Ruby June's blessing

Blessings are so fun and stressful:) We finally got around to blessing Ruby on Feb. 12th - almost exactly 3 months after she was born. We had 14 family members travel to the occasion and Tory even had a co worker come to the blessing. Tory and I feel extremely blessed for our wonderful families and very lucky to have had so many at Ruby's blessing. I'm not used to having both families over at the same time and with so many house guests, and I know I drove everyone nuts with my insecurities about this and that, but over all, the blessing weekend was a success (except the 8lb pork blunder) and Tory did a wonderful job and Ruby behaved herself.

As much as I want Kaylee to get married someday, I will mourn her single days when she would visit and take care of my kids.

My intention was to make cafe rio sweet pork tacos for everyone. I don't cook with meat often and especially not for such a large crowd so I unknowingly bought an 8 pound pork loin top loin which unfortunately didn't shred like it was suppose to - it was pork chop meat. Boooo. And the recipe I used to season it was no bueno. Thank goodness Ralph and Janene brought their cooking stuff and whipped up some delicious beans and rice. It was pretty embarrassing but no one went hungry because of it right?

I like this picture of Tory cause he seems so lawyerly.

Ruby didn't poop or throw up on her beautiful dress that my mom got her (size 9 mo). She also didn't toot or cry during the blessing. She was perfect. Bar far the easiest baby I've ever had.

I promise I'm not nursing Ruby in this picture.

Everything is better with my mom around.

These are some seriously cute kids.

I can't wait til Elle is old enough to babysit.

One of the few shots of my dad sitting down. He was helping my mom and sister in the kitchen most of the afternoon.

Macey painted my nails.

Ruby June Christensen has been the best baby ever. She sleeps through the night probably 4 times a week. And she stops mid-nurse to look up and smile at me. It melts my heart.

Delicious!

Cousins!!

I love watching Ayson and Macey play with their cousins. Elle and Cash are great kids, Elle being very responsible at age 6 and Cash being the sweetest little guy ever, and they get a long with my kids which is important, especially for Ayson since there aren't that many kids his age around here.

Their visit coincided with Ruby's blessing which was great for the family support - but with so many things going on I was probably not the hostest with the mostest.

But the kids managed to play and play and play.

And Ruby managed to be my favorite baby in the world.

And we showed Toby and Josie and Elle and Cash this beautiful desert we live in:

Josie and I held our breath while the kids and their dads climbed all over the rocks and such. We could be heard saying these like, "is someone holding on to Macey?" or "hold on tight to their little hands!" or "get down from there its too high!" I know it's important to let kids be kids and explore etc - but it never ceases to make my heart skip a beat or two.

Macey is showing off her green drink mustache.

And her happy smile.

Finally uncle TJ arrived to entertain the kids!

one more january post..

Macey loves her dad and looks at me with this smug little face when he is holding her. She also loves her grandmas. At her little gym class the teacher asked all the kids who they love and Macey was the ONLY kid who didn't say mom. She said, "I wuv my grama."

Ruby loves me. She has been the easiest baby of all 3. On a good night, I will put her in her crib around 9 or 10 and she will sleep until 5:30 or 6:30. Ayson didn't do that until he was 9 months. Anyway, she is a doll. I am really enjoying this baby stage. I love nursing her, holding her (sitting down), making her laugh and smile, and bathing her. She held her neck always to the right side for a good couple of weeks and I was starting to worry about it. After talking to chiropractors and doctors who disagreed on what we should do, Ruby woke up one morning and just decided to hold her head up straight. It is still kinda wobbly but at least it wobbles to the left and right and not always to the same side.

Ready for the park. I love that Ayson wears his super cape in public. And I love that Macey will finally sit still long enough for me to do her hair.

I also love that Ayson has his own opinions and style. He loves wearing different colored socks.

Those scooters were such a good gift idea. The kids love them and ride them almost every day.

January bliss..

In the month of January: The sleepless nights continue. The sicknesses are fewer and farther between. The children are naughty and hyper. The baby is fat and delicious. And the weather is almost hot. In other news:

Macey likes her gym class.

Is the tutu and leotard necessary for a gym class? No, but Macey insists on wearing and flaunting it. Not a class goes by when she doesn't turn to her cute little platinum blonde friend Marie and say, "Emmery (she refuses to say Marie), I have a princess skirt." She also thinks chalk is necessary for walking on the balance beam.

Isn't he so handsome?! Oh my gosh he is the best looking kid I've ever seen. He loves preschool, and so do I. I watched him through the window win the musical chairs contest the other day. He was very determined to win. Its a good thing he did cause he doesn't handle losing very well. He has shown a desire to learn how to read lately. I should probably do something about that. We are debating putting him in Kindergarten this year...

I took all 3 kids to the grocery store the other day. It was an uppity grocery store with only rich old people and the reason I went there was because they had a car shopping cart so my 2 older kids could sit in the car portion. I heard AT LEAST 10 "you've got your hands full" comments. At one point Macey was holding on to the outside portion of the car and was being dragged on the grocery store floor. She was enjoying herself, believe me.

