This is the whole family (with the exception, of course, of Steven who is in Brazil for at least another year), at Lori's wedding, 11/25/06. l to r: My sister Jaime (18), sister Denise (25), my parents, Gary & Terri, brother Mitchell (15), sister Shauna (23), Christopher (17 months), Myself, and hubby Joel is in the back.

Snowed in!!

Well, it's almost Christmas, and we've been snowed in for 2 1/2 days. My dad just finally came to shovel out my car, but I still haven't attempted to drive. We've accumulated over 2 feet of snow since the storm started Wednesday. People are stuck here who don't want to be here and others can't get here. Denver International Airport was closed for 2 full days. It's a little crazy : )

Christopher and I have been getting a little stir-crazy. Joel came home from work early Wednesday and stayed home yesterday, but they had to open the bank this morning. We've gotten a lot of cleaning done and I colored my own hair : ). We have yet to even start our Christmas shopping, and I'm sure everyone in the metro area is at least behind, so the next couple of days should be fun : ).

December was very busy for our family business, as usual. Christopher has spent a lot of time with baby-sitters. I got called as the Beehive Advisor at church just at the beginning of December and am enjoying getting reacquainted with the Young Women Program. Joel got a promotion and, therefore, transfer almost 2 months ago and tho he doesn't love the hours, seems to be doing well there.

Last month our big project was my cousin Lori's wedding. She got married out here the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we had around 40 people for Thanksgiving and then put on a wedding. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of that soon.

We hope everyone is happy, healthy and having a great holiday season!

no more baseball

Well, baseball season is over which means I am looking for a job. Joel is up for a promotion so I'm waiting to see what happens with that. I would really like to be able to go back to the Rockies next year, but we'll see. I would also really like to get going building a hair clientele. I just have to make sure I can pay for care for Christopher and still make money.

The end of the season was sad, because the Rox had started off so well and then plummeted after the All-Star Break; but still fun because I love most of the people there. They had an end-of-the-season party for employees and their families last Sunday. It was fun because they let us down on the field. I had only been on the outfield before, but they were letting the kids run the bases, so we took C down. He scampered off the grass (he still hates it) and hung out around 1st base most of the time, so we decided he's a firstbaseman. He was mostly just playing with the dirt (it's a lot harder than I thought it would be, like big gravel. I feel bad for all of the infielders who dive for catches on that stuff!), but then he ate a little bit. Most mom's would probably be disgusted, but I just thought "Cool, my son has a piece of a major league ballpark in him". I guess I'm a little weird.

We're settling into the new house and we love it. I'm already looking forward to redecorating and doing some projects, but it's going to be a little bit before we have money for that.

I'll post some pics soon!

1st birthdays, 1st time homebuyers

Well, as you can see from the pictures, we had Christopher's 1st birthday party. I can't believe it's been a year! We had a Blue's Clues party, Jaime's friend Meggie did a great job with the cake. We had it at my parents and Rick& Kathy(my uncle and aunt), Jenny (my cousin), Carol (my cousin), her two boys, Eilio & Kyrelle, Lorae (close family friend), her 2 kids Lily and Jo-Jo, Joel's parents, Joel's Nana, and of course my family were all there. When we wanted C to blow out the candle (I thought he might at least try because he blows on food to cool it down), or dig into the cake; instead he grabbed the flame of the candle, but wasn't really hurt. Just a little scared of the cake after that! He got a bunch of presents, so we have tons of toys around the house, but that's ok, because we're about to have much more space for that kind of stuff. More about that later.....

We had a nice visit with Joel's parents, who were here from Florida; and his Nana, who came for a couple of days from Utah. Christopher got used to a LOT of Grandparent lovin' really quickly! I think we'll be undoing that for a while : )

So, we are entering into buying our first home. We are actually doing a lease option for a year, so we're not quite buying yet, but we're pretty sure this is the place where we're going to live for a few years. We can get at least 2 more kids in there. It's a condominium a little south of where we live now. We're buying it from a couple in our ward, and they've done some great things to it. Hardwood floors, custom cabinets, new appliances, etc. We didn't expect to be moving so soon, but the opportunity arose, so here we go! We're very excited, and a little stressed, but I think it will be great.

I think that's it for now. As always, we hope everyone is doing well!

Recent Pictures!

This is when he stood on his own for the first time, It was turned right-side up, I swear!








Riding Lightning McQueen, a birthday present, and eating the little car phone that came with it.







Look, I do exist! (I just don't like to be photographed : )) Shauna made his "I love Kelly Clarkson" shirt. Surprise.







Right after this is when he grabbed the flame of the candle! Ouch!




Yay for presents!

July, 1st birthday

I can't believe what a slacker I've been. We have been pretty busy, but over a months is horrible!

