Christensens

Valentine's Day

2012-02-18T08:14:00.001-08:00

I have seen lots of things around (mostly on Pinterest) about 14 days of Valentine's and I thought it would be fun to give that a try this year. We didn't end up doing things every day but we had some days with lots of things and I thought it was really fun to make Love Day a big deal. Darcy is confused now though, because four days later she is still wishing us a happy Valentine's Day.

Some of our days I don't have pictures of:

-Drink strawberry milk
-Watch a romantic movie and have chocolate covered-strawberries
-Make cards
-Make lists of the things we love about each other
-Put hearts on the wall that say "I love you" in different languages
-Heart-shaped sandwiches
-Read and eat conversation hearts
-Dance to love songs
-Lipstick kisses on the mirror and cheeks(didn't do it)
-Foot rubs (didn't do it either)

I saw this fun idea on Pinterest to make mailboxes for everyone to put our Valentines in.

One day in the middle of all this when Drew was gone playing racquetball I was reading a blog about this young married couple who wrote these really sweet love notes to each other all the time. They were trying every day to make sure their spouse knew they loved them and working really hard on their marriage. When Drew got home I was telling him we needed to be more like that and how I thought their notes were so great. Then he asked me if I had ever looked in my mailbox since I had made them, and I said no but of course I went and looked. He had written me two very sweet love notes. It actually made me cry (I had had a rough day and was emotionally compromised at that point.) :) It was so sweet!! A good love note can go a long way!

One of the things on our list was to make and decorate sugar cookies. I wish I could say it was a really awesome thing to do together, but it was mostly too messy for me to handle.

Darcy got a little dough, rolled it out, and found the tiny cookie cutter to make these little beauties! She really decided to do it all on her own.

I was going to make pink pancakes, but Drew asked for waffles instead. I am not good at taking pictures of food, but these waffles were pink, I put a little red food coloring in the peaches, and the whipped cream was pink too.

Another day we had eggs in a blanket with a heart-shaped hole for the egg.

On Valentine's Day I SLAVED to make this homemade heart-shaped meat raviolli with tomato basil and cream sauce. I don't have the pasta attachment for my kitchenaid so I had to roll it out by hand and it took forever. It was yummy though!

Another thing on my list was to take a family "love" picture. (Really just a family picture) We just took it with our timer so it's not the best, but I am pretty happy with it. In the very first picture everyone was looking at the camera! Amazing! Unfortunately I ruined it with a crazy face. Sooo...I sent a couple pictures to Haley and she swapped my head! Awesome right?! I think YES!

Overall it was a fun, but exhausting day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Love, Us

Ezra is 6 Months!

2012-02-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Half a year already? WHAT?!

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at six months:

- 15 lbs. 14 oz. He lost almost a pound over the last couple months and I am totally shocked! I feel so bad. I never thought I would have this issue. So now I am going to be trying to feed him extra and try some formula (even though I don't think he will take it). I didn't even catch how long he was because I was so shocked about him losing weight. He went from the 75th percentile to the 10th percentile. Sad.

- He is still such a happy boy. He loves to have people come talk to him.

- He rolls from his belly to his back and on to his sides from his back.

- He has been trying more baby food. He seems to really prefer the vegetables. The other day I made butternut squash for the family and mashed some up to give to him and he couldn't get enough!

- We love to watch him and Darcy interact. They love each other so much and it is so cute to watch!

- He still spits up like crazy. Booo!

- He is a cuddler and I absolutely LOVE IT!!

At Ezra's six month checkup today all the sweet nurses were telling him he was such a handsome boy...and I have to agree! Just look at that sweet face and those big blue eyes!

Drew took Ezra outside this afternoon and even though it was cold out there he was loving it!

Having some carrots.

Drew took this gem today. I love to have these pictures with my babies!

I just thought this picture really showed how much Darcy and Ezra have matching eyes.

Solution

2012-02-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I have been having A LOT of rough days. I think it's mostly because Darcy is a two year old and she is testing limits, and she is one stubborn little lady if she feels like being that way. So, we are having to do lots of disciplining which puts a damper on our days. Anyway, I was having a rough time and I was mad at myself for not enjoying my days as a mom more. Laying in bed the other night I came up with this idea. I thought I would share it in case it might be helpful for someone else too. I decided to start a journal that I write in every day and I list the great things the kids did during that day. Only good things. At the end of a hard day it really helps to be able to look back and see how many good things actually happened that day, and I don't go to bed feeling like that day was a bust. It has really helped me!

Here are some things my kids did lately that I loved:

- Darcy and I were having fun together and she asked "You happy Mom?" And I really was.

- Darcy and I were both giving Ezra tons of kisses and it made him and Darcy both laugh.

- For the first time, without being prompted, Darcy randomly came and gave me a hug and said, "I love you."

- While I was Visiting Teachings I got to hold Ezra while he slept (I never do this) and I could barely handle how sweet his baby face was.

- After I told Darcy how to put her doll's diaper back on, she came and instructed me on how to put Ezra's diaper on.

- Ezra was so excited to see Drew when he got home from work. He was thrashing around with excitement.

- When I was done folding the laundry, Darcy walked over and grabbed her pile and took it up to her room without me asking.

- We were riding stick horses and Darcy named hers Towel.

- We went on a stroller walk and Ezra was so happy the whole time (this was big because Ezra is teething and has been pretty cranky).

Comedian

2012-01-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

In Ezra's eyes, Darcy is the funniest person in the world. She is really the only one who has ever gotten him to laugh like this. We love it.

Drew's 28th Birthday

2012-01-13T18:21:00.001-08:00

For Drew's birthday this year I was so brave and had my mom come babysit. I don't know why I am such a wimp, but I really am not good at leaving my kids, even though it was with someone I trust completely. We got a gift card to Outback for Christmas so we went out to eat just the two of us for his birthday. It was really supposed to be for Drew, but it really was exciting and good for me too. It has been so long since we have had a date, and it was so great to get to sit down and really talk and just be together. When we got home we had cake and Drew opened his presents. I got him a skateboard. It was kind of meant to be a gag gift, but he actually seemed pretty into it.

Drew eating his free birthday ice cream at Outback. (Taken with my phone.)

Drew blowing out his candles. (Somebody get me a cake plate when my birthday comes around! I had to use a spring form pan. haha) I found a recipe on Pinterest for lemonade cake. It was good but it wasn't really as exciting as I had hoped it would be.

We told Darcy a few days before that it was almost Drew's birthday and she was so excited about it. She loves the "blowing-out-the-candles" part of birthdays.

Ashley got a chance too.

Drew opening his present from my mom. A new trash can! I suggested this present to my mom, because Drew kept mentioning how unsatisfied he was with our plastic one. :) It is stainless steel and automatic! Awesome!

5 Months!

2012-01-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

I just realized I didn't do a four month post for Ezra. I really don't know how I missed that!

Some things we want to remember about Ezra's fifth month:

- 17 lbs. 27 inches. Everyone always guesses he is older than he is because he's a big boy.

- We cheated and started feeding him rice cereal a few days ago. So far so good.

- He goes to bed around 8 o'clock, eats around five, then goes back to sleep until around 7:30.

- He loves Darcy. When she comes around he watches her intently and smiles so big at her. She loves him back.

- He is such a smiley little guy and we love that of course.

- We realized around three months that he wasn't turning his head to the right. So we have been taking him to physical therapy for torticollis and he is almost completely better. He made huge improvements really quickly. We also found out he has cradle cap and exzema. We had some rough moments with those things but after about a million doctors appointments for all these things, I think we are getting it all under control.

- He is ALWAYS scratching himself. I do not like that at all. He always has cuts on his face from scratching himself at night. I try to keep his nails clipped and always put mittens on his hands when he sleeps but he manages to get them off and clipped nails or not, he still cuts himself.

- One day around four months I decided to try giving him a binky again and he decided to take it. He had been crying it out every time I put him to bed, so it has been so great that suddenly he is taking the binky and going to sleep without crying.

- He loves to chew and suck on his own hands and on our hands too.

We love our boy!

He is the sweetest little guy!

Hanging out on the couch.

This is from when he first started taking a binky. If you look close you can see some of the good scratches on his forehead too.

While I was writing this post Darcy was playing with Ezra. He started gnawing on her hand and she was laughing so hard about it, which made him smile so big. It was pretty cute!

Christmas with the Christensen's

2012-01-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

We went to Grandpa Bill and G.G.'s for dinner on Christmas Eve. It is always so fun to see that part of Drew's family. All the great-grandkids got cute new jammies and some new toys too!

Drew and his Rexius cousins have had a picture taken like this mostly all their lives at Christmas.

We opened presents at Drew's parents' house after church. Here are Drew and Darcy opening a present.

This was probably Darcy's favorite present. She jumped on the bubble wrap while Case tried out her new bike.

After we opened presents we threw ourselves together and drove four hours up to this cabin at Priest Lake for the nest week.

This was the back of the cabin. So pretty!

I had to force Darcy to put her snow clothes on. She was kind of freaked out at first, but I'm glad I made her do it, because she ended up loving it outside in the snow. She was freaked out about riding the shovel at first too, but she eventually warmed up to it.

I was so amazed at how brave Case was. Nothing scared him!

Another example of how brave he was. Bryce slid him right off the porch on his shovel and he was happy to do it over and over.

He was also willing to ride down the hill on Bryce's back. Darcy didn't want to do any of that.

Case showed Darcy how to make a snow angel. I loved watching Darcy play with her cousins. I didn't manage to get any pictures of Miles somehow, but Darcy loved him too! She called them "my Case" and "my Miles."

Darcy got a taste of what it's like to have boys bigger than Ezra around. :)

Drew spent one day making a snow cave for the kiddos. There was a cave in the front and steps up to a slide on the back. I love this cute picture of Darcy and Case posing in the cave.

Darcy going up the stairs.

The slide.

We took Ezra out for a little while so we would use his snow clothes at least once.

Neil took a family picture for us out by the fort.

We went to the cabin to go snowmobiling. We managed to do a little, but unfortunately there wasn't very much snow, so we didn't get to do as much as we hoped we would. This was another thing I had to force Darcy to do. The noise of the snowmobiles scared her. She didn't end up loving it, but she did get through it alright. :)

Bryce, Kevin, and Drew went out for the first ride and Kevin ran into a fallen tree while he was looking down. He thinks he pulled his pec muscle. He had a good bruise to show for it.

Case and Darcy watching TV in our bed.

We played lots of UNO and the Dominos Mexican Train game.

Darcy struggled with nap time while we were there. She ended up falling asleep in the corner of the couch watching TV a couple days in a row.

We went for a drive to go see the lake one day and it was really beautiful.

Christmas with the Jenne's

2012-01-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

We spent late Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning with my family this year. It was delightful!

Santa brought Darcy a new bike this year (You can tell Santa is a boy based on his bike choice for the little girl.) :) He also brought her a backpack like Dora's. When Darcy walked into the living room and saw that backpack she clapped her hands together and did this crazy fist pump thing that cracked me right up!

Ezra got this little play mat and he was kicking like crazy and loving it and then we realized that he was falling asleep. I guess going to bed around midnight and getting up at six to open presents was too much for him. :)

Ashley "the organizer" set all her loot out in this display for her picture.

My Grandma Jensen sent these hats she made for Darcy and Ezra.

Brian's parents were here for Christmas all the way from Florida and they really came out on top with all these adorable pictures of baby Matthew.

I just thought this was such a cute picture of Haley with all her goods.

Darcy sitting in her pile playing her harmonica she found in her stocking.

Not your average Christmas picture. Nick came away from this Christmas armed and dangerous. Ready for the gangs of Mattawa.

Brian, Haley, and Matthew got some diapers and Scattergories. (The diapers were really just for Matthew.)

If you're a Pinterest-er you probably know about the big measuring stick for marking your kids heights over the years. My mom looked at my Pinterest account and Ashley, my dad, my mom, and Haley put it all together for us. I love it! (Darcy doesn't look quite as pleased, but at least now we know she is 3 ft 1 in)

Where does she get these crazy expressions?? (With our new nativity Ashley and my mom made us.)

Emily with her new IPod Nano (or something like that).

My Grandma and Grandpa Jenne opening their presents. My Grandpa is still wearing part of his shepherd's costume from the Nativity performance that we missed this year. If you look closely you will see that my Grandpa is using a knife to open his. It is his trademark to open presents carefully to preserve the wrapping paper.

Party

2011-12-22T11:18:00.001-08:00

A couple weekends ago we took Darcy and Ezra to Drew's cousin's little boy Delson's birthday party (Did you get that?) at a childrens gymnastics place and it was so awesome! Darcy was timid at first of course, but by the end we had a hard time pulling her away. I wish I could take her somewhere like that more often. It kept her so happy. Maybe some day she will be interested in playing with the other kids instead of just the toys. :) Delson's reaction to all of his presents was so cute. He seemed so excited about all of them and was so sweet to say thank you to everyone. I love that we get to be here close to celebrate with family like this.

Jumping

Going down the slide off the pirate ship.

Braden gave Darcy a ride on the bus.

Darcy and Delson jumping. (I should have gotten a better picture of the birthday boy!)

I'm sure this was Darcy's favorite part. She loved this parachute and getting to run under it and on top of it. We had a hard time keeping her out when it was time for that.

They had the kids lay in the middle on a color and the adults ran in a circle. So fun!

Most of the kids ready for their cake!

I thought this might scare Darcy. The first time she wasn't that excited about it, but later she wanted to do it over and over. It shot them down and all the way to the far fall.

Another little car ride.

