Introduction

I've decided to join the vast world of blogging. I'm doing this more for the benefit of my kids more than anyone else. My 8 year old son loves to surf the internet. So, I'm sure that if he got to look at this and see pictures of himself he would think that was pretty cool.

Allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Christa Hendriksen. I am 32 years old. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I married my wonderful husband Ryan on September 11, 1998. When people hear that date they usually respond with something like "oh, really? It must be really hard" What they don't "hear" is that we were married 3 years before the tererible terrorist attacks. Not on the same day, so the date holds good memories for us. My husband and I also have siblings born on that day. Me a brother & Ryan a sister. Both of them were born in 1977 as well in different hospitals however. We have 4 terrific children. Tyler - 8, Cameron - 6, Avery - 3 & Peyton - 6 months. We have lived in our current home for 2 years and don't plan on moving anytime soon. I hate doing it and I'm happy right where I am.

I have lived in Utah my entire life and not only in Utah but within about a 5-10 mile radius of where I am right now. A few different homes, but none of them very far apart from each other.
We enjoy being close to all of our family and we have made some wonderful friends where we live now.

I am LDS and have been a member of the church my entire life. I love the peace, love and joy that this gospel brings into my life. There was a time when I wasn't always the most active in the church. I know for a hard learned fact that I never really found true happiness in my life unless, I am living the gospel. I currently serve as the primary president in my ward and although it wasn't my first idea of a calling that I would be good at, I can honestly say that I am enjoying it. It brings great blessings into my life to serve the children in my ward.

I have several hobbies, or just things that I enjoy doing. My husband said that my user name here should be "scrapbook crap queen". I do love scrapbooking. It's not something that I ever thought I would like doing. I kind of went into it kicking and screaming. I thought that it was just something that cutesie LDS moms did, but once I started I found that I love the creative process and the queit time I get to enjoy while I do it. I usually do it when kids are taking a nap, watching a movie, or asleep at night. I participate with friends in 2 different "page exchange" groups. If you have ever heard of card exchange groups, this is the same thing. Only with scrapbook pages. There are 12 people in each group and 4 times a year we get together to exchange pages. We have a theme that we create our pages around. You make 12 of the same layout and everyone else does 12 of their own. Then you swap them and you go home with 12 different layouts, including one of your own. I love doing it because with 4 children, it's nice to have loads of ready made pages that you just have to mount their pictures on to. It saves me a lot of time. My husband, jokingly I think, teases me about it. I tell him I'm preserving memories for our children and making a record of their lives. So, just leave me alone.

I love to read. My favorite types of books are: true crime, mystery, thriller and sometimes horror. I also enjoy some self-help books and that could include too many things to list. I enjoy watercolor painting, but haven't been able to do it for a long time. I enjoy movies. Spending time with friends, etc. I guess stuff that pretty much everyone else in the world likes to do.

I am attempting right now to lose weight. After having 4 kids, I think that anyone would want to lose some. I could stand to lose about 20 more pounds. Losing that much would put me back at my weight before I had my first child. I'm 37 pounds lighter (that sounds truly disgusting) then I was when I delivered my last son. I have been running around 2 miles on my treadmill about 5 days a week. I've also made some changes to my diet. I was a vegetarian from the age of 14 to 22. I'm kind of going back that route, just in a modified way.

Well, I guess that's enough about me for now. I have a crying baby to attend to and there's always time to do this later.