Well, it's getting toward the end of July and close to Christopher's 1st birthday. It does NOT seem like it's been a year. He's so much fun right now. He's still got just those 2 middle bottom teeth, and he loves to play with them and see what thy do. He finally has a significant amount of hair on that little head, too. He's taking a couple of steps and seems pretty controlled balance-wise, but usually decides that crawling is a faster route. And he IS really fast on all fours. Except when he tries to hold things in both hands and go somewhere. He knows "nose" "ears" and sometimes "mouth". He LOVES "Patty-Cake" (some of the adults are getting pretty sick of it : ) ), and we've starting switching it up with "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree". He'll also throw up his hands and say "Woo-Hoo!" (Shauna taught him that, it's a Kelly Clarkson thing). I have to get a picture of him scrunching up his nose too, it's so cute.

I haven't been as good at taking pictures. I have a few, but I think I'll wait until this weekend and get some birthday pictures up too. We're going to have a little party for him at my parents this coming Sunday (the 23rd), since the day after that I have quite a few games in a row. Joel's parents arrive this Thursday and will be here for 10 days, so we should have lots of fun.

Oh yeah, Joel and I are pretty good too : ). We're still considering buying a house or condo this October, but are also considering just cutting back on our rent for a while to save more. We'll see what happens. Joel's doing well at FirstBank, and my 2nd season with the Rockies is half over. We've also been working events for Local Affairs and I still do quite a bit of hair. So, with all of that and church stuff, we stay vary busy! Hope everyone else is doing well!

Ramblings.....

Well, there's not too much going on. I have an almost 2 week break from my job with the Rockies, and I will be going back to a new (hopefully not micro-) manager for my cleaning crew. It's been a lot more stressful this year. I haven't gotten to just sit and watch the game quite as much as I'd like to! So, this week C and I have been taking it pretty easy. Next week, we have to wake up early to baby-sit most of the week.

C is doing awesome. He's all over the place. I usually don't have to worry too much about him, because wherever I go, he follows me : ). He pulls himself up on furniture and does what they call "cruising" (moving around on his feet while holding on to something) and will occasionally let go and balance for a few seconds. Walking is iminent and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it! He's getting pretty good about going to bed, whether it be for naps or the whole night. He's drinking regular milk most of the time now. We just nurse in the morning and at night and occasionally mid-day. He's been to more major league baseball games than most adults I know, and everyone at the ballpark loves him. His bottom two middle teeth are poking through but seem to be taking forever to grow in. But most importantly, he's healthy and that makes us happy.

Joel spent most of his day off cleaning the nursery/office that has had boxes in it since we moved to this apartment last October. I helped, but Joel did the majority and it looks great. So, now C can play in the room and he loves it! We were concerned he might start confusing the crib too much because during the day we put toys in for him to play with. We want to make sure he knows his crib is always for sleeping.

Last week Jaime graduated from high school, and after 3 graduations ceremonies just this year, I'm excited that we're done for a while.

Well, I think it's nap time, so we will go put that crib to use! Later!

Fun with Pictures again!

Cute smile, the eyes got messed up a little removing the red-eye!
Crawling all over the place at Grammy and Papa Marshall's!
"Zup Dog??" I LOVE this pic!
Handsome boy!
Homie G

LOTS of fun with Pictures!

Sleeping through BYU Graduation

A metal plate fell on him at a Rockies game : (

First Easter (he's holding an egg) Sorry, forgot to turn the pic : )

At mommy's work with daddy. We put socks on his hands cuz it was cold, but he looks like a boxer : )

With his 2nd cousins from Mom's paternal side

Christopher's doctor visit

We had an appointment this past Tuesday, and C is 17lbs, 14oz; 26 1/2 inches long(tall); and his head, is .......big. Just kidding, I think it was 44cm. But it's in the 50th percentile while his height and weight are only in the 5-10 percentile. But he's healthy as a horse and developmentally he's doing everything he's supposed to, so the doctor said he's great. And he can drink regular milk and eat anything (that's not a choking hazard) except honey and nuts. This makes me very happy because quite frankly, my Dad feeds him everything anyway : )

And the Rockies are doing really well, so work is good. Well, that's not true. I liked work a lot better last year. The management for the facilities crew is kind of lacking this year and sometimes that drives me nuts. But it is fun that the team is winning.

More Fun with Pictures

Just rollin' around

Back from Utah

Well, most of you know I refer to Utah as "Hell", due to my experience trying to live there as a college freshman. And although it's still a fun joke, I do usually like to visit there now, but this trip was a little nuts. I came back sick just from the stress of it all (this is according to Shauna, whom we pretty much consider a doctor, having just graduated from BYU in Public Health and all. Just kidding, but she does know a lot about the body : )).

