Christmas Eve 2011

We had quite the Christmas Eve celebration tonight. It all started when Uncle Ty came over to practice for the Jensen Family Devotional. We're singing a rendition of Jesus Once of Humble Birth. We worked out some harmony parts (he took the hard parts and I took it easy).

Then Ryan came over and the Christmas Eve tradition of watching Blood Sport commenced. Needless to say Relsky had many epiphanies about silly phrases his older brother used to mutter.

Our awesome friends Cindy and Stu came over with some presents and a plate full of treats! Before we knew it we were running late for our dinner date.

We made it to Friday's before the appetizers hit the table, and surprised Uncle Skip with the whole SLC portion of the clan. We brought Kez some homemade sweet potatoes thanks to Teri and our new awesome Baby Bullet! I was fighting for everyone's attention as usual. Which was hard to do with all the cute grand kids getting passed around. Cousin/Nephew Alex didn't seem to mind; he spent a good amount of time under the table playing on my iphone.

After dinner it was off to Grampa J's. Ty and I kicked off the devotional with the song we'd practiced (hardly) and he did an amazing job hitting all his creative harmonies. I really felt the spirit fill the room, it was very touching. The highlight of the night was little Alex reading about baby Jesus in Bethlehem, while Maddy and Kez fought over her doll.

My beautiful wife read a heartfelt talk from Elder Holland and got so emotional that she had to hand it to me to finish (she is so adorable sometimes I can hardly stand it.)

I was impressed to hear Tor-Adore's boyfriend play the piano while T&T, Grandma and Grandpa sang an amazing vocal quartet - definitely the climax of the evening and quite lovely.

After that, everyone settled in for some of Grandma's award winning cheese cake, but (sadly) I was too full of Friday's food so Ty and I just jammed on our git-fiddles.

To finish the family activities Grandma, Relly, AJ, Kez, and I headed to the cemetery to visit Conrad's gravesite. I couldn't sing because I was shivering so bad, and AJ couldn't sing because she was crying again, but somehow we managed to get through all three versus of Silent Night and Families Can Be Together Forever before anyone froze to death.

When we arrived home it was nearly midnight. We wrapped the last of the presents and got the house ready for Santa to come! It's the first Christmas that Santa is coming to our house! I haven't ever posted anything on our family blog so I told AJ I would as a Christmas present.

Kezman is sleeping soundly in his crib like a red starfish in his Christmas onezy (spread eagle on his back). I don't know if he's old enough to dream of sugar plumbs, or even know what they are... come to think of it I don't think I really know what they are??? At any rate, I'm sure he has no idea what's in store tomorrow.

AJ and I set up what can only be called an obstacle course of toys leading up to the Christmas Tree. Much of which we must thank our friends the Morgan's for supplying us with.

Now it's time to leave the milk and cookies on the night stand and wait for Santa to come. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Law firm for 8 years

Last week we attended the Lexington Law Firm annual Christmas party. It was all hoity-toity with tall marble tables, seating arrangements, and appetizers before the catered meal. So, I pulled out the red shoes for the occasion.

I know the plaque says five years and he's actually worked there for eight, but they were just catching everyone up. MJ says he better work there another two years, so he can get his ten year plaque before law school.

Kez was looking awesome in his pjs at picture time too. He LOVES to smile in pictures- and I LOVE him!

My hubster is the hardest worker I've met. And that is saying something when you can say that about the man you live and associate with every day. Congrats to our sexy husband and daddy who (I hate to admit) can even fit into my pants ;) It's because he works his bum off so he has none.

We also have been married for two years now and celebrated with a night away from Kez. I did not think it was going to affect me as much as it did, but as we were driving away from Grandma and Grandpa J's, I started crying! Yes, I love him too much!! So much that I let him try the spisayness of a red hot flamin' cheeto.
Here goes:

Honestly, he did not even react! Must take after his dad :)

We had a nice dinner away

Did I mention his dad is also really funny? What wonderful boys I have!

11-11-11 Family Pics :)

Today is the 11th- which means our little boy is exactly 5 months old! Yikes! To celebrate, the hubby got me to spend some mula on professional family pics as a gift for our anniversary. We will have 2 years under our eternity belt on Sunday 11/13. Still not sure if it was worth it or not. The pictures- not the marriage people :) What are your opinions on spending money for a studio session or not?

Kez would not stop smiling- so glad he was so good for picture time =D

We brought his blocks that his aunt made him too.

Indulge with me here. So fun when baby is happy :)

I think this one will go up at our house. I cut my own bangs before picture time too. Opinions? In the words of one of my favorite personalities, Neicy Nash, "Whatchuthink?"

