Where has January gone?

It was a wonderful Christmas for the Christianson family! We are starting to get back into the regular daily routine. Here are a few highlights from the holidays.

Lauren loved her sparkly Christmas skirt and hair clip. (Which is handmade (Etsy kids) and will be illegal after February 10, 2009. What a bunch of crap.) I know I am biased but I thought she looked so sweet!


The only picture of the boys I could get.

Santa stopped by for a visit on Christmas Eve at Christianson's. The kids were all a little bit wary of him. Lauren told me later she didn't like all the "hair in his face".

Will received a National Geographic "Sea Monster" projector. He was THRILLED!

But was quickly disappointed when we couldn't find any C batteries to run the projector. It was not pleasant.
Aunt Kailey and Uncle Cody gave the kids "Ugly Dolls". They were a hit. Lauren and Mamie dressed them up in Lauren's swimsuits.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on New Year's Day. The kids had lots of fun with their cousins.

Lauren received a Sleeping Beauty & Cinderella dresses. Here she is with "Prince Charming" aka Uncle Steve. It looks like the glass slipper fits!

Will got some pop up books that also make dinosaur noises. After being awakened by the sounds of dinosaurs recently, we had to restrict the books to the family room!

Lauren and Kendra loved the princess heels and costumes.

Only Seven Wake Ups until Christmas!

The kids are counting down the days until Christmas. We had an awful blizzard over the weekend so we spend Sunday inside with a fire in the fireplace and Christmas music playing. The weather outside was indeed frightful! The kids loved decorating the tree. (With all the ornaments hanging precariously from one branch!) We read Christmas books and got into a box of packing peanuts. (Which, as you can see, I am still finding everywhere!)

Drew's new trick is saying "Cheese!" every time he sees the camera. We have been getting some cute and "Cheesy" pictures of him!








We had Will's Christmas program at school on Tuesday night. The kids were all so cute in their Christmas outfits. He has been practicing this song at home for the last month. Here is a little video from the program!

Risky Business

We were trying to get some pictures of the kids for our Christmas cards which is almost always a painful process. Nobody sits still, looks at the camera or smiles nicely. You would swear that Will & Lauren were competing to see who could annoy Drew the most.

Every year I think that the Christmas pictures are a little misleading. You see the smiling children in the photo but what you can't see is Josh & I yelling at them to "Smile nice!", "Put your hands down!" ,"Look at Daddy/Mommy.","Sit still!", etc. At the end of the 20 minute process we were all crabby.


Here are Will & Lauren in their awesome capes from Superfly Kidz (Etsy). We have playing "Wonder Pets" quite a bit these days. Lauren's cape has a crown and jewels on the back so it also serves as a princess cape.

Drew has been climbing everything in site. I find him on top of the coffee table, dining room table and kitchen table all day long. I remove him, we have an ineffective chat "No Drew! No Climbing!" He smiles and repeats. My first two learned the meaning of "No" a little quicker. Here is a rare picture of him on the ground and standing relatively still.

October at a Glance

So it has been a busy October at the Christianson house! Josh has been traveling most of the month which doesn't leave me much time for updating the blog. (It's not like I have been all that great about keeping it updated anyway!)

Lauren and I picked apples from the neighbors tree and made apple bread. Of course we had to make a heart cake with her special baking equipment!

Josh took the kids to a UND Aerospace pancake feed at the airport. The kids loved to see the airplanes up close. (Some of Josh's colleagues kiddos are in this picture too!)

Drew is beginning to show more interest in books. He likes to read with Will.
For Halloween Will had to be "The Hulk" after he saw his cousin James' costume and Lauren wanted to be a butterfly. Here they are in the "Hulk" pose.

I opted for the skunk costume for Drew because........well, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

He did cheer up when he was given his first "Tootsie Pop"! Maybe we should have given him one at birth. (You know we love you Drew! You are just a little "sensitive" and maybe even a little bit"spoiled".)

A Penguin Party!

We celebrated Lauren's 3rd birthday on Sunday afternoon. She was so excited about her penguin cake. She requested a pink penguin "Snowflake" from the movie "The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin". (Be warned -this movie is addictive for children and has been known to drive parents insane.) She would invite the guests in the front door to come look at it in the kitchen and scream with excitement all the way to the cake.

What penguin party would be complete without olive penguins? Thanks Jim & Trish for assembling this little army of penguins. (I'm sure you talked about how insane I am all the way home.)

Kendra and Lauren with olive penguins.

In other Lauren related news, she started ballet a couple of weeks ago and it's not going all that great. She loves to talk about ballet class and dance for us at home but at ballet class she will not leave my side. My mom was watching Shirley Temple dance in a movie with Lauren last week and she asked, "Do you dance like that in ballet?". Lauren replied ,"No Grandma, I just sit." She looks super cute though!

She was getting over a mosquito bite which caused the fluid around her eye to become infected.
Josh thought she looked like Sloth. (from "The Goonies")

Back to School

Will had his first day of preschool at St. Michael's last Thursday. Even though I sent him in the wrong uniform for Thursdays (who would think they would have Mass the first day? They have to wear red shirts and black pants to Mass.) he loved it. I don't think I did any permanent damage by sending him in the wrong uniform but time will tell!

I had fresh chocolate chip cookies waiting for him when he came home. I'm hoping he will remember the cookies and not the uniform.

Happy Birthday Drew!

We celebrated Drew's first birthday on Sunday with family. It was a beautiful summer day! The kids loved the slip and slide and pool in the backyard and Drew loved his first taste of cake.

Thanks Uncle Nick for bowling the kids down the slip-n-slide. They had a great time!