Birthday girl.

Scarlett Marie. Where do I begin? How are you two years old? Wasn't I just pregnant with you? And here you are now basically your own woman. How does this happen to us mothers? You won't understand the bittersweetness of it all until you're a mommy yourself one day.

This feels like just yesterday:

You are an absolute joy. There are no words. You are a singer and a dancer. You are a doer; you make sure you're not left out of anything your older sister gets to do. You and Lucy laugh together almost constantly (unless you're beating up on each other) and you learned how to hold your own with her so early on. You laugh and smile all day long. You are the happiest girl. And even when you get hurt or are upset, we ask you if you're sad and through tears you always say, "No, happy!"

-You love cereal more than about anything. And ask for it for every meal of the day.

-You love to be sung Sing Sweet Nightingale from Cinderella. You love to sing it as well. You ask for it every night while going to bed. And when it's over you will demand, "Song!" as many times as you can. You started having an affinity for music really early.

-You love your sister. When she gets in trouble even if it's for something she's done to you, you want to go to her so bad. And when she goes to play group you are devastated, and usually wallow around moaning for her on the couch for the entire time she's gone.

-You love to kiss and hug. You are the most snugly and affectionate child.

There are too many things we love and adore about you. You are hilarious. And so stinking cute. And you know it.

Here's a little sample of what putting you to bed every night is like. I never want to forget what you're like at two years old.

To celebrate your special day this year, we started off the morning heading over to Build-a-Bear at the mall. You and your sister were both elated. You chose a kitty and Lucy chose a pony, much to your dad's dismay. He kept trying to steer you both away from them and back over to the bears, because afterall this was Build-a-BEAR. And he actually turned to me and said, "What, we're gonna put dresses and tiaras on a horse and a cat?" And I told him he was right, bears in the wild have been seen much more frequently wearing princess dresses and tiaras. In the end, it turns out he had every right to be opinionated about it, Scarlett. Because he had to sell his Harley so we could afford that place. Your father loves you so much! You and your sis both were elated with the whole process. And we certainly hope you loved every second of it because we'll most likely never go back. :)

Then we had lunch at the mall and came home so you could get a good nap in. And also so your angelic mother who is 9 months pregnant with your little sister could bake you a homemade birthday cake. From scratch. See all the love in that face? All for you. It was nothing fancy, but exactly what you asked for: chocolate.

Lucy helped too. She'd never let me live it down if I didn't mention that.

When you woke up we were off to Chuck E. Cheese's for your family birthday bash! You were still tired from your nap. Took you a minute to get into the groove.

But you loved that big mouse... when he wasn't facing directly toward you.

After a couple hours of playing games and running around we then went over to Coney's to have cake, frozen custard and open presents. You walked right in like you owned the place.

And blew out both candles with no practice runs...

And immediately after yelled, "I did it!" with your fist raised high in the air most triumphantly.

You have a very special place in your heart for Dora as of late. And the nightgown nearly sent you over the edge with maniacal happiness.

As well as the extra large Dora doll from Grandma... along with mini Boots, Swiper and Baby Jaguar. You and Lucy haven't stopped fighting over them since you got them. Oh the love.

Scarlett, I'm so lucky to be your mom. We are such good friends. Even when you take your poopy diaper off in your crib before I can get you out, I still adore you to the utmost. You have your dad swooning on a daily basis. His heart melts for his little girls unlike anything I've ever seen before. You have wonderful things ahead of you in this life and we thank Father in Heaven every day for sending you to be part of our family. Happy Birthday baby!

April Eastery bliss and much, much more.

Wow. So much to document. I never said this blogpost would be short and fast. I only said it would be worth it.

Ahem.

First of all, Jason confessed to me yesterday that he's not that into smore's. And honestly, it came as a huge blow. It's just that all of our marriage I thought it was something we had an equal obsession with. As in when it's not warm enough to roast them over a fire, I make them using the broiler. As in, late at night when the kids are sleeping, I'll look at him and rub my hands together with that maniacal look in my eye and say, "Let's get really crazy baby! Let's make smore's!" And then he told me he just doesn't care for them the same way I do. And I'm depressed about it. Gooey roasted marshmallow? Melted chocolate on graham? What's not to obsess over? I just feel like I don't really know him anymore. And it's sad. I feel like I relate a lot more to the couple on, "The Vow"... having to start again from square one. I just hope our relationship has the grit to get through this.

