Great friends and fun times!

So you know those friends that come into your life and no matter how long it's been since you've seen them or talked to them, once you are back together, it's like only minutes have passed? Well, this weekend I was able to get together with SO many great friends like this! It was a GREAT weekend!





This is my great friend Cassie, whom I have not seen in two years. We served in the YW presidency together and she flew down to Albuquerque to attend the baptism of one of "our" Young Women. We picked her up from the airport and got to spend the day together. It was so much fun talking to her and hanging out.
While trying to get a decent picture of us both, we were laughing so hard that, well you know me, I cried.
Me and Nohemi, my Young Woman. She was finally able to get baptized and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. She is such an amazing girl and such a great example!

And this is a group of some of my favorite people in the world. We had a "girls night out" and all hung out. We were all (and still are) such good friends when we all went to the Manzano Ward. It was SO much fun hanging out and talking. We stayed up until almost midnight talking and giggling like little girls... someone made the comment that it is a good thing we don't drink...

It was so great to see everybody and hang out like the "good ol days". Of course there were a couple people missing, and we all talked about them and how much we missed them (you know who you are), but it was so fantastic to get together with the group again!

Our "goofy" shot... obviously some of us took it more seriously than others :)

I love these girls!

Petroglyphs and Easter Fun

Well, we're almost all recovered from the marathon sicknesses in our family... we finally took the kids to the doctor and they both had gotten double ear infections. So antibiotics were given and of course this Sunday Spencer broke out into a huge rash, having a reaction from the Amoxicillin... but we're hopefully all on the mend.



We went to Petroglyphs National Monument today. It is about five minutes away from our house... it's about time we went. So here's a picture of some of the first ones we saw on our 2.5 mile hike and as a bonus, you get to see my 5 month baby bump... exciting huh.



A picture of the almost 10 steps Carly took on the entire hike. It was monumental so we had to take a pic of it. Poor Kyle had to carry her almost the entire way.

The crew at some more petroglyphs (behind Spencer).

Spencer did really good and had a lot of fun looking for the pictures on the rocks.

Carly on the other hand.... well, this is a picture of her refusing to walk. She'd just plunk herself down on the dirt and sit there with a scowl. We'd pretend to walk away and say bye, and she didn't care at all, she wasn't budging. So of course we had to go back and pick her up and carry her, what could we do? Let her sit and rot in the desert? (We were tempted at times)

And this is Easter. Spencer got all of the eggs because Carly was more interested in playing in her car than finding eggs.

These are 2 of the 6 eggs she cared to grab.

The kids posing in front of the eggs.

My parents came down for the weekend. It was fun to see them and the kids loved having their grandparents here!
And this is Carly all tuckered out from a hard week. She actually fell asleep standing up... she's amazing.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer is the big number 5! He had a great day full of swashbuckling fun! ( I have yet to figure out how to get these pictures in order, so bear with me).




Spencer at his birthday party, dressed as a pirate, with his pirate ship cake. (The cake was a lot harder than it looks, you'll have to take my word on that.)

Right before the candles were blown out...

Okay, this has been one of the hardest weeks in a LONG time for our family. I had a major sickness (and of course since I'm preggo, I can't take anything that really works), Spencer got pink eye, then a cold, Carly then got the pink eye and a cold, and Kyle has had one of the busiest weeks at work ever. Poor guy, I hardly saw him at all. It's hard enough taking care of sick kids, when you are sick, but then I got a sinus infection... yep, I've never had one until now and I had no idea they were so painful and miserable. So anyway, taking care of sick kids, while you are sick, trying to plan a birthday party, keep the house sanitized, and support your husband is hard (I know a lot of you have done this and survived, and probably have been in better spirits about the whole thing- good for you, but I'm not one of those people as often as I should be :) ) So anyway, Kyle started getting sick at the end of the week, still working like crazy, on-call at the hospital, feeling guilty because he wants to be home helping me and the kids and can't... You know the story. But to make a long story even longer, Kyle bought me these roses and it is so nice to have a husband that knows what a hard week it has been and has been through it himself, but still thinks about things like this! I am so lucky!

Here's to a better week ahead!

Okay, back to the party.

This is Spencer's birthday morning, opening up all of the family presents.

Spencer on the day of his party, still not feeling quite up to par... poor kid.

Spencer and Carly giving an "AAARGH" for the camera

The party-goers all dressed up as cute pirates.

About ready to eat the cake.

