Take the Time to Watch

I love this speech. It still gets me motivated every time I hear it. I wonder what ever happened to true conservative principles, Reagan was such a great president. I hope we all take the time to think about where this country has been and where it's heading as we approach this election. Posted by Stew :).

A Very Merry Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year. Christmas Eve we went over to Stewart's family for dinner, it was delicious. We hung out there for a while and were excited when we got a visit from Santa Claus. All the kids were very excited to see him and he handed out candy canes, which was the only thing that Ella was happy about when Santa was there. Maybe next year she will like him. Then we headed over to my mom's and opened our Christmas Eve PJ's and then put Ella to bed. Then we put together her new baby stroller which she loves. Christmas morning came very early, we opened up lots of presents and I had so much fun watching Ella. She was so excited about everything she got. She loved everything. She even got a Winnie the Pooh- she is obsessed and has liked him forever so I finally got her one. Then we had a yummy breakfast, talked to Stewart's brother Andrew who is on a mission, visited with Stewart's family some more, played wii all day long, and even had a sweet football game outside. It was two hand touch so we all survived- although I bit the dust and now I am all scratched up with some bruises but it was a great time. Everyone but my mom and of course Ella played because they were getting dinner ready- which was also very yummy. We were sad when the day came to and end, it was a very Merry Christmas. We love our family very much and had so much fun with the. I hope you all had a great Christmas:)

Gingerbread Cookies

So the first picture has nothing to do with cookies but I thought it was so funny. She was mad for no reason really, I think just because we wanted to take her picture. Anyway, I made Stewart make gingerbread cookies with me yesterday and we had so much fun. We listened to Christmas music and seriously had such a fun time. We were being so dumb and laughing so hard, it was a great. Nobody wanted to help make the cookies but when it came time to decorating everyone was in. We made them at Stewart's moms so his little brothers helped decorate them. They turned out delicious and it was fun to do right before Christmas. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas.

Chubby bum:)

How cute is this little bottom? Poor girl will hate this picture 10 years from now, but I thought I would get a picture before she runs off all of her cute baby chub. She loves to get in the bath and when she gets out she HATES to get in her pj's so she runs around until I can catch her to get some clothes on her. She is so cute, too bad the chubbiness is only acceptable on babies:) and not so cute when your older.

Let's just get over it!

So, it was my day off today and since Ella was sleeping I decided to be lazy and just watch TV. I watched The View, and sometimes it gets a little crazy.
I have never understood why exactly racism exists, especially in this day and age. I hate it. Everyone is put on this earth for a different reason and to do different things. It should not matter if you are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or whatever. You could be green for all I care. Ok, maybe not green, that is just wierd. Anyway on The View today they were talking about of course, how Barack Obama is a black man running for president. So, just in case no one knows, there is a black man running for president.... and? I thought it was interesting because they bought up that his wife is "very dark skinned," as they put it and were talking about how it would be different if his wife were white. A few girls said that they thought it would make both white people angry as well as black people. WHY? Can we not just get over that God made people different. What kind of world would this be if we all looked alike. BORING!!!! I guess I should make it clear that I think what matters when we elect a president is, what they bring to the table as far a what they stand for, what there plan is to make this a better country, and safer country to live in. I say we should make me president:) Just kidding- but really people can't we just get over it and get down to what really matters..... What candidate is going to make the best President. I say lets start fresh with all new candidates..... I'm sick of all of them. How much longer until elections?
I hope I didn't offend anyone.

Here's to a better Christmas for Ella this year!

Yay for Christmas this year. As you can tell from the pictures, last year was not the best "first" Christmas ever for Ella. We were in the hospital for 5 days over Christmas. She had RSV and a urinary track infection. Yuck. We tried to be festive and decorate but it's still the hospital. This year we are all ready and can't wait for Santa Claus to visit. Although Ella only likes Mr. Clause from a distance. We took her to see Santa, as expected she was not a fan. Mostly screaming and wanting off his lap. I will post the picture soon. So funny. She loves our Christmas decorations and loves to say, "ho,ho,ho." We always go outside to look at our lights because she loves them. I love Christmas time, and I can't believe how much more fun it is with a Ella. I'm sure she won't even care about her presents, but oh well. I am so excited.

Happy Sunday:)

Not to much to report here. I don't have to alot to write about but wanted to put up a few cute pictures of Ella. Today was pretty laid back, Stewart has been sleeping all day. We went to church and came home and he slept till dinner because it's the end of the semester and he has been pulling all nighters. And we still have two years of school, ugh! My Mom and Trent came over for dinner and then we were going to go the the Christmas devotional but I guess they decided not to re- broadcast it at our stake center, lame. So now I am just hanging out and Stewart is working on home work again and will be up all night long, poor guy.