Anyway. I'm full term with this baby! But ya know I decided, being "full term" is kindof a trick on the psyche. Because once you hit 37 weeks it's like, "any day now!" But really, your body doesn't care when the medical professionals deem the baby as "full term" does it? It will go until it's ready. So I packed my hospital bag and cleared all the photos off the camera and charged the video camera and now I'm just sitting here staring at the wall waiting to go into labor any minute. And when you do that, it makes for a long few more weeks if that's the case. Lucy came 4 days early and Scarlett came a week early so I'm hoping it's at the most a couple more weeks I have to be pregnant. I'm ready to meet this itty girl! I'm ready to be able to sleep on my back. I'm ready to lose the waddle. I'm ready to eat to my heart's content and not fill up after 3 bites. I'm ready for my back and hips to stop their moanin' and groanin'. I'm ready for the 2 day hospital stay where I ring a bell and they bring me whatever I want. Pain medication? No problem. Mani/Pedi? Comin' right up. King crab legs and drawn butter? Right away. Shopping spree when you get your bod back? Done and done.

The anticipation of having another baby is really quite thrilling. I'm sad it only happens in life for a relatively small window of time, even though from what I hear when you're done with that window, you know you're really done and you're ready to be done with it. But still, wondering when go time will be, wondering what she'll look like, wondering what we'll name her, (still up in the air), wondering what this round of L&D will bring. I know babies come into the world every single day all over the world, but it's a big huge earth shaking deal when it's yours.

Phew. Okay. Let's get to it already. April is half way through and the first half has been busy. We headed down to St. George for Easter weekend because Jason entered himself into a triathlon with these two fellow studs. They love each other a lot.

Look at the three of 'em... in their wee little swim shorts gettin' ready for their swims. What peaches. That's Mervis (AKA Curtis), Jason and Dave. BFFs forever. As in, BFFF.

However I decided I'm over being a triathlete's wife for the time. He can do as many as he'd like but I just can't be as supportive and super-fanish as I've been. As in, waking up at 5:30 AM, dragging my tiny kids out of bed and into the freezing cold car (it was 34 degrees that morning), taking him to where he needs to be and waiting so I can take pics as he's swan diving into the water and running around like a mad woman with both children in tow so I can take pictures at every transition and scream his name. I think I've paid my dues in that department; I've done it a lot. But this time was the breaking point. The double jogging stroller wasn't working so I had to carry both girls like 5 blocks to the aquatic center in 34 degrees with them both crying over the cold (remember 9 months pregnant here). And then I would tell you what happened next, but I don't want to taint your opinion of me because I'm such a prim and proper lady, but let's just say it involved breaking into a sweat and making a serious haul to the restroom, shoving people out of my way and into the water as I ran, and dragging my two little girls with me every step. And do your kids have an obsession with unlocking bathroom stalls and opening the doors as much as mine do? Pregnancy takes a toll in so many ways. So many humiliating and shameful ways.

This is the crew of champions that made it all worth it though. Love each and every one of them so much.

And these champions:

Chad, Anais, Ashlyn and Trevor

And my favorite part was afterward how Julie and Katie and I were so wasted from taking pictures of the boys doing a triathlon that we got to rest at the condo while they went and picked lunch up for us. And how sore I was the rest of the weekend from hauling our kids around (including the third inutero)... so I had to ask Jason for several massages... I'm so sore from Saturday morning babe... it just really wore me out.

We enjoyed delicious Mexican food one of the nights we were there... Jason had dropped me off at the door to put our name in and so he could park the car, so you can imagine my surprise upon finding our vehicle like this. That's right, in a ditch. Pretty much completely high centered on the curb. It's a long story, but after lots of burning rubber, spinning tires going nowhere, some playing bumper cars with the car parked behind us, and some good earnest prayer we made it out of there. And left a nasty note on the car behind us while we were at it, I mean really? Learn how to park!

