Cade's first day as a First Grader. I can't believe it. They really do grow up fast. I think Cade is telling Kelson he needs to grow before he can go to school. He was pretty sad his buddy was leaving him for the day. He was quite bored all morning.

Analise just chillen' at the Hoppers game.
Analise's latest knitted dress. I was glad to finally get this finished. I started last spring but couldn't ever get the skirt to look right. I took it to Idaho with me to have Erin fix it. I knew she wouldn't let me down. It turned out so cute. It needs a onsie under it of course. We were just taking a picture for Erin.

Blowing out the candles.

Looks like Mater and McQueen are bring surrounded by torches or something.
Just to show Grandma and Papa C opening his presents from them.

Grandma and Papa C. must know how much Cade loves puzzles! It's a big boy puzzle though.... 200 pieces. This will definately not be one that he dumps out on the living room floor and puts together in 5 minutes.

SQUISH.... Cade isn't a hugger... but he was forced to give them after opening his presents. He was willing but doesn't look like he was enjoying them.

Tio bought Cade a Chicken Little PS2 game.

What a face Cade is pulling... do you think Tio smells or what?
Cake #2- the family bday party
Analise trying on Cade's helmet.

She might need it one of these days trying to play with her big brothers.

Cade's Party Cake. Spoiled kid got two cakes this year.

Josh Ward gave Cade a nice baseball helmet. Kelson put it on and looks like Chicken Little.

The helmet is as wide as he is. Pretty funny!
I had used sidewalk chalk and decorated the driveway. I drew a rode from the street up the driveway welcoming the kids. At the end of the driveway I drew racing lanes and a checkered flag. We used the McDonalds "CARS" cars to race. We had 7 different cars and just traded cars each race to see which car could win the most races. THE BOYS LOVED THIS GAME!!!!!
Cade wanted a "CARS" birthday party. I had cut down big boxes and we had a
"Ramones" house of body paint shop, where the kids colored and decorated the boxes. We then had a relay race and used tires and had "Luigi" tire change. It was pretty fun. The boys seemed to like it. It was just pretty hot!
After the game...
Panthers vs. Bills game

ya like Analise's Panthers dress. I made it for her before she was even born.

Still a bit big... but lots of people commented on it. It's better than a cheerleader dress!

Bank of America Stadium... Charlotte skyline
Cheeto's Car. It was funny because we got home that night and Kristi and Kristopher Malcolm (babysitters) had given the boys an "Interstate Batteries" matchbox car.

Kelson thinks that is daddy's car now.
Haley's car
Haley challenged Cheeto to a race. So Marcos says anyway... There is a place called Silicon Speedway at Concord Mills that has simulated Nascar race track. You get in these cars and there are screens in front of each car. The cars tip and rock/vibrate when you wreck or hit the wall. Marco actually flipped his car... he started yelling and laughing... I had Analise so I just sat on some bleachers and watched them all drive. When Marcos wrecked all of the others just watching started laughing and then all congregated to watch him. Perhaps hoping for another wreck! ;)
This is when she finally went to sleep. What's up with the positions my kids fall asleep.

Analise must take after Kelson!
OK... I know this is a really blurry picture. But try to see how Analise is scowling at me.

She was almost asleep sitting up in her swing... the flash startled her and she got mad at me.

Just look at that face!

Grandma and Papa had treat for FHE. Can you guess where we went?
Just a silly picture of Kelson eating his ice cream at Ham's.
Kelson fell asleep next to Analise. Cade and I moved his arm to go around her. She thought it was pretty funny... she just kept giggling!
Cade played little league golf this summer. His team took runner-up.

It was done by Precision Golf school.

Go to this link and scroll down and you can see this picture and others on their website.

Picture update! It's been quite awhile!

Analise on the airplane. Her first view from the window. She was such a good little girl. It was very strange just having her. People would come up to Cheeto and me and say, "Wow, you have your hands full." We would laugh and reply, "We actually are feeling very free... you see we have two little boys at home. Six and three." They would look at us almost in shock and embarrassement.
Me and Alyssa ready to race the boys... I mean "men" :)
Jeff and Cheeto being goofs!
Cheeto and I before launch time.
Cheeto and I rode a chair lift up at Park City to go down the Alpine Slides.

