Sisters and Easter

So, as many of you may already know, I have the coolest sisters on the planet. I am so lucky to have so many amazing people to look up to and learn from! We all got together (except we missed JeLynn!) to play before Karen heads to Iowa. Britt and Joc, my oh-so cute and fun nieces came too and we had a blast! We mostly hung out, acted immature in the swimming pool and ate way too much - it was great! We also got to go to the BYU v. U of U gymnastics meet, see "The Blind Side" (which is like the best movie I've ever seen!), and go shopping. The only bad thing about it was that it ended too soon.

For Easter we headed up to Karen and Austin's for the weekend. We love being with them and are going to miss them so much when they move! Dang med school. I only cry most of the time when I think about it! Hopefully we'll be somewhere close in a year when we also head off to med school.

Check out what we got for Easter:

Pretty cute, eh? Pepper is growing up too fast and getting way too cute for her own good. She smiles all the time now and is "talking" up a storm! I LOVE IT!!!

Well, this post is short, but frankly I am just proud of myself for blogging so soon! It hasn't been six months since the last post! Love to you all!

Baby Pepper

Hey everyone! So, as I am sure all of you know since it happened 7 weeks ago and we've talked to you... and been more diligent about adding photos to Facebook... Our sweetest ever baby girl was born in January! She is so adorable and so fun and we are learning how to be parents! Hopefully we are doing an okay job. Here we are with Baby Pepper in the hospital.

Some people have requested the story, so here it is: I had been dilated to a 4 and 100% effaced for two weeks, having been told by my doctor that she was going to pop out any second, which she didn't... for two weeks. So, the morning of the 19th I had my doctor's appointment (Again) and he was shocked I hadn't had her yet (Again). Since I was so far along he said he would induce me a week early, that coming Friday. Since I was group B strep positive, he said that actually it might be best for her to just stay put for a few days so we could have more control over the situation and make sure I had enough time for my antibiotics. Well, I think little Miss Pepper just has a mind of her own and doesn't like to be told what to do. She took that as her personal invitation into the world and I went into labor that night!

I was contracting 5 minutes apart for a few hours, but they didn't hurt much. My doctor had said to go to the hospital if they were regular though, since we didn't know how fast my labor would progress. So, we went... and I was monitored for two hours, contracting 3 minutes apart the whole time, but I wasn't progressing. So, they sent me home. Went to sleep at 2:30 and woke up at 5:30 in major pain. I think I was ready for the epidural right then. But, given that I had just been sent home (that's so embarrassing), I stayed in bed for thirty minutes trying to rough it out. Finally I thought I might be assisted by a warm shower, but when I stood up I felt a gush of blood. It wasn't my water breaking, just some blood. So, off we went to the hospital again. We drove much faster this time! T.J. would speed every time I had a contraction and then slow down in between. It was so funny... well, you know, looking back. I wasn't laughing at that point.

I got checked in immediately when we arrived (around 6:30 a.m.) and I was ready for my epidural. Saint John, my anesthesiologist upon whom I conferred Saint-hood (although if I'd known how quickly she was planning to pop out, I just might have opted to skip the pain meds...) arrived and I was quite comfortable at 7:30. Come 8:50 I was pushing, and at 9:11 a.m. Miss Pepper Ja'net made her grand entrance into the world! 6 lbs. 11.5 oz. and 20 inches long. T.J. was scrubbed in to help catch, but just as the doctor was showing him how to grab they head, she literally just flew out and plopped onto the table! Daddy dropped her. How will she ever trust him to catch her now?!

My labor went really quickly, so I didn't have enough time for even a half a dose of the antibiotics (can't they just give them to you in advance since they know you need them?! Someone should really work on that). Pepper's heart rate was dropping during labor so the respiratory specialists were there for the delivery. She did fine at first, but after a minute just stopped breathing. It took them 20 seconds to get her to breathe again. They were concerned she had an infection, so I only got to hold her for about a minute before they whisked her down to the nursery. T.J. got to go down and be with her for a while, which was nice. I didn't get to see her again until about 4 hours later.

