Giving thanks!

Almost every day this month Madi and I have taken a minute or two to talk about the things we're thankful for. Of all the things Madi mentioned this month, she always started with: Mommy, Daddy, Elle, and George (a guy we used to pick up for church). The potty was a reoccurring one too. Hmmmm. . . . maybe one of these days she'll finally start using it!

Since she can't write in words yet, pictures will have to suffice.

If you can't tell, Madi's become very obsessed with drawing "people". She's getting quite good too. . .

Sometimes she'll even give her people smiley faces!!

Our Thanksgiving was an especially good one this year. I got to spend the entire day doing the things I love with my three favorite people! It was pure heaven! Dinner time got a little crazy though. . . Spencer and I agreed about going simple with the meal- nothing fancy, just the basics. However, it seemed to happen all at once- the turkey coming out of the oven with rolls needing to go in, Madi throwing a fit because she didn't want to eat, Elle waking up, Spencer trying to finish making the apple pie, and me finishing up with the potatoes and stuffing. Even though Madi refused to eat anything besides a roll (what's new), we survived and enjoyed a delicious, and relatively relaxing dinner.

My favorite part of the meal was definitely dessert! Spencer's been dying for some of his mom's famous apple pie, but since we won't be in Camarillo for 3 more weeks, he decided to just make one himself. Dang it was delicious!

Now I'm stuffed and off to bed! I'm planning on joining the 4:45am crazies tomorrow for some fabulous early bird doorbusters!! Wish me luck!

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

Sisters!

I layed Elle on the floor this morning for some tummy time so that I could hang up clothes in the girls' closet. I called for Madi to come have tummy time with her sister. I turned around and found this!

I had to run grab the camera! Oh how I hope my girls end up being the best of friends!

What's in an Orchestra anyway?

Spencer decided to try something new and different for he and Madi's daddy daughter date this past weekend. Instead of the regular trip to Petsmart, park, or store, he decided to branch out and take Madi to a concert put on by the Capital City Symphony. One of Spencer's coworkers is in the Orchestra and told everyone at the firm about their concerts. Spencer looked at the schedule and found the perfect one that he could take Madi to. It was a "family concert" (so obviously very kid friendly), entitled "What's In an Orchestra, Anyway?"

Before the concert began, orchestra members were milling around the theater, playing their instruments and letting the kids touch and play as well. For several months now Madi's been interested in the violin, so naturally she was excited to hold the bow and touch it to the violin. And after last night she's now also intrigued with the drums.

The concert was focused on teaching about what an orchestra is. So the conductor first broke the orchestra into groups . . .

The percussion:

brass instruments:

winds:

and strings:

Then they put it all together-again, kid friendly! I think this is why Madi came home wanting to be a conductor!

Videos will have to suffice for this post- cameras were not allowed during the performance. I cut Spencer some slack on not getting pictures before or after the show- he got his full share of daddy duties on this date! The funniest was one that I've never even experienced- a leaky diaper that dripped out onto the floor. Oops, sorry Spence- I guess we should have changed her diaper from the morning and/or not given her a sippy full of milk to enjoy on the car ride into the city!

When they got home I asked Madi what her favorite part of the orchestra was she told me she wanted to conduct and play the drums. So those must have been the highlights for her! What a great daddy my girls have!

SHE DID IT!!!!!

Elle slept through the night-11 hours straight (7pm- 6:15am)!! She cried out twice which of course sent me bolting out of bed, but luckily I stopped before going in and forced myself back to bed. Within seconds she was quiet again. By 6am I was ready to EXPLODE (literally) with excitement! At 6:15 I heard some noises so I went in to check on her. Elle was just hanging out in her bed, happy as could be! Let's hope this is the start of many more restful nights ahead!!

4 Months

Weight: 14 lbs. 6oz. (67%)

Height: 25 1/2 in. (90%)

Eleanor's third month of life was full of lots of firsts, including:

-first road trip

-first time in the exersaucer

-first time rolling from tummy to back (first and only)!

-first Halloween

-first cough (which hasn't seemed to go away)

-first taste of juice

-first play date

Elle with her friend Abby (who's 6 weeks younger)

It was a busy month, but a lot of fun! Elle's becoming more and more playful every day. She no longer likes to just lay- whenever I put her in a reclined position she automatically lifts her head and neck- trying to sit up. She's super chill, easy to please, gives lots of smiles, and rarely cries. Seriously, she probably cries for a few minutes everyday! She's much quieter than her older sister was. Elle's favorite times to coo, babble, and sputter are in the early mornings and before or after naps when it's quiet and she's got mom (and sometimes dad) all to herself.

Here's Elle right after a nap. She was babbling away until I came in and put the camera in front of her. Oh well, it's still cute and I'm sure her grandparents will appreciate it!

