This and that

Several times a week I grab my phone and snap a picture to text my mom or sisters of something the girls are doing that I want to share and remember. They are growing up so quickly and learn something new each and every day. So here are parts of my life that I want to document, in pictures, according to my phone.

Spooktacular 2011

Autumn is a weird time in Texas. The weather isn't really much cooler yet but fall holidays come none the less. So you end up with rotten pumpkins because of the heat and have to think of Halloween costumes that won't be too hot, etc. Either way, we celebrated the month of October with vigor and just kept our A/C running at all times.
Tara has made a tradition the last several years of stopping at our house the week before Halloween on her way to a big work event in Las Vegas for some festive fun. It's a quick trip but we always look forward to her visit and pack in as much fun as possible while she is here. Just moments after her flight arrived the "big girls" headed to the salon and enjoyed a pedicure together. Belle was so excited, and kind of nervous, to get her feet worked on for the first time. She picked a purpleish-pink polish and had a flower painted on her big toes and felt so grown up. They asked her if they could get her a drink and she said "sure, a root beer please." She sipped her root beer in the huge chair and said her favorite part was the leg massage. (She's no dummy.) After the salon and Olivia's nap we headed to a local pumpkin patch. We ate a snow cone, rode a hayride, bought 4 pumpkins and had a great time. It was a warm October day and the girls loved being outside.

The following week we were lucky enough to wear our Halloween costumes three times. The first was to our ward's Annual Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook off. Alee, Nick and Leo decided to drive down for the weekend so we were happy to take Leo the train conductor along for the night. The second was to our neighborhood's Halloween party where we bobbed for apples, painted pumpkins, went on a scavenger hunt and ate pizza. And the third was on the actual Halloween night where we went door to door saying Trick-or-Treat! Isabelle had the vision for the holiday where we would all be a wedding party with her, of course, as the beautiful bride. Grammie went to work and sewed her a beautiful wedding dress and also made Olivia a collar to wear as her sister had requested her to be the bride's bouquet. Ben went as the Father of the Bride and I was the Maid of Honor. Neither girl lasted too long going door to door but went enough to fill their buckets up plenty and then had fun passing out candy with Grammie and Grandpa. I think as I write this Belle may have eaten 3 or 4 pieces of her candy since then and Olivia a few more. Most of it I believe has ended up in their parents bellies!





We finished the holiday off with a Christensen Tradition of "Dinner in a Pumpkin." Belle was worried we were planning to eat the pumpkin's seeds and guts and was relieved to see the yummy pasta dish inside. Olivia asks to go to "Gummies house" daily so any chance she gets to visit her family she is thrilled. We had a festive Halloween season and now look forward to being grateful and a turkey dinner and possibly even some actual cooler weather!

On Halloween the thing you must do
is pretend that nothing can frighten you,
and if somethin' scares you and you want to run
just let on like it's Halloween fun.

Say CHEESE!

Olivia is definitely a dare devil. There is nothing too high or sharp or scary for her. She will scale the wall, climb onto the counters, ride the fastest ride, and so on. With all of her dangerous tricks there have been more than a few bad falls. She has had goose eggs, bloody lips, and bruises galore and even had her first CAT SCAN when she was less than a year old. However, as fate had it, just days before we made our move from San Antonio little Livi slipped and fell on our kitchen tile while I was making dinner one night and not only put her baby teeth through her lip but also broke both of her top two teeth right out of her tiny mouth. The scene was awful with blood pouring out of her mouth mixed with all of her tears and spit. Of course I was in panic mode since Ben wasn't home and I wasn't sure if we should head to the ER or try and take care of it at home. Isabelle was terrified and was plugging her ears, making it difficult to hear me when I was yelling at her for help with ice and a towel!

My first call was to the pediatrician who told me to go straight to the ER. No one ever wants to make that trip and especially alone with two small screaming children one whom is bleeding profusely from the mouth. I thought a second opinion would be great and finally got a pediatric dentist on the phone and talked through the damage with her. I was hoping to avoid a hospital trip if possible and thankfully the dentist told me how to care for her that night and that she would see her first thing the following morning. (Why do all bad things like this happen right at 5:00pm and end of business day?)

