Kids
Halloween 2008
Little Boys Need Guardian Angels
My Little Chickadees (04/16/06)
Salt Lake Children's Museum 03/31/06
New Household Ornaments (03/05/06)
Snow, Snow Everywhere! (02/16/06)
Tale of the Two Miscreants (02/07/06)
Amber's Crazy Morning Hair (02/01/06)
My Little Photographers (01/19/06)
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09/10/09 This summer Amber did swim team for the first time and LOVED it. She went everyday for an hour to the pool down the street for practice, and every other week they did swim meets with the kids who met there at other times (there were 3 groups of kids at different times). She participated in the freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke. She has a great backstroke.
On another swim meet day, sporting a new swim suit:
_______________________________ 08/27/09 Today Kindergarten began, and my youngest (*sniff sniff*) began bright and early this morning. I walked over with him and took a couple of pictures of his first day of school.
His teacher wanted to take a picture of us together.
Yes, now I'm offically alone every morning from 8:30 - 11:30 am. Whatever am I going to do with myself? The other grades started last week. Here's Amber and Carter with their friends Cameron and Kirtland, our neighbors who they walk to school with.
______________________________________________ Spencer and His Collection of Metal 08/25/09 Spencer loves metal. Screws. Bolts. Nuts. Washers. Coins. Little pieces of un-reconognizable metal. If it's rusty it's even better! He usually finds them on the ground wherever we go. Or picks up leftover pieces from projects Mark does around the house. Spencer kept putting these pieces in his pockets and then they'd end up in my washer. Or all over his room. Or tucked under his pillow. So, the other day, I went to Lowe's and picked up a case for him to put his collection in. He was SO excited. He spent the next couple of days scouring the house for new items. Then, he sorted them into the little slots. And sorted them again. Then sorted them again. And came and showed me, I swear, every ten minutes the new nail, or screw, or bolt he just added and where he put it. Silly boy.
___________________________________ 08/13/09 While eating lunch at Tucanos on Saturday: Spencer: "Mom, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?" Me: "I don't know, what do you want to be Spencer?" Thinking: Wow! He's never said anything like this before! What kind of insight to his little boy mind will this give me? Spencer: "I want to work in a restaurant!" *** Carter: "I don't like eating here! It's just a big salad bar! YUCK!" Mark: "Carter, look, they serve steak." Carter: "Steak?! I love steak! This place is great!" __________________________________ 08/09/09 There's been a lot going on this summer so I'm going to be spending the next couple of weeks to catch you up on what's been going on around here. Lots of pictures. Lots of activities. Lots of kids. Here's a few things that have happened: Spencer Loses His First Tooth
My Boys Are the Cutest Creatures to Walk the Earth
_________________________________ 01/15/09 Amber turned 10 on Tuesday and it was low key, with Grandma and Grandpa Christenson, Uncle Dan (and Kristen) and her family.
The kids only get parties with friends every other year anyway. This year I'm glad she didn't because I was too very busy with her present to be able to do much around the house at all. I painted her room pink AND made her a quilt:
I also did some recorganizing and redecorating and now it's all snazzy and pretty. I got her a new bookshelf, curtains, lamp, nightstand, and repainted her desk and shelves. She chose the color scheme. It was an exhausting three days of painting and sewing and organizing and assembling so I took a giant nap yesterday (much desereved) and hopefully today I can take care of the other things around here that got neglected. _________________________________ 11/05/08 My kids had a fun Halloween this year. For school Amber decorated a pumpkin and entered it in a contest at school. Her Mummy Pumpkin won the award for 'Scariest Pumpkin.'
The cousins came over to come trick or treating with us. Amber was a witch, Carter a Power Ranger, and Spencer was a ghost.
