Olivia & Gavin

My niece Olivia will be 3 in February.

She has the most beautiful blue eyes and such a sweet smile!
Gavin is 6 months and following in his big sisters path with the same eyes!

I am looking forward to seeing them both at Christmas this year.

Sorry....it's been too long!

These two pictures...the one above and the one below....are Jeremy sleeping in his bed in his room by himself...now, before you get to excited...mom...he is not in his bed because he wanted to sleep there....oh no, quite the opposite!!! He earned it by being quite the crabby child today. I know, sleeping in his own bed should not be the consequence of not behaving but....I think this could be the only thing that works...and the only way for me to break my habit of wanting him to sleep with me....He put up quite the strong willed child fight when we went to sleep in his room...he cried and carried on and called for Daddy and said he wanted to sleep with daddy and that he hates his room and he is afraid of his room and there are monsters in his room and he will not sleep there and he wants to sleep with lots of people...and you get the picture....my response, "I'm sorry." He finally fell asleep because for once...my will was stronger and I did not give in....and he was tired from crying....so, asleep tonight at 715pm in his room and I now know that when I am ready to break this sleeping habit it is not going to be an easy task!!!!
PS.....the teddy bear is the bear that he sleeps with that keeps away the monsters....just in case they get past the monster repelent that Daddy and Mommy put all over the houes so that they can not get in to our home in the first place. The sock monkey is favorite animal number 2 and he is watching over them both!

Lots of bubbles in the bath!

I like this picture because he looks so big! What a handsome boy!

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And now for some pictures that were taken by Jeremy. He likes to take my old digital camera and run around the house taking pictures. It is always fun to look and see what he has been taking picture of when I am at work! Enjoy some of my favorites that he took during the Halloween Season at our house!

So, I am sorry for the length of time that it has been between picture posts. I had to get a post on here quick so that I wouldn't get lumped into the poor blogger category along with my brother. I still have not had a chance to get the pictures off of my camera but hope to get to that soon. Then I will have pictures of Jeremy in his Halloween costumes to share....Yes, I meant for that to be plural...he wore many costumes over the week of Halloween at all his different parties and even did two the night of Halloween for Trick-or-Treating! Stay tuned!

Another Wordless Wednesday!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!

Having a BLAST in Washington!!!!

Jeremy's favorite activity has been hiking....he even has a pair of his own little "hikes" to help him along the path.
Mommy and Jeremy at the end of a very long hike to a beautiful waterfall. Jeremy did great and walked almost the entire 3 mile round trip hike.

Playing in the water and throwing rocks in the water is his favorite part of hiking.

We did take a break from hiking to spend a day that the ballpark. We saw the Seattle Mariners play even if it looks like Jeremy is all ready to cheer on his Cubbies! He got quite a few head turns at the ballpark that day and some commented that he was in the wrong city. I was going to tell them that tickets to the Mariners game were MUCH cheaper and easier to come by than tickets to the Cubbies!

We don't have to travel far from Granny and Pa's house to see one of the most beautiful water falls I have ever seen. This is Snoqualmie Falls and is only a few miles from my mom and dad's house on Snoqualmie Ridge. You can even hear the falls from their house on a very quite night if you listen very closely!!!

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We have been having a great time and will be VERY sad to leave this beautiful state! However, I will try not to think about that right now as we have one more full week left and another full weekend!!!! YIPEE!!!!

WE ARE EXCITED!!!!!!!!

We are about to head out on a TWO WEEK vacation to Seattle, WA!!!! We will be visiting Granny & Pa. This picture of Jeremy is the only way to explain how excited we are! There are no words!!! See you tomorrow Granny & Pa!!!!

Day Out With Thomas 2008!

We went to our annual Day Out With Thomas last weekend and had a BLAST!!! I thought it might be the last year we go with him but I am sure that we will be attending again next year! We really did see Thomas and I have a picture of him I just failed to get it loaded this time....anyway, wouldn't you rather see pictures of our happy smiling faces!!!

Step Kids

Here are some recent pictures of the step kids that I stole off of Derek's facebook page. I thought the first one was really good of them and the second one was just funny! Happy Birthday to Derek yesterday...the big 20....and next week to Ashley who will be 17...the one year countdown begins! One year until Jeremy starts kindergarten!!!! Did you silly people think I meant one year until Ashley is EIGHTEEN!!!!! Okay...so I did!!

Staycation in Rockford, Illinois!

