Eli's First Pickle

 Today we gave Eli his first pickle.

It was an anticipated and well documented event.

And now the video...

  And here's Avery and her first pickle.

January 2011.

And now Lexi.

March 2009.

Flashback Friday - Elder Christensen

Sean served in the Peru Lima East Mission.

It's been almost 9 years since he left.

Here's a few pictures of my cute missionary.

This is Sean towards the beginning of his mission.

 And here's Sean in the second half of his mission...

At the end of Sean's mission, I was going to school in Chile.

Once Sean got home, I went to Peru to visit Sean's mission and some of the people he served.

So here I am at the same statue.

Here's Sean with his last companion, Kurt.

We love Kurt.

He came to the hospital when I had Lexi and was even in the circle when we blessed her.

 And here's Sean with his second mission president and his wife.

This was the day Sean ended his mission and went home.

Playing at the Park with Uncle Josh

This is my 5th post of the day. I'm done after this!
...
 Michelle and I have been meeting at the park by the library on Monday mornings.

Josh is in town this week so he went with us.

They kids had a blast and Josh got a good work out.

Josh pushed the kids on these swings for maybe 20 minutes 

while Michelle and I stood with the shade with our babies and just talked.

Lexi finally asked to stop swinging because she saw a bunch of "beautiful wedding flowers" in the grass.

After the swings we went to our favorite playground.

Eli loves the swings.

And I finally brought my camera so I could get pictures and videos of him.

Even Eli's shadow is cute!

Michelle and Josh pushed Parker, Lexi, Halle and Avery 

and some random girl on the tire swing until they got nauseous.

Avery loves to swing with Eli in the same swing.

Josh went around the playground and had fun exploring all the toys with the kids.

 Josh was hilarious on these little spinny things.

When we woke up this morning the first thing Avery asked for was Josh to go to the playground with her.

Recent Homevideos

 I'm really making an effort to take and share more videos of the kids.

One day last week the girls just kept asking me to take videos of them.

First here's me interviewing Lexi.

Avery carries around this music card and dances to it all the time.

This girl loves to shake her booty.

 

Avery knows how to sing the ABC's 

(although I never tried to teach her like I did with Lexi, she just picked it up on her own.)

But I don't have a video of her singing it yet.

This was one of my attempts to get her to do it.

She's stubborn and just does what she wants as you will soon see.

 I was trying to get a video of Eli getting up on his hands and knees 

and instead I got a video of Avery running in circles around him.

We've been trying to go to the playground every morning before it gets hot.

The girls love being outside, playing in the sand.

 

Eli also loves being outside.

 

Here's a couple videos of Eli in the tub last week.

 

And finally a video of Eli up on his hands and knees!

 

Lexi's Been Waiting For This - Eli is 8 Months Old

 Lexi's favorite number is 8.

So she's been patiently waiting for Eli to be 8 months old.

And it's happened.

He was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and now 8 months old.

Here are some pictures I took of Eli on Sunday before church...

Eli seems so much older all of a sudden.

He looks older with his short hair.

He sits up like a champ.

And now he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth.

Eli now has 6 teeth. 

Four on the top and two on the bottom.

Eli has now entered the fun stage of just wanting his mommy 

and being scared of people he doesn't know.

I wanted to try to get pictures of Eli in his diaper on this fake sheep fur blanket 

like I've done every month of his life.

But he was being so difficult.

He just kept rolling over and laughing.

So most of the pictures I took ended up looking like this...

Eli loves Sean's hats and when Sean plays the ukulele.

Eli loves being outside.

If we're out and it's past his bedtime or nap time he will still be happy.

He loves feeling the breeze.

Eli loves swinging.

He just smiles, giggles and kicks his legs the whole time.

When we go to the store, Eli just sits in the cart and happily watches people 

and then gives them a big bashful smile when they look at him. He's such a flirt.

Sometimes he laughs so uncontrollably hard that it's difficult to hold him.

He gets really excited about his sisters.

Eli is so strong.

Last week he was sitting in a booster seat on one of our dinning room chairs.

He grabbed the back of another chair and rocked it back so it was on two legs.

And a few days ago, Sean was carrying Eli past my bike. 

Eli grabbed onto the handle bars and Sean couldn't get him to let go.

