Meet Russell Wayne Christensen

The other wonderful visitors that we have had this week is Mary and Tyler. It is so great to see them, too! Since they were coming we had a Christensen Family BBQ on Sunday at our house, which was also the day we came home from Truckee. Of great benefit was that everyone was so tired from the few days being gone that Ethan took a 4 1/2 hour nap beforehand and the rest of the family got a little nap too. Hannah and Adam came and introduced our newest precious family member, Russell Wayne Christensen. He was so precious! It was a new thing for us to host a big family get together at our house, but I was relieved that it went well. Maybe its just me being weird, but I have this strong longing to be connected to both sides of our families, and have this aspiration to be a good hostess and entertain. I suppose it is because both our Moms are amazing at it and I picture that in being a successful Wife and Mother.

We love Uncle Tyler and Aunt Mary!

Family Visits

Big Dan Denali Man came home to spend his break from BYU with all us. Which has been wonderful! Somehow the Formans etched out a few days that everyone in the family was free to go to Truckee for a few days together. It was going to be Lake Tahoe but with last minute booking and our good sized family we ended up in a custom home at Old Greenwood Gold Course. Pretty rough, I know. :)

It turned out that although we weren’t close to the Lake there was still lots to do and they had the best clubhouse. It was made for kids and families. Jared and I didn’t end up doing a lot of physical activities since our Ethan boy, who sleeps great at home, decided to wake up every morning at 3am and be randomly awake for up to 3 hours. However, we did visit a very fun learning and play museum in Truckee, ride the waterslide with all our kids, and Daddy got a round of Golf in. And not having to cook for a few days was delightful. Sweet Jared was so tender to my fatigue that he felt bad leaving to golf and picked up Hope and Bryce at hole 12 (the house’s back yard) in their PJs and let them finish the course with all the boys. I know the kids absolutely loved the whole trip! Just this morning Hope asked if we “could go back to the house in the mountains, that has the bears, and the fun waterslide, and play and play”. As for Daddy and I…..it is always wonderful to be with family, however, with a child younger then 2 years old it somehow always makes things a challenge.

Kids are cute, Mommy’s tired

So, Grandma Cox is just awesome. It’s sad for me that my Grandma’s are not able to be with the kids because they won’t know them in this earth life, but it is so awesome to have both Jared’s Grandmas. If there is anyone on earth that I’d like to be like its BOTH of our Moms and Grandmas.  I just have the most amazing women to look up to. Grandma Cox just made Hope another darling dress. She can do it all. She even made one for Sadie this time. When we gave it to Sadie (beloved Christensen cousin and another dress lover like Hope) she immediately put it on and wore it the following day as well. Grandma Cox is just so kind and sweet to us. We love her dearly!

Kids sitting on Grandma Forman’s counter. Grandma was making Brownie trifle for a dinner the following night. Of course she is an awesome cook, and it looked amazing, however the kids right in her face and our constant outbursts of the kids to sit and not put their fingers in it probably were what caused Grandma to forget a brownie layer. However it still looked DELICIOUS and I am sure her guests gladly devoured it. The kids just were so cute sitting there watching Grandma.

Our week: So this week has been even more of an adventure then usual. Monday we delivered flyers to our neighbors to help with an Eagle project. In my head I thought it was no problem, but in reality it is summer, the neighborhood is full of hills, I am pregnant and all the kids on the stroller is 90+ lbs. to push. Wow, I felt like a snowman outside. I was melting! We didn’t make our flyer quota but I sure tried. I guess 14 out of 5o is better than nothing! (We talked with neighbors along the way) Then we cleaned the entire house, ok Daddy did most of it, to get ready for the YW activity at our house Tuesday. Tuesday came, I tried to keep things clean all day and then as I came downstairs from putting Ethan in bed the older kids were in the medicine cabinet and had helped themselves to drink the rest of the Children’s Advil. THANKFULLY, I knew that not much in there. Certainly an overdose as I was told by the Poison Control, but not enough to have to go to the hospital and that they should be fine. So we had the activity and finally got all the girls out the door, and were attempting to put our overly exhausted kids to bed when I picked up Ethan by his wrist and ankle, on his side, and he started screaming. Oh no. I had forgotten about how Bryce had a wrist issue a few times at the same age. I figured I’d just put him to bed and he was tired so by morning he’d be better. Well, from 3:30am to morning he cried. Wouldn’t take milk. Oh, why do I do such silly things. I should know better. So in the morning he is holding is arm close to his body and won’t let me touch it. He screams if I rotate it or examine it. I was supposed to go to a hair appt and my Mom was going to watch the kids but we scraped that went to the Dr. She was concerned it was fractured from a fall perhaps and I had aggravated it. My heart was racing and I felt so bad. My Mom went and did x-rays with him since I wasn’t allowed in there pregnant and we went home and waited for a call. I put Ethan down for a nap. The Dr. called and said that there wasn’t an obvious fracture (whew!) but that it must be a bad sprain and to pick up a prescription for a splint and to have another x-ray in a week checking for a hairline fracture. The weird thing is that when Ethan got up from his nap his wrist was fine. He used it, he let me examine it. He was perfectly normal. The Doctors nurse wasn’t happy that I hadn’t gotten the splint, but he is acting completely normal. I know wrist dislocation is rare, but I don’t know what else it could have been. That took a whole day and so much energy that I feel dead today. My comfort is exercise clothes and jobs that you can sit down for. :) Please no more excitement this week!

