January 2009

Hello from Porterville,

I probably would have written sooner, but the boys and I have been spending a lot of time outside since it has been in the high 60's and beautiful for the past couple of days (it got all the way up to 70 yesterday). Not to make any of you jealous, but when was the last time YOU got to wear shorts and t-shirts in the middle of January? :P Anyway, the boys and I are really enjoying the weather.

Dallan started school again on Monday. He was kind of excited about it, but also kind of sad. He has lately been feeding his Carcasonne (a really fun board game with lots of expansions) obsession which included playing it at least once a day all last week. Not that I mind too much, but one can only have so much of one game. As much as I like vacations, I think that maybe three weeks of vacation was a little too much. Over the break Dallan grew a goatee. Upon seeing it, one of his elementary school students immediately asked if Dallan had bought it on the internet. Can you buy goatees on the internet? Dallan thought it was really funny, but somewhat odd.

Monday was a very interesting day for us. Before the Christmas break, the choir teacher at Granite Hills asked Dallan if he could house some choir students from Chapman University in January. Dallan (and Mom C.) said that would be fine. We didn't hear anything over the break saying that our house was needed, so we assumed that they had found enough houses. Then Monday morning came, and at about 10:00 we got a call from Dallan asking if we could house 6 students that night. Mom C. and I frantically got to work cleaning the house, washing sheets and towels, and making bread (Mommy, you would be so proud of me; some of the loaves actually turned out looking good!) Dallan and Uncle Richard (who was joining us for dinner and FHE that night) picked up the six girls. They were all very nice, and they thought that the boys were absolutely adorable. We ate a quick dinner (their call-time for their concert was 6:45) and then we went to their concert. It was a really fun concert. The music was very good and the Catholic church that they performed in had really great acoustics. We sat up in the very front, and we did not have to take the boys out of the room once. They were quiet, well-behaved, and actually listened to some of the music. Our house guests and some of their friends were very impressed (frankly, so were we; they were not nearly that good for the last choir concert that they went to). After the concert we spent some time in the kitchen talking to the girls. Five of the girls slept in the playroom on a couple of mattresses, while one girl that had a really bad cold/headache slept in the guest bedroom. They left after breakfast the next morning. Overall, a fun time was had by all.

Zach and Marriner are talking more and more in complete sentences that are longer than two words. They still jump around a lot and get into a lot of things that they are supposed to leave alone, but they are pretty cute boys. We got Kung-Fu Panda for Christmas and, wonder of wonders, they almost like "the panda movie" better than Cars! Needless to say, it is a welcome change! They really enjoy the toys that they got for Christmas, but I am having the same problem with keeping the playroom clean that Christine is having! We are getting a little bit better at putting all the toys away every time we leave the room, but that plan still needs some work.

I had another doctor's appointment last Friday. The baby is still growing, doing fine, and upside-down. I feel like this baby is moving a lot more than the boys did, but maybe I don't remember how much the boys moved. There is also the idea that the boys were so busy kicking each other that they didn't kick me as much. Well, I can't think of anything else that is going on. I hope that the rest of you are enjoying the cold and the snow! If it gets too much for you, you can always imagine the boys and I playing croquet in the sunshine and eating lots of fresh oranges, palmelos (sp?), and tangelos. We love you all!! :)

Love,
The (warm) Christenson's