Happy Halloween 2011

It's not easy going from country girl academic to city mom. I've had at least one job at a time outside the home since I was 16, working as an outdoors cashier, being mentored in a biomedical engineering lab and genetics lab, handling students applying to college from around the world in an international admissions office, working on research in a doctor's office, being a college professor's assistant for a bioethical class of undergraduates, and more. Not to mention serving a full-time mission in Brazil and graduating from college. I've kept myself beyond busy the first quarter century of my life. Now I am a mom to a precious baby boy which also keeps me extraneously busy, but in such a different way. It used to be about me (except for the mission and research) and now it is all about him. Such a life transformation that I think everyone should get to experience in one form or another. A few doses of the selfless pill is what is needed all around the world.
Anywho- we want to talk about our Halloween transformation. We had fun becoming 3 different elements and precious metals- gold, silver, and bronze.

Bronze is not an element but is tin and copper mixed. I tried to take Kez out and get some fun photos in the leaves today. Epic fail.

He just wanted to eat his pumpkin.

Kez and I did see some beautiful leaves around the park (just don't try to go in the mountains around here, been there done that. It's pretty much all brown. Though I did have the time of my life blasting some Jessica Andrews jams that I absolutely love with the hubster and singing at the top of my lungs on Saturday.
Kez looking at the fall colors in his stroller:

Look at how many different colors are in these trees- all in the same area!

Daddy took some fun ones when he got home from school right before he went to work.

One day I will show Kez these as proof that he used to like my kisses. bahaha.

13 Guilty Pleasures: Confession Time

13. Watching The Sing-Off. It inspired me to write this post since last week they had a guilty pleasures night where the groups sang those songs that everyone knows the words to whether they want to admit it or not. Plus, Vocal Point is still in the running. In college, I was in an A Capella group called the Skirts, and our stage director was a member of Vocal Point.

12. Cooking. This is new. Used to hate it. Don't tell my husband. And wall stickers. Love 'em! you can put them up and take them down all without the messy paint job. I guess that was 2 guilty pleasures.

11. My Son Exploring My Face. You could have millions of good-looking guys check you out over the course of your life time and none will even come close to comparing to your child touching and memorizing every detail you have in your face. You'll never feel more beautiful to someone in your life no matter if you are wearing make up or not.

10. Portuguese. Te Amo. I will speak it whenever I get the chance. Especially if that means helping Senior missionary couples at the MTC. Or if I get to socialize with awesome fun-loving Brazilians.

9. Dancing Like No One is Watching with Kez. Too much said. I especially love it when he is cuddly and lays his head on my shoulder.

8. Listening to the Hubster Play Guitar and Sing. This may not happen for a few weeks up to a month and a half because he broke his arm Tuesday :(. I used to love playing and singing myself as often as I could, but I feel like he's way better than me, and have totally been slacking off in the continuation of developing my own talent in this regard. I'd rather listen to him.

7. Reeses. Let's be honest- anything with peanut butter and chocolate.

6. Shimmery Eye Make Up. Love when other people wear it and when I wear it. Glam up those eyes baby! You only live once. Or more if you're Buddhist.

5. Silver. That is why I am going to be this element for Halloween. Complete with periodic table and nerdy silver glasses. Kez will be gold and MJ bronze. If we can find medals and figure out costumes...

4. Albert Einstein. Why am I so infatuated with this man? Oh ya, because he was not afraid to be DIFFERENT! I've written a whole biography on his life after researching everything I could about him. My friend Windy even sketched me his picture one Christmas in high school. Later on she died from malaria in Indonesia, so this is one of my most prized possessions of all time. My college roommate Carly (now Miss Smart) got me a life-size poster of his quotes for my birthday, and Sam bought me an Einstein book for Christmas. I even met him once. In a wax museum, but is that really relativity? :) According to him, he could have possibly transcended time.

3. Writing Songs. Yes, I do. If you haven't heard We Are All One that we wrote together, you can check it out here- http://www.myspace.com/marshalljensen. I wrote one in college called Speck of Doubt. When I dated different musicians, I would ask them to put the words to music for me. When I gave this assignment to the man I was dating at the time, he owned it. On the piano! One reason I knew I could marry this musician. Here is one I wrote about his life on his birthday 2 years ago, but haven't sang since then:

Remember the Lines:
Vs. 1> A mother's tears drop on a fresh face. A sincere soul is born into the human race. In a house in Logan, with God's grace. The baby's bright eyes would remember every line on his mom's face.
CHORUS: He remembers the lines. Lines that stay with him forever. The lines that made life mine; these are the lines he'll always remember.
Vs. 2> He can't see the lines on his mom's face and what they say. She's watching her boy deep in coma after another whole day. Groups of people come together and they pray. He awakes and he remembers all the lines for the school play. CHORUS.
Vs. 3> From buying lemonade at the little girl's stand to helping the Italian widow to stand. A white car drives along listening to band after band. The white car's paint is chipping, where the lines once were it's missing. CHORUS
SECRET VERSE> Contemplating God's words he sits; the woman in white says it will be a few more minutes. The sealer says just what they'd discussed- Eternal lines of inspiration and trust. CHORUS

I was going to sing the secret verse at one of our receptions, but I'd rather just listen to him. See Guilty Pleasure number 8.

