almost there ...

We move in just three days!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am! Maybe by telling you that I'm actually enjoying the whole packing experience will describe a little bit of how much I'm looking forward to this move - who in the world enjoys packing?! For some reason I feel like it's a fun kind of game - like finding the pieces of a puzzle as I'm trying to fill every inch of each box. haha ... I know ... twisted, huh? Oh well!

To catch some of you up - we've been living in an apartment for the past year, and it has suited us well. However, since adding an additional member to the Christensen team, we seem to have maxed out on space. I feel a little spoiled (okay, A LOT spoiled) as I say this, because we actually have two bedrooms right now and we feel cramped. We have known plenty of people who have had one or even two children in a one bedroom apartment. Hats off to them! I admire you! For some reason, that is just not possible with Ryan and me! Plus, since we know that we will be living in this city for another three years, we would rather grow into a home rather than out of it.

Friday night is the first chance we have to start moving our stuff into a town home just around the corner - it's still just two bedrooms, but it has a basement and a washer/dryer hook-up! I'm in heaven!! For the past year I have had to haul our laundry baskets outside and around our entire complex to this little shed that has two coin-op washers/dryers. They recently raised the price, and in the past month and a half we have spent over $60 on laundry. And I try to really get stuff dirty before I use up our quarters to wash it too - so don't say we're being frivolous! :) Needless to say, we bought a really nice used washer/dryer set a couple weeks ago (they are currently taking up a lot of space in our bedroom right now, haha!) that I'm sure will pay for itself in no time!

This new town home has a more open kitchen as well - instead of the cube that makes me feel cut off from the rest of the house. Plus, it has a patio out back with room to garden!! We bought a used grill, and can't wait to have BBQs all summer long! And it's even closer to where a lot of our friends live ... so easy access to adult conversation for the new mommy! :) And Ry will have his desk downstairs in the basement while little L's bedroom is upstairs - so he can actually close the door to distractions when he really needs to study. Oh - and we're going to paint the walls. I have been waiting three years to live in a place where we could paint - and I am SO excited!! (it's the small things in life)

One more thing - since we'll have a basement now, we'll have room for when family and friends come to visit! So if you ever need a resting stop, just give us a call! :) In the mean time, I'll post pictures of our new home when we get situated. I'm so excited!!!

shout out to powerthirst!!

We got a package in the mail today from our favorite friends Dave and Tiff!! Ryan and I just died laughing as we opened it and read all about some favorite memories we made with them!! There is just no way to explain them, or I would - but we wanted to give a shout out and thank them for their gifts to little L. :) And here's some pictures of little L enjoying his new outfit! The sweater is my absolute favorite!! The last two are him in the swing - so that's why the close up is a little off center. It's hard to follow him when he's moving! :)

pseudo father's day

Last weekend ended up being incredibly busy for us unexpectedly, and I didn't have time to put together a good Father's Day for Ryan like I had planned (and believe me, I had planned it!). I was so bummed, and knew that it meant a lot to Ryan as well, so we decided to celebrate it later on our own Father's Day. So a couple days ago I finally got things together, and I tried to show Ryan just how much he meant to me and little L. He is the love of my life, and the greatest father. I am grateful that I married a man who is so grounded in his testimony of the gospel and his belief in Jesus Christ. I am grateful that he makes me laugh every single day since the day we met. I am grateful that he had such high ambitions and works hard to achieve his goals. I am grateful that he enjoys being active and having fun - it keeps us moving! I am grateful that I married a man who volunteers to change diapers, and holds a crying baby for extended periods of time. I am grateful for his love for me and for our son - for the time that he gives to our family. I am grateful for the endless possibilities we have together, and for the lessons we learn every day as we work together in our family. I am grateful that I get to grow old with him. Everyday is beautiful because of him! Here is Ry with L on our pseudo Father's Day - I didn't plan on them matching, but wanting L to wear this outfit that says "Daddy's Outdoor Buddy" - so cute!! :)

So enough of the sappy tribute ... even though I love it! :) Ryan had helped me pick out his father's day gifts - a driver for his golf club set, and a book about golf he had been wanting to get. So I wanted to continue this golf theme (it's become a favorite sport since moving out here to Ohio ... there are dozens of golf courses every where out here!) ... and I decided to decorate a cake. Holy cow I need to go back home and get cake decorating lessons from my mother, because I stink! I have no idea how to frost the stinkin' sides of the cake without getting crumbs in the frosting, and I had let the cake sit in the pan for over a day which then made cracks all throughout the cake, and it broke apart as I was getting it out of the pan. Even through a couple other mis-haps, and then not taking the pictures until later in the evening when the trees were cracking and falling over ... the cake didn't turn out that bad I guess. I still want decorating lessons though ... Here's a picture:


The cake was a yummy dessert after a delicious pesto-dish dinner! Ry loves anything pesto - but since I don't, we rarely have it. So I figured I would choose his favorite to make on Father's Day rather than mine - and we both ended up loving it! Thank goodness! ;) I love you Ry!!

food, glorious food!