Two weekends ago Connor & Christen stayed with us while their parents celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. On the first night of their visit we stayed in Rockford, Illinois, for a little "staycation" away from home. We had lots of fun! We ate at Beef-A-Roo, played at the really fun Alpine Park, swam in the hotel pool, went to the Starlight Theater at Rock Valley College to see a production of "Jonah" and visited Jane at Burpee Museum. We had a blast and Jeremy loved having his cousins at his house all weekend. Jeff and I enjoyed their visit as well and are now very sure that we will only have one child!

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For more information on the fun activities that we experienced and many more in the Rockford area visit http://www.gorockford.com/ and take a trip to visit soon!

God Bless the USA!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We worshiped outdoors today and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day! Enjoy this book from our worship service today as well as some pictures from the night of the 4th! Happy 4th of July!

Olivia & Gavin

Look at the proud big sister holding her baby brother!

For LOTS more pictures of these two visit my mom and dad's blog. See my blog roll for the link. Click on Mom & Dad.

The Birthday Party!

Jeremy Turns 4!
Spongebob is his favorite! *sigh*

Mommy, Daddy & Jeremy

Mommy & Jeremy

Jeremy loves this card! Makes him look like a monkey! (He already acts like one!)

Can you see in his eyes how excited he was about this LEGO present??! Good think that I love to put legos together as it took me about 2 hours to put together this plane!!!

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We celebrated Jeremy's 4th Birthday at Ravinia with Ralph's World. It started out as a VERY rainy and stormy day but by show time it the weather couldn't have been better! All of his friends and family braved the possible storm and Jeremy was so excited to have them all with him on his special day.

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NOTE: All the pictures above were taken by Jodi B. She is my sister and a phenomenal photographer! Thanks for getting these great shots Jo!!!!

Stepkids....

Ashley ~ almost 17 years old ~ soon to be a senior in high school ~ pretty ~ smart

LAZY!!!

Proof that she is lazy: She is currently grounded due to bad grades in school......she just told us tonight that she got a 25 on her ACT Test.....I looked on line and that is good enough to get into schools such as Auburn and UCLA. I mentioned to her that 25 is great but she is grounded due to her grades?!! That doesn't make sense. She said, "Yeah...I know...I'm lazy." I guess at least she knows that she is lazy. Now....how to change that???? I'm glad that she's not my kid and it's not my problem!

Derek ~ Almost 20 years old ~ going to community college for computer something-or-other

LAZY!

Proof that he is lazy: He is done with school for the year until after summer. Today he slept until 10 am. He does not have a job. He does not care that he does not have a job. Again, glad that he is not my kid and not my problem!

Happy June!

Happy June!

Pictured above: Jeremy, June 2; Jaki, June 4; Grandpa Art, June 6

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Happy Birthday to all you fellow June babies!

Grandpa Chris (my grandpa)

Bob (Husband of my junior high best friend)

Kevin (my cousin)

Beka (my college friend)

Barbara (my client & friend)

Ashley (daughter of one of my junior high friends)

Siri (my God Sister)

Brian (Husband of one of my college roommates)

Sierra (daughter of my cousin)

Mark (Husband of one of my junior high friends)

Rosie (my aunt)

Chad (my cousin)

Randy (my uncle)

Ryan (my nephew)

Summer (daughter of my cousin)

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Happy Anniversary to all the June Weddings!

Roger & Marilyn ~ 44 years (my in laws)

Kristi & Bob ~ 12 years (my junior high best friend and husband)

Julie & Mark ~ 10 years (one of my junior high friends and husband)

Amy & Ray ~ 10 years (fellow AKPsi Brothers and Amy was my college roommate)

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Happy Birthday To Me!

So, today is June 4th! This has been my favorite day of the year all my life.....why? It is my birthday of course! I have always been a birthday baby! June 4th is MY day and it is all about ME! When I found out I was pregnant with Jeremy and his due date was June 11th I was a little........okay........a lot worried that he would be born on MY birthday and I DID NOT want to share that day with anyone! Especially my child because then I would have to put him first! Can you tell from this that I had never had a child and that I had NO IDEA how much he would change my life! When my doctor told me that I would be induced on June 2nd I was glad he would not be born on my birthday and that at the very worst his birthday would be June 3 because the doctors would not let you go more than 24 hours after your water broke. My sister said that somehow it would still end up that Jeremy would be born on my birthday because I so did not want that and, as she knew with 2 kids of her own, kids rarely comply with your wishes....they do what they want! Well, Jeremy was born on June 2nd not on my birthday....but now...who cares....not me! June 4th is still my birthday but June 2 is my favorite day of the year and June 4th is really just another day!

