Festivities

One of my favorite things about this time of the year is all of the things we get to do together as a family. I love, Love, LOVE spending time with family. Last Wednesday we went to the temple lights and it was fun. Our boys loved them!




This week Jared has been training for his new job for PMT (an ambulance company). He will continue his job at Aerials Express and work for PMT on weekends and maybe a few weekday night shifts. He got this job purely for patient care hours for applying to PA school. We still haven't heard whether or not he got in to AT Still but either way this is great experience. If he doesn't get in, he will have this experience to add to his resume which is awesome! Right now he is out on an ambulance for the first time pulling a 24 hour shift. Crazy! I miss him but he won't be home until tomorrow morning and then he's going to be exhausted! I KNOW what a blessing this job is and I KNOW it is necessary, but that won't stop me from missing him while he's gone so much. Here he is Jared all decked out in his uniform.


While Jared has been gone the kids and I have stayed quite busy today. Caleb and I began the day by making muffins together to take to the ward Christmas breakfast.


Then Kyson woke up...he is usually quite happy in the mornings!

We went to the ward party and had fun. My boys were excited to meet Santa. Caleb especially. When he saw him he was scared but excited all at once. He was very prepared to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. When Santa wasn't making his way to our table fast enough, Caleb stood on his chair and yelled, "Santa I want a scooter for Christmas!" Ha Ha, the boy knows what he wants. I didn't catch any pictures of Caleb watching Santa but here's one of Kyson. He was intrigued!

After the breakfast we went a lunch party with some old roomates. It was so fun to see everyone again. I didn't really get any good pictures because I was chasing my boys around the entire time but we had fun!
This Friday is Christmas and I am so excited! Jared doesn't have any work Thursday through Sunday so we will all be together those days! I'm looking forward to it!

Yes, I am blessed!

See these girls? They are amazing and I am so blessed to be able to call them some of my greatest friends ever! There was a time while I was at EA when I spent every waking moment with these girls and I loved it. We have some of the funniest and most ridiculous memories ever...and we cherish them!

We had a fun Christmas party together last Tuesday and we had a great time! Jessica and Salaina put a lot of work into organizing it so thanks a ton girls!!!

Oh, and a few couldn't make it that night. We sure missed you April, Jodie, and Emily!

Christmas fun with friends

Our wonderful and amazing friends invited us over about a week ago to make Gingerbread cookies and a fun Christmas craft. We sure had a great time! Karli had already made the dough for the gingerbread cookies so when we got there we had fun cutting out little gingerbread boys and girls and Christmas trees! I think the boys had the most fun putting red hots on the cookies. Put one on a cookie...eat two. Put another one on a cookie...eat three! Ha ha, they had fun!


While waiting for all the cookies to cook and cool off we did a little project together. Of course Karli found this adorable little craft the boys could do. We cut out 10 of their hands and made them into a Christmas tree.


Caleb didn't stay very interested but once he didn't want to do it anymore, Kyson jumped up and helped me decorate his tree. It turned out quite cute!

Gotta love when Caleb gives out his cheesiness.

Once the cookies were cool enough we decorated them with frosting and ate them! They were super yummy! I love this look on Caleb's face.

Concentrating very hard on eating that cookie.

Kyson wasn't feeling 100% that day but he sure enjoyed this cookie anyway:)

Thanks friends for all of the fun! We had a great time.

Annual Christmas tree hunt

Last weekend we went to Show Low to hunt down our perfect Christmas tree. We had a great time although it was freeeeezing cold!

To begin our hunt for our tree we took a family picture:

We were quite bundled up!

As we walked around I took a picture of my boys with Amber (my littlest sis):


Here we are loading up the truck after finding the five trees we needed.


When we got home Sunday night Jared and I put the tree in the stand so we could decorate it for FHE Monday night. Caleb was very excited about it. I told him we would decorate it when Daddy got home from work and he kept asking me when Daddy was coming home. The second Jared walked through the door, Caleb was begging to get out the decorations. After dinner we did just that! It was fun watching our boys get excited about helping out. In the end only two ornaments broke so I guess we were successful!


I LOVE having our Christmas tree up. It makes it feel like Christmastime!

Anna Jo

Wow! I am so far behind! I have been meaning to post some of these pictures of my Sister's baby for a couple weeks now. It was my first attempt at taking pictures of a newborn and I have to say...it was difficult! She did NOT want to hold still for us. It took a long time but I think we got a few really cute ones. I definitely learned a lot!








Sweet Baby, and Proud Mama!

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!