Holiday of Lights

Instead of roughing the traffic and three hour wait to get to Balboa park in San Diego, we decided to skip out on December Nights and instead go to Del Mar for the Holiday of Lights. It was a lot of fun and probably a better choice since we got to stay in the warm car.

Gingerbread House

My mom got me a cast iron gingerbread house mold... this was our first time using it. I decided I didn't want to make the gingerbread from scratch so I used the boxed stuff but ended up not having enough. We were missing a side of the house and one side of the roof. We tried to turn it into a stable but it started falling apart so this is the best we could do. :) We had fun making it together as Afton slept...well slept a little. Thanks mom for the mold. It will be a fun family tradition for us to continue every year.




I decorated this side...


...and Logan did this side. It's pretty obvious that Logan did a better job than me!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

It took us a while to finally get our Christmas tree up. We were both so busy that we couldn't find time to go and get one. Finally one night we had a couple of minutes and we got to the Christmas tree lot to find out that they closed at 8 (it was 8:15 when we got there). So on our second attempt we finally got a tree 11 days before Christmas! It was a beautiful tree... a cheap one... but beautiful one.



Our family picture. It was actually cold that night so we left Afton in her car seat to stay warm.



Logan looked around for a while for a tree and couldn't find one he liked... he's pretty picky when it comes to picking out a tree. Then, the first tree I found is the one we bought.


We had to drive home slow... it barely fit in the trunk!


Up up and away


Kisses from Mommy

Good Bye My Love

Walter passed away this month. I was really sad that I didn't get to atleast hold him one more time. I've had him for such a long time. He's been a trooper through everything.... willing to put up with all the crazy adventures I dragged him through. Like all the many camping trips I took him on and all my many softball games my mom took him to. He came with me when I moved to Utah to go to college. It was excited to drive myself there but comforted to have him in the car on the drive. I think all the other things we did together... me and my iguana. He was so good natured (only bit me once :) especially for all the abuse he endoured before we got him. He was an animal rescue that we came across through my moms work at Fish and Game. His first owners had abused him and broke his back. When he was rescued he had been starved to the point that some of his organs had shut down. I remember having to do leg exercises on his back legs to try and get them to work again. Eventually they worked a little, but not much. I also remember having to massage his belly to help his digestive system work... eventually that worked on it's own. He was amazing... even became potty trained after awhile. I know some people might think this post is absolutely silly but I was pretty attached to the little guy. So here's to you Walter... the best iguana ever.


I think this picture is from my freshman or sophmore year of highschool.


He wasn't kept in a cage so it was fun finding him everyday.


Him and our cat became best friends... really funny I know. The cat would always just come in to the cubby where walter slept and he would cuddle and sleep next to him.

Merry Christmas!

2 month check up

Shots! She got her first round of shots and she was pretty good about it. I had expected her cry the whole day but when they gave her the shots she cried for a minute and stopped. What a trooper. Here's what we found out:


Weight: 10pd 120z
Height: 22 1/2 inches
Head circumference: 15 inches

Pretty much she is average on everything (50th percentile). The doctor did say she was really strong. He was holding her arm and hand and I guess she was gripping him pretty tight. I already knew she had a great grip by how much hair she has pulled out of my head already! She does have acid reflux and colic... poor girl. But we're just going to have to wait those things out. The doctor gave us a prescription for her reflux but I'm not big on using prescription meds unless it is absolutely necessary... which for her it isn't since she has good weight gain. So, I'm just going to have to try cutting out all dairy and high acidic food from my diet... that should be fun. :) (Does anyone have any ideas of other stuff I can do for the reflux/colic/gas? I've tried gripe water, mylicon etc. and nothing seems to work! Also does anyone know of other things that I should eliminate from my diet? Any suggestions are appreciated!) All in all she is a healthy baby and happy sometimes. (when her stomache doesn't hurt and she's not throwing up)





Her pediatrician talking to her. He has been so great! Everytime we leave the appointments we both say how much we like him. He's so attentive to us and spends so much time with us when we come in. We never feel like he's rushing. He always explains things medically and chemically in detail so we realyl understand whats going on. I remember when he was explained her jaundice he was telling us how the billi beds work by changing the the cis and trans structures of the molecules...pretty cool. (he knows we've both taken a lot of chemistry classes). So yah we really like him.

getting dressed before she gets her shots!

8 weeks

Here she is at 8 weeks. I decided to go all festive with this one. :) haha. I never thought I'd be one of those parents that dressed their kids up like animals but here I am doing it!







Some more picture of Afton at 8 weeks old:

I love those rolls on hr legs!

finally asleep!