2. Science Books. I sure hope I have a child who likes science as much as I do because I have SO MANY huge college text books and just fun reads that I would like to share with someone! Most of them are chemistry and biology. I love knowledge.

1. Kezman's Smile. I know I probably spoil him, but I'd rather see him happy than sad no matter what. Here's another song I wrote about my top guilty pleasure.
Smile Miracle Man:
Vs. 1> If only I could save up every smile
because no matter what the mood or pain,
that incredible smile reflects on my face.
Staring and trying just to catch a glimpse
of that perfect mouth turning up to wince.
Chorus: He's a miracle man once in a while.
And his magic lies in his smile.
A smile that erases all the pain,
A smile that puts all others to shame.
Worth more than all the pearls in the sea,
That smile is a miracle to me.
Vs. 2> I'd wait for hours just for one smile
Fishing for that dimple worth more than a pearl.
It's a miracle that it lights up not only his face,
Reflections of the onlooker puts another smile in place.
And that's why Chorus.

Thanks for letting me confess a few guilty pleasures and record these things on my obsequious allotment of internet.

A Birth Story: Finally

The above name Finally signifies two things: 1) that I am finally posting it after 3.5 months (I have some pregnant friends I figured might want to read it since I loved reading any and every birth story while I was pregnant) and 2) that he finally came after being in labor for so long.

I've had a little extra time today with the K-man eating around the clock and I found the e-mail I wrote to my brio birth teacher just 3 days after he was born, so I will just copy and paste to make it easy for me and the story will still feel fresh. Also, at one point my dad gave me a priesthood blessing and I must have been so out of it, I didn't really know what he said, but just felt confident. Marshall later on told me that after the words flowed of trial and hardship, he was thinking, "What in the world is about to happen?" Here it is:

Finally after being in labor off and on for a week (by that I mean hard contractions that would wake me up, get to 5 minutes apart then trickle back to 7-20 minutes apart) and practically no sleep- maybe 15 minutes to an hour here and there- the contractions picked up again on a Wednesday night. Hubby and I worked through them together and all night they were 5-7 minutes apart. At 5 am, we had our neighbor 'doula' come over and we worked through contractions throughout the house with her. She was awesome and knew just what to do to get me through them. They were coming about 4 minutes apart and our goal was to go to the hospital at 3 minutes apart.

Well after a few hours, they started spreading out again like they had been all week, so I figured it was a no go. We sent the 'doula' home, called the midwife and she said if they get to 4 minutes apart again to go in to the hospital. Otherwise, take a percocet and go to sleep because I had not slept all week and that's not good going into labor. Well, they got to 4 minutes apart again that next hour and we called my mom and said we don't know if this is it because I had been feeling the contractions like that all week. We went to the hospital at 9 am where they checked me and said I was at a 3 and 80% effaced. They said they'd monitor me for an hour and see if it was active labor.

An hour later I was 3+ and 95% effaced, so they called the midwife and she admitted me. My midwife came and broke my water to finally get things going after weeks of weird labor contractions (I had not wanted my water broken, but I felt that at this point if she didn't I would have just been in labor for even more days. I was glad that cytotec would not be administered after all since I was effaced so well. I had been worried because the midwife had told me she would induce me with this drug the next week since I would have been 42 weeks along. I had researched the drug known as cytotec and did NOT want to use it or even be induced at all.

I labored for hours through hard, constant contractions with hubby and moms at my side. They got really intense to the point where I scratched my husband in the face and I felt that maybe this was transition. The midwife checked me and I was at a 4- a 4! After being a 3+ almost 7 hours earlier! I was out of control and couldn't take it any longer. I told my husband that I wanted an epidural a few times and he was very good at ignoring me. After a few intense and mean contractions I said it again and then I said let's wait half an hour. Then I screamed it thinking there was no way I would continue to dilate if I was not relaxed and I was exhausted. I received the epi and loved labor after that. I asked my husband if he would still love me if I got it :).

