Whit, Brooke & Winston!

18 Weeks

2012-02-13T10:42:00.000-08:00

Winston gets to hang out with his awesome Aunt Kira twice a week, while mom and dad are at work. So we got him this cool t-shirt so he could show his auntie how much he appreciates her :)

We got Winston this awesome backpack for when we go snowshoeing and hiking. I had to test it out when it came. I think we're really going to like it. And the best part is that we used our cash back from our credit card to buy it! Yay!

The beautiful flowers that Whit got for me :)

For my birthday Whit surprised me by coming home from work early. We thought it would be fun to go down to my parent's house to hang out for the night. My brother Dallin came over from BYU and we made home made pizza for dinner.

I wanted to take a picture of our finished pizza, and told Whit that pictures look so much better with someone's face in them. So this is his face in the picture. If you look close, you can see his nose hairs. Awesome!

The happy family.

My mom took this picture of everyone, and then realized that she left out someone very important,

Winston!

German chocolate is my favorite kind of cake, and my sister made this beautiful one for us to enjoy. I think it's her favorite too! :)

Since Kira's birthday is the day before mine, we sang happy birthday to each other. We're kind of weird and silly, but we have a good time together.

We even managed to blow out all of the candles together. Yay teamwork!

Winston likes hanging out in his little chair, his feet can even reach the bottom now. But he tends to get his arms stuck and he hasn't quite figured out how to lift them up yet.

So I just do it for him and all's well again.

Winston started kissing his dad one night--we sure love him!

17 weeks

2012-02-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

Our sweet neighbor watched Winston one day while we were at work. I think Winston had much more fun hanging out with his friend than being with mom or dad at home! :)

Our neighbor was so sweet and took some pictures of Winston while he was over at their house. I think I need her to give me some photography tips--I just love this one!

My sister Kira spent months crocheting this beautiful blanket for Winston, so I had to have another photo shoot so we could show it off. I love this pic of Winston--he's letting everyone know that we've already taught him to pray! :)

He's such a jokester!

I'm trying to pick my favorite--I think it's between this surprised look,

him pulling a Grandpa Christensen and closing his eyes for a picture,

or this one where he just looks so sweet :)

And then I bundled him all up and took him for a long walk outside. It must have been too cold for him or something, because the next day he caught a cold! So sad to have a sick baby. And then Whit got sick too. So the rest of the weekend and the first part of last week was spent in bed, trying to get everyone better!

Sixteen Weeks!

2012-02-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

It was another fun filled week at the Anderson home. Sometimes Whit gets a little stir crazy on the weekends. He misses being able to go out and do things spontaneously. Strange how having a baby makes you do a little more planning. Anyways, I thought it would be fun to surprise him with a night out. So I called a sweet neighbor and had her watch Winston for a few hours, and Whit and I went across the street to a movie! What fun. We saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. My awesome cousin Anika recommended the book to me years ago. I read it and loved it, but have since forgotten most of the details of the book. So it was fun to watch the movie and remember what it was all about. I thought they did a great job with the movie, and it was a good reminder to love those around you. Family is everything and it’s important to treat them with love. It was such a good thing for me to remember :) Anyways, good movie!

Saturday we ran some errands, cleaned up the house a bit, and spent some quality time hanging out with the little guy.

His legs are getting pretty strong, and he likes to practice standing up.

However, he has a bit more trouble sitting up on his own. When we let go, he just folds in half. I love how he's just resting his big head on his feet here! Don't get confused, his feet are what is under his head, and his hands are in socks. :) He keeps clawing at his head with his nails, and so we try to keep his hands covered. We've found that socks stay on the best, but strangely they won't stay on his feet. Go figure!

He thinks he's pretty funny. He makes us laugh for sure!

We got all bundled up for a walk outside. Notice how Whit bundles up in a short sleeve shirt and a vest!

Check out those thighs!!!

He's starting to like the bouncer seat that he got from Aunt Katie. He's still a little wobbley and hasn't quite got the bouncing part down yet, but he'll get there someday.

All ready for bed! He has been pretty good at sleeping at night for the most part. He usually wakes up only once during the night now. I'm loving that. Except last night--he ate at 6:30, we played, gave him a bath, and put him to bed at 8:30. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, and started freaking out because he hadn't woken up yet! I went in to check on him to make sure he was still breathing. It had been 8 hours since he ate, and he usually only goes about 6 hours between feedings during the night. But he was fine, just sleeping away in his room. But since I was up, I woke him up to feed him so I could go back to bed. :) Someday we'll get into a routine that will be the same every night and then we'll both know what to expect, right? :)

Fifteen weeks of wonder :)

2012-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

We had yet another great week! Friday I took Winston to my work to see a co-worker who just got back from maternity leave. She brought her little boy in and we just put them side by side in their carseats and watched them sleep. It was fun catching up with her and seeing her little one. Then we picked up Whit from work and went up to Bountiful to visit his mom. We went out for Indian food and had a great visit. And Winston was so good the whole time we were in the restaurant! He just sat on our laps contently while we ate. It was great.

Saturday we had some friends over for sushi night and games! Whit worked really hard all day and made some delicious sushi sauces and tempura vegetables. He's such a sport to cook for all of us :)

Winston was a pretty happy camper, until it was time to go to bed. I think he knew he was missing out on all of the fun, so he just kept crying and crying. But I did get a picture of him when he was still happy :)

Everybody made their own sushi roll (or two, as in my case!) and we all shared and ate. It was delicious!

We have been blessed with such wonderful friends and we love getting together!

Sunday we went down to Spanish Fork to hear my dad speak in stake conference. He gave a really good talk on the scriptures. After conference we all had a nice lunch together. Whit's brussell sprouts were the hit of the afternoon. Everyone wanted the recipe :) I somehow thought that 6 diapers would be enough for the day, but Winston managed to go through all of them by 4:00 in the afternoon. And he was being a little fussy, so we figured it would be best to head home. He slept for most of the ride, but the last 20 minutes or so he kept crying. When we got home, we figured out why:

Poor kid! his blanket had fallen completely over his face! I know it's hard to tell, but he's really in his carseat--wearing socks on his hands and a blanket on his head. We couldn't tell that had happened, because of the car seat cover. But suddenly the crying made sense. We're such clueless parents sometimes! :)

But he seems to be developing alright, despite his crazy, less-than-perfect parents.

Case and point: this morning I propped him up on a pillow on the bed, so I could post to the blog. He was happy and talking away. After a couple of minutes I turned around to check on him, and saw this...

Yep, spit up all over himself and rolled completely off the pillow!

and he still manages to be adorable (at least to me) even with spit up all over his face!

Sure do love this little guy!!!

Fourteen Weeks!

2012-01-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

It's a magical thing, the bathroom fan! Everyone suggested that we turn it on to help Winston sleep. Well, it didn't work for the longest time, but now it works like a charm! Love it! He will stay asleep for a whole hour with the fan on. It works out lovely--unless of course I plan on cleaning the bathrooms while he is asleep. I learned that one the hard way :)

I know it is cruel to take pictures of your child in the bath, but he kicked his leg up just in time for this one, so I thought it would be safe to post. I just can't get enough of that belly! I had to show it in all it's glory :)

We got a mobile for the crib, now that he has started to watch things. I think he likes it :)

And look how good he can hold his head up! He just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

He recently discovered his hands. For some reason he loves to put them in his mouth. He still claws at his head alot, so most of the time we keep socks or mittens on his hands. That can be handy when he's drooling, he wipes his own mouth!

Whit thought he looked good in his hat :)

My super sweet cousins sent him this little bouncer thing. I think he is going to love it in a few weeks or so. Right now, he is still only interested in eating his hands :)

Seriously!

Well, that's our week in a nutshell. Just lots of time at home, enjoying this little one. He definitely keeps us entertained and we do our best to do the same for him! :)

Thirteen weeks

2012-01-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

This week we watched our neighbor's boy for a couple of hours. He is super cute and very happy, so it was fun to have him over. He and Winston aren't quite old enough to interact very well, but I think Winston did a really good job of staying chill when being examined by his friend :)

We just had to laugh when comparing their sizes--his friend is 4 months older than he is!

Happy Bryce Day!

Jan 7th is the day my brother Bryce died, 3 years ago. Hard to believe that it's been that long already! Since we named Winston Bryce after his uncle, we only thought it appropriate to dress him in a Who t-shirt and introduce him to the sounds of Bob Marley :) My brother Bryce loved music and snow, so it was awesome that it also snowed that day!

We blessed Winston on Sunday. It was so nice to have so many of our family members come out to show their love and support! Our family took up quite a few rows in church :) Lots of them were sick or had sick kids, but they still came out to join us. That meant so much to us and we love you all so much!

Here is everyone that was able to stay and join us for lunch after church. Whit made some fabulous soups and everyone brought salads and we had a super yummy lunch!

Here is the little guy in his blessing outfit, on one of his uncle Bryce's blankets that was made by my Grandma Fife :)

We just adore this little one!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe, but this little guy is 3 months old! Where did the time go? I love how he is beginning to smile, can hold his head up, and all the cute sounds he is making. It's so fun to watch him develop.

