Family Pictures

Finally! some sort of family picture taken. Honestly everyone, Our last family picture where we planned it and coordinated clothes was in May of 2009.  LOONG time ago! I've been wanting family pictures since beginning of summer 2010. Yet, things came up and it never happened. This summer try as we might... it still did not happen. Then one day I said hey patrick what do we have going on tonight? He said "Nothing" Then I proposed the idea to go look at the pretty changing leaves. He said "Yeah! Sounds great!" He got home from work and found all of us dressed in our family picture attire and said..."Do I need to go get changed?" I said "Yes, we are going to use the tripod and TRY to take some pictures of our family." I could tell in his face he wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea, but he knew how important this was to me and how badly I really wanted them done. So he put on a happy face and worked his magic up in the canyon!
Considering there was nobody behind the camera during our pictures...we got some ok shots of the kids and all of us. We got cold after 15 minutes and the kids were done. So that was our photo shoot. I really wanted some done of the kids together in their outfits and some of them individually as well as some of me with them and some of patrick with them and then finally I wanted some of just patrick and I. But what can you do when it's just you doing the pictures  and you have little time left for daylight and your hungry and cold?
At least I got my whole family picture! I'm IN LOVE with it! PERFECT! the leaves, the grass, and the beautiful people in them! SO GREAT!

We got home and put the pictures on the computer to find that we didn't have the camera set on the highest quality setting...:( WAAHH! bummer, but it's all A.O.K! Check out all of those where kinley is'nt really happy or even looking. Also the funny ones of where OH YEAH Kinley is looking AND smiling, but Porter blinks! hahaha Obviously by the picture at the top of our blog we got a good one that we love!

Sewing Projects

Well I've been very into sewing and making things lately. So in my spare time, that is if I ever find any I've been sewing these things.

The pillow ideas I got from Make it and Love it blog found here. It took some time and some of my own tweaking to make it work for me. And Yes! the fabric didn't come like that. I sewed every single  pleat in those pillows. Patrick thought the fabric came that way.

The capes were  a genius idea of mine. The past month or so Porter has been walking around the house saying "That was INCREDIBLE!" I found it adorable of course that a 3 year old was using that word. Then one night he said "Mom, I like you!" Then I said " I like you too! I think you are amazing.. NO! I think you are INCREDIBLE!" If only you could have seen his face when I told him I thought he was incredible. His eyes and mouth got wide with excitement! Then a couple of days ago we had the same conversation and the thought came to my mind.. OH! I could make him a cape like an INCREDI-BOY cape. I told him my idea and he loved it. He said "Let's make it right NOW!" of course it took me about a week to get around to it. And now that I've made them... he's not so interested in wearing it. He just enjoys looking at it and talking about is Incredible Porter Boy Cape! Too funny.  And as for Kinley's hers is the "Special K" cape and  she just does whatever Porter does, when they wear them and whatever he is doing while they wear them.
Anyways I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm getting to the point where if I see something that needs mending I think "I can fix that!" then I'm ready and excited to tackle the project. When I used to think.. I don't know if I could fix that.. maybe I'll try someday.

September 2011

Well I've already posted about how we started our month off with Porter going to Preschool. But for the rest of this month we still stayed busy. Towards the beginning we enjoyed a nice Christensen Family Reunion at the Heber Valley Camp. It was wonderful to be able to spend time and visit with family, get caught up on whats going on in each others lives, sing, dance and act like complete fools together! Many of you who know my family are nodding your heads as you understand what my family is like and probably visualizing all the silliness that goes on. Brandon saved our lives and brought a blow up bouncy house! The kids LOVED it! Porter especially, because he noticed it was a TRAIN bouncy house! We did the swing while we were there which actually was AWESOME! Patrick even did it! But while swinging he yells to me "X-nay on Lagoon-A" so he got scared, but survived and was proud he did it! As I mentioned in the August 2011 post I was in charge of planning some minute-to-win- it games that we could play. We all had lots of fun doing that and once again laughing at each other as well as encouraging and cheering each other on. All of us agreed we enjoyed the "Nosedive" game the most! Go Ryland and Boston! Hilarious!  No pictures... but lots of video taken.

