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Eli's New Look

Eli got his helmet wrapped today. There is this company in Dallas called 360wraps. They wrap cars, trucks, race cars, pro helmets, motorcycles, etc. They started offering to wrap baby helmets for free! What an awesome service. They had a wrap party today and Eli and four other kids all got their helmets wrapped this morning. The design was among my top favorite but I hesitated because it is kind of wild. However, today is Luke's birthday and so he got the final say on the design. I have to say turned out great and is ADORABLE!

He had an appointment last week and his head has all the normal/right proportions and is looking great! A few more weeks and we should have a perfect looking head! YEAH!

Happy Birthday Luke!!

What a stud Luke is. I could not have snagged a better guy.
Hope you had a wonderful birthday babe!

The Best Cup Cake and Visiting Teacher EVER!

My Visiting Teach showed up at the door the other day with a plate full of cupcakes and a tag that read "Celebrate Today!" I asked her what they were for and she pointed to the card and left. I flipped the card over and this is what is read (see below). So first of all that was so creative, spontaneous and cute of her to do but then lets talk about the cupcakes. Emma had one instantly and of course it was a hit. Then, Luke came home and dove right in. He peeled back the wrapper and it peeled perfectly away from the baking cup not sticking at all. He was already impressed. Then he bit into the cupcake and was in heaven. Were not joking here when we say these were the best cupcakes ever. Not only do they look awesome they are absolutely to die for! Luke wanted to make a your tube video of us peeling the paper back and eating the most perfect cupcake because it was so perfect. Props to my visiting teacher, you rock! Oh and on a sadder note, they just switched visiting teaching up and she does not visit me anymore. I told her to just pencil me in on her route!

Tis the Season!

We had to follow our tradition of putting the tree up on November 1st! We enjoy the holiday season entirely too much to wait any longer.

Emma checking out her reflection in the balls.

The quality of the photo is horrible but he is just too cute not to post!

The Christensen's Second Annual Halloween Party!

We had our Annual Halloween Party the day before Halloween and it was a blast! I have to give a shout out to the costume and scavenger hunt winners!

I know Luke's eyes are closed but it was the best picture of us in our costumes! By the way, costumes were required and everyone looked awesome!

And the winners were...

Happy Birthday Emma!

Tribute to Emma!

Emma was always a very easy going and sweet baby.
Emma was (and still is) a VERY active little toddler. She just goes and goes and goes. She wouldn't slow down for anything. She didn't want to be held much. She was/is too interested in exploring the world!

I think I noticed the biggest change, developmental wise, between her second and third year. She went from my sweet little toddler to a littlg girl! She is just so independent and smart! She can say or do anything and just cracks us up all the time!

Here are some of the things she currently enjoys doing:
Dressing up as a princess
Playing with her princess barbies
Playing in the back yard
Drawing on her chalkboard and just drawing and coloring in general
Saying her prayers
Helping mommy cook, especially licking the spoon when it is anything sweet
Putting bandaids on any and every boo boo
Playing rough with her Daddy
Singing at the top of her lungs
Giving lots of hugs and kisses
Calling her friends on the phone
Playing with her imaginary monkey, kitty cat, and doggy
Sitting on mom's lap whenever she is on the computer
Playing with play dough, making cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer
Talking about her grandparents, etc.

She is SO much fun and makes us laugh on a daily basis! We feel so blessed to have her in our lives and cherish every moment with her!

Happy 3rd Birthday Emma!

Emma turned 3 on October 28th. She had a couple friends over and had a little princes party. Her mommy even mad her a princess barbie cake! She had a blast!

We told them to all do a pose and this is what they came up with. Emma is doing the serious, straight faced, pose. Not quite as cute as the others but I think it is hilarious!

October

October was a crazy busy month! We had several little birthday parties, went to the pumpkin patch, had several Halloween parties including Emma's preschool party, trunk-or-treating, a little toddles party with some friends for Emma, Our big Halloween party and then of course Halloween which entailed trick-or-treating at the mall and our neighbor hood. Emma was really into Halloween this year and had a blast! She got her Sleeping beauty costume for her birthday and is in love. She wants to wear it, and all the accessories, ALL the time! Little Eli dressed up as a football player, helmet and all! :)

Grocery Store Musical

Luke found this last night when on the Internet. It is So Funny! This improve group does silly things all over the country. We went to their website, http://improveverywhere.com/, and watched "mission" after "mission."