Winter Wreath

2011-12-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make a Christmas wreath that could last a few months, so I guess it's more of a winter wreath. The colors don't look very vibrant here and the snowflake ornament doesn't look as sparkly as it does in real life, but you get the idea. I got this idea from Pinterest, and I kind of love it.

Picture Time

2011-12-16T21:58:00.000-08:00

Some of what's been going on around here:

Darcy wanted Ezra to lay in her bed with her, and they were just too cute together.

A little smooch.

Protein! I think it was Ashley that taught Darcy this awesome move, but the other day Darcy wasn't eating her meat at dinner, and Drew and I were telling her that it was good for her and it would make her strong. I ended up doing this move and yelling "protein!" and for some reason that did the trick. So if we ever want her to eat her meat we just do that, and she will eat it. Amazing! (Sorry about the missing shirt, but that's just how it is around here sometimes.)

Shirtless again, but so cute. She spotted this tutu skirt in her closet the other day and she has been wearing it to dance around the house to Christmas music.

I always put Ezra in his bumbo up on the counter when I'm cooking and Darcy loves to sit up there with him. Neither of them look very happy here, but I promise they liked it.

I'm only posting this picture because it was Darcy's first picture that she actually got someone in the frame.

Cousins

2011-12-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Haley and Brian brought baby Matthew over for a little visit the other day, which we loved of course. Ezra and Matthew are only three months apart, but that makes a really big difference at this point.

Ezra and Matty. I hope these two end up being great buddies.

I had to let Darcy get in there for a picture, and she dwarfs them both. :)

Painting

2011-12-16T21:45:00.000-08:00

I am really struggling to come up with things to do with Darcy in the house all day long. Pinterest has been kind of helpful but most things we try only keep her occupied for a couple minutes. The biggest success so far has been painting with corn syrup. You just add a little food coloring to some corn syrup and paint away. Probably the best part for Darcy was getting to eat the paint as she went. :) I really struggle with letting her do the activities that make a big mess, but I'm slowly getting over that, and it worked best to let her wear just a bib.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-29T20:32:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. We stayed at my parents' house which we rarely do. It was fun to be able to stay up and play games and talk at night instead of rushing home to get the kids in bed. We ate at my grandparents' house and had tons of delicious food. My grandma has taught everyone on that side of my family to be awesome pie-makers so we ended up with around 12 delicious pies plus a couple of other desserts. I almost died from sugar overload.

Everyone sitting down for our Turkey dinner.

Ezra couldn't eat the feast, so he did the next best thing and ate his hand. :)

These snuggly moments are rare, so I have to capture them.

I meant to do a whole post about this, but somehow I didn't get around to it. Here is our favorite new addition to the family Matthew James Webb. He was born on November 18th and he is so tiny and perfect. We are so excited for Haley and Brian, and we are so excited to have him in our family!

This picture is kind of fuzzy but I thought it was a cute one of my mom with Ezra. I love it when babies drape their arm over yours like that.

Emily and Nick came home and it was fun to see them again. Darcy asks us almost every day where they are, so it was nice to have a little break from answering that question for a few days. :) Darcy is such a good poser.

Emily with baby Matthew.

On a very cold day we went outside and played volleyball (Haley even played five days after having a baby! What??!). Darcy played in the big pile of leaves while we played and loved it. Here she is with Ashley.

Drew threw her into the pile, and I was wondering if it might scare her but she was happy to do it over and over again for pictures. I could never get a clear shot though.

She also enjoyed pretending to drive the lawn mower.

My grandma brought over a couple of my great-grandpa Jenne's old hats and Drew and Brian got to try them on. Drew was going for a french look and ended up looking really crazy and Brian was going for an angry Russian look.

My dad tried the beret on too and added these sunglasses for a nice touch.

2...Again

2011-11-16T20:43:00.001-08:00

I just barely took Darcy to her two year checkup and I thought I would do a little update about her.

- She is about 34 lbs which is in the 95th percentile. I can't remember what her height was but I know it was in the 75th percentile. The doctor told me I am supposed to really crack down on her diet because her BMI is a little too high and we have a family history of diabetes. I almost cried right there in the doctor's office. She is really active and I was always so happy that she was such a good eater. I was shocked to have the doctor tell me that, because up until now her doctors always acted like if was a good thing that she was packing on the pounds. So we are trying to be really careful about not having too many snacks during the day.

- She has LOTS of energy! After she takes her nap in the afternoon she is non-stop action until bed time. Drew keeps asking her "What are you on?" I think she's just two. I honestly can not keep up with her though. I keep researching things that would keep her busy, but nothing lasts long enough! So I keep ending up letting her watch more Dora than I really want her to.

- She loves birthdays. She sings the happy birthday song all day long to everyone and everything (Grandpa, Ashley, Ezra, Dora, couch, ball, hot dog, etc.) And she has started saying happy birthday to people as a greeting. Haha. Brian has really enjoyed helping her solidify this as her greeting. When he sees her he says, "Happy Birthday Darcy" and she replies "Happy Birthday Brian" and then he gives her a hug or plays with her or whatever. Thanks for that Brian! :)

- She also says "good job" to us. She will ask me to draw something and when I do she will say, "good job mom." (Even if it was a terrible drawing.) She does this for lots of things like singing a song or playing a song on the piano, or kicking a ball, or making her some food item.

- Drew taught her how to dribble a soccer ball the other day, and she is actually pretty darn good at it and it is so cute.

- She loves to play with her little kitchen and cooking stuff and draw on her easel. She asks us to go upstairs to play with her all the time.

- She is potty trained!! (mostly) She is still wearing a pull-up at night and sometimes it isn't dry in the morning, but during the day she's a champ.

- She is very helpful and likes things to be in their place. If I eat something with a wrapper and just leave the wrapper beside me she will come get it and take it to the garbage. She likes to go get Ezra's clothes and his diaper if he needs a diaper change.

- She loves to jump on the trampoline.

3 Months

2011-11-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

Ezra is three months old now. He is such a sweet boy and we are having so much fun with him.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra's third month:

- 14 lbs 3 oz. This is according to our home scale so I don't know how accurate it is, but if that's right he weighs less than he did last month which is pretty crazy to me and makes me a little nervous. Isn't he just supposed to gain tons of weight every month? That's what I'm used to with Darcy. 24 3/4 inches. Also according to my measurements and I really wasn't careful at all measuring his height, but according to that measurement he has grown over two inches. Hmmm...probably not right. People do always tell us he's really big though.

- We have got to figure out this sleeping situation! He wakes up 2-3 times in the night now and he used to wake up once. Not cool. He is a good napper though, and somehow I am really not dying from lack of sleep like I was with Darcy. Yesterday was Sunday and he fell asleep a couple hours before church started. Then Drew transferred him to his carseat to go to church and he didn't even wake up. He ended up sleeping until 20 minutes before church ended. It was about a five hour nap! It was so crazy and so nice to not have to worry about both kids all through church. We had a crazy last few days so he just needed to do some catch up I guess.

- He still loves to talk. He talks to the TV and anyone who talks to him. If you talk in a high-pitched happy voice to him he smiles so big and gets really excited.

- He has rolled over twice, which I really wasn't expecting yet.

- When he is sad (like when Darcy plays the harmonica) he sticks his lip out so far and it can really break your heart. He also lets out short little screams when he is sad or frustrated.

- He had his first haircut this past month. It was just too shaggy around his ears and the back of his neck. If he had any curl at all in his hair it would have been ok, but it's so straight that it just went straight out over his ears, and I just didn't like it.

Oh man I love that sweet baby face!

Hanging out.

Getting kissed by Darcy. He handles having her hair in his face so well.

Haley cut his hair and he was actually really happy through the whole things. He seemed to enjoy it actually.

Halloween

2011-11-01T15:17:00.001-07:00

Darcy loves Dora these days. A couple weeks ago she watched the Halloween episode on Netflix and I decided she could be a black cat like Dora. So yesterday after I dressed her up I let her watch that episode again. She loved that they were dressed the same.

This is SO fake. I can't believe it actually looks like she's happy right here. She had just gotten done with the biggest melt down of her life. And really she was still kind of in the middle of it. She has always been the best eater, but this past week she decided she didn't want to eat anything but candy, fruit, and a few beans or peas here and there. Her diapers are suffering. So we told her she couldn't come to the party until she had eaten five bites of her dinner and it was like a war. It was so awful. I have never seen her so upset, and I don't know if I have ever been so upset as a mom either. It's getting better though.

I am normally not a fan of cats, but I love this one!

Drew's mom got this costume for Ezra and I thought he looked so adorable!

Cute little tiger face.

Darcy trunk-or-treating. About half way through she told me she was done and we went home.

This isn't a good picture, but the trunk-or-treat was huge. I have never been to one like that.

I always love pictures over the shoulder of babies when they're this little. (Drew pointed out to me after I had already done it that the whiskers on Ezra's face were redundant. But we were late and I thought they looked so cute so I didn't take them off. haha)

Drew and Ezra were in charge of passing out our candy.

Me and my little black cat.

Yay for family pictures!

When we got home I took Darcy across the street to a few of our neighbors and then she was ready to be done.

When we were done she trick-or-treated to Drew. :)

The Country Mercantile

2011-10-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we went to the Country Mercantile that isn't far from our house. The main thing we were going for was the pumpkin patch but I told Haley we were going there and she told me not to buy pumpkins because my mom had tons growing in her garden. So we didn't buy pumpkins, but there were lots of other things to do there. Of course Ezra had no idea what was going on, but we really thought Darcy would love it all. She really didn't seem to care about any of it though. Maybe next year she will think it's more exciting. Drew and I thought it was a really fun thing to do as a family.

We got there early to beat the crowd and it was a good thing we did. We got to hurry and get everything done and just as we were finishing up it started getting really packed. This is Drew with the kiddos in front of some of the vendors, but most of them weren't even set up when we first got there.

We thought Darcy would like walking through the straw maze, but she seemed a little nervous about the whole thing and asked me to pick her up. We just hurried through it.

I took Darcy on the little kid roller coaster, which is honestly the only kind of roller coaster I am ok with. After the first drop Darcy said, "Darcy done!" (We are working on moving away from talking in the third person :) Every turn and bump and every time we went on that drop again she would tell me she was done again. I was worried she would start crying, but she never did. She wasn't a fan though.

This was something she liked a little better, but she still wasn't really that excited about it.

Going down the slide.

We were the only ones on the airplane. I decided to ride with her, but it really wasn't made for someone my size. It killed my knees! Darcy wasn't a big fan of this either. She told me she was done after a couple times around, so after a couple more times around I just told the guy to stop.

She maybe kind of liked the carousel. We were the only people on this one too.

I wanted Darcy to smile big for the camera so I started fake laughing really hard and it definitely got her laughing and smiling, but not really toward the camera.

I really thought Darcy would like the petting zoo, but once again she wasn't into it. We took her out of the stroller when we first got in there, and she wanted right back in. They had signs that said, "pet at your own risk." Drew went to pet the pony and it turned and snapped at him. He kept trying and the pony kept trying to bite him. We saw him do the same thing to another guy. I hope no kids tried.

There were lots of people climbing to the top of this hay bale stack so Drew decided to take Darcy up. She didn't hate it but didn't love it either. Haha. We tried right?!

At the very top.

Then we went out in the pumpkin patch really just to take pictures. I LOVE this picture of Drew and Darcy.

Darcy and I did some staged walking up and down the rows holding hands. :)

I had Drew stand behind me and fake laugh, and we got this amazing picture of Darcy. I think it is so cute!

Another cute one.

I really wanted to have a family picture at the pumpkin patch, but Ezra was sleeping and I was not interested in waking him up.

Done for the day.

We were in Mattawa for the weekend and we grabbed some pumpkins from my parents' garden. Tonight for Family Home Evening Drew and Darcy (really just Drew) carved one of them.

The scary pumpkin!

2 Months

2011-10-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

With Darcy I always wanted to have her doctor's appointment right on the month mark so I would know her stats exactly on those days, but then I decided after a few months of that that it wasn't really that important, and she ended up having shots on her birthday so I have changed things up with Ezra. So, now he is two months and eight days. I was just looking at pictures of Darcy at two months and although her and Ezra look similar, she was just a lot chubbier! At least in the face and legs. I ended up using the Babywise book around six months for Darcy and I started using it from the very beginning with Ezra. I think it has made all the difference in the world. I have decided though that I'm pretty sure I was doing everything wrong with Darcy and that's why she was miserable which made us miserable. It breaks my heart, because I think she was just tired all the time, and I didn't know how to help her then. Oh, I have guilt! Anyway, Ezra is just such a happy baby and I love him. Lots.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra's second month:

- 14 lbs 4 oz (95th %) 22 1/2 inches (25-50 % (Why can't they narrow that down a little?))

- He loves to talk. He talks so much and it is my favorite thing! I could just sit and listen to him make his cute little baby noises all day long. It is SO cute.

- He has regressed a little with sleeping. Sometimes he still only wakes up once at night, but sometimes he wakes up twice and I'm not a big fan. He started waking up from naps after 45 minutes (called the 45 minute intruder according to Babywise). So we have been letting him cry in out the past couple weeks and it is so hard! I hate hearing him cry like that, but I think he's working back into a good schedule now, and he is so much happier when he sleeps so it's worth it.

- He is so smiley.

- He watches the TV. I don't think I like it. Darcy has gotten into Dora lately and when Drew watches sports he is glued to the TV. He smiles and talks to the TV. (That part is kinda cute.)

- He still gets mauled regularly by Darcy. Mostly it's love, but yesterday she bit his nose (I really don't think she's trying to be mean. It seems like it's just curiosity.) and left teeth marks. His cry was so sad.

