The Jenkins

Family of 5....

2011-06-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

I am so bad at this blogging thing. I usually just update Facebook because I can do that from my phone with pictures and all. So with three little kids now my time is even more crunched.
So just to catch up...baby Madison was born on May 18th, 2011. (Beware...delivery story is included...I will try not to be too graphic) When I was about 34 weeks along my Dr. had me repeat the glucose test which I had taken at about 15 weeks and passed. This time I failed. Since it was so late into the pregnancy he didn't make me do the 3 hour test but just treated me for gestational diabetes. So that meant I had to test my sugars 4 times a day and have 3 Dr's appointments a week. Perfect, no big deal to drive out to the base which is a good 20 minute drive 3 times a week with two little kids. Sounds fun. I have an extremely hard time asking for help especially when it comes to my kids. But after some debating with myself and figuring out that I could use help I asked my father in law to come into town to come help me with the kids during my appointments. I felt so bad asking him to come all the way from California because I just needed help during those 3 appointment times but it wasn't exactly feasible to have him drive up 4 hours to watch my kids for my Monday appointment, then drive home 4 hours, then drive back up for my Wednesday and Thursday appointment. So we asked him to just come stay with us during those last two weeks. Well on top of the several appointments a week that I had, we had just been informed that the house we are renting from was going to be replumed. As in the entire plumbing to the whole house needed to be redone because of some faulty connectors in the pipes. So we moved into an extended stay suite for about 5 days. That was a huge headache. So my father in law slept at our house and would let the workers in in the morning then come to the suite to hang out with me and the kids. I was a stressful wreck during those last few days because there was so much around the house that I wanted to get done before I had the baby. I was scheduled to be induced on May 23rd at 39 weeks but our house was not going to be ready until Wednesday May 18th. So my whole plan was to get home from the hotel and scrub the house from top to bottom from the replumb, organize the kids rooms, set up the pack and play for the baby and so on. Well I went in for my monitoring appointment on Monday the 16th and my blood pressure was up. My Dr was concerned that it was turning into preeclampsia like I had with Chase. I had to do a 24 hour urinalysis again to check for protein. I turned that into the base on Tuesday after an appointment we had for Chase and within an hour of turning it into the lab my Dr called and told me that the cut off for protein is 299....guess what mine was....300. So he said I had to come in that night to be admitted to the hospital. I had to call Phillip home who had just teed up on the first hole at golf and I had to pack my hospital bag with stuff I had at the hotel with me in Abby's suitcase. I burst into tears because I was extremely stressed from staying at the hotel and not being home to get ready for the baby. I told my Dr he would have to wait for a little bit because I was not prepared and I wanted to shower and get ready. haha. So we finally got to the hospital and checked in. Phillip stayed with me for awhile then he went back to the hotel to take the kids home because we were going to check out of the hotel a night early. He would need to be at the hospital early the next morning because they were going to start me on pitocin in the morning and the workers were still working on our house so someone needed to be at the house to let them in. So his aunt and uncle came to our house to sit with the kids while Phillip and his dad went back to the hotel and packed it up. We were there for 5 days so I had not packed light with all the food and kitchen stuff I had to pack too. So that night Phillip came back to the hotel just long enough to bring me some food. That night they just monitored me for a few hours then gave me a sleep aid to help me sleep (which didn't help at all) and inserted something to soften my cervix (sorry TMI). The next morning at about 7:30 AM they started the pitocin. My contractions started coming regularly but were still bearable. Then I started to feel nausea. I went to the bathroom and threw up a couple times then on my way back to the bed my water broke. Right before that I was dilated to a 6. So Phillip told them that I needed the epidural now because I would dilate very quickly now especially since my water had broke. The Dr came in and started getting everything ready for the epidural and by this time the contractions were extremely strong and I could barely catch my breath before the next one started. I was in so much pain. They said they were just going to do a spinal tap because it was quicker then an epidural and they could tell they didn't have much time. But as I was leaning over for them to start the injection, I could tell I needed to push. Time was out. I laid back and the nurse started yelling for my Dr. He didn't even have enough time to get his jacket on all the way before Madison was already out. It was so fast that I didn't get my feet in the stirrups Madison literally was delivered onto the bed. Haha. It was the worst pain I have felt in my entire life but of course it was worth it. I definitely had not planned on going through the whole thing without pain meds, I am such a wuss I wanted that epidural, but she came way too fast. After she came and everyone including myself was in shock at how fast it was, I was like "Wait....what is it??" They had forgotten to inform me that I had delivered a beautiful baby GIRL. I felt such a relief that it was a girl because I know Abby would have been heart broken if it was a boy because for the last 7 months she was 100% convinced that she was getting a baby sister. Madison Jenkins was born at 9:39 AM and weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches. She is beautiful and looks a lot like her sister and brother. From the time my water broke till the time she was born was maybe 15 minutes...it was insane. Her blood sugars when she was first born were extremely low so we had to feed her formula immediately to try to get her sugars to come up. They had to constantly prick her foot to check her sugars for the rest of the day and into the night. Finally her sugars came up and she did not have to get an IV. Abby and Chase came to see her that day and they were both so excited to meet their baby sister. They love her like crazy. So we got to come home from the hospital on Thursday and two close friends of mine had been nice enough to come over to my house while I was in the hospital and help Phillip get things put away from the replumb and from the hotel. It was nice to feel less stressed about coming home to a disaster of a house. I still had so much I wanted to do around the house like figure out a place to put the baby's clothes, put up her bassinet, etc. It took me at least the whole next week to feel like I had caught up on things. My mother in law flew into town that weekend, as Madison wasn't supposed to be born till Monday. So we had to whole weekend to visit and shop for baby clothes since we finally knew what she was. My in laws went home on Tuesday and then my mom flew into town on Wednesday. It was so nice to have extra hands to help with the older two kids and keep them entertained. While my mom was here she would let me sleep in in the mornings and she would even wake up during the night with me to help me with Madison. She would feed the baby while I pumped so that we both could get to bed sooner. It was so nice to have her help. She went home a week later and we all have been trying to adjust to having a little one around again. I know these next couple months will be hard but we will manage. It is just hard because Chase is barely 20 months old now so he still requires a lot of attention and it takes us forever to get anywhere because I have to feed the older kids get them ready, get myself ready, get the baby ready, pump, and feed her. It takes FOREVER. haha. I just feel like I spend most of the day running around the house trying to keep up with Abby and Chase and the millions of messes they are making, laundry, dishes, feeding, pumping, washing bottles, changing diapers, etc. 3 kids ages 3, 20 months, and new born is A LOT of work but I love it...most times ;) So that is the story of the crazy weeks and days leading up to Maddy joining our family...here are some pictures to enjoy!

"Here mom...I'll take a turn pumping for you" :)

Wow....It's been awhile....

2011-02-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks its been awhile...We have been busy so I will just make a little list of things we have been up to and then bombard u with photos :)

November:
*Had a fun girls night over in St. George with some dental wife friends.
*Thanksgiving-went to California to visit family
*Announced at Thanksgiving that baby #3 will be joining the Jenkins clan
*The kids and I stayed an extra week after Thanksgiving while Daddy went back to school. We got to go to Disneyland one afternoon for several hours too!
December:
*Many play dates
*Holiday parties and festivities
*Got to go to my great friend's sealing to my cousin
*Celebrated my birthday with going to Claim Jumper one night and Johnny Rockets another :)
*Spent Christmas with both families and were spoiled rotten
*Had a little birthday party for Abby's 3rd Birthday
January:
*Abby started PRIMARY
*Abby started preschool and loves it
*Abby also started a ballet/tap class
*Had ultrasound for the baby...but not to find out what we are having...we are going to be surprised! :)
*Abby and I got to go on a Mommy daughter date to Disney on Ice (She loved it!)
*Went on a hike at Red Rock
February:
*Dr visits for lingering coughs and colds
*Finished Abby's ballet/tap class and started a gymnastics class
*Play dates and occasional picnics at the park
*Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins
*Went to Mt. Charleston to play in the snow

I am sure I am missing a lot of things but those are just some highlights of the months I have missed. Sorry!

Jenkins Family picture at Thanksgiving

Swinging at Grandma and Grandpa Chase's house

T-shirt announcements I made for the kids

Playing at the park

Visiting Santa

Going to Disneyland and she insisted on wearing the crown

Playing dress up

Christmas Pictures

Christmas present projects

My kids are terrible sleepers in the car so I had to document that they slept on the way to California. Granted we left at like 7 PM but of course they did not sleep the whole time

Giant Christmas tree at Bella Terra

Opening Presents again

Abby's Birthday party at my parents house

Playing in the snow at home...it lasted for about an hour then melted

Abby's fist day of preschool

Silly Kids

Ballet/tap class

My boys watching football

Hiking at Red Rock

Abby getting off the bus from school. It picks her up and drops her off right in front of our house

All boy...he loves his bat and ball

Silly boy

Playing at the park

Abby at her preschool Valentines Party

Laundry baskets are so much fun :)

Mamma is getting huge and fast...this time around

Abby's new swing that daddy and grandpa Jenkins put up over the weekend

Playing in the snow at Mt Charleston

Abby riding her Harley while dressed up at Tangled...the best of both worlds...haha

On daddy's birthday he had to stay at school and study all day so we made dinner and cupcakes and went to school to see him.

We've had a busy few months...sorry it's taken so long to post. Hopefully this will catch things up a bit :)

Halloween/Birthday Party

2010-10-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have been planning this Halloween/Birthday party for well over a month now. What was going to be a low key few people party turned into a bit bigger of a shin dig. I have always wanted to throw a Halloween party and what better timing then to throw and Halloween themed birthday party?? So I started planning and looking on line and kept a whole notebook full of ideas and lists of things I needed to do. I first started by making lots of decorations for my house that would be fun for the party. I blogged about most of those craft and decoration ideas earlier on here. Then when the time got closer I started buying all the food and things for the party. I wanted to make most of the food because I figured that would help bring down the cost of the party. So I made a menu. Again, it started out small and the list gradually grew. So Friday and Saturday were spent by me running around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready all while also entertaining and taking care of my kids (not as easy task when I have a to do list a mile long.) So just to give you a little overview; the plan was to have dinner at 5:30 then let the kids play a bean bag toss game that I had made and sewn bean bags for, then to make Halloween finger puppets that I had gotten a kit for at Michaels, then play pumpkin bowling (which actually got skipped over) eat cupcakes, open presents, and visit. It all went by in a flash but I was very happy with how it all ended up and we had a good turn out of friends. The menu and the decorations are the two things that I had spent the most time on and that I was very proud of. I made "spooky" food labels for all the food on the table to add to eeriness of the party. The menu was:
Hamburgers (Brain-Burgers)
Hot dogs wrapped in bread stick dough (Mummy dogs)
Tortilla chips and Bean Dip (Bone Chips and spider nest)
Potato Salad (Monster Mash)
Veggie Tray (Swamp Fixins)
Baked Beans (Ghoul Stool)
Homemade Caramel Popcorn (Caramelized Bat Brains)
Pumpkin Pie Dip with Tortilla shape cut outs sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar (Arsenic Dip and Goblins)
Veggie Straws (Splintered Cat Bones)
Jello Blood Worms-made by pouring jello into flexible straws (blood worms)
Tropical Hawaiian Punch (Witches Brew)
And last but not least Cupcakes (didn't put a spooky name with these)

I got the idea to make the Jello Blood worms from:
http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/09/jell-o-blood-worms.html

And I got the idea for the pumpkin dip and goblins from a Taste of Home Magazine.

I also made frozen Cranberry juice/frozen raspberry hands to put into the witches brew. Those looked pretty awesome! They helped to keep the punch cold because they were frozen, but because they were made with gelatin, they don't melt so it keeps its shape. I got that idea from

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/witches-brew/Detail.aspx

All in all I was very please with how everything turned out and I hope that everyone that came had a good time.

Chase's Birthday!

2010-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

My baby boy turned one on Wednesday. Time flies by with the second one. We had a low key day because next weekend we will celebrate with a big Halloween/birthday party for him. Here are a few pictures from his birthday and such.

