Christmas Vacation - Part 4

So, it's about time I finish blogging about Christmas. Here are a few more highlights from our trip...


We went caroling with our good friend Jon Mercado. We sang Feliz Navidad at every house but we sang it with gusto. We had instruments and we danced. We didn't sound amazing but we had a lot of fun. Good memories!



Sean's family has a tradition of making donuts the morning of Christmas Eve (then eat them Christmas morning). Sean, Aaron and Andrea were "the shakers" this year. They put the powder sugar and other topings on the donuts.



I just really like this picture of Lexi and her uncle Josh from Christmas Eve.

Here is the Christensen family tree on Christmas morning. Magical.


My Father-in-Law got himself a new golf cart for Christmas. Lexi kept calling it a bike and loved riding it.

Since our parents live just 10 miles a part we got to have two Christmas mornings. Lexi got this rocking horse from my parents. She LOVES it. It makes noise and moves it's head and tail.


Sean's sister Andrea was packing to head back to school and Lexi took advantage of the situation and tried on most of Andrea's shoes she had put aside to pack. Lexi LOVES shoes!

Lexi enjoyed playing with her Aunt Andrea's old baby dolls.

Sean's brother Josh wears skinny jeans and we convinced Sean and Aaron to put some on also for a "fashion show at lunch." It was hilarious!
By the end of our stay, Lexi would finally sit on her Papa's lap. Which is what he wanted. The problem is Lexi just doesn't sit still most of the time, so this made his day.

Sean did the long drive back with Andrea. Lexi and I were lucky enough to get a plane ticket back to Salt Lake. We spent a day with my sister-in-law Michelle and her family. Here is a picture of Lexi and her cousin Halle who are exactly a year a part.

Christmas Vacation - Part 3

So this is a bit of a strange post. Today we were just hanging out and for some reason the guys just started trying to see how strong and flexible they are and well you'll just have to see the pictures for yourself...

Christmas Vacation - Part 2

Last Friday Sean finished his last final and made the long drive up to his parents' house. On the way he picked up his sister Andrea's boyfriend. Sean's brothers Josh and Aaron have also come home for the holidays. We've had a lot of fun all being together. Sean's parents bought Wii Sports Resort so we have been playing that along with Scum (of course). And I just wanted to show Sean's siblings Jared and Michelle that Garth was Queen one round which is amazing because he is usually the Scum.

We were able to go to a Christmas breakfast last Saturday and get some pictures taken with Santa. Lexi of course hated him so we got a family picture with a fake Santa as well.

And I just wanted to post a picture of our adorable family. This is us just after we got home from church this past Sunday.

This week we've been staying at my in-law's house (which is 10 miles from my parents' house) and Lexi loves the fact that they have a dog. Poor Maggie is old and just wants to sleep and be left alone and Lexi just won't leave her alone. Lexi bugs Maggie when she's eating and when she's trying to sleep. She tries to pet and kiss her and is ALWAYS trying to touch Maggie poop shoot. She just wants to touch Maggie's tail and butt hole. My nephew Devin did the same thing, maybe it's something in the Christensen gene pool.

Last night we went to downtown Seattle, a Christensen Christmas tradition. We went and ate dinner and rode the carosel and went to See's Candies. It was a lot of fun. Lexi loved all the horses pulling the carriages. We didn't take her on one but we let her pet a horse. She also loved all the music being played. There were several musicans and groups playing on the streets. She dancing while we watched this one group of men preform until they came up and sang to her and scared her.

Christmas Vacation - Part 1

Lexi and I traveled to Washington 1 1/2 weeks ago. We took a Salt Lake Express shuttle van to the airport from Rexburg. Lexi did well during the drive but was a nightmare when we first got to the airport. The problem was that I had to wake her up and then make her walk along side me using her "leash" backpack. She was not happy that I couldn't hold her but I couldn't, I had to carry her giant car seat and our 49.5 lbs suitcase. Once we got through check in and security she was a lot better. She loved playing in the little play area at the airport and she did great on the airplane.

Last week Lexi and I stayed at my parents' house. We spent some time shopping aka Lexi getting spoiled. Here is a picture of her in the new Christmas outfit my mom bought her. Doesn't she look like a little lady?

We went a got my parents a Christmas tree and decorated it. Lexi loved "helping" out with the lights. We listen to some hip hop style Christmas music while decorating and Lexi LOVED it. She danced her little heart out. She's a nautral dancer.

My mom and I took Lexi to Flower World, which is done the street from their house. They have some animals there and Lexi LOVED them. She got to see goats, sheep, chickens, roosters, peacocks, ducks, geese and a few other random birds. It's too bad we don't live on a farm because Lexi would love it.

We also went to some botanical gardens in Bellevue that were decked out in lights. I think Lexi enjoyed it and it was beautiful.

I didn't take too many pictures last week at my parents house. I spent a lot of my time crafting. I worked on painting some holiday crafts. Right now we don't have a lot of decorations so I'm working on making some for next year. I actually haven't taken any pictures of what I've done. I'll post some later.

And I didn't worry too much about taking pictures because we got some family pictures taken with my family by my amazing friend, Chelsi Greenwood. I know we're going to get some great pictures. If you're in the North Seattle area you should give her a call. I don't have any pictures to post yet but will eventually once they are edited. She's already tagged me in a few on Facebook.

