Thanksgiving Post... Better Late Than Never!

We stayed here in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving.

We decided to celebrate with our friends the Hornbargers.

Lexi had a lot of fun in the kitchen helping me prepare the food.

Avery had a lot of fun sampling the food.

The grown up and kid table.
My yummy dinner.
Evelyn and I did a great job!
Seriously, I think it was the best turkey I have ever eaten.
Everything was just delicious.

Avery trying to feed Kaylee, who is 8 months younger than her.

I ended up baking 6 pies!
I know, I'm a little bit crazy.

Here's my apple pie.

The Christensens and the Hornbargers.

Whenever we get together, it's a little girl fest!

As a joke, Sean shaved his face but left a mustache for Thanksgiving dinner.

Evelyn and Ian didn't get that it was a joke. They thought Sean was serious about it.

All day Sean couldn't bare to look at himself in the mirror.

It was pretty comical.

Well there you have it. My quickly done, long over due, Thanksgiving post.

Thanksgiving With My In-Law's In-Law's

For Thanksgiving we went to my brother-in-law Jared's (Sean's oldest brother) in-laws' house. In other words we went to Val's (Jared's wife's) parents house. Got that? They live in a small town up in the mountains in Arizona. We had so much fun and Val's family was so inviting. We felt like part of the family. Their house is a on 17 acre lot filled with animals, the biggest garden and lots of room to run and play. Lexi loved the animals and riding the 4 wheeler and she loved all the space to play inside the house, which is huge compared to our tiny apartment.

I'm not really in the blogging mood, so this will be quick. Here are a few pictures from the trip (Don't worry mom, I will post more on my Shutterfly site soon)...

Val's sister, Jen, made these adorable hats for the kids.

Lexi, Avery, Addie and Devin (we're missing two of the cousins - Parker and Halle)

Lexi with her pumpkin name...um, I'm not sure what it's called. Jen made these to mark every one's place at the dinner table. She got the idea from Martha Stewart. Aren't they adorable?!

The girls.

Of course we had a to get a bath picture. It's tradition.

Val's parents own the local Dairy Queen, so you guessed it, we ate a lot of DQ.

Yesterday morning we woke up to snow. It wasn't what we wanted to see right before getting back on the road to head home but the kids had fun playing in it. Devin taught Lexi to eat the snow, which she loved until her hands were freezing.

Lexi probably spent a good 5 hours playing with this stuff. It's some sort of foam. It doesn't dry out and isn't sticky and everyone loved it!

Val was lucky enough to get Avery to fall asleep on her. A rare and precious moment.

Sean's brother Josh came over from LA. So we had 3 of the 6 original Christensen kids there.

And here are just two pictures of my cute girls...

We had such a good time and it was so nice to be able to see family. I wish we lived closer to our families but I guess being a part makes us appreciate them more!

I've Got it Good.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I've been thinking about all of the good things in my life. I really have had a phenomenal life, and it's only getting started! I want to share a few of my blessings along with some recent pictures of two of my greatest blessings...


I know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows me individually because he sent to the family that was meant for me. My mom is the perfect mom for me. She's funny, caring, sensitive, hyper and out going. And my dad is her perfect companion and pretty much the perfect husband and father.


I have so many fond memories of high school and college. I made life long friends and got a great education.

Of course, one of the greatest blessings in my life is my husband, Sean. I really am a lucky woman. Sean loves me more than anything! And he's an amazing father. He adores our daughters and loves being with them. I know that Sean would rather be at home with me and the girls than any where else.

I can't say enough about my daughters. Lexi and Avery are my world. They are precious little spirits who teach me more about life than anyone else. And they are the perfect children for us.

Sean and I are both so grateful for his job. In this economy we know we are so lucky to have a good stable source of income with promise of growth in the future.

I'm grateful for our van, cell phones, the Internet and my blog, funeral potatoes, crafts, and photographs. I'm grateful for public libraries, Costco, our dishwasher and books. I know that I'm lucky to have life insurance, health insurance and a retirement savings plan.

And of course I'm grateful that I live in the United States of America at this time in the history of the world. I'm grateful for the freedoms that come with that, especially the opportunity I have to worship the the Lord Jesus Christ. I consider my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the greatest blessing in my life. I know that almost all my other blessings are a result of my faith.

