Dallon & Morgan's Wedding

Dallon and Morgan got married in the Oakland Temple on Thursday, August 4 and then they had their reception 2 days later in Reno.  It was a lovely wedding and reception and I could not be happier to have Morgan as my sister-in-law.  She is a beautiful, funny, and talented girl and she fits into the family great!  After the wedding festivities were over, we decided to stay an extra day in Reno so that we could visit Lake Tahoe and the Donner Party Memorial.  I had just finished reading a book and other tidbits of information about the Donner Party and I couldn't wait to actually see the place where the horrible tragedy occurred.  It is quite an amazing story.  They have a very nice memorial and museum as well as a short walking trail that the kids really enjoyed.  

My favorite picture of the couple outside the temple.

Walking out of the temple.

The kiss.

The Christensen Family

The brothers (from the left: Dexter, Damon, Dallon, Alex and Dean).

Our family all dressed up for the reception.

Dean and Sarah and us.

Grandma Daneen and Grandpa Del with the kids (from the left: Delson, Kambria, Gemma and Braden).

Grandma and her girls.  (Check out Kambria's nasty black eye.)

The sisters-in-law excited about another girl in the family!

The awesome candy bar...such a great idea!

Here we are at the Donner Memorial....this rock was the fireplace of one of the cabins in the party.

Here is the Donner Monument.  Alex didn't get a picture of the whole thing, but there is a pedestal on the top that is 22.5 feet off the ground and that point marks the snow depth during the terrible Donner Party tragedy in the winter of 1846-47.  Crazy to think the snow was that high!!!

Lake Tahoe....and a GORGEOUS day!

Me and the kids in front of the lake.

The Garden

This summer we still did not get around to planting a vegetable garden, but we had a very nice flower garden.  It was so nice to finally see some color in our backyard.  Here are some pictures that show how our garden progressed over the summer.  

Gladiolas early summer.

Gladiolas late summer.

Dahlias early summer.

Dahlias late summer.

My dahlia arrangement.

And I had to add these pictures of a beautiful rainbow we had in our backyard that ended up turning into a double rainbow.  It was  GORGEOUS!

Pictures of the Kiddos and Other News

I've taken a lot of random pictures of the kids over the last 4 months, so I will just post them here with captions.

Delson ate something messy like a plum,.  What a great smile though.  (I know my mom is cringing looking at this picture because he's not wearing a bib.)

Delson loves to wear Daddy's Harley boots. Funny kid.

Delson wanted a ponytail and his hair was long enough then that it actually worked pretty well.

Sleeping beauty.

The night before we left for a wedding, Delson wacked Kambria in the face with a book and this was her battle wound.  She ended up with a black eye and everything. Poor girl.

A rare sights....both kids asleep in their car seats.

We got each of the kids neck pillows for the 10 hour night drive down to Utah.  They LOVED them!

Kambria's beginning of a ponytail.

Cute brother and sister sharing a popsicle moment on a doorstep.  Like the messy hairdos?

Kambria loves sitting in the baby bouncer even though she is WAY too big.

Big girl swing.

This is their favorite way to hug.  So sweet!

Riding the Walmart arcade motorcycle.  Kambria can't get enough of her sunglasses.  I love this picture.

This is a hilarious video of Delson and Kambria talking to Grandma Daneen over FaceTime...which is like Skype through the IPhone.  Kambria is totally carrying on a passionate conversation with Grandma, but no one knows what she is saying. 

4th of July 2011

Our 4th of July festivities were delightful as always.  We enjoyed lots of family time at Del and Daneen's house as well as shooting, swimming, and lots of running around with the kids.  We actually kept Delson up for fireworks and he LOVED them.  He was begging for more the next morning when he woke up.  He was so worn out, he actually slept in until 9:00am....FIRST TIME EVER!  It was a great holiday!

Gemma and Kambria - Kambria was not in the mood to be made to take a picture.

Delson, Kambria and Braden all enjoyed pushing or riding their toys around all day outside.

Enjoying the pool.