We can't seem to cut his fingernails enough though, he is still clawing at his face all of the time. So we keep putting his mittens on :)

Can you say double chin? :)

He has almost outgrown all of the 3 month clothing we have for him! I think he is trying to catch up with his cousin Spencer, who also wore 6 month clothing at this age. Winston definitely is a good eater and is just packing on the pounds--look at all of those fat rolls! :)

On New Year's Day (well, the day after) we went down to Spanish Fork to hang out with family. We went bowling and Winston slept the whole time--after sleeping the whole way down there! We were all totally amazed :)

After bowling we went to my parent's house and since the weather was so nice, we played bocce ball outside--with no coats on--in the middle of winter! It was pretty strange, but nice :)

Then Whit and my brother Dallin played ping pong. I'm pretty sure Whit won.

But Dallin is still our friend and held Winston while we watched a movie. Winston was pretty beat, doesn't he just look spent? It was a busy but fun day, that's for sure!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

2011-12-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that Christmas has come and gone already? We had a lovely holiday, and enjoyed getting together with family and friends. To celebrate we went up to the cabin again! We just love it up there and can't get enough of it :) Friday morning the Fife clan came up and we had lunch, went sledding, and had our annual white elephant present game. It was so much fun!

Everyone loved sledding down the hill

My brother Dallin took up his snowboard and rode that down the hill. Doesn't he look like such a pro?

Then my dad tried Dal's board, not such a pro :)

My good friend Alicia came up for the fun too. She even stayed my friend after I ran her off the road, twice! I'm not so good with the steering when I am tubing down the hill on the air sleds :)

Unfortunately my uncle Rey isn't too good with the steering on the air sleds either! He ran himself off the road and took a tumble down the mountain and got pretty banged up! Luckily, my auntie sent us this popcorn from Arizona--I think that cheered him up. How could it not--seeing that it was "prayerfully popped!" :) Thanks Aunt Lauryl--it was super yummy!

One year Whit got some self tanning lotion for the white elephant game. This year he got this lovely tree topper! I think it suits him quite well :)

We love white elephants! :)

Everyone helped put together this book for Grandma--she turns 90 next year so we all wrote things we had learned from her (90 things total). She seemed to really like it, so that made us all happy. We have learned so much from her and love her very much! She is one fun lady!

The whole gang took a picture together before everyone started heading out. What a fun day!

Saturday we just chilled around the cabin,

and went out for some more fun times in the snow!

My family loves to take pictures jumping, so we made a calendar of all our silly jumping pictures for my mom. I think she liked it, so we took some more jumping pictures for next year's edition :)

Winston can't jump yet, but isn't he cute in his Christmas Eve pajamas? We got to our home around 7:00 on Christmas Eve. We got Winston ready for bed, sang some Christmas songs with him, and believe it or not--he slept from 8:30 until 4 am! Without waking up at all! It was our own little Christmas miracle :)

Christmas morning we enjoyed going to church,

and then we went up to Brigham to visit with Grandma Christensen.

We had a great time visiting, playing a game, and eating chocolate :) And Winston slept in the car the whole way up and the whole way back. Isn't that wonderful? We really appreciated that! We had such a great Christmas and hope everyone else did too!

10 weeks old

2011-12-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

and getting cuter every minute!

My boys getting their beauty sleep :)

Winston is finally starting to love bath time. Yay! He really likes the water and getting all clean. Definitely his mother's child :)

He still likes to be swaddled, but he fights to get his arm free. Strange. Kind of defeats the purpose of being swaddled, doesn't it?

A few weeks ago we got onto google chat with my family. We love their new mustache feature! We kept laughing whenever the mustache went onto little Winston. Could be a good look for him though, totally goes with the name :)

And here's Whit sporting the slipper look for church! He sprained his ankle at basketball last week, and so he has his ankle in a brace and wears one of my slippers. Good thing they are black!

I just love it with the white sock. Totally completes the look!

And here's what his foot looks like without the brace--super swollen and bruised! Whit says he knows what my swollen pregnancy ankles felt like. I think his is a bit more painful though! And notice his dead toenail on the other foot, another basketball injury! Those guys must think they are invincible or something! :)

This last Sunday we went up north--first we stopped at Whit's friend's place. Winston was a big hit with his friends, we were glad to hand him over and let them hold him for awhile. Then we went to Whit's dad's place for the annual Christmas dinner. It was so great to see family and spend the night visiting and eating. We even got to skype with Jim and Karyn for a few minutes! It was a great night and we are so blessed to be part of such a wonderful family!

9 weeks and still growing!

2011-12-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

Here is our sweet little Winston! He had his two month checkup this month, and is doing great. He only cried for just a minute when he got his shots too! I was really grateful for that :) He is growing like a weed, he now weighs 12.9 lbs and is 23.3 inches long. We are so grateful that he is healthy.

I went shopping and got these 5 outfits on clearance. I just have to brag about what a great shopper I am--the total I paid for all 5 was $1.46! That mean each outfit was about 30 cents. Not too shabby :)

When Winston was a couple of weeks old, I thought he looked a bit like ET. I think he's filled out a bit and the resemblance isn't quite so strong as it used to be. But I just couldn't resist taking this picture when we were unwrapping all of these puppets. :)

My good friend Alicia came over for a visit and cut my hair. I'm so grateful for good friends that make house calls! :)

I asked Whit to take our picture since we were twinners in brown :) I think Winston was being a little camera shy though!

The little guy is getting so strong too! The other day I was folding laundry and I just propped him up on the bed. He just sat there calmly, smiling away. It was awesome.

Looks like he's waving, doesn't it?

Winston's number 1!

That about sums it up. We sure do love this little guy!

Happy Birthday Whit!

2011-12-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Whit!!! To celebrate we went up to Jim and Karyn's cabin for a few days. Many thanks to them for letting us do that--we had such a wonderful time! We got up there Wednesday afternoon and Whit opened up some birthday presents.

Nothing too fancy, but I did get him a mug for his sodas :) Now if we ever get to go to the movies again, refills will only be $1. And he loves to use it around the house because it keeps the ice frozen. Kind of a weird present, but he got some new fishing boots as well. He'll love those next summer. :) After we opened presents we went down to Oakley for lunch/dinner. It was Winston's first time in a restaurant. He did ok, he was asleep for a bit and then he wet his diaper. Since it's just a little restaurant, the bathroom didn't have anywhere to change his diaper. So Whit took him out to the truck to do it. Poor guy, it was really cold out and I don't think he liked that. He ended up peeing all over the truck! Yikes! We are having so many fun adventures with Winston :)

Whit put him in the carrier so he could do things around the cabin.

And he got him to fall asleep in it! I still haven't been able to do that!

Winston just loved the cabin and was so good up there! He would just hang out on the ground and look around. I think he was trying to just take it all in. He must be bored of our house, since he never lasts more than 10 minutes doing this at home!

He even smiled for a bit!

Friday night our fun friends came up to play some games and spend the night. We played blockus,

read some magazines,

and I won poker! It was kind of silly really--I'm not that great of a player, but I just kept getting the right cards and ended up winning everyone's chips. It was pretty fun :)

Our friends also introduced us to a new game called Mister X. We loved it! Whit especially loved being Mister X and trying to hide from all of us. He had to wear this visor so we couldn't see where he was looking on the board. It was pretty funny. It worked though, he ended up winning! Go Whit!

More of Winston just hanging out :)

Winston and I are matchy matchy stripes :) Didn't even plan that one!

Before we left Whit made us a nice lunch--paella! It's something he learned to make on his mission in Spain. It's totally delicious and I loved it :)

Winston just loves his dad! I do too :)

Now we are home again and back to normal life. I had to go back to work this week, which was a little rough for me. But my sweet sister and mom took turns watching hWinston and I think he enjoyed spending time with them. He's slept for 4-5 stretches the past few nights, it's been so heavenly! We're hoping that it lasts for awhile :) He really is such a sweet baby and we just love being together!

Winston's First Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled all the way down to Grandma Fife's house in American Fork. We celebrated with Grandma, some aunts and uncles, and a few cousins. We ate a delicious dinner, skyped with McKay in China, and played a few games. I love Thanksgiving!

One of the rare moments that Winston was held by Whit. Most of the day everyone else was fighting over who would get to hold him.

This is mom skyping with McKay. We missed him this year! He said he had a pretty good Thanksgiving though :)

Winston being held by Aunt Kerry. He is definitely quite popular with the ladies, my aunts at least! :)

The whole gang out in grandma's back yard.

Winston loves his great-grandma! We do too! :)

Four generations with 4 different last names--Ackroyd, Fife, Christensen, and Anderson!

I've been putting Winston on his stomach and his neck is getting really strong. He's just resting here though, but I thought he looked cute :)

His infamous "grumpy face"

He just loves being held by his dad!

And he loves his grandma Julie! :) She came down with the Holley family for a visit on Saturday. We had nachos for dinner and the girls got to meet Winston for the first time.

Here he is with beautiful aunt Linsey :)

and the fun Holley girls!

This doesn't quite capture it, but Winston was quite taken with his cousin! Every time she would talk with him, he would turn his head and listen intently to her. It was so fun to watch. Winston is so lucky to be surrounded by such great family! We are too--we sure did enjoy seeing and talking with so many of our family members this week. It was great. I wish there was a holiday every week!

