Noah Kevin Jensen

I know it has been over a year since I blogged. To be honest, I have been keeping separate journals and haven't had time to blog. But I thought I would copy over the entry I did in my pregnancy journal about Noah's arrival.

Since I never went into labor with Ava I wasn’t quite sure what to expect or how I would know I was in labor. I thought I was having contractions a few weeks before here and there, but when I went to the doctor and she said that basically I was making no progress in the labor department, I thought I was wrong. On Friday evening, we headed up the canyon for a ward activity. On the way up, I felt like I was having some contractions and they were slightly uncomfortable. I didn’t think much of it though because that Tuesday before, the doctor said I was not close and with Ava I was late so I jus t figured I would have to be induced again. Friday night, I still felt the pains, but again I wasn’t sure if I was actually in labor. We had plans to go to Seven Peaks, but also needed to do some things to get ready for the baby. Before leaving that morning, I decided to pack a few things for the hospital. WE also planned on going to Babies R Us and setting up the nursery as much as we could with no furniture. We were waiting for the furniture to come before we bought everything we needed so we had somewhere to put it. A week before Mr. Noah was due we figured we couldn’t wait any longer and needed to get ready. We left for the day to go to Seven Peaks waterpark and Babies R Us. I called my mom and Brenda on the way down to ask about labor and how to know if I was in labor. We timed the contractions on the way down and they were about 8 minutes apart. We hurried through Babies R Us and bought everything we thought we needed. Since they were about 5 minutes apart, we called our friends JP And Amber to let them know we couldn’t go to Seven Peaks. We headed home and kept timing them. Some were less than 5 minutes apart. I still wanted to hang the curtains and such, but Steve said we better get right to the hospital. So Brenda came and got Ava and off we went to the hospital. We arrived at 12:45 pm. When they checked me in I was at a 4. I felt some pretty good contractions before I got my epidural. I quickly got to a 7 and then a 9. The doctor broke my water eventually. I had to push for about 25 minutes. When Noah was born, he was a little blue and I teared up because I was scared. I guess the cord was wrapped around his neck a little bit. They had to give him a little oxygen, but the nurse and doctor kept telling me he was perfect. I held him for a while and he just laid there on me. WE couldn’t tell who he looked like, but he had lots of dark dark hair!! My recovery was much better this time because I took some pain medicine and my nurses were better. Also, they only brought Noah to me at night when he was crying. He only ate about every 4 hours or more from the time he was born so I was able to get very good rest the time I was in the hospital. I also stayed two nights since Steve had Ava all by himself. The stay was very relaxing and I had a chance to spend time with my new baby. He was so cuddly and I would just sit and hold him. Ava loved coming to the hospital and holding baby Noah. She would wake up in the morning and ask about baby Noah. Steve was great through all of it and kept the house in order, set up stuff for the baby, and took care of Ava! I was glad that it was just the four of us the first few days.

He arrived at 5:33 pm. 7 pounds 6 ounces and 18.5 inches long. And we were all in love with him!

Animal Sounds and some Walking

Still no bridge..i have some pics of her doing it, but i cant get it on video! This journaling is for me, but enjoy if you wish.
Ava can do several animal sounds. Cow, Pig, Fish, Elephant, Sheep, and most recently a Bear!
She can clap her hands and knows to clap when singing "If you're happy and you know it," before you say "clap your hands." She knows head, shoulders, knees, and toes gestures. (Well the head, knees and toes part)
She knows the hand signals for "Popcorn Popping," "5 Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree," and we are working on "The Wise Man built His House upon the Rock." She loves her books and to turn the pages. She has an animal book and can recognize the sheep and cow and say the right sound!
When you say bye, bye she heads to the door. When you say, "should we brush your pretty hair," she tries to brush her hair with her hand. When you say, "brush your teeth," she sticks her tongue out. She knows where her tongue, toes, and knees are. She can shake her head no and we are working on the yes! I have to say, I'm sure eventually I will get sick of the fact that she can say no, but for no I like it. I'll say, "do you want a strawberry," and she can tell me if she doesn't. Kind of nice...
I will get some video of her doing the songs and her body parts! It's cute (if you are the parents I guess)
Ava is a little particular; and the food she doesn't like, she puts in her cup holder in her high chair.
Okay, here is a video of her doing some of her little tricks! We'll get the rest another time :)

