Forts

Didn't you just love building forts when you were a kid. We built them all the time with Pillows blankets anything that would work. Caitlyn has a new love of them. She tries to make a "house" out of anything, the laundry basket , chairs or just plays under the table. Elsa always joins in with the fun as well. Yesterday I helped Caitlyn make a small house in her room yesterday. Today she brought the couch and blanket down so I decided to make her a bigger one. It has been great and cheap entertainment for the day. I really think I will be buying her a pop-up tent, a little less of a mess and it won't fall down as much.

Caitlyn's First Haircut

I had Caitlyn's hair cut today. For a long time I didn't really know what to do with her hair and everybody just said let it grow. That's what I've done for the last 3 1/2 years. Last week I was looking at though and thinking that I need to do something. It just looks scraggly sometimes. She has curly hair and so if I don't put Mousse in by the end of the day it doesn't look good. It was short on the sides and long in the back. It is also pretty fine and so it doesn't hold a curl and I didn't know if she has the right hair to grow it long. I decided that I needed to cut all one length. So today was the day. I had my friend Shelly do it. I am really happy with it. It will be an adjustment because I can't really do ponytails but it will be fine. The curl in it looks a lot better too. Here are some pictures from the cut. I think she didn't really know what was going on. She just sat really still in the chair. I talked to her about it to prepare her so she wouldn't freak out. Now it will grow out and be even so I am excited.

Here are a couple of pictures that were on my camera. It doesn't rain a lot in Vegas so we had to take advantage of the rain we received this one afternoon.

Elsa is so dang cute and silly. She was standing on the chair playing the piano.

First Day of Dance

Today Caitlyn started Dance. She will be taking Tap and Jazz from Lori Day. It was kind of crazy for me to take her there because it was only 8 years ago (but feels like 2) that I was taking dance from Lori. I am not sure who was more excited her or me. I was totally excited because I loved Dance and I am excited to Lori every week. For ten years of my life I saw her weekly and she is just awesome. I knew Caitlyn was excited too though because ever since we have had her dance outfit and shoes she has been asking me when she gets to go to Dance. Well, today was the day. She did awesome. She did everything she was asked too. She would get distracted sometimes because she loves to watch everybody but she kept up. It was also so fun because my friend Alexis (I know crazy that she has the same name as me, she is really the only person I have met that is around my age with the same name.) that I grew up dancing with has her daughter Jocelyn in the same class. It was fun to catch up with her. She was actually Caitlyn's baby nurse when I delivered Caitlyn. It was just fun and Caitlyn loved it. At the end of the class Lori gave them suckers but before they could get one she had to do a dance step she learned. When she was called she went up there and did heel step. I was a proud mom. Here are the pictures from the day. I actually remembered my camera.

Go Utes!

Yes, it is that time of year again. College Football season has started. I am not quite sure how I feel about it. I really don't enjoy watching it but it does give me a good reason to buy cute new clothes for the girls and Wade doesn't usually object because it is supporting his favorite team. If you are familiar with University of Utah you know their colors are red white and black and no my camera is not broken the girls are in Pink. Isn't is so cute? I liked the pink outfits better than the red white and black ones they had. I want to find me a pink shirt as well. My kids have always had Utah clothes to wear since they were a baby. As some of you may recall Caityn's Birth announcement featured her in a Utah Onesie as we introduced the newest University of Utah Fan. That really is the excitement for me is dressing my kids all cute. I am a fan because I want a happy husband so I do want Utah to win. Wade grew up cheering for the Utes so it is in his blood. Wade loves watching sports and I am slowly being converted. You would think growing up with 4 brothers that I would love it but I have always been a girlie girl.
We had a Ward party last night and the girls wore their outfits and people were giving us a hard time it was pretty funny. It seems like in Las Vegas there are more BYU fans than Utah fans. I watched the last 15 minutes of the game yesterday(that is how I like to watch sports, right before it is over. That is really all that matters. A team can be ahead the entire game and lose it in the last 5 minutes). Caitlyn and I went shopping while Elsa slept (she actually did sleep amongst all the cheering and shouting Wade does at the TV) and Wade watched the game. Maybe as my kids get older and if they get it into I might start to enjoy it more but for now it just is it not really my thing but I will continue to dress my kids cute for the games.