I know there are diapers in the back, but I kind of LOVE this picture!

Wreath, Scarves, Blue Eyes, Action!

2011-10-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Wreathes are my favorite new thing. I saw a wreath like this online last year but basically we were poor college students and I didn't ever like to spend money on things like this. I saved it in my memory though and I was so excited to get to try it. I really love how it turned out. It's just a bunch of fake roses that I spray painted black and then a big bow on top. Easy as pie!

I was noticing the other day that I don't have hardly any pictures of me with the kiddos lately and I don't like that. I am with them ALL the time and I want that documented. The problem is I am usually the one that does the documenting. So the other day when Drew was home I had him take a picture. I need to do that more often. We were getting ready to go visit our bishop's family. I put on a scarf and Darcy wanted one too. Then I taught her how to pose. :)

I love these blue eyed babies! We were at Drew's soccer game today and I was noticing how blue Ezra's eyes looked so I got Drew's phone to take his picture. The lighting wasn't as great for his picture (or maybe it was my photography skills) but I still thought it was a sweet picture of him. Then I tried with Darcy and I love this picture of her! I think it's my new favorite.

This is the third time Darcy has asked me to take these pictures of her. She likes to stand at the corner of the entertainment center and then run past me and have me take her picture while she does it. Then she likes to look at the pictures. Today she tried hopping by. She cracks me up!

YEE-HAW!

2011-10-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

On the 23rd of September my dad turned 55. Haley had the BRILLIANT idea of having a little kid cowboy themed party for him. It wasn't the best planned party ever but it was so much fun and we could tell by my dad's expressions that he loved it. It was going to be a surprise but Drew and I drove up with our kids all decked out in our cowboy gear and he was standing right there, so that ended up being the surprising part. Haha. I don't know if there's a girl in the world who loves her dad as much as I love mine, and once again I am so happy we live so close so I could be there for his awesome party.

The first activity was calf roping. This is Drew, my dad, and Brian.

Darcy with her stick-horse "2". She has recently learned to say she is 2 when you ask how old she is, but she thinks that is the answer for any question you ask her now. So we kept asking what her horses name was and she said "2".

Riding ole 2.

Family picture in our cowboy gear. We found these hats at the dollar store and I could hardly handle how hilarious they looked. We all looked so stupid in them. Drew especially was sporting his proudly. When we drove up and got out of the pickup wearing those beauties everyone else got a kick out of them too.

This is a obviously not the best picture of Ezra but it was the best one we could get of his shirt. I just had to show off the shirt I made him the morning of the party. Darcy has a boots shirt she got from Grandma Christensen and I just copied the boot and put it on one of Ezra's shirts.

My mom was in charge of my dad's "happy cake". Haley found this idea on some blog and my mom made it happen. Pretty awesome huh!

My grandma, who is an expert pie-maker made two delicious peach pies with this adorable boot cut in the top.

Blowing out the candles.

In my family we always let the little kids have a turn (or 5) blowing out the candles after the birthday person.

After dinner and cake we went outside and I taught everyone a line-dance. It was so funny watching everyone try to figure it out.

This is my dad dancing and laughing hysterically (we all did a lot of that).

Haley is the best baby-holder in the world! She even held Ezra while she learned the line-dance. (Notice Brian's dance pose in the background.)

After line-dancing my dad opened his present from Uncle Don, Aunt Elaine, and Grandma and Grandpa...a new hunting jacket! He will be an awesome hunter now for sure.

Then we had stick-horse races. Drew and I went first. We used flower pots for obstacles. Of course I lost, but I don't know if it was because I was slower or because I was laughing harder (OK maybe I know it's because I'm slower.)

At this point Darcy had shed her pants. We're country like that. :) We were laughing that she was looking her horse in the face while she rode.

This picture is a classic. Drew and Brian taking their stick-horse racing very seriously!

Drew and Ashley racing.

The last activity of the night was a free-style horse racing event. I thought this picture of my dad's free-style run was the perfect way to end this post.

Haley also made a pin the tail on the horse game, but we never got to it. Rats!

Giddy Up!

Favorite Picture

2011-09-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today on the way to Mattawa Drew looked back and saw this. Darcy and Ezra had both fallen asleep holding hands. I think it is so sweet that Darcy would think to grab Ezra's hand like this. Sometimes when she's over-tired and having a hard time falling asleep in the car she likes us to hold her hand so she can fall asleep. I wonder if that's where she got the idea.

This was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life. I just can't get over how adorable it was. I even felt a little choked up. I love my babies.

1 Month!

2011-09-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

We had Ezra's 1 month checkup today. He had a shot and he hated it and I hated it. He only cried for a minute but his lower lip spent a long time hanging out afterwards. Broke my heart. I love this little man. I was really worried about juggling two kids and we have had our moments, but it has been much easier than I expected because he has been so good.

Things we want to remember about Ezra's first month :

- He is a big boy! 12 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile). The nurses weighed him a couple different times because they couldn't believe how much weight he had gained. He was a little over 22 inches long which is only around the 50th percentile. His head circumference was 16 inches and they measured that 3 times because they couldn't believe how big his head was either. Darcy was always like this so I wasn't shocked at all and it was funny for me to watch them make such a big deal out of it.

- He is such an awesome sleeper. For the most part he sleeps from around 9 to 9 and only wakes up once. He always takes one really long nap in the middle of the day. There was a little part of me that was worried that he slept so much, but the doctor said he was perfectly healthy today so I'm just going to be happy that he's such a good sleeper.

- He is getting really good at holding his head up.

- He does lots of grunting.

- We have had a couple moments when it seemed like he was smiling on purpose. He always looks worried so I am really looking forward to when he starts smiling so I will know he is happy sometimes.

- He has an awesome old man hair line and his roots are blonde.

You can kind of see his worried look and his old man hair line in this picture. :)

He looks huge in this picture! He really seems tiny to us still.

Haha! He does a lot of this too. It's just too hard to keep those eyes straight.

Kiddos

2011-09-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time coming up with new titles for these posts, because basically every post is about Darcy and Ezra. How many different ways can you say that? :)

Darcy LOVES her brother. She also loves to have her picture taken these days. She always asks to hold Ezra and then asks me to take a picture. He is not really a fan of this situation and Darcy is not a fan of him crying so it never lasts very long. I thought I should post all of these pictures of Darcy holding Ezra over the past couple weeks.

Obviously he loves it! :)

She also really loves to give him kisses all the time. She has started saying in a really high-pitched voice (like she has heard us do) "Hi Ezwa, how-a you?" And then she kisses him.

His legs just aren't quite filling these shorts out yet. :)

I caught a little smirk while he was sleeping.

Snoozing with dad.

Drew went and got the bumbo the other day and I was sure he was too little for it, but he sat right up in it. I couldn't believe it. He is showing off with how well he can hold his head up already.

I took this picture of Ezra looking over Drew's shoulder and it reminded us of this picture below of Darcy looking over his shoulder.

Ezra's Blessing Day

2011-09-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

Drew blessed Ezra this past Sunday. It was a really beautiful blessing and a great day with family. Just a few of the things Ezra was blessed with were "joy in this life, a desire to serve the Lord, and the courage to do hard things." We had lots of family here from both sides which we loved. Then some of the family came back to our house to eat.

Ezra in his blessing outfit.

Drew and Ezra before church.

I love this picture! I really wish it were a little clearer, but I just can't believe everyone is looking at the camera! :)

My mom got this dress for Darcy for her birthday and I have been waiting to have her wear it for Ezra's blessing day. She usually wears shorter dresses and she seemed a little surprised by the length when I first put in on her. We went outside for a little photo shoot before church and I had Ashley act crazy behind me to get some real smiles from Darcy.

Happy girl.

Packed house.

Ezra with Grandma Becky.

Ezra with his Great-Grandpa Bob.

Ezra with his Great-Grandma Beth and Great-Grandma Jo.

This Week

2011-08-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Drew got to be home with us for Ezra's first week and it was the best thing ever! He was SO much help and we had so much fun together. I had withdrawals yesterday when he went back to work and I had to figure things out at home by myself with two kiddos. He is the best husband and dad around! I thought I would post a picture of him with each of the little ones (I have a hard time with the word "kids". It just sounds so weird to me.). I am so glad Ezra has Drew to look to for an example of a great man.

Drew with Ezra

Drew just sent me this picture from his phone and I wanted to use it. I love it.

I turned 26 on the 19th. I really am not a big fan of getting older. It's scary to me. Maybe some day I can embrace it. My friend/family Kristen told me about this little bakery called Frost Me Sweet and I decided that's what I wanted for my birthday cake. This is such a lovely picture of me right? Thanks for the suggestion Kristen!

My "HAPPY CAKE!" I dove in a little early and Drew could only get a picture of four of the six yummy cupcakes. Man they were delicious! There was an Elvis cupcake that was chocolate with a banana cream filling, some kind of caramel cupcake that was my favorite, strawberry daquari, maple bacon, chocolate raspberry, and chocolate peanut butter. YUM!

This was my awesome birthday present! A phil&ted double jogging stroller. Drew found it for a steal on craigslist and I think it rocks! I am so excited to use it except it seems a little too intense for me. I think I actually have to become a runner to use such a fancy jogging stroller. :) We took this picture on my birthday which is only six days after I had Ezra and let me tell you...I do not recommend running that soon after having a baby! Whew! I only ran a few steps back and forth for the picture, but it just wasn't worth it. :)

I actually ruined the surprise because I found the stroller in the closet in the office upstairs a few days before my birthday. My sewing machine was in there and I went to get it. Drew assumed I would never get in there. He was so sad that he didn't surprise me and I felt bad, but I still love it.

I really felt like I had the perfect relaxed birthday. I woke up to Drew and Darcy trying to quietly make me a birthday card. I love things like that. Then while Ezra was still sleeping I went outside and watched Drew and Darcy ride bikes together. Darcy loved that Drew was riding with her and honestly something that makes her so happy makes me so happy too.

I told Drew to do some tricks and he delivered! Look at that air!

Darcy riding her trike in her PJ's. We thought it was going to take her a while to figure out how to ride this thing when we got it for her for her birthday, but it really only took a couple days and now she's a pro.

Sweet girl

My next request was to take Darcy to the splash pad for the first time. I think a splash pad is a great idea! She thought it was so fun and we had fun watching her. She loved the slides. Her tongue is kind of sticking out in this picture. She takes her sport seriously like Michael Jordan I guess.

She decided it was proper form to put your foot on the football while playing in the water.

A picture of the splash pad. This place is cool!

It took her a minute to decide she was ok with the water spraying on her head.

A couple Darcy facts:

-She LOVES Ezra. A little too much. I am struggling with knowing when to let her attack him with kisses and hugs and tickles and loud songs and when to let him have his space. Hopefully we figure that one out soon.

- There are a few things she says these days that crack us up:
- Happy Cake! This is what she calls birthday cake and we have adopted that term.
- She uses the "sh" sound instead of the "s" sound at the beginning of words. She says, "shocka ball" for soccer ball, "shucka" for sucker, "shircle" for circle, "shycle" for motorcycle.
-She says "Yes!" when she is excited about something like when we get to the park she say, "Oh park! Yes!" Cracks me up every time.

I had a little photo shoot with Ezra a few days after he was born. I really would love to take Darcy and Ezra to a professional photographer but I am just too cheap. Why does it have to be so expensive?! Some day I will though. These pictures weren't that awesome in color but I thought they were pretty cute in black and white. He is one handsome little man!

He has been such a great sleeper and I am so grateful for that. I really expected to be totally exhausted at this point, but so far I really am feeling pretty rested. From the very beginning he seemed to know when it was night. LUCKY.

Ezra James Christensen

2011-08-15T20:48:00.001-07:00

Ezra is here and we are loving it!! I want to write down the story of his birth before I forget the details.

I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday the 9th where the doctor stripped my membrane. He offered to induce me the next day but I told him no. When I got home and told Drew we talked about it for a little bit and decided we would go for the induction after all. My mom and Ashley came that night to watch Darcy when I went into the hospital early the next morning. I didn't end up going in the next day at all or the day after that. Friday afternoon my mom decided she would go back home and get some things done there, and of course they called me that night and told me they could get me in so she had to come back. Waiting was really hard for me because there was so much anticipation, but in the end I am really happy it took as long as it did because my body made progress on it's own which is what I wanted to happen originally.

We got to the hospital at about 9:30 on Friday night and they took us straight to our room and had me change. My nurse Kim got me all situated and the doctor came in around 10:00. She checked me and I was dilated to a 3. They told me I was having contractions about every 8 minutes which I was really surprised about because I didn't even know I had been having contractions at all. I thought they were just Braxton Hicks. They didn't even hurt! The doctor immediately asked the nurse for the hook and I kind of yelled, "WHAT?!" because I knew that meant she wanted to break my water and it really startled me. I just wasn't expecting things to happen that quickly at all. The other thing that surprised me was that the doctor asked me right after she broke my water if I wanted an epidural. I hadn't even had any pain at that point so I declined right at first. The nurse told me when I felt something I didn't want to feel again to ask for the epidural. Contractions started getting stronger and closer together quickly so about a half an hour later I asked for the epidural. The nurse anesthetist Bill came in soon after. He was so friendly and nice and he worked quickly and was careful to wait for a moment when I wasn't having a contraction to do his work (unlike the man that gave me my epidural with Darcy). After he gave me the epidural he started talking to Drew and we found out he knew all of Drew's Christensen side of the family so that was kind of fun. About an hour after my pain began it was gone, and it wasn't even very serious pain. That was basically all the pain I experienced the whole time. It was amazing. I keep saying I feel like I cheated the system because of how little pain I had.

