Rock'n'roll Girl

Here is a funny viedo of Emmie doing somekind of dance. She really does have some dance talent. Maybe she gets form her dad, because you all know that is not me. Emmie might have a future on the high school drill team. Check it out how she "pulls the rope."

Happy Birthday Jason!

I can't believe that our little baby is a year old today. Time is so weird how is works or at least seems to work. Last Christmas seems forever ago, but having Jason seems "like yesterday". Wow! One year! Jason is such a fun baby. He is so goofy and silly. He just loves to play all day and he is so happy all the time. Emmie and Will love him to pieces. Jason is so funny; when Will is watching TV lying on the floor Jason loves to climb over him and he tries to sit on his head. Jason is not walking yet, but he can hall butt when he is crawling. He is a climber baby, (but we are not surprised) he had mastered the stairs and climbing up on stools and couches. We love him and would not want him any other way.

Happy birthday, little baby guy!

Snow globe!

On Monday it was snowing and the wind was going crazy, Will looked outside and said, "It looks like a snow globe outside." It was really cute. You have to know Will, he makes up the best descriptions for things when he doesn't know what things are called. He is really creative that way and he has a good vocabulary.

The Polar Express

John's parents take us on the Polar Express all the way to the North Pole (aka The Heber Creeper). This year was the best. The kids had so much fun and no one threw-up. I was so worried that Jason was going to be a stinker just because he can't hold still very long, but he was so cute and cuddly. And the weather was perfect, not to cold for the babies and me. I always freeze. Anyways here are some fun pictures...
Do you think Santa is smiling under that wig. I just can't tell. Will was excited to see Santa and he talked to him really good. Emmie didn't want anything to do with Santa. She decided that she was going to hide from him.

Jason is starting to become a Daddy's boy. John is the best.

Here is Emmie with her train conductor hat on. Emmie is so cute and we love her. I forgot to blog about her birthday a month ago. So anyway, Happy Birthday Sweetie.

Here is me with the sleeping babe.

December is so busy, but we love it and we love it when it's not so busy in January.

"I feel off the roof, mom."

At our house the first day of Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving. I go shopping and then we set up the tree and other decorations. In the past John is home and helps me, but he had to work so it took me all day to get things decorated.
We watched Santa Clause, the Tim Allen movie with the kids. We watched it because Will was worried how Santa was going to get in our house because we don't have a fireplace. In the movie there is the scene where Santa is sucked down the dryer vent and a fireplace appears out of nowhere in the living room. Very cool for a four year old. Anyways in the movie in one of the scenes a little girl gets to sleep in her living room and wait for Santa to come. Will wanted to sleep on the couch last night. I thought that he just wanted to look at the Christmas tree or something. Well, he wouldn't go to sleep until I figured out that he was waiting up for Santa to come. As soon as I figured this out I told him that Santa was not coming until Christmas Eve and then a minute later he was asleep. And then about five minutes later I heard this big thump - Will had fallen off the couch. I went over there to help him up and in his sleep he said, "I fell off the roof, mom." He must of been having a dream about the movie, because in it Santa falls off Scott Calvin's roof.
I love Christmas time.

We are up to a whole lot of nothing!

We have been up to a whole lot of nothing exciting here in the Christiansen house. How ever we are going to go to IHOP tonight, because we have two children free meals coupon. Lucky us. A date with the kids. Any one want to come? You're welcome to.

Stay posted for all of the Holiday excitement to come. Thanksgiving turkey (twice), Temple Square, gingerbread houses, letters to Santa, cookies galore, The Polar Express... and the list goes on. WooHoo!

Conversation to self

Here is a conversation Will had with himself while going #2...

"Number 1 is pee, number 2 is poo, number 3 is ... is... fart, number 4 is throw-up, number 5 is...is...diarrhea. MOM, I need your help!"

Happy Halloween! (I know it's Monday)

First things first. Here is Will in his awesome robot costume that I made for him. We called it the WillBot. Totally cool, I know. Long story short Will hated it and didn't want to wear it in front of his friends. Here he is on the his way to Uncle David's house. He wouldn't wear it to school, or for Trunk-or-Treat at the church, or to the cousin party on Saturday. This thing took be like four hours to make and Will thought that it was really going to work (I am not that creative). So for the rest of the Halloween excitement Will was a Red Power Ranger.

