August 10, 2015

I have not been very good at keeping this up over the last few weeks. It seems as if life has just gotten busier. We were so lucky to have Llyr's sister, Brittney, and her family in town a couple weeks ago and we just played and played. My sister, Sunni, and her family are coming tomorrow. LJ just can't get enough of his cousins. He really does ask for at least one cousin a day. They are his best buddies, besides, of course, mama, daddy, and grandmas and grandpas.

Last week on 8/4/15 Riaan turned 4 months old. She is getting so big.
Weight: 13 lbs 4 oz
Height: 23 5/8 in
Head: 15 3/4 in
Clothes: 3 months, but I should probably transition to 3-6 months clothes for her now. She is starting to fill out the 3 month size.

She is such a fun little girl, who is already showing signs of teething, argh... but she still smiles and giggles a lot. LJ loves, loves, loves his little sister. He kisses her and hugs her and always wants to be by her when she is awake. She loves him back by drooling and spitting up all over him. He calls it "hot puke". He is definitely not a fan.

Here's a few pics to update these last few weeks.

LJ is such a good little swimmer. He loves it so much!

She is so smilely right now. I love it!

Riaan in the morning. So happy in the morning.

Watching TV together. Aren't they so cute?

Grandpa with his Grandsons all in Superman shirts. LJ loves his superman shirt (he calls it Spiderman, but sometimes gets it right). He always makes grunts and punches when he wears it.

More Summer Fun

Summer is half way through and we are having fun, but I am starting to feel sad that is almost over. This last weekend we were able to go up to Lake Cascade and stay at a cabin of some lovely friends in my parents' ward. We had a lot of fun. The wind was blowing all day Friday so we didn't do any boating, but we played in the sand and just hung out. The kids took a nap and so did Uncle Dallin and Aunt Mimi. Here are a few pictures of the weekend and just a few that are really cute that were taken last week.

Isn't she cute. Llyr caught this shot of her. She just started rolling over on Sunday 7/14/15 and hasn't stopped since.

Another cute picture of Riaan

Paddle boat with Katie, Brooklyn, Me and LJ

LJ and Brooklyn Playing in the Sand

Llyr and I went with Missy and Dallin on an ATV Ride up West Mountain. It was AWESOME!

This was actually the day before we went up. LJ had just finished swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Williams and I had taken his suit off so he could dry off. He decided that he wanted to jump on the trampoline. My dad and I couldn't stop laughing.

Young Women's Personal Progress: Faith #1

In church I have been in Young Women's for the last 2 and 1/2 years or so and I have been wanting to do personal progress again. (It has changed so much since I did my Personal Progress over 15 years ago.) I have started a few of the value experiences, but haven't finished many of them. A lot of the Value Experiences require a journal entry and I am going to use this blog to write some of my entries. (This is really the only journal I am keeping at this time.)

Faith Value Experience #1: "Faith is the first principle of the gospel. I had to read scriptures and 2 conference talks and follow the pattern of prayer for 3 weeks, then write in my journal about my experience with faith. "

I read 2 conference talks and one I read was given by Elder Scott in the October 2010 Conference called, "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character". This talk was phenomenal. I sometimes struggle with catching all of the substance of the talks when listening to them, but I read it last night and I really enjoyed it and found some really great quotes. "True faith, faith unto salvation, is centered not he Lord Jesus Christ, Faith in His Doctrines and Teachings, faith in the prophetic guidance of the Lord's anointed, faith in the capacity to discover hidden characteristics and traits that can transform life. Truly, faith in the Savior is a principle of action and power."

True and pure faith is centered on our Savior. This faith can mold my character into what I need to be and to become. Elder Scott also said, "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day...A consistent righteous life produces an inner power and strength that can be permanently resistant to the eroding influence of sin and transgression" If I live a life that is righteous, my faith, ergo, my power with increase. I will become stronger.

These last few months have stretched and strengthened my faith. Part of the Value Experience was to have consistent prayer. I am not always great with my morning prayers and will often get couple and family prayer in, but forget my personal prayer. I have had a few good prayers though that I feel I have been able to bring the Spirit into my heart and my home. Llyr has recently started his job with Ameriben, but it was not an easy road to reach. We spent a lot of time praying for guidance and direction with this step in our lives. I also have been praying a lot for my family, in particular my family. Dad's diagnosis has been confirmed, as of early last month and I know that mom and dad are trying to figure out the best way to adjust to Dad's condition. Our little family has said a lot of prayers for them. I am not sure if those prayers have helped dad have better days or not, or if they have helped mom make it through her stresses, but I know that those prayers have increased my faith in my Savior and in the Plan of Happiness. It is real now, whereas before it was only a true 'concept'. My faith and hope for the future and the world's to come has truly become more.

