Valentine's Day

What a beautiful day where we can express our love to our loved ones. Let me just gush a tinsy about my loved ones:)

Scot: I am so lucky to have such an understanding, supportive husband. You unselfishly encourage me to pursue my interests and hobbies and I am so grateful to have you by my side.

Alex: Even though we don't always see "eye to eye" (well, mostly because you tower over me by almost a foot), you are and always will be my first born, which indeed makes you extra special to me. I love how you are kind and sensitive and try to be a good big brother to your siblings.

Sean: This is our last year to have you around before you are off to college. You have made me proud as I watch you take the right steps to make a positive and bright future for yourself! I can always count on you to make me smile - constantly cracking jokes.

Haili: You are getting a double dose with your Birthday blog just before this. What more can I say? I certainly won the draw on getting you for my daughter. I have so much fun being your mom. We have so much in common - same interests.

Emma: I think you will always be my baby no matter how big you get. I love how you cuddle up during movies and let me kiss you good bye every morning before school. I call you my little love bug (Valentine appropriate) for a reason.

Birthday girl turns 13

January 4, 2011

Thirteen years have passed since this red-headed beauty entered our world

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. Her qualities continue to amaze me as she grows into a young lady.

She has confidence with a very strong will.

She shows kindness to all around her.

She is so creative and comes up with the coolest projects and has incredible talent in painting, sewing, and creating things.

She keeps our family laughing with her silliness.

I am so impressed with how smart she is.

I love how she puts her many talents to good use.

I am so proud to call her mine.

Family Dinner

Cake time

It took her about 10 minutes to blow the last trick candle out.

Heavy, Heavy hangover

The weekend after her Birthday, she had her best friends over for games, food, and fun!

This little game was a huge hit:

The girls rolled two dice. If they rolled doubles, they grabbed the make-up and went to work on the girl to their right.

It was so funny to see them decorated faces - unibrows, mustaches, sideburns were definitely what these girls were going for:)

Hanging out

It got a little crazy there. Even Emma and her friend started goofing around.

I could not snap a good pic of these sillies. They were seriously crazy girls. I'm surprised my neighbors didn't complain with all the screaming and laughing going on.

Disney Land

Our "Big Surprise" Disney Land was a big hit!

It was especially nice weather when we arrived and the pool was warm and inviting for all our kiddos.

Can't get enough of this baby Brightyn...love her!

The jungle safari ride is a favorite for all

This is a glimpse of what we did for 3 days...waited in REALLY LONG LINES.

We later found out that the park had to close down because of the crowds (apparently the week after Christmas is not a good time to go).

We caught up with a few characters

Stitch

This little character is my favorite.

Tucker makes everything we do so entertaining.

Getting Mickey's autograph

Sean even got a hug from this character

We made so many family memories and enjoyed every minute of this Magical place.

Christmas in St. George

Christmas was full of memories, surprises, and last but not least relaxation!

We spent the season with my sister Jeni's family and my mom in St. George. Our kids really got into the spirit of Christmas this year, getting each other and us gifts. They even searched for the perfect gift for Grandma and their cousins.

We spent the couple of days before Christmas watching movies, painting a Nativity set, and planning delicious meals (It's true, Christmas is the best time for our family favorite recipes). And the kids even got some swimming time in - it was pretty warm the week before Christmas!

Christmas Eve dinner is a traditional Clam Chowder in bread bowls. This year we made broccoli cheese soup as well for the non-clam eaters.

After dinner was all cleaned up, we opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas (who doesn't have this tradition?).

Next on the list of events was the Nativity!

We scrounged around the house looking for costume pieces and accessories.
The Cast:
Mary & Joseph - Emma & Tanner
Baby Jesus - Brightyn
Angel - Bridget
Shepherd - Tucker
Wise Man - Bayli
Donkey - Haili

After the scriptures were read, we sang Christmas songs and listened to the Messiah. Matt also organized a game that we had fun with.

Then off to bed for Santa to come! Sleeping 15 people in a 3 bedroom house is interesting, especially when Santa needs to sneak in, but we pulled it off.

Christmas morning came far too soon. I slept through the night without even peeking at Santa. Jeni was supposed to wake me up to get a glimpse of him, but she kept that all to herself.