Which reminds me of a story that happened when Jason and I were first married. I stopped by his office one day (probably just to tell him how much I love him) and when I was leaving the parking lot I decided to leave a nasty note on his car as a joke. It said something like, "Learn how to park, blankity blank." He was parked perfectly I might add. I thought I was so funny. I spent the whole day reveling in my cleverness and waiting for him to walk through the door, all exasperated, dying to tell me about some jerk who left an obscene note on his car, and then I could comfort him and tell him, I'm sorry baby... your parking is excellent. He walked in the door and you can imagine my dismay when he was chipper as ever, whistling his merry little tune. After 15 minutes of chit chatting about the day, and some digging on my part (so, nothing interesting happened today?) I finally broke down and said, "NO ONE LEFT A NASTY NOTE ON YOUR CAR???" And then he said, "Oh yeah... someone did. I didn't think much of it, but now I'm guessing that was you?" It was honestly the most anticlimactic moment of my life up until that point. I didn't even do my cheesy, "Gotcha!!!" that I'd been practicing all day. And that's when I vowed, right then and there, to plant a pipe bomb in his office.

The next morning was Easter morning! Except we didn't take very many pictures because the girls got into a scuffle first thing and we almost cancelled Easter and this year's Christmas too. Scarlett pulled Lucy's hair and Lucy...well... almost bit Scarlett's face off. Literally. She is lucky dad was the one to handle it because he was in the room with them, even though discipline from dad is much less frequent and much more terrifying. She almost got punted into the next life by her pregnant mother. I almost shredded off all my clothes and went Incredible Hulk on her. Nothing makes me want to be a child abuser like biting. Not kidding.

Yup. Check those teeth marks out on that little face. Perfect for Easter pictures. I couldn't even look at Scarlett's little cheek without swelling up with rage that whole day.

Good news is, we got to have a long talk about making mistakes, repentance and forgiveness and how the Savior makes it all possible. And Scarlett ran into Lucy and gave her a huge hug while she was in exile and Jason and I both got all teary-eyed. Turns out Lucy staged the whole thing to help us focus on the real meaning of Easter and to help us not get caught up in the Easter Bunny stuff. She's so funny that girl.

The rest of the day was simply glorious. We had a delicious traditional Christensen breakfast prepared by moi and my husband (eggs-a-la-golden-rod) and headed to church. Then we went over to the Brigham Young home (historical site) and from there went over to walk the temple grounds. The weather was simply sublime. The company even better.

Except my belly was hanging out the bottom of my shirt the entire day and I didn't realize until after a couple hours of flashing strangers the great white. You think you're safe wearing parachutes, but no one is safe. And Dave finds pregnant women particularly abhorrent. Couldn't look at me all weekend without dry heaving. He didn't even know Jason was snapping this pic.

Scarlett's going through a weird licking phase. And hey, her dad thinks it's hilarious and adorable so why wouldn't she?

At the temple. There's something so spectacular about that St. George temple. I love it.

Lucy's favorite part of Easter was that night when she received her very own home made chocolate bunny... compliments of Aunt Katie. I told her it was too late to dig into it, put her to bed, and then we promptly broke those bunnies down and made smore's with them. Delicious. You rock my world Katie girl!

So we said farewell to our beloved friends and the Christensen clan headed south to Phoenix because Jason had some business to attend to. We took a detour on Monday to go to the skywalk at the Grand Canyon. And we do have a picture somewhere of all of us on the actual skywalk, but we had to purchase it. (You can't take your own cameras onto it. Something about the fragility of the glass... really?? Yet it can stand a 8.5 earthquake and hundreds of tubalards walking out onto it daily. The good news is, the pictures you can purchase from them are only $5,000 a piece. I haven't finished unpacking everything but that pic is floating around here somewhere...) I'd say it was pretty awesome, but in order to get there you have to drive like 20 miles on the windiest, bumpiest gravel road (which takes approximately two hours) so I wouldn't recommend it if you're 9 months pregnant. I was screaming about the contractions and my water breaking and things like, YOU DID THIS TO ME!!! at Jason the entire drive, but it turns out I wasn't close to being in labor afterall. Phew.

After a 12 hour day (detour took a LOT longer than anticipated) we arrived safely at my sister's house, and she promptly greeted us, got the ice packs out and began massaging my sausage feet. Literally no bones or tendons visible in those feet that night. Being at your big sissy's house is blissful.