I'm Back

I know that I am not the best at blogging regularly but I do kind of have an excuse. I was on vacation in Utah for 2 1/2 weeks. I have been back a week but you know how it is when you get back in town so I am finally sitting down to post about the trip.
The First weekend I was up there was the Matenson Family Reunion (My mom's side of the family) in Park City, UT. This reunion is over the whole weekend and I think it is fun that way because I have time to see and talk to everybody. My mom has 7 Sisters so I have a lot of family to catch up with. I drove up Thursday by myself with the two kids. Wade had to stay home and work. I don't know how sad he was about that, he thinks this reunion is too much socialization. Anyway I caravaned with my SIL Sarah (her husband stayed home also) so that helped when we stopped. The trip wasn't too bad I just had 2 of everything so if the kids dropped something I just handed them another one. Besides after an 18 hour drive to Oregon this was a short drive to them. The reunion was pretty relaxing. We had time to do whatever during the day and at night we would all come together. The first night we had Karaoke and Dancing and the next night was our annual Auction to raise money for the next year. My aunts were disappointed Wade wasn't there. He's not very conservative with money at this auction when he wants something for his girls and he likes to bid the prices up for fun. I managed to come away with some princess stuff for Caitlyn. Sunday we went to Church and had our final get together. They decided we are only going to do the reunion every other year which makes me sad. It was a good time and I can't wait for the next one. Here are some pictures from the reunion.

Me making lunch for the kids. There were seven kids and 4 adults in our Condo.

My brother and I doing the MacarenaBrock and Caitlyn enjoying some Ice Cream.The Auction ( My Mom, cousin Jessica and Niece Mackenzie)

Since we had another reunion in 2 weeks and I really didn't want to drive by myself witht he kids again I decided to just stay in Utah. So the next part of my trip was hanging out at my in-laws and visiting friends. I was able to go to lunch with my friends that live up in Utah and that was fun to see them. It is crazy how you grow up with them seeing them everyday and then we all grow up and get married and I only see them a couple times a year. When you get back together though it was like you have never been apart. I am horrible at remembering my camera so I didn't get any pictures with them but I love going and seeing them it is always a good time. Also, while I was on this trip I read Breaking Dawn. I am not obsessed with these books but they have been pretty good. I thought Breaking Dawn could have been like 400 pages long. Overall it was pretty good. It ended how it should have.

While I was up there my in-laws came to Vegas for a wedding so I went and stayed out at Wade's Sisters house. She has kids the same age as mine. That was fun to hang out there and let the kids play with their cousins they don't see very often. Wade came up towards the end of the last weekend I was there. We went to the Zoo. I can't say I love the Zoo but the kids do so I went for them. The sacrifices we make for our children. I am just not an animal lover. We rode the carousel and the Train and I think that was the highlight for the kids. The next day Wade went golfing so We took the kids and heading downtown to the I am a Child of God Exhibit in the Church History Museum. That was fun until Caitlyn had a meltdown so we had to leave early. The next day was the Christiansen Family Reunion. That reunion is on a Saturday for 4 hours. That was fun to see all of Wade's extended family. They rented a blow-up slide and the kids loved that. Overall the trip was fun but also stressful because we were still in the process of potty training and Caitlyn did not want to poop on the potty. It just added an extra stress on top of being up there so long without Wade. I am happy to report that since we got home she has been going just fine. I don't know what has changed but I am glad it has. Here are pictures from the rest of the Utah Trip.

Update on our Life

Here is random updates on our life. I have a few pictures I need to post. I also did a post about our trip to Oregon so keep scrolling down when you finish this post. Life has been pretty normal. The one big update I have is that Caitlyn is Potty Trained! After a few failed attempts I finally was able to get it done. It was so easy once SHE was ready to do it. I am firm believer that they will do it when they are ready and if you try and force them you won't win. It seriously took maybe a day. There have been a few accidents but that is to be expected. It is weird that she potty trained I seriuosly never thought it would happen. I had been so frustrated with it. It is a whole new world but I am so glad it is done. Hopefully Elsa will be easy too. As a bribe to get her to go poop in the potty we told we would take her to Chuck E Cheese so tonight for FHE that is what we did. We went with my Brother and his family because there little boy Brock who is Caitlyn's age also is potty training and that was his reward too. I am still trying to decide who liked it more Wade or Caitlyn. I had to keep reminding Wade that we were there for kids and not him. Here some pictures from the last few weeeks.

