Merry Christmas!

 Christmas outfits for 2012! I just think my kiddos are SO adorable!!!!! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!!! 

Pic of the Day- Dec 2012

The boys have been SO much fun lately! I just have been feeling extremely blessed and thankful to have such amazing children, and have the opportunity to be their mother. I am a lucky lucky girl, let me tell you!!! And I have felt it really keenly lately. 

The boys are always having fun making up games, playing sports, reading and writing. They are really embracing life and learning right now, and I love it. Lately they have wanted to write on everything! Write notes to friends and family, write their names in all of their belongings, and just about anything else they can get their hands on. Teage brought these huge balloons home the other day from work, and the boys immediately decided they needed to write their names and information right on the balloon. It turned out adorable and I had to share. This is Dylan's balloon. He has written..."Dylan's balloon. My brother is Lucas, my baby sister is Emery, my mom is Erin and my Daddy is Teage" So cute!! :)

The boys were also invited to a good friend's birthday party the other day at Build-A-Bear workshop. Their sweet friend Sydney is adorable, and the three of them are very close. They were thrilled to be able to go with her and all of them had a blast! Since then, the boys have not put their bears down!!! They both got to make Mariner bears....Lucas named his Christmas Tree, and Dylan named his Mariner Bear but now calls him Babwa.....haha. They are so adorable!!!!!!!! I just love my family!

Merry Christmas 2012!

A copy of our Christmas card for this year:

To our wonderful friends and family,

Merry Christmas!!!!

We want to thank you all for your love and support throughout 2012. It has definitely been a big year for our family, ups and downs, ins and outs. But through it all, we are extremely grateful that we have each other, our fabulous extended family, and our friends near and far. We love you all!!

In June we moved our family into a new home, just down the street from our old one! We love our new home and are excited to have my Mom, or “Tutu” with us in a basement apartment!

Mr. Teaggers had a rough beginning to the year. While playing basketball with some buddies, he ran into someone accidently and ended up coming down wrong on his leg. Long story short, he tore his ACL, and both of his meniscus’ (menisci??) J  in his left knee. Ouch! He had some major surgery in March, and had to lay low for quite a while, which is definitely not in his nature.  By summer time, he was back to the gym for his daily workouts and stress relief and thankfully is now almost back to his former weight-lifting self. J Right now he is busy working hard for his family at Quadrant Homes, serving members of our ward as Elders Quorum President, and hanging out being a fabulous Daddy to his kiddos.

I have had a busy year raising our 3 beautiful children, trying to clean and organize our new home, serving as a Sunday School teacher to the 16-17 year olds at church, taking a ton of pictures for friends and family, and playing with my beautiful family. J I did have the amazing opportunity for a few weekend get-aways with buddies this year, which was extremely special for me. I got to go to Seaside for some beach time, San Fransisco for a wedding, and to Ashland Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival! Fun for Mommy!

Dylan and Lucas turned 5 years old in June and started Kindergarten in September (with their Mommy crying in the corner of course!) They have an amazing teacher and are having the time of their lives learning something new every day, making friends, and going to PE. J In April they began their first year of Little League, starting with T-ball. They had SO much fun and cried when it was over. They cheered for the Mariners during their sad season and cried again when that ended as well. J I feel like these boys have grown up so much this year; I can’t believe that they are already five and a half. Time is going by WAY too fast! Dylan is hilarious, always the comedian. He is kind and playful with his little sister, and loves to have fun. Lucas is a little quieter, but still playful and fun. He loves to read, write, and create new things. I am so proud of both of them and the little men they have become.

Miss Emery just turned 18 months and has officially entered nursery at church (not that she will really go!) J She is feisty and fun, always trying to keep up with her brothers. This girl definitely knows her own head and wants what she wants. J She is fiercely independent, but still wants her Mommy around almost all of the time. She is learning new words every day, trying to copy everything I say. She may eat more than her brothers at dinner time, and push them if they are in her way. J We all love having her beautiful personality in our family, and laugh all the time at the funny things she says and does. She is adorable.

We hope all of you have a wonderful and beautiful Christmas season! We love you!

Love, The Christensen Family

Family Pictures 2012

I realized the other day that it is already December and I had not yet taken any family pictures for Christmas. Oops! So, the one nice day we had last weekend, I dressed my family up and I dragged them out into our backyard in the cold weather to get a few shots with the help of a tripod. It was super quick, but there were a few that turned out really great! I couldn't be happier with a 15 minute photo shoot! :)

Just wanted to share a few....

Ashland Trip

 I had a wonderful opportunity to go to Ashland Oregon at the beginning of September with some amazing family, my stepmom Lisa, and my Aunt Becky and Uncle Rich. Becky and Rich have been going to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland for about 30 years now, and this year invited us to join them. What an awesome opportunity! And I absolutely loved it!!! I had never been before, so this was a little foreign to me, but I can honestly say, I am a little addicted now. :) Amazing performances (we got to see 5 shows!!!) by fantastic actors, an outdoor theater, a really interesting backstage tour, fun eclectic town and restaurants, what could be better? :) We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go back!!!

