Three Fabulous Years, Halloween, etc :)

I apologize for my terribly inconsistent blogging.  So much is happening all the time that I feel bad for not documenting it properly but at the same time I just am busy enjoying it all so I guess that is good.

Since I last blogged Ki and I celebrated our third anniversary.  Holy smokes :)  I love him so so much and sincerely can't imagine my life without him.  The past three years have been a grand adventure and I can't wait to see what the future has in store!  A few highlights of our third year of marriage include: me graduating, purchasing our first family home, and of course the most exciting thing of all -welcoming Parker into our family.  Parker by far has been the best thing to happen to us this year.  We love him more then we ever could've imagined, and now that I now how wonderful it is to have him, I can't believe it took Ki so long to convince me to get pregnant haha :)

To celebrate our anniversary we went up the canyon with Parker to walk around, eat a picnic, and just enjoy each others company :)

Up AF canyon

I love those chubby cheeks and that sweet smile!

Best buddies already!

Then one of my best friends in the whole world and her cute family came down to visit!  I was devastated when Tiff's husband Jake got a job that moved them to Idaho, so any time we get to spend with them is treasured!  We got to meet baby Max for the first time and he is such a cutie!  I am excited him and Parker get to grow up being buddies!  

Max and Parker meet and play for the first time :)

On our way to hike Cascade Springs with the munchkins

Some of my favorite people!

Tiff, Jake, & Max at Cascade Springs

Parker liked watching the moving water

Love this curious little baby :)

Next was Halloween :)  We dressed up as a safari tour guide, a panther, and a baby giraffe :)  We thought it was pretty clever for being so last minute.  I thought of the idea for Ki to have a sign that said Don't Feed the Animals with the Don't crossed out in the shower on Halloween day.  Get it?  Cause we want to get fed candy when we go trick or treating haha.  I thought I was pretty clever.  Coming from like the least creative person on the planet that is some serious progress :)  Parker was ADORABLE.  He was so cute all day, until we went trick or treating.  By then he was wore out so we only went to a couple of our friends' houses in the ward before we called it a night.

Safari Tour Guide, Panther, & baby giraffe :)

So.... my baby is 5 months old!  Holy cow.  Can you believe it?  I can't.  It is hard to believe that in a few weeks we will have had him in our lives for half a year.  Ever since Parker turned 3.5 months it has been new development after new development.  He is getting so fun!  We loved him as a newborn too, but it has been so exciting to see him learn new skills so quickly and develop into a little personality :)  I by no means have motherhood mastered, but I figure that is probably a life long journey :)  I just am doing my best and trying not to freak out when new circumstances arise haha.

Parker can now sit unassisted for about a minute as long as he doesn't try to look around too much, and is getting stronger and better all the time.  He can roll over, but still doesn't do so very often.  He now enjoys tummy time and plays peek a boo.  A neighbor and friend's 3 year old daughter Alyssa, makes Parker laugh so so hard!  We can get him to laugh a little bit, but for some reason he thinks she is way more entertaining.  He still isn't very big (in about the 15th percentile), but we are glad that he is consistently growing.  Parker's reflux is greatly improved, so we tried taking him off his reflux meds at 4 months.  He started having problems eating again though and wasn't quite ready, but we think he will be ready by 6 months and plan to try again then.  Overall he is a pretty good sleeper but he does still wakes up once in the very early morning for a feeding after going to bed at 7:30 or 8... I am hoping that will end soon, but we shall see.  Most days he naps well and he is overall a very happy baby!

One of Parker's quirks is that he loves his little bubba.  When he sleeps he loves to cuddle it and pull it on top of his face.  In fact when he wakes up in the middle of the night he finds the bubba in his crib and rubs it on his face to put himself back to sleep.  If he has the blanket on his face for too long during his naps we usually go take it off but 15 minutes later he will have pulled it back close to his face.  (I know letting him sleep with it is against the sleeping guidelines so spare me a lecture, but he is really good at controlling it and just loves it so much that I let him... maybe that makes me the worst mother of the year, but I just don't have the heart to take it away.) Another cute thing is that he loves to play with his feet.  His newest discovery is that he can pull off his socks and then suck on them haha.  Lately he has also developed this really special interest in his dad, his face lights up into a huge grin every time Ki walks in the room, and he loves to play with him.  This is probably in part due to the fact that Ki has been a stay at home dad with us the last 2 months.  Long story short is that his position at Linx was no longer an option and he decided he wasn't interested in all the traveling that would be required with the new position they were offering him so he decided it was time to find a new job.  This brings me to my next item of blog business...