Sadly, this is the only pic I got from our 3 day stay there, because I came down with the stomach flu or something the next day. Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Look at that Lucia and cousin Isaiah. haha. I love it.

Thank you for taking such good care of me Bepty boodle! You are some kind of wonderful!

Heading out of Phoenix we had car trouble. (Probably residual effect of aforementioned parking job in St. George.) So we took her in and were set back 4 or 5 hours and ended up only making it to Vegas that night instead of home. So we made lemonade out of it. The buffet at the Wynn was great (my husband LOVES a good buffet. Nobody mess with him and his buffets!) Scarlett spotting the table of friendly Asian guys next to us laughing at her while hoovering her ice-cream may have been my favorite part of the night. She stared at them like this for a good 6 or 7 minutes, wondering what was so funny.

And finally, some more sister shots of a couple other Easter dresses I couldn't resist. I was in a much more amiable mood for a photo shoot the following Sunday since the scarring was almost completely gone.

Delectable. Simply delectable. I love little girls. And yes we do have a tiny matching yellow dress for baby sister. I just can't help myself.

And better late than never, we painted eggs. The girls were thrilled. And I chuckled to myself the entire time Dad was doing the eggs with them, because I could just calmly make dinner and listen to, "Don't touch that! You'll break it!"... and "If you can't be good listeners we're putting the eggs away!" roughly 74 times in one hour. Happy family memories. Love these three so much.

And lastly... a sidenote here... Scarlett is officially a nose-picker. And we don't know what to do about it. It's disgusting. But she doesn't seem to get how socially unacceptable it is. Because it's become a constant thing for her. Lucy never had this affinity for her nose. But Scarlett does, and it's only one nostril she prefers. And it seems like she goes for it every time a stranger walks up and starts talking to her about how cute she is. It's like she's just keeping herself humble or something. Disturbing.

She does it everywhere. Like when sitting with dad:

Or standing all alone:

Or overlooking the grand canyon:

Or painting Easter eggs:

Any tips?

Loves to all, thanks for reading about our lives. I told you it would be worth it, especially the nose picking part. Countdown for baby girl #3 has officially begun. Keep you posted.

March Madness

I was really happy with myself when I came up with the title of this post. I just think it has a nice ring to it... and it's just so original. With the clever alliteration and all... I'm sorry to toot my own horn but I hey I'm not ashamed to say I come up with clever things. CLEVER.

I just woke up from a two hour nap, kids. Two hours! It's unreal, isn't it? Yes it is. And would be a whole lot better if I wasn't awake with Lucy from 1:30 AM until 6 AM this morning while she threw up every 20 minutes. I'm not exaggerating. It was awful in every way. Poor little duck. Heart breaking. So I put Scarlett down for her nap and told Lucy we had to lay down. She tried to tell me she wasn't tired and that she was all better, but was twitching and snoring softly within 15 seconds of laying next to me. And of course, once both of my littles were sleeping soundly I had a burst of frantic energy thinking of everything I could get done and had to slap myself in the face a few times and FORCE myself to lay down and close my eyes and shove all those tasks out of my mind. And I feel a lot better for it.

So, this month has been nuts as usual. And before we get going on the run down I have for you, as a side note, I just want to say I don't remember having pregnancy clumsiness in my first two pregnancies. It's something I've heard of before but honestly, I'm an out of control buffoon this round. I drop at least one item daily. I have broken 3 or 4 dishes. A couple weeks ago I was pouring a smoothie from the blender into a rather large cup and while staring directly down at it in my hands, I started pouring the smoothie just next to the cup and directly onto the floor. I'm not kidding. Lucy was just standing there with a confused look on her face. So I had to tell her to beat it! I spill milk every time I try to pour it... into anything. And they tell you not to cry over spilt milk but I can tell you today that I have cried over it. Shed actual tears. I mean they can say that all fine and dandy until something that's out of your control takes over you and you find yourself involuntarily splashing around in gallons of milk all over your floor and counter tops on a daily basis.

