Our New Park

The Buddy on his new playground! Yeah, the yellow swing is tangled up high in this picture. Awesome.

About a month and a half ago we inherited a used swing set from Alan's parents, who had inherited it from someone in their ward who no longer needed it. This swing set has been sitting on our back patio in a million pieces ever since. Well, this past weekend we finally got around to putting it together. (First Alan disassembled the old wooden swing set that was here when we moved in. I wish I had taken a picture of that eye-sore!) We didn't have any instructions, but we did have a few pictures from the previous owners of what it was supposed to look like when assembled. Alan's mom and seven of Alan's siblings came over to help out, and we COULD NOT have done it without them! It was a really big project! (Ok, I must be honest. I didn't do much helping. I had a baby attached to me all day long. It was everyone else's hard work that made this possible!) We finally finished, however, and we had yummy pizza to celebrate.

Jared LOVES his new playground! This massive thing takes up about half of our backyard, but I think it will be something wonderful that our kids can grow into.

This swing set features monkey bars, a rock wall, a big platform to play on, a slide, and 5 different places where swings can go! We also have a toddler swing and even a baby swing that we can attach!

One of the best features is that this thing is strong enough for ADULTS to swing, too!

Hopefully my nephew Scott will no longer say "Aunt Jenny, your house is boring" when he comes over to play. :)

Day-Old Child

My day-old child lay in my arms.
With my lips against his ear
I whispered strongly, "How I wish--

I wish that you could hear;

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say
(A tiny cough and nod),
Hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."

My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled his ear.
But a kind of light passed through his eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:

"How I wish I had a voice and words;
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget I'd tell you of God--
I left Him yesterday."

~Carol Lynn Pearson

A Maggie Post

Wow, it's amazing how fast time has gone by! In an attempt to maintain some privacy without making this blog private, I am choosing not to talk about certain things regarding Maggie's birth, including the exact day she was born or her full name. Let me just say, however, that things went extremely quickly with her birth. I was dilated to a 5 when I checked in to the hospital and went from a 6 to a 9 within 20 minutes. She was born when I had been there not even 3 hours (I only had to push through 2 contractions and was like, "What? She came out already?"). Things went pretty smoothly; however, she had poor color and a hard time breathing when she was born, so they had to whisk her away to the nursery to make sure she was all right. I didn't really get to hold her for the first three hours of her life, but I have since made up for it. :)

Jared's first time holding Maggie


Our first family picture. This was the best we could get Jared to look.

These past couple of weeks have been WAY better than I expected. Things were REALLY hard the first few weeks of Jared's life, so I was expecting them to be just as crazy again. However, other than a few glitches here and there (including jaundice and a bili blanket for Maggie for a few days and lots of wet underpants for Jared), things have been pretty good. Alan was home on paternity leave for a week, and my mom and mother-in-law have been around to help, too. We'll see how I feel when I am REALLY on my own.

My recovery feels like it's going much faster than with Jared, breastfeeding is TONS easier than it was with Jared, and Maggie also seems to be less maintenance than Jared was. She will let us put her down on bouncers, etc, instead of having to hold her all the time! Also, she has been pretty good about not being awake for hours at a time in the middle of the night. I hope she continues to do so!

Our little "glowworm." This is when Maggie had to be plugged into to wall for her jaundice. I'm not sure why it was called a bili blanket--it doesn't look like a blanket at all. From what I understand, the bili blanket is far less stressful than the bili bed that some of my friend's babies have had to lie on! At least we could still hold her!

So far Jared has been such a good big brother. He keeps on pointing out how cute his little sister's features are: "Look at her cute little nose! her cute little dimples! her cute little feet!" and always says "I love my baby sister!" It probably helps that Maggie "gave" Jared this awesome tent and tunnel set when she came home from the hospital:

Here is a picture from just a few days ago. I will try to find time to post more!

Thanks, Aunt Shawna, for the dress!

She's Here!

Margaret was finally born last week! We are so excited that little Maggie is here.

More details to follow when we have time to upload pictures. (Thanks, Alana, for this picture!)

Jared-isms

Alan keeps on telling me that I need to record funny things that Jared has been saying lately for posterity's sake.

1. Yesterday at church to the little girl sitting behind us, during the closing prayer: "Close your eyes."
2. The breakfast blessing on the food: "Bless me to go on a mission and get married in the temple, bless the yogurt and the Cheerios and the water and the milk and the Life and the water and the banana and the water and the Raisin Bran and the napkins..."
3. To me if I raise my voice at him: "Mommy, that's not a nice way to talk. That's a mean way to talk."
4. To Alan if we turn right at a red light: "Daddy, you're supposed to STOP at a red light. Red means STOP!"

Umm...I will have to update this as I think of more.

Happy Mother's Day!

image from http://www.bettes-cards-gifts.com

This Willow Tree figurine is what Alan gave me for Mother's Day this morning (along with a delicious breakfast. Yum!). It seems extra special to me since we will have our baby sometime in the next 5 days (I have an induction scheduled for Friday if she doesn't come by herself sooner!). That means that once every few years I will get to share Mother's Day with my little girl's birthday, something that used to bother me, but now I am realizing how special that will be.

Happy Mother's Day to the mommy that raised me and the mommy that raised my wonderful husband! We love you!

Mousie Story

When I was little, my daddy used to tell me these "Mousie Stories." Yesterday as my parents were visiting I was lucky enough to catch this on video: my dad telling Jared a mousie story.



As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed 13 months ago with Stage 4 lung cancer. His case has already proven to be a miracle as he has outlived the "6 months to a year" that the doctors said he would live. We are not sure whether he has just months or years left, but we are loving every minute of time spent with him.