_________________________________ Happy Birthday Spencer! 05/21/08 My baby turns four today and is now a Big Boy. We had a party with friends, a train cake, and lots of fun toys. First thing in the morning he opened his PlayMobil castle set (courtesy of Grandma Kennington's birthday money) so he could have something to play with all day. And he and Carter were at it from the time they woke up clear until the party. In the afternoon, his friends came over to eat cake and play with trains. It was a fun day! (I'll post pictures later.) ________________________________________________ Happy Birthday! 02/21/08 Carter turned 5 on the 13th (yes, I'm a loser of a mother to only post the pictures now...) He was excited for his birthday and he had a fun day and got lots of great toys.
________________________________ 01/21/08 So tonight for family home evening we finally did the paper mask kits we brought home from Puerto Rico last summer. The boys thought they were cool and ran around growling at each other.
Here's Carter pretending he's a caballero:
And Amber and Mark finally finished the Christmas puzzle! Horray!
__________________________________ Little Boys Need Guardian Angels 01/15/08 And I think that my boys have a couple of particularly diligent guardian angels, too. All mothers of boys know that they're accident prone, there's no counting the number of bumps, scrapes and bruises they get in the course of a day. Sometimes it's caused by others, but most of the time they hurt themselves playing or running or what have you. Other times they put themselves in harm's way. Take for instance a few weeks ago when I was hosting an Achivement Day's activity. It was after school in the middle of December and we were delivering cards to neighbors. Mark was home and I couldn't drag the boys along with me and eight 8-9 year old girls across roads and around the neighborhood. So I left them in the house with Mark and me and the girls walked off and around the corner--the boys at the door crying. I told them to go back inside and find dad. I don't know why they didn't even try to find their dad, who was probably upstairs or on the computer or something. Instead, they put on their boots and coats and came out looking for me. By this time we had finished visting the first neighbor and were backtracking--and thank goodness we were because that's the moment I saw my boys walking down the sidewalk looking for me. So, thanks guardian angels for making sure they found me ok. It was a heart-stopping moment for me and I'm glad they didn't get hurt. ___________________________________ 01/12/08 Amber turns 9 tomorrow, but today we had a birthday party for her, with friends and games and candy and stuff. She chose the theme as Under the Sea because she likes dolphins. So the invites had a dolphin on the front, I put up streamers on the ceiling to look like water, and she chose the colors blue and green. First they decorated cupcakes.
Then they had games, including a treasure hunt.
Then they watched a movie. And Spencer had more fun with the decorations and wrapping paper than he did with the new toys.
__________________________________ 11/14/07 Yep, that's what Mark and I call the no-man's land of our under construction living room. Why? Well, to keep the kids off of it. You see, all little kids, even without being taught, know how to play 'hot lava'. This involves jumping from chair to chair, couch to couch, pillow to couch...all in the name of not touching the floor. I'm sure you've played it before and know exactly what I'm talking about. So, Mark and I took advantage of our children's overactive imaginations and in order to keep them out of the living room, call it 'hot lava'. And it works. While it isn't 100% effective, it keeps them from playing with Mark's tools and away from harm while we're working on stuff in there. It makes it a game for them, and it's hilarious to watch them jump from the carpet to the stairs to keep from touching the hot lava. The kids even tattle on each other if the other kids are in the hot lava. So there's my parenting tip of the day. You want your kids to do something? Make it a game. _________________________________________________ 11/01/07 My kids had way too much fun last night.
A bunch of Mark's family came over and we ate dinner together, then went trick-or-treating, and played and ate too much candy. Fun was had by all, and they went to bed exhausted. And, yes, I made all their costumes (except for the Captain Hook hat and the wings). __________________________________ 08/29/07 The local pool/park hosts a series of triathalons, including a kid's section, which Mark signed Amber up for. It was a chilly morning, so coming out of the one-lap in the swimming pool was plenty cold for the poor kid. She jumped on her bike and rode the path through the park that was the second leg of the race.
After the half-mile bike ride, she ran for a quarter mile. At the finish line she was tired, but excited to be finished with her race. We hope this is the first of a fun tradition for Amber.
