What were you thinking?

I had started writing this post yesterday after conference and wasn't able to finish because Gary needed my help in the kitchen. Of course, he shut down the computer last night and never told me, so he deleted all my hard work! Anyway, what is done is done and we must move on. There is an awesome thunder storm rolling over my house right now. I love this kind of weather. It makes me want to make soup, read a book and drink hot chocolate-oh and make all my kids do the same or put them to bed. That can't happen today cause I have extra chitlins! I will be making the chicken noodle soup though! So yesterday I was in a baking mood and made banana bread during breakfast time and then made pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting during lunch. Gary took the older three boys to see his sister so I decided to clean up while they were gone. I then realised that I should bake some french bread to go with our spaghetti that night, so I got to work. When I finished kneading it-with Karly's help-I placed it back in the bowl and covered it with saran wrap. I set the timer for 15 minutes and then sat down to watch conference and feed Ryan. When the timer went off I wasn't done so I asked Karly to punch down the bread. I told her where it was-which she ignored and asked me a second time where it was-and told her to make sure to cover it again when she was done. When she came back into the front room to sit down, I asked her what time it was. She asked why and I explained that I needed to know so that I could punch down the bread again in 15 minutes. She went into the kitchen to look at the clock and then asked, "Mom, is the bread in this bowl?" I replied that it was and then proceeded to ask her what bread she thought I was talking about. I got up and came into the kitchen and found that all my banana bread had been punched. I guess I should have said "dough" instead of "bread"-but come on, she's 7! Why would I ask her to do such a thing? Amelia Bedelia anyone? So I told her it was my fault and that in the future, if I ever asked her to do something that she thought was odd, to please double check before proceeding. I am happy to report that the banana bread was just as delicious, it had that extra "punch" to it that really made it good!

Follow through!

As a parent you often hear from other parents that it is so important to be consistent and follow through. My mom always said,"Mean what you say and say what you mean." This is often times difficult and today I had to follow through on something very hard. After the kids came home from school, I asked them to start their homework. Of course they took their sweet time, but eventually accomplished this. I told them to proceed with their chores. To set this up properly, I should first explain that I had been making salsa all day long and that yesterday I had rearranged my office/front room and still haven't put it back completely. So the house is a mess and I figure, I will just have them do surface cleaning and not worry about sweeping, washing, mopping or vacuuming. I just wanted it picked up. So I tell them to work as a team and pick up the kitchen floor, the family room and front room, and clean off the table and island. Of course they ignore me and continue to allow them selves to get distracted. Finally I have had it. (not only are they ignoring me but they are also fighting with one another and teasing each other.) I tell them they have ten minutes until I spank them all. So Kaleb listens finally and starts picking up and asks Karly to pick up as well. She ignores him and continues to sit on her butt. After a few minutes of this, I decide to step in. I tell her to get up and start helping and realize she is sitting on the couch and playing pokemon. so I ask for her cards. I had already told them to put the cards away during homework time. So I take the cards and tell her to get to work or they go in the trash. Instead of listening to me, she stomps her foot and begins to scream. Now she is 7 years old and way past the age that fits are somewhat tolerated. So I immediately take the cards and throw them in the trash. This sets off screaming and jumping and hysterics. To make a long story a bit shorter-she was eventually sent to her room where she continued and then I had to take away her webkin and threaten "death by garbage" for this toy if the fit continued. This was so hard! I wanted to take the cards out and allow her to earn them back but I kept thinking about how I always allow them to earn stuff back and that is why they never listen to me. So I am leaving them there and to make it harder to retrieve, I have put salsa remains all over the top of them. Hopefully they will learn and listen next time. Side note-Kaleb got really upset by all the fits and yelling and began to cry but he certainly did a great job at cleaning the house! House is clean, hands are burning from salsa, kids are calm and it's time for pack meeting!

Without a Hitch!