The sixth week skinny

2011-11-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay,

simply turn it upside down and smile that frown away! :)

Winston gives us little smiles here and there, and we love them! I love his grumpy face too though... it's just so cute!

Here you go, all of you people that wanted to see Whit change a diaper! I have to say, I am one lucky gal. From the time he comes home from work, until he goes to bed, Whit changes all of the diapers! He really is such an amazing dad. He can't wait to hold Winston and he just takes care of him all night. It's so nice for me to have that little break :) I really lucked out!

Here's our cute little football :)

Winston loves to be on his stomach. This is one of his favorite positions. Kira can get him to sleep every time she holds him like this. It's awesome :)

He did this all on his own. He must be asian :) My brother McKay once told me that all asian kids make this sign when posing for pictures!

Told you Kira could always get him to sleep when in this position :) She fell asleep too!

Grandpa trying to console Winston after a diaper change. For some reason, Winston always cries when he gets his diaper changed. We can't figure it out. Sometimes he's almost hysterical. I have to keep telling him that it's for his own good, and he'll be so much happier once it's changed. Sometimes he listens to me, most of the time he just keeps on crying.

Our Sunday visit. My cousin Kimiko and her family came to town from California, and we had a great time visiting and catching up. Yay for family!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Number five is alive!

2011-11-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 5 whole weeks since Winston was born? My how time flies! He's certainly getting stronger and growing growing growing! We've moved on from newborn to size 1 diapers, if you can believe it! And we took him to church for the first time today. There is a family in the ward who had a baby girl, the day before Winston. When her dad saw Winston at church today, he made us go compare babies--he said Winston is huge compared to his daughter! Whit and I didn't think he was that much bigger, but he was definitely longer. Anyways, it's fun to see him grow!

He likes to sleep with his hands by his face, they end up in some pretty silly poses :)

I can just hear him saying, "Grandma, why did you put my hat on crooked?"

As my former roommate Melanie calls it, "soft hands."

I think we finally captured the startled look!

He has been so fussy lately. For some reason he cries whenever he is not held. I can't figure it out! We have tried putting him in a swing, but he doesn't like that at all. So we went and got this little bouncer that vibrates, hoping that this would be something he likes. So we put him in it and he loved it, for about 2 minutes. So then we put in the heart beat bear, and that calmed him down, for about 30 seconds. Then he looked like this:

This is the Winston we know and love. He has cried so much this week, that this is how he looks most of the time. But yet, all we have are these sweet, serene photos. I think I just take pictures when he is calm, so I can look at them when he is crying and remember that he was calm once, for a few minutes at least! :)

According to my calculations, each of these squares is about 3 inches wide, which makes Winston about 24 inches long. That means he has grown an inch a week! At this rate, it will take him another 52 weeks to grow to 6'4", which would make Whit happy. Aren't there only 54 weeks in a year? So we're going to have a 6'4" one year old? Wouldn't that be something...Guess we'll just have to wait and see how long Winston can keep up with the growing 1 inch a week thing :)

4 Weeks Old!

2011-11-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that Winston has been here for a whole month! He's growing tons, and the newborn clothes are just a wee bit too short for him in the torso. So we've moved on up to the 3 month size of clothes, and they are just a wee bit too big for him. Oh well. We are happy he is healthy and growing :) So here we have some of the many faces of Winston:

Whit made a human recliner for him and he had fun hanging out with his dad :)

Sometimes he makes a face where he looks so startled and scared. This captures about half of it, he's usually a bit more scared looking.

Doing a little diaper changing dance :)

Doesn't he look so peaceful while he sleeps?

One day he grabbed Whit's finger and put it in his mouth. He'd never done that before, so of course we had to take a picture :)

And if you can stand a little more of Winston, we took this little video. It's just fun to watch his facial expressions and how he can go from happy and calm to squirmy, and back to calm again.

We sure do love our little Winston!!!

Thriving at three weeks!

2011-11-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Winston had his 2 week checkup last week and he has already gained a pound and grown 2 inches! He is getting bigger and stronger every day. He loves to lift up his head and look at the world around him :) We are so grateful that he is healthy and growing! He definitely has his fussy days, and sometimes he won't sleep. But then he will have a spell of wonderful days where he is just happy and calm and we love those days! :)

For Halloween we dressed little Winston up in pumpkin pajamas and took him to Whit's work to meet everyone. Then we stopped by my office to say hi to all of my co-workers. Win did pretty good, he just started getting fussy towards the end, when it was time for him to eat again. It was fun to get out and show him off a bit though :) Even if it did wear the poor guy out!

I just think he's the cutest! When Whit got home from work, we ran across the street and my sister took some family photos. Whit was very reluctant, and not afraid to let us know he really didn't want to have his picture taken in a bunch of weeds!

But I think this picture turned out pretty well :) At any rate, it was good to get a few family pics with Winston at three weeks old. We'll see what next week brings...

Happy 2 weeks!

2011-10-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's already been two weeks since Winston was born! He just keeps getting cuter and cuter to me, and I just can't get enough of him! He has started to smile and it's just the most adorable thing in the world. He seems to be doing well, we take him in for his check up on Wednesday. But he is definitely growing, he's actually filling out some of his clothes now. We just love our little one!

Aunt Kira had a little photo shoot with Winston--he behaved pretty well for it. He isn't camera shy at all :)

He loves to stretch out his legs!

All bundled up for a walk outside to get some sunshine!

We took him up to Brigham City to meet great-grandma Christensen. He was asleep for most of the visit, but it was nice for us to be able to visit with grandma and introduce her to Winston :)

We are a happy family :)

Welcome home, Winston!!! We love you!!!

2011-10-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Our little Winston was born Monday the 10th at 5:30 pm. He was one day over due but was definitely worth the wait. He weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 19" long. Wow, were we surprised. We thought he would be at least 8lbs but he's healthy and well. Mom was treated very well at the hospital and we had some visits from family and we were able to come home on Wednesday 2 days later. Poor little guy had jaundace and so we had to take a lamp bed home with us to help control it. After 3 visits to the doc's we were cleared to stop using the bed. Yeah!!! He really did not like it at all. During the day it was fine but at night he cried all night. Poor little guy. We're super happy that he doesn't have to use that anymore. We're still trying to figure out his schedule of feeding, burping, sleeping, and etc. but we sure do love him. We find ourselves staring at him and smiling. He is our little sweet boy.

Here he is a few minutes after he was born. They were just cleaning him up and gave him his first shot. Whit got a few photos and some video--it's only been a few days but we just watched it and were oohing and aahing over it. He is such a cute baby!!!

He stayed wide eyed for such a long time after delivery! He just kept looking around at everything. We just couldn't get enough of him :)

Whit's work sent us these beautiful flowers. They were so bright and beautiful to have in our room. They are still blooming in our home now and today Whit pointed out--yellow flowers for a yellow baby! :)

This is right after we got home from the hospital. He did great for his first car ride!

He loves being swaddled and we love taking pictures of him :)

Every once in awhile he was really good on his Billy Bed. This time he just laid there contently for about an hour and then fell asleep. It was great! Too bad every time wasn't like that :)

Being rocked by Grandma C (who made that cute blanket he's wrapped in) :)

Dad loves him so much! He will just hold him for hours at a time. I think Winston likes his dad because he always seems to be calmer when Whit is holding him.

Poor guy had to keep getting his blood drawn at the pediatrician's. Sometimes they would have to poke both heels since his blood was so thick and slow to come out. But he was a trooper and the last time we went, he didn't even cry at all!

Watching baseball with his dad :)

I think he likes watching baseball about as much as I do! :)

Here's what the Billy Bed looks like. I'm so glad we don't have to use it anymore!

Sporting the leg warmers I got him. I think it will be awhile before he grows into them :)

Our first walk around the neighborhood!

Just hangin', the boys.

"Thanks mom, I'm so content!", says Winston after a good feeding. :) We love him and how can you not with that sweet face!!!

October is finally here!

2011-10-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

But sadly our baby isn't :( we have been busy waiting for him though--anything to pass the time until his arrival :)

Three Saturdays ago (I know, I'm terrible at posting!) my cute friends had a fun baby shower for me. I got to see some dear friends and we had a great time eating and talking! It was way super fun and everyone gave us such nice things. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Two Saturdays ago, Whit went fishing with his friend. He caught one of the biggest fish ever! Does he look happy or what? :)

While he was away, I went down to my parent's house and spent the day with them. My dad was busy harvesting honey, and unfortunately got stung a few times in his hand! It swelled up quite a bit--but I still think my ankles take the prize!

Isn't that one bee huge? I'm still working on photography skills, but you can kind of get the idea that he is about twice as big as all of the other bees. It was crazy to see! So, I had a fun time hanging out with mum and dad and we all went to the Relief Society broadcast together that evening. It was a wonderful day.

