You better watch out. You better not pout.

Thanks

For 40 years of marriage and being wonderful parents, grandparents, and in laws.

For letting us all celebrate with you at a wonderful dinner where we ate yummy food and had lots of fun visiting and playing with cousins.


Uncle Nate and Millie.

Chase, Carter and Aunt Haley.

The Christensen crew stand in front of the lemon tree room at La Jolla Groves.

Thanks for all of the good times--even though it was bitter cold.

Thanks for letting us celebrate your birthdays with you, Laura and Karin. It sure was fun getting to make pizza, hang out, and for the mommy's to get some much needed spa treatment.

Chloe and Katie make a pizza.

Laura, Hazel and Bridger wait for their pizzas to arrive.

Elizabeth, Anna, Jim, Karin and Joseph are excited to see how their pizzas turn out.
There is much to be thankful for and Thanksgiving week was a wonderful time to reflect on our many blessings and good times spent with family.

A Random Post

Chloe has recently started throwing screaming temper tantrums if I try to make her go into a store she doesn't want to, won't buy her a toy she wants, etc. I'm convinced the 'terrible twos' actually begin around age 3. After an afternoon of running errands she didn't want to go on and then having me say no to the umpteenth $20+ toy she requested, I thought a nice compromise before we made the trek home would be to go to McDonalds. So, I said, "Chloe, would you like to go to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal?"
She glared back and me and said, "No. I will go to McDonalds to get a Mad meal." I just finished reading this book. It was awesome. If you have time on your hands being snowed in or hanging out during the holidays I would recommend this. It was an excellent read.

It's historical fiction that takes you from the 1600s to present time. Living in a rural area requires me to make long drives just to get to school, the store, the doctor, pretty much anywhere. I have noticed that audio books make the drives bearable. I just purchased this one and it is great. I really like that it is read by President Bush. It adds something to hear it in his voice. If you are making a long drive, I recommend this. I was planning to read the Laura Bush book, but now I'm definitely getting the audio version.

Autumn on the Farm

I pulled off to the side of the road to snap a picture of the orchards and fields. Each type of apple tree must also produce a different color of leaf. Some orchards are still kind of green. Others are yellow, orange, or red.

I thought these fuel tanks were cool because they are the same color as the leaves I've been seeing in the orchards. I also love the way they contrast between the golden wheat field and blue sky.

This is some of the marshy area near our home. I frequently see pheasants flying in and out as well as birds of prey.

This is a vineyard changing color.

I knew that the leaves would change colors but I thought it was neat to see the closely cropped blanket of red and gold that was developing after the field crop had been harvested.

Although I am not a photgrapher and don't do justice to the beautiful scenery all around me, I felt compelled to try and capture the essence of it. Everywhere I drive I am amazed by the vivid colors as the leaves change in the fields, orchards, and vineyards. This morning I remembered to pack my camera when I drove the boys to school so that I could take some shots of the farmlands going through the changes Autumn brings.

The unique gourds and pumpkins are at our neighbor's produce stand where they specialize in unusual varieties. I made a butternut squash bisque recipe the other day but subsitituted one of their specialty squashes for the butternut. It was really good. It's fun having access to their produce.

The Cat's out of the Bag

We have a cat. To any of you that know me and my severe allergy to cats, you will find this as a great surprise. Actually, it is a wild cat that showed up at our house shortly after we moved in. I like to think it keeps our house free of mice, so I don't mind that it hangs around--outside. Apparently, it also eats the food we throw out. Larry pulled into the driveway the other day to find our cat, affectionately named Butterscotch, with his head stuck in a Doritos bag. He just sat there meowing, and every time he breathed in the bag would suck in, and out, it would puff out. After taking a quick snapshot with his cell phone, he let the cat out of the bag. Butterscotch quickly scurried off, none the worse for wear. I sure hope none of the mice saw this--it would surely destroy his reputation as a vicious killer. A BULL STORY:
We have a bull pen with about 6 bulls to the side of our house. Lately they have been making all kinds of strange noises, stampeding around the pen, picking fights with one another. Larry said they are anxious for their lady friends to be brought around. What?!! Why didn't someone tell me we were going to have a breeding situation taking place on the side of our house? What was I going to tell the kids was going on out there?

Early this afternoon I saw a couple of cowboys riding back along the side of the house herding the 'ladies' back to the 'fellas'.

Here's a shot of the cowboys. I don't think they're used to having people run out of their houses to take pictures of them.
As for Halloween, everyone in our family except Caleb has been very, very sick. Look on the couch behind Caleb to see Larry and Chloe sound asleep. Caleb dressed up as a BYU football player (in case you couldn't tell). His cousins came by and took him trunk or treating at our church building. Thank you cousins.

The rest of us slept next to the humidifiers, pumped full of cough medicine and nasal decongestants, miserable. Living in the boonies, no one came trick or treating, so maybe we'll Corbin and Chloe dress up in their costumes, Caleb in his again, and sit around and eat all the candy we didn't hand out.