Mark also ran a good race that day, and was pretty happy with his time.
__________________________________ 08/08/07 A few weeks ago we went to visit my family's farm. The kids got to see their grandparents and roam around the farm. Mark and I got to do fun stuff and play games. Amber gathered the eggs:
The hayshed:
Looking at the milk in the bulk cooling tank:
______________________________________________ Advantages of Living in a Cul De Sac 06/04/07 Yeah, I love living a cul de sac. It's quiet, I don't have to worry about my little boys being hit by a car, and it's just fun. Witness:
The neighbor kids, including Amber, riding their bikes around the circle in front of our house. This is a common occurance. It's nice for her to have a safe place to do this, where I can just watch her from the front window. They keep an eye out for each other, and for the little kids who follow the big kids around. It's a good set-up, if I must say. _________________________________ 05/21/07 Three years ago today my baby boy was born! He was an easygoing little baby, who slept and ate well, laughing at everything. Today he's a rambuncious toddler who loves to play all day long, tease his brother Carter, and steal his sister's stuffed animals. He makes up for his shenanigans by also being very loving and cuddly. I mean, how can I stay mad at a kid who showers me with kisses and hugs? So today he opened presents.
He loves his new helicopter from Aunt Raylene!
His new big wheels from Grandma C:
A particular favorite of all three children was the Cariboo game from Grandma K:
Spencer wanted cupcakes, so that's how he blew out his candles:
Happy Birthday! __________________________________ 05/20/07 Peter was born to Mark's brother and his wife yesterday morning. We got to watch their older son while his mom and dad were at the hospital. We went to visit after dinner to say 'hi' and to hold the baby. The kids all wanted to hold him.
Spencer was particularly delighted! But he had his jealous moments when I was holding the baby. __________________________________ Look at What I Found This Afternoon 05/17/07 You have three guesses to figure out what it is:
It's artwork courtesy of Carter. Here's a hint as to where I found said artwork:
Yes, oh yes, it's exactly what you think it is. And yes, like a good mother would, I made HIM clean it up. __________________________________ 04/13/07 Our yard is a disaster right now (I'll blog about it later), so we weren't able to hold an Easter Egg Hunt in our own yard this year. Which was sad. Fortunately, our neighbors took pity on our plight and invited us to hunt with their children. It was fun!
I got to go over early Sunday morning and help hide my stash of eggs and candy.
Then we met them all in the front yard and the kids hunted together. They had a grand time!
________________________________________________ 04/05/07 He's filled up an entire 512MB card without any trouble. Unfortunately most of the pictures are blury or are of strange things, like feet. I think this one is of his fingers:
Another favorite subject, the toys:
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03/29/07 A few weeks ago I took the boys to Target to have their pictures taken. I'm quite happy with the results.
________________________________________ 02/13/07 Happy 4th Birthday Carter! Carter wanted a Star Wars theme for this birthday, but the selection at the local party supply store was dismal and I didn't want to spend $$$ special ordering stuff. So I did a lot of homemade things, like this X-Wing fighter with taped on R2-D2:
Here they are bashing it. It held up pretty well.
And some of Carter's presents, and Spencer wishing they were for him.
He had a fun birthday, with lots of friends, eating out at McDonalds, lots of great toys, and generally being spoiled. ___________________________________ 01/17/07 Last Saturday Amber turned 8 years old. We had dinner, cake and ice cream, and too many presents.
Happy Birthday, my sweet eight year old!
She got a lot of crafty things, including things to paint, which she had to start on that same night. (One from Aunt Carrie, and the other from Aunt Katie/Uncle Casey--she loves to paint!) _________________________________ 12/06/06 In Utah the schools have what's called "Reflections" where there's a theme and kids submit something artsy, like a painting, a dance piece, a song, write a story, and etc. Amber was awarded second place in her age group at her elementary school. The assembly was on Monday.
