up front.

Every time I consider going grey I remember meeting a spunky mother of five in her early forties while quilting for a service project at Women's Conference. She was energetic, delightful, and happy. My sister Rachael and I gravitated toward her and thought she was charming and sweet! She had this amazingly beautiful head of grey hair and she pulled it off so well! Rachael always tries to convince me to go grey like this delightful woman, but I haven't had the guts yet. I just don't know if I should attempt to pull it off...especially with twins on the way. I know I'll be tired and look exhausted and I don't think grey hair will help!

So, any opinions? I've been planning to have Mike color my hair tonight, so I'll take input until 8:00 p.m. CST.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We know Easter isn't all about egg hunts and bunnies, but here are a few of our day before Easter happenings. We had a pancake breakfast, Easter message, and egg hunt at church this morning. Unfortunately, temps were in the 20's! Here's Andrew in the race! He didn't quite get what to do, and the other kids were so fast we had to guard a couple of eggs for him to pick up.
This is Andrew with his good friend Cassidy. As you can see, Cassidy had a much better haul than Andrew and was kind enough to share (without even being asked, she really loves him)!
Once we got home, Mike helped Andrew realize that his eggs had candy in them! Things got crazy after that!

Andrew put his basket on his head and I think we gave him such a great reaction that he really hammed it up for us!

These pictures are random, but I had to include them. Mike was changing Andrew into his jams and I was doing dishes. All the sudden Andrew comes out of his room at full speed giggling...with his pants on his head. He really understands what's funny these days!

Welcome Jacob William McCauley

I have to post these pictures because I'm so excited for my sister and her cute family. After Marshall got lost and Rachael almost had a baby in the parking garage, Jacob William McCauley finally arrived at 7:45 p.m. Saturday night! He had three adoring sisters who were anxious to meet him, as you can tell by the pictures! Welcome Jacob, we're glad to have another boy cousin!

p.s. Can you tell mom was away, Hailey has on one green sock and one pink sock! Ha!

Vacation...in Rawlins, WY?!

When going back and forth from Colorado Springs to BYU, my dad forbade my sisters and me to travel via I-80. He said you could get stranded and die out there and no one would even know! Perhaps he said this because he was protective of his girls, or maybe just knowing what poor "luck" our ancestors had when traveling across Wyoming, he didn't want us in the same predicament. Nonetheless, his words of caution proved to be true this weekend!

Mike, Andrew and I set off to Utah for a BYU information session for his MBA program this Fall. We had heard that there was some bad weather, but checked weather and roads all the way across Nebraska and Wyoming and only found light snow being reported. All roads seemed clear and safe, so we decided to leave a few hours early and travel mostly in daylight just to be safe. The trip started out great. The sun was shining and the temps were in the 70's. Andrew was happy with his bucket of toys and cute as can be. At one point he got quiet and I turned around half thinking he'd be asleep. Instead, this is how I found him, smirk and all! Ha! What a crack up! By 8:00 p.m. we came to a stand still on complete ice just 15 miles West of Rawlins, WY. After talking to some nice truckers, we learned that four semis had jack-knifed and 20 cars had piled up behind them! We sat there from 8p.m. to 12 a.m. Here is a picture of Andrew behind the wheel, happy as he could be to push all those buttons he always sees, but can't reach. What's not pictured is four long hours of trying to stay warm in 20 degree weather. We didn't know how long we'd be there, so we'd run our car for 10 minutes to heat it up, then turn it off for an hour. Andrew and I snuggled up in the back seat. He did pretty well considering circumstances, but it was kind of scary. We didn't have a ton of food, but we did have my trusty Luna Bars that I have loved this pregnancy (thanks Rach for getting me hooked!). Because I'm pregnant and eat every two hours, and having Andrew with us, we didn't like the idea of sitting on I-80 all night. Thankfully, we didn't have to!

Once they opened roads we chose to drive back to Rawlins, rather than 85 miles to Rock Springs. We got one of the last hotel rooms (some people didn't get hotel rooms and had to sleep in the local school or in their cars!) and were happy to be warm and safe. The next morning we learned that I-80 was closed both directions. In fact, every road heading out of Rawlins was closed! Here's Andrew taking his nap in our hotel room!
Around 1 p.m. the next day they opened I-80 Westbound so we decided to go to Utah! We got two miles outside of town and hit a patch of ice/snow/something and spun off the road and landed in a ditch! We braced ourselves for the car to roll, but thankfully we didn't. AAA got a tow truck out to us withing 20 minutes and had us out of the ditch. Here are some pics of us when we were just about out of the ditch of snow.

We were very lucky to get our hotel room back (they were actually booked when we called back, but someone cancelled a reservation). We finally decided we ought to make a vacation of this trip and bought Mike a swimsuit and some shorts for me (the pickings were slim in Rawlins, WY) and we hit the pool!
The next morning I-80 was open Easbound and we decided to just go home! We had a nice long drive and were so incredibly happy to pull into our driveway that night! So, we didn't make it to Utah, be we had a great family vacation to Rawlins, WY!