The Jenks Family Diaries

Berlynn Ruby Jenks

2010-08-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our newest addition to the Jenks home on July 31st. Our little Berlynn Ruby entered the world with an easy and quick delivery with a working epidural. (Yay!) It was about as easy as a labor and delivery could be. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She's healthy and as cute as can be.
Almost everytime I tell someone her name, they ask me how I came up with it. To be honest, my good friend was telling me about one of her friends that gave her baby the middle name Berlin. I thought that was interesting because Jason served his mission in Germany and he has a great love for anything German, so that name just kinda stuck with me. I mentioned it to Jason and he really liked it. I wanted to spell it Berlynn because my mom's name is Lynn. Plus, I think it looks more feminine that way. We chose Ruby as the middle name because I think it's pretty and my grandma's name is Ruby. So, that's how we came up with her name. I like it and I think it fits her. Her older siblings love her to pieces. I was worried about how Iris would react because she's such a mama's girl, but she has been nothing but sweet to her little sister. They both want to hold her all the time and they are always saying "She's so sweet". So cute! I love my three babies! Believe it or not, this was the best picture I could get of the three of them. They don't like to cooperate for pictures...obviously. Baby B already loves her daddy. Doesn't she look like an angel?

I always think she looks like Roman when she's sleeping, but when she's awake, she has a different look to her. She has a really cute dimple on her left cheek that I have yet to capture on camera. It mostly shows when she's crying :)

My wonderful mom and my equally wonderful little sister came up and spent the week with me after I had the baby. They were such great helpers! They cleaned my house and cooked my meals and took care of the "big kids". It was so fun to have them here. I only wish they could have stayed longer :( That's my mom and Berlynn below. I just love that picture. My mom and my baby are so cute. Thanks, Mom and Cicily for all your help!

Summer twenty-ten

2010-07-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

We've had a really fun summer that has gone by too fast on one hand and not fast enough on the other. Yes, I'm still pregnant. Hence, the reason the summer has not gone by fast enough :) I'm actually doing really well. My due date is August 3rd, so if I was a normal woman I could be having my baby "any day now", but I'm the type that has always been induced, so if I had to guess I'll be having this babe in the August 5th range. You'll notice that there really aren't any pictures of me (except one where I'm in the back row and all you can see is my head). It's not that I've intentionally been out of the pictures, but let's face it, I'm always the one taking them and there's really no need for you to see what I look like at this state anyway :). So, just a quick recap of the past few weeks. We traveled to Wyoming at the beginning of July to spend time with my parents, my sibs, all the spouses and neices and nephews. It was quite the crew, but we had a lot of fun. I always like to take pictures of my kids in the car. This was pretty much Roman during the ENTIRE 10+ hour trip... And this was Iris...pointing her finger at me and bossing me around. Story of my life. She did watch toons for a while, but she's not quite the die-hard that Roman is.

Here's a cute picture of my neice Reagan and Iree on my mom's front porch on the 4th of July.

We did lots of fun things in WY. We went to a nature reserve (I think that's technically what it's called, but we always call it the zoo). Anyway, it has a lot of Wyoming and Montana wildlife there. The kids loved it.

Here's Roman and Milo looking at the turtles.

Jason and the kids trying to keep their eyes open as they stare into the sun. That's a big buffalo behind them.

Ella, Roman, and Tate. Roman's flexing his muscles. He's so buff.

We always have to make at least one stop to my grandparents' farm. This is my sweet grandpa Hopkin pushing Roman on the swing.

See, I told you it was quite a crew! This is everyone except my parents. (They were taking the pictures.) We were all staying under one roof, but it was lots of fun!

The kids have also been loving swimming at my in-laws' pool. Iris was terrified of the water at first, but now she LOVES it. In fact, I wish she was a little more fearful. They seriously ask if they can go swimming everyday. It's been so nice to have the pool. I love that we get all the benefits without any of the work :)

Roman will swim for a little while in the pool, but he usually spends most of his time running through this sprinkler while we swim.

Iris turned 2 on July 17. She had a fun day. It was nice that her birthday was on a Saturday. We went shopping and took her to Olive Garden because her favorite food is pasta. After a morning of shopping, the kids took a nap and we got ready for her party. I kept the party really simple this year. I used my pregnancy as an excuse to make it small with cake and ice cream only.

We invited Sean and Amber and the kids and Jason's parents and Chad. Iris wanted a princess cake. Seriously, when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she said "A pwincess one." I made a big one for everyone that didn't look very impressive. I also found these little mini pricesses, so I made her a special one. We love our sassy little Iree and I can't believe she's really TWO! Good thing I'm having another baby because she's just not a baby anymore :( We love having her in our family. She adds so much spunk and beauty to our home. She loves anything that is pretty or beautiful and she got lots of pretty/beautiful things for her birthday.

I tried to post a video of the kids singing twinkle, twinkle. I don't know if it works or not. I've never done it before. It's super cute though. I think they have the sweetest voices, but I'm a little biased :)

New Year's Resolution

2010-01-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

I made a new year's resolution to start blogging again. How many people wait until the middle of January to make good on their resolution? Probably just the really lazy ones like me. Anyway, I just wanted to give a few quick updates on our family. The first and biggest news is that we're having another baby! Yay! I'm just about 12 weeks along and my due date is August 3rd. Everyone always says, "Oh no! You'll be pregnant all summer!" And I say, "I had Roman in September and Iris in July, so I really don't know it any other way." Summer pregnancies aren't so bad. That's what I'm saying now because I've probably forgotten. Ask me again in the middle of July. So, that's exciting for us. Just think, next year's Christmas picture will have 5 people in it! That just seems like a lot.
Jason and I are doing well. As you can tell from the picture, Jase decided to start shaving his head. He kinda gave up on his hair ever "growing back," but he still has hope that someone is going to invent an inexpensive pill that you only have to take once and it grows your hair back. Umm....we'll see about that. I actually like the bald look. I think it makes him look distinguished, plus it makes me look a lot younger than him :) He's still really busy with work. I really can't complain about that because in this economy we're just really happy that we still have customers! We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary and every year that goes by, I'm more pleased with my choice in a mate. He's pretty cool. It's really embarrassing that I haven't posted since Roman's third birthday. He turned 3 on September 29th and we had a motorcycle birthday. Hence the motorcycle vest he's wearing. He actually gave me the greatest gift of all on his birthday when he suddenly decided he wanted to be potty-trained. It really was that easy. He was like, "Mom, can I start wearing underwears?" (just as a sidenote, he always says underwears instead of underwear, and I don't correct him because I think it's cute). So, pretty much from that day on he's been potty-trained. Hopefully they'll all be that easy. Anyway, he's getting bigger and smarter everday. He started sunbeams and he loves primary. He especially loves singing time. Today he started singing "I am a Child of God", and it made me get all teary-eyed. He's turned into such a sweet little boy. He loves Iree and is a great big brother...90% of the time.

Here's a picture of them in their Christmas clothes. Look how big my little Miss Ris has gotten!

This is a really random picture, but it's so cute. Iris' hair has really started to grow and I have mixed feelings about it. It's great that she has hair, but unfortunately she has her mother's fine, wispy, staticky, tangley hair. Here's a picture of poor Iree on a typical day. He hair is so staticky! Thankfully, she recently decided to let me put ponies or clippies in. She used to always rip them out, but lately she has kept them in.

So, a little bit about Iris. She's such a sweet heart. She's still kind of fiery, but she's also very loving. She'll just come up to me and give me the biggest hugs and kisses for no reason. I love that! She LOVES her blankey (the one in the picture and ONLY that one. No other substitute will do.) She also loves her baby doll, and she's very maternal. It's so funny. She sings to her baby and gives her kisses and holds her so sweetly. It's so fun to see her grow up and to notice how totally different her personality is from Roman's

So, that's our little family update in a nutshell. Sorry, this post kind of turned into one of those long Christmas letters that tells you too much about every family member. Hopefully it won't be another 4 months before you hear from me again. :)

monsters and purses

2009-09-04T14:45:00.001-07:00

I'm turning over a new leaf. I've gotten into this habit of only posting birthdays, trips, and holidays and I've decided that I really need to start posting more about our regular day-to-day happenings because my kids are growing up too dang fast and I know I'm going to forget all the cute things they do if I don't write it down.
Roman and Iris have finally seemed to reach a turning point in their relationship. They actually like each other. Well, Iree has always adored Roman, but he always acted like she was a bother. Now he's realizing that she's not such a baby anymore and he tries to make her play with him. It's so cute. I'll hear him saying things like, "OK, Iree, let's race our monster trucks!" Then he'll say "GO!" and she's still holding onto her monster truck, but she's clapping and screaming for Roman's and he loves it. Then he always has to let her know that his won. They love taking baths together too. Look at those two little angel-faces!
Iree has reached another big milestone...she's walking! She took her first steps on her 13 month birthday and she's been improving more everyday. She officially walks more than she crawls. Now that she can walk, I've discovered that she loves purses. What, already?! She takes this old purse of mine and walks (or waddles) around with it all day. It's so funny because that purse is the size of her. And don't you dare try to take it off of her. She'll scream and then just put it back on. She thinks she's so cool. So, I took a few pics of her wearing her huge purse, but of course she wouldn't look at the camera. And she's a busy woman too, she needs her pen and to-do list as well.

She's such a diva...

Roman has been obsessed with motorcycles and monsters lately. He tells me everyday that he wants a motorcycle birthday cake and party. We'll see if I can make it happen (his bday is on the 29th). He also likes to play monsters, talk about monsters, ask if they're real, etc. Yesterday he said he wanted a monster mask. We don't happen to have one laying around, so I told him I would help him make one. So, we collaborated on this beautiful mask. He had some very specific instructions for me to follow. The monster needed to have curly hair, and big nose, sharp teeth, and fat ears. So, this is what we came up with. That's about as crafty as I get. He was pretty excited to scare Jason with it. He's played with it a lot yesterday and today.

You scared? Don't worry, it's just a mask.

NYC Trip

2009-08-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write about my fun trip to New York City. I went there a few weeks ago and I figured I'd better get it written down because I'm already starting to forget...yikes! So, anyway, I flew to NYC with my sister Danna (and NO kids...thanks, jase) to visit our brother Collin, his wife Jen, and their new little baby, Violet. We met my parents and our little sister, Cicily there too. Violet was getting blessed, so we figured it would be fun to see the city and be at her blessing too. By the way, isn't she the cutest? Look at that hair and those perfect eyebrows and those pretty blue eyes. She really is a cutie. Collin and Jen were the best little tour guides. I'm just a small-town girl and I never would have been able to navigate through that city on my own. Luckily, they are seasoned pros, so they took us all around the big city. Little Violet was a trooper too. Here they are on the subway.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was all the good food we ate. I LOVE my food, and New York has the best. This is Cicily and me at Max Brenner's. So delicious.

Our hotel was right across the street from the museum of natural history, so we spent a few hours there. It was pretty cool. I liked the dinosaurs...I especially liked the fact that so many of them were found in Wyoming :)

We took a tour of NBC studios and then we went to the top of the Rockafellar Center.

This is the view from the top of the rock. Pretty, huh?

Here's Collin, Jen, and Violee (as my mom calls her) just before the blessing.

A better look at her cute blessing dress.

Below is a small portion of the Bennion Family. It would have been fun to have everyone there, but it just wasn't feasible. We really did have the best time though. We also saw two broadway shows while we were there (Jersey Boys and 9 to 5). They were so much fun. My mom was laughing her head off at 9 to 5. That was another highlights of the trip :) One of the best parts was just hanging out and being together. Danna, Cic, and I shared a room and we had so much fun talking at night and getting ready together in the morning. It was like the good ol' days. It was such a weird experience to go somewhere without Jason and the kids. I missed them all so much, but it wouldn't have been fun with the babies. Luckily, Jason is a good Daddy and he took great care of the kids (except for the one night when I called and asked him what they had for dinner and he was like, "Shoot, I knew I was forgetting something." Yep, he put the kids to bed without dinner, but that's ok. They all survived. And let's just say he was REALLY happy to have me back home!)