Last night was the first of the ten dates I will be taking Gary on as we walk down memory lane. We dropped the kids off at Ashly's house-because she is my best and favorite and cheapest babysitter-and went to Provo to leave Kaleb at the Draschil's for Wills birthday. (Yes, Will's birthday was in May and yes, it is a bit odd to be having a birthday this many months after; but there's no law against it! I think it is actually a good idea to celebrate birthdays twice a year!) Gary kept trying to guess where we were going and Kaleb even threw his two cents in as well. I finally told them to stop guessing and just be patient. The only information he was going off of was the fact that I told him to be home by 5:30 and no later-he got home at 3:30-so that he could shower and get ready. I also told him we had reservations. With these as the only clues he immediately guessed The Chef's Table, which of course was wrong. As we were driving, he looked at me and asked if he was forgetting an important date or occasion. Why would we dress up and go somewhere requiring reservations in the middle of September? Who does that? Well, a lot of people do! In fact, there were many such people having dinner around us last night that do this! I guess when you're not "rolling in the dough" it is out of place but I think we need to do it at least a few times a year. It is super expensive but it helps when you have a 50% off dinner for two certificate from hosting!
Anyway, we dropped off Kaleb and then made one more stop for work-of course-before we headed North on University Ave in Provo. As we were driving, I figured he would probably figure it out once we got to the mouth of Provo canyon. So, I pulled out a card I had made him that had a number one on the front and written above it was the word "year". He looked at me confused and said, "year one?" "Just open it!" I said. He opened it and proceeded to read the explanation inside that told him this was the first of ten dates we would be taking culminating on our actual anniversary. He was surprised and I think, pretty much in awe at his wife's awesome idea and creativity. What can I say, I am truly one of a kind! Anyway, enough about me. I could tell the rest of the night when his mind would wander that he was trying to figure out the rest of the dates. I told him to be patient and just enjoy it! I sat down and planned each date and I think I did a pretty good job! Next week corresponds with 2002 and that was the year he finished the fire academy at UVSC and shortly after we moved to California. That year we moved three times! Anyway, I thought we would go to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and for dessert we would "move" to another location like the park or down by the lake and have dessert, which will be sugar cookies in the shape of either fire badges or fire engines. I am still ironing out the details. I plan on writing him a letter with each date to help him understand my thoughts and actions and then at the end I am going to put them all together in a book. Needless to say, the date was awesome, the food was expensive but delicious (their halibut ceviche was amazing!) and Hot Chocolate for the ride home topped it off. We stopped at Bishop and Marie Sampson's on the way home to see their remodeled home-beautiful!- and visited with them while we waited for Kaleb to get back from the party. By the time we got the rest of the kids and got home we were both exhausted! Gary apologized and asked for a rain check on the lovin and I told him it was just like our first year of marriage and the first anniversary! Kaleb was only 3 weeks old on our first anniversary so there was definitely no lovin that night either! Don't worry, I will keep it PG in these blogs so no one will be embarrassed-least of all me! Shout out to Amy B and Ashly McD! Thanks for actually reading that mini novel last time!
Kids report:
Picture day was today and I spent the morning in the bathroom "practicing" with the kids on the proper way to smile. Let's just say they have a problem in this area as can be seen by last years pictures. Gary and I scrambled around the house trying to get breakfast done, scripture study and getting the kids bathed and dressed on time. When they finally went out the door it was two more trips inside for Kaleb's homework and picture form with money, then looking through the car for Karly's take home reading book. As they drove away with the neighbor, Gary asked me why our mornings are always so crazy? I blamed getting up at 7 instead of 6:30. He replied that it is still crazy when we get up earlier. I just told him that it's because they are kids and have no concept of time. They are also really good at tuning me out! I think I have asked Kaleb to put away his pile of clean, folded clothes that I placed on top of his dresser, next to his bed-see how convenient I made it for him without actually doing it myself- about 8 times in the past 24 hours and yet it is still not done. Isn't it hard as a mom to teach them responsibility and accountability! It would be so much faster, easier and simpler to just do everything in this house, but what would that really accomplish? There are days that I wish I could drink! A nice Margarita or pina colada after a crazy day with the kids would be nice. Just numb the senses enough to forget. I think I have found an alternative though, reading a book while hiding from my kids. They usually find me within a few pages, but I just try to find a different spot-like the bathroom where the door locks! I have only done this twice-please don't judge me! Most of the time they are on my lap or in my face. In fact, I love that Evan and Tanner will come in my bedroom every morning and climb up onto my bed and cuddle with me. Evan says,"I yuy0u mom" and Tanner just gives me that grin and lays next to me. I am sandwiched between my kids many a morning and many a night-not as cute I might add. Kaleb and Karly use to do this every morning as well but lately it only happens when I am not up before them.
Totally forgot to blog about this! A couple Sunday's ago, Gary and I had been up late the night before so we decided to sleep in! The kids all got up and realized we were still in bed sleeping so they came in and got Ryan, who was awake. Then, they went downstairs and made us breakfast and brought it to us. It was so sweet! They made me toast with butter and Gary toast with Jam and we each had a soda on our plate. Mine was Barqs root beer and Gary's was cherry coke. Can't beat soda and toast! It really is the breakfast of tired parents! Kaleb explained that they wanted to let us sleep in and make us breakfast in bed. We were awake by the time they came up because we could hear Karly and Tanner fighting about waiting to go up and the toast wasn't done and not going up until they were ready. Still, we were surprised they had thought of it. We usually only do breakfast in bed on Mother's and Father's day or when one of us is really sick. Cute kids! I really am blessed to have such wonderful children. I know they may drive others crazy and sometimes me as well, but I wouldn't trade them for the world!

