kenna signing in!

hello everyone! 

i was super excited when kelsey emailed me last week and asked me if i could blog this week. 

to start off, i'm going to give you the run-down on what's been happening in our little household.

jess has been crazy busy with school and all his preparations for med school. he has been super involved in a research project at the u, which is one of his requirements. jess is also working part-time for the salt lake city school district. he helps the disabled and acts as a caregiver for them, which is also giving him lots of patient care hours for his application - which is going to be great! he will start preparing for the MCAT later this year and will be taking it next spring. jess is the hardest worker, and i am SO proud of him for everything he has done. his grades have been stellar and he's so motivated and excited about his future, which makes me so happy!

i have also been very involved in my new job at leavitt partners. it's located in downtown salt lake city and it is a health-consulting firm. our former utah governor mike leavitt is the founder of it, and his partner is rich mckeown, our stake president. this job has been such a blessing, not only financially but for myself. i work with the most wonderful people and i couldn't ask for a better job.

jess and i were also called as young mens and young womens president a couple of weeks ago, and it has been so exciting and we feel so blessed. we are not in a ward, we are in a branch, (which means it's extreeeemely small). i currently have 3 young women, and jess has one young man! our young men and young women are each a member of the most wonderful little family. this sweet family is from guinea, africa, and their parents were refugees in washington d.c. and have only recently converted to the church. they came to the u.s. 1 1/2 years ago, and have only recently learned to speak english, (their native language is french). it has been such a privilege and honor to become their friends and their leaders, and we are so anxious to become even closer with these kids. they are absolutely wonderful.

my parents have also been able to spend some time away from their home sweet home new zealand and have been able to be back in utah with us for the last little while (due to wedding preparations and my grandpas death).

because of my grandpas recent passing things have been a little tender and bittersweet lately for my family. i now have a glimpse of how all you sweet girls felt with your grandmas passing. it is so hard, and without the gospel i would be so lost. 

i'm a little embarrassed about my novel of a first blog post, but there ya have it! here are some recent pictures if you decide to skip all the words and just look at those ;)

also, on a side note, my favorite (and only sister) is finally engaged to her barely-off-the-mission, boyfriend of 7 years! we are so excited as a family and couldn't ask for a better addition to complete my small christensen family of 4.

for those of you who don't know, we have a little dog named boston. i would feel bad not to include him because he is such a part of our little family now. we got boston 2 weeks after we were married, (and have been married for 7 months now!) so boston has been with us the whole time, and we absolutely love that little guy to pieces. jess was totally against getting a small dog, but due to all my baby hunger we finally agreed to hold off on babies for a few years if i could get a dog! and it's been so fun for us.

jess sold the love of life, his motorcycle. don't let this picture fool you, he was SO SAD! it's been nice to have his bike almost paid off now, but he misses that thing so much!!! it was a sad day.

my grandpas grave has recently become my very favorite place to visit. what a sweet man heaven was able to receive. and how blessed i am to know i will see him again.