2010 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

Another year has just flown by. Crazy to think I was pregnant at the beginning of this year, that seems like a lifetime ago.

I guess I’ll start with the most interesting, on April 13 we had our first child, Taegen Wesley Evertsen (pronounced Tay-gen). He had some complications but luckily after 4 days we were able to take home a happy healthy baby. We love being parents, especially to this little guy; he is a lot of fun. He is a really happy baby, full of so much personality. He is crawling all over the place now. He’s in the fun stage of trying to eat everything! He loves to smile and is such a flirt. He will smile for almost everyone. He is a pretty easy baby (or so I’m told). He’s made our adjustment into parenthood a little easier. We’ve enjoyed watching him grow and can’t wait to see what lies ahead for him.

This summer we had the opportunity to go to Springfield Illinois for Jon to install satellite systems. Just a few weeks after Taegen was born we started our almost 25 hour drive to get there. We enjoyed watching the scenery change and seeing a different part of the country. We absolutely loved being out there. If our families didn’t live so far away, I think we would have wanted to stay out there permanently. In July, Taegen and I came back home since my maternity leave had ended. Jon stayed in Illinois until the end of August to finish working. My wonderful in-laws let us stay with them and thanks to my mother in law and my sister for watching Taegen, until Jon came home and was able to take over. Once Jon made it back, we moved out to Toquerville where my grandpa has a basement apartment that we have been renting from him ever since.

I (Kristina) went back to work at SouthWest Community Credit Union as a Consumer Loan Processor. I’ve been working there for almost 5 years. We’re hoping that some time in the near future I’ll be able to stay home with Taegen. But for now, we’re both working and we have a wonderful friend watching Taegen for us. She’s great with him, and he loves the few hours he gets to spend with her.

Jon is doing some concrete work again. We don’t really know how long he’ll have work, so we’re hoping that he’ll be able to go to school this coming year. He wants to go to the Diesel Mechanic program at Dixie , which would only take him a year and a half to complete. So he’s trying to make it so he can get started soon.
That’s whats going on in our lives, we hope all is well with you. Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year.
Love,

Jon, Kristina and Taegen Evertsen

  

Sneak Peak

Here's a little sneak peak of the family photos we had taken last weekend. I love them! I'll get the CD in a few days and will post more then.

Teria Photography did an amazing job. Check her out here or here

Little man

Look at what Taegen does with his feet when he gets in his car seat.

 How cute is tha,t right?! And he does it every time, unless he has shoes on.

Oh and look at this face. This is his new favorite one to make.

My son is too cute.

Post 100

It's taken me two years of having a blog to get to 100 posts. So is it gonna be a memorable one? Probably not, haha. In my christmas post I forgot to show you a picture of my Advent candle wreath. And it's sitting on one of my Christmas boxes because it was on the kitchen table, but Jon moved it so he could make a tie. Yes that's right, make a tie. Sewing machine and all. It's still in pieces on the table, so the wreath has yet to be moved back.

 Tradition is that on each sunday before Christmas (starting 4 weeks early) you light a candle. So the first week you only light one, the next week you light 2, etc. I remember growing up this was one of my favorite traditions. I loved turning all the lights off in the living room and just watching the candle burn. Plus I always wanted to be the one to light the candles each week. I'm hoping to pass this tradition on to my kids, so they'll enjoy it as much as I do.

I was a little bit of a slacker last year and didn't burn the candles as consistently as I should have. (as you can see in the picture below, the candles are still fairly tall. They should be rather small if I did ir right) Well I guess I packed them away just thinking I'd just them this year. When i took them out this is what they looked like. The nice So Utah heat melted them into this nice shape. Ha, so much for using them this year.

 And here's a picture of my stockings. I'm sad i don't have all matching ones, but I guess i can wait until I'm done having kids to get all matching ones. That way no one'll end up having the odd ball stocking. Now my next project (or maybe I'll just go buy it, depends on how creative I'm feeling) is to get a board with hooks on it that says "And the stockings were hung" I think they're so cute. Any one know how to make one, or where i can buy one from?

