In our House, Princesses definately where hiking boots...especiall when we go hiking

After Morgan was born, and we knew our NICU stay would be long, Matt and I went to the bookstore one night in search of some girly books to take and read to her while she laid in her isolate. This one immediately grabbed my attention, and I have read it to her more times than I can count.
This last weekend, our Stake had a Primary activity for all the mother's and daughters in primary. It was a "princess party" and we were to all come dressed as princesses. The girls all came decked out, and we enjoyed a talk about what it means to be daughters of a Heavenly King, and then we went around to different stations. They did hair, make-up, dress up and pictures. There was an Attitude of Gratitude room for the girls to write letters of Thankfulness to someone in their lives, and then we were treated to a light lunch. Here's my princess and I at Grandma's house just before leaving for the party.

Her Royal Highness

Morgan will a fellow Princess

As if the make-up we had applied before we left our house wasn't enough, here's Morgan adding even more layers of lipstick.

A good friend of mine was unable to take her older daughter to the activity, due to her youngest being sick that day, so Morgan and I were very pleased to have Miss Cassidy join us for the morning. She is such a doll.

After they ate, the girls were taken back to the hall, and were given roses to take to their moms after they were announced, and walked down the stairs into the gym where everyone was eating lunch.

Easter 2010

Finally, Easter photos! I'm afraid they were loaded from last to first, so here goes.

The Christensen grand kids, minus a few at our house for the annual Easter egg hunt.

Morgan is young enough that she's still way into the whole egg hunt thing.

Chandler's into it still, but was also very good about helping the younger ones to find their eggs.

She was so excited when daddy lifted her up to the post in order to get this one.

The boys loved the camouflage eggs I found and filled with candy.

And last, but certainly not least, a big thanks to my wonderful Mother in Law and Sister in Law for their last minute help Sunday morning. I called Matt's mom the day before to get the recipe for her bunny buns, but when it came to actually making them, I needed help from Karen as to how they were supposed to look. Being the saint that she is, we were emailed pictures within minutes of the awesome bunny buns she had made the previous day. So, here are my first attempt at making the Stastny Women's Easter Bunny Buns!

Cupcake Cuties

This last week has been crazy for this mom of 3 and wife to one. I have been training at Dr. Christensen's to take over the office while the whole staff is in Hawaii for a week. On top of that, I also taught a class at Matt's store. A Cupcake workshop with a Bonus: cakeballs! A couple days before the class, one of Matt's employees asked me to make cupcakes for her daughter's first birthday. So on the fly, with only about 48 hours notice, I came up with these cuties. We stacked them in a tier, and I decorated a matching 6 inch cake for the top tier. (kicking myself for not taking any pictures of that when I was done)

I had extra batter, so I made some mini cupcakes as well, topped them with flowers and dots.

This is one of the cupcakes we made in my class. My newest favorite in my cupcake repertoire. SNICKERDOODLE CUPCAKES! (cupcakes that actually taste JUST like the cookie) Can you stand it? The frosting is not my usual buttercream either...I used a Swiss Meringue, or 7 minute frosting that was scary easy to make, and the yummiest, buttery frosting ever.

So yumnmy!

And these are the carrot cupcakes my students made. Cute hu?

The Stastny's go to the races

Derby time!!! Who doesn't love that? The special time of year when we pass out boxes of wood to the young cub scouts in our ward and tell them to go home and carve out that super fast, designer car all on their own. Yeah right. If you haven't experienced Derby time, then you may not realize that it has nothing to do with the kids. Its all about the dads. I resisted the first few years, insisting that Matt let the boys do as much of it on their own as they could. So my kids made great cars, resembling door stops, painted them all on their own, and came in near last in every heat. And after seeing the cars last year that were so obviously made by dads, I took on a new attitude. This year, I said "to heck with that, we're making a winning car". And so I set about getting Matt to look up designs with the boys on the Internet, and arranging shop time in my parents basement, and my mom bought cool colored wheels. The result? Gabe's car broke before he even raced it. Matt was pounding in the axle, and the wood that held it in broke off. So back to the pit he went, and drilled in two more holes for the axles in a new spot. It was weakened, but it would work. (cross our fingers) Heat one...Gabe won. Second race...Gabe won. Third race...one of the wheels fell off down the track. Back to the pit. Nothing they could do, so Gabe went back to the track and raced with only three wheels...he won! But the next two races his car was increasingly more wobbly, so he came in second.