Then this Saturday was conference! I absolutely love general conference! Whit and I watched the morning session together and then went for a little walk around the neighborhood. Then my family came over, they all went to the session at the conference center and came to our place after. We all went to lunch at one of our favorite thai restaurants. Then Whit had to go into work for a few hours and my family stayed with me and watched the afternoon session at our place. Then we went for a walk around Daybreak to take advantage of the beautiful yet windy weather. :) I tried to take some great family photos, but like I said, I'm still learning. After reviewing these, I have decided that it's best to wait for a non-windy day, and it's good if you don't take people's pictures while they are staring into the sun. But it does make for some classic Christensen photos, that's for sure! :)

Aren't my dad's sunglasses the best? He says he takes the title of grandpa very seriously and has started dressing the part :) It was really fun to spend the day with family. Whit went to priesthood with his brother, and they went to dinner after, so that is fun too. We are so lucky that we live close to family!

Well, that's about it. We are happy and healthy and hopeful that the baby will come soon. We don't seem anxious at all, do we? :)

Temple to Temple 3

2011-09-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

We had our third annual Temple to Temple race yesterday. It was a smashing success! I wasn't the best at advertising or recruiting this year, I'm learning that it's called "pregnancy brain" for a reason. I really do forget things all the time, and feel like I'm only using a tiny portion of my brain. I'm desperately hoping that goes away once the baby is born :) At any rate, one of my co-workers ran the race last year, and he did some recruiting this year and got some of his family and friends and another co-worker of ours to run. We also had Whit's sister come down and run, and then some friends/neighbors from our ward here. So we ended up with a good group and everyone had a great time. We started at the Draper Temple with these fine folks that ran the half,

and ended up at the finish line at the Oquirrh Temple with everyone else--people that ran the 5K, volunteers that helped at aid stations, and family that came to cheer. It was a great group and we had beautiful weather and no one got lost or injured. A successful race for sure! :)

Last week all of Whit's family, the Anderson sisters/mom/nieces had a lovely baby shower for me! They had a delicious dinner and we had a great time chatting. They are all so much fun! They gave us lots of wonderful gifts, a stroller, rocker, baby bathtub with bath supplies, some adorable clothes and blankets, and doorway jumper seat. And this awesome tricycle made out of diapers, a blanket, bib, and sippy cup!

I had to take a picture when I got home, because it is just so fun. I'm sad I forgot to take my camera to the shower though--hopefully I can get copies of the pictures that others took (hint hint :) It was a super fun night though and I'm so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful and loving family! :)

Other than those fun events, life has been pretty low key as of late. My feet are so swollen that it's painful to walk, so I'm getting pretty lazy and not wanting to do much. But the doctor says things are looking good, the baby is still moving a lot so I know he's still alive, which is always a good feeling. This is a picture we took a few weeks ago, it's really unflattering but I've got to post it for posterity's sake. When our little boy is giving us a hard time, I can show him this picture so he can see what I went through to bring him to this world. I think this photo would make anyone feel sorry for me, don't you? I mean, just look at those sausage feet! Gross!!!

I honestly don't know how my stomach is going to get any bigger, it's so huge already! But I have a whole month to go before our due date. He's going to be a big baby, that's for sure. :) We are so excited to get him here and see him and hold him. I'm hoping that September will just fly by, and before you know it, I'll be posting pictures of our brand new baby! :)

While Whit's away...

2011-08-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

I get to play! Whit went fishing again this weekend, so I had a few days to myself.

(This pic is from his last fishing trip, and even though he didn't get a picture of him with the fish he caught, he assures me that he did catch a couple :)

Thursday night I got to babysit a two month old, he was so cute! I visit teach his mom, and she and her husband wanted to run across the street to go to the temple. I was more than happy to watch their little one. He was super cute and we had a great time, until he decided he wanted to cry for a bit. Good practice I guess--babies get heavy after holding them for awhile! So I counted that as my workout for the day :) And I bounced with him on the yoga ball for a bit. He liked that for a little while. Anyways, that was fun!

Friday I rode the train to work, and as I was turning my phone to vibrate I saw that Whit had put a cute note in my calendar for that day. He is so thoughtful :) So I worked all day and then ran a few errands on my way home and then I put up these curtains in the spare room!

I guess one of my "symptoms" of pregnancy is that I have developed a snoring habit. It's getting so bad that Whit has taken to sleeping in the spare room :) But he says he hasn't been sleeping very well in there, since it is so light. So I'm hoping these curtains will help! Before we just had the roller shades but I guess the light from the streetlights still came through. So hopefully this will be a happy surprise for him when he gets home :)

Then on Saturday I slept in, cleaned the house, did laundry, made some zucchini bread, painted my toenails, sewed a ruffle on a dress that was too short, went grocery shopping, and watched a documentary called "The Business of Being Born." It was pretty interesting. And a busy day. But it felt good to get a lot of things done.

I posted a picture like this on facebook yesterday, but I wanted to have one here in the blog--since someday I'll make a book of all of our posts. And this big belly needs to be recorded for posterity :) But this is the dress that I sewed the ruffle on the bottom. It's a little on the long side now, but I would much rather have it be too long than too short. And it was super fun to use the sweet sewing machine that my mum and dad gave me for my birthday. I have decided that I really like sewing and I can't wait to do some more projects. I have some leftover fabric from the crib skirt that I made. I think I'm going to attempt to make a quilt with that. Maybe that's what I can work on the next time Whit goes fishing and leaves me alone for the weekend... :)

Jivin' July

2011-07-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

So I’m the biggest slacker! I can’t believe we haven’t posted since May. Ugh—time flies by too fast. Well, I guess we should start with the highlights from June:

We had several friends and neighbors that have had babies, and Whit’s been awesome to make dinner for them. So we’ve been out a-visiting and I’ve loved holding all of these sweet little newborns.

We had a “family reunion” for our immediate family on the Christensen side. Whit’s dad and stepmom graciously let us use their cabin, that is up near Kamas. My mom and dad and brothers McKay and Dallin came all the way from Spanish Fork, my grandma came from American Fork, my brother Tyler and his family came from Bloomington, Indiana, and my sister Kira came from Tucson, Arizona. Since we are all spread out, we don’t all get together in the same place at the same time very often. So it was wonderful to have 3 full days together up at the cabin!

Dad loved playing with the grandkids :)

My family loved 4-wheeling, even though in this pic Kira looks scared to death

One of my favorite hiking photos!

The gang at a lake that we hiked to

My brother Tyler organized a family olympics--we had several different events that we competed in. My grandma aced the discus :)

The next weekend Whit ran in the Ragnar Wasatch Back. He was in a team that was organized by one of his high school buddies. Well, that friend had something come up at the last minute, and wasn’t able to run the race. So Whit ran the race with a bunch of strangers :) He said they all got along great, and they had a fun time together. I went up to cheer Whit on for the last leg of his run. It was fun to see him come in and finish. Made me want to be a runner and not just a spectator though :) But then the next day when Whit couldn’t walk because he was so sore, I was glad I didn’t run it myself!

My cousin Kari-lynn came to town, and she brought her son over for dinner. My dear friend Heather came over with her son too! Heather was roommates with me while I was going to the U. Then she moved to Ogden and was roommates with Kari-lynn there. It was so fun to get together with them. Whit made us a yummy dinner and we spent the night talking about baby stuff :)

That weekend we had a bridal shower for one of my favorite friends Kasey. She is marrying a golf pro, and is quite the golfer herself. So we had a golf-themed shower that was super fun. My friend Holly is so creative and came up with all of these golf-themed food ideas, we had “club” sandwiches, chips (I guess chipping is a golf term), “green” salad, sand traps (vanilla pudding with crushed wafers on top), and golf ball shaped cake balls. It was darling! And we all had a great time holding those precious babies—they are just so cute!

The bride to be!

My friend Carla and her cute baby boy. We can't wait to have play dates for our sons! :)

Before you know it, it turned into July! To celebrate the 4th, we went down to Spanish Fork Sunday night. Whit wanted to check out the Spanish Fork river, to see if it’s a good time to go fishing there. So we all piled in my parent’s van and took a Sunday drive up the canyon. We got out to check out the river and had to tromp through a field to get there. We were quite the spectacle, walking around in our Sunday clothes. But I think the only ones to notice us out there were the mosquitos! They attacked in full force. We tried to take some fun pictures, but the mosquitos got the better of us and we ended up running back to the van. And just in case you’re curious, there is still too much water in the river for really good fishing :)

On the 4th of July, we went to my parent's annual neighborhood breakfast. We ate tons of food and then played this soccer game where you hit a ball with these swimming floaty noodles. It was quite the game. Whit, Dallin, and Brother Beatty took on the rest of us, and of course they scored way more goals than us—even though we outnumbered them about 3 to 1! However, the highlight of the game for me was when I was close to the goal line. I was just about to score a goal when Whit stole the ball away from me. He then hit it really hard to go back into the playing field, but it hit me instead. Right on my belly where the baby is. And then it bounced into their goal line. So I like to say that our baby has scored his first goal! It was pretty funny :)

Well, that about wraps up what we’ve been up to. I’m enjoying summer, just not the swollen ankles that come with it! :)

Marevelous May

2011-06-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

We have had so much fun these past few weeks! We went to the U2 concert in Salt Lake and it was fabulous. I was a little nervous about the weather, since it had been raining non-stop and the concert was outside. But it didn't rain a drop on us and it was a beautiful night. The stadium was totally packed, the stage was super awesome, and U2 totally rocked! It was pretty much the best concert ever :)

Then the next day we flew out to Chicago! We went for a little anniversary celebration. That's right, we've been married a year :) We had a great time in Chicago, despite the rainy weather we had every day. We got to do loads of fun stuff--like go to the art institute (Whit loved that one), a cubs game (Whit really did love that one!), the top of the Sears tower, the aquarium, planetarium, museum of natural history, the science museum, the Robie house, top of the Hancock building, and we took an architectural river tour. We went to church at a school where we had sacrament meeting in the school auditorium, Sunday School in the library, and Whit went to Priesthood in the 5th grade Social Studies classroom. We thought that was a pretty interesting experience. Our flight coming home got canceled, so we had to spend most of Monday (Memorial Day) at the airport getting re-routed home. But Whit taught me how to play backgammon on his ipod and we eventually made it home. Back to work and back to reality.