Ki got a new job this week!  Woo Hoo!  Tuesday was a bittersweet day for us as we were really excited that Ki got offered a job at AtTask, and really disappointed that Romney lost the election.  But we don't dwell on the negative and feel so so so blessed to have found another job.  Ki will be an educator and teach the companies that purchase AtTask's software how to use it.  I think... haha.  He is really excited to start a new chapter in his professional life, especially since he was hoping to get this job ever since one of his best friends worked for and spoke so highly of AtTask.  He starts the Monday before Thanksgiving and we are SO thankful! 

In less important news I got a new calling as the webelo cub scout leader :)  Yeah... I feel like I don't know anything that I should so if you have any advice help me out!

That about sums up the most important information I think...

To end I will post a couple videos of Parker.  He is pretty cute.  Enjoy if you so choose :)  Thanks for checking in on the Jensen family!  I will try harder to keep the blog better updated.

this is Alyssa making Parker laugh :)

this is Parker playing peek a boo

Some of my Favorite Things

So I wrote this post two months ago but then it never got posted so... here ya go.  Two months late :)

Parker is now almost 12 weeks and it basically feels impossible to keep up with the blog on top of everything else...  I am still adjusting to being an attentive mom to Parker while simultaneously getting dinner made every day, doing the laundry every week and keeping the house clean.  Not to mention grocery shopping is now the hardest thing ever haha.  Luckily for me, Ki is always willing to stop at the store on his way home to grab some groceries for me :)  It is a good thing that in my case kids come one at a time!  I don't even know how I'd keep up with more than one haha.  But even though I don't think I could handle more than one yet, after having Parker I think I want more kids than I originally thought :)  He just is so fun and smart and cuddly and the way he makes me feel makes me think I want more kids than I used to think I wanted if that makes sense.

So instead of trying to share every single detail of our lives since Parker's birth, I will post some of my favorite pictures since he was born and some of my favorite things that Parker does that I really don't want to forget!

We will start with the details :)

• Parker ever since he was really little LOVES to stare at the bear on the wall next to his changing table.  Before he could smile you would see his eyes light up when he saw the bear.  His first smile was at the bear.  And now that he babbles his cute little baby talk he always talks to his bear :)  It is so cute.  He could be crying when I pick him up out of his crib, but the second I put him on his changing table and he sees his bear he is all smiles and coos!  It is so funny.
• His second smile was at his Dad and his first coo.  I was sorta jealous!  haha.  I was like geez I am with him way more then you, and he smiled at you first!  But I was also glad, because that was when Ki started to really bond with Parker.
• Parker has a little play mat with animals that hang above him and at first he totally showed favoritism to certain animals at first!  Haha he would talk and smile at the giraffe, but if you hung the parrot above him he would look away and refuse to look at it.  I think he was afraid of it or something lol.   Now he talks to all of his animals, but it was so funny to Ki and I that at first he was afraid of the parrot for some reason.
• Parker is super cuddly.  Maybe all babies are?   I don't know since he is my first, but I LOVE that he loves to cuddle with me.  When he is tired he rubs his face into your shoulders or chest, and he loves to cuddle his soft blankies.  I am not kidding.  Whenever he is crying because he is tired or upset and you give him his blanket to hug in his arms he calms right down.  He loves to feel his blankies with his hands and rub his face into them.  It is pretty much the cutest thing ever.
• One of Ki's favorite things to do with Parker is fly him around the house like superman.  It is so cute and I love that Ki likes to be involved with Parker.  Whenever Ki is home he likes to change Parker's diapers and help out just to spend time with him :)  I wonder how long the diaper changes will last haha.
• Parker loves to be outside.  Whenever he is being fussy and we go sit outside on the grass or go for a walk he calms down.  He just looks all around and for some reason it calms him.  It is strange but helpful.  He doesn't like the wind though so if it is really windy he doesn't enjoy it as much.
• For some reason when I take naps with Parker in my bed (don't worry I don't sleep close enough to squish him and he sleeps on top of the blankets so he doesn't get smothered)  he will sleep like 2.5 hours!  Which is longer than he usually naps.  I haven't figured out yet if it is because of our mattress that he sleeps better or if it is because he wakes up and sees that my eyes are closed still and goes back to sleep or what haha.  It is kind of nice though.  I love taking naps with him and wish I could feel good about taking one every day :)  Unfortunately there is too much other stuff I feel like I need to do to take naps everyday (emphasis on the FEEL- Ki tells me I always find things to do that aren't really necessary but they always feel necessary to me haha)
• Parker rolled over at 3 weeks old twice... but clearly it was a fluke since he hasn't done it since then.  Not to mention you would think he would grow accustomed to tummy time the older he gets, but it seems like he hates it worse the older he gets.
• Ki has this tendency to think that our child is a super baby and that he will do things faster then all the other babies.  Lately he has been practicing "sitting" with Parker even though I don't think you could consider it sitting since obviously Parker can't hold his body weight yet haha. 

