Journaling

At school, Conner does daily journal entries. He came home two days ago, and I found this bitty in his backpack(look below). I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall when his teacher eyed this. I mean REALLY, I wish I could've seen her face...This CRACKS ME UP!



"my dog pood and peed in the haws." (As written by my con man)

I must say this is probably one of the funniest journal entries I have seen. It cracks me up.
I especially love the yellow colored pee, and the pile of Sh&* (poop) he put behind the dog.

DIRTY 30-

Yes..IT has come. The dear DREADED DIRTY AND 30! It has come, it has left. It wasn't as bad as I had expected, and now I sit here reminiscing.

I have had the most amazing support from all my family and friends. This relocation has been pretty hard on me..but I am just so grateful for the people who have helped me make it easier in any way they could.


The big 30:

Here it is..MY STORY!
My p-town BESties sent me an amazing birthday package full of amazing gifts and goodies and treats! It made me to happy to have a piece of them with me and get a good laugh that I so dearly needed. Each each gift I opeaned would get me laughing...it made me think and remember our amazing wallie world trips we had together. I must say the "do-rag" was most defiantly on the top of my most amazing gifts. This special "do-rag" makes those amazing waved curl line thingys in your head..i will try to find a picture to show. oh oh here it is..check this out..i loved it


..the other highlight was the special"KY jelly pack" they picked out. The funny part was that my 7 year old son opened this gift. He started to read the title and I grabbed and hid it. Laughing hysterically, I got to dodge the questions that ensued after that. Oh boy..it was so fun getting that surprise package and all the amazing gifts! It really did cheer me up.

Being in utah, it has been a huuuuge adjustment for me..well, huge, is an understatement. I truly was not looking forward to my birthday. But my amazing family and amazing lil bro had other plans. Let me introduce Imax, (special nickname he got this last year) who planned, and executed a Very memorable surprise. He made this a day for me to remember that's for sure.

What is special about this boy, is on Nov 28th, 1984 he made his grand entrance into this world. He was born on my 4th birthday. (my parents always called us twins 4 years apart.) He may not know it, but I truly idolized him.. I remember being 4, and going to the hospital. I remember getting to sit in the chair in my moms room and locking my eyes on him. I was so happy. I remember getting to hold him. I thought it was sooo cool to have him born on my birthday. I totally remember the nurses spoiled me rotten while those yummy Andes mints. I immediately felt this bond with him. I thought he was the most adorable lil brother one sister could truly have. He truly was the best birthday gift any four year old could get..i got to have a baby brother to tease non stop the rest of his life. And when i got home i got to unwrap a a gift of my own, a baby doll, and a beautiful little rocker crib thingy for "my" baby.

Well, I had not been the best big sister to this adorable Imax..I would always get him in trouble for things i did. :( i am not proud of that. But, I truly have tried in my older age to make up it!:) I love him more than words can describe. I mean ..just look at him. Can you blame me.




(ladies..he is single,and ready to mingle)

The sat b4 my birthday, I was told I needed to be at my moms house no later than 3:00 pm sharp. I was to be kid free. (thanks hubby for being with kiddos!) I was told I had a whole evening of surprises planned, and I just got to go along for the ride. Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I LOVEEEEE surprises! (I love,love,love surprises)

I get to my moms, I start laughing because me and my little bro's outfits coordinated.(unplanned) I was in white pants, black shirt..he was in a black shirt, white tie! I love Imax and his amazing sense of style! He whisked me away with my mom in tow. I got all settled in his car. It was awesome sitting in the back with my mom..she is the funniest in the car..especially when Imax drives. We giggled and laughed and had a grand ol' time. Imax then hands me a cute Little envelope with my name on it..I open it. Inside...a massage certificate. It was just what the Doc ordered! Especially since I had woken up that morning with a stiff neck from H E double hockey sticks. I was sooo EXCITED! Not only a massage, but we were all going to get one..(not together in one room, sillies)

I was sooo excited. We arrived at the massage place. It was soo awesome. My mom, who we are not going to state her age, got her First massage EVER! like EVER. It was soo awesome to be their with my brother, mom, sis in law amber, and my bros friend Ann. It was such a surprise! and ohhh sooo soo fun to be able to be all together. It was awesome to be able to have us all get much needed relaxing time and enjoy our hour long massages. Truly amazing.