The gardening club got together at a local farm to pick strawberries this past week, and L and I decided to try it out. Beautiful day, great company, cheap prices, and yummy fruit!! Ry and I are excited to have a good supply of strawberries for homemade smoothies, ice cream, jam, and we're even going to try out a cheesecake recipe. Yay for summer!!

homework free nights

So since Ry is done with having homework, I have had SO much fun spending time with him! I don't want to give you the impression that I never saw my husband when he was in school - because I actually saw more of him than I expected. We always tried to eat dinner together, and we would normally find time to 'decompress' after he got home from classes by watching a seinfield episode. But even if we were able to spend time together, there was always this fact looming over our heads of how he needed to be studying. Now we are spending time together guilt-free and loving it! :)

So there's a concert in the park series every Thursday night during the summer, and I convince Ry to go - it was a dance group this week and we thought we would make a picnic out of it! So I have this great idea of actually doing my hair after showering instead of just pulling it up. Please realize, that by 'doing' my hair, I mean blow-drying it and then straightening it which is a 25 minute process lately.

Our first stop took us to the library to return some stuff. Timing was a little off, so I ended up needing to feed little L while Ry went in. Our AC in the car needs to be recharged, and it's incredibly hot and muggy outside - ridiculous heat! So Ry rolls down the windows and runs inside - with the keys. I'm in the back feeding L, and it slowly starts to rain and rain and rain. Eventually, huge downpour. I can't even begin to describe to you the situation - I'm sitting there with only a baby blanket to protect L and I from the monstrous raindrops coming into the car. There's puddles beginning to form in the car, and I'm completely helpless. But you do what you gotta do, right? So Ry comes back out, and we make it out okay. :)

Next stop - Chipotle. We thought that would be more fun than PB&J sandwiches for dinner. :) Once again, Ry runs in while I continue feeding little L - this time, windows rolled up. Sweltering heat. I don't know what's worse - getting soaked from the rain or sweat as your holding a heater against your body in what feels like an oven. But we persevere. We drive over to the building where the concert series is held in during inclement weather, and eat our burritos in the car. A little less romantic than a picnic in the park, but considering the monsoons going on around us, we thought we'd enjoy it more if we were dry - well, somewhat dry considering how wet the seats were!

Finally, we chose to go inside for the concert. The rain was unbelievable! I swear, I was surprised we survived - not of course without the ultimate ruin of my freshly straightened hair! :) The concert ended up being ballet - neither mine or Ryan's thing. But, we enjoyed it and made some fun memories. :) I am grateful for a husband who makes multiple trips in the rain to help his wife have a good time. The picture does not do it justice, but it does show my two favorite people in the world! Love you Ry!

recent pictures ...

Here's some fun shots of little L lately ...

Those hands have gotta taste good, because he has 'em in his mouth all the time! (Thanks Tara for the clothes!)
A couple from his 2-month photo shoot ... maybe someday we'll get a real photographer to take his pictures! This month he's laying on a blanket that my grandmother made him. So precious!!

Sitting on top of his new dresser! We found this and a changing table that match his crib! Great deal! :) You think he likes it?
And last, but not least - a little video. Also taken on his 2-month big day. (don't you just hate hearing yourself in videos? Oh well ... the price you pay I guess ...)

school's out!

It's over! We survived the first year of medical school! :) I am so proud of Ryan! He did a fabulous job of being able to juggle school and church and family - especially with the addition of little L! It has been one busy year, and I am amazed at what an excellent job he did! Even though I want to brag about him ... Father's Day is just around the corner, so I'll save my adoring comments for a later post. Until then, let the world know that my husband is absolutely amazing! Even after a long day of work, he stills finds the time to have quality bonding time with little L. Aren't they cute?! :)

time to celebrate!

Little L is two months already! TWO MONTHS! It's amazing to think about how much your life can change in such a short time! But the changes have been good, even when they are more challenging than anything else I have ever experienced. There are times when all I can do is hold my crying baby and pray with all of my heart to try to figure out how to soothe him. There have been times when his tears are mingled with mine. But no matter what is happening - whether it be happy or sad - my heart is so full of love for this little boy that it makes it all worth it! I hope I can remember how precious and sacred these past two months have been, especially when I realize how quickly time passes and how fast he grows!