On another note Ella has decided she loves candy canes. I was eating one and gave her a taste thinking she wouldn't like it, but sure enough it has sugar so of course she likes it. She has also really loved Stewart's guitar- she like to play it and when Stew plays she dances away. Her new dance move is twisting her hips back and forth- pretty dang funny. Anyway, hope everyone is having a great day:)

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We are all decorated for Christmas here at the Christensen household. We have had the best weekend decorating as a family. Ella has even helped, the best way that Ella can help. We even bought a real tree this year. I love it. Seriously it smells wonderful and looks great. We don't have to many ornamets but we still think it is the best tree ever:) We even stuck a few on from our first Christmas when we made all of the ornamets ourselves. One of the most fun things we did was hang lights on our house. The sweet old school bulbs, and let me tell you it is simple but the pictures don't really do it justice. I also posted a few new cute things we got at the store in St. George. It has always made me crazy that we didn't have any place to put our stockings up so I was so excited to find this stocking hanger posted below. Yay! The funniest thing about the Christmas decorating was when were getting things out from storage we let Ella play with Stewart's nativity from his mission. Who new she would get so attached. Notice the random picture of her in her bath. That's right- she had to take a bath with every peice. She has to have All of them in her hands at one time. She drops one occasonally and it is so funny to watch her try and get them back in her hand. She dropped one right by Stewart and he picked it up to hand it to her and she leaned in and opened her mouth, she wanted him to put it in her mouth and then continued to walk around the house like that for a good while. Funny girl. I tied to put them in her bucket so it would be easier for her to carry around, but that just wasn't going to happen- she had to carry them. We are all excited here and can't wait for Christmas.

Sledding!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Brian Head with Stewart's family. There was no snow when we got there but then it snowed a little so we decided to take Ella sledding. She loved it, the whole time she was being pulled she had a huge smile on her face. She loved just sitting in there and just kept saying "snow!" We got home yesterday because Stewart had to teach his sunday school class, so last night we started decorating for Christmas. We stopped at this cute little store to get a few new decorations in St. George. They are so cute. We go all the decorations up and now just need to put up our tree. Yay for Christmas! I will post pictures soon.

Ella's New Obsession

Life has been so busy that I haven't had time to post in a while. Anyway, lately Ella has been obsessed with carrying anything and everything around. Notice like 10 suckers. She also has to carry around as many things as she can fit in her hands at one time.... mostly clothes, pictures, her halloween candy (good thing she can't open it). It is funny to watch- she just walks around the house doing her own thing.
She is getting so big. She is talking more and more and just learning new things everyday. Now when you ask her how old she is she puts up her finger for one. So funny. You can get them to do anything at this age:) She is so fun, I am really loving this age. Except for the whole teething part. She has three teeth trying to come in but they just wont cut through. I can see white but thats about it... poor girl.

The Silverman!

A 2.5 mile swim (in lake mead)- 112 mile bike ride- and last but not least a marothon. I just wanted to give a little shout out to my husband who did a marvelous job in the Silverman. I am sad to report he didn't finish the whole thing, but he did so dang good. He has basically not trained at all because he is soo busy with school and work but was still able to finish the swim and most of the biking. How amazing that he made it that far. I am so impressed. They had until 3:45 to hit a certain point in the biking and he made it to that but then was done. He has about 19 miles left for the biking but he was far to tired to continue on. He would have only had one hour and fifteen minutes to ride 19 miles. Not so easy. So he decided, "I'm done!" Who can blame the guy? He did so amazing and we are so proud of him. I would have drowned in the lake. His Dad did it with him and also participated last year and is running the marathon as I type. I really don't know how they do it. Yay for Stewart and his dad. You guys are amazing- way to go:) More pictures to come from the biking.

Ella Hazel

Ella's one year pictures are up on my sister in laws website. You should check them out. www.annarasmussen.instaproofs.com

I've been tagged!

This is a different tag, so here are the rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 little-known facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog


1. When I was little I took a whole pack of birth control pills. All I can really think of is that I thought it was candy. So I guess we are lucky to have Ella and it didn't effect me for life taking them so young:)
2. I'm a shy person and have a hard time going out of my comfort zone. But because I cut hair I can really talk to anyone about anything and can remember lots of information that they tell me, usually:)
3. I absolutely hate public pools.... yuck. It grosses me out just thinking about them. It's weird I know, but what can I say. I think that I am this way because of wet n' wild. You all know what I am talking about, the lazy river (the nice pee yellow that it was) and the hair floating around in the pools. Totally nasty.
4. I don't like chocolate- I know you are all thinking... "what?!?" I'm a sour candy kinda girl
5. I love Golden Spoon
6. I am not a morning person- at all. I just hate getting out of bed, but it is easier now that I get to go see Ella's smiling face- she is always so happy to see me in the morning

I tag:
Anna
Danielle
Libby
Carly
Ashley
Kata

Halloween

We had a very busy Halloween. We went to 3 trunk or treats... saturday, tuesday and wednesday. With lots of family in town there is always something to do, and it was fun to get Ella dressed up and see our family. I think that Ella is sick of her costume but was a great sport and left her little flower hat thing on for all three trunk or treats. It was fun to get the cousins all dressed up together and they all looked so dang cute. Hope everyone had a happy halloween.