New Start

Today Llyr started his new job. He is a little nervous, but probably won't admit to it too much. He is beginning with Ameriben and we are so excited. So to fill my day I went to the gym, grocery store, doing some computer things and trying to get dinner ready. It's amazing how the days can just fly by without doing much. Being at home is an all new experience for me. I hope that I can do it successfully. Thank goodness for family being around.

Having fun after the store while momma was feeding Riaan. He was such a good helper that he carried in half the bags from the car today.

Such a happy little girl almost ready for her nap. She is smiling so much!

Lake fun

So over the weekend Riaan turned 3 months old!!! I can't believe that my baby is already 3 months. LJ is 2 1/2 years old and that makes me feel even older. I know that we are always told that time just keeps going faster and it does. I am not looking forward to it going even quicker. Over the weekend we went waterskiing one day with my parents up at the Madison's cabin in Donnelly, Id. It was very generous of all to let us come and spend the day up there. We really had a good time. Llyr even got in the water to tube and ski. I didn't get a picture of the tubing, but Tucker talked him into that one. I did catch the skiing though and it was awesome.

Aunt MiMi was asked to play trains with LJ and was told to get in the middle of the track

Grandpa with Riaan. They are good buddies.

LJ and Mama on the boat. LJ was such a good boater. He even helped me get out of the water after I skied.

He really did ski!!!!

Llyr and LJ on the paddle board

LJ loved playing on the tube in the water. He had a lot of fun and did a great job.

Mexico

Early this month, my family and I went to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We had everyone there, but Hyrum and Xander. (We missed them a lot.) It was such an amazing trip. It was full of humidity, heat, laying by the pool and beach and swimming with the kids. The mangos that we could buy on the beach that were on a stick, were a big hit with everyone, especially the kiddos.

One day we went into town for the afternoon and went to the market and PiPis. Our favorite, nostalgic, restaurant. It was so hot that day. Riaan was doing as well as a little one can do, but she was so hot. I had to find a few random places to feed her. Once we got into town and were on the boardwalk (which is beautiful) it was time to feed Riaan. I was about to sit on a brick wall thing where there was a little shade, but luckily my mother suggested a restaurant that had shade. She bought me a diet coke and I fed Riaan. My parents waited for me, while everyone else went to the flea market. Llyr was chasing LJ around. (Llyr probably lost about 5 lbs of water weight that day because of how much he was moving and how hot and humid it was.) My parents and I went to the market and my mom took Riaan while I met up with Llyr and LJ. LJ wanted to touch everything and follow his cousins around, especially Kirah and "Tobi" (meaning Kobi).  Riaan was getting hot so my mom found a cute little candy shop that had a fan and they let her sit in there, but eventually she wasn't calming down so I was summoned. I sat with her for a little while and then it was time to head to PiPis. My dad, Katie and Brooklyn, Me, LJ, and Riaan all took a taxi, while everyone else walked. The restaurant was air conditioned, YEAH!!! As we walked in LJ was playing his little green guitar that he got at the market and the mariachi band was there and they let him play their guitar. When they came to play at our table later, they asked LJ to do a song with them. LJ clammed up and didn't play with them, even though he did stand on his chair and held his guitar.

We rode the bus home and got into the pool right away to try to cool off.

The rest of the trip was really good. It was so nice to be there with my family. We had a few family discussions that Tucker got out of as soon as he could (understandable, he's only 17) and I tried to exercise a few times that week. Dad held Riaan near the pool or on the beach when I wasn't feeding her so I could swim and play. They were buddies. There are a lot of good memories from that trip. Thanks to mom and dad for helping to make it possible!!!

