We Have a Secret...

Baby #2 coming soon!!

We are so excited! 

(Well, Lydia has no idea what's coming ;). )

I am 10 weeks along, so that puts the due date at March 7! Lydia and this new baby will be about 19 months apart - party! Things will be busy and crazy but we feel so blessed.

I'll give pregnancy updates and a few survival tips that have helped me every so often, so stay tuned!

Christensen Party of 4! :)

Birthdays!

My girl is officially a one-year-old!! Still cannot wrap my head around this. Where does time go. We wanted to celebrate her birthday with med school friends and kids, and because of traveling/scheduling, the only day we could really throw the party was on my birthday! Haha. So basically it was my dream birthday - host a party! I kind of love throwing parties - all my friends can attest that if I don't have some sort of event to look forward to I get a little stir crazy ;). We put on a murder mystery party last Halloween (so much work but SO fun!), and then for Easter we did a big brunch complete with real bunnies and piñatas and all that jazz (see more here). For Lydia's birthday party I just wanted to keep it simple - I mean she won't remember it anyway - so we did a low key pineapple "pool" party bbq (with a kiddie pool, haha)! Michael grilled burgers and I just bought all the rest of the food to keep it simple. Then we opened a few presents and had a smash cake and just talked and basically that was the evening! 

***Lame confession: if there isn't some sort of activity or game at the party I'm throwing I get really worried. What will people do? Will people be bored? Will people actually TALK to each other like they're supposed to? Hahaha. Irrational I know, but I just want people to have fun and for some reason that correlates with "activity" in my mind. Well I'm happy to report that "just talking" worked out great ;). 

We started my birthday off with an embarrassing last minute breakfast at McDonalds, and then Lydia and I set up the backyard for the party! Michael joined us after class for lunch at...

Firehouse! We go here every birthday because they give you a free sandwich if you just show your ID! None of that signing up and emailing bologna :). 

Then... we splurged because #birthday.

Once we got home we went into official party mode! Picking up balloons, chopping burger toppings, decorating - so fun.

Do you like our hodge podge chairs? This is what it looks like when you pull every possible potential seating item from your house ;).

Had to keep the glasses on the plates so they didn't blow away.

Leis for all! We did a fun little game where you couldn't say "one" or "first" or else you got your lei taken away. Whoever collected the most got a mini ping pong set! Haha.

I bought this smash cake from Harmon's for $10 and was super impressed with how cute it was! Hooray for cheap and functional. It took Lydia a few minutes to really get into the cake ha, she just sat their politely taking tiiiiny licks with one finger for a while. We finally enlisted the help of some bigger kids to show her how it was done :).

Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us! The perfect way to kick off this new school year. Med School Year 2 - let's do this!

Nantucket

I feel like all of my posts lately have been about trips!! I promise this is not real life! Haha. This was Michael's last real summer (here on out it's just one week off), so we tried to make it count :). But now we are definitely back home and already in the grind of med school life and wife life.

So right after New York (here and here), Michael flew out and met us in Nantucket! As a family we used to go back east for summer vacations about a decade ago, so it was fun to relive some memories at this gorgeous, story book-like place. Everything is immaculate. The homes are beautiful and lined with white fences and bright blue hydrangeas, the cobblestone roads are so quaint and everyone is preppy (think polos, pink shorts on every single male and sweaters over shoulders). 

The island itself is only about 13 miles long and 3 miles wide, so we rode bikes to pretty much everywhere we wanted to go! To the beaches, to town, to the grocery store, etc. It was actually quicker to ride bikes than to drive because there are only one-lane roads.

So! The photos!

It is kind of a fancy old rich mom dream of mine to own a Peter Beaton hat! Maybe in 40 years? ;)

Lydia's two favorite things: Papa and the ocean.

Ate my weight in ice cream on this trip. Oops.

We got all dolled up and took family pictures one night! Between all 5 of us girls we took hours figuring out outfits and hair and makeup.... and then it was totally windy and any cute hairstyle we may have been sporting flew out the window. HA! Can't wait to see how those turn out?!

ALSO please note Lydia's little curl!! It makes my heart so happy.

LOL

There is, in fact, an L at the end of this sign.

A few people on snapchat asked where I got my swimsuit and Lydia's matching suit. It's from kortnijeane! Same place we got the matching cactus suits from this post back in March!

Our last day on the island we had a mini early birthday celebration for Lydia and me! Growing up we always had birthday breakfasts, so we would walk downstairs and there would be a set up of presents and streamers and a delicious breakfast! (Thanks Mom.) So naturally my mom had to carry on the tradition here in Nantucket.

Lydia's favorite seat in the house - right on Papa's lap! Showing off her new sweater.

Getting OFF the island and back home was a whole separate (terrible) story! Bad weather led to getting off an airplane after we'd already boarded. Then every single flight out of Nantucket was canceled till Tuesday!! And it was Saturday... Hence the ferry ride (pics above and below), a two hour uber to Boston, 4 hours of sleep and a flight home at 6am the next day! Wowzas. Still feeling pretty pooped from all of that haha. 

But! The trip as a whole was a blast! Thanks Mom and Dad. Now come visit us in Salt Lake! :)