We got there Wednesday evening, and C was pretty good on the drive over. A couple of fussy spells, but I would be if I were strapped into that carseat the whole time too. That night we thought we'd be helping Denise move some of her stuff to a storage space, but it turns out she had schedule a Mary Kay party. She's a consultant for them now. So, I did some hair at Shauna's and we had dinner at Cafe Rio (yum) with Rick and Kathy. Eventually we went and spent the night at Denise's. C woke me up at about 5 the next morning, and around 8 we really started moving Denise's stuff. I admit, I wasn't much help, as C didn't want to be confined to his pack n' play. The rest of Thursday was me doing more hair at Shauna's, everyone loading Shauna's stuff into the van for the ride home (again, I was not much help), and doing a little shopping here and there. The girls had the general ceremony for all of the BYU graduates at 4, but C and I opted to take naps. Friday morning we had to be up bright and early as Denise's graduation ceremony was at 8am. So, we went to that and then back to her place in between. I did Shauna's hair for her ceremony, and much more of our family came to that, as it was at 2pm. We learned from Denise's and sat in a better place. Thank goodness, because it turned out to be even longer. We knew at least a couple other graduates at each ceremony, which was kind of nice. And while these ceremonies are pretty much as boring as they sound, I really am so proud of the the girls for all of their hard work. I kept tearing up just thinking about it and watching them. During this whole time, in between everything, my parents were running around trying to get the car they just got Denise to pass the safety and emissions tests. After all of the ceremonies, we headed up to South Jordan to have the open house and stay the night at Janae Christensen's. By this time, C was pretty mad anytime we put him into the carseat. A couple of times, he didn't cry much, but just glared at me. I felt like I already have a teenager on my hands! We had the little party and visited with Janae and family a bit, and then next morning did more shopping and then headed over to Ogden for Audrey Katherine Monson's baby blessing, which was beautiful. I'll have to get a picture of her up on here. THEN, we headed back to Layton to stay with Anna and Dale Hansen for the last night. They made awesome food for both dinner and breakfast and were amazingly hospitable. And they have plenty of grandkids, so C loved their house with all its toys (and of course food, because my son is a pig!). The next morning we headed out, which quite frankly, I was dreading, because those last two trips in the car, C was horrible. And he was really hyper all morning. But my dad gave him a blessing as he strapped him into the car, and I swear, I have not seen him that docile in a long time. He was, for the most part, an angel on the way homme considering. We rode with Shauna in her little car and my parents followed in the van. We got home last night a little before 9 and C and I were both very excited to see Joel. Although by this point I realized I really was sick, and had a fever and was freezing and achy.

So, all in all, it's good to be home, but we're really proud of the girls and realize something like this may not happen again for a while. They are the first ones to graduate college in quite a while in our family. I am glad we made the trip, but I really do wish someone would invent that beaming thing they do on Star Trek : )

Road Trip

I don't even know why I'm sitting here typing. I need to pack. I'll be up all night packing. I would say then I could sleep in the car tomorrow, but somehow I think Christopher will have other ideas. I keep telling myself nothing is as bad as driving through Kansas. But I've made the road trip to Utah so many times that it's pretty boring. I am really excited to see everyone out there though. And I'm really proud of both of the girls for graduating from college. I only made it through a semester.

Speaking of the girls, I thought I would update on where everyone is for any family/friends who may care : )

Denise will stay in Utah after graduating to at least finish out the school year (she's been teaching 2nd grade in Heber). Then she and Shauna will take a trip to Europe in June with an old high school teacher. I'm not sure what she's doing the rest of the summer, but she just got a job for next year at the same school, teaching 3rd grade. She plans to stay in Utah for a little while because they'll pay for her to get her ESL (English as a 2nd Language) certificate, and then who knows : )

Shauna will graduate in health and then move back here (Sunday, yea! Shauna is my shopping-and-everything-else buddy) and go to massage therapy school. Then eventually we'll open a salon and (clinical) spa together with some other family members.

Steven left to serve a two-year mission for our church in February. He is serving in the Recife, Brazil mission and has left us very strict rules while he is away. No marriages, babies, or death, among other things. As if we can't find enough other things to change in 2 years : )

Jaime is about to graduate from high school and is still debating a little about her plans for next year. I believe she is leaning towards going to Arizona to live with our aunt and uncle and maybe go to school to be an esthetician (we like to call anything in Cosmetology "the family business", and I think she'd be good at it : )

Mitchell is about to go into high school and he plays about every sport known to man. He loves being an uncle and he comes to a few Rockies games with me while I work.

As for Joel's family, Jody and Jarred are in newlywed bliss and hopefully C will have cousins soon : ) Jeremy is serving in the Coast Guard in Panama City, and I know Jacob's working away, but I forgot to get all the new details from Joel.

Well, I think more laundry is done, so back to packing : P

Fun with pictures

Eating has always been his favorite thing to do. Thank goodness it's not always off of me nowadays!
With Uncle Steven, who's now in Brazil serving a mission until Feb '08.
I just love this picture.
8 months old and already behind bars. Where did I go wrong? : )

He loves this jumperoo a friend loaned us!

April 23, 2006

Well, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start blogging. Mostly because it seems like a good way to let everyone know what's going on with Christopher (yeah, we know he's all you care about : )), and because my journal writing has gone to Utah since I got married. Here's hoping I keep this up!

Right now we are anxiously awaiting the arriving of some teeth. It seems he has about 5 coming in, but they won't quite poke through. One did, and then went back into the gums. (I have witnesses!) Poor Christopher is in a lot of pain, but for the most part deals with it pretty well.

C and I are about to go to Utah to see Shauna and Denise (my sisters) graduate from BYU, and we're very excited! We'll also get to see Becky's (my cousin) baby Audrey, for the first time. Unfortunately, Joel can't make the trip, he has to work.

OK, that's it for now, I'm going to go see if I can post pictures!

Kristen