She got a cool medal and everything. She was very excited. Now her painting goes on to district to be judged again. Here's the picture she painted for it.
This year's theme was "My Favorite Place..." and Amber decided to paint a picture of Grandpa Kennington's farm. You can see the cows, the red pickup truck, chickens, fence, and the road. She drew several mock-ups before she finally decided that this was how it was going to be. It hangs in her room.
_________________________________ 12/04/06 I wasn't ambitious enough to actually make it from scratch, so it was from a kit. But the kids don't care! They had fun making it.
__________________________________ First Day of 2nd Grade 08/23/06 New clothes, new shoes, new backpack, and cute hair...this girl is ready for school!
She has a new school and a new teacher, but she is excited and will make lots of new friends. _________________________________ Am I a Good Mom? 08/09/06 Carter asked me the other day, "Are you a good mommy?" My reply: "What do you think? Do you think I'm a good mom?" "Yeah, you're a good mom!" There you have it, the opinion of an expert. __________________________________ 08/07/06 A couple of weeks ago the kids went to a birthday party/BBQ for their cousin. They had lots of fun.
We just got these pictures in the mail. Thanks Alan!
__________________________________ Amber Loses Her Training Wheels 08/05/06 Finally.
_________________________________ 07/22/06 Yesterday Carter came up to me and announced that he wanted me to make him a spaceship. Being only 3, he couldn't be more specific than that (other than it had to have a steering wheel), so I came up with something on my own:
In other news the potty training is progressing. Slow but steady. ___________________________________ Is Potty Training in Our Near Future? 07/17/07 In the last 7 days I had
to clean poo out of the carpet 5 times. My two year old has a sudden
fascination with the contents of his diaper, strips when he loads
it, and tramples the stuff all over the floor. I think his sudden fascination has to do with the fact that I've been potty training the three year old (without much success, I might add). However, fascination does NOT equal actually being able to use the toilet. Hence, I have to keep cleaning it up off the floor until I can finally get it through his thick skull that the floor is not a receptacle for body waste. _________________________________ 07/13/06 Generally, I'm not a big whiner (sometimes Mark might disagree). I'm pretty happy with what I have and do my best not to complain. And trust me, I'm grateful we can afford to take all the kids to swimming lessons. We weren't able to that before (at least without the help of a grandmother). We moved to a new place recently, which means I wasn't around when this summer's swimming lessons went on sale at the local pool. This means that although I was able to get lessons for all the kids at the same time, it was at a bad time: 5:00pm. This means I get to take three kids, at the end of the day, during my dinner prep time, to swimming lessons. With my youngest, I take a 'parent/child' class, so this means I get wet, too. So I have myself and my kids to change/dry and by the time we get home and I'm ready to make dinner it's already almost 6pm. Sigh. On a bad day Mark isn't home yet so I end up with three hungry/tired/whiny kids while I try frantically to make dinner. But today is the last day I have a 5pm lesson (after doing this for 4 weeks). Horray! The next two weeks it's at 10am, which is a much better time. Usually I wouldn't be glad for summer to be over, but in this case, the closer the end comes, the closer we are to being finished with swimming lessons. Phew. __________________________________ Product Review: Squeeze 'n Brush 06/26/06
________________________________ 06/22/06 My boys get the strangest notions into their heads. Take for example, 'sleeping' on the stairs:
This was a little game of theirs the other night, after their bath, but before bedtime. They thought they were pretty hilarious:
Which brings me to another strange sleeping topic: sleep walking. Do you know anyone who sleep walks? I didn't. Until now. Spencer, my two year old, sleepwalks. He's startled his grandmother by showing up with his blanket over his head, still fast asleep. The other morning Mark and I were getting ready for the day when Carter walks in and announces that Spencer isn't in his room. We search for him, and where do we find him? On the floor in Amber's room, sleeping soundly away. Apparently, he sleep 'walked' right out of his crib, into Amber's room (politely shutting the door) and laid down and resumed his REM. It's funny the things one learns about one's own children. Things a parent would never expect. __________________________________ 06/17/06 Spencer has become obsessed with drawing in the last few weeks. Here he is feverishly scribbling in his new coloring book:
He got the coloring book from his grandma. It's a Thomas the Engine coloring book, which makes it extra special for him (note his favorite shirt).
