A Man of His Word

Like many other little three year-old LDS kids, Henry became a Sunbeam on Sunday. The interesting part of this story is not that he cried and threw a fit (because he didn't) or that he dazzled his fellow "Primary Participants" with his understanding of the book of Isaiah (which he's never even heard of), the interesting part is what happened AFTER primary. Here's how it went down:

Primary Secretary (handing me a piece of paper): Hi Sister Christensen. He did great! Here's a little paper for you. Henry is going to give the talk next Sunday in Primary.

Me: [silence]

Primary Secretary: [Smiles]

Me: Seriously?

Primary Secretary: Oh yes! [still smiling] He volunteered!

Me: Seriously?

Still Me (but only in my head): Who holds a three year-old to his word, especially when he has no idea what you're talking about?

Anyway, so apparently, Henry is giving a talk, in his second week of Primary--ever.

Just so you know, I have to bribe him with cookies just to get him to talk to his grandparents on the phone (which he mostly ends up refusing to do anyway). So, this ought to be interesting.

He's supposed to choose one of his favorite scripture stories and tell it in his own words. I sure hope he doesn't choose Daniel and the Lions' Den or he might end up with a nasty case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder if he starts having flashbacks.

One Year Older and Wiser Too!

Today is my lovely sister's birthday. Adrienne is 28 years old. That is so strange because I still think of us as crazy 19 and 21 year-old roommates at USU. Man, those were the days. All my guy friends wanted her and that really does something to an older sister's self-esteem -- and it doesn't really do anything good to the self-esteem, I can tell you that much.

Here are just some of the reasons I love Adrienne (these are just a few off the top of my head as there are far too many to list in one blog post):

1-She's funny. Seriously, one of the funniest people I know.

2-She speaks her mind.

3-She's a cute mom. This becomes very apparent once you spend even one minute with her little Kate because she's just as spunky as her mom.

4-Every trip we go on together, we will undoubtedly, unquestionably fight with each other. We usually have one major humdinger of a "discussion" on every trip. What I love about her is that she ALWAYS forgives me for the dumb things I say. (Sometimes I say dumb things. But that will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has ever taken the teeniest, tiniest glimpse at my blog.)

5-She's beautiful (on the inside and out. I can't tell which side wins out because they're both so darn attractive!).

6-She makes me happy. It's a selfish reason but it's true. It's hard to get time with her, now that we live so far away, and she has so many darn friends that it's difficult to even get any phone time with her but when I do, it somehow makes my days better.

I love you Aids! (No, she's not suffering from the disease; that's just her oh-so-attractive nickname from high school.)

Much Ado about Christmas

I've been trying to be a good girl by de-Christmasing my house before sitting down at my computer and piddling my time away.

Alas, tonight we finally cleaned up our Christmas crap so ... YAY! I can blog now!

Besides having to drive on terrible, snowy, winter roads all the way down to Utah (and part of the way back), we had an excellent Christmas. I'll spare you the painful details (because my sister, Adrienne, says I give WAY too much background info when telling a "short story") and let our pictures paint their thousand-word stories (that's probably a few more words than I would even say about each picture so it looks like I get to have my cake and eat it too on this one).

Here are some of our highlights:

FINALLY! getting Ruby to calm herself down enough to get a good Christmas picture in front of my Mom's tree (why does it seem like Moms always have the best trees?):

The new bulldog puppy my parents got for Christmas. Seriously, is there anything cuter than a bulldog pup? Seriously? Seriously!

Scott's grandparents, Hal and Mary, reveling in the heartfelt gift he gave them. Grandma Mary was getting "weepy" in this pic. I love Grandma Mary. She cries at almost every gift she gets. This year, I think she cried when Kate gave her hand soap -- she thought it was so thoughtful that Kate remembered how much she loved soap!


We went to the cabin the day after Christmas. I triple-dog dare you all to find a more comfy, relaxing, enjoyable place than the Christensen Cabin. Is there anything more beautiful than snow? Yes. Only one thing -- a mountain cabin covered in snow. Okay, one other thing -- my babies playing in the snow in front of the mountain cabin covered in snow.


Howdy Partner. Henry playing dress-up with "Frampy" Hal's 32-gallon hat:

I got a new camera for Christmas so here's me experimenting with Henry and Ruby as my beautiful subjects. Don't judge my photog skills because I don't really have any. I always wanted to but was never able to take any photography classes in school because my electives were always taken up by other exciting, cool, popularity-enhancing classes like orchestra, choir, French, etc. (Remember how Adrienne says I give too much background info? I have no idea what she's talking about.)


Ruby contemplating the meaning of her existence:


My little sledders:


Tau, the Sled Dog, digging for mice in three feet of snow (go, Boy, go!):

Henry summiting Mt. Everest (aka, the big mound of snow-plowed snow right down the hill from the cabin, right after making his first snow angel EVER!):

Mother and Son Snow Angels (mine's the one on the right, just to dispel any possible confusion):


Look at all that snow! I absolutely LOVE going to the cabin in the winter.


Anyway, it was fun but I'm so glad it's over. Both Christmas AND this post. I've been sitting here for two hours (my computer is so old it takes it FOREVER to upload the higher resolution pics from my new camera. Hmm...old computer? Where were you on that one Santa?)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Said the tired mom to the grumpy dad ...

Do you hear what I hear?

Way up in the sky, Grumpy Dad.

No song, no song, singing in the night -- we are free from the Christmas delight.

We are free from the Christmas Delight!!


Is anyone else glad that Christmas is over? I mean, I don't mean to be a Scrooge or anything but I'm freakin' exhausted!

Swing and a Miss, Volume II

Today is our last Sunday in Bozeman before heading to Utah for the holidays so I wanted to take Henry and Ruby's picture in front of our tree in their Christmas clothes. We had just gotten home from church and the timing (I thought) was perfect. I had this adorable vision in my head: Henry and Ruby, side-by-side (maybe holding hands), smiling beautifully for the camera (that would, for once, actually focus like I wanted it to), with the Christmas tree lights twinkling lightly in the background. Heck, maybe if I was lucky I could prop the camera up and take one of all four of us.

Well, Ruby wasn't having it. Here's the first attempt:

I didn't like where this was going. (Earth to Henry!)


After a few more shots, I finally get an okay picture of Scott and the kiddies:



But apparently I was just pushing it WAY too far when I tried to get one with Ruby. Where's your Christmas spirit Ruby? Geesh!