PRINCESS P BECOMES A TEEN

I can't believe I don't have anymore 'kids'! Princess P reached the big 1-3 today! She's so cute. I am so glad she's growing up to be such an amazing person. She's so kind and loving and willing to help. I hope she stays that way...

Princess P opens gifts.

Blow out that fire on top of your brownies!

HE'S MORE THAN AN ADULT

My second child is now 22 years old! What?? Whoa! Let's not talk about how old that makes me. I have just given up trying to make sense of it all. I just can't even believe I have kids some days, let alone that they are adults! 

What a crazy man, Elder D is.

I still threw him a party, fed him pizza for dinner and made him brownies and cake.  (I'm such a push over, he should have thrown his own). He invited some of his buddies and I invited in-town family. He felt loved. 

It was a party!

FAMILY CHRISTMAS FIESTA

A few years ago we started having Family Christmas parties for my side of the family on the year we don't get together for Thanksgiving. It has been a lot of fun and we've already started to create some traditions and everyone is good to come and support. This year it was my turn tonight and we did it at the barn. (Yay for amazing in-laws that will share their awesome party place!)

Four of the five of us.

We get together and eat dinner and visit and then do a white elephant exchange. The first year we did it, it didn't go so well. There were a few tears shed because some of the little girls got 'donut seeds' or 'dust bunnies'. But now the kids are into it too and it is a lot of fun!

My siblings and spouses.

Look at all the grandkids! These are all of them. I know my parents are up there just thrilled to death (pun-ha!) at this beautiful group of their offspring. I just love it that we all get together, even if it's only once or twice a year! Go Christensens!

The grandkids.

GIRLS & THE HOLIDAYS

Princess P performed in her second concert this week. She did such a good job and I just love that she is so into the cello! What a cutie!

6th Grade Christmas concert!

Sister S doesn't send a lot of photos from Ukraine, but sometimes I steal them off of Facebook when she gets tagged in them. This is one of those, but I loved the picture, so I just had to. This is the group of people she went with to Ukraine to teach english to little kids. They had a Christmas party right before she came home.

Happy Christmas from Kiev!

15th BIRTHDAY

C Man's birthday was celebrated up at the barn this year in conjunction with Family Night. It was fun to be with all the cousins. I sure love this kid of mine. He's kind, smart, funny, handsome, faithful, and a hard worker. What more could a mother want in a son? 

C Man with Little Miss C photobombing!

PAJAMA PARTY FOR PRINCESS P

Princess P's birthday is always right at the start of the school year. ( Twelve years ago we actually took the kids to school for their first day and then went to the hospital on the day she was born, so it's not much of a surprise).  What is a surprise is the fact that she's now 12 and will be in Young Women! Whoa!

Blowing out the 12 candles on her strawberry shortcake.

 Even year birthdays at our house mean you get to have a friend party, so Princess P wanted a movie/pajama party. She and her friends sure had a blast eating treats, opening gifts and watching 'Maleficent'. 

We don't have furniture in our little TV room yet, so they crashed with their blankets and pillows right on the floor. It worked out perfectly.

LAST DAY OF SUMMER

For our last hoorah of summer we went to Palisade Lake and played in the water with some friends.

N and Princess P paddle the hard shells.

Miss K and Princess P warm up after playing in the water.

My handsome honey.

PIONEER DAY DUTCH OVEN

We didn't have any plans for the 24th of July this year, so the Gordons got together and went up to enjoy an evening in the mountains. We made 'dutch oven' (a yummy stew) and played. Then the guys rode their bikes home.

Big C and family.

Uncle C, Princess P and Miss K.

Mr L, Gpa and Gma

BYE-BYE, BIRTHDAY BOY

DJ Doctor D is leaving us to go sell pest control in Minneapolis for the summer. He stayed a week longer so he could spend a little time with Elder D before he takes off. I am sad to see him go. It has been SO FUN to have us all home together again. 

Princess P, Sister S and Miss B at the party.

We had a birthday/goodbye party for him tonight before he flies out tomorrow. It is fun to have so much family in town, we can get an instant crowd by inviting them over.

DJ Doctor D got some cash for his trip.

 Au revior, until the end of summer... we will miss you!

Birthday boy.

THE LAST CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

This is Princess P's last year in elementary school. I have mixed feelings about that. Everything she does will the be last one- last Halloween parade, last Christmas Program, last May Day, etc... The good: It's the last. The bad: It's the last. Oh, the contradictions of being Mom.

Princess P (in the red sweater) sings and plays her recorder with her class.

Our Family Night on how we will #sharethegift #Heisthegift

 We also had our traditional Christensen family Christmas party. It was FUN! There were some awesome White Elephant gifts. Sister S got Edward Cullen's ashes (a bottle of glitter). I got some PooPourri.

Yay for family!!

HOLIDAY HOOPLA

I love Christmas time! It is my favorite time of year. We get to be with family, shop and more shopping, eat lots of good food, feel the spirit of the season (hope and joy and kindness), party and... just... everything about it!

My sisters and I met up for lunch and some shopping one day.

