Thursday, March 26, 2009

Another Kenna moment

I walked into Kenna and Megan's room to find Kenna's draw open and panties and jammies all over the place. I asked Kenna, "Who made this mess?" Kenna's response, "Umm... You?" I responded, "I think it was you." Kenna, "Oh."

I was suprised she blamed it on me cause she usually blames it on Darcee (my little sister). She is pretty attached to Darcee right now. She wants to be a basketball player like Darcee and anytime she sees a basketball game or a picture of basketball she asks where Darcee is. Right now Darcee and my mom are in Utah visiting college campuses. Last night, Kenna was walking up the stairs and all of a sudden stopped and started crying. I asked her what was wrong. "I want Darcee." I don't know what we are going to do when Darcee leaves for college. We are all going to go through a major withdrawal.

Drain Be Gone?

No, it is not gone. I went back to the surgeon yesterday to see if the drain from my pancreas could be removed. Yesterday was exactly two months from my second surgery. The surgeon said there is still probably another 3 or 4 inches of tubing left to be removed before it is completely gone. So I go back in another two weeks to see if he can possibly remove it for good. I have to admit I have gotten pretty used to it, but it will be so nice when I can wear jeans again. I do wonder if I will want to wear them again though. I have gotten very used to my "comfy" pants (as Megan calls them) or the "athletic" look as my friend Meredith refers to it. I am thankful that the surgeon is being careful in how fast he removes it though as I don't want to end up in surgery again. I feel so fortunate to have such good care. I never thought I would be sick of trips to Billings. It will probably be easier on the pocketbook too when I am not going every two weeks. I am so lucky to have so much help from wonderful family and friends in taking care of the kids when I go. My next appointment is on Andy's birthday! Maybe my present to him will be to get my drain out and maybe start to feel somewhat normal. He is such a huge support to me! He has taken on so many extra responsibilities and does it without complaining. He is my strength when I feel like things are just falling apart. I am so lucky to be married to my best friend!!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Life with Kenna is ...


never a dull moment! Kenna will turn two on April 4, and boy has she done a good job of reminding us what it is like to have two year old around. Kenna has no fear: no fear of the dark, no fear of being along, no fear of wandering out of the house; you name it, she is not really afraid. She is our little escape artist. It all started when Ashlee was only a few weeks old. I had been at work for about five hours or so and was in desperate need of pumping off some milk. The four older kids were downstairs watching cartoons, and I had Ashlee up in her room with me. I heard the doorbell ring, so I was scrambling to make myself decent. By the time I got out of the room, Aidan had already answered the door and whoever was there was gone. All I heard was, "You need to make sure you keep this door locked." When I asked Aidan who it was, he calmly replied, "Oh, just some guy bringing Kenna home." WHAT??!! The front door was apparently not locked, and Kenna had escaped outside. She has gone outside before, but she never goes anywhere other than right in our yard, so I had my doubts that she was really anywhere but in our yard. Obviously whoever it was knew where she belonged, but they didn't ask for a parent when they brought her home. This made me a little suspicious. I texted my mom and a friend to say that I was probably going to get turned into DFS. Both texted back saying that if they knew where she belonged, they obviously knew that that was not the norm and that things just happen with little kids. I tried to believe them, but sure enough, about 30 - 45 minutes later my doorbell rang. There stood a very kind police officer who was there to tell me that this "neighbor" called them about my little girl being outside by herself and that a young kid answered the door and they didn't see a parent. Heaven forbid should the "neighbor" have asked for me! Anyway, he understood that things happen, told me how cute the kids were, took down a little info, and left on his way. Needless to say, every since,all the doors in the house stay locked all the time. Aaron is very good about keeping track of Kenna and panics easily if he hasn't seen her for 30 seconds.

