Recipes.

All I can say about this post is that I HATE cooking with passion! of course I do it because well, I have to and because we just can't eat chilli and pizza everyday. I also have to say that I have an extremely PICKY family, especially the hubby. So here I am trying to be a good wifey and I have been making dinner almost everyday, so I thought I should keep track of the recipes that have been succesful with the fam. I have been craving a lot of soups lately and it is nice and cool outside that it's just perfect for a warm bowl of soup so yesterday was sausage and vegetables soup that I got from foodnetwork.com in my desperate search for something not just good to make, but it had to be delicious so the moment I saw the word "sausage" I thought "this is a winner"! my family loves sausage or bacon so it worked out great! so here is the link for the recipe. If you make it please let me know if you liked it or not :). Recipe for today was from the website "This week for Dinner" I happened to have bought white cheddar cheese yesterday at Sunflower market and was looking for something with cheese so I came across this recipe, I made it and everybody loved it! of course its not very good for the hip/thigh area but it was good. so here is the recipe and enjoy!

Basic Homemade Bread

ksl.com - Basic Homemade Bread Shared via AddThis

Soccer season and more..

School has started again. I am now alone with just Chloee since my Katie has started full day kindergarten. I miss her, but I can't complain since they go to school in Orem is easier to make just two trips for both of them. And she loves school, so it works out great! Josh's soccer season has started. This will be his first season and we are all very excited for him!

Josh, sweaty and tired from his first game

Going for a bike ride

Babies at the Zoo!

Before the kids and Hyrum started school we decided it was time to renew our zoo membership. I was super excited when I heard there were a few new babies that we just had to go see them. It was also Chloee's first time as a toddler going to the zoo, and she just loved it! and we all thought it was so funny how she pointed at every animal and made little noises, it was super cute!

My little gorillas

Of course one of them had to ride the giraffe, mommy's favorite.

Ah, this is all I came here for. isn't she a beauty?

I just had to get a picture with them! (I meant the giraffe. well, the kids too)

4th little Christensen

This may not be fresh news to a lot of people, but Hyrum and I are expecting our 4th child this winter. I am (as of this week) 22 wks along and due January 17. What makes this even more exciting is my little sister Leech is also prego and is only 5 days behind me on her due date, we are so HAPPY!! and guess what people? yes, we are having another GIRL!! here we go with the name searching, again... I have a few in mind but we'll see, we still have a while. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

I'm still in my fat-prego stage. I feel bloated all the time..

Camping trips 2009

This summer was all new for me as a stay at home mom of 3 kids, now that Chloee is a toddler and walking, she's all over the place and just wont stay still for too long. Hyrum started his new job as a Finance Manager at Ken Garff. He's been so busy with trainings and such, that our family time turned out to be very short. We did manage to squeeze in a few weekend camping trips,and it was our first experience camping together as a family that the kids really enjoyed it and it was a great time for all of us to bond. Our first trip was to Diamond Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon (recommended by the Teeples) there is some beautiful scenery there, full of red rocks ( reminded me a lot of Moab) and we found the best spot to set up camp in front of the river, and there was an abundance of shade.

Katie showing off her new pink fishing pole

Our beautiful kids (including Buddy)

Josh and Katie exploring the red rocks

Awesome red rocks!

Our second Camping trip was up American Fork Canyon. Even though it was pioneer day and we got there a little late, we luckily found this awesome place up past Tibble Fork Res. it was also very shaded with lots of trees. The night there was great since this time we were more prepared and this time I was in charge of bringing blankets and our inflatable mattress :D I really can't do the real sleep on rocks camping, and if they exist, why not use them right? Well we enjoyed smores and roasted starbursts which the kids loved! and everything was so relaxing and we had an awesome time!

Josh practicing with Dad's BB gun. Someday we'll let him try the real ones..

My girls playing with my make-up. Chloee's face is so funny in this picture, she was about to put that lip gloss in her mouth.

This is my favorite picture. This is Josh's first fish! both Father and son are very proud!

Baseball season!

We start out with baseball season! This was Josh's 2 nd. season playing with the Devil Rays in Orem. We had a lot of fun going to his games and cheering for the team. It was a lot of fun!!

My little pitcher!

So much to blog about...

