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!