Kenna's antics did not end there. My mom came over to watch Kenna and Megan for me while I took Ashlee to the doctor. My mom was cleaning the floors upstairs for me (what a lifesaver she is) and the girls were downstairs watching cartoons. She had had Megan check on Kenna and tell her what she was doing. "Just watching cartoons, Grandma." When she was done with the floors, she came downstairs to find Kenna and called for her. Kenna's normal response to most questions is "what?". But Kenna did not respond. Instead my mom saw the basement door open a crack. Yes, it was locked, but you can still open it from the inside. She has never been able to get this door open, so we hadn't thought twice about it. After searching the house, my mom began making some phone calls to grandparents, my dad, my little sister, my aunt: all the people that live close. They all came to help look and my mom started driving the neighborhood. We live across the street from the school and one of the teachers happened to be going to lunch and asked if someone was missing and she started to help look. Panic began to set in as no one could find her, so my mom called 911. After being routed to the Powell dispatch (she was on her cell phone) and giving them a description of Kenna, my mom was very relieved to see my little sister waving at her to tell her they had found Kenna. Darcee had come downstairs and happened to catch a glimpse of a little head poking out of a blanket on the couch. Sweet little Kenna had covered herself up with a blanket and gone to sleep! She was never really lost! The dispatcher was glad to hear it was a happy ending. But until we can get a deadbolt into our metal door downstairs, the baby gate is in front of it so she can't go out.

We only thought we had her all figured out. My sweet grandma was watching the kids while Andy and I went to the adult meeting for stake conference. It was a beautiful day, and all the kids had been playing outside. The three older kids came in, but Kenna wanted to stay outside. My grandma checked on her a minute later and found an empty backyard. As she hollered for Kenna, she heard, "What?" Except it was coming from the front of the house. Sure enough, Kenna was standing at my grandparent's truck. When my grandma got to her, she said, "I anna go bye-bye!" The side gate had gotten unlocked, and leave it to Kenna to know when to take advantage of things. So, now we always make sure the side gate is locked too. We hope we have run out of lessons to learn. We have been lucky so far!!
Kenna is also into taking her clothes off constantly, putting on different clothes (and it doesn't matter who they belong to), stealing Ashlee's pacifier and sucking on it even though she hasn't had a pacifier for a long time, swiping the other kids' toys and running with them so they will chase her, and climbing on the counters to play in the water from the sink. But she can also be so sweet and say some of the cutest things. wanted to journal a few for my own memory. When we were living with my parents after my surgery, she and my dad started calling each other "stinkerbugs." It is so cute to hear her say, "Grandpa Stinkerbug, tickle me." She is also a very observant girl, and she quickly caught on to the fact that my dad likes to take Doritos to work for during breaks. While at Walmart with my mom and me one day, she said to my mom as she was getting more Doritos, "Grandpa Stinkerbug chips!" So now she calls my dad Grandpa Stinkerbug chips and that is how she also refers to Doritos.

My Grandpa Don was bringing Kenna home one day and said, "Kenna wenna." Kenna's response: "What Grandpa wampa?"
I know I wanted to add more, but my mind is blank for now. I will journal them when I remember (which is usually at 3:30 am when I am feeding Ashlee).

A Lesson in Responsibility

If anyone was waiting for an update on Aidan's latest wrestling tournament, I hope you haven't been holding your breath. Andy got up bright and early on Saturday so he could take Aidan to Lovell for his weigh-ins. I drug myself out of bed to make sure they had everything and then to begin getting myself ready to take the rest of the kids when it was time for wrestling to start. I opened up his wrestling backpack to put a few snacks in and decided to check to see if all his stuff was in it. No headgear! When you don't have headgear, you don't get to wrestle. I was so glad that they hadn't gotten to the tournament and then discovered it. Aidan was a little sad, but he was also kind of tired so didn't think too long about it. So instead of tackling the girls all day in a gymnasium, we had a relaxing (ok, not really relaxing but slower) day at home and then wandered to Cody so the kids could spend their birthday money that was burning a hole in their pockets. Thankfully, Aidan found his headgear at practice tonight. I am sure from now on that he will be a lot more responsible and make sure he has all his stuff. He wrestles here in Powell this weekend, so we are excited to get to watch him!!

This is Aidan's wrestling picture from this year. Can you tell you doesn't wrestle heavyweight?

Friday, March 20, 2009

We Love Spring!!