Here is a little bit about them: Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 85 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

I would suggest going to their site and watching some of their stuff. It is hilarious. Our favorite ones so far are the Grocery Store musical and the The Mp3 Experiment Six. (both below) ENJOY!

Michael Jackson Medley

A lot of you have probably seen this video but I just had to share it!

This guys is so talented! It is one guy singing all the parts. It's amazing what you can do with editing capabilities these days! The medley he does it great too! I think it cuts part of the video off on my blog so click on the video if you want to see the full sized video.

Helmet Update

Eli has had his helmet for 2 1/2 weeks now and Luke and I have already started to notice improvements! I took Eli to the pediatrician for his 6 month checkup yesterday and the Dr. said she can notice a change for sure. She said whereas before it was moderate to severe now it is only mild to moderate. We have had to have it adjusted because it was rubbing too hard in one area but it is assumed there will be adjustments over the first couple of weeks. He wears the helmet all day and all night minus one hour before he goes to bed so we can give him a bath and clean the helmet. We have gotten so used to seeing him with his helmet on that it is almost strange when he has it off.

Random Pictures and Fun

Here are some random pictures/fun stories from the last couple of weeks.

Doesn't Emma look SO old in this picture!

Luke gave Emma his old "Mammals" book. They are learning all sorts of fun animals together.

Aren't they just precious!

This is Emma's doing her super model pose while sporting her Halloween Hairdo that Luke created.

Emma was one hip diva with her glasses upside down.

I love that the weather is cooling down a bit so that we can enjoy the outdoors again without having to be in a pool.

Family picture at the Zoo.

Here is Emma, "making cookies for Santa." We celebrate Christmas year round in our home. :)

The other day I told Emma the clock said 9:40 and she said "No mom, the clock doesn't have a mouth!"

The Helmet

I have dreaded having to do this post but the time has come. At six weeks old we noticed Eli's head starting to get flat on he back left side. We talked to the Doctor and learned that one side of his neck was stronger than the other causing him to favor the one side when he slept, laid down, turned his head, etc. We worked with him but the flatness did not get better. Because the back portion is flat it is causing the front opposite side to also flatten out which changes the whole shape of the skull which can result in the ear/eye asemitry, etc. We were refereed to a craniologist Dr. who diagnosed Eli with a moderate combination of brachycephaly (where the head is wider than tall) and plagiocephaly (where the head has asymmetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull) and recommended Eli get a helmet to correct the shape of his head. We knew this was something we needed to do, especially if Eli was going to wind up with Luke's hairdo someday! :)

Eli has had his helmet for one week now. The first week was the "transition" period where they get used to and work up to wearing it 23 hours a day. Since Saturday he has been wearing it all day and all night. Eli is such a happy baby and is doing really well with the helmet and really does not mind it at all. The worst part about it is that his head sweats SO much! They asid after the first two weeks the head will adjust and not sweat as much, which is something I am looking forward to! That has got to be so hot for the little guy! I am thankful he is so young and doesn't know any better to mind that he is wearing a helmet. He has to wear the helmet for 4-6 months. There is space in the helmet where his head is mis-shape/flat so that as it grows it will fill in in those areas.

When I walked into Eli's initial appointment, 4-6 weeks ago, and saw all the babies with helmets in the waiting room I wanted to start crying. I thought, "this isn't my baby needing this." From our initial appointment it took about 4-6 weeks for Eli to get his helmet. Ever since then I have been stressed about it. I didn't want people to think I had dropped him on his head or there was something really wrong with him. I was worried too much what people would think or that they would just ignore Eli. After the first day of going out with him in public I quickly got over those feelings. Although we do get quite a few looks people are still very kind. I have been able to develop a better perspective on the whole situation and know that it is the best thing for Eli and as long as we are comfortable with it it doesn't matter what other people think about it.

Emma thinks the helmet is the coolest thing ever and wants one herself! Luke has an old bike helmet in the attic he has been promising to get down for her so she can have a helmet too!

Since the 1990's parents have been urged to lay their children on their backs to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS. The rate of SIDS deaths has decreased by 40% (which is GREAT) but the number of babies with plagiosephaly has skyrocketed from 1 in 300 to 1 in 60 babies. For more information you can visit: http://www.cranialtech.com/

Jam Session

We had a little family jam session at dinner the other night. Gotta love Luke for his spontaneity and not to mention his awesome voice and dead sexy moves! He rocks!

