Happy Birthday Andrew!

This kid is getting so big!! He's been excitedly counting down the months and days until his fifth birthday!

Andrew knew exactly what he wanted to do to celebrate his big day. We headed to Cabela's to see the animals and shoot targets. We were so happy our cousins decided to join us for the fun!

Andrew was so excited to open presents, so Mike came home a little early from school so he could indulge. Look at that smile!

So, I've been looking for a night lamp for Andrew for a few years. I toyed with getting him an illuminated globe, but didn't find one that I loved. I had resigned myself to finding it for another birthday, until the night before his big day when I stopped in to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things for his party. I found the perfect lamp!! I was giddy! It's a little frog reading a book on a lily pad, so perfect for Andrew! I was ecstatic! Andrew loved it when he opened it, but sweet Tanner was trying to take a look at it and pulled it off the counter and it shattered!

I was heart broken! I knew it was the last frog lamp at the store. Luckily, April came to the rescue! She quickly ran to her Hobby Lobby and found another lamp.
Andrew was also so excited to turn five! He's been talking about it for months and the blessed day finally arrived! He couldn't have been happier!




I love these kids, and the LOVE each other!! It will be so sad to leave cousins when we move!

Some things about Andrew:

Andrew is still an awesome sleeper! He'd nap every day if I let him. It's no wonder he's still napping at five though, he still wakes up between 5:30-6:30 every morning!

Andrew is witty! He loves to crack jokes and can easily pull one over on Grandma. Seriously, she believes anything he says.

Andrew loves books and is really into sounding things out and reading.

This kid is all Star Wars! I boxed up all our toys as a consequence for not listening, it didn't even phase him. Luckily, light sabers weren't in the box, so they played Star Wars for hours on end.

Andrew loves loves loves his little sister! Often, he wakes in the morning and crawls in Amelia's crib. I hear them both giggling and laughing. Super cute!

While Andrew can push his limits at home, his primary teachers say he's a dream in class! So glad he behaves for others.

Andrew takes his job as big brother very seriously! He's quick to set the boundaries, lead the play, inform me of Amelia's diaper situation and let me know when his brothers are doing something they shouldn't. He's really not a tattle tale (not yet, at least), but he'll come get me when Reid has gotten into the candy stash and is having a party!

We love you big guy, congrats on turning five!

Happy New Year!

It's always so fun being at the Christensens with a few other families and this New Year was no exception. This year, we enjoyed playing with the Stansels and the Harrisons, and of course grandma and grandpa!Tanner, Andrew, and Amelia helping grandma make our delicious brisket for New Year's.
Nothing like a fort under the dining room table!

Grandpa's Family Home Evening, he had everyone captured. The baby line up! Owen, Amelia, and Jane.
So, this year I thought our kids exchanged Christmas gifts with the Stansel kids and I thought it would be so fun to let our kids exchange in person since we'd all be together in Bountiful. My kids had a great time shopping for their cousins, even wrapped the gifts by themselves. All was great until I received a phone call from Katie letting me know our gifts hadn't arrived, what?! Yes, I rechecked the master Christmas list and we were supposed to give to the Eric and Katie Christensen family!! How sad, their kids didn't get any cousin gifts on Christmas day. I quickly got gifts in the mail, but was so embarrassed! Regardless of my silly error, it was so fun to let the kids exchange gifts in person.Grandpa showing off his guns to the kids at dinner, so funny!

Happy New Year!!! bring on 2011...graduation, moving, new adventures, an income, and everything else!!!

More Sledding!

After Christmas in NM, we headed to Bountiful for a week with some of the Christensen family. Mike, Ryan, and grandpa made an awesome ramp at the top of the sledding hill, complete with a step stool to ascend. We had another great day sledding!This time Amelia decided to join in the fun, I think she genuinely enjoyed being out there!
How cool is Grandpa C. headed down the hill!
Mike and Ethan headed down the hill. This ride is called "The Sandwich" and I love it!
Tanner had a much better sledding day in Bountiful. He was awesome heading down the hill!

Alisa and Owen.
Another great day in the snow, we can do Michigan, right?!

