E's Blessing Day

We decided to bless little Emery at home instead of at church this time around. We invited just the grandparents over and had a small dinner to celebrate Emery. And I am thankful for the intimate experience we were able to have with this sweet little girl. It was great just to dote on her and relax at home for a while not having to think about anything else. Miss E got to wear a beautiful blessing dress that both of her cousins Kiana and Maiya wore on their blessing days. It was really special. Her blessing was beautiful as well. It had a lot of wonderful and beautiful promises regarding the life ahead of her. I was overwhelmed honestly. It was emotional and lovely. I am so thankful for this little girl in my life, what a wonderful blessing she is.

One Month Old

Little Miss E turned one month old on July 8th. I can't believe that that much time has gone by already. I feel like Emery has always been in our family. She is so special and sweet. I love this girl so much. She is so alert and attentive, so mellow. I feel like she is kind of an older soul....she is so calm and chill all the time. She is adored by our whole family.....the boys are just in love with her. Thankfully they are mad at me for the lack of attention instead of her. :) They keep giving her a ton of kisses, sing to her, and get in her face with silly voices all the time. Emery is also doing a great job with her eating and sleeping, giving Teage and I about a 5 hour stretch at night. Amazing! I am not the greatest at sleep deprivation, so this is good news for me.

I am so thankful for this little pink bundle! We love you Skittles!!!!

The Boys Turn 4!!

The boys have been very excited about their birthday for quite a while now. We didn't even have anything monumental planned, they just wanted to finally be 4 years old! :) This year was really low key since they had a 2 week old baby sister, but they seemed to have a lot of fun anyway. The day before their birthday we spent the day as a family and went mini golfing and out to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Red Robin. We met my great friend Kim (or Kimmypoo as they call her) at the restaurant, and the boys were completely embarrassed by the servers all singing Happy Birthday to them. They turned their backs and wouldn't even look at them until the ice cream came out. :)

Their actual birthday was on a Sunday, so at church all of the primary kids sang to them as well. They played it cool at the time, but came home just beaming from all of the attention. :) The rest of the day was made up of family members dropping by and celebrating at different times. I think the boys loved it actually. Grammy, Papa, Uncle David, and Papa Christensen came over for lunch and opened presents with the boys. And then Tutu and Poppi came over for dinner and cake later. It really was a fun day for everyone, and I think the boys felt so special that all of these people were there for them on their special day.

I asked the boys what their favorite part of their birthday was and Dylan said going to Red Robin, and Lucas said that eating his Ichiro cake was the best part. :) I am not the most creative person in the world when it comes to cake making, so I just made two round cakes and decorated them to look like baseballs with a #51 on each for Ichiro. :) They loved them though, so I guess that is all that matters.

Some things that these big 4 year olds love right now:

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Flash Cards- they can do all of the single digit addition ones, and some of the double digit. It is cute to watch them quizzing each other on what the answers are. :)

Baseball of course, and they are getting really good.

Mariners- they know all of the players, their numbers and positions, and can even read some of their names.

Playing at the park

"Flash Mob"- You know, the guy who dances on the commercial?! They love him and take turns dancing with them every time it comes on.

Board Games- Tic, Tac, Toe and Connect 4 are their current favorites. They love strategic games that take a little more thought.

4 years ago I gave birth to these two beautiful boys. They have been such lights in my life since then and every day I am thankful for them in my life. Raising twins has definitely been a unique challenge, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Happy Birthday Dylan and Lucas! We love you so much.....your sweet spirits, the examples you are to your little sister and others, and how unique and special you each are. Always remember that we are extremely lucky to have you in our family, and that you are very loved.

Emery's professional pics :)

I have a good friend named Rebecca who is an amazing photographer and was nice enough to come over and take some newborn shots of Miss E when she was only 13 days old. She was so patient and kind, and stayed for almost 3 hours just making sure that she got the right shot. I am so thankful, and really excited about how some of these turned out. Emery looks adorable!

Mini Photo Shoot

We decided to try a mini photo shoot with Emery while she was still a newborn so we could get some good shots with her big brothers. I was a little worried about how she would do, but this girl was amazing! She was calm the entire time, even when we were shifting her around all over the place. And some of the pictures turned out great! I am so excited about them!! And these boys are so good with her....I feel so blessed!

She's Here!!

Introducing

Emery Grace Moana Christensen

Born June 8th 2011

7 lbs 2 oz, 19 in long

What a sweet blessing this girl has already been to our family!!

The boys and I on the morning of....ready to go to the hospital!

I went in on Wednesday the 8th for a scheduled c-section of this little girl. When I got there I found out that I was actually having contractions about every 4-6 minutes, so it looks like she was ready to enter the world anyway! The surgery was pretty perfect (as far as surgeries go anyway), and my doctor was wonderful. I was more alert this time around, so I just chatted with my doctor and Teage through the whole thing, and even got to look into a mirror as she was being born. The minute she entered the world I felt like I recognized her....she was perfect. Everything went so smoothly that once she was washed up, Teage was able to hold her and bring her right over to me so we could decide on her name. We went through each and every one that we were thinking of, and Emery was definitely the one. I couldn't imagine her name as anything else. :)

Little E has been so sweet and mellow since the very beginning. Even right after her birth she just opened her eyes and looked around the hospital room for almost 2 hours, not saying a word. She just wanted to check things out. Her brothers adore her, and only wanted to leave her side in the hospital when we announced that the Mariner game was starting. :)

We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights, for which I am actually very grateful. The boys were having a slumber party over at my mom's house, so Teage and I had a great opportunity to bond with E all by ourselves. It really was a special time for us, and I am so thankful. Teage is such a wonderful and caring Daddy, I am so blessed to have him in my life.

