The Christensen Family: January 2017

Steve's first paid photography job was for my sister's friend who lives in Spanish Fork. She had seen my sister's family pictures and wanted some just like them. So, we barely squeezed their session in on a Friday evening after school let out and before the sun set. We were traveling down that weekend anyway for Heather and Alex's wedding.

Well, yes, September was months ago, but when a lot is happening it's hard to find time to blog! We had a fun and loaded summer, then we had a busy September to boot! As always, I'm behind on blogging, but better late than never!

Lily practiced photography on Amara while Steve was doing a photoshoot.

More of the shots Lily got

We got Lily new glasses after she lost her old ones. Funny thing is, we found her old ones the very next day!

Selfies with Auntie April

My brother Jake flew in for Heather's wedding. We went to a driving range in Payson and had a blast.

Silly selfies with my bro

I just can't get enough of us!

We stayed with April's family when we went down. Tommy and Ellie were being such buddies.

I helped with catering Heather's wedding. We all worked our tails off and it was nothing short of amazing!

Heather and Alex got hitched!

Lily and Amara were having sculpting contests at April's house.

This is our backyard. At the front is the patio with a basketball hoop and 2 people playing basketball, there is a path that lead out to our fenced garden area, you can also see at the center the mound with the the tree and bush on it, and at the very left is our fire pit with 3 benches around it and a flame in the pit with 2 people sitting on benches.

Our garden was in full swing!

Our brandywine tomato plants were so unpredictable. We never get very many tomatoes, but the ones we get can be really big!

My mom moved in with us in September when she and Tom separated and he went to live in Arizona. This pic is when we went grocery shopping at Stewart's. She got that pretty dress and some 15 others really cheap online. When they would come some of them didn't fit her, but they fit me, so I scored several new dresses too.

Chocolate dipped bananas for a bake sale fundraiser for a friend in our ward who needed a service dog. Steve even took her pictures for the posters and did a really nice job on them.

P.S. Chocolate covered banana's were my sister's suggestion, and I'm glad I did them. They sold out fast and they used up the bananas I had bought.

I also made these banana squares.

All the baked goods looked amazing!

They raised thousands of dollars at this bake sale!

You know you want some.

There were also raffle tickets for kids aprons, and quilts. Those tickets brought in a lot!

This was the last month of the see and do contest we entered (and won!). Here we are checking out the new archery range at Starvation.

I love the general women's meeting every year, and I love that my kids can come with me.

We hatched this monarch. More on that on our gardening blog.

Homemade ice cream from the blendtec

Practicing photography at Montes Creek

He didn't want me to take his picture, so I reminded him that it's so much nicer when your subject cooperates, as he well knows. He smiled for me. :)

We had a lot of rain and it flooded our yard and our neighbors' yards.

We rafted in the flood waters. The homemade raft is a sled with empty milk cartons duct taped to it.

Amara practiced taking a portrait of Lily.

Lily practiced taking a portrait of Amara.

I used my pressure canner for the first time and bottled these tomatoes. Wish I had done more, these tomatoes go fast!

For a homeschool field trip, we went to the Fieldhouse in Vernal (dinosaur museum).

Run from the mammoth!

Fierce like a raptor.

Brontosaurus photobomber

Amara's archery practice with her toy bow and arrow

The girls checked off a few items off another contest and got a free treat at a candy store in Vernal.

Vernal has a fun park

We learned about Sweden for homeschool when we were studying about Leif Erikson. We made Rosenmunnar cookies for the first time. They're a yummy butter cookie with jam pressed in the middle.

Before they baked

Baked and ready to eat. Steve said they are one of his new favorites.

Here we are doing a Scandinavian study. I checked out a bunch of books from the library, and we played a game. The girls had to choose a book then they only 5 minutes to read through it, then they had to do a 1 minute oral report on something they learned. Then they picked another book and did the same thing until all the books had been read. Several of them piqued their interests and I found them reading them on their own at other times during the day. We learned a lot and they had fun.

It was a beautiful foggy morning and Lily was practicing photography for her class.

Lily took my picture this mystical morning.

The girls really enjoyed their horseback riding lessons this year. This is on their final lesson and they got to go down the street and play tag at the larger corral.