Heavenly

I drive by the cemetary every day to drop Taegen off at the sitters and it looked like this this morning. I had to stop and take a picture. It looks so beautiful and I can't help but think that the snow brings on a more heavenly aspect (atleast it does for me) I love and miss my mom so much, especially during this time of year. I'm sad that Taegen won't ever get to meet his grandma Dori (in this life anyways) And I'm sad that she isn't here to help me during the tough times we've had, and that are to come, with him. I can't even tell you how many times I've needed help, and knew that things would be much easier if she were hear to help me. I know people who have a bad relationship with their mothers, they don't get along, or they even just don't respect them. Hearing of these things makes me so sad for them, and also makes me wish I could just tell them off. What I wouldn't do to trade them places. So for all of you who are lucky enough to still have your mothers here with you, please don't take them for granted. I know everyone has their issues and problems, but trust me on this one, its much better to forgive and forget or to let bygones be bygones.

Well, this post turned out a lot different than I thought it was going. but either way, I love and miss you mom. Can't wait to see you again. :)

Christmas 2010

Disclaimer: Picture overload. I know most of you won't care to see all the pictures of Taegen opening his gifts, but I want to remember his first Christmas, so here they are anyways.

Taegen's first Christmas was a great one! We went up to the ranch on Christmas Eve at about 3 to help out with the cooking. Jon got our stuff settled (since we were staying the night in one of the trailers) while I kept an eye on Taeg and helped cook.

Taegen loved playing with Adam C (kimi's bf) so he helped out a lot so I could help cook.

We ate around 7, had all the amazing Danish food, followed by Risalamande(rice pudding. Its a contest. There are 5 or so whole almonds in the whole thing and whoever-or is it whomever...I dont ever know, finds them in their bowl wins prizes. But no searching for them when you scoop your bowl, and you must eat all that you take). Yet again, I did not find a whole nut in my bowl :( I honestly think I've only won two times in my whole life! And this year, Kristel had two! So both her and Eric won. I know, poor poor Stina. haha.
Anyways...
After that was the white elephant gift exchange, and by that time it was 10:00 so everyone headed out and my immediate family opened our Christmas Eve gift from my dad and becky...pajamas. The shirt had a picture of the Lindhardt family crest on the back. It was pretty cool. Normally we open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve. But this year, all of the kids were sleeping up at the ranch, so my dad decided to wait until Christmas morning to open the rest of them. After mingling for a little bit longer, we all headed off to bed.
We woke up at 8 and once everyone was up and ready we opened gifts, then ate a breakfast that my dad and Jon made. We hung out at the ranch until about 2 just hanging out (The original plan was to go down to Jon's parents Christmas morning, but my dad spoiled that when he decided to postpone gift opening. Then Jon said his parents weren't doing too much (it was in-law year for them) so he wanted to stay up at the ranch) So we stayed for the Danish lunch, then headed into town.
We went to Jon's parents house, hung out there, played a little Wii Mario Kart, let Taegen play with his toys and by 6:00 we were so drained we headed home.
All in all-Christmas was a hit this year. I know Taegen won't remember it, but I will. He actually did fairly good at opening his presents (with daddy's help of course) He still really liked the wrapping paper, but he really likes his new toys.

 Jon loved the new sweater i got him. Can you tell? :)

Jon got me "The Hunger Games" series and the last book of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series LOVE THEM! Thanks babe

 Taeg loves cars and truck, already. So we had to buy him some that make noise too

 Clothes? Ah....boring!

Taeg playing with the paper. It was rough keeping all the wrapping paper away from him long enough for him to notice and play with the toys. 

 We didnt get any good family pictures, so I had to post them both. Notice how the boys match. so cute :)

 I had to post two of this picture, look close...can you see why?

Yup, my dad had to sneak his cheesy face right in the middle!

 Taegen chewing on a dart from the new nerf dart gun.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Evertsen 2010 family pictures

I just got the rest of our family pictures... I love them! Thanks so much Teria

Disclaimer: picture overload I liked so many I couldn't choose which ones to post.

 I love both of their expressions in the one below. So classic

 I love the contrast. Dark shadows with bright blue sky

 Of course the black and white one is great too :)

 Taeg LOVES patty cake. Its a sure way to get him to smile

 He was trying to eat grass the whole time! He had to constantly pull it from his hands

 I think this is one of my favorites. Talk about perfect timing!



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.