Now for the pictures :)

We went to the Scera Shell Outdoor theater to see Jake Porter's performance

Parker and me :)  Parker wasn't loving all the noise so we had to cover his ears

The friends and family who came out for the baby blessing!

My sweet family the day of Parker's baby blessing

4 generations: Grandma Greenwood, Great Grandma Zackrison, Parker, and me.

Parker in his blessing outfit :)  He wasn't in the best of moods after a long day of festivities.

Meeting Kacee and Uncle Tristan for the first time

Parker and Alyssa (a neighbor)

Saying goodbye to Elder Brady Jensen

The whole Jensen family

Up the canyon with Uncle Tristan and Aunt Kristin

All of us up the canyon :)

I love my little family!

My two very handsome boys :)

Went camping over Labor Day Weekend with the Jensens

Momma and Parker out for a little ride

Dad and Parker snuggling in the camper one morning

Being adorable

Medicine mouth haha

Saying goodbye to Elder Nathan Greenwood

I love my little cuddle cub

The whole Greenwood Family

Uncle Nate and Parker

About to go out for one of our daily walks

Parker Ki Jensen - 6.6.2012

It is about time I got around to blogging about the newest and cutest member of our family!!!  I have been wanting to do a blog post about our cute little guy for awhile now but... well you know :)  Blogging has sort of been on the back burner the last 2 months.  On the very farthest spot on the back of the back burner to be exact haha.

The Sunday previous to my due date:  I decided I had just about had it with being pregnant so Ki and I went power walking for an hour and a half before church... we of course found out later that the speed has nothing to do with helping bring on labor, just the gravity of being on your feet walking... well gee wiz that would have been nice to know before we POWER walked haha.  I was SO sore the next day I could barely lift my feet when i walked and my hips felt like they were broken.  Lesson learned.

Monday: Parker still wasn't ready to come meet us and I had decided that being large and pregnant wasn't so bad... he sure was easy to take care of in my belly.  I came to the conclusion that I would no longer worry about trying to speed his arrival through the practice of all the "wives tale" remedies.  He would come when he was good and ready :)

Tuesday:  It turns out my discovery from the previous day was no longer clear in my mind, as I once again decided that I NEEDED to meet Parker and SOON.  This sense of urgency came again when my pregnant brain suddenly remembered my husband's sister's wedding was in 10 days down in St. George.   So I again began to try everything in the book to get our little angel to come.  Went for another hour and a half walk, deep foot massage, walking with one foot on the curb one foot off (my neighbor SWEARS this worked for her), s-x, spicy indian food for dinner etc.  Nothing- not even braxton hicks.  That night I went to bed convinced I wasn't going to see Parker for another week.

Wednesday June 6th 2012 (due date):  I woke up at 8:50 am to get ready for my 40 wk doctor appointment, went to the bathroom, stood up off the toilet, and then there was just a huge gush!  I just stood there in shock in a big puddle thinking "no way!"  I then shouted to Ki who was still in bed that my water had just broke.  I have NEVER seen him get out of bed so fast in all the time I have been married to him.  We called the OB office to tell them my water broke and the nurse said "get your butt to the hospital"  I then asked if I could at least shower first and she said yes but only if you hurry.  So hurry I did.  On the way to the hospital we disagreed over which was the faster route.  Ki took his way, but then missed a turn.  We laughed when we missed a turn because when we had read the chapter in my pregnancy book about preparing for the delivery day they suggested that you practice driving to the hospital which we thought was ridiculous.  I guess the book knew that husbands in their flustered state of excitement often miss turns on the way to the hospital :)

We checked into the hospital around 10:15 am - by the time I got to my room it was 10:30.  I was only dilated to a 1, 80% effaced, and having irregular contractions so the doctor recommended I get started on a little bit of pitocin.  After about an hour on the pitocin i was having contractions every minute so they took me off.  After that my body had contractions every 2 minutes all by itself.  I finally got the epidural when I was at a 5 sometime in the afternoon maybe around 3?  And oh my goodness after feeling the difference I don't think I could ever attempt to do it without the epidural.  I am impressed by those who can do it without one, but for me the whole experience just was so much more enjoyable after I had the epidural then it was before.