This was the view from the top.
Mommy's and Daughter's
All of the newest grand-daughters.

from left to right: Leya (Alyssa's), Jacie (Becky's), Analise (Shena's), Ellary (Erin's)
Papa C and Analise in conversation. Who knows what they were talking about. Who cares... she looks pretty content with her Papa!
Uncle Ryan and Analise just enjoying a nice July afternoon in Idaho on the farm.
Daddy and Analise at the baptism
All of the Christensen family except for Cade and Kelson and of course our dear little Allie.
The Brewers and The Christensens after Kyrie's Baptism. Funny thing... Erin was so excited because she just made this dang cute skirt. I was so excited because I just bought this dang cute skirt on a killer deal... well, she made her skirt too big so I switched.... niether one of us got to wear our new skirts. Oh well, we both had a new skirt for the day!
Kyrie right after her daddy dunked her. Ya know... her baptism.
Analise LOVES to pinch. Poor Grandma.
How cute is this picture! What an awesome picture for Analise to have!
Mommy, Analise and Great Grandma Christensen

Analise is trying to help Grandma C with bills.

Tanner, Kyrie and Analise after Allie's funeral. Tanner jumped in the picture at the last minute with his silly face. This is definately a "Tanner" face.

Analise and Ellary after Allie's funeral. This was their first time meeting each other. Looks like kindred spirits.

Analise just kickin it in her floatie. She was so content just floating around during the Ward Pool party at Bur-mil Park.

Daddy and Analise at the parade.
Nola HAD to have a picture of Joey Cheek at the 4th of July parade. She forgot her camera and mine was running low on battery. She informed we had better use what little battery on Joey. So here you have it... our picture of Joey Cheek and his golf medal.

All three of our kids have fallen asleep in this high chair. Analise just couldn't wait two more seconds until I could lie her down in her crib.
We all decorated this one for the Grandpa's. I know Papa C wasn't real excited about them, I'm not sure if he even wore his... oh well.. it was the thought that counts. The boys had fun making them. Papa A said that all of the men at the branch were jealous and wanted one too.

Cade and Kelson made these ties for Cheeto for Father's day. Kelson's is on the left and Cade's is on the right. Cheeto really did wear them just like this to church.

Old Chain E-Mail

I was just looking for an e-mail here at work and ran across an e-mail from Oct, 2004. I thought I'd share for posterity's sake. Enjoy.


Welcome to the new edition of getting to know your friends. Okay here's what you're supposed to do, just copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, *INCLUDING* the person who sent it to you.

1. WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME? Anselmo "Cheeto, Frito, Bandito, Tostito, Taquito, Tomato, Potato, (etc.)" Arellano

2. WHAT COLOR PANTS ARE YOU WEARING? Black suit pants

3. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? 98.7 "The Zone" - Friday's they have started "Flashback Friday" they play songs from the 80's and 90's, pretty cool, hear stuff I haven't heard in a LONG time

4. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? "Pearson's" Mint Pattie

5. DO YOU WISH ON STARS? I've got nothing against stars...why would I wish anything on them? I reserve wishing things on my enemies.

6. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? A light tan...I'm 1/2 mexican, 1/2 white boy...it best reflects my background

7. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? 72 degrees in my office, 0% chance of rain

8. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE: A client...not real exciting, huh?

9. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT YOU THIS? When she's not sick...otherwise, I think she's pretty nice. :)

10. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TODAY? A little of this, a little of that - the usual. Slave away at my job, eat, FHE, then catch the first half of Monday Night Football.

11. FAVORITE DRINK? Depends...with food - Coke...with cookies/pastries - Milk...during winter, Stephen's Raspberry Hot Chocolate

12. FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK? I LOVE THEM ALL!! Everybody knows my favorite think to do is drink alcohol!

13. FAVORITE SPORT? To watch - Football, to play - Golf & Basketball

14. HAIR COLOR? Naturally pink...but I die it brown so that people don't look at me funny...I may start using grey highlights, my wife seems to like that (what is it with women and Grey haired men? Sheesh)

15. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nu-uh

16. SIBLINGS? What you looking for here? Younger/older? Gender? Intelligence? - Ok...3 younger, 1 F, 2 M, not very (I got all the brains, just don't tell them that, they might take exception)

17. FAVORITE MONTH? June/End of September, First of October - Perfect golf weather in NC

18. FAVORITE FOOD? Whatever my wife cooks! :) (ya'll help me out on this...make sure she knows I said that!)

19. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The Best Two Years

20. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR? Saturday (all year round) - otherwise, my Birthday...I get special privelages (Shena: "Will you take out the garbage?" Me: "But it's my birthday! Are you going to make me take out the garbage on my birthday?", OR Shena: Will you give the kids a bath?" Me: "But it's my birthday! Are you going to make me bathe the kids on my birthday?" and so on and so forth, all day long.)

