the rest of may and all of june...

may ended with me going  back to las vegas for my grandma's funeral.  since it was in the middle of the week chris couldn't take time off to join us so daniel and i went alone again.  the sunday morning we woke up early to hop on a plane and chris woke up sick... sour stomach not feeling too hot... and by the time we got the the airport he was definitely sick,...  after he left us and drove home he had to stop twice and pull over to be sick... yep  stomach flu.  BAD!  turned out to be lucky he wasn't flying with us.  we got there and hung out with family and monday were busy getting ready for the funeral.  i was terrified that i was going to get chris' sickness and hardly ate anything the whole day... turned out to be a blessing as i woke tuesday morning (the day of the funeral) and was sick.... but not throwing up... haha  mostly just felt like crap and nauseous all day.

the funeral was great!  my grandma was such an awesome lady.  my favorite part was singing with my sister.  we sang be still my soul.  the last verse we sang in unison. and it was pretty powerful... emotionally and way powerful in my ears.  my sister has some serious pipes! and mine aren't too bad so you put us together and my head felt like it was reverberating.... or whatever... but at the very end of the song she held my hand that was holding the music... it was kinda sweet and got me all choked up... which i understand now as she really wanted to sing the last note the longest and knew i would cry if she showed me some love... hahaha it worked!!  i totally had to cut out early of the last note.  i also got to sing with my brothers.  all four siblings sang abide with me.  so pretty!   i love that all four of us can sing like that.  both brothers are so talented. i do also have to mention the eulogy my mom gave... i bawled through the whole thing it was so well done!  perfectly sentimental and sweet and told a beautiful story of grandmas life.

after the grave dedication  we headed back to the church for the luncheon... and of course several cousins were nice enough to bring diet cokes for everyone!! wouldn't be a christensen gathering without some DC.

the day after the funeral we were wiped out and my mom woke up sick... woops i brought the flu with us... over all only mom, jack, sam, and greg ended up getting the flu from me.  daniel did have a good time playing with all of his cousins.  

thursday i hopped on a plane back to jacksonville.  and perfectly enough daniel and i woke the next day with really bad colds.  not just really bad colds... but really hideous colds that would turn into tonsillitis for both of us... needless to say we did NOTHING for 2 weeks and i slept or layed on the couch all day and daniel did really well playing by himself or cuddling with me a bit.  finally with antibiotics we got them knocked out but it was brutal.  chris was very sweet and understanding and luckily super busy finishing up things in his residency that he didn't mind i wasn't feeding him and was helping out a lot at home.

the whole month wasn't a waste... we had some good times with friends

this is daniel crab crawling after he figured out it hurts to crawl on concrete and was cutting up his knees bad...

i took a few pictures of my boys sleeping... daniel sleeps all over the place where as chris lays perfectly still on his back with his arms at his sides...

we made it out to the beach at least once...

but had to stay inside many of the days in june due to crazy non stop rain and scary thunderstorms...

on their respective days we celebrated mothers and fathers day... chris got me the best card ever... i will definitely keep this one... plus a pedicure!! 

and i made him this cheesy candybar cover... but he liked it anyway... haha

i have decided its easiest to cut daniels hair while he's in the bath.  

we did get to go to a waterpark one day with the dental battalion for family day and after it rained for 20 min we decided to leave and go to lunch... it was yummy!! and daniel really enjoyed the black beans... gave himself a nice goatee..  

i also got to go on an awesome ladies night out for kristens birthday!! we went to indochine... an awesome resturant and had amazing curry!!! then we shopped trader joes after...and trader joes had these cartoon cutouts so we took our pics... and of course ihad to take out my front tooth to make it that much more ridiculous...  a perfect and fun evening with the girls... Lacey, Kristen, and Amy.  

he loves to sit with his daddy on the couch and watch tv... usually right after a nap he likes to have a little cuddle time.  

and this kids hair is just crazy!  i have to cut it so often it just grows super fast!  and is always a laugh when he wakes up.. 

some projects i did in june were to reorganize daniels baby clothes and things and put them in bins with labels... now i need more bins for this next size he has grown out of!!

i also made this hilarious woman for primary... its a picture of a mother and i cut a whole through her right eye and then glued a spray bottle to the back ... used this on mothers day... i told the kids they had to sing so beautifully they made this mother cry and then when they were singing well enough i started squirting them with the water.  it was so funny and they actually kept singing so i would spray them... 

chris' aunt sharon also sent us this cute pink chair that was gracie's... i took apart the cover and used it as a pattern and made this cute blue jean cover for daniel.  not that he minded the pink but this turned out super cute and he sits in it everyday.  

i also made this cute little blanket for my newest nephew axel slade.  i was even able to sneak in his name with the alphabet material.  its down in the bottom left corner.  love how it turned out..

i also sewed this fun giant beach bag to put towels and what not in.  it is seriously huge... and then i made one for my friend kristen for her birthday.  her's was the yellow fabric on the outside and black on this inside.  i love it.  i used outdoor fabric so its completely wipe-able.  