Cheeto time

I love cheetos. So I figured I'd let Taeg try one. ha, good logic I know. But he sure enjoyed it

I love watching him try new things. He'll eat just about anything. I know you're not supposed to let them try citrus, but I wanted to see if he'd eat a lemon (since he's liked just about everything else I've let him try) I was hoping for a sour face or just some sort of reaction, and guess what happened? HE LIKED IT! Strange kid. The only thing he hasn't liked so far is a tomato. That's the only thing he's spit out. I let him try some nutella and boy did he love that! When I wouldn't give him any more he started freaking out. haha. Oh and he had his first tantrum the other day. Video coming soon.

He loves it up on daddys shoulders

I just love this hat. I think it's so adorable...plus look at that cute face :)

Christmas time

I love Christmas time, Christmas eve to be exact. You see thats the day my family (as in my extended family, the Lindhardts) has Christmas. Thats the way the Danes do it. Christmas day for us is rather boring. We open all our presents on Christmas Eve and do all our festivities and traditions. When we were younger we still opened most of our presents on Christmas day. We were allowed to open one present from our parents, that'd we'd bring with us to our big extended family Christmas party, (as long as my mom ok'd it, she didnt want us to pick one of our big presents) mind you this would not be pajamas. Actually I dont think i ever got pj's for Christmas until after my mom passed away. The other presents we were allowed to open were the ones we got at the party. The rest we opened Christmas day. But now that we're all grown up and moved out, we open all of them on Christmas Eve. We have a huge Danish Christmas meal, with all the yummy yummy danish treats. (and yes, we make them all. Thank you mom, bedstemor, and aunts for teaching us how to make them all) I absolutely love this day of the year. The past few years it has just been my immediate family, but this year some of the extended family is joining us again. The bigger the better if you ask me. I love all the people, the mingling, hearing all the Danish, dancing around the Christmas tree while singing American and Danish Christmas songs, opening the presents and watching others (especially the kids) open all their gifts. And now this year, we have our own child. I'm so excited for him to have his first Christmas. I know he won't remember it, and won't really care too much about the presents(actually I think he's going to like the wrapping paper more than any gift we give him) But I'll remember it, and I'm so excited to see him experience it all.

Ok now that I've ranted about my Christmas traditions, doesn't it just make you wish you could join us? I don't blame you, I'd want in on the fun too.

So growing up, my mom always had these cookies in the house around Christmas time...remember these?

My favorite was all the one in the middle in the picture above. The sugar crystals on top were too hard for me. Anyways, this is what my mom always did to them to make them a little more fun to eat.....

so yummy! Chocolate makes everything so much better. If you've never tried this, I suggest you give it a whirl. So worth it.

Here's a picture of my Christmas tree. I decided I want a Danish tree from now on. (I love adding the Danish traditions to our American ones) It's a little plain because I don't have all the little things that are supposed to go on it, but it's a start. Plus I'm missing the star that goes on the top. It somehow disappeared, along with a few of my other decorations. So I'm having to do without until I can find a new one.The string of red and white is a string of the Danish flag, and in the red and white hearts are cookies! Such a smart idea the Danes had on that one right! Why didn't we think of putting treats on our trees?! For now, I just have the Danish butter cookies (not dipped in chocolate). The ones I'm supposed to make to put in them, will go hard way too fast. Plus Jon won't really eat them(he tends to be really picky, or maybe it's just him being skeptical, with a lot of the Danish treats), so I figure I'll hold off on those.

In the very center of the tree is my favorite ornament. It was given to me by my grandma the Christmas after my mom passed away. It is an ornament with her picture on it. I'll need to get an upclose picture of it. I love that I can incorporate my mom into Christmas.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Happy 8 Months

Look what I can do!

