Eli's Stats

Eli turned 18 months old on April 16th.

He had his 18 month check up and is still growing.

He weighs 28 lbs 12 oz (93%) and is 33 1/2 inches tall (83%).

And his head is 79%.

...

Lexi at 18 months was:

21 lbs 9 Oz (14%) and 32 1/4 inches (69%)

...

Avery at 18 months was:

20 lbs 4 oz (5%) and 30 2/4 inches (25%)

...

 

A few things about Eli...

 

-Eli is obsessed with trucks. He loves driving in the car and seeing them.

 

-He also loves animals and gets really excited when he see goats or horses when we are driving.

 

-Eli loves chocolate milk. It's his favorite drink.

 

-Eli is super attached to his Aiden and Anis blankets. He loves chewing on them.

 

-Eli loves his dad! When Sean gets home, Eli gets jealous if he gives anyone else attention.

 

-Eli HATES nursery!

 

-Eli loves playing with his cars.

 

-Eli gets really excited when he sees or hears the TRAX trains drive by.

 

-Eli also gets super excited about garbage trucks.

 

-Eli now hits people when he's upset or perhaps just for fun sometimes.

 

-Eli loves taking baths by himself. He doesn't like bathing with his sisters.

-Eli loves shoes, especially his dad's Nikes.

-Eli never plays with his hair unless he is eating and then he can't keep his hands out of his hair.



7th Wedding Anniversary

 

 Monday, April 14th was our 7th wedding anniversary.

We celebrated the Saturday before.

We left the kiddos with a babysitter and headed down to Salt Lake City.

I snapped this quick picture with my camera before we left.

Not a bad selfie for a DSLR camera.
(For some reason when I uploaded these pictures, the ones of Sean and I look air brushed.
I didn't do that. and I don't know how to undo it. And I'm not sure why that happened.
Oh well, for now we look like we have baby doll smooth skin.)

 



 We rode TRAX to down town.

It was a gorgeous evening.

 

We decided to walk to temple square before dinner.

We ran into my second cousin Doug and his wife Liz. We had a good time catching with them.

 



I had to take this picture of a bride and groom for my girls.

 



It was a gorgeous sunset.

 



Then we went to City Creek Mall. Sean took me to Brighton and spoiled me.

 He bought me several new charms and beads for my bracelet.

Then we got some dinner and smoothies and headed home.

It was a perfect evening.

...

On Monday, our actually anniversary, we had an amazing dinner. Steak and mashed potatoes.

It was a laid back evening at home with the kids.



 

I just have to say how lucky I am.

I have an amazing husband! Sean is kind and loving.

He makes me laugh constantly and our children all adore him.

He's a rock star at our house. 



A New Way to Encourage Postive Behavior

 Lexi's kindergarten teacher has a clip up/ clip down chart at school.

Lexi talks about it all the time.

It really motivates her to be good at school.

So I made my own version of the chart for our house.

The girls start off the day on yellow, "ready to listen."

(At school, it's "ready to learn.")

When they do something good or have a good attitude I clip them up.

If they do something bad, they get clipped down.

"Think about it" means that we talk about what they've done and how they can improve.

"Take a break" means time out.

"Parent choice" means I decided a fitting consequence/ punishment.

I try to focus more on their positive behavior.

I'm always looking for reasons to clip the girls up.

They can clip up and down all through out the day.

 

Before bedtime we see where they are on the chart.

They get one "happy rock" if they have clipped up one time.

 Two happy rocks if they have clipped up two times.

And three happy rocks if they have clipped up three times.

If they are still on ready to listen or have clipped down they get nothing.

And I don't take happy rocks away.

(At school, Lexi gets a "happy rock" for clipping up one time.

She gets a "happy heart" for clipping up two times.

And if she clips up three times she gets to go to the office and pick out a prize.) 

 



So it's possible for the girls to put a total of six happy rocks in the jar every night.

When the jar is full they get to pick out a reward and then start all over.

The rewards are things like:

Walk to Ream's and pick out a piece of candy, finger paint, go for a walk, play at the play ground, stay up 20 minutes past your bedtime, have mom print out a coloring sheet of your choice, etc.





Master Bedroom Make Over

 While Sean was in LA last week for work training I decided to redecorate our master bedroom.

Well I'm not sure if I can say "redecorate" because it was never really decorated before.

I wanted to surprise Sean. So I used my babysitting money and bought everything with cash.

I'm really pleased with the progress I made.

I just need to buy/ do a few more things and then it will be done.

...

I bought the curtains and curtain rods at IKEA.

 I was so proud of myself for getting them hung up without Sean's help.
 

 

I bought a couple of organizational things for Sean's desk at IKEA.

