Enough Faith???

Now I am not writing this for pity or sorrow or money..that is unless you are Bill Gates and have some to spare, No I am simply writing to vent and share. Lately, Nate hasn't had any work. This recession is finally hitting us. And I have to admit, I am shocked. It's like one of those things where you never think crazy things will happen to you but here we are, struggling with very little work. And now I am questioning if I have enough faith or not. I think I do..but do I really? How are we going to pay our bills and all that garbage? We pay our tithing religiously so I know things will work out. it's just becomes a matter of when. It just gets a bit scary and I get this inkling of doubt. So back on my knees I go and pray for strength and humility and a way to figure this one out. Trials right? It could very well be worse..and I know that. The one thing I get frustrated with myself with is our lack of savings. We have a great food storage but not a financial one. It's simply hard to save when you use all you make. But no excuses right? I have a new vow that when things get better..because they will. Savings will become a new priority. I despise that money..such a material item is such an important thing to have...at least some anyways. I always say to myself that if this is our trial in life (that is.. being financially challenged), then it's not so bad. Life could always be so much worse. I have so many blessings..an amazing husband, three beautiful children, our health and the gospel. What more could I ask for? But a trial is a trial and it's still hard. But I will learn and grow and pray that I have faith enough.

I've got a ticket to ride...

So we are board game kind of people and a couple of years ago, my sister gave us this game called Ticket to Ride. We are in love with it. And the last few months or so, we have kind of become obsessed with it..playing every Sunday and as much as we can in between. It is so addicting..now in the last two years I have won only 5 times which is depressing..and even more depressing that I am keeping track. What can i say I'm a competitive person and I like to win. The best part is, is that we found this 1910 expansion pack..which changes things up and I am loving it. So if you like games or need a gift for someone who does, I highly recommend this one although it's pretty pricey. But totally worth it. My eight year old even plays with us. I also gave it to my brother for Christmas and now his friends call every night to see if they can come over for a "Train" tourney. In love with this game. Does this mean I am old, lame and boring???

So Daddy's Girl

There is just something special about the love Sophie has for her dad.

She is a total daddy's girl. Nate was gone over the weekend, and the first thing she would ask for every morning was her daddy. And she has Nate wrapped around her little finger. He loves that she adores him and he is an amazing father..to all our kids. I love the love they share..so tender.

Ice Skating

So last Monday, the kids were out for Presidents day and Nate had the week off..so we went up North to try our hand at ice skating. The kids were really excited and I have to admit I'm not too shabby. I have been a few times before..I mean no triple luxes and junk but I can go forward, backward and turn a circle. I consider that good..anywho..Nate and I took turns holding Sophie who loved..LOVED it.

And the kids used those cool helper things or the wall (notice Ellie). They caught on so quick and Connor was not afraid to fall and ended up soaking wet. Ellie proclaims that she is much better than Connor cause he fell "like 9 times and I didn't fall once." Nate caught on too..and just as he was showing me how he could turn, he biffed it so hard. I laughed. Poor thing..he had a bruised tail bone for a few days. Ha! I am better than him at one thing. All in all it was a fun outing.

First Tag...

Valentine Tag

What is your husband’s name? Nathan Knight Belnap
*How long have you been married? 10 years in May
*How long did you date? Well lets see...I started dating him at the ripe ol' age of 15 and I was 19 when I got married..barely. And he only broke up with me twice during that time. He was so lame :)
*How old is he? 30
*Who eats more sweets? I totally do like by a million
* Who said I love you first? I did by accident. I was leaving his house and I said so casually, "k bye love you" then I was mortified that it had come out and I tried to back pedal..stuttering and all embarrassed..and the worst part was that he didn't say it back. Aghhhh!
* Who is taller? Nate
*Who is smarter? I like to think we are both smart at different stuff
* Who sings the best? Nate does..he has a great voice
*Who sleeps on the right side? Me and it doesn't matter where we are..we have sides. I thought everyone did until I heard my sister-in-law say she and her husband switch sides every so often. Now that's freaky!
*Who mows the lawn? I do
*Who cooks dinner? That would be me too.
*Who drives? Well Nate drives more than me..I mean he works for UPS for hecks sake. But when its us, I'd say its 50/50
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Not me..but I am getting better
*Who kissed who first? Another long and embarrassing story..short version, Nate kissed me..next day he broke up with me. Not a good ego builder.
*Who asked who out first? Well our first "official" date was his prom 1996. I had just turned 16 like a week before.

Happy Valentines to all the lovers out there!!!

Have your cake & eat it too????

So last night, Connor had his first Blue & Gold Banquet for scouts and the boys were asked to make a cake with their dads..no help from mom. Here's how it went down-

1. First Nate couldn't find the location of the 9x13 pan...it hasn't changed location in the almost 4 years we have lived here.

2. Nate cracks the egg..and somehow the skin under the shell was still in tack and he couldn't figure out what the heck happened. Connor cracked his like a pro!

