Introducing...

Samantha May Christensen

Born July 23rd, 2010 at 3:52 p.m.
6 lbs. 12 oz. 19 inches

Very angry at the world

Getting weighed

We're so glad to have her here!

Daddy and Sammi

Mommy and Sammi

Grandma J and Sammi

E and Sammi meeting for the first time

His quote: "Oh, so cute! Ohhhh!"

Our happy little family of four

Everything went well during labor, and we're so glad to finally have our precious little girl here. More pictures will be coming soon. :)

38 1/2 Weeks

Anytime, baby girl, anytime.

Coming Soon

My absence does not, unfortunately, mean that I have given birth to bebe sister yet. We're still plugging along as usual, but are so happy to have Grandma J here now! If I don't go into labor by myself before Friday, then I have an appointment to be induced that morning. So our little girl will be here Friday at the latest! Can't wait!

3rd Year Begins!

After our whirlwind of Fourth of July activities and a long weekend, reality quickly set in the next morning when Ben officially started his third year of medical school. Isn't he cute in his official green scrubs!? I was a little freaked out when I saw him in his scrubs, but got even more freaked out when he came home with a pager and an OB/Gyn call schedule. Bleh.
He has now had his first night of call...30 whole hours...and is back on again tonight. Can I just say that I feel like I have whiplash? Two weeks off after boards...fun, blissful, practically worry-free...to this. I always knew it would stink, and I know it will only get worse during intern year when he's actually responsible for patients' lives, but I hope I quickly learn how to get used to this.

Just Finished Reading...

This book: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I really really liked it. It was clean as well, meaning no explicit sexual activity and no language. Hooray! I loved the author's writing style too. She was so descriptive without being too wordy. I liked the pace at which this book read because it wasn't necessarily a really quick read, but it kept me engaged and gave me enough to want to keep reading. I was disappointed when I was done with this book, (as I am with all good books) because I got kind of attached to the story. Anyway, I highly recommend it.

37 Weeks

37 weeks and counting! Can't wait to meet you, baby girl. Especially since I feel like you're going to drop out of my body at any second.

3rd/4th of July

Silly Hilliard decided that they would have their parade on Sunday this year, and we thought that was lame, so we went to Dublin's parade on Saturday with the Richards. E was a lot more excited about the parade this year than he was last year, and he was almost useful gathering candy. :)

Ah, that's my son. Terrified of all mascots everywhere.

Since the parade and festivities were on Saturday, that also meant they fell on my birthday this year! The Richards were good sports to spend practically the whole day with us on our group date. We went to Genji, a Japanese steakhouse, for my birthday dinner, and we had a great time. We especially enjoyed the big whoosh of fire that made both of their children burst into tears.
It made Emerson yell "Whoa! Fire!" and he loved it. I don't know where that brave boy came from...especially the brave boy with 50% more teeth than the average toddler. (I'm just kidding, he just looks really toothy in his cheeseball picture.)
He was my big helper when I was blowing out the candles on my birthday cake. It was a Cookies 'n' Cream cake and it was delectable.
After cake, we headed to the Dublin fireworks. E didn't know why he got to stay up way past bedtime, but he was loving it. When we got to our spot and spread out blanket out, he proceeded to run down the hill lightning fast when he saw a dad and son playing frisbee together. Out of nowhere, he totally stole their frisbee and ran away. We didn't teach him that! So Ben was a good dad and helped him give it back. Little stinker.


On the Fourth, we were super fun and did snaps and sparklers. E thought they were cool until he put it too close to his body and felt the sting, and then he said "go mommy" and handed it to me.

He was also a lucky duck and got to stay up late AGAIN to go to the Hilliard fireworks.

Happy Fourth of July!

Something we shall try not to dwell on was the fact that our a/c went out on my birthday of all days! And of course they couldn't come fix it until the 6th...3 whole hot days away! It was a blistering 94 degrees with 85-100% humidity. I was dying and actually burst into tears on Tuesday afternoon when the repairman hadn't called to say he was coming yet. I had my first experience with sausage feet that afternoon, and I have a greater appreciation for those pregnant women who experience that more often than I have. It stinks. But luckily now it is a distant memory because it is fixed and we are once again comfortable and non-puffy.

Summer Fun

So we had corn on the cob the other night, and E LOVED it. I didn't think he would even care, but he was like, giddy about it. He cleaned this little one off and then asked for more. We have had it again since then, and when he saw me shucking the corn he started yelling "Oh boy! Oh boy! Corn!!!" and then "helped" me get it all ready.
I love that whenever we're watering our lawn or garden and E is outside playing, he automatically gravitates to the water. He'll start by skirting around the edges, getting a drop or two on him, then he'll start chucking toys in the stream so he has to go retrieve them, and then he'll stick his feet in, and then the next thing we know, he's soaked to the bone and loving it. He was having so much fun last time that he even convinced Daddy to run through the sprinklers with him.
And they both got soaked. Doesn't E look a little guilty?
And proud of his wet little footprints?
I had a little boy with blue lips by the end, but he was happy as could be and thoroughly enjoyed his warm bath.