21. WHAT DO YOU DO TO VENT ANGER? Punch my John Kerry punching bag (every time you punch it, it gives a different answer to the same question) - ok, it doesn't exist, but wouldn't that be GREAT? (Don't hold this one against me Slack, we can still be friends)

22. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? Baseball glove & football helmet

23. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer - without a doubt

24. HUGS OR KISSES? Both - I refuse to choose one over the other

25. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? TRIPLE Chocolate

26. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE/E-MAIL BACK? If they don't, they aren't my friends...and will be taken off my list!

27. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No one

28. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Everybody

29. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS? I live with a hot chick and my two cool kids

30. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? I have no idea...Shena is in charge of that. I probably put it there, but only because she told me to.

31. WHO IS THE FRIEND YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? Benj, known him since we were 3, still keep in pretty good touch (about the only person I keep in touch with)

32. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? Ate a big fat huge piece of chocolate cake (with milk, of course), watched my Steelers whoop on the Cowboys and then watched The Best Two Years with my in-laws, then watched the Red Sox-Yankees game...man...I watched a lot of TV yesterday...no wonder I'm such an idiot!

33. FAVORITE SMELLS? Cakes/pies cooking, hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, freshly cut grass on a golf course, a soccer/football field on a fall NC night, burning ditches (kinda weird, I know, but reminds me of Idaho)

34. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? My wife, my kids, my dad, my brother...sheesh, I guess EVERYBODY

35. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Letting my wife and kids down & heights, to a certain extent...not inside a building, not inside an airplane...and I'd love to skydive someday, does that even make sense?

36. PLAIN, BUTTERED OR SALTED POPCORN? Buttered and salted with Hot Tamales (try it...very good...you take a handful of popcorn, then pop one or two hot tamales...my wife turned me on to it)

37. FAVORITE CAR? BMW 7 Series...if money weren't an issue...otherwise any car that runs and gets me where I need to go

38. FAVORITE FLOWER? Are you kidding me? Favorite flower? Me? I don't even know how to respond to that question!

39. NUMBER OF KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING? car key, house key, remote fob

40. CAN YOU JUGGLE? three objects at a time...never learned to do more than that at once...not real good at it, though

41. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK? Saturday - as previously answered...but basically any day I don't have to work

42. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? January 19

43. DO YOU OWN A DONOR CARD? I have "Yes" marked on my Driver's license, does that count? Do we get bonus points for this?

Catching Up

So I don't have a strong, valid excuse. I spent the majority of my time in June studying for another CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) test that had to be taken before June 31. Some of the information that was in the course was a bit tough to get through. There was a lot of discussion about net premium and gross premium and how insurance companies come up with them...and reserves and such. Fun and interesting the first time through, but a little tougher to have a thorough understanding. So anyway, because I would spend several hours a day studying, I really didn't take the time to write. I figured I should spend at least a little time with my family when I wasn't studying, rather than writing.

There is no way I can remember everything that has happened in the last month, so I won't even try. I'll just mention some of the highlights I can think of off the top of my head, in no particular order, and then fill in as necessary.

Shena's "Lasting Impressions" business is officially open. She got a business license the first part of the month. She also was able to track down the person in charge of the "take home" kits that they give out at The Women's Hospital, where all the baby's in Greensboro are born. It isn't free to get your flyer in their stuff, but hopefully it will be well worth the price. It hits her market directly (new babies born in the Greensboro area) because no other hospitals in Greensboro deliver babies. And according to the hospital, they deliver over 6,000 babies a year. Her first flyers will go into packets this week, so we'll see how effective it is. She also will have flyers in the packets at High Point Regional, which is the closest city of significant size to Greensboro. They deliver 2,000 babies a year. We'll see. She's in the hole a couple thousand right now. It makes her nervous, but I'm confident that she will be happy with the results and that she will have to limit her appointments because she has too many people trying to get an impression done.

We spent a night in Quantico Thursday (July 6th). My brother Adam spent six weeks up there at "Officer Candidate School" (OCS) and his graduation was on Friday. We went up with mom and dad and Adam's wife, Melissa, and his kids. It was a fun trip. The boys were pretty good. About twenty minutes into the trip Cade started asking "are we there yet?" At first he was just trying to be funny, then an hour later he really wanted to know how much longer we had (3 more hours at that point). Analise was her usual self. Hardly said a word, slept the majority of the time.

She has a new alter ego, too. "Watermelon Woman." She has an outfit that somebody gave her (Christian Hines maybe?) that has a collar that is shaped and colored like a watermelon, and she likes to make raspberry's with her lips. The boys think it is hilarious and when she starts making the noises they giggle and run around going "Oh no! It's Watermelon Woman!"