Is Anyone even interested?

I have decided as of this morning that I will be using this blog as my journal of the events that occur in my family's life, since I don't believe that anyone ever looks at it anymore. Probably due to the fact that I was only writing once a month or less. If I can get my butt to sit at this computer all morning doing work stuff, than I should have no problem taking the extra ten minutes to update here. Maybe I will even add in a few photos occasionally. On to life. The funniest thing came out of Tanners mouth a few weeks ago and I have been trying to write it down since. He has found his love for singing lately and makes up songs as well as combines songs he learned. We were driving to church and he is sitting in the back seat and begins singing, "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ a family is forever." Than he changed it to "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ . . .this is my sleeping beauty!"(instead of "sacred duty" from I love to see the temple. I looked at Gary and just laughed. He started laughing as well. It was so adorable!
Evan is trying to potty train right now-emphasis on the "trying". He enjoys wearing underwear-especially li-maquee or as we know him better, Lightning McQueen. In fact, sometimes it takes me thirty minutes of arguing with him over the fact that he had peed in them already and needs to wear another pair while he throws a fit and yells at me repeating, "I wan li-maquee!" And then I finally get to the point that I want to spank his butt and tell him he is wearing a diaper that he finally relents and wears whatever I have. He is definitely in the terrrrrror-able twos. He is very particular about always wanting mom over dad which is sweet but aggravating at times. Sometimes I just need a break! He loves to cuddle when he is not calling me stupid and yelling at and hitting me. In fact, he just learned a new word on the way to Lake Powell last week. Moly Cwap! Thank you Tanner for your wisdom that you pass on to your little brother. Tanner has been saying "Holy Moly Macaroni Crap!" and all Evan gets out of it is "Moly Cwap". Tanner still has his speech impediment so he sounds adorable saying that as well. I have stopped saying this, so I don't know where he got it from. Evan loves his chocolate milk and asks for it about 10 times a day and will whine and cry until he either goes and gets all the ingredients and brings them to me-at the computer, in bed, in the bathroom-and I make it for him, or I make one of the older kids do it. He will clean up after himself which is a gene my other kids definitely did not get. He did get the Christensen accident prone gene. We took him to the urgent care a few weeks ago after Karly slammed his fingers in the door of her bedroom. She didn't want him in there and didn't see his hand when she proceeded to slam it. I normally wouldn't have done anything but ice and maybe Tylenol, but of course it began to swell and look crooked. Heidi and Barett Christensen were at our house for dinner when it happened so it was only appropriate that it should happen while they were here. Anything we can do to make them feel at home, right?! Just like old times. Well, the xray showed no problems, so we were sent home and told to ice it. It took over a week for the swelling to go down, but looks much better now. Last week he did a number on his face. He was riding his bike down our driveway-which has a pretty nice slope to it; no longer do we require our neighbors walkway!-and ran into my car and then flipped off onto the concrete. Grandpa Reid was out there when it happened and quickly brought him into us. He smacked the right side of his face real good. The bump on the side of his eye was irregular and purple and huge. He had a nice raspberry above the bump as well as on the bump that were both oozing. His hands were scraped on the backs as well. Now he is sporting a nice black/purple/green eye and some pretty nice scabs-although one scab came off in Powell and the other is slowly peeling off. It looked even better when he had a left swollen eye to go with it from smacking his eye on the boat when we were driving through the boat chop and he had fallen asleep in the bow with his head resting on the side.
Karly has her Grandpa Reid's pack rat gene. She loves to find any box, bag or other container and collect, collect, collect. Anything and everything. I am constantly going into her room and de-junking, de-cluttering and throwing things away. I almost always have a grocery bag full of trash to take out-and I mean trash! She keeps paper and cardboard pieces, and wrappers. She is definitely the artistic type. We cannot believe how fast she is growing! She is like a weed. She just turned seven and is already wearing a size 2 shoe, size 8 pants and shirts and she is as tall as Kaleb, which has been the case for a while. Kaleb is barely in his size 8 pants and he is so skinny!!! Karly has such a cute little figure. It terrifies me. Lately we have been telling her she is not allowed to date until she is 25 and she can't kiss a bot until she goes to the temple to get married. In fact, we made up a song to the "Austrian went yodeling" tune that talks about her asking dad if she can kiss a boy-"Can I kiss a boy, can I kiss a boy, a boy? NO!!" repeated a few time. The boys think it is hilarious and I catch Tanner singing it all the time. This morning, in fact!
Kaleb is loving scouts and still loving Indiana Jones. He still wears his costume shirt with the spider on the back on a frequent basis. He wanted to wear it to school yesterday but I told him no. He loves scouts and is just about to earn his wolf badge. I just need to start sewing them on! He continues to be helpful and extremely inquisitive. Its hard to get him to listen to me at times but he does try and it always makes me happy when he just hugs me and tells me he loves me. I think he likes living out here. He is making friends, although not as quickly as I would like him to. It seems all the kids live a ways away from our home so he plays with other kids that are younger than him. I hope he can make some good friends and start playing with them more. He does play with the girls his age that live next to us. He is playing soccer right now and so is Karly. They are getting better. Kaleb still runs around with a goofy smile on his face most of the time and likes the social aspect of the sport more than the sport itself right now. I think that will change as he gets older. He is not very competitive or if he is, it hasn't shown yet.
Lately I have fallen in love with my husband all over again or should I say more so. I just appreciate him more lately. I think it is because I treat our relationship as if he could die any day-morbid I know- and I don't know how much time I have with him so I want to make the most of it. Why argue or fight over petty things? We have been communicating lately instead of just talking. I love crawling into bed at night and just talking to him. I love knowing what he is concerned about and what is on his mind. Part of the reason I feel this way is because we are approaching our 10th anniversary in ten weeks. I have decided to take him on a date each week leading up to our anniversary. Each date will be symbolic of the year it corresponds to-so this week I am taking him to Sundance where it all started! He doesn't read my blog so I can write whatever I want here and he will never know!! Anyway, I need to sit down and really brain storm ideas for each date. So that is what is going on with my family right now. I need to get my kiddies going so that our morning routine will run smoothly. Until next time!