 The ward Christmas party is always a tradition. This year was fun. Santa even came to visit! I haven't been to a ward party with Santa for a long time. It was awesome! Princess P sat on his lap and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said, 'I want my braces off.' He quickly responded, 'Braces make you more attractive to boys.' PERFECT!

Ward party with Little C singing with the youth.

This year we held our first ugly Christmas sweater party. It turned out fun! I bought some old, cheap sweaters at DI because I couldn't find any cheapies anywhere. I actually like they way they turned out. I just used stuff I had on hand (felt, rick rack, and a glue gun), sparkly pom poms, bells, and felt cut-outs from the dollar section at Target. Easy peasy.

Homemade Christmas sweaters.

NEW BEGINNINGS VS. THE SUPER BOWL

We had our New Beginnings last night- yes, on Super Bowl Sunday. I know, I got a lot of grief from the men of the ward (and even some of the women). It truly was an accident. But, when it came down to the wire, we had lots show up (so many we had to add two more rows of chairs.) I was proud of them for making the hard choice. Believe me, I will never create that kind of controversy again!

Our theme color was pink to go with the season of February.

We got together for one of the combined YW activities and made the fan pinwheels out of tissue paper and the buntings out of left over scrapbook paper. 

The gifts the girls got to take home.

We had a bunch of left over frames from a craft and I repainted them and distressed them for one of my Personal Progress projects. (I am now done with Faith and Good Works- only took me a year). I ordered the posters off of Etsy and printed them at a place here in town. (I bought the value ones too! I just love them!)

Some of our pink treats.

Princess P came with me to help me decorate last night. She loves it even though she is only ten. She's such a girly girl- I love it!!

Princess P eats pink treats!

For the program, we had 6 girls (one from each age group) share experiences with their Personal Progress that helped them Come Unto Christ (the 2014 mutual theme). We also sang the new theme song 'Come Unto Christ' and the Bishop spoke as well. We showed a photo slide show of 2013 in review as well. It was a fun night!

Some of my friends and me (in gray).

FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

My family isn't great at getting together, but we made it happen this year for a family reunion in September and now a Christmas party tonight! My in-laws are very kind to let me use their cabin to hold my parties in and I really appreciate them! 

Eating and catching up with each other.

A and Uncle J with some of the girl cousins.

The game.

We ate dinner and visited a lot! Then we played the white elephant gift game. Some of the little kids didn't get it and there were some tears (she wasn't thrilled with her 'donut seeds'/ aka. Cheerios), but the rest of us had a blast! I hope we will make it a tradition!

S'MORE FAMILY NIGHT

The weather is SOOO beautiful right now. It is cold enough in the evenings for the leaves to be turning, but nice and sunny in the day. Can I just say again how much I love fall? I do. We decided to take advantage of the nip in the air and roast us some 'mallows for Family Home Evening last night.

Aunt, Uncle and cousins by the fire.

It was a good night to have cousins over too, so we invited some of the in-town Gordons. They happily accepted and the party was on. Fire-roasted gooey-ness for all!

Cousins, cousins, cousins! We {heart} cousins!

Many Sandlot puns were had by all! 'You're killing me, Smalls!' 'How can I have some more of nothing?' 'First you take the 'mallow...' and more, many more...

A with a 'mallow on his roaster and one in his mouth. Yummy!

ROCK CLIMBING & BIRTHDAY PARTIES

 My husband loves to rock climb and usually he has to make the rest of us go with him. None of us are nearly as into it as he is {except for my daughter that's on a mission), so sometimes we don't have the best attitude. Maple Canyon is such a beautiful place to be that I just take my sketchbook and draw.

Little C's photo of Big C. 

We thought this photo made a great ad for Maple Canyon with the Maple leaves, so I put text on it.

Big C talks climbing with Little C.

Little C climbs.

Little C wasn't loving climbing this day, but he did clean the first two quick draws.

Princess P is the one who was really on! She was like a little spider and cleaned all the rest of the quick draws.

Princess P at the very tippy top!

Big C was so proud of her and she was thrilled too! It was a 5-10b! There is no way I could do that climb. She was awesome -an Energizer Bunny!

Princess P and all the quick draws she cleaned on the route.

After our climbing trip, we went to my nieces' birthday party. A had been at work all day, so he met us at the party.

Big C and A

My nephew with A's longboard. It looks like a surfboard for him. Isn't he CUTE!

Little Miss C driving Princess P around in her jeep.

ANOTHER TEENAGER

 Little C's birthday was yesterday. He is now a 13 year old and I am still struggling with that fact. He actually has yet to really act like a teen, so I am very glad about that. He's such a good son, I couldn't ask for more.

The birthday boy.

We had some things on our schedule I couldn't change, so we ended up doing a BBQ with all the in-town family the day before his actual birthday. He didn't mind at all and had a great time at his party.

Singing to Little C.

He invited some of his friends over too and then spent the next two nights playing night games with the neighborhood kids. He had girls giving him gifts and making him cakes... now that I think about it, maybe he is acting like a teenager... Yikes!