It was a really fun party and luckily it all worked out. We had ordered one of those big jumpers for the kids, and of course Albuquerque had gusting winds and so we couldn't get it. Last minute games were thought up and it turned out great. We played a lot of pirate games, had a treasure hunt, ate pizza, cake, and ice cream, and just had fun.

Spencer loved it and that's all that matters!

Some March Madness..

We have been getting ready for Spencer's big birthday #5! It's next week and he is so excited because we are having a pirate party! (He chose the theme and I am really excited about it because there are a TON of things you can do for a pirate party! Thank you, Spencer, for making it easy on your mom.) Here is the invitation that we gave out. Spencer's favorite part is the ARGH at the end.

We obviously burnt the edges and then rolled it up and put it in an IBC rootbeer bottle. Spencer loved it and loved taking them around to his friends to invite them.

This is a picture Spencer drew of Daniel and the Lions Den. You can see Daniel down with the lions and the king up looking through the hole. Pretty good huh!
And this is his interpretation of a crocodile.

It has been so warm here (off and on). The kids have had so much fun playing outside when it's warm. Spencer loves to push Carly in her swing... she loves it too.

Well, today we took our little white car in to get new brakes. (Yes, we still have it and it's going strong) It has 135,000 miles on it so far and we'll drive it until it gets double that if we can(Unless you ask Kyle). So, the brake place just called and of course there is something else wrong with it. Some piston thing in the back... bla bla bla. So it's going to cost us about 4 times what we had originally thought. Isn't that the way it always happens? Bye, bye new entertainment center that we were saving up for... oh well. At least the car is still running and we will get it back today.

I bet Kyle looked pretty dang good driving into the doctors parking lot at the hospital in the mini van though, especially amongst the BMW's, Porches, and Mercedes... At least we don't have to worry about our cars getting stolen when they're among that kind of company!

See you can always find the silver lining! :)

And in other, better news. We have a new neice! Sydnee Wayman was born on Tuesday and she is SOOOO cute! We can't wait to meet her! Congratulations guys!

Tag I'm it- again, and again, and again

So I have been “tagged” by numerous people over the last few months, and have yet to comply. It’s not because I have a lack of desire (well, partly that’s true) but it’s more that I seriously can’t think of anything to say… When I try to think of interesting or fun facts about me all I hear are the sound of crickets chirping.

Well, I’ve been “tagged” yet again and I will try to comply for this and all of the other times that I haven’t done it. I figured, if my own sister can think of 50 things about herself, then I can at least think of 10!
And, by no means do you have to read this. Just skip it if you so wish. (This is Michelle by-the-way)

1. I love grapefruit with salt on it. I blame this on my mother. I remember the first time I saw someone put sugar on a grapefruit, I thought, how gross! And then there are those people who don’t even like grapefruit… well, don’t get me started on them!

2. I cut my own hair. It seems that one of the advantages of having curly hair is that it doesn’t have to be cut straight.

3. I hate being pregnant. You always feel tired, sore, gross, fat and any other word that describes this horrible condition. Those people who say they love being pregnant are smoking something, and they really shouldn’t be, because we know what smoking does to the baby. Honestly, being pregnant is not that fun for me. So why get pregnant you ask? Well, I guess it’s the getting there that’s fun. HA you can throw up now, if you need to. Okay, so having kids is pretty dang cool, most of the time, until they talk back or roll their eyes at you, but that’s another post for another time.

4. I love cooked carrots. (You can throw up now too, if you need to.) I also blame this on my parents who grew carrots in our garden every year and then bottled them. Mmm… my mouth is watering just thinking of it. When I was in highschool, I could just eat cooked carrots for a meal and be happy… actually I could do that now and be happy.

5. I am constantly checking my rearview mirror for someone following me. I am afraid to take walks with the kids. And I wake up numerous times at night to make sure no one is outside my window… Paranoid? Yes. That’s what happens when you watch one too many America’s Most Wanted or the News for that matter.

6. I really need to stop watching the news.

7. I play volleyball every week trying to relive the glory days and just found out that I’m the oldest one that plays. How’s THAT for your self esteem? Well, I can keep up with those young girls pretty good AND I’m pregnant! Not too bad for an almost thirty-year-old.

8. Speaking of being old, I am totally going gray!

9. My least favorite chore is laundry.

10. When I was in high-school, I broke my tailbone by ice-blocking down an abandoned waterslide. Ah, those were the good old days.

