Free Father's Day Card

For the fun of it...here is a picture of Joy from last June (on Brad's birthday and first Father's day). Look how little she was! 

June is just around the corner and it is a VERY busy month for the Christensen household. Our anniversary (June 4), my birthday (June 9), Brad's birthday (June 17), Father's day (this year also June 17)....are all coming up. (Also my brother in law's birthday is close to mine in June and my sister just had a birthday the end of May...phew!) 

Father's day is just around the corner and you may have a father or a husband who needs a card. My friend Emily has a great craft/sewing/recipe blog called Nap-Time Creations. She just posted a great website that you can order free father's day cards from! Check out her website for directions. I am doing one right now for my dad :-) All I had to pay for was postage...pretty cool!

Click here to go to Nap-Time Creations : Free Father's Day Card

p.s It only works to mail within the US not overseas.

The happiest place on earth,..

Joy and I joined some friends and went to Disneyland yesterday. We had so much fun and sweat buckets. Joy loved the jungle boat ride and anything that had monkeys ( Lion king float in the parade and the monkeys that were with Tarzan at the show). We also went on "Its a small world," the carousel, went to the Golden Mickey's a show, the parade, had a great lunch and finally home....we were exhausted but had a lot of fun!

 

Joy loved the carousel

\

We road the train 

All the characters had HUGE lines, but Stitch showed up right as we walked by so the kids got a picture with him

    

Bye Disneyland

Riding the mickey train home 

7 months with baby brother

Only 12 weeks (-5 or +2)  to go before we meet little brother. Thinking that little brother could be five weeks early is always in the back of my mind, which is a bad thing because he could be 2 weeks late!

 

Weight gain: Total of 13lbs so far. I just went back and looked at my stats from my pregnancy with Joy and I was 6 pounds heavier with her. Either this means that I will carry this baby full term...or running around after a toddler is good exercise!

Funny memory: Last night Joy was being silly and kept giving me raspberries on my belly. She would shriek in laughter each time.

Good:  I have had crazy nesting urges so I am getting a lot done in preparation for the baby. Although we still haven't watched the birthing videos, made a birth plan OR paid our deposit at the hospital, all goals for this next month!. I am starting to get clothes lined up and we are getting his room decorations up. Brad found the cutest super hero prints that we put up. I have been trying to rearrange kid stuff so we have room for new baby...quite the feat in 700 square feet of apartment! We get Joy's new crib in a couple weeks and then the new baby can go in the pack n play (and Moses basket). We have almost settled on a name, hooray! Naming this little guy has been really hard for us.

Bad: The heat has been really hard for me to handle.......I think I will be driving everywhere this summer, taking an afternoon nap and drinking lots of cold drinks!

Ugly : The cankles have started....oh boy. This is a couple weeks earlier than it started with Joy but that was brought on by a trip to Thailand. As the weather heats up...I assume that swollen feet will be my new look.

In the picture where I am pregnant with Joy I am closer to the camera but my bump is definitely smaller this time.

Bye bye

Aunt Ruthie is gone...and Brad is back to work (he took a personal day before an after his week long trip to Georgia)...Joy and I are back to our normal routine. Although we do have a some fun things planned for this week. Joy and I (along with friends) are going to Disney land tomorrow.....lots of fun pictures to come I am sure.

Here are some pictures from when Auntie Ruthie was here.

 A fun trip to Stanley

 Another trip to the pool...A place we will live this summer since the weather is so HOT

 A small miracle...Joy likes wearing her hat now!

 A trip to the park with baby swings which Joy loves!

Auntie Ruthie!

Auntie Ruthie has been here for a week and we have had so much fun! The weather has been really hot and I have been forgetting to take pictures. We have gone:

-pool

- Huge h&m

-restaurants (including a trip to McDonalds since auntie and joy both love French fries)

-market shopping (baby clothes for 2.5$us each... Not bad)

-indoor play place

-Ikea for breakfast &playing in the display rooms

-library.....

What a treat to have her with us! 

15 Months of chatting

What Joy is doing 

• Joy has been more interested in holding our hands and walking around. She has even been able to stand up totally alone a few times. She loves to climb and crawl all over (especially dangerous things like the book shelves and dinning room chairs) 
• She LOVES TO TALK, especially to her Auntie Ruthie. Joy will sit there and talk to us (of course it is all unintelligible) and it cracks us up. I still haven't been able to get it on video

• Total teeth: 6....the 7th tooth is almost through and I suspect there are a few more about to come as we have had a lot of teething troubles the past month.
• Loves splashing in water and swimming at her friend Elena's blow up pool.
• Nods her head yes or no 

What Joy is saying 

• daddy
• ma ma 
• daaddy (Rudy)..sounds almost like daddy so only really recognizable in context) yes 
• up
• baby
• da da (dog) 
• yes 
• Animal noises: lion, elephant, monkey dog

Eats 

• Solid food: Joy has started to want to feed herself with a spoon 
• Loves: anything edible...she will try it a couple times even if she doesn't love it at first. What a blessing.
• Verdict is still out on: not sure...this girl loves food
• Introducing this week: Joy has been on a dairy free diet for the past 2.5 weeks. She loves almond and soy milk. However she still sometimes spits up after breakfast. My professional opinion...she eats way too  much in the morning because she is so hungry. If I space out her food giving her about 20 min between her fruit and big bowl of cereal (or give her less) she is fine. We will introduce milk again and see.....

Sleeps:

•  Night time: 7pm-7am
• Naps: One afternoon nap (2 hours) and sometimes a quick 45 min snooze in the morning if she is in the stroller or hiking with daddy

Weighs:About 22 lbs

Likes:

*Going on the swing with daddy

* Going down slides (especially head first!)

*Going to Ikea to play in the kids display room

* To eat Cheerios in her high chair while mommy showers (if she wasn't contained while I was in the shower....there would be a major disaster)

* Wearing clothing on her head...especially her swim diaper (although she will NOT wear a hat!) 

Dislikes: Joy dislikes it when we spend the whole day at home. When Joy is done with something or doesn't want it she hurls it across the room...not so fun!

Favorite event:  Having Auntie Ruthie come to visit for two weeks. This week daddy is gone to Georgia (the country) on a school trip so Auntie Ruthie is here to keep mommy and Joy company.

 

Joy reading her new favorite book, thanks Kalina! 

What a mess

Joy has started to show interest in using a spoon... But man it is messy!

Hong Kong history museum

Brad had a school field trip to the history museum so Joy and some of her friends (and mommies if course) tagged along

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to the wonderful mothers (Susan and Lorna) in our life. We appreciate the love, sacrifice, hard work and kindness you have shown us (and Joy). Thank you for praying for us and supporting us.

Joy- it is an honor and a joy to be your mom and get to spend every day with you. I love your spunky attitude and your sense of adventure. I love being your mom!

One year ago......Joy was so tiny!

 Today: (Joy has had a fever yesterday and today so she isn't her usual smiley self)

26 weeks pregnant with little brother 

Ikea

Joy loves to get out of the house and gets cranky if we spend the morning at home. So I took miss cranky pants to ikea since my friend had to pick up a few things. Boy did she have a great time! It is always great to play with free toys 

Rubber ducky

Joy (and her friends Abigail, Christian and Elena) all went to see the Giant 6 stories high rubber duck in the harbor today. What a fun adventure and a yummy lunch at pizza express afterwards!