After the epidural Drew and I fell asleep. About an hour later they gave me some pitocin and I went back to sleep. Around 1:30 in the morning the nurse came in to check me and we were both surprised that I was dilated to a 6 or 7. The babies heart rate had gone down a little, which the nurse said was because of how quickly I had progressed so she went to get the doctor. About ten minutes later the doctor came in to put a monitor on the baby, but I had already dilated to a 9 so she said she couldn't do anything. At this point I woke Drew up to tell him I was about to push. He had slept through the whole thing and was really surprised at what was happening. I dilated quickly to a 10 but wasn't totally effaced so we had to wait for that for about a half an hour. I pushed for 15-20 minutes and some of that time was just waiting for the doctor to get there. At one point the nurse said, "Now you're just showing off" because I was such a good pusher. :) Ezra James Christensen was born at 2:49 in the morning on August 13, 2011. He was 8 lbs. 1.1 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. I know that is a decent sized baby by most peoples standards but he just seemed so unbelievably tiny. At first we didn't think he really looked like Darcy at all but over the last couple days as he has filled out we think he looks more and more like her, but they have slightly different noses. He is tongue-tied like she was (I'm so sad that is a feature I have passed on to both of my babies so far). Oh, and he has huge feet with the longest big toes I've ever seen! They look like fingers. :)

I feel like I am recovering so much faster this time around and I am so grateful for that and how smoothly the labor went. I feel so blessed to have two beautiful healthy babies.

We came home from the hospital Sunday around noon and my mom stayed with us that evening. She made an amazing dinner for us, which I so appreciate as a newly nursing mom. I feel starved all the time! She made us fried chicken, some perfectly mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob from her garden (which basically tastes like candy) salad, peas and carrots, watermelon, and a lemon bunt cake. YUMMO! Drew ate like a king, and I ate like a hog. :) I am so grateful to have family so close and so willing to help. Thanks mom!

Of course we were a little worried about how Darcy would handle this change but she has been a champ. At first she was only slightly interested in him but now she talks about him all the time and loves to help us with him. Drew's parents got her a cute Cabbage Patch doll so she would have a baby to take home from the hospital too and she thinks baby Edwina is pretty awesome. Yesterday she asked if she could hold Ezra so we put her on the couch with him on her lap and she grinned the whole time. I asked her after a minute or so if she wanted me to take him and she said, No! It was so sweet.

She did have a hard time Saturday night when my mom took her home from the hospital and we didn't go with her. She cried and cried all the way out of the hospital, the car ride home, had a little break while she got to drive an awesome cart at the grocery story, and then cried again until she went to sleep. It broke my heart and my moms. I am happy to be back at home with her and for us to get into the swing of things.

We had a really good first night. Ezra woke up a couple times to eat of course, but I just laid him back down and he went right back to sleep. Darcy didn't wake up until 8 so we all slept until then and I woke up feeling rested, which I didn't expect to do the first night. He hasn't been awake hardly at all today though so that might mean tonight will be a little different.

Drew is going to be home this whole week. He gets to work from home Wednesday through Friday and I am so happy about it. We are so enjoying this new addition to our family. Thank you to everyone who has had us in your thoughts and prayers over the last few days. Thank you for your love and support.

Getting settled in before everything got started.

Ezra just after he was born.

Drew with Ezra.

Darcy getting acquainted with Ezra.

Family of four! (Darcy flashing gang signs)

I think it was my dad that first showed Darcy this fish tank down the hall from my room. She wanted to go back and check it out every few minutes.

Snoozing.

Stretched out.

About to sneeze.

A close-up of his sweet face.

I hated the pictures of me with Darcy in the hospital because I looked so ragged, so I got up and did my hair and put some make-up on to have some pictures of me with Ezra in the hospital before we left. Drew said that was proof of how easy the whole delivery had been on me. :)

Right before we left Darcy got up in my bed and she seemed to think she was pretty cool.

Ezra in his civilian clothes ready to go home.

Ready for the ride home.

Darcy holding Ezra at home.

Ready to Pop/Wreath

2011-08-10T10:51:00.001-07:00

I'm 39 weeks and 6 days today. I had a doctors appointment yesterday and the doctor offered to induce me today. I told him no, but when I got home and talked about it with Drew we decided that we would just go for it. I was hoping not to be induced this time because I thought the pain would maybe be more manageable if it came gradually. The doctor told me that because it is my second time it would be easier, and I honestly am just kind of ready to be done (not to mention the fact that Drew has a softball tournament next week that he can't miss). :)

They told me they would call me at 6:00 this morning and if they didn't to call them at 9 to see how things were going. I called at 9 and they said they are totally packed and probably won't be able to get me in until this evening at the soonest. I am bummed. I am not good at waiting. I guess today I will be working on patience. So I think we will have a baby tomorrow, on my due date.

Ready to GO!!

I have been feeling like we were seriously lacking some color at our front door so I looked up some ideas for a wreath. I originally tried to make this wreath yellow, but I tried a couple different yellows that just didn't seem right. I'm not usually a red person, because I am not that bold, but after looking at a bunch of different colors I thought it was the best option. It is bold, but I think I like it. I spray painted the wreath, added the little weed thing, and made the fabric flowers. All very easy and fast. (The only kind of craft I am into.)

Everyone come and visit us when this baby comes! We love visitors and don't you feel so welcomed at our front door?! :) (The inside of the house still feels really empty unfortunately.)

Darcy is 2!

2011-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Darcy had her second birthday yesterday. Up until this point it hasn't really been sad for me to have her get older. I still mostly love to watch her grow up and change and progress, but this second birthday has given me a twinge of sadness that she isn't so much a baby anymore (even though I might call her that for a couple more years). I keep trying to think of a way to say how we feel about our sweet girl without sounding too cheesy or cliche, but I just can't come up with anything, so cheese it is. We love Darcy more than we knew it was possible to love someone. I read this quote today, "A baby fills a place in your heart you never knew was empty", and I totally relate to that. She has really changed our world and our way of thinking. She definitely challenges us now and then, but then we catch glimpses of how we have changed and grown from being her parents (especially in the patience department). She has lots of energy and a personality we can't get enough of, and she fills our days with JOY. We love her to pieces.

Some things we want to remember about Darcy at two:

- 35 inches tall! They used to say that if you measure your little girl on her second birthday (and your boy when he's 2 1/2) and double that you will get their adult height. That would mean Darcy will be 5'10"! That would be really shocking coming from a mom as short as me, and she would only be 1 1/2 inches shorted than Drew. :) HA. I heard that theory on my family website and it was proven wrong many times in my family, but it's fun to try. She really is tall though. She's one of the younger ones in nursery, but quite a bit taller than mostly everyone in there.

- 33.2 lbs. Still loves to eat!

- She loves to sing and have songs sung to her. She sings Twinkle Twinkle, and knows some of the words of the Eensy Weensy Spider and Popcorn Popping along with all the motions. She also can fill in some letters here and there in the ABC song. She loves Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam (Sun Beep according to her). She has her own version of the Wheels on the Bus with made up verses with actions about different family members. She sings her own made up songs off and on during the day too.

- She talks all the time! She is putting together sentences and saying new words every day. She loves animals and making all the animal sounds.

- She loves play-doh! She asks to play with it about 100 times a day. She loves books. She is willing to watch short videos of songs she knows on youtube, but really still no TV. She loves going on walks to the park. She loves playing in the water.

- She sleeps in a big girl bed.

- She loves to see and point out airplanes. She likes to point out motorcycles but she is still scared of them.

- She still hates nursery, much to our dismay.

We had a birthday party for her yesterday at her Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's house. It was so hard to know who to invite because we have so much family around. I think there were around 20 adults there to watch Darcy open presents, blow out candles, and play in the water. She had quite the audience! :) We're so happy she has so many people around her that love her and that were so generous on her birthday.

I have to apologize before I start the pictures because all three of her sets of Great-Grandparents that were there and Haley and Brian and Emily all got her great presents but I failed to get pictures somehow! I promise we love them!! :)

Haley called me one day and asked me if I had any crafts I wanted her to make for the party because she was bored. I hadn't really planned any crafts, but I said if she really wanted it would be fun to have a banner. Man she came up with a doozy! She made the most adorable banner!

Justin and Misty got her this cute cash register that she loves!

My mom got her the craziest pop-up book I've ever seen. I didn't really look through it until this morning when I read it to her and I was amazed. It's the story of The Old Woman that Swallowed the Fly.

Ashley got her this piggy bank with three dollars in pennies and she has spend a lot of time putting those pennies in the hole. It was a hit!

Neil and Becky got her this easel with a bunch of art supplies. She has also spent some time today writing on the dry erase board wearing her cute art smock. I think this will get lots of use! (This picture cracks me up because if you make it big you can see Drew and Ashley are making the same face as Darcy in the background.)

This was what Drew and I got her. I think it might take a while for her to really get the hang of pedaling. Right now she can do it if she's on a slight hill. Neil, Justin, and Darcy's "G.G." are the spectators in this picture.

I had this vision in my head of taking a picture of Darcy riding her trike down the big open road. This wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it was too hot outside to really work on getting it right.

Another attempt.

Darcy and Ashley playing in the water. Darcy could do this all day!

Some of the fan club. :) From farthest to closest. G.G. Donna, Great-Grandma Jo, Grandpa Neil, Grandma Becky, Great-Grandma Beth, Great-Grandpa Dave, Aunt Haley, Grandma Lorraine, Grandpa Tim, Great-Grandpa Bob, and Uncle Brian.

Cake time! This was my attempt at a tricycle. It was kind of abstract I guess.

Once Darcy figured out how to blow out the candles she wanted to do it over and over again. I think she did it about five times before we decided that was enough.

Darcy with Drew and me. (Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bob in the background)

I just thought this picture was so cute. Darcy and my dad playing with her new piggy bank in front of the birthday banner.

Happy Birthday Darcy! We love you so much!!

Pictures

2011-07-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I just took a few pictures this week that I thought were cute enough to make it on the blog. So here they are.

Emily had a date with a guy here in Tri-Cities on Saturday night so she just spent the night at our house that night and came to church with us the next day. She used a triple-barrel curling iron to do her hair for church and I decided to use it on Darcy too. I thought it was so cute!

This picture is so funny. Darcy seems really concerned that Drew is taking some of her photo glory.

More cuteness.

Darcy loves bubble baths! She really has a bubble bath every time she takes a bath. I thought her little bum sticking up out of the bubbles was just too cute not to capture. :) I think I will put this picture on the bathroom wall upstairs.

36 Weeks

2011-07-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

I thought from the beginning they said my due date was August 11 but the past few appointments they have been saying I'm due the 10th. So I'm either 36 weeks or 36 weeks and 1 day. Who knows?

My upper back really started hurting me a couple weekends ago and hasn't stopped. I think I have decided that my belly dropped, so that might have something to do with it. They offered to write a prescription for massage at my last Dr.'s appointment and for some reason I said no. If the offer still stands at my appointment tomorrow I think I'll go for it.

Other than a little back pain now and then and having a hard time moving I really am doing well. The weirdest thing I have going on is "the mask of pregnancy". Has anyone else heard of that? I hadn't heard of it until I asked the Dr. what in the world was going on with my face when I was pregnant with Darcy. I have to say I think it is the weirdest pregnancy symptom ever. I mostly have a really blotchy tan all over my face and over the last month or two I have developed a brown line right above my upper lip. It looks like I am trying to bring back the lip liner trend from the 90's. I went and bought some lipstick the other day, which I don't normally wear, to try and improve the situation a little. :) Seriously, weirdest symptom!!

Everyone always comments on here that I look so tiny which actually makes me feel awesome (even though I don't really have anything to do with it, I think it is just genetics). But I really think these pictures are deceiving. I really am pretty particular about the angle Drew takes the pictures from. If you saw me in real life you wouldn't think I was that small. Just so you know. :)

I also think I am bigger this time around. At this point when I was pregnant with Darcy I would tell people how far along I was and they would be surprised and tell me I was small. This time people are saying things like "Wow when are you due?" with inflection hinting that it has to be soon.

My lip liner. Hmm...this picture makes it look like I have it on the bottom too which I hadn't noticed before. Craziness.

4th of July and other Misc.

2011-07-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

We are proud to be AMERICANS!

Once again we spent this holiday in Mattawa. The morning of the 4th we went to a flag raising and breakfast at the park in Mattawa. The scouts did the flag raising. It was such a beautiful morning!

My dad is the Young Men's president in their ward so he did the organizing of the flag raising. He also built this wheel the day before to make raising the flag a little easier for the scouts. We get our posing skills from him obviously.

Ashley and Darcy at the flag raising (with Brian in the background). The fire department handed these hats out to the little kids.

My parents' neighbors/friends the Gallaccis invited us all over for a barbeque and fireworks. The food was so delicious and we had lots of fun with everyone there.

Darcy LOVES watermelon and she definitely had her fill that day. If there's watermelon around it's hard to get her to eat anything else.

My dad always did this with us when we were little and it was fun to watch Darcy get to try it. She loved it as much as we always did. He holds onto her hands and feet at the same time and swings her down between his legs and then back up onto his head or either one of his shoulders. What a rush!

The Gallaccis had a bunch of tannerite (some type of explosive). They drove about a half mile away to blow it up but it was still so loud back at the house and the explosion was huge!

Drew and Brian went golfing earlier in the day and they pulled their clubs out again for a minute at the party and Darcy had to go get in on the action. (I think this area is so beautiful!)