We went to the park on his birthday to get out and play. We got to see lots of turtles and geese. It was a lot of fun

Halloween Crafts...

2010-09-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

With Halloween right around the corner I have had the "craft bug" again and have been trying to think of some inexpensive ways to decorate my house for Halloween. We love Halloween over here. It is Phillip's favorite holiday. I have been scouring the internet to find stuff for our costumes and haven't had the best of luck so hopefully it will all come together soon. Anyway, here are just a few pictures of some of the things that I have made to spook-i-fy our house :)


Candy Corn wreath. I bought the wreath at the dollar store and painted it black. I hot glued candy corns all around and hung it with some ribbon. I got this ideas from this blog http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/

Empty milk cartons with faces colored on them. We cut large holes in the back and stuffed a string of orange lights in all of them. I got this idea too from this blog http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/

Halloween banner I made with scrap fabric I had...it is also reversible. It says "Merry Christmas" on the other side. This is for sale on our etsy shop!

Ok so I made this last year....but its up again this year :)


Halloween "subway art"...I made with some friends the other day and LOVE the way it turned out...I'm selling this on etsy too...just in case anyone cared :) Creepy apothecary jars. One is filled with "werewolf eyes" and the others I just filled with different colored water (not shown in this picture)

I linked up my crafts and decorations on this blog:

Half Marathon

2010-08-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago my brother in law Jared asked if I wanted to run a half marathon with him and I flat out laughed at him. Me? Run? Hahaha that was funny. At the start of this year when I was working out on my own at the gym I decided to take on the challenge. Never in my entire life have I been a runner. In fact I have always hated running. I dreaded the few days a year in PE class when they would make us run a mile. When we started training I could barely make it a mile and a half before I felt like dying. Soon enough I sucked it up, put my mind on a goal and went for it. It was hard, challenging, tiring and I wanted to give up many times. I finally learned how to push myself farther and harder then I ever had before. I realized that its all mental. Even when my body would beg me to stop because my legs or knees hurt like crazy, or I was bored or tired, I learned how to push past that and keep going. After about 4 months of training we made it to the race. The energy and atmosphere of all the people there about to do the same crazy thing we were made it kind of exciting. I was extremely nervous for the actual "race." I put it in quotes because I was not "racing" anyone. My ultimate goal was just to make it to the end. My other goal was to be able to jog the entire 13.1 miles and to get under 3 hours. We were nervous about the altitude change from Vegas to Park City, but luckily it really didn't seem to bother us much. The weather was absolutely gorgeous up there. It was a bit cold when we started but we warmed right up, and it was warm when we finished. The trail we followed was beautiful and it helped to slightly keep our mind sane. It was much more entertaining then running laps on the track at the gym. It was frustrating when people that were speed walking parts of the marathon and it seemed like it would take me forever to catch up to them. Phillip and Jared were pretty far ahead of me for the entire race. At about 7 miles the course looped around and we headed back. I saw Jared and Phillip while they were already heading back and I still had yet to loop around. Somehow when I run my longer distances the last mile and a half or so I am finally able to pick up my pace. This is usually when people are losing all their energy and slowing down. So because of this I was actually able to catch up to Phillip at the last mile. I was so excited! Haha. Once we saw that finish line we gave it our all (which by that point was basically nothing) and run through the finish line together. Luckily you couldn't see the finish line till the last maybe 100 yards of the run. If I has seen it any earlier I probably would have tried to push it too hard from too far and not made it to the end. :) The whole thing was a very neat experience and I am very glad that we did it. It was really cool having something to work towards and for and then the feeling of accomplishment when we crossed the finish line was amazing. Even though my time was super slow I am just proud that I finished. Here's to our next half marathon! :)

Before the marathon....nervous as can be

Stretching....

Brothers

Looking kinda tired...didn't sleep well the night before and the race started at 6:45 AM

....And we're off......

There was a lot of time in between...but there we are coming down the finish line...

WE DID IT!!!!!

We ALL did it!!! YAY!!!

Time Flies.....

2010-07-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

When you have an iPhone and never use your desktop computer anymore to look things up or upload pictures :) haha....We haven't really even turned our computer on since we got our phones several weeks ago but we have been taking lots of pictures and uploading them to facebook :) Anyway....sorry....its going to be picture overload...

Playing around with the front camera on the phone

Went to see the midnight showing of "Eclipse" with the ladies from my ward....it was a lot of fun! Even with the tattle tale in line behind us :)

My little guy is into the curious stage and getting into everything. I think you're supposed to be in this Chase, not under it

One day I was just thinking about when we should lower his crib and then that day when he woke up from his nap, he was standing up and about to fall out, so I guess it was time to lower it. Since then he has been so excited to pull himself up everywhere.

My family came into town on their way to and from Utah for my nieces baptism. So on their way back down my sister and her kids caravan-ed with my parents down to Cali. They all stopped here for 4th of July night and the next morning we all got up and me and the kids hopped in her van and went with them for a few day trip. It was a full car of 5 kids and two adults....and traffic! Here is my cutie niece Brooklyn watching the fireworks, apparently she wasn't assumed :)

Kaitlin, Dad, Mom, and Dylan as we did fireworks in the street

I was playing around with a picture editing thing on my phone but here is a cute picture of Abby and a few of my nieces and nephew.

Playing at the park

On our way to the beach....crowded van!

It was freezing at the beach...but it was lovely to escape the 100+ weather in Vegas

My brother Ammon and his family live who live in Orem Utah also were down for the week in Cali. So one night we had a family dinner at my parents. 13 out of 15 grand kids were there. And 11 of them with two adults went for a swim in my parents spa...haha

The day before we drove back home we were fortunate enough to go to Disneyland. The weather was wonderful and it was pretty crowded but not terrible and the kids all did really well for being there for about 10 hrs.

Proof to show daddy that both kids were asleep at the same time in the double stroller, it was a miracle....that only lasted about 30 minutes...haha

After our fun filled week of the beach and Disneyland, we came home and I put the two to work :) Chase loves to climb up on the dishwasher and Abby likes to help me clean. I knew I had kids for a reason...to put them to work! :)

Pictures....

2010-06-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Swimming in our pool in the back yard.....

On our way to St. George for memorial day weekend with some friends...

Couple days later on our way home from St. George....haha, I guess she was wiped out from all the fun we had!

I thought he looked so stinking cute in this little hat :)

Taking a rest from shopping at Target with some friends

Silly boy

My Struggle....

2010-05-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember I have always been extremely self conscious about my weight and appearance. Starting when I went to BYU I quickly gained the "freshmen 15" and it kept going. Before I knew it I was at a weight I was horrified of seeing when I went on the scale. Once I got pregnant with Abby I figured "well now I have an excuse for being overweight" and never really thought much about it. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which also meant that if I did not lose some weight that my chances of getting diabetes later in life were now 50 50. After Abby I decided I wanted to lose weight. I tried doing work out videos at home, talking her on long walks every day, watching what I ate...the norm to try to lose weight. Once I got onto a good routine of working out at home soon after I found out I was pregnant again. We were so excited but I was nervous about gaining weight again. I kept working out though because I was in a good routine and I know that it is good for the pregnancy. Then a week and a half later I lost that pregnancy. I was devastated and it through me for a loop. A few months later we found out that we were expecting again and I was terrified of losing that one too that I stopped working out, for fear of miscarrying again. My weight during the pregnancy went up but not too terrible. Once Chase came, the pregnancy weight came off within two weeks. But my pre pregnancy weight was not a weight I was ok with. So in November I decided to get a gym membership. I began working out at nights so that Phillip could be home with the kids. I would go about 3-4 times a week. Then I found that a friend in my ward was a major gym guru and went all the time. Once Chase was old enough, I switched to going in the mornings. We would go 5-6 times a week for 2 hours. We would do an hour class then work out for an hour on our own. I also starting counting calories with an app on my iphone and finally started to lose weight. I made small goals and I have one overall big goal. After 5 months of working out constantly, I finally lost 20 pounds. I hit a major plateau for almost 2 months and was getting extremely frustrated that I was working out so much, watching what I ate and wasn't losing a dang pound anymore. After much deliberation, research and talking to as many people as I could, I decided I was desperate enough to try the HCG diet. What did I have to lose besides weight right? At least hopefully. Anyway, we went down to California at the end of April and of course with going out to eat with our parents and such put back 4 stinking pounds. We got home on a Saturday and I started the HCG diet on Sunday. So today is my 23rd day on the diet, the last day of taking the HCG drops. I am finally happy to say, in 3 weeks I have lost 16 pounds, bringing my total weight lose this far to 32 pounds. I will admit it is very refreshing to have people notice that I am losing weight and I feel much better about myself. It is overwhelming to think that I still have 25 pounds that I would still ideally like to lose, but I am happy I have finally gotten this far. As I was searching through pictures to find my "biggest" picture to post, I noticed that over the years I have been so ashamed of how I looked that I really don't have many pictures of myself. I hope that from now I can be a bit more confident and be in more pictures. Haha. Now starting Friday I will be completely done with the very low calorie part of the diet and will start my 3 weeks of now starches, sugars or carbs. I can't tell you how excited I am to eat more food. haha and starting Friday I will begin my training for our half marathon in Park City in August. My hopes are that with this training and with my continuation of eating a very low carb diet that I will be able to lose more weight. I was going to wait till I had lost all the weight I wanted before I posted, but I guess I was just too excited about being done with this diet and I was also bored tonight that I decided to post. This was then........

Keep in mind this was taken only 5 weeks after Chase was born...haha

Then....embarrassing but a size 17....Now.....size 10-11

Im Really Bad At This.....

2010-05-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

I have been really bad at this whole blogging thing. It just seems like we've been pretty busy lately but yet at the same time I don't have much to even say. Just a quick update. Abby is definitely in her terrible two's. One minute she is sweet and caring and the next she is whinny as can be and challenging everything. She has been completely potty trained for 7 months now and is becoming very independent in so many ways. She is a great big sister. She loves to make Chase laugh and loves to tease him. I am not trying to rush Chase into growing up too quickly, but I have to admit that it will be nice once he is old enough that they can actually run around and play together. I know that it will be more hectic when the two of them can get into trouble, but some days Abby just gets so bored playing by herself. But I am enjoying this time where Chase is not yet mobile. He is now 7 months and weighs 21 pounds. We have made many many trips to the Dr for him lately. He has had 4 ear infections in the past 4 months. He likes to give us a scare with spiking very high temperatures. In 5 weeks we go back to the ENT to do a hearing test and talk about possibly getting tubes in his ears. It seems that every time he gets any kind of congestion or runny nose, he gets an ear infection so tubes might be the only solution from here because the antibiotics don't always help him. Even when he is sick and has a 103.8 temperature, he is such a fun and sweet boy. He is always smiling and immediately puts everyone around him in a good mood. He loves to sit on the floor with his bucket and toys and enjoys watching Abby run circles around him. I love being a mom. My kids may drive me bonkers at times (and right now Abby does this pretty much daily) but I love them like crazy. Phillip has been busy with school but this semester is much better then last. I don't know how we even made it through last semester, but I am soooo glad its over. This semester he has been in the clinic a lot more and has been pulling lots and lots of teeth. I think he is finally liking school again, because he sure hated it last semester. We are still debating if he is going to specialize and become an oral surgeon or not...I guess only time will tell. As for me, well these last two and a half weeks I have been on the HCG diet and probably have not been very pleasant company lately as I am a bit crabby when I am hungry :) I am counting down the days for the diet to be done and then I can start training with Phillip for our half marathon in August. I have missed being able to work out, as on this diet you are not supposed to work out much. It will be nice to get back into a routine of going to the gym again. I miss getting my daily dose of endorphins :) Anyway, this post I am sure is extremely boring, but I just felt like updating again, and hopefully soon I will have something more exciting to post. Until then.....

Sorry all these pictures were taken with my phone...

Abby loves animals! We went to a little kid day at a car wash (random) and there was a mini petting zoo. She loved it!