You may also note that he's found a new canvas for scribbling on: his skin. He's tried pencil and crayon, but that doesn't work nearly as well as pen!
"Yo, mamma, waz up?" __________________________________ 05/24/06 A few pictures from Sunday when Spencer celebrated his second birthday. Sitting on Grandma's lap, unwrapping his present from her:
It turned out to be a water sprinkler--which the kids have already used a ton. This one is a slip-n-slide, which the kids will share:
Here's grandma reading his new book to him, while he plays with his new train toys (which he loves!):
Holding up his birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa:
__________________________________ 05/21/06 I was doing this:
And Spencer was born. After 9 hours of labor, he arrived at 11:50 am, at 9 lbs and 21 1/2".
Not the most flattering picture of me, but there you go, for posterity's sake. Here's my big guy today, on his second birthday:
Happy Birthday, cutie! __________________________________ 05/10/06 Carter recently hugged me tight around my neck, kissed me on my cheek and said, "Mom, you're beautiful!" Three years old and he's already a lady killer! Haha. ___________________________________ 04/18/06 The lighting on these pictures are awful. Sorry. I need to pay more attention to those things when I take pictures.
___________________________________ 04/16/06 I couldn't help it...with all the flowers and my little ones roaming about, they were all so cute...
Spencer among the violets.
Carter in the violets (too shy to look at the camera).
Amber chose this spot by the daffodils and pansies. _______________________________________________ 03/31/06 On Wednesday Spencer, Carter and I went to the Children's Museum with friends. I never seem to take enough pictures when we go to places like this because I spend the whole time either talking to my friends or chasing these boys down because they can't play in one place for longer than two minutes. But here's a couple of pictures I did take.
I just love the look on Carter's face as he's figuring out the reins. It's so funny.
Spencer couldn't get enough of this ladder. __________________________________ 03/20/06 Carter loves strawberries. This week when we went to the grocery store there were stacks and stacks of them in the produce section. They were big and red and yummy looking. Carter begged me to get some. So I did. He loves to eat them cut into pieces with a little sugar on them. He told me as she shoveled their tangy-sweetness into his little-boy mouth: "Strawberries make me wiggle!" I laughed so hard. He thought he was pretty smart to make mom laugh so hard. But isn't it great? To love something so much that you wiggle with delight. I'm sure that's what he meant. _____________________________________________ 03/11/06 So I gave the boys sippy cups of Kool-Aid yesterday to keep them happy while I got dinner ready. They wandered into their room, played for a little bit, then thought up a fun new game: Kool-Aid Spitting Contest, where your brother is the target! I hear strange noises coming from their room, and walk in to find them spitting Kool-Aid at each other, often missing and spraying the floor. They've done this before with bathwater and chocolate milk. Not fun to clean up. But they have a grand 'ol time doing it. They think it's pretty hilarious. _____________________________________________ You'd Think I'd Know Better By Now OR How Five Seconds of Fun Can Equal Five Minutes of Cleaning 03/06/06 (part deux) Spencer, ever the heathen, took advantage of my lapse in morning kitchen cleaning in favor of playing on the computer.
"But what is that brown stuff?" you ask. Worry not, it isn't poop or any incarnation thereof (thank goodness!).