They had quite the fireworks show! It really was great. I was worried about how Darcy would handle the noise, but she did really well. I covered her ears the whole time and if I took my hands off she would fuss a little but that was it. She didn't really care to watch the fireworks, but she sat there and took it at least. :)

Darcy has discovered the trampoline! She loves it and we love to watch her jump.

Another jumping pose.

Again.

My parents have this little pool in their backyard that we have been able to spend a little time in lately. The water is still pretty chilly so Darcy prefers to spend most of her time hanging out in her boat.

We have some dry patches in our yard where out sprinkler system hasn't been getting well enough. So we went and got a sprinkler to attach to the hose the other day to fix that problem and Darcy loves playing in the water. Here she is getting a drink from the sprinkler.

We also went and got some patio chairs and we got this little chair for Darcy from Walmart for $5. She loves it and I think it is so cute.

Did You HEAR??

2011-07-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited to post this news! I have talked to lots of my friends who are my blogging friends about my sister Haley's situation. For the past nine years she and her husband Brian have been hoping and praying for a baby. Just when they had decided to set things up to adopt this past February they found out they were expecting a baby!! It is just about the most exciting thing ever. She is twenty weeks along today. In an early ultrasound they told them they were having a girl, but found out later it's actually a boy. Of course a girl would have been great too, but I'm so excited that we're both going to have boys just a few months apart.

I just had to share this news with everyone. We are so excited for you Haley and Brian!! You will be great parents! I have a hard time believing anyone else could be as excited as I am (except for maybe you guys). :)

I stole this picture of Brian and Haley from facebook. I love it.

First Boating Adventure

2011-07-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we got to go out on Drew's parents' new boat. It was the first time in a long time for us, and besides the fact that it was a little chilly out it was a lot of fun. Darcy was kind of in a daze the whole time, partly because she needed a nap and partly because she seemed unsure about the whole thing. She was happy to sit on our laps the whole time which she generally doesn't do. It was a really nice day outside, but not really hot and the water was FRIGID! Only Drew and our sister-in-law Misty were willing to get in. I could barely stand to touch my toe in the water. Darcy eventually fell asleep in my arms and I almost had Drew take a picture, but I was in a swimming suit and no one wants to see that! Trust me! :)

Drew and Darcy on the boat. I posted some of these pictures on facebook and Haley said this was the best picture ever and she convinced me. I am really in love with it.

Justin driving the boat and Becky doing her duty as the flag holder.

Darcy and me.

Misty's reaction to the cold water. Yikes!

Misty jumping. She's got skills!

Misty carving.

A family picture on the boat.

Posing.

Cheese!

Drew's reaction to the water. This picture makes me shudder at the thought of that ice cold water!

Drew got hurt last time he was on a wakeboard so he decided to take it a little easier his first time out this year. Maybe only the pros would know that this was taking it easy.

Drew carving.

Drew jumping.

Drew happy to be done and still alive. :)

And since I don't want to forget these tidbits and I don't have a full post on the subject I just wanted to jot down a few things going on with Darcy these days.

- She says "watch" when she wants you to look at her and what she's doing. I hear "mom watch" a hundred times during the day.

- She is talking up a storm, but I usually have to act as her interpreter when she's talking to other people.

- She answers "yeah" to every question she's asked. She doesn't know "no" yet and we think that's ok for now.

- She continues to be obsessed with my sister "Ash" and she talks about her all day every day.

- She is really into books.

6 Years/Father's Day

2011-06-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Our 6th anniversary was the last day of the family reunion, so we were in Idaho. We have made a pretty big deal out of our anniversary in the past, so we decided it was OK to let it be very low-key this year. We didn't do presents at all. I think sometimes it's nice to do that. The only thing we really did was go out to eat at Garcia's in Idaho Falls for dinner. We both had a dish there that we really loved, so we were excited to get to try that food again. We went with Darcy, my sister Emily, our friends Jordan and Abbie (who we hadn't seen in way too long) and there two cute kids. The food and the company were great!

We have done so many great things together in these six years. More than anything I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple and that we have each other for eternity.

We were on the road on Father's Day so that was another low-key holiday for us. We ended up having a Father's Day dinner and Family Home Evening lesson about fathers on Monday night instead.

Drew is such an amazing dad. Darcy and our future babies are so lucky to have him. I love to watch him play with Darcy. She thinks he is the bee's knees, and I agree with her. Happy Father's Day Drew!

And a quick shout out to Darcy's grandpas who she is also very attached to. Happy Father's Day to my dad and Drew's dad! We love you!

Darcy and Drew eating Father's Day dinner. I really love sparkling cider so I love any excuse to have some. We had manicotti for dinner which is Drew's favorite and cinnamon rolls for dessert (I don't know if those are his favorite but he sure devoured them.) :)

Jensen Family Reunion 2011

2011-06-23T13:33:00.001-07:00

This past week we got to go to the family reunion for my mom's family for the first since we've been married. I have been so sad not to be able to go all these years, and I loved that we finally could make it. We stayed at Three Peaks Lodge in St. Anthony, ID and it was perfect for a family reunion like this. Drew hardly ever stopped playing the whole time we were there, so I think he really enjoyed it too (even if that meant he only got about eight hours of sleep total the whole time we were there). Drew played a couple rounds of golf, kickball, tennis, racquetball, pool, ping pong, and shuffleboard. I might be forgetting something.

I played some kickball and tennis and went swimming, but since I am getting close to having a baby those few things did me in. Tennis is quite a bit more vigorous than a stroller walk you know. Yikes! I did lots of sitting and talking with my family which is one of my favorite things ever. I honestly feel like I am a little over-blessed in the Aunt department on both sides of my family. I love all my uncles, but I am always amazed at how wonderful all my aunts are to talk to. They are full of lots of great tips for a new mom and they are thoughtful and insightful and sympathetic and lots of other great things. I love those ladies!

Darcy got very little sleep while we were there too, unfortunately. The first night she went to bed really late and then cried for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night and then woke up early. We were close enough to everyone else (not to mention sharing a room with my sister and her husband) that plenty of other people lost sleep too which stressed me out big time. I ended up bawling like a baby the next morning, partly because I was tired and partly because I felt so bad that we had put everyone through that. The rest of the time Darcy slept in the bed with me and Drew found a couch. :) Everyone slept better that way.

They had so many fun things for Darcy to do there too. I'll just post pictures of those things.

They had this big garage type room with cement floors for the kids to ride around on all day. The walls were lined with chalkboards, there were a couple little basketball hoops, and there was a slide coming down into the room. Little kid heaven!

Darcy loved this thing! She scooted herself around on it a lot of the time we were there.

Darcy got hurt on the slide at one point and was scared of it after that, so this was Drew's attempt to show her how fun it was.

Ashley and my cousin Sarah's little boy Wyatt writing drawing on the chalkboards.

My cousin Laura set up this root beer game. We had to test all the different types of root beer and see if we could identify them. Drew got them all right and won. I was really bad at it.

We played some Guesstures. This is Sarah acting.

Emily and Darcy at the pool. We went to a rec-center where some of the guys played racquetball and basketball while the rest of us swam. Darcy was tired and cranky that day so she wasn't as excited about it as I thought she would be.

She did give me a couple good smiles though. :)

Drew playing racquetball with my Uncle Kurt.

I think my Aunt Larene took this picture and I think it is so cute. There was a fun swing set outside that the kids had fun playing on.

Another swinging picture. This is Darcy with my cousin Laura's girls Liza and Lydia. I wish we lived closer to them so Darcy could play with these cute girls more often.

We also had a family talent show with some pretty awesome talent. This is Ashley playing the piano for everyone. She couldn't find her music and played it from memory. She had some slip-ups which were upsetting to her, but I am so impressed with her skill level at 10 years old!

They had a Wally Jensen (my grandpa) look-a-like contest with his kids (minus Aunt Karen who couldn't make it this year). This was how we got a good view of all of them.

Laura (with her baby Track) and Sarah did some "interpretive dance" at the end of the talent show, which was very entertaining.

A picture of my Grandpa helping in the kitchen. I just think he is the sweetest guy ever and I thought this was a cute picture of him.

Brian is the bbq master. He made some asparagus on the grill that was a major hit.

Card players.

Drew on the tennis court.

Milas and Drew playing tennis.

The hot tub full of cousins.

There was a baseball diamond outside where we played kickball. This is my cousin Logan swinging away.

Lindy, Bella, and Darcy at the piano.

My grandparents playing shuffle board.

Haley and I were in charge of s'mores. Brian and my dad built the fire for us luckily, although judging by this picture it looks like Brian did more posing than working.

Todd, Logan, my dad, and Carson working on their s'mores.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

We are in our house! YAY! We have been in it for the past four weeks, but somehow I lost the pictures I took when we first got the keys so I will have to retake some to post later. We are loving it more and more all the time. It is pretty empty and probably will be for a long time. As we slowly fill it up it feels more and more like home.

We really had such a great Memorial Day weekend. We had family here from both sides and we loved getting to see everyone. Our sister-in-law Sharee was here with her two cute boys Case and Miles and I loved that Darcy got to play with her cousins. She thought Case, who is a year older than her, was so cool. She loved following him around.

My dad's brother Alan and his whole family also came to visit. I hadn't seen any of them in a couple years and I really loved catching up with them.

I lost the pictures I took of this along with our house pictures so I stole these from Sharee's blog. (I hope that's OK Sharee!) Drew's parents got this cool car that can go almost anywhere for the kids to drive and it was a big hit. I was amazed at Case's skills as a 2 year old driver.

Darcy really was happy to just be the passenger, and that was a good thing because she couldn't reach the gas pedal. When we had her try driving Case had to push the pedal from the passenger seat for her.

Darcy and Case watching TV together. (I think Darcy only lasted about a minute.)

The other cool thing they got for the kids was this awesome blow up slide/pool. Darcy LOVED it! It was actually a pretty cold day to be in the water but she didn't care. She never wanted to get out, and I think she went down the slide about 50 times.

On Memorial Day we got together with some extended family and it was so fun to have all the little kids together. This is Sarah with Braden, Case, Delson, Darcy, and Kambria.

I have so many of these pictures of Darcy with a big smile on her face.

Just another picture of the happy girl.

Here are the boys at my parents' house playing bocce ball. They did lots of this that weekend. I thought this was such a manly pose for Nick.

Darcy had so much fun playing on the swing with Haley and Ashley...until she fell ofF and hit her head. Haley kind of caught her on the way down, so it softened the fall but she was still a little traumatized. Whenever she sees a swing she says, "Darcy fall" but she still likes them.

Most of the gang hanging out outside my Grandma's house. I love family get-togethers!

30 Weeks

2011-06-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

I hit the 30 week mark this past Thursday and I really can't believe I am already to this point. I feel like this pregnancy has gone by so much faster than my first did. This little guy is moving like crazy these days, which I think is the best part of being pregnant by far. I'm sorry to say, I am not as pleasant as I should be when I'm pregnant. I love having the baby, but I think being pregnant is a really hard gig. I am excited to meet this sweet baby to make it all feel worth it!

I just had to post this picture of Darcy. My mom got this cute swimming suit for Darcy and brought it over the day. I put it on her and got the camera out to take a picture and she just happened to strike this pose and I told her to smile. Oh man I think this is adorable!! What a babe!

What Happened to My Sweet Girl??

2011-05-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

This was actually how I was feeling much more yesterday than today. I think now I know what people are talking about when they talk about the "terrible twos." She really isn't terrible, just REALLY REALLY busy. I can't keep up! She is always into something, and with our apartment in it's current state there is lots to get into and lots to destroy. Yesterday she got a hold of my scriptures and tore out a bunch of pages. I was already frustrated from a day full of craziness so it made me cry. I'm kind of a cry baby though. She really likes to spin the toilet paper roll so it all comes off and then shred the toilet paper and scatter it around the house. She loves to disassemble the couches. She loves to color on everything. She HAS TO use her own utensils and get food everywhere (another big issue in our current apartment with carpet in the dining area). She likes to open DVD cases and yank the DVD's out. She likes to pull our socks out of the our drawers and separate the pairs and scatter them around, and she likes to put our underwear on her head. HA! She doesn't like to leave a hair-thing in so she ends up looking like an 80's band member. If I use a rag to clean something, she needs one too. If I brush my teeth, brush my hair, do my makeup, put lotion on, change my clothes, or basically anything, she has to do it too. Plus she has kind of started whining. The list goes on and on.

Yesterday I hurt my tailbone, so that along with all of her busyness and already being uncomfortable from being pregnant lead to a major melt down by me. But, I decided while I was laying in bed last night that when we woke up this morning I was going to beat her at her own game. So we started off the day with a dance party and then went on a long walk outside which she always loves. We have done lots of playing this morning which has kept her busy in a better way than yesterday and now she is taking a nap and soon I will too. It has been a much better day. I guess it was just time for me to shift into the next gear. I guess I'm a whiner too, I'll be done now.

Last night we had this photo shoot. I was teaching her to make a monster face and claws. She really nailed it in that top picture. Here are some of the other attempts. I thought the disassembled couch with crumbs in it, the food on her shirt, slobber on her shirt and the couch cushion she's sitting on, my camera case she had just pulled apart, and her hair in her eyes were so fitting.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice Mother's Day weekend. Saturday we spent the day at my parents' house. My cousins from Spokane who I hadn't seen for a long time came over and some family from Yakima were there, and it was so fun to catch up with everyone. Drew played lots of bocce ball and got to go on a motorcycle ride with Nick so that was fun for him. I loved just sitting around with the family and chatting. Sunday we got to spend the day with Drew's family and it was another day of lots of fun conversations. Darcy is so happy when we spend time with our families, and so am I!

