I looked out the window....

Madilyn LOVES being outside. We didn't get out for a walk today and I think she was feeing a little sad about it! Instead I let her spend some time by the window-as the next best thing. She was pretty content to have a birds-eye view out the upstairs office window. She watched the trees (now bare) with the leaves swirling around in the wind, the cars, and neighbor kids coming home from school! I love how entertained she is by such simple things.

Weekend with the Harpers

If you've already read our "Happy Turkey Day" post you know that we had some very special visitors join us for the Thanksgiving holiday. But guess what- the fun with the Harpers didn't stop after our fabulous Thanksgiving meal. We had a whole weekend of fun! Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving and filled with LOTS and LOTS of cooking, relaxing, cooking, football watching, cooking, and EATING!! Then on Friday we headed into DC. We visited the Washington, Lincoln, WWII, and Vietnam Monuments. We made sure to stop by the White House on our way out as well. Before heading back home we stopped for some yummy Indian food! Saturday was SUPER relaxing! We scheduled our day around the BYU vs. UTAH football game- and what a great game it was. GO COUGARS!! The girls (Madi and Reina) crashed early, making going out not an option. So we brought dinner to us. We got a huge BBQ platter from "Famous Dave's". Delicious as always! We ended the evening with an intense game of Hearts (my choice of course) and reminiscing high school and college memories. Oh what a fun weekend!! Thanks Harpers for sharing it with us! Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of the rest of the weekend. If you'd like to see more pictures of their visit, go to the Harpers blog.

Who does Madi look like?

Happy Turkey Day!!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year! We were thrilled to be able to spend it with the Harper family. We hadn't seen them for over 3 years!! Oh what a joyous reunion it was! For those of you that don't know the Harpers, Scott and I were good friends in High School and he was Spencer's roommate at BYU. I was super sad when they moved to Japan because Heather and I had already become great friends! We were so excited when Scott got accepted into Harvard business school because now we live relatively close. They drove down from Boston Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday. Our Thanksgiving dinner was quite delicious if I do say say so myself. I gained some confidence in the cooking area- Heather taught me some of her tricks!

Spencer cooked the turkey and did an AMAZING job (as always)! He really is quite the chef!

Heather and I made homemade rolls.

Heather also made her famous cranberry sauce and apple pie (which I'm SO bummed that I didn't get pictures of)!

Scott had an especially important job. While we were busy in the kitchen Scott "nurtured" the kids while keeping track of the football scores for us!


We started cooking about noon and didn't sit down to eat until 7pm! OH what a feast it was!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh how we LOVE our 1st "REAL" Christmas Tree!! I hear the rule is that Christmas decorations can go up as early as the day after Thanksgiving. Who made up that rule??!! We got a jump start on Christmas this year. Not to downplay Thanksgiving or anything, because we are SUPER excited for it as well. But, since we will be spending three weeks in California for Christmas, we thought we were entitled, if not obligated, to bring Christmas into our hearts and home early. Our tree was up on November 19th which we figure gives us two days shy of a month to enjoy it!! Spencer and I had so much fun hanging all our ornaments! It was so funny to see all those homemade ornaments (I'm sure you all have the typical felt wreath ornament with your third grade picture in the middle of it) we made when we were kids...oh the memories! Our tree has character!

So, as I thought about this whole "Christmas doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving" rule, I came up with some persuasive reasons to throw this rule out the window:

1. You get the first pick at the Christmas tree lot! (Our tree came from the first shipment that arrived 20 minutes before we showed up!)

2. You have that much longer to enjoy the aroma of a real Christmas tree (if you get a real one that is). There's something about walking into the house and smelling fresh pine!

3. Its one less thing to worry about after Thanksgiving passes. (For me, after Thanksgiving is when everything gets SO CRAZY!!)

4. More Christmas music! (Who doesn't want more Christmas music??)

5. Eggnog appears in the grocery stores weeks before Thanksgiving. Are the grocery stores trying to tell us something...I think yes.

6. The emptiness beneath the tree persuades me to do my shopping early! Plus, it reminds me of all the things I want-which leads me to my next item.

7. Welcoming Christmas early gives me more quality time to contemplate, expand and perfect my wish list :). Now, some may call me selfish, but what good is a mediocre wish list??

