Berlynn Ruby Jenks

We welcomed our newest addition to the Jenks home on July 31st. Our little Berlynn Ruby entered the world with an easy and quick delivery with a working epidural. (Yay!) It was about as easy as a labor and delivery could be. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She's healthy and as cute as can be.
Almost everytime I tell someone her name, they ask me how I came up with it. To be honest, my good friend was telling me about one of her friends that gave her baby the middle name Berlin. I thought that was interesting because Jason served his mission in Germany and he has a great love for anything German, so that name just kinda stuck with me. I mentioned it to Jason and he really liked it. I wanted to spell it Berlynn because my mom's name is Lynn. Plus, I think it looks more feminine that way. We chose Ruby as the middle name because I think it's pretty and my grandma's name is Ruby. So, that's how we came up with her name. I like it and I think it fits her. Her older siblings love her to pieces. I was worried about how Iris would react because she's such a mama's girl, but she has been nothing but sweet to her little sister. They both want to hold her all the time and they are always saying "She's so sweet". So cute! I love my three babies! Believe it or not, this was the best picture I could get of the three of them. They don't like to cooperate for pictures...obviously. Baby B already loves her daddy. Doesn't she look like an angel?

I always think she looks like Roman when she's sleeping, but when she's awake, she has a different look to her. She has a really cute dimple on her left cheek that I have yet to capture on camera. It mostly shows when she's crying :)

My wonderful mom and my equally wonderful little sister came up and spent the week with me after I had the baby. They were such great helpers! They cleaned my house and cooked my meals and took care of the "big kids". It was so fun to have them here. I only wish they could have stayed longer :( That's my mom and Berlynn below. I just love that picture. My mom and my baby are so cute. Thanks, Mom and Cicily for all your help!

Summer twenty-ten

We've had a really fun summer that has gone by too fast on one hand and not fast enough on the other. Yes, I'm still pregnant. Hence, the reason the summer has not gone by fast enough :) I'm actually doing really well. My due date is August 3rd, so if I was a normal woman I could be having my baby "any day now", but I'm the type that has always been induced, so if I had to guess I'll be having this babe in the August 5th range. You'll notice that there really aren't any pictures of me (except one where I'm in the back row and all you can see is my head). It's not that I've intentionally been out of the pictures, but let's face it, I'm always the one taking them and there's really no need for you to see what I look like at this state anyway :). So, just a quick recap of the past few weeks. We traveled to Wyoming at the beginning of July to spend time with my parents, my sibs, all the spouses and neices and nephews. It was quite the crew, but we had a lot of fun. I always like to take pictures of my kids in the car. This was pretty much Roman during the ENTIRE 10+ hour trip... And this was Iris...pointing her finger at me and bossing me around. Story of my life. She did watch toons for a while, but she's not quite the die-hard that Roman is.

Here's a cute picture of my neice Reagan and Iree on my mom's front porch on the 4th of July.

We did lots of fun things in WY. We went to a nature reserve (I think that's technically what it's called, but we always call it the zoo). Anyway, it has a lot of Wyoming and Montana wildlife there. The kids loved it.

Here's Roman and Milo looking at the turtles.

Jason and the kids trying to keep their eyes open as they stare into the sun. That's a big buffalo behind them.

Ella, Roman, and Tate. Roman's flexing his muscles. He's so buff.

We always have to make at least one stop to my grandparents' farm. This is my sweet grandpa Hopkin pushing Roman on the swing.

See, I told you it was quite a crew! This is everyone except my parents. (They were taking the pictures.) We were all staying under one roof, but it was lots of fun!

The kids have also been loving swimming at my in-laws' pool. Iris was terrified of the water at first, but now she LOVES it. In fact, I wish she was a little more fearful. They seriously ask if they can go swimming everyday. It's been so nice to have the pool. I love that we get all the benefits without any of the work :)

Roman will swim for a little while in the pool, but he usually spends most of his time running through this sprinkler while we swim.

