Life with Zoe Dance Christensen

On April 23rd, 2012, our family was blessed with a precious soul from Heavenly Father.

Her name is Zoe Dance Christensen. She was born 7 lbs 1 oz 20 inch long. Her mother, Amanda Dance Christensen, is an amazing woman. Everything went well and both baby and mom are healthy and strong.

As soon as she came into this world, her sweet spirit could be felt instantly. She is the most amazing and beautiful little infant I have ever seen. To watch her be born was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. What a miracle.

When she came out and was getting cleaned by the nurses, one of the first things everyone noticed was how aware she was. Her eyes were wide open and she was looking around everywhere. She cried, but her cries were sweet. After she was all cleaned up, mom held her for a while. We discovered that Zoe (although she didn't have a name at that point) looked most like her mom, especially her little nose. Dad was able to hold her after that. We thought that she had dad's eyes. Grandma Dance was with us as well and she was able to hold her too. These were very tender moments; holding such a precious and little soul for the first time. She is such a little angel. She didn't have a name at this point, and we often just called her our angel baby.

We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours and then we brought our angel baby home. We hadn't finalized a name yet, although we were talking a lot about Zoe. There were 3 or 4 names we "tried out" on her in the hospital just to see how we felt about them. Zoe seemed to stand out, but we hadn't made it official on the social security card information yet. In fact, we accidentally brought the social security card information sheet home with us (we were supposed to leave it at the hospital. We could call in later with the name since we hadn't decided yet). We got a call from the nurses telling us they needed that social security card information sheet the next day. By the next morning, we were 100% decided on naming her Zoe Christensen. We had talked about giving her a middle name, but thought that we would not. As we drove up to the hospital that morning, we thought about having her middle name be Dance. Dance is Amanda's maiden name, and it is a fun/unique/meaningful name that we thought would be nice to carry on in Zoe's name, especially since Zoe looked so much like her mom. So we pulled out the paperwork and on the way to the hospital to turn in all the information, we wrote down Zoe Dance Christensen. It felt so right.

She is now almost 4 weeks old and I can't imagine her name being anything else. She is such a little Zoe. She has been a great baby so far! She sleeps well, eats well, and is so adorable when she is awake. We took her to a family event last week, and everybody that saw her would sort of "melt" at the sight of her. She is so darn cute. Everyone keeps saying she is one of the most beautiful babies they've ever seen.

I 100% agree.


Life has new meaning. We have a new purpose. We have a new/special spirit in our home. Our lives are forever changed for the better and its only the beginning.

We are so grateful for the blessing of our beautiful, healthy baby girl, Zoe Dance Christensen.

We love you Zoe.

Life

Life is busy, and writing on my blog hasn't been a priority. Not that I will have that many disappointed readers, but I know I enjoy looking at other people's blogs and seeing how people are doing. So in an effort to do a quick update on our lives, here we go:

The last few posts I put up were related to Vocal Point, so I'll start there. The final results of The Sing-Off were that Vocal Point placed 5th, Afro Blue 4th, Urban Method 3rd, Dartmouth Airs 2nd, and Pentatonix took 1st. Of course, I knew that from about week 4 of the show when they sang "Video Killed the Radio Star" that they would win. They are incredible and I'm very excited to see where they go. What an amazing experience The Sing-Off was. And it was fun to go back to LA to perform once more for a Christmas episode as we sang "Let It Snow" with Nick Lachey! It was really neat to meet other groups from previous seasons and interact and perform with them! We had auditions for Vocal Point towards the end of fall semester 2011 and 4 of us were replaced: Me, Keith, Tyler, and Ben. It is sad to not be in the group anymore, but the new guys will carry on the legacy of Vocal Point and they will do more amazing things in the future!