Mother's Day started off pretty rough for me. Darcy is a TERRIBLE sleeper when she's not in her bed in her room and we got another taste of that Saturday night, which means I didn't get to sleep either. I was so tired and when I don't get enough sleep it makes me feel sick. We got ourselves together and went to church. The speakers were so great, but because I was tired I was an emotional wreck and I bawled like a baby through the whole meeting whether there was something to cry about or not. Darcy was tired and cranky too so we just went home and slept for a couple hours. After that the day was really great! :)

I need a new diaper bag because mine is falling apart (which makes me sad because I really love it). I didn't plan on getting one for a while though because right now we are really trying to pinch our pennies for the closing of our house. Drew told me for Mother's Day that my present was a new diaper bag, but he's going to let me choose because that's out of his league. :) I thought it was the perfect present, and I am excited to start looking.

I am so grateful for all the mothers in my life and their great examples. I was an annoying teenager, but now that I am a little older my mom is one of my best friends and I love it! She has always been the most amazing example of righteousness, love and service. I know in Drew's eyes his mom sits up on a pedestal, and I agree! Everyone that knows her loves her. My Grandmas and Drew's Grandmas are all fabulous mothers! I have aunts, sisters, cousins, friends, etc. etc. etc. that are great mothers and I am so grateful for all of them. I wish I could talk about each of them, but my own motherly duties are calling so I have to wrap things up.

I am so grateful to be a mother myself. Darcy fills up my world and makes it happy. Every night while I lay in bed I think about the sweet little person sleeping in the room next to me and sometimes I think my heart might explode because I love her SO much. Being a mom is the most precious gift, and I thank my Heavenly Father for that blessing every day.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Here are some pictures of the little lady that made me a mom and how she made me happy this week.

Usually when I'm in the shower Darcy comes in and out the whole time. The other day she just went out at the beginning of my shower and never came back in. Of course I started to get worried because it was so unusual. When I got out of the shower I heard nothing. I thought she was either making some crazy mess or something had gone very wrong. I started searching the house and was completely amazed to find her asleep in her bed. I guess she was tired so she just put herself to sleep! It was one of the happiest moments of my life!! :)

Darcy is really into brushes and combs right now. The other day Drew was sitting like this against the couch and Darcy ran and got a brush and climbed up behind him and started brushing his hair. We thought it was so funny.

She is also really into trying on our shoes. She put my shoes on and was working hard at getting around without them falling off.

I just wanted to add a couple other tidbits of info. about Darcy:

- She HATES motorcycles. This is a real bummer because there are too many men surrounding her that are really into them. She cries when she sees or hears them. The first couple times she was around them she started shaking because she was so scared.

- She really loves to sing Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree and The Wheels on the Bus.

- She is starting to really get into books.

- Drew figured out how to play Twinkle Twinkle on the guitar and Darcy sings along with him. It's so cute! She really just says something that sounds like "tinka, tinka, tinka" over and over while he sings the real version, but we love it.

- She loves slides and going to the park.

Hoppy Easter!!

2011-04-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter! I hope you did too. I have SO many pictures because we did SO much celebrating! For some reason Easter at home was something I have been looking forward to for a long time. I had really been worrying about how we would split Easter up between our two families, but it ended up working perfectly I thought. We spent Saturday dying eggs and having an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house. We went to church in Mattawa and then went to Drew's Grandparents' for an Easter dinner and another hunt on Sunday. It was so fun to see his Mom's side of the family again. We definitely don't see them enough! The weather on both days was so beautiful!!

I love all the Easter traditions, but of course I can't talk about Easter without mentioning the Savior and the Resurrection. I am so grateful for Him and for my knowledge that He was crucified, but He lives again! And we can all live again after we die because of Him. The choir at church today sang these words so beautifully, ""There is no other name nor any other way whereby salvation can come. It's only in and through the name of Jesus Christ." (No other church choir I have ever heard is as amazingly good as the one in Mattawa!)

I think there are maybe only two people out there who will actually care to go through all of these pictures. :)

My mom decided we needed something that was Eastery but not sugary so she made these cute little guys. She cut some bread out with a cookie cutter, put some egg salad on top and made faces with olives! We were so impressed with her creativity.

There was no way I was going to let Darcy dye eggs this year (the thought makes me shudder) so I kind of assumed she would just hang out and run around while the rest of us took care of the eggs. Then Haley had this genius idea to let Darcy color on the eggs and then we would dye them so she could be part of it. She loved it.

My mom dying eggs.

Brian and Drew each working on a masterpiece.

I have a thousand pictures of Darcy hunting eggs. I put her in her dress both days because we always hunted eggs in our Easter dresses and it makes the pictures so much cuter. This was some posing before the hunting began. She was so excited to carry around her basket.

And of course a picture of a big cheesy grin.

Her first egg! Brian put a trail of eggs starting just off the porch for Darcy to get her started. It worked like a charm.

More of the trail of eggs.

Ashley doing some egg hunting.

Nick helping Darcy put things back together.

I get "the mask of pregnancy" when I'm pregnant, so I have white circles around my eyes and blotchy tan everywhere else on my face. I was sitting out in the sun so Ashley got me this umbrella hat to protect my face from the sun. Darcy saw it and just had to try it.

I took pictures of each of us with our best eggs. I think this is one of my best poses.

Haley made this football that I seriously thought was SO cute!

Ashley with her eggs.

Drew only dyed this one egg, so of course it was his best.

Brian really gets into the dying of the eggs. It was hard for him to choose his best. :)

My dad made this lovely eyeball.

My mom looked up online how to marble the dyes on the egg and gave it a try. It didn't really turn out so we got a kick out of these being her best.

Emily posing it up with her eggs.

Nick wasn't even at the house when we dyed eggs so we just gave him any old egg to hold for a picture.

Emily, Darcy, and Ashley after church in their Easter dresses.

Oh man. I thought we needed a family picture on Easter, but I really hate this picture of myself. Everything looks large and white. I am starting to be poofy pregnant. My favorite!

Drew's cousin Jeremy and his wife Ginger had this cute little guy Bronson just a little over a month after Darcy was born. They got to hunt eggs together and they were both so good at it. This is Ginger helping Bronson get started.

Grandpa Neil helping Darcy on the hunt.

Bronson and Darcy together!

Hanging the basket over her head.

Bronson and Darcy took off down a row in the orchard behind the house, but Darcy didn't get very far. I think Bronson would have just run forever if he could have. :)

I thought this picture was so cute!

Coming Fast!

2011-04-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

36 days until we close on our house! It is going so fast and we are so excited. I have been spending way too much time looking at decorating blogs lately trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with a house. Part of me is really excited to decorate my own home, but part of me is really intimidated! I have too many friends and family members that are such amazing decorators! And decorating blogs are intimidating too...but mostly I'm excited!

They put the yard in and put the rock on the front of the house. The little tree in the front is even starting to blossom! I was so excited about that. We have to take care of a fence and back yard after we move in. I think it will be so cute with a fence. They still need to paint the garage door and front door and the outside will be pretty much done I think.

Just a little different angle.

And of course we need a little Darcy fix right? I thought this was a funny combo, talking on her cell phone and riding her horse.

Boot Scootin' Boogie

2011-04-18T07:29:00.001-07:00

Drew's parents just went on a Harley trip to Las Vegas and ended up in Tombstone, AZ at some point where Becky says she had to get this adorable little outfit for Darcy. It is just too cute on her! We love the little bow in the back. Darcy loves the boots on the shirt which she calls "boops."

Waiting for Dad to get home so she can show off her new outfit.

This is what she does now when I tell her to smile. Cracks me up every time.

Cheese!

The back again.

Darcy's favorite person in the whole world right now is my little sister Ashley. Last week was Ashley's spring break and she came and stayed with us for a few days. Darcy was in heaven! It was really nice for me to have Ashley here too, because she helped to keep Darcy busy.

Ashley at the park. We went to this park a couple times and it was fun for all of us.

Darcy riding the four-wheeler.

Darcy and Ashley swinging together.

Bouncing

Riding the caterpillar together.

Sliding side-by-side. Darcy thought this was so funny.

While Ashley was here Drew had his first soccer game. The company he works for has different sports leagues during the summer and Drew is playing soccer and softball this summer. I think it's so cool, and so does he of course! The soccer is killing him however. LOTS of running! He has had two games so far and after each one he was bed ridden for the next few days! Ha! It's fun to watch him, I had no idea he really knew how to play soccer.

Ashley and Darcy at the game giving me their cheesiest grin.

Drew on the field right before the game started.

Drew kicking the ball.

It's a Boy...Probably!

2011-03-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

We had an ultrasound today to find out what we're having. The ultrasound tech said she was pretty sure she was seeing boy parts, but she wasn't %100 sure. We have pictures (but for some reasons she didn't put them on the CD so I can't put them on here) that are showing the gender and it seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe I don't really know what I'm looking at. We tried everything to get him to move around, but nothing worked. We will have another ultrasound in a few weeks, but for now I am saying He, Him, and His! I hate calling my baby "it" or "the baby". I love ultrasounds though!! I especially love the 3D part. It's so amazing. Here are some pictures. His umbilical cord was in front of his face so there is a little blurry spot.

In other news:

I thought I was 20 weeks, but I found out today I was a week behind. So I guess I'm 21 weeks tomorrow. The bump is growing.

When I got out of the shower today I found THIS! She wrote all over her balloon and herself. Drew hates to be written on but I don't mind, and obviously Darcy is on my side! I love her stance. Hey Coolio!

Check out that art work!

Our house got painted this past week. I mostly like it but I wish the trim color was lighter. It's surrounding white window frames and I think it looks a little muddy against them. They won't change it, so I guess I will paint it later. I can live with it though.

Funny Girl

2011-03-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

I took a picture of myself making a face like this (which lucky for you I'm not posting) and then I turned the camera to Darcy and she did the same thing. Cracks me up.

Darcy has decided in the past week or so that she LOVES to color. I love it because now she has something that will occupy her for a long time while I do something else. But she does prefer if someone is coloring with her. She also always pats the ground or the seat beside her if she wants you to come sit by her. Last night right before bed I walked around the corner and found her and Drew laying on the ground coloring together. Cute!

Don't you love our decorations?! Every room in our apartment has a wall of boxes that we haven't unpacked because we're only going to be here for a few months. We are FANCY!!

Update

2011-03-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy last few days. Friday we went and did a walk-through in our house and finalized some details. Nick spoke in church on Sunday so we got to go home and spend time with lots of my family. Sunday night Drew's parents had a fireside at their house where a couple in their ward who just went to the Holy Land talked about their adventures there. It was a great weekend. It would have been even better if Darcy and I had taken a nap here and there. :) We slept long and hard last night.

Here are some pictures of the progress on our house. We were shocked when we drove by and saw how much they had done in just a few days. This was a couple weeks ago.

This was just this past Friday.

Darcy had her first ponytail this week! It doesn't really last, but it was fun to try.

After I took pictures of Darcy out on the balcony she kept grabbing the camera and sitting out on the balcony for more pictures. Here she is doing "the wheels on the bus" ... her favorite!

Whenever I open the fridge Darcy dashes in and steals the block of cheese. This day I told her I wasn't going to cut her any, but obviously I wasn't really paying attention and I went on to do something else instead of putting the cheese back. I found her a little bit later helping herself to some.

A girl after her dad's heart. They love their cheese!

On Saturday my family went to check out the Ginkgo petrified forest. It's only about 20 minutes from where I grew up, but I had never been there. It wasn't the most thrilling hike, but it was interesting and it was really nice to get outside to spend some time in the sun.

A close-up of some petrified wood.

We had a family/friend dinner after church yesterday and I was so excited to see my cousin Colton walking in wearing the same coat as my Grandpa (This coat is a classic! I think my Grandpa has had it or one like it for the last 50 years maybe.) My Grandma told me he buys multiples. I loved it!

Nick is Home!

2011-03-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

This news is a couple weeks old, but I thought it was better to do it late than not at all. My brother Nick got home from his mission a couple weeks ago. He started serving in the Tucson, Arizona mission, but then his mission was split and he ended in the Albuquerque, New Mexico mission. It was crazy how two years felt like a long time until he was home, and then it felt like it had flown by.

He flew into the little airport here in Pasco and we had lots of family and a few friends there to greet him which was pretty funny because we practically took up the whole place. I felt bad for the other passengers who had to squish by our big group to get out. He ended up getting off the plane almost last, and there were lots of people from his flight who got off before him who saw us and our sign and were telling us, "He's coming. I saw him!"

We all were saying how we didn't even think we were going to cry at all, but of course the moment we saw him we all bawled like babies. It was SO exciting to see him and to know he had been somewhere where he was doing something so great for two years. We are proud of him and his service and we are happy to have him home.

The sign holders. Shay, Emily and Darcy, Ashley, and Lainey

A blurry picture of Nick making his entrance.

A hug from Mom.

A hug from Dad (and Ashley).

A hug from Haley.

Nick with my Mom and Dad. (We thought it seemed so appropriate to take these pictures in front of the cocktails sign.)

A family picture (I really should have gotten a picture of the whole group!). Brian, Haley, Mom, Ashley, Nick, Emily, Dad, Darcy, Drew, and Me.

17 Weeks

2011-03-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I hit the 17 week mark. I posted a picture when I was 17 weeks with Darcy so I thought it would be fun to compare. I think I am mostly about the same size the pictures were just taken at slightly different angles, and coincidentally I am not a fan of my hair in either picture. I am going to have to do something about my mop soon!

At this point I am feeling much better. I haven't thrown up in a few days so that is a plus. The last time I threw up Darcy came and rubbed my back (like she had seen Drew do) which I thought was so adorable! My tailbone is hurting me and the doctor said that's because my uterus is tilted back and pushing on it at the moment, but supposedly it will move later on. I have also been having headaches quite a bit, but I have lowered my sugar intake and that seems to be helping.

