Tanner Playing Basketball

Here's a few shots of Tanner playing basketball. He played his first year of AAU basketball and the competition was much more intense. They have easily won all their games in the years past, but this year they ended up 7th of 17 teams. They improved a lot throughout the year, but we were pretty worried at first. Tanner's team played in a league with Jon Stockon's son (former Utah Jazz player) and Jon Stockon was the coach. Tanner'a team played them two times. The first time Tanner took his Utah Jazz hat and asked Jon Stockon to autograph it. He said that he doesn't give autographs out when he is with his family, but that he would shake Tanner's hand and told him that he played a good game. There is a picture of Jon Stockon sitting on the the bench. Tanner thought it was pretty cool.

Snowboarding with the Enloes

Kirt and Tanner skipped school and work on Friday and went snowboarding with our friends the Enloes at Schweitzer ski resort. They had lots of fun.

What Did the Kids Do While We Were Gone?

If you want to see what the kids did while we were on the cruise, check out http://jonandmichellespear.blogspot.com/2010/01/tending-christensen-clan-for-9-days.html. It's my brother and sister-in-laws blog. They watched the kids while we were gone. (I also cut and pasted it below)

TENDING THE CHRISTENSEN CLAN FOR 9 DAYS
Well it was 9 days with the Christensen Clan!! It was a learning experience and a rush of craziness everyday. Emily and Kirt went on a cruise and Jon and I went and stayed at their house and watched Tanner 9.75, Katie 5.75, Garret 2.75 (their birthdays are all coming up in a just a few weeks). Jon and I made a list..

TOP 20 THINGS TO REMEMBER FROM OUR TENDING EXPERIENCE: 
( we start with the mellow and end with the tragic )

20. We went through 7 gallons of milk... and I didn't even have any! Can we get a cow anyone?
19. Katie LOVED playing games and we played Clue, LRC, Hullabaloo and we colored every day!
18. Katie took one for the team and watched shows with Garret some of the early mornings!
17. We only saw Tanner in the mornings before school and for a quick flash of him at dinner every night. He was so busy with school, math club, tempos, basketball, scouts and practice, it was easy to watch him:)
16. Nixon and Garret could NOT play in the same room together, you had to watch them all the time or there was crying from one or the other or both.
15. I made at least 5 sippy cups of Chocolate Milk a day!! Those kids LOVED their chocolate milk and Nixon thought it was pretty great too:)
14. Tanner got to shake hands with John Stockton and play basketball against his son!
13. Hearing "Sponge Bob" at 5:30 in the morning when Garret would come running into our room... Emily said this would happen every morning but it only happened once or twice!! Lucky us!!!
12. Katie had a really bad headache one night and Grammy was the hero and came over to help her settle down and get her to bed. Poor girl!
11. Doing homework with Katie, I have never seen a girl so excited to have homework and so quick to get it done!! It was fun to do it with her.
10. Doing homework with Tanner and having to look up something on Google to make sure I was telling him the right information... sad that I can't help a 9 year old with his homework:)
9. Hearing "What's That?" from Garret at least 40 times a day...
8. Garret changed his clothes at least once a day AND THENchanged his pajamas once a night before going to bed. USUALLY he put them on backwards to boot:) It was really hilarious!
For example:

Side note: Garret wanted to wear this t-shirt EVERYDAY
7. Katie responding one day in the kitchen "my mom's farts stink."
6. The kids saying "I'm hungry" and then me asking "What do you want to eat" and the response was usually "fruit snacks." Did I really need to ask??? What kid doesn't want to eat fruit snacks...Yum!
5. Garret had 4 poopy diapers in ONE day and I happened to be home with the pups all day so Jon had to change them ALL!!
4. While making cookies one day with the kids I dropped the flour and spilled about a pound of flour on the floor and trapped the kids on the counter! Oops!!

3. Nixon bit Garret right on the cheek and left marks... so sad:( Luckily the marks healed quickly, so that no one saw them.
2. Garret broke the lamp in the living room seriously 2 minutes after Emily and Kirt walked out the door! What a way to start the 9 days of tending!
And Last and the worst!
1. Garret put his hands down his pants into his poopy diaper one night!! YUCK!! This was two days into the tending and Jon and I just about DIED... This was the worst part of the whole 9 days!!

And now for a few random pictures:

My mom was there for the first day when we started tending, this is my mom coloring with Katie....AND Nixon might be tryingto help too.

Katie and Garret. Garret liked to dress up in the cheetah outfit of Katie's and growl around the house.

On a snowy afternoon Katie and Garret got into their snow gear and played in the backyard. They kept asking for me to take their picture..it was cute!
Swinging!!

Jumping on the slippery trampoline!!

Sliding down the frozen slide.

Go Katie!

And of course Garret needed his swimming goggles!

Fun in the cold!

We brought out the mini basketball hoop and all played basketball.

Katie did some head stands!

THIS is ONE moment of only a few where there was peace among the little boys!

Tanner, Nixon and Garret

Jon did his hair CRAZY one day!

It's a mix between a spike and slicked back...hmmmm, put the hat back on!

Nixon!

Giving LOVES to Tanner

Giving LOVES to Garret, someday they will be bust buddies... right???

Pompa reading a book to Garret and Nixon...and they sat so nice and listened.

We played Rock Band

There was A LOT of playing in Katie's room and A LOT of picking up Katie's room from all the toys!

Tanner had a basketball game against John Stockton's son's team and it was the BIG event of the week. This is the best picture Jon could get of Stockton???!!! He is hiding behind the other coach.

This is John Stockton's son..number 12.

Tanner played great, and had a lot of points for his team.

Tanner has a lot of fun playing basketball!!

So there it is, a week with 4 kids was crazy but now that it's over I look back and it went by pretty fast. If Garret and Nixon had gotten a long a little better I think it would have been a lot easier... those silly boys!!

Western Caribean Cruise on Carnival "Dream" January 9-16

Kirt and I went on a 7 day cruise with some friends, Dave and Ingrid Frey and Joel and Leanne Peterson. We left Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a day at sea. The next 4 days we had port stops and then Friday was the trip home. We got off the boat early Saturday morning. It was lots of fun. The weather was not the best, I did not come home with the tan I wanted, but it was still very enjoyable. Thanks Jon and Michelle for watching our kids so we could go!

Cozumel

On Monday we stopped in Cozumel and rented dune buggies. We rode to a cavern where we went swimming and cliff jumping.

Roatan

Tuesday we took a tour of the island of Roatan. It is a small island off the the coast of Honduras. We were going to snorkel but it was too cold.

Belize

Wednesday we were in Belize and went on a cave tour. We rode inner tubes down a river through a cave. We took pictures with a water proof camera that we may someday develop.

Costa Maya

On Thursday we went to Mayan ruins in Costa Maya. We also had lunch with a Mayan family and got to learn how to make corn torillas.

And of course the other fun things that go along with cruises. Eating, eating and more eating (and not cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc.), the fun towel animals made by the room stewards (plus having your room cleaned 2 times a day), and all the neat activities that are available onboard. Kirt played basketball in 50 mile an hour winds.