After several minutes we had managed to stop the bleeding and the crying and through the swollen smile could see poor Livi's broken front two teeth. It was heartbreaking to me as a mother but I was very relieved when we learned that her roots were not damaged and that her teeth were only cosmetically broken. Phew!

Over the next couple of weeks we almost got used to little Livi's funny smile but once we were settled enough in Houston to establish a good pediatric dentist we paid him a visit and scheduled her surgery for just days down the calendar.

The morning of the surgery was tough. Olivia had to fast and there were some complications with the dentist that morning and we were pushed till nearly 10:30am before we began. That is a long time to keep a toddler busy without letting her have a drink or snack. Finally it was our turn to begin and the anesthesiologist gave Olivia a quick shot and literally moments later she was "drunk" in our arms. The dentist then carried her back to the operating room where he inserted an IV and began her drip to knock her out cold. The minutes seemed long but just shy of an hour we were visited again by the dentist telling us he was successful. Thankfully she had enough teeth left that he didn't have to cap or pull them but rather added to them to make them look "normal" again. He also performed a frenectomy in her upper gums and she left with a row of stitches inside her tiny mouth.

After a waiting period where she was examined we were finally told we could head home. It was after lunch by now and we were all ready for this experience to be over. Livi had a little bit of a tough time waking up and kept asking for her suitcase and wanting to get down to walk, but after a couple of hours at home and a few popsicles later we had survived the worst.

Olivia's mouth was swollen for days and she was bumped at a Halloween party and split some of her stitches open and bled and bled again, but now you would never know it ever occurred! She has a perfect tiny smile and we are hopeful she keeps these tiny teeth inside her mouth until she is a big girl and loses them as she should. (She only has 8 teeth currently as is!) Too bad she is back to her old tricks of scaling walls and jumping off counters and wasn't old enough to learn from this lesson. It's Olivia Knievel!

Creekside Forest Cougars

Maybe it was a blessing that I was so overwhelmed with relocating that I didn't have much time to mourn Isabelle starting Kindergarten. I knew this day was quickly arriving and I was literally ill for months thinking about it, but I also knew there was nothing I could do to stop it and that Belle would thrive in the academic world.

Once we found our home in Creekside Park I promptly began the registration process for Isabelle to enroll at Creekside Forest Elementary School in just a few short weeks. Our builder sent a letter to the school for us proving our residency and we got her all signed up just a day or two before the Kindergarten Teddy Bear Tea where the students got to meet their teacher and see their classroom for the first time. Ben was still in San Antonio so Jelly and I left Olivia with grammie and met Mrs. Grimes together. Neither one of us knew what to expect but we did know that the Cougars were just 2 years old and that it was ranked very high in the State of Texas. The school is about half the size of Hardy Oak Elementary School where she would have attended in San Antonio, so I took comfort in knowing there would be less kids to work with but for some reason I pictured her teacher being older than her parents. (All the sudden I feel old.)

Like mentioned before, our belongings were delivered to our new address just hours before the first day of school but fortunately we had the girls beds ready to roll so that Belle would have a good nights sleep before the big day. She picked out her outfit carefully, with options from Aunt Tara, Aunt Alee and Grammie who had all spoiled her with new school clothes, and off we were to face yet another new adventure. We didn't have as much time as we would have liked at our drop off which again was maybe a blessing in disguise so we gave Jelly a quick squeeze and there she went...a Kindergartner!

Again as mentioned previous, Olivia woke up seriously ill the night before and spent the whole first week of school burning hot with a fever over 105 degrees for 5 straight days. We got quickly acquainted with a new pediatrician and the urgent care and pumped her full of Tylenol and Motrin on the clock. It was a long sad week for little Livi and we were all so relieved when she finally broke out into a terrible rash and began to feel better.