I have been a huge slacker these last few months. I am hoping this post will get me started again wanting to blog.. I've been trying to track down all of our pictures since I last blogged in April. Also you should be receiving an invite from me because I'm wanting to make our blog private so be patient please. I am getting so excited about this thing again there is so much that's happened that I can't wait to do this again, so I will stop now go check out my pics and I will be back ;)

Happy Birthday Nidia!!

Nidia our good friend/sister turned 25 last friday and to celebrate we went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls (my mom included) I really missed it. Chloee is almost a year old (gosh, time flew!) and we hadn't really hung out much and even though it wasn't as long as I had expected because we brought the kids and I had to go pick up Josh from school, it was very nice to get out and enjoy of their company.

ha ha! Ryder cracks me up!!

Easter Sunday

I really wanted to take pictures of the kids in Sunday clothes but it didn't happen... After church that afternoon we went over to my parents, The Ostlers were there too. I took some pictures of the kids (baby Sebas included) but Oh man, I had forgotten how hard it is to get them to smile, look at the camera all at once! and of course, pictures didn't turn out as expected...

Katie's hair is acting up!

and it takes Ryder .2 seconds to look away from the camera!

Like I said, and Katie's eyes of course are closed...

you can also see the frustration in Josh's face with Logan crying..

FAKE SMILES!!

Spring in Utah

The last 2 weeks have been kinda crazy weather wise, all week has been cold and raining/snowing, but we've had just ONE warm/sunny day in each week so we have to take advantage and go out. it's been so much fun. We've been going to this new park in Orem called Nielsen's grove, its so nice and clean we love it! last week we were there and the kids went looking for duck eggs, and played soccer. it was so great! Yesterday we had another sunny day and off to the park we went again. Josh brought a pail and his net this time because we saw a bunch of little fish last week we were there and yes he caught one, they had a blast!

Last week at Nielsen's Grove Park

Fish in Nasty water

I made Josh agree to release the fish back in the pond, we don't need any more pets for now..

Pretty bird

We are moving!

Yes people its official, we will be moving to Boston for the Summer. Hyrum will be working for Pinnacle securities. We are very excited and I am at the same time very nervous because I've never lived anywhere outside of Utah since I moved here 15 yrs ago so yes I guess I am a "Utah girl" We've told the kids and their first reaction (especially Josh) was "What, I am going to change schools? No!) but we explained to them that we would be back before school started but he would miss the last 3 or 4 games of his baseball season :( he was sad but didn't seem to mind very much. Hyrum will leave the end of April and I will follow with the kids beginning of June. (I'm not looking forward to flying with 3 kids though) but I keep telling my self it will be okay and I seem to calm down and then I panic again a few hrs later. I think it will be a great experience for all of us. I'm looking forward to taking the kids to a lot of places and see new things and different people.

Most recent projects.

I have been Spring cleaning for about a month now and I am still not done yet.. how frustrating. but in my search for things to sell, donate and such, I found a small box and opened it up to find my wedding cake topper, I was very excited to have found it so I wanted to display it somewhere in the house, so out I went to the craft store and found a shadow box, I didn't even know those existed (yeah, that's how crafty I am...) but I thougt the cake topper would look good, so this is what the finished product looked like:

I'd been promising the kids we would do some crafts and just didn't get around to it, so a few days back we were bored and I told them we would do something with those plastic easter eggs to decorate the house. Josh did great, so I ended up asking him to finish up the rest of the eggs.. :D this is what we came up with :

Oh yeah, and the price for this project was $0!! I love those projects the best!

Sunny Sunday

It was such a beautiful day last Sunday that we just couldn't stay indoors. We took the kids and Buddy to the park. It was so much fun! Hyrum, Josh, and Kate fed the ducks and seagulls, Buddy ran so much, and Chloee and I took some pictures. I love hanging out with my little family!

Katie the bread is for the ducks silly!!

Did I mention it was Buddy's birthday that day?

Feeding ducks and geese

We talked to a family who had a "sugar glider" which is this little thing you see here.. They are so cute. I want one!!

Chloee and I love our Sling from Hugamonkey.com

What a Fun Day!!

Green Eggs Anyone?

Last Saturday, Josh told me how he was reading Dr Seuss' book "Green eggs and ham" and he asked if I could someday make him green eggs and ham. So, I surprised him with my "mexican" version (gosh I'm so mexican) of green eggs and ham. ( I did not know how the heck to make the ham green) so I just mixed it in with the eggs, he he... this is what the finished product looked like:

looks gross but it tasted good. the kids ate it!

