The next time anyone thinks Taryn looks like me....

Just check out these two pictures...Dave, Charlotte and Jim....

Creepy, huh??

Ugly Holiday Sweaters...

It's that time of year again! The ugly holdiay sweater contest at my office is upon us! We have several really pretty sweaters this year but the sure winner is the guy who is dressed like Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation...Robe, Drink, Cigar, Hat, Boots....the whole nine yards! It totally cracks me up! Here is a picture of me in my holiday decor this year...borrowed straight from my mom's closet!!

A little bit crazy....

I have decided that I am a little bit crazy now. As I was planning my school class schedule I discovered that if I take 3 classes and a Lab this quarter and 3 classes next quarter I will actually graduate in May with my Associates in Business. As I looked at all my due dates and such last night, I started to wonder if I took on more than I can chew! There is very few days during the week where I don't have an assignment due, and those other days I will have to spend studying for said assignments. God Bless my husband for his patience as I am trying to finish!

A life of Thanksgiving...

I'm stealing this idea from a friend because it's something I need in my life right now.

The Thanksgiving holiday is one of my favorites...food, family, friends and lots of fun. But, originally, it was meant to be a day to pause and give authentic thanks to God. Unfortunately, for many, including myself, thanksgiving is more of a one-day holiday that a way of life. I don't know about you, but I've been blessed beyond comprehension, and even in the unwelcome moments of life, I have so much to be thankful for.
What would it look like if I ONLY spoke words of gratitude the entire week of Thanksgiving? If I went so far as to look at a pile of laundered clothes that awaits my folding and putting up, a task I normally hate, and instead think and speak out loud, “God, thank you for these clothes, for providing covering.” When my daughter voicing her grumpiness, “God, thank you that she has a voice that works and you are shaping her own unique personality.”
If every time next week I see a person, I tell them why I am thankful to God they are in my life.So, starting today and going through this Sunday evening, I'm challenging myself to live an entire week full of thanksgiving.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:4 ESV)

Anytime I'm tempted to think/say/do something negative (filthy, foolish, crude or otherwise unthankfull), I will instead choose, in that very moment, to give thanks to God for His blessing in my life.If you'd like to join me, please leave a comment saying so AND repost this (in our own words, if you'd like...no need to link me) on your blog, twitter, facebook, etc. and challenge your friends to do the same. Even if you're not reading this until after this morning, it's never too late to take up a good challenge. And, keep in mind that nobody who takes this challenge is going to make it an entire week without missing the mark...so, when that happens to you, just pick yourself back up and start again!

Feeling very blessed

As I lay on the couch last night, with the sweetest baby girl on the planet curled up in my arms, snuggled close to my heart, I had a moment where I just felt so blessed. All the tantrums, demands, crying fits, just don't matter in those sweet moments where my pretty girl is next to me. She is getting so big and I know that these moments will be farther and farther in between as she gets older, but for now I am just going to relish in those moments with my little girl snuggled up to my heart.

Birthdays....

We are coming up onto our birthday chaos at the Christensen household. For those of you who don't know you can check out my post of birthdays.... http://katichristensen.blogspot.com/2008/02/celebrating-birthdays.html

Last night Dave and I were discussing the upcoming birthday events when it dawned on me...Andrew will be 13 this year.....Ethan and Alex will be 10.....Oh my goodness...I will be 30!!!

It's hard to believe that my little baby boys that I got will all be in the double digits!! Where does the time go?

Trick or Treating...

Just some good pics of the kids trick or treating..

All of them

Ninja Lord Ethan

Ninja Lord Andrew

Officer Alex

Tinkerbell Taryn

Our Candy Haul...

Getting Ready for Halloween...

Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays...sure I enjoyed it as a kid, but I now understand the pain my parents went through as I was deciding what to be that year...

This year costume picking out took almost 2 hours. I was ready to walk out of the store and leave the kids behind. Alex and Taryn were pretty easy, they had decided what to be before we got to the store. Ethan and Andrew picked out the same costume this year, when we double checked with Ethan that he wanted to be the same thing as his older brother his response was.."Dad, I'm hungry, I just want to get out of here." So that was pretty much it. We have Tinkerbell, a police officer, and 2 Ninja Lords. I will have more fun pictures from trick or treating to share next week!

Taryn as Tinkerbell

Tinkerbell getting arrested...what has the world come too?