Whit was very patient as I looked at all of the fantastic art

He was very excited to be done with the art institute

and so happy to be at Wrigley Field!

Sitting in the glass box that pokes out from the top of the Sears Tower was super scary! It was so high up!

It really lived up to it's name as the Windy City :)

and it was super rainy too! This is what we usually looked like by the time we got home each night.

But we did have occasional bouts of sunshine :) What a fun trip!!!

Then this weekend my brother Tyler and his family came to town and we got to spend some time with the nephews and niece. Whit took them for a ride on the motorcycle and they totally loved that :) Then Whit went for a ride with his friends and I got to hang out with the little ones. We built forts, made cookies, went through the car wash, and then went to the park. They totally wiped me out but it was a fun time.

Ready for another week of fun as we work for a few days and then head up to the Anderson cabin for a Christensen family reunion. We're all looking forward to spending some time together in the mountains. Yay for summer!!!

Another funny story

2011-05-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

So, Whit prides himself on being an individual. After he proposed, he was quite distraught to find out that my parents also got engaged around Thanksgiving. When we were deciding when to get married, we thought April would be nice, until Whit found out that's when my parents got married. We got married in May.

When he took my parents out to dinner, to ask for my hand in marriage, he told them where he was thinking of taking me for our honeymoon. He told them that he thought it would be fun to go to Disneyland. My mom laughed, and said that they went to Disneyland on their honeymoon, how funny he wanted to do the same thing! That was the end of that idea, we went to Monterey :)

The night that we got married, Whit said he had a gift for me. He gave me a beautiful brand new set of scriptures, with my new name embossed on the cover. I was so excited! And I thought it was so sweet because that's what my dad gave my mom when they got married. Whit wasn't very happy when I told him that, he thought he was so original :)

So, we got our ultrasound tonight! We are having a boy!!! Yay! I always wanted to have a boy first :) We've been thinking of names forever, and Whit really likes the name Winston for a boy. I like that too, since my Grandpa's names are Wynn and Darwin, and my mom's name is Wynette. So Winston kind of follows along those lines, and Whit likes it because it's the name of a fishing rod company :) When I called my parents to tell them we are having a boy, I told them we were thinking of naming him Winston Bryce Anderson. My mom gave out a shout and said "I love the name Winston! I tried to get your dad to name one of our boys Winston." So my mom likes the name (but I guess that means my dad doesn't). When I told that to Whit, he threw his hands up in the air and said, "it's over! I give up." I told him it's not a bad thing to have the same ideas as my parents, but I don't think he's buying it yet :)

Anyways, we are having a boy, thinking of naming him Winston, and are way super excited!!!

In other news, here's some pics from this last week :)

We went to Temple Square last week to look at the tulips. We were walking around and we came upon Julie (Whit's mom), Katie (Whit's sister), and the Pettey boys (Katie and Greg's sons). It was so fun to run into them, what a small world! And the flowers were gorgeous!

Whit installed this awesome shelf in the garage! You can lower it down with a crank, load it up, and hoist it back up to the ceiling where it's out of the way. We got another one that' he'll put up sometime soon. Yay for more storage space!

And for Mother's Day we went up to Brigham City to visit Grandma Christensen. We had a nice time up there. It's good to see her and spend time with family.

Yay! We're having a boy :)

Hamburgler

2011-05-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, Aunt Jo tells me that my blog is boring since I never post. So sorry about that! We have done some fun stuff, it's great having Whit back to a normal schedule. We have been able to visit family, gone to a couple of movies, and get some things done around the house.

Here's a couple photos of the Easter Egg Hunt of the century! My mom and dad spent the afternoon hiding eggs for me and Whit, Mckay, and Dallin. All adults. I think my parents will be so excited when there are some grandkids close to home :) Until then, we'll have to do.

Here are some of the things that we've done around the house--Whit installed hardware on all of our cabinets, Yay!

I planted a little herb garden. I hope we can keep them growing.

We also got an entertainment stand for the tv. I think Whit did a great job of putting it all together. It's so handy to have a man around the house to do those sort of things! :)

I also got to go to a day of Women's Conference down at BYU with my mom and grandma. It was great fun. I've never seen so many ladies crocheting in all of my life! :) We got to go to some great classes and it was really fun for me to get a break from the office for a day. Although I discovered that it is much more tiring walking around campus and going to different classes that just sitting at my desk working all day. I was totally beat by then end of our day! It was really good though :)

On Saturday we took a break from cleaning and running errands, and Whit grilled us hamburgers for lunch. They were so good! Huge but good. We love our little grill and are looking forward to warmer weather and fun times ahead!

Two Peas in a Pod

2011-03-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty funny. But it's kind of a sappy post so I won't be offended if you don't read, or even if you read it and then gag afterwards :)

So, I've been complaining for months about how much Whit has been working. I'm sorry. But it's been a hard thing for me, I think mostly because I have been feeling icky with morning sickness and it's no fun to feel not good when you are home alone all of the time. I kind of like being babied a bit, and Whit's really good at that when he's home. So I've really missed him a lot!

Well, I decided I needed to have a better attitude and realize that at least I didn't have to work that much, and I am so grateful to have such a hard working husband :) Plus, all of the overtime pay that he's been getting has been wonderful to put towards our baby fund. So it really has many positive benefits, and I'm trying harder to focus on those.

This week however, was especially rough. The deadline was Friday at noon, and Whit said they still had tons left to do. So he got up at 4 a.m. on Monday morning and went to work! He worked all day and didn't get home until midnight. Repeat that on Tuesday and Wednesday. So by Thursday he was so super exhausted. We accidentally slept through his alarm that morning, and didn't wake up until the late hour of 5 a.m.! So he jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, and left right for work. They still had a lot left to finish up, so he called around 7 to say that he would probably be really late coming home that night.

I felt so bad he had to work so much and was so tired! I wanted to do something nice for him, to let him know how much I appreciate it. So I came up with the idea to make him some orange juice and blueberry muffins, since he likes those. I thought that was pretty clever, since when he came home it would be early morning. I thought that would be a fun snack and then he could take some for breakfast if he had to go back in on Friday. So I wrote a little note and left it all out on the counter and went to bed.

I woke up Friday morning at 4, and Whit wasn't home. I called and he had to work all through the night! I told him I would bring him in a treat when I got into work. So I took him the muffins and the note, and he just looked beat! So I told him to call me when he was done and I could drive him home. He called at 11 and said he couldn't work any longer. So he drove to my work, I hopped in the driver's side, and saw some flowers in the back seat!

Whit told me that he wanted to surprise me. He got the flowers the day before and was going to set them out on the counter so I would see them on Friday morning when I went to work. He was bummed that he never made it home so he could do that. I just thought that was so sweet!

So here I was, trying to do something nice for him--and he did the same thing for me! Great minds really do think alike! :) Aren't we just too cheesy for words?

I'm getting better at baking!

2011-03-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

I've been home alone a lot lately, and so to bide the time I tried making bread yesterday. My mom sent me a new recipe for wheat bread and I gave it a try. And it worked! I'm so excited--I've tried making bread so many times and this time it finally worked. Aren't they pretty?

Last week I made these sugar cookies. We mixed up all the letters, and took them down to my parent's house for Sunday dinner. Some of them fell over in the truck and got a little smashed, oh well! When we got there, my dad ate an "I" right off the bat, so I had to be quick and tell them that the letters spelled out a message. I thought my brothers would like trying to figure out what the message was, but they got bored with it really quick. So my mom went over to give it a try, and she looked at it for a minute and then said "you're having a baby, aren't you?" She is one smart cookie! Ha Ha. She said the pastel colors gave it away. So the news is out, we are having a baby!

So I would say I'm getting to be a good baker don't you think? Cookies one week, bread the next, and a bun in our oven that's growing like crazy :)

Family fun and stuff

2011-03-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't posted for awhile, it seems like we haven't been doing too many exciting things. Whit has been working working working, but the light is finally at the end of the tunnel--he will be done with the project this week. Yahoo!

We did go to Grandma Fife's last week. We had dinner with mum and dad, Dallin, McKay, Uncle Rey, Auntie Jo, Shay, RJ, and of course Grandma. We had a yummy roast that Grandma made and after dinner we played the name game. It was way fun. Sadly, this is the only picture we took.