New statistics: This chunk of a baby weighs 15 pounds 3 ounces, and is 24 3/4 inches long. His weight is off the charts, and he is in the 96th percentile for his length. Holy cow!!

My recent favorites about little L:

His hands always seem to grab onto our shirts when we're holding him - like he's hanging on real tight.

He has become even more curious lately - looking around like crazy! He loves looking at lights, and will stare for hours if he could. Other times he's turning his head back and forth over and over again to try to see all that he can as if his life depended on it. It is such a miracle to watch him take everything in for the first time!

At five weeks he smiled for the first time. Since then he smiles all the time - especially in the morning right after waking up and eating! He's really good at it when he watches us do it first. I love it when I go to pick him up, and he smiles because he recognizes me!

I've been carrying him a lot in the BabyBjorn lately, and he loves to be close to Mommy. He's a sucker for snuggling close, and I am too!

He found his hands a couple weeks ago, and loves to suck on them! Although he has gotten it a few times, he is still learning how to separate his thumb from his fist to make it easier to suck on!

He has started the reflex where if his hand finds something to hold onto, it immediately is introduced to his mouth. It's so funny to watch him slobber on everything!

Little L definitely liked to talk, and loves to make coo-ing sounds. We have full on conversations every day, that is, in between all of his random shrieks and grunts. :)

He's strengthening his leg muscles and will push off of our laps to stand up on his own. He work on that for a long time, but it's so cute to watch his little legs buckle under the pressure of his heavy belly. :)

My older sister taught me a trick when our baby sister was born - train them to wrap their little arm around your neck while holding them and you'll get a hug every time. R and I have recently teaching little L how to give hugs and it's so sweet!

He's still such a loud sleeper. His recent favorite is to cry as if he's awake so I run into the other room thinking that he's hungry, and his eyes are closed and he is still fast asleep. Honestly, couldn't he just make up his mind? :)

I LOVE the rubber-band look on his legs, and his arms are close behind in the race to beef up!

He still has quite a bit of strawberry-blond hair from when he was born, but has also lost a fair share. It's opposite of the normal male-pattern baldness, and it's so goofy.

L loves to roll over while doing tummy time. He definitely favors the left side (strong side!) and never gets tired of it. We're still working on the right side.

I love him so much!

play time with daddy

Daddy's a really fun play mate! L loves to sit on his stomach and lean back against his legs. This first picture is blurry, but it's so funny to me because L was leaning forward just a tad, and he looks so chubby. Don't you want to just kiss those cheeks?!

He also loves to lay on Daddy's tummy and do tricks for us.
Here's a short video of L's favorite trick - leading with his head. It's a skill that has taken a lot of practice to refine. We hope you enjoy the show. :)

happy boy!

So I realized yesterday that I haven't taken many pictures of little L lately, and I felt so sad! He's growing so quickly - right before our eyes - and I need to document it! R and I visited a friend in the hospital with her newborn, and L looked huge! It was unreal how big he was, and it was a huge shock to us. It's sad that you sometimes don't even notice all the changes because you are with him everyday!

Anyway - so I decided to take lots of pictures lately. My attempt has been to try and capture his smiles. L started to smile at week 5 - but they've been so sporadic and random sometimes (although trust me - these are not gas bubble smiles - it's the real deal!) that it's hard to know when to pull out the camera! And now he is even more alert and he loves to look around at things (this could be a whole post by itself - just watching him take it all in for the very first time and the miracle and beauty of it all - it's amazing!), he sees me holding the camera and he totally stops smiling to stare at the camera and figure out what it is! So then I have to hide the camera, make him smile, and randomly click the shutter hoping that his face will be in the screen. I have missed so many times, but have managed a couple. Here's some good smiling pictures!

He's warming up ...

I barely got lucky on this one !And here's my favorites!

Hopefully there'll be plenty more to come. I LOVE his smile!!

true buckeye

Since little L is native to the OH-IO (to be read as a cheer, yelling, having one person shouting 'OH' and the other responding with an even louder 'IO' - a favorite among fellow Buckeyes), we figured we needed to officially document his affection for the Ohio State Buckeyes. I tried taking these pictures right after he was all smiley for me, but obviously he was done with that. He still looks dang cute though! Go Bucks!!

He sneezed right before I took the picture, and I thought it was so funny!
And much to your disbelief, this is not a beer belly like you would find on so many other buckeye fans. No my friends, this is the true deal - pure chunk.

a schedule?

