A Day of Surprises

I had a fantastic birthday this year! Thanks to some amazing friends and family, this year was a really special one for me. My great friend Kim arranged a day of surprises for me, starting with her coming all the way down from Bellingham to surprise me at work and take me out with my mom to lunch and a movie. Then another surprise when we met up with Karine, who I had no idea was here, for some shopping and girl time. Then last but not least, a big dinner where all of my wonderful friends throughout the years got together to surprise me with one of my favorite meals (a huge seafood fest at the Crab Pot!). What an amazing day. I even got flowers from my husband, and a gift from my boys. What more could a girl ask for???

Thanks so much Kim, and everyone, for making me feel so special on my birthday. I really had a terrific time and couldn't ask for better individuals to have around me. I love you guys!

This background is for you Mr. Rich!!!! :)

Miss you guys!

Celebrations!

So, I have a good friend who really loves to celebrate....well, anything. :) And since I am pretty much the same way, we came up with a plan to put a whole bunch of celebrations into one fun night and go to a play at Village Theater together. We were celebrating Teage's birthday, my birthday, Valentine's Day, my baptism anniversary, AND the fact that Teage and Nick both received job offers within one week of each other. Added bonus, they get to work in the same building even....and get to have lunch together practically everyday. What can I say? They were pretty darn excited about it. :)

Jen and I completely took advantage of a night out "on the town" (Issaquah is very exciting you know!), got all dressed up and made a big deal about where we were going and what we were doing. We saw the play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' which was put on amazingly by the cast. I couldn't believe how many lines they had to memorize! We watched in awe, had some silly fun during the intermissions (again...a night out for us is pretty great!), and took a ton of pictures. All in all, a great evening out with some great friends.

Thanks Jen and Nick, we had a fabulous time!!!

The girls...

The guys...trying to look non-chalant

Jen and I pretending we are a part of the show....boy are we silly! :)

Nick and his famous candy bar

Happy Valentine's Day

This year I had to work on Valentine's Day....but as many of you who have children know, I wasn't expecting a huge day anyway. :) Not that my husband doesn't make me feel special on days like this (he always does!), but realistically with two little boys, it is difficult to go out on many one on one dates. :) We did have the wonderful opportunity to take the boys out the night before with one of my best friends, Lindsay. We all went to dinner, laughed a ton, and had a fantastic time. Then the next day after I came home from work I found a big surprise from all three of my favorite men. They had bought me a present, flowers, and made an adorable giant card. I loved it! Then later that day the whole family made sugar cookies together and even let the boys frost their own. It was an adventure for sure, but we had such a great time. The boys thought they were in heaven with mom letting them have their own utensils and sprinkles! It was a really sweet scene to witness. They were very proud of their creations in the end. :)Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Our finished product...

100th Post

Dear family blog,

Thank you for being there to report all of the Christensen Clan doings for the last 100 posts. You have been there for all of the ups and downs, ins and outs, good and bad throughout the last few years...we really appreciate all of the great relaying skills, cropping of pictures, spellcheck, etc etc. What would we do without blogger?? :)

I love you my crazy family!

nvjddjfkbmmbmmnnmmmnnmmnggggvvvvvbbbbnnnnnnnnnnnnndfghnbtfrfddd Love, Dylan

Teage and Lucas being funny the other day...

Let the season begin!

Teage and I were able to take the boys to Mariner's Fanfest a few weeks ago. Both of us have very fond memories of going to Mariners games when we were younger, and when the boys were first born we would watch the game every night on TV (considering we were so homebound. :) ). We had not had the chance to take the boys to a game yet at Safeco Field, so when the opportunity came to go to Fanfest we were really excited. And it definitely did not disappoint. We all had the chance to run the bases, hang out in the Mariner dugout, see some of the players as well as the new manager, and just be there for a fun day at the park. Though it was a bit chilly outside, we all had a fantastic time. I also got some great pictures of the boys running the bases which I had to share. Though they didn't really know what they were doing or why, they had a blast anyway. :) And now we are even more excited about the 2009 season....go M's!

On the field!

Mariner's new manager Don Wakamatsu, with legend Dave Niehaus

Safe!

