Happy Sounds

When my kids (or actually just Ben) can play together without anyone crying, screaming, hitting, peeing on the couch, pooping on the floor, bulldozing the other, dumping out a box of matches, or literally as I'm creating this post, ripping out every page of one of his library books during "not so" quiet time...

Paige crawls

She started the early crawling a few weeks ago and she's getting better all the time. We took this last week. It's crazy how fast she's growing.

I apologize for Ben's sounds in the background. It may be in your best interest to watch this video muted.

I'd like to dedicate this post to Matt and Jill. After skyping on Sunday mom told me that was the first time you'd ever seen Paige, to which I replied "It's not my fault their not on facebook. I of course got in trouble and mom told me it's not hard to just "slap up a picture." So, there... if I can't update my blog for the birth of our first daughter, at least here's a little something for you. I will attempt to fill in a few gaps between my last post and now.

My two favorite boys at the park last fall.

Ben needs his alone time so he can get some reading done.

Saturday, August 7th 2010. A positive test!

Boy? Girl? Who knows! So exciting!

Ben's 2nd Halloween. He was a lion (or yigh-yigh as he called it).

He learned the word "cookie" this weekend. I was pretty sad about it.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's. Ben is opening up his first (children's) Book of Mormon, or if you ask Ben, Booka Women's stories.

My favorite present was a children's book Carl got me; my favorite book growing up, titled "When I have a Little Girl." I'm 5 months pregnant here. We found out just before Thanksgiving what we were having.

8 months along, and Ben can't wait. Neither can mommy.

The night before I was induced.

Our last night as a family of 3.

March 29th, 8:44 am, I met the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. 7lbs 12 oz, 19" long. This is her first picture.

Ah the greasy shot when they don't quite look human...

Yeay, we love her.

The first time I held her.

Paige Rebekah Christensen

Leaving the hospital.

Her first bath.

Grandpa Miller

Ben had so much fun in our backyard this summer. He loved picking butterflies (or dandelions).

Just a few days old.

Carl's best friend growing up was Jonny. He and his beautiful wife Kelly had their first baby, Svea just 10 weeks after we had Paige.

Having fun in our pool outside.

So tired.

My kids? Look alike? Naw...

We forgot how much newborns sleep...

And how they make everyone else want to sleep.

Bff Kylene with their new little girl, Elena.

Delicious fruity pebbles.

And her first hat.

On September 28th, 2007, Carl and I went out on our first date to Applebee's. Every year we go back on the same night with our friends, Jon and Cheryl who were with us on the first date. They were just dating then, and ended up getting married, too!

Which brings us to last night, we went to play at the park. Our kids are now 2 1/2 and 6 months.

Our little Paige is such a blessing. She is a very happy baby, and has to endure a lot of torture from her very rambunctious older brother. We love her SO much and thank God for her and our family every day.

They're perfect. I love them.

Growing Up

And now 2 quick videos by request. What Ben's fans want, Ben's fans get.

Lately, Ben's been doing a bit of light reading. He'll open up a book, and for several minutes turn pages, talk, and point. His favorite is "Hop on Pop" - or in his words "hop hop pop pop" or something like that. I just got the end of it on video, but it's fun I think. Also, when he's done with something he will often wave and say "see ya" or something close. Sometimes it's "syaa," "saa," or just "yaa."

On June 24th Benjamin took his first steps. 15 months old and we're there! He's better now than in this video, but it's the best one we have so far. P.S. he would always much rather scoot.

Three Syllabled Ben

And now, Ben's longest word:

Oh, yeah... blogging...

Some highlights from the last several weeks:

-Our laundry room is done!
-Carl went to Malta for a whole week for a Linguistics conference to present his paper that he recently had published. Yay Carl.
-Debbie's new calling is the Primary 1st counselor
-Carl's new calling is the Young Mens president
-Ben still doesn't have a calling
-Our kitchen cupboards had a face lift
-We have a garden
-2 year anniversary in Vegas
-Ben's 1 year checkup
-Ben is officially "cruising."( Yeah, it's a real term)

Luckily, I know how to adjust the date for the blog postings, so none of you will ever know I fell behind. Now I just need to blog about all these fun things...

Face Lift

While Carl was in Malta, I decided that I wanted to surprise him with new cabinets. Unfortunately, those cost money (who new?) so I took on a little project. I only had 5 full days, which means only nap time and nights after Ben went down, so I knew I had to act fast. I took off the hinges and handles, then with the help of my brother Seth, I cleaned and stripped the cupboard fronts. After those dried, I stained 24 cupboard fronts, 5 drawers, and then the actual cabinets in the kitchen. On Saturday, once everything had dried, I put everything back together, and put on brand new handles. It took quite a bit of work, and my kitchen and garage were a huge mess in the process, but I'm so glad I was able to do it. Carl was thrilled with his surprise. As soon as he walked in the kitchen he said "Oh my gosh!" Yay. I love surprises. We've been wanting to do it since we moved in, and now it's done! What do you think?