Swinging at the park in California

Chase loved playing with my friend Missy's dog...good thing Max is a gentle giant :)

I thought I would include a video of Abby showing off her singing skills...haha she sure is a performer...enjoy!

Catching Up Again...

2010-03-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Time has been flying by and I feel like I have not had a dull second in the day lately. Today Abby has a fever so we are skipping our daily gym trip, so I had a few extra hours this morning which I am not used to. Since the end of December I have been working really hard at keeping on a routine with me and the kids and going to the gym on average 5-6 times a week. It has been very hard for me to stay motivated to get fit but I have a couple good friends that have been going to the gym with me too and it has been a lot of fun. Now Abby enjoys going to the gym and playing with her friends, and Chase usually just takes his morning nap there while mommy "works." So I just thought while I had a little bit of extra time I would post some much needed pictures of the kids and what has been going on around here!

This is a random picture, but we bought a slide/playhouse set for Abby from a neighbor. So this is a picture of some friends helping us lift it over the wall.

This is the set all put back together. She loves playing on the slide, especially if Phillip and I go on it with her. :)

Over Phillip's spring break we were lucky enough to be able to go to Disneyland with a couple other dental friends of ours and their families as well. The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad either. We had a blast!

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kaitlin and Becca got to come meet up with us at Disneyland. Abby was so happy to have them all there spoiling her.

Abby insisted on seeing the characters and would not let us leave till we waited in line to meet them. But of course once she got up close to them she wasn't too sure.

Abby making dinner at Minnie's house

Pictures are totally out of order, but Abby loves eating lunch or dinner in her new clubhouse. She has been attached to daddy's hip this semester. He has had to study a ton more this semester so when he is home, she will not leave his side.

Eating ice cream from the Anderson Diary. Silly me, I thought it was a real dairy farm with real cows. Needless to say there were no real cows, and Abby was pretty disappointed (me too) but at least we got ice cream from it! haha

We had to settle for seeing the plastic mommy and baby cow

He's just getting so big! 5 and a half months and 18 pounds!

Where did my baby girl go???

Christmas Break

2010-01-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Phillip had two weeks off for Christmas and no time was wasted. The first week we stayed home and enjoyed our Christmas with just our little family. It was so much fun. We celebrated Abby's birthday the Sunday before Christmas so that she could open her presents before we went to Utah. Then Tuesday was my birthday, so Phillip and I got to go to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. It was his first time so it was a lot of fun. Then Wednesday we went to a friends house for dinner and games, Thursday we went to our cousins house for a Christmas Eve party. Santa surprised us all and came for a quick visit! Abby loooved it! Then Christmas morning woke up bright and early and opened ALL our presents. We were spoiled this year, especially Abby. It was so much fun watching her get so excited about all her presents. By the end she was starting to get a little overwhelmed with all the presents that when I would ask her if she wanted to open another present she would say no :) We lounged around all day playing with all our new gadgets and things and then we packed to leave for Utah the next morning. We left first thing in the morning and made the 6-7 hour drive to Orem Ut. Abby did so good and did not any accidents the whole ride there. We had decided to go to Utah because my whole side of the family was going to be there. We went to Orem the first night and stayed with my brother Ammon and his family. Everyone came over that night to Ammon and Katie's to exchange family gifts, sing Happy Birthday to Abby since it was her actual birthday that day, and play games. All of us were there except my brother Vaughn and his family because they came up Monday. Then Sunday we went to visit some friends of ours for a little bit after we went to church with my brother. It was really nice to see them and let their daughter Scout and Abby play for a little bit. Then we headed to temple square to look at the lights. It was freeeezing but beautiful. We stayed that night at my sister Veronica's house. The next day Veronica and I went to the Air Force base to go shopping at the Commissary and that night we met my parents and Kaitlin and Becca for dinner in Salt Lake. The next day, Tuesday, we went down to Draper to meet up with the whole family to take family pictures. It was snowing pretty bad and I was driving following Veronica because Phillip had stayed the night with my brother since he had stayed late to go to the movies the night before. It was a pretty scary drive because it had been awhile since I had driven in the snow. We met in Draper at my brother's in laws house for family pictures , all 29 of us! It was nuts! Then we went to lunch and a few of us took the kids sledding after. Abby loved it surprisingly! That night Veronica and I went to go see New Moon. It was my second time seeing it, but I didn't mind at all :) Then Wednesday we met Phillip's brother Jared in Salt Lake and picked him up from work and stayed the night with Jared and Kathryn. It was a lot of fun getting to see them again. Then Thursday we packed up again, went shopping at Ikea of course and got some fun stuff there, then went to the BYU bookstore and got Abby a sweatshirt, and went back to my brother Ammon's house to stay our last night. It was New Year's Eve and we played games and then went to bed. We hit the road first thing in the morning again and came home. We were busy all day Saturday unpacking, cleaning up more from Christmas and setting up the stuff from Ikea. That night my brother Vaughn and his family stopped and stayed the night at our house on their way back down to California. It was fun to visit some more with them. It was a crazy trip. We stayed at 4 different places and were constantly on the go. For it being such a busy trip the kids did great. It was so much fun seeing all the family. It was hard because everyone was all spread out. But we are getting so big in numbers that it is getting harder to all get together. It was fun playing in the snow but we are glad to be back in Vegas where its not nearly so cold. It was a blast but it is good to start getting back to our routine here at home.

Our gingerbread house was supposed to look like this...

But instead looked like this...haha

We went to our cousins house for a Christmas party and Santa showed up!!

Our Christmas here in Vegas, can you say spoiled??

Chase loved his presents :)

Daddy and his favorite present

Abby found her Santa gift in the garage, a kitchen!

We had cake at Uncle Ammon and Aunt Katie's house for Abby's 2nd birthday!!

Us at temple square...freezing! I'm holding Chase in the baby B'jorn wrapped in blankets to keep him warm

Mom and Dad Chase and ALL 15 grandkids!

Daddy and Abby with Aunt Margi's mom's GIANT horse

Abby and Daddy sledding. I forgot the camera so I only got a couple pictures with my phone. Abby loooved it and kept wanting to go again despite her being freezing cold.

Abby and Aunt Becca. She just adores Becca and always cries when she leaves

Baby Chase getting so big and cuter every day! (if that's even possible :)

Little brother, big sister

Wagon ride around the block

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

We went down to California for Thanksgiving weekend. Phillip's brother and sister in law drove down from Utah and we all piled in our van and drove down together. It was a very nice visit. We stayed at my in laws house and it was a full house over there with everyone, but it was fun. Abby was getting her two year molars and had a fever so she was a little pill the entire time we were there. We got to have two thanksgiving dinners. One on Thanksgiving day at the fire station with my father in law, and then one on Saturday at the house with most of the family. Then my family came over later and we blessed Chase. It was a very nice but fast visit.

He's getting so big already!

Abby and Grandpa at the fire station.

Can you tell she didn't feel so great?

All the Jenkins cousins, minus Jared and Kathryn's on the way :)

Chase got to use the same blessing outfit that his cousin Jeremy was blessed in. It was so sweet!

4 generation picture

Uncle Vaughn got Chase a Dodgers hat so I had to take a picture with their matching hats!

Mini photoshoot

2009-12-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine from our ward was nice enough to come over and take some pictures of the kids for me (it still seems so weird to say kidS) I wanted to get some pictures before all of Chase's hair fell out :)

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

These past two weeks have been a complete whirlwind as I am in a sleep deprived daze. It has been an adjustment getting used to having two kids and trying to figure out a new routine. Abby is absolutely in love with her baby brother and is constantly asking for him and wants him to wake up all the time. I usually have to keep him in his bassinet when he is asleep because otherwise she is all over him. On top of having a new born and getting used to that, Abby has decided that she wants to be potty trained. I purposely had put it off because I figured that she would just regress once the baby was born. But ever since we came home from the hospital she has been wanting to go potty in the big potty and wear "big girl panties." So it hasn't been the best of timing for me, but since she was ready we decided to go full force and completely take away her diapers (of course except for nap and bed time.) So far she has done really well. Anyway, last weekend my parents and sisters were able to come up and visit and then this weekend Phillip's parents came up too. It has been soooo nice to have the company, the extra hands to help, and most of all the attention for Abby that she has been craving. Since we have been home for the past two weeks because of the baby and Abby potty training, she has been starting to get a little bit of "cabin fever" so having the company to entertain her has been wonderful. We had a fun time this Halloween weekend filled with pumpkin carving, a little farm/pumpkin patch, pies, and trick or treating. Abby wasn't so sure about the trick or treating, she wouldn't say a word at any of the houses, but she would walk right up the house and hold out her bucket for the candy. It has been a great couple weekends, too bad Abby and Chase didn't get the memo that the time changed last night and that they were supposed to sleep an extra hour :)

Daddy and Chase watching Sunday football together

Pumpkin carving

Abby loves to help feed her baby brother

Baby Chase enjoying the farm and pumpkin patch :)

Abby was in looove with this little horsey

Halloween night after trick or treating

Wide awake

We went to Halloween party that a friend of ours from dental school put on. She was Snow White and Abby was so excited!

Introducing....

2009-10-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Chase Alan Jenkins

This is actually a picture of Abby, but I just wanted to show the similar brother and sister picture

Going home from the hospital outfit that daddy bought for him

Chase Alan Jenkins was born on Oct. 13 at 4:38 PM. Weighing in at 9 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long! On Friday the 9th I had a regular Dr. appointment in which they noticed that my blood pressure was slightly high. They sent me up to labor and delivery to monitor the baby and my blood pressure. They sent me home after my blood pressure had come back down and told me to return the next morning for more monitoring. I was sent home again after the monitoring in the morning but later that day a Dr. called and told me that I had too high of protein levels in my urine and that they were diagnosing me with mild preeclampsia. They told me to come into the OB clinic on Tuesday for more monitoring and to discuss a time to be induced sometime during the week. So that weekend I got some more last minute things ready and anxiously anticipated what day they would schedule me to be induced. On Monday I took Abby to the park to feed the ducks and then that night took her to a pumpkin patch. I wasn't sure when I was going to have the baby that week so just in case I wanted to spend some fun quality time with her before baby brother came. Luckily Monday night Phillip told me that I should pack my hospital bag just in case. I didn't think that there was any way I would be induced after my appointment on Tuesday but I am glad I actually listened to him. Tuesday morning I left for my appointment and Phillip dropped Abby off at our friends house and went to school. At my appointment the Dr. came in and said "well since you are 38 weeks and have mild preeclampsia we are just going to go ahead and induce you. I will call up to labor and delivery right now and make sure they are ready for you." I was in complete shock. I was not thinking that I was going to be having the baby that day, I thought for sure I would have a few more days to get things all ready. So I called my friend Nicole who had Abby and said that I would not be coming home for awhile because they were sending me up to be induced. I talked to Phillip and let him know that I was going up to be induced and to see if he could leave school early. He had carpooled that day so he had to have a friend take him to the hospital. They started the potocin around maybe noonish and soon after broke my water. Phillip kept telling the nurses that once I get to about a 5 I dialate very quickly to a 10. It took awhile to get to a 6 but within 45 minutes I was complete and pushing. I had the epidural but for some reason at the end and when it was time to push I could actually feel the contractions again and I could feel a lot more pain then I did with Abby. Luckily with Chase I only had to push for about 15 minutes. With Abby I pushed for an hour and a half. I couldn't believe how big he was, and for technically being almost two weeks early! Phillip and I had been struggling the entire pregnancy with figuring out a name for this little guy. We could never agree on anything and I kept saying that I needed to see him before I could settle on a name. Once he was born I still could not quite figure out what I wanted. We had a couple names that we had in mind but nothing was sounding good. Then finally that night after talking about it again we decided to name him Chase, which is my maiden name. I think Chase is a really cute boy name anyway, but I really like that it is also my family name. Then of course Alan is Phillip's middle name, so I think it is very fitting. It took me a little bit to be comfortable with the whole name, but now I really like it. Anyway, sorry such a long post, I just wanted to write about his birth a little before I forget things. We stayed in the hospital for that night and went home around 7 the very next day. It was a very quick stay. It is still an adjustment being home with two kids but I am still running off adrenaline so the wave of extreme exhaustion hasn't hit me quite yet, but I am sure it will soon. Abby has been in love with her new baby brother. She always asks for him and is always trying to give him toys, cover him with her blanket, give him his binkie, anything she can do to help. She is such a good big sister.