Things to remember:
- He's crawling every where!
- He will NOT say mama. He's been saying Dada for more than a month. Every time i try to get him to say mama, he looks at me with his little grin and says "dada" It's so cute, but not fair! :)
- (Disclaimer: This might be too much information for some people, but I think it's funny. So if you get offended easily, just go ahead and skip this one). Sometimes when I'm changing his diaper, as soon as a wipe his penis, he starts to laugh. I don't know what it is, and it's not every time but I think it's hilarious. :)
- He's eating a TON! He eats 2 jars of baby food, plus nurses (about 4 1/2 ounces) for lunch and dinner. I'm suprised he's not a chunk.
- We have an unused tooth brush that he loves to chew on. Most times it's his prefered toy.
- He's in the fun stage of putting EVERYTHING in his mouth. The other day I found a shirt size sticker,  you know the little round ones that say S, M, or L on them, on the roof of his mouth.
- He's such a happy baby. I get comments for everyone about how happy and good of a baby he is. He's a super easy baby to watch, minus the times he won't go down for a nap. (or so our baby sitter tells me).
- He's a little flirt. (like i mentioned in one of my previous posts) He loves the women already. :)
- He's starting to hate his car seat again. I'm thinking it's almost time to put him in a big boy seat. (He's almost heavy enough. I'm think another month or so and he'll be ready) He can't stand being strapped down while having to lay down. If i can tilt the car seat up slightly so he feels like he's sitting up more than laying down he does a little bit better.
- He used me to pull himself to a standing position all by himself today! Oh and while he did it he made the cutest face. He puckered his lips, then blew in and out of his nose. It's so cute. I'll try to get a pic of it.
-When I put socks on him he of course instantly tries to pull them off. But the odd thing is, is that he only pulls off his left sock. Well, eventually he'll pull off his right one if he really wants them off, but most times its just the left one that he pulls off.
-He gives us kisses! It's so cute. We ask for kisses and he leans in and opens his mouth real wide. haha. Gotta love it.
-We can't put our fingers in his mouth at all anymore. I used to try to check if he has any teeth coming in, but now if I try, I get bit. And boy are his two little teeth sharp!

I'm loving this new phase. It's way different now that he can get around with out me. It's easier and harder at the same time. I love that I don't have to entertain him all the time. Him being able to find new toys and things to play with on his own, is so nice. But now I have to be so much more careful. We're actually having to be parents now. I mean, of course we've always been parents to him, but now comes the disciplining and watching out for him, etc. I can't just leave him alone with a few toys and know that he can't get into anything. I guess I just can't be as lazy as I use to be. haha

We love you monkey! Thanks for making the adjustment to parenthood a little easier on us.

Flirt

My son is a total flirt! He smiles at every woman he sees if they look and talk to him. It's funny to see the difference when it's a male or female talking to him. Males have to try much harder to get him to smile. (minus daddy of course) He had a great time in relief society today with all the women giving him attention. Ha. He's a little stinker.

Happy Birthday (yesterday)

Happy birthday to me. I'm.....24, I had to stop and think about that for a second. haha. When I was little and I would ask my mom how old she was and she would say she didn't remember and had to think about it, I never believed her. I thought "How in the world does someone forget how old they are?!!!!" Ha turns out she wasn't lying. The older you get, the more the numbers just mesh together I guess. Anyways...
I had a great birthday. We decided not to exchange presents for our birthdays this year. Money is just too tight and we have more important things to spend our money on. So I told Jon that his present to me could be not complaining when we got our family pictures done. Oh, I forgot...... I won a free photo shoot! Teria Photography was giving away a free photo shoot for Christmas. So I entered the contest, told her why I think I should win (Jon doesn't have a job, well a permanent one anyways, Jon hates taking pictures so I don't have any family pictures other than the ones I've taken, and my b-day was the day after the contest ended-happy birthday to me if I won) Well I guess my sob story was enough to win her over :) I can't wait to get them back.

Back to my birthday, we woke up, cleaned our house, went into town and ran some errands, then we went out to dinner at the Gun Barrell. I was rather disappointed. For a high priced restaurant, the food just wasn't that good. They had one chicken option and it just wasn't that good. And Jon said his steak was rather blah as well. So we'll proably never go back there again. Maybe it was just a bad night, I don't know, but I'm not willing to pay that much to risk it again.

Here's the only picture I got. Sorry, I'm just not that good at remembering to take pictures.

Thanks for all the b-day wishes. I had a great day :)