She was worth the wait. :) Here she is one day old and so alert! She has been this way from the beginning, as you can see. She is so wide-eyed and just doesn't want to miss a thing.

Here she is reading her first, but definitely not last, Dr. Seuss book with Daddy in the hospital. She loves reading books!

Now she is 7 weeks and growing so so fast! Her teeny little hands are getting bigger and she is chubbing out. It makes me sad to see her growing up already! But, she just gets cuter and cuter and we can't get enough of her! She is a really good baby and sleeps pretty well once she gets to sleep. Sometimes she just fights so hard though to stay awake. She is awesome though and has only sprayed me with a jet stream of poop once!

Here we are, the Christensen trio, on her blessing day

And giving a little smile after Church. She is learning to smile and it is quite possibly the cutest thing I have EVER seen! The best ones are right when she wakes up in the morning. I love love love it!

With mommy and daddy...

And just being so sweet...

We have about one BILLION adorable pictures of her. It's hard to just pick a few to post. So, you should all just come visit us and meet her in person. :)

It's a GIRL!!!

It's a girl and we couldn't be more excited!!! Both T.J. and I thought it would be a girl, so we were pretty stoked to see that we were right. Of course we would have been happy with a boy too! Here are a few of our ultrasound pictures for you to enjoy. I feel a little weird about plastering photos of her little bum on the internet...but, people do that, right? ha! Anyway, here she is, Baby Christensen! She doesn't have a name yet. We have a few that we like, but we are going to wait until we see her to make the final decision.

Here is a cute little yawn! All that wriggling around must have made her tired. The ultrasound tech lady, who was so nice, said she was very active...she was all over the place in there!

And she gave us a little smile! She just loves us. :)

These are her adorable little legs and feet!

And an arm. I think it's cool you can see their little bones. Seeing the ribs and spine was really cool. And, it was SUCH a relief to see the heart, stomach, brain, etc. and hear the ultrasound lady say she is healthy! She kept saying, "oh, what a perfect little heart!" "Look at those perfect legs!" I was pretty much loving her at that point.

And...it's a girl! Look at that cute little bum! Honestly I can't tell she's a girl really other than there is nothing to indicate that she is a boy. :) The ultrasound lady (really should have found out her name huh?) said Dad should buy a shotgun, because she was not being modest in there!

And lastly a little profile. How cute is that?! I love it!

Oh Baby!

Whoa! A blog post from the Christensens! I know, great day. I really am going to get better at this. Today it will be a short post, but I thought you all may want to take a look at our exceptionally cute fetus. That's right, we're having a baby! We are so excited!!! I am just over 13 weeks. These first pictures of baby were taken last week. It was the coolest thing ever to hear the little heartbeat and see our baby moving around inside of me.

In this one they were measuring the heartbeat. 174 beats per minute! Fast and healthy for baby at 12 weeks.

Measuring the length...a whopping 5.23 cm from rump to crown. They grow up so fast!

This is the token creepy shot of baby looking right at us. Hi Baby!

I love this one because it actually looks like a little baby in there!

And here we have a little wave with the hand. :)

We went snowing!

So apparently something consistently misfires in my brain when I want to say "skiing"...I always say "snowing" instead. This made for some interesting conversations on our ski adventures Saturday. Glad to be of service.

Yes, friends, Saturday was the best ski day we have EVER had! It was snowing all day, it was all fresh powder (tons of runs with no tracks!) and it wasn't that busy at all. We thought for sure, it being the long weekend and all, that it would be packed. Not so. It MAY have been due to the fact that we were at the cheapest local resort.... hee hee :)

We went with our friends Sam and Holly and had a few awesome adventures... On the way there we slid off the road. Thankfully we were riding in Sam and Holly's CR-V and not our Ford Taurus! We slid off right after another car so we helped them out and they tried to help us. I say tried because our efforts were in vain. We just kept getting more and more stuck! We were calling AAA when finally an SUV stopped with a tow rope and towed us out. On to skiing! ...or so we thought. On the windy canyon road up to the resort we came to a dead stop. This would have been okay on normally days, but the snow was coming down fast and hard and cars were sliding backwards. Awesome. We finally got moving and passed the semi which was half in the ditch on the side of the road causing all the ruckus! We finally made it to the slopes an hour and a half after the planned arrival!