Family Pictures

My sister in law, Anna, who is an amazing photographer took our family pictures. These are a few of the many pictures we took- it is hard to get little miss Ella to look at the camera and actually smile. Anna did a great job, as always. We just did Ella's one year portraits today and I can't wait to see them. She actually smiled and everything. My lucky day. Check them out below and if you want to look at any of her other work you should check out her website at www.annarasmussen.com. She is awesome.

Yummy Birthday cake

This is pretty funny, my daughter is crazy:) I wish that you could see her when we are singing to her because she loves us to sing to her, she gets this huge smile on her face and totally hams it up. We sang to her all weekend, she couldn't get enough! It takes her a minute but then she gets the hang of the whole cake thing. Enjoy!

Ella's 1st birthday

I can't believe my baby is one! It's a little sad but she is at such a fun age. Her birthday was Saturday but we celebrated on Sunday! We had tuns of family over and had a big yummy dinner, presents and then cake. Ella had a grand time with her cake. At first she wasn't to sure about the whole thing but quickly figured it out and from there continued to make a huge, funny mess. Ella has mastered many things in her first year. She is talking (repeating everything we say), walking, eating "big" people food, and is just a joy to be around. She has such a cute personality and I love watching her. Happy Birthday Ella, we love you. Thank you to everyone who came and gave her such cute things, and to my mom who helped with the whole thing!

BYU vs UNLV

So we went to the BYU, UNLV football game last weekend and had a great time. It was nice to go out on a date and just have fun. Life gets so wrapped around having a baby that sometimes you forget what it is like to go out and be your old self (pre-baby). Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change having Ella for anything but adult time is also nice. Well BYU kicked UNLV'S butt. It was a little sad to look out on the crowd at a UNLV home game and no one is even cheering for UNLV. Seriously the BYU fans dominated the stadium. Poor Stew, left alone to cheer for UNLV, although I did finally agree that I would cheer for both teams. It was fun to hang out with Alexis and Gabe who just recently moved back to Vegas from Provo. Yay! They are having a baby this March.... I think that is when. Ella will have a new friend:)

Flashback (almost) Friday

Check out our video below. I haven't watched it in forever and am now realizing how gigantic I was, wow! But I love it... Stewart did a great job. Thanks babe, I love you!

p.s- I am totally on a roll this week, three posts. Maybe I should clean my house:)

Ella Christensen

Flashback (almost) Friday

Ella's been busy!

Photo 1: we were driving and I look back at Ella and see on her face parts of her cardboard book. I look at her book to find that she has chewed two huge holes in it. I thought that is why they made baby books this way- so they wouldn't get torn or chewed apart:)
Photo 2: Ella's crib! These first two are hard to see but this is her crib like I said. She was supposed to be taking a nap and instead was teething on her crib. There are about 15 (or more) of marks where she chewed deep down into the wood. All that time no one sound out of her, she really must have enjoyed this. She already has 6 teeth but now seems to have the need to chew on everything- our couch, coffee table and a short wall we have right when you walk into our house.
Photo 3: I was putting my make-up on in my room and Ella crawled into my bathroom and she found the toilet paper and thought it looked like a great fun. From there she continued to unroll it, and then shreded it into a million little pieces. I think the fun is just beginning with her:) She is a busy almost one year old:)

Cabin and Conference weekend!

Over conference weekend we went up with Stewart's family to the cabin in Brian Head. It was fun to have everyone together, but Ella gets nervous with big groups. She gets a little clingy to Stewart and I which is funny because when we are home she never wants to be held because she is busy playing with her toys. Anyway, we had a nice relaxing weekend. We watched conference and took family pictures, which is always fun when you have like twenty people in you family. But they should be really cute. We also took individual family pictures. Ella is a ham and wouldn't smile for them but lucky for me she is so cute that they will turn out cute anyway. It is always fun to get all the cousins together so they all can just play and get to know each other a little better. We decided to give them all a bath together and you can tell Ella and Ainsley didn't think that was the best idea ever, and Jake and Adam don't seem to know what there cousins are freaking out about. But the picture makes me laugh. The picture with the two girls was hard to take because Ella just wanted to take Ainsleys headband off and was just all around interested in doing anything besides looking at the camera. Good times!