Here are the rascals - A pink fairy, Red Power Ranger, and Spider Baby.

This is the best we could do with seven kids.

This is a classic Emmie picture - pretending to be mean.

Wow! Our kids are in trouble. Sticking your tough out while doing a difficult task (like pulling your self up and trying on to slip) is a two generation trait on the Christiansen side and as my sister will attest to I have a horrible habit of this. Well at least Jason is way cute doing it, unlike his twenty seven year old mom.

On the Christiansen side we go to Papa's school and have a super fun party for the kids. They play pumpkin bowling, decorate cookies, hit a pinata (or in Emmie's case walk up to it and kick it), and eat pizza and lots of candy.

Halloween was so much fun for the kids and John and I.

Deer Creek Dam

Here is an article about the construction on Deer Creek Dam. John has been working on the overflow structure for over a year and now is just finishing up.

You can access it at the following URL:http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/286377/17/

It is just Will

Will is so awesome. One day he went out to ride his bike and it was windy so he decided that he would wear his goggles. He is always thinking of solutions; he gets that from Grandpa Scott.

In the Sunday newspaper this past week was the ad from Toy-R-Us (the really big one) and Will has been studying it for a few days. Yesterday he asked us if he could take it with us when we go see Santa durning the holidays. With John's family we ride the "Polar Express" (aka Herber Creeper) and visit the North Pole and Santa gets on the train. He had been thinking how to let Santa know exactly what he wants for Christmas and thought of the solution. I guess that it was just funny to hear him ask us and then to see how excited he was when we told him that he could.

Jason's swollen baby hand

Jason got a staph infection in his hand. We noticed that it was swollen on Sunday night, but we thought that he got bit by some kind of bug. During the night I thought that he had broken his hand. By the time we went to the doctors on Monday morning it was starting to get red and bigger. The Dr. said that he had a staph infection, and that she didn't know how he got it. Usually with staph infections someone might have a cut or some kind of wound that would become infected, but Jason didn't have anything like that on his hand. He got a shot in the Dr. office and just now it is starting to look a lot better. Today he is crawling and using his hand to pick up Cheerios. Hopefully by the end of the week he will be all better.

A bit of the last two weeks

On Saturday night John and I took the kids on the tracks to Salt Lake. Will's face was priceless when we got on the train and it started moving. The kids absolutely loved the "train". When we got to Salt Lake we walked down to the Gateway to see the fountain and get a bit to eat. We had so much fun being together.

Last week me and the kids meet John at Canyon Glen Park in Provo Canyon for lunch. The kids loved seeing John in the middle of the day.

On Wednesday we got together with some friends and had a Halloween party, played some games, and ate alot of candy. Will is a red Power Ranger and Emmie is a pink fairy.

Here is a picture of one of the pumpkins that we grew. This one was one of the medium size ones. We love to plant in the spring to have pumpkins in the fall.

John and I love to be with the kids and do fun things with them. We are always trying our best to do the best we can.

Emmie is so sweet!

Emmie is so sweet especially to her little brother. Jason was crying and she leaned over by his face, patted his back and in the sweetest little voice she said, "Shut-up, baby." She is learning it somewhere.

Conference

Conference was great. The conference could be all be summed up like this...

We are experiencing perilous times now. Trials and hardships will come, but rejoice because in the end the righteous will be victorious. Now is the time to have joy and laughter no matter how hard the difficulties in our lives may seem. Our sorrows can be swallowed up in Christ because he is our Savior and the Lord of All.

Pancakes for lunch

Emmie and Will love pancakes, especially colored pancakes. Emmie and Will was so excited to mix up their colors in the batter; that is most of the fun, and of course eating it too.

Fun filled weekend!

We had quite the fun filled weekend. On Friday night John and I took the kids out to Willow Park for a Christiansen family reunion. Friday night John slept in the tent with Will and Madalyn(cousin) and Me, Jason and Emmie slept in the trailer with Lisel(sister-in-law) and her baby and Ryann. The sleeping arrangements worked out great; we have to share the trailer with John's siblings.

On Saturday morning I got up early because I was in charge of our stake's 5k. I totally got so busy that I didn't take any pictures. John stayed at Willow Park with the kids. Anyways the 5k was awesome, the weather was perfect and we had a good turn out for the first time. There was about 250 people there.

