Best of for 2010

Well...typically I like to do a best of/worst of recap on NYE. However...no one wonders what our worst of moments of 2010 were. So this year we're just going to focus on the best ofs and give thanks that the worst ofs are almost a full year behind us. AMEN!

What follows is a listing of some of our favorite things & sayings from the last year that we want to remember...in no particular order.

* Greta: Mommy, I am nursing my Barney from my shoulder.

Mommy: Why is that?

Greta: Because my breast is out of batteries

* The arrival of Wesley Tyler...aka Wes, Wessy, Wessy-woo, Chubby Bubby, Baby Brother, the New Milker, Viking Baby, Snugglebuggle

*Mommy (at the hospital with brand new baby Wes): Greta would you like to hold baby Wes?

Greta: Um, no thank you. You can do it.

*Wessy woo's firsts: Smile in June, Sitting unassisted at the end of Oct, Tooth at the beginning of Nov, Sleeping through the night Nov (sigh), Sign for "more" at the table in Dec.

* Halloween night with Daddy & Greta approaching "the scary house" on our block-

Greta: Don't worry Daddy. You don't need to be scared. I'll hold your hand.

*Wes' favorite move: the "tuck in." He buries his head in your chest and then brings both arms in under his chest on the inside of your arms...tucked-in and wonderfully snuggly.

* The advent of "missing" and "anticipation" in Greta...she likes to count down to events by the number of naps between now and then. She frequently talks about missing the people she loves and when we will see them again.

*Greta's bed full of stuffed friends. There's no more room...please do not contribute to this addiction.

*Greta singing Lady Gaga: "Bop-ditty, bop-ditty...I don't want to go anymooooorrrre" (actual song lyrics from "Telephone": Stop calling, stop calling, I don't wanna talk anymore...")

* Greta's determination that Granny & Gramps live in the clouds (because we go in the airplane to see them).

* Greta's favorite game to play with daddy...Princess & Pet Dragon. Greta is the Pet Dragon.

* Greta: Do you know how to say Good Bye in Spanish?

Mommy: Hasta Luego.

Greta: Nope. Gubleas Cucraeas (Goo-blay-us Cu-cray-us)

* Greta: "I love that Daddy...let's keep him" (mimicking what mommy says about Daddy on other occasions).

*Hearing from G-boo's teacher that a) she appears to be processing information and hitting developmental milestones right on time b) all but one of her classmates mentioned her as a "special friend" in their mid year evaluation.

*Delivering Wes with zero complications despite his largeness and avoiding a C-Section.

*Enjoying Wes' laid-backness. He listened to my coaching in the womb: "You will be the laid back easy going snuggly baby. You will. Someone needs to play that role in this family." Good boy!

Finally our top 10 photos from 2010:

(1- Greta with her coming home amaryllis, 2-Baby Wes, 3-Greta teaching Wes the family secrets, 4-Wes' baptism, 5-tummy time x 2, 6-Greta& Daddy's camping trip, 7- Halloween & the amazing cheeks photo, 8-Mommy & Wessy at Thanksgiving, 9- Greta and her docs, 10-the Christmas picture)

We pray that 2011 will be a year of joy and blessings for you. Welcome New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you have had a Christmas season full of wonder and happiness this year. The Preacher & his wife agree... this was the best Christmas yet for the Christiansens. Gratitude, joy & discovery have been abundant.

So when we last left you we had just gotten 17 inches of snow in 24 hours. Well...we have had 2 more heavy snowfalls and apparently this December is the absolute snowiest on record. Awesome. 33.4 inches or something insane like that. Why do we live here? Funniest part is that this week there are 2 more snow storms heading our way. No one is making accumulation predictions yet, but we're already snow-weary. The preacher is thinking SERIOUSLY about investing in a snowblower. The kiddos have had respiratory junk for the last 3 weeks so they haven't been out in it since our last post (we take deep breaths- but so far we haven't lost our minds yet with worry). Hopefully soon! There are some seriously cool snowforts in the neighborhood!

At church we were busy getting ready for Christmas. We held a big event to collect, wrap, & deliver presents to a local women's domestic violence shelter & throw a big Christmas party for them. It is a ton of work, requiring an amazing amount of volunteer help, but it is also so very rewarding. We also worked on building the large spirit figures (giant puppets of the main characters of the nativity) that have been used all advent. They are mega cool...and by mega cool I mean uber-amazing. I'm not so artsy fartsy, but I have really enjoyed being a small part of these figures' creation. Good stuff.

We also enjoyed all of our Christmas celebrations...