3. He cuts the butter at the 1/3 mark but proceeds to put the other part of the butter in the mixing bowl

4. Puts 1/2 cup water instead of 1 cup..the reason the first cake didn't quite make it.

5. Mom steps in..goes to the store for another cake mix, makes the second one (Nate's convinced it's ok since he technically did the first one), cleans up both rounds of dishes..but

Nate did cut the football shape, frosted it (with minor help from me) and Connor drew the lines on. all in all, it turned out ok and edible. Connor won the most "kicken" award. What an adventure and one more reason I tell God to never let me die first :) Love you Babe!

Resolution Update

Ok so it's only been a month this year and I am doing pretty good with my resolutions. I am working out about 4-5 times a week but I have to say, nothing is HaPPENING!! Hello...so i finally had to admit to myself it's because I eat like crap. What can I say, candy is lovely. So I was talking to my neighbor and she had picked up this "Biggest Loser" book and it told you how many calories a day you should eat a day to lose weight, based on your weight. I almost pooped my pants when I read how many I could eat. I was thinking about 1400 calories..oh no..I get 1050 calories a day. That is like eating two bites and your done. I tried it the other day and seriously..it's impossible unless you get full on water and air. By dinner I was over by about 300 calories. So I have decided counting calories is for the crazy birds! I'd rather be a chubby girl than live through that. It takes over all you think about. I am trying just moderation. Whatever! I am putting my skinny, hot, body image out to the universe and it will happen :) As far as my other goals go, Nate and I went to the temple last month. We have already improved over last year..yeah! We are slightly better at scripture study and doing good with family prayer. I am in the works of starting a business. So things are good. With that said, it is only the second month of the year so we'll see what the other 10 bring.

Random

So i was just taking a minute to check out everyones blogs and updates and i just started thinking how we all just have our own little lives and things we do and family we love and isn't it weird how we just are in our own little worlds? That we are all doing pretty much the same thing all over the world? Random thought i know but kind of comforting to think about. I love my little world and love to see all of you in yours. Keep on a bloggin`

New Year Resolutions

Well another year has come and gone and I have many new resolutions..I am hoping if i blog about them, they will mean more and I'll have more accountability..so here is my list.

1. Lose weight..this somehow makes my list every year. 10 more lbs. to go. Then it will be baby time again..no I'm not announcing

2. Temple attendance..I am sure we are the worst couple ever

3. More consistent family prayer and scripture study

4. Start my own company, make millions so Nate can quit his job and we can actually see our dad every once in a while. pretty lofty eh?

5. Stay healthy and happy...keep exercising and I might try and cut out like one piece of candy a day..easier said than done, especially for us Christensens.

So there you have it. Now it's all published and official. We'll see how i do. Happy New Year

Snow Tubing

This was so much fun and I highly recommend it. Get as many people as you can and make a train down the hill. We had a record 6 people and cruised down the hill.

Ellie running over Connor

Nate, enjoying a break and some hot chocolate

Here is Nate and I...apparently we were backside heavy and I fell off..I knew my butt was big....

Here is where Sophie discovered you could eat snow..yum

Alexis, McCall and Sophie enjoying the powder

Cute, Brave Ellie

Tubing has become a tradition with Nate's family and this year we had the whole gang (well minus Jason, Pete & fam) ...even my sisters came. We had a ball and the weather was perfect.

Disclosure- If my sister's basketball coach somehow finds this blog, I am just letting you know she obeyed every rule and didn't sled. What a good sport.

Sophie Turns 2

Every parent knows that kids grow up way too fast...and my Sophie is no exception. Two years old on the 19th of Dec. It just doesn't seem possible. She is slightly obsessed with Shamu so we had a Shamu party. I know, I know...cake decorating just doesn't seem to be on my list of talents. But I get points for trying right?? Oh the things we do for our kids.

Snow Day

It's hard being cooped up in the house when it's

cold outside (for kids and for mom) so they got on all their snow gear and headed outside. Sophie loves the "no" but couldn't quite figure out what gloves were for until she fell into the snow several times. So in and out of the house she came about three times..that's when I remembered one of the reasons I'm not fond of the cold weather. Taking her snow stuff on and off was enough to drive me crazy! After, we made hot chocolate which my kids LOVE!

Home Show

Above our dresser in our room

I just go this new bedding and am in love with it.

Sophie and Ellie's room (we'll see if Sophie will sleep in her new bed that took me forever to paint..these beds were my old beds)

Connor's room

Our family room

Ok so I am not one to take pictures of thier home and then blog about it. It sounds like a very vain thing to do. But here I am. I was asked to have my home in the Christmas Home show ( a fund raiser for the local Crisis center around here) I said yes..against my better judgement. But in the end, I got projects done and things done around the house that have needed to be done. This just gave us some added incentive. I have to admit, I think it looks pretty good. It was a lot of fun and my house has never been or probably ever will be so Christmasy. Bytheway, the reason I am posting these is for my sister-in-laws who asked me to. So enjoy..give me some decorating tips and when this is over, I can enjoy the rest of the month

Family Pics

On Thanksgiving Day, my mom had us take a family picture..which I forgot to post. So I got our family and then one of my brothers and sisters. So if you don't get a Christmas card from me, consider this it. Merry Christmas

Are you Serious!!!!