The rest of Saturday we spent out at the park having a great time playing kickball and volleyball. The kids had a blast playing with second cousins and getting dirty. Will loved climbing the trees and just doing a lot of boy things.

I can't wait until next year. Next summer the reunion will be in Idaho. Can't wait.
Just having fun in the warm fall air. It was kind of weird how warm it was. Perfect weather!

Will and Emmie helping dad set up the tent.

Dad and Jason enjoying camp fire bliss.

Could it be She-ra?

When we were out camping this weekend at Willow Park with John's side of the family, Emmie showed us all just how strong she is. This spare tire was leaning part way against another one, but Emmie still pushed it up and over. Yes, Will is just watching while I am taking pictures and no one is helping her. She is really strong. I am sure that she gets it from her mommy.

"Get me chicken..."

Durning breakfast my sweet little Emmiline said to me "Get me chicken, butt hole!" Wow! What did you say? Yeah, she got a long time out. Where did that come from? I don't know. Not from our family. It might have been comical if it was someone elses child, not mine.

The Midnight Monster!

Have you ever seen a Midnight Monster?

JDRF

The kids and I participated in the JDRF walk on Saturday with my sister's family. JDRF is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Haylie's son, Cole has type 1 and she has done a lot for JDRF. This year Haylie raised over $10,000 just from her family and friends. As a whole this walk for Utah County this year raised over $180,000. We like to show our support by not only donating but by walking with Cole and the rest of the family. Here are a few pictures.
Jason fell asleep in the stroller. He was such a sweet heart for the walk. It took at least 45 minutes. Will rode his bike almost the whole way. Emmie was in and out of the stroller. All of the kids were so good.

John stayed home to Sheetrock the basement. So here I am with Jason, Emmie and Will after the walk.

Here is Will with his green hair. After lunch was served the kids got to play and go to different booths at the Sera Park in Orem where the walk started and ended. It was a lot of fun. I put more pictures on later.

Holy Crap - I learned something new!

Karen invited Christie and I over to teach us how to can peaches. Karen is awesome, she knows so much about being a homemaker. Homemade peach cobbler, canned applesauce, pickled beets she knows it all; if not she just asks her amazing mother. Anyways we had a good time chatting and learning. Our kids just play great together too and they had a lot of fun. Like Will says "They have better toys than we do." And the only tears came when Will decided that Emmie was in his way and had to push her.

Look at the new hair do that I am sporting. Do ya like? Yeah, it can't go into a pony tail so I actually have to do my hair. It has been great. Almost like a mini makeover. Just if I could makeover the hips!

Sweet Emmiline!

Emmiline has been so sweet lately. Ever since Will has started preschool Emmie has had a lot more alone time with me. Will goes to preschool Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for two hours. It is great for me and Emmie to be able to spend time together. Jason is usually asleep or just playing on the ground. The last few days Emmie and I get on the Internet to find coloring pages (mostly princess) to color together. Today we went to the store and I had the camera in the diaper bag so I had her cheese it up for a picture. Emmie is so cute, she had to have her backpack too because Will got to take his to preschool. Anyways she didn't want to put her Cheetos in the chart and she insisted that she should carry them. She is talking so much more and is now pretty much potty trained. Wahoo!
Emmiline is so sweet. She has a deep belly laugh that just melts your heart. She is such a girly girl and I love it. Pink this and pink that, pink everything. I love it that all the pink hair elastics are gone because she insists that we use them first. I love it that she thinks she needs Barbie cereal. "I need it!", she told me today. The pink marker in set that we just bought is almost dried up. Emmie likes to clean. She loves to have a wipe or washrag to clean things off. And it is a guarantee that she will try to pick Jason up in the morning to give him a love. One of her favorite things is to feed Jason some little fishies. She is just great and we love her.

Crazy 8s!

Crazy 8s! I got tagged by Andrea.

8 Things I am passionate about...

• John
• William
• Emmiline
• Jason
• Young Women Sports
• Extend family
• Holidays
• Church

8 Words or phrases that I say most often... (I usually talk to my kids the most)

• "Come Here."
• "Get your shoes on."
• "Don't make a mess."
• "NO!"
• "Emmie, don't do that."
• "Will, are you being nice?"
• "Let's go potty." "Let's change your bum."
• "I LOVE YOU!"

8 things that I want to do or see before I die...