Little City. Big City.

Since Larry moved me to what may be the littlest 'city' in America, he decided he'd better take me to the biggest city in America for a little get away. When a couple here, Derek and Carly, extended an invitation for us to join them on their trip, we jumped at the chance. Larry is a wise man because it was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits from the moving, resettling and adjusting to rural life. We had a blast! Carly's brother plays football for the University of Pennsylvania and entertained us at a Yale vs Penn game at Yale. He scored the first touchdown and Penn went on to beat Yale. Here, Derek and Carly pose with Jeff after the game. Of course, we knew to consult my sister Lisa, a former NYC resident, as to what we should do on our trip. She suggested Food Tasting Tours. She was spot on with this recommendation, as it was a highlight of our trip.
This is Larry with Curt, our tour guide from the tour we took of the MeatPacking District. He was an amazing guy, full of energy, great one liners, and tons of interesting info and insights about the area. We also really loved all the food we tasted.
As part of the tour, Curt insisted we go to the Iron Chef's restaurant, Morimoto, to experience their state of the art bathrooms and see the amazing decor. Since Carly's brother loves the Iron Chef, we headed back to the restaurant to share dinner with him. I enjoy eating out and like to think I am fairly adventurous in what I will order, but this was a little out of my comfort zone. It was a fun experience, though.
This solid wall of bottles is at Morimoto's.Other fun things we did: the food tour of Greenwich Village--also incredibly awesome. . . A sunset sailing tour where we saw the Manhattan skyline from the water and went out around the Statue of Liberty. . .. . . Meeting up with Michael and Lisa (friends from our new town who were also back there). . . Attending Stake Conference at the Manhattan Stake. Shopping. Eating. Walking. Crazy car rides. Site seeing. Laughing. Visiting. Having a great time.
I finally got to join the American Girl Doll Club after years of going to the store with my sisters and friends but never having my own daughter to by a doll for. So I went in and found a doll that looks just like Chloe. We left the American Girl store and walked down 5th Avenue past Saks, where we noticed that every window display was dedicated to Chloe.My only regret: not bringing our own camera due to fear of it getting lost or stolen. So, thanks to Derek and Carly for helping us supplement the pictures taken with my cell phone.

Chase as QB

Okay, so it took Chase's 3rd game for us to remember the sd card for the camera! Larry got these shots of Chase's last game. He plays Quarterback on Offense and Cornerback on defense. Here, he (#15) pitches the ball to #20.

Here, he passes the ball to #81--which resulted in a TD,

Here, he runs it himself getting it within 2 yds. of th goal line.

He also did a great job in defense and got an amazing tackle.


This is one of the pictures I found on the card when downloading Chase's game pics. Apparently, last Sunday morning the kids all dressed up in Royal Knights gear and took pictures of themselves with the timer setting. Funny kids.

Way to go, Caleb!

Caleb has definitely started his second grade year at a new school with a bang! A week ago the school called to tell me that his reading teacher had submitted his name for a Gold Dot. Apparently the staff is encouraged to notice when a student does something extraordinary and turn in their name. All of the Gold Dot recipient's names are then put into a drawing and the one retrieved wins a loot of goodies. Turns out Caleb was the winner! Then this Thursday, I got another call saying that Caleb was going to be surprised with an award that his classroom teacher nominated him for. His teacher honored him for showing strong character in Leadership. We are so proud of Caleb and that he is going out of his way to do good things.

Idaho

I had to go back to Idaho this past week to finish some design work I've been doing there. I took Chloe with me. We left on her birthday which didn't exactly make it a very eventful day to sit in the car for 5 1/2 hours. Poor girl. I tried to make it up to her by taking her to get her first mani/pedi at a salon in Idaho. She LOVES to get her nails painted at home, so all of the attention and professional paint job thrilled her!

Aunt Laura let us call her home our hotel and while I worked around the clock she took amazing care of Chloe. Chloe had a blast playing with Hazel. On our drive back she kept telling me to turn around and go back to Hazel's house.

Aunt Laura baked a delicious strawberry banana cake and she and Aunt Karin threw a party at the park for Chloe with her cousins. Isn't it fun having girl cousins to get just as excited about the mermaid doll as she is? That wouldn't have happened with the big brothers. Thanks for making her birthday special.

Of course the week was full of decorating for me. I worked on the clubhouse, and 2 other homes. My legs and arms are covered in bruises from moving furniture and I made a special trip to visit my Idaho bishop, a facial plastic surgeon, for stitches. When I had some painters lift the bed for me to roll the rug under, it detatched from the footboard and it came down smashing me in the face and cutting open my nose. My boys who have all been playing in rough and tumble football games last week look far less beat up than their interior decorating mom!

If you want to see more of the interior design of this project, go to my interiors redefined blog linked on my sidebar.