Also we went to a concert last week, that was fun! I don't know if any of you have heard of Joshua Radin, but I would recommend him :) He gave a great concert and it was totally worth standing up for 3 1/2 hours, and two days of sore feet afterwards :) Note to self: wear tenny runners to next concert where there are no seats. Luckily though--I was standing near a pole and could lean on that.

And yesterday we went up to Whit's sister's house in Bountiful and had a nice Sunday dinner with Julie, Greg and Katie and kids, and Lamar and Linsey and kids. They are super sweet and had a birthday cake for me :) Dinner was super good (I can't wait to try their recipe for crock pot lemon chicken, yum) and we played the name game with them. Fun times!

So that's about it. Pretty boring post but hopefully we'll start doing some fun stuff soon! :)

Best Birthday Ever!

2011-02-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a fun post, so get ready!

It all started last week. Whit really has been working like crazy at his job, I hardly get to see him anymore :( So my birthday was coming up, and we didn't really talk much about it. I just assumed that he'd be working all weekend, like always. It was our ward temple night on my birthday (Thursday) and I told him I would really like to go. So I was thinking that would be about it for my birthday festivities this year. So I took matters into my own hands a bit, planned a few lunches with friends and my family was going to come up to play on Saturday. Monday when I was at work, one of my girlfriends emailed to say she had a work thing come up, and could she reschedule lunch from Friday to Wednesday? No problem I said. I thought it was so cool when only 1/2 hour later, one of my fun sister-in-laws texted to see if she could take me to lunch! So we made plans to go on Friday. Yay. I had fun stuff going on to look forward to :)

So, after work that day, Whit was still pretty sick (oh yeah, did I mention he'd been sick all of last week?) so I convinced him that since we got to work at 7 am, it would be ok to leave at 5 that evening. That's a pretty good day for someone as sick as he was! So I actually got to ride home with him and that was fun. Except he said he had to tell me something that would make me mad. I thought he wasn't going to be able to go to the temple after all, since he was leaving work early today. Or that he bought something really expensive. But no, he told me I was ruining all of the plans he was making for my birthday! He said he emailed my friend and asked her to cancel lunch on Friday, because he was taking me out of town! And then I went and scheduled another lunch for that day. And I invited my family over on Saturday when he wanted us to be away for the weekend. So he had to break the surprise and tell me so I could rearrange things to go :) Isn't he a sweetheart? I was so surprised and so happy! It really was so thoughtful of him!

So on my birthday he gave me these beautiful flowers and we went to the temple. It was a great day :) Sorry it's a little blurry but you get the idea. My sweet sister Kira sent me some flowers too, so I felt so loved! It was awesome.

So then on Friday we got to sleep in, which was a total treat. Especially considering the fact that in order to go to the temple the night before, we had to be to work at 6 am so Whit could get enough work done. That's so early to be at work! So our sleeping in on Friday was until about 8, then we got up and packed our bags and headed to Midway. We went cc skiing at Wasatch Park. It was so beautiful!

Our ever famous self portrait :)

But mom always says she can't see our eyes when we have our sunglasses on. So I made us take another one without our glasses. Only problem is, Whit is squinting so bad you can't see his eyes anyways! Oh well, it makes me laugh :)

The last time we came up here was with a bunch of my friends (also for my birthday). We took turns doing these helicopter turns, and so we had to do that again. Whit could get some pretty good air between his skis and the ground.

I THOUGHT I did the same, but when I looked at the pictures I was pretty disappointed. Guess I need to work on my vertical a bit :)

It really was a gorgeous day and we didn't see a single soul the whole time we were skiing. We saw lots of turkey tracks in the snow, which was kind of fun. Also, they didn't groom the trail this year, so we had fun making up our own trails. We went down tons of hills and had tons of falls and laughed--you guessed it--a ton! :)

After skiing we checked into our room at the Homestead. I've never stayed there before and it was so fun. We got to stay in this little cottage and it was very quaint. We showered and took a nap (skiing really wiped us out!) and then went to dinner. We went to the Bear Dance or something like that. It was good and we were starving :) Then we got a movie from Redbox, vegged out at the hotel, and I fell asleep watching the jazz game. In the morning we had breakfast there, packed up our stuff, and came home.

My family came over later that evening and we had birthday cake. Here's a hilarious video of my brothers and dad and Whit lighting the cake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqa2stz4JD8
(can't you put videos on your blog anymore?) My mom said she went to the store to buy candles and forgot to get them. I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that! :) After we played a few games, everyone got tired of Whit winning so the boys started balancing on the yoga ball. They did this with Bryce a long time ago and think that it's so fun to see who can stay on it the longest. My mom and I have a long way to go, we didn't stay on very long at all. But it's pretty funny to watch us try!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRyvJD09h4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvPHeJjbwyM

So that was my fantastic weekend. Thanks Whit, for all of your planning. You make me feel so loved! It truly was the best birthday ever :)

Fun winter times

2011-02-06T16:43:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we got to go up to a cabin with Whit's friends. We had such a wonderful time! We drove up there Thursday night after work and were there all day Friday and Saturday. We got to go snowshoeing, snowmobiling, play games, watch movies and tv, and Whit made us a lovely asian dinner as a pre-chinese new year celebration. It was awesome!

Happy Bryce Day

2011-01-16T13:55:00.000-08:00

January 7th is a holiday in the Christensen family, it's Bryce Day. Maybe it's a little morbid, but we celebrate Bryce's life on the day he passed away. So this year marked two years since the accident. Hard to believe!

To celebrate we started the day by going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to do sealings. My mom, dad, and brother Mckay came up to our temple so that Whit could go into work after. Isn't that nice? We had such a nice time at the temple and were reminded of how blessed we all are to be sealed to each other. Then Whit went to work and the rest of us went cross country skiing! It was a beautiful sunny day, once you got up in the canyon above the inversion smog. We had a great time getting some good exercise and remembering how much Bryce loved the snow. We didn't do anything daring on our skis like Bryce did on his snowboard, but there were some pretty big hills and I'm happy to report I didn't fall down once! That was pretty good for me, considering it was my first time on skis this season :) After skiing we went and got a greasy hamburger. Just what Whit likes to do after playing in the snow. My family had never been to five guys, so I introduced them to it. Whit was pretty bummed when he found out we went. Oh well, maybe next year he'll be able to take the day off. Here's to hoping! Oh wait, next year it will be on a Saturday. Guess he's in :)

Other than that fun day, we've been living a pretty normal life. Whit works late almost every night, I'll be glad when his project is done in February and he will get his normal schedule back! We did have some of our nieces over to play yesterday. We had so much fun together. We made necklaces, ate dinner at Chic-fil-A, went hot tubbing, and watched the Disney channel. We had a great time together. We had a good laugh when we were in the hot tub. Whit was playing some kind of game with the girls where he would capture them. In order for them to regain their freedom, they would have to complete a challenge that he would give them. For one of them, their challenge was to stand in the snow in their bare feet for 25 seconds. Ouch! But she did it and survived :) For the next one he upped the cold factor a bit and she had to make a snow angel. Remember, she's in a swimsuit so that's got to be cold. Well, her sister got really upset at this and started crying. She proclaimed, "he's trying to kill my sister!" She was so upset that we stopped playing that game, and no snow angels were made. Whit apologized and I think was forgiven, a few minutes later we were all back to playing as if nothing happened. Isn't it great that little kids don't hold grudges? I need to be more like that!

The Future's so Bright

2011-01-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

We have to wear shades!

We enjoyed 2010 so much, we can't wait to see what 2011 brings :) We celebrated New Year's by going up to the Anderson cabin to hang out with family. We had so much fun with nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, and parents. We had fun playing games, eating tons, and we braved the cold for a little bit of sledding and snowmobiling. Thanks to everyone for such a fun time. Sadly, I've turned into an awful picture taker, meaning I never take pictures anymore. So this is a boring post without pictures. But here's to a new year, with new goals, and the hope of being better. At least I'm posting, right? :)

Life Goes On

2010-09-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I am happy to report that after being married for 3 months, we have finished the last of the thank you notes! People were so generous when we got married and we are so grateful to be shown so much love and support. Thank you everyone!!! Quite a lot has happened since that happy day in May. If I wrote all about it, it would take too long to read. Since I love looking at everyone else's pictures, I figure I will just post a bunch of photos and you can all guess what we've been up to :)

2010-05-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

So, hi all. We know it's been awhile since we last posted and you know of the BIG NEWS. We're getting married this month!!! Thank you all for being such great supports to both Brooke and I. It has been easier to bear with all your thoughts and prayers. Thank you very much. Brooke might have told some of you how I got my blessings restored but for the rest of you let me recount.
I was in Sunday School on April 18th when my Stake President, Pres. Ellgren, pulled me out and said I was approved for my blessings pending my final interview with one of the General Authorities. Sometime in May I would be getting a call from one of the General Authority's secretaries to set up an appointment to have the interview. Of course I was so excited of hearing the news of finally having my blessings restored but there was more to Pres. Ellgren's message. I was not to say one word about my pending restoration of my blessings to anyone. Ugh, not even to Brooke? How can this be? Of all the people that needed to hear that the end was near was certainly Brooke. So I hesitantly asked if I could tell Brooke he said, "No."
For the next 3 agonizing weeks I had to pretend I had not heard from Pres. Ellgren, knowing that I had and knowing I couldn't even hint at it otherwise Brooke would have caught on to me. It was a struggle. Brooke would ask if May 5th or 10th would be a good day to possibly schedule our wedding and I would just have to shrugg my shoulders. Sometimes I would try to persuade her to schedule something in June but Brooke the ever opptamist would just smile and say, "May would do."
So when Sunday May 2nd came and I got a phone call from the executive stake secretary to make an appointment with the Stake President I was almost relieved of my fascade/secret. Brooke came up after work to my house in Farmington and had to wait at my place until after I had met with the Stake President to hear the news. Before I told Brooke the answer we had a quick prayer to thank Heavenly Father for giving us patience during this 9 week wait. We sat down and with tears in my eyes I told her my blessings had just been restored to me by Pres. Ellgren. Of course she was crying too and with the longest hug we just sat there appreciating the momment. Brooke has been the best and I'm sure she was just as relieved as I was.
If you ask Brooke she would say I made the pray to sound as though I hadn't recieved my Blessings but of course that's just her perception of the prayer. :) Anyway, it's now less than 2 weeks away and we couldn't be happier. We've got lots of the arrangements planned and are looking forward to that day when we can celebrate our most happiest day with many of you. Thanks again for being such good family and friends. We love you all and see you soon. Yaya

Happy April!