• Run a marathon
• Take my family to NYC and DC
• Ride a horse on the beach with John (cheesy I know)
• Read the entire Bible
• Go to Navoo
• Own a business
• Get a Masters Degree
• Back pack across Europe (like that is ever going to happen)

8 Things that I have learned...

• To each his own!
• Not everyone builds a house out of cement
• Wear your seat belt
• Take time to have nap time for your kids
• Love yourself, but don't be selfish
• Walmart has the cheapest prices
• Motherhood is hard work
• Love keeps growing

8 Places that I would love to go, do, or see

• Prague
• NYC
• Rome
• Egypt to see the pyramids
• Southern Cost of Spain
• South American ruins
• Great Plains
• New England in the Fall

8 Things that I currently need or want...

• Size 10 pants that fit
• A finished basement
• A mailbox on my doorstep
• A money tree out back
• Jogger stroller
• A baby that sleeps the entire night
• Children that sleep past 7:02 am
• A flat screen mega TV for our basement

8 Things that I have been for Halloween...I don't really remember any...

• A punk rocker (I was 13 and mistaken for a hooker)
• A clown (more than once)
• A return missionary (John and I first Halloween married)
• I am sure that I dressed up as a princess when I was little
• Will was a cowboy once
• Emmie was a pink kitty cat last year
• This year Jason will probably be Spider Man
• John was a clown once too

8 People I tag...

• Carrie
• Christy
• Haylie
• Hillary
• Anajlee
• Dondy - Start a blog - You blog stocker, You!
• Lindsay
• Jamie

Saturday!

If we are home on a Saturday it is a work day and then a play day. I am trying to get my kids to learn that we work before we play. Yesterday, we worked on the basement. John and I finished insulating so it is now ready for sheetrock. We are only finishing the family room and the play room for right now. It costs alot - more than we thought. We will probably sheetrock ourselves and then have some professional mud and tape. Although my husband is a professional in all that he does we just don't have time - I am impatient and want to have a princess party for Emmie downstairs for her birthday. Well we'll see how that turns out. I told John when we get the basement finished then we can get cable. Yes, I know what you are thinking, "holy cow, no cable". Actually it is great. The kids love PBS and there are no commercials.
Emmie picked Jason up and put him in her lab and said "take picture, mom." Emmie is really sweet with Jason; at least she has good intentions. Emmie loves Jason because he will play Barbies with her and Will won't. He actually likes to chew on the squishy barbie legs and eat some of the clothers. Emmie and Jason are 25 months apart.

Emmie wanted to print pages off the Internet and color. After a long day and way past a reasonable nap time I was trying to keep her busy so that she would not fall asleep. Recognize the coloring pages? You might if you were four years old in 1985. Yes, they are She-ra coloring pages. Emmie is fascinated with the "Princess of Power". I have a DVD of a few episodes and the He-man/She-ra cartoon movie and she loves it. It totally fits her personality. Emmie is a sweet little girl most of the time, but then in a moments notice she transforms into this defensive fighter super girl. You don't mess with Emmie when she is not so sweet. Emmie is not afraid to defend her territory or her Will or Jason.

Here is John working hard in the basement. He quite enjoyed himself working and listening to BYU kick some UCLA butt. Thanks John for the hard work. You are the best a gall could have.

Jason is 9 months old. Time sure does fly by fast. He has one tooth on the bottom. He is wonderful. He is a little shy around other adults, but he loves to play with kids and goes nuts over other babies. He can move around - not quite a crawl but more of a army wiggle crawl. Jason is so much fun and we love him.

I really need to up date.

This post is all out of order, but it makes sense to me. Like everything else in my life.
We went camping up AF Canyon by Cascade Springs. It rained so much and all night long that we thought our trailer was going to turn into an arc. Here is a family picture of us in all our glory. My hair is fabulous, Emmie and Will are filthy, Jason is wearing Will's sweatshirt, and John looks like a run way model. Just wonderful. We had a great time. Hillary, Tyler, Justin, Grandma and Grandpa Gerber and Kjell came. Brandan and Haylie came for an evening for dinner.

Here is Will on his first day of school. He is a funny kid.

I really need to up date my blog. We got a new computer last Tuesday. It has been great. Nothing fancy, just a Dell. We have been busy, too busy for blogging.