 

 

I bought the lamp shade for the lamp on Sean's desk at Target.

I took down the world map and ukulele chord poster from above Sean's desk

and put up the family picture. I bought the frame at IKEA.

I also changed out Sean's computer chair. We already had this one and it looks so much better.

 

We already had this bookshelf from IKEA.

 

 

I bought two more bins and organized the books and put the pictures on top.

 



Sean already had his ukulele and mandolin hanging up.

 

 

I realized that I've never shared pictures of our room before so this post is also kinda like a tour.

The doors are to the master bathroom and closet.

 



I hung up the pictures of our kids on the wall.

 

 

That spot on the wall was empty before.

 



I bought a new bed skirt at Target.

I bought the bedding set at Sam's Club.

 



 I bought the yellow pillow at Target and the other two at IKEA.

 

 We have a wooden bench that is normally at the foot of our bed.

It's in our garage right now.

I want to repaint it, maybe gray.

And cover it with some bright yellow fabric.

 

 

I found a desk at IKEA that I'd love to buy for Sean. So that's now on my wish list.



Photo Dump

 Here are some pictures from the last few weeks that I haven't shared before...

 

First, Eli out on our deck at night. He loves going out there. He'll bring us his coat, Avery's boats and says, "deck" until he gets to go out.

 

Another day out on the deck.

 



Sometimes instead of instantly comforting your child, you take a picture of them crying instead.

 



Avery is usually the first kid to wake up in the mornings. She comes out of her room and will often just lay on the couch. This particular morning, Lexi joined her on the couch. Waking up is hard.

 



Eli loves to ride on his dad.

 



Avery is still our "Cuddle Bear."

 



Eli loves to stand up on his tower and drive his cars on the widow seal and watch cars out in the parking lot. He especially loves watching the garbage truck.

 



Lexi found this note in her cubby at school from her friend Valentina.

 



Eli loves shoes. Everyone's shoes.

 



My nephew Austin trying to take some homemade refried beans away from Eli. After this, I gave Austin some of his own to eat.

 



Sean coming home after hours of meetings on Sunday.

 



Eli waving to the camera.

 



We start off every Family Home Evening saying, "Welcome to the Christensen Family Home Evening." And then we put our hands above our head and shout, "Yay!" It's cheesy but the girls love it. Eli loves it too now.

 



Eli helped himself to a bag of cereal when no one was looking.

 



One morning when Lexi went to the bathroom she put this Fancy Nancy sign on the door so we would know she was in there.

 



Avery and her beloved doll Ariel. I bought the girls matching nightgowns for them and their dolls with some Khol's cash that I had.

 



Sean all dressed up to go to the funeral of our neighbor. The sweet old lady that he home taught.

 



I love his face!

 



Avery usually isn't in the mood to have her picture taken.

 



Sleeping baby.

 



These two little boys are brothers and they live in our complex. My girls are obsessed with them. Here they are pretending to get married.

 



I signed Avery up for a tumbling class at the Rec Center with her cousin Halle. For now, she's just signed up for the month of April. Lexi has decided that she wants to do it too. So I'll sign her up for May. Here they are modeling their new outfits I ordered online when they came in the mail.

 



Surprise Visitors

 Friday night, we planned on having a pizza and game night with Sean's sister Michelle and her family and his sister Andrea and her husband Brandon, who were coming to up for the weekend from Rexburg. Sean was flying in that night from LA. Just before dinner, there was a knock at the door. To my surprise, it was my in-laws! They came up from the Washington for the weekend. I had no idea they were coming. When Sean came home from the airport, I asked him to go put his suitcase in our bedroom. When he opened the bedroom door he saw his parents. He was really surprised.

 

All the kids wanted to wear Sean's hats.

 



 The kids had a fun time playing with their Grandpa Christensen.

 

Dog pile!

 



Playing steam roller. The kids had to jump over him when he rolled their way or they would get rolled over.

 



Saturday we watched a lot of general conference.

 



Group picture.

 



I think it's important to get pictures of the kids with their grandparents whenever I can.

 



 Saturday the girls dressed up like triplets in their new outfits for tumbling class.

Avery and Halle are in the same class. They start tomorrow. Lexi will start in May. It's through the Rec Center and it's on a month-by-month basis so we'll see how the girls like it.

Here's Eli watching sadly as the guys drive away to priesthood session of conference. Us ladies and the kids went to IKEA while the guys were gone.

 



Saturday night, Lexi started not feeling well. Sunday afternoon she threw up. Eli was teething and crabby and Avery was tired from staying up late. So we didn't hang out much before Garth and Kristi left for Washington but was fun to see them. And really fun being surprised.