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. :)

monsters and purses

I'm turning over a new leaf. I've gotten into this habit of only posting birthdays, trips, and holidays and I've decided that I really need to start posting more about our regular day-to-day happenings because my kids are growing up too dang fast and I know I'm going to forget all the cute things they do if I don't write it down.
Roman and Iris have finally seemed to reach a turning point in their relationship. They actually like each other. Well, Iree has always adored Roman, but he always acted like she was a bother. Now he's realizing that she's not such a baby anymore and he tries to make her play with him. It's so cute. I'll hear him saying things like, "OK, Iree, let's race our monster trucks!" Then he'll say "GO!" and she's still holding onto her monster truck, but she's clapping and screaming for Roman's and he loves it. Then he always has to let her know that his won. They love taking baths together too. Look at those two little angel-faces!
Iree has reached another big milestone...she's walking! She took her first steps on her 13 month birthday and she's been improving more everyday. She officially walks more than she crawls. Now that she can walk, I've discovered that she loves purses. What, already?! She takes this old purse of mine and walks (or waddles) around with it all day. It's so funny because that purse is the size of her. And don't you dare try to take it off of her. She'll scream and then just put it back on. She thinks she's so cool. So, I took a few pics of her wearing her huge purse, but of course she wouldn't look at the camera. And she's a busy woman too, she needs her pen and to-do list as well.

She's such a diva...

Roman has been obsessed with motorcycles and monsters lately. He tells me everyday that he wants a motorcycle birthday cake and party. We'll see if I can make it happen (his bday is on the 29th). He also likes to play monsters, talk about monsters, ask if they're real, etc. Yesterday he said he wanted a monster mask. We don't happen to have one laying around, so I told him I would help him make one. So, we collaborated on this beautiful mask. He had some very specific instructions for me to follow. The monster needed to have curly hair, and big nose, sharp teeth, and fat ears. So, this is what we came up with. That's about as crafty as I get. He was pretty excited to scare Jason with it. He's played with it a lot yesterday and today.

You scared? Don't worry, it's just a mask.

NYC Trip

I've been meaning to write about my fun trip to New York City. I went there a few weeks ago and I figured I'd better get it written down because I'm already starting to forget...yikes! So, anyway, I flew to NYC with my sister Danna (and NO kids...thanks, jase) to visit our brother Collin, his wife Jen, and their new little baby, Violet. We met my parents and our little sister, Cicily there too. Violet was getting blessed, so we figured it would be fun to see the city and be at her blessing too. By the way, isn't she the cutest? Look at that hair and those perfect eyebrows and those pretty blue eyes. She really is a cutie. Collin and Jen were the best little tour guides. I'm just a small-town girl and I never would have been able to navigate through that city on my own. Luckily, they are seasoned pros, so they took us all around the big city. Little Violet was a trooper too. Here they are on the subway.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was all the good food we ate. I LOVE my food, and New York has the best. This is Cicily and me at Max Brenner's. So delicious.

Our hotel was right across the street from the museum of natural history, so we spent a few hours there. It was pretty cool. I liked the dinosaurs...I especially liked the fact that so many of them were found in Wyoming :)

We took a tour of NBC studios and then we went to the top of the Rockafellar Center.

This is the view from the top of the rock. Pretty, huh?

Here's Collin, Jen, and Violee (as my mom calls her) just before the blessing.

A better look at her cute blessing dress.

Below is a small portion of the Bennion Family. It would have been fun to have everyone there, but it just wasn't feasible. We really did have the best time though. We also saw two broadway shows while we were there (Jersey Boys and 9 to 5). They were so much fun. My mom was laughing her head off at 9 to 5. That was another highlights of the trip :) One of the best parts was just hanging out and being together. Danna, Cic, and I shared a room and we had so much fun talking at night and getting ready together in the morning. It was like the good ol' days. It was such a weird experience to go somewhere without Jason and the kids. I missed them all so much, but it wouldn't have been fun with the babies. Luckily, Jason is a good Daddy and he took great care of the kids (except for the one night when I called and asked him what they had for dinner and he was like, "Shoot, I knew I was forgetting something." Yep, he put the kids to bed without dinner, but that's ok. They all survived. And let's just say he was REALLY happy to have me back home!)

I had a great time, but I was ready to come home to my sweet Jason and to this face...

...and this sassy girl. I heart NYC, but I heart those three more :)

Little Miss Ris Turned ONE!