Fab Five Weekend...

I'm a little late in my posting (mostly because I was sick ALL of last week)...on the 17th of October I was able to get together with the Fab Five (minus one...missed you Jessie!) for a little weekend of spa pampering and hotel stay. For those of you who don't know, the Fab Five consists of myself, Amy, Rachael, Jessie, and Laura. We've been friends since high school and this year we are celebrating the 12th year of the FAB FIVE!! We had the usual good time...

our gifts from Rachael...which of course we wore the entire time we were at the hotel..

Enjoyed a free happy hour

Played cards until 2am!



Mani's/Pedi's and facials!

I love these girls!!!

It doesn't matter how long its been, we just pick up like we had just been hanging out the day before. These girls mean the world to me and I am very blessed to have them in my life!!!

Many new pictures

Our new family pictures came in and there are so many wonderful ones!!! Here is just a sampling....

Andrew-age 12

Taryn-age 5

Alex-age 9

Ethan-age 9

All the cousins

Taryn and her daddy..

My beautiful kids

The whole family..

Me and my handsome husband

Our beautiful family

Taryn and Abbi

The Mitchells

My niece, Abbi - age 5

Mom and Dad

YEAH ANDREW!!!!!

Dave just called to tell me that Andrew has earned Lunch with a friend "off campus" for having 24 good days at school with no discipline problems or late work!! This is a huge step for him and I am so proud of him!!!! LOVE YOU ANDREW!!!

An ambitious list

Ok, I'm tired of not having things done so I created an ambitious list of things to be done every day so that I can have my house on the market by next week! Today's list:

1. Scrape paint on outside of the house
2. Repaint spots on exterior
3. Pull weeds on all sides of house
4. Tear down dog house and dog run
5. Replace fence cap and rail
6. Wash down exterior of the house

It's a bit much but I'm hoping by having an ambitious list I will feel better about the things that I do get done!!

illness has returned-Week 4

I spent Mon and Tues of this week sick with the flu. Not really the "Bad" kind of flu but, the high fever, body aches, don't want to move kind of flu. At this point in my life I find that I am even more grateful for my husband than usual. He made me food to eat, let me lay out on the couch and watch anything I wanted on the "Big TV", which I chose to be an 2 day marathon of my Beverly Hills, 90210 box set DVDs. He was such a trooper! I am so glad to have him!

Week 3

I'm a little behind in my posts for class, that happens a lot in my life. I'm always behind in the things I want to accomplish. Why is that?? I plan, I write lists, I organize and yet here it is, almost October and my house that I wanted for sale in July is still not on the market...ARRGH!!! SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Ballet Begins!!!

Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, The Nutcracker....I love the ballet!! I loved dance classes when I was a kid, the beauty and elegence of the ballet was enough to bring me to tears...it still does whenever I watch it. Now, tomorrow starts my daughter's first ballet class, she has her black leotard, pink tights, and ballet shoes and is all ready to go! I can't tell you how excited I am for this, and even though I don't want to push it on her, that she will love it as much as I did. This will be the first year that I have seen the Nutcracker since I was 17, and I am so happy to take her to be able to share in this special mother-daughter time that I know she won't want to do forever!

Week 2-Newfound appreciation for my senses..

Ok,
Here is my second post for my psych class. This weekend I got dirt in my eyes and lacerated my corneas. It really is the worst pain ever! I spent some time in the ER (for the ever intelligent doctor to spend two minutes in the room and go, Yep you scratched your cornea). It does give you a new respect for your other senses though. I spent a lot of time these last few days listening to TV, which I found very frustrating. I really just wanted to see what they were talking about! I also had a really good Ribeye steak that the taste of seemed even more powerful than nomal. I also could hear my kids sneaking up and down the hallway, trying not to disturb me. I do have a great appreciation for my sight right now, I guess it's true, that you never really realize how much you need something until it's gone.

Congrats Amy and Pat!!

Welcome to the World

Kael Victor Nebesniak!!

Yesterday, my very good friend Amy gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! He is joining his big sister Deni into the Nebesniak family. I got to go up there last night with my other friend Rachael to visit. I took Taryn with me and when we got there, one of our other friends was there with her daughter. The four of us (Rae, Amy, Jessie, and myself) create 4 of the Fab Five and all of our first born children were girls, so we got a really sweet picture of all of them together.