The next weekend Patrick and I worked on our storage room. We built some shelves and tried to organize that, yet didn't finish in time so it ended up creating a big mess in our living room. No problem though. I'm just getting around to breaking down all the boxes and cleaning that last mess up! :) It feels really good to have some of those shelves finished!
Then the next weekend we enjoyed a WONDERFUL night out with my siblings. My mom for Christmas last year bought all us kids and our spouses tickets to go see Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat at Hale theater. We dropped the kids off at Mom and Dad Munsons and had a really fun time at the show. I'm still humming and singing the music around the house. After the show we went and got Ice Cream, talked and had fun hanging out as a family. It was sooo nice!! I noticed I hadn't stayed out that late in a LOOONG time. We got home at like 11:30. The way having kids changes your life. We missed Corbin and Jess, Brandon and Holley, and Stenson who so thought the BYU game was more important(haha). Wish they could have been there. I also wish I would have gotten a picture of all of us! oh well...
I also really enjoyed the  general Relief Society meeting. I went by myself this year. Thought It would be GREAT because then I'd be able to really just sit in my own thoughts and not have to worry about talking to anyone or entertaining certain comments. With that said Yes I did enjoy it, yet I can also see how sisters if not fellowshipped and befriend can feel little and unnoticed. Over all I really enjoyed the talks. President Uchtdorf ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS blows me away! His talk really was Awesome. Earlier that day patrick and I had been trying to decide certain thing we want to do with our yard. Thinking what kind of bushes and flowers to put here and there. So that night I came home and I said... "Patrick, I want some Forget me nots".

 The last two days of the month we had an awesome time. The first started out with a really fun preschool field trip to Carver's Petting Zoo. We got to see lots of animals, feed some animals. Porter got to ride a horse and feed it an apple. It was so cute to watch him. He really wanted to do it, but was really nervous. so he said I want to watch ALL the people do it first, then I'll do it. So he watched about 5 of the kids go and then he said MOM! I want to do it! So we decided it was his turn. we better take the chance while he's ready and willing before it's too late. He did it and when he got back he said MOM! I just held on REALLY tight! Such a brave kid and he was so proud of himself. Kinley really wanted to ride, but was scared. SHE LOVES Horses.

Lucky for Kinley, our friends invited us the next day to go ride their brothers ponies and their horse. We got there and those ponies were sooo cute! The kids were a little timid at first. Then after watching the other kids do it and then getting on the big horse with dad they realized it was fun and all they wanted to do was ride the ponies. We took turns of one kid riding and the other leading and walking the horse around. Patrick became a pro and was trotting all around! He even went over the bridge! It was a really fun night that we enjoyed and thought was SUPER great for the kids. 

 Porter started pre-school about 2 weeks ago. I'm just barely getting around to posting about it. He loves pre-school and enjoys that structured learning/play time. It's taught him a lot of things already! (good and bad) But it's been great. Here is what I wrote down sort of as a journal that first day of school. It is kinda long and like I said more for my own remembrance than for share, feel free to read it though. 

Wednesday, September 7, 2011:

This morning Porter started his first day of Pre-School. We woke up and had a great morning. Started it off with having prayer with Dad and then breakfast. I asked Porter what he wanted for breakfast and he insisted on Pop-tarts. Yes! I’m that good of a Mom and gave my son Pop-tarts the morning of his first day of school. Don’t worry I made the meal a little more healthy with a banana. Hopefully that will tide him over til snack time. J  He was super excited to go to preschool and play with the Thomas the Train and the Bob the Builder toys. I had to tell him he’ll be doing more than just playing with toys there.  He was still pretty excited. We got ready and I took pictures of him with his backpack on. Went out the door, loaded the van up and drove to preschool. Four minutes later we arrived and I went to get Porter out of the car and it dawned on me… I didn’t even do his hair!! I felt awful. But the kid is still  cute even if his hair isn’t wet and looking done. (We all know by the time I pick him up it would look like I didn’t do it anyway, so cut me some slack) Porter jumped out of the van and got his backpack on and was running toward the door. I had to tell him to wait so Kinley and I could catch up to him.  Once we walked in I helped Porter hang his backpack on his cubby hook.  Then he started walking over toward the toys ready to play. As he was looking for some cool toys I couldn’t help but see in him his eagerness to play yet also his nervousness and feeling a little bit out of place because he didn’t know ANYONE! I tried to help him meet some kids and share toys with them.  Then stand back and watch a little bit. I am his Mom and of course I worried the entire time he was away from me. Before I left I made sure he knew where the bathroom was and pointed out his teachers to him. Who knows if he even got it, he was so into playing with the cool new toys.  Then I walked out that door not quite understanding the emotions I was feeling. I was excited for him and yet nervous. Wondering if he’d make friends, if he’d be good, if he’d forget where the bathroom was and go in his pants, if he’d do well with new environment and how he’d adapt(mostly WITHOUT me).  For me I was feeling some regret of leaving my child in that environment and making him learn and fend for himself. (silly me I know the teachers were there, but he has not yet learned to trust them) Yet I knew he was just fine.  In fact he probably was going to have a great time!

