Summer Adventures

Is it really already the middle of July?! Where in the world did this year go? Between Noa, birthdays and our recent nomad existence the weeks have flown by. So here is what you have missed:

Jake turned 28! Just two years to the big 3-0! This birthday was a laid back one since Jake was working on his actual birthday...and every other day for that matter. Unfortunately for him it was his turn to "crank" which  is Navy lingo for kitchen wench. This meant working 12 out of every 14 days with working hours averaging around 12 hours. Needless to say he was overjoyed when he FINALLY finished right before the 4th.

Noa is growing in leaps and bounds, which is seriously distressing her mother. Already it is hard to remember her ever being a tiny newborn. She is exceptionally strong and is hitting all of her physical checkpoints a little on the early side. She is almost able to sit up, she can roll from back to front and is already trying to use her toes to propel her forward. Its only a matter of time before she figures it out!

Rorie also celebrated a birthday, turning four this last May. She had a fabulous party with all of her friends and she told me after that it was the "BEST DAY EVER!" This made all of the hard work and preparation totally worth it. Rorie continues to have a one of a kind personality. She is super silly and exceptionally independent. In fact, as I write this she is 600 miles away at Aunt Brenda's house! She seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that she has been without her parents for over week. She is far too busy having fun to feel home sick.

Rorie and her friend Ily posing in the Bday Photo booth :)

I am exhausted from the almost solid month of travel the girls and I undertook from mid June until mid July. First was a trip to Michigan to see all of my family. My little sis and her husband were home for a wedding and my youngest sis was graduating from High School. It was a fun packed two weeks with cousins and Aunts/Uncles and favorite UP (mostly food related) activities. The one down side was the unseasonably warm weather. Ninety and humid. no thanks. I will take San Diego perfection over that any day! One of the high points of the trip was seeing my Brother's new house. My sister in law Angela did an amazing job making it a home.
After arriving home we had a couple days of respite which included 4th of July celebrations. Jakes cousin Emily and some of our neighborhood friends joined us to help make the day special. We had a ton of yummy food, plus we got to help our friends enjoy their last day as a family of three! 
Next was our trip to Utah for a friends wedding and to see Jake's family. My childhood friend Jessica was sealed in the Draper Temple to her wonderful fiance Eric. It was such a huge blessing for me to attend. It was also a chance to catch up with all of my old friends. It was the first time the Four Musketeers were together in YEARS! We capitalized on our limited time together by staying up until 4am, which we paid for when our kids awoke as bright and early as ever. Our trip luckily overlapped with two of Jake's sisters visits. We got to meet two of our newest cousins and visit with the Smith family who came all the way from Florida. Before our return home Jake's sister Brenda convinced me that Rorie really needed an extended vacation with her cousins, so the return trip was made with only one kid!

The Four Musketeers!

Mrs. Eric Barlow!

Noa and Sarah Jane :)

Aunt Andrea with the babes.

Home made slip and slide at Grandmas :)

2012 Kenison babies, minus little Nathan and Baby Boy Smith.

L to R: Beth and Sarah Jane, Me and Noa, Katie and Luke

Our fun summer will be capped off with Rorie's return and a three week visit from her cousin Dallin. We can't wait to show him all that San Diego has to offer!


Love,
The Kenisons

Noa Olivia Kenison

So this is slightly after the fact, but Noa is finally here! The weeks after her arrival were very eventful and there was just no time for blogging. Now that we have gotten back to normal, or at least reached a state of only semi-chaos, its time to update!

The Birth
Ten days after my due date, and one day before my scheduled induction, I went into labor. For a while before she came I had been toying with the idea of going natural this time around. I was still undecided when we arrived at the hospital and as labor progressed I was almost sure that I would be able to do it. Then I experienced the evil that is Pitocin. Now I had heard a lot of people talking about how much Pitocin can increase the intensity of contractions but having never experienced it without an epidural, I was quick to dismiss it as hype. BIG MISTAKE. So to make a long story short, one minute I was fine and the next I wanted to die. I asked for an epidural, I withstood the insertion of the epidural while having contractions every 45 seconds and only then did the doctor check me and inform me that I was at an eight and the epidural was not going to have time to kick in. On the positive side I had her about 20 minutes after this, on the negative they were truly the worst 20 minutes of my life. Because I was in so much pain and unable to push effectively Noa's heart rate dropped to dangerous levels and had to be born with the assistance of a vacuum. So here is the lesson I learned from this experience: If you want to do natural, you MUST prepare mentally and physically. Going in thinking you will just wing it is not an effective strategy! I also learned that I am not a natural birth type of person. Next time around when the nurse asks if I am getting an epidural it will be a definite YES!

