Lily's Guest Post: Meet Robie

We got ROBIE from grandma Bobbie. He's an awesome piggy-bank robot and I recommend watching the following video:

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Lily's Guest Post: Meet Me

Hi! My name is Lily Christensen. I am ten years old.

The cows name is Patience.

Some of my favorite activities are catching frogs and lizards, being in plays, enjoying nature, horseback riding, reading, building things outside, playing on the computer, taking photos, and playing outside with friends.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Don't ask him his age, he doesn't want to remember that this is his last year in his 30's.  Stephen's birthday this year was on an ordinary weekday, so he still had to get up and go to work.  The girls and I concocted a plan to surprise Steve with donuts for breakfast.  He usually runs out the door, refusing to eat anything until dinnertime, but this was his birthday, so we were going to offer him this quick and easy breakfast.  The girls also wanted to make him a fruit smoothie, since they just learned how to do that in their cooking class.  So, we did just that.  We also gave him some gifts to open before he left for school.  He got Nutella, Raspberry Preserves, Reeses Shell sauce, and a Hubson X4 mini remote control quadcopter with camera.  I think he liked the surprises.

Later, a little before lunchtime, I texted him and asked if he'd like a birthday burger for lunch.  Surprisingly, he responded, "sure."  So, we brought him a burger and fries from Round Robin, a place near our home that has strange hours, that he's never tried, but everyone seems to love.  They put fry sauce on their burger, too.  He seemed to like it.  We ate lunch with him in the teachers lounge at their school. It was nice to see him in the middle of the day like that, and he seemed to enjoy that moment away from the classroom, with us.

When I asked him a few days previously what he wanted to do for his birthday dinner, he chose to have a quiet celebration at home.  He wanted lava cake and ice cream, and for his dinner, he wanted CRAB LEGS!  He says he thinks that it is probably his favorite food now.  I guess I have converted him to heaven's gift to our tastebuds.  Wish I had a picture of our dinner, but my mind was a bit preoccupied with the excitement of crab legs on my plate!  My mom was able to come and join us, too.

After dinner, it was time to blow out candles.  Steve didn't want to get out a bunch of candles and let it melt wax onto his lava cake, so we just lit our coconut-lime-scented jar candle for him to blow out. He allowed us our version of the tradition and he played his part well, complete with closing his eyes and making a wish before he blew the candle out.

Then we got to enjoy lava cakes with ice cream and even a drizzle of Reeses Shell!  Happy Birthday sweetheart!  We love you so much!

February Fun

Spring melt equals flooding. Luckily, it all drained off eventually.  Our neighbors had it BAD!

 We had a February of fun.  This post is a conglomerate of pictures we all took at various times during that month.  Enjoy!

One weekend, we decided to go on a photo shoot up at Red Fleet.  Steve got some good shots...

Amara went down to the reservoir and picked up a sheet of ice, then climbed the long hill to show us.

Amara looking through the ice window.

Amara diving.  Just kidding.  Steve's trick shots.

We sure live in a beautiful land!  God is good.

I shot this shot of Steve taking a shot of the moon.  :)

Now it's time for some selfies the kids took:

Amara's feet

Amara's feet again.

Lily's shadow

 And being silly:

And, I thought I'd also document here that Uncle Everett Adelman passed away at the end of the month.  I have fond memories of visiting with him as a child whenever we went to California to see my grandparents.  We made arrangements to attend his funeral.  Love you Uncle Ev!

Amara's Valentine Surprise From Lily

 Lily wanted to surprise Amara for Valentine's Day, but since we would be out of town for it, she decided to do it a few days previous.  I had Amara come in my room and read with me as all a part of Lily's plan.  Then, Lily spent 20 minutes cleaning the bedroom, fixing Amara's bed, and decorating.  She also bought Amara a gigantic Valentine card for $3 of her own hard-earned money, and she gifted some little sticks of gum and a $1 box of chocolates to her as well.  I love seeing my children being kind to one another and celebrating their love.  It just warmed my heart that Lily wanted to do that for her sister.  Amara was definitely surprised and so very happy.

A Full President's Day Weekend

Me and April near the new Provo City Center Temple.  Lily photobombing.

 These are some very random photos from our President's Day weekend.  We came down to Utah County to attend my sister Ashley's missionary homecoming.  That weekend, we stayed with April in Payson, went shopping at Costco for my Relief Societys' upcoming Birthday Dinner, Steve and I went on a date while April watched our kids, then on Sunday, we went to Ashley's homecoming and luncheon, went to Steve's family's Valentine's Dinner, went to Ashley's Question n Answer fireside, then Monday,we went to the Provo temple open house on our way back home.  I got only a handful of pictures that whole trip, and the girls took some at April's house.  The weekend was packed full of events and fun, but I only have a few random pictures, so enjoy what I did get.

Amara in the pink coat  watching the fountain.  Devon running to us.

We tried our best to get a good family photo by the fountain, but the sunshine was a little bright for us, apparently.  Here's the best 2 pics we got;

Lily or Amara got some pics of their cousins at April's house.  They had a lot of fun watching the funny things baby Tommy liked to do.  Devon was always making us laugh, too.

And Steve had some impressive bed head.  The End.