President Packer's Talk

Loved reading this man's perspective on President Packer's talk.

http://gaymormonguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/president-packers-talk-from-gay-mormon.html?spref=fb

Babies & Baskets

This little blue eyed beauty has a new pastime...

playing in her basket.

This surprisingly entertaining item frequently keeps Esther occupied for spans of 15 to 20 minutes. All I have to do is place a variety of random objects (including a toothbrush, measuring spoons, chap-stick, and a piece of ribbon).

She also uses anything she can grab a hold of to help herself stand up. After discovering this trick she continued to learn to climb up her crib bumper and almost flung herself out of her crib.

Needless to say the bumper had to go, which is extremely unfortunate because it is so cute.

Esther's after bath hairdo. Awesome.

On a different note, Esther and I spent the day in Lehi yesterday. Ashley was meant for motherhood. I went down hoping to be of some help and she was showered, had her make-up on, and her house was spotless clean. Her sweet little boy was having a bit of a hard time latching on while nursing but Ashley was so patient and understanding. She seemed completely calm and was great at knowing exactly what Carson needed.

Ashley with her sweet Carson.

And finally, Royal came to play for a few hours today. He was hamming it up and Esther couldn't get enough of him. I told him that she is going to be very sad when he moves to China and he was curious as to why. He kept saying, "She can come and visit me in China whenever she wants to". I don't think he quite understands just how far China actually is.

From Cradle to Crawling

(Esther relaxing cross-legged in her morning bath)

Summer is quickly dwindling to fall but with its advent come some good things. Namely, baseball playoffs, the return of college football (much to Sausha's dismay), and apparently babies start crawling at the beginning of fall. At least that is what ours has done. Esther, defying Dr. Spock and his incorrect and falsified research, has started crawling at 6 months rather than the prescribed age of 8 months. She has also started standing up with the support of either her crib or our coffee table which has resulted in some stellar tumbles. Today she head-butted the edge of the table and the other day she seemingly leaped from the bars on her crib and crashed into the bars on the opposite side. Both resulted in inconsolable tears; or at least tears that mom rather than dad had to brush away for her to calm down.

School has also started. Sausha is finishing up her last semester of her undergrad and I am just starting my grad program. Neither of us are excited to be in school, but we're happy that she, at least, is almost done. In an effort to save on gas and time at work I have started riding a bike to work. However, I don't have my own bike so I borrowed my dad's. When he was in law school his Fuji bike was stolen and being too poor to purchase another Fuji, he bought a Peugeot bicycle from a garage sale. The Peugeot has been along as long as I can remember and now I proudly ride it to work and to campus. I feel a little like the Miss Gulch from the Wizard of Oz riding it, but you have to make do with what you got.

Esther occasionally loves her father, as evidenced in this photo.

I'm a firm believer that, as a family, we only go swimming so Sausha can put Esther in her sun hat and cute orange slice bathing suit.

A side note from the author's wife, Jack always despairingly tells me how no one ever comments on his posts. So, comment please. Even if it is only out of pity.

By the way, Esther had her 6 month appointment last week. 15 lbs. 1 oz, 27 and 1/2 inches long.

Royal

This little munchkin isn't going to be around much longer. His dad recently accepted a job in Guangzhou China and their little family will be leaving in a matter of months. So this is a brief picture ode to Royal.

Oh yeah, so cool with the sunglasses.

I know you aren't gone yet, but you will definitely be missed when you are (and that goes for Meredith and Zach too).

Yellowstone

A few weekends ago we joined Jack's family in Yellowstone to celebrate Karrie's (Jack's mom) 50th birthday. Team Prius (which included Cass, Daniel, Esther, Jack and myself) left a day after Team Tacoma (which included Bill, Karrie and Little Will) and arrived Friday afternoon (the 23rd of July) ready to enjoy as many geysers and waterfalls as we could squeeze into one afternoon. The parents in the expedition stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, while the childless were banished to the campground to play with the bears. That evening we got together at the Old Faithful Inn's restaurant to enjoy buffalo burgers (true) and grizzly bear tenderloin (false). It was just how Karrie had hoped to spend her birthday.

Esther and Grandpa Bill at Old Faithful. Neither of them look very excited.

Bill, Will, Cassie and Daniel tromping around the geysers English style.

Dinner at the Lodge

After a night at the inn our little family and Bill and Karrie decided to join the others in the campground. It was Esther's first camping adventure and she did extremely well. I had her in about 4 layers complete with mittens and a stocking cap.
In the short amount of time that we were there we managed to drive around a good portion of the park. Yellowstone Lake was beautiful and we have decided that when Jack makes it big and is paid to write short stories and poetry we will spend the majority of our summer's at the inn at the lake. However, just to be prepared with a backup plan, if he doesn't make it big we will move our family to the island in the middle of the lake and live as hermits.
Unfortunately I didn't get the majority of the scenery pictures from Bill's camera, but I did steal a few pictures from Karrie's.

Karrie, Me, Jack, Daniel, Cass, Will & Esther at Yellowstone Lake

Please notice the slobber spot on my arm courtesy of Esther

Esther sporting her sun hat. She was such an angel the entire trip.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. Great company, beautiful scenery and nice weather. Who could ask for more?

School, Solids, and Sit-ups

Things have been quite busy at the Christensen residence recently. While Jack has been enjoying his summer break (which I'm quite happy about...the poor man still has 7 years left of school), I've been taking a few classes. The majority of them are on-line but I do have a 5 week evening class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the work load in the class. Because it is only 5 weeks the professor has crammed 16 weeks worth of information into the alloted amount of time, but you do what you have to, right? Although I hate to leave Esther for 3 hours twice a week, Jack has been so good about watching her and both of them have thoroughly enjoyed their daddy/daughter time together. He really is such a patient wonderful Dad.

As an update, Esther is growing like crazy. Two weeks ago at her 4 month doctor's appointment she weighed 13 lbs and 3 oz and was 25.8 inches long. She is still in the 96th percentile for height 50th for weight. On her height to weight ratio chart she looks like an Ethiopian child, but have you seen my husband?! Plus, the doctor says she is perfect. Everyone who sees her says she is long and lean. She has the sweetest disposition and never ceases to amaze me as to just how good she is.

She has a few new tricks. Do you want to see? Okay.....

She rolls

She tries really hard to sit up and can usually do so for at least a minute before tumbling

And she really wants to walk. She has been pushing into standing position since she was 4 weeks old and has now figured out that when she is in standing position she can move if she picks up her feet while Mom or Dad has a hold of her fingers.

Adorable, right? We've recently started her on solids. Well, kind of. Rice cereal doesn't really look like a solid to me, but that is what people call it. Her first few bites she gave us the look she is making below but it seems to have grown on her since. So much in fact that she is always trying to rip the spoon from my fingers because I don't feed her quite as quickly as she'd like me to.

She loves jibber jabbering, blowing bubbles and giggling. Babies are so much fun! If you don't have one, I would highly recommend getting one.

They grow so fast!

One of my best friends (Tina) had a beautiful baby girl a week and a half ago and I got to meet her today. Little Ella was so cute! I could hardly believe how huge Esther looked in comparison to her. Turns out 3 1/2 months makes a big difference when you are only 9 days old.

They were both passed out in this picture... it's hard being little.