Here I go again...apologizing for not posting for like 3 months or somethingl ike that. So, sorry to all my fans...LOL. I hope we've been missed, but I'm pretty sure that my mom and a few of my siblings are the only ones that really read this so-called blog anyway. I'll blame my lack of posting on the fact that we've just been busy AND that my kids are both way too high-maintenance. They go crazy if I'm on the computer for one minute. Seriously, I can't even check my email if my kids are awake. Anyway, we've been having a really fun summer. We're loving the warm weather and we've been doing lots of swimming, playing at the park, taking little trips, and jogging (well, I jog and the kids ride in the stroller.) So, that's pretty much our summer in a nutshell.

So, now that I've apologized, let's get back to the reason I'm posting...little Iree turned one on the 17th! Can you believe it? Time is just flying by way too fast. Look at that little girl. Isn't she the cutest? I think she's beginning to look more and more like Jason. She's a sweet little thing with a little bit of sassiness too. I'm starting to see some drama-queen-like attributes that I'm a little nervous about, but we still love her dearly. So, we had a birthday party for her and here's some pictures from her big day.
I made her a flower cake (obviously...I mean her name IS Iris.)

That cake took me a long time, so I thought I'd better post another picture of it :)

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday."

Iris is delving into her cake and Vivian is helping.

She likes it. Isn't this such a cute picture? My friend, Korbi took my camera and took all these pictures. That's why they are so good.

Opening presents. She got lots of cute clothes from our friends and family.

This is just another cute Iree picture. She got so dirty eating her cake that I had to bathe her before we opened presents. Here's some info about our little Iree:

1. She's a major thumb-sucker. She is almost always sucking her thumb. It's something she started at about 6 months and she's gotten more addicted to it since then. I like it though because it's cute and it calms her down.

2. She thinks Roman is hilarious. She's always laughing at him and he loves it.

3. She won't let me put anything in her hair. She has been taking out all my cute bows, clips, and rubberband 'dos since she was about 5 months old. She'll usually take them out immediately, sometimes she'll leave them in for about an hour, but never longer than that.

4. She loves to dance and sing. If she hears music or if I sing to her then she'll start dancing and singing in the cutest little voice. It's adorable.

5. Iris is teeny tiny. When I took her in for her one year check-up she was only 15 lbs 10 oz and 26 inches long. She doesn't even show on the growth chart. Her pediatrician was all worried about her and did some blood tests to make sure everything was all right (of course it was). She's just small....that's all.

Our Wyoming Easter

It took a little persuading, but Jason finally gave in and agreed to spend Easter in Wyoming. He was concerned about missing work and the LONG drive with the kids, but when I found out that my sister Natalee (who lives in UT) would also be visiting AND that I would get to see one of my BFFs (Kenna) and a bunch of my aunts and uncles then he knew there was no way he could talk me out of it. So, we left early Tursday morning and came home on Monday. We had a fun and eventful weekend and the kids did WAY better than we expected. They were such troopers.

On Friday, we went to my grandma and grandpa Hopkin's house to decorate Easter cookies and look at the baby cows. Rome loved decorating the cookies although I think my grandma was a little concerned with the amount of sprinkles he was putting on them. Cicily and Iris on the farm.

Look at that. Sometimes I wish I lived on a farm.

On Saturday my cousin, Claire got married in the Billings temple. We drove up for the reception and it was fun to see so many of my family members. I was especially excited to see my cousin Kenna. We were roommates during our freshman year of college and we had so much fun together. The only bad part was that I felt like we didn't get to spend enough time together. I miss her :(

My sister, Natalee, has a little boy named Keric that is two months older that Iris. He is so cute and sweet. They loved each other. It's hard to believe he's only two months older though because I swear he weighs twice as much. My little Iree is very petite :)

Cicily and I did an Easter egg scavenger hunt for Cameron, Reagan, and Roman on Saturday. The kids loved it. Here they are searching in Cicily's room.

There they are with all their candies.

Of course I had to get a few shots of the family in our Easter outfits. The theme was supposed to be pink. You can't really tell though. My shirt is kind of light pink with green flowers. Roman's shirt is pink although it looks kind of white here and Iris' dress has pink polka dots. Jason didn't want to go along with the pink theme, so basically there was really no theme this year. Maybe I'll do better next year :)

Natalee, Chris, and the kids. They all looked so cute.

Here's a pic of my parents with the kids. We had such a fun trip...I only wish that it lasted a little longer. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great food, hospitality, and always entertaining conversations :)