Thank you for blessing us Amy and Pat with another member of our "extended" family! He turned us from the Fab Five to the Terrific Twenty!!

Week 1

Ok,
Apparently, I get 10 extra points for my Psych class if I have a blog. So here is my blog! To my friends who check it, I will be posting once a week for the next 10 weeks. I am taking a pretty light class load this quarter (just 2 classes), but I am hoping to be done with my Associates degree next summer. It's taken me a very long time! I have been putting off taking College Algebra and I think I will continue to put it off for a another couple of quarters. That is one class I will not be taking online! Have a good week everyone!

It can't be that time already!!!!

Here it is, the start of another school year, but this year is so special because my baby girl is headed off to Kindergarten! It seems like yesterday that I took her into that school when she was 3 weeks old for Andrew's show and tell in the same Kindergarten classroom, with the same teacher that he had. Now Andrew is off to the middle school with a class schedule and a locker and Taryn is in Kindergarten. I thought I would do Ok, but last night as I was laying out their first day of school clothes and having Ethan try on his shorts to make sure they fit ok, he looked so grown up and so much like Dave that I started to cry, and then everything made me cry this morning. Putting the barrettes in Taryn's hair and getting her dressed, she just looked so pretty that I cried then too! She of course walks out into the living room with all her drama and puts her hand on her hip and proclaims "Dad, Mom is crying because I look so pretty." I got pretty choked up dropping Andrew off at the Middle School, knowing that I wasn't going to walk him in, and he was going to be on his own. That was a tough moment. I hope you enjoy these pictures of the kids off to school!

All the kids


Andrew-6th Grade

Ethan-4th Grade

Alex-4th Grade

Taryn-Kindergarten

Back to School

It's that time of year again....Back to School! The kids start school on August 20th, and this will be the first year that all 4 of my kids will be in school. Yes, if you can believe it, Taryn is starting Kindergarten this year. Andrew is moving up in the world to Middle School and Ethan and Alex will be in the 4th grade. Where does the time go?

I do have some issues with this though...I'm starting to wonder where my tax money is going if I have to spend $200.00 on school supplies for them to take to school, and these are not recommendations, this is the stuff they have to have. No clothes or any extras, this was the basic school supply list, and I bought the cheap stuff too! No fancy notebooks or folders, just solid colors that cost $.09 a piece. It's sort of ridiculous. Enough ranting now...

We are busy with the school prep, Andrew is going to registration tonight and Taryn has her physcial (Dave is taking her, thank goodness) on Friday. Hope you all are enjoying your back to school time! :)

Catching up...

Well, June and the first part of July have been crazy...so I have been a really bad blogger!!!

We have had stuff going on every weekend for about 5 weeks!

Update:

1st week of June: Mom and I finished our 10 week program for Farrell's Extreme Body Shaping, I ended up losing just over 7 inches! Yippee!!

June 6th- Took a trip back to GI for Adam Hahn's and Danny Seim's 30th Birthday party. Lots of drinking but a good time had by all!

June 7th - Left GI and went to Lincoln where my Aunt Gail and Aunt Vicki were visting from out of state.

June 14th- Cousin Jessica's wedding. The kids had a blast (as did we) Lots of dancing and being with family!

June 15th-Breakfast after the wedding, but then the boys left to go to Grandma's until the 29th, and Taryn went to my sisters for 3 days, so for the first time in a very looong time Dave and I had a couple days to ourselves! We treated ourselves to a movie (The Hangover-very funny!)
June 22nd- Garage Sale at mom's house, we hung out and helped her run the sale and then all went out to dinner!

June 28th- Had our good friends Doug and Jenn out for a BBQ and we stayed up way to late playing Rock Band and drinking beer!

July 3rd- Over to Doug and Jenns for another BBQ and fireworks!

July 4th- Went to my moms for more BBQ and fireworks! (I love the 4th of July!!!!)

July 5th- Moeller Family Reunion at Mahoney State Park. Saw a lot of family that I have not seen for 15-20 years and a lot of family that I didn't even know I had! The kids latched onto Uncle David and he was able to entertain them for several hours! Yeah for little brothers!!!

Whew!!! That's it so far, except for in the midst of all this craziness we did get approved to build a new (and much bigger) house so we have decided to put our house up for sale. Trying to get that ready has been a chore within itself!! More later!

Our new house