Count Down Has Begun

2009-10-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

This whole pregnancy has been pretty easy. Not too many complaints (although Phillip would love to disagree with that statement). I have not been counting the weeks as closely as I did with Abby because I have a toddler to chase around and keep me busy, so the time has really gone by very quickly. For most of the pregnancy I have been telling this little guy to take his time in there because with everything going on and with Abby going through some rough stages, I was not even close to being ready to add another one. Well, things have now changed. I am now to the point where sleep is hard to come by since I am so uncomfortable, bending over, getting up from sitting down, going grocery shopping and getting completely out of breath, all the lovely discomforts of pregnancy are here, and I am now saying "ok little guy, any day now." On Monday I will be 37 weeks, so...let the count down begin!

Keeping Busy

2009-09-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Since we have gotten back from our trip to California I have had "the itch to stitch." I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with a family friend who is an absolute pro at sewing and have her teach me a few things. I wish that I had been able to get more time, but I was grateful for the time that I did get. The last several months I have been craving to do something more with my time and my life in general. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being a mom and a "homemaker" but I have just been feeling like there is something more out there for me. So since I have been home I have been thinking of lots of crafty projects that I could do that would help full fill this void. I'm nervous to announce this since it is still in the very early stages, but my sister in law, Kathryn, and I have decided it would be a lot of fun to start a little store on Etsy. I have added a button on the blog so it can be easily accessed. Please feel free to check it out, its called "The Dragon's Fairy Tail Shop." So with getting the shop started and doing other little projects around the house I have kept very busy and have been loving it. Of course perfect timing on my part to start all this when I am due in less then 6 weeks :)

We decided to paint Abby's room (well more like I decided) Her walls were stark white, her bed was white, and her dresser was white. It needed some color in there. Before pictures of Abby's room

She wanted to help

Base color for the room is done

Abby wanted to help add the polka dots. She had just woken up from a nap, hence the crazy hair :)

The room is officially done. We tried to match the colors to her comforter as best as we could. And the polka dots and random brown circles are just like what is on her comforter.

I wanted to post a picture of the parts of the bedding that I have so far for the baby. The family friend that helped show me some things about sewing was nice enough to offer to make our baby's bedding. So this is a picture of the absolutely adorable crib bumper that she made along with the brown crib sheet that matches. On the side if you can notice is also a matching receiving blanket. I LOOOVE how it all turned out. She is also going to make a crib sheet and quilt and I can't wait to see those because I just LOOOVE how these turned out!

Closer look at the bumper

Another receiving blanket she made. I loved this cute lion material, and it matches the paint in the room perfectly.

Vacation...

2009-09-02T10:27:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our little summer vacation. Phillip has had most of Aug off and is officially done with his first year of school! YAY!!! We stayed in town for the first week and a half of break just getting caught up with projects around the house and his parents came for a little visit too. Then we headed down to California. We stayed at my brother's house for the first couple days, then we stayed at Phillip's parent's house, then we stayed at some cottages on the beach in San Onofre. Our trip consisted of golfing and sushi of course for Phillip, me getting a mani/pedi, learning how to sew and working on some projects, Disneyland, birthday dinner for my sister, Bunco, staying on the beach for 3 days then last but not least Sea World. It was a very busy but so much fun for two weeks!

Random Picture, but I thought it as cute...

Abby and her friend Bailey on their hike with the dads at Mount Charleston.

Disneyland! We actually lasted about 10 hours there believe it or not. Despite the hot and humid weather, the crowds, a 7 and a half preggo lady, and a 20 month old, it was a successful trip!

Our friends from school and their little girl Bailey got to come to Disneyland with us! So this is Bailey and Abby anxiously waiting to meet Tigger.

Chilling at the beach ALL day at San Onofre. Luckily my parents brought their "easy up" so we could have shade. Our cottages were walking distance to the beach!

Surfs up! haha

It felt nice to float on the boogie board and be almost weightless!

Right after boogie boarding, the waves wore me out

Sea World. We sat front row at the dolphin show. I should have taken a before and after shot of us. We got pretty wet!

Elmo ride at Sea World, my camera lens was all foggy, sorry.

We moved!!!!

2009-08-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

These past couple weeks have been absolutely crazy because we moved! We moved about 5 miles from our old place and we are renting a one story house. Not a townhouse, not a condo, a house and on a culdesac! We have a front yard and a back yard...with GRASS!!! It is hard to get a place with grass because everywhere in Vegas people have the "desert landscaping." We moved in last Saturday and I have been busy all week unpacking and getting settled in. We all have been so excited that we have a yard. Every night Phillip goes out back and hits golf balls while Abby plays in her little pool, sprinklers, or wagon and I just relax and enjoy that we have a yard. Last night we had a BBQ with several friends. We had about 10-11 adults and several kids. That many people in our old place never would have worked. It always felt like we were sitting on top of each other. The kids placed out back in the pool and sprinkler and the adults just ate and enjoyed each others company. Phillip was so excited to have people over for a BBQ to show them the new place and see that we actually have room to entertain now. It was so much fun. I took some pictures to show the new place. Keep in mind we are still in the process of unpacking so its not a complete package yet but we love it so far. I am so glad we got to move before the baby comes!

Family room area. We can actually have our couch as one piece like its supposed to be.

Dining room and kitchen area.

Front room, or living room. We still aren't too sure what to do with this room but I want to put like a sofa bed or futon in here for more sitting room and for when people come to visit. But its also a nice place area for kids.

Hallway to rooms

Abby's room. A bit messy, I was washing her sheets and stuff.

Another angle of her room. It is so nice that she will actually play in her room now because its not all the way upstairs.

Master bedroom

Master Bath

Extra Bathroom

Laundry Room, not just a closet, a room! :)

This is the room I still have yet to organize and unpack as you can tell, but eventually it is going to be the baby's/craft room

Best part ever....the back yard. Eventually we want to get a canopy thing for shade and some patio furniture since the patio is huge!

Last week

2009-07-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

This is Abs, me, and Billy. Abs is trying to show me how to fix Billy's teeth. She's a good teacher.

We decided to go camping since I had Friday off. Who would've ever thought that only half an hour away from vegas is a forest where the temperature is in the mid 70's. Well now you know.

This is just cuz Abs is the prettiest 18 month old in the world.

Random...

2009-06-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

These last few weeks Abby has been talking a lot lately. It is so much fun to hear her say different words and it is nice to be able to somewhat communicate with her. Although I think she is hitting the "terrible twos" a little early sometimes, she is still so much fun. We have been keeping busy with swimming, hanging out at parks, going to friends houses and we even got to go to the circus with daddy and friends! It was so much fun! As a side note for Father's Day Abby and I bought daddy a new driver. He was so excited and it finally came in the mail today. He can't wait to go golfing tomorrow to try it out. He said it is the best club he has ever had. So we will see how it holds up tomorrow. But I just wanted to say Happy Late Father's Day to Phillip. He is such a wonderful dad. He does a very good job at balancing all his studying and church calling with spending quality time with his family and we are very proud of him. I also just wanted to wish my dad and father in law a Happy late Father's day too! We love you!

Abby loves her daddy

She loves to wear our shoes

This is what happens when a toddler realizes they can get out of their bed now. Apparently after playing for 2 hours instead of taking a nap she finally got tired enough and just fell asleep on the floor

Swimming at the rec center

The circus!

Abby really liked watching the elephants

Here is a little video to show some of the words Abby likes to say now

Pictures of the baby

2009-06-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

He's gonna be a soccer player

I know, he's good looking just like his dad

Summer Time...

2009-06-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Lately Abby and I have been trying to get out of the house at least once a day. Either to a park so she can run around and get some energy out or at least to run an errand or two. We have been keeping busy with our ward mom's group weekly play dates and dental wives mom's play dates. We also were lucky enough to get a NEW couch last week. Every single piece of furniture we have ever owned in our almost 3 years of marriage has either been a "hand-me-down" or from Craigslist. So last week we made our first purchase on a brand new, never been used sectional with 4 recliners. I love it! And the bigger I get in this pregnancy, the more I will enjoy it! :) Phillip of course is keeping very busy with school. Even with 7 tests coming up next week he still does a very good job of spending as much time with us as he can. So we are very grateful for that. Also last night was Abby's first night in her BIG GIRL BED! She did really well. I think it was an easy transition for her because we just turned her crib into the toddler bed so nothing really changed just that the big railing is down and it now just has a really small little railing so she can get off by herself. She was so tired when she went to bed last night that she fell right asleep with no problems. I laid a bunch of blankets on the ground around her bed in case she rolled off. Around 4 in the morning I went to go check on her and she was asleep on the ground. Poor thing. I picked up her, put her back into the bed and she slept till 8:30 and didn't even try to get off once she woke up. She is currently taking a nap on it right now, so we will see how this goes. Her crib was kind of falling apart, so we decided to just convert it to the toddler bed and we can buy a new crib for the baby. This way she will be used to a regular bed by the time the baby comes and she hopefully won't think that the baby stole her crib. Well, that's all the new and exciting news so far...till next time!

Ward mom's group at the Krispie Kreme Tour

The new couches (its a sectional but because our place is so small we had to separate it. So its a little ghetto, but at least its a ton more comfy! haha)

Middle piece in corner (ghetto part) :)

Abby actually asleep in her big girl bed

Did we forget to tell you???

2009-05-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Abby is going to be a big sister! In October we will be blessed with a little baby boy for Abby to tease and torture! :)

School is FUN

2009-05-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

For all those who want to go to dental school, here is what you have to look forward to:

5/13/09 7122-Prosth Lecture Quiz #1
5/18/09 7135-Perio Quiz #1
5/21/09 7111-Oral Histo Final
5/27/09 7137-Prosth Lab Practical #1
5/29/09 7138-Operative Exam #1
Practical #1
6/03/09 7122-Prosth Lecture Quiz #2
6/08/09 7135-Perio Quiz #2
6/09/09 7139-Occlusion Practical #1
Exam #1
7129-Dx and TP Exam #1
6/15/09 7138-Operative Exam #2
Practical #2
6/16/09 7130-Dent Mat Exam #1
6/17/09 7137-Prosth Lab Practical #2
6/22/09 7135-Perio Quiz #3
6/24/09 7137-Prosth Lab Practical #3
7122-Prosth Lecture Exam #1
7/06/09 7135-Perio Quiz #4
7/08/09 7122-Prosth Lecture Quiz #3
7/13/09 7138-Operative Exam #3 Practical #3
7/15/09 7137-Prosth Lab Practical #4
7/20/09 7135-Perio Quiz #5
7/27/09 7126-Anesthesia Final
7/29/09 7122-Prosth Lecture Quiz #4
8/03/09 7135-Perio Final
8/04/09 7139-Occlusion Exam #2
7130-Dent Mat Exam #2
7129-Dx and TP Exam #2
8/05/09 7137-Prosth Lab Practical #5
7122-Prosth Lab Exam #2
8/07/09 7138-Operative Exam #4
Practical #4

Semester Break

2009-05-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

I better catch up on what we have been up to these last couple weeks since in a couple days Abby and I are off to CA to see my mom, sister and nieces preform in "The Wizard of Oz." Phillip had two weeks off in between semesters (he doesn't get the summer off) we decided to pack up and hit the road. As soon as his last final was completed I surprised him with some take out sushi and we hit the road. We stayed one night in Provo with some friends then drove to Tooele, UT to stay with Phillip's brother Jared and his wife Kathryn. Jared took a couple days off of work so we could just goof around. Phillip's goal for the trip was to go golfing as many times as he possibly could, especially since golfing in Utah is about 1/5 the price in Vegas. He played golf every single day that we were there, I got to shop for several hours with my sister in law at Ikea, we went swimming, played at the parks, played the Wii and card games, and had a wonderful time relaxing. Then we packed up and drove to Layton, UT to visit my sister Veronica and Brent and their 3 kids. We had a great time playing outside, going to the zoo, a museum, just visiting, of course more golfing for Phillip. Then we packed up again and drove to St. George, UT. We stayed in St. George for the rest of the time with some friends from dental school at a very nice condo. (Thanks again Millers) There were about 6 different families that came up different days and rotated staying a day or two. We had an awesome time swimming every day, shopping and playing at the cool parks. Phillip went on a hike with the guys where they had to cross a little river and climb cliffs to get golf balls. Apparently there is a golf course that is on a cliff so everyone always hits a few golf balls over the cliff. So the boys went on a hike to find them. They came back with almost 600 golf balls. Phillip was in heaven. So of course the next day, he had to go golfing with his new found treasure. We had such a great trip but we were exhausted by the end. We got home on Friday and Phillip started school again Monday...back into the full swing of things with dental school again.