Chunka- chunk!

Welcome Baby Logan Cutter Ostler aka Sebastian. Born Wednesday March 11th at 10:30 pm. After my poor sister being in so much pain for over 3 days she finally was able to push this little one out. He was 9 lbs 3 oz and 20.5 in long!! I would have never thought my little sister would be able to grow a baby as big as Sebas, I mean Logan ( gosh, its going to take me a while to get used to the new name) ;D But he is so adorable! he is kissable and hug able you just can't resist kissing those cute cheeks of him! I love him so much and I am so proud of my Lil' sister for doing so good pre,during, and post labor. She looked great!

Thank you Marc and Nan!!

Isn't he a cutie? look at those rolls!

doesn't Nan look great?!!

Proud Auntie #1

Proud Auntie #2

G-ma Maritza's Birthday

March 8th was my mom's birthday. She was really excited to hear we were (the daughters) going to do all the cooking (she usually cooks for everyone's birthday) so we got together at the Teeples' s home. Leech made pork roast and a really yummy Cajun chicken pasta, and oh let's not forget those delicious bread sticks! Nan made our favorite spinach and strawberries salad and I made the cake. I happened to be browsing the net a few days before Sunday and found this really cute cake on "my favorite recipes" blog and thought "hey I can do this!" but of course I needed to make it Bernabe style and what other way but to make it "tres leches" Man that cake turned out DELISH!! and the decoration was super cute and springish except I omitted the "meccos candies" for an all frosting decoration.

I hadn't baked for a while because I don't like left overs because we just eat and eat and eat afterwards but, I think I will definitely make another cake like that soon, maybe for the girls birthday. We shall see...

My Momma loved her Cake!

Of course, then loved being with the grandkids even more!!

My slice of cake. Oh and I added peaches too. Yummy, so moist and Delicious!!

I had to add this picture of all of us. We don't have many of my parents and us.

Oh yeah and Nan is faking a smile because she is having strong contractions he he...

Here I come!!

We waited quite a while for this great milestone. Chloee has finally started crawling. At first she cried so much because she is so used to everybody holding her that she got kinda spoiled, but who could say NO to that cute face!

She is so funny, at first she started swinging back and forth, then she would crawl a couple of feet with one leg up (in case she got tired and wanted to get up) but now she is doing all four and she is slowly starting to master the art of crawling :D WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU CHLOEE!!

Here she is crying because she wanted G-ma Maritza to pick her up..

Cuties

I found this picture of the kids. They are just so adorable! they always want little sis (Chlo) to come and sleep in their bed, especially Josh. Lately it's been so hard to take pictures of Josh because he will make funny faces and act silly. Katie on the other hand is always posing for pictures and I think Chloee will be the same because every time she sees the camera she will jump up and down and start making "happy" noises! I just hope this wont change as they get older..

Mi cachetes, la gringa y la guera ;)

Daddy's little girl

Looking through our old pictures I found this one of Hyrum and Katie. She stole Hyrum's heart from the moment they met and how could she not, she's adorable! She's almost 5 yrs old, all I can say is that she will always be our little baby and she wont be able to date anyone until she's 25? yeah, keep wishing Elsie!...

Nan's Baby Shower

My little sister Nan is expecting another little boy. She didn't really want a baby shower since she has everything "boy" from little Ryder, but Leech and I are so excited about another nephew so we had a little get together/shower for her, so we decorated onesies for new baby "Sebastian" (that's not really his name) but we have this bad/funny habit of naming our unborn children and, since Nan doesn't have a name for him yet.. (maybe now she does) We will still call him Sebastian for the rest of his life. sad..... : P

Before guests arrival

Josh's baptism

I am so proud of my boys. Hyrum baptised Josh last Saturday, it was a wonderful day, I'm so happy that Josh understands the meaning of this amazing event in his life. We are very grateful with everyone that came to be with us that very especial morning and to all that helped us put all of it together. I'm so grateful for all our family I don't know what I'd do without all your help and support. This was one of those things that make you realize how much I love my family and how important it is to have the priesthood in our homes it is a great blessing and even though Hyrum was a little nervous he did great for being his first baptism I'm so proud of him and I love him so much. This was such a great bonding experience for both Hyrum and Josh