Halloween

Aren't they cute!!!

We had a fabulous Halloween in Morgan with the Adams fam; seeing all our Morgan friends at the business trick-or-treat, carving pumpkins, making sugar cookies, and then doing the trunk-or-treat with Grandpa and Grandma's ward (which was like a family reunion since a bunch of my aunts and uncles and cousins were there).  It was the perfect Halloween for little ones.

Jamen Dale Christensen

Once again, this post is way over due, but it has taken awhile to actually get to the blog. :)  Our precious boy was born on September 24th at 4:30 am.  He weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 20 inches long.  I had my 39 week appointment on Thursday morning and that night, started having contractions.  They went from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart pretty fast.  Grandpa Christensen made a middle of the night drive to come stay with the girls while we went to the hospital.  We called him at 12:45 and by the time he got here, I was way ready to go to the hospital.  We took off immediately.  When we got to the hospital it was about 2:15 am.  I was dilated to a six when we got there and after many attempts to get my epidural in, I finally had some relief.  Once the epidural was in, I just had to wait for the doctor to break my water.  As soon as that was done, we had a baby.  He really came immediately after they broke my water. 

It is amazing to hear that first cry from your newborn baby! One time when crying is actually music to your ears.  Our baby cried for the first few minutes after he was born and then started having some trouble breathing.  They let me hold him for about 2 minutes and then took him to the nursery for observation.  They eventually had to give him an IV because his blood sugar levels dropped and they didn't want me to feed him while he was struggling to breathe.  They eventually took him for a chest X-ray and that was when Jared came back to tell me what was going on.  They decided there was a little amniotic fluid in his lungs, but he eventually worked it out and after about 4 hours, brought him to me.  He has been doing very well since.  He is a great baby and has amazing hair that we all love.

We had a very difficult time deciding on a name for him.  We had a few we were considering and thought once we saw him, we would know what to name him.  Then, it was forever before I could actually spend some time with him, so the day was half over before he had a name.  We finally decided on Jamen.  It means "right hand of God". Dale is Jared and his dad's middle name.

The girls are loving having "brother" here.  There is definitely vigilance on my part to keep him from being smothered (literally) with love.  We love you, Jamen and are glad you are a part of our family.

The girls meet their new brother

Our first photo as a family of 5

Going home from the hospital

Check out that hair!

Jamen (one week old) with all of his Christensen cousins that were born this summer.

July??? Let's go back to June...

Our big events in June...
1-Finishing our basement:  Brian, Christi, and Brandon came and helped us paint and it turned out awesome!  We got the marble installed, finish electrical done (except our hall lights that are on back order) and the carpet installed all within a week.  We have been loving it, especially now that it is hot! We painted one room purple, with white bead board for the girls to eventually share.  I didn't expect to move anyone down there until Kenzie was 5 or so.  The day it was finished, she asked if she could sleep down there.  We put up one of the twin beds and she has been sleeping there ever since.  I think it was definitely harder on me have her sleep downstairs by herself than it was for her.  Here are a few pictures, pre moving everything down and with no decor.  They don't really do it justice.  If you want to see how it really looks, you'll have to come visit!  We still have the bathroom to finish, but love, love, love the new space we have down there.

The office

Kenzie's room

One part of the family room (the real part with the couches and TV, I forgot to take a picture of)

The play area with a room under the stairs

The best part of all is that we now have a perfect place for tea parties and the girls love nothing more than a great tea party with dad!

Isn't he great!!!! And look at the smile on Linzie's face.  She couldn't be happier.

2. First round of pink eye: Don't have any idea where she picked it up, but Linzie got pink eye.  It was in one eye in the morning and by the end of afternoon nap, she had two goopy, red, painful looking eyes.  I thought the rest of us had escaped and it was limited to just her, until I got it last week--two weeks after her.  

3. Father's Day

 Mexican food, cheese cake, and presents with his girls.  I don't know if it gets much better than that for Jared.  We love you and think you are the best dad in the world!

4.  Seven Peaks--Jason's B-day:
So, every year, Jason is kind enough to host his own birthday party and take the whole extended family to Seven Peaks and then we all bring something for a BBQ afterward.  It makes for a great party.  We missed the Smiths and Cathy this year, but had a great time.  Thanks Jason and Meredith!  I was too busy with little girls in the water to get too many pictures.  Kenzie, although she was freezing, did not ever want to get out of the water and Linzie thought it was fun to sit on the side of the wading pool and splash or, sleep on Grandpa.  I hung out like a beached whale in the wading pool most the day and Jared enjoyed the slides, when he wasn't with the girls.

5.   Garden:
It finally stopped raining enough in May that we could actually plant the garden.  We got to pick spinach, green onions,our first peas and the first strawberries we have ever had.   Now that it is actually July when I am posting this, we have cherry tomatoes on, peppers that are about ready, more peas, cilantro, and more strawberries (albeit small ones).  I love the garden and have really enjoyed going out with the girls to pick our produce.  They have about made themselves sick eating peas! 

6. Week in St. George with the Christensens:

This really warrants it's own post, and I might just do it with more detail and pictures, another day.  For now, the highlights are: an amazing house to stay in with indoor and outdoor pools and a sand volley ball pit, the animal museum, the "Crack", Tarzan at Tuachan, Eclipse (yes, we had to go to the movie :),  the Jacob Hamblin Home, the Mountain Meadows monument, the Pine Valley Chapel and restaurant in Pine Valley, the temple, relaxing, swimming and just hanging out and visiting.  Thank you grandpa and grandma Christensen! 
We got to end the week by seeing the Embley's new house and going to the 4th of July fireworks in Moroni with my brother and his family.

July?? Let's go back to May!

Wow!  How is it already July?  This summer that took so long in coming is going by so fast....  A few highlights since the last, long ago post.  I'll try to be brief, but this could get lengthy...just warning you.

In May, Jared had a conference at the Disneyland Hotel, so we decided to make a family vacation out of it.  We drove to Disneyland with a three year old and a one year old.  On the way there, we split the trip in two--on the way home, we drove straight through.  I recommend just driving the whole way.  On the first day, we got to stop at the home of one of Jared's former roommates.  He has built a brick pizza oven in his back yard and has perfected a thin crust pizza.  He and his family made us amazing brick oven pizza.

Besides minor meltdowns (on the part of children and adults) on day 2 of our drive, we had a great time.  It was the best time of year to go, with short lines, not too hot, and not too many people. A one year old, a three year old, and a 20 week pregnant mother, does not make for the ideal Disneyland experience, but it turned out great! Linzie hated waiting in line, but both girls, for the most part, loved the rides.  Carousels and Dumbo were the favorites.  And, the best part for Kenzie were the princesses.  We stayed in a hotel right across the street, so we could go "home" for lunch and naps and then hit the park hard again.  We pretty much wore the girls out.

The last day of our trip, we drove to San Diego.  After our visit to the temple, we got to meet up with one of Jared's buddies from high school and his family.  We got to go to the newly redone (awesome) Mormon Battalion Museum, have the most delicious strawberry, chocolate, and cinnamon tortillas, and play at the beach with them.  We also got to spend the night at their house.  Thank you Johnny and Mandy for a wonderful time!

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We got home just in time for Mother's Day, quickly followed by Jared's birthday. Both events celebrated wonderfully and pretty low key this year.