Happy Birthday Dax!

Today is Dax's birthday. I was just thinking about all of the reasons that I am grateful for Dax and decided I should write at least a few of them down:

-Dax is the most giving person I know. He would give the shirt right off of his back if he thought someone needed it.

-He is a great husband. He thinks of both little and big things to do for me to make me feel special. He sincerely thinks I can do anything I set my mind to and I appreciate his confidence in me.

-He is a great father. Our kids are so lucky to have him for their father. He is so patient with them, and takes individual time for them. Hayden thinks his dad is the best, and wants to follow right along with whatever Dax is doing.

-He leads out in our home. He has always been amazing at taking responsibility for having family home evening, scripture study, prayer, family council, etc.

-He is so organized. This is probably why he makes such a good engineer. Everything has a system, everything has a pattern. This is one quality of his I'm really striving to acquire for myself.

-He works hard to do well at everything he undertakes. He never wants to let anyone down and is always good on his word.

-He has a great sense of humor. He can always brighten my day. He also humors me by doing activities that I love that he doesn't (watching chick flicks, jogging with me occasionally, etc)

-He is so good with people. People are just naturally drawn to him because of his character. He makes everyone feel important and valued. He will not talk bad about anyone (well...except maybe President Obama and a few other choice politicians) :)

-He wants to make all of my dreams come true, even if they wouldn't otherwise be very important to him

-He is absolutely dreamy...tall, dark, and handsome!

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Happy Birthday honey, I love you and am so glad that I'm the one married to you!

Good Haircuts

Today I was just thinking about how grateful I am for GOOD haircuts. Two haircuts ago I had what I thought was a great haircut. I had not had my hair above my shoulders for over 7 years, and so I was really nervous about getting over a foot chopped off. I got a very slight A line with lots of layers put in and I really liked it. However, it started growing out and getting to that awkward phase where it flips out on its own. I decided that although I liked the cut, I wanted something that I could pull back easily. So a couple of weeks ago I went in to the same girl who gave me the great haircut, and told her what I was thinking. 40 minutes later I am holding back tears and telling her how awful my hair looks. The front was so choppy, and she spent 20 minutes gradually taking it shorter and shorter. Finally she realized that nothing but time was going to fix it. I wont even post pictures of it because I'm trying to avoid too many pictures until it grows out. I have to put a bobby pin in it AT ALL TIMES. The girl said she wouldn't charge me for the cut, but because I had a discount I told her I wanted free products instead. We walked over to the products and she offered me the most expensive product she had put in my hair. I told her I would like that product and the other product she put in my hair. She told me to choose one, and I told her I really would like both of them (kindly). We stood in silence for a minute and then she told me I could take both of them. So I suppose my consolation is 30 dollars worth of free products. I'll take a good haircut over free products any day.

I seem to have spread the "bad haircut germs" because my sister, sister-in-law, and several friends all seem to have received disappointing haircuts shortly after I got mine. Thank goodness that hair grows back!!

Self Conscious

Nothing makes you feel more self conscious than the honesty of a child.

The other day I was talking with Dax about getting new jeans (all of my jeans besides one pair I've had for 7+ years) because they are all so thin and saggy and I used the phrase"saggy jeans." Hayden caught on to it and said, "Mommy have saggy jeans." We laughed at how funny it sounded coming from him. Now he keeps saying, "Mommy have saggy jeans" when I wear my jeans.

With all of the stress I had a couple of weeks ago with preparing food for a large crowd, reading Dax's thesis, spending my first days alone with 2 kids, leaving Hayden for the first time over several nights, getting to the airport, making a late night flight/drive to my parents house, worrying about Dax's interviews, and stressing about which job to take and the specifics of that job, my face began to break out like I was a teenager. One day shortly after we were back from our trip I was sitting on the couch with Hayden. All of the sudden it dawns on him that I have spots all over my face. Our conversation went like this:

Hayden: Mommy have 'owies' (as he starts to point to all of them)

Me: Yeah Hayden mommy has lots of owies

Hayden: Mommy wash it off!

Me: I wish I could wash it off bud

Hayden: (with a concerned look) I kiss it ALL better

If only it was that simple. The sweet thing is that he really believes that when I kiss his scratches, bruises, scrapes, and bonks that they really do get all better.

And the winner is...

Moses Lake, Washington! Dax and I are both excited to go back to the same area as our roots. We enjoy the climate in Washington, and will enjoy being close to our families. So in just over a month we will be packing up and officially leaving school FOR GOOD (unless for some crazy reason Dax wants to do a PhD some day, but I highly doubt it). We are so excited to be moving on with the next adventure of our lives: permanence in an area, a home, a salary, and growing our little family!

Uncle Kase's Idea

Enough said.

Blessing Day

On Sunday Dax blessed Kyra. It was such a sweet blessing. Kyra looked so beautiful in the dress that Grandma Jensen made for her. Thanks Sarah for the headband and bow, they completed the look perfectly!

We didn’t get Dax in any pictures besides a couple of just our family because he ended up leaving before the meeting was even over to catch a flight. We had a good get-together though, and my soup turned out wonderfully!

Our cute little family

Four generation picture

The cake my mom made

With Grandma and Grandpa Christensen. Notice Hayden's shirt says "My parents are exhausted." That couldn't be more true than during this past week. Luckily it's all about over.

Just a cute picture of my baby girl.

Trick or Treat!

This year for Halloween Hayden was Elmo. To be honest I'm not a big Elmo fan, but we were in Ross and Hayden spotted the costume. He wanted to be Elmo so badly, and I didn't have a better idea, so Elmo it was.

Hayden got to go to a party for all of the nursery children in our stake. They had face painting, a cake walk (they gave out little bags of candy though), music, balloons, a bean bag toss, and donuts. Hayden had a great time, and even warmed up to getting a basketball painted on his face at the end. A little boy followed him around the whole time saying, "Elmo!"

Look at those LONG THICK eyelashes!



Hayden's best friend Anna was Boo from Monster's Inc.



Our pumpkin. When asked what kind of face we should give him Hayden didn't hesitate to say a happy face. All Dax's handy work. Thanks for the pumpkin Makala!




Hayden loved going trick or treating. We didn't go to too many houses, but plenty enough for him to get more candy than a 2 year old should consume in a month. He loved it.

That cute dimple smile was totally worth the $10 we spent on the costume.