Making cookies with the Teachers Quorum

So for mutual I made cookies with the Teachers quorum. We frosted them and then took some to widows in the ward. The boys had lots of fun and we enjoyed eating them too. A couple had a "frost-off" and this is the outcome. You decide who did better.

This one is made by Joseph Dampt

And this one was made by Grayden Bond

Zach had mentioned on our blog earlier that I had a c section. Well I thought I'd share a little of what happened that day, at least how I felt about it. So I woke up Wednesday morning and I thought I might be losing my mucous plug. Well I was worried because all morning I was bleeding. Zach and I went and took pictures at the temple with Andrea cause I wanted some pregnancy pictures. Well I couldn't have timed that better because I had her that very night, lol. I called my Doctors office and told them what was going on and they said that if I didn't stop bleeding then I needed to go down to the hospital. Well it wasn't stopping so at about 11 or so we decided to go to the hospital, crazy!!!! We get there and I was only dilated to a 1. About the same time I started having hard contractions about every 3 to 5 minutes apart but they weren't consistent enough so after doing an ultra sound they sent me home. They said to come back if my contractions got regular enough or if my water broke. The funny part was she said and if your water breaks it won't just be a little bit it will be a puddle and it was. We had planned to go to Zach's Parents that night but needed some stuff at the store so as I'm in labor we are at Fry's, can you imagine the looks I got. Well I told Zach that I wanted a blessing before we went to his parents so we came home and he gave me one, which really helped so much when they told me I needed a c-section. The most embarrassing part of the whole day was spending about 2 hours in the bathroom at my In-laws. I finally decided that my water had officially broken and so I told Zach we need to go. Well we got there about 6 and they asked what had happened so I told them my water had broken and a lady came around the corner and said, "yup your water broke," as I had looked like I'd peed my pants. Well I finally got an epidural at 9pm which I'm really grateful I decided to get it because around 12 or 1 my blood pressure was getting really low and every time I'd have a contraction Anna's blood pressure would drop. The nurse decided to check me and there was a lot of blood in my amniotic fluid so I think at that point they got worried. The Doctor came in and they told me to push 2 times. I was at a 9.5 but she was only at a station 1 which means I could still be pushing for hours and she needed to be out sooner than that to make sure she and I were both healthy. So after talking to Zach we decided c section was best. At that point I was so grateful for the blessing because I felt at peace and I knew everything would be okay. Probably not more than 10 minutes later I had a baby. Wow what emotions come with having a baby! It all happened so fast! Sorry that was kinda long but I wanted to share my side of the story.

I guess when I added the others I forgot these. I really like them so I thought I'd go ahead and add them.

Baby Anna

I decided to just go ahead and add some pictures that my sister took of Anna. I just love them and am so grateful that she has a good camera and is willing to do it! There were many but here are a few. Thanks again Andrea!

She's Here!!!!

Anna Jo Christensen arrived on Earth November 12th, 2009 at 1:49am. She weighed in at 7lbs 3oz and measured 20 inches long. She is sooooooo cute and doing marvelous. Mom is doing great also as she is recovering from a c-section. We are so excited to finally have Anna with us and we feel so blessed to be her parents. Yay for Anna!

38 weeks today!!!

So...now the question is when. I still have 2 weeks till my due date and it seems like the 1st baby likes to wait till at least that time, according to most people that I talk to. In some ways I just want to have her right now cause then I won't have 2 more weeks to worry about it but yet sometimes I feel I need that time to prepare. Zach and I went and did initiatory at the temple today and one lady told me, "you're not allowed to have a baby in the temple ya know", lol, then she asked, "when I was due." When I told her the 20th she said "oh well then you really could have her any time then hu." Then another lady when I stood up said, "Oh there's a baby in there". All I could do was smile. In some ways I'm going to miss these silly comments. But at least I can say, she could come anytime now. Oh how life will change when she comes but it will be great.
I just wanted to add that I'm so grateful for my wonderful family. Thank you so much for your support and love. Zach has also been a trooper through this whole pregnancy thing and I appreciate all that he does to support me and our soon to be baby.

When I went to the Doctor today they did an ultra sound to make sure our baby is head down. Yay she is. She is still pretty far up but at least she's head down! As of Friday I'm full term which means that I'm 37 weeks, so crazy. Oh and the Ultra sound tech said she thinks she's about 6 pounds 6 ounces give or take. When I told Zach that he said how much can she grow in 1 month. I really don't know to be honest. I'm just glad that no matter what if I had her now she would be healthy. I don't think she'd have to be in the NICU at all. What a blessing.