Well, that's it folks.

V-Day overview

Carly, as we've mentioned before, loves shoes like any other little girl. She is constantly trying on mom and dad's shoes and strewing (is that a word?) them around the house.

Valentines Day was a success. The kids had a lot of fun. They got heart-shaped pancakes in the morning, Spencer had a party at preschool, and then they got to decorate heart shaped sugar cookies. This is them during the cookie decorating. Obviously, Carly is really excited. They also had some valentines delivered to them from friends and dad gave each of them their own special bag of presents. They loved it!
This is Carly eating some of the decorations for the cookies.

Spencer is going through a phase where he likes to take his shirt off for everything. He says it helps him exercise, don't ask me where he gets that. Here he is decorating.

The crew getting ready for dinner. Grandma and Grandpa Daniels sent us a party in a box, so we made good use of the tablecloth, plates, napkins and cups. It was just nice for me not to worry about dishes. (Okay, so Kyle actually probably does the dishes more than me, so I'm sure it was nice for him too.) Thanks guys!

Kyle gave me a computer program so that I can start doing digital scrapbooking and a coupon book for foot massages and stuff like that. I gave him a gift card to Home Depot and a coupon book for foot massages and stuff like that... I guess we've been married a long time and are more a like than we thought. After we put the kids down, we watched Survivor and Lost... what else could be better? :) Good V-day for everyone in the Christensen family. Hope yours were all as good or better!

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!!!! We can't wait to see it.

We are excited to see this movie. Here is the trailer. Enjoy.

Here's the official webstite to watch other clips.

Mark your calendars: May 22 2008

http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html

New bunk beds

Well, we finally got bunkbeds. Kyle put them together and it took about 4 hours... but they're done and Spencer loves them. Now, we will just try to get Carly moved into the room in the next few weeks... wish us luck.

Snow, Fun, Hockey

Our first "real" snow storm... all 2 inches of it. The kids were so excited to see snow actually sticking to the ground, that they immediately wanted their snow clothes on and wanted to go play in it. We've had a couple of snow storms, if you can call them that, but they only have left a dusting of snow that melted within a few minutes. This one, we actually still have a little snow in our back yard still.

Spencer taught Carly the art of eating the snow.
We have also went to Explora again. The cold weather is a nice reason to go somewhere indoors. The kids love it.
We went with some friends and they all had fun.

This is what Carly does when I tell her that Daddy is on his way home from work. She sits here and waits to see his car pull up. Then she screams and runs around. She sure loves her daddy.

We went to a hockey game last Friday. (Our first one here in Albuquerque). Kyle's group are the docs for the team, so they get free tickets. We finally took advantage of it and Spencer LOVED it!
Carly even had fun, her face doesn't do her emotions justice.
We were sitting right by where the team comes in and out of the arena; plus the mascot, a scorpion, hangs out there. Spencer got a puck signed by some of the players and a hockey card signed by Stanley the Scorpion. His favorite part was giving the Scorpion a high five. He got all excited and jumped up and down. He loved yelling ,"Go Scorps!" When we got home, he started crying and said he was crying because he wanted to go back to the hockey game... yes, it was late and he was a little delusional, but at least we know he had fun!
Carly loves her kitchen. It's the first thing she goes to after church. We eat plastic food all day long that is served to us by the lovely chef Carly.

A conversation with Spencer

Spencer was looking at an orthopaedics book of Kyle's. Kyle asked him what he was doing.

Spencer: I'm reading this book so that I can learn to go to work when I'm older, like you.

Kyle: Do you want to be a Physician Assistant or a "real" doctor when you're older?

Spencer: I'm going to be a big stud like you when I grow up.

The latest happenings...

We finally decided to paint Spencer's room. This is a before picture, just getting ready.

During...
And the finished product. We are actually very happy with how it turned out. The blue is actually a little darker than it appears in these pictures. It took us 5 1/2 hours on Saturday and when we were done, Kyle and I just sat in the room for awhile looking at what we did, plus we were exhausted and couldn't move.

And Spencer loves his new blue room! It's going to be an ocean room and so now we just need some ocean stuff. :) Our next purchase will be a bunkbed though, it's going to be Spencer AND Carly's room.

Don't worry, she doesn't have some horrible skin disease. Just caramel pudding face.

We went to Explora (childrens museum) last week. The kids love it and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Daniels, we can go anytime now because they gave us a pass for Christmas! Thanks!