So the semester was crazy and with all the sing off stuff, but I finished my finals and Christmas came! Amanda and I headed up to Alaska with my family and spent the holidays there! It was a blast! Everyone made it except for my little brother Jarom serving a mission in Tacoma, WA. All of my little nieces and nephews are so cute and it was fun to play with them all the whole time. We finally took a 3 day ski trip to Alyeska Ski Resort and that was one of the highlights! Skiing with my family at Alyeska is one of my fondest memories growing up! Amanda and I had our 3rd year anniversary on the 27th of December. Crazy to think we have already been married for 3 years! We celebrating by seeing a movie in IMAX (M:I4), going out to eat, and escaped to the Copper Whale Inn in downtown Anchorage, a really cozy and fun place to stay! Another highlight of the holidays!

Speaking of my beautiful wife, I don't know if I have blogged yet that WE ARE EXPECTING! She is so far along that it's not really news anymore. The due date is April 16th! So less than 2 months and a beautiful baby GIRL will join our family. It has been really exciting to get ready and kind of crazy that we are going to be parents soon! Amanda is doing really well! We feel blessed that she has been pretty healthy overall and so is the baby. Amanda even had a tap show a few weeks ago with her tap dance team! She is amazing like that. Amanda is teaching at an elementary school in Spanish Fork called Reese Elementary. She enjoys her job and teaching kids and she is really good at it!

I'm in my last semester of BYU and I will graduate in April. School is almost over for me and I'm ready to be done, as I've been here in Provo since fall 2004 (minus 2 years of a mission) so a total of 6 years. I am also working about 20 hours a week up at the Provo temple helping to maintain the facility as an internship. Along with work and all the homework and business of school, I've spent considerable time job hunting, applying, and interviewing. As soon as summer hits, we will most likely move away from Provo to wherever I get a job offer.

So there are a lot of changes a comin' our way! Baby in April, graduation in April, getting a new job and moving! These are really exciting times and I can't wait for it all to happen!

A post isn't a post without any pictures, so here are a few to enjoy from Christmas break :)

Kami and I having fun with Photo Booth

My newest cute niece Olivia (Dustin and Jenna's third)

The most I have seen it snow in Alaska for a while!

My cute niece Kaiya! (Dene and Mike's)

Christmas morning!

Tubing at Hillberg!

Merry Christmas!

Where Have We Been??????

Hello everyone! So It has been a few months since I have written on here. This past summer was insanely busy! Amanda went to Europe with a dance team called "Clog America" and I went to LA with BYU's Vocal Point to participate in a show on NBC called "The Sing-Off." We were apart for some time, but now fall semester is in full swing again at BYU, so we are both here again in Provo Utah!
I will continue to update our lives for Amanda and I on this blog. I did start a new blog for myself which you can find at mikebchristensen.blogspot.com. Here you will find posts that I will put up that just have to do with things I am up to. Feel free to follow! :)
Don't forget to watch BYU Vocal Point "The Sing-Off" every Monday night at 8/7c!!!!

New Internship

This last week I just started my internship at Nu Skin! There are a lot of different projects going on this summer as the Nu Skin building on center street in Provo is expanding and a lot of renovations a being done. So far all I have done is help out putting together some offices in one of their warehouses, as these offices were recently renovated. It has been fun to work with my hands and figure out how everything goes together with the office furniture. I also learned how to do wood touch up to make all the office furniture look nice and new:) we are basically finished with this project and next week we will move on to something else.
Amanda had her second to last week of teaching! She only has four days left now! So things are kind of winding down for her, and it will be nice to relax when she is done, especially after a busy year! So we are both looking forward to that!

My ID badge


Office furniture I'm helping up


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Location:S 400 E St,Provo,United States

Wicked in Boise!

Amanda and I are sitting in the Morrison Center on Boise State University campus ready and waiting to see Wicked! We are so excited!!!!













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Location:N Nola Rd,Meridian,United States

EarthFruits Yogurt

It was a beautiful day today in Provo! To celebrate the day, Amanda and I went to bike riding, and then made a trip to EarthFruits Yogurt!!! Our favorite ice cream place!! Yum!!!!











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Location:S 450 E,Provo,United States

Vocal Point going to New York!

