A Thursday in the Life of Sadie

Every Thursday Sadie and I go to “school.” I enrolled (after being persuaded by my sister…it’s a good thing!) in a class at a local community college and its kind of a mommy and me preschool. Sadie LOVES it. The first hour is all free play for her. Her favorite spot lately has been the dress up area. She takes after me.

Here she is acting out one of the many real life situations she finds herself in the other days of the week – strapped in a shopping cart while I push her around.

Pit stop at the tool table. She’s most likely paying homage to the memory of her brothers. She doesn’t want to let them down.

Back to the dress up area to freshen up her makeup. She’s gorgeous!

Craft time is always fun. This week was a wood and glue project. She had fun “painting” on the glue and choosing the different colored shapes to put on.

Then we head outside for some play.

Story time! Sadie hardly sits with everyone, if she decides to go at all. She’s sitting next to her cousin here but she got up right after I took this picture and sat on my lap for the rest of the time.

Snack time!

And the day ends with some fun good bye songs.

I’m really glad we have this class to get me out of my to-do list mode. I’m just sad I didn’t take it with the older kidlets.

Things I’ve noticed.

1. I’m actually starting to like avocados. I’ve been eating a lot more salads lately (trying to shed some poundage) and I look forward to adding some avocados to them. I still remember meeting Steve’s cousin Jared and his fiance (or were they already married, I don’t remember) Mychael-Ann for the first time. They came over to my apartment to have dinner and they brought a truly BEAUTIFUL salad of avocados and tomatoes. I wouldn’t eat it. Lame huh? Mychael-Ann must have thought I was a snob. I would have thought I was a snob. But that is how much I didn’t like avocados at the time. I was strictly a guacamole girl. But now all that has changed. I would not be afraid to eat Mychael-Ann’s salad anymore. I would probably really love it now. So there’s still hope for my kids to over come their hate of potatoes right? One day…

2. Boot addiction is in full swing. My Valentine’s gift from my hubs. I finally got them and I don’t want to take them off.

3. Drawing during sacrament meeting. Ok, don’t judge me for taking pictures during sacrament meeting. I just HAD to capture how intent he was. And then he saw my camera/phone out and needed me to take a picture of his masterpiece and wanted me to text it to his dad! It was too funny. I promise I didn’t do anything else non-church related on my phone the rest of the time I was at church!

4. When I was training for the Carlsbad Half Marathon Steve and the kids would follow me on my long runs. They were on their bikes, of course. When I got to the 9 and 10 mile runs they would stop at a park part way through and wait for me to get some more mileage done then we’d run home. It really was a great way to spend our Saturday mornings. And it helped me stay motivated. One of the biggest challenges, for me, when I train for half marathons is feeling bad about leaving my family behind.  I don’t think Sadie really is thrilled about being in the trailer but really, it’s the best seat in the house! She has her uncle Clay to thank for documenting this picture for her. Time for half marathon number 5!

5. "Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be your best ... Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment and shame.  It's a shield.  Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it's the thing that's really preventing us from taking flight." ~ Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

I got this quote off a daily email chain I’ve been receiving. I really love this. I’ve never thought of myself as a perfectionist. Perfectionists have to have sparkling clean houses ALL the time, perfect food ALL the time, perfect bodies ALL the time, kids who behave perfectly ALL the time…etc. I’m not like that (although I wouldn’t mind the perfect body one…ha!) But I’m slowly realizing that some of my expectations in life have a “perfect” stigma to them and its bringing me down. So when I read this quote and it separated perfectionism from striving to be your best I had an aha moment. I can drop the perfectionism. I want to strive to be the best mom I can be but some days I’m not. I want to strive to be the best wife I can be but some days I’m not. I want to strive to be the best version of me I can be but some days I’m just not. Each day is a perfect opportunity to try again, even if I don’t succeed its still worth the try. And thank goodness for another day to strive.

My Four Loves

My four loves are glorious, beautiful, and captivating. They enjoy the sweet things in life with me (especially after a day at Disneyland).

We dance together (I gotta feeling and So What are the current favorites).

We pray together (I know I cheated and opened my eyes but I just had to capture this wonderous moment).

We teach each other (Luke’s turn teaching us about bullets, the Nerf variety. Ethan has taught us about guns. Luke taught once about swords. I’m up next) important lessons on life.

We eat together. Especially standing on a chair, at the counter, with our hands on our hips. It makes the cheerios taste so much better.

We sleep together. Ethan is just like me, it needs to be somewhat dark in the room in order to completely relax.

And then we go out and have more fun!

Someone once said, love is not love unless you give it away. I have given my heart away four times. Each of my loves carries a piece of me with them and I am not whole without them. Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves!

It’s a catch up, yo! Not catsup.