Iris turned 2 on July 17. She had a fun day. It was nice that her birthday was on a Saturday. We went shopping and took her to Olive Garden because her favorite food is pasta. After a morning of shopping, the kids took a nap and we got ready for her party. I kept the party really simple this year. I used my pregnancy as an excuse to make it small with cake and ice cream only.

We invited Sean and Amber and the kids and Jason's parents and Chad. Iris wanted a princess cake. Seriously, when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she said "A pwincess one." I made a big one for everyone that didn't look very impressive. I also found these little mini pricesses, so I made her a special one. We love our sassy little Iree and I can't believe she's really TWO! Good thing I'm having another baby because she's just not a baby anymore :( We love having her in our family. She adds so much spunk and beauty to our home. She loves anything that is pretty or beautiful and she got lots of pretty/beautiful things for her birthday.

I tried to post a video of the kids singing twinkle, twinkle. I don't know if it works or not. I've never done it before. It's super cute though. I think they have the sweetest voices, but I'm a little biased :)

New Year's Resolution

I made a new year's resolution to start blogging again. How many people wait until the middle of January to make good on their resolution? Probably just the really lazy ones like me. Anyway, I just wanted to give a few quick updates on our family. The first and biggest news is that we're having another baby! Yay! I'm just about 12 weeks along and my due date is August 3rd. Everyone always says, "Oh no! You'll be pregnant all summer!" And I say, "I had Roman in September and Iris in July, so I really don't know it any other way." Summer pregnancies aren't so bad. That's what I'm saying now because I've probably forgotten. Ask me again in the middle of July. So, that's exciting for us. Just think, next year's Christmas picture will have 5 people in it! That just seems like a lot.
Jason and I are doing well. As you can tell from the picture, Jase decided to start shaving his head. He kinda gave up on his hair ever "growing back," but he still has hope that someone is going to invent an inexpensive pill that you only have to take once and it grows your hair back. Umm....we'll see about that. I actually like the bald look. I think it makes him look distinguished, plus it makes me look a lot younger than him :) He's still really busy with work. I really can't complain about that because in this economy we're just really happy that we still have customers! We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary and every year that goes by, I'm more pleased with my choice in a mate. He's pretty cool. It's really embarrassing that I haven't posted since Roman's third birthday. He turned 3 on September 29th and we had a motorcycle birthday. Hence the motorcycle vest he's wearing. He actually gave me the greatest gift of all on his birthday when he suddenly decided he wanted to be potty-trained. It really was that easy. He was like, "Mom, can I start wearing underwears?" (just as a sidenote, he always says underwears instead of underwear, and I don't correct him because I think it's cute). So, pretty much from that day on he's been potty-trained. Hopefully they'll all be that easy. Anyway, he's getting bigger and smarter everday. He started sunbeams and he loves primary. He especially loves singing time. Today he started singing "I am a Child of God", and it made me get all teary-eyed. He's turned into such a sweet little boy. He loves Iree and is a great big brother...90% of the time.

Here's a picture of them in their Christmas clothes. Look how big my little Miss Ris has gotten!

This is a really random picture, but it's so cute. Iris' hair has really started to grow and I have mixed feelings about it. It's great that she has hair, but unfortunately she has her mother's fine, wispy, staticky, tangley hair. Here's a picture of poor Iree on a typical day. He hair is so staticky! Thankfully, she recently decided to let me put ponies or clippies in. She used to always rip them out, but lately she has kept them in.

So, a little bit about Iris. She's such a sweet heart. She's still kind of fiery, but she's also very loving. She'll just come up to me and give me the biggest hugs and kisses for no reason. I love that! She LOVES her blankey (the one in the picture and ONLY that one. No other substitute will do.) She also loves her baby doll, and she's very maternal. It's so funny. She sings to her baby and gives her kisses and holds her so sweetly. It's so fun to see her grow up and to notice how totally different her personality is from Roman's

So, that's our little family update in a nutshell. Sorry, this post kind of turned into one of those long Christmas letters that tells you too much about every family member. Hopefully it won't be another 4 months before you hear from me again. :)