But the adventures were not yet over! We were on the first lift and going past the midpoint where you can either get off or stay on the lift. We were staying on and we all had our tips up like good little skiiers (and the snowboarder rebel T.J.). The only problem was that I forgot about my poles! Normally I sit on them under my legs, but no, I just had them dangling away under our seat. Well, needless to say, I felt the pressure as they dragged on the ground and when I pulled them up they were sporting the lovely bent-at-a-ninety-degree-angle look. Very ravishing. Had they not been my brand new poles that I have NEVER used, I probably would have found it a titch more amusing. As it was I was pretty sad. T.J. tried to bend them back...less effective. They snapped right in half! haha! It was pretty funny (looking back!). I ended up renting some poles for the day and it made for a great story!

Well, the pole adventures continued... Later we were on a hard powdery fun run and Sam biffed it pretty good. As he fell he put his pole between his crossed skiis... and SNAP! Clean break! Nice scissor shearing from his skiis I'd say. Make sure not to get your fingers between those devils! He had a gimped uni-plegic pole for the rest of the day.

Despite all these crazy times, it was such a fun day!!! T.J. was a champ! He threw two 360s, which he landed amazingly and looked so studly I almost tackled him right there! He also did some awesome somersaults off the edges and I was so impressed. My husband is so cool! :) I also had a complete blast! I went with T.J. and Sam all day on all the crazy runs and when I started to feel scared and just decided that that wouldn't help and I went all out. Turns out that that makes it a million times more fun! I feel really in control of my skiis and am getting faster at switching from edge to edge. I am also getting better at keeping parallel with my feet close together and being in control when I go really fast. It is so so so much fun!! I love it! We went in this big bowl at one point and it was crazy! We kept going through drifts of powder that would be up to my waist almost! I can't believe I didn't get stuck in them...not sure how that works, but it was nuts. T.J. and Sam also led me to this skinny-super-bumpy-cliff-edges-on-both-sides-top-of-the-mountain path...good times. I am still alive. After that, we went down one of those cliff edges (okay so not a CLIFF, but it was REALLY steep!) through the TREES! Hello?! I am terrified of dying by tree impact! But, I went bravely on (yes, I am bragging just a little here...) and I did it! It was awesome and felt great.

Anyway, it was such an amazing day of snowing! We had a blast and were super glad to have Sam and Holly with us, they're awesome!

We got home around 5:30 then showered and got ready for Justin and Elise to come over. We made the most delicious pizzas EVER (they might have tasted so good because we were famished!), played games, frosted and ate heart-shaped sugar cookies and watched a sappy romantic comedy. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

It was a great fun day and such a nice break from school and work. Thanks to Dad and KC1 for all the amazing snowing gear and lift tickets!!! It was my inaugural run on my new skiis, which I absolutely love!, and my new boots. I can't believe that my feet weren't killing me by the end of the day. They felt great, and I was singing praises to Dad and Kendell! AND, I was actually WARM all day thanks to my wonderful husband who got me wool socks and nice gloves for my birthday! I am way too spoiled in the skiing department, but no complaints here, I LOVE IT! Check out how rad my skiis are below...that's right, they are pink. HOT pink.

Happy Groundhog Day!

By the way, I love groundhog day. I wish we still celebrated like we did in elementary school. I haven't colored a groundhog since then I feel a distinct lack of joy in my life because of it. Tonight for FHE T.J. and I will color groundhogs!

SO, I should still be doing homework! :) I am not so good at this adding pictures thing. That is why you are getting two posts in the same day! Maybe even three if it gets bad again. Lucky you!

p.s. Over Christmas we also got to see Shelise and Kyle and Hudson! ...and baby in the tummy...
It was awesome to see them and have fun together. We wish they would move to Provo...Move to Provo!

