Jenkins

Pig tails and tutus

2012-01-31T23:20:00.000-06:00

Hazel is 19 months now and can I just say HOW MUCH FUN it is! It is my favorite stage by far. We are really communicating and her little words CrACk Me UP! Her favorite word is baby. She loves babies. She loves to play with her "Jessie" cowgirl from Toy Story 2. She mimicks the toy by saying, "Yee-haw!" Jessie yodels and Hazel will try and do a little vibrato as she tries to sing along. She loves wearing her sunglasses and asks for them as soon as we get on the road. She loves to do the "Three Little Piggies" with her toes. She will hold up her toes and say "piggy? piggy?" She loves the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I love to watch her try to figure out the hand motions. She tries so hard!

Hazel is for sure a Daddy's girl. I hardly get to take care of her on the weekend when Maurice is around. She doesn't want me to change her diaper, she doesn't want me to get her food, she doesn't want to sit on my lap, and nor does she want me to put her in car seat and on and on and on. Hmmmmm, now that I type that out I shouldn't feel so bad and should take it as built-in time off. :-) She sure does love when her daddy is home. Me too. She keeps an eye on him so that he doesn't disappear like he does during the week for work. If he so much as leaves the room to get a drink, she flips out!

She does love me when Maurice isn't home. We enjoy singing, playing with her princesses, reading books, playing violin, and we love to dance. We have just started to get into dress up. She has one tutu(pictured above and below) that she puts on everyday while we do chores around the house. She is so helpful and puts away all of her spoons and forks...("poons" and "porks")

Christmas

2012-01-19T21:39:00.000-06:00

I went to Arizona to take pictures of my sister's family a few weeks before Christmas. After taking pictures, it was nice to just hang out at the Arnett's house during Arizona's coldest weather streak ever. Okay, maybe not EVER, but WHY DID IT HAPPEN RIGHT WHEN I WAS THERE?!!!

PRETTY PEOPLE.

My holiday season began with a little Christmas Quartet-ing at a local coffee shop while people brought in canned goods for the Omaha food bank. Pre-Christmas activities also included packing, baking poppyseed bread, and then the night before we left for UT we had a little early Christmas for Hazel since we couldn't pack her princess piano on the plane.

When we got to Utah, we got to ride the Front Runner down to SLC to see the lights on Christmas Eve. Very Fun.

Hazel and Max(the fast-mover) were the sheep for the Nativity. "Baaaa"

I got to have lunch with my quartet girlies. (missed you Alexis!)

There was ice skating, movie watching, MUCHOS GAMING, and playing Todd's BIG BUCK shooting game he got for Christmas. I HAVE TERRIBLE AIM.

THEN.....Hazel got sick and I disappeared for a few days. And yes, we got all of the other kids sick too. Sorry guys.

Since Maurice came home a week earlier than Hazel and I did, we were glad to get back home just in time on New Year's Eve. We all just coughed that weekend away and celebrated on the 2nd.

We're Baaaack

2012-01-09T23:21:00.000-06:00

So, you have to excuse and forgive me for lack of posting for the past little while. It has been a whirlwind the past couple months.

We had some great things and some not so great things come our way. I'm going to just try to stick to the calendar and tell you what has been going on.

In October, our little Hazel dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween:

I think the reason I haven't blogged for awhile is because of this next event. I didn't know how NOT to post about it, and I didn't really know how to approach posting about it. But on the 17th of November, Maurice's father, Lamar Jenkins, passed away. It was unexpected and hard for a lot of the family members. He had gone in for surgery a little less than a week before and was recovering at home and passed away in his sleep, just a week before EVERYONE in the huge Jenkins' family was coming home for Thanksgiving. It was a hard time but a joyful time for me as I got to hear a lot of wonderful and inspiring stories about him as we all hung out at the house. It made me wish I had known him better. Maurice and I have been out of the state since I came into the family. I found myself wishing I could've hung out with LaMar and had more time for me to get to know him and for him to get to know me and Hazel a little better. I just want to share one act that really showed what kind of man LaMar was. This past summer when Hazel and I were visiting Utah without Maurice, I went up to their brand new house on a Sunday afternoon to spend some time with G and G Jenkins. We had a good time and Hazel completely warmed up to her Grandpa. They live in the mountains on a large quantity of land where I had to park our car far away due to the mud from some construction, and when it was time to go LaMar insisted, in his quiet way, walking me and Hazel all the way out to our car with his flashlight even though he had an injured hip. -It hurt him to walk around the house!!- I tried to tell him that we could make it and that we would be fine, but he wouldn't let me go unless he walked me out there. I gave in, even though I felt bad that he was walking on his hurt hip. As we walked he told me how happy he was that Hazel and I were able to come visit. I drove away very touched and grateful for such a sweet father-in-law. I know to some this little experience might be insignificant, but to me, it's something that I will always remember. I think of the saying, "it's the little things that count."

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We headed straight home to Utah to be with family when we heard and stayed until just after Thanksgiving. Once things had settled and calmed down the Jenkins' boys still pulled out their fun for Thanksgiving.

Our nieces, Mariah and Madison tied down their cousin and uncle while they were taking a post-turkey nap, Gulliver style.

Idaho had snow and Hazel and I partook.

Since we were able to stay in Utah for awhile, we slipped down to Ogden for a day to say hi to my parents and we had a night out at the Ogden Christmas Village. It was opening night so there were fireworks and all. It was fun!

more blogging to come...

Warm wishes

2011-12-23T14:42:00.001-06:00

A Fall update

2011-10-22T23:12:00.000-05:00

I am loving the Autumn weather. I am also loving these photos of my little pumpkin.