I had a great time, but I was ready to come home to my sweet Jason and to this face...

...and this sassy girl. I heart NYC, but I heart those three more :)

Little Miss Ris Turned ONE!

2009-07-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here I go again...apologizing for not posting for like 3 months or somethingl ike that. So, sorry to all my fans...LOL. I hope we've been missed, but I'm pretty sure that my mom and a few of my siblings are the only ones that really read this so-called blog anyway. I'll blame my lack of posting on the fact that we've just been busy AND that my kids are both way too high-maintenance. They go crazy if I'm on the computer for one minute. Seriously, I can't even check my email if my kids are awake. Anyway, we've been having a really fun summer. We're loving the warm weather and we've been doing lots of swimming, playing at the park, taking little trips, and jogging (well, I jog and the kids ride in the stroller.) So, that's pretty much our summer in a nutshell.

So, now that I've apologized, let's get back to the reason I'm posting...little Iree turned one on the 17th! Can you believe it? Time is just flying by way too fast. Look at that little girl. Isn't she the cutest? I think she's beginning to look more and more like Jason. She's a sweet little thing with a little bit of sassiness too. I'm starting to see some drama-queen-like attributes that I'm a little nervous about, but we still love her dearly. So, we had a birthday party for her and here's some pictures from her big day.
I made her a flower cake (obviously...I mean her name IS Iris.)

That cake took me a long time, so I thought I'd better post another picture of it :)

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday."

Iris is delving into her cake and Vivian is helping.

She likes it. Isn't this such a cute picture? My friend, Korbi took my camera and took all these pictures. That's why they are so good.

Opening presents. She got lots of cute clothes from our friends and family.

This is just another cute Iree picture. She got so dirty eating her cake that I had to bathe her before we opened presents. Here's some info about our little Iree:

1. She's a major thumb-sucker. She is almost always sucking her thumb. It's something she started at about 6 months and she's gotten more addicted to it since then. I like it though because it's cute and it calms her down.

2. She thinks Roman is hilarious. She's always laughing at him and he loves it.

3. She won't let me put anything in her hair. She has been taking out all my cute bows, clips, and rubberband 'dos since she was about 5 months old. She'll usually take them out immediately, sometimes she'll leave them in for about an hour, but never longer than that.

4. She loves to dance and sing. If she hears music or if I sing to her then she'll start dancing and singing in the cutest little voice. It's adorable.

5. Iris is teeny tiny. When I took her in for her one year check-up she was only 15 lbs 10 oz and 26 inches long. She doesn't even show on the growth chart. Her pediatrician was all worried about her and did some blood tests to make sure everything was all right (of course it was). She's just small....that's all.

Our Wyoming Easter

2009-04-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

It took a little persuading, but Jason finally gave in and agreed to spend Easter in Wyoming. He was concerned about missing work and the LONG drive with the kids, but when I found out that my sister Natalee (who lives in UT) would also be visiting AND that I would get to see one of my BFFs (Kenna) and a bunch of my aunts and uncles then he knew there was no way he could talk me out of it. So, we left early Tursday morning and came home on Monday. We had a fun and eventful weekend and the kids did WAY better than we expected. They were such troopers.

On Friday, we went to my grandma and grandpa Hopkin's house to decorate Easter cookies and look at the baby cows. Rome loved decorating the cookies although I think my grandma was a little concerned with the amount of sprinkles he was putting on them. Cicily and Iris on the farm.

Look at that. Sometimes I wish I lived on a farm.

On Saturday my cousin, Claire got married in the Billings temple. We drove up for the reception and it was fun to see so many of my family members. I was especially excited to see my cousin Kenna. We were roommates during our freshman year of college and we had so much fun together. The only bad part was that I felt like we didn't get to spend enough time together. I miss her :(

My sister, Natalee, has a little boy named Keric that is two months older that Iris. He is so cute and sweet. They loved each other. It's hard to believe he's only two months older though because I swear he weighs twice as much. My little Iree is very petite :)

Cicily and I did an Easter egg scavenger hunt for Cameron, Reagan, and Roman on Saturday. The kids loved it. Here they are searching in Cicily's room.

There they are with all their candies.

Of course I had to get a few shots of the family in our Easter outfits. The theme was supposed to be pink. You can't really tell though. My shirt is kind of light pink with green flowers. Roman's shirt is pink although it looks kind of white here and Iris' dress has pink polka dots. Jason didn't want to go along with the pink theme, so basically there was really no theme this year. Maybe I'll do better next year :)

Natalee, Chris, and the kids. They all looked so cute.

Here's a pic of my parents with the kids. We had such a fun trip...I only wish that it lasted a little longer. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great food, hospitality, and always entertaining conversations :)

We will, we will shock you!

2009-04-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

Some of you may already know this (I'm trying to remember if I've mentioned it on my blog before), but anyway...my brother-in-law, Brady (who's married to my sister, Danna) owns an arena football team called the Spokane Shock. Yesterday was their opening season game, so we drove up to see it and visit with Danna, Brady and their cute kids. Since Brady's the owner, they have a suite. It's so nice. I feel so bad for all the peasants that have to watch it in the bleachers, just kidding. But it is nice to have the suite because we could watch while the kids just ran around behind us. The team looks really good this year. They beat the other guys, so that's a good start. They had some pretty good touchdowns that even I could appreciate :) There were a lot of people at the game, I think the announcer said ten-thousand something? People in Spokane love their Shock and Brady's pretty much a celebrity there :) So, thanks, Danna and Brady for the fun night! Anyway, here's some pictures from the game.Iree was getting so excited when everyone else would clap. She was so cute...and a real trooper too. She usually goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00, and we didn't leave the game until 9:00. She was such a good girl.

Roman absolutely loves his cousins. We were walking in to the game and he was holding my hand. Then he decided he wanted to hold Tate's hand instead. So, he just left me and added another link the Danna's chain of kids.

That's Danna and me in our orange and blue. Go Shock!

Roman, Ella, Tate, and Milo just before the game started.

I think this was right after a touchdown. Brady looks pretty excited, but I don't think Danna noticed :)

This picture is worth a thousand words. Roman is starting to have so many of the same mannerisms as Jason. He likes to play with his hat and adjust is just like Jason. See what I mean? Two peas in a pod.

Spring....and other things

2009-03-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been more than 20 days since my last post. Where does the time go? This month has especially flown by for me. I'm so glad that the weather is starting to warm up a little bit and the kids can go outside! I'll have more on that later, but first I just have to complain about Roman's eating...or lack thereof. Apparently he's inherited his father's picky eating habits. He's good at eating snacky foods like crackers and fruit snacks, but when it comes to meal time it's become a huge battle. He won't eat anything I cook (which is too bad for him because I'm a pretty darn good cook if I do say so myself :). Lately all he wants to eat for all three meals is rice krispies. Not the most balanced meal. So today I said, "Roman, what do you want for lunch?" Of course he said, "Cereal." which means rice krispies because it's the only cereal he'll eat. I told him he had to choose something else. So, he said he wanted pickles. I told him he would need to have something else besides just pickles and he said toast. Of course he won't eat the crust though. Then he said he wanted pop corn too. I said no to the popcorn and suggested corn instead. So, this was his lunch. Just a weird assortment of strange foods. Oh, and to make it worse, he put the corn on his toast like it was a corn sandwich. Please tell me this is just a stage. We've had a few nice days and the kids are loving it. We've been going for walks in the stroller and it's so nice to have the option of going outside.

On Monday Jason came home from work kind of early, so we he played catch with Rome for quite a while. Iree and I just watched.

Look at that form. We're fully expecting him to be an athlete - and by that I mean a professional one :)

I told Jason to pose, and so he did. Nice pose, Jase.

And my teeny tiny angel (that's one of her many nicknames) turned 8 months on St. Patty's day. She's getting so big! She's the sweetest little girl and she's just so happy. We love out little Iree and I can't believe she's already 8 months. Like I said, time is just flying by.

The Good News and the Bad News...

2009-03-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

Good news first. We took a little family vacation to Boise this weekend to see Jason's brother, Chad. We had so much fun and the kids were GREAT. They were angels during the drive there and on the way back. They slept like logs in the hotel and they were practically perfect at the stores, restaurants and the zoo. We had so much fun and we ate lots of good food. The other good news (and part of the reason we went up this weekend) is that Chad finished taking the BAR on Wendesday. So, we thought it would be fun to go celebrate with him. He won't find out if he's passed it for a few more months, but he's pretty much a genius and I'm willing to bet some big dollars that he passed. The other good news which has nothing to do with this, is that Cadbury Mini Eggs are officially in the stores and it makes me smile just thinking about that. I purchased my first bag of the season last week. Pure joy.

Now for the bad news...don't worry, it's not THAT bad. We took lots of great pictures of our little family vacation and a certain little boy earased ALL of them. I know...I'm still so sad. I can't really blame my Romie too much because I let him look at the camera. You see, on the way home from Boise he was getting a little tired of watching movies, so I told him he could look at the pictures of Uncle Chad and the animals. So, he was looking at them for a while and it kept him entertained. I showed him the button to push to skip to the next picture and that was the only button he would push. So, the next day I was home doing the dishes and Jason was working and Rome was wanting some attention. So, I gave him my camera and told him to look at the pictures. He was looking for a while and then all the sudden he says, "Here, Mom, pictures gone." Sure enough, I look and the camera says, "There are no files". What?! That's right, he erased all of them. The thought had crossed my mind that he might do something like that, but I didn't really think he would because you have to push the trash can symbol and then scroll down to "delete all" and then it asks you if you are sure you want to delete all of them and you have to select "yes". Anyway, he managed to do all of that. I was so sad. Usually I'm not that great about taking pictures, but this time I took a bunch. We had tons of cool pictures from the zoo and Chad even managed to take a family picture where we are ALL looking at the camera (that's like a miracle). Oh well, in the grand scheme of things it's really not a big deal. I really need to learn to stop underestimating that little boy of mine.

Excuses, excuses

2009-02-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse. This is currently what my keyboard looks like.... Roman decided to pluck off a bunch of keys while I was putting Iris down for a nap. And I can't get them back on. Fortunately, you can still type without keys. However, there's these litttle nubby things that you have to hit just right since there's no key there. It's extremely annoying. Right at this very moment I'm about to throw in the towel on this whole post because I'm getting so annoyed. I'm so cheap though that I'll probably just keep it this way forever. When did I become so white trash?

There's a funny story that goes with these two pictures. Roman LOVES the Backyardigans. My mom knows of his love for the cartoon, so for Christmas she bought him a Backyardigans DVD and some toys. Well, he loves his little guys. Their names are Tyrone (the one on the left) and Pablo (on the right). Anyway, they're probably his favorite Christmas present. I'll often find him walking around the house with Pablo and Tyrone tucked safely in his jeans pockets. By the way, what's with those names?! So, the other day he was rebelling against taking a nap (a regular occurrence these days). So in an effort to get him to go to sleep nicely, I took Tyrone and held him up to my ear and acted like I was listening to something he was saying. I started saying "Uh-huh...yep...I'll tell him." Roman's face lit up. Then I said, "Roman, Tyrone just told me that it's time for you to take a nap. He really thinks you need one." Then without missing a beat, Roman takes Pablo and puts him up to his ear. Then he says, "Mommy, Pablo wants to watch Cars." What?! How did he get so smart? He didn't buy it for a minute. I know for a fact that I was not that smart as a kid. In fact, I was down right gullible. I was one of those kids that believed anything my parents told me. I guess I won't have that luxury...not with Roman anyway.

I just love this picture of my little Iris. Who knew that a unabrow could be so cute? She's starting to eat baby food AND last night was her 3rd night in a row of sleeping through the night...yay!! It's so nice to get some sleep. She's such a sweet girl and her personality is really starting to show. She is always smiling and laughing- I love it.

Just so you all know, this has been the most annoying post to type. I hope you're all grateful for your fancy computers that have keys. D0n't worry about me...

My Iree is six months!