We got to go skiing at the beginning of the semester, which was a blast! T.J. loves it and would go every day if he could. I am getting better and whipping down black diamonds without even being scared now! Okay, I still have to slow down every now and then, but it is loads of fun. We went this time with out buddy Joe. He is awesome...and also not pictured here, but just imagine a really awesome guy, okay? p.s. I was quite sick that day...I hope I don't normally look so enthused!

The 9th was my niece Brittany's wedding in St. George! Crazy that my little buddy Britt is already married! She was an absolutely beautiful bride (LOVED her dress!) and seems so happy with James! It was great to be there for the sealing and also at the reception...who would want to miss THAT cake fight?! Below are pictures of the adorable Daddy Daughter Dance and of Joclynn and Skye. p.s. the Jenkins family is so fun, not to mention hilarious! We love them! Also, on the temple steps are Kaelynn's adorable kids with T.J.

On the 12th Mom and Dad left for the MTC, but a week later we got to hang out some more until they flew to Australia! We had fun with Lance and Karen's families and celebrated T.J. and Dad's birthdays. We love being with our families, it is the happiest of happy times. Above is my cute cute Mom, and below my missionary parents! By the way, they are in Australia now and my Dad is the new branch president out in the bush! Crazy. They are loving it and having a great time. Also below are the twins, Addie and Lexi. Can they get any cuter?! And a bunch of grandkids around Grandpa for the birthday celebration. I am cracking up over Devin's cheesy smile...and Meredith! She is into this "pose" thing, with no smile...just so chic. I love it!

Well, now we are back in school and crazy busy. I have 13.5 credits (8.5 is graduate full time) and am working as a research assistant for Laura. T.J. has lots of science classes and is working in the Lamb Lab doing chemistry...macro cycles, transition metals...preconcentrating... Anyway, he loves it and sounds super smart when talking about it! We are taking a weight training class together and are getting buff! There is a triathaloner awesome girl in our ward and I am swimming with her twice a week in the mornings too. I love it!

We just got called as Primary teachers, teaching the 8 year old class. They are so awesome, we love it!

We are happy and feel so blessed. It seems like everytime we turn around there is another blessing just waiting to fall in our laps. We're so grateful for them all, and for wonderful families!

I should be doing homework!

But...I feel like I have done nothing but homework for the past week with no breaks, so I decided to be totally irresponsible and blog instead. Maybe if I would update this more frequently it wouldn't be such a task!

In November I went to Notre Dame for a research conference on moral development with my awesome advisor, Laura! It was so fun getting to know her better and learn lots too. She is now trying to convince me to go on to get my PhD. We had a blast, went on a run around campus, ate too much popcorn, and I even got her lost on the way to a cute Italian restaurant and had to phone her GPS husband for assistance! Here are some pics by the Notre Dame stadium, and one with "Touchdown Jesus"

















Thanksgiving was in Canada this year with T.J.'s family! We had a blast and got to play lots even though everyone still had school and work. We got to go to a Flames hockey game with Mom and Dad and out to yummy Chinese food with Grandma and Grandpa Pierson, Tiff, and Mom and Dad. Mom even made us a real American Thanksgiving dinner! The girls all went out to see Twilight, and we just had lots of good times laughing and playing games.










Christmas was in Vegas with almost our whole fam. Dave and Lisel weren't there, but we got to see them a week or so before and "enjoyed" watching BYU get slaughtered in the Vegas Bowl. We love their adorable family and wish we could see them more! We spent over a week at Mom and Dad Nielsen's for Christmas. It was fun to help Mom prepare the house for their mission and spend time talking with them.


As you can see, Dad and Kendell got us new snowboard/ski outfits for Christmas so we can look hot on the slopes. I daresay it is working.


Chirstmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Nativity, and it was really fun this year with all the kids! Karen and Kaelynn's families were the only ones there for Christmas Eve, and we had fun eating cinnamon rolls and reading Christmas stories together. We also taught our children how to fight like storm troppers...with swords... That is Emmalee, and she was quite good with that sword actually. I think she took out Spencer and Kellen a time or two.