Elle's easy-going personality has been so refreshing. I wish I could just sit and snuggle with her for hours- but unfortunately life doesn't allow it, so I truly cherish the quiet moments that we get to spend together, alone.

I've actually felt a little guilty this month, like Elle doesn't get very much one on one time. I think it's just hard after the first child who gets more attention than they probably need, but I feel like Elle spends a great deal of time in her exersaucer, under her gym, in the stroller, car seat, or in her bed. Baths are the one thing I love doing everyday cause at least I know Elle gets those few minutes of undivided mommy time.

But at least Elle has a great love for the one person who's always trying to steal the limelight. Her favorite person has got to be Madilyn! Elle lights up EVERY time Madi comes around. No matter how many times Madi pokes Elle's eyes, shoves toys in her face, or startles her with obnoxious noises, Elle always has a huge smile when she sees Madi.

Sleep training has been a little slow going for me. Elle's sill waking up at night- sometimes once, but usually twice. I really gotta work on not rushing in at her little faint cries. I'm so delirious at night and still in new mommy mode, that I wake up to everything! I usually don't realize what I've done until I'm sitting in her glider feeding her. Plus, going in to give her the binky only results in me having to get up more than twice at night!

Luckily Elle takes great naps during the day. Her morning nap is usually just an hour (I'm guessing because of how crazy our mornings usually are), but I always get a good 3- 31/2 hour nap out of her in the afternoon. Then she's up for only an hour before wanting to go back to bed- hence the early bedtime. Things are getting easier though and I'm definitely feeling more on top of my game.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention how Elle's hair is already starting to change. She has lots of little blond hairs growing in the front. Spencer's excited about her hair changing, but I get sad thinking about Elle loosing her gorgeous dark color!

What a Treat!

Not only was yesterday our ward's primary program (something I look forward to every year), but Elaine S. Dalton, the General Young Women's President, came to OUR ward to speak to OUR young women during second and third hour. She was in town for a series of major auxiliary training meetings, and then a Regional Fireside Sunday night.

This pic makes our group of young women seem huge! Maybe cause all the leaders are in there too. Can you see Sister Dalton? Now try to find me!

I couldn't help but feel lucky Sunday night as the hundreds and hundreds of young women and their mothers, from 18 different stakes, crammed into the DC Stake Center for the fireside. It was incredible to think that Sister Dalton had spent part of the afternoon with us, in our ward, asking our young women questions, and giving all of us hugs!

Me, loving every minute of it!

Sister Dalton with all of the YW leaders in our ward. Not the greatest pic of me- I look ginormous, and totally stick out, but hey- I got to stand right next to Sister Dalton, so no complaints here!

Being with Sister Dalton and getting to listen to her counsel was seriously amazing and I was on a spiritual high the entire day. There's just something about being in her presence that made me want to be a better person. As instructed a year ago, she again gave the challenge for the young women to be %100 with three things:

1) Praying every morning and evening

2) Reading at least 5 minutes a day from the Book of Mormon

3) And the hardest one- remembering to smile everyday! :)

Sounds simple enough, but I cannot honestly say that I've been 100%. After yesterday I'm definitely making it a priority though!

Ya, that's Sister Dalton behind me. Am I the biggest dork or what!?!

BIG thanks to Kirsten for having a camera on hand, and acting like the paparazzi! When I told Spencer that I was going to bring my camera to church he told me I was ridiculous and I was NOT going to go begging for a picture with Sister Dalton. You can imagine my disappointment when Sister Dalton requested getting a picture with all of us. She informed us that President Monson likes to hear about where she went and who she met. She mentioned how he'll even ask about specific girls in the picture. I thought that was really cool- to hear about how much our prophet cares about all the youth all over the world!

The way to my Daughter's Heart

Our landlord stopped by the other day to look at a few things with the house and she came bearing gifts! After she left Madi opened up her present to find a new baby! I don't think our landlord (Kristen- who Madi loving named her new baby after), could have gotten a better gift! Madi was in heaven! She was so excited that she couldn't sleep. So we skipped nap time and walked to the park instead. Madi was thrilled to bring baby Kristen along.

Oh, and the baby coos and babbles. I've already mistaken her for Elle (more than once:)!

PS. Don't worry mom, "purple baby" (which Madi now calls her) is still being loved and adored as well. It's actually nice for Madi to have TWO babies to care for- it's kept her twice as busy!

Of course Elle wasn't forgotten! Our landlord got her this cute little dress. . .

with the most adorable tights!

Just because . . .

Most of my videos (and posts for that matter) are always of Madi, so I figured I should give Elle some camera time. Don't worry, her 4 month post is coming next week!