I hope everyone has a fantastic, food and family filled Thanksgiving! And I hope that you take the time to count your blessings!

Thanksgiving Break Review

Today is Monday which means Sean is back in school and the Thanksgiving break is over. Nine days go by fast. It was a good week.

I'm glad that we decided not to go anywhere because we were all sick at some point. And throwing up in someone else's bed is not fun (throwing up in your own bed isn't fun either). Lexi woke up one morning with dried puke all over herself. Sometime in the night she threw up and didn't make a fuss at all. Then one night Sean's stomach started bothering him and next thing I knew he was in the bathroom puking. Luckily he got better real fast. I on the other hand wasn't so lucky. I got sick the night before Thanksgiving. We were up all night. I puked for 5 hours straight, every 20-30 minutes like clockwork. So needless to say I didn't eat any of our Thanksgiving feast. But I'm happy to report that we are all feeling better and keeping our food down.

We had the craziest experience with Lexi early one morning. She's been waking up at night, almost every night for the last month. We've thought it was because of a cough, she was cold and night terrors. Well last week she had a REAL night terror. I have never seen anything like it. She woke up screaming, so Sean went to check on her and couldn't get her to calm down so I got up. We knew right away what was going on. We turned on the lights to try to snap her out of it. Her whole countenance was different. It was like it wasn't her. She wouldn't look at us and she just rolled around on the floor screaming. If I believed the devil could posses babies this is what it would have looked liked. Finally we just put her in the tub and that got her to wake up. Luckily we haven't experienced anything like that since.

Now on to the highlights of the week:

We got A LOT of snow this past week so we bought Lexi her first sled. We took her down a hill a few times and she really seemed to like it. She was giggling. Here is a picture and video of her trying to walk in the snow. A couple of inches are a lot of snow for someone her size.

And this is a video of Lexi's first time going down the hill. She wasn't sure what to think. I'm pretty sure Sean is going to love sledding with her this winter.

So what would a Thanksgiving post being without pictures from Thanksgiving? Here is a picture of Lexi after eating. She ate 3 1/2 rolls by herself. That was her favorite food of the day for sure.

We had Thanksgiving with our friends the Stevens and some of their friends. It was fun just being with friends. I spent a lot of the night laying on the couch watching the little girls play. But I was glad to be out of the house and feeling a little better.

Being sick is not the way to spend the holidays. I think I'm goin to make my own little Thanksgiving feast this week since I didn't get to eat any Thanksgiving food.

And for fun here is a picture of Lexi from yesteday. She's all ready to go to church...

And since I didn't take a lot of pictures last week, here are some videos I took of Lexi...

Lexi is such a fun little kid. It's hard to believe that she'll be 17 months old in less than a week!

A Thanksgiving to Be Thankful For

So I have been dreading this post because I have no idea what to write about. We had an amazing break and I took HUNDREDS of pictures.

We went to West Jordan last Saturday to see Sean's sister Michelle and her family. We love being with them, we get along so well and have so much in common. Then Sean's parents and little sister flew down and we got to spend time with them. Us girls went shopping all day to help Michelle decorate her living room.

Then the day before Thanksgiving we drove down to St. George. Sean's family rented a house down there. It wasn't just any house. It was worth 2.5 million, on a golf course, in a gated community. It was huge! We all had our own rooms and bathrooms and there was an infinity pool with a waterfall and hot tub. I loved it!

The best part of the trip though was just being with family. This was the first time that all of the family has been together since Sean's dad married Kristi, over 4 years ago! It was also the first time that all 4 grandkids have been together.

Okay, I am not sure how I am going to narrow this down but here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. To see more go to our Thanksgiving photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/samic123/ThanksgivingVacation2008.

Parker was so good with Alexia.

There are some of the decorations. We got such good deals! I am so happy for Michelle and Justin. They have a great home and a beautiful living room.

We took so many pictures of Alexia and Adalynn. They are 2 weeks apart. Here they are wearing outfits I made for them.

We got professional pictures taken as a family. I snapped this one of Grandpa and Nana with the kids.

We went to the St. George temple with Andrea just to see the grounds. I love that temple! It is so beautiful. It was so sweet to walk the temple grounds with my husband and daughter. I am so glad that we are sealed together.

Here are the six Christensen kids.

Grandpa and his grandkids. It is hard to get a good picture of all four of them.

We went bowling. It was the first time for the girls.