updates, old pictures, new info…….

This is a few months late. Hope graduated from our little Joy School at the end of May and after a fun celebration I attempted to take a picture. But they were past participating at this point.

We miss our friends Joey, Malachi and Emily. Since we moved part way through the year we are in a new ward and don’t see our little preschool friends much anymore. We wish them all the best in their next school years!

Son-ee (Ethan boy) is old enough for nursery. He is almost 20 months old! He however has a strong attachment to people he knows, specifically Mommy, so we are doing the sitting in Nursery with him. Better then the hallways, I suppose. :) He is not much of a talker (takes after his Daddy in that way). He can say a few words, but rarely does. Mostly just shakes his head yes or no, points and makes a strange sort of Chewbacca noise. It cracks us up. Both the Doctor and I don’t feel he has problems, just developing at a different pace. Dr. Reddy said to read to him every day. Our attempts are kind of a crack up. I sit with Ethan and tell him to get a book. He picks one, sits on my lap for 5 seconds, then gets up to get another book. Hope and Bryce see me sitting down to read so they each pick a book and race to pounce on my lap then fight over whose book is first. We read their books, Ethan walks around us occasionally looking at the pages and making a Chewbacca sound and pointing. And then sitting again for 3 second intervals and is up again. I remember that with Hope and Bryce it seemed like a few words here or there and suddenly around 2 years old they just started talking. And…… they haven’t stopped since. :)

Sweet Hope took a picture of us here. Typically I see all our kids as looking so different, but the boys look so alike to me here. We found out that the kids are going to have a little sister next. We did an early Gender Determination ultrasound this time and are excited to add another girl to our family. Is it our last addition? Maybe. It depends on who you ask. I say one at a time. Daddy says he is beyond done. Ethan says a Chewbacca noise and nods. Bryce says he wants a boy. And Hope would have us bringing babies into the world for the next one hundred years. At least so she says now.

Family Day

We convinced Daddy to take a day off and went as a family to the San Francisco Zoo. Grandpa and Grandma Christensen were visiting Heidi and Steve so they all met us there and we toured most of it together. It was such a great zoo! The kids were so, so, so excited to see so many animals that our zoos here don’t have: lions, a hippo, rhinos, zebras, gorillas, snow leopard, grizzly and polar bear, tarantulas, penguins, seals, koalas, kangaroos, and so much more. It was a little stressful at times as Ethan (for us) and Wyatt (for Heidi) were a bit on the cranky side. Just what two pregnant women need. We just strapped Ethan into an umbrella stroller and mostly made him sit. Of course with the occasional in and out, I didn’t realize at one point he wasn’t strapped in. They had a little nature trail with teenagers and animals that the kids could learn about and pet. I picked up the stroller to show Ethan something and then accidentally dropped him on his face in the dirt in front of a 12 year old zoo volunteer and all our family. I felt like the worst mother. The girl said, “Wow. I’ve never seen that before.” Ethan was fine and just needed a brush off of dirt, but I made sure the seat belt was on after that. My Dad, Grandpa Christensen to the kids, is a funny guy. He loves to go places and loves to take his time seeing things. Maybe we were going fast because poor Ethan was a bit stressful, but at one point Jared wondered if we were at the zoo or at Lowe’s. (Our amazingly handy Dad’s playhouse) I suppose its his curious nature that causes it. He asked the youth volunteer with the hedgehog if they bite. The 12 year old boy looked at him very seriously and said, “well, sir, any animal with a mouth can bite”. His tone and facial expressions put all of us in hysterics as we left. Once we were able to get Dad out of the zoo we drove to the wharf and met Josh, Jenica and the kids (who had spent the day at the Academy of Sciences) for a shrimp dinner at Bubba Gumps. I ordered a salad, even though Jared tried to talk me out of it, and then ate everyone else’s shrimp and french fry scraps. Jared was right. I should have ordered shrimp. It was really good. It was really fun. I would love to go back down in a few years and do the exact same day. Except hopefully by then the kids have a little more endurance and we can finish the day off with a nice Ghiradelli sundae. Can you tell I am pregnant? I am always thinking food……