Keeping Madi Occupied

Keeping Madi occupied while I nurse Elle hasn't been as hard as I originally thought it would be. One of my favorite things to do is bust out the flip and tape Madi doing something. Then she comes and sits down next to me to watch her "Madi movie". Most of the time she becomes ultra-hyper when I start taking video, but sometimes I'm lucky and she'll preform for me!

Oh, and just so you're not confused with what Madi's singing- we like to change the words to commonly sung songs in our house. Spencer made up a verse to the "Eesnsy Weensy Spider" who "is looking for Madilyn". Madi then got a kick out of calling me "Momilyn" and Spencer "Dadilyn".

Blog Lift

When I got onto my blog this morning I noticed a few things had been changed! Wow! I guess someone had gotten a little tired of my boring black background and the outdated header picture. Even though I'm not big into change and I like to keep things simple, I'm definitely liking the new look! Since neither Spencer or I would stray from our safe, black background with the small traditional writing, I'm glad someone much more creatively skilled decided to take matters into their own hands. BIG thanks to my mystery blogger!! I'm loving the changes and desperately needed something new to spice things up a bit!

Halloween 2009

Dr. Madi to the Rescue!

The theme for Halloween in the Jenkins' home this year was procrastination! I have a list of excuses (and believe me, they're good ones) as to why Madi didn't have a complete Halloween costume until 10 minutes before our ward trunk-or-treat, and why only Madi and I attended the trunk-or-treat, and why I didn't dress up my 3 month old on Halloween night! Basically I'm a lame mom with a bad attitude about the holiday!

Halloween morning I was feeling a little more positive about things though and even decided to come up with a costume for myself. I may not have costumes, but hey- I've got wigs! :) Any guesses of what I was. Hint hint: I wearing my alpaca sweater from Peru.

Luckily Madi scored big at the trunk-or-treat on Friday night because trick-or-treating on Halloween was a major disappointment! It began raining just as we started walking up to our second house of the night. And our neighborhood isn't the easiest to run from house to house- the big staircases tend to slow small children down a bit! So after hitting house #2, we called it quits and headed over to our friends' house for a little Halloween celebration.

Brooklyn, Kate, Madi and Logan listening to instructions before heading out!

Just a few of us that were in costume.

Despite the lack of trick-or-treating, the kids had a great time! The video below is rather long and boring, but probably entertaining for the kids in it (I know Madi likes watching it). Kate definitely gets the award for best dancer. I'm not exactly sure what Madi and Logan were up to, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And a video from after our trunk-or-treat!

Staying in Bed

Shortly after graduating to her big girl bed, Madi realized her freedom of getting out of bed and doing whatever she wanted to do. At first she'd just bring books into bed (which didn't really bother me much), but then she began getting out to play with her toys. I quickly became annoyed and began looking for ways of keeping Madi in her bed. I started going into her room and putting her back into bed. Didn't work so well though. Madi would just get right back out. Then I remembered my friend Krista having a similar problem awhile back. So I got onto her blog to read about what she did. I loved it and immediately put the idea into practice! My sister got me hooked on this book right after Madi was born. It was the book I'd turn to when I started sleep training her, and I believe it's what helped me get her sleeping through the night (and when I say sleeping through the night, I mean 12 hours straight) by 4 months old! So I was not surprised that Weissbluth's suggestions pulled through again. I made Madi her own set of sleep rules and began the sticker chart the next morning! Thanks Krista for the reminder!!

Today marked a whole month of using the sticker chart and check out the results we've had! Way to go Madi!

Some nights I'd hear Madi talking and/or singing in her bed (ok- most nights!), but as long as she stayed in her bed, we'd give her a sticker in the morning (or after her nap). I was super impressed with how well Madi took to these sleep rules. She went from getting out of bed every night to staying in her bed most nights. Nap time still needs some work, but it's a heck of a lot better than she was doing before!

Oh, and I also have to add that this month included a change of bedroom for Madi. Elle moved into the crib on October 14th, forcing me to move Madi into the office. Surprisingly Madi was thrilled about the change and hasn't been phased a bit!

Now, just in case this idea gets old, I'm including another idea that my friend Krista gave me (she really is amazing- always full of great ideas and fun ways of spicing things up)! In the words of Krista: "Lately she's (her daughter Kate) been doing the million-excuses-to-get-out-of-bed thing, and you can't deny a child who has to use the bathroom or wants a drink of water! So what I started doing was I made her three paper flowers, and they live in a paper flower pot by her bed. Every time she gets out of bed OR calls me in for some reason, it's fine, but she loses a flower. If she loses all three, then not only will I not come back again under any circumstances but she also loses her blankie. If she keeps all three, she gets a sticker in the morning. Just a little spin on the sleep rules (they lose their power after a while if you don't keep it fresh, I guess) that I thought I'd share."

Thanks Krista for sharing!!