Honeymooniversary

So Braden and I had a good time in the Vancouver area a little over a week ago. We took Jenna with us on Friday, but the poor thing was in her carseat for so long! We tried to take her out sometimes to give her some variety, but it's hard when all you're doing is driving around. We attended Vicki's baptism on Saturday and also went to church with her on Sunday. And then we had a rockin' tasty meal at her house after church. She made this Finnish soup that was really good! Vicki's mom let us stay in her house while we were there, and we're very grateful for the hospitality.
We also saw The Bourne Ultimatum on Saturday night...it was good, but I think the first one is still my favorite. I will say, though, prepare to suspend your disbelief as far as the human capacity to sustain injury after injury...after injury. :)
We looked at a lot of apartments and condos. Still haven't decided whether to rent or buy. I'm actually now leaning toward renting until Braden's out of school. We'll have to figure it out; it depends how long school will take, and thus how long we'll be in that area, should we decide to go with this program. We did find what looked like a nice complex of townhomes. We happened to get there at 5:30pm, so we didn't get to talk to anyone or take a tour, but we really like the floorplan...and you get a huge garage! They're rental units, by the way. It's too bad they only have 2 bedrooms, b/c that's something to think about as we expand our family later on. I guess we could put another baby in the closet. :) But even so, we'd like to check out the place when we visit the area again. We also drove by the old house where I lived for a couple of years as a kid, as well as the elementary school I went to during that time. I do remember the backyard fence; I remember being grounded to the backyard and gazing forlornly through the cracks. :)

I hear Jenna...she is SO LOUD now. She's exercising her voice and seeing what she can do. This past Sunday was the first Sunday she's been in church since she started randomly screeching at the top of her lungs. It's funny, but...yeah...not so much during Sacrament meeting. :) She ate her dress, and I do mean ate her dress. It was literally soaked from her lifting it up, eating it, and flashing everyone in the process. :)

Here are some pics for your fun and enjoyment! And you may notice Jenna is cross-eyed...we need to get her eyes checked. And it'll be SUCH a shocker if she needs glasses, let me tell you! :)


Look how well she's holding up her head now. I can't believe how far she's come. And if you get down on the floor and try to do that, you'll see how hard it is for babies! It's funny how they bend their backs to do that.


Jenna in her high chair that we are probably going to give away, since we have another one, and since this one has a very small tray, as you can see.


This is Jenna eating her Sunday dress yesterday. You can see how soaked it is!


This is the sight Braden was greeted by as he went to check on Jenna during her nap while I was out grocery shopping. LOL!!


Yes, she's asleep like that! And no, she's not suffocating...her face is far enough away from the side cover for her to be able to breathe.


This is how Jenna experiments in her entertainment center now. It is actually teaching her how to control her back muscles very well, and also how to sit and stand. And she LOVES it! She's figured out how to manipulate most of the toys on there, and she starts screeching in happiness as soon as I put her in there! I am sooo glad we got it...it works so well to keep her entertained. (Not that she's in there all the time...she starts screeching really, REALLY loud when she's done!)

Oh, one more thing. Jenna had her 4 month checkup a couple of weeks ago, and she was 25.5 inches long and 15.5 lbs. I would bet she's over 16 lbs now and growing heavier every day! It's amazing how she's catching up in size to other babies who looked freaking huge next to her when she was born. She's almost 90th percentile in everything! Needless to say, I haven't carried her in her Snugli for a few weeks; it hurts my back too much!

For Grandma

The first two taken 7/12/07:

Back!...back, I say!!!




The two on the couch taken 7/15/07:





Entertainment center 8/4/07 (Mommy had to be creative so she could work; technically she's supposed to be able to sit up unaided before she can go in there. ...pillow!!!):



8/6/07 - Jenna rolled onto her back for the first time (during the night, of course. You can see her drool to her left, where she was on her tummy. Look how proud she is!

A Post About Sucking

From the thumb...



...to the whole dang hand.

Recipe Review

I was browsing my favorite recipe site again, and I came across this review of a Cajun corn soup: "Pray to the godhead of corn and let your tentacles bask in its neon light." In case you were wondering, that is a positive review, since this guy gave it 5 stars out of 5. And you can click on whether on not you found the review useful, so below it says "5 users found this review helpful." Word.

In other news, Jenna had her second round of immunizations on Friday. She cried for longer right after the needles went in, but her recovery afterwards was much quicker than last time. We gave her Infant Tylenol every 4-6 hours for a little less than a day, and then she was fine.