They were holding hands. We are getting into the stage where there is a lot of bickering and teasing so this was a cute moment for us to see.

If you can’t tell that is a cheesy mustache on Bryce’s face. Daddy can go the whole day without eating. The rest of us are about 3 hours max. We convinced Daddy we needed substance and then devoured a soft pretzel with creamy cheese dip. Mmmm, mmm good to our little Pal.

where to begin?

Well, it feels like a million things have happened since our last update. Firstly, Bryce is completely recovered and doing great. Hooray! And I did take some new pictures of the kids.

The month of May was so busy it seemed to have ended as soon as it began. We finally upgraded to a bigger car which is thrilling for Daddy (ok, I admit I really like it too). We celebrated Mother’s Day and my birthday together. We stayed home! Which was different for us. But is was nice, just the same. The day after Mother’s Day I turned 30. I hear good things about the 30’s so I welcomed it and felt so loved to hear birthday wishes from more family members then it seems like ever before. For me, that was better than any present I could ever receive. Of course I began to suspect something that day. No, not a present from Jared. Something else. The next morning we took a trip to the pharmacy after taking Hope to Joy School and shocking to us confirmed that we were pregnant. So, on to feeling the challenges that come with the blessing. We always say that we aren’t going to tell anyone until I am 3 months along and then one of us or both of us spill the beans within a day or two. I had gone shopping with Linda and Hope and after having to hold in the news all night long (Jared made me promise not to tell her) I just decided I have to tell someone! As soon as I tell one person Jared gets on the phone and calls all his family and so instantly everyone knows! It’s amazing to me that when you think you can’t do something, inevitably it seems for me, that thing absolutely happens and you are forced to just do it. You just have to muster up your faith, how ever much you can, go to the Savior in prayer and go forward. I did not think this would be me. I thought I was going to plan everything, space the kids to my liking, be under complete control, and now I feel like I just strap in and try to do my best whatever comes. Mostly I mess things up, but I always keep trying.

At the end of May our beautiful Hope graduated from our little preschool. I was glad to see that fun chapter close and happy to do it, but looking forward to a trained teacher next year. In June I headed to the Doctor for the first visit and to see the heartbeat. That is always a special experience. And after some convincing on my part, then wavering on both our parts, we actually took a family trip. That is big for us. We do it maybe once a year and typically its disastrous. But we have been wanting to see Grandma Forman in SLC on her mission and just decided to finally do it.

It was great! Of course Bryce refused to cooperate several times and we did miss Ethan who stayed at home, but it was so much fun and for the first time the kids had the chance to bond with Grandma.

After the trip we came home to our little Ethan who was happy to see us! He is a Grandpa’s boy, but is so happy to be with our family again.

On to what we have anticipated for a long time……boating with Grandpa and Grandma Christensen.

We didn’t catch a fish, but had the best time testing out Grandpa’s new boat.

And then to end the Month of June, Bryce turned 3! He had a party with the Christensen side to enjoy his first pinata and then woke up his birthday morning to a room full of balloons. He was able to sneak away with Grandpa and Grandma Forman to go see the new Cars movie and has loved every card, present, and call to wish him a good day. What a big boy!

Bryce Update

Thursday and Friday little Brycie was confined to the bed. He woke up in the night crying that Hope was hitting him. We think he was just in pain and dreaming. He has slept by us at night so I could give medicine, water, and soothe. By Saturday he could sit up pretty well. Saturday night he started to walk. It looked like a mix of a 100 year old man/I was riding a horse too long sort of walk. Then today he got up and started walking again. Said he no longer needed medicine. He goes pretty slow and still walks like he just got off a horse, but he is doing great! His smile and joyful nature has reappeared and we are so thankful!