Then it was time for pick up. Kinley fell asleep because she was bored and tired while he was gone and got about a 35 minute nap and I had to wake her up to go pick him up. Welcome to the life of a real mom with older kids. (haha I just mentioned as if I have OLDER kids!) So we are on our way and Kinley is buzzing because she is so excited to see Porter. And I am feeding off her excitement. I missed him so much while he was gone. I was counting down the minutes til it was time to pick him up. We pull up and I see him outside with all of his classmates waiting for their parents in the drive way. He sees me and I wave while I park. I open the door and turn to go get him and he is running with the BIGGEST grin on his face towards me. Backpack on and bouncing on his back and arms wide open! As he gets closer I see a picture hung on a string around his neck and a bright red spot of something on his shirt. Leave it to Porter to be the one who comes home from preschool on the first day with bright red paint on his shirt! I didn’t care though. I was so excited to see him. I gave him a huge hug and almost didn’t want to put him down in his car seat. He was bursting to tell me everything he did at school. I was shocked ! He doesn’t normally know how to answer my question of “What did you do?” Yet he told me that he played toys (Thomas and lightning Mcqueen to be exact) He colored and had snack and even some smarties!  I asked him if he made friends and he said “Yeah!” I asked him if he knew their names but he replied “No.”  When we got home he couldn’t wait to open his backpack up and show me everything he did. We pulled in the garage and next thing I know his backpack is open and he is trying to show me everything in the van. I had to encourage him to show me inside. So then he runs inside just bubbling over with excitement of the neat things he did. Sure enough there were two handprints in red paint and a picture of an apple painted with red finger paint! He was really proud of himself and so am I!

And as for kinley…they were both very happy to see each other. We walked in the door and after showing me his pictures he immediately got down on the ground and helped Kinley take off her shoes. Both with big smiles on their faces. Adorable!!  Such a good day! 

August 2011

This month was a fun month! We tried really hard to fit as much as possible into our month.  It started out with our ward camp-out. We decided not to stay the night because we wanted to be nice to our ward family and not put them through a night of dreadfulness with our kids. It was themed Superheros and people came dressed up as superheros. There were blowup bouncy houses and fun things. I enjoyed being a kid racing on a bouncy house a couple of times! Also at the start of the month we worked on our Adirondack chairs. a lady that Patrick works with gave them to us and they  needed some work done. So we sanded and painted them! It was a fun project.

We enjoyed a 5 1/2 day family vacation to Park City. That was probably the highlight of our month. We enjoyed bike rides and a "Fun" shopping trip to the outlets. I say "fun" because if you have kids then you understand how fun it can be to shop with them! We went swimming and Grandpa got Porter jumping into the pool and then eventually going under and swimming all on his own (of course he was wearing floaties). We were so proud of him. We tried to take family pictures there, that was kinda a flop but we at least got some of the Munson family. That was really good! We had fun on evening riding the bus over to catch a Trolley and riding that! Porter really loved that and then walking up and down main street. It was an enjoyable evening. And another evening we played minute to win it games. I was in charge of planning some games for the Christensen reunion which was to follow a few weeks later. So we practiced some with the munson family and it was a hit! (You'll hear about the Christensen minute to win it later) Our favorite that night was Junk in the Trunk where you shake the ping pong balls out of a tissue box tied around your waist! Porter really enjoyed playing that game! see for yourself the fun that we had:( I can't load Patrick's... but I will soon.. his is pretty funny!)

Then on our last day we went and did the alpine slide/coaster and the kids rode a space track(which is a little train) and the merry-go-round! They loved the merry go round!!! Patrick and I did the slide and coaster later that evening with just us and JD and Lacy. We really enjoyed that little date night with them. Some memories we will always carry with us. It was fun watching Patrick get all scared to go on the slide...then to find out I'm the one who braked almost the whole way down. Then the real terror set in when we were on the coaster going up the hill. Patrick screamed like a girl and braked... I remember yelling at him saying STOP BRAKING! It really is better if you don't brake. You won't get hurt it's just like a roller coaster if you just let yourself go! It was lots of fun even if it was a little damaging on the wallet.We took some good naps, played fun games, watched some fun shows and ate good food. Doesn't that sound like a good family vacation?! We sure thought so!
We got back from our vacation and the next night Patrick and Porter left for the stake Father and Sons. They had a good time together and Porter enjoyed sleeping in the van.
This month has been filled with playing chalk and bubbles LOTS. Enjoyed seeing the fruits of our garden, bike rides, walks and Patrick participated in a stake golf tourney. We also went to Patrick's work summer Party. We went to Pine view and played in the water and went on the boat...watched Patrick get thrown on the tube and ate good food.

So if you were to ask us did we have a fun month? the answer is YES!! We loved the month of August and honestly wish it would hang around a little longer.