8. And most importantly, welcoming Christmas early just makes me happier and more grateful for all the things I have!

OH HELLO!!

Oversized Mittens

So, because it was getting a little cold in the house and Madi inherited my bad circulation, I decided to put some oversized mittens on her when she slept. That backfired! She thought they were the coolest things ever and wouldn't go to sleep. Here's a picture I caught of her well into her "nap." Naughty girl! Spencer suggested I just turn on the heater. Heater?...That's a novel idea!

Madi Jump UP!

Suppossedly this thing is called a Johnny Jump Up. Weird! Why in the world is it called that? Was little Johnny the first kid to jump or did his parents invent it or something??? Regardless of its name, around here we say, "Madi, jump up!" She LOVES her new play toy!! Thank you Terry family for letting Madi borrow it for awhile!

Christmas Jammies

It's beginning to feel ALOT like Christmas around here! Last week I went to Target looking for warmer PJ's for Madi. Instead, I got caught up looking at all the Christmas stuff. I found these jammies that say "Baby's 1st Christmas" on them. They were super cute and I figured I could give them to her on Christmas Eve to wear for her first Christmas morning. Well....I got a little too excited for her to try them on. She looked so cute, I decided she could take a nap in them. When I came in to get her after she woke up, she was totally mesmerized at the red and white stripes. She loves her new pajamas!

YUM YUM Cereal!

Madilyn is officially a cereal eater now! We started her on cereal this past week and she LOVES it!! I started by giving her a Tbsp. mixed with milk. She ate so well that the next night I gave her a little bit more and the night after that, even more!! I wasn't sure if how much I was giving her was ok, but I figured if she's eating, keep feeding- RIGHT?!?!? The third day of cereal I gave her some for breakfast and dinner! Then just last night I was reading Madi's 4 month check-up sheet and in the nutrition section it talks about when to start babies on cereal and how much to give them. The three signs a baby is ready for solids are:
1) They're taking more than 32 oz. a day of formula (which she's NOT)! or....
2) They're nursing more frequently than every 3 hours (which she's NOT)! or....
3) Their birth weight has doubled (which it definitely hasn't)!!
Then at the end it says to start by giving 1-2 TEASPOONS and then gradually increase!
So, I guess from that I can conclude that 1- I started her too early and 2- I'm feeding her too much!!
Oh well, I don't think we can go back. She's HOOKED!

Way to Go Spencer!

I was thinking today how selfish it is of me to only write about events that happen here at home or things that involve Madilyn or myself. So, this post is a shout out for Spencer! As most of you know, Spencer is in his first year of law school at American University. He mostly does his own thing all day. All I know is that I drop him off at the Metro station in the morning and pick him up around 4:30pm. When he's in his office at home I know he's studying but I don't know what. We usually don't talk a whole lot about how his classes are going (and that's not because I'm an uninterested wife). I ask lots of questions, but he keeps it brief. He mostly wants to hear about Madilyn and how our day was. So, naturally I was very excited when Spencer called me from school, saying he had some exciting news! He said he couldn't tell me then, but he would tell me when I picked him up. I LOVE surprises!! So I pick him up at the Metro station and he tells me that he got the highest grade on his midterm in his Contracts class!! The teacher announced in class that only one person had received an "A" on the midterm. After class students were talking about their B's and C's and wondering who got the A. Spencer likes to keep a low profile. WAY to GO SPENCER!!

Happy Halloween!

Here at the Jenkins' home, Halloween came a little late. But later is better than never. On Wednesday night, Spencer was busy writing a paper and had tons of reading for the next day, and I got a hair cut. Ok, that makes us sound like party poopers, but the blame is all on Spencer. So, not to let Halloween slip by, on Friday night, we had a post-Halloween party at our house. Before I go any further, I need to give a shout out to Melissa because this party would not have happened were it not for her creativity and Halloween spirit. Go Melissa!!! We had a bunch of friends over and had a crazy fun time. Spencer made carne asada tacos (so good!!) and then we topped those off with tons of candy! yummm! The costume runway competition was so intense, and Brian and Spencer had a really tough time judging. All in all, it was an awesome party!

The bat and the witch-winners of the scariest costume award!!


A pirate, a fairy, a witch, a bat, an egyptian, and a skunk.


Some of the decorations...


The witch, the bat, and the student. What a scary family!