She Swims! & Pioneer Activity

Eliana had her last swim lesson for the summer on Thursday and she is now SWIMMING!! She can swim all over, the only catch is that she swims under water....she can't swim above the water yet. Today we went to a friends pool and she swam with no floaties or anything for about 2 hours! We are so proud of her!

I got one some of my set-up for our in home studio... the background is not so pretty yet... I do have my lights though and have been just checking settings etc. So despite the unfinished background, I love this picture of Eliana.

Pioneer Day

Today they had a pioneer day activity for the children at church. They were suppose to come dressed as pioneers and I didn't have anythinge except the bonnet that was mine when I was little. I was talking to a friend here about going and she let us borrow the dress Eliana is wearing. She was so cute in it. She really wouldn't cooperate for the picture but atleast you can see the outfit. I remembered I had a bonnet so I put it on Julia for fun and she was a pioneer baby.

I love her baby blues!!!

Quotes by Eliana

I've been meaning to write this down for awhile so I will remember but decided I should post it on here so I will have a record of it. Eliana says cute and funny things sometimes... about a week ago as it was getting close to bedtime, Eliana said to me, "Mommy, you have a choice, do you want to color with me or do you want to play with me... that's the deal." Of course she's heard me say things like this to her plenty of times, but I thought it was pretty cute.

Then last night I asked to help me clean up the downstairs, to take her toys up to her play area before bed. She said , "Oh, yeah, Keep Arizona Clean." I said, uh yeah exactly. Then she said, "Mommy, Do Heavenly Father and Jesus live in Arizona?"

Today we went to the UPS store and Coldstone is right next door. Eliana saw Coldstone and of course wanted to stop and get some ice cream. I told her that I didn't have money for ice cream today. She talked about it some more while we were in the UPS store and when we were leaving she was again talking about wanting to go to coldstone and she said to me, "Mommy, I bet they have money in Coldstone. " I asked her if I was suppose to go in and ask for money to get ice cream and she said yes... I tried to explain that they wouldn't give us money... then she said, "Mommy I bet if you ask really nicely they will give you money." and I told her I didn't think so, then she said, "Maybe if you ask strongerestly they will give you money." She was really thinking and trying to figure out how to get some ice cream!

I guess what they say is true, Kids say the darndest things!

5 months!

Our little Jewel is now 5 months old! I can't believe how fast the months are flying by! She's so cute and so fun! Her bottom teeth are about to pop through and she's not liking that too much but she is generally a very happy little girl!

Photography

One big reason I haven't posted is because in any free time that I have had I have been working on getting my photography business going. We are going to open a small studio in the house for babies and kids. We are working on a real website right now. I will let you know when it has been published. It's been fun and exciting.

MIA

It's been awhile since I have posted. Julia is teething and hasn't been able to sleep well day or night! Last night was the first night in 2 wks that she has slept 4 hours straight! It has mostly been 2-3 hours! She was sleeping 6 hours, then 3 more! I guess I was spoiled. She's been napping well today so I am hoping that means good things for tonight. Here's a picture of her in her new exersaucer. I was really excited that I found this on craigslist and paid $30 for it. New they cost $100. She LOVES it and so do I!

Just had to post a picture of how long Eliana's hair is getting! When it's wet, it's a LOT longer!

Our Anniversary

While in California, Christian and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! We had a great day... we got to go back to the LA Temple where we were married! That was great! Here is a picture that I took of the temple while there. We also went to our favorite resturant in So Cal... they make the BEST tortillas EVER!!!

In the evening we went to the movies. Overall it was a great day! I am so blessed! Christian is such an amazing husband! We have had an amazing 6 years!

4th of July 2006 and 2008....

This is a picture from the fireworks show we went to in Philadelphia back in 2006. It is one of the top 3 fireworks shows in the US and it was AMAZING. We were living just over the river from Philly in Maple Shade, NJ. We lived there with our great friends, Christian's cousin... Jason and his wife Jenolyn. Jenolyn and I became like sisters and Jarin and Eliana were the best of friends. This year we spent the evening of the 4th with them at their new house on the ranch :) and watched many distant fireworks shows and just hung out. Eliana and Jarin are still great friends even though they don't see each other very often. They were all hugs. As I was preparing the posting from this year, I started reminiscing and decided to post some photos from our time in NJ... :)

The Christensen's in Philly from the top of the "rocky" stairs at the museum of art.

Then....

and

Now....



Audrey is so beautiful!!


The kids sat in the back of Jason's truck in the front yard to watch the fireworks in the distance... and their daddies doing little fireworks on the driveway.

4th of July

We spent the day of the 4th at Christian's parents house swimming. Kelly and Morgan came up for a bit in the morning to swim and Amy, Mike and Nathan spent the whole day. It was a lot of fun just to relax and swim and have a bar-b-que. Eliana and Morgan

Eliana loves jumping into the water! She can swim really well with her arm floaties on.


Julia's First Swim/FloatJulia enjoying floating in the pool.
I love this picture because it shows how little Jewels is.... it looks like just a hat floating around!

Mike, Amy and Nathan
Julia got to hang out in the swing again :)


Christian doing a hand-stand.

Eliana's eye... I love this because it shows every color in her eye! Her eyes are definately not brown... hazel???

Baby Bella

Our good friends, Kim and Todd Miller were able to adopt a beautiful baby girl right around Christmas this year. We finally got to see her! She is ADORABLE and the Millers are so happy with their little girl! It was so fun to see them! On Sat. July 5th, they were sealed to her in the Redlands temple. I was priviledged to be able to attend! What an amazing experience this was! The Millers have been like family to me since I lived in Fontana and I am grateful for their examples!

Julia and Bella doing floor time together!

While I was visiting, I was able to take a few pics of Bella. To see a few more, check out my photography blog.

This was outside of the temple after the sealing.

Happy Birthday Christian

We got to celebrate Christian's birthday with his parents two of his sisters, Amy and Kelly and their families. His mom even made his favorite peanut butter cake! After dinner the kids were playing outside and I got a few snapshots of them. Eliana loves her cousins Nathan and Morgan!

Newport Beach

Our first day in California, which happened to also be Christian's B-day, we went to the beach with the Gissels. They had a great canopy to block the sun and we had Julia's swing with us, so she just slept on the beach in the shade... ah... the life of a baby. It was her first day at the beach and she did great! Eliana LOVED playing in the sand! She and Camden and Carissa were digging up sand crabs and collecting them in a bucket, pretty gross in my opinion but they were having lots of fun with it.