The Stats
8lbs 6oz and 21in long. That is almost two pounds bigger than Rorie! It will be fun to see if she continues to be larger or if it was just the result of almost two weeks more "in the oven".

The Following Weeks
My mom was able to be with us for two weeks after she was born. It was great to have the extra pair of hands, especially the very willing and capable hands of Grandma. Rorie quickly became a little mom and was eager to help with the day to day tasks caring for Noa. We experienced a little miracle during our first week home. Jakes grandmother, who had been ill for several years, passed away. Because I was so late in having her, Jake was still on paternity leave and was able to make the 20hr round trip to Utah to attend her funeral. He never would have been able to go if she had come on time. It was a good reminder that everything happens on the Lords time, and there is usually a good reason for our trials. Ten extra days of being miserable and pregnant were totally worth Jake being able to say a final farewell to a woman that had meant so much to him. My MIL Karen and SIL Mia came down to visit us on the tail end of my mothers stay. We were all together for Easter and were able to bless Noa at our house that evening. It was a sweet experience with just our family and a very charitable Bishop who was willing to give of his time on a holiday Sunday. By the following Wednesday all of our family had returned home. It was a bittersweet feeling to be on our own once again. Now that Noa is a month old we have gotten into the swing of being a family of four. Life is somewhat chaotic, the house is never quite clean enough, and there is never enough time in the day, but there is so much joy! It is hard to imagine life without Noa and the sweet spirit she brings to our home. We are truly blessed!

Here are some pictures:

We will keep you all updated on our many baby adventures!

Love,
The Kenisons

Baby Belly Update!

So now that I am officially "full term" we have begun counting down to the big arrival. While the exact time and date is of course a mystery, we are pretty confidant that Noa will be making an early appearance. We have already had one false alarm! Contractions were coming every ten minutes for about three hours. By the time I went to the hospital to be monitored they had pretty much stopped, or so I thought. When the doctor came in she showed us that in fact I was having mild contractions every 3.5 minutes on the dot! So as of last Wednesday I was already at a two and I am anxious to see where I am tomorrow when I visit my midwife.
I am very excited to welcome our little one into our family, but I know that I am really going to miss my baby bump! For posterity sake we had a few photos taken to document it, ENJOY!

 Hopefully the next post will be me announcing the birth of our new baby girl!

Love,
The Kenisons

Moving, Baby shower and more!

I cant believe it is February already! I am starting to feel the mix of anticipation and anxiety that comes in the last few weeks of pregnancy. I will be thrilled to not be pregnant and to see our little girl, but the unknown of having two instead of one is starting to freak me out. I suppose the best thing to do is just to keep busy and hope that when the time comes we can all handle the big life changes.

Even though I am anxious to be done with the aches and pains that come with pregnancy, I have to admit that I have enjoyed the experience much more the second time around. Maybe its because I am an old pro (the second time around makes you a pro, right?) but the last nine months have been a great experience. For one, despite having been much bigger than I was before I got pregnant the first time, I have really come to appreciate my body. It is amazing what it can do! I was also a lot more careful with how much I gained this time around, and I am hoping that the weight loss will come a little easier. For two, I think being a little older and a little wiser, allowed me to enjoy the small moments more. Knowing what to expect helped me focus in on the subtle changes in my body, and baby girls small milestones. I felt the flutters of her first movements at only 16 weeks and noticed the sensation of hiccups for the first time. The downside to being pregnant for the second time, and almost 5 years older, is that my physical state seems to be deteriorating much faster in the third trimester. Sleep is pretty much impossible for more than two hours at a time, and parts of my body I didnt even know I had seem to ache constantly. You would think that since our bodies are made to do this they wouldnt complain so much!

Anyway...January was a busy month for us. We moved to a three bedroom house and spent the following weeks trying to get settled again. Me being pregnant and Jake working 5-6 days a week made the process much slower than when we did it just six months ago. We also decided to paint a couple of rooms which only extended the time it took. In the end though we were glad we made the leap and are enjoying our new location immensly. Just outside our front door is a gated park, picnic tables, BBQs and a huge grassy field surrounded by a walking path. Hopefully that will be a big help in my grand post-baby fitness plans. All that is left is making our new house a home is putting the final touches on the nursery!