Well it looks like the saying "life doesn't get any easier" is holding true. I am in the thick of school and Christy is only weeks away from having a baby. Just to vent a little, I have homework do in two days and I don't have a clue how to do it and I have homework in another class do the same day. I have a test every week up to Thanksgiving and then finals are after that. I cannot believe how busy I am, but what else did I expect? You know this isn't going to get any easier with a baby and I realize that. I have actually thought my whole life that I wouldn't let school get in the way of having a family, in fact I almost looked forward to this point of my life wondering what it will really be like. Well now I'm here and it's all that I hoped it would be. I have a wonderful wife, Christy, who takes care of me and loves me more than I could imagine and I really don't worry too much about the rest. Life just comes and you take what you get. We have been very blessed and have always had sufficient for our needs. The Lord truly does watch out for us and answer our prayers.
On a side note, this past weekend the youth in our ward went on a Treck up in the mountains. Two of them bore their testimonies in church and I couldn't help but notice how they found out the Saviour and God live by relying on them for comfort and strength to get through a hard time. That is one of the most self-motivating principles of the gospel that I know of. We can do hard things with the help of the Saviour. I am so gratefull for the experiences that Heavenly Father gives us and I know that we can come off conquerer if we rely on the Lord. He is the author and finisher of our faith.

Well I haven't written in a while but I thought I'd just talk about life a little. Zach's been super busy between work and school but he was really excited he got a good grade on his circuit's test! He's been doing a lot of field trips pretty much every Wed, Fri, and Sat. Which sometimes makes it hard to hang out but I usually meet him where ever he is going which is really nice that I can do that.
As for me well times just ticking along till our little girl is born. This morning I think I've been having some contractions which in someways worries me but I think they are just Braxon Hicks contractions. But I'm only 33 weeks Friday. I still have 7 more weeks. I guess I could have her at 37 weeks and that would be full term which means I would have 4 more weeks but honestly I think it would be best if she came around her due date. My baby shower isn't till I'm 37 weeks so I hope she doesn't come before that! Zach and I have been very blessed to have found so many things at yard sales and also to have family and friends who have given us things for our baby. Truly we only have a few more things we need that are essentials.

Our BABY GIRL!

I had my ultra sound at 28 weeks. I can't believe that I'm that far along. It's really hard to imagine but it's still great. Our baby is doing well. I had to take a picture of the actual pictures they gave me but none the less at least you get to kind of get to see. The top picture says "It's a GIRL!!" in the middle of it.
This next picture is a profile picture, so fun.
This last picture is her cute little face with her hand coming up on the side. She kept trying to hide or something during the ultra sound cause she wouldn't stop moving. By the way she is already 2 1/2 pounds, I can't believe it.

Zach eating corn after his braces are off.

They're off!

One last picture with the braces dun dun dun...

My Birthday

So I realized that I didn't take very many pictures for my birthday but Zach did get me flowers even though he wasn't feeling very well that day. That's the day they called and told him he had Mono. He's been feeling pretty good since but we'll see how the future turns out.

Our anniversary

Sorry if you're getting board of my pictures but we'll Zach's at mutual and everyone says I never put pictures on here, we'll now here is a ton!

Zach bought me flowers for our anniversary. That was very sweet of him. But once again I'm about 5 1/2 months pregnant in this picture.

Yeah by the way he totally got me first. I didn't even see it coming and then there it was cake in my face...

But he got it back, lol...I guess it's a good memory.

Yes we cut the cake together, good memories.

This is on Aug 2nd so I'm about 24 weeks which is about 5 1/2 months pregnant. I still can't believe I've been married for one year!

Gotta love the temple. He's just proud we made it one year.

We stopped on the rim on our way back from Snowflake and ate lunch, it's beautiful.

A Man had to mortgage his farm just to pay for this dress for his daughter. It really is incredible!

An incredible picture of the Men that carried all the men, woman, and children across the frozen river trying to get to Salt Lake City. What great faith they had!

Devil's gate, which is only a couple miles from Martin's Cove.

Zach and I. I'm about 5 months pregnant in this picture incase anyone wanted to know. lol

I haven't uploaded pictures in a while but this is one of the pictures on our Martin's Cove treck.

Life flies by for sure. I decided to take a job working at the Chandler Gilbert bookstore for the next few weeks. It's just in the morning for a few hours before I go to Kitty's. I think it will be really good for me to have something else to do for a few weeks.
Zach is putting together a new table that we bought which is so wonderful of him. It will be really nice to have it though. We are also starting to decorate our apartment. I'm not exactly the best decorator but it will still be nice to have pictures up.
Zach's braces come off in exactly one week!!!! We are very excited. That's about it. Good luck to all those that are going to start school this semester! What fun it will be lol.
btw I'm getting very big...I can only imagine how big I'm going to get.

I will be 24 weeks this Friday. Can you believe it just 16 more weeks to go. Things seem to be going fine. I will get another ultra sound the end of August at 28 weeks which will be fun. Then I will know for sure that this baby is a girl. I have started calling it a she so I hope I'm right.
Zach will start school I believe the 24th at ASU. He's kind of excited.
I canned chicken today with Andrea for the 1st time. Yay! I'm really excited! I'm also making a baby quilt which is fun and time consuming which I guess is the point. lol But it's fun spending time with sisters. Jamie came over for a bit as well and went and got Caleb some ice cream, oh boy was he excited!
Well that's life. Just ticking by. August 2nd is our anniversary, can you believe it. We've been married one whole year on Sunday. Sometimes that seems like forever and other times I think did that much time really go by?