These are my Halloween decor this year. The cute printout is from my friend Telisa who designs all sorts of cute printables. She is so talented. Those fall colored m&m's are going to be the death of me. SOOOO GOOD. Remind me not to decorate with candy next year... Yes, these little bats were all cut out by hand, and it did take a long time... LUCKILY, my sister Julie and her daughter, Paige, came out to visit just for fun last weekend and helped me cut them all out! We had such a wonderful time. More pics to come from their visit.

Nebraska Rules the World

2011-09-17T21:17:00.002-05:00

^Nebraska rules the world^, as my little neighbor so quaintly puts it. She yelled that after she finished chalking the statement on our driveway.

This summer has been awesome. Hazel has loved playing outside and absolutely loves sidewalk chalk. Every single time we go out the door, she heads straight for the bucket of chalk. She doesn't draw too much, but she carries her brown piece of chalk around and sits on whichever mural is being drawn at the moment. She sits right in the middle of it. She occasionally draws a few little marks on whatever you're drawing. SHE LOVES IT. Today, we HAD to do it in 54 degree weather. Boo to the cold.

All of the kids on the block love H. They all love to come play.

Yes, this is a croquet action shot.

Maurice tested out Hazel's skills on the longboard. Turns out, she's pretty good!

So, there's one thing you should know about Nebraska. They are CRAZY about their Huskers. The majority of the population wears shirts, like the one pictured above. ALL OF THE TIME. Which is cool, but it is seriously an epidemic. (I thought BYU shirt wearers were excessive-not hatin', just sayin'...but they ain't got nothin' on BIG RED) We love our Utah State Aggies and wear our shirts ALL OF THE TIME haha, but we needed some football that we could watch without purchasing cable. Well, we decided that since H is a born Nebraskan and both Maurice and I went(are still going and almost done!) to University of Nebraska, we thought we would join in on the fun. I purchased us all cute red shirts to wear on game day just like everyone else. I even watched the game today! We feel like we belong. :) Turns out Nebraska does rule the World. Well, at least it does at our house. Go UTAH STATE, er.... HUSKERS!
(side note: Did you notice that H finally got her two bottom chompers? They busted through about 13.5 months yay!)

Family Photos

2011-08-12T21:07:00.001-05:00

I love my little family. Yay for self-timed photo shoots!! :-) Since this is most likely our last summer in Omaha, I decided that I needed a family picture by the huge corn stalks. I love seeing the never-ending corn fields. I will miss them.

belated 4th

2011-07-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

Looking at this picture you would think that this was the best day of their lives. It probably was...well at least for my 1 year old.

HUGE, BLOW-UP WATER SLIDE for 4th of July festivities?! You better believe it. Our friends, the Fochs, know how to party. All of the big kids were on the slide and Hazel was not going to be the only one not going down the slide. Soooooooo....

........Mo stripped down and took her down the slide. Seriously, it was the best day of her life.(maybe Mo's too!!) haha.

She could've stayed in there until dark, luckily we had our secret bribe weapon... ice cream.

I promise I feed my child healthy food, but really who blogs about being healthy? hmm?!!(no offense to those who are awesome and healthy and want to talk about it.)

ice cream lover.

Happy Belated 4th of July, and while I'm at it, Happy Pioneer Day too!

Hazel, the birthday girl

2011-07-07T22:51:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I have a one-year old. It flies by SO fast. Hazel is such a sweetie. She gives us hugs, pats on the back, and open-mouthed kisses. She is also so smart. She points to our noses when we ask her where our noses are. She gives us high-fives and says either "tickle-tickle" or a very fast "thereyougo" we can't tell yet. She barks like a dog and says mommy and daddy. She also knows who to point at when I say, "where's Jesus." She has got a little adventurous side too. She loves to swim and has got some sweet little tan lines in the chub of her arms. She loves to go for bike-rides, play with the hose, and walking....endlessly......nonstop.....always.

Above: Haley showed Hazel how to blow out a candle, for future reference. Thanks, Haley.

Below: Hazel TOTALLY loved the cake. I kept giving her tastes of the frosting throughout the day, and I KNEW she was going to dig in.

Hazel wanted to share some with her betrothed, Tatum.

Post-cake swinging...

My little Hazel....Happy Birthday

June happened. Fast.

2011-07-07T12:12:00.001-05:00

Maurice's 31st birthday was on Memorial Day this year. I saw these minion cupcakes on a blog somewhere and HAD to make them. I decided that it would be fine with him since he isn't a huge fan of cake anyway. Neither am I. It was a fun day. We attempted a movie with Hazel (not the best idea we've had, but still, we each got to see half of the movie...)

On June 4th, I left Nebraska with a good friend from Omaha. We drove the 14 hour trek with 4 kids. They did great. We played and played. Hazel got some much needed time with her cousins. (Me too!)

A very small amount of Geddes cousins... cuties.


You know I had to slip in some practice photography. I thought this one was pretty cute.

Hazel and I got to go see the NEW JENKINS MOUNTAIN GETAWAY! Maurice's parents have finally moved into their new home up in the beautiful mountains. It is SOOOOO pretty up there. This house has been a long time coming, and we are so happy that they are in and that they are loving it.

I love that the chicken coop matches the house:-)

The ladies, doing the "sun stare"- for those of you know who know the Brian Regan joke.

Hazel was not too sure of Ian. She slowly got closer and closer to him while we were in Utah...haha

When you go to the Jenkins', Hazel gets the royal treatment....homemade popsicles included.

THE WASATCH BACK RAGNAR

While my awesome parents watched Hazel, I ran the famous Ragnar Relay with Maurice's brother and sister-in-law. I had such a great time. The relay starts in Logan and finishes in Park City, UT. A total of 192 miles!! The relay teams have 12 people, running a variety of miles. I ran:

It is such a fun relay. There are people running with costumes or any other crazy thing they could think of to wear. Kind of like this girl who Shannon was about to pass...