Ok so let me tell you about my night last night..just so you can all be glad it wasn't you. we all went to bed fine and dandy. At about 3:30 am Ellie starts up with a coughing fit. (She has been sick for a week now) So I give her some medicine, a drink of water and crank up the humidifier. That seems to do the trick and she goes back to bed. 4:00 am Connor gets up and has to poo..like major poo. He gets done and goes back to bed. 15 minutes later, he comes in and says he has thrown up. I go into a panic because that very night, I had just put on his brand new bedding I bought. I mean are you serious!! So Nate gets him in the tub and I go in to check out the damage..Oh first of all the smell. So RANK..all acidy and gross. It made me want to vomit. Then I look and it is everywhere. I kid you not. All over his new bedspread, all down the wall, on the carpet and on one of those decorative pillows you can't just throw in the washer. So I proceed to remove all his bedding and start some laundry. Then I start scrubbing his mattress, while Nate attempts to clean the pillow. All while trying not to smell this yuck! So after I clean it the best I can, I grab the Febreeze (and lets just say a little prayer of thanks for Febreeze) I swear I used half a bottle. And went and got another one this morning. So i Febreezed the crap out of the entire room..put Connor to bed on the floor and couldn't fall asleep for like another hour because I had this horrible stench in my nose. So Gross to say the least and I said to Nate as we were drifting off to sleep.."and we want another kid???"

Tis The Season

So it's that time of year again. Christmas tree hunting with the Belnaps...and my sister who wanted to tag along because she had never been. This year was fun..well sort of. First of all Ellie was sick so she stayed in the car in her pj's singing Christmas songs and Sophie was asleep for the intial cutting of the the tree. But as you can see, she found some fabulous boughs for decorating. Usually it takes us a while or I should say it takes my OCD husband a while to find the perfect tree. But this year we literally got out of the car..walked about 50 feet and there it was. Our perfect tree. Nate didn't even want to look further (What!) So who was I to argue. It really was the perfect tree and really cold so we cut it down and were on our way. I love this tradition and with more and more people putting up those non-smelling artificial trees (no offense to all of you), it just wouldn't seem like Christmas without the pine smell and needles all over the carpet. So Merry Christmas and Happy tree hunting...and thanks to McCall who lugged all the boughs around the forest for my decorations.

For Reals

She did it...after months of pestering, we finally decided to let Ellie get her ears pierced. I always thought my girls would be eight..because I was. But after talking to Nate about it, (He let me know that just because I was 8 didn't mean that it was the rule of the universe :) we would let her do it. I decided it was ok as long as she knew all that was involved. Sitting at the shop, she kept saying "But is it gonna hurt?" She asked that 100 times and I thought she might bail out. But she was a trooper and did great. Only a few tears. So Happy 6th Birthday to my cutest oldest daughter. I thought only 2 seconds about getting Sophie's done. she'd have those suckers ripped out faster than they could be put in.

Yeah for me!

So on Saturday, I ran my first 5k ..I know what you're thinking..Ashley?? Run?? That's right I did it. Now before I get into details, let me first tell you my running history. I hate running. I hate everything about it except for how good you feel afterwards. It all began in middle school when i was fat and we had to run the cross country mile. I always had anxiety..tried everything to be gone that day.. I always finished last and it took me 21 minutes. and I am not exaggerating. you don't forget humiliating things like that. Ok so now to the present. I have 2 girlfriends i started walking with this summer and we started running..little by little. I was up to a mile and a half without stopping..don't laugh that's good for me. Well next thing I knew i was signed up for the Turkey Trot and so nervous..like diarrhea nervous (more info than you wanted..oh well) So i did but did not want to do the race but there I was Sat. morning all decked out in my running gear. So all in all, I finished the race which was my goal. I was not last and after I was pretty darn proud of myself..And to top it off, they had extra turkeys (that's what you win if you actually can run) so they drew names out of a hat and i won a turkey. So there you have it..yeah for me and my turkey :)..p.s people say you get addicted to these races...me ..not so addicted. And I did have my camera not but my friend took a pic that I'll try to post later. Power to all the runners out there!

Trick or Treat..Smell my Feet

Here we are..already to trick-or-treat. Sophie and Ellie are witches and Connor picked this random army dude. you should have seen all his sweat when he took of his helmet. Whoa! And all of you who know how much Sophie loves to wear clothes, will be proud to know that she made it half-way around the block before it was off. Happy Halloween!

MEET JACK!

We finally carved our pumpkins this year...the day before Halloween. Nate gets so worried if we do them to soon..cause they start to sag and all. Anyways here is our great art work.

Connor's pumpkin..artwork and all
Sophie's pumpkin

Guess whose this is???

Now in honor of Twilight, I did this. Edward and Bella. It might be hard to tell. for those of you who can't figure it out it is just thier profiles...Get it yet?

Captain Nate and his Pirate ship..nice work babe.