Thanksgiving 2008

So I'm obviously a little behind at the blog thing, but better late than never! I just wanted to share some of the highlights of our trip to Utah last month. We had such a great time visiting our families and the kids have missed thier cousins since we got home. We loved the warm weather and seeing the mountains covered with snow. We had such a fun time seeing the lights on Temple Square. We miss and love you all!

Ally loves her Aunt Mel!

Ally and Kenedy in all their princess finery.

Ally and "baby" Gavin

Ally and "baby" Easton

Did I mention that Ally loves Mel?

Ally cheesing it up for the camera!

We visited Grandpa at the nursing home. He passed away a few days after we got home. We feel so blessed that we got to see him one last time.

Bekah and Jeff at Temple Square

Jaxon, Michael, and Easton at Temple Square

Michael and his "Best Friend" Caleb. They had such a great time together. It was fun to see them get along so well.

Ally and Brighton. What Cuties!

Girls afternoon out!

I took Kailee, Kenzi and Madi out for lunch and manicures.

Bekah and her buddy Alyssa. I don't think we saw these two for 6 days straight. They set up a beauty parlor and a garage sale in Lyssa's room and entertained themselves for hours on end. They both cried when we had to leave and Alyssa wanted to trade Bekah for Kailee.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Michael Jeffrey Christensen

October 3, 2003

Bloomington, IN

7 lbs. 3 oz.

20 inches

I can't believe that our little boy turns 5 today! I asked him a few questions this morning at breakfast and here is what he said:

What is your favorite color? "Hot pink like Cinnamon Toast's hair" (that's one of Bekah's ponies...hmmm....)

Favorite movie? "Kung Fu Panda"

Favorite song: "I Won't Go Home Without You" by Maroon 5 (hence, the song playing right now if you have the volume up). He loves this song, asks for it all the time and sings along with it ~ very cute!

What do you want to be when you grow up? "Missionary" (proud mom moment)

If you could go on an airplane, where would you go? "to meet Grandma and Grandpa"

Favorite thing about school? "NOTHING!" After a few minutes he did tell me that he likes playing outside on the playground.

Enjoy the pics. They brought back a lot of wonderful memories.

WE LOVE YOU MICHAEL and are so glad you came into our family!

Happy Birthday!

All cleaned up with Bekah and Mom

Bekah holding her new brother

Mikey sleeping

First birthday!

2nd Birthday

Holding new sister Ally

4th birthday party

South Haven, Michigan

Well, as you can see...I am really, really behind on blogging. I have been meaning to post pictures of our trip to South Haven, Michigan so that everyone can see how beautiful Michigan really is. After "complaining" to my family for years that we get tired of spending all of our vacation time and money on traveling to Utah, my awesome family all came here this past August. We rented a great beach house in South Haven, which is on Lake Michigan, and it was awesome! The weather was perfect and it was so fun to be together. Hope this convinces more of you to come visit! We'd love to have you.

Kirk and Mel are the best uncle and aunt!

Jeff swimming with the kids at the beach house pool.

Mike taking on the waves

Sunset

Beautiful shoreline just below the beach house

Sunset at the pier

At the beach. No waves today.

Main street with a veiw of the pier.

Ally

Bekah and Kenedy (Garrett's oldest) Isn't the sand wonderful???!!!

The whole fam. Sorry, it's a little dark.

Gavin (Garrett's baby)

Lins and Mikey

Bekah building a sandcastle

Michael and Jaxon (Steph's oldest) fighting the waves. They did this for hours!

Detroit Redeemed

After the car incident, I've been sort of down on Detroit and the whole Michigan thing. Well, I've come around and for the moment, am really happy to be here. Our week trip to South Haven helped a lot (pictures and post coming soon...) This morning I set out to pick up a few items from the Oriental Market. Long story short, after 3 different stops, I have everything I need and I had such a fun time meeting an old lady from Taiwan who owns this dinky little (very dirty) store, an old man from the Philippines, and some really nice Middle Eastern men. Laura, the lady from Taiwan, just loved the kids, fed them cookies (I was a little nervous judging from the looks of the store, but it seemed to make her so happy), and she just fell in love with Michael. The man from the Philippines was so nice and kept asking me questions about some festival. I couldn't really understand everything he said, but he was so helpful in my search for red curry paste and lomein noodles. Finally, I walked into an Eastern bakery (for all of you who live here, it's called Eastern Bakery and it's on the NE side of 16 and Dequindre. It's awesome!) They have this huge hot oven thing and were making fresh breads/pita/etc. It reminded me so much of my days in Jerusalem. I haven't had bread like that since I had been there. The old men working there couldn't speak much English, but they were busy slaving away over the hot ovens. I bought a big bag of bread fresh from the oven and the kids and I ate fresh, hot flat bread on the way home. I feel so lucky to live in such a culturally diverse area. Now, if we can just keep all of the wheels on the newly fixed Suburban...

Twice in one week!!!

So, Jeff just sent me the following picture. This is how he found his chair at work today. Two wheels missing, up on "blocks." Very funny!!!

One of these things is not like the other...

Can you spot the differences between the following two pictures?

If you said missing wheels, you were right! What about the next set?


Oh, you're so good at this game! Yep, missing Nav screen and stereo!

This is how we found Jeff's car on Saturday as we made our way from the Detroit Science Center. We figure it probably took the %&*^%$'s under 5 minutes to take off the wheels, smash the window and make off with the stereo/DVD player/Nav screen, oh, and Jeff's ipod. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find a Detroit City Cop, waiting for a tow truck, and hitching a ride back home. We spent the evening being angry at this miserable city that we have to call "home."

Let it be said that this was a VERY busy street that we were parked on! It was Saturday afternoon and there were tons of pedestrians, and we were in what the champions of reviving ol' D-Rot call the "New Center" right across from the Science Center, Wayne State, the African American Cultural Center, and the acclaimed DIA. Someone HAD TO HAVE witnessed this atrocity.

As a few days have passed, we're just glad that we were all safe and really, other than the ipod, it was just more of a HUGE inconvenience. We even missed the Dark Knight and dinner date we had planned with friends.

Oh, and if any of you are thinking, "didn't that happen to him before?" you are right! During Jeff's internship 4 years ago, he went outside to find his borrowed Cadillac up on blocks.

Detroit Zoo

The other morning when I checked the weather I saw that it was going to just top 70 degrees with sunny skies so we decided to take an impromptu trip to the zoo. It was the perfect day and no one complained about it being hot. Bekah's favorite thing was the butterfly house where the butterflies fly all around you. Michael liked the lions and really wanted to see the wolverine, since he's really into X-men, but the wolverine was asleep the whole time. Ally just liked being wheeled around in the stroller. We had a great time. Hopefully the weather will provide another chance for us to visit.

The Grand Finale

Bekah's last soccer game of the season

Spring soccer was busy and really fun. We had rain, sun, and Bekah scored a goal! Jeff and Bekah had a fun time playing soccer together and Ally and Michael kept me company on the sidelines all season. The kids won't be playing soccer this fall as the both want to try something different.