2009-01-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

My little Iree had her six month birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe that she's already half a year old. It's so cliche, but the time really has flown by. She's such a little angel and we are so glad that she's in our family. She's the most easy-going little girl. Yesterday I put her down for her nap and after a few hours I hadn't heard from her, so I went to check on her and sure enough she was just laying in her crib smiling and laughing. I love that! I hope she's always this sweet. This is a picture of her that I took this morning before church. I love this little outfit! Ellen gave it to her for Christmas and I think it's so darling. It's even cuter in person. And don't worry, Jason didn't wear those moccasins to church :) Roman has been so sweet to Iris lately. There was definitely a period of time where I couldn't leave him alone with her for fear that he'd poke her eyes out or break her fingers. Luckily he's moved past that stage. Now he's darn right protective of her. I take them to the daycare at my gym every weekday morning and the girl who watches them says that Roman calls Iris, "My Iree". What a sweet big brother. He really does love her.

Lately Roman's been way into wearing a baseball cap. He loves them because Jason always wears one. So anyway, last week he was walking around the house with his hat and one of his play guys. Iris was laying on my bedroom floor while I was making my bed, and Roman came up to her and put his hat on her and gave her his guy. It was so sweet because he thought she should love them as much as he does. Then he said (in his high-pitched baby voice), "Iree, it's Roman's, OK? I share it." He didn't let her keep them for long, but still...so cute.

Another thing I love about this little angel girl is that she loves toys. Roman was not that into toys at her age. He seemed way more high maintenance. I can put her in her little saucer and as long as she's well-rested and fed, she acts like it's the greatest thing ever. Look at that sweet little smile.

And of course I have to add a picture of her chub. I love that baby chub- look at those cute arms. Happy half birthday, Iree girl. Hopefully the next 6 months won't go by so quickly!

5 years of wedded bliss

2009-01-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Jason and Bethany Jenks on January 2, 2004

January 2, 2009 - We've doubled the size of our family in 5 years!

Jason and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last week and I've been wanting to post something about it. For those of you who know Jason well, you won't be surprised that he has requested that I not post something too cheesy. He likes it when I'm sappy...just as long as it's not publicly. So, I'm respecting his wishes and I've decided to post about how we met. I love hearing about how other couples have met, so I'll tell you our story. Just a warning, I'm not sparing any details on this one. This post is mostly for me and my posterity. :)

So it all started during my freshman year of college when I was working at the duplication center in the library at BYU-Idaho. There was this cute guy that had to order some stuff for one of his classes. We got to talking and pretty soon he asked me out. Right now you're thinking that I'm talking about Jason, right? Wrong. His name was Dan. (Don't worry...this will all come together). So, anyway, Dan and I go on a date. He picks me up in this blue Audi. Audis just happen to be my favorite brand of car. I was so excited. Then I get in the car and my very favorite song, "With or Without You" by U2 is playing. I'm thinking, "This guy is getting better and better." So I say to Dan, "I like your car, and just so you know this is my all-time favorite song." He kind of smiled and he said, "Well, thanks, but I can't really take the credit. This is my roommate's car and his CD too. But I like this car and song too." Now I'm thinking, "That's good that you like this song and car, but it's not the same. Maybe if things don't work out with you I can date your roommate." Dan and I proceed to go out to dinner and have a fun time. It was the last Saturday of the semester before summer break. I was planning to go home to Wyoming for the summer and he was planning on working for a white water rafting company somewhere. So, while we were on our date we talked a little bit about our summer plans and we said that we'd keep in touch and we exchanged email addresses. (Side note: we emailed eachother exactly once..haha). Back to the story...I promise this is going somewhere. We were done with dinner and the night was still young and neither of us really wanted to go home yet, so he asked me if I wanted to meet some of his friends. I said that was fine. So, he pulls up to these tennis courts and we get out. I see this really cute guy that is playing tennis like a pro. He's all tan and his arms are really toned. He's decked out in everything Polo. Everything from his hat to his shoes was Ralph Lauren. (I've always been good at knowing my name-brands and I can spot a polo horse from a mile away). Anyway, he stops for a minute and Dan says, "Hey, Jason this is Bethany." Jason looked at me and kind of nodded and said hi, but he didn't smile. I thought he was kind of rude. Then Dan turns to me and says, "It's his car that we're driving." So then Dan, Jason, and the guy Jason was playing against start talking and I'm kind of just standing there. In my head I'm trying to figure out this Jason character. I'm thinking that he must be a yuppy. He has a nice car, he plays tennis and everything he wears is Polo. Plus, he didn't even smile at me when Dan introduced us. So, at this point I'm pretty convinced that Jason is a spoiled brat.

OK, so fast forward to almost exactly a year later. It was February 2003 and I was in my second semester of my sophomore year. I had just met a guy named Ryan and we were just starting to date. I was pretty excited about him. He was cute and funny and so far we were having lots of fun together. One night we were at his apartment and his roommates came in. One of them looked familiar. Then the one that looks familiar notices that I look familiar. Then he says, "Hey, aren't you Bethany?" I say, "Yeah, you're Dan's friend with the Audi, right? What's your name?" He says, "Jason Jenks." (Keep in mind that Jason sometimes pronounces his last name like "Jinx"). Then I make this really funny comment...or so I thought. I said, "You mean jinx as in, 'jinx you owe me a pop?'" He stares at me blankly and I'm trying to explain that when you say the same word at the same time as someone else then you say jinx and the other person owes you a pop. He tells me that he's never heard of that before and I'm completely shocked. So anyway, we start to talk a little more and I'm beginning to think that he's not such a snob. He was asking me about myself and acting like he was actually listening. Then Ryan starts telling me what a great cook Jason is and how he makes the best homemade soups. So then we talk a little bit about cooking and that was about it. Ryan and I continue to date and we end up hanging out at his apartment a lot with his roommates. This Jason character was really starting to grow on me. He was crazily obsessed with sports which was pretty foreign to me, but everything else about him just seemed so great. So what does a girl do when she really likes her boyfriend's friend? She sets him up with her roommate. Ryan and I set Jason up with my old roommate, Katie. We all went bowling and Jason and I had a great time...with eachother. I remember during the date feeling like it was me on the date with Jason instead of Katie. Soon after that Ryan and I broke up and Jason started coming by my apartment to visit. Winter semester was almost over and I was going to stay for the summer term. I was kind of bummed because none of my friends were staying. Then one day I was talking to Jason and I mentioned that I would be staying and he said he was staying too! I was so excited...I would have at least one friend!

Once the Summer term started, Jason's visits became much more frequent because Ryan had moved out and I wasn't "off limits" anymore. We started hanging out on a daily basis. He was wining and dining me every night (minus the "wining" that is). The only problem was that I didn't know what we were. At first it was like we were just friends, but then I was really starting to like him. He was really slow in making a move though. I had never dealt with a man like this. He kept taking me out, calling me, stopping by, but he wouldn't even hold my hand!? I was very confused. I'm not one to make a move either, so for 2 1/2 months it went on like this. Now Jason says he waited so long because he wasn't sure if I liked him. He had never been with someone like me...he always left the move-making up to the girls. Anyway, a guy I worked with asked me out. I wasn't the least bit interested, but I figured it might be a good way to let Jason know that I wasn't just going to wait around forever. So, while I was on my date he came by my apartment ( just like I knew he would). My roommates asked me what they should say to Jason if he came by while I was on my date and I said, "Tell him I'm on a date." So, they did. And my little plan worked. He finally got up the courage to "make a move". After that, we got serious pretty fast. I drove to Washington with him in August to meet his family. Then in September we went to Wyoming so he could meet my family. In October he proposed and in January we were married. Four moves, two kids, and five years later, I'm so glad that I gave that yuppy a shot. He's turned out to be the most non-yuppy not spoiled man I know. My firsth impression couldn't have been more wrong. Jason really does have the kindest heart I've ever seen. He's a great husband and dad and I better stop now before I get too cheesy. And that's how Jason Jenks and Bethany Bennion came to be Mr. and Mrs. Jenks (pronounced jaynks, not jinx).

My Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

2009-01-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to blog about my birthday and Christmas for a while now, but I've been putting it off because there's so much to write about and I'm going to have a hard time editing it all down. I turned 26 a few weeks ago. I had a great birthday. Jason always goes out of his way to try to make it special. He took me to dinner and got me a gift certificate to get my hair cut and high lighted. As you can see in this picture, I was in desperate need of a makeover. My hair had been so neglected. Anyway, after dinner we went to my in-laws' house and had this delicious cake that Amber made for me. It was sooo good. She's the best. I think her baking skills haver surpassed mine :) On the 2oth we made the long trek to Wyoming to spend Christmas with my family. We had such a great time.

Here's a picture of my kids in their Christmas outfits. Iris' bow might be a little ridiculous. It has a little bell on it and Jason kept threatening to cut it off because he couldn't stand the jingling sound.

My dad's birthday is on the 23rd, so it's been a tradition in our family to have Santa come visit on Dad's bday. This year he came and brought an early Christmas present for everyone. It was so fun. Roman is deathly afraid of Santa. He burst into tears when he came in the door. He kind of warmed up to him though. This was as close as he would get to him. Iree didn't seem to mind...

Here's my dad getting ready to blow out his birthday candles. This is all of my parents' grandchildren and then Danna, Cicily, and me.

Like I mentioned we spent Christmas with all of my family. I have six siblings, so with everyone's spouses and children the grand total was 22 people. Look how many stockings there are!! Luckily, my parents just built a new house in October and every couple had their own master suite with its own bathroom. That makes such a difference to have your own bathroom! Plus there's a big room upstairs for the grandkids. There was 3 bunk beds and they had their own bathroom too. The kids absolutely loved it. This was our first time at the new place. It is so beautiful. My dad has been building for 30 some years and he does such great work. I wish he could come build me a house in a few years.

We did lots of fun things while we were in WY. My little brother, Kimball and my little sister, Cicily are pretty good at Rock band. Roman loved watching them, so they let him "play" on the drums for a little bit. He thinks they are pretty cool.

But so much playing can wear a guy out..

Christmas morning was full of lots of great gifts. I didn't think Santa could pull it off, but he ended up finding a football helmet AND uniform for Roman. He thinks it's pretty cool, but he still puts on his knitted hat and calls it a helmet. I think it's because the helmet's still a little too heavy for his head. By the way, that's Roman with my little sister, Cicily. She's gotten so old! She's 15 now and I can hardly believe it. She's such a pretty girl and she's so sweet with her neices and nephews. Roman still asks about her everyday and we've been back for a week.

Here's the kids with my parents, "Mama and Papa Ben" as Roman calls them. I just have to thank my mom and dad again for the great time that we had. There's nothing better than spending time with your family. My mom and dad were so great. They had yummy meals and fun things to do and they didn't even complain about all the kids ransacking their beautiful home. We had a great time and we can't wait to do it again.

Family Pictures

2008-12-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

If you're anxiously awaiting your Christmas card from the Jenks Family, then you'll just have to keep on waiting...til next year - or maybe later. Yes, it's true, I didn't do Christmas cards. I have a million excuses, but basically I didn't want to take the time to do them. That's what it all boils down to. I have, however, really enjoyed getting many of your cards. As the holiday season approached, I planned on doing them and had our family pictures taken, but alas I never followed through. So, here's some of our pictures. My friend, Shaila, took them and I think she did a great job. She's a self-taught photographer and she's really got a talent for it. She has this fancy shmancy camera that I can't even dream of operating. We took them outside in the freezing cold and she did it really fast and still had lots of cute shots. She was such a pro- thanks, Shaila! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time in Wyoming with my parents and all six of my siblings and their spouses and kids. It was a crew! I'll post about our fun trip later. This is a picture Shayla took of Iris while we were inside chatting. I love it because Iree always has her hands in he mouth like that. And she always lifts her eyebrows like that, so it looks like she has a unabrow. Isn't she too cute?

My handsome Romie in his festive sweater.

Roman and Jason are goofing off and I'm just checkin out Jason's bulging biceps. He does have nice arms, don't you think?

If I had sent out a card, thi would have been the picture I would have sent. Iris's eyes are closed, but oh well. It was still my favorite shot. Oh...by the way, I have cut my hair since this picture was taken. Don't worry, I got rid of that stringy mess. Now I just wish I would have chopped it before we got the pics taken. I just don't look good in long hair...oh well!

