Who Is This Charming Little Princess?

This is me with big brother Scott. It's a wonder I lived to adulthood.

Me and BFF cousin Brooke. We had a series of matching outfits growing up.

I don't know how I managed to play soccer with my non-aerodynamic triangle hair, but I did.

Pay no attention to the gaudy couch and carpet behind the dancing girl...


Is there any resemblance here between these two pictures? I promise that Ben didn't procreate all by himself.

Monkey Boy

Little monkey talking on the phone

Little monkey hat

Blowing mommy's whistle

Do any of these things look familiar, Grandma J? Like maybe the hot pad hooked around E's thumb? Yes, he was dragging it around like a shopping bag. And do you realize you taught him how to blow the whistle with that airplane toy? So exciting. He's very proud. I don't think his cheeks are really inflated though. They're just plump like they've always been. And in the top picture he's talking on the phone on his spoon. Didn't you know that you put the phone on the back of your neck to talk on it? Silly.

Utah Family Fun--Part 3

So tired after such a big and fun day! He snuggled right up with his new stuffed zebra and went to sleep.

His hands have to grow a little to be as big as a gorilla's. But it's already better than last year because he was so little he would only make a fist when we held it up to measure!

We tried to get Emerson to do it too, but he wouldn't stand still

Aunt Nat taking a traditional "How Do You Measure Up?" picture

He loved the carousel. As soon as we stuck him on he started bouncing to make it go like his rocking horse

The traditional getting-eaten-by-a-lion picture

E showing off his awesome new hat

Grandma J and Steph on the zoo train

Mommy and Little E on the train

E and his second cousin Brighton (It was fun to see you Brookie and Karen!)

Ok, so it's a toss up as to what Emerson's favorite thing was. He LOVED pushing this little stroller around. It was just the perfect size. And he also loved the water bottles scattered around the floor.

After we got back from the condo, we went and saw the Christensens for one last time before Ben flew home. I got to stay for a few more days and do girl stuff. I had a great time with my mom going out to lunch, going swimsuit and bra shopping (yipee for new bras), coloring with my sisters (yes, we still love coloring books), going to the zoo, and going out to dinner lots. I LOVE this restaurant we went to for breakfast one morning. It's called Ruth's Diner and it's up Emigration Canyon just a little way. It has won a number of awards and is to die for! I had such a great time that it was hard to leave. (But of course I missed Ben and wanted to get home to him too.) I think it was hard for Emerson to leave too because he got more than a little attention there. I think he feels deprived now that we're home and it's just him and good old mom around all day. We had a great time visiting everyone. Thanks so much Mom and Dad for flying us out and making it such a fun trip! We miss you tons and we can't wait to see you again in August!

Utah Famiy Fun--Part 2

You know how kids always like the box that something comes in instead of the actual item? This was the same for Emerson. He found this shopping bag with a rope handle and he hooked it around his thumb and toted it around FOREVER. It was his favorite thing. I promise we had toys around.

Mommy and E going swimming at the condo

Daddy and E putting their toes in

We spotted 2 Mooses (Meese? Moosen?) on our drive from Cascade Springs!

The Fam (minus Scott & Ashley and me)

Utah Family Fun--Part 1

It makes me giggle how he's all blurry in this picture

Having a good time

1...2...3...Wee!

Playing with the dogs

Daddy let E play in the irrigation water and he liked it. I'm not sure Mommy would've allowed it had she realized...

So these pictures uploaded all higgledy-piggledy and are out of order, but they will still do the job of documenting our trip to Utah. My parents (namely my dad) needed a grandson fix so they generously offered to fly us out. We decided that Memorial Day would work best with Ben's school, even though we really wanted to be in Utah for the Fourth of July and all of its festivities.

Ben's family was completely unaware that we were coming out, so we enjoyed surprising them. We send little e into Grandpa Tom's office and it took him a couple of seconds to realize it was really his grandson. (And we can't really blame him because he was all out of context.) Then Grandma Dixy and all of the Christensen aunts and uncles were super surprised to find Emerson sitting in the foyer when they got home from school. We spent the first 2 days mostly hanging out with the Christensens since my family was at work and school all day. Ben was excited to meet the family's new dogs and he wanted Emerson to be excited too. I was surprised because little e loved them and laughed when they licked him. (I'm not a huge dog fan, so I kept my distance and didn't enjoy the dog saliva smell all over Emerson when he was done playing...yuck.)