There were 14,000 runners! It was nuts at some of the runner exchanges, but it was fun to see all of the decorated vans carrying the runners! Here's a picture of ours.

We had spectacular views. Oh, you know, just running in the mountains...

We had an awesome team in Van 1. ( 6 of the 12 team members) It was so fun to meet new people and do something that I enjoy doing. The others in our van were some of Shannon and Alysha's friends from up in Idaho Falls. They were awesome.

The whole Teton Running team

My Main Squeeze's Birthday

2011-05-30T23:47:00.000-05:00

See that guy right there? Yeah, he's mine. And boy, do I love him. There are not very many men in this world who aren't afraid to be silly. I'm glad that I snagged one of them. I love this boy's sense of humor. He makes me laugh every. single. day.

Maurice is the most tenderhearted man I know, which makes him a great daddy. (it also makes him a softy....Hazel gets what she wants;)

I don't know if you know, but Mo seems to have endless amounts of energy. Somehow he gets 5-7 hours (usually 5) of sleep, and saves people's lives from 6:30AM to 6PM, AND THEN comes home to help out with Hazel while I make some gourmet meal....HA! Yeah right. Mo is so nice to eat what I cook. I swear the man has no taste buds. He will eat anything! He then manages to do all of the dirty dishes, AND THEN he often times helps me out with laundry I couldn't seem to get put away, (mind you, they were folded.) or listen to me complain. This boy is BUSY. I don't know how he keeps his eyes open. He is always willing to help, even when his eyes are half way closed. Poor thing. Oh yeah, and throw in some all-nighters when he's on call. Even through all of this, he manages to make time for me and Hazel. He makes us feel loved and yowzer!.....we love him.

Today was his birthday, and just wanted to post a little shout out to my main squeeze. Love you sugar. Happy Birthday.

LadyBug Girl

2011-05-29T21:35:00.001-05:00

I don't know how I got this snapshot, but man, it's precious.

Florida VACAY

2011-05-24T13:00:00.001-05:00

We went to Florida the last week of April. To say the least, Florida was SO good for us. It was a reboot. We had lots of sightseeing things planned, but decided not to do any of them. Every day we decided that we would rather go to the beach than the things we had in mind. We ended up driving to Orlando one of the days since it was only an hour away. We wanted to just take a look at Disney World. HUGE MISTAKE. I'm a Disneyland girl and this was no land. It seriously was a WORLD. That place was GIGANTIC. We went to Downtown Disney and then took the Monorail around to see what we could see, which was nothing really except for amazing hotels. We spent most of the time waiting for transit. Luckily, earlier before we had left for Orlando, we went to the beach, so the day was not all lost. We seriously went to the beach everyday. Hazel didn't get burned and we're pretty proud of that. SHE LOVED THE OCEAN!! We were so thankful that she wasn't scared of it. Clearwater Beach was perfect. The sand was like powdered sugar. The water was extremely warm, with waves big enough to ride, but small enough to take Hazel out with us, and every night the big pier had street performers and vendors come out. On our last day, we went to a water park at Busch Gardens so that we wouldn't be all sorts of sandy and salty for our airplane ride home. We left Nebraska when it was about 40 degrees and came HOME to SPRING, the best season in Nebraska:)

Behold! The Sun Shineth.

2011-04-24T22:51:00.001-05:00

Well, the sun did shine for a week. It was Fantastic.

Hazel and Maurice took full advantage of the 70 degree weather. I think watering the lawn will be quite the adventure this summer;)

With beautiful weather comes trips to the zoo,

Cute shorts, and eating peaches with Daddy on the kitchen floor.

Easter Egg Creativity.

P.S. Our child's main form of transportation is walking....oh yeah, and LOTS of falling. Scares the heck out of me.

For Your Entertainment

2011-04-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Nebraska's colder weather cultivates our creativity.

umm...Last month.

2011-04-15T18:14:00.001-05:00

First things first.

My new obsession: Tangled

I bought the DVD and got the free(well, $4.95 SH) bracelet and Rapunzel charm that was offered. Which I added to my collection of Disney charms. They are normally 8-10$ each at Disneyland, so I just saved me 4$, plus an extra bracelet for Hazel baby someday. BOOYAH!

Next, I bought a few songs from the soundtrack. "I See the Light" and "When Will My Life Begin"

I haven't been this excited about a Disney movie since The Little Mermaid, and my family knows how much I love that movie. I know it's silly, but I LOVE IT. I just can't wait for Hazel to start enjoying such things so that I can use her as an excuse for letting my inner child TAKE OVER. ha ha.

Well, March came and went. Really fast. Mo changed rotations and was gone a lot.....so Hazel and I went to Arizona to stay with one of my older sisters, Julie. Alas, I forgot my camera. While it was cold, dark, cloudy, depressing, windy, and did I mention cold??!!, in Nebraska, we were eating up the AZ sunshine, going to parks, riding bikes, and just being warm. I went down to go see her perform with the East Valley Mormon Symphony. They were performing a new Oratorio written about the Savior in America based on scripture out of the Book of Mormon. The music was composed by the founders of the group. It was SOOOOO GOOD and was really touching. I was so glad I could see her on stage again. The whole program was called, "Bring the World His Truth." My niece also sang in the children's choir that was accompanied by the symphony! It was neat to see the opportunities that they have down there. I also got to spend some time with Hans and Cindy, Ian, and Marlin. (Mo's brothers) They got to know Hazel since they had never met her before!!!

The next week, Maurice was able to go to the Utah Dental Association meeting with my Dad to kind of get a feel of the Utah job market. Hazel and I tagged along for the 14 hour drive. We just kind of hung low in UT for 2 days. It was nice to relax. On the way back we hit a snow storm in Laramie, WY and had to stay the night due to closed freeway. LAME.