Ok, how did a month ALREADY go by since the last time I blogged? Seriously? Whuuuut. You may have noticed that I’m giving non-privacy a chance right now. Honestly, I’m kind of sick of logging into my own blog to see where I left off so I’m going to give it a try. But don’t be bugged if I go private again, the next time I get spooked by a show on child predators or something of the sort. On to better topics…

Sadie. My darling little girl. Sometimes she likes wearing her sunglasses. Its adorable.

And so are her feet. How could you NOT like little feet like this. It makes me want to bite those little toes.

I got this conditioner for Christmas from one of my fantastical seeeeesters. Its amazing. My chemically processed, over-heated hair loves it.

My other Christmas present from the Hubs came a few weeks ago and I was thrilled. I immediately put it around my neck and took this picture with my phone so I could text it to my Hubs.

The Hubs…he’s so nice to me. He got me these boots. My first pair of boots. I really LOVE them. I know its bad to LOVE things but I really do LOVE these. I plan my church outfits around them, most of the time. Its so fun.

Again, my Sadie. She’s silly. She’s been making these faces and it cracks me up. I can’t capture the true hilarity of them on my iphone but I had to put them up here.

Ethan wanted to take a picture with my phone the other day. We’ll work on his photog skills.

I truly think the transformation from non-reader to reader is kind of magical. Ethan was reading this book on the way to church this morning and it gave me warm fuzzies. I’m so glad to be a mom.

Last, but not least, the Carlsbad Half Marathon. It was January 23rd. Training for this bad boy was not easy. I decided I don’t like training in the winter much, especially over the holidays. But I must have done something right because I ran the fastest time yet! I finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes (not counting my potty break at mile 12.5). My official finish time was 2:16. Throughout the race I would check my pace on my watch and I was constantly thinking, “this is crazy. I’m flying! Any moment now I’ll settle into my usual pace.”

My sister in law, Anna, actually convinced some of her family members to run with us. They drove down from Vegas for the race. This is us, freezing, pre-race. I was really impressed by Anna’s parents, who both finished the race. Way to go Christensens!

I was under a bit of a time crunch the day of the race so I couldn’t stay very long. There were so many people in this race that I never did find any of my group afterwards but I heard they all did a great job! Anna even finished while nursing an injury!

So that’s my catch up. Hope you liked it. I really am going to try not to wait another month before I blog. Really.

Quick Trip for a Special Day and a See You Later

Just a couple days before Christmas we packed up the car and drove up to Mesquite, NV. Our Whitaker cousins were getting ready for a big move and Tyler was getting ready to turn 8 and be baptized! We knew we couldn’t miss this opportunity to support Tyler and spend some time with them all before they headed off to Tennessee. The Whitaker’s have a fun tradition of getting bb guns and pocket knives for their 8th birthday. My boys were THRILLED to try them out (thanks so much Jax and Ty for sharing!).

Luke got his shots in.

Ethan was surprisingly meticulous about his shots.

Tyler with our family

The youngest three Rasmussens.

Sadie and Alyssa got along really well. Alyssa had the perfect toys to play with and they just went to town!

We are going to miss having the Whitakers just a hop, skip and a jump away but we’re so excited to hear about what life in the East is like! We’re so glad we got to spend some time with you and we love all!

Christmas time is here!

I love December. I love the Christmas trees. The stockings. The hussle and bussle. The Christmas songs. The school programs. Its all so busy but so wonderful. It’s a great way to follow Thanksgiving (which I didn’t take ANY pictures of…Mae…hint. hint.)

Breakfast with Santa. This is about as close as Sadie would get, especially since he hadn’t given her her candy cane yet. She needs sugar to get over her inhibitions.

The ward’s Christmas program was so sweet. Luke and Ethan were excited to be shepherds. I cried. I’m emotional like that in December. Or maybe is all year round…hmmm.

Luke’s school Christmas program came first. Its kind of a bummer that he’s one of the tallest kids in his grade because he always gets put on the back row. Again, I cried. It was too cute.

He also lost his first tooth in December. He was pretty excited that the Tooth Fairy was going to come. But since he forgot his tooth at Vovo’s house the first night the Tooth Fairy couldn’t come back around for a couple nights. That’s her story and she’s sticking too it.

Ethan changed schools mid semester. He’s now attending Davis Magnet School. We’re hoping Luke will get in next year. So Ethan’s school program came the week after Luke’s. I had Sadie and she would not let me take a picture unless I was holding her. Hence the fuzzy picture. But I thought it was cute that Ethan was throwing me the I Love You sign. Or maybe it’s the Rock On sign…its too fuzzy to tell.

Last, but not least, we got to take some family pictures! Mae did a great job and we got some fantastic shots. Merry Christmas!