   

we got together with some friends in our ward and decided to go to the temple in raleigh.  we took turns watching each others kids at the church next door as the other would do a session.  it had been a long time since we had been able to attend the temple.  really nice to go... chris was so good to play with the kids... they had fun attacking him...

daniel loves to climb in the kitchen cabinets... 

our little yoda baby...

he's been taking off his own bib lately.  he liked it better as a hat... or veil

this is what he does now when he throws a fit... gets down on the floor and putts his head down... after bonking his head on the hard wood floors a couple times and realizing it hurt, he now carefully throws himself on the nearest carpet.  he will even walk over to one and then fall down.

this is our little walking dead zombie baby after eating some watermelon.... 

our little future dentist...

and yes i am still missing a front tooth, sadly i broke my retainer in half a week and a half before i was having my implant done so i had to wear just the one half with the tooth.  not the most comfortable but it was only a week... 

lastly we met chris at the o'club for some lunch and he put his cover on daniels head and got these cute pics of our little lieutenant .  even looks like hes saluting..

doris mae rowe christensen...

my sweet grandmother passed away in may.  it was a welcome relief from her misery of having parkinsons and being confined to a bed for the last 6 years.  that being said... its still a little sad to say goodbye.  i miss her.  

having grown up just down the street from my grandma i always felt as though we were very close.  spending every sunday afternoon at their house, many shopping trips with she and my mom... always made me feel so special and close with grandma.

she was born in kanaraville, ut.  even though her parents were living in las vegas at the time, her mother had gone home to kanaraville to have the baby.  my grandma was always upset about that since she loves nevada so much and could never claim to be a true native of nevada.  she was also lucky enough to be born on nevada day... which to the rest of the US is just called halloween.

my cousin aprils husband paul is currently an assembly man for nevada and was able to get this really cool decree made in honor of grandma that basically states since she was so loyal to nevada and had such great love for the state she now has her own official day and will be known as a true navadan...

grandma's father was an artist and music teacher at the las vegas high school and when he got very sick she took over leading the choir while she was still in high school herself.  she was also incredibly beautiful.  i always love looking of pictures of her in high school as she just looked so classy all the time.  

she was certainly cute when my grandpa saw her.  she had been dating another boy... i believe his name was john... but vern stole her away... and if you ask him  SHE is the one who proposed to him.... they were talking one day and she said are you going to propose to me or not cause john is coming back to town and i need to know what to tell him.  grandpa got a ring and while driving in his car threw the ring in her lap and said there ya go kid, what do ya think?  haha! it was the beginning of a great marriage!! 

they always did have a fun relationship.  grandpa called her dorkis, and teased her constantly.  but she took it like a champ and often gave it right back.  he was romantic in his own way... if he brought home some jewelry for her for an anniversary or anything he would just throw it on her dinner plate and say here you go.  she was also very supportive of whatever business grandpa was into at the time.  he always worked hard and had something new he was brewing up.  and she stood by him.  

they had 5 kids together.  but when joan the youngest was little grandpa had a heart attack and grandma decided she needed to go back to college and get a degree so if anything ever happend to vern she could take care of the family.  she got her degree in elementary education and taught 25 years till she retired.  she was a great teacher and i know students loved her.  here was a board a student made about her...

we the grandkids also loved that she was a teacher as it meant she was forever correcting our grammar... may i, not can i... its jack and i not me and jack.  but i have those things burned in my memory and probably speak with more proper english because of her.   

my parents went out of town for a week once when i was little.  i believe third grade.  they went to boston and i went and stayed with grandma.  my mom planned it perfectly as i had some nevada history project to do so grandma helped me make this beautiful mobile.... filled with also sorts of facts and artifacts about nevada that she knew.  perfect person to help me with that.  

grandma was fun.  she smiled a lot and laughed.  at our anual christmas eve party we would all get together and sing songs and do twelve days of christmas with actions.  grandma loved to sing!  she new so man songs and always knew the words to everything.  my favorite memory i will always cherish is learning "when its night time in nevada i'm dreaming"  she and my mom and i would sing that sitting by the bonfire in beaver at night. she taught me to sing the harmony with it.  even when she was in her bed these last couple years and could hardly make words she could almost always sing with us... and you better believe she still knew the words to anything. 

four calling birds

grandma also had the greatest nails.  long hard nails that grew beautifully! she would sit at the counter top and file them perfectly and t paint them so perfectly... usually with like a duty rose color... like a rose/tan ish color.  always liked having her nails done.  very sad i didn't inherit those nice nails. she also always had her hair and make up done... including lipstick.. usually peach.  she taught my mom to be the same way in i have learned it from my mom.... generally wont see me with out hair and makeup done.  she did always like to tell us grand daughters we would look better with a touch of lipstick.  

she loved us grandkids.  i couldnt have asked for a more loving grandmother.  she always had a cookie jar full of mothers taffy cookies.  and on sundays for our family bbqs she would bring out brownies and vanilla ice cream.  still one of my favorite desserts.  

she also went to anything i ever did.  every dance recital, birthday, probably band concerts.  she went with my mom to so many things.  

really neat 4 generations with great-grandma rowe, grandma, my mom, and emily

here are some more fun pictures of grandma that i wanted to share

vacuuming in her white suit.. classy!

love this one of she katie and i... 

fun one of she and my dad laughing at something... thats the grandma smile i love and miss!!!!

she really was such an awesome person.... and a huge part of my life!!!!  i wish i could remember more stories and memories of her... but this is all i have for now..  love you grandma!!  we will see you on the other side!!!