When we got back, my really good friend Alexis Haviland and her husband Parker, stayed at our house on their way back from Iowa, where they were attending horse auctions. They bought 5 horses there and kept them at the state fairgrounds overnight not too far from where we live. It was fun to catch up with Alexis and get to know Parker a little better. They are such a cute couple.

When Alexis sees this, she's gonna love me;)

We got to go see Parker round up his new horses from the fairground before they left on their trek back to Utah. I'm such a chicken when it comes to horses. They scare me up close. So, GOOOOOO Parker! It was MUDDY and super cold. I was wishing I had Alexis' hat.

The BIG news! Hazel took her first step March 26th! Nine months old. What a big girl. Notice that we bait her with the remote. She loves that thing. ha ha.

Hazel's nine month %'s were:
weight: 92%
height: 82%
head: 80%
We love her chub!

Attacking the DVD's. I'm so glad I got rid of the hard cases and put the discs in DVD/CD cases. No more pick up and more space!

February Fun

2011-02-20T21:31:00.006-06:00

February has been good to us. Out of all of Maurice's rotations, I have seen him the most on this one! THANK GOODNESS!
We had all sorts of good fun, complete with heart-shaped pizza on V-day, a most wonderful night on the town the Saturday before to the Broadway Musical: Mary Poppins!! I loved it.

Along came February...and so did crawling at 7 months! She is loving it, but prefers to stand whenever she gets close to something she can pull herself up on- and then she lets go and stands alone for 10-20 seconds. She could do it all day.

This month I learned I have to put the camera on sport mode since Hazel wants to clap every time she gets excited! It is TOO cute.

Hazel face. LOVE.

This dress was made by her Grandma Jenkins! What an amazing seamstress!

Hazelnut LOVES bath time, and also LOVES her rubber duckies.

I know what you're thinking..."you took a 7 month old sledding?!" Yes, we did. Hazel didn't really have much to say during the fun, but she didn't complain at all and it was SUPER fun for me and Mo!!!!

And finally, we have taken Hazel to the zoo! She was a little stunned, but she loved it!

Frozen over

2011-01-16T23:11:00.003-06:00

We have frozen over here in Nebraska. The sun decides to come out every once in awhile, and when it does, we are out of the house! One of our favorite things out here in Nebraska is to explore the lakes. It's pretty fun when they are frozen. I am on the lookout for ice skates at the thrift stores so that we can skate and push Hazel in the umbrella stroller. In the mean time, it's still a thrill to just walk out onto a frozen lake right by our house.

Stay warm.

Too darn cute

2011-01-06T20:28:00.003-06:00

Man, we love her.

Christmas in Nebraska

2010-12-29T14:06:00.004-06:00

We hope everyone's Christmas was just as awesome as ours was. Ours was out here in Nebraska because Maurice was supposed to be on call for the Nebraska Med Center, BUT about a week before Christmas, his coworkers decided to be nice to him since he would be on TRAUMA- call over New Years weekend. We were sad at first because that meant we could be home for a Jenkins Christmas, but he only had Christmas Eve, Christmas, & the Sunday off and had to be back to work Monday at 6AM. :( Boo.
SO, we geared up for our Nebraska Christmas! Spending Christmas together as our little family ended up being just what I needed. I needed some Mo time where he just got to hang out at home with Hazel and me ALL DAY LONG, and I didn't have to share his precious time off. Sorry, I guess I'm really selfish. ;)
We were also really lucky to be able to spend Christmas Eve with some friends that invited us to their big family get-together complete with games and a musical program where I got to play my violin and listen to one of my students play his violin! We had delicious food and great company. Hazel even got some Christmas PJ's. It really made us feel like we were at home having a big Christmas with our families. We loved every minute. Thanks for inviting us Ludlows! Sadly, I didn't get any footage of our fun times:(
But, here's some photos of our holiday season.

I love my Christmas tree. We always get a real one, and I LOVE the smell.

To celebrate the last Sunday of Advent, we invited a few people over to have some food by candlelight and then play holiday "Minute to Win It!" It was really fun. They were good sports. Some of those games are pretty tricky.

Christmas Morning... She loved the wrapping paper:)

Here is a little video of Hazel on Christmas morning. Even though she didn't know it was Christmas she seemed like she knew something cool was going on. Maybe it's because Mo and I act like little kids on Christmas morning?

A Thanksgiving to Remember

2010-12-29T13:52:00.003-06:00

We had a FABULOUS Thanksgiving Break this year. As you can tell we were busy with our two HUGE families! It was a Geddes Thanksgiving, but luckily we were in Utah long enough to spend time with both families! Thanks for the fum vacation! We needed it!

A Fall Recap

2010-11-14T20:26:00.010-06:00

Fall has been good to me this year; staying in the 70's until this past Tuesday.
Thank you Fall, I really appreciate it. Although Autumn kite weather is gone, I thought it might be nice to do a little recap on the fun we had during this fun Fall season before we brace ourselves for the cold weather ahead.

Hazel even got in on the kite flying while sleeping in the stroller.

Mo spent most of his time tangled in a tree! (Which he was very excited to climb now that his Achilles tendon has done a lot of boring healing since it was torn back in March.)

We made it to Utah at the end of September and our first stop was to the Living Planet Aquarium with Maurice's brother, Ammonia. I TOUCHED A STING RAY. It totally gave me the heebeegeebee's. yuck.

Hazel LOVED Ammonia and she loved all the bright tanks with the bright fish.

We ended up in the Mountains to go four-wheeling. It was nice to be up in the crisp, fall mountain air.

Hazel went with Mo and the next pic is a pretty good description about how she felt about it.

The furrow. She actually loved it, and it put her right to sleep.