The Perfect Christmas Gift

2008-12-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas is quickly approaching and I am once again procrastinating. Every year I tell myself that I'm going to get my shopping done early and guess what, I never do. So, why should this year be any different? We do a drawing on my side of the family with my sibs and the neices and nephews. Luckily I do have those presents bought and my parents' gift is taken care of, but I have yet to buy one thing for my poor husband and kids. This week I've been online shopping for things and nothing is really jumping out at me. Granted, my kids should be really easy to shop for. Iris doesn't know what's what and Roman pretty much loves everything, but I don't want to buy a bunch of crap toys that Roman will play with once and then they'll spend the rest of their days collecting dust in our basement. I've got enough of those already. I have put a lot of thought into this. It's become somewhat of an obsession. I want to get something that he'll really enjoy AND that isn't too noisy, big, or expensive. So, I was trying to think about what he's really into these days and it's definitely sports...mostly football. It's football season right now and of course Jason watches all the Seahawks games (although I don't think he wants to claim them this year.) Anyway, Roman likes to watch football with Jason (for a few mins), but what he really loves to do is "toss the ball" as he says. As soon as Jason gets home from work they go downstairs and play football. And I don't mean to be one of those moms that thinks their kid is extraordinary, but Roman does have a pretty dang good arm. You can ask any of my friends that have seen him throw. He's a natural...I think :) OK, this post is getting long so I'm going to try to wrap it up. So, I've finally decided what I want to get Roman for Christmas...a football helmet! It would be perfect. As you can see in the picture below, he's got Vivian's pink bucket on his head. She left it at our house when they were here for halloween and he was running around with it on his head. I thought it was kind of weird and then he said, "Mom, it's my football heh-met." That was about a month ago. Then yesterday he found his hat that I knitted and pulled it all the way down. He came running into the kitchen. I said, "Rome, what are you doing?" He was like, "It's my football heh-met. I wanna toss the ball." The only problem is that now I know what I want to get him, but apparently it's not so easy to find a toddler sized football helmet. I've been searching the internet and I've had no luck. Ugghhh....I hope I don't have to go back to square one. The boy needs a helmet. He can't keep parading around with his nifty-knitted hat pulled over his face! :) Anyway, we'll see what I come up with.

This last picture is of my two babies this morning at 5:30. Yep, that's when they like to wake up. I was so tired that I put them both in bed with me, but they were both really awake. Iree was laughing so hard and making the biggest smiles. Roman was being so cute with her too. He kept being all snuggly and lovey dovey. I just had to take a picture of them. I hate waking up so early, but it's hard to resist those two...even at 5:30.

Growing too fast...

2008-11-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Lately it's been occuring to me that my kids are just growing too fast. I was telling Jason the other day that I just want to freeze them and keep them this size forever. OK, so I don't always feel like that (like when Iris has a bad night and wakes up 4 times or when Roman starts throwing a fit in Wal-Mart). But for the most part, I really enjoy the stages that my little babes are in right now.
Last Sunday, I put Roman in a white shirt and tie and he just looked like such a little big boy. This was the best picture I took of him, believe it or not. Yeah, he likes to show off for the camera now. My little Iree is just getting so cute and chubby. When she was born she weighed 6 lbs 8 oz, which is pretty average, but I still thought she looked so scrawny. So, lately I've been noticing that she's starting to really fill out. So, a few days ago it was kind of cold out and I have these cute little boots that my friend Korbi gave Iris.

Anyway, I went to put the cute boots on her, and they didn't fit! There was plenty of room in the foot area, but her legs are so chubby that I couldn't get the velcro thing fastened. Actually, I could get it together, but then it looked like she had muffin top over her boots and it just didn't look comfortable. Oh, my little Iree girl...you might have some cankles. Oh well, I'll definitely take a chubby baby over a skinny one anyday!

So, here's a picture of my cute little chubby girl. She turned 4 months old last Monday and I took this on her 4 month birthday. I seriously can't believe how fast she's growing. She's just changing right before my eyes. Oh...my babies are growing too fast. Maybe it's time for another one? Ummm....let me think about that one...no. ;)

Lots of Halloween Fun

2008-11-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween, and I took a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure :) First of all, we had an elder's quorum party the week before halloween and we were supposed to dress up. I haven't dressed up since middle school, so I have to admit I was kind of excited about wearing a costume. I just ended up going as a witch. So, there I am in all my witchy glory. Is it just me, or does that wig make me look 50 years old. I don't like how I look with black hair, but it did make my teeth look whiter. Here's Roman and Iris with all their Jenks cousins before they went trick-0r-treating.

Iree was a flower (with a name like Iris, you just have to be a flower). Roman was a bumble bee. Neither one was too excited about it.

Here's Iris earlier in the day when she was feeling slightly happier. She and her cousin Keric wore the exact same shirt.

Trick-or-treating was kind of funny. At first Roman was all confused....

but then he got the hang of it and he started running up to the houses and saying, "I want candy." It was funny, but hopefully next year he'll use the proper,"trick or treat" greeting.

My sister-in-law, Amber has a Halloween birthday, so after trick-or-treating, we had a little family party at my house. Here she is getting ready to blow out her candles.

I decided to do some halloweenish food, so her birthday cake is supposed to look like a witch getting buried alive.

Then I made a snake sandwich (one of Paula Deen's recipes.) It was really easy and yummy.

And for our drink I made "witches brew." It was just lime sherbet and Sprite. Anyway, it was very yummy. So, we had a really fun halloween and now I have way too much candy that I need to get rid of. Anyone want some?

I'm Baaaack

2008-10-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, my friends, let me just tell you how good it is to have the internet! I've been without the internet for 3 long months now and it was about to drive me crazy! i've been trying to get it for about 2 1/2 months and it's just been one disaster after another. First it was our gateway box and then the computer...anyway, it's a long boring story. I'm just glad I finally have it again and now I can see what all my fellow bloggers are up to. So, I'll try to do a quick update on what our family has been up to.
First of all, we moved into our new house at the end of August. That was interesting, by the way. But luckily we have great friends and family who helped us a lot, so it was a lot less painful than it could have been - but I still hated it none the less. We ended up getting all the painting, flooring, etc, done before we had to move in. I was pretty scared there for a while that it wasn't all going to get done in time, but it did. We're all settled now and we're glad to be in our new place.
Baby Iris was blessed on August 31 ( 6 days after we moved in to the house.) I just love this picture of her in her dress. She's like, "Thanks for finally taking that huge bow off my head, Mom."

Roman got his first stitches in September. He was running and tripped and hit his head pretty hard on the corner of the trim. Anyway, we took him to the ER because it was on a Sunday night and he walked out of there with three stitches. Poor baby :(

Roman turned 2 on September 29. Ooops, I just noticed that the only pic I uploaded was of his Diego cake. Oh well...too late to try to upload some more. Anyway, that cake was so hard to make. Yes, I decorated that beast of a cake. Next year remind me to just buy one. I think I got carpal tunnel after decorating that thing. He did really love it though. It almost made it worth it...almost.

Jason turned 31 on October 14. He sure is cute for a man in his 30's don't you think? He requested that I make my grandma's famous wedding cake for his birthday because he loved the cake she made for our wedding. So, I got her recipe and just made a sheet cake. He said it was the best cake he's ever had. Thanks, gram!

And here is a picture of my little beauty. I just took this yesterday. She is the sweetest, cutest little girl I've ever known. I can't believe how fast she's growing. She is just so sweet and smiley and she even lets me put big bows on her everyday. My friend Korbi taught me how to make bows and now I'm addicted. Poor girl puts up with my craziness...at least until she has the ability to take them off :) Anyway, I'm glad to be back in the cyber world. I'm anxious to start checking in on all my friends...I got a lot of blog reading to do!

The scary tomato

2008-07-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Roman's new favorite thing to say is, "I scared." He says this a hundred times a day. The poor boy is scared of everything! He's scared of Whoopi Goldberg, Japanese cartoons, cats (but not dogs...surprisingly), and many other weird things that I don't have time to list. Anyway, a few days ago Amber and the kids came over to visit. Roman was playing in the backyard with the girls and Ava noticed this funny tomato on my plant. She brought it in to us and was talking about how it looked like a man with a big nose. Amber and I kind of laughed about it and then I put it on the counter. After they left Roman kept pointing to the counter and saying, "I scared." At first I couldn't figure out what he was scared of. I asked him if he saw a bug and he said no. Then he started saying, "Nose. I scared." Then I knew he was talking about the tomato. So then I picked up the tomato and said, "Is this what you're scared of?" Before I could even finish my sentence, he ran away screaming, "No, mommy! I scared!" Seriously, Roman, you're gonna be a man someday and you really can't be scared of things like cats and tomatoes! Although that is a pretty weird looking tomato with a really bad profile. And here's a picture of my little angel baby, Iris. I took this yesterday when she was 12 days old. It's amamzing how quickly they change! She is so sweet and I just hope and pray that she stays that way.

Iris Eleanor Jenks

2008-07-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Our little Iris Eleanor Jenks was born on July 17 at 6:08 pm. She was 6 lbs 8 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. She's just perfect. We're both doing really well. I'm surprised at how much easier her labor was compared to Roman's. The two biggest factors were theat my epidural worked (hallelujah) and she was a whole 2 lbs smaller than Roman was. Here are a few pics of our sweet little girl. My Mom and my little sister, Cicily drove all the way from Powell to come help me. It's been sooo nice to have them here. Little Iree (yes, I'm already calling her Iree for short) was born on my mom's birthday. Jason and I decided that since she was born on my mom's b-day then that's our tribute to my mom, so we gave her the middle name of Eleanor so that's our tribute to Jason's mom. Anyway, we bought a little birthday cake for my mom and ate it in the hospital.

This is the most recent picture i took of Iris. She looks a lot like Roman did when he was born. She actually has a lot less hair than Roman did, but her face is really similar. We're all so happy to have our sweet little Iris in our family. Roman wasn't sure about her at first, but now he loves her. He likes to pat her and say "pretty." He'll be a good big brother to her. She has such a sweet little disposition. I hope she stays that way forever.

Oh the stress...

2008-07-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Some of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, Jason and I recently bought a new house. I use the term "new" loosely :) The home we bought was a repo and we got a great deal on it. It's about twice the size of the house we're living in now and it's in a great neighborhood. Those are the good things about it. Now for the downside...the house was abandoned for FIVE years. I know, I didn't know that was possible either. It's a long story, but the people who owned it moved to AK and they kept making payments right before the bank was going to foreclose it. I'm really baffled as to why someone would do that, but whatever. So, the poor house has a lot of damage to it. Lots of mice had gotten in to it, so we have to replace all the flooring. Plus we're getting the whole interior repainted. And, since it was abandoned for so long some people broke in and stole the heater, air conditioner, hot water heater, and electrical panel. So, all that has to be replaced too. Good thing Jason's parents own a heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical business. That's sure come in handy! So, anyway, for about the past two months we've been working on selling our house and getting the new house ready. Luckily we have a sale pending on our house so that has been a huge relief, but we still have soooo much work to do on this new house. Oh...and we're working on a timeline too. We have to have the house ready for appraisal on August 4th (so almost everything has to be done by then), and we have to be out of our house by August 25th. I know...what am I thinking? Did I mention that I'm having a baby in like 2 days?!! So, if I'm slacking in the blogging department it's because I've got lots and lots on my mind. It will all be worth it in the end though, right? I'm so excited to have the baby and be moved into my new house. I would just like to fast forward a few months so I can be done with the stress of it all. I'll keep you all updated on everything. I'll post some before and after pics of the house when it's all done. Wish me luck with all this craziness :)

38 weeks and the 4th of July

2008-07-05T20:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday (the 4th of July) was my 38 week marker. Here's an embarassing picture of me. I never realize exactly how huge I am until I see a picture of myself. I keep telling myself that I only look that big because I'm wearing horizontal stripes, but deep down I know it's not the stripes' fault. Anyway, I'm feeling surprisingly good. I'm really not that anxious to have the baby yet. Part of me is hoping she'll just keep cookin in there for as long as possible because I know that it's going to rock my world when she makes her appearance. I still have a million things I want to do before she gets here. But, there's also a big part of me that wants her to come pretty soon because I'm anxious to see what she looks like and hold a little newborn. Newborns are so fun too. We didn't do anything too exciting for the 4th. Jason's parents invited us over for a really yummy dinner. Then afterwards we went to watch the fireworks with Sean and Amber and their kids. I was actually kind of excited for Roman to see the fireworks because he's never really seen them. I thought he would love them. I was so wrong. He was soooo scared. I've never seen him act like this before. At first when we got there, they hadn't started yet, so I took this picture of him and Jason. He's pretty happy here, but of course you wouldn't know it because he wouldn't look at me to take the pic.