That looks like a pretty good catch Daddy! :)

Mommy and her boys hanging out in the dugout. I have always wanted to go in there! :)

Teage's 1st Day

As many of you know, Teage and I have had a few difficult months in the past little while with career moves. With this economy and the mortgage industry suffering, we knew that we would most likely be in for some rough times ahead. And rough they were. But, we are also so thankful for this opportunity that Heavenly Father has given us to downsize, organize, and re-budget our lives. We knew that He was there watching out for us these past few years, as He always has, and that He knew what was best for our little family. Thank you to all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers, we are deeply touched by the amount of help and goodness that we received, and are very humbled by the love from friends and family.

I am happy to announce that Teage did just start a new job a little over a week ago. We are excited about this opportunity for him and for our family, and know that we are blessed to have him working full-time again. The boys and I will miss him terribly, but we are also excited to get back on a schedule, and the boys really cherish their "Daddy time" now.

Teagers, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. We all love you, and are extremely grateful to have you as our husband and Daddy. Te Quiero Mucho!

Teage on his first day in his new job. Can you tell how terribly excited he was about me taking his picture?? :) I figured we had to save the moment!

"Mama"

The boys have recently found a magical word that will stop Mommy in her tracks and turn all attention to them. I am now hearing "Mama!!!" many many times during the day, and with each word they giggle and smile like they have their own little secret. :) They have been able to say "Mama" for quite some time now, but I think it just dawned on them how much power this one word held. Dylan is now in the habit of saying "Mama!".....Erin: "Yes honey?"......Dylan "HI!". He thinks he is hilarious. And Mom falls for it every time! :)

Both boys also LOVE dancing, and everyday they get so excited when the Ellen Show comes on so they can dance with her. They also dance every time they hear music, no matter what the tune is. It could be a song from a commercial on the television, to hymn music from church...not matter what it is, they will dance. These boys love to move!

Some other favorites right now:

-Saying "cheese" whenever they see a camera

-Clapping and stomping their feet to "If you're happy and you know it"

-Cucumbers and avocados

-Chocolate (of course)

-Tutu and Grammy (their Grandmas)

-Linnet and Carter from church :)

-And of course, Veggie Tales

Teage and I are so grateful to be the parents of such special boys. We love them tremendously, and are thankful to have them in our lives.

Water water everywhere

Last week we had some major flooding in our area, as well as many other parts of Western Washington. A combination of snow storms one week and high temps with massive rain the next was not a great one for us. Thankfully where Teage and I live we did not receive anything in the way of flooding, but there are many who live just down the road who did. After much of the water had subsided, we decided to drive down to Snoqualmie Falls and see how large the water flow was, as well as check out the damage all the flooding had done to Snoqualmie itself. We were shocked and saddened to see first hand the amount of devastation in just our little area. There were homes with all of their belongings, from mattresses to television sets, just thrown out onto their front yards because nothing was salvageable. A recycle and garbage center was set up in the middle of the city for all those who needed to dispose of their belongings, and the number of bins and trucks was just unbelievable. We are keeping those families in our thoughts and prayers continually. The falls after all of the rain and snow...I don't think that I have ever seen it so large

Teage and I with the boys after our little hike out to the falls. We are soaked....and not because it was raining, but because of the heavy mist that cascaded down on us from the water flow of the falls.

These pictures are not great, they were taken out of the window of a moving car. :) But, they give you just a taste of what these poor residents were going through during the flooding.

Snow Days

This winter we have seen a record for snow fall around Seattle. Most people in colder parts of the country think that we are such wimps around here....closing school with an inch of snow on the ground, hunkering down in our homes and not wanting to drive. :) However, our snow is a bit different then most other parts of the country. We have mainly ice on the roads as opposed to dry snow, and there are lots of nice big hills for cars to slide right down. :) This year has been a big one for the snow fall...not my favorite thing in the world. I have had a few bad experiences with cars and snow, so I tend to stay at home when there is white stuff on the roads. We actually ended up not being able to see a lot of our family on Christmas Day because we literally could not get our car out of the driveway...there was about two feet of snow all along our alley in the back of our house. So we made the best of our Christmas with just our little family, played in the snow for quite a while, then had good ol chicken nuggets for dinner (the boys' favorite). :) The missionaries from our ward walked over on Christmas Day as well, and helped Teage build a giant snow fort in the front yard. I think they all had a great time. All in all, not exacly the Christmas that we were planning on having, but definitely one to remember. :) I hope that you all had a beautiful and wonderful holiday!

The boys getting all ready to brave the snow

The missionaries building giant snowballs in their nice clothes and ties

Teage standing in the first part of the snow fort

Sweet Lucas

Sweet Dylan

The finished fort with all the "boys"