Amazing choir concert

My sister, Jamie, is part of the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization and they are having a Christmas concert on December 10th here in Mesa. I have never heard them sing but Jamie tells me it will be amazing. I Love, Love, LOVE Christmas music so I am very excited to go. You should check it out too!

Kyson loves Caleb hugs!!!

It starts out with a nice hug around the neck.

But then Caleb squeezes a little harder...

and a little harder...

and now I don't think Kyson is too fond of this hug.

That's ok we can still be friends:)

What a helpful big brother.

Gotta love boys!

Here she is!

Anna arrived in this world about 1:40AM this morning. Poor Christy went all the way through labor only to end up with a c-section. Anna's heart rate kept dropping and they were getting worried about her. I know Christy is exhausted but we are all so grateful Mom and baby are healthy and doing well. Anna is very cute. When I went to visit this morning I couldn't stop saying how cute she was! Perfect little round face, dark hair and a cute button nose. Kind of reminded me of my own sweet newborns. Here is some evidence of how cute she is:)


I love little baby toes!

Proud Mama and sweet baby.


Oh, and in completely unrelated news...Caleb's test all came back normal (blood work and sweat test). He is a healty as can be, just a little on the small side. I couldn't be more grateful!

Beginning an eternal family

This morning I went to the temple to take pictures of my sister, Christy, and her husband Zach. She wanted to get a few pictures before her baby came. We couldn't have timed any closer because she just let me know her water broke and she is on her way to the hospital to have her baby girl right now!!! We are SO excited to meet little miss Anna Jo Christensen (I'm not sure how she plans on spelling it?). For now here are some of my favorites of the soon to be parents:)





This next picture was one I just about deleted because Christy and Zach are out of focus but then I realized what was in focus...the temple! I thought that was kind of cool!

As Christy and Zach were leaving I saw them holding hands and walking towards the temple. It made me think that they are headed in the right direction as they begin their family. They are going to make wonderful parents and they will be so grateful to know they are sealed together as an eternal family!

Stay tuned for pictures of the first granddaughter on my parents side of the family! Yay!

Stress test or Sweat test?

Last Monday I took both my boys to see their pediatrician. Kyson went for his 18 month check-up and Caleb for his 3 year check-up. It was a little crazy trying to do both boys at the same time! They were both very uncooperative:( Dr. Auxier was concerned about Caleb's growth because he is quite small for his age. I don't think he was weighed correctly because they said he only weighed 26 lbs 8 oz and every time I weigh him at home he is more like 30-31 lbs. Also he is only 35 inches tall, which is quite short! Anyway, Dr. Auxier was concerned enough he decided to have a couple tests done. Both kids were screaming when he was telling me this so I wasn't able to ask a lot of questions. I knew I needed to take Caleb to get his blood drawn and someone from Phoenix Children's would be calling me to set up a test.
The next day I got a call from someone at Phoenix Children's and I thought they said we were scheduling a stress test. Well later I started wondering what this was all about. Why was Dr. Auxier scheduling a stress test for Caleb? The purpose of a stress test is to make sure the heart is working correctly. Did Dr. Auxier hear something that he was concerned about? Why didn't he tell me more about this? The more I thought about it the more worried I got! I finally called Dr. Auxier's office to ask what was really going on. I asked the nurse why he was getting a stress test and she was very confused. She said, I see that Dr. Auxier prescribed a sweat test...not a stress test. Oh!!! That makes more sense. A sweat test is to check for cystic fibrosis and one of the first signs is failure to grow. At least I understood the reason behind the test and why the doctor prescribed it!
Well, on Thursday I took Caleb to get his blood drawn and Friday we headed down to Phoenix Children's for the sweat test. I have to say that it was interesting going back to that hospital. It's been awhile...thankfully! As I was going down the elevator the thought crossed my mind that Caleb is about 3 1/2 and that is just about the age that Kyson will be for the 3rd surgery. Yikes! Caleb knows and understands so much, what's it going to be like taking a child his age to have open heart surgery?!? I try not to think about it too much but being at the hospital it was hard not too!
Anyway, Caleb's test went well and didn't take as long as I had expected. He got big "muscles on his arms!" (as the nurse put it) They wrapped his arms in celophane and a heating pad and then waited 30 min. I took a picture with my cell phone while we were in the waiting room.

Caleb put out plenty of sweat so we were successful the first time! I was grateful!
Now I am anxiously awaiting the news of how this all went. I have never had any concerns with Caleb's health. He seems quite healthy to me but I guess it is better to be precautious! Thankfully Kyson seems to be doing well at this time. Dr. Auxier was happy with his weight gain and I am thankful. That has always been a concern with him.
Good health is such a blessing and something I have always taken for granted! When we are healthy we don't seem to appreciate everything our bodies do. I sure hope I can keep my children healthy this winter and I hope all of Caleb's tests show he is healthy as can be!

Halloween

Last Monday we carved pumpkins to start off our week of Halloween fun! It was a little early since our pumpkins looked terrible by the end of the week but it was was fun anyway. Our boys just weren't sure about gutting the pumpkins. They were both making the funniest faces the whole time.




Halloween night turned out to be a fun night. It's been our tradition to spend the night at the Moore's. Jared used to live in their neighborhood and loves going back once a year. It really is a great place to go trick-or-treating.

Here's our little Woody and Doctor.

I decided to take on the challenge of making Kyson's costume. I haven't sewed with a pattern hardly at all in my life so I was proud of how the pants turned out. My Mom ended up doing the shirt because I just didn't have time to do it. My sister, Natalie, made his little booties. All in all I thought he was pretty darn cute!

Caleb loved his costume. He walked around saying things like, "Ride 'em Cowboy!" or "There's a snake in my boots!"

The Moore's had a bubble machine that blew bubbles all across their yard. Kyson wanted to play with them all night. He kept making a dash outside to play with them.

My family was here for the weekend so they ended up joining us in the Moore's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. Here is a picture of them all...Caleb as Woody, Stephen as a farmer, Amber as The Cat In The Hat, Kyson as the doc, and Jason as a soccer player.