Where did the Summer go?

Today is the 19th of August and I can't belileve school starts next week! Karly had a pizza and ice cream social at our house today to celebrate her birthday with some nighbors. Tomorrow we are going to Lagoon to spend the day with friends and really celebrate. Fall Soccer started today and kaleb and Karly of course are practicing on seperate fields at different times. This will be fun trying to get both kids to both places each week. We are loving life in Saratoga Springs. It is beautiful and I have loved all the crazy storms we've had! We had a freak one blow through and dump a ton of water on us today during the party! Quick update on the kids: Kaleb is playing soccer, just learned how to ride a 100 cc(is that correct?) dirt bike, finally was brave enough to get up on the kneeboard this year and loves scouts! He is getting more and more handsome every day and is a great help to his mom. . . .when he actually listens to me. Karly just lost her second front tooth and looks adorable! She is going to be seven on Sunday-I know, I am getting old! She is gorgeous, loves to do art still, has a lot of fun with her friends and as sassy as can be with me. Thankfully I only have one girl cause she has a lot of attitude to throw around, but we love her all the same. She is also playing soccer and will be starting gymnastics this next month. Tanner is still as cute as ever and such a charmer. He's a little ladies man. He loves to tease and he loves to go tubing behind the boat. He is my water bug and such a californian at heart. I totally claim him as mine. He is a good big brother and I love his little raspy voice and slight lisp. Evan is starting to potty train and man he has a temper like his daddy! He loves to cuddle and love on me as well as hit and yell at me. Not that Gary does those things-he just gets frustrated easily and Evan gets that from him. He is getting so tall and talking so well! I love him to pieces. Little Ryan is 6 months tomorrow! He is so darn cute. Best baby ever! He is crawling already and he loves to laugh and smile. It doesn't take much to get him going and once you do, it's so hard to stop. Well, that's all for now.

Summer is finally here!