He nearly lifted the bike off the ground.

Eli is waking up one to three times at night still.

I blame it on teething and a love of nursing.

...

Eli loves eating real food.

He's getting a lot better at chewing so soon I'm sure he'll be eating whatever we're eating.

Father's Day 2013

 Father's Day was pretty laid back around here.

I woke up early to make Sean homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

We just kind relaxed until church at one.

Here's Sean and the kids right before church.

Sean got treated like a king at church!
Lexi gave him two small bags of M&M's.

Avery decorated a lunch bag filled with candy for him.

And then Sean got an entire pie.

(Remember in our ward everyone brings a dessert or some sort of treat 

and then the men get to pick one to take home.)

After church we just hung out at home and talked to our dads on the phone.

I made homemade refried beans, rice and fried eggs.

Sean covered it all in hot sauce and was happy, happy, happy.
 For a while before Father's Day, Sean and Lexi had been talking about Lexi feeding Sean grapes.
Saturday night Lexi remember but we didn't have any grapes.
She asked me to go to the store and buy grapes because she could break her promise.
So I bought some.
Here's Lexi feeding Sean's grape on Father's Day.
Now we just need to train Avery to rub his feet and Eli to fan him.

Our Dads

 Sean and I are both blessing with amazing dads.

We really do have some great men in our lives.

...

My dad, Donn, is the most compassionate and caring man I know.

He treats my mother like a queen and no one could ever doubt that he loves his children.

Or that he adores his grandchildren.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of my dad.

These first two are obviously at my wedding.

I just remember my dad looking so happy the day Sean and I got married.

I knew that he loved me and was happy with the decisions I was making.

Here he is making necklaces with Lexi.

This is so my dad.

He absolutely loves my children, they have him wrapped around their little fingers.

He just loves being with them and watching them play.

This was when we were vacationing in Midway, Utah in June 2011.

Lexi was almost three.

Here's my dad with Avery.

I love this picture.

This was taken in March 2012, just before Avery turned two.

The girls and I went to Washington for three weeks.

Lexi and Avery couldn't get enough of their grandparents love and attention.

 And here's my dad with Eli the first time he saw him in January of this year.

He was so excited to meet his grandson.

It was so sweet.

Donn didn't become my dad through birth.

He became my dad through choice.

Not only did he choose my mom but he chose my brother and I.

The song, He Didn't Have to Be by Brad Paisley always reminds me of him.

 My father-in-law, Garth, is one of most laid back people I've ever met.

He never gets upset.

And he's always been so welcoming to me.

Garth always has put his family first.

I know that his greatest joy comes from his family.

First our two pictures I found of Sean with his dad when Sean was a baby.

 Garth is a fun grandpa.

He loves seeing his grandkids.

He lights up and gets excited when he's with them.

First is a picture of him with Lexi the month Lexi turned one.

And here's him with Eli in March.

This was August 2010 back when there were only 6 grandkids (now there are 9).

Becoming a Father

 When I met and started dating Sean, I knew I was one lucky girl.

He was cute, fun to be with, a great kisser, easy to talk to,

 and he played the bass guitar and wrote me love songs.

But I really had no idea just how lucky I was.

Sean is a great husband and father.

He always has put our family first.

He does all that he can to provide for us and take care of us.

I often get teary eyed watching him dance with the girls, or hold Eli, or cuddle with the kids.

He is the fun parent.

The girls get so excited when their dad comes home.

Eli lights up and smiles when Sean serenades him with his ukulele.

Every time I've felt like it was time to have a baby Sean has quickly agreed.

He's always been excited to the arrive of another child.

There is no doubt that he loves being a dad.

...

Here's some of my favorite pictures of Sean becoming dad.

Sean first became a dad on July 6, 2008.

After a long 32 hours of waiting while I was in labor and worrying while I had a c-section.

April 28, 2010

 Sean became a dad to a second little girl.

After 23 hours of hard labor, Avery was born.

And Sean was instantly in love again.

And on October 16, 2012 (8 months ago today)

Sean's first son was born after a quick 10 hour, enjoyable labor.

There is something special about a father and his son.

I'm excited to more kids with this wonderful man!

Happy Father's Day Sean.

I love you.