Downtown SLC Video Contest

Every year Downtown Salt Lake City hosts a video contest for their "I Am Downtown" campaign.  This year my talented husband teamed up with another talented co-worker to make a video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glNN1whi9ZM&sns=em

This is the link to their video...it's only 90 seconds long, and I guess the number of views counts towards determining the finalists, so please watch it and pass it along!

Thanks everyone!!

A Great Big Catch-up!

It seems that I've been a little {ahem} MIA for a while, but I'm going to get caught up and promise some new and exciting blog posts! Yay!

I think the main reason why I haven't posted in a while is because I think that I lead a pretty mundane life and all I have to talk about is my child. I don't want this to turn into a blog about Max, and while I think that would be an awesome thing, I don't think the general population would agree. 

But I digress. I'm here to vomit upon you a whole lotta iPhone photos, because, let's face it: by the time I go and grab my fancy-schmancy camera that super cute thing that Max has done has suddenly morphed into a whiney-cry-scream type of a thing because I've left the room. So that's why I mostly take pictures of Max with my phone. It's all about convenience.

I've digressed again. Let's talk about Max, shall we? He's now 6 months old, and, not to brag or anything, but he's pretty much the cutest baby out there, along with any other child of anyone else who blogs. True, no? But Max is really cute. And he has his bottom two front teeth, as pictured above! You might have to squint to see them, but they're there. Believe me. They feel like tiny daggers. He's had them for a few weeks now, and I'm so glad that they came quickly because he never. slept. while. they. came. in. Ugggg.

Max is a darling kid who loves to babble on and on all the time. A few nights ago he even laid his head on my shoulder and talked himself to sleep. He squeals at high pitched frequencies (especially during church), and repeats syllables. I'm really in denial about how quickly he is growing. It's maddening and I keep wondering who I talk to about slowing down or stopping time in general. It's moving too quickly!!

The first few times that I put Max in the swings this is what would happen. Cute, huh?

And this is my darling sister Keri, and my adorable nephew Tommy. We went to check out Provo's new rec center and went to J dawgs afterwards. Tommy is so cute with Max. He always kisses him on the head and says "muah" after he does it. Darling!

We went to Burger Bar in Roy when we were up north over the Memorial Day weekend. Gigantic burgers. Oh my.

We've also discovered Max's love for prunes and sweet potatoes. And momentary hatred for bananas. When he was trying to figure out how this whole "feeding solid foods" thing works, he wanted to do it himself, and it was hilarious. Now that he gets it he lets me feed him and he's a lot less messy during mealtime :)

We took Max swimming for the first time, and the jury is still out on whether or not he likes it. He sure is cute in a swimsuit!

And another one of his cute laugh, just because. 

We got a pass to Thanksgiving Point because we live right by it. It was definitely a good investment, because we've only been a handful of times and it has already paid for itself! And anyone who wants to come with us gets half off! We tried to get a picture in front of the waterfalls, but Max was so captivated by them that he kept looking behind himself instead of at the camera. We had to turn around to solve that problem! We love going to the gardens and the Farm Country to see the baby goats. Max doesn't know it, but he loves it too.

And one last photo of Max, obviously. But he's with cousin Juliet, so it's not all about Max :)
We had fun at their place for dinner and an NBA Finals game. Max was the center of attention, of course, but that's mostly because he whines when he's not, so that's how our lives work right now. Oh, and that's not all drool on his shirt...it's mostly spit up, because he still spits up. All the time. We're hoping that he grows out of it by the time he moves out, but some days I'm not so sure. Kidding.

And there's your re-cap of our goings on over the past few months! And feel free to follow me over on Instagram (@allychristenson), where I come up with semi-witty hashtags and try my hardest not to use the Walden filter on all of my photos.

The end. Phew!

Father's Day

I love me some fathers in my life, and in honor of Father's Day I couldn't let too much time pass by before I saluted those who have such a fatherly influence in my life.

My own father (pictured above) has taught me so many things.  He could talk your ear off about cars, cameras, bicycles, anything really.  I think he is the king of DIY, as evidenced by his gifts to us of his famous homemade soap. His philosophy is that if you can make it yourself, why buy it? Before he and my mom divorced we never bought bread, pasta or jam. My dad would always make it.

One of my favorite memories of my dad is when my sister went up to Utah to visit him and he was making homemade root beer. (Am I right in saying that homemade root beer is waaaaay better than the store bought stuff?) He was using dry ice to carbonate it and he had just capped one bottle when I heard a loud bang! I ran upstairs to find the bottle had exploded in the kitchen! There was root beer everywhere, and the cap had shot straight up through the ceiling! It was quite a mess!

I can't mention fathers without talking about my step-father (pictured above). Even though he isn't my birth father, he came into my life when I was 7 and I like to tell people that I hit the jackpot step-father wise. He is one of the funniest, kindest, selfless, and hard-working people I know. He bought the company he runs from his own dad just a year or two after he served a mission in Taiwan and has built it up into a fantastic software company that employs more than 20 people. He works harder than anyone I know, but is always thinking of others. He is always serving others and is willing to give without expecting anything in return.

I love this picture of the two of us because I'm guessing that it was taken shortly after he told me some kind of joke. He is always joking around, and has a not-so-hidden talent of coming up with new lyrics to songs. He is famous for singing songs to us daughters at our weddings, which are full of jokes and sweet memories that have us all in tears by the end. It's really no wonder why he's at the top of the list of those that I go to when I need some advice! He's the bees knees!

And I obviously have to gush about my own baby daddy, Mark. The moment that he became a father is easily the second greatest moment of my life, and it keeps getting better each day. I clearly remember Mark having the largest grin on his face the day that Max was born, and he was beaming with pride as he showed off our little Mr. Max. Both he and Max light up whenever their eyes meet, and my heart bursts each time that it happens. Mark works so hard to take care of our family, and I am eternally grateful for that gift, and it means the world to me.

So here's to all of the fathers in my life, you have made me a lucky, lucky girl.

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