We slept in till 7!

Sean was happy with some cash in his stocking

Alex was trying to wake up

We took our time opening gifts.

We really scaled back to only necessity items since our kids were in for a big surprise.

Emma was super excited for this game from Grandma!

After all the gifts were opened, it was time for the big surprise!

Wouldn't you know that my camera batteries died just at that moment. So you can check out our big surprise jeni's blog.

After the big surprise, we made and ate Danish Coffee cakes (from our Christensen family tradition). These delicious rolls were made every Christmas morning by my Grandma Rhea when I was growing up. Jeni and I have worked pretty hard to make them as fluffy and delicious as hers always were. I have to admit that we are getting pretty good at it:) They were scrumptious!

After brunch was cleaned up, we started our Christmas Day dinner that consists of Prime rib, baked potatoes, homemade rolls, and delicious vegetable dishes.

We ate and ate, then ate some more!

Perfect Christmas day...

November Birthdays & Llewelyn Family Christmas party

We have a tradition of gathering together with our "Llewelyn" family and exchanging all our gifts. This year, since our family would be in St. George over Christmas, we bumped the party up to the week before Christmas.

The cousins all exchange gifts and Grandma and Grandpa pull out all kinds of surprises for our families.

I was in a "sewing kick" and had so much fun making PJs for my nieces.

Taylor modeling her strawberry jamas

The teenagers (Ashli, Ciara, Alissa) modeling their matchy matchy capri/T pajamas

Remember that sewing kick?
My mother-in-law and I made 30 frilly aprons in cute, trendy fabrics.
Grandpa tried one on for modeling purposes:)

Now let's go back to November

(I apologize for my quarterly blogging! I do realize it is February and posting November Birthdays is pretty lame, but oh well.)

Sean turned 18 on the 20th! He celebrated "adult style", hanging out at home watching another Birthday pass by.

The girls were in a decorating mood and I just let them have at it!

They baked the cupcakes and decorated them Christmasy for their big Bro!



Emma turned 10 on November 16th!

She celebrated "Kid style" with cousins, a friend party, and lots of presents!

We took her to Fat Cats with a group of girls for bowling and yummy Costa Vida. Emma is so competitive in every sport and bowled like a pro!

And last, I just had to post a pic of the girls in their homemade Halloween costumes

Haili cut strips of fabric to make this feathery skirt for her Peacock costume. We bought the peacock feathers at Hobby Lobby and she made a little board to attach to her waist.

Emma (Pebbles) is wearing a leopard skin velvet that I made (still that same sewing kick). We ratted her hair out and added bones for the full effect.

I think I posted about the girls taking the no candy for a year challenge (It ends on Valentines Day), so eating trick or treat candy wasn't possible this year.

It's being stored in the freezer:)

BTS & other randoms

The top of Timp was breathtaking, literally BREATHTAKING!

My friend Joy, my son Alex w/ Jessica and I all made it!

There were some tricky places along the way

Twenty miles produced very achy feet and sore muscles that lasted days after the hike.

I seriously couldn't walk down the stairs for two days.

Emma with her very own cabbage plant just before we picked it to eat...

it was delicious

Haili is a seventh grader at CVJH this year!

She was super excited to go to school.

Loves all her classes and is especially excited to begin percussion in band.

Thinks it's funny that most of her teachers remember her brothers.

I guess there's not too many Llewelyns running around her school:)

Our baby, Emma is in the 4th grade this year!

Can't believe it, but it's true.

She was thrilled to have our back door neighbor friend in her class.

Emma's teacher is brand new and eager to get in and do a fabulous job.

I have not posted any news about our chickens!

They are just about full grown.

No eggs yet, but we know they are getting close.

We let the chickens run free in our back yard during the day

and they really do keep all the bugs down.

It's always a race for our kids to go out to the coop in the morning to be the first to check for eggs.

I've discovered chickens are not very smart!

I've been trying to train them by spraying them with water (which they hate) every time they come onto the patio. It's been a month and they still haven't learned.

They better start laying soon or they might end up in the crock pot.

These two are so friendly. They follow us all around the yard.

Funny birds