Darcy is 3!

 Darcy just had her 3rd birthday! We didn't mean for it to happen really, but we kind of ended up  having two parties for her. I have such a hard time figuring out how to include everyone we want to include. I'm pretty proud that I resisted having three parties for her! :) For her 1st and 2nd birthdays she still felt like a baby to me, but for some reason three seems so grown up to me. We love our girl!

Some things we want to remember about Darcy at 3:

- 3 ft 3 1/4 inches. That is the 97th percentile. I'm pretty sure she is taller than all the other kids in her nursery class. People usually guess she is older.

- She has SO much energy! It is so fun to see how fascinating day-to-day life is for her. She is soaking up all the information she can. We have started going to the library for story time and we bring home lots of books. She listens so intently to them and asks so many questions.

- She is deep into the "why?" phase. I guess we answered with "because" too many times because she has switched to asking "because why?" right off the bat. We are slowly getting used to having to have an explanation for everything that happens in our lives. 

- She is starting to say funny things all the time. She has started using more grown up words like "acutally" and "luckily."  She says things like "she is my best friend in the whole wide world" and "this is the best ____ I've ever had". She is really into favorites and bests. She is starting to have real conversations with us and I love it so much.

- She loves play-doh and silly putty. She loves jumping on the trampoline. She loves swimming in her little pool. She loves playing dress-up. She loves singing and dancing. She loves having tea parties. She loves pretending. She loves ring around the rosie, motorboat, and other songs with actions (we do these songs for most of the time every single family home evening).

- She is such a good big sister. She generally is so willing and happy to help us with Ezra. She loves to play with him and they make each other laugh all the time. Of course sometimes she gets a little frustrated when he gets in the way of something she is playing with though.

- She has finally started going to nursery happily (most of the time and only in our ward). She is starting to be a little more willing to leave my side more and more all the time.

We had a swimming party at Drew's grandparents' house on Saturday. Darcy could hang out in the water like this all day.

 Darcy's second cousin Bronson came and was such a brave swimmer! He loved his party had so much he decided to swim with it on. :)

 Brayden came too and was such a fish. He had fun seeing how far he could jump to Drew off the diving board.

 I think this is such an adorable picture! This is Darcy's great-grandma and grandma Christensen.

 This was not the reaction we expected from the Happy Birthday song! After the song was over she stood there like a statue for a second and then burst into tears. It was so sad...but slightly funny. She has been having pretend birthday parties for months and singing Happy Birthday to us and having us sing Happy Birthday to her so I really expected her to love it. Man was I wrong.

 She eventually calmed down to blow out her candles. Her cupcakes were peach with peach cream cheese frosting. They were good, but not as good as I had hoped they would be. 

 Cone head family.

 Everyone was so generous. Here she is with her new dress-up dresses that she has been wearing ever since.

 On the morning of her birthday I decided to take her to the park for a photo shoot. I really wanted it to be fun for her, but I ended up getting frustrated and she ended up getting frustrated. Of course I am regretting it all now. I always do that. She is such a cutie!

 When we got home she found the party hats in a bag and decided to put them on display on the bench. Here she is saying "ta-da!"

 Of course we had to do her very favorite thing on her birthday! She loves playing in this little pool outside. Our neighbor Ari joined her which made it even better!

 The second party was at our house on her birthday night. My family had been out of town for the original party so they decided to come on real birthday. She had so much fun and was so giggly the whole time. She loves Ash so much and I thought this was such a cute picture of them laughing together.

 This was her reaction to the cheap little tea set I got her on a whim as I was walking out of the store. Of the things we got her, this has been the biggest hit.

 Once again everyone was so generous. This was the Rapunzel wig Emily chose for her. We had some good laughs watching different people try this on.

 Here she is playing with her new T-ball set. I love her genuine smile here!

 Blowing out her candles on her second birthday cake. This was a triple chocolate box cake with some chocolate cream cheese frosting that I made (I really love cream cheese). It was better than the other cake and required way less effort.

I know this is long already but here are her answers to a birthday questionnaire I found on Pinterest. These are the answers she gave not necessarily the answers I think are right.

How old are you?    3

What makes you happy?    Ezra! (what a cute answer!)

What is your favorite animal?    little pig

What is your favorite thing to eat?    gum

What is your least favorite thing to eat?    Trix

What is your favorite thing to do?    Play!

What is your favorite TV show?    Angelina Ballerina & Dora

What are you really good at?    playing and brushing my hair

What is your favorite movie?    Hop

What is your favorite color?    blue

What is your favorite song?    Twinkle Twinkle

Who is your best friend?    Averi...& Ari (our two neighbor girls who are 6 & 7)

What do you and your mom do together?    play

What do you and your dad do together?    make pizza

What is your favorite sport?    soccer

Where is your favorite place to go?    the store

What is your favorite book?    Fancy Nancy Tea for Two (she just got this for her birthday)

What do you want to be when you grow up?    fireman

Chinese Duds

A few weeks ago Drew's parents went to China and brought back some awesome clothes for Darcy and Ezra. The other day Darcy wanted to get dressed up in her dress so I decided to have a little photo shoot.