After the epidural to pass the time we chatted about how we couldn't believe we were going to get to meet Parker in just a few hours, Ki watched the office on my ipad, I read the billions of papers the hospital brought to me, and we waited anxiously.

At around 6:40 pm the nurse came in and checked me and said that I was ready to push!  This was the part I had been most nervous about and I got butterflies of nervousness and excitement.  My epidural was kinda weird because I was absolutely completely dead on my right side of my body, but I could still feel the contractions on my left... it was a very odd sensation.  No matter how hard I tried I couldn't even move my right leg a hair.  My nurse took my left leg and Ki took my dead leg and we started pushing.  Ki took his job very seriously and would shove my leg as hard as he could into my body when I was pushing hehe :)  In fact he was even a little sore the next day.  So funny.  Anyhow the first questions I asked Ki when he said he could see our little man was "Does he have hair?  What color is it?"  Haha Ki makes fun of me to this day for asking those things mid-push, but I was so curious!  When the moment came that we needed the Dr's help, he wasn't there yet!  So the nurse was like don't push!  We need to wait for the doctor so he can give you an episiotomy this baby's head is stuck.  I was like ok, but it was surprisingly SO hard not too push.  My body felt like it needed to so bad.  When the doctor finally got there I got so nervous about feeling the episiotomy since my epidural was wearing off, but Ki squeezed my hand and was like you can do it, so I pushed - the doctor cut- and out popped Parker's head :)  One more push and out popped his whole body.  It all felt so weird and surreal.  I immediately started bawling my eyes out the second I saw him - I couldn't believe I was a mom and that he was mine!  I thought he was beautiful the second he was born, but Ki still talks about how alien like he looked the first couple minutes fresh out of the womb haha.

Parker was born at 7:35 pm and was 6 lbs 14 oz and 18.5 inches long.  The moment the doctor put Parker on my chest and he was crying and I got to hold him and love him for the first time was so incredible.  I almost cry just thinking about how it felt.  I was so worried in the weeks leading up to my due date that I wouldn't know how to hold him or how to be his mom, but the second they put him in my arms I didn't even have to think twice about it.  It was like I was always meant to be his mom.  It was the most amazing feeling in the world.

I still can't believe I am a mom.  Sometimes I look at Parker and just think oh my gosh he is my baby.  I don't know how to explain it, I just feel so lucky to have him and Ki in my life!  The last couple months since he was born have been some of the most exhausting and some of the most rewarding moments in my life.  I can't even believe how much Ki and I love him!  To us he is the cutest baby that has ever been born!  I think he is beautiful and Ki used to tell me that beautiful wasn't masculine enough of a word to describe him, but just the other day he was like "he really is beautiful huh"  So now we both think he is beautiful lol.

Anyways, I could write so much more and I hope that I will get to another blog post soon about all the cute things he is starting to do that I love, as well as a post about his baby blessing day, the 4th of july, etc.. etc...  Dang, he is only 2 months old and I am already so far behind!  For now enjoy these pictures from his birth/hospital stay since if I posted all the pics from the last 2 months it would be a little overkill... actually it probably still is haha :) 

Doing my makeup - I know I am weird.

Waiting to meet our little angel

Fresh out of the womb - 6 lbs 14 oz 18.5 inches - and a healthy pair of lungs lol

First time holding my sweet boy - words can't describe it

These make me cry just looking at them lol - one of the best moments in my life

Papa and Parker

All bundled up waiting to go get his bath

All cleaned up and in our room :)

Love this picture of him and his little tongue haha

Quality time with Dad

Grandma Mem & Grandma Cyndi with Parker

Bella Baby Photography - we call this the Monkey pose

Such a sweet little face and cute little baby fists

Ki & Parker - melts my heart

My precious baby

First Family Photo

First car ride - home from the hospital - Ki has never driven so cautiously ever!

First day home from hospital meeting Auntie Ash

Home with our newest member of the family

Until next time!  Thanks for reading :)  Hopefully I will update again before another 2 months goes by!  But no promises... my house is still in desperate need of a deep clean :)