Summer!

So this summer is going great and the best part is I don't have any school to worry about until the fall! yay! I am so glad that i can have this break. This will probably be the last time that Christy and I have to just enjoy being with each other. Sometimes you just need a break from school.
On another note we are going to move into a bigger apartment. Finally! It's a nice 2 bedroom and it's only a little bit more than we're paying right now. It even has washer/dryer hookups. We're super excited about that. We have enjoyed living where we're at now but we will soon outgrow it and will need the room with the arrival of our new baby girl. She seems to be doing well and Christy is doing well too. Life comes at you fast so the moral is to appreciate every minute of it.

It's a baby GIRL

I can't believe that I'm going to have a baby!!!! The thought really just isn't real to me. The Ultra sound said that we're going to have a girl. She said that it could change though because I'm not very far along. We'll see what happens. I hope that I have another ultra sound before the baby comes just to make sure that I'm having a girl.

So we haven't written in here in a really long time so I thought that I would. So most of you know that I'm pregnant. The Doctor moved my due date back to Nov 30th which is kinda a bummer cause they told me around the 11th before but that's okay. Now I will be due closer to my Mother-in-laws b-day(lol). At least that's what she said.
Zach is done with school for the semester and he's pretty excited about that, let me tell you what!
We are also thinking about buying a house! yay! We don't know where we are going to buy but considering Zach will be going to ASU in the fall I sure hope that he's not too far from there. We might buy a Condo but then there is an HOA fee so we'll see what happens. So much too look forward to in the future but it will be fun.
Zach b-day was yesterday May 12th, we did a lot of fun things but one thing I'm so excited for is that we are going to Brian Regan this Saturday night! yay! We also did a lot of other fun things, and Zach one year older and wiser(well at least that's what they say lol), but he's 23.

Zach's growing a beard for the mountain man rendezvous, a scout camp for the 14-15 year old boys. It's only a one time thing but there's a little more than a week left and christy can't wait for him to shave it off.

life...

Zach looks hot in his new belt so he says lol (no he is).....I asked him what to write and that's all he came up with lol. Anyways, life is good. Just getting through life you could say. Zach's taking 2 classes and one of them he just found out that he doesn't really need for his degree and he was kinda bummed but oh well I guess.
As for my work well everyday is an adventure and sometimes I really just want a new job but I'm hoping this will all pay off in the end. Probably one of the biggest things though for Zach and I is that I on our 6th month anniversary which was on Feb 2nd I had a miscarriage. What a crazy experience that was. Sometimes we don't understand why things happen the way they do but I know the Lord has a plan and that Zach and I will have children. It's kind of scary to think of being a parent but I'm sure it will be one of the greatest blessings of our lives.

Zach fixing my car

My husband is so great. He always fixes my car whenever there is a problem! Today I was driving back from the Marshall's and well let's just say that my blinker was being stupid. It wouldn't stop making noise. I was pretty annoyed about the situation actually but then once again Zach came to my rescue. The 1st picture he didn't know I was taking a picture lol. Thanks babe for fixing my car! I love you!

Zach is doing so much better yay! I'm excited for him! He got to eat pasta last week and he was so excited. We went to Oregano's to celebrate. He also started up school again this semester and already has been busy doing homework.
A new fun thing is that Zach and I both have bikes now and it's fun to go to ride together. We haven't been much lately because he's still recovering but we'll start going more now. Zach can't play any contact sports right now because his jaw is technically still broken. The doctor said he should wait like 2 months. That's a long time for Zach. The Orthodontist can start doing stuff with his braces in a couple weeks and they said they will take them off in about 6 months. That's exciting!
My life is kinda boring right now. I'm just working which is good but sometimes I want to have a more flexible schedule. I hope someday I will have more of my own clients. It just takes time that's all. But that's about as exciting as my life gets except for maybe nursery which is always an adventure.

Zach is eating food in the hospital and I'm so excited for him. Cream of wheat and yogurt to be exact. That's exciting. He looks very good and I'm so glad he's feeling okay. I believe we get to go home today which will be such a great blessing. Sleeping with him in the hospital was a very very small taste of what Andrea and Jared have been through this past year! I hope you know how much I love both of you and truly am grateful for your example to our family. I'm so grateful that our family is so supportive and that the Lord has blessed us so much. Thank you for your prayers in Zach's behalf this week. I know that they helped. I have other pictures before the surgery on the camera I brought but this is just a picture from my phone. I'll add the others later when I have a way to put them on my computer. Thanks again everyone.