It's chocolate milk mix. Sigh. This is not the first time he's done it. He usually sits in it, lapping it up, shoving the sugar-laden crystals into his open mouth. I try not to leave stuff out, but this morning I woke with a headache (excuses, excuses) and wasn't thinking straight. __________________________ 03/05/06 Just thought you might like to take a gander at the new decorations here at the Christenson residence:
We bought them because there are two little boys in the house who have no sense of self control. If we don't keep these places under wraps, we will find ourselves knee-deep in crumbled crackers, raisins, and chewed up carrots. Since I like to avoid cleaning at all costs, these were the best solution. __________________________ 02/16/06 We got 11"-12" of snow last night and this morning. I guess it could have been worse. It could have been the day after Christmas 2004 when we got 18". But since Mark had to be to work bright and early this morning, it meant that little ol' me got to shovel the driveway. Again. I guess being a former farmgirl means Mark finds no need to coddle me when it comes to shoveling things.
Here's Carter trudging through the snow. He had a good time playing in it, especially on the piles next to the driveway. __________________________________ 02/13/06 Yep, the little heathen turns three today. We celebrated his birthday last night. His grandma and grandpa came over to visit. He got lots of toys and clothes and DVDs. And he got high on sugar, lots of it. What a perfect day for a fun little kid. __________________________________ 02/07/06 These boys drive me nuts. They have spent today engaging in antics beyond the typical screaming, hair pulling, toy dumping, and food throwing. Here's a sampling of what they've done in the last 48 hours: * Claimed the Kleenex box from the kitchen, sneaked it into their bedroom, and proceeded to pull each and every last Kleenex from the box, rip it into shreds, and throw it confettii-like across the room. * Filtched a hitherto-unknown bottle of bubbles, opened it in the basement living room, and dumped it on the carpet, as well as a cup of chocolate milk. Then mixed it together. Yay! Milk bubble juice! * Carter explored his diaper and upon finding something brown and nasty, wiped it from his hands and onto the carpet. * Found their way into the guest room and found my stash of homemade cards and proceeded to destroy several of them. * Found and destroyed the centerpieces I had made for the cub scout dinner next week. * Carter climbed over the back fence and into the neighbor's back yard. Spencer tried to follow him. * Carter helped himself to Mark's apple pie from the fridge and smeared it all over the kitchen floor and the counter. He even used the pie server to get it out. But I don't think he ate any of it. * Both boys played with playdoh (they love it), but it disintigrated into a plethora of chunks which they scattered all over the kitchen and the living room. * Pulled the cushions off the couches and dragged their pillows/blankets from their room so they could play 'nap'. Which, in itself, is not that messy and really rather cute, but added another dimension of cleaning. * Pulled all the drawers out of their dresser and the clothes in the drawers. They busted one of the drawers, so now I have to fix it. And Mark wonders why I want to pawn them off as soon as he gets home. His comment this evening was, "They just need more supervision." Gah! __________________________________ 02/05/06 Spencer has learned how to open doors. That's all I have to say right now because I must go monitor the monster 24/7. ____________________________________ 02/01/06 I swear, ths girl must thrash at night when she sleeps, because she wakes up every morning with the craziest bed head. Here's one of her most messy morning do's:
_________________________________________ 01/19 Carter got a hold of my digital camera today. He wanted to take lots of pictures. Without me around. The only reason he stopped taking pictures was because the memory card was full.
Here's one of Spencer elucidating on the finer points of mischief-making.
And Carter's self-portrait of his chest. I won't add any more because they'll all blury, but still pretty hilarious. __________________________________________ 01/18 Today we got about seven inches of snow. The boys 'helped' me shovel the driveway and then we built a snowman.
__________________________________________ 01/17 The other night we had stir fry for dinner, and I'm often too lazy to clear off the table right away. Well, Spencer took advantage of this and filched the soy sauce. I didn't realize there was a problem until he came to me crying, covered in it. I went up to his room to change him, only to discover that he had poured it all over the floor in his room and onto many of his toys. Needless to say, I've learned to clear off the table right after dinner, and soy sauce doesn't smell as good to me as it used to. ________________________________________________________ 01/13 Amber's birthday was today and she had some friends over. It was a Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus themed-party.
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