We went to my family's condo in Midway for Memorial Day and had a great time hanging out. We watched a movie, roasted marshmallows, had some yummy dinners by Mimzy and went on a really long drive to Cascade Springs. :) It was quite an adventure. The road to Cascade Springs really isn't that long, but we decided to try a different way home, and it seemed that the road kept taking us farther away and then we ran into some snow drifts and just when we were almost back to Midway on the bumpy road less traveled (and for good reason) we found out the road was closed due to snow. (What!?) So we had to turn all the way around and go back. It was fun though and I had total confidence in my dad's driving.

Gosh I Love These Boys...

It kills me how alike they are.

Clap Clap Clap!

We had Aunt Nat for a visit for a whole week! We had lots of fun and did lots of things. She taught Emerson where his various body parts are located, how to make his toy animals walk, and most importantly, how to give high fives. We also had him clap on command, hence the title: Clap Clap Clap! As long as you say it and do it at the same time, Emerson will obey.

Emerson had such a big day that he fell asleep in his highchair before eating dinner.

We got to see the new baby elephant at the zoo.

This was our reaction to the nasty turtles mating. Yes, we accidentally witnessed the gigantic turtles at the Columbus Zoo mating. It was DISGUSTING.

We also made Cafe Rio for Cinco de Mayo. Yum.

Our amazing creamy tomatillo dressing

Child and Nat playing at COSI

E in his little rain slicker playing in the water exhibit.

He had an absolute blast at the little kids' play area

We also had lots of fun at German Village, the American Whistle Factory, and just hangin'. Thanks for the fantastically fun trip, Nattie! You're the coolest.

Happy Mother's Day

I've been reflecting on mothers a lot today and have had a good Mother's Day myself so far although it's been weird not to be in Utah with our own mothers. However, Ben is grilling up the steaks right now for our own little Mother's Day feast....mmmm.

I'm so grateful to have been raised by such a wonderful mother. She's very fair, thoughtful, loving, funny, beautiful, generous, precious and fun. Mom, you don't give yourself enough credit for all of your many talents! Ever since I was little I wanted to grow up to be just like you, and I still feel that way. You're a wonderful example of motherhood and have done such a good job with all of us kids. I appreciate you so much more since becoming a mom, and I'm sure there are still things I don't understand fully and won't until I've been a mother longer. Thanks for teaching all of us so well and for being such a great example. You've already made it as a mom and a grandma! How talented of you! Thanks for everything. I love you so much!

I'm also grateful for my mother-in-law. She is also a good example of motherhood. I'm glad she raised such a respectable boy for me to marry. And I'm grateful to her for including me in their family. "I like them a lot." (That's Christensen code for expressing love and/or appreciation.)

P.S. Mom, click here to see the rest of your Mother's Day present!

Catch Up

Mixing bowl hat family

King E with his miniature gorilla

Mini-Kong getting ready to go down the slide

King E helping mini-Kong go down the slide. (He laughed hysterically the first time Mommy did it and tried to mimic me.)

Just a quick catch up of our activities. We were watching King Kong one night and realized that Emerson got a miniature gorilla toy in a pack of animals we gave him for his birthday so we gave it to him and laughed a lot because he was a giant boy with a little gorilla. And we've been spending a lot of time with mixing bowls on our heads because that's one of Emerson's favorite toys and he thinks it's funny.

Stirring Things Up

(Please excuse missing and floppy socks in these pictures. I know he looks ragamuffinish)

I just thought I'd post really quick one of Emerson's favorite things to do these days. He LOVES to stir things. Well, let me back up. First, he loves to drop things into some kind of container and he has always loved spoons of any kind. So when I was making dinner one night and he was being a "big helper" I had the idea of giving him some toys to stir around. It was a hit and now it's one of his favorite things. (I tried goldfish crackers, but quickly discovered he likes to pulverize them into tiny bits and make a huge mess....bad idea.) Recently he's moved on to throwing things into containers, or picking things up out of containers and then throwing them across the kitchen floor. I love seeing his little arm raised up as high as it can go and then quickly fling something straight into the ground. It's so cute.