I am glad I screamed that; contractions were so consistent before this, and after receiving the epidural I could rest and labor proceeded well until I was at a 10. They let me rest for an hour and a half after getting to a 10 before we began pushing at 2 am. I was so tired the only way I could push was take off all my clothes and coach and pep myself up with the hubs throwing ice and water all over me. I pushed for 3 hours and my midwife called back-up because obviously something was wrong when the head started crowing (baha, that would be a major problem if I gave birth to a crow), I meant crowning. He ended up being posterior and I could see little blisters on the top of his head from him rubbing the wrong part of my bone when they positioned the mirror. Since he was not in the right position at all to come out, I was yelling- just get him out! Do whatever you have to do! It was probably more of a weak sauce sentence, but from my exhausted body I felt like I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was pushing 1 min apart contractions which I could feel perfectly since the epidural had worn off. The back-up doctor was amazing- he knew right away the baby was posterior where the midwife did not. He started putting forceps in and despite all I had studied about how terrible forceps are, I was just relieved that the baby would finally be here but hoped he would be okay after that. The doctor didn't even ask and I didn't know it but he gave me an episiotomy. Later on he told me that I was one of three episiotomies he had performed that year. Well, at least I know he is not episiotomy happy. Um, shucks, I feel...special.

I pushed hard that last time and he was out. I was so delirious, but I do remember seeing his red body dangling and he was not crying. I knew something was wrong because they whisked him away and would not let my husband cut the chord like we had planned. I kept screaming why isn't he crying! (Probably when I say screaming, that's more of an emotion- I don't think I had energy for anything including opening my eyes at that point). Another man came in and I heard the word meconium and hubby say he was going with our son to the NICU. I guess they did not want him breathing until they cleared it out so it wouldn't go in his lungs. They said that he would remain there for probably 48 hours. I was like- no! After all that! Just wheel me over in a bed- I want to see him. I still had to get stitched up and I told my midwife I could feel it while she was stitching so they had to use some form of anesthesia so I couldn't. I ended up with a 3rd degree tear :( but signed up as part of a study for women with third degree tears or worse.

A little more than an hour later, they brought him back to me! That's it! He made a wonderful comeback going from an Apagar score of 2 at birth to an 8 in a couple hours. It was mostly his breathing that made it so low. But he is amazing and is so strong with a great recovery and story. And beautiful! My husband also sent a video of him so I could see what was going on when they whisked him away, and he wasn't crying in the video either even though his airway was clear at that point.

He was born Saturday June 11th at 5:34 am weighing 7 lbs 5 oz, and was 21.5 inches long. However, he lost his height down to 19.75 inches a few days later because he lost his ninja turtle shaped scalp. Recovery has been difficult, and this is not the fairy tale all natural birth we wanted, but a beautiful little boy is here! I also learned that just because your entire pregnancy goes perfectly does not mean your birth story will. And I am very glad that intervention is available in extreme circumstances and have vowed I will never have a child again :)

Yes, we do dew too much.

We've invented a new drink at our house called a dew driver. It is 1/2 mountain dew and 1/2 orange juice. Some of you might understand the name now :). It keeps us going through our crazy days and lately there seems to be more of those especially on the weekends. Mostly I like it because it is yellow mixed with green, which are of course the colors of Brasil. Speaking of Brasil, we went to the festival they do every year at a local mall.

Of course, we dressed Kez up in yellow and green as well. And he danced true Brazilian style with my Brazilian friend.

Kez and I took a little trip to Jackson to see the Bar J Wranglers true country style. I wished his daddy would have been there for the last song. They sang about a Father's love, and how it is a love without end. At least my dad was there and Kez seemed to enjoy the music.

I know he is just shy of 3 months, but he seems to be holding his head up pretty well, so we tried out the bumbo. I think he likes it, but he looks so grown up :(

We also took him swimming for the first time. He seems to enjoy that more than his baths. Maybe he will take after grandpa J and be on the swim team :)

My fave:

We also went to my niece's baptism. She sang a solo at her own baptism and she still amazes me with her beautiful voice. She was so elated to receive her own set of scriptures with her name engraved on them.

Kasa-chan came to visit us from Japan and we took her to the airport. She's such an amazingly happy person I just want to hang out with her all the time. That's kind of hard to do when there is a Pacific Ocean between you.

We also celebrated somebody's 27th birthday. I better not tease him so much because I am next to reach that age. I'll have to say that every year for the rest of my life. Our wonderful neighbor made him an awesome guitar birthday cake (he teaches their son the guitar). Seriously, this woman has 4 kids of her own and still finds time to feed the whole neighborhood. No joke!

What a Gr8 Fam!

Phew, I didn't even have time to get to some of the stuff we've done lately and I am already ready for a dew driver. That's the wonder of the blogger world and life, always more days and fun times to come!