Then there were some kind of small fireworks that other people were doing and he noticed them and got a little spooked. He put his face in Jason's chest, but he would look up every now and again.

Finally, the real fireworks started and he just freaked. He wasn't screaming or anything, but he completely buried his face in Jason's shoulder and held on to his shirt soooo tight. You couldn't pry him off of Jason. The poor little boy was so scared. We stayed for most of the show and then we headed home because Romie obviously wasn't enjoying it, and plus it was almost 11 which is well past ALL of our bedtimes :) Hopefully next year my little Rome won't be so nervous about the works of fire.

My little pickup man

2008-06-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've been are really sorry excuse for a blogger lately. I have a million excuses, but I won't bore you with them. I've also had a lot of blog-worthy happenings, but I'm too overwhelmed to try to back track on all my exciting events (well....not THAT exciting. It's not like I've had my baby yet or anything.) So, anyway, I'll just tell a short little Romie story that happened this morning. First of all, just a little background on Roman's love for Jason's truck. I don't know why Roman loves Jason's truck so much, but he does. Everyday when Jason gets home from work, Roman runs to the door and gives him a hug and immediately says, "I want truck!" Then he takes Jason's hand and leads him to the front door so he can let him play in the truck. Poor Jason is such a good sport about it. He usually gets home fairly late in the evening (usually around 7) and the poor guy is just famished. I know that he just wants to sit down and eat, but he's always a good sport and lets Romie have his way. So, this little ritual has been happening for the past month or so. Roman has to sit in Jason's truck and pretend that he's driving. He also likes to play with Jason's tools (especially the tape measure.) So, anyway, this morning Roman woke up at 6:30 and Jason hadn't left for work yet. Usually Roman wakes up at 7:00 and Jason has usually just left for work. So, they don't normally get to see eachother in the morning. So, I told Jason to get Romie out of bed and the first thing I hear Roman say is, "Dad, I want truck!" So Jason was his usual good-sported self and he took Romie to the truck.
There's my little Roman strutting his way over to the truck. Let me quickly explain the shoes with the footy pjs. I never let Roman go outside without shoes on, so he knows that if he's going to go out then he has to bring me his shoes. So, he brought me his shoes and I tried to tell him that he could go out without them, but he insisted on wearing his sandals on top of the pjs. It looks pretty cool.

Roman took Jason's keys and knew exactly which one was the truck key and he even put it in the ignition. I was so surprised that he knew how to do that. Apparently Jason taught him how. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to start the ignition...yet.

My two little pickup men. This would have been a great picture if Romie had his eyes open :(

Nesting?

2008-06-01T21:27:00.001-07:00

I remember when I was pregnant with Roman and reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, and they had like a whole chapter on nesting. The author said that most people begin to clean their house and organize, etc. just before they have their baby. I was actually kind of skeptical of the whole thing. But, to my surprise, I'm definitely a nester. Before I had Roman I felt this huge need to organize my closet, organize his room, and clean my fridge. With this pregnancy I have had different nesting needs. On Saturday I decided that I really needed to wash my windows. They've been dirty for a while. To tell the truth they haven't been washed since my mom came out when Roman was born and she washed them. Yeah, it's been a while, and lately they have been really driving me nuts. So, I borrowed my mother-in-law's squeegee (I don't know how to spell that), and I washed away. I hope all my neighbors admired the 33 week pregnant girl out there washing her own windows - ha! They're probably not up to my mom's standards (there are a few streaks here and there), but they do look a lot better. I just love shiny things :)

Of course this wouldn't be a real post without a picture of my little angel boy. He has loved the flowers this spring...or as he calls them "fowers". He loves helping me water them and then he goes up to them and smells them and says "oooohhh." So, here he is smelling the "fowers".

Roman's first carnival ride

2008-05-29T20:31:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a loser because all I ever write about on my blog is my sweet little angel boy, but let's face it...that's really all I have to write about. So, anyway, last week the carnival came to town for the Spring Festival. I assumed that Roman would be too young (or at least too short) to ride any of the rides, but my friend Korbi informed me that they had a few rides for really little guys. Well, actually it turns out that there was exactly one ride that Romie and Beck were big enough to go on. So, Korbi was nice enough to pay buy tickets for Roman and Beck to ride on the cars. I think it ended up being like $3.75 for each of them to ride on the cars for about 2 minutes. Anyway, they looked so cute riding in the cars. I thought Roman would be a little more excited because he LOVES cars, but it was past his bedtime and he had a glazed over look during the whole ride. Here they are waiting in line with their tickets.

Jason and Stephen watching the boys.

Look at those cute boys! They're such good buddies. Even though they occasionally try to beat up on each other, they still are great pals. We have a picture of Beck on our refrigerator and everytime Roman sees it he says, "Becky!!" By the way, I never told him to call him "Becky". He came up with that one all on his own. Sorry, Korbi and Stephen :)

Soakin up the sun

2008-05-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend it was sooo hot outside! On Saturday I think the high was 98. Even though I'm 7 months pregnant and my feet and hands can really swell in the heat, I was still loving the hot weather. It just seems like it's been cold for so long and it was great to be able to play outside and get a little sun damage on my skin :) My sister-in-law, Amber invited us over to her parents' house on Saturday afternoon. They bought a big slide that sprays water from the top and then there's a little pool on the bottom. Anyway, all the kids were having so much fun playing on it. Romie was apprehensive about the slide. He only went downs twice and Jason had to guide him along both times, but he still loved being there with all his buddies and just sitting on the edge of the pool. My ever-so-cautious Roman on the right and his dare-devil cousin, Ava on the left.

He's not a real big fan of the water...he gets that from me.

Just chillin with his friends and trying to keep hydrated. The poor kid looks like he's wearing swimming pants instead of swimming shorts. That's the story of his life...if it fits his waist then it's too long and if it fits in length then it's too tight on the waist.

It was such a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I hope the warm weather is here to stay. I'm so done with the cold!

My Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

I had such a fun Mother's day on Sunday. Jason always does such a good job of making me feel special when it's "my day." So, on Sunday morning he let me see my present. As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I really love getting presents and I like to open them as soon as I can, so he let me see my mother's day present first thing in the morning before church. Anyway he got me a comfy swinging bench to put in the backyard. It was the perfect gift and I'm so excited for him to put it together!

Roman made a cute card for me during nursery. Actually, it's quite obvious that he didn't make it, but it was so fun to see him walking up to me with his first mother's day card.

He hadn't colored in it or anything. I'm sure his nursery leaders probably tried to get him to, but he was too interested in playing with trucks (as always!) So, when we got home I gave him some crayons and made him color on the inside. Now it looks like he at least helped make it :)

We also went to Jason's parents' for dinner and we were able to see his grandparents, uncle and cousins there too. Then I got to talk to my mom and wish her a happy mother's day. She's such a sweet mom and I'm glad she had a good day too. I just wish we lived closer so I could have actually seen her :( But all in all it was a fun day and I'm glad that my hubby and my baby made me feel like I'm a pretty good mom afterall.

Great Deal

2008-05-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

There are few things in life that bring me more joy than a great deal. I love finding a steal of a deal. Last year my sister-in-law, Amber introduced me to the wonderful world of yard-saling and I've been addicted ever since. I've been sooo looking forward to springtime for many reasons, but one of them being that the yard sales start up again. So, this past Saturday I went to this yard sale and found this little old rickety rocking chair for $2!! You can't tell from the picture, but it's pretty beat up and most of the stain is rubbed off. I had actually been thinking that I would like another rocking chair so that the baby can have one in her room and Roman can still have one in his. So, I decided that I couldn't pass this up. I knew that it would need some work, but not only do I love good deals but I love a good project too. So, on Saturday Jason and his dad helped me take it apart and put it back together so it's all sturdy now. Then I spray painted it "heirloom white" and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Before.......
After.....

Here it is in Roman's room. It's definitely got some paint issues (it was my first time ever spray painting anything), but for the most part I think it turend out pretty good. I think I'll put my cozy glider in the baby's room and leave this one in Roman's room. I might put a cushion on it to make it a little softer, but it's actually pretty comfy. Anyway, I just wanted to brag about my great find for the week. If you haven't tried yard-saling you really should. It gives me such a high! :)

I haven't posted a pregnancy picture in quite a while...and my how I've grown! Tomorrow I will be 29 weeks. In a way it feels like it's gone by so fast and then on the other hand it feels like I still have FOREVER to go. Tomorrow I have a dr's appointment and I have to drink that orange pop stuff to see if I have gestational diabetes. I'm really hoping I don't have it, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I did. Unfortunately all I want to eat is sugar these days. My biggest cravings have been millk duds, skittles, sour patch kids, and charlseston chews. Those are the weirdest candies for me to be craving because I don't normally choose any of those when I'm not pregnant. Anyway, lately it's been the chewy sweets that really get to me. So, let's hope I haven't eaten so much candy that I'm now a diabetic :)

Baby Love

2008-04-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Last Summer I happened upon a yard sale that had an '80s Cabbage Patch Doll for sale. She was in perfect condition and she even came with the authentic little birth certificate. I loved my little cabbage patch when I was growing up and I just couldn't resist buying this one. By the way, her name is Hannah Hetty and she was born on November 1, 1986. Anyway, when I returned home and showed Jason my proud purchase, he was a little puzzled. The first thing he said was, "Well, you didn't buy that for Roman, did you?" I reassured him that I wasn't going to try to feminize his son by making him play with dolls, and that if was more for me. So, little Hannah Hetty has been sitting in one of Roman's toy drawers and he really hasn't paid much attention to her until recently. Lately he's really been interested in babies. Every time we see one he points and screams "Baby!" really loudly. So a few weeks ago he finally noticed my little orange-haired Hannah and he ran up to me with her screaming "Baby!" Then he proceded to throw her on the tile then pick her up by the hair and throw her again. I decided that it might be wise to teach him how to be "soft" with babies since he'll become a big brother in July. So, I showed him how we don't hold babies by the hair and throw them and that instead we give them hugs and kisses. He's at that age where I'm never really sure if he understands what I'm saying or not, so I was actually really surprised when he started being so sweet to her. He instantly started holding her like a real baby. Then he started stroking her hair and giving her kisses. It was so cute! Much to Jason's dismay, Hannah has become one of his favorite toys now. He's not always sweet though. I'll still catch him throwing her every now and again, but for the most part he loves his little Cabbage Patch doll. I'm hoping that this love for babies will continue until I have his little sister. She may not have the long flowing orange hair like Hannah Hetty, but I think he might love her anyway.

one-and-a-half

2008-04-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

My little baby Romie turned 18 months old on March 29. I've been wanting to do a post about some of the things he's doing at this age. First of all, here are his stats: He's 30 inches long and 21 pounds. Yeah, he's just a little guy. He's in the 3rd percentile for height and the 5th for weight. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt someday :)
A few things Roman loves:
Playing outside
Anything sweet
Elmo...unfortunately for me
Cars, airplanes, trucks, and pretty much anything else that goes fast. He's especially fascinated with cars. He calls anything with wheels a car.
His mom and dad, obviously. He really loves when his dad comes home and they can play.
Balls
Babies

A few funny things about my Romie:

He's very clean in some ways. For example if he gets a crumb on the sippy part of his cup then he'll give it to me and say, "Uh-oh, mommy." That means I have to clean it off before he'll drink out of it again. But don't be fooled, he has no problem with throwing his food on the floor.
I recently started weening him from his binky and it's been surprisingly easy. He mostly just used it at night. Anyway, now he sucks on his pointer finger to get to sleep. Strange, huh? I guess he's just gotta be different...no thumb for him.
He loves to put his finger in his belly button. So much so that I have to put a onsie under his shirts or else he'll have his finger on his button all day long.
Roman doesn't walk - he struts. He's got the funniest little strut. I tried to take a picture of it, but it really doesn't do it justice

Some words he says:

Mommy and Da
Cookie
Car
Ball
Cold (which means outside and cold)
Lala (means Elmo)
No
Cheese
Ju (juice)
Beh (his friend, Beck)
Baby
pane (airplane)
Cheekie (chicken)
bee-dee (birdie)

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of all of them right now. He also can do the animal sounds for dog, cat, rooster, lamb, pig, goat, and birdies. Anyway, I know this was a long post, but I felt like I needed to document some of these things (especially since I don't have a baby book). I can't believe that my baby is turning into a toddler. In some ways I feel like he's been here forever and in another way I feel like he was born a few weeks ago. Time flies and I love seeing my baby grow and do new things. He's such a joy to Jason and me...most of the time :)

Our 700 mile journey...