The Aspen leaves were amazing. I had to put up this picture of my parents in front of the pretty yellow. Plus, look how cute THEY are!

So, Hazel is more fun by the minute. She is such a happy baby.

She has definitely found her toes, and is quite content to just hang out and stick them in her mouth....along with anything else she gets into her hands. She has also learned to roll. Front to back and back to front.

This fall I have learned to crochet. I made this little hat that Hazel wore to the famous Vala's Pumpkin Patch. She loved people watching. (So did we:))

This is Mo and Hazel intently watching the pig races. Mo seemed to always pick the winner.

I know I've told a few of you about the pumpkin patch and the cute pig races...well, here's a picture of the little track.

The pumpkin tree

The three of us on a tractor ride to pick out our pumpkins.

I think the pumpkin patch really opened Hazel's eyes...

"Badeep beadeep badeep, That's all Folks!"

Sugar, sugar

2010-11-03T16:26:00.005-05:00

Halloween is never complete without a good ol' caramel apple. A friend and I made them together and we came to find out how sticky caramel REALLY is...and picked up on a few tricks that will help us for the next time that we try to make them.

Mo and I LOVE dressing up. We'll never grow out of it. This year we were the Flintstones: Fred, Wilma, & Pebbles. (Her wig is made out of pantyhose and yarn! Thanks to my Mom's ingenuity.)

It's been a crafty fall. Here is Hazel modeling her Halloween legwarmers that I made along with her little bow. LOVE HER.

Classic Hazel face.

bbblessing

2010-09-10T09:09:00.019-05:00

Hazel's 2 month photo shoot with Mommy.

We just wanted to see what she might look like with some hair...ha ha

This was the day that Hazel had her 2 month check-up. She got her shots. Doesn't she look thrilled? It was really sad. Besides the shots, she had a great appointment. It was really nice of them to match the band-aids to her outfit. She is 98% in height and 94% in weight. Healthy as can be.

Hazel was blessed in our ward (the Millard Ward) on September 5th! It was such a special Sacrament Meeting. The Spirit was so strong. I am so grateful for a husband who holds the Priesthood. Hazel was also a champ. She didn't even squeak. She even gave everyone a double chin along with an eyebrow raise when Mo showed her off afterward. It was cute. Here a few of my favorite shots of Hazel on her special day. Her blessing dress is AMAZING! My mother-in-law made it for her! It fit her perfectly. I was sad, because I forgot to put on the little booties that she also made with the dress. We just aren't really used to putting shoes on our little wiggly one. It is such a beautiful dress. Thanks Grandma Jenkins!

We were so lucky to have my parents, Naters & Beth come ALL THE WAY out to Omaha for Hazel's blessing. We had such a good time with them. Right when they got here on Saturday the 4th, we took them to our favorite free camping spot. We had grilled hamburgers next to the a lake. I forgot to take pictures... Boo. We tried to have a fire, but we had wood that magically did not burn, even with a whole bottle of lighter fluid consistently being squirted every 5 minutes to keep a flame alive. IT WAS WEEIRRRD. The logs just shrunk and never had a flame. Ever. Note to self: Don't ever buy that wood from that grocery store again. On the way back to our house, Mo and I spotted toads on the road. We got out and caught the biggest one I have ever seen. It was really fun. I'm sad that I don't have to photos to prove it.

Hazel and her namesake.

Grandma & Grandpa Geddes with their 24th grandbaby!!

Precious...

Nate and Beth being crazy in front of the Winter Quarters Visitor Center :)

The gates to the Winter Quarters cemetery

These photos are in front of the monument at the Winter Quarters cemetery. The monument is a depiction of a husband and wife burying their child. Most of the deaths at Winter Quarters were young children. I can't imagine losing little Hazel like a lot of those pioneers lost their little babies. It would be such a trial. The pioneers had such great faith.

The Winter Quarters temple is about a 30 minute drive from our house. Since it is right next to the cemetery, we walked around the beautiful grounds and took some pics. The weather was perfect.

On Labor Day, Mo and I went to lunch for the Olive Garden soup & salad special(my favorite!) Then, we hit up the batting cage. I'm on a softball team, and I needed some help in the batting department. Mo's shots look great...

...and I seem to be in some sort of pain. Ha ha. I had a lot of photos of me, and this seriously was one of the better ones. Why can't I keep a straight face? or even a normal painful face? I look like I'm...hmmm, I don't know, but it's bad.

Visitor!

2010-08-14T18:32:00.010-05:00

Hazel and I were SOOOOOo lucky to have Brittany here a week ago. My parents had a free flight from their sky miles and decided to ship her out to us here in Nebraska. THANK YOU MOM & DAD!!!! It couldn't have come at a better time! Maurice just started his 4th year in his residency, where he is now doing General Surgery. The hours are crazy, hard, and quite frankly unfair:( I think Brittany saw him once the entire time she was here, and the only reason she got to see him was because the hospital sent him home because he had been there the entire day and night before and hadn't had a moment to catch a single wink!
When he does get home, this is what we see. Poor Mo.

So while Brittany was here, we managed to make it to the pool a couple times, downtown where she played her ukelele and I played my violin, and we also made it to Omaha's Botanical Gardens which were really fun. We probably had a little bit TOO much fun taking pictures...One of my friends said that the edited one looks like a Twilight poster wannabe. It totally does...ha ha Hazel was asleep the entire time.

The Gardens had a miniature Downtown Omaha built completely from twigs and bark. Winding in and out was a LGB Train. It was very appropriate to be in these gardens because of the HUGE role that Union Pacific plays in Omaha. It was pretty cool.

GODZILLAS!!

The Gardens had a fun Japan area complete with a Mount Fuji. There was more architecture than flowers in this section. Maybe it's new?

We had such a great time. (sigh) Another visitor to keep me going for another month or so. Thanks Britt.