Playing Rock Band...

Reading stories with Uncle Jared and Daddy

Sharing yummy ice cream at the zoo

Cousin Brooklyn and Abby

Playing at the Children's Museum

This picture is for Grandpa Jenkins

This is pretty much how Abby is the ENTIRE car ride :)Even with watching DVD's and such.

"On the road again..."

The guys scrubbing all the golf balls they found.

Climing on the rocks in St. George

Tight squeeze

This park was so much fun for Abby and her friends, but I think the adults actually had more fun at this park!

Camera is finally fixed!

2009-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures to add to the posts since my camera was getting fixed for awhile.

I guess Abby was trying to take her jammies off by herself.

Playing on the little toys at the "Outlet" stores in Primm

Playing in the spa with Daddy at our hotel

We had to stop by Bass Pro Shops on our way back into town (this was for your Grandpa Jenkins). You can't really see but it was a really sweet fish tank behind them

Abby getting her first real hair cut because everyone was saying she had a major mullet going on.

It looks so much better now

We went with some friends to a Spring Celebration at a park and they had bounce houses, little rides, petting zoo, all sorts of things. Abby wasn't really sure what to do in the bounce house.

Petting a goat

Abby trying to escape the petting zoo

Chasing scary geese who were hissing and making me really nervous

Random picture of her hiding in the corner

2009-03-30T11:05:00.001-07:00

Its been awhile since I posted last but my camera has been in the shop again for repairs and I always feel like for some reason I can't post if I don't have pictures. So I will have to post some when the camera returns again. Hopefully this time they will actually fix the thing I asked them to fix the first time. Anyway...a couple weeks ago Phillip had a much needed Spring Break. On Monday night we met up with some other dental friends down in Primm, NV (state line) so we could get out of town with only having to go 40 miles away. Plus when we saw that the prices for the rooms were only $7 a night at Buffalo Bills, the one with the roller coaster....we couldn't pass it up. The rooms were not too bad at all, especially for the price. We had connecting rooms so that we could put the kids down in the one room and then we could still hang out in the other room. The roller coaster and all the rides were all closed till the weekend so there really wasn't much to do but swim in the hot tub (the pool was FREEZING), go shopping, and eat. We stayed Monday and Tuesday night and came home Wednesday. It was a nice little change of scenery for cheap. Then the rest of the week we relaxed, had BBQ's, hung out at the parks and played. It was so nice to have Phillip home for the week since with so much studying lately we really haven't gotten too much time with him. Then he started school again and finals are in two weeks, so he said he basically won't see us till they are over. I can't believe how much he has to study. I don't know how he does it all, but I'm glad its him and not me :) Can't wait for this semester to be over for him. He gets two weeks off and then starts a new semester, which we have actually heard is even worse then this one...yay I love dental school! :) Well when I get the camera back I will have to post more pictures, until then...sorry!

Birthday Celebration and White Coat Ceremony

2009-03-01T21:33:00.001-08:00

Last weekend Phillip's parents and his brother and their family came into town for Phillip's birthday and white coat ceremony. On Sat night we went to a sushi place for dinner. Phillip ordered the all you can eat sushi and everyone else ordered food that was actually cooked. Abby ate a ton of rice and then snuck a piece of fish off daddy's sushi and actually ate it! I was so shocked! But she didn't go back for seconds. Then Sunday we cooked a big dinner at home for Phillip's actual birthday. He had been asking for home made spring rolls for months now so I decided to tackle it for his birthday. So we had a random dinner of steak, spring rolls, broccoli and potatoes. With the help of my mother and sister in law the spring rolls were a huge hit and Phillip ate more then half of them! :) Then on Monday we all visited Phillip at school and got a tour of some of the things he has been working on. Like his mannequin patient, Billy, and such. Then that night the was the white coat ceremony. It was to signify their progress from being a student to becoming a practicing dentist. It was very neat and I would have been able to enjoy it more if I didn't have my very energetic, can't sit for more then 2 minutes one year old with me. The parts that I did get to hear though were pretty awesome. Watching Phillip walk across the stage and see the dental professors put his white coat and pin on made him becoming a Dr. so real. Then all the students and dentists stood and recited a Dental Oath. From what I got to hear it was a really touching experience. Congrats Dr. Phillip Jenkins! Keep up the good hard work!

Dinner at sushi place

Phillip's first plate of sushi

Homemade egg rolls

Dr. Jenkins!

UNLV School of Dental Medicine class of 2012

Success!!!

2009-03-01T21:18:00.001-08:00

YAY! After maybe 4 days of Abby going on strike and not drinking any if but a few sips of milk...she finally drank it out of a sippy cup!!! I let her pick out a sippy cup at the store in hopes that she would be more excited to use it and it seemed to work in the end. She is still somewhat iffy of the whole idea but today she officially drank two full cups of it! Our little girl is getting so big!

Sippy Cup Delimma

2009-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

I have been trying for several months now to get Abby to drink her milk from a sippy cup and she just flat out refuses. She will happily drink water or juice out of any sippy, but as soon as she figures out milk is in there, she chucks the cup and starts throwing a fit. She will only drink her milk out of a bottle. I have tried almost every single sippy that they have out there and she couldn't care less about them. Now its so bad that the milk can only be in one particular bottle that she will drink it out of. I tried giving her milk in two different bottles today and yesterday, she takes on look at it and drops it on the ground. So I know how bad it really is. It's not that she just wants it in a bottle, it has the be the Avent one. So last night I was so fed up with it that I put her to bed without a bottle of milk because she refused to drink it out of her sippy. I tried everything and she would only take a few sips. Every time she did I would give her tons of praise to try to get her to realize that is what she is supposed to be doing but she still didn't care. I even put her to bed with the sippy which I never do and when I got it out after she fell asleep she had only drank maybe an ounce. So this morning I fed her breakfast and put a sippy of milk on her tray. She didn't even touch it. Then I put a sippy by her of water and she downed that. She even ate a ton more then usual at breakfast today, probably because she knows she's not going to get full from her milk. She is so stubborn and I am at my wits end. So if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. I am going to try to get through this whole day without even showing her the Avent bottle. I guess she'll just drink water today.

Playing Catch Up

2009-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

I forgot that I hadn't posted pictures yet of Abby's First Birthday or some of the family pictures that we had taken right before Christmas. We celebrated Abby's bday at the park the day after her official bday which is Dec. 26th. We had pizza, chips, cake and ice cream. It was so nice to have so many family and friends there to celebrate with us.

At first she was being so lady like with the cake...

Then she just went to town

Opening presents

Uncle Vaughn and Abby share the same birthday! So here are the Bday twins!

I scanned in the family pictures so they aren't the best quality but here they are...

What is dental school doing to my husband??

2009-01-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

So about a week ago I woke up to find Phillip was no longer in bed. I heard him in the bathroom so I asked him what he was doing and if he was ok. He responed "What do you mean what am I doing?? I'm getting ready for school." He had already showered and was getting dressed. Still dazed I asked again what he was doing and if he knew what time it was. "Yes, I'm getting ready." He responded annoyed as he walked into the bedroom and looked at the clock which read 1:30 AM. Confused he stated "what the...? Anyway apparently his alarm for some reason had gone off 4 hours earlier then it was supposed to and he didn't even think to look at the time I guess. So I started laughing hysterically as he got ready to go back to bed for several more hours. While we were falling back asleep I said "I can't wait to blog about this!" I just hadn't gotten around to it. Then last night in the middle of the night Phillip sat straight up in bed and started groaning "ow ow ow ow ow...holy cow...ow ow ow" then laid back down. I kept asking him what was wrong if he was ok or if there was something I could do. He wouldn't respond. I kept bugging him to tell me what happened. He said "Nothing, don't worry, go back to sleep." I was still a little freaked out. So I bugged him again about it. This time he was annoyed that I was bugging him again and said something like "it was the top of the tooth stage 5 don't worry about it." Something along those lines. When he woke me up this morning before he left for school I asked him about what was hurting him last night and he had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he had learned anything about a stage 5 or something to do with the number 5 and teeth in school and apparently they had. So...I don't know what it is that dental school is doing with my husband's psyche but its starting to freak me out.

Knotts Berry Farm and Christmas #2 and 3

2009-01-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

So after a magical day at Disneyland, and then an exciting day of buying a new car, the next day my parents took all of my family to Knott's Berry Farm. It was pretty busy but we still had a lot of fun. With 3 strollers, a huge wagon, 11 adults and 7 little kids we sure took up a lot of room. We had a lot of fun watching all the cousins ride together on all the little kid rides. After the park we got take out from the Chicken House and went back to my parents to relax from a busy day. Then the next day (Christmas Eve) Phillip and I celebrated our 2nd Christmas over at the Jenkins house. (My father in law had to work Christmas day) We had a yummy dinner of every kind of appetizer you could think of. Then we opened all of the presents for the gift exchange and from Mom and Dad Jenkins. It took awhile with all of their spoiling to get to the bottom of the present pile...but there was no complaining :) Abby loved all of her presents and one of her presents from Grandma and Grandpa was a hit with all the other grand kids too. Later we put Abby down for bed and enjoyed a relaxing time in their new spa. Then that night we spent the night at my parents house and we got early to open presents there. We all got so spoiled again. Santa brought Abby a push, pull, and sit on toy that also was a huge hit with all the grand kids. Santa brought us a GPS for our new car. I love it since I always seem to get lost. All in all, we had a very busy several days but we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and it was so nice to get to visit with everyone. We were so spoiled...good thing we got the new van so we could fit everything in it to come back home. :)

My Birthday Surprise!!!

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

So the last couple months Phillip and I have been talking about trading in our little Hyundai Elantra and maybe getting a bigger car. We have gone back and forth with the idea but never really gave it too much thought. Since our car is completely paid off we thought we would just use it as a down payment for a bigger car. Well on my birthday we decided we would to go no other then Glenn E. Thomas Dodge and talk to our good friend who owns the dealership about some cars. I went with the whole idea that we would just be looking...for fun and to get some ideas. I didn't really want to get a Dodge Caravan because all of them look the same and blah blah blah its a mini van...boring. But the new 2008 caravan looks sooo different from all the normal mini vans and had so many cool features. So they showed us a 2008 caravan and went through all the fun things it can do and we took it for a test drive. I really really liked it but I didn't really think much about it because I was sure we were just looking for now and that we would be buying a used one. So we went back in the dealership and they started doing a credit check and stuff and before I knew it Phillip was signing papers!!! Then we it came to how much we were going to put down I asked him what about the trade it for the other car. He said "we're going to keep it." And just kept signing papers. What happened to my husband and who is this guy????? Was my first thought...but I knew better then to say anything and ruin the moment. So a couple hours later and signing our lives away...we were driving home our brand spanking new 2008 Dodge Caravan. Now before you judge and say "boring a same ole mini van"...please just take a took at this commercial...it would take way too long for me to write out all the neat things about this new addition to our family and my writing would not do it justice. So...Thank you to my absolutely wonderful, thoughtful, generous husband of mine!!! Happy Birthday to me!!! :) (and thanks to the Navy for letting us being able to afford this!) :)

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Everyone that knows me knows that I absolutely love Disneyland and pretty much anything Disney. I worked at Disney World in 2005 for a semester and I really got to experience a different side and Disney and really get to know some of the characters there :) But even after all that I still instantly turn into a little kid the minute I even start walking up to the gates. I especially love it even more at Christmas time because I LOOOVE all the decorations! On the Friday before Christmas Phillip, Abby, and I got to go to Disneyland. We got there at 8 AM when it opened and stayed as long as Abby let us before she started to have a melt down. Since we got there when it opened it was not crowded at all in the beginning. Like I said I absolutely love Disneyland and I would go on the little kids rides a lot when I was younger just because, but it was so much more enjoyable going on the rides with Abby now. It just made me love it even more. She was so tired because we had gotten into town the night before really late and we had to wake her up early to get to Disneyland in time but she was such a good sport. She had a really good time. We got to go on just about every little kid ride and didn't have to wait very long at all for the lines. We went on Peter Pan, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Dumbo, Casey Jr. Train, the carousel, Story book ride, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Small World. We even got to meet Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and have a story told to us by Cinderella. Then around 3 we took Abby to my parents house so that we could put her down for a nap and my sisters watched her so that Phillip and I could go back by ourselves. It was a lot more crowded by then but it was still so much fun. It was truly (even though it may be corny to say) a very magical day!!!!