Baby Shower

Earlier in June, my dear friend Candice threw baby girl and I a baby shower. Everything was perfect, as to be expected. :)

The guests:


The food and cute favors. Candice made the flower arrangement, which was actually a bunch of fabric hairbows clipped onto bamboo skewers. Isn't she clever?
Everyone was so generous and I loved opening all the cute baby girl things. It makes everything seem so real! (Not that my watermelon-sized stomach doesn't help things a bit, too.) Thanks again, Candice!

Aunt Nannie's Visit

We were so lucky to have Aunt Natalie come visit. It was especially nice since we weren't really able to travel to see family with the impending arrival of our baby girl. She was able to stay for a week, and boy did we pack in the fun with Ben on a break from school too!

We loved Buck Creek so much that we decided to try it again, and it was perfect weather! We were able to bring our inflatable sea creature from Great-Grandma Mac to try out. And yes, everyone on the beach was jealous.


"Nannie" did a lot of this with Emerson. Snickering while playing with him, that is. He's definitely got his own little ways of doing things. I can't count how many times he said "Come on, Nannie, come on!" and grabbed her finger and led her away to "pay trains."
About this loaf of bread...poor E had to wait a while to eat breakfast because we were going to go out somewhere and we all took a long time to get ready. This was sitting on the table waiting to be delivered to some people in the neighborhood, and E just couldn't stand it anymore. He ripped right through the plastic and devoured it. I couldn't even get mad.


We went to Lowe's for one of their free clinics and all three of us helped Emerson build a monster truck. I don't know why, but I got all cuted out seeing him wield that teeny hammer while wearing his manly apron. He was proud to be a "Handy Manny" like on TV.

We walked on the train tracks again, me while hiding a watermelon under my shirt.
E got a stick of candy from Spaghetti Warehouse and while I was picking up Panera bread, he managed to wedge the whole stick in his mouth sideways while Daddy watched him. :)
This picture looks pretty similar to the one before it, but this is E's fishy face. He thinks he's puckering his lips like Natalie's.
While Ben was at Scout Camp overnight, Nat and I took E to COSI and watched his mad hula-hooping skillz and went to the Titanic Exhibit. We both loved it.


E was very proud of his levitating ball at COSI.
Nannie also blew bubbles with E, or rather held the tube while he flung the bubble solution around. She's good for things like that.
Natalie is also good at playing at the park with E.

Among things not photographed: Hours and hours of crafting, hitting the Old Navy sale, eating out at lots of yummy places, watching Mannequin...weird show..., having our Indiana Jones marathon, going to see Eclipse, making Cafe Rio, and lots of tears from everyone but Ben when Nannie had to leave. E cried for probably 10 minutes when we dropped Nat off at the airport. He loves his Nannie.

Thanks for the visit, Nannie! And thanks Mom and Dad for sending her out for BIG fun!

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday to me. I'm 24 now. And finally the fireworks and parade are on MY birthday again. My little brother Brad was born on the 4th of July, so I only got 6 short years before that when it was supposedly all for me. Luckily he's been very kind about sharing the festivities. :) I'm happy to share a celebratory weekend with you any day, big buddy. Thanks for letting me have a turn with the parade and fireworks.

Baby Sister

No, she hasn't arrived yet, thankfully, but there has certainly been a lot of talk around here about her. One of E's little friends got to meet his brand-new baby brother this week, so I guess E thought he'd be meeting his little sister too when we told him we were going bye-bye to go to dinner. He said excitedly "See Bebe Sister!" then I explained "No, she's still in Mommy's tummy, see? But she'll be here soon." This apparently did not appease him because when we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, he said "Bebe Sister, comin'! See bebe sister!" He was a little disappointed I think, but the fact that he got pizza for dinner seemed to distract him. :)

Here I am at 36 weeks:
We sure are excited to meet this little girl. Not sure when it's going to happen seeing as I'm already dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced. (I'm sure you all wanted to know the status of my cervix.)

Stay tuned for a post about our fun visitor, Aunt Nannie!

Buck Creek

Since Daddy finished Boards, we've been doing some fun things and have been very busy. Besides certain house things like changing out blinds, hanging a shelf, making windowsills, and finishing Ben's cornhole game, we've just enjoyed hanging out. We decided to go to Buck Creek metro park and check out their beach. Of course we thought it would be the perfect day to go and even checked the weather the night before and...it rained on us. But it was very pleasant up to that point.

I loved seeing E experience sand for the first time. He liked stepping on it but got nervous when it squished between his toes.

He couldn't get enough of the shore because the wet sand was good for shoveling into his bucket and dipping his toes in the water.
Then lucky duck got a pizza lunchable for lunch and thought it was the best thing in the world.
He was even brave enough to go out in the water with Daddy. (The water only comes up mid-thigh, but Ben was crouching down in this picture.)

E couldn't stop talking about "swimmumum" and had the time of his life! He loved watching the boats and playing in the "nganger". I thought there would be lots of tears when it was time to go, but he was pretty much freezing by then so he was happy to be wrapped up as a "co-baby" (cozy baby) and get his clothes changed and back in the car.