Fun pictures

Some of these pictures are from Thanksgiving when the Christensens and Dan were here.

Mark

Ian

Emily

Brother and sister fish lips

Happy to be related

Olivia

Uncle Dan proud of his "special niece"

Jenelle and Clay being funny in the car (while waiting in the drive thru lane)

Stephen and I in our matching outfits (I took a picture of this with Clay, too)

Daddy and Stephen

Papa having fun with Stephen

Our attempt at a nice picture since we were dressed up and kind of alike

Stephen gets caught some places since he hasn't quite mastered crawling

Jenelle loves to pose. Clay didn't want to sit up. Oh well.

Jenelle can multi-task. I laughed when I saw this.

Clay following Jenelle around. He got a bit wetter than her.:)

My dad's 70th

We celebrated my dad's 70th on his birthday, last Friday. My mom made chicken and rice (my favorite chicken and rice!), broccoli, cranberry jello salad, and banana cake. It was very yummy. Here is my dad scooping out the ice cream. Pretty good for a 70 year old.:)After we sang to him

Dad opening his present from all three girls--it was a lap top computer back pack. He was thrilled with the present. Jenelle and Clay loved the paper and the box.

Dad and Stephen enjoying each other.

Clayton trying really hard to be asleep in the box

What Jenelle looked like when we pulled into the garage--wiped out!

October

Stephen as Pharoah or MosesMike and I at our Hobo Hoedown where we kind of learned to square dance

Miss Anne reading to Clay. He loves Miss Anne. We do, too.

Clay with his elephant and Stephen with his tiger (8 months)

All wrapped up--he didn't move much

Fun with Daddy

Costumes at the Harvest Festival--our princess and basketball player

We got to see Mike's parents before the Harvest Festival and my parents after. We are blessed!

Update

Stephen is now sitting (and blowing bubbles). This toy he is playing with is for laying babies down so they can kick and the toy makes music. It is also for when babies can sit. So now he can touch the fun parts of the toy. Sitting without assistance

My three kids. It is SO hard to just get Clayton to look at the camera, let alone smile. So here is the best picture of about 6 attempts. He really was trying to look pleasant.

Jenelle's class had a Nursery Rhyme Festival last Friday. She dressed as a mouse (it was actually a cat uniform--graciously give to us so I didn't have to make something, but she had wanted to be a mouse and thought it looked like a mouse, so we didn't tell her any different). She loved wearing it. Her actual part in the Festival was "the dish ran away with the spoon". I got a video of it, but forgot to get a picture of it. She did a good job.

Mike's mom came for the Nursery Rhyme Festival. That was neat to have her there, too. Thanks for coming, Mom.

The three of us (and Stephen's stroller). Clay couldn't handle looking at the camera. Have I mentioned he has a problem with focusing?:)

Stephen can hold his own bottle when he's in a horizontal position. He's growing up.

We went to a pancake breakfast at Jenelle's school on Saturday morning. The extended fam was there, too. Here is Mike's mom holding Matt and Jess' new little Alayna--one month old that day.

Uncle Mike and Ethan

Mike was working on rain gutters on Saturday. Jenelle and Clay wanted to "work" too, so they hammered the fence.

Recent pics...again

Clayton "read" this book to Stephen. It has pictures of animals and the names of the animals. Such a sweet thing!

Clay wanted to watch his video with the dogs.Stephen loves the jumper

Stephen gets himself all turned around, but it doesn't bother him.

He's into books now, too. Or at least this one.

He loves a good book! (This is the one that Clay read to him--a strong recommendation goes a long way.)

Jenelle was pretending to be Zipporah and Clay was Moses. Here she set the table for the kids. She had Clay to say the pray--but, of course, she told him what to say. :)

Mike and I got to have another date night--two Fridays in a row. Last Friday, my parents watched the kids. Last night, a friend from Jenelle's school brought over her 5th grade daughter and they watched all three kids. They even made monkey bread with the kids which they finished for "bre-thest" (breakfast) this morning. Thank you to both parties.:)

Insight: Mike said to me today, "Taking care of the kids makes you tired. It makes me exhausted." Job security for me.:)

Picture of Alayna

I got to take dinner to Matt and Jess on Friday night. They got to come home from the hospital about 24 hours after Alayna was born since mom and baby were doing so well. Jenelle went in with me to take the food and to meet Alayna. My boys haven't met their new cousin yet, but I'm sure they will soon. Mike got to go over on Saturday and spend some time with them. She sure is a cutey.

New family member

I

I haven't met her yet, but my niece, Alayna Joy Hekman was born today at 3:28pm weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19 inches long with light brown hair. Thank You, God, for Alayna's safe arrival. We look forward to welcoming her into the family.

Stephen 6 months

Tiger picturesWhispering to his tiger

Pictures that Aunt Jess took