Kambria, Grandpa Del and Braden on the 4-wheeler.

Delson ate a marshmallow and got his face all sticky and he figured out how to stick his lip up to his nose so that it would stay.  We just laughed and laughed, so he kept doing it over and over.  Funny kid!

Has It Really Been 4 Months?

Dang!  I feel like the worst blogger in the world.  I can't believe over 4 months has gone by since my last post.  I don't even know where to start because I have so much to blog about and it is daunting thinking about it all, but I know it needs to be done.  My goal is to do one new post everyday starting today until I am caught up on our lives.  A lot has changed since July.  My main excuse for slacking on the blog is that I started a second payroll job from home in the middle of July so instead of doing payroll once every other week, I have to do payroll every week now.  Besides the new job, since July we have attended a wedding for Alex's brother, we traveled to Park City, UT for 3 weeks, we went on a cruise to Mexico, and we are now currently preparing for another brother's wedding next Friday.  And then....throw the holidays on top of all of that, and you have utter CHAOS!  I would like to say that things will get better after the new year, but things never seem to slow down, they only seem to get crazier, so I guess it is time for me to buckle down and BLOG before November 2012 is here.  Thanks for being patient with me everyone!

Prelude to the 4th of July

I was determined to learn "The Star-Spangled Banner" to play on the organ for the 4th of July Sunday and so I have been practicing it a LOT this week.  Tonight I decided to record myself playing it, just to see how it sounded and then I thought my aunts and Nana and a couple of friends would probably be interested in hearing me and watching me play the foot pedals, so here is a recording of our national anthem as well as "My Country Tis of Thee."

Update on the Kids

I have quite a few pictures of the kids from just recently.  They are doing great!  I'm sad that Kambria is just beginning the terrible 2's phase because she has been my sweet little girl all along, but now she knows how to throw a fit and slap mommy's face when she is angry.  When she throws a tantrum about something she just arches her back and throws her body backwards against the floor and it is so naughty.  I'm sad that she can't just bypass the terrible 2's, but I guess it is a necessary stage for all kids to go through.  However, she is starting to say a few words like "cracker" and "Delson" and "shoe" (as best as she can anyway).  I am loving it!  It is so exciting.  She continues to follow Delson everywhere and they constantly fight over the same toys, which is annoying, and yet kind of funny at the same time.

We started potty training Delson almost 2 weeks ago and it has been going really well.  He has picked up on peeing in the toilet very quickly and we have even gone out to the store and he is very good at telling me he has to go "potty."  He hardly has any potty accidents now.  However, #2 is a completely different story.  He is not very keen on going #2 in the toilet yet and he continues to soil his underwear, but today we made some progress and I caught him right at the beginning of it and he was able to finish in the toilet which won him a toy motorcycle that looks like daddy's.  He was super excited about it, so I hope he continues to go #2 in the toilet.

Delson is also starting to say some really funny things.  The other day we were outside playing and he was saying "Hey Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom" and then he continued with "Answer me, please!"  Haha....that totally got me laughing because I do the same thing to him when I am calling him and he doesn't answer me.  Now he understands how I feel.  And then as a treat for potty training, I pulled out some peanut butter M&Ms that were leftover from Easter and they are egged shaped.  And all on his own, he came to me and said, "Mom, I want a football M&M."  HA....what a clever kid.  They look like footballs, so he called them that.  I thought that was pretty funny so we call them football M&Ms now.  As much as my kids drive me up the wall sometimes, they are so smart and funny and happy and they bring a lot of joy into our home and I am so grateful everyday for my 2 healthy and happy children.

The kiddos playing outside in our little pool.

Delson likes to play under the grill cover.

Kambria just LOVES to chill out in the new wagon we got.  She just goes and sits in it all the time.

Father and son making the same cheesy grin.

The kids had a swim play date with friends Brea and Myles.

Delson and Kambria showing off their Nutella smiles.

We discovered that Kambria likes plums and she knows how to make a mess of them too.

This is how Delson tries to get dressed.

Kambria in her beautiful Sunday dress.