On the tram to Disneyland

Classic in front of the Mickey florals picture

Peter Pan ride

Carousel ride

Dumbo

Sword in the Stone

Abby's first appearance on stage at Disneyland

Story time with Cinderella (Abby loved it!)

Small World

Story book ride

Christmas # 1

2009-01-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

We had 3 Christmases this year. First we celebrated with our little family here in Vegas before we left to California because there was no way we could fit everything in our car. We all wore our Christmas PJ's opened presents and just enjoyed ourselves relaxing and getting everything ready for our trip. Abby was so excited to have new toys and would get side tracked with playing with one that she didn't want to open any others. The day before we opened all our presents it actually snowed here! I was so giddy!!! I kept running out side and trying to take pictures of it. It was so pretty and awesome to have a "white Christmas." I love the snow but I am happy that is doesn't stick around too long because I hate driving in it and I don't like to scrap my car every time I need to go somewhere. So it was perfect because it didn't stick around for more then several hours.

SNOW at our house!!!!

So Many Things....

2009-01-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

We're finally back! I feel like these last 2-3 weeks have just been a whirl wind of fun and craziness. The weekend right after Phillip had finals we went up to St. George, UT with another couple from dental school and their little boy Owen. They have a family condo up there so they invited us to come for the weekend to relax and celebrate the first semester of dental school being over. We had such a good time staying up late playing games and just visiting. The kids seemed to have a great time too. The last day we were there it snowed all day! It helped to get us in the Christmas spirit with having somewhat of a "White Christmas." It was a wonderful way for the guys to get "veg" after cramming their brains for all their finals and nice for us wives to finally have our husbands back.

Abby and Owen all bundled up

Daddy and Nick playing racquetball

Abby's first snow!

Funny Girls

2009-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

I think the video speaks for itself.

Pictures

2008-12-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

This is why we finally had to install child proof drawer and cabinet latches

Phillip playing flag football with his dental friends.

We went to a friends house to watch the sad BYU vs U game. It was a pathetic game. At least we had some team spirit before the game started...during...not so much

We're training Abby to take the dog on walks so we don't have to...haha jk

Abby and her new winter coat...she looks like a marshmallow

A little collage of a couple pictures. I was just playing around on a photo editing website and thought it was cute. The picture of Abby in her Thanksgiving bib is the only picture I have of her on Thanksgiving...how sad

Its been awhile since I have posted last. It has been a very crazy emotional roller coaster couple of weeks. We have been crazy busy with Thanksgiving, getting our Christmas decorations up, Phillip studying like crazy for finals, being sick...etc. I just thought I would post some much needed pictures since its been awhile. Phillip has finals all this week so this weekend we are going to be going up to Saint George with a couple other dental families to celebrate the first semester being over. One of the families has a condo up there and invited us...so we are looking forward to a relaxing and fun weekend away from everything...especially Phillip's school laptop! :) Then we get back on Monday, and its busy busy till we go down to Cali for Christmas! We will be leaving on Thursday (the 18th) so we can go to Disneyland on that Friday. (Thanks so much Jim!!!) I can't wait to go! Phillip and I have never been to Disneyland together. We have only gone to California Adventure, so I am extremely excited!!! I absolutely love Disneyland, and I love it even more at Christmas time! Of course Abby has never been either so I can not wait to see how she likes it. We are going to be in CA for about 2 weeks and we have so much to do. It is going to be crazy fun. I can't wait!

Date Night

2008-11-17T20:39:00.000-08:00

A little late on updating but two weekends ago a friend of Phillip's from dental school had some extra VIP tickets to the PBR (Professional Bull Riding). We got to eat a nice buffet dinner with all the high rollers before the actual event. Then Phillip got to ride a mechanical bull and we also got to race in a NASCAR simulator. I hadn't seen much bull riding before, just a little bit on tv once in a blue moon if Phillip is watching it. But it was so much more fun and scary live. We were on like the 7th row...so we got to experience it up close and personal. One of the first rides one of the clowns got flipped up by the bull. Then towards the end one of the riders got stepped on on his back and shoulder...but he was able to walk off. I have no idea how he did after a bull weighing literally a ton just stepped on him! It was insane!!! We had so much fun! It was a much needed and awesome date night!!!!

The official PBR trophy

2008-11-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

Abs decided to take a stroll around the house.

Halloween!!!!

2008-11-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

So this year for Halloween...we decided to send out Halloween cards with a little newsletter. We dressed up in our costumes and took pictures at a pumpkin patch. Here are a couple pictures from the mini photo shoot. Then on Halloween we went to a friends house for a Halloween party. It was a lot of fun with yummy chili and caramel apples! Happy late Halloween!!!!

This is the card we sent out...

This is a copy of the little newsletter we sent out. Phillip of course wrote it..so if you don't know his sense of humor too well...it might not make sense as much. haha

Happy Halloween!!

Aitch A double el Oh, double ewe double ee in spells Halloween.
(Many people were getting confused with this..it says literally...H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N spells HALLOWEEN)(I asked him where he got this from and he said...a decoration my mom has for Halloween would say it...)
Greetings from the Jenkins!
While waiting in the pumpkin patch on Hallows Eve, as usual, our family was transformed as the Great Pumpkin so dictated. Vanessa and Abby switched places with Dash which means not much will change. They will continue to lie around the house all day. The only difference will be that Vanessa will only be able to clean with her tongue. The Great Pumpkin chose, in his infinite wisdom, to convert me into Mater. Now I’ll just have to specialize in K-9s.
Here’s the annual update (acting like we’ve done one before):
Abs of course was born last December (in case you’ve been asleep for the last ten months). She turned out to be a girl, which was good because Vanessa needed an excuse to make a shrine to Ariel (of Little Mermaid fame). The baby’s room is really just all of Vanessa’s toys. Vanessa even painted a mural of Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder by putting together a make shift projector. Now that Abs is ten months old (and transformed into a cat), I now have a good excuse to go trick-or-treating (not that it ever stopped me before).
Vanessa is getting used to staying home and being a full time mom. She has created two blogs which she tries to update frequently. She also has started walking two miles every day and collecting random animals (like Mater). Now the dog park has one more little yapper. She also volunteers her time with one of her friends at their church.
As for me, I pretty much just play ping pong. When I can fit it in I go to classes in-between. I started dental school a few months ago. I also joined the Navy because we decided it would be fun not knowing where we’ll be living in four years. Spices things up a little. Well have a lovely year. Take care until the Great Pumpkin strikes next year.

Where do you think Abby gets this from??

2008-10-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Random Pictures

2008-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Last week on Monday, Lauren and I made a very short trip down to California. I didn't tell anyone I was coming down so it was a fun little surprise. Lauren went to my parents door and told them that she had a package for them and then I jumped out with Abby. My mom's face and expression was absolutely priceless! She started screaming and jumped up and down. It was classic! Abby was so silly that day. I purposely kept her up from her morning nap in hopes that she would just sleep most of the way in the car. NOPE! She did everything she could to stay awake. The whole 4 hours she did anything but sleep. Mostly cried and zoned out a lot, but wouldn't let herself fall asleep. Silly thing. She did the same thing on the way back but she at least got naps before the car ride that time. So we went home Monday evening and came back Wednesday evening. It was short but sweet. We got to go to lunch with Mom/Grandma Jenkins twice and once with Dad/Grandpa Jenkins too. We also got to go to breakfast with Dad/Grandpa Chase. My sisters got to stay home from school on Tuesday so we had fun hanging out and waiting for Abby to wake up from her over 4 hour nap (she was making up from no naps on Monday.) When we came back from California I went to my friend's house to pick up the puppy. I left the room for a minute and came back to find Abby had crawled into the puppy's crate! Silly girl! Crates are for dogs!

Abby and Aunt Kaitlin and Becca!

Abby and Grandma Chase

Abby caught in the "dog house"

Abby wasn't feeling well and was just wanting to be held and watch her Einstein movies with Daddy. This is EXTREMELY rare that she doesn't want to be down and crawling around, so I had to take photographic evidence!

Pumpkin Patch and Abby's First Concert

2008-10-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

This week has been a very busy and fun filled week. On Friday morning Abby and I went with some friends of ours to a pumpkin patch/farm. It was so much fun with all the kids looking at all the pumpkins and random animals roaming around. Abby had a blast watching the older kids run around and then she would try to chase them by crawling as fast as she could. Then on Saturday Lauren and I went to "Bite of Las Vegas." It was at outdoor concert with several bands playing and a bunch of food booths and other little carnival rides. Phillip met us a little later after studying. We got to watch Metro Station, Puddle of Mudd, and Lifehouse perform. It was a lot of fun! It was nice to get out and listen to some good music. Abby enjoyed people watching and had fun dancing to the music.

My little pumpkin

Abby and her new friends. I love how she is almost as big as Kylie who is 3. haha

Metro Station

Abby enjoying the music

Abby and Lauren having a good time

Lifehouse

"Anchors Aweigh!"

2008-10-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

After a 5 month process of paperwork, Dr. appointments, fingerprinting, and many many "it should be about two more weeks,"...we finally got into the NAVY!!! We are going into the Navy to help pay for Dental School. We get a salary while Phillip is in school and we get complete health insurance for our whole family. Also the four years that Phillip is in school count towards retirement if we decide to stay in after our commitment. Basically we have nothing to do with the Navy the four years of school, Phillip just has to check in once a month through email, and run a couple miles twice a year. Then after school he has to go to 5 weeks of Officer Training Camp in Rhode Island. Then we will be stationed where ever they send us and Phillip will work as a Dentist for the Navy for 4 years. Unless he decides to specialize then it will be more. As of now he is a "Petty Officer" and when he graduates he will be an Officer in the Navy. We have an Air Force Base that is about 11 miles from our house, so I can't wait to go on base and explore and go shopping. No sales tax! Haha! It has been such a relief that this all finally went through so that we don't have to stress as much about our finances. Phillip's parents were able to come up this weekend so that they could see him get sworn in. It was a really neat experience! I am so proud of him!!!

Signing the first of many pages

I thought this picture was sooo funny. Abby was trying to get in the action

And the Winner is....

2008-09-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

So this is really random but last night Phillip said, "Ok we can either name him Billy, Duddley, or Mater." Mater had never crossed my mind, but for some reason I thought it was a really cute name for him. And since I really didn't like Billy I was happy we could finally compromise. So...Mater it is...I think it actually fits him because Mater is small, stocky, and has a square face...and so does the puppy! HAHA!!!

New Addition to the Family!

2008-09-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

We just got him yesterday. The people Lauren nannies for are foster parents for puppies at the shelter...so we got one! He is sooo much fun and soooo cute!!! He is 7 weeks old and is a Shih Tzu Terrier mix so his fur is very soft and like human hair...so he doesn't shed! YAY!!! So far it seems like Abby really likes him and he loves to follow her around. The people that had him before us named him Cole and Phillip for some reason wants to name him Billy. When I look at him he looks like he has a distinctive name that would fit him but I can't figure it out so if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them!!!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh MY!!!