Will started preschool on Wednesday. This is his second year at ABC Preschool. This year there are too kids that we carpool with. Will got all excited that his friends got to go to school with him.

Wednesday and Thursday I was doing church stuff all day. I am the YW Stake Sports Director and volleyball starts tomorrow. This calling has been wonderful. It really has helped me to be more social and forces me to talk to people that normally I would not. I am always learning when I have a church calling.

On Thursday night John and I went to the Provo Temple. Our friend Annie received her endowments and it is awesome to be able to support her. Saturday morning Annie and Richard got sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Yet, again another total awesome experience. And the rest of the day was wedding luncheon and reception.

Yeah, I know, thank me later for this great read. This post really lacked good adjectives - I know it was awesome and really awesome.

I got tagged! And I am tagging..

Answer the questions using one word and then tag four other people. I tag, Andrea, Jamie, Anjalee, and Kristy


1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your significant other? John
3. Your hair? Red
4. Your mother? Nice
5. Your father? Generous
6. Your favorite thing? FUN!
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Marathon
10. The room you’re in? Grandma's
11. Your hobby? Hobby?
12. Your fear? Sickness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Skinny
14. What you’re not? Ugly
15. Muffins? Butter
16. One of your wish list items? Vacation
17. Where you grew up? Lehi
18. The last thing you did? Bills
19. What are you wearing? Clothes
20. Favorite gadget? None
21. Your pets? None
22. Your computer? Gone
23. Your mood? Whatever
24. Missing someone? No
25. Your car? Van?
26. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
27. Favorite store? Walmart
28. Like someone? John
29. Your favorite color? Any
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Period

For Sale

We are selling John's truck. Any inquires..
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=&nid=443&tab=list/view&ad=766920

Do you want some cheese with that?

Yeah, I realized that my last post was a little cheesy. But, it is so much fun to read through all the old letters with John.

Jason is eight months old today. (I don't have a picture because I am on my mom's computer because ours is not currently functioning the way it was last week. And because I don't belong to the geek squad we are probably going to get a new one. We thought that it might not be worth fixing the old one since it is almost three years old. Any suggestions on new ones?) Anyways, Jason is the sweetest baby. Always so happy, especially now that one front tooth has broken through. Mom is happier too that she is getting more sleep at night, because of the whole teething thing. Just yesterday he refused to eat his healthy Gerber baby vegetables and insisted on eating cereal by himself. Emmie's Princess cereal does taste all sugary and good - no wonder. Jason will probably be crawling in the next month or so. You can tell that he wants to be on the move. He is just still learning and getting stronger. He is so mellow and just wonderful.

The other day John was blowing raspberries on Jason's tummy and he left his tick-tack in Jason's belly button. Silly things happen when your husband acts like he is one of the kids.

Better late than never! Right?!

Happy Anniversary!

Our anniversary was last weekend, six years. For our anniversary John and I do an "anniversary box". (It was John's idea. we started on our first anniversary.) We put an item in the box that reminds us of the last year with a poem or a letter. So this year I put in a star (the north star) representing the constant blessings that our little family have received in the last year. John put in a packet of seeds representing the growth our family; "it has grown into a beautiful flower."

Here is a bit from my letter -"The thing that I think about over the last year is how extremely blessed our family is. We enjoy our health, have money to pay bills, we have testimonies of the Gospel, we are happy, we love each other, John has work every day and there is nothing majorly wrong with the kids that we know of. I am sure that we have blessing that the Lord has blessed us with that we are not even aware of."

John, I love you.

Camping at Mill Hollow

On Friday and Saturday John and I took the kids camping with G&G Gerber, Hillary, Tyler, and Justin to Mill Hollow. My dad is rebuilding the spill way on the dam so the camp ground was closed, but we got in thanks to my dad. We had the whole camp ground to our self it was a lot of fun and so quite. We went four-wheeling, John took the kids fishing, we played in the dirt, and just relaxed. Will got eaten alive by bugs, I guess that is what you get when you don't hold still for your mom when she is spraying bug spray all over you. He had over 30 bits and half of them were on his head. Here are some pictures...
Jason, Will, Emmie and Justin playing with the blocks.

Will and John on the four wheelers.

Emmie just being her cute little self.

G&G Gerber.

Jason just can't help but to smile super big and be as cute as ever. He learned it from his mom.