2008-04-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was feeling a little homesick for my mom and dad because I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving. So, I convinced my sister Danna to go to Powell with me to see our parents, our little sister, Cicily and our brother Clint. Then we found out that our brother Kimball and his wife Elaine were going to be visiting too for Spring Break. So, it ended up being a little half-family reunion. Anyway, our journey there was a little eventful. I was worried that the four kids would be terrible, but luckily they weren't too bad. Danna's three were pretty much angels and my Romie was the only one causing problems. Unfortunately you can't plan on driving through MT at the end of March without hitting a snow storm. We were just outside of Bozeman, MT (which is about 3 hours from Powell) and we hit this huge snow storm. It was dark and we could not see at all. It was so scary. We had to take the first exit we could in Livingston and we got a hotel. Anyway, once we got to Powell, the kids were so excited to see their granparents and we had a really great time. Of course whenever you get kids together for a few days they seem to all get sick. Unfortunately they all got the throw-ups (except for my nephew Tate). Anyway, we ended up extending our stay for one day so that all the kids could recover from the illness. I hope we didn't destroy all the bedding in my mom's house! Other than that we had a great time and as always I ate a ton of good food thanks to my mom. This is Roman with his cousin, Ella. Grandma bought a lot of fruit snacks for them and they were happy to eat them all.

We also visited my Grandma and Grandpa Hopkin who have a farm outside of Powell. Grandpa took all the kids to see the baby cows . Roman really loved them from afar (he was pointing and mooing), but as you can see below he didn't like it when Grandpa got him close to one.

One of my grandpa's neighbors had these little ponies. I can't remember the name of the breed, but anyway, this is a full-grown ponyl They were so cute. The kids really liked them.

Here's Roman with his great grandma and grandpa Hopkin. It was so nice of grandpa to take the kids around the farm. They really loved it.

So, that's our Powell trip in a nutshell. I have to give a shout-out to my sister Danna because she seriously drove the WHOLE time...there AND back. I did offer to help out, but she said that she'd rather drive than have to deal with the kids. We decided that we didn't know which was worse. Anyway, it was a fun little adventure and I was glad to have my sister there on the long drive. We had some fun conversations and lots of reminiscing :)

Eventful Easter Weekend

2008-03-23T18:59:00.001-07:00

We had such a fun Easter weekend. On Saturday Jason's grandma and grandpa Jenks invited everyone over for lunch and an Easter egg hunt for the little kids. The kids had so much fun. Roman was pretty excited to see all the colorful "balls" and then when he discovered there was actually candy in them then he was extatic. His 2 favorite things in one! Here's Jason and Roman with Jason's grandma and grandpa.

Roman LOVES Jason's dad. Duane's so nice that he'll do anything Roman wants him to...no wonder he likes him so much :) So, Roman was glad to have a little help from grandpa when he couldn't reach some of the eggs.

We also did a little egg hunt at our house this morning. Roman knew exactly what the eggs were this time...and that they were full of candy. It was a little chilly out, so I was glad that he actually wore the hat I made him. Yea! Maybe all my hard work wasn't in vain :)

He loved his little football basket. Isn't that cute?

So, of course I had to follow my family tradition of buying Easter clothes with a theme. Obviously this year's theme was green. Jason wasn't too hip on the idea because he thought it was "cheesy" to dress alike. I told him that my dad did it every year, so he finally gave in and swallowed his pride. Anyway, when we got to church I noticed that no one else had a theme for the whole family. A few people had the kids dressed in a theme, but the parents weren't a part of it. Oh well...I'm sure Korbi will do a theme next year, right?

When we got home from church Jason and I hurried and changed out of our clothes so we could go over to his parents' for Easter dinner (which was sooo good). Anyway, Roman usually follows us wherever we go, and after I got dressed I noticed he wasn't in the bedroom with us. I went out the the family room and this was what I saw. Now that he's going to nursery, he's just so exhausted from playing so hard. He stayed asleep at grandma's until I finally woke him up. Anyway, we had a fun and exhausting Easter.

Haircut!

2008-03-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

When Roman was born he had tons of hair. He basically needed a haircut as soon as he entered this world and it didn't take me long to give him one. In fact, he was only 3 months old the first time he went to the salon. So, for the first few months I would take him to the salon and have it done. Then my sister-in-law, Elaine taught me how to do it myself, so I bought some clipper and started doing it on my own. Well, the last time he had a haircut was probably around 2 months ago. He was so bad while I was trying to do it. It looked terrible. He was so squirmy and trying to take the clippers out of my hand...it was too stressful for me to try to do it again. So, it's been bugging me for a while now because I like his hair really short. He has absolutely NO curl or wave in his hair and he really wouldn't be able to pull off a slightly longer do. So, today I took him into a walk-in salon and $19 later he had a new hair cut. Does anyone else think that $15 for a child's cut is expensive? I thought it was a little steep. Maybe I'm just cheap. Anyway, I had to give her a pretty good tip too because he was so bad. I don't know how she did it. I even had him on my lap and tried to keep him still, but he still managed to move a lot!
OK, so I just have to comment on this picture. Lately Roman has hated getting his picture taken. He'll be all cute and smiley and as soon as I take out the camera he pulls this move. In fact, yesterday I took him to Wal-Mart's picture studio to get his 18 month portraits and he was being so difficult. Everytime she would try to get him to smile he would either put his hand over his face or close his eyes and scrunch his mouth. Luckily we got ONE good shot. He's definitely got a mind of his own.

Knifty Knitting

2008-03-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in a while...which I'm sure is really disappointing to all my loyal fans out there ;) Anyway, there's a few reasons for my lack of posting. First of all, I really love to nap in my free time. Secondly, I've discovered "The Knifty Knitter". A few months ago I was talking to some of my friends about how it would be fun to learn how to knit. My friend Rischel said that there was this thing called the knifty knitter and it was really easy. Anyway, I have been looking for one and I finally got one last Friday at JoAnne Fabrics. It really is knifty. If I can do it, then anyone can do it. It's not really at all like traditional knitting which is way over my head. You don't use the two needles. I would try to explain it, but it would take me too long. Anyway, I've been knitting like crazy. I made a litttle tiny hat for my girl and some little booties too. They're pretty much done, but I have a few finishing touches. Maybe I'll post a pic when they are finalized...if they're cute enough :) Then I also made this hat for Roman. It's a little big, but I'm sure it will fit him perfectly next winter. By the way, I had to hold him in this picture because he wouldn't keep the hat on long enough for me to take a shot. Hopefully he'll keep it on next winter...probably not. Oh, and he usually does wear pants, but he got them dirty and it was right before bedtime, so I just took them off. Just in case you were wondering :)

Now this is a picture taken of me this eventing at 20.5 weeks. I was hesitant about posting this one because it's kind of weird to have a picture of yourself showing off your big belly, but I always like seeing other peoples' pregnancy pics...so you'd better appreciate it.

Another milestone!

2008-02-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

I learned the importance of keeping the bathroom doors shut at ALL times a few months ago when I caught Roman with 3/4 of the toilet paper roll in the toilet. I'm sure his next step was to swish it around a little, but luckily I caught him in time. So, I've been pretty confident in letting him roam around the house a little as long as the doors are shut. Well, this morning I was getting ready in my bathroom and he was doing his usual routine of taking things out of the drawer and putting them in the bathtub. Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed he was trying to open the door to the toilet. I thought to myself, "Keep trying Romie, you're not tall enough." Then about a minute later I heard the click and he had successfully opened the door! I was so sad! Gone are my days of letting him roam! He was pretty proud of himself. He kept doing it over and over again. Luckily he was satisfied with just opening and shutting it and he didn't get into the toilet or paper. We'll see how long that lasts...

I was right...

2008-02-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

I've been saying pretty much since day one that I thought I was having a girl, and I'm happy to report that I was right!! I had my ultrasound on Saturday and the tech could tell right away that she was a girl. She wasn't shy about it or anything :) She also has all her fingers, toes, heart valves, etc, so that's good too. That evening I went to a baby shower for my friend, Korbi, who's also having a girl. It made me even more excited because she got the cutest girly things. I can't wait to start buying clothes, bedding, and all that good stuff. She's going to be the frilliest, girliest girl you've ever seen! Oh, and if you have any names feel free to share them with me. We definitely don't have one picked out yet.

Beck's Bowling Birthday

2008-02-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Roman's little buddy, Beck turned two on Saturday, so our good friends Korbi and Stephen invited us to a bowling b-day party for him. Jason and I hadn't been bowling since we lived in Rexburg which was almost 3 years ago, so our skills were a little rusty, but we still had a fun time. Roman LOVES balls, so he was in 10th heaven with all the colorful bowling balls around. There's the birthday boy with Korbi and Stephen and their neices.

Roman loved pushing the ball down the lane, but then he wanted to run after it.

Beck and Roman...BFFs. Korbi and kept trying to keep them away from the balls because we were afraid they'd get their fingers smashed, but they just couldn't stay away.

I found the cure

2008-02-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

In my last post I was complaining about how clingy Roman had been lately, and how he wouldn't let me do anything unless I was holding him. So, yesterday I was talking with two of my friends and they said, "Have you tried letting him watch TV?" I actually had tried that and it never worked. In fact, yesterday morning I tried it and he ran up to it and turned it off. So, today when I got back from the gym, I was feeling especially tired and I didn't want to have to deal with his antics that occur when I'm trying to take a shower, blow dry my hair, and do my makeup. The past couple of days he's been making me hold him while I do my makeup and it just doesn't end up looking too good. So, I thought I'd give the TV another shot. I turned on Sesame Street and got him all cozy on the couch and to my surprise he LOVED it! I don't know what has changed in the past 24 hours, but all of a sudden he's a fan of Big Bird and the gang. So, I proceeded to get myself ready for the day and every once in a while I would hear him growling (he likes to growl at Oscar, he must know he's a grouch) and I even heard him laughing pretty hard a few times. Admittedly, I used to be one of those moms that said I wasn't going to let him watch any TV until he was 2, but I say desperate times call for desperate measures. I'll try to limit it to about 30 mins a day though, but I might end up fudging on that a bit too. So, maybe I won't win the "mother of the year" award that I so desperately wanted, but at least I can do my makeup with two hands again.

See how happy he is watching TV? I love that cheesy grin.

To all those moms that know more than I do...