Tory and I are convinced Ruby has giantism or something. She is 2 months old and heavy as can be - 14 pounds at her 2 month check up. She will catch up to Macey in no time. Ruby has the best smile and is such a wonderful happy easy baby. My favorite thing is when she wakes up around 5:00am and I bring her in bed to nurse and cuddle with her. She doesn't earn that privilege if she wakes up at 2:00am. She was worth every bit of that pregnancy. I am soo enjoying having a baby. I love nursing her, bathing her, holding her while my house gets dirtier before my eyes, and watching my other kids love her.

Another fun mommy moment this month was when I had to clean up throw up from all three kids in one day. None of them were sick. I made broccoli calzones. Macey ate them fine. Ayson didn't. He cried cause he wasn't going to get ice cream, took a bite while crying, gagged and threw up. Then, Macey ate too much ice cream, threw a tantrum about me helping her go to the bathroom and vomited up all of her oreo ice cream. It was partly my fault. She was screaming at me and I told her to stop and then I said, "do you like it when I scream?" and then I let out a very satisfying top of the lungs scream which scared the crap out of her and she cried/gagged and threw up. Also, I ate sushi with lots of wasabi, and Ruby didn't appreciate that. She spit up all over me all day long and pooped all over me twice. Tory didn't get home until 9:00pm that night. I can laugh about it now...

Also in January my awesome friend Neener took a "mommy vacation" from her 2 kids to hang out here with me and my 3 crazy kids. She couldn't have come at a better time because I was at the brink of going crazy. She took charge, made me take naps (took my phone and all electronic equipment and baby away so I had to nap), made super delicious meals for us, introduced us to Joshua Tree national park and in true Janine fashion, jinxed Tory with a migraine but stayed to help out afterwards. We were able to go out for sushi one night and browse the isles of Trader Joes while Tory watched the kiddos. I cried after dropping her off at the airport. Why must you live so far away Neener!

These picks are from Joshua Tree.

Christmas at home

After a short 2 hour delay on the I-10 from running out of gas, we finally made it home to open our presents.

My kids fight like crazy, but love each other lots and this year they picked out presents for each other. Whats with my kids and umbrellas in the desert?

Tory had the day after Christmas off so we took the kids to the zoo.

And to breakfast. But not in that order.

Christmas Day

For Christmas this year we combined our efforts and fixed the play structure in my parents backyard.

Mother's favorite gift however, was having ALL of her children at church on Christmas day. That skirt I'm wearing was much cuter in theory...

It is so fun watching the little grandkid group growing. Will Maren's baby hurry up and get here already?

and it only took 3 takes to get them to all look at the camera at the same time.

Merry Christmas!

Whats a Christmas story without some drama though? Soon after church and lunch, we drove back to Cali with the kids. We were of course super excited to see what Santa had brought us. As we were coming up on the border of AZ and CA, Tory said, I should get gas here in AZ while it's cheaper. I talked him out of it because Ruby was still asleep and I was hoping to get gas and feed her and make it only one stop. So we drove into California and Tory said, "I should probably get gas before we hit the long stretch of desert." I have the advantage in story telling since I'm the one writing this blog - (Tory feel free to contradict my truthful version of the story in your own blog post) - so let me preface the story by saying that in our 6 years of being married, one cause for contention during our travels is Tory running the car on fumes before getting gas. To his credit we had never run out of gas before....

Back to the story, so we pull up to a gas station and Tory grumbles about the price. Instead of nagging like I always do for him to fill the car up, I told him that if paying $10 more for gas here upsets him, then he should find another station... oops.

Unbeknownst to us (that's a funny word) the next gas station wasn't for like 60 miles. We ran out of gas 3 miles before the next gas station. But we didn't know we were only 3 miles away from a gas station. It was dark, it was late and it was Christmas and it was a Sunday. We called our roadside assistance company who said it would take 2.5 + hours for someone to bring us gas and it would cost $75 for 5 gallons of gas (funny huh). Tory was feeling awfully bad about things and kept trying to flag people down to help us or trying to convince me that he should just run and run til he found a gas station. Luckily, a freaking nice hummer pulled up with two Asian guys who were turning around to get gas since their GPS alerted them that there wasn't a gas station for 60 miles. I didn't know that at the time. Tory jumped in the car with them, his cell phone dead, and it was just me and my 3 little kids on the side of the I-10 in the middle of the desert, late at night on Christmas. I started to cry. Macey was trying to tell me everything would be ok and Ayson was just as upset saying, "now we are never going to get home to see our presents." A CHP officer pulled up and stayed with me until Tory came back. Boy was that scary seeing him jump into a strangers car and not being able to communicate with him. We were really lucky that those people who gave him a ride were coming right back our direction and that they weren't murderers. Oddly enough, when Tory came back after buying a $20 5 gallon gas can, he knew the CHP officer's Sergeant from when he did some cases with him back in Stockton. Fun times.