Chandler go the award for "most intimidating" for his car SHADOW! Chandler had the fastest time over all, but in the final stretch, after making it to the semifinals, he came over to us with his car, and Morgan ran up to hug him and the car got dropped and....yup, it broke. He raced it anyway though, turning it backwards to take the pressure off the axles and....he came in second in his age group also.

Morgan entered her own car to race with siblings, and got he award for the "friendliest car".

A Teaparty for sister Morgan

We had all the girls over one afternoon for a Tea Party. They spent all morning dressing up, and when I got home, Christa and I prepared the Party food. We had pink peeps, pink wafer cookies, heart shaped PB&J sandwiches, and pink apple dip and apples.
Did I mention the girls got all dressed up, and did their own make-up? Our very own corpse-bride.

When they were done eating all that sugar, I stupidly brought out MORE sugar! I made pink cupcakes and let the girls decorate them. It was so much fun!

Inside the mind of a child.

This morning, we pulled out of the garage to view a scene quite like this picture. Newly fallen snow and a beautiful clear Alaskan day. From the back seat I hear Morgan say:

"I hate the white snowy spring day"

me: I know, me too.

Morgan: Mom, why does it have to be so cold?

me: I don't know Morgan

Morgan: Lets move. Let's go someplace warm, and not white.

me: We can't sweetie, this is where daddy's job is.

Morgan: well, we can just move, and that'll be very ok.

me: No, we have to stay where daddy's job is.

Morgan: well, he can just quit his job, and we'll live some place warm.

me: But then we won't have any money.

Morgan: mom, you have money in your purse!

me: well, yes, now I do. But if we make daddy quit his job, then I won't have any money in my purse.

Morgan: who's going to take your moneys?

me: nobody, but eventually you'll need food and cloths, and I'll have to use the money to buy stuff for you.

They sure do grow up fast.

As I was cleaning tonight, Morgan calls to me from the bathroom...

Morgan: mommy, my boobies! They're medium now!
Me: ?
Morgan: how'd that happen?
Me: I don't know, I guess your becoming a young woman.
Morgan: ya, yesterday they were little, and now they're medium! Tomorrow, they'll be bigger even!


Keep in mind, this is my 5 year old daughter. Don't worry, Matt's already got a big gun to polish for when the boys start lining up.

When I showed up at the play last night, this was sitting at the table, saving my spot. Do I have the sweetest husband or what? Actually, he's a very smart man, considering I was paying a lot of money to go see him sing a love song with another girl. He hand picked everything in this bouquet just for me. He then brought me a diamond pendant at intermission. Smart man, very smart.

Unfortunately, no flashes during the performance, so this is all you get!

Matt was in a play this weekend, Broadway in Love. For those of you who don't know, I not only married a funny, cute, caring, smart man, but also an incredibly talented on. He can sing no none other. In high school, Matt did several plays, and even after we got married, he managed to stay active in community productions, including Carmena Borona. But years, kids, jobs, and a few moves later, he has had little time. So when the opportunity to be involved came up, and he was asked to sing songs from Les Mis, I told him he had to do it! (I'm trying to be better about sharing my husband.... first since he's been called to be the ward clerk, and is required to be at more meetings, and now with this)
The first night, Matt performed in front of Sarah and Todd Palin (their daughter Piper was also in the play, doing some Annie songs). And the next night, I went with a friend and our curent governor stopped by, as well as the Heath's (Sarah's parents) and Bristol Palin (who I also work out with). It was a great evening, the prceeds going to our local Scout troup for their National Jamboree in Washington DC, and I got to share my talented husband with a whole lot of people.