Just like predicted Isabelle is a star student. She has already reached the 100 Site Words list and we got a glowing report at her first Parent/Teacher Conference. She doesn't want to go to school each and every morning and misses popcorn at Target with Olivia and mom, but most of the time she is ready to go at the crack of dawn and comes home happy and even a tad bit smarter. Her school starts at 8:40am and ends at 3:40pm Monday thru Friday so she is more than exhausted every night and most definitely needs the weekends to recover, yet she has quickly made some great friends and can't wait to see Emily and Paloma when the school bell rings each day. One day she was surprised when Grammie, Aunt Alee and cousin Leo met her for lunch at school and was in tears when the visit was over and she had to head back to class. She loves Art, Music and PE and has started checking books out at the library each week that we don't already own thankfully!


Olivia adores her big sister and cries every morning when Isabelle leaves for the day. They always have a long goodbye where Belle hugs her and tells her how much she will miss her and Livi asks "Where did Isabelle go?" all day long and cries and whines for her to return. Her favorite time each day is when we pick Jelly up in the biker/walker line and Livi hears the school bell ring! She excitedly yells DING!!!!

Once again I am left thinking, what just happened? All of the sudden I am living in The Woodlands driving my kindergartner to and from school and activities every day with my little clone in tow. Time just keeps ticking by...even when I'm not wearing a watch!

Welcome to The Woodlands

With our rapid move to Houston, we were so lucky to find the perfect home for our little family in such a quick period of time. Being somewhat familiar with Houston since my parents have lived here for the last several years, we had a general idea what part of town we wanted to relocate to, however, Houston is HUGE and searching for a home can be totally overwhelming. Ben wanted to be on the right side of the city for the Bush Intercontinental Airport, Isabelle and Olivia wanted to be in a reasonable driving distance to Grammie and Grandpa and I wanted to be next to an Exemplary Elementary School. All of that lead us to the newest development in one of America's biggest Master Planned Communities called Creekside Park in The Woodlands, TX.

There were not too many things we were particular about finding in a new residence but we preferred the master bedroom upstairs since our babies are young and we wanted an office downstairs since Ben would be working from home a good percentage of time. We wanted a smaller and flatter yard than we had in San Antonio and a 3 car garage for all of our toys would be a bonus. And somehow we found it all and all of it brand new and ready to be lived in! We even loved the carpet and cabinet choices and probably would have made the same choices if they had been ours to make. It was almost bizarre too because before we began the house hunting project Ben and I came up with a dollar amount we felt good about spending. When we met with Bert, the builder, and he showed us the original price of the available home it was a bit over our feel-good price. He then gave us a great sales pitch and without asking us what we were hoping to spend, he wrote our exact number on a piece of paper and circled it and told us this was the deal he wanted to make us! Sold!


Although it has just been weeks at this time, we have been very happy with our purchase and really feel at home in our new place. All of us have commented at different times just how much we love our new home and how well it suits our family. We have thoroughly enjoyed our new community and exploring our new town as well. There are 120 parks in the township and Ben and Belle have been checking them off of a big list taking kolaches to a different park each Saturday morning. We have already been to a handful of neighborhood celebrations, serve on a committee on the PTO and have used our EZ Passes for the Toll Road to the airport. It's funny how you can move from place to place and feel at home wherever you go. To quote my dad Home is where your socks are!

A new (ad) venture

Anyone who knows Ben knows that he is ambitious! He is confident, smart, savvy and a risk taker. So far, these traits have greatly blessed his career and I think you have pretty good odds betting on Ben.

I remember the scene well, laying on the bed in our apartment as Ben was just graduating with his MBA and had finally decided to take a job with a company called Clarke American in San Antonio, TX. We both knew the decision was right but neither one of us had any interest in moving farther south. I felt ill.

