Webkinz world

Little Miss received a Webkinz for her birthday from one of her little friends and she and mommy got it all figured out. (It's easier for me than facebook or blogging!) So, she gets to do her little jobs and do a little shopping and take care of her little animal online and it's a treat for her. She's only had it for a couple weeks and we are already at the point where she has to earn her computer time. Her big brother bought his own and he enjoys it, but maybe not as much as she does. Kai likes to play on his laptop also, but it's more about letters and numbers. We're trying to create geniuses, you know. :)

Boy cousins and even better friends

They've apparently run out of things to do for about 5 minutes and needed a break in the thinking chair or something. I told them that they weren't allowed to smile while they sat there, not even a grin or a smirk, let alone a laugh... and they thought that was pretty funny.

These are some pretty serious faces!!

Totally rad baby

The little caboose just loves sunglasses, naturally. They were extras from the goodie bags from big sister's birthday bash and he felt totally awesome wearing them, at least that's what he told me.

The thumb sucking is usually a great indicator of an inkling of a naptime feeling, but in this case, it was just because he was feelin' cool and feelin' good.

A whole new world

I've recently joined the Stephenie Meyer bandwagon and it's been quite captivating for me I must admit. Kevin thinks that I'm officially crazy now that I have a blog and I'm reading about vampires and enjoying it. (I am currently reading John Grisham's latest, The Appeal, so hopefully he will think that he hasn't lost his wife completely to this strange genre!) I would post a picture of me reading one of the books, but since I'm the one that usually takes the pictures, that is near to impossible. I'm happy to say that I did really like this series and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming movie. Also, I did read the preview of The Host and to be quite honest, I'm not that impressed, but things can change. Please let me know of any other book recommendations. I'm usually not a fictional fan (besides the Grisham factor) but I am morphing just a little. :)

Little Lady turns 6

We celebrated Saydria's birthday a little early to suit our schedule and she was all the more excited to turn 6 early. So, it was really an exciting day for her to have 8 girls running around and exploring, making craft purses and decorating them with gems, playing games and helping open presents. She very badly wanted her momma's ice cream cake because she thinks it's way better than the Dairy Queen cake, and that is just fine with me. Can you believe this little ice cream cake serves 12? It's made with 3 layers of ice cream sandwiches and 2 layers of fudge and oreo cookie chunks and then covered with whip cream and frozen overnight. Let's see Jessica Seinfeld make this one healthy! :)

Sippin' a sippy

So here's Cole and he's figured out the whole juice box thing and wants one anytime he spies one, naturally. He's a great milk drinker and I think he's been my first one to really enjoy drinking just regular, white milk. Saydria and Kai love milk now, but they didn't at their 1 year birthday. So, I thought I'd share these cute pics of him drinking his little 5% juice box, yeah, it's like the kool-aid stuff and it's a treat for all our kids, even the baby. He didn't want to give it up until it was gone. (Although, it did start off as Kai's and he didn't want anymore.)

Early Valentine's day

Kai is snuggling up to his new little bear.


Saydria loves her tower of chocolate...boxes. She loves treasure boxes and enjoys putting her treasures in them!
Grandma's and Grandpa's are so much fun! Grandma and Grandpa Brazier sent the kids a fun Valentine's package as they love to do. They each received their own sippy sport bottle with the coordinating action/adventure hero of their likes, some fun candy and cute little teddy bears that, interestingly enough, play rock music that I grew up with. They always love the personalized cards that Grammie makes for them. Brayden and Saydria are gearing up for Valentine exchanges at their classroom parties and the package has brought Cupid to our home and we are feeling the love.

More pizza...

Okay, so here's the pizza that I love to eat, for those of you emailing me and wondering. It's a buffalo chicken pizza. We (and I use this term loosely) put ranch dressing on the crust and then grill the chicken breast with hooters wing sauce and I need to mention that you can buy it at your local grocer, no need to actually step in the joint. And it's just the chicken and plenty of mozzarella. Kevin adds extra wing sauce on top with a squirt bottle and it's really yummy in my opinion. My favorite before this one was the KC Masterpiece BBQ chicken and bacon. Same basic thing, just use the BBQ sauce for the crust topper and grill the chicken with the sauce as well. So, as far as the pizza making, I usually prep all the ingredients and Kevin tosses the dough and rolls it out, etc. He's like a pizza pro, the kids and I love to watch him do it, it's really quite entertaining! I have a difficult time getting a nice circle. More on dough later.

Pizza night

This is what pizza night looks like at the Christensen's. Kevin is our pizza pro. After nearly 10 years of trying different dough recipes and sauces, baking stones vs. butcher paper, we feel like we're ready to build a brick oven in the backyard. The kids eat the pizza best when they each get to make their own and have tiny pieces of pizza, so here are some shots of their creations. They each keep it pretty simple with just pepperoni on theirs, Kai put his pepperoni under his cheese.

Student of the Quarter

We took Brayden with us on our weekly Friday night date. We surprised him at the last minute as our babysitter arrived and he was just so excited. We had told him about Genji Steakhouse before and he's been wanting to eat there. So, Kevin and I thought that since he got student of the quarter it would be a good excuse to take just him with us and enjoy his company. We're happy for his good example in school, this is the 3rd year in a row he's gotten to be student of the quarter and we're happy for him, he's a good kid. So, we were pretty amazed at how quickly he could eat the shrimp, even sneaking Kevin's off his plate without Kevin even knowing (he wasn't going to eat his anyway) and we continued to fuel his fascination with fire by taking him to a hibachi-style joint. He loved the flames that went to the ceiling and he also said that he loved the fire volcano made out of the onion. I still can't believe I took my camera...I took it with the purpose of getting one shot of him at the restaurant just so I could post it on this blog. Kevin will not let me live this one down.

Celebrating 1...

Cole was a little unsure of the fire on his food, but after it was blown out by an unknown source, removed promptly only to be licked off by none other than Kai, Birthday Boy decided he'd grab the goodness sitting right in front of him and put it all down at once. It was a far cry from a Hawaiian 1st birthday, but guess what, we're not Hawaiian, as much as Kevin likes to think we are. So, we kept it pretty low-key, although the Lonnie Brazier family did stop by to help celebrate (and also drop off Brayden after he'd spent the night with Joey and they'd spent all day together!)

Dancing with Daddy

Here's my cute baby Cole smiling and giggling as he's dancing with his Daddy in the kitchen, something that each of our children love to do. I guess I should let some of you know that I am currently teaching Kai the "air guitar" and he's decided that it's pretty fun. I'll have my camera ready!