Thoughts From a New Dad

This morning I got to sleep in until 7:30am. Sleep in you say? Well compared to 5am a couple of mornings ago, 7:30 was awesome. I actually woke up at 7 thinking that this morning might finally be the morning that they finally start sleeping longer, and I could have a little free time before they woke up. Well after sitting down to check my email for about 5 min my phone went off. It was Mary letting me know that it was time for me to take my shift, and once again I had to leave another task unfinished. It seems that I can't get anything done. Almost everything I start gets interrupted by a crying baby before I can finish. I am the king of the half unloaded dishwasher, the halfway dressed baby, the half written email, the half purchased boppy pillow on Amazon, the halfway mowed lawn, the half loaded car, the half made sandwich, or the halfway diapered baby that must wait while I burp the other halfway fed baby - meanwhile the halfway diapered baby pees halfway across the room. What a life.

This Sunday I will be blessing Grant and Avery in our ward. It will be the first father's blessings that I give my children, so I have been feeling a bit reflective this week as I have prepared for it. I have been thinking a lot about my life as a little boy growing up in Virginia and then in Colorado. I was blessed to grow up in a righteous happy home with tons of opportunities to feel loved, to grow, to make mistakes and to learn. My Virginia years were easy and carefree. I had lots of friends in our middle class neighborhood that I would swim with, ride bikes with, play cops and robbers with, and explore the woods with. When we moved to Colorado my carefree time was coming to an end. I got baptized the same month that we arrived, and I didn't know any of the other kids that got baptized that day. I had to start at a new elementary school and make new friends as a new 3rd grader. And then came the teenage years. I was a pretty good teenager, but there were things that went great for me and other things that I wish had gone a lot better.

I naturally want my kids to be able to avoid all the mistakes that I made, but at the same time have all the same love, opportunities and challenges that I had as well. I want them to be good readers, and learn to play nicely with all the other kids. I want them to be the smartest in their class, and bring home beaming report cards. I want them to know the scriptures and to feel and recognize the spirit at a young age. I want them to have faith and to be hard workers.

I love my kids and I am as proud a father as any. I feel so blessed to have these two health, happy, amazing children. I want the very best for them, and am going to do my best to give it to them.

Announcing....

Grant Isaac Jenson 6lbs. 9oz. and Avery Gail Jenson 4lbs. 6oz. Born June 9, 2011. Both are healthy and didn't have to go to the NICU! We feel so blessed and lucky that everything went sooo well! They are precious and I love them already.

37 Weeks!

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I'm 37 weeks! This is the biggest I'll get! I'm very uncomfortable these days and can't sleep very well. Soon, the babies will be here. Wish us luck!

35 Weeks and Some Swollen Feet

I've made it to 35 weeks! I'm hoping to make it at least another week if not two! I want healthy, fat babies. My feet have been so swollen lately. Sometimes, I look down at them and think "those are not MY feet!" I also no longer have ankles.. and I'm getting to the point where no matter what position I'm in, I'm so uncomfortable. In church today, I had to take a walk around the building part way through because I couldn't sit any longer! I won't even get started on what my nights are like lately. Anyway, I'm just very grateful that I've made it this far with no complications and no early labor. The latest on the babies is that they are still growing bigger and bigger- but baby boy is breech and has been for the last 3 weeks, so it looks like I'll be having a C section unless he decides to be a good little boy and flip over. We'll see.

Maternity Pictures

Our friends were nice enough to take some maternity pictures for us when I was about 33 weeks. They turned out really cute. It's weird to look at pictures of myself with such a huge belly.

We Present.. The Baby Room (Almost Finished)

Here's the baby room. Let me just say, it is difficult to arrange a room with TWO cribs in it! Those things take up lots of space! We bought the cribs new and got everything else on KSL! I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Now we just need to add a few decorations to the walls and we're good to go!

33 Weeks

Hard to believe I'm 33 weeks now. Our friends took some pregnancy pics for us.. so.. here's a sneak preview. Plus, I needed a 33 week picture anyway. I'm definitely feeling the uncomfortable parts of pregnancy now. My feet swell up about half way through the day everyday.. and it feels like these babies are up pushing on my lungs- I cannot breathe very well. I also get this weird pain in my hands- it feels like i have arthritis or something. Anyway, enough with the complaining. My doc says everything looks good. The babies are estimated to weigh about 4 lbs. 13 oz. (baby boy) and 4 lbs. 1 oz. (baby girl). Yah.. the boy is definitely stealing all the food in there! I'm hoping to make it a few more weeks before having them! Plus, I still have a lot to do to get ready! It still doesn't seem real that they will be here in about a month! ahhh!

Our Babies Have Hair!

 I know this is probably a silly thing to post, but.. I'm just so glad.. our babies have hair! I didn't think you could REALLY see the hair on an ultrasound.. but it turns out, you can! It's getting harder and harder to get a good picture of their faces, since they're kind of squished in there. Anyway, I love that we get so many ultrasounds- it reminds me of how crazy this whole thing is.. and what a miracle it is that there are two babies in my belly!

Indoor Surfing.. and an Injury

On Friday, John and I decided to use his gift certificate to the Flowrider. I had given him the gift certificate for his birthday 2 YEARS ago.. and had been bugging him to use it.. so we decided to just go by ourselves. Don't worry, I watched from the sidelines. John got to try it out about twice before dislocating his shoulder which landed us in the emergency room. His other shoulder has dislocated, but has always gone back in on it's own.. this time was the other shoulder and it didn't exactly go in on it's own. It needed the help of some pain meds and a doc. 4 hours later, we were on our way out the door, with a normal looking shoulder. John was brave. Needless to say, our next trip to the flowrider will probably include lying down and boogie boards  instead.

Easter 2011

 Easter was just me, John, Mike, and Amanda this year. Tony, Nick, and Christin were gone camping. We still had fun. We had a nice ham dinner, hid eggs, found eggs, dyed eggs, and played games. It was pretty fun. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

30 Weeks!!.. Let the count-down begin

Here I am.. 30 weeks. I'm starting to realize how close this whole thing is getting. In all honesty, it still doesn't seem real.. that there are TWO babies in there. I mean, really?!? Things are getting more uncomfortable and difficult, too. Whenever I'm sitting down, my belly kind of sits on my lap. haha. Also, these babies are moving ALL the time. Sometimes, I sit and stare at my belly in awe.. as it moves around. At my last appointment, they said the girl was measuring around 3 lbs., 2 oz.. and the boy around 4 lbs.! According to the book I'm reading, they're only supposed to be "almost 3 lbs" by now!! My doc said all that means is that I'm carrying two big, healthy, babies- which makes me VERY happy. I'm just so grateful that everything has gone so well thus far! I'm one lucky gal.

Tulip Festival 2011

My friend, Leslie, and I went to the tulip festival. This year, there less flowers that had bloomed.. but it was still really pretty. I got to play around with our new fancy camera, too! It was nice just to be outside and to enjoy the flowers and the sun. Plus, let's face it, there's only so much left that I can DO these days.. and this is one of them. haha.

Shower

My awesome friend, Leslie, threw me a baby shower. Look at all that yummy food she made! and there was even a good turnout. I'm so glad I have generous friends. I got some much-needed stuff.. Thank you, everyone, for coming! You are all awesome. The last picture is John enjoying some of the leftover treats.. haha.. we just thought it was funny that he's eating such a girly looking treat.