Stressed Out

Call me crazy but I'm stressed about naming this baby. With Alexia I KNEW her name long before she was born. There was no doubt in my mind. And with this little one there is doubt. I have three favorite names that are all pretty close in "favoritness" (Raegan, Hazel and Paisley) and I like the name Avery too now. But I'm not sure which name to use or which middle name. I want to use a middle name that has meaning but can't pick one. So I put up a poll with our top name choices. I think I'll have to wait to meet our daughter before I pick a name but I'm curious what everyone else likes. So vote. Thanks.

P.S. I'm one of the those people who love to have everything planned out so I'll probably do another poll after this with revised names.

17 Months Old

Yesterday, our little Alexia turned 17 months old! She is growing up so fast. This month she has learn A TON! She understands so much more, recognizes more words and tries to say more words. I'm posting a bunch of pictures to help remind me of what she's up to...


Lexi thinks she's such a big girl. She always wants to try our food and sip our drinks.


One of Lexi's absolute favorite things to do is color. She has an Elmo coloring book that she colors in everyday. She even recognize a few shapes, like in the picture. She knows what a heart, circle and star are. We're working on colors too.

I just think this is a hilarious picture. I wanted to get a good one of her just sitting and smiling but that is near impossible for this wiggle one year old.

Lexi had a messy bun on top of her head and when I took it out her hair looked like this. I am getting more adventurous with her hair now that she has more of it.

Speaking of hair, look at this pony tail! She still doesn't have enough to do a real ponytail. But that's okay because I think this makes her look a lot older and I am not ready for her to grow up yet.
Lately and I don't know why but Lexi is obsessed with bows. She'll grab my hand and walk me into her room and point to all her bows hanging on the wall and say bow and then point to her hair. You think I'd be thrilled about this but the problem is that she's such a girl. She likes to try a bow on and then asks to try a different one on and she'll do that over and over until she finds the one she likes.

Alexia LOVES to sort, group and organize her toys. For example, I gave her this tube with tennis balls and for 10 minutes straight (no joke, I timed it) she dumped them out of the tube and put them back in over and over. That is so Lexi.


Another example of her obsession with group and sorting- she has a few Little People and she loves to stand them all up on one of her book shelves in a row. She does the same thing with her bath toys along the rim of the tub.

Lexi has always loved books. Her most recent favorite is the church's artbook. We bought it at the distribution center to use for our FHE lessons. But Lexi's loves to look at it daily. She flips through it and points to Jesus and will say his name. She almost always gets Him right but sometimes she get Him confused with other bearded men. She also recognizes the temple and loves pointing to it.

---The other day she was looking through the book and saw a picture of Jesus getting baptized. She was Jesus' name ("de gi") and "wawa". She knew that He was in water. She understands so much.

---That same day she flipped to a picture of Mary praying with Jesus when He was a boy. Lexi looked at the picture and folded her arms. So I knelt and prayed with her. She has such a sweet tender little spirit.

---Another day she was looking at the book and saw a picture of baby Jesus. She ran to grab one of her baby dolls and came back saying baby and pointing to the picture. She is always amazing me with the things she understands.

Another one of her favorite things is the basketball hoop in her room. She loves to climb on the base. She likes to climb on whatever we can. For example, yesterday we were in the clerks office at church (Sean is a clerk) and there were boxes with the new Sunday school manual in them. And Lexi climb up on them and they were nearly as tall as her. She has no fear.

---This past month Lexi has got really good at using a fork. She uses it when she eats scrambled eggs (one of her favorite foods and one of my favorite foods when I was pregnant with her).

---Lexi now tells us when she's hungry. She points to her mouth and says "eeee" for eat and then runs to her high chair.

---And when Lexi is poopy she pats her bottom and runs to the hall closet where her diapers are and says "dada" for diaper.

---Lexi loves watching Elmo's World and so I let her watch it a few times a week. Elmo's neighbor is this weird guy named Mr. Noodle. Lexi loves him and when she sees him she says "new new" for noodle.

---Another one of Lexi's favorite things to do is play with her kitchen and pretend to cook. She loves putting her pretend food on a plate and puts it into the microwave. She also loves getting one of my big wooden spoons and using it to stir all of her food. She loves to do what she sees Mommy doing.

---Last night we watch the Christmas Devontional. We've been teaching Lexi who President Monson is. And last night she recognize him! It made me so proud.
---There are so many other new things she does now. It's hard to remember them all but I wanted to try my best to document them.

Lexi is going to have a little...

...sister! It's a girl! We're so excited. I don't have a sister and I've always wanted one so I'm so happy that Lexi gets one. And her little sister even takes after her, she is a crazy active little baby and she is stubborn. This baby wouldn't let the ultrasound tech get a good look at the brain, kidneys or spine (Lexi wouldn't let us get a good look either). So I have another ultrasound scheduled for next week. We're just so happy that our little one let us see that she's a girl!

We are 90% sure we're naming our daughter Raegan / Reagan (we haven't decided which spelling to use yet) and our second pick is Hazel.

Here are some paintings I found online of sisters together. I can't wait to see my girls together!

P.S. The poll results were: 19 voted boy (52%) and 17 girl (47%)