Kids......they really do change your life!

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Oh...and maybe next year I will buy one of those puppies that I am holding in the picture above as a birthday present for me!

Happy 4th Birthday Jeremy!

Jeremy's 4 and he caught his first fish in the little pond behind our townhouse!

Our little sugar baby! (About 4 days old)
Jeremy (about 16 months) with his best bud, Bandit!
Jeremy's favorite expression starting at about age 2......


.....continuting on to age 3.

(Check back for his birthday picture I will take tonight.)



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HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY JEREMY JAMES!

Today Jeremy is four years old! I can not believe how fast the time has flown by!

Four years ago at 11:21 am after about five hours and four pushes I was holding my sweet baby boy! Little did I know then that those five hours would be the easiest part of this journey into the adventure of being Jeremy’s Mom. He weighed in at 5 pounds 13 ounces and was a little over 19 inches long. I called him the Saggy Baggy Elephant because he had no fat on him and was so tiny. Eight hours later he was whisked off to the NICU due to low blood sugar, as were two other boys born on June 2, 2004. Jeremy decided that he too wanted to be a part of the “sugar party” in the NICU. He was given glucose thru an IV to help raise his sugar levels and to this day he is still my little sugar addict! Like mother like son!

On June 4, 2004, my 29th birthday, I was discharged from the hospital but Jeremy was having too much fun at the sugar party that he decided to hang out for a few more days. It was so hard for me to leave that little boy and go home. Soon, he joined us at home and “the journey” began.


Today, Jeremy is 4! He is 34.2 pounds and 39 3/4 inches tall (both put him in the 25-50th percentile). He is still my skinny little boy but he has grown so much! He is curious and energetic, creative and smart, he loves his dog Bandit, his grandparents, his cousins, and his Daddy, but he is definitely a Mommy’s boy through and through! His biggest fear is “getting bigger”. He says, “I want to stay this size, I want to be little forever Mommy!” Don’t I know it kid! I wish that too.

Happy Birthday Jeremy! I love you to the moon…..and back again!



~Love, Mommy~

XOXOXO

Welcome Baby Gavin!

Welcome Baby Gavin!

Gavin Arthur Christensen

May 27, 2008

5:22pm

7 pounds 3 ounces

19 1/2 inches

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Middle name after our Mother's Father:

Arthur B. Christensen

Born June 6, 1919

(Pictured here with Champ -- taken this weekend!)

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We just arrived home after our visit with family in Minnesota over the long weekend. We celebrated Jeremy's 4th Birthday and had many adventures and lots of fun. I have tons of great pictures that I want to share but an event more important than our trip occurred today as we were driving home. It definitely takes precedent over the other events or our weekend. My brother Jason and his wife Julie welcomed to the world their first son, Gavin! Congratulation to the new family and to big sister Olivia! We can not wait to meet the little guy!

Welcome Baby Kenzie!!!

WELCOME!

Kenzie Ryan Gail Magyar
Born on May 19th at 5:34pm
6 lbs 9 oz ~ 19 1/4 inches

Denver, Colorado

(Kenzie is the brand new daughter of one of my best friends, Heather. Heather and I were both new kids our Junior year in High School in Virginia and our friendship began when we realized that we both LOVED to listen to They Might Be Giants!)

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Now we are just waiting on baby number 3 this month.....Jason & Julie are expecting any minute! Can't wait to meet that little one!

Welcome Baby Royce

Royce Lee ~ Born: May 9, 2008

Pictured here with his big sister Oie (Olivia)! She calls him Rice!

Glad to meet you Royce!

(Siri is the proud mother of these beautiful children. My parents are her Godparents. Her parents are my Godparents. When we were growing up Siri and I thought it neat to call each other "Godsisters". Siri's birthday is June 6 and mine is June 4 so we celebrated many birthdays together when we were little. Jeremy and Oie are only one month apart! Maybe one of these summers we will get the kids together for a birthday celebration!)

...taste of summer...

My flowers are finally out.....
Friends are coming out of their houses after a long winter freeze....

Swinging with friends at the park....

and it isn't even summer yet!

Jeremy's favorite boy neighbor, Michael. Jeremy will even leave playing with Olivia to spend time with Michael.

But who wouldn't when Michael has the head of what was once a real alligator!

If Michael had any idea that the look in Jeremy's eyes here is complete and utter awe of this older boy with so much wisdom.....

Look mom! An alligator head with sharp teeth!