2008-09-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Abby and I just back from Utah a couple of days ago. It was our first time traveling without daddy, and Abby's first time on a plane! She did very well. We had a great time visiting my sister and her kids, and we also got to see Phillip's brother and wife as well. We stayed busy playing in the grass in the backyard. Abby still isn't too sure about grass since she doesn't see much of it in Vegas. We went shopping, had a birthday BBQ for my niece and nephew, watched movies, played with lots of toys, and best of all we got to go to the ZOO! It seemed like Abby really enjoyed looking at all the different animals. We even got to ride a little train! It was awesome! We had a great time but we were happy to come home. Daddy kept busy with school while we were gone but he sure missed his girls!

these pictures are so out of order because I don't like the uploader thing.

on the train ride

playing in the kids area at the Salt Lake Airport

Abby playing in the kid area at the Las Vegas Airport, watching the planes come and go.

Abby playing Rock Band

Update...

2008-09-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

So Phillip officially started his first year of Dental School today. Last week was orientation and today was the first day of classes. For Labor Day yesterday we went to Lake Mead with my brother's family and one of his friends. The lake was a perfect temperature and it felt sooo nice to go for a swim. Abby loved the water too! She is like a little fishy. Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the last couple of days. I am off to Utah again for a week to visit family so Phillip can get back full swing into school and studying.

Random picture of Abby waking up from a nap with crazy bed head.

The abnormally white guy in the middle, yeah that's Phillip.

Abs just chilin' out on the blanket ready to pass out at any moment.

Abs playing with her cousin Milly.

Phillip posing for his first day of dental school.

California Trip

2008-08-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

We went to California again for one last HURRAH before Phillip starts dental school. We had a week full of bonfires, visiting Grandpa at the Fire Station, watching the Olympics, getting our eyes checked,going to dinner, a baby shower, swimming, Knott's Berry Farm, moving my brother, birthday party, family pictures, playing softball, and going to a Dodger's game. It was a long, busy, and super fun week!!!

Abby driving the fire engine!

Abby with her newest cousin Kelsey and grandpa

Sitting in the wheel of the tire

Enjoying the sand for the first time!

My brother Vaughn and his son, my brother Jared and his daughter, and of course Phillip and Abby...I love the sunset in the background too!

Knott's Berry Farm!!

Phillip and his brother Jared

Biggest pizza ever!

Utah Trip

2008-07-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

We decided that being lazy was the best option for the summer so we don't work anymore. We went to Utah for the two weeks, stayed at five different houses, and bummed off as many people who still talk to us. Here are a few pictures of the random things we did.

Here's Abs were her cousin Addy

Here's Abs and me going down a little water slide in Tooele (yeah don't even try (the name that is)).

Abs and I at Aspen Grove. For those who don't know, it's the place where BYU Alumni drop off their 3 to 17 kids and have fun on their own for a week. Greatest place on earth.

Abs eating mommas glasses, like everything else. By the way, Abs basically lived in this car seat for the two weeks.

Finally....

2008-07-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Phillip still has been playing the Wii golf trying to get higher (or I guess I should say lower) scores. Then yesterday while playing with his brother Jared over the phone, he broke his record again...by 2! He got 13 under! According to Jared the lowest anyone has ever gotten on the Wii is 14 under. Phillip is finally able to move onto another sport now that he has accomplished this great feat!

4th of July!

2008-07-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

For the 4th we went to Anna and Chuck's and played on the water slide bounce house, ate lots of food, relaxed, and set off TONS of fireworks! I think most of the fireworks startled me more then they did Abby :) I have never seen so many fireworks other then at like Disneyland.

We started setting off fireworks at sun set because the men were getting anxious, and we were out there for over a hour with all the fireworks!

Abby in her cute little red, white and blue outfit that her great Aunt Bettie sent to her.

Random

2008-06-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would update with a couple new pictures. I have been keeping busy with helping out Phillip's cousin still. And Phillip started his new summer job. We have been getting the house ready for my friend Lauren from back home to move in with us. She is moving this Wednesday and I am so excited! She has applied to UNLV and is still waiting to see if she will get in for the Fall. I am excited to have a such a good girl friend so close, especially for when Phillip starts Dental School. I hear the wives of the students call themselves "Dental Widows" once they start school, so it will be nice to have someone to talk to so I don't get too lonely. :) So Phillip will have to get used to a house full of girls. He is definitely out numbered now!

Abby loves to play with Phillip's cousin's puppy

Abby with her second cousin (Phillip's cousin's daughter, so I'm actually not sure what she is to her, anyway...) playing in a water bounce house!

Father's Day

2008-06-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

A little late I know...but I just wanted to wish all the Fathers a Happy Father's Day. Especially to my dad, my father in law, and of course Phillip. It was his first Father's Day and Abby and I tried to make it a memorable one. He woke up to a card that Abby and I had made for him. Then breakfast, and presents. He got two new pairs of shorts, socks, vice grips, and a framed canvas photo collage of us two and Abby. (Well that is actually still on its way in the mail, but I printed of a picture of what it should look like.) Oh and his parents are sending him a video camera as well! YAY!!! More videos of Abby! Then we went to church and he got a "Big Hunk" from the Relief Society. Later we got to go over to Anna and Chuck's house (Phillip's aunt and uncle). We had a wonderful dinner and the men watched sports, played cards, and Phillip even went on the slip n' slide. I forgot my camera though :( All in all, I thought it was a very nice relaxing day. I just have to say that Abby and I are so lucky to have Phillip as her daddy. She is definitely going to be a daddy's girl. He loves to sing cute little songs to her, dance her around the house, and give her lots and lots of kisses. Happy First Father's Day to Phillip...Abby and I love you. And Happy Father's Day to all the other great dads out there!

Fun Weekend

2008-06-09T10:30:00.001-07:00

This weekend was so great! On Saturday we got to sleep in because Abby was nice enough to sleep till 8:30! Then I went to go get my hair done. It hadn't been that long since I had gotten it done last, but my roots seemed to be like 10 inches long already. I went to a cosmetology school because they usually have such good prices. It was only $47 to get my entire hair highlighted and cut. It was amazing! It took over 3 hours, but it was sooo worth it! Then I spoiled myself even more and bought a couple new tops and some new heels (all my shoes don't fit anymore because my feet grew a whole size when I was pregnant). It was so nice to spend time by myself and get away for a little while. Then we took Abby over to Phillip's Aunt and Uncle and we went to go see Mamma Mia at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. (It was for my Mother's Day present) It was really cute! The music and dancing was so much fun! Then right after the show we went over to the Shark Reef that they have there. We got in free with Phillip's Clark County School District ID! YAY! It was really neat! We even got to pet sting rays at the end! And we bought a couple pictures that they take before you go in. We got a really cool frame with it too. It was such a wonderful date night. It feels so weird to go out without Abby, but it was so nice for us to just be able to spend time together. Then Sunday we of course went to church and then just came home and had a relaxing day at home. It felt so nice to be able to home this weekend and catch up on my own house work here. Anyway, this weekend was amazing and went by too fast! :)

New hair cut and color!

Pictures are out of order...sorry...I went on a walk with Abby and it must have tired her out :)

There's an alligator right behind me!

Not sure how I feel about petting those sting rays

Petting the sting rays!

Park

2008-06-09T10:08:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple pictures of Abby at a Dinosaur water park that we took her and the kids I help with to.

Busy Busy Busy

2008-06-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

These last couple weeks I have been practically living at Phillip's cousin's house so I have not been able to update as much as I would like. His cousin's husband just had a hip replacement and he is a stay at home dad so I have been going over every day to help clean the house, take care of their two kids, do the laundry, and cook dinner. I am usually gone from early afternoon to the late evening. So needless to say a few things have been getting neglected because of it. Anyway, two weekends ago we went down to California again for a wedding. It was a beautiful reception on Balboa Island. It was so nice to spend time again with family. It was a short trip though so we weren't able to see everyone that we would have liked to. But it was still fun and the weather was perfect!

The sunset at Balboa Island

Abby with her Great Grandpa Jenkins

Tagged

2008-05-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

TAGGED

Firstly, the rules:
Link the person who tagged you
Mention the rules on your blog
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
Tag 6 fellow bloggers
Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

1. I always have to have chap stick with me at all times. If I ever forget chap stick when we are going somewhere, it drives me crazy. To the point that if we are out long enough, I will have to buy some. And it can only be the black Chap Stick brand chap stick. And I always end up taking the wrapper off for some reason. I usually have a chap stick upstairs, downstairs, in my purse, and sometimes the car. We don't have night stands in our room, so every night I make sure that I tuck a chap stick in my pillow case just in case.

2. I don't know if this is a quirk or not but Phillip always gets annoyed with me for it. Whenever we are going somewhere he says that I always freak out and get stressed. I don't think that I do too much but I just like to make sure that with a baby we have everything we need. But he thinks that I pretty much run around the house going "we need this, grab that, put that in the diaper bag." He thinks that I always ask too many questions about what we are going to be doing. And I usually know that he won't know the answer but I ask things like "Do you think it will be windy, should I pack snacks, how long do you think we will be?" But I have to ask it anyway just to get his opinion.

3. Like my sister in law who tagged me for this, I too have saved all the notes, cards and emails people have ever written me. Of course I have thrown away some and if they are on a really really old email then they are long gone, but for the most part, I have most of them. I guess I just keep thinking that eventually I will put them all in some sort of a scrapbook to display them.

4. Every night and morning I try to pop my hips and back.

5. I can't stand to have my toenails not painted. They aren't always very nice but at least there will always have some kind of a color on them.

6. Whenever I do my hair and try to just blow dry it without straightening it, it never happens. I will tell myself that I am not doing my hair today, I refuse, and I will blow dry it and try to just slightly straighten it so the top layer is not frizzy, but no matter what, I always end up straightening all of it. It gets me so frustrated. Hahaha

Sorry I kind of had to stretch my quirks, its a little early and I am distracted watching Little Einsteins with Abby :) haha

I hereby tag: Melissa, Kimber, Emily Blohm, Mandy Coffey, Disney Jenkins, and Jamie Jenkins.

Cousins

2008-05-17T23:06:00.000-07:00

Today we went down to Henderson to watch my niece's soccer game. It was so cute! Then we went back to their house to visit and make treats. Abby had a lot of fun with her cousin Millie who is two months older then her, and yet they are about the same size! Abby even tried to eat her! :)

Daddy's Best Student

2008-05-17T22:58:00.001-07:00

I took Abby to have lunch with Daddy at school the other day. He had a prep period after lunch so we got to visit him for awhile. It was so much fun showing off Abby to the students and teachers.

Here is Daddy's best student. Paying close attention as he explains a proof.

New Pictures

2008-05-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Well since I have gotten my new camera, I of course have been taking non stop pictures of Abby! Enjoy!

Mother's Day

2008-05-17T22:29:00.001-07:00

I had such a wonderful first Mother's Day. It was so much fun being pampered and spoiled. It is such an amazing thing to finally know what it means to be a mom. I love it. Every day Abby gets cuter and cuter and even though I am with her all day, I feel like I still can't get enough of her. Every time she smiles, giggles, cooes, or anything of the sort, it just melts my heart. She has been such a blessing in mine and Phillip's life and I can't thank my Heavenly Father enough for sending me such a beautiful and wonderful baby girl. She is like my best little friend. We do everything together. She is just always smiling and such a happy baby. (Except of course when she is hungry or tired.) :) haha. I am so proud to be her mother and that she made my first mother's day so special. Phillip let me sleep in on Mother's Day and I woke up later to breakfast in bed. He made me the cutest card with a picture of Abby the day she was born. It was sooo sweet! Then I got to open presents! My mother and father in law gave me a brand new digital camera!!!! I was so excited! They said that for the first Mother's and Father's day they like to do something special. It was so nice of them. So now I can actually take clear pictures! And it takes short video clips too. I have been having sooo much fun playing with it and taking so many more pictures of Abby! Then from Phillip he gave me the option of picking one of three different Vegas shows!!!! We can either go to Blue Man Group, Stomp Out Loud, or Mama Mia! I have been saying ever since we moved here that one of the things we have to do before we move again is to go to a Vegas show. I am so excited! I have been reading reviews and trying to decide which one to go to. I think I am going to pick Mama Mia because from opinions of family, friends and reviews I have read on line, that one has gotten the most consistently good remarks. So anyway, I get to go see a Vegas show and take many more cute pictures of my cute baby! Needless to say, I had a great first Mother's Day!!!

