Our Very Own Christmas Miracle

Yes, it's true that Steve entered this world on Christmas Day. It is always hard to allow him to have the attention that a Birthday deserves. This morning when the girls got up we sang happy birthday and let him open his birthday gifts first and then we opened the Christmas gifts.

We are very thankful for Steve and for all that he has accomplished this year. It has been a difficult year and he has been a trooper through all of the chaos. I am grateful for him and his determination. I am thankful for his gifts and talents, and even the ones that I didn't know he had, and for beautifying our home. I am thankful to be his wife and to get to celebrate moments like these with him!

Christmas-Smith Style

Ki is loving the presents
A bit-o-Steve art for the girls bedroom

Grandma Lora makes the best nightgowns

El is sporting her Hello Kitty socks

Steve always gets a tie,

this year he got a pink and gray one -very 1980 sheek

You know by now what Steve is capable of doing.

These babies are for the other wall in our bedroom

*There as so many wonderful people that have done so much for us this year. We are very grateful to our Families and friends and ward members that have blessed our lives.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

My Baby is 4!!!

Grandma's steady hand will keep the hair out of the flames until all of the candles are blown out ;0)

El turned 4 today. I can't believe that my baby is 4. Time has gone by so quickly and she has provided many wonderful moments in such a short time. (She has broken her left arm twice and her collar bone once. Her chin is healing nicely from her last accident. We just put up bunk beds for the girls and I insisted that she take the bottom one. She is about two feet off the floor , but that is still far enough from the floor to do damage). I sleep with my fingers crossed that she won't fall out of bed again, and that she'll live another day without injury. Tonight when she was blowing out all 4 of her candles, her hair caught fire.

I don't know what I am going to do if she makes it to her 18th birthday in one piece.

El is styl'n in one of her new dress up skirts

She has worn a pair of Princess shoes out already, so got another pair-she puts them on when she wakes up in the morning and doesn't take them off until she goes to bed at night

A crown for a true Princess

Ki chose to give El a tea set. Ki said that every Princess needs a tea set. If you haven't picked up on it yet, she is all about girly things and Princesses.

I got a phone call at work today, it went like this:

"Mom, I need more sprinkles for my cake"

I told Steve where to find more-crisis over.

I feel very lucky to have such an amazing little spirit in my home. I will always have current health insurance and a watchful eye while she is entrusted to me.

Thanks for the phone calls, and to Homer, Wart, James and Kelli for coming to her party tonight!

And El,

I just love you!!!

I Have a Hard Time finishing Things

These are photos from this summer.

Better late than never-and in my book never is an option!

A Pony ride chaperoned by Grandpa Homer

Oh, how my girls love Steve!

I just can't get enough of the country and my Ki girl!

The Chicken experience.

Ki celebrated her half Birthday at Grandma's for the

3rd year in a row. She got Funfetti cupcakes and a

Tinker Bell doll.

A few weeks ago, us girls had a special sleepover with friends. We scrapped into the wee hours of the morning. I finally finished the journaling and small details this weekend.

Only 34 more pictures to go, and no time to scrap-boo hoo!

Steve, Steve the Magical Man

For some reason Steve does not consider himself an artists.

He creates beautiful things-besides my daughters :0)

We have been thinking about how to fill our amazing entry way for the past year. We wanted something to make a statement.

A week later and a lot of detail work, We have a huge, Beautiful picture of the Savior in the entry way.

Steve took a sheet of metal and sanded it, painted it with patina-to get the black, and then spent hours with the dremel tool to etch the metal to get a fantastic reproduction of Greg Olson's

"Walk with Me"

I wish that I had a fraction of Steve's talents and abilities!

Stop on by to check out the art.

I think it ROCKS!

I have 2 Minutes

My Halloween Black Pig, I didn't get a picture

of the tail, but it was there

My little Ice cream cone with 2 scoops, one pink bubble gum

and the other blue berry at her request

When I leave the house at 7am and get home at 7 pm that doesn't give me much time to blog. So before I put my little darlings into bed I am going to show you the goods from Halloween. It all turned out pretty good if you ask me.

I Was Just Informed

El just told me that: "I had a baby yesterday, the doctor said that I need to take my chocolate medecim, I have swine flu and so does my baby, and I want skabetty for lunch." That is one busy 3 year old.

*Let me clarify-our friend Ashley had a baby on Monday, El has had a doll up her shirt all week saying she was going to have a baby, I think she's had three this week. She was dying to eat her candy from last night's Trunk-or-Treat, we all had undiagnosed swine flu two weeks ago, and she loves spaghetti.

**I have touched the dishes, can you tell how bad of a procrastinator I am?

Yes, I have been busy

Why is it that when I have time, I use it unwisely? On Monday I went to a job interview. Not realizing that I would be offered that job and will start on Monday (7 days later), I came home and thought about my week. I needed to make an Ice Cream cone costume for El, a Black Halloween Pig costume for Ki, go visiting teaching, be visit taught, get my permanent crown-yay, I can chew gum again and have 3 cavities filled- one that we didn't know about, volunteer at school-for the unknowingly last time for quite a while, get finger printed-I am not a criminal so I am not good at it and have to try again on Monday, buy some work clothes-can I show up for work in just pants, cause that is all I bought, rearrange the visiting teaching assignments-oh, haven't finished that yet, trunk or treat on Friday night and real Halloween on Sat. night, complete like 3 hours on online training before starting work on said Monday, attend the HOA meeting, keep my Thursday night date with Lindsey to feed my obsession with Project Runway, and I wanted to go see Ashley and her sweet baby Jane. So what am I doing right now, with a sink full of dishes and a list of things to do before I start work on Monday-Blogging. Oh, Ki lost another tooth too. So with all that said, I am going to go now.