1) "Christiansen Christmas" which is a bowling & eating extravaganza with a dirty santa main event with all of Tyler's aunts & uncles & their families. Greta enjoyed her bowling debut and really loved putting barney & reindeer down the kiddie bowling ball ramp. Tyler won the bowling tourney and received the coveted jankey angel trophy.

2) White Elephant Gifts with the Walens...everyone tries their best to avoid "Faja Christmas" (trust me, you don't want him on your mantle in December) and other kooky gifts (pooping Dog sign, stinky candles, etc). We don't bother with a meal...we just bring our fave appetizers. Mmmmm.

3) Our little family Christmas...We celebrated with 2 family services in the afternoon & 1 candlelight service on Christmas Eve. A really wonderful, worship-ful night- with our spirit figures providing the backdrop for the live retelling of the birth of Jesus. Gboo dressed as an angel and was almost angelic :). We (preacher & wifer) woke up BEFORE Greta on Christmas morning and had time to set up a skyping session with Granny & Gramps so they could see Gboo and Wessy open their Santa gifts. Fun stuff...not as good as having them here, but it does help I think. Greta really "got it" this year. She can tell you the Christmas story and enjoyed using our advent calendar to count down the days until Jesus' birth & she is no longer freaked out by Santa. This made things pretty fun & amazing this year with her observations.

4) Christmas at Grandpa's...first stop Christmas morning. We had a delicious brunch, an overly competitive game of word on the street (we are ALL competitive), and lots of lovely presents. A real treat.

5) Christmas at Grandma's...Christmas morning part deux, complete with good food & presents. We had a really lovely relaxing afternoon and the kiddos loaded up once again on goodies. It was hard to say if our kids or "Baby Boy Binnie" won the award for most goodies acquired. Our family's generosity is overwhelming.

We are now turning our attention to tidying up the house and passing on a few things we no longer need to make room for the new Christmas booty. It promises to be a relaxing week which will be a most welcome occurrence for us to close out 2010. This is a good thing, because look what all this excitement has done to the preacher:

We look forward to 2011 in hopes that it is a happy, healthy year for our family and yours. Pray for us as we near the anniversary of Greta's illness. We are hoping that our euphoria of ringing in her 4th year will overshadow our lingering feelings of sadness around the most difficult part of last year. We are already making plans on how to celebrate G's 4th year and how to mark & transform Jan 9th into a day when we can make some peace with last year's heartache (so far a trip to donate blood is on the docket...we're praying about other ways we might mark this day and do something good and meaningful). Love to you during these last (hopefully quiet) days of 2010. We'll try to compile a "best of" list before 2011 comes around!

Andddddd its December. Woa.

So yeah. A month has passed and it hardly feels like we've taken a breath. I'll give you the quick and dirty review of the last 30 some odd days and promise that there will be more fun updates for the holidays.

November...right before we headed to AL to celebrate Thanksgiving with Granny & Gramps, we spent the morning talking to the Leadership Forum at Children's Hospital. We were invited to share Greta's story with the hospital fancy pants and hopefully remind them that what they do everyday changes peoples' lives. It was cool. Really cool. 3 of Greta's Drs were there and got to see her in all her glory (ie- she was not afraid of the stage- she joined us on stage at the end of the talk). I'm not sure who was more moved. Our only regret is that we didn't see more of G's nursing support staff there- but we hope that our message of thanks was shared with them too. Rest assured they are on our Christmas Card list this year.

The next day we headed down south for some relaxation. It was great to take a break from work, but life in a house with 4 kids under 4 is rarely relaxing! The two big girls- Greta & Evelyn were once again peas in a pod and had alot of fun together. We did notice an uptick in arguments centering on who got to make play decision- but that's pretty normal and no one clobbered each other so we call that a win. The dress up clothes were thoroughly enjoyed & they loved sleeping next to each other (and we loved listening into their nighttime conversation!). Amelia is walking around like she owns the place. She is bold and fearless and desperately wants to be one of the big girls. Next year little Yaya...next year. Wessy did not crawl for Granny & Gramps as we thought he might, but he hammed it up with smiles and giggles. He is the least afraid of Granny & Gramps' dog Bella. There were lots of good snuggles and fun had by all. We also snuck away for a few visits with friends and their kids...little mini reunions which were wonderful.

We are back in MN and barreling towards Christmas. We think our Christmas shopping is done and the house is decorated. We survived the 17 inches of snow that came over the weekend. So we are almost there! Greta really "gets" Christmas this year. Both the story of Jesus' birth AND the presents part. Sigh. The good with the bad. So I think our Christmas will be animated to say the least. We will document the madness, never fear!

We hope you are finding moments of peace amongst the hectic Christmas schedules that we create for ourselves. More soon from the snowy Upper Midwest!