After getting snow and lots of hail during the first part of June, I was almost convinced that Summer would never come. NOw that the temperatures is up arounf the 90's, I am happy to welcome it. Although, I did get sunburned yesterday that was not welcome. Still loving it out here. Although we do have frequent power outages because they are working on the power lines out here and the roads. Can't wait until Pioneer Crossing is done! Ashly made fun of me cause I never blog anymore but I decided I am going to blog at least once a montha and maybe if you're lucky, twice! I have already spoken in church out here so now I should have about a year off before I need to do that again. I enjoy writing my talk, I just don't enjoy delivering it. I am a reader! Anyway, our family is all well. Kaleb and Karly just spent the last week in California with my sister Jen and her kids. They had a blast but I know Jen is glad to have them gone. They are a handful and extremely messy! Hopefully we can nip that in the butt eventually. Myabe when they've moved out. Gary and I drove down to Cali last weekend at 5 pm on Saturday and came back at 5pm on Sunday. We drive down to pick up a bunch of furniture that belonged to my grandma before she died. It was a very quick but enjoyable trip. My sister Lauren kept Tanner for us and after we left the two oldest there, it was a nice, quiet drive back. Ryan is the most amazing traveler. He made less noise than the rest of them and was perfect! I am looking forward to boating this weekend and next week. We took Ashly's older kids and our family out last Friday and had fun. Our oldest kids cried and whined about kneeboarding but we still made them try. Evan fell in off the swim deck and I had to jump in after him with all my clothes. That was a lot of fun! He survived! Gary is getting busy with work so I am a somewhat single mom at the moment. We welcome the wrok and the income-hopefully we can really knock out some debt this summer! Ryan is rolling over all the time now and he is always smiling and laughing. I love it and so do the kids. I don't want the summer to go by and miss out on all the fun and memories we could be making so I am going to try to plan at least one fun activity each week with the kids-small or large. Hopefully we can make the most of this school vacation and really make it fun! I gave Gary and Yulia a surprise party this week and had a video challenge that all had a lot of fun with. He is now 32! I know, we are getting so old! Anyway, that is all for now! More to come later! Peace out!

Annual Blog report

Maybe that is what I should do; blog once a year! I don't know how time flies by so fast, but wow! we are already half way through 2010-or almost. So in January, we decided to move again. So I prayed about it, felt it was right, and began the touch up painting, massive decluttering and organizing and put our home on the market on the 26th of January. Four days later we had two people walk through and both wanted to make an offer. We accepted the first offer and quickly started to look for a place for us to move to. The week before I delivered Ryan, we found a house in Saratoga Springs and felt right about it after a few events which included going to the new ward and finding out Gary's cousin lived across the street-random-and she told us all about the area and the ward,etc. Made an offer the following day, went into labor at Valorie's surprise party-sister in law-and brought our new baby into the world just before midnight on the 20th of Febuary. Ryan Carter Christensen is the newest and final installment in the christensen home. WE ARE DONE!!!! I really think so this time. We moved out of our home on the 26th of March and stayed with my sister Vicki until our loan could be processed which happened on the 31st of MArch. I have the most beautiful view. It may be obstructed one day if someone builds on the lot across the street-but due to its odd shape, I hope that never happens. I hope someone buys it to extend their back or side yard. Love it out here. It is quiet and clean and there are a lot of kids. Still in that phase where I really only know a handful of people but you know me-I plan to change that. One neighborhood block party and a couple girls nights and that should do the trick! Currently teaching the 8 year old kids turning nine and love my calling. They are so good and do much fun to teach. That is all for now in our crazy life! By the way, still haven't found our camera since we moved so I can't post pictures.

What was my password. . .

It's pretty bad when you almost forget the password to sign in to your own blog! Anyway, it's the holidays so you know it's crazy. Our Thanksgiving was a bit more empty this year for me because I had to fly back to San Diego to say goodbye to my Grandma. I was fortunate enough to get there in time to say my goodbyes and she passed away the following morning while I was at the temple. It was a good trip overall but still difficult. On a more positive note, my oldest son, Kaleb, was baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on December 5th and it was amazing. For those of you who know Kaleb well enough, you can imagine the type of meeting we had. He cried during mine and Gary's testimonies and he was so happy. The whole week leading up to it he continued to ask how many more days. He was so excited! The rest of the kids are doing well. I am now 28 weeks and then some and he is still kicking around in there. He kicks the kids whenever they sit or lay on him and they think it's pretty funny. Gary is getting excited as well and I think part of that excitement is the prospect of this being our "last" pregnancy. I am all for that! I am posting pictures today-hopefully-from a recent photo shoot we did with the kids. My sis-in-law owns a photography studio called pretty pictures and she is amazing! You can see her stuff at www.prettylittle pictures.com. I am in charge of this years ward Christmas party so you can imagine the fun we are having this week trying to prepare for it. Other than that, I hope all five that read this blog occassionally have a very merry christmas and stay healthy! And if anyone wants to move to provo, I know of a really cute but small victorian that is available or will be post-baby! Yes, we are still trying to move. If anyone knows of any cute homes in utah county that are for sale and are large enough for my family with at least 1/3 of an acre and has some character-i.e. not a stucco box- let me know. I need a basement, at least 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, 2 car garage, large kitchen with gas hookups for a gas stove, lots of storage and closets and a good neighborhood with trees. I found two homes I am in love with but of course they are both in Genola-West of Santaquin for those of you who just said, "where's that?" so I won't be adding pictures at this time but hopefully in the future. Sorry about that!