17 weeks - baby #2

17 weeks - pregnant with Darcy

House/River Pictures

2011-02-20T18:46:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to offer a little clarification about our house. It's not really a house we're having built from scratch. We are going through Hayden Homes. They offer a hand full of different layout options that we chose from. Then we chose a plot we liked. Then we get to choose different upgrades and colors and that kind of thing. It is exciting, but a little bit nerve wracking to make these decisions that are so permanent.

Last week we took a little walk down by the river and took some cute pictures of Darcy. When we got close to the water Darcy was ready to head right it. One of these days I'll let her feel how COLD it is and then she will never want to get in again.

Family Update/Cowgirl

2011-02-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

I think it is time for an update:

- The due date for this baby is August 11th. I am a week behind where I thought I was.

- I am mostly done being sick, but it's just not going all the way away which is kind of a bummer.

- Drew is loving his job. He works on a flex schedule so he gets to go in early and come home at 3:30. It's so awesome to have him home that early every day.

- Drew's uncle owns a gym here and we have been trying to go regularly. The problem is that Darcy absolutely HATES going to the daycare. When we walk in the building she starts whimpering and basically doesn't stop crying until we leave. It is torture for her and us. We have been going less and less every week because it is so hard to do that to her. She hates nursery too. She is going through a really serious separation anxiety phase!

- My brother Nick comes home from his mission on March 2. 11 Days!! We are so excited!

- We are having a house built in a nice little community here and we are really looking forward to getting in it at the end of May. Since we are only living in this apartment for a few months we haven't completely unpacked a lot of things and we are living in the middle of boxes. I can't wait to be somewhere more permanent. I am really looking forward to this!

The home site. Obviously there's not much to see at this point. We chose a nice flat corner lot so we can have a bigger yard.

Now on to the cowgirl. It has been so fun for Darcy to be here close to our parents as she's starting to really get into animals. She gets to see a dog at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's and horses, cats, and chickens at Grandma and Grandpa Jenne's. Plus there are cows all over the place here. The other day my dad saddled up the horses and we took Darcy on her first ride. Before we went out my mom surprised us and gave Darcy some adorable pink cowboy boots. We found a little hat to go with the outfit.

Cowgirl!

The picture is so funny! Ashley made her a belt and belt buckle. Obviously it was a little big for her. :) Plus her hat is all messed up.

Another picture that cracks me up. The hat was a little big.

Take two.

Darcy riding a horse for the first time with me!

Brian and Haley went on a ride too.

I just got this new dress for Darcy and I thought her new boots looked so cute with it.

Friends

2011-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mother-in-law gave a really great lesson in Relief Society on friendship. The whole time I kept thinking how blessed I have been in the friend department.

Since Drew and I got married, almost six years ago now, we have lived far from our families. It is a little bit hard on me to be so far from my family. While we were at BYU-Idaho, in different states around the country in the summers, and in Pittsburgh I was so blessed to be surrounded by great friends who I relied heavily on to fill my family void.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of those girls and their husbands and little families that spent time with me and cared about me and my little family over these traveling years. I don't think I can really express how much those friendships have meant to me. I love you friends! Thanks for everything!

18 Months!

2011-02-03T12:14:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday was Darcy's 18 month mark. I was really excited to get to take her to nursery and to actually get to listen a little during church for the first time in a long time. It didn't go over so well though. They brought her to me after 10-15 minutes because she was inconsolable. I ended up having to sit with her for the two hours in nursery which I was pretty bummed about. I tried leaving again a couple different times but she would immediately start screaming again. I've decided I'm just going to keep trying to leave her and hopefully soon she'll decide it's ok.

We are really loving this age. She keeps us on our toes for sure, but she's learning fun new things all the time which is really exciting.

Some things we want to remember about Darcy at 18 months:

- (I didn't pay enough attention at her 18 month appointment so I'm not really sure about these numbers, but I'm going to write down what I think I remember.) 26 lbs. 36 inches tall. She is around the 80th percentile for everything. Her body has finally caught up to her head! :)

- She is such an awesome sleeper at night! She goes to bed - HAPPILY - at 7:30 and wakes up between 7 and 7:30 in the morning. I keep waiting for her to take these 2-3 hours naps during the day that I keep hearing people talk about, but the most she usually sleeps is an hour and a half.

- She still loves all food. Haley introduced her to suckers last week and then they gave her a sucker again at her doctors appointment and she thinks they are the coolest thing ever. I think they are sticky. :)

- She really loves her grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles she's been spending time with these past couple months. She is working on saying all of their names.

- A little story. Early in my pregnancy when I was feeling really sick I had one of those really hard days with Darcy when I felt like I couldn't keep her happy because I couldn't do what she wanted me to. That night Drew prayed that Darcy would be able to communicate with me so that it would be easier for me to help her while I was sick. The very next morning she was reaching for some food on the counter and I asked her if she wanted a cracker. Then she repeated "cracker" (which actually sounded more like "caca"). I was SO excited. I had been trying to get her to repeat words for months and months, but she never seemed interested. I really felt like it had been an answer to prayer. I know it's kind of a small thing, but at that moment I really needed it and I felt like it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. Ever since then she has started saying lots of new words. THE END

- She says (or at least repeats when we ask her) cracker, juice, socks, shoes, grandma, grandpa, Ash (for Ashley), Jesus, horse, cat, dog, brush, yes, diaper, mama, dada, it go? (for where'd it go?) and a bunch more I can't think of at this moment. So far she can't really say the long "e" sound which is kind of rough because all of my sisters and Darcy have the long "e" sound at the end of their names. I have really been trying to get her to say Ashley and Haley and Darcy, but she just looks at me with a blank stare. Hopefully that will come soon enough.

- If you ask her where something is she will put her arms out to the side with her palms up and shrug her shoulders and say over and over again, "it go? it go?" It's one of our favorite things.

- She is going through another separation anxiety phase.

- She loves the piano. In fact she seems to really love all forms of music. She loves to dance and she has even started singing. I taught her the Gloria song that the angels sing at Christmas and she walks around singing that tune all day long. She likes to drum on her belly and her legs or anything in front of her like Drew does.

- She loves to be free to run around in stores or the mall and she is kind of a charmer with all the people she passes.

- She loves to be outside. No matter how cold it is outside the weather never seems to affect her.

Talking to me with her hands.

Her favorite place in the house.

Guess What?

2011-01-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

We have another one of these little goodies coming our way!! I wanted to announce it exactly two years after I announced I was pregnant with Darcy which would have been the 21st of this month. I don't know what happened, but somehow I got distracted and now it's five days later. I think I am around 13 weeks along at this point, but I haven't been to the doctor yet. They couldn't get me in until February 1st. If I'm guessing right this baby will be born almost exactly two years after Darcy.

This was a little bit of a surprise for us, and I didn't think I was ready to be sick again (because honestly, being sick it the worst), but now that I am starting to move out of the sick stage I am getting really excited! I am so excited to hold a new baby again and for Darcy to have a brother or sister to play with. (No more assuming I'm just having boys.) We have absolutely LOVED watching Darcy grow up and develop her own funny little personality. I am really excited to have another unique little baby personality around to add to our mix.

YAY for babies!

Goose Egg & A Little Cheek

2011-01-26T15:43:00.000-08:00

You know when you hit your head and you get a big bump on your head? My family calls that a goose egg. Has anyone else ever heard of that? I am discovering all sorts of things my family says that no one else in the world says.

Anyway...the other day Darcy tripped on the little edge from the kitchen floor to the carpet and fell straight into the hard metal edge of the coffee table. She had the biggest "goose egg" on her head that I have ever seen. It really freaked me out. I was worried she had a concussion. It seemed like her eyes weren't dilating right. We were probably stupid not to, but we didn't take her to the doctor and she seemed to recover just fine, thankfully! It's about a week later now and she still has a little ridge on her forehead and a bruise. I tried to get a good picture of it, but it didn't really work. These are the best I got. This is right after it happened.

Is it ok to post pictures like this of your kids? :) I just couldn't help it because it cracks me up so much! She kept pulling her own diaper up until it was like this. Silly girl!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

We had another awesome Christmas this year! The best part is that we get to stay close even when all the festivities are over. I had over 200 pictures to sort through and choose from and it was a hard job. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

For Christmas Eve we always open one present at my parents' house. Darcy and Ashley got these cute matching pajamas.

Emily had our name for the family gift exchange this year. She got us a couple fun games and obviously we are all excited about it!

Haley and Brian anticipating the present they're opening.

The annual acting out of the Nativity story. This year the missionaries in our ward joined us and they were such good sports.

Darcy finding her Santa presents at 5:45 on Christmas morning!

Emily opening her fancy version of a snuggie!

Darcy got this coat and tutu from my parents and they are both so cute on her. She loves to wear this coat all the time. It is as fuzzy and soft on the inside as it is on the outside. I LOVE the tutu skirt!

We have a new sister-in-law this year! Here is Misty opening one of her presents from Drew's parents.

Justin peeking out from his new blue-tooth.

Kevin and Elin discussing the Color Code book.

Neil opening one of his presents.

Justin and Misty have a dog that Darcy is having to get used to. She is not very fond of him when he's in the house, but she loves to watch him outside. We found her perched on the window sill watching him playing outside with Misty.

Darcy with her adorable new kitchen from Drew's parents.

Darcy ready for church in her new Christmas dress.

A close-up of the cute girl.

Darcy sitting in the rocking chair wearing her new coat and sparkly shoes! She is suddenly so fancy.

Check out those shoes! She always brings these shoes to us to put on her.

I just took these pictures today. She just looks so cute in this tutu.

She is a fancy little mama.

Too cute not to post!

Darcy got a Haircut

2010-12-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

A few days before Christmas my sister Haley gave Darcy her first haircut. It was nothing too drastic, but it is so cute on her. No more mullet! I thought she might fight getting it cut, but she was perfectly happy for the whole thing. Thanks Haley!

Long in the back still.

Loving her new haircut! This picture just cracks me up.

Her new little bob. It's so cute when it's curled under.

Leaving Pittsburgh

2010-12-11T19:23:00.001-08:00

A few days before we left Pittsburgh our friends had a "goodpie" party for us. Our friends Brook and Linwood are the ones who taught us all about having pie parties, and this is a tradition I want to take with me forever. I love pie! Our friends surprised us with the most amazing going away present. They made a book for us of our adventures in Pittsburgh. It has pictures of all the things we will miss about Pittsburgh. It is now one of my most prized possessions. We just had the most amazing friends there! After we ate our pie and we opened our present we played the name game and had so much fun!

The girls with their pies at the pie party. Abi, Kelly, Brook, Me, and Brittany. I will miss these girls SO much!

The boys at the pie party during the name game. Ari, Ben, Rich, Drew, and Linwood.

Opening our amazing present. We seriously love it!

Rich acting during the name game. I think this was MC Hammer.

Brook acting.

Drew on his LAST day of classes! It is so exciting that he is done with school! I'm so proud of all his hard work.

We had movers come pack our stuff on Wednesday and they did it in three hours! We were amazed at how fast it went. It was awesome. Thursday the truck driver came to load everything, including our cars. He showed up at 7:30, but the guys who were supposed to come help him pack didn't end up showing up until FIVE HOURS later. That was pretty stressful. The movers were hot because they were working so they opened the doors to our apartment and it was freezing in there. Darcy and I spent most of the day in the car turning the car on and off trying to stay warm. It was a really long day, but once again, it was still nice to have all that help.

Brook and Linwood were so nice and let us stay with them Wednesday and Thursday night, borrow their car and some cleaning supplies, and take us to the airport Friday morning. We are so grateful for all they did for us. It was fun to get to hang out with them for those last two evenings too.

We got up at 5:30 to go to the airport. I had said so many prayers that things would go smoothly that day, and all my prayers were answered. Absolutely everyone we interacted with was so nice to us, even the people at the airport who generally are cranky. :) For our first flight, which was the longer flight we were sitting in a row with a guy at first, but then the flight attendant offered him a seat on the exit row with an empty seat beside it. So we got to have that extra seat for Darcy which was the best thing ever! She was so amazing. I packed lots of snacks and little toys for her that kept her busy the whole flight. She loved looking around at all the people and she played peek-a-boo with a few different people sitting behind and beside us. She was really really tired, but refused to fall asleep until the very end of the flight. She was sitting on Drew's lap and a guy in the row across from us was waving at her kind of rhythmically and she ended up in a trance and eventually fell asleep. We were amazed. She generally can't fall asleep anywhere but her bed or car seat. She got to run around a lot in the airport for our three hour layover so that helped to get her wiggles out for the second flight. We had a much smaller plane for the second flight, but it didn't really matter because about a half an hour into the flight Darcy fell asleep on Drew's lap again! She slept for most of the flight and was happy for the rest of it. We got to the airport in Pasco and Drew's parents and my mom and sister Ashley were there to greet us. We were so excited and happy to be done with our traveling and safely on the ground.

We went straight to our extended-stay apartment (where we're staying until we find other arrangements) and dropped off most of our stuff. Then we packed a small bag and headed to Mattawa to spend the weekend with our families before Drew starts work this Monday. Darcy is gradually getting used to these new people and learning to love them.

This morning Drew got up at three and Darcy and I got up at four. Our body clocks are so confused. All three of us seemed pretty tired today. We're hoping to get on a new schedule soon.

We really did love our time in Pittsburgh and we already miss the people there, but we feel so blessed and so happy that Drew has a job and that we are back to this place that feels like home.