The girls and I ventured outside today for a beautiful spring day! I can already tell we will be outside a lot this summer, that is if Ashlee will tolerate it. She wasn't very fond of being out today. Megan and Kenna had tons of fun though. We played in the backyard for a while and then walked down to the "orange" park (as the kids refer to it). It was so nice to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.

Ashlee did eventually fall asleep. What a sweet little face!
What a little monkey Kenna is! She just begs to be outside all the time. "I anna jump trampline!" She has the sweetest little voice and smile. It is so hard to resist. When her brothers come home, they have a hard time resisting her to and are very good about taking her outside in the backyard when it is nice.
Megan was wanting to pose at all different places at the park. It was so cute! Too bad she didn't let me pull her hair out of her face today. There was just enough of a breeze that it kept blowing in her face. Megan is such a big helper with Kenna too!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Photo Shoot

Even though Ashlee is now 3 months old, I wanted to post her 2 month pictures that my brother and sister-in-law took of her last time they were home. There were so many that I loved, it was hard to choose just a few. But here are a few of my favorites! I really could post a ton of pictures, but I will keep it to a minimum. Thank you so much, Danen and Kimberly!! These are just priceless!




Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Ashlee's Blessing Day

I am kind of working out of order on some posts, but I want to get some things journaled for my own record. Ashlee Rose Jacobsen was born Dec. 15, 2008 at 5:43 pm weighing 6 lb. 2 oz. We had her blessed at church on March 1, 2009. She was blessed by her dad. Standing in the circle were her grandpas - Mark Lynn and Jeff Jacobsen, great-grandpas - Don Goller and Bill Lynn, our home teacher - Dustin O'Brien, and the other people in the bishopric with Andy - Bishop Bennion and Syd Thompson. My aunt Kathy Good and Andy's mom also came. My parents and siblings along with both sets of grandparents are in our ward. It was a very beautiful blessing for a very beautiful little girl. We are so blessed to have Ashlee join our family! She is such a good, sweet little girl. Her siblings adore her and love to help me with her. She is just the perfect little girl to finish up our family!

At Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mark's house after her blessing

We love your sweet smile, Ashlee!

Attempt at a picture with the three girls: Kenna, Megan and Ashlee

Ashlee and the boys - Aidan and Aaron - very good big brothers!

It was next to impossible to get a good picture of all five kids together. This was the best we could do. I have since had some professional ones taken that should be so much better!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Medal Time!

Aidan had his first wrestling tournament of this USA wrestling season. He wrestled in the age 7-8 under 45 lb. weight category. Because Aaron, Megan, Ashlee and I went to watch Darcee's state championship game in Casper, Andy took Aidan to his tournament in Cody. Andy took video of each of his matches for us, and I am so glad he did. Aidan had fun wrestling last year, but was a little timid. He got a ribbon at each tournament, but as he watched his friends getting medals, he was a little disappointed. This season he told me his goal was to win a medal. Well, he met his goal at his very first tournament! He took 3rd place!! It was so much fun to see him get better each match. He ended with a 2-2 record. His first match he came out a little timid.
In match number 2 he really got after it. He ended up beating the kid on points. The video is broken down by period. Aidan is in the red.

It is so much fun seeing him trying to do what he has learned and his coaches are telling him to try.

And the winner is Aidan! Way to go!

In his third match, he got his first pin! Oh yeah, he also got his first caution. What a rebel! He didn't know that two hands on a kids head was illegal.

I am not going to upload his last match since uploading takes so long, but he ended up losing it. But it wasn't for lack of aggressiveness. He really gave the kid a run for his money. We are looking forward to his next tournament in Lovell this weekend.
Way to go, Aidan!!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Trying out the blogging world


Well, I have finally given in and decided to give the blogging world a try. I seem to have time on my hands right now, so I thought why not start now. This is really more for my sake so I have some sort of journal to pass on to my children, but I love keeping up with family and friends this way, so maybe someone will find some interest in that too. I have always had good intentions of journaling for my children and I have gone in spurts, but I am hoping this will maybe be a bit more consistent or at least give them the highlights of our life. Please bear with me as I am learning all the ins and outs. Welcome to our crazy life!