She has been wonderful at home so far. The whole transition has definitely been hard on the boys, but I guess I would be worried if it wasn't. All of us are trying to adjust to this new schedule, etc. The boys absolutely love her, but it has been hard having Mommy's time taken away. We will adjust. We are all just trying to soak in each moment with her as a baby and not forget a single thing.

We love you Miss Emery "Skittles" Christensen!

The "Suite" Life of Dylan and Lucas

It is no surprise that being the only grandkids so far on both of my sides, the boys tend to get spoiled from time to time. :) I usually overlook this, considering it is so much fun for all grandparents involved, and both of them really are good boys. :) And every so often, Teage and I get spoiled as well. :)
This last weekend my dad's family rented a suite at the Mariner vs Yankee game, May 28th 2011. We had done this one other time last year and had so much fun that they decided they wanted to give it one more go. And we are so thankful they did! Such a highlight for my little family! We absolutely LOVED it!!!!!!!
Now this is the life.....you get your own private suite, with food and drinks, 20 seats for your close family and friends with an amazing view of the field, someone who pretty much waits on you hand and foot, and a personal visitation from the Mariner Moose! Plus, the game was amazing, and we beat the Yankees!!! What could be better then that??????
My whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, parents, got to the ballpark super early because we were all so excited. So, we took the boys down to the field to see if we could get any autographs and watch batting practise. Well, it turns out that David Aardsma was there signing autographs, so the boys got to meet him and give him a high five, as well as take home his signiture. They loved it. When we were turning away from the line, the person behind me says "You should have him sign your tummy....when are you ever going to wear that shirt again?" At first I thought that could be a little awkward, but then decided just to ask for the heck of it. Well, David Aardsma thought it was a little weird too, but he did it for me anyway with a smile on his face. What a good sport! So, Skittles got her first Mariner autograph too! :)

Both of Dad's brothers and their families came up for the event, which was really fun since we hadn't seen them in a year or more. We even got to play our favorite family game of Knock while they were staying! Something that is one of my very favorite things to do! Both of Lisa's siblings and their significant others came to the game as well, so we had a lot of family, and a ton of laughs. Everyone really got into the game as well, yelling and screaming for the Mariners! I love it! Dylan was sitting with my Dad pretty much the whole game, being his little buddy. He didn't even want to leave after the 10th inning, when it was almost 11pm! He was having way to much fun! Lucas had a great time too, hopping laps and eating hot dogs....and neither one even fell asleep on the way home because we were listening to the end of the 12th inning on the radio. Amazing.
One random (and interesting) thing that happened during the game that I had NEVER seen before......we had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR people run onto the field!!! And one of them was a streaker. I couldn't believe it. It just looked like everyone was feeding off each other, and kept daring someone else to hop the fence and see how far they could run. The second guy was hilarious though. While the three Mariner outfielders were all in center field during a pitching change, he ran out there and just stood in front of them totally star-struck, and was then completely tackled by a security gaurd from behind, linebacker style. I had to laugh at the Mariner faces too....they weren't phased at all and actually looked bored at the guys' performance. :)

Overall, we had a wonderful time and were so thankful to have been able to go again this year. We really loved the time we got to spend with the family, creating more memories, and cheering for our favorite team.
Thank you Grammy and Papa!!!!!! We had a blast!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodwill Run

Teage and I were able to go on a date yesterday, thanks to my wonderful mom. She came over since Teage had the day off, and let us have one last outing before baby. And what do T and I do? Go to Goodwill of course! We are such nerds, and suckers for a good deal. It was Memorial Day, so everything was basically 50% off, and lots of clothes only 99 cents. I had to show off the haul beacuse I am so proud of it! :)

Here is what we bought (don't be scared)....

For the boys:

4 shirts

1 sweater

1 track jacket

1 pair of jeans and 1 pair of nice khacki pants

2 authentic baseball jerseys

For Skittles:

10 pairs of pants (jeans, cords, Adidas)

10 dresses

1 nice shirt

For Me:

2 skirts

2 work out jackets

2 shirts (Abercrombie)

For Teage:

2 pairs of work slacks

8 nice button up shirts (some Nordstrom, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Hillfiger, etc)

AND a Huffey bike for the boys!!!!!

GRAND TOTAL for everything (drum roll please!): Only $80.00!!!!!!

One of Teage's shirts all by itself would have cost $80 brand new in the store! And all of this stuff is nice or like new. We are super proud of ourselves!!!! :)

Skittles' Nursery

We have finally completed the room, and I absolutely love how it turned out! These pictures don't give it justice! :) My friend Candice did the painting for me (she is amazing by the way.....Fuller Interior and Design, UTFullers2@aol.com). Now we are just waiting the one more week for Skittles' to arrive! We can't wait to meet her!

Swim Lessons

The boys had the opportunity to do a second round of swim lessons these past few weeks. They were a little timid about the whole thing at first, but when they found out that their good buddy Sydney was going to be in the same class, they definitely perked up. They had a wonderful teacher this time, who unfortunately couldn't finish off the class with them because of an injury. But, all who worked with them were great. At this age, I couldn't tell if they were really understanding much or getting any better, but by the end I could tell that they definitely felt more comfortable in the water. Dylan even puts his whole head in with no problem, which is a huge feat for them. :) Here are some fun pics of their time in the pool:

I love this picture! It is a perfect representation of all three of their attitudes towards swim lessons. :) Sydney was always so excited and raring to go, Dylan had fun and in the end really did enjoy himself, and Lucas was always a little timid about the whole thing....