Emma is really into the Barbie movies and has several of them. We told her to sing one of the songs form one of the movies and to our surprise she knew all the words! You probably can't understand her but she was right on and stinking adorable! We always tell her she is stinking adorable and she says, "No, I don't stink!" Too funny.

Watch this video to the very end it is super funny!

Jump, Jump, Jump!

Eli LOVES to jump in his Jungle Jumparoo. Emma was a huge jumper also. If you watch the very end of the video Emma gives a little solo from a Barbie moving she was watching. Too cute!

Our Month

Eli had his first taste of solids. Got to love that rice cereal! And yes, he is wearing a Tinker Bell bib. That's what he gets for having an older sister and being a second child.

Luke had a movie night with the kids. I always make Emma a new pillow case for the current season/holiday and she gets to pick out the fabric, with a little help. If you notice she is laying on her Halloween pillow for this year. Luke was with us when we went to go get the fabric and he wanted seasonal pillow cases too! He picked out an awesome, more mature, fabric for our pillows! It is cream and brown and has all sorts of fall stuff, see the right side behind his back. I will take a closer picture of the pillow cases to post because they are super cute!

I have a craft book and Emma got to pick out one craft for us to do the other night. She picked out this mask to make. We had all the stuff and it turned out super cute!
This is another shirt dress I made Emma. I love the yellow and white stripes! I added a little pocket to this one which she loves to stuff full of all sorts of crazy stuff.

Luke was in charge of doing Emma's hair and this is what she went out looking like. She loved it! What a fun Daddy she has.

Shirt Dress

I made Emma a homemade dress out of one of Luke's old dress shirts. It turned out really cute and was really easy. I found a tutorial here: http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-shirt-dress.html I have several more lined up to make!

The joys of Swimming

One of the only ways to stay cool in Texas during the Summer is to swim! We have really enjoyed swimming this summer. Eli had his first dip in the pool which, as evident from the picture, he didn't enjoy very much.

I think this picture of Emma is so sweet! Very rarely do we get a good picture of her anymore. When we ask her to smile she gives a huge cheesy grin or just looks away.

Preschool

Emma started preschool at the Rec center last week. It is twice a week for an hour and a half each day. She did a little preschool with some friends last year but I was there with her everyday so it was a little weird just leaving her this year. She loves her teacher and her class. They do lots of fun things including letter of the day, crafts, playtime, read books, snack, music time, etc. I cannot believe the the school years have begun! I know it is just preschool but it is still crazy! Soon it will be kindergarten and then her senior year! Slow down time!

Taco Calzones

I had a bunch of leftover taco meat and we didn't want tacos. I googled different things to do with leftover taco meat and came up with tack calzones! We had some refrigerated pizza dough and stuffed it with taco meat, black beans, corn, cheese, olives, and salsa. We topped it off with sour cream and fresh guacamole. Delicious and easy!

I robbed the grocery store!

I spent $29.97 and saved $128.73
Saturday only, Kroger doubled coupons up to $1.00. (They normal double coupons up to 0.50 cents.) My coupon buddy Melissa and I went through all of our coupons and got all of the ones for 0.75 cents to $1.00. Then, we made a list of all those coupons, in the order they are in the store, and went and saw which items we could get free or super cheep. The key is to get items that are on SALE and that you have a COUPON for. For example, I had a coupon for yogurt for $1.00 and then Kroger doubled the coupon giving me another $1.00 off making it $2.00 off of yogurt that was on sale for $1.88 thus earning me 0.12 cents on that purchase. (by the way I had 4 yogurt coupons!) They paid us to take items! I have to say that we did a sweet job! We probably got 1/3 of our items completely free. My total at first was well over a hundred dollars which made me a little nervous. After the clerk scanned my 49 coupons the total was $39.97. For purchasing 10 Kellogg's/Keebler items I got a $10 mail in rebate. Which means the total for all of these groceries was only $29.97!!! Can you believe that! It is kind of hard to tell form the picture but I got a ton of stuff, lots of nice cleaning supplies, makeup, pizzas, deodorants, shampoo, gel, canned goods, toilet paper, crackers, dressings, sauces, pastas, cookies, snacks, etc. I completely robbed the grocery store!

Eli's Photo Shoot

We had some fun this evening and had a little photo shoot. Ain't he a doll! There is just something about naked babies that is so cute! Enjoy!

Of course Emma had to get in on the action. She insist I take her picture with the flowers also. However, getting her to smile normal is like pulling teeth!