Smiling chubby cheeks

2010-08-10T20:53:00.002-05:00

Hazel really started the smiles about a week and a half ago, but has really pulled out the smiles now anytime someone talks to her or just makes eye contact. Sometimes she will wake up with the noises of excitement in her crib and I will find her cracking up at her mobile. Not only is she smiling, but she is starting to get the CHUB!! Check it, that little double chin is to die for. I love it, can't get enough of it. This little girl rocks our socks. What. a. cutie.

"Hiking" in Nebraska

2010-07-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

So, the humidity and weather kind of cooled down just a bit for us on the 24th of July, so we decided to hike around the Lewis and Clark Landing Monument out in Council Bluffs...on the bluffs a.k.a Nebraska/Iowa mountains. Hazel fell asleep as soon as we got in the car to go there, and stayed asleep the entire time, despite the rougher terrain:) Hazel sported her new little hat, which, as you can see, was huge on her. Maurice and I sported our new chacos that we, without knowing, got for each other for our anniversary this year. We wear them all the time, but it was the first time not on concrete!

This is steepest part, well...actually, the ONLY steep part. The rest of it was like walking through the woods...with a MILLION bugs. It was so buggy, that I wanted to be done. I don't know how many spider webs we walked into. It was just gross. Alas, Nebraska just doesn't cut it when it comes to being outdoors in the summertime, unless you're swimming, in the city where there are less bugs, or out on the lakes! Sorry, fellow Nebraskans, those bugs put me in a bad mood I guess.

Despite the bugs, it was actually really nice to be outside in the wilderness. We really miss that. Nebraska is so beautiful and green in the summer. It really is a sight to see. All in all we had a fun Pioneer day hiking, and then hanging out with some friends that evening playing a fun game called "Things that." I'm so grateful for the Pioneers and their faith and courage to make the trek from here out to Utah, man oh man, I don't think I could stand the bugs...

Say Cheese

2010-07-23T17:11:00.000-05:00

Here, along with our new little photo up top, are some shots from our first little family photo shoot. Photographed by us/self-timer!!!! Not too bad, right? It was extremely hot with classic Nebraska HUMIDITY , and the mosquitos were out for our blood. We had to hustle and constantly make sure that no mosquitos landed on Miss Hazel. It was a fun, but sweaty experience.

TIME FLIES!!

2010-07-16T15:48:00.001-05:00

These are Hazel's one week pictures that I used for her birth announcement! LOVE.

We love our little Hazel baby.

This is Hazel at 3 weeks old. She has changed SOOOO much already. I love her little eyebrows:) I can't believe it. She will be a month on Tuesday. Holy smokes, those first few weeks flew by so quickly.

First 4th!

2010-07-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

We went to our first little party as a family July 3rd to go watch some amazing fireworks at a friend's house overlooking a lake. It was Hazel's first exposure to A LOT of people. She was such a champ, she only had one little cry where I just had to chill in a back room for a bit, but other than that and feeding, she did great. She slept in my arms during the fireworks, which were actually really close to us. The big booms didn't even phase her. Half of the fun was dressing her up to go out. hee hee I just love all of the little girl clothes:) Hope everyone's 4th of July is amazing. It is always amazing out here in Omaha. All you have to do is walk outside your front door and you will see more fireworks than you might have ever wanted! It is soo fun. We are glad we were able to go see some fireworks on the 3rd, because Maurice is on in-house call at the hospital and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon, so he will miss out on all of the fun:( Hope you all enjoy the holiday! Happy 4th!

2010-06-29T17:37:00.001-05:00

These photos kind of got in crazy order... but, SHE'S HERE!!!!!!

Hazel Anavon Jenkins

2010-06-29T17:36:00.000-05:00

2nd day home.

Hazel and G & G Geddes

Her "peace out" shot!!!

2010-06-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

Jenkins family: Maurice, Kristi, and Hazel

with MOMMY

with DADDY

right when we got home... a little nerve racking.

2010-06-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

Baby Hazel's due date photo shoot with our fancy pants camera for fun.

Mo and the beautiful Nebraska greenery.

Being induced...We went into the hospital on our 2nd Anniversary June 21st at 6pm. They had to do some cervical ripening before they put me on pitocin, so we spent the night there in the hospital and at 6:30am on the 22nd they started the pitocin and contractions started and became a lot stronger around noon. LOVED MY EPIDURAL. I laughed so hard everytime the nurse and Mo had to flip me, and i just couldn't move a darn thing!! I FINALLY got to push around 9pm and Hazel was here by 9:58pm!! It was the most beautiful thing when they set her on my chest for the first time. She just looked around calmly, what a sweet, sweet spirit!! She weighed in at 7 lbs. 10oz. 21 1/2 inches long, as healthy as can be. We LOVE HER SO MUCH!

2010-06-29T16:52:00.001-05:00

Maurice's GOLDEN 30th birthday!

Make a wish!

This was a clay figurine on top of a cake at a Baby Shower my wonderful ward threw me! So CUTE.

This was on Hazel's due date, June 19th. She wasn't even considering coming out! :)

Preggers

2010-06-29T16:45:00.002-05:00

My pregnant self and Mo at a camping ground here in NE.

My belly... ha ha

Ian came out for Maurice's birthday, and he fell asleep....so we slowly added things on top of him until he woke up:)

Otter pop eating is my favorite part of summer...also Maurice and I got each other a sweet new camera for our graduations and we took a million random photos.

Baby Jenkins 20-week Ultrasound!

2010-02-04T12:58:00.000-06:00

IT'S A GIRL!!! We are SOOOOOOOOO excited. It is finally nice to say HER/SHE instead of IT. We saw her yawn, lick the placenta(weird, but whatev). SHE HAS HUGE FEET compared to the rest of her body. She is about 12 oz. She is on the smaller side. I can really feel her moving like crazy! It is the craziest thing. She wiggles like crazy during Symphony, I don't know if that's because of the music or because it's just what time she's awake! Tonight we are going shopping for her.... and you bet it'll be PINK!!