Swimming!!!

2008-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Phillip's cousins were staying at the Golden Nugget Hotel for the weekend and invited us to come swimming with them. We had a blast! It was Abby's first time swimming and she loved the water! It was such an amazing pool and I was sooo sad that I forgot the camera! We took a couple pictures with our phone, but they didn't do the pool justice. It is a circular pool with a huge fish and shark tank in the middle! There is also a huge water slide that goes down through the tank into the pool. It was awesome!!!!!

I had to get this bathing suit for her! :)

If you can tell, that is a shark swimming in the tank right behind Abby!!!!

These are some pictures of the pool that I found online just to show how cool it really was.

Wii Golf Battle Continues...

2008-05-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

So the battle of Wii golf between Phillip and his brother Jared continues. Now they have golf tournaments over the phone. They take turns to see who shot it farther, who got closer to the green, who got a better score, etc. Anyway, so Phillip finally reached Jared's score of -10! But of course that did not satisfy his competitive side so he continues to play and has now gotten -11!!! I have taken pictures of both for physical evidence. Good job Phillip!

PS-he also got a perfect game in bowling....a 300! He is crazy!!! :)

Sorry the picture kept coming out black. Oh well, you can still see it somewhat.

Photo Shoot Again

2008-04-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours (Ted and Emily) came into town this last weekend because they were photographing a wedding. We were lucky enough to have Emily take some pictures of Abby. It was so much fun getting her pictures taken since her last photo shoot she was only a couple days old! Anyway, I just thought I would post a few while the others are still being worked on! :)

New Beginnings

2008-04-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

Discovering her feet, and trying rice cereal. So far, she likes her feet better. Surprising, considering how she loves to eat! She just can't quite figure out how to swallow yet, but I know she'll figure it out soon, and then that will win! :)

Our Cat That Roams Freely

2008-04-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

We have a cat, at least I think we do. We have had this cat for over a year now. He is not a typical indoor, cuddle on your lap type of cat. He LOVES to be outside. Ever since we have had him, we would always make a mad dash to get outside...hence his name is Dash. So when we moved here we decided to let him outside since we would be living here for awhile. (Last time we let him out where we lived, he didn't come back for over a week and we were just about to move.) So now he loves to be outside and all the neighborhood kids love to play with him. He has his name and my number on his tag, which we have received many calls from people thinking he was lost. Anyway he just loves to climb trees, chase birds, explore, anything outside. He comes back to eat and occasionally sleep at night. The other day he was outside of course and we were just getting back from somewhere. I could hear him meowing, but didn't think much of it. Phillip told me to come outside, and sure enough, he had climbed up our tree, onto our roof and of course could not figure out how to get down. I had no idea how we were doing to get him down since we do not have anything but a step stool. Luckily people across the way had been painting for new people to move in and had a ladder. So Phillip had to climb up and rescue the ever so curious cat. Anyway, I just thought it was silly. And as soon as Dash was on the safe ground again, he scurried away, and a couple minutes later was climbing up the tree again. Crazy cat!

Our cat when we first got him, mischeivous as ever....

Not sure how to get down????
Going up?
And running away....

The Wii

2008-04-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

Phillip has been playing golf on the Wii for days now. His brother just had to tell him that he got nine under on the nine hole course. So...Phillip was determined to at least score the same. He would start playing as soon as he got home, and would play it while he fed Abby or whenever he could squeeze in a few games. If he didn't get a birdie on any one of the first few holes, he would start the game over. Anyway, one day I was upstairs getting ready, and he called me down because he had something to show me...

YAY!!! He finally got 9 under! Congrats Phillip!!!!!!!!!!!!
So he called his brother and told him the good news. A few hours later, his brother calls to tell him he got 10 under...and the quest continues....yay....hahaha

TEETH!

2008-04-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it, but it's true! Abby already has two bottom teeth! They started to come in last week, and its official, they have both broken through her gums already! She's only 3 and a half months old, I guess she is trying to get to the real food faster! :)

Only A Biker Knows Why A Dog Sticks His Head Out Of A Car Window

2008-03-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

We only had one car and with Phillip's work being about 20 miles away; he would always have to take the car to work. Being stranded at home before Abby was born and having to bum rides off people or taking the bus was starting to get a bit old. Phillip and I had talked about getting a motorcycle because of various different reasons. It would allow me to have the car most of the time as well as cut down on gas prices, travel time due to traffic, insurance, and most importantly, Phillip loves to ride. Ever since my dad got a Harley, Phillip has been envious. Then his brother bought a bike as well. He has just been waiting to get one of his own. We started to check out prices on Craigslist and all over the internet. I told my dad to keep his eye out because we were now in the market for one. Anyway, to make a long story short, my dad hooked us up! He gave us a 1981 Honda Goldwing. It actually runs very smoothly and is in great shape! Phillip rides it to work and back every day (weather permitting) and will take it to run errands whenever he gets the chance. He keeps it in the garage so he can work on it, and my car gets to be parked outside now :) At least now I have a way of getting around town to run errands or go to the park whenever I want! Here is Phillip's favorite and biggest birthday present! Thanks Dad!!!!

"Work to ride and ride to work"
"The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome"
"Never ride faster then your guardian angel can fly."

I got to ride Phillip's bike before he did! :)

Easter and Another California Trip

2008-03-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I am getting really bad at this blogging thing. I am almost obsessed with checking everyone's blogs and keeping up to date with people. But I am horrible at updating our own. I always feel like I can't blog if I don't have cute pictures to go along with my story. Or if nothing really exciting has happened, then I don't know what to write. I am a really bad journal writer. I love to do it so I can look back and remember things, but the actual task of sitting down and writing, I am horrible at. Every day Abby seems to do something cute or different, or occasionally drives me nuts :) I just keep thinking that I really need to write these things down because one day she might want to know how she was as a baby. So I might be using our blog as my way of writing these things down for her sake and for mine. So sorry if they are boring, I just need to get them down somewhere! :) She just is getting so big so fast, and if I keep putting it off, before I know it she will be starting Kindergarten and won't be my sweet little chub-a-lub anymore! :)

Anyway last week the High School that Phillip teaches at had Spring Break, so we took advantage of his time off and went down to California. Even though we have our house in Vegas, we get to visit so often that sometimes I feel like we haven't moved from there. We got to stay for a whole week. It was a very nice little vacation because usually when we go down it's only for a couple days, and we feel so rushed trying to visit with everyone. This time we actually got to relax and bit and got to spend more time. Whenever we go down we get spoiled by everyone taking us out to lunch or dinner, its wonderful! :) We took Abby down to the beach for her first time. We went to lunch with my brother and his family at Ruby's on the pier. On the way back to the cars, it was sooo windy! Phillip and I both had to push the stroller because it was getting whipped all around and almost pushed off the side of the pier. That was an adventure. Later that day Phillip played tennis at the park with my sisters and their friends while I tried to keep the wind from Abby who was sound asleep in her stroller. The rest of the week was filled with visiting with friends and family, eating at Apple Bee's, Golden Spoon, Outback, making crepes for my dad's single's ward, going to the temple, walking around Downtown Disney (mine and Phillip's first date since Abby was born) riding on my dad's Harley, shopping, and sleeping in. All in all, it was wonderful! We got back to Vegas on Friday afternoon and spent the day cleaning, doing taxes and getting back to the real world. Saturday night we bought one of those activity saucers for Abby. (We found a great deal on one on Craigslist, I love that thing!) She loved playing in the one at Grandma and Grandpa Chase's house so we decided to get one for her. It keeps her busy for awhile so it lets me get things done. Then once she is tired, she starts to fuss, I pick her up and she goes right to sleep. It's wonderful! For Easter Sunday we searched for our Easter buckets that the Easter Bunny had hid for us. Abby was sooo cute in her new Easter dress and little bonnet that Grandma bought her. She loved looking for her bucket and mommy and daddy are enjoying her treats! Then we went to our aunt and uncle’s house where everyone got together for Easter dinner! It was delicious! Anyway, that was our lovely week in a nut shell. Happy late Easter everyone!!!

Loving her new saucer

Her beautiful Easter dress

YAY! Easter bucket!

I just loved this picture! She finally smiled for the camera!!!

California Trip

2008-02-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well we just got back last night from another weekend trip to California. Our niece Veronica was being baptized this weekend and asked Phillip to baptize her. It was such a sweet experience! We got to California on Friday evening and met both of our families for a "congrats on getting into dental school" dinner. It was amazing! Then we went back to my parent's house where we were staying and Phillip played Guitar Hero on the Wii. We also played bowling and I finally won one game! Saturday morning Phillip went surfing with my brother. Then we got ready for the baptism and had lunch with my brother and his family. We went to the baptism and visited with family and friends for a little while. All of the Jenkins nieces and nephews were together for the first time since Abby was born, so of course we had a photo shoot! Later we went back to my brothers house for dinner and a movie because my brother ordered sushi for him and Phillip. We drove back to Vegas on Sunday so that we have a day at home to do things around the house before Phillip has to get back to work. I just thought I would post something so that I can upload some pictures that we took this weekend.

Phillip playing guitar hero
Abby playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house
All the Jenkins cousins
Veronica in her beautiful baptism dress with baby Abby
Abby in her cute sunday dress

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

PHILLIP GOT INTO UNLV DENTAL SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As most of you know we moved to Las Vegas to become residents because we had applied to UNLV Dental School. After much dedication and hard work, our anticipation paid off. Phillip received a phone call yesterday from the dental school asking him to call back. He called them as soon as he got done with tutoring and they informed him that they had reviewed his application the day before and had admitted him to their school. They congratulated him told him that he would be receiving paperwork in the mail in the next couple days. I am soooo extremely proud of him! What a blessing this has been for us this last year. He called me after he got off the phone with them and said: "I don't think we are going to be able to get a Wii." I asked, "Ok, why?" "Because we will need that money to hold my spot for dental school." A little confused as to why he would say that. I asked, "Ok how do you know?" He answered very calmly "Because they just called me and said I was accepted." Of course I started screaming and told him to tell me exactly what happened. Who called, what did they say, what did you say, how long did you talk to them, ect. Anyway, I just thought it was cute how he told me. He doesn't show much emotion because he says I show enough for both of us. :)
Just a quick run down of how the application process works and why I am so proud of him:
The number of applicants that applied last year= 2,918.
The number that is accepted=77
Need I say more of why this is such exciting news??? :) It is such a wonderful feeling to finally be able to start planning our future! I am married to a soon to be DR.!!! HAHA! CONGRATS PHILLIP! ABBY AND I ARE SOOOO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Abby Update

2008-02-11T14:28:00.001-08:00

So in the last post I talked about Abby getting a cold. Well her cold wasn't getting better and she was starting to wheeze. I took her into the pediatrician because they said that bronchiolitis was going around and to bring her in right away. Lo and behold she was "diagnosed" with the bronchiolitis RSV. We had to borrow a nebulizer from a friend and give her breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. As a new mom, this made me extremely anxious because both Phillip and I have a niece and nephew that were both hospitalized for RSV. We were told to do the breathing treatments and to keep a close watch on her. I did not feel confident in my pediatrician’s diagnosis so a couple days later we took Abby into a pediatric quick care. The pediatrician there made me feel so much better. He actually took the time to explain bronchiolitis to us, listened to her breathing, checked her oxygen levels, and showed us what to look for in her breathing patterns. He said that her breathing and lungs sounded good and clear. I felt 1000 times better after leaving that quick care. She is doing much better now. She is still a bit congested, but she is finally getting back to her normal, happy, eating everything in sight, little girl.