Here we all are right after our massages..oh man it was heavenly. (dont mind us all looking a little "relaxed" and worn!) I actually think we all look DANG GOOD for just sleeping for an hour and getting our stresses rubbed out of us!




We all got back into the car..I got to sit with my eyes closed to our next destination..(I didn't even cheat)..(ok maybe once), (but only when my mom started have a tiiiiny weeny bit of anxiety attack as my brother was driving)..ahahaha...(I had to open my eyes for a moment to see what was happening!)

We arrive at the next destination. I get to open my eyes and see we have arrived at the one and only Texas Roadhouse Grill. YUMMMMMMY and double yummy. As I walk in the doors..I SEE my ENTIRE FAMILY waiting. This was a huuge SURPRISE! We had my adorable brother, Rodger and his kids(his wifey was with me)..my hubby and kids..my dad and mom,.. my other older brother, Matt and Joce and their kids (They actually live in cali, and i was so excited and happy they were there...the ENTIRE fam!!!) and of course me and Imax. It was soo freakin awesome. I was so excited.. I was shocked.. My brother Matt and fam had driven up that day from CALI, and made it to utah just in time for the surprise dinner. He was planning on flying out from slc to chicago on monday, and they decied to come up to utah a couple days early so they could spend the weekend with all of us..It made my day! I was soo excited to see everyone together. TO see all my nieces and nephews(well not all of them could make it and truly, the ones who were out of state were surely missed) and to see my family all together made me so happy. It has been years since I have been able to be together with my family.

We finally get seated and settled, and I am told there is one more surprise person coming to dinner. I had actually NO idea who that might be. A little bit later, in walks my old bestie from portland, Heidi and her family. I was so HAPPY. They moved to utah almost 2 years..and since we currently live about an hour away from each other, we haven't really been able to see each other very much at all. It was soo awesome! I felt so loved!



Some pics of the dinner that night:



(ughh horrrible picture of me..and the first one is blurry..but they made Imax and I sit on a saddle while the entire resturant sang "happy birthday" to us..The second picture I was so confused how we were both going to both fit on this saddle) ahahaha












It was soo awesome to look around at all these people and be soo happy they all came here for ME! To make it special for me! All 23 or 24 four of us..i couldn't even count to keep track ahahahaha! My cute lil bro planned this all for ME! My freakin awesome fam came together for me! I was speechless. It was soo amazing. We had an amazing dinner.

After dinner little Imax pulled out one last surprise. He had arranged for all the girls in my family to go see a Chick Flick. He would take my hubby and kidlets ( who, J still at the time still couldn't drive and was in a cast) and home.

Imax..thank you for going over,a bove and beyond to make this a special big 30th for me. I love my brothers..I have the BEST BROTHERS EVER!

The girls had a blast at the movie that night.....i am not going to mention the movie we saw..but lets just say Jake Gyllenhaall is soo freakin hot! ahahahaha! It was great

I truly had a great night. I am so blessed to be able to live close to family. It has been so hard to adjust to Utah, I have felt sooo lost and sooo out of place..but right now, it is my family that is getting me by. They are my ROCK ..They are RIGHT here helping me every step of the WAY! I loveees them lots!

I have an amazing family. I am truly blessed.

Happy Holidays!

I cannot believe I have let my blogging/journeling go this long without a post. So much has been happening and I guess I have just been on a mental hiatus! I have lots to write about..soon.... updates will happen soon.

for now..

Happy Holidays!!

Here is our lovely traditional xmas Eve super fast photo shoot my the tree!(it was suppppppppppper late)and seriously the kids wanted to torture joey and have him in every Christmas shot! they ADORE this dog..and Adore is a HUUUGE understatement!

These boys are whats it is all about!

Love,
the Christensen's

The Dandelion

Last night, I was heading up to bed, to do the usual routine..brush teeth..get in jammies...go pee..kiss my boys goodnight for the millionth time, you know, the usual stuff we all do before all head off to "dreamyland." I walked into my bathroom and found this.





