What do you think?

A boy or a girl? We find out this Friday!

September 16

September 16 has come and gone. I think a lot of people expected it to be a hard day, but I looked forward to the day with much excitement and anticipation. It was the one year anniversary of the day my dad died. Matt and I woke up early and met Mike and Merry (Matt's parents) at the Seattle temple around 7:50am. We had an 8 o'clock appointment at the baptistry. Matt did twelve baptisms, all from my side of the family, including my dad and grandpa (my dad's dad), and I did nine. We then did the confirmations, initiatories, and then an endowment session where Matt and his dad took through my dad and grandpa's names. It was the most incredible day, it was the day I had prayed for my whole life, my dad was now a member of the church, my prayers had been answered. Our prayers aren't always answered in the way we expect them to be, but God does hear them, and He will answer them. I am encompassed about by His tender mercy.



This is a picture of Matt and I greeting my dad when we walked out of the temple the day we were married. This is the same temple we did his work in.

OK, I have a question, about a week ago Matt and I put up the baby tracker countdown (you know the one with the baby bouncing around in the bubble), and above it we wrote Number Three, and it also says Christina's Baby, on the right side bar underneath our family picture, so we figured everyone would know we are expecting baby #3. Well with all the comments about if I was pregnant on our last post I'm starting to think that maybe it's not showing up when people are pulling up our blog, is that true? I know it's showing up when some people pull it up because they have left comments, but maybe it's not pulling up for everybody. Please let me know, and yes we are expecting a new addition to our family this February!

Our Utah Trip

We had Quinn's birthday party at Ali's house in Provo, we thought that would be good for Quinn since most of his friends live there.

Here's Quinn and Cameron with Quinn's b-day cake. They're so cute, I love they're cute little smiles.
Landon and Ava. Ava has a mouth full of candy in most of the pictures. She's a sweet-aholic, just like her daddy.
The bunch!
The girls! Me, Annie, Dani, Amy, Ali. We were all in the same BYU ward while our husbands went to school, and we had so much fun together. Three out of five of us are pregnant with our third baby in this picture. They all still live in Utah except for me, and they are the reason I miss it so much.
The boys, Cameron, Matthew, Quinn, and Jack (or as Ava calls him Gack)Ali's little girl Sheridan. She's so funny, this is the only picture of her I got without her thumb in her mouth, she loves that thing. It's so cute, I always wanted a baby that sucked their thumb, but haven't had one yet.

My Quinnie

It was Quinn's 4th birthday August 26th. I can't believe my little baby is four years old. I decided to take a look back at his last four birthdays.


This is his actual birth day, he's so cute my little baby boy, this is the day I became a mother.
Birthday number 1
My little cowboy when he turned two.
Spiderman when he turned 3!
And just this last week when my little skeleton pirate turned 4. Where have the years gone. Happy Birthday my baby boy, we love you!

Thank you for all your comments on my last post. I truly appreciate your love and support, the Lord has truly blessed me with so many great friends.


Matt wanted to take some pictures with the first plane he flew commercially. They are retiring it at the end of this month. He's so cute.

Here's one from inside the cockpit (obviously). It always overwhelms me to think that he knows what all of those buttons do.

Everyone kept telling us that we should go to the Dallas World Aquarium, we were a little apprehensive because it cost so much, but some friends invited us to go with them last weekend so we went. It was definitely the biggest aquarium that I've ever been too, but hey we're in Texas right? Anyway, it was pretty cool, I have never seen a crocodile that big in real life before, it was huge. Quinn started freaking out when it walked over to us, I had to explain to him that it couldn't get us through the glass.
Here we are in the tropical rainforest area, we definitely don't have one of these areas in the Seattle aquarium.
Quinn with the Jaguar, doesn't it look like it's about ready to get him?

I had to throw this pic in. The other day I was on the computer and Quinn and Ava came running out of their bedroom, Quinn was so excited because Ava was wearing his pirate underoos. She isn't potty trained yet, but she asked to sit on the toilet all the time, but doesn't do anything, so about ten minutes after this picture was taken she peed in Quinn's pirate underoos and Quinn was not happy about it. Needless to say I had to hurry and wash Quinn's pirate underoos so they weren't desecrated anymore. Oh, the demands of a three year old.

God's Tender Mercy

I've been wanting to write this post for a while,

I have a friend, her name is Sarah (name has been changed). Thanksgiving of 2006, before I knew her, her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I met her in December when my father in law had decided to take her and her family out on his boat for a cruise around the lake to try and take their minds off things for a while. I had only met them for a moment, but from that time on I couldn't stop thinking about them and praying for her father's recovery, it affected me so deeply even though I barely knew them. Her father passed away in March of 2007, only three months after I first met them.

I moved to Washington the very next month and I was in the same ward as Sarah and her family. I remember the first time I saw Sarah's mom after Sarah's dad had died. I thought to myself 'She's all alone now', then the Spirit very quickly said to me 'No she's not, her Savior is with her'.

Little did I know what a lesson this would be to me in just a few short months. In June Sarah was assigned to be my visiting teacher. Her and her companion came over to visit me and Sarah gave a lesson on righteous examples in the midst of trials and then asked me if I had an example that I would like to share. I immediately started sobbing and was barely able to speak, but tried very hard to explain to her what an amazing example of strength and steadfastness in trials her and her family had been to me this past year. What Sarah and her family were going through was affecting me so deeply, and I didn't know why, I thought about them all the time.

Sarah continued to visit teach me each month and we became good friends. Then came September 16, 2007. It was Sunday and also Stake conference. We went to the morning session and when I was driving home a voice kept coming into my head saying, go get your cell phone when you get home. I quickly pushed it away thinking it was to call Matt since he was away working in Texas. When I got home I started making the kids some lunch, but the voice kept coming back in my head to check my cell phone. Finally I walked upstairs and got my cell phone. I had eight missed calls. I immediately knew something was wrong. The majority of them were from my cousin Crystal so I called her to see what was going on. She wouldn't tell me anything except that she was coming over and to stay there and wait for her. I felt sick, I knew something was seriously wrong and I knew it had to do with my dad, he was the only one who hadn't tried to call me, and he's always first to call me. I tried not to panic, I put the kids down for their nap and asked my father in law for a blessing, then I paced the kitchen waiting for Crystal to show up. While I was waiting my cell phone rang. It was my sister Mandy, she asked if I had talked to anyone that day and I said no, but that Crystal was on her way over, she asked me if I wanted her to tell me or if I wanted to wait for Crystal. I told her to go ahead and tell me. She said dad had been in a car accident that morning and he didn't make it. I said "what" because I thought maybe I had just misunderstood her, but I had not, dad was gone, his earthly life was over just like that. My mother in law immediately contacted Sarah. Oh, how it all made sense now. The Lord sent me an angel, He sent me Sarah. She knew exactly what I was going through, she had just gone through it six months before. Some people had wondered why Sarah was assigned to be my visiting teacher, we didn't have much in common as far as where we were in life, I am a stay at home mom with two kids, and Sarah had just graduated from college and was starting a new career. But the Lord knew better, He knew who I needed as a visiting teacher. He knew the experiences that I needed to have that would prepare me and help me when I lost my own father. This has been such a great testament to me that my Heavenly Father knows me, He knows what I need, and He loves me, and will never leave me alone, or turn His back on me. It is actually quite the opposite, He prepares me and sends me angels, when I don't even know that I need them.