Pic of the Day- 3

The boys participated in a Walk-A-Thon for school a few weeks ago, and had an absolute blast! Every classroom chose a theme and walks laps to raise money for their school. Here are a few pictures that I just loved while the boys were having a great time!

 Mr. L with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. West. Their class had a Cat in the Hat theme, which was so much fun for D and L.

Mr. D just took this walk by storm. He decided he was going to run just about the entire time, and had a ton of fun doing it! He would hardly look at me as he went passed because he was so focused on his running! :)

Emery and her Tutu

This time a literal tutu, as opposed to Grandma Tutu. :) I took advantage of the good weather the other day and took some adorable pictures of Miss E in her little purple tutu that we got her for her Halloween costume. They were just adorable and I had to share a few....

Big Kindergarteners!!!!

I am way behind, but I have to show everyone these adorable pictures of the boys on their first day of Kindergarten! The boys were so incredibly excited!!! It was quite a picture....I was on the verge of tears the entire morning, while the boys were bouncing off the walls with excitement! We had everything ready for about week beforehand, had their outfits picked out, backpacks packed. 

On the first morning, we took some pictures of the boys on their big day....smiles all the way. I was worried about how they would react when I dropped them off, but the minute they were in their classroom they forgot all about me and ran over to their cubbies and found their seats. I honestly had a difficult time walking out of that school without them. :( 

They are having such a wonderful year so far. Their teacher is amazing, we are extremely grateful for Mrs. West. She is kind and gentle, but also wonderful about being direct and having the kids take responsibility for themselves and follow the rules. I absolutely love her. I have also had the opportunity to volunteer in their classroom and I love being able to see them in their school environment. They are just thriving, and I am a super proud mom!!!!!! 

I love you D and L!!!!!!!

 Mr D ready to go!

 Mr L super excited!

Lucas the Photographer

Here are some of Lucas' best shots....I love that they are both so excited about their photographing skills!!!

 When Miss E was really little, she was his absolute favorite thing to photograph. It was so cute to watch him take about 20 pictures of her in the same spot. He loves her so much....

And then of course his other love....baseball!!! He also took many many shots of the television screen whenever a Mariner game was on.....I chose this one to show of Casper Wells. He was so excited because Casper hit a home run right after this shot was taken. :)

Dylan the Photographer

The boys have these awesome children digital cameras that Tutu gave them for Christmas a few years ago. They are at an age now where they are beginning to adore capturing pictures of what they love. It is really cute to watch. Dylan especially. When we went to the zoo the other day, he would not let that camera out of his sight, he had to capture every animal that we came across. I absolutely loved it! And bonus, I can actual download their digital files onto the computer so we can share their fabulous art! Woohoo!

 Lucas with his new little sister.....she was about 2 months old :)

Our fun at the zoo!!!!!!!!!

Pic of the Day - 2

The other day sweet Lucas got to go on a donut date with Tutu for one of his prizes for being such a wonderful listener. On the way home, they passed by the grocery store where the door opened and inside were a whole bunch of fresh flowers. Lucas, on his own, said "Tutu, we need to buy some flowers for Mommy." What a sweetheart!!!! I can't believe that he would think of that all by himself! :) So, they went into the store and he handpicked some of my favorite type of flowers, just for me. I am so in love with this little man!!!

Miss you Mariners!

Pic of the Day - First Try

I have been trying lately to take a few more candid pictures of my children, in their everyday environment and doing everyday things. I want to be able to remember who they were at a certain time, what they loved, and their fun little personalities. :) So, I am going to try to occasionally blog a pic of the day and explain. We will see how well I really do! :)

 Emery has been a little jealous of the boys being able to go to school everyday. :) For her first birthday, Tutu gave her her own backpack which she calls a "packpack". A few days ago the boys were so adorable with her, helping her put her packpack on and taking her hand leading her to the "school". Dylan had some chairs set up and books all ready to go. It was so adorable! He led her to the school, sat down with her and asked "Emery, are you ready?" She was all attentive and nodded at him, so he began to read her a book. I just loved watching them together. Dylan was being so sweet and patient and Emery just looked at him with her big blue adoring eyes the whole time. I love seeing my sweet children playing together and helping each other!

 When Mommy was gone for a girls night, Daddy and the boys decided to build a huge block castle. The boys had so much fun with it, making bridges and walkways for little people, and driveways and roads for cars. They were so inventive and so proud of their finished project!

 Miss Emery has been trying so hard to copy just about anything she sees anyone else doing. This was her 'putting her face in her hands' pose, that she was trying to copy from me. I was sitting in the chair opposite her. Just love this girl!!!

Playing around with Daddy last week. The boys beat him at arm wrestling every single time! What strong boys!!! :) And I just love how Emery decided to help out by sitting right on top of poor Mr. Lucas!