Now, I mentioned in earlier posts, that my little gavin loves to surprise me with these little treasures! He loves to give them to me.

Last night, after I saw this, it truly made me smile from EAR to EAR. I was soo grateful for this little surprise. I sat and looked at how he carefully placed it in the water to keep it alive as long as he could. I love how he used one of his cups he uses after he brushes his teeth to rinse. I love how it was probably a used one because there was a smudge of toothpaste or something on the side of the cup. I love how he cleared off a small portion on my counter to place it right in front for me to see. I love how the flower must have been there most of the day because it had definitely seen better days. I love that he never said a word about this. We both went about our day. I love how he kept this a secret all day, even from his big brother, who he tells everything too. I love how he planned it out, and he knew that after a long day I would wind up in the bathroom to get ready for bed.

My little man had been out playing outside earlier in the day. I remember him telling me he needed to run upstairs for something..but I didn't think anything of it. Our busy lives happened.

It was amazing to me how much that little dandelion meant to me. It MELTED my heart!

This morning, after little gavinator and I had gotten the con man off to school..he came up and gave me a huge hug. I told him that mommy loved him soo much and that he gave me the best surprise EVER. He then got the cutest little smirk/smile on his face and said, "mommy, I surprised you mommy! Is it still in the water..? If it ever dies..ill get you a new one." He was sooo excited. It melted my heart again.

He just really know how to get to my heart. I have the bestest boys in the world!
Watch out ladies..this little ladies man MINE.

The little things that make my heart smile.

There has been sooo much craziness going on in this household, that I wanted to get out and do something I knew the kids would LOVE...pumpkin patch's.

Except..this year we haven't been to any.... And this year we would be minus one cute daddy. The kids promised to take lots pictures for daddy.

In p_town, we would probably visit over 10 pumpkin patches in the months of sept/oct. We had a tradition to go to as many as we could fit in. It was always a super cheap and fun adventure to take the kids on.

We have had a rough spout with tough luck lately ...so yesterday I wanted to get away. I wanted to get away, and do something with my boys! I wanted to do s,omething that I knew would take us all out of our funk, and make us happy. I called up my parents. I loaded up my kids, and off to grandma and grandpas we went.

We deiced to go to a cute little pumpkin patch by their house. Lets just say, it was just what the Dr ordered. I am not sure who had more fun..me, my boys, or my parents. It was nice to escape the pressure of my everyday life, and just take some time to to enjoy the simple things in life.

The winter weather has definitely settled in good ol Ut. It has rained/snowed off and on for the last 3 days. Yesterday, it was a high of 40 degrees maybe. The weather cleared out for a few hours and it was PERFFECT! The sky was perfectly clear,..The clouds were AMAZING,...the air smelled amazing,..and you could see the first snowfall that had just fallen on the mountains. It was a perfect day. We even enjoyed the MUD. I almost got my silver bullet stuck in this clay like mud..which would of added to the humor of everything seems to go wrong..i would have had to call triple AAA..but thank goodness the good ol' van pulled through, and i was able to get out! Phew! I didnt even mind the mass of mud we all accumulated on our shoes!(thanks dad for cleaning those for us!)

I wish i could have recorded my kids excited screams of joy when they say the snow on the mountains. It was cute because Gavinator saw the mountains. He then asked me if I could take him back to "Mountain HOod"(thats what my boys call MT. HOOD) to go sledding. I told him this year he wouldn't need to travel to "mountain hood" to see snow..that this year there would be snow in his own backyard.. both boys squealed with delight. They were so baffled that snow would be in their own yard to play with..For them it was the best news EVER! The fact that they would not have to travel to great lengths to get to it made them sooo HAPPY. It cracked me up!

I mean really...these would make any ones heart smile.















I just want to say how much I love these little Guys! They make life worth it!

water chestnuts

Tonight we sat down for our first family dinner in a looong time. The boys chose stir fry..its a family favorite.