Florida

(post by Marissa) Since this would be our last Spring Break with Steve as a student we decided to take advantage of it. We haven't been able to the past two years because I was working and you can't exactly take off during tax season. This year however since I am only working part-time and I worked full-time for a few of the spring break days while Steve watched Ava we decided to head to Florida. We met my parents, 2 sisters, and sis-in-law (and brother came for a few days). What a blast. I could move there tomorrow if I could. It is exactly the kind of lifestyle I love. Warm weaterh, beach, great shopping, and all kinds of restaurants and stuff to do. We went to the beach on Friday and Saturday. We headed to Miami on Sunday afternoon and went to some of the most famous shops. We saw more 150,000 dollar cars than we ever thought could be in one spot. Seeing a 7 series Beamer was nothing. Bentley's were the norm...Anyways, Ava of course loved every minute of it. She loved the beach and being on the go all the time. Everytime we took her out of the car she would get so excited and look around and see where she was. She slept in until 8 am every morning which was so nice for us! All in all it was a great getaway. I only have pics from one day on the beach..lame I know. She also got to eat all sorts of fine food. I love going away because I feel like Ava gets to experience so much and try so many different foods than when we are at home. One thing Steve and I have in common is a love for travel and going to new places! It was exactly what we all needed after Steve watching Ava everyday for a few days and being a bit bored in Lubbock, Texas and me being so busy with taxes and such.

Cruisin

Ava is obsessed with going outside and walking. She pushes her walker everywhere and now she pushes her little buggy everywhere. This little video depicts what goes on at our house A LOT!! She's a lot of fun and so fast. I have decided she isn't going to walk by herself until she can walk this fast. We went to the Science Spectrum today and she took probably 15 to 20 steps by herself (holding onto 2 balls so she forgot my hands weren't in hers) but of course, she wouldnt do it when we got home! I'm getting tired of her shoes and pants getting so dirty :)

Happy Birthday Ava!

(post by Marissa)

I'll add pictures in the next post, but they are not on my computer and I want to update this blog. Tax season is over and so life will get much calmer and I will have time to do things like Blog. I missed Ava so much when I would have to go to the office. I feel like she is my sidekick and we have a lot of fun together. She is a great baby with so much personality. She loves to be outside. We have lots of pictures of her sitting by the door just waiting to go outside. I want to document a few things that she does that are cute and that I may forget.

1. She can make a cow, fish, and elephant sound

2. When you said "high" or "arms up" she raises her arms up

3. When I sing the song we sing in our music class at the end, she starts to wave (she knows its the goodbye song)

4. She can locate the duck in the tub when we ask "where is the duck?"

5. She does a downward dog great. If you say bridge or downward dog, then she does this adorable little downward dog.

6. She gets so excited when we go anywhere. She is an on the go baby and loves to be out and about.

7. She still chews/sucks on her blanket when I put her in her crib.

8. When I say legs up when I change her diaper she lifts up her legs

9. She loves the bath and even dunks her head. Loves swimming as well and holds her breath under water.

10. Grabs our hands and wants to walk us everywhere. She will walk us up and down the street. She also pushes her walker down the street.

11. Loves the park and cries when we have to leave no matter how long we stay. She likes the bouncy things. Used to love the swing, but now feels confined. Likes the slide okay. Really she just loves to crawl or walk us around everywhere

12. Is a mamma's girl for sure.

13. Says mamma, dadda, babba and most recenlty bubbles when we were reading her a bubbles book.

14. Food - cheese, milk, cottage cheese, yogurt,

fruit (favorite are oranges, cantaloupe (sp?), strawberries) Doesn't love meat, but did enjoy some steak and fish

15. Loves the beach and sand. She didn't care one bit that sand was all in her face and and in her mouth. She loves every minute of Florida. She is a great traveler and loves vacation. She did some fine dining in Florida and ate Kobe Steak, Mahi Mahi, Bass, and much more!

16. She can put the circles in the shape sorter.

This is kind of a long, probably boring post, but I wanted to jot a few things down for records, etc. I will be better about blogging in case any of you care, but since its all about Ava, you may not!

Other items of interest:

Steve graduates in less than 1 month!! Great job babes!

We move in a month!

Steve has been reading lots about investing and such. He can't wait to get all that going. I take care of the day to day finances, but he definitely has a huge interest in our overall financial well-being, which I am very grateful for.

I'm going ot keep working for the same firm from home when we move assuming everything works out well and such.

Eventually, I think I'll start my own business doing bookkeeping and some tax work and general business consuling, etc. But that won't be for a while. It's just a long -term plan of mine I decided most recently.

I think that sums it up..Life is good, we are very happy, and feel very blessed and are excited for the next chapter of our lives.