And my body continues to deteriorate. Can someone who's had lots of kids just go ahead and confirm it to me that you fall apart more every pregnancy? So I can just know that and embrace it? Jason came into our bedroom last night to find me crumpled up on our bed with tears streaming, telling him I've always felt like I had a strong and able body but I am limping and waddling around all day long and I still have a month left. My calf muscles are out of control sore (from my daily calf presses ... just kidding. From walking up and down the stairs twice a day or so I presume) and my back and pelvis feel like I've been beaten in the night with a baseball bat. I've been expecting this to come the last week or two but it's been since at least a month ago this round. So I'm crying to him and then look up and he's reading on his iPhone and then he catches me shooting daggers out of my eyes at him and then tells me, as casually and innocently as he can, that he's looking up where I can get a prenatal massage. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant folks. I have to admit it was a clean save. He was probably reading sports commentators' tweets. But I have to hand it to him for the quick thinking.

On another side note, I'm getting really excited to meet this little girl. She's nestled into her final head down position, and sticks her feet out my right side over and over again pretty much all day long just to let me know she's there. And no matter how many babies you have, you're dying just the same to see who/what they look like. I was terrified to have two but three hasn't phased me in the slightest for some reason. Probably because Lucy turns 4 this July and therefore will be of babysitting age so I'll just be able to hand baby off to her when she comes home from preschool. It'll be really something.

Alright, back to our March Madness.

This month we:

Went to the Bean museum at BYU. Jason has been so busy and so stressed the last several months and this particular Saturday earlier this month was a blessed occasion indeed. He didn't have any training of any kind, he didn't even have any church basketball.We went to the museum that morning and then went to a matinee and then to dinner and just spent the day together. I love having him around.

We went with the Phillips to Disney on Ice, Toy Story! It was excellent. So cute. Thanks again Aimei and Eric!! We chose this background for pics to prove to you that we were really at Disney on Ice. See? You thought we were making it up!?

And here are the cutest Woody and Buzz around. Max looks particularly thrilled with the event doesn't he?

We tried craw dads for the very first time with an excellent group of friends. (Thanks again Mike and Tiff!) The night was quite superb. But don't play around with a live one of anything before you consume its family members. Just a general rule of thumb for how to live your life.

And we played some good Dance party on the Wii afterwards. I mean for being 8.5 months pregnant, it's crazy that I still smoked everyone. I even spun on my head for a while afterward for good measure. Some things you just don't lose.

And this last Saturday we spent the day with Jason's side of the family down in Gunnison at Heidi and Steve's. We had a little early Easter celebration because Cathy was in town, and because we're always looking for a reason to party.

We headed over first thing in the AM for a session at the Manti temple. I loved it. First time through that temple, it was exquisite.

We went horse back riding for a bit. Carson was able to come with us and needless to say, Lucy was over the moon the entire time in his presence. Still wants to marry that cousin. Bad.

A little natural cowgirl.

This Scarlett was all laughs and giggles... making fun of all the other kids for being hesitant around the horses... calling them wusses...

Until it was her time to shine. Not so giggly anymore. Despite her initial uncertainty, she still ended up doing a handstand on it's back while it trotted her around, and dismounted with an awesome back flip off its rear.

But I must admit, the real star of the show was this cowboy right here. Watching him gallop was seeing him in his element like I've never seen before...

Look at the intensity on that face.

And lemme tell ya, it was really somethin' to behold for me as his wife. In fact, this here horse he's on was a wild mustang that they've been trying (and failing) to break for months. Until Jason came to town. And that wild mustang is tame as my little pony now. I was quite invigorated after his little show. It really made me swoon. Until he tried to ride by me, grab my arm and swing me onto the back of the horse with him like the hotshot riders do to their damsels in the Old Western movies. I made the horse lose its balance and instead of landing gracefully onto the saddle with my cowboy, slammed into its rear end and thudded to the ground. That part didn't play out how he'd imagined it in his mind.

I insisted on taking this pic with my BFF/SIL Becky because last pregnancy our due dates were 2 weeks apart and we took like 500 pics like this throughout the entire 9 months. But I mostly insisted on it to flatter my figure.

Best cousins. Like I said, Lucy is always trying to move it from "cousins" to "more than cousins", but Carson keeps it in the cousins zone.

And we had an early Easter egg hunt. Win/win/win. For everyone around.

Lucy trying to look all sultry. Scarlett too, with chocolate smeared all over her face. Love these sisters.

See? I told you our March has been mad. And I'm in shock it's almost April now and we could be having this baby this month. Life flies by fast. And that's all I have to say. For now.