The first of February my awesome SD friends threw me an amazing baby shower. I got some very cute and thoughtful gifts from everybody that got me much closer to being baby ready. I feel super lucky to have such great friends after living here for such a short time. It makes having a baby so much more exciting to have so many people to share the fun with! Here are some photos of the girly bash:

Well that is all for now, but stay tuned for more baby news and pictures!

Love,
The Kenisons

Pictures!

When writing my last post I realized that the tool bar had gone missing and there was no way to post pictures. Apparently I just needed to update my account and get their fancy new interface! So here are a couple of photos from the last few months, ENJOY!

The girls and I celebrating Kristen's 29th!

My 24th Birthday!

Rorie and I Christmas morning.

Nen and Rilyn at Village Inn for Free Pie Wednesday!

Rorie and Rilyn riding ponies in Levan.

Grandpa Kenison and Rorie

Rorie and her best friend Ava on Halloween

For some reason a few of my pictures loaded sideways and I couldn't figure out how to fix them. I guess I will have to play around with this new interface so that it will be easier next time!

Love,

The Kenisons

...And a Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that it is officially 2012! Since my last post was in October (yikes!) there is a lot to catch up on. Sigh. I wish that I could be a better blogger, but I can never keep on top of it! Instead I have months between posts and I have to try and compress a million events into a somewhat short post so that I dont drive all of you crazy with a 12 page report. Will I ever learn? I suppose it is totally cliche to make a New Years Resolution to be a better blogger, but I am going to anyways! So if you happen to read this blog, there may be more for you to read this year.

Since my last post, pretty much every major holiday has come and gone. Halloween, my birthday (yes I do consider that major), Thanksgiving and Christmas. To make a very long story short, they were all great! We stayed in San Diego for all of them, which meant a lot of new traditions, and a lot more quality (immediate) family time. It made us feel truly blessed to have made such good friends in the last few months, so that we had loved ones to share this super fun and busy time with. Christmas was an especially wonderful experience for our family. I was dreading the reality of being so far away from my extended family and all of our many Christmas traditions. I was sure that a Christmas with just the three of us would be a let down when we were used to our large family shin digs. Instead it was one of my favorite Christmas experiences. Our day was mellow and calm, and we really got to enjoy each other, our presents, and soak in the fact that this was the FIRST and ONLY Christmas that Rorie would be the center of attention.

So that brings me to my next item, Baby Girl Kenison #2! This pregnancy has flown by for me, and I find myself wondering where the last few months went. With Rorie I was completely ready at this point, and anxiously counting down my final weeks. This time around, being an "experienced" mom has lulled me into a false sense of security. With nine weeks to go I find myself completely unprepared. I have no freshly washed stacks of baby clothes, no crib put together and no idea how I procrastinated to this point. Hopefully the upside to this is that my last few weeks will be spent in hurried preparation instead of impatient anticipation. For all those who have wondered, we DO have a name picked out. After several failed attempts to find a name we loved, and that everyone else at least approved of, we gave up. So now our name (that will most likely make some eyes roll) is top secret until our little bundle has arrived. We figure it is harder to hate a name once it is attached to a squishy pink face. Stay tuned for the big unveiling in March!

Even before we can get to the business of welcoming little sister, we have one giant hurdle to get past: moving. Yes I know that it is crazy to move when you have a husband who is always working, a three year old, and when you yourself are in the final leg of your pregnancy, but we are doing it anyways. In the Navy your housing is determined by your rank and the number of children you have. Of course we found out that we were expecting about two days after we signed a 6-month lease on a two bedroom. So now our lease is up and we are going to transfer to a three bedroom in hopes that this will be our LAST move for several years. Jake and I recently realized that this will be our 7th move in less than five years of marriage. Thats not even counting the two additional moves that Jake has had to make without us. I think we have done more than our share of moving, and could probably do without moving ever again. Luckily for us Jake's job will most likely never force another move on us (did you catch the subtle sarcasm?). Stay tuned for pics of the new place, as I am actually PAINTING! Once again I realize that I am a glutton for punishment, but I figure its now or never.

So there you have it. A very brief readers digest of 2011 and the begining of 2012. Hopefully this will be the last post that covers multiple months and big life events (knock on wood). We hope that everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Love

The Kenisons