All She wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth, her 2 front teeth

I actually think that one will be in by Christmas, but the other one, not so much. Ki was very brave this time and actually let me do the honors and pull it. It was turning black and was barely hanging in her mouth still and I didn't want it to fall out in her sleep. She didn't think I could do it so she made Steve supervise. I think she has one more that is kind of loose and then she probably won't loose anymore for a while-good thing b/c the tooth fairy is broke.

From Paper to Wall

If you ever find yourself in need of decorating inspiration, just head to your paper stash or to the scrapbook store if you don't have a stash at home.
After we painted our room blue several months I found this paper at Hobby Lobby. I knew that it was the same color blue as our room. I came home and showed Steve this paper and he didn't catch onto my vision as quickly as I had hoped. I told him I really wanted to do a dandy lion-ish theme and he was a bit sceptical.

As the months went on, the paper started calling to him as did the walls. So will 2 sick children and one sick wife, he spent two days this weekend making my paper dreams reality. I know, who would use blue, green, orange and plum together? Again, scrapbooking paper opens the pallet and the mind to fabulous combinations. I am really excited about my wall art! Now he is sick in bed, but at least the room looks cheery;0)

Wordless Wednesday

In Honor Of World Card Making Day

Technically I did make these today-at 1am. I made these for my card club. I had scrap felt left over from El's candy corn costume from last year, I was dying to use it. Anyone who is a fellow card maker, the day isn't over-go get scrapp'n!!! Don't forget to leave me a comment to tell me to check out your creation.

Dear Teeth

I am sorry that I have neglected you. I am sorry that I don't floss daily. I am sorry that I ignored the pain. I am sorry that I waited three years to get a cavity filled that actually turned into a root canal. I am sorry that my mouth still hurts from the root canal, crown build up and 2 cavities that got filled on Monday. I am sad to say that I still have a bunch of dental work to be done too. I am sorry that my children have inherited their parent's terrible oral hygiene habits and their rotten teeth. They both had cavities to be filled.

The only good thing that has come from this is that I have a new found respect for Floss and brushing twice daily, and Canyon Springs Dental in Surprise has an awesome staff!!

Wordless Wednesday

I'ts Baaack

Thank you Dell for sending me back my computer and a bogus letter that said I had to wait to turn it on until this part got mailed to me, what part? Oh, this one that actually doesn't exist and so I waited a week before I called to yell at you and then you said oh, you can use your computer.

I am so glad that it is back and that it is running great. That means that I have a month worth of stuff to catch up on. It might be kind of hard to do that but I can say that Steve's sister Kelli got married and Great Grandpa Bob came to town-a super duper treat! Stories and pictures to follow soon, I hope.

Still waiting for that post card

So my computer is still on vacation and I have yet to hear from it. I am beginning to think that maybe I can live without it?

Or NOT!

My Computer is Broken

I keep thinking that this is a good thing, having no computer at home. But no, it's not so good. It's lame and I hate it. I am not ignoring all my friends and their blogs on purpose. You are all just stuck on my computer that is on vacation in the Dell service department. It hasn't even sent a post card-how rude!

Wordless Wednesday

"That Thank you note Must have done It"

Ki has lost another tooth. I say lost, but what I really mean is that

Steve had a pull them out. Her teeth get loose but need some force to actually

leave her mouth.

She wanted to write a not to the Tooth Fairy.

It says, "Thanks 4 giving me money. I hope you like this tooth.

Heart Ki"
I guess being in school for a week had made the word for seem very hard to write. She thought that the numeral was easier. That's my girl.

When she woke up this morning I said something to her, I can't remember what that was but she ran to her room and picked up her pillow and found 2 dollars. She turned around and said,

"That thank you note must have done it, I got 2 dollars"

That is one lucky girl.

Okay, This is It

This is Brandie's family

This is Jeremy's family

These are the Grandkids.

I didn't get pictures of anyone else that are worth blabbing about a month later.

So I am done with my trip to Idaho. Obviously I don't have enough going on right now, so I have to relive the month that I had so much going on and so much fun.

The End

Almost Done

There is a little known, beautiful spot outside of Kimberly, Idaho

called Cauldron Linn. You drive out in these farm fields and there is a dirt road that leads down there. If you looked back from the road you'd never know it was there.

It is a small scale set of water falls that are very beautiful and dangerous. If you tried to ride this part of the river you wouldn't survive. The water comes out with such force that you'd get sucked in and be recovered several miles down stream. The Boys threw a dead tree in to see where is went.

My little sister Hailey, who won't be "little" much longer. She is getting so tall.
Amazing

The boys tried to watch the tree but never did see it again. For the record, Steve is the shortest boy here by far. Both of my "little" brothers are 6'4''. They remind him of his "shortness" frequently. He tolerates it very well.

Thank you Jordan for sharing this little gem with the rest of us.

Part 4, Christensen Family Reunion

We left my parents house in Idaho with a 13 hour drive North to Kettle Falls, WA ahead of us. We were going to a family reunion on Steve's side of the family. We hadn't been up there for a few years and it is always good to have the girls spend time with their only living Great Grandparents. One of Steve's brothers and his son, and Steve's parents were able to come and there was plenty of other family there to keep us busy. It is a beautiful valley that they live in and it is so refreshing to see farm land and blue, blue skies. We played at the lake, took a hay ride, slept in tents out in the field, rode the pony and El even got on the horse with Todd. It was a wonderful time and we got to see family that I have never met. A great group of people those Christensens are.