We are all eating enjoying every bite..when conner turns to me and tells me how much he loves waterchestnuts. I tell him he must get that from me...because i too love water chestnuts. He then stops eating and I can tell he is thinking. He then asks, "mom...where do water chestnuts come from..? do they come from treasure chests?"

Before I have a chance to respond, gavin asks us, "please pass the treasure nuts?"

he didnt even reaize what we were saying, and he too wanted some more waterchestnuts! We all cracked up.
...and we laughed. Just what i needed.

Man it is sooo good to be home to my boys. I have missed them terribly.

A month has already come and Gone

I cannot believe a month, actually more..has actually come and gone. I feel like i am still in this crazy bad dream and i need to be woken up. We have had quite the whirlwind of trials around us, but we are alive. We are enduring and we are making it through.

In the last month, We have moved into our new home. We barely started to get a little bit settled, when we had to turn around and come back to Ptown to get jesses poor foot checked out. Once the swelling went down we both saw that is clearly wasnt healing correctly. And since the good ol health insurance was in portland..we packed into the van and headed back up to PTown.

In a month we have:
*packed up house and moved to a new state
*got to see family!
*had the besties hitch a ride with the Shane Myster while he hauled down a second 24 foot trailer to our house from portland because we ran out of room on the first trailer(we had WAAY more jumk than we thought we did)
*had the besties surprise me in utah and help unpack and decorate(first time ever i have been speechless before) and cannot thank them enough for what they did for us
*spent about 32 hours in our little silver bullet commuting back and forth to utah then back to portland.
*got to see our BESTIES
*Got to enjoy their adorable kids
* kids got to miss almost a total of 4 weeks of school due to the move and then the sudden trip back up to ptown.
*got to enjoy a good ol highschool football game
*Had 3 docs mis diagnose J's injury in the first place
*instantly became a foot legend in the orthopedic doctorate world
*learned all about the les Franc injury and how shocked docs were to find out this is really what J had..and watch as multiple people who worked at the clinic would come in just to take a look
*spent hours on end in hospital
*endured major surgery..a bone graph from knee...fusing of the bones together..6 screws and slicing of the calf muscle to shorten it and help remake an arch.
*J mastered his crutches( a good thing since he will be on them for 3 months)
*Told lots of "screw" jokes due to the screws in jesses foot
*had my sis nickname J the bionic foot man!
*kids got strep..the bestie totally helped take care of them the day of jesses surgery...that was one of the hardest days EVER..but i was soo grateful to my bestie..sad as it was..it was a huge blessing they got sick b4 they went back to utah so i could take them to the doc and get it taken care of with health insurance.
*kids got to enjoy a plane ride back to utah with gramma
*kids have been having a blast with gramma...cousins..aunts and uncles..and have been amazingly cared for by the family.
*spent 3.5 days in the hospital..and happened to get the stinkiest of room/floor
*endured listening to the man in the room next to us at the hospital cough, scream out loud and wretch over and over
*made it through hardest part of recovery
*learned to take things one day a time, sometimes 10 min at a time
*been able to enjoy a continental breakfast almost every morning
*Shed lots of tears
*lots of alone time to think and ponder
*lived in a rockin hotel room for almost 2 weeks
*Had the besties make some amazing meals for us..like super amazing
*had the incisions revealed last week and could not believe what i saw. I was in shock (pics to follow soon)
*found out my little niece who is only 1 broke her foot..so ive tried to talk j into a hot pink cast to match hers!(sadly dont think he will go for it)
*had the laptop totally break ,infected with a virus,then found the COOLEST COMPUTER repair shop that was able to fix it for only 40 bucks..(another miracle)
*been away from the kids for what feels like an eternity..We have not liked it one bit
*realized and actually feel at peace that utah is where we should be.
*read one almost two books(a miracle itself)

IT has been a whirlwind, and i am really anxious to get back home to my kids. We are on the countdown now...less than 3 days if all goes well tomorrow at the follow up apt. It has been quite the month. Cant wait to get back to my kids. We are actually ready to get back to the promised land...lets hope this next month is alot less exciting.
I am ready for some normelness(if that is a word)
Here is to our apt tomorrow that everything will be ok..here is to one heck of a month..and here is to another 14 hour car ride back to the promised land.