Provo Tabernacle

The night before we left for Christmas break, we were up late packing the van only to realize we had a totally dead battery! We tried to get AAA to come out and replace the battery, but our membership had expired! Blast! Luckily, we were able to renew and we had someone to our home by 9am to replace the battery for us.

While pulling out of Provo (much later than planned), we drove by the Tabernacle to see it on fire. I was sick! This building is beautiful and has such historic significance, as it was built 112 years ago by Utah pioneers. Our stake holds stake conference in this building every year. "By the time the blaze was reported about 2:45 a.m. Friday, it had already spread through much of the 112-year-old building. Firefighters tried to go inside, but realized it was too dangerous after about five minutes. The blaze consumed the building’s wooden timbers and collapsed its plank roof, leaving behind a tan brick shell. Built by Utah pioneers, the large, stately building was on the National Register of Historic Places." AP

We went to bed close to 3 a.m. We are just a few blocks from this building, but didn't hear the sirens. I'm happy to see that they're rebuilding the Tabernacle. We drive by it often to see the progress. It sounds like the fire began with an electrical issue. I was relieved to hear it wasn't vandalism.

It's time

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CA here I come!

I just cleaned out my purse for a trip (sans children) and I took out a rhino, cheetah, hippo, a baby spoon, a box of crayons, and a bicycle bell. Can't wait to see my BYU roomies and some sunny (it's a long stretch) CA weather!

Christmas Part 3: Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

This is serious picture overload, but this is our family record and it's just so hard to not include pictures. After a week of playing, Christmas Eve finally arrived!Here are the kids checking out Santa's route on Norad's website. They were so excited to announce, "Santa's now in Germany!!"We had a great Christmas dinner. Everyone pitched in and made something it was delicious!



Amelia and Eli enjoying Christmas Eve at their level, such cute babies! Amelia grew up so much this week. She cut a couple teeth and worked hard at going up stairs, big girl!
We had a great evening with a talent show for the kids, acting out the nativity, and singing Christmas carols by the lights of the tree.

Of course we got new jammies from grandma and grandpa. This year Toy Story 3 was a hit with all three boys.

It only seemed appropriate to let all three boys sleep together on Christmas Eve. They were so excited, so wired. They had looked for Rudolph's blinking nose in the sky, left cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer, they were so ready! Here's Mike telling his classic Little People bedtime story. All was well until the middle of the night when Andrew kicked Tanner because he was touching him in bed! It was pretty funny! Mike ended up sleeping in the bed with them the whole night, he's a good man.And then, the long-awaited Christmas morning! It was everything they (or we) ever dreamed of. Pure excitement!



Light Sabers were definitely the gift of the year! We've been nonstop Jedi combat since Christmas morning.
Every year Mike's parents give jammies and a book to the grandchildren. Grandma didn't realize it, but she happened to pick a book about a baby hippo that Andrew has been eyeing at the Bean Museum gift shop. He was so thrilled when he got it, he even took time to carefully look through all the pages. What kid reads books while opening Christmas presents? Usually they get tossed aside until the excitement of the morning has passed and we return to them in the afternoon. He loves the book!

Glenn wins the award for the best surprise. In the last few years, April has lost, broken, or drowned more camera's than I've ever owned in my life. Glenn was awesome and totally surprised her with an awesome SLR camera! Good man, and yes, April is protecting it with her life!


This year we started the tradition of our children making gifts for each other. We had a lot of fun sneaking around and making different presents for each other (we had a lot of Modge Podge going on at our house!). It was so fun to see our children be so excited when their brother or sister was opening the present they made. They experienced the great feeling of giving gifts to others.
Amelia's first Christmas!! She was adorable and sweet as she took it all in. Here she is opening her first baby doll!


And here we are, presents opened, hugs given, sugar ingested in many ways (ie candy, hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, raspberry streusel muffins, etc), it was a fantastic Christmas!
Here's the walking group headed out for a nice walk to the lake and back. On our way home this particular morning, we took a slight detour and ended up walking home the long way through marshy fields and snowy roads. Mom was a trooper, as she recently had surgery on her foot the month before!

Congratulations if you made it this far! We had a wonderful Christmas and couldn't have asked for a better vacation!