Fast forward almost 8 years and here we sit. I don't think anyone would EVER have guessed that Ben would have lasted with Clarke for as long as he did. We figured we would put in a few years and then jump somewhere more "desirable." Boy were we wrong. We quickly fell in love with the city and people of San Antonio and Ben was challenged with opportunity after opportunity with what began as Clarke American, morphed into Harland Clarke and finished with the parent company Harland Clarke Holdings. He learned things as quickly as he could stepping up to take assignments that were well above him but luckily came out on top every time. He was blessed with great bosses and colleagues and is well into a new phase of employment now as a result. The girls and I were blessed by the good people at Clarke as well. Although he spent more time away from home and on the road than actually at home with us, I knew his superior was aware of his family and often sent me notes, gifts, vacations, etc. The girls even had ice cream delivered to our front door once in "apology" for a missing father.

But despite the constant opportunities and the nice paycheck that went with it, Ben still got the itch. It started small and mostly annoying but ended up being large and in need of a scratch. When we traveled to Glacier, MT this summer and Ben finally "unplugged" himself for a minute, he decided NOW was the time to make the change. He had been working quietly in his spare time on a new idea for employment for months and finally felt like he was prepared to go all in. He had set the scene with his boss months before, always being very honest about his ambitions and plans and so it came as no surprise when Ben went to lunch with his now friend and told him the time to depart was now.

To go along with the new career, we felt a new location was needed as well. Houston was an obvious choice with a major airport and Grandparents close by, so we set our dial east and mentally made the change. After all of our summer travels, we only had a few weeks before Isabelle would be a kindergartner so the move would need to take place quick! We took a weekend and looked for our new home in Houston and were shocked when one of the very first houses we looked in felt perfect. It was a spec house and ready in a matter of days. It was in a new master planned community and had an exemplary elementary school only a mile away. It was halfway between grandma's house and the airport, about 30 minutes to each, and it was a wonderful floor plan. With out a lot of thought we made a quick offer and headed back to San Antonio with a list of to-do's a mile long. We began packing, scheduled movers, sold our current house, registered Belle for school, transferred medical records, and left our wonderful home in a matter of days. It all happened so fast that days later I sat in my new home and thought What just happened? When am I going back home?

The moving company delivered all of our goods on the weekend and Isabelle began school the next day, Monday. First priority was the girls bedrooms and somehow we managed to have painters paint their bedrooms an ice purple late into the evening and we tucked them into their new beds to wake up the following day for the first day of school. Sadly, Olivia didn't sleep a wink and became seriously ill with a violent childhood virus called Roseola. She was so hot with a fever for 5 days and ended up in the urgent care in the middle of the night when her rectal fever was 105.5 while taking at home meds. It was not an ideal first night in our new home and first week of school, but we somehow survived.

The girls and I made the change and started life in the new place quick because we had to. Ben tied up loose ends in San Antonio and continued working at Clarke to help ease the transition there. They have been so good to Ben and really mourned his departure. They tried to convince him to stay but knew it was only a matter of time before his ambition over powered the possibilities with them. Thankfully, they have made his decision very easy, giving him the freedom to work as long as he wants and to make the change in whatever way suits him best. He has continued to be employed with Clarke since we left several weeks ago, but will finally have his last day at the end of this month. He will continue to offer his service to them as a consultant however, and already has signed a contract that he will be available to help them for the next long while.

I have been surprised how tough the change has been on Ben on a personal side. He really enjoyed the people he worked with all over the country and has had multiple lunch dates and constant phone calls from all of his friends. His buddy, Pete, continues to play a major role in our life and he and Ben chat constantly and already have many plans to get together in the near future. He also is blessed with lots of former colleagues whom have great trust in Ben, offering their capital to him believing he will be successful in his new venture. Clarke was a great home for the past almost 8 years and Ben will always owe them great respect for the career they set into motion.

Leaving San Antonio was difficult for all of us. We developed wonderful life-long friendships over the years and will always have two native San Antonions in our home. In some ways the quick departure may have made the transition easier on me and the girls. We didn't get to think about it very long or get to say all of the goodbyes we wanted to. But it also made it harder too. I didn't wrap up loose ends of my own and I still think to myself often when I get back home... But I have great confidence and faith in Ben and his strong work ethic and am supporting him happily in his latest exciting opportunity. So, off we go, with our heads in the clouds along for the ride of this new adventure!