2008-02-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

So, let me just start by saying that I know I'm no expert at this mothering thing which is why I'm posting this. I'm hoping that those of you who know what you're doing can help me out.
Everyone knows how much I love my little Romie. That's a no-brainer, but today he's been driving me crazy! I don't know what to do. He literally wants me to hold him all day long. First of all, that's just not feasible for anyone (especially someone who's 16 weeks pregnant). Everytime I would put him down he would throw a huge tantrum (see below for a visual). I'm racking my brain to try to find out why he's acting like this because he's usually really easy-going. He did have an ear infection and I took him to the doctor on Saturday and he gave him some antibiotics and they seemed to start working really fast. He's not acting like he's sick (no fever or runny nose anymore.) So, I had convinced myself today that maybe the antibiotics were just making him kind of crazy. I decided to cowgirl up (that's one of my Wyoming sayings) and just hold him pretty much all day long. Luckily he did take a long nap, so I was able to rest for a little while. When he woke up I just tried to make dinner one-handed. It was a little difficult, but Jason came home half-way through and relieved me. Anyway, as soon as Jason got home, Roman's whole attitude changed. He was laughing and playing with Jason. It was like he was suddenly "cured". Jason was like, "I don't know what you're talking about. He seems happy to me." So, what's with him? Why is he all clingy and grumpy all day long with me, but as soon as someone else is around then he's fine? Is he just bored with me? Even when I tried playing with him today it didn't make him happy. I don't know what to do.

Vacation!

2008-01-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

Jason and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. One of the company's Jason buys a lot of equipment from sent us on the trip and it was at an all-inclusive resort, so we didn't have to pay for anything! Anyway, we had tons of fun. We sat in the sun, relaxed, and ate a lot of fabulous food! We missed our little Roman a lot, but thankfully Jason's parents and Sean and Amber all watched him and he did great. In fact, when we got home he wasn't even happy to see me. He kind of gave me the cold shoulder...ouch. Maybe he had too much fun without me. Here we are on the balcony in our room.

We did a lot of sitting in the sun and got a little sun burnt.

This was the view form our hotel room.

We rode a boat to Las Caletas to go snorkeling. On the way there we saw two whales. By the way, snorkeling was really fun, but Jason got bit by something :( He had all these little red dots on his skin, but he was pretty tough about it.

Here we are at Las Caletas. It was so pretty there. The whole time we were there the weather was sunny and in the 80's. When we came back to Moses Lake it was like 25 degrees and we had 6 inches of snow and our pipes were frozen! We're definitely not in Mexico anymore!

Snug as a Bug

2008-01-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

Every night before we go to bed, Jason and I go in and check on Roman. For a while now, he's had some interesting sleeping positions. Usually he's kicked off his blanket and he'll have his face smashed up against the crib rails. It looks terribly uncomfortable, so I always move him away from the bars and reposition him, so he at least looks cozier. So, for the past few nights we've gone in and he's got his little buns straight up in the air.

Jason was concerned because he thought Roman looked far too uncomforable. He wanted me to reposition, but I was a little leary because I thought I might wake him up. But, I decided to stratighten him out. He didn't wake up, but he curled his little legs back in like it was reflex. Oh well, whatever works for him... just as long as he keeps sleeping through the night!

A Friend for Roman

2008-01-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I would like to officially announce that I am pregnant with baby number 2! We're all pretty excited about it. I'm 13 weeks along, and my due date is July 19. Besides my roaring appetite, weight gain, the never-empty bladder, and feeling very sleepy, I've actually been feeling pretty good. Luckily I dont get sick, so that's nice. I've been having some interesting cravings. I've been loving sugary cereal like Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I've also been eating a lot of trail mix (but it has to be the salted kind... don't get me started on the nasty unstaled), and I also crave blueberry bagels with cream cheese...yummy! I'm getting hungry just typing about it. Anyway, I thought I'd better let those of you who didn't know that we'll be adding another Jenks to the bunch. Just for the record, I think I'm having a girl. I don't mean to jinx myself, but I just feel like I'm having some motherly intuition that this one is definitely a girl. Actually I really don't care either way. We'd just be really happy with a healthy one.

Merry Christmas

2008-01-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of Roman and his cute cousins. Aren't those the cutest little Christmas outfits? This picture doesn't actually do them justice. I should have made them stand so you could get a better look. Well, we had a somewhat Merry Christmas at the Jenks residence. This was the first time I didn't spend Christmas with my family, so I was a little sad but at the same time happy that we didn't have to make the long, treterous 12 hour drive to Powell. So, on Christmas Eve we had a fun party with Jason's extended family. Toward the end Jason started saying he didn't feel so well. I just figured he had eaten too much and didn't think much of it. Well, that night he hardly slept and on Christmas day the poor guy had a full blown case of the stomach flu. I felt so bad for him. We've been married 4 years and I had never seen him this sick. And it had to happen on Christmas day!? He was a good sport, but I could just tell he wasn't himself. Anyway, we invited Jason's parents and his brother Chad to come over and eat breakfast and open presents.

Roman was spoiled by both grandparents and got lots of fun toys. Everyone was busy assembling them.

Roman still didn't quite grasp the whole Christmas thing. I think he enjoyed the unwrapping more than the toys themselves. Once they were assembled though, he liked playing with them. So, Christmas ended up being a pretty good day despite the illness. We went to my in-laws and had a delicious dinner. Roman was fine all day, but later that night he got sick too. And a few days after that, I got it. It really was the Christmas gift that just kept on giving! We're glad that we're all better now.

Christmas Turtleneck

2007-12-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

I realize that in a few short years, Roman will start to have an opinion on things that he doesn't care about right now. For example, what he wears. I know that there will come a day when he will no longer allow me to dress him in Christmas sweaters. But until that day comes, I'm going to enjoy seeing him in his festive attire. I know that this particular turtleneck looks like something an 85 year-0ld would have bought for her great grandson, but I think it looks cute on him. Let's face it, Romie can make anything look cute.
Here's a close-up of the print since you can't really see it in the picture above.

First Steps

2007-12-14T10:29:00.001-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I can tend to be slightly paranoid or a bit of a worrier. This is especially true when it comes to Roman. I am almost in a constant state of worry with him. I know that it's stupid and I tell myself all the time "Worrying won't do you any good" but I kind of can't help it. So, what I'm getting at here is that Roman is almost 15 months old and he still isn't walking. I've been telling myself that he's OK and I really did know deep down that there was nothing wrong with him, but I couldn't help but worry just a little bit. All my friends kept telling me that there was nothing wrong and that I should even be thankful. Well the other day when we were in Wal-Mart this lady was telling me how cute Roman was and then she asked me how old he was. I told her he was 14 months. She said, "Is he running around everywhere?" I told her he wasn't walking yet and she said,"Oh no! Have you told his doctor?" I was so taken aback by her response. I just said, "Oh, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I'm not worried about it. He'll do it when he's ready." But really I was thinking to myself, "Oh man, maybe I do need to talk to his doctor." Then she just kind of looked at me with this pitiful look like, "Your son is paralyzed and you don't even know it." So, I'm happy to report that my little Roman doesn't have anything wrong with his legs! He took 5 steps in a row last night. After he saw how excited Jason and I were about it, he kept walking back and forth to us. It was pretty fun. However he hasn't done it at all today. Oh well...at least I know he can do it. And now I'll just have to find something else to worry about. :)He was pretty proud of himself. I love that look on his face.

The Traumatic Santa Encounter

2007-12-08T16:03:00.000-08:00

Last week there was a Santa in town, so we decided to take Roman down to get his picture. I knew that he probably wouldn't love Santa, but I wasn't prepared for the reaction Romie had. While we were standing in line he seemed just fine, but when I put him on his lap he just started screaming so hard. Roman does this scream when he's really upset where he'll like hold his breath for a LONG time (I'm talking like 30 seconds or more.) Anyway, that was the scream he did. Poor baby. The photographer hurried and snapped a shot and then I rescued him. I have to apologize about the quality of the pic. I took a picture of a picture since I don't have a scanner, so that's why there's the big glare above Roman's head. Maybe next year he'll have a more positive experience (or maybe not.)

Like Mother Like Son

2007-11-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided that it was about time I try to clean my bathrooms, so I reluctantly decided to do it. It's really hard to do with Roman around though, so I put some toys out for him in the living room. I was cleaning away and enjoying my peace with I noticed that I couldn't hear him playing with the toys. So, I went to check on him and this is what I found. My sweet little Romie had found my Christmas candy dish filled with Hershey's Kisses. I was surprised by a few things. First of all, I had just barely put that dish out the night before and he didn't know there was candy in it. Secondly, how did he even know that it was candy? I never buy Hershey's kisses and I don't usually have a candy dish out either. It's like he knows that anything with a shiny wrapper is candy.

I was also impressed with how quickly he could unwrap those little things. I was trying to pick them up and he kept unwrapping more and more of them. He wasn't too happy with me though when I moved the candy dish to somewhere out of his reach. I guess he's inherited my love for chocolate and sweets.

I got tagged

2007-11-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

I was tagged a long time ago, but I'm just barely getting around to writing down the 6 interesting things about myself. So, here it goes...
1. I'm afraid of almost all animals. I blame my mother for this trait. We never had a pet when I was growing up, so I'm not very comfortable around animals. Interestingly enough, I'm the most afraid of cats and mice (which are probably the most harmless ones of all.) I'm OK with dogs if they're small, but in general I'm just not a big fan of anything that's not a human.
2. I really like to try to be domestic. I know that being a mom and a homemaker can have it's boring moments, but all in all it's my favorite job ever. I've loved trying to master all of the aspects of homemaking. I've learned how to sew (kind of...at least enough to sew some curtains.) I even canned applesauce, apple pie filling, and peaches this year. And I love cooking and baking. I like to challenge myself with new difficult recipes. Anyway, I'm not quite "homemaker of the year", but I'm working on it.
3. I love to shop at yard sales. This is a fairly new obsession of mine. In fact, I had never really considered it before. I was always a little squeemish about using something that used to belong to someone else. But, my friends started talking about how great it was and all they amazing deals they would find. So, this past April I went to my first yard sale and I've been addicted ever since. I've always loved a good deal, and it's so fun to hunt through a bunch of junk to find something you really want. Let me just share a few of my great finds with you. I got a cuisinart ice cream maker that had never been used for $3. I also got a food dehydrator that had never been used for $2. I got a nice luggage set for $5. I have found a countless number of cute clothes for Roman and most of them were only $1 or less. I've decided that even if I'm a bagillionaire someday, I will still got yard-saling every Saturday morning in the Summer.
4. I have a knack for impersonating people. This is something I've been doing since I was really little. I love trying to master someone else's way of talking or their accent. My old roommates can attest to the fact that I could do a pretty good impression of my old co-worker, Sara Castillo. Now I like to try to impersonate my mother-in-law's accent. Even Jason says that I'm pretty dead-on. I'm not trying to make fun of anyone. It's always done out of love.
5.I have a dimple on my left thigh. And, no it's not a cellulite dimple. I was born with this one. Of all the places to have a dimple. How come I couldn't have dimples in my cheeks? No, I get one on the top of my left thigh. It's not cute.
6. As you know by now, I have this inability to tell a story in a breif, concise manor. I will try so hard to keep it short a sweet, but I always have to give all these unnecessary details. I blame my mom for this trait too :) In fact all the girls in my family are this way. We just love details. And I appreciate it when someone else tells a story with lots of details too. But I realize that not everyone is like me (Jason). That's why we're such an interesting pair. For example, if someone asked Jason, "How did you and Bethany meet?" He'd say, "We met at college." I one the other hand would tell them all about how I had dated his roommate and how we became friends and then we dated for a few months and then blah, blah, blah. Okay, this post is getting ridiculously long.