2010-04-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time again to let all of those readers out there know what we've been up to this past month. I'm not sure that there really are readers out there, and this is more for my benefit that anything else, but just so you know we've had a great month :)

A quick summary of events: we got our engagement pictures taken, went to one of Whit's niece's elementary school play (it was adorable and she did a great job!), picked out a wedding cake, got Whit's suit, had a couple of games nights with friends, I had several bridal showers, we went paintballing with our friends Carla and Jeff, went to the U of U/BYU gymnastics meet with Alicia and friends (go Utes!), had dinner at Grandma Fife's again and this time we played kickball, had a regular old date night--dinner and a movie, enjoyed watching conference together, went down to Spanish Fork for the Sunday sessions and had a fun easter egg hunt with my family, and moved a couple of boxes with my roommates who moved out this weekend. It was a busy and fun month.

We don't look cold, do we? Whit thinks that we would make great actors, since we don't show the pain that we were in. If you zoom in, you can see this halo around my arms--it's all of my arm hair standing up on end, since it was about 30 degrees and so windy when we got these pictures taken! I like this photo though, the lake was so pretty. But we do look a little out of place, sitting on uncomfortable rocks in our church clothes. We took the rest of the pictures at the Oquirrh Mountain temple and those look a little more appropriate. We had a lot of fun though, even though it was sooooo cold!

Here is the gymnastics meet. Alicia did an analysis of our persona while we were waiting for the meet to start. Since she did mine several years ago, she did Whit's this time. She had him picture a desert and describe it, then describe a ladder there, and then a box, then a horse, etc. After he was done with all of the questions, she let him know the results. When he was asked to describe how he felt about the horse, he said he had no feelings for it. Well, turns out that refers to how he feels about his partner, aka me. So nice to know he has no feelings for me! At least he didn't want the horse to go away :)

Here is the fun shower that my friends threw for me. They made it an Asian themed shower and had these beautiful cherry blossoms and all Asian food. It was so nice! It was so fun to see some people that I haven't seen for awhile. And great to hear about every one's fun lives and catch up on what they have been doing. I really have been blessed with terrific friends and I appreciate them all so much!

And here I am with my Aunt Jo and Grandma Fife. Jo and Shay went to so much work, they had darling table decorations, a fantastic dinner, beautiful cupcakes, and fun shower games. It was so fun to hang out with all of my aunts and cousins while all of the boys were at Priesthood. And they all gave me such nice gifts--I have such a great family and feel so loved by everyone!

2010-03-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

I think I've decided that I'm going to blog once a month. The original goal was to post weekly, but that just doesn't seem to be happening! And this way we most likely will have some fun pictures to post :) So the last weekend in February we had another moonlight snowshoeing adventure. Whit's fun sister Linsey came with us, which was awesome! It was a cloudy night and I forgot to bring my headlamp, so it was a little dark at times, but it was beautiful! We had a great time but sadly my snowshoe broke! So I guess that's the last of the snowshoeing for the season. We're hoping rei will have some great end of season clearance sales :)

That Sunday we went to American Fork to have dinner with my family at Grandma Fife's. We had such a fun time and played a hilarious game of charades. For one of Grandma's words, she lifted up her skirt to her knee and stuck out her leg and made flirty faces. Her word was hitch hike. It was way too funny! I think everyone should have the chance to play charades with Grandma :)

The first weekend in March we went cross country skiing with friends. I didn't take many pictures, but Kasey and Holly did and hopefully someday I can get copies from them (hint hint). But I did get this great one of Whit. :) You can see that it was a gorgeous sunny day, we even got warm and took off our coats! We went up Parley's canyon and skiied at Mountain Dell golf course. It was my first time skiing there and it was a lot of fun. I love being introduced to new places!

Then this last weekend we had our friends Holly and Cody over and Whit taught us how to make sushi. Can you believe Whit and I got to hammer the crab legs and get the meat out ourselves? I know, I touched raw meat! Well, actually it was cooked. But the hammering was a little messy, I got crab juice squirted all over me. But it was fun and tasted soooo good! We all made a couple of rolls and then ate until we couldn't eat anymore. I love sushi! After dinner we played games and I just want it to be known that I won Rummikub and hearts! That was fun for me :) Lots and lots of fun times for sure!

A Month in Review

2010-02-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy but fun month! Since we last posted we have gone for a full moon snowshoeing adventure with Whit's roommate Brad.

It was also my birthday! Whit treated me to dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, after we reserved a room there for our reception.

A couple of nights later my dear friend Alicia organized a dinner with some of my friends. We went out for Thai food (yum!) and then came back to my place for cake and games. Good times for sure.

Then for Valentine's Day, Whit went all out and cooked for two days straight and made a Chinese New Year dinner for all of his friends. The food was so delicious, he cooked so much and we all wanted to try everything. He is so talented :)

We both had President's Day off from work, yay! We had a good laugh when Whit came to pick me up and we were wearing the same outfit! I totally ran up to my room to change so we weren't twinners. We seem to do that occasionally :)

We went bowling that day with my parents who came up to have a late birthday celebration with us. They treated us to bowling and then we all went and worked out together at our clubhouse. It was a fun day.

We also went dancing with some friends! There was a free ballroom dance class at a church and Whit consented to go. We had such a good time, and even though he doesn't like to admit it, Whit really liked it too! :) So you think you can dance, here we come! Maybe... :) We have also been registering, gathering addresses, and looking at venues for the luncheon. Wedding stuff galore but it's so fun to think that it's actually getting closer. Yay! Oh, and here's a home improvement project that Whit did this Saturday. I've been wanting pendant lighting over the island in the kitchen forever. Mom gave Whit a gift card to Lowe's, and I talked him into using it to get this lighting. We came home and he installed it right away. Doesn't it look great? He is such the handyman--I love it!

Snowshoeing Adventures

2010-01-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

We had a great time snowshoeing these past two weekends. On the 9th we went up to Guardsmans Pass with Whit's friends and my roommate Azure. Whit's friends included Josh, Pat, and Ryan. The boys and Azure had fun jumping off the ledge into the snow and even Pat entertained us with an awesome back flip which we have included for your viewing pleasure.

Then on the 16th we went down to American Fork Canyon with our couple friends; Holly and Cody, Amanda and Arie with Barkley the pup. We hiked up the trail to a meadow and from there we forged our own trail along the ridge of the mountain. From there we geronimoed down the face of the mountain and ended back up at the reservoir. It was a great time for sure, and we really enjoyed the sushi we had when it was all done :) Looking forward to many more such adventures in the future.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2010-01-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

I love that last night Whit and I had a conversation that went something like this: Me--so, we should probably make some New Year's Resolutions or something, shouldn't we? Whit--isn't that what we've been doing with our monthly goals? And our six month goals, and our 1 year goals, and our 5 year goals? Me--I guess you're right. So our New Year's Resolution is to keep on keepin' on, since we're already so awesome! :) Ha Ha. But all joking aside, it really is so nice to be able to make goals together throughout the year. It's much less daunting that doing it all at once at the beginning. So we made our January goals and now we're set!

So want to hear a bit about our holiday? It was so much fun! We headed down to Spanish Fork the day before Christmas Eve. The highlight of that day was traveling around to all of the meetinghouses in mom and dad's stake. Dad had to deliver stuff to each of the bishop's offices, so while he was doing that, the rest of us played basketball in each of the churches--we played in four total if I remember correctly. We had fun seeing who could make the craziest shots, we played pig a couple of times, and speed once or twice. Whit still has the best stats out of all of us, but I did make a couple of three pointers which surprised everyone, especially me!

Christmas Eve was a fun day, we launched a rocket, went to the cemetery and put up luminaries at Bryce's grave, and Whit made us all some delicious paella for dinner. It was great!

Christmas was a fun day, we opened presents, Whit was super excited to drink some soda, he went over a whole month without drinking any! We went snowshoeing at Stewart Falls, talked with Dallin on the phone (he's serving a mission in Japan) and went to see the movie Invictus.