While we were in Quantico, we were lucky to NOT have Shena sniped. We were driving past the airport there on base and there were 2 great big C-5 planes on the tarmac. One had just taken off and the other was just sitting there. Shena got excited and started taking pictures as we drove past. Window rolled down, practically hanging out the window as she took them (she disputes that, but I thought she was hanging out the window). After she took a couple, we drove past a yellow and red sign that we noticed said "No Admittance, No photography." We laughed about that for a minute, then didn't think anything of it. The next morning as we were driving to Adam's graduation ceremony, we had to go past the airfield again. This time, there was tons of traffic and so we were moving very slowly. We got to one of those signs again and noticed what it said at the bottom..."Lethal Force Authorized." Shena's lucky she didn't get taken out, apparently.

We've been driving a rental van for the last couple of days because Shena's paint job was being worked on. They apparently still didn't do it right after the passenger side door got dinged. Shena got the Service Department Manager on it and he has been very nice to get it done. It is supposed to be finished by noon today. Driving the rental van has made us feel good about the decision to buy the Odyssey. We hate driving the rental because we feel like it is a piece of crap compared to Shena's van. Once you are spoiled with certain ammenities, it's hard to appreciate anything less.

Marcos is going through that a little bit with his 2nd internship. He was in Atlanta with a big, international law firm, living it up. He got used to how they do things down there. Then he came up to Greensboro for his 2nd internship and it sounds like there is really no way to compare the two. Like I told him, he got to drive the Porshe before he got into a Camry. The Camry is a nice car by most counts...but just doesn't compare to the Porshe. And it's hard to appreciate the Camry when its driven AFTER the Porshe.

We've made plans for a Thanksgiving trip to the Asheville area that we are excited about. We talked about going to the beach and renting a house for a week this summer, but Shena wanted to wait and do something fun in the fall when her parents might be here. Last year the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad had a "Polar Express" train that gave rides and since our boys love the Polar Express, we wanted to take them. Problem is it is about 5 hours away and not exactly a "day trip." Long story short, we decided to take them this year (if you see the boys, please don't tell them they will be going on the train. They don't know yet and I don't want to have to hear them ask me a hundred thousand times between now and Thanksgiving) and spend a couple of days in the area. Turns out the only way to rent a cabin up there is by the week during Holidays (especially Christmas and Thanksgiving). We found a sweet place (brand new place, big screen TV's, pool table) that we were going to get for $1,500. Turns out they wanted $2,000 for the week because it was a holiday. So we found another place, "Mountain View Chalet," that we got for $950 for the week. We are excited to get up there. It's about 1.5 hours from the Polar Express train, but of course that is much better than 5 hours and we are closer to Asheville, where there is more to do during the week if we want. This new place is also more of a "mountain" type place. The "sweet place" was just in a small grove of trees off a highway, across the street from a fire station, and didn't look like it would feel like we were in the mountains. The "Mountain View" says it is isolated on 2 acres and you can't see any other houses at all. Looks like nicer views, too. Right now it sounds like we will have at least 10 of us there on Thanksgiving, possibly as many as 12. Of course my family and I will be there, Shena's mom and Dad, her brother Ryan (who will be there Wednesday to Sunday), and my parents. Should be a good time. I hope I don't build this thing up too much and wind up being disappointed.

Adam taught the lesson in Elder's Quorum on Sunday. Topic was journals. I felt guilty for not writing in here for so long. I'm back on track.

I also quit getting up at 5:30 most of the month of June, while I was studying. While I was getting used to it, I still had a hard time staying awake during the afternoon (at work) if I had to do a lot of reading, and I wanted to be able to read as much as possible. I'm back on track with that, too

This week is kind of a perfect storm of craziness at our house. Shena's Lasting Impressions getting started, her van in the shop, Lettie's wedding on Saturday (which Shena is VERY involved in setting up, etc), all the family in town, Heather (our admin assistant at work) is on vacation this week, which means a double load for me there). Wo is me. It will be Thanksgiving before I know it.

Marcos and I went and ate lunch at Natty Greene's yesterday. He's got bucks, so he picked it up. Nice of him to do that. I guess I owe him now. It was kind of cool to be able to go to lunch with him during the workday, while we were both being adults and going to work. Too bad he won't be working here next year.

That's it for now. As I remember things I will pop them in.

ANALISE HAS PIGTAILS!

ANALISE HAS PIGTAILS!!!! Kelson wasn't so sure about them. HE was playing with her and they kept tickeling his face. You can see one is tickeling his ear!















She was so funny about having her hair done. She fussed while I put them in but as soon as I was done she was a happy little girl. Smiling like she was happy to get her hair done. Having a girl is so much fun!