BYU's Vocal Point is competing again this year, and just this last weekend, we had semi-finals in Las Angeles, and after watching a lot of amazing and talented a capella groups, PLU's "PLUtonic" took 3rd, UCLA's "Scattertones" took 2nd, and Vocal Point ended up taking first place! Which means that we are moving on to finals in New York City in three weeks! It is very exciting and will be lots of fun! :)

I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas!!!!

We did this barbershop for our ward talent show. It's a song Vocal Point director Buck Mangum arranged and wrote. We borrowed it and made a few changes:)

Tis the Season

So I know that I never sit down and take the time to actually write stuff on our blog, I just post random videos of things. I realize that I need to write more so this is my attempt to do so, especially as it gets closer to the holidays and I just start to feel the spirit of the season.
Yesterday I was walking outside and it was snowing lightly and I couldn't help but just feel happy. Then coming in from the cold and sitting by the warm.... furnace, just brings back old memories of sledding and hot chocolate. What is it about this season that brings those good feelings?
Family, friends, food, giving, and most of all, a season dedicated to our Savior, Jesus Christ. How miraculous is it that 2000 years later we remember His birth and celebrate His life. His kindness, charity, and love literally extends through all time, including ours, and will continue to do so forever. Thats where these feelings of happiness and joy through this season come from.
And what better way to start out the season than by giving thanks for the things we have. It is no accident that Thanksgiving comes right before Christmas:)
This season Amanda and I will celebrate Thanksgiving in Chicago with my brother Brett and his wife Kinsey and their little boy Bently whom we have yet to meet. We are so excited! Excited to get a break from the craziness that is school and excited to be with family of course. After that there are 2 more weeks of school and one week of finals for me, and 3 more weeks of teaching 6th graders for Amanda. Then, it's off to Alaska where both of our families live right now to enjoy 2 full weeks of Christmas, New Years, and our 2nd wedding anniversary! :)
As for right now, we are hanging in there keeping busy with everything! While Amanda is very busy teaching, she also makes time to do what she loves, dance! Last Friday and Saturday she was in the Senior Showcase that the dance majors put on. She did an amazing job! As busy as I keep with school, I also try and find time to do what I love right now, which is sing! Vocal Point had their fall show last Friday night and it was such a fun experience to perform with them! And if course, Amanda and I also made time to go see the midnight showing of Harry Potter 7 part 1 last Thursday night. We are avid Harry Potter fans and the movie did not disappoint. It was especially fun as we dressed up and went with a lot of friends and family.
Tis the season. The season to remember what we are thankful for. To love. To give. To do something for someone else that might not be convienient to us. Something extraordinary. To be a little kinder. A little more patient. A little more Christlike. To be jolly:)

12 Days of Christmas

It's a little early, I know, but here is our fun 12 Days of Christmas song:)

Vocal Point Game Day BYU Football Game

Click here link to see Vocal Point performing at the BYU Football Game :)

God Bless the USA- Vocal Point

Vocal Point Heber City Show-Jump Jive

Our first show together out in Heber City on Oct. 20th. A great audience and a really fun show!

Funny Pepsi commercial

We watched this in my HR class today! A good idea to get a job? Haha

The Forgotten Man

Great Birthday Video

I was looking for a video to send my brother today to with him a Happy Birthday and I found this. I thought it was very clever and well done. Not to mention that it's one of my favorite movies! :)

Miracles

Take a second and watch this. A combination of different music videos to make one song! I've never seen anything like this! :)

Bobby McFerrin - This is amazing!

Jump Jive and Wail!

Mikey singing Jump Jive and Wail with Vocal Point out in Brigham Square on Sept. 17th!

BYU Vocal Point!

This year is the 20th anniversary of BYU Vocal Point! There will be a lot of neat stuff going on all year so stay updated by visiting our webpage at http://www.byuvocalpoint.com or visit our facebook page or follow us on Twitter. Don't miss out on amazing shows and experiences with us this year!