Outside of PiPis

Grandpa and Riaan at the pool

The kids on the bus heading into town, Sorry Mason you got cut off by the pole

LJ and his favorite food, Mango on a stick. That is what he was holding as he crashed heading up the stairs from the beach and bonked his head

Riaan lounging by the pool

Momma and LJ on the patio of the condo ( the patio was bigger than our house)

LJ and Cousin Brooklyn. They had so much fun together as long as LJ wasn't hugging Brooklyn too much

The whole group the night before we left

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids, minus Xander

As you can see from the last couple pictures, LJ wasn't the best at looking at the camera during the pictures

LJs Playlist

So lately LJ has been having us sing the same 4 songs for him as he goes to bed at night. He is pretty cute about it. They even have a specific order.
1. Temple Song "I love to see the Temple"
2. Child God "I am a child of God"
3. Thomas- Thomas the Train opening song
4. Paradise "Paradise" by Coldplay

They go in that order and we have to sing them every time we lay him down to sleep. Often he will start singing Paradise while I finish Thomas. He is pretty darn cute about it all. Throughout each day, he will often grab an object that he can hold in one hand and pretend it is a microphone and sing Paradise.

2 days ago, it was the carrot that was the microphone. I turned around to see him doing this all on his own. (He was helping me make dinner.) This should be a video of him singing. Hopefully it works.

Baby Riaan

Baby Riaan Renee Christensen was born April 4th 2015 at 3:38am. She was 11 days early. I obviously haven't written in about 18 months and a lot has changed since that time. I hope to jump back on the bandwagon again and keep this little family blog going. 

I work with the Young Women in my ward and on April 3rd, a Friday, I was told that we had a meeting at the church with the Bishop at 7pm. At about 6:45pm, I was feeding LJ some dinner and felt a leak happen. It wasn't a gush, but I went to the bathroom. It kept leaking. I got LJ all done with dinner, he need a diaper change. I went outside to where Llyr was planting raspberries and told him that I think my water had broken, but I will go to this meeting and we'll figure it out. (My water didn't break with LJ and so I just wasn't sure.) I was of course late to this "meeting" and so I was getting a few phone calls from Young Women's leaders. Well, it turned out to be a surprise Baby Shower for me and another leader who was pregnant at the time. The girls threw it and it was really cute. I, on the other hand, was not so cute. I was pretty upset that we had a meeting that night and I was so worried about my water breaking. Well, they somehow got a hold of my mom and so she was there. It was really nice to have her there, because when Llyr called in a panic because my "water had broken", I was able to have her talk to him. (She didn't know yet, so after talking to Llyr she came and talked to me about it.) Well, the baby shower ended. Llyr had called a nurse at the hospital and she suggested that we come in. Scott and Kaye came over. I told mom that I would call her at the hospital if they said that I was in labor. 

We got LJ to bed and took off. The contractions were going but not painful until we started to the hospital. Luckily the hospital is only about 4 or 5 miles away. We got there about 11pm and they checked me and, yep my water had broken. So we were staying and unfortunately, it couldn't have waited until mid-night, because we had to pay for an extra night in the hospital for me, but we were having our baby girl and it was going well. I walked over to Labor and Delivery and they got me hooked up to everything. I had to have Penicillin for at least 4 hours prior to birth and so that got hooked up at 11:30pm. They asked if I wanted an epidural and my response was, "of course." If they are going to make me wait 4 hours, then I want some help. I don't know how mom had 4 kids without an epidural. Contractions hurt! I got the epidural by about 2am or 2:30am. Mom got to the hospital about 1:30am. Then we all waited. They didn't check me because they knew I needed the IV penicillin. At about 3:25am the nurse checked and I was dilated to a 10 and Riaan was beginning to crown. She got the doctor. I started pushing at 3:30am and Riaan was born at 3:38am. 

Being part of the miracle of birth for a second time is less new, but still a miracle. She had dark hair and cried right on cue. I am such a lucky mama.

Baby Riaan, Day 1

LJ has been such a proud big brother. He has really wanted to take care of, check on, and kiss his little sister. He does smother her sometimes and she will cry often when she hears his voice.

Baby Riaan and Big Brother end of May 2015, about 7 1/2 weeks old

Last week we went to Mexico with my family. (we had a blast and I will write another post on that) In the SLC airport coming home a little boy who was about 18 months old walked over near us and Riaan was in her carseat in the stroller. LJ jumped right up in front of her and told the little boy "No!" He did not want that boy coming any closer to his sister. I hope that he is always that protective of her. 

I love both my kids so much and am so lucky. Everyone told me that my capacity to love would increase and with that first cry, they weren't lying.