Happy Birthday, Carter!

What do you do when your sixteen year old doesn't like cake, pie, cookies or anyother dessert for his birthday party? You bake giant breadsticks in the shape of 16.

Carter celebrated his sixteenth birthday yesterday. Watch out ladies, he can officially date now. Just one thing may be putting that on hold, and that is the lack of a drivers license. Due to his basketball schedule, he has been unable to take drivers ed, which is offered in the evenings and conflicts with practice and games. Bummer.
Ok, so Carter's brothers look a little dopey in this picture, and no Larry isn't Carter's secret service agent with an earpiece. It just so happened that Carter's birthday coincided with the BYU game and Larry needed to keep himself and Carter updated. Thanks Jimmer, for scoring all of those points for Cart's big day.
Being Carter's mom has been an amazing experience. He has always been a very responsible, rule abiding kid. He develops a keen interest in many things and when he does, he becomes an expert in it. He has always been an avid reader and would plow through books like Harry Potter as early as 1st grade. As he's gotten into sports the last couple of years, that constant desire to read has been focused on books about sports figures and the history of basketball and football. This has created a desire in him to become a sports broadcaster some day. He's intense, focused, and extremely bright. I love to talk to him and am always amazed at his perceptions, insight, and wisdom at such a young age. It's been exciting watching him grow from a little boy into a wonderful young man. Happy 16th Birthday, Carter.

Trophies

Trophy Speller:
Corbin shows off the trophy he won as the second place speller in his school spelling bee. He will never forget that petticoat is not spelled pedicoat.

Trophy Hunter:
Larry shows off his trophy coyote. He couldn't resist the call of the wild the other night and went out with his brother for a 3 hour coyote hunt. I awoke the next morning to see this picture that he texted me. Does anybody have a good coyote recipe? Joking.

Happy Birthday, Chase!

Almost a week has passed since Chase turned 14. Fourteen?!!
On Chase's birthday, we woke up to the news that school had been postponed and then found out they were going to cancel it. The roads were too icy and cars were sliding off right and left. We actually had a driveway full of people waiting to get back on the road. That said, it's not a bad way to start your birthday to find out school has been cancelled. Chase spent the morning designing his own custom shoes on the Nike website. He is very artistic and frequently draws pictures of shoes with custom logos, so this was the perfect birthday present for him. We are anxious for the shoes to arrive. After the road conditions improved, we headed into town where Chase looked for something to buy with his birthday money from grandparents' Christensen and Hawkes. He settled on the NCAA 2011 videogame. Then we headed over to TimeOut Pizza, a local pizzeria decked out in sports paraphanelia and flat screens broadcasting games. Chase chowed down on Meat Lovers pizza, checked out the LeBron shoes--those are some big feet, and then headed home to play basketball at the school with the old guys from church. When he got home, we ate some delicious Whoppers cake I baked from a recipe in the Baked cookbook. It's a must try recipe, it was so good.
Chase is an AWESOME kid. He is so kind and peaceful and treats our family members with love and respect. He has a great sense of humor and is frequently laughing and finding the humor in situations. He is very creative and artistic and expresses himself with his wonderful drawings and designs. He is an amazing athlete, but is also a good sport. He works hard in school, is intelligent, and gets good grades (sidenote: he & his friend just won 1st place in the school science fair). It has been a blessed fourteen years watching Chase grow and develop into such an incredible young man.

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.