She likes holding her head and body up.... with dad helping her balance.

Smiling at dad making kissy faces at her.



Melts my heart.

Baby Blessing

We drove up to Fresno the day after Thanksgiving. We had decided to bless Afton in Fresno since most of our families and close friends are there. That way everyone wouldn't have to travel to us.... and lets face it, most wouldn't have traveled to us. So, we came to them! It was good being able to see everyone though we always leave feeling like we just didn't have enough time. Afton was great for the blessing... kind of. She was crying the whole time before then stopped for the blessing then started crying agian after the blessing was done. I'm really grateful she stopped. I have to admit I had a little bit of a freak out session before the blessing. I started feeding Afton an hour before we had to leave so that the timing would be just perfect. She'd eat, be full right before church, fall asleep on the drive, and then be good for her blessing. Nope, didn't happen like that. An hour after starting she was still eating and not wanting to stop. I had to cut her off and put her in the car to leave and she was not happy. She cried the whole way to church. We were running late and still had to dress her. So quickly in the parking lot we were scrambling to dress her while she was still screaming. I just kept thinking.... don't throw up all over you dress, please don't throw up all over your dress!(she tends to do that when she cried alot.) I was also worried we were going to miss her blessing since we were running late. Our ward here in San Diego always starts on time! Luckily Cedarview was a little late starting and so we got there just before the meeting started. Then she cried through the whole beginning part of church. But it all worked out fine and I really shouldn't have been stressed... babies will be babies. After the blessing we got together with our families and had lunch at Kristi's house. It was a great place to have the shin dig. :) Everyone had alot of fun playing with all the toys in the backyard! Thanks Kristi for letting us have it there. Basically, it was a great day. Logan ended up leaving that night to head back home and I stayed an extra day and a half to get some projects done with my mom.... mission accomplished... well almost. And I got to see a couple of friends that I had really missed. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with you guys(Holly and Ashley). But I had a lot of fun laughing a talking with you two for hours! The ride home was a little long. We had to stop and feed Afton twice and she likes to take her time eating! My mom drove me all the way home. Sh claims that she doesn't mind the drive... crazy. Thanks mom for taking me and for helping me get my projects done. We always have projects! :)

Almost everyone that came... a few missing. Thanks for the support guys.

Kris and Emily drove all the way from San Diego. It was sooo nice of them.

Christensen Family

Paulines... yep this is the best picture we got with you guys! haha. Well we tried. Atleast Charlie isn't webing the camera!.. Is that why Robbies holding hi arms down? :) Hopefully you have a better one!

My moms and thier daughters... one daughters missing.

Sharon and Peanut

Afton after the blessing finally being good.

Logans parents. They left right after the blessing so they didn't get to be in the big picture with everyone. When we all met up at Kristi's we took one of them with her.

Look What I Found

haha... I was cleaning out a spot on my bookshelf for some holiday decorations and found this. I know... I look like a poodle and apparently didn't get the memo about wearing black but I thought I'd post it just for kicks. Love you guys!



And this one is a personal christmas favorite of mine. haha. I actually have it framed and I put it up every year for christmas. But this year I thought I'd share it with everyone... since I'm the only one with a copy! :) Love you guys too!

Thanksgiving Day

Well this year we stayed in San Diego for Thanksgiving. Logan had to work Thanksgiving night so we really couldn't go far. We had an early dinner with the Hollidays and some new friends we made in the ward, Carter and Jenae. It was actually alot of fun. The night before I went over to Kristina's to make pie... I had never made crust before and Kristina is like the professional cook/baker. I made (with Kristina's help) a pumpkin pie since it is Logans favorite. Funny story.. he didn't even get any! I took it over to the Hollidays and Logan ended up leaving before having desert. I grabbed it to take it home and when I got home it was gone. I thought I left in on the roof of the car but found out that I left in the Hollidays house and they finished it off. That's definitely a better spot then on the road somewhere! haha. So I guess I'll have to make him another one sometime. Thanksgiving morning Logan and the guys had a Turkey Bowl at the park about a half mile from our place. It was raining all morning so the field was wet and muddy, perfect for playing football! I took Afton for a little while then walked home to get ready to head over to the Hollidays. We were responsible for making the greenbeans and stuffing... pretty easy job considering Emily and Kris had to make the Turkey and mashed potatoes. The food turned out great.., much better than I had excepted from first time Thanksgiving dinner makers! Anyway, I would say we had a pretty successful Thanksgiving!


Leaving the Turkey Bowl to walk home



Whoa Kris... watch where you put those hands. ;)







Cuddling with Kristina while mom made a pie.