The day after Christmas we went up to Tremonton for the Christensen extended family party. My cousin Kimiko gave him a good run for the money with her version of the "Korean smile." She calls hers her "resting face." :) Then Whit and I went to dinner and a movie in Layton on the way back. We parted ways, and the next day, Sunday, Whit came down to my place and made me a delicious dinner. It was so yummy! He's such a good cook and I really enjoy eating the fruits of his labors :)

Monday it was back to work for him and back to looking for a job for me :) I did get to go to Provo to go to lunch with my mom, sister, and cousins before everyone left to go back home. That was nice. Wednesday we had the progressive dinner with my friends, it was so good to see everyone! Sadly, we didn't take a single picture the whole evening. I think that's a first. Thursday Whit came down and got me and we went to meet his sister Ali and her boyfriend Cody and we all traveled up to the Anderson cabin. His dad and Karyn were so great--they had so much food for us all and were so generous in letting us all come play up there. There was a steady flow of people, families kept going and coming. We played games, went sledding and snowmobiling, Greg let off some awesome fireworks to welcome in the New Year, and we all had a great time being together up there. Oh, and I should probably mention that Whit and Will are the new foosball champions--they won Matthias and Jack, 5 games to 1. I guess we should cut Matthias a little slack, after all he had been skiing all day and was sick. But still... :) I'm sure there will be a rematch in the not too distant future.

At any rate, we had a lovely holiday season together and enjoyed seeing so many friends and family members! I wish we could play like that every week, but I guess then it wouldn't be so special. Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year! 2010 is going to be great--best yet if you ask me :)

Christmas Parties in Abundance

2009-12-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season, right? We've had so many fun parties to go to! First there was Whit's friend's annual Christmas party complete with a white elephant exchange, then it was Whit's company party, then a party at his mom's with all of his siblings and their spouses, then one at his dad's for all of the sibling, step-siblings, and their families, then my ward Christmas party (I'm on the activities committee and so Whit got volunteered to help set up and take down and clean up. He is awesome and was a huge help!), then the Fife family party for all of my mum's side of the family, and then the day after Christmas we have the Christensen family party, and then a few days later my friend's annual progressive dinner. It's been so much fun to go back and forth to all of these fun parties and get to spend time with family and friends. It's a wonderful time of year and we've enjoyed every second of it, especially when we get to spend those seconds together! :)

Here are the adults at Whit's Dad's Christmas Party:

They have a Swedish tradition in the Anderson home. Each Christmas they turn off all of the lights, and all of the girl grandkids dress up in white dresses and come down the stairs holding candles and singing the Santa Lucia song. I'm not sure what the origins of the tradition are, but the girls are sure cute and do such a good job singing the song! It's a neat tradition. Aren't they adorable?

My favorite part of the Fife family party was during the white elephant game. Whit opened his present, took it out of the box, and was surprised to find it to be a bottle of self tanner. Not a very practical gift for his complexion, but it sure was great for a laugh! Out of all the people to get that present... :)

My sister Kira offered to make our wedding cake. So she's been busy practicing. She made this lemon cake with a raspberry filling. It was very good and she did a great job decorating it. I practiced cutting it, and didn't do a great job. Luckily, for the real cake we're going to have it be square, and hopefully I will just have to cut off a little bit :)

Whit talked me into doing a Korean smile. I think mine needs a little work :)

Roughing it outdoors

2009-12-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

So it wasn't quite like 'Roughing it' but it sure felt like it. Brooke and I and a few of my friends decided to chop a Christmas tree down for my place. My friend Ryan has a summer cabin up by Flaming Gorge and I say summer cabin since it wasn't intended for winter use. By the time we got up there the thermostat read 18 degrees. Yikes! We froze for a few hours 'til the fire started to heat things up. By the time we got ready for bed we got the temperature up to 70. Thank heavens for fire places. Anyway, my friends cabin is this cute 'Little House on the Prairie' style that is perfect for weekend getaways. We slept really well, though some of us said they were too hot - Brooke. Can you believe Brooke was the one that was too hot? Saturday morning (more like mid-morning :-/) we made ourselves a hearty breakfast of hot oatmeal. Breakfast of champions! We drove up the canyon a ways up and found a pull-off where we could see some trees that looked ripe for the cutting. So like any well planned trip we couldn't make our minds up to which way to start. We got our heads together and finally found one that was perfect. We've become pretty lazy in our old age. We cut the tree down and dragged it about 100 feet to where we had the truck waiting. I know it doesn't sound so adventurous but it got the job done. We found another tree for Ryan and did the same thing, dragged it to the truck.

After our fun adventure into the woods we went back to the cabin where we made some pretty kicking nachos. Look at the pictures and try to say they aren't the best. You can't can you?

The tree cutting adventure was fun but was short lived since we came back Saturday night. Hope you guys can top this little outing. I'll be watching your blogs. Sincerely, the blog experts

I am thankful for...

2009-12-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

A great Thanksgiving weekend! We had such a great time visiting family. First we went up to Whit's dad's cabin on Wednesday afternoon. Some of the family was up there and we got to meet his newest little niece. Isn't she precious? I just loved holding her and watching her, she is absolutely beautiful :)
Then we went down to Whit's mom's place for Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of his siblings and their families were there and we had a great time eating, talking, and playing games. Then we headed down to Spanish Fork to spend a few days with my family. We got up bright and early on black friday to go...hiking! It was so much fun :) We drove for 3 hours (which wasn't so much fun since me, Whit, and Mckay were crammed in the back seat of the car) and drove down to Goblin Valley. There is a really fun slot canyon down there called Ding and Dang. I hiked it last year with my parents and Bryce and Dallin. So this year we took Whit and Mckay. The weather was beautiful and it was a lovely hike, and we took lots of fun pictures.

Then Saturday, Whit went to the Utah/BYU game with his friend, while I did a little Christmas shopping with mom and dad. Then that night we all played games, but we were all so tired that we didn't last very long. Sunday it was nice to be able to go to church with mom, and then their stake had a choirside that night that mom and dad sang in. So we went to that and it was a very nice way to feel the Christmas spirit. Later that night we played more games, we taught mom and dad how to play continental rummy. Then for some reason, we started a contest to see who could make the ugliest face.

I'll be the first to admit, we're a little odd, but we had a fun time :) I tried to get a normal picture, but Whit kept practicing his "korean smile." So I guess this is as normal as we get for now!

Welcome to our blog!

2009-11-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

Whit and I (emphasis on the I) thought it would be fun to start our own blog. My friend Heather sent me an email awhile ago saying that she had updated her blog and we should all check it out. I did, and found out she and her husband are expecting a baby! Congratulations you two :) Anyways, I thought that was a really cute way for them to let everyone know. And so I am copying her (remember Heather, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) and letting you all know that

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

So, here's the story if you are interested :) I had an activities committee meeting last night and then tithing settlement after that at 8:15. Whit and I usually call on the phone around 8 every night, so I told him I would be late that night because of my appointments. So he told me to take my cell phone with me so I could call the second I was done. So I looked at my phone after the activities meeting, and I got a strange text from Whit's sister Linsey. She sent a picture of the pen that Whit left at their house, with a note saying:

muwahahahaha!
Greetings. Allow me to introduce myself.
I am Pen. And I know how jealous you are of me!
You will be hearing from me again, soon. Very soon.
Don't even attempt to trace this text! Linsey doesn't even know I am doing this!

So I need to explain a bit about the pen--a couple of weeks ago we were watching Linsey and Lamar's girls. After the girls went to bed, Whit and I watched a movie. He was wearing a pen on his collar and it poked me, so he took it off. And then he left the pen there, and has been blaming me for it ever since. He loved that pen! He luckily has another one, and has been wearing it religiously ever since. I tease him that he loves that pen more than me, since it goes with him everywhere! It's his birthday on Monday, so I got him some more of those pens yesterday to give to him for a present :) So that's why the message was funny. Now back to the story at hand...

When I got done with tithing settlement, I got out my phone to call Whit, and there was another text message from mr. pen,

Here's a picture of your man to show you how serious I am! He'll remain okay if you do exactly as I say. I've taken Whit to la tierra prohibida-I am sure you know what I am talking about.
Meet us there and hurry quick, I don't like it when people or pens are late, and you don't want to upset me!
-Pen

I got home and was walking upstairs to go to my room, and my roommates were there, hanging out in the hallway. I showed them my strange message and they were a little giggly, and told me I should look in my room. So I went into my room and there were pens everywhere, a tshirt with pen marks all over it, and a ransom note saying I needed to go to the place of our first date to get Whit back. So I got in my car, drove to the overlook at daybreak where we had a dutch oven dinner on one of our first dates :) and fully expected to see Whit there. But he wasn't, just the pen with another note telling me to go meet Whit back at my place. So I went home, went up to my room, and there was Whit, on one knee, with the roses in one hand and the ring in the other. It was all very sweet! I cried as soon as I saw him there. We're both so very happy!

So there you have it, more information than you probably want or need, but we just wanted to let everyone know how happy we are! We're still working on details, but we are planning on getting married April 16th, 2010. It will be a happy day!