Monthly Archives: August 2007

Happy Birthday Calvin!

Today is Cal’s 1 month birthday. He’s growing up so fast! I wish I could just rewind the past month. I was really nervous to have two kids to take care of, but have been pleasantly surprised. I think both of my babies are mellow enough to make it easy on me. What darling kids I have.

To celebrate his birthday we took a sick day–Olivia has come down with a bit of something. We hung out and watched Winnie the Pooh & Barney and took naps and ate strawberry pie, which I made from the left over strawberries from Wade’s wedding. It was a good celebration of my darling baby boy.

With the addition of little Calvin to our family, it was time to update the website. First, Calvin needed his own section on the site. Then I needed to redesign the home page to include links to the little guy. So the old site is no more. I hope the new site will also be easier to navigate and give important information fast–like any new pictures that I’ve added to the scrapbook. If you have any other suggestions of things you’d like to see on the home page, please email me and I’ll see if I can’t incorporate it into the new design!

This week we have been in celebration of Wyatt’s youngest brother’s pending wedding. He was married yesterday (Saturday, August 25th) in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Since he (Wade) and his bride (Katie) spent the summer working in Seattle, and she is from West Virginia, but the wedding took place in Utah, there have been a lot of last minute details to attend to when she & Wade and her family all finally congregated here last week.

One of those details (and my assignment) was the photography. I took Katie’s bridals on Tuesday evening. She wanted them taken at the Garden Park Ward in Salt Lake, where I took Melinda’s. But when we got there, come to find out the whole place was under construction, and all of the landscaping had been torn out! Since we were running out of light, we had to think fast, and sped down to Memory Grove to do the shoot. We had about 45 minutes of good light left, and were able to get some good pics.

Since the whole Christensen clan came to town for the event, I also took it upon myself to set up a portrait session with a professional photographer at the Timpanogos Amphitheater. We did a giant family portrait, and then each individual family was able to get their pictures taken as well. We had to do it on Saturday morning (the day of the wedding) which was a little hectic. But it was the only time when everyone would be here (the last of the family flew in at midnight Saturday morning). We will get those pictures next week, and I’ll post them asap.

Yesterday I also did the photography at the wedding. I’ve actually shot several weddings–probably close to a dozen. But every time it makes me nervous! It’s such a big day, and such a big responsibility to capture it! But I think we got some good shots, so I’m pretty happy overall.

I really like Katie, and am excited to get to know her better. I knew she would fit in fine with the Christensen’s when after we had just met her, Wyatt started teasing her. And she responded to him with confidence . . . “I can take you, I can take two of you!” She’ll be able to hold her own with this ruckus, and irreverent bunch.

Congratulations Katie & Wade!

Today I sat on the front porch to watch the world go by (a common practice in my life). As I held little Cal, he was smiling in his sleep. That’s always fun for a mamma to watch her babies dream. Cal is especially cute because he has a deep dimple in his right cheek. But as I was watching him, his smile got bigger and bigger. And then suddenly his whole body started to shake. His shoulders went up and down, and his belly in and out, and his smile was as big as ever as he LAUGHED! It was the cutest thing ever. I don’t know what was so funny, but it sure was contagious, because it made me laugh too!

The summer seemed to go so slow . . . until July 30th. Now it’s already over half way through August, and we only have a few more weeks of summer!

I wasn’t going out much with baby Cal, and O was getting bored. So daddy decided to remedy that by taking her to Jungle Jym’s with a few friends from the neighborhood. As per the report from Wyatt, she loved some rides, screamed in terror on others, and overall had a great time. She loved the merry-go-round so much that she refused to get off in between turns, just staying on and switching animals. Apparently the people at J.J’s didn’t have a problem with this. She also went mini golfing, and was SO PROUD OF HERSELF when she got a hole in one by picking up and placing the ball in the hole with her hands. She led the onlooking crowd in a session of jumping up and down and clapping and laughing at her cleverness.

We went to the Salt Lake Library on Tuesday afternoon. They have a really cool children’s section, with caves and clubhouses for the kids to play in, a waterfall that falls from the upper level outside onto a private kids patio, giant animals made of paper mache, and of course about every children’s book you can think of. Besides the great children’s section, we also went onto the roof, where you can overlook the entire Salt Lake valley. If you’ve never been to the downtown library before, I HIGHLY suggest you check it out. They also have awesome adult spaces in the rest of the library.

Cal had his two week check up. Apparently he’s doing really well–he’s gained weight and is up to 8 lbs 14 oz. To me that sounds HUGE, but the doctor said he’s actually right at the 50% level in both height and weight (he has a big head though ) He’s been such a good baby.

Today is Calvin’s one week birthday. It makes me sigh to think that a whole week has passed. There’s nothing like having a baby to make you want to push pause on life. But time seems to be moving as quickly as ever.

My mom came and stayed a couple days with me, which was a good thing because Wyatt has been really slammed at work. Poor guy, he’s got so much on his plate these days. Having my mom here was a real help though.

Having Calvin here really puts life back into perspective. Everything important in life is contained in the walls of my little home. It makes life seem so grand and wonderful–no queen has ever had better. The four of us, our little family–that’s all that matters. I just need to enjoy these moments.

On Monday afternoon Calvin Wyatt Christensen came into our lives. We were induced at the hospital, and after only six hours of labor, Calvin made his debut. He is DARLING. He looks just like his big sister, Olivia. He’s got a head of dark hair like his daddy–even mimiking his hair line, thin on top, but thicker on the sides!

He’s a sweet little thing. After he was born he stayed awake for a good two hours or so, looking around, taking everything in. He really screamed when the nurses cleaned him up and did his tests. He was born with some real lung power! Of course Olivia was ecstatic when she met him, yelling at the top of her lungs BABY! and smothering him with kisses. She seemed to know right away that he was her baby, and Wyatt said that night she told him “Baby out!” She’s done really well with him, and hasn’t seemed to mind when I can’t hold her and baby at the same time.

So everything went very smoothly, and we’re happy that he’s here. Its funny how you wait and wait and wait for this . . . and then suddenly there are four.

Check out pictures by going to the scrapbook and clicking on the new “Calvin” section.