I had to take a picture of this. Caitlyn made a bed out of boxes that I still need to put away. She keeps me on my toes. I love to see her little mind work. The other funny thing in this picture is the story of why Elsa has a hairbow on. While Elsa was napping I made some hairbows for a gift. I was sizing them on her head to make sure they would fit. So when I took the bow off she threw a fit so I went and got one of her hairbows and she kept it on all night.

MMMMM! Licorice. I don't reccomend giving 1 year olds licorice. It seriously took like 20 wet wipes to get it all cleaned up. She was in heaven though.
Elsa's new favorite place to play is in Laundry baskets full of dirty clothes and if there is clean folded ones in there she will unfold them for you. I couldn't keep her out of there she kept going and climbing back in.
Here are the girls enjoying a ride with Chuck e Cheese.
Here is Caitlyn having a tea party with her Bear.

Oregon Trip

So we went to the Oregon Coast for a week. It was so fun and relaxing. Wade's Grandma has a house up there so almost every summer we take a vacation up there. My favorite things to do are eat out and shop and Wade likes to golf. We drove up there this yea. 18 hours in the car with a 3 year old and 1 year old. I know you are all jealous! All things considered though the kids really were not that bad I got some good reading in. I started the Twilight series. That is why I am kind of late on this post because any free time since I got home was spent reading number 3. I am done now so I can post the pictures. We really had a good time. My mom came with us, it was nice to have the extra hands to help and to babysit so Wade and I could go on a date. I will explain the trip through the pictures.

Here is Elsa enjoying the car drive. If you look close you can see that she has donut crumbs all over her. She loves the Entenman's old fashioned donuts! Smart Girl. We had to vacuum her car seat out when we got to Angie's.

Wade's sister Angie lives right off one the freeways we were traveling on so on our way up to Oregon we stopped for a visit and a much needed break for the kids. We drove another 4 hours after we left Angie's. Without that visit I don't think we could have made it. It was fun to visit with them. We hadn't seen them in a year and half. Here is Elsa and Caitlyn with Morgan.

This is a picture of the awesome crib that Elsa slept in. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you the mattress I mean foam pad is on the floor. I felt like she was an animal in a cage not a baby in a crib. She slept soundly all night in there.

We woke up the next morning and only had about a four hour drive which was way nice considering the way long drive the day before. It was also Elsa's first birthday. I still cannot believe she is a year. She is getting so big and is so stinking cute. I brought her gifts up there for her to play with but Caitlyn kept thinking they were hers. We are working on the sharing thing.

This is us trying to get a family picture from a viewpoint on the Heceta Head lighthouse. As you can see it was incredibly windy. So windy that it almost knocked me over when I was walking back to the car.
I decided that shopping and eating out aren't always Caitlyn's favorite things to do so I wanted to do something for her. There is a family fun center in Florence so we decided to go Miniature golfing. My mom went shopping while we were golfing and we should have had her take Elsa, it was pretty difficult with her but we still had lots of fun. Caitlny actually got a hole in one on one of the holes. This is how Caitlyn played, she would hit the ball once, go pick it up and put in the hole and clap for herself. It cracked me up.

We really didn't go walk on the beach much because low tide was always at weird times that didn't work with our schedule. We did get this opportunity though.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you again. This is another crib with a foam pad on the floor for Elsa to sleep in. We had to turn this crib upside down to make it work. The guy had to search long and hard to even find these parts of the crib. When we booked both hotel rooms they told they had a crib so we didn't bring a pack n' play because the Oregon house has one. I mean seriously have these hotels not heard of a pack n' play. They are only $70. It gave us a good laugh.
Oregon was lots of fun. I can't wait to go again. We drove a total of 2800 miles. I am not excited to do that part again but it is worth it in the end.