BELLY!

2010-01-17T18:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of my beautiful belly... We find out the gender in a couple of weeks! Can't wait! Mo thinks it's a boy...actually, the majority of the people we ask think it's going to be a boy too! I guess we'll find out!

Catch up II

2010-01-10T20:41:00.009-06:00

.....So I know I left you hanging last post, and I thought this picture of Mo at Causey Dam was appropriate. (taken just before we left UT in August)

Back in Nebraska, we finally put up shutter to look like every other house on the street:) Our house finally fits in.

This one is kind of BIG news, but YES the test was positive! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY! The baby is due on June 19, 2010. We are SUPER excited. We are also excited that my brother and his wife are also expecting their first baby(Todd and Lacey). Yea for cousins! They are just a week ahead of us... talk about good timing! I have felt great. I didn't get sick at all during the first trimester. I did get mighty tired though. If I sat down on the couch after 7pm, I was OUT! Thankfully, the tiredness has gone away and I feel like a million bucks.

Did you know that Nebraska is home for Arbor Day? Well, now you do. We celebrated the Apple Jack Fesival down in Nebraska City(home of Arbor Day). It was a funny place. We had fun. We got two free trees. Sadly, we left them in the car and they died. We picked apples at these amazing orchards and went on little nature hikes that had some cool facts along the way. If I were a tree hugger, this is where I would live.

As you can tell by this "Best Overall Float" the Apple Jack Festival is HUGE for this little town!! ha ha ha.

For Halloween we were Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox...and yes, that is a blue otter pop I am eating.

For Thanksgiving, my parents and little sister came out!!! It was so fun. Sadly, I don't have anymore pictures, I forgot to steal them from their cameras. There was a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo, Rollerblading, parents on our tandem beach cruiser, and yummy food. I love them. Thanksgiving was the time we broke the pregnancy news to the familia. My parents and little sis flew in on a Wednesday night and when we got to our house Mo and I had Nertz or Pounce set up with pictures of our baby on the front of one of their cards in each of their decks. So we tried to play and they were pleasantly surprised as they saw their soon-to-be 23rd grandchild on the front of their cards:) It was funny. My dad told the rest of the family on Thanksgiving day... then later that night we got a message from Todd and Lacey, saying that they were preggers too! It was an eventful Thanksgiving. We had much to be grateful for.

These next pics are out of order, but we went to Chicago in October. We loved every minute. We explored it by rollerblade(BEST WAY TO SEE THE CITY EVER!)

On the way to Chicago, we stopped in Iowa City to see my really good friend and past roomate Nikki.

Chicago Botanical Gardens!

My two best friends surprised me by flying out to Nebraska to see me! I love them!!!

Here is our baby at 11 weeks(just before Thanksgiving)

We were in NE for Christmas, because Mo had to be on-call at the hospital. We went to a friend's house for Christmas Eve, where we had yummy food and played with their funny kids. This pic was taken right before we opened our Christmas pj's when we got back home. We look tired!

Looking Back!

2009-12-27T10:17:00.009-06:00

SURPRISE!!! I'm POSTING!!

I wanted to do a 2009 catch-up, at least from July 09...

So, Maurice and I were in Utah for the month of August for Mo's Craniofacial Rotation of Med School. We stayed at my parents' house in Ogden. We had a glorious time...

Here are just a few of the happenings..

Camping and 4-wheeling-

Hangin' with the Jenkins clan:

Lunch with the girls

Park City Alpine Slides

All of the Jenkins boys;)

HIKING TIMP!!!

Hiking: Crimson Trail

More to come...

H1N1

2009-10-26T14:04:00.002-05:00

So, I haven't posted for awhile, and every time I do I seem to be sick....so here's for tradition:) I started to get sick Wednesday night of last week and the peak was on Friday night to Saturday morning. My abs are so buff from all of the coughing!!!! YESsss!!!! Now, it feels like I have just a bad cold...but I am on the up and up!!!

Last weekend was my Fall break and Maurice had to take his Step 2 clinical exams in Chicago, so we made a little vacation of it and went to CHICAGO! I will post some pics as soon as I get home from school:) We had such a great time. Activities included: Stopping in Iowa City to see my roommate Nikki, Chicago Botanical Gardens, Fields Museum, and my personal favorite, rollerblading around the city!!! It was great. I also got to go to the Chicago temple while Mo took his exam on one of the days. It was a very rewarding trip. My Fall Break ended up being a week with all the time taken off for the illness after we got back, I guess my body just wasn't ready to go back to school.

ONE YEAR!!!

2009-07-01T09:33:00.008-05:00

So, we have been married one year and I convinced Maurice to take me to Disneyland to celebrate. He had never been to Disneyland and had suppressed any desire to go because he was never taken there as child. Sad. So, I dug around for that suppressed desire and dragged him out to California.
We almost didn't make it...we missed our plane flight and were forced to fly stand by the next morning at 5 am. Thanks to the person who missed their plane flight in order to let us on an over booked stand by!!!
Maurice loved every minute. I think I know what it feels like to watch a little kid at Disneyland for the first time. These photos should prove it.

