3 Years Later

Three years were nothing when you have little ones. Late night feedings, diaper changes, and no sleep were just the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn't change anything though. I love my life the way that it is, the terrible twos and all that goes with it.

It was around eight in the morning when I'm awoken by receiving wet kisses all over my face. Cracking an eye open I see a head of blonde hair right in my face. Opening the other eye there is another head of brown, along with a gray and white pit bull between my two girls. A smile comes to my face as I sit up against the headboard and wipe the sleep from my eyes.

"Happy birfday, momma," Serenity and Valerie say at the same time. Seconds later I've got each arm wrapped around one of my girls while they kiss my cheeks.

Emmett decides to walk in at that moment in just a pair of black sweat pants. A dimpled smile comes to his face as he crawls up between my legs and comes face to face for a kiss. As our lips are together both girls yell out, "ewww," as they try to push Emmett's face away from me with a hand on each of his cheeks. Seeing their faces scrunched up makes me laugh.

"Girls, Daddy was just giving Mommy a birfday kiss too." I glance at Emmett, "weren't you, Daddy?"

"Uh huh, and Daddy's got a couple surprises for his birthday girls." A smirk comes to his face as he stares at me.

I raise an eyebrow at him while both girls jump from me to him. I know deep down that he's up to something. This blood-bond comes in handy sometimes with that. But it lacks in getting down to the very bottom of something and letting you know what exactly it is.

"Daddy," Serenity yells while climbing up onto Emmett's back.

"Is it pwsents," Valerie excitedly asks while placing her tiny hands onto Emmett's cheeks and turning his head to face her.

"Yeah, it's presents. Go sit with Momma and I'll bring them in here."

I've never seen these girls move so fast in my life. Valerie smiles as she let's go of Emmett's face and walks over to me as I take her hand and set her down on my right leg. Serenity detached herself from Emmett's back and jumps over to my left side to sit down.

As Emmett gets off the bed, he glances at all three of us. "Close your eyes," he states as he starts to walk out of the room. Turning his head he glares at me. "You, too, Momma. No peeking either."

I do as he says and we wait. Minutes later I hear and feel Emmett setting something on the bed. What is it? I have no idea but I'm ready to find out. The bed dips down at the foot so I know that Emmett has sat down.

"Okay. You can open them now."

Slowly opening my eyes, I notice a huge box in front of me wrapped in black wrapping paper with pink polka dots. Raising an eyebrow in Emmett's direction he then speaks to the girls.

"Help Momma open the box, there's something in there for you both."

Valerie is still sitting on my right leg until she jumps up taking the flap closest to her. Serenity does the same with the other side. Moving forward a little bit I pop the tape holding the flaps down and help the girls pull them back. When the flaps are open all the way balloons with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Cinderella and Ariel float upwards. Both girls start to laugh while pulling a balloon to them.

While they are occupied, I look inside to see what's there. Inside is a piece of yellow paper with white polka dots with a red and black border. Serenity looks over to me then down at the paper I'm holding.

With excitement in her wide eyes and pointing a small finger at the picture she says,"Mommy, it's Mickey."

"Yeah, it is. Do you wanna go meet Mickey," I ask while standing Valerie back up after she fell.

Shaking her head no she then says, "I wanna meet Pwincesses."

"Like Cinderella and Ariel?"

Nodding her head she says, "Uh huh, but wut bout Jack and Sally and Zero? Can I meet them?"

A smile comes to my face then. Yes, my girls have been growing up watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they love it. I haven't even changed their room because they love the stuff so much.

"I think me and daddy can do that." I glance up at Emmett who has a huge smile on his face as he lays sideways on the end of the bed. "Can't we daddy?"

"Yup. As a matter of fact, we can meet everyone you want starting tomorrow."

Both girls' eyes light up as they jump up and down on our bed. I look to Emmett who's eyes show so much love in them. "Does that mean that we're leaving today?"

"As soon as you get up and get your ass ready, yes."

Valerie snaps her head towards Emmett. "Daddy, dat's a bad word," pointing a finger towards the corner of the room she then says, "corner til mommy says you can play."

Biting my bottom lip I try to keep from laughing so hard. Emmett raises his eyebrow while looking at Valerie. "But if daddy has to be in the corner, then we won't be able to leave and see Jack and Sally. I'm sure mommy will let me slide this time," he looks up at me, "won't you mommy?"

Shaking my head I then glare at him. "Nope. If I let you slide with it then I'm gonna have to let these two rugrats do the same." I point to the same corner that Valerie did moments before, "five minutes. Now go on daddy."

Sticking his tongue out at me, Emmett then gets off the bed and goes to the corner. Taking a seat on the floor, he leans back against the wall while crossing his muscular arms across his chest and making the same pouty face as the girls usually do. I look at my husband and see that he's having a little fun playing this out in front of the girls.

My eyes run over his body and land on the tattoo just above his heart. I had found a picture online of an arrow for each zodiac sign. When he saw them, it wasn't long before we were heading to the local tattoo show and getting the image inked into our skin. The arrow head itself was blue and tan colored in the shape of a scorpion's stinger. The shaft of the arrow was brown with blue string wrapped around in the middle encasing a charm each with my initials and then one each for the girls, while the fletching - which is where the feather type stuff would be at the end - was brown seaweed.

Making a small x-shape was another to represent Emmett. His arrow head was a regular tan and light orange color with a small fire flame coming off the side a little ways up from the head itself. The shaft faded from orange to green then back to orange at the end where there were fire flames for the fletching.

I'm pretty sure that if we ever have another kid, he would keep adding the arrows that represent them to that tattoo.

When Emmett's five minutes were up, I looked back to Emmett from our girls going through everything in the box and told him he could go 'play' now. That got him to laugh as he walked back to the bed and jumped up beside me.

"So how long are we going to be gone," I question while leaning into his side.

"A month." Before I can ask any more questions he stops me by saying, "you don't need to worry about anything. Bella and Edward are going to take care of Ali while we are gone. I've already talked to them."

Well, that is nice of them. I never thought that Edward would be taking care of a dog though. I'll have to make sure that we get them something to thank them.

"Okay. You know it's going to take me a while to get everything together right? I mean I've got to get a bag packed for each of the girls," I don't have time to finish because Emmett cuts me off.

"All you have to do is get something on you and the girls. Alice and Esme helped me get everything together and it's all in the Hummer." He says as a smug grin plays on his lips.

I guess he's been planning this for a while. I'm going to have to make a list of everything and everyone that helped out with this little trip of his and make sure that they get something huge from all the effort and time they've committed.

"Fine," I give him a quick kiss then turn towards the girls, "alright you two, let's go get ready."

Serenity is the first one, besides Ali, to slide down the side of the bed and run up to their room. After helping Valerie off the bed, as soon as her feet touch the floor she's gone. A small laugh escapes from both Emmett and I as we shake our heads.

"Go get ready," Emmett starts while jumping from the bed to land soundlessly on the floor, "I'll help the girls. You don't need anything, just your purse."