Our trip to Powell

2007-11-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

So, I know several of you are wondering where I've been and why I haven't been blogging. And when I say several I mean more like one or two people :) Anyway, I haven't given up on blogging. It's a long story, but my father-in-law had to borrow our laptop for a week and so I didn't have a computer and then we left for Powell last Friday, and so I haven't really had a chance to work on it until today. Anyway, enough of the logistics. LIke I said, we traveled to Powell last Friday. I told Jason that since I couldn't spend Christmas with my family then we at least had to spend a week in WY for Thanksgiving. Thankfully he's a good sport and so he agreed. WE were really nervous about the long trip in the car (it's about 11 hours). Last time we traveled with Roman for an extended periods of time he was really bad. So, we planned to leave at about 2:30 pm and hoped he would take his afternoon nap. Then he usually goes to bed at about 7:00, so we planned on driving a long as we could and then we'd get a hotel. Anyway, I'm happy to say that little Romie was better than ever. The picture below shows what he looked like for most of the trip. He was awake for a few hours, bet even when he was awake he was being really good. Since he was so good we just decided on toughing it out and driving the whole way. So, we didn't get into town until 2:00am.
Roman loves playing with Cicily. She was trying to practice the piano and he decided she could use his help. It didn't sound very pretty with his little part, but he sure looked cute.
Roman's been getting a little braver with his attempts at walking. He'll go really fast when he's holding your hands, but as soon as you let go then he just sits down. So, my dad had this idea of putting a wooden spoon in each hand to give him a false sense of security. He didn't really walk, but he did stand on his own for a little bit. Just a quick disclaimer for that pic above. I don't know why I'm smiling like that. I guess I'm trying to show every tooth in my mouth. I put it up though because Roman looks so cute. The picture below is of Raegan and Roman. Natalee and Chris and their kids gave Roman a cute little garbage truck as a belated birthday present. They got it for him because of the post I wrote a while ago about Roman's love for the garbage truck that comes to our house. Anyway, Raegan and Romie loved playing with it. It's so cute. I can't believe how fancy the toys are these days.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well, Romie survived his second Halloween. This year he was definitely a lot more alert than he was last time. As you can see I dressed him up like a puppy. He looked so cute crawling around. In fact, my mother-in-law came over and she kind of jumped for a second when she saw him crawling because she thought he was a real dog. Poor Romie started to get really tired of being a puppy. He really hated that hood thing. He kept trying to take it off, but he'd pull it forward instead of back and so he just kept jerking his head around. I let him keep it off for most of the night.

So, we had a little Halloween/birthday party. My sister-in-law, Amber has a Halloween birthday. We had them over and a few of our other family members and friends. It was fun. Amber just had a little boy on the 25th and I can't believe how fast she's bounced back. She's one of those lucky ones that loses her weight in like 5 days. Anyway, here's a picture of my neices with my new nephew, Everett and Roman. Roman and his BFF, Beck were just staring at eachother like, "What happened to you?" You could tell that they just didn't know what to make of eachother's "new look"

We decided to take Roman trick-or-treating for a little bit. Luckily it wasn't too cold. It was way warmer than my days of trick-or-treating in Wyoming! We just went to a few of our neighbors' houses so I could show off my cute puppy. Then I took most of the candy we got and "regifted" it to our trick-or-treaters. Anyway, we had a fun Hallowen. When I woke up this morning there were tons of pumpkins smashed on the road, but luckily my polka-dotted ones were spared :)

Polka-dotted pumpkins

2007-10-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

OK, So I know I'm not the craftiest person around, but every once in a while I'll try to pull something off. Every year I tell myself that I'm going to do one of these really cool carved pumpkins. Like my brother Collin did one of Steven Colbert and it looks exactly like like him. It's insanely good. I wish I could do that, but I've tried carving before and the only thing I can do is the triangle eyes with a big smile. Even when I try to do that I somehow mess it up. So, this year I was all excited when I saw these cute polka-dotted pumpkins in my "Parenting" magazine. And they were super easy too. All you do is put round stickers on your pumpkin and then paint it black. Then when the paint dries you peel off the stickers and voila - you have your very own polka-dotted pumpkin. So, here's a picture of my materpiece.

I was so proud of my one that I made another one. That's about the extent of my Halloween decorating

Today my postwoman delivered my mom's Halloween package (Yea! I was afraid she'd forgotten to do it) Anyway, when I answered the door she said, "I love your pumpkins!" Trust me, I've never been told that before. So, I 've decided from now on no more carving. I just need to accept the fact that I'm not good at it and now I can just stick with the one thing I can do. Plus I wont have to put my hands in the stinky pumpkin guts anymore.

The Balloon

2007-10-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our family pictures taken and it was interesting. We did them at 9:00 am and it was pretty cold outside. Luckily our photographer was really good at getting some good shots quickly. However, Roman was not in the mood to smile. The whole time he had this look on his face like, "I don't know you, so I'm not going to smile at you." He does that a lot. In fact, he rarely EVER smiles at strangers. So, anyway, I was a little disappointed that he looked so mad in the pics, but whatever.
Later that day we went to the grocery store and they had all of these Halloween balloons for sale. Roman started going CRAZY over them. Jason and I thought it was so funny. So, I put one of the balloons in our cart and continued shopping and he just kept pointing at it and laughing. I even had a few people pass by and comment about how fun it was to watch him get so excited about it. So, we bought the balloon and brought it home and I am happy to say that he's still as in love with it as he was yesterday. He takes it everywhere with him. I keep thinking that he's going to get sick of it, but nope he's still loving it. It's his new favorite toy. He'll play with his other ones, but he has to make sure his balloon is close by. Notice how it's all wrapped around his leg. He likes to have it really close :)

When he crawls with it he is constantly swatting it away from his face so he can see where he's going, but it still doesn't stop him! So, since he has had this balloon, he's started saying "baaa" everytime he sees it. When he woke up from his nap, he was a little groggy and I took him out to the living room and he saw his balloon and all the sudden he was full of life and screaming, "Baa! Baa!" We'll see how long this love affair with the balloon lasts. It might be the best $4 I've ever spent.

Cindy Spratling tagged me, so here are my Answers

2007-10-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

10 FAVORITES
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Foods: I love a good fettucini alfredo
Favorite Month: July
Favorite Song: With or Without you by U2
Favorite Movie: The Notebook
Favorite Sport: None really, but I guess I should pick football since Jason's such a fan
Favorite Season: Summer
Favorite Day of the week: Friday
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: I love em all, but right now rocky road sounds good
Favorite Time of Day: It's a tie between noon - when Romie wakes up from his nap, or 8:00 when he's asleep and Jason's home from work.
CURRENTS
Current Mood: I don't know if this is a mood, but I'm kinda hungry (as usual)
Current Taste: I don't get this question. Taste in clothes, music, food? I'll go with music. Right now I really love Justin Timberlake. I have a married crush on him :)
Current Clothes: my black work-out pants and a grey shirt
Current Desktop: These blue waves. I should change it now that I'm thinking about it...
Current Toenail Color: chipped pink
Current Time: 10:55 am
Current Surroundings: I'm on my tan couch in the living room. I've got my coffe table in front of me, and the TV is against the wall. The walls are kind of a greenish color.
Current Thoughts: Hmm...what should I make for lunch in about an hour. And, I really need to get in the shower becaue I have a lot to do today.
8 FIRSTS
First Best Friend: Jody Lynn
First Kiss: Matt Elwood
First Screen Name: bethanybennion (I've always been real clever w/ the screen names)
First Pet: I've never had on and probably never will
First Piercing: ears, age 12
First Crush: I've always been boy crazy. I remember trying to marry my neighbor, Tommy Jones, when we were 4. Danna was the brains behind that one, but I was pretty excited about it. I chased him around with a ring.
First CD: I really don't know. I always claimed Danna's as my own. I remember she had a Janet Jackson one that I liked a lot.
First car: 1972 VW Beetle. Sweet Car, but not as great as my 2nd car...the infamous Retta
LASTS
Last Drink: Water, a few mins ago
Last Car Ride: About 45 mins ago when I drove home from the gym
Last Kiss: Last night before we went to sleep
Last Movie Seen: I think it was one that I rented with Danna called "The Painted Veil". We liked it.
Last Phone Call: My friend in my ward named Korbi
Last CD Played: I never play cds. I always listen to the radio.
HAVE YOU EVER
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: Yes
Have You Ever Broken the Law: I guess if you count speeding
Have You Ever Been Arrested: Nope
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: No way
Have You Ever Been on TV: I guess if you cound that lame BYU-I commercial I did
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: No
THINGS
Thing You've Done Today: I woke up at 7:51 (Yes, Roman slept in that late...YEA!) I fixed us both breakfast. Then I gave him his bath and we went to my gym at 8:45. I did my step aerobics class from 9 to 10. I came home and put him down for his nap and then I did this.
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: I can hear the wind outside and this computer is making a little buzzing sound.
THINGS YOU CANTLive Without: Jason and Romie, a car, food, my phone, I could go on and on, but I'll just leave it at that. Have you noticed how important food is to me? Yikes, I'v got a real problem :)
Thing You Do When You're Bored:Call Jason or Danna. Sometimes I'll bake, clean, watch TV, sew, or read.
PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY
Just to my gym and back
PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
Jason, Amber, Danna
CHOICES
1. Black or White: Black
Hot or Cold: Hot
THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
I want to travel the world with Jason. Well, I don't know about the world, but I want to go to a lot of places. I especially want to go to Germany because that's where Jason served his mission and he always talks about it. I also want to have a few more kids before I die. I could go on and on here because there's a lot I want to do, but I'll just leave it at that.
TAG 3 PEOPLE
So, now I'm supposed to tag 3 people, but I'll just break the rules and tag 4. I tag Kimmy, Kenna, Cindy C, and April

Roman and the garbage truck

2007-10-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Most people don't like Mondays. I'm actually not one of thse people. I think they're pretty much like any other day of the week. But Roman actually loves Mondays because that's garbage day. Every Monday around 10:15 our garbage man comes. This happens to be the time that I'm also getting Roman ready for his morning nap. So, since his bedroom window faces the street, we always see the garbage truck. About a month ago Roman started getting hysterically excited when he'd see the truck. And when I say hysterical, I mean the boy was waving his hands, laughing and screaming all at the same time. He seems to especially love it when the truck "grabs" our garbage dumpster. SO, today I decided to take some pictures of Roman's most exciting part of the day (and probably of the week too.)
At this point he is squeeling in delight. I should've videotaped it.
When the truck is out of site he always starts grunting and looking all sad like he wants him to come back. You'll just have to wait til next week, little Romie. If Roman could talk I'm pretty sure if I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up then he'd say a garbage man. Yep, it's every mother's dream to see their boy grow up to collect garbage :) Maybe it won't be as cool to him in 20 more years.

Happy birthday, Jason. Here's a broken fridge.

2007-10-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

So everyone keeps talking about their blogs and I've been feeling so left out, so here's my first attempt at this thing you call blogging. So, today was a busy day for me and I feel like I have a lot to write about. Most of my days are not this exciting. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I only wrote a couple times a month. My life's just not that eventful.
So, first of all, today is Jason's 30th birthday! I can't believe he's 30. I used to think that was kind of old, but lately it's seeming younger and younger. So, we have church at 8:30 which is a struggle for us. But, we were leaving for church and we were all rushed and Jason put Roman in his car seat and I decided I'd better pour some milk in one of Roman's sippies because he fusses a lot in sacrament meeting. Anyway, I went to the fridge and i thought, "hmm...this milk is warm." Then I opened the freezer and all this water poured out. Apparently my fridge/freezer is broken. Everything in the freezer was thawed. So, you know how I am, I was like, "Jason, all of our food is ruined! What are we going to do? We have to throw it all away." Then he looked at it and said it wasn't that warm yet. So, instead of heading to church, we had to take all of our food to Jason's parents' because they have an extra fridge/freezer. So, we ended up missing sacrament meeting :( And I always feel so guilty. I was like, "Do you think we can wait until church is over before we move this stuff?" Jason said it couldn't wait. I think he said something about the ox being in the meyer? Anyway, I know this is a really long story but this is how I tell stories. Ummm...oh, so the thing that makes me so mad is that our fridge is only 2 yrs old! Since when does a fridge break after 2 yrs? and to make matters worse, last week our front load washing machine broke too (and it's also 2 yrs old.) And then on top of that, I was gassing up my car yesterday and after I filled it up I went to start it and it wouldn't start. Of course, it just so happened that I had Roman with me and jason wasn't there. So, I frantically called Jason and he saved the day. He jumped it and then took it to the repair shop and they had to replace the battery. Seriously, who ever has this many things break on them in such a short amount of time? So, happy birthday, Jason. Here's a bunch of reapairs you can pay for :) Anyway, we had a little party at jason's parents' house and his birthday ended up being a pretty good one. Sorry my first blog ended up being somewhat of a downer. Next time I'll try to do one that's more upbeat.