Welcome 2010!

(post by Marissa) I have lots and lots to blog about. Since I don't update this very often, I am actually starting two books for Ava. I am going to write lots of little pieces of advice to her. They will just be all sorts of random things. The other thing I'm going to do since I don't scrapbook as soon as I take the picture is journal to the pictures as soon as it happens and then when I finally do scrapbook the pictures, I'll have the story all written out. I know lots of people blog as a journal, but it still seems to take longer than I have. It is busy season in my profession, which means I have been busy busy. Ava is growing and learning everyday. She reminds me so much of myself. She never sits still and is always trying new things and adventures. She loves the park and climbing. Oh climbing..all day she would climb. She climbs on top of her toys, the dishwasher, stairs, shelves, anything she can. I wonder if she will try and climb out of her crib early. Well I'll post some pics of her most recent little dishwasher incident. She loves to help me empty the dishwasher and we were all done when I got a text. I went to check something in the other room and when I came back she was in the dishwasher. Then she proceeded to dive off. I was curious how she was going to do it..but she did it. Then got right back on! Anyways, I'm going to be a more faithful blogger because there are so many stories to tell. I feel like everyday I could tell some story, hence the journal as I go book.

What A Pathetic Blog....

once she can do something, then its one-handed....

It snowed...and yes I made her go outside so I could get a pic eventhough
she had a little bit of a runny nose..she is sitting on a trash bag so she didnt
get wet!!


I think she is going to love the gift thing on Christmas

how precious is this????

she has many many suitors already...so take a number

boys...but you have to pass me and DAD first!!!

(post by Marissa) Oh my, what has this blog become. Basically a brief update every 3 months with a few random pics thrown in. Well, I will do my best.

Ava is 8 months now. She is now sleeping great. She sleeps from 7 pm to about 6:15 am. Yes, she is a very early riser and when she gets up, she wants to get going. None of this lounging and relaxing. (She inherited that for me, once I'm up..I'm up..) We are wrapped around her little finger. When Steve gets home it is Steve and I just playing and laughing with her. I always think how lucky she is compared to so many babies because of how much love and care she gets from both parents! We love her to death and she is becoming more and more fun everyday. Steve is enamored with her. I think I love him more because of how he treats Ava. Ava is one lucky little girl!! Just the other day, he stopped at Target to get something for me, but they didn't have it, but what did he come home with....a toy for Ava. Steve said, "I couldn't resist!" Too cute..

Ava is getting to the dangerous age where she is standing up everywhere and as soon as she can do something she likes to do it one-handed. So now she likes to stand up and just hold on with one hand. Not safe. She gets into everything and is more interested in some non-toy item we put on the floor than her toys. She follows me around and gets into the cubbards and chases the vacuum. I need to get a video of her playing with the vacuum! She loves it.

She has lots of toys now, but still prefers closets, cubbards, and drawers...

We babysat our friends little girl for a few days while she finished up her clinicals for her Masters in Occupational Therapy. Her and Ava are only 3 months apart so it was neat to see what Ava will be doing next, etc. Lets just say I think twins would be rough! Ava followed Laila everywhere and wanted whatever Laila had!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. We had 12 adults and 2 kiddos. We had a little turkey mishap in the am (the roasting pan had a hole in it). Luckily, Walmart is open on Thanksgiving so Steve ran and got a new one while I cleaned the oven and then we transferred the Turkey. Steve carved the turkey perfectly. He watched about 3 Youtube videos to learn the best way!

I told you it was a masterpiece :)

We also had our annual Christmas party at our house! We went back to the 80's and had a great time...We had a blast...games, gifts, embarrassing moments, etc.

I have been pretty busy with work since we are doing projections for our clients. Steve has been busy busy with finals. As I'm typing this, he is at the library studying...yes on a Saturday, sad I know. This is our last Christmas where he will be taking finals. However, with school ending our month long Christmas breaks will also come to an end, but at least he won't be working for nothing anymore..

After graduation, we are moving to Utah. Steve is going to work for Siegfried and Jensen in SLC. He went and visited the firm about 2 months ago and loved it. When we first met he said he wanted to do Tort law, so here he is doing it. He will be on the Litigation side so he will get to go to court and stuff. Think Clueless...my daddy is a litigator, those are the scariest kind of lawyers. However, we all know Steve is the farthest thing from scary.

So, one of the reasons I don't blog is blogger is not user friendly...ahh my pics won't move to the text so I'm sorry you have a scrambled up mess of a post!! Enjoy :))