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.

New House and Growing Boy

 Once again, I am the worst Mommy Blogger in the world. I guess I will never make money off of my blog and I think I am okay with that. We are still in Boise and doing well. We just moved into our new house a week ago and are starting to get settled. It is still quite messy, but gradually I feel like it is becoming more of a home. LJ turns 11 months this week. This last month has been full of "hi's" and "bye's", kisses, cruising along all of the furniture (still stubborn and doesn't want to walk even though he is quite capable- he's been pulling himself to standing for the last 4 1/2 months), hi fives, crawling very quickly, screaming louder than most, and keeping me and Llyr very happy. We are so lucky to have this crazy and very special boy in  our lives.

Llyr is into the heart of his first semester at BSU in the MBA program. It is going well and he is staying very busy. He works as support staff for the Executive MBA program and has at least 20 hours of work each week on top of his schooling. I am working for my Uncle Mark, the sports med doc. It is going well. He is moving clinics come December and so I am in the process of applying and getting myself ready to move too. I hope that it all works out. I love being home with my baby as much as I can be and so I hope I still can do it with a new employer. I'm sure it will all work out, but I just have my mommy worries.

Below is a quick update through photo.

On October 12, 2013 we went to Logan so the boys could go to the USU vs BSU football game. We met my sister Sunni and her family, Melissa and Dallin, and even Grandma, Aunt Trisha and cousins Jadyn and Janie made it. LJ loved his cousin Xander. Xander didn't love it so much.

LJ loves his Uncle Tucker. While wait for our house to finish we lived with Mom and Dad Williams. This was a common occurrence to have LJ try to interrupt Tuck while doing his homework and we all know that Tucker probably doesn't need the distractions, but it's hard to help yourself when you have a cute baby tugging on you to come and play. 

We have come to find out that LJ, now turning 11 months this week, loves eating apples whole. Those 4 beaver teeth that he has are great for gnawing away at the apple. He grabbed one out of the fruit basket and started eating before I even noticed.

A picture of Mom and LJ when he is 10 months old.

Happy Halloween!!! Rarrrr, says the cutest lion in the world. It is his first and we loved showing him of to grandmas and grandpas.

Just a quick shot of my crazy sleeper. This is how I found him when I checked him this morning for his nap.

Here is our new little abode. It is finally painted an appropriate color and not the Carolina Blue from before, Go Tarheels! We are really starting to like it and I think we will even more once we get more settled.

Boisean's

I'm not quite sure if that is how you spell it, but we are now residents of Idaho once again. Woohoo. It is nice to be back home and be near family. My official last day of work at the University Orthopaedic Center was August 6th. It was bitter sweet. We really enjoyed our time in SLC, except the traffic. We met a lot of great friends and had great opportunities with our jobs. We were blessed. We were so blessed, in fact, that my boss and his sweet wife let us stay at their home for the last week when we were homeless. (Our lease ended on July 31, 2013 and I needed to stay at work through August 6th). We had a lot of fun there, especially the baby. He was spoiled, just like he is everywhere we go.

We made it to Boise August 7th and then on the 8th thru the 11th, went to McCall, ID with Llyr's parents and had a very relaxing time. I started work here in Boise on August 14th and Llyr started orientation for school on August 19th. We are living with my parents until our house is finished at the end of October.

A lot of change is happening and I wish that I was more articulate and able to express my feelings through words. Change is good and I have always enjoyed change, but it is difficult as well knowing that we will never be back to where we were. That part of our lives is now only a memory. I just need to be better about documenting our memories so we can have them even after they are passed. My goal is to write more often to have these written down for the future.

LJ is now 8 1/2 months old and is cruisin all over the place. He is still scooting on his tummy with an awesome army crawl. He is pulling himself to standing and that happened right as we were leaving our apartment, so probably July 31st. He is getting better at falling too, which is helpful to prevent the tears that come with bonking his head. He has also cut both top front teeth. The first one came through in McCall on August 9th and the second one started to come then and was bubbling, but didn't come through until yesterday, August 20th. He has been miserable and we have felt it. He is sleeping like poo! I sure hope that it gets better, but he's so cute that I can't get upset with him.

Here are just a few pictures to document our last month or so.

Looking cool in the sunglasses from Grandma and Grandpa C.

He also got this awesome Cowboy hat!!!

Oh yea, by the way, my cool little sister got married July 26th to Dallin Erickson, my new bro in law. They are a great couple and we are so excited for them. I will get some pictures of the bride and groom and get a post put together for the wedding. It turned out great and they are happy so far, a month later.

The 3 cutest members of the wedding party!