I went to the pregnancy center here in town for my monthly lesson on childcare and managed to get things straightened out. I met with 3 different people the last few times I've been there, and they all refused to give me vouchers for what I had been told was a certain number of vouchers, among other very annoying inconsistencies. So I got my frustration off my chest to the woman I usually meet with, and she rectified the situation. So all is good. And I am NOT meeting with anyone but her ever again!! Anyway, I managed to "buy" a pretty cool stroller, and a baby sling. Jenna's too big now for the sling, but the next bebé will be able to be in it for a bit.

Jenna figured out how to roll back onto her back about a week ago or so (can't remember if I blogged about that yet). So now she really can sleep any way she wants.

Get your Jenna fix here! I call those shorts Jenna's Daisy Dukes...or Dazzey Duks, for those who remember the song from 1993: "Look at those girls with the Dazzey Duks on, I want you to..."

Peeer Pressure: Real Age

Everyone else was doing it. I may as well also, right?

I'm not including the link to the website because I don't want to subject anybody else to that marvel of hidden propaganda and life-sucking time consumption, but since I made the effort to go through it, I may as well post my results:

Current Age: 27.4 years
Real Age: 18.2
Difference: -9.2 years

I think the difference came about after I answered the questions about what subjects I regularly taught to other people as part of my job. I assume that the rational is that if I am regularly telling people about the ins and outs of hypertension and diabetes and hypothyroidism, then I will recognize and treat it in myself if it comes up.

It feels good to be young again.

-Braden-

symphonie fantastique

I'll probably have to come back and update this post, but I wanted to post about our recent adventures. We just got back from hanging out at Braden's parents' place without them there. :) Braden's cousin and his wife and her old roommate came down from Federal Way (south of Seattle) to play some games with us. We played Settlers and AdLiners. The latter is a surprise Goodwill find, but it's a hilarious game. Essentially, you put a silly picture up, and then everyone puts down a slogan from an ad (you have 5 cards in your hand), and then people vote on the best/funniest one. It actually can get a little suggestive sometimes. :O But it's good times.

We went to a free symphony concert in the park last Sunday. Jenna seemed to like it, but she just likes looking at new stuff. She had a blast looking at the in-laws living room, so there you go! :) Anyway, here are some pics from that. Our friend Dave and his baby Easton can be seen on my left-hand side. (His wife Marissa plays violin in the orchestra)

Boxing Elf

Picture taken 5/22/07:














"I'm gonna knock you out! Mama said knock you out!!"

Smiles

Jenna smiling at Daddy!



Braden tried Peek-a-Boo last night, and for the first time, Jenna was laughing her head off! WE LOVED IT!!! She had laughed out loud twice at something I did 2 weeks ago Friday, but she wouldn't do it again no matter how much I repeated what I had done. But, boy, did she love Peek-A-Boo. Braden kept doing it until it was obvious she was tired out, and then we put her to bed. We'll try to get a video of it next time it happens.

Algunas fotos

This is what happens when Jenna gets tired of her activity gym:















And this is what happened when we tried to put Jenna in her bassinet one Sunday so we could take a nap...she doesn't fit quite so well anymore! (Note the too-small onesie)

















Just as a comparison, when she was a day old or so (and yes, she's in the fetal position, but still):

pretty spot-on

You Are a Learning Cook

You've got the makings of an excellent cook, and the desire to be one. But right now, you're just lacking the experience. You couldn't be a top chef yet, but you could be an apprentice.

Are You A Good Cook?

I have in fact gotten into cooking over the past few weeks. And I find that I like to make something different every night. It's the newness of it all that I like. And I love experimenting with different stuff. When I look at different recipes, I'm finding that a lot of them are similar and have slight variations, so it helps me learn what works and go from there. My favorite site right now is All Recipes. Yeah, it has the annoying "sign up for free, it only takes a minute" thing, but I like that it lets me have my own Recipe Box, where I can save recipes that I'd like to make or have made. You can post reviews and read other people's suggestions for how to improve on a recipe (sorting by most helpful review is nice). It also lets you add recipes to a shopping list, which is a nice feature, but I find that mostly I have a lot of the ingredients and just need one or two things. And I'm learning things everyday, thanks to Google, like what a chutney or roux is. The problem I keep running into is that I realize that I need to start making something, and then I get distracted searching for a good recipe, instead of using what I already have in my Recipe Box. So by the time I actually get something made, it's a lot later than I would like, because of course you have to assume that it takes longer when you're making something for the first time (and it does, trust me). So today, I am going to try to make a sort of menu. But what a recipe site...I get so excited looking at all the yummy stuff I can make!
-Kerry-

sometimes they're right on, and sometimes makeage-o

You Are 36% Girly

You are a pretty hardcore tomboy, and a very free spirit. Gender roles be dammed, you like to do things your way.

How Girly Are You?

That's right; gender roles be "dammed"!!! :) And why does being a tomboy entail putting your head under the faucet?! Braden does hairwipes, not me. :)

You Are 30% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

-Kerry-