So what exactly is a schedule? Even though I've heard that word countless times regarding babies, they seem to contradict one another by definition! Just when I feel like little L is falling into a routine of any kind (be it good or bad) , he completely changes on me and I feel like we're starting from scratch again. I have come to learn through the years that I do best when I am on somewhat of a routine. I seem to get the most done when I have things in order, when I feel like I know what to expect throughout the day, or when my life is somewhat predictable. There are always changes to the norm, but with a few minor adjustments, it's easy to be flexible.

However, maintaining a schedule with a MAJOR adjustment, say, a baby for example, has been a surprising challenge. Things such as morning prayer and scripture study sometimes fall through the cracks when you honestly can't define when your morning is since you're up every two-three hours! While there are many things that easily get forgotten when you don't have a schedule (such as laundry, planning dinner, actually eating dinner, cleaning the front room after what looks like a tornado of blankets and burp clothes hits after every night!), I have found that the spiritual side of my life has suffered as well as the house!

So I pose the question to all of you out there: How can you maintain spiritual "order" when everything else seems to be out of order ... or at least in the midst of being put back in order? How do you make sure to get your spiritual needs met each day so that you can more fully look after all the other needs of your home and family? Any tips, advice, stories, websites, etc. are welcome! :)

spoke WAY too soon ...

So ... a little update on Operation Transition to Crib. I never should have said we thought success was on the horizon. I am currently sitting at my desk with use of both hands (mid-afternoon, and it's the first time of the day) listening to a recording of our vacuum while little L finally let me put him down. Since my last post, little L decided that he was, once again, going to show us who was boss. Sad to say, the baby won. For some reason little L has become extremely colicky these past few days and has given us a greater appreciation for all those parents who have to go through this! It just breaks my heart to see him so upset, and I'm hoping that this is only a phase he is going through. Nevertheless, the sound of the vacuum is the only thing that will calm him down. I feel like it's one of those one-step-forward-two-steps-back things (although isn't it supposed to be two-steps-forward-one-step-back?). He actually had a night maybe a week ago of sleeping four and a half hours. It was pure bliss. Now, we get one good stretch of three hours and it's back to every two after that. Sad, but true. Surprisingly, you do what you need to do; you pray for strength and you somehow find it in you to keep going. Ryan has been a HUGE help after he gets home from school, and I am so grateful for that! I'm hoping that the reason for this colicky phase is something easily remedied - like something in my diet or whatnot - but in the meantime, I just keep hitting repeat on the vacuum sound. :) Better than pushing the dang thing while holding him ... although I must say our carpet has never been cleaner!

which bed tonight?

I personally believe that the more places you can find to sleep, the better. And if this philosophy holds true for our little L, he is the luckiest boy alive! We constantly have this hope and dream and never-ending ambition of getting him to sleep in a "bed" (which has consisted of the pack 'n play in our bedroom), but sometimes - quite often actually - he ends up in a variety of locations while he sleeps for the sake of actually sleeping! While his ultimate favorite is a swing that we're borrowing from some friends (this has been the BIGGEST life saver ever!), he has also spent quite a bit of time on the couch, a bean bag, mom and dad's bed, his bed, bouncer, carseat, and our arms. Now, with all of these options, (nine to be exact!) why would we ever need to introduce a new one?! Besides the fact that ten is an even number, we bought a monitor! Horray! So last night, after sleeping in our arms and in the swing, we finally tried out crib! He slept a whopping two hours in it, and we feel it was a small step toward success. Although, I hate to admit it, I was being the typical worried-first-time mom and lied awake for the first hour worried that the monitor wouldn't work. And then I woke up after the second hour to a random bird outside our window, and I immediately jumped out of the bed and ran into the other bedroom thinking that all of my worries were legit and the monitor was not picking up my baby's cries. I felt a little silly looking down at a sleeping baby while hearing the bird outside. Nevertheless, little L woke up within a few minutes asking for food so I had to stay awake. Either way - one night down in the Operation Transition To Crib, and it looks successful. I would love to keep you all up to date with the progress, but I am sure this kind of information is not at all interesting to most of you. Nevertheless, be looking for the next update. In the mean time, Ry and I will try to get a life and do something else that is blog worthy so we can be a little more entertaining. :)

the average view

So little L has this constant position whenever we hold him ... and this is the view the we get:
Besides just how chunky he looks in the picture (it's honestly the angle!) this picture really captures his daily activity. He just loves to be looking up high, and holding his head up so much while arching his back that I have a perfect view up the oinker's nose. While these are not the most flattering pictures of our little guy, I think they are so funny. :) This one is a little better - plus, it's a onesie that was given him by the only met - therefore favorite - aunt and uncle (on Heather's side of the family at least!). It's a size 3-6 months ... and he's six weeks old today. Who makes up these sizes anyway? Geez. :)