Carl took the camera to Malta, so I wasn't able to take a lot of before pictures, but I did find this one. Sorry I had to be in it.


And after. Now they are shiny, smooth and have handles that are not from 1976. Click on the pics to notice the handle difference, that's my favorite part.

The Laundry Room

So here it is, a few months ago. Exposed pipes, cement floor, old light fixture, oh and in case you're wondering what that line under the dryer hook-up...that's where the dry wall ends. That white stuff that you see on the bottom half is in fact styrofoam the previous tenants used for better insulation.



My dad ripped out several built in shelves we didn't want, and added actual walls, including a protruding wall above the washer and dryer, covering up all the pipes. My brother Jared added a gas line to accommodate the gas (not electric) dryer we now have.



Seth laid the tile, grout and sealer. He also put in the new base board (as well as painted most of it), after ripping out the old stuff.


All I had to do was paint the walls this lovely blue Carl picked out. Isn't it nice?


Lastly, Seth brought in and hooked up these beautiful Maytag front load washer and dryer my parents so kindly handed down to us. Aren't parents great?



So there you have it, one of woman's very best friends: the laundry room. A huge thank you to Dad, Jared and Seth for putting in lots of time and energy so I can do laundry at home at any time of day. Everything looks so nice. I've been taking laundry to my parents house for the last 10 months, and though I'll now have to buy my own soap, I'm so very excited for this new addition to our home.

The Best 2 Years

Sometimes it's appropriate to tell your husband how you really feel, honesty really is the best policy. Anniversaries are the perfect time for that.

Dear Carl,
I'm so hopelessly and desperately in love with you. I love you more every minute. Thank you for marrying me and for making me feel prettier than I am. You're my favorite thing and I'm so excited for the rest of our adventures and babies. You're my best friend and I love you a lot a lot a lot.

Love Deb



Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. This year for our anniversary, we decided to cash in our voucher for 2 nights at the Riviera in Las Vegas. Thankfully, Grandpa Christensen was done with teaching for the semester at SUU and was happy to watch Ben for us during our little vacation. (And congratulations to Grandpa on becoming Head of the English department!)


Ben doing one of his favorite things with one of his favorite people. Thanks Grandpa! (Don't they so much alike?)

We drove down to Cedar City to drop off Ben, stayed a couple of days and headed down to Vegas. The first thing we did when we got there (after a trip to the drive through) was go to the temple. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon with very few people, and a perfect start to the trip. This was a new temple to add to our lists, making it #8 for me and #14 for Carl... Just pretend you can tell we're outside the temple. There was no one there to help with a picture.

Carl touching a sting ray at the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

The Imperial Palace has this sweet car show with a bunch of classic cars, some of them for sale and a few of them worth over a million dollars. We just window shopped. One of the main attractions was Johnny Carson's first car. That one wasn't for sale. Otherwise, we might have talked numbers.

And of course, what would Vegas be without a trip to the Showcase Mall? Did you know the M&M World has like 6 floors? If you're wondering what's in the bag, it's a peanut M&M mouse pad for Mothers Day that we bought for my mom, a lover of computers and a big lover of the peanut M&M. Happy Mothers Day to both of our lovely mothers. And to Grandma and Grandpa Christensen: thank you so very much for taking such good care of Ben while we went away. It was so relaxing, and great to have alone time. Ben had a lot of fun, he still talks about it. Thanks a million! We love you.

Cruising?

Ben has been getting faster at moving, though it may be a bit different than other babies, it gets the job done. Here's a little bit of how Ben gets around.

Party Time

Ben's party was Saturday and it was a lot of fun for us. It went about how you would expect a 1st birthday might go: friends and family came, there was frosting everywhere, and the birthday boy was spoiled with presents. Thanks to everyone who came and made the day memorable.

I did the obnoxious mom thing and made Ben where a hat that said "I'm one!" but only for a bit. I saw it in the party store and Carl consented. I thought it was pretty much adorable.

A nice birthday hug from his buddy Ethan. These two love playing together.

I made a chocolate mouse crunch cake for the adults and cupcakes for the kiddos. Ben had one giant cupcake, though I'm pretty sure all he ate was frosting. We stopped him early to prevent a sugar high or a stomach ache.

Ben and Mommy just before bedtime. What a long day. He's waving bye to the camera.