 Ezra is just starting to stand on his own and it took a lot of tries to get him to stay up for a picture. I thought it was so cute that they were looking at each other like this.

 

I had Darcy do some Kung Fu for some pictures. She's a natural!

 So cute in his garb! 

 Grandma Becky said she couldn't resist getting two outfits for Darcy. :) Oh the joys of being the only granddaughter!!

Christensen Reunion

 It seems like we've been having a family reunion every other weekend doesn't it?! We love it! Yesterday was the Christensen family reunion at Drew's aunt and uncle's house in Mattawa. A couple of us got together and went boating in the morning and then the reunion started at 1. Around 8 the party ended and we went over to my friend Danny's wedding reception. It was kind of a crazy day, and we were all so exhausted by the time we were done with everything. You would think my kids would sleep in this morning, but OOH NO! Ezra was up before 6 this morning just like every other day and Darcy was up just after 7 and we were all a little cranky! Moving on.

 Ezra helped Justin drive the boat for a little while and loved it!

 There was an archery competition. This is Drew's cousin Danna and her husband Jeff showing off their skills.

 

It was such a hot day so most people retreated to the shade while the archery was happening. Ezra had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa in the grass.

 We did some swimming.

 Gemma, Darcy, and Kambria jumping on the trampoline together. Darcy had so much fun playing with all these cousins. I wish we could get together with everyone more often!

The big kids had to try this crazy trampoline too. (Alex, Dean, and Drew)

 Drew said this trampoline was really springy and good for doing tricks.

 Alex got to demonstrate for everyone what happens when you fly into the net. So funny!

Drew's Uncle Del gave some of the little boys a ride in the caterpillar. This was Case's turn.

 Darcy got to play a little dress-up. I thought this was such a sweet little costume.

I didn't get pictures of the DELICIOUS food, the Newlywed Game, the quilt craft, the Q&A session with Drew's grandparents, or so many of the fabulous people. It was great to see everyone!

Grandma Beth's 90th Birthday Party!!

On July 7th we had a big party for my Grandma's 90th birthday. I had so much family around and I absolutely loved it. Seriously. I have such amazing cousins and my dad's sisters are some of my favorite people on the planet. I was so sad when everyone left. I think I am still going through withdrawals.

About a year ago Haley said that she thought we should put together a family Lawrence Welk show for my Grandma, because it would make her life complete. Then people started talking about how to celebrate her 90th birthday and Haley suggested doing the Lawrence Welk show and it made the cut! I'm telling you, it was the best idea anyone has ever had!

If you don't know about the Lawrence Welk show you are missing out! Haha. Go here for a little history Lawrence Welk show. My dad grew up watching it on Saturday nights with his family and my grandma still calls my parents' house almost every Saturday to make sure they are watching because every episode is so wonderful to her.

 My cousin Tanner was Lawrence Welk and he did the most amazing job! He was so hilarious. Every Lawrence Welk show started with bubbles and I though it was so funny to have the bubbles blowing in front of him. 

 

We were supposed to be putting on the show for her but my grandma couldn't help but get in on the action. My grandpa sang and my grandma accompanied him on the accordion.

 My Uncle Alan played the guitar and sang with my grandma on the accordion again.

 

 

 Kacy and Anna performing

 

My Aunt Sarah sang the Hawaiin Wedding Song with her kids Ty, Tanner, Heidi, and Tate while Ty's wife Vicki did the hula in her wedding dress. Beautiful!

My mom spent hours slaving over these skirts for my sisters and me to sing Tumblin' Tumbleweeds together like the Lennon sisters. Haley spent hours listening to them sing it on YouTube and figuring out the arrangement and all our parts. We had decided we should look at Grandma most of the time because we assumed she's be smiling and it would help us smile too, but when we made eye contact with her we realized she was crying! Dang! Of course that made Haley and me cry too so we struggled a little bit to get our notes out. It went pretty well though considering we were all choked up.

 We also sang backup while my dad played the guitar and sang. 

 My aunts (and a relative wearing white who's name I don't even know unfortunately) sang "Grandpa" and it was fabulous.

 

My cousin Shay played the guitar and sang a couple songs she wrote that were so AMAZING! She is really talented. Emily sang harmony. She can hear the harmony to any song and pick it up so fast.

 My cousins Tanner, Tate, and Ty and Drew sang "Sobbin' Women" and it was so funny. Drew joined the group kind of last minute but he wasn't scared at all and he did some great acting and singing! He was seriously cracking me up.

 All the cousins (except the ten that couldn't make it) sang "Sentimental Ole You" for the last act accompanied by my Aunt Laura on the guitar.

 In the Lawrence Welk show they always have the audience members out dancing on the dance floor to the music, so at the end they played some music and we did a little dancing. My grandma got to dance with Lawrence Welk himself!!

And I just thought this was a cute picture of my dad and my grandpa. :)