Keeping Busy

2010-12-02T17:31:00.001-08:00

I always planned on being a fun mom. Probably everyone does, but I have been feeling like such a boring mom lately. Where did my imagination go? During the summer we spent our days outside on long walks. Now that it is cold I am having a hard time finding things to do with Darcy. I have been wracking my brain this past couple weeks trying to come up with things to entertain Darcy for more than two minutes. She still couldn't care less about the TV so that is not an option, and I keep trying to convince myself that is a good thing.

Drew is busy finishing up his last week of school, and the days are feeling soo long here at home trying to come up with a new activity every couple minutes. There are a LOT of two minute increments in a day I have discovered, and not enough naps! My brain is tired.

I started teaching Darcy sign language on Tuesday and I really wish I would have started sooner! It's amazing how fast she is picking it up. I have been a little frustrated about communication with her, and this is helping so much. Her favorite sign, that she does really consistently is "more"... go figure. Other signs she gets off and on are "please" "water" "up" and "airplane."

The sink has been one of the ways I keep Darcy busy. She loves to play in the water, and she gets it everywhere.

Getting her feet wet.

I thought Darcy might be too young for it, but I decided to make some playdough and she really seems to like it. She certainly isn't doing any sculpting yet though. She just likes to pull little pieces off and transport them around the house. Fun to clean up. :)

Playing with the playdough for the first time.

When we go outside she always picks up rocks. So the other day we bundled up and went outside to collect a bunch of rocks. I filled a jar with the rocks and gave her a measuring cup and noodle spoon (I don't know if there is a more official name) and let her transfer the rocks from the jar to a bowl and back.

Trying to fit the measuring spoon into the jar. I needed a bigger jar I think.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T06:32:00.000-08:00

This year we got to have Thanksgiving here is Pittsburgh with our good friends Linwood and Brook. We really had such an awesome day with them. We went to their house at 10 a.m. and started cooking. Brook and I split the menu, but helped each other when we needed to. Brook made the turkey and it turned out so great! We had turkey, stuffing, rolls, peas, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, olives, sweet pickles, fruit salad and candied yams. We had ice water and lime rikki to drink. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and pecan pie with some really delicious whipped cream. We were really excited about how everything turned out. After dinner we played rock band which is always a treat. :)

Darcy decided she didn't want to have a nap yesterday so that was a little bit rough. She was so tired by the time we left last night at 7, she fell asleep instantly in the car. Considering she didn't have a nap, she actually had a pretty good day so that was a blessing. She loved being a part of the action, and she loved taste testing as we cooked.

Here are just some of the things we are thankful for this year:

- Our Savior, Jesus Christ
- Family
- Friends
- The Prophet, Thomas S. Monson
- Plenty to eat
- Warm home and car
- Drew's education
- Drew's job close to our families
- Working with the youth at church
- Nick serving a mission (all missionaries)
- Music
- Modern conveniences (dish washer, washer and dryer, running water, internet, disposable diapers, etc.)

Drew and Darcy watching the cream being whipped.

Me making the fruit salad, Brook entertaining Darcy with olives, and Linwood peeling the yams.

Drew cutting yams, and Linwood peeling potatoes.

Brook giving Darcy a taste of the whipped cream. It really was delicious!

Whipped cream face.

Making candied yams.

Darcy playing with some olives.

Brook and Darcy with olives again.

After Drew attempted to put Darcy down for a nap she was really worked up and willing to snuggle. I really love moments like this!

Brook with her amazing turkey!!

Sitting down for our Thanksgiving feast.

The food. YUM!

Drew cutting the turkey with a little Michael Jordan flair.

Ham Glaze

2010-11-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

Once again I need somewhere to save this recipe because I will want it in the future. Maybe someday I will actually put it in my recipe box, but for now I will just put it here.

I love ham and I thought this glaze was so delectable! We just used a little 2 lb. turkey ham, so I halved this recipe and we still had some extra.

HOLIDAY HAM GLAZE

1/2 cup pineapple juice and chunks
1 cup brown sugar
4 tsp. prepared mustard
2 to 3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cloves

Combine ingredients in a food processor or blender. (If a blender is not available, use pineapple juice without the chunks).

Bake ham (half or whole). 30 minutes before ham has finished cooking, remove from oven. Score the top of the ham diagonally in a criss-cross fashion 1/8-inch deep using a sharp knife.

Spoon mixture over ham, brushing to cover entire ham.

Return ham to oven for final 30 minutes of cooking, basting frequently with mixture.

Remove ham from oven and cover with foil loosely. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before carving.

I put a little water in the bottom of the pan because I read on another recipe that that would keep the glaze from burning on the bottom. It seemed to work.

Our ham was little so I cooked it for around 45 minutes total at 350.

A Little Update

2010-11-12T11:50:00.001-08:00

I know there are at least two people who check here often for Darcy updates. Not much has been going on around here, but I thought I would post a couple pictures from this week.

We are moving to Washington on December 10th and I am getting SO excited. This last month is going really slow. I feel like I should be doing something to get ready to go, but Drew's company is going to move us so they're doing everything (which is so nice)!There really are a lot of people we are going to miss from Pittsburgh, in fact I try not to think about that too much or I feel like crying, but I just can't help feeling so excited to be so close to our families!! We won't have to miss birthdays, or baptisms, or missionary farewells and homecomings, or reunions, or holidays, or anything else like that. It's going to be awesome!

P.S. We would like to extend an invitation for all of our friends and extended family to come join us in the great state of Washington (preferably in the Tri-Cities area)!! Washington is the best! :)

Darcy's hair is at a weird stage right now. It kind of looks a little bit like a mullet, but I'm waiting until we get to Washington to have Haley cut it for the first time. The other day I wore my hair curly and I decided to do hers the same. It looked so cute on her! It was really hard to get a picture of her, because now she thinks she should hold the camera for some reason. Here she is in the toy box, her new favorite hang-out.

Just another picture of the curly girlie. (I thought of that myself. Pretty good huh!)

Darcy loves necklaces these days. She plays with them a lot. She usually wears them around her neck, but this morning she held one in each hand and walked around the house letting them drag along the floor. She loved the sound they made. It kept her busy for quite a while, until I took out the camera, and she decided she wanted that instead.

15 Months!

2010-11-02T10:49:00.001-07:00

Today we had Darcy's 15 month checkup. Here are some things we want to remember about Darcy at this age:

- 25 lbs. (75%) 31 inches (80%). Everyone kept telling me she would slim down when she started crawling and walking. Well now she is running and she still has a nice round belly. We love her chubbiness though. I don't know how big her head is but I know it's around 90-95%. She has a nice big head! :)

- She says "Dada" and "Mama". She says "tickle, tickle." Words we're pretty sure she has repeated once or twice: necklace, bubbles, Jesus, and baby. I am hoping she will really pick up more words in the next few weeks.

- She loves to lift up our shirts and blow on our stomachs. This is a problem when we are in public. :)

- She spins, jumps, and trots.

- She still loves to be outside.

- She loves to play hide and seek with her Dad.

- When I know Drew is almost home I tell her to go look out the kitchen window and when she sees him drive up she says "Dada" over and over until he opens the door and then she runs to the door to give him a hug. It is so cute!

- She had her first babysitter about a month ago. Our friends Rich and Brittany watched her and they all survived!

I'm getting less picky about the pictures I take for these updates. She doesn't really like to cooperate, and it's too frustrating for both of us. So here are just a few pictures I took of her hanging out today.

Halloween Week

2010-10-31T06:29:00.000-07:00

Monday night for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins. Darcy loved taking the tops off and putting them back on. I never got a picture of the finished product, but Drew carved a skull and I carved a ghost. They were awesome!

Friday night we went to the ward Halloween party at the church. They had a chili/cornbread cookoff, a doughnut eating contest, and trunk-or-treat. Darcy was a super cute strawberry this year! She didn't like to keep her hat on, but a couple times we put it on her and she forgot about it so we were able to get a couple pictures.

They convinced Drew to be in the doughnut eating contest. He insists he wasn't even trying, but he ended up winning anyway. I was very proud! :)

Some serious doughnut eating action!

Our friends Rich and Brittany and Ari and Abbi live in an awesome duplex together and they had a Halloween party on Saturday night. We had so much fun! They had a cake walk and bocce ball with mini pumpkins in one side of the duplex and rock band in the other side. There were tons of cute decorations and delicious treats! Rich & Brittany were a cowboy and Indian. Ari and Abbi were a tree and tree hugger, and Evelyn was a little fairy. Will and Amanda were an angel and devil. Ben and Kelly were Africans (with authentic costumes from Africa!) Linwood was the Brawny man and Brook was a kid in a candy store. TJ and Melanie were Arabic. Dean and Penny were two pigs in a blanket. There were a few people there who's names I didn't know who were ghosts, a jail bird, a whoopie cushion, some white trash folks, and some safari people with a little monkey and elephant. Lots of fun costumes!!

I bent down to take a picture of Darcy and she thought she was supposed to bend down with me.

Here is the cute strawberry again with a gun from the cowboy and a toy from the kid in the candy store.

The family picture. I was a witch (I really hate this picture of me) and Drew was a 70's guy (Drew really loves this picture of himself). He was so excited to wear this suit. The pants were really tight! :)

We had so much fun playing rock band. We had an awesome girl band! (The Arabic girl, the witch, the African , and the kid in the candy store.)

One of the boy bands. (The Brawny man minus his paper towel roll, the African man, and the 70's guy minus his afro.)

They got a little excited because they were singing the "Woo Hoo" song from Blur and they felt it was necessary to do some jumping.

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but the other day we got this video of Darcy spinning, jumping, and trotting.

First Injury

2010-10-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

I thought I should document Darcy's first injury besides just a bonk or a scrape here or there. We were just out on a walk and she tripped and face planted into the pavement. It was so sad and it gave her a bloody fat lip. I have always been so nervous about how I would deal with injured kids. At first when I saw the blood on her face I wanted to cry too and I wanted to yell for help. Since it really was a very minor injury I'm glad I didn't do either of those things. Just a couple minutes after it happened and I had cleaned her up and held some ice on her lip she was as happy as a clam. A clam with a fat lip.

Here she is with her fat lip.

A close-up of the fat lip (and up her nostils). It is actually even fatter now.

I just wanted to add this picture because her eyes look so blue.

Finally

2010-10-13T05:14:00.000-07:00

Last night Drew got the offer from PNNL! We are relieved and excited. We were both having a hard time sleeping over the past few weeks waiting to hear from them. Now we are having trouble sleeping again because we are anxious about all the details that need to be taken care of to make the move and get Drew all set up for work. We know there are lots of people out there right now looking for work, so we feel really blessed that this has worked out for us, and now we get to be close to our families! YAY!!!!! (My brother Luke would be totally annoyed that I put five exclamation marks, but in this case it really reflects how I am feeling. HA!)

Side Note: Thanks for all the tips about throwing fits and shopping with babies a couple weeks ago. Things have gotten much better. We go shopping with lots of snacks. :) The biting thing ended up being a really short phase. One time she bit me and I was stern with her and she got mad and bit her own arm. It made her cry and she did it again and cried again. I was having the hardest time controlling my laughter. It was the craziest reaction ever! She hasn't been into biting since then. I read online that if a baby throws fits at this age you are just supposed to ignore it, so that's what I've been doing. I also decided she was really just doing it when she needed attention like when I'm cooking or cleaning...or maybe a little distracted by the computer or something. So I've been working harder at always having things for her to do. She lives in the spotlight. She really is a happy girl if she has something to do or someone to pay attention to her.

Here's the happy girl this morning!

Pictures/Almost News

2010-10-08T18:32:00.001-07:00

We thought we were going to hear today whether or not Drew was getting the job in Tri-Cities, but they are waiting on one more guy to give the OK. They told us we will know for sure by Tuesday. They said he will be getting an offer, we just have to wait to see what the offer is. We are so excited and anxious. It just sounds like such a dream come true to be there so close to our families. We will keep dreaming for a few more days I guess.

I have been waiting to update my blog until we got the news about the job, but I am getting in trouble with my family for not posting. So, here are lots of pictures of this last week to tide them over until Tuesday. :)

Darcy needed some shoes that weren't sandles for the fall, so we went shopping. I think her new shoes look so cute on her and I had to take some pictures.

A close-up of the shoes.
We've been getting crazy with Darcy's hairstyles this week. Here is the pig-tail messy buns look.
I just thought this was cute.
I do a little yoga every now and then (seriously not very much) and Darcy must be watching because one day out of the blue she bent over and did downward dog. Sometimes she will be walking along and just stop to do downward dog and then move on. She is serious about her stretching.
The other day I was filling up a water bottle and Darcy wanted whatever I had. She was crying at my feet so I decided to just hand her an ice cube. I figured she wouldn't like how cold it was, but I was wrong. She was so excited about it. She just kept switching hands and sucking on it and talking and laughing. The strangest things make her happy.
Another hair style. Today I did a french-braid across her head. I added a flower for the clip later and she looked so cute.
The french-braid with the flower.
This is just really Darcy's favorite thing. She would hang out all day outside on and around this step if I would let her. Some days we spend a lot of time out there.
I just really wanted a cute picture of me with Darcy so I had Drew take some today. The headband I'm wearing I made at a church Young Women's activity I was in charge of.
Oh so naturally having so much fun together on the door step. She seriously is fun to have around! :)
Trying to get away from the camera.
I made my first cheesecake today. It was meant to be a celebration cake after we found out good news about Drew's job. The news was only semi-good, but we ate the cheesecake anyway and it was "totally" good. (We just got back from playing tennis so don't judge us for looking nasty.)