Runners

2009-06-03T11:44:00.001-05:00

Maurice and I ran the Ogden Half Marathon a few weekends ago. All I have to say is that.....WE MADE IT!!! It was super fun to train and finish the race together. Yes, we crossed the finish line holding hands!!!!ha ha sorry, we're so cheesy...you know you like it. We averaged about a 9-minute mile for the entire thing...finishing at 2 hrs and I think it was 3 minutes. I felt like a new born colt afterwards....I probably looked a little wobbly as I walked around. It was a blast. We are even considering a full marathon now. We have another little race this Saturday night out here in NE... I think we can officially be called "runners."

catch up

2009-06-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

So, I finished up school at the beginning of May. These are some artsy pictures from the Trio that I was in for the semester. We got to do some fun repertoire and got to perform for a lot of cool things. I think we had about 6 performances together this spring semester. One of our last performances was an Honor's commencement. We were the performance for the evening and we also had to play the processional...What we didn't know was that we were supposed to play the National Anthem, so we had no music and had never played it together. We found that out 10 minutes before we were supposed to start the processional... so, luckily Maurice was there and I told him to run over to the Institute building to grab 3 hymn books. The other two members in my trio aren't LDS, so they had no idea what we were going to do without an arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner for a piano trio... but I convinced them to sight read and add whatever they wanted to the one in the hymn book, and IT WORKED. We kicked bum. We only had the performance to make it work, and it ended up sounded great. My pianist, Nicholas, added some great bass chords. Sophia, the cellist, held the tenor, and I worked it up on top.

An exciting week!!

2009-03-24T09:51:00.006-05:00

So, I was on Spring Break this past week while Mo was on the Labor and Delivery rotation of Med School. I spent a lot of the week with my little Beehives, getting ready for a fundraiser for Girls Camp. They each have to pay 100$ to go to Girls Camp!! Crazy!! Our YWs put together a Lasagna dinner and auction. The items for the auction were donated by ward members and then each girl had to provide items. As the Beehive class, we provided auction-able Gerber Daisy centerpieces. So, we put those together on a Friday night and had a little party afterwards. It was pretty fun. Here is a pic of my girls.

Between Maurice delivering his first baby(AWESOME), and the Lasagna dinner we flew kites in the great plains wind!!! Mine was an Elmo kite, and Maurice's was Lightning McQueen. It was a very successful kite flying day. YES, Maurice delivered a baby. He has been on Labor and Delivery all week. He had to spend Thursday 6am-to Friday 9am at the hospital. He had to do that same hour shift on Sunday to Monday. He was so excited that they let him deliver more than just the placenta on his last overnight shift.

Also, last night our neighborhood was cautioned to seek protection because a tornado was heading towards us. It was my first experience of the crazy Nebraska storms. Maurice said I was like a chicken running around with my head cut off because I was so excited and freaked out at the same time. I was torn between being smart and getting in the basement or watching the storm with Mo!!! He walked outside to pull his car into the garage and I freaked out because I didn't want him to die!!!! So I, being completely calm(NOT), ran outside after him so that we would die together. I am already freaking out and right as I came outside my neighbor across the street opened her door and yelled at me, "ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?!!" That freaked me out even more. Mo got the car inside the garage and it was just in time, because as soon as we walked inside it started hailing. This hail was the largest I had ever seen in my life. (I'm sure people out here have seen bigger, but for me, it was HUGE) Maurice was very calm during this entire thing. Sorry to be anti-climactic, but the tornado didn't touch ground and just missed us. We watched the storm pass from our front window a few miles out. Either way it was exciting and I hope I don't freak out quite as much next time... pic: Hail.

2009-03-15T05:33:00.003-05:00

Wow. I am just not used to the BLOG stuff. I am sick with the flu, and I can't sleep, so I thought I would post some things that we have been doing out here in Nebraska. It is FINALLY thawing out, but just a little while ago we were able to walk out on the frozen lakes. (There are two large lakes right near our house) We took our lovely tandem bike out for a spin when the weather warmed up to 50 and had some fun on Wehrspann Lake. I know it doesn't look safe, but it was THICK ice. I was so nervous at first, I thought I was going to lose Maurice to hypothermia as he started walking out...but then he started doing cartwheels and stuff to show me it was thick enough for me to come out on. It was so beautiful, and a first time on a frozen lake for us.

THE FIRST POST!!!!

2008-11-03T14:50:00.004-06:00

It is a beautiful autumn day here in Nebraska. The leaves have FINALLY turned colors. It took awhile....We sure do miss driving Sardine Canyon during October to see the all the pretty colors. Nebraska is really nice and really obsessed with college football. Football is religion out here. Here is a picture of our house out here, with the lone pumpkin that some friends gave me when I had my appendix taken out... We have nice neighbors with lots of kids that think Maurice and I are pretty awesome... Ha ha. We have a few little kids that stand behind our cars the moment we pull in the driveway. We don't really know why because we don't play with them all of the time. Most of the time we just get out of the car and they show us their new toys and we exhaustingly tell them that we need to go eat some dinner...hmmmm. I think we got them hooked when I ran through the sprinkler one day with them and Mo threw a couple football plays with them.

Maurice just finished with his Pediatric rotation in Medical School. He loved it. In fact, he loved it so much he said to me," Kristi, I really like working with kids. Would you be mad if I wanted to go to another year of school and specialize in Pediatric Oral Surgery?" and I, of course, tentively answered,"Sure, do whatever you need to do!!!" Luckily, he was just joking to see how I would react... Now he is on the Family Practice rotation, and bringing wierd sicknesses and colds home with him:) He said that he loved working with little kids tons better that with adult because the kids can't really help getting sick, and adults have wierd problems and could have helped themselves from getting things like STD's, Diabetes, and Obesity....

I just performed with my graduate piano quintet.(2 violin, viola, cello, & piano) We had a great performance of Shostakovich's quintet. The drive to Lincoln(45-50min. each way) is getting REALLY old. I need to start some books on tape...or something. I teach violin on Monday and Tuesday evenings. I love it. I have a four old almost ready to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! SO CUTE. Maurice loves the scratchy noises that come from my little studio downstairs:) He's a good sport.