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

Homecoming 2011 & Other Adventures!

Since we have been in San Diego for three months now I thought I would try to catch everyone up on all of our many adventures here on the west coast. It has been a busy few months for us, but we are happy to report that San Diego is finally starting to feel like home! We have had a lot of fun and made some really good friends too!

Rorie & her friend Aiden playing in the rain.

Rorie & her friend Ily at Ily's fairy party

Jake left for deployment the beginning of August. He was supposed to leave several weeks earlier, so the added time was a great blessing for us. The one downside to his late departure is that Rorie and I had to leave for Michigan several days before he flew out. We were sad to miss his farewell, but we were excited to be a part of the pre-wedding activities for Aunt Ashley's wedding. Ashley & Joe's wedding was a wonderful and exciting event for our whole family. My moms entire family came to Marquette, some of them for the very first time, to be able to witness the occasion. It was also an opportunity for us to meet a small number of Joe's extended family. Because large part of his family still lives in Iran, only a handful were able to be in attendance. It was so much fun to see the long awaited event finally come to pass and to see Ash and Joe finally become Mr&Mrs Towfighi!

Joe & His Adoring Fans!

Ashley & I

Rorie and Aunt Ashley

Jake came home ten weeks after he left as a seasoned world traveler. His many stops included:

London, Africa, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam and Hawaii. All of their ports were pretty quick, but he was able to get a little taste of the culture in each country. To my great disappointment(and to be honest, disgust) Jake didn't even bother to sample the cuisine in Thailand, and

opted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Where are these boys' sense of adventure?!

Although it was only 2 1/2 months, his homecoming was greatly anticipated. This was our fist military homecoming experience, and it was quite an event! There were hundreds of people, vendors and activities for the kids, and when the ship can into view the crowd went wild! We were so happy to have our sailor home!

In the days following his return we packed in a lot of fun activities. The most exciting of which was getting an ultra sound to determine if we were having a little brother or sister. To Rories great delight it turned out to be a little sister! It is exciting to be able to start to plan for our new pink addition!

On his first day off we got to spend the day at Sea World. We had been waiting for this and we were not disappointed! It was a fun day of rides, polar bears & penguins. After such a fun day we have put season passes on our list to send to Santa!

Until next time!

Love,

The Kenisons

A New Bambino!

Yes that is right, baby number two is on its way! While most of you reading this have already been let in on the big news, I thought an official blogoshpere announcement was in order.

Official Baby/Pregnancy Info

1. I am almost 13 weeks, hello 2nd Trimester!

2. The baby is due March 10 2012. Rories due date was the 10th as well and she came on the 4th, somehow I think this one might be just as (if not more) early.

3. We have already had our first ultrasound (pictures to follow). Baby is healthy and VERY active!

4. We can find out the sex as early as October 7th. This will mostly depend on whether a certain sailor makes his return by then.

5. Rorie has decreed that this baby is a sister, not a brother. Heaven help us if that turns out not to be the case.

6. We already have a name picked out if it IS a brother (Charlie) but if it is a sister than we will have to put our thinking caps on. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

7. We are VERY happy about this new little addition, and we are already counting down the days!

Cheese!

This picture was very hard won. It seems that our ultrasound interrupted a rather ruckus dance party. The poor doctor was breaking a sweat trying to get the measurements. Rorie was with me and was amazed and excited by the sight of "her" baby. It made the whole thing a lot more real for both of us. The only downside was the absence of our daddy. Luckily this will hopefully be the only baby related even that he misses (fingers crossed, knock on wood).

So here is to a fast and uneventful pregnancy! We will keep you posted as the time gets closer, and of course once we know if it is a boy or a girl!

Love,

The Kenisons

Moving and moving....and some more moving.

After four very long (and by long I mean LOOONNGG)days in the car Rorie, Jake and I finally made it to the Kenison homestead in Levan, Utah. Rorie spent the next few days running and playing in an attempt to use the enormous amount of energy she had bottled up during our cross country trek. The arrival of a dozen or more cousins made this endeavor much easier! The highlight of our time in Utah was Katie's (Jakes little sister) wedding. We finally were able to meet her fiance Tyler and get to know him a little in the days leading up to the wedding. It was so wonderful to see the two of them so happy together. Katie and Tyler were sealed at the Manti temple just like Jake and I and it was a great treat to be back in a place of such wonderful memories. Katie was a gorgeous bride, and I dont think either one of them stopped smiling all day!

Rorie posing in front of the happy couple on the Manti Temple steps

Rorie on the Mellor's "baby" 4-wheeler

With all nine of Jake's sisters in town for the big event, along with most of their kids, there was plenty of opportunity for fun. The cousins busied themselves playing with the dogs, riding ponies and even doing a little 4-wheeling thanks to Uncle Neldon. It was a great but hectic week and a half, and by the Monday after the wedding we were ready to make our way to San Diego.

Jake left mid day on Monday and arrived in San Diego Tuesday evening. Rorie and I stayed behind to allow Jake a couple of days to travel and sign the lease on our new house before we arrived. Since Rorie and I had a couple of days to kill we got the chance to spend a couple of days in Provo with my best friend Diana and her two kids. It was super fun for Diana and I to be able to catch up and to have a flash back to the good old days when we had sleep overs as kids. Wednesday afternoon Rorie and I said goodbye and made the ten hour trip to California. Never has any place looked so good! Thursday morning we got to see our place for the first time and we were immediately glad that we had excepted it sight-un-seen. It is a great two bedroom townhouse with 1.5 baths, a fenced in backyard and plenty of space. We went right to work bringing in furniture, hanging pictures and unpacking. By Saturday night we could officially call it home. It was an amazing feeling to finally have a place all our own after two years of living apart.

With all of the hard work behind us we made time this week to have a little fun and brought Rorie to the San Diego Zoo. Rorie had a blast and talked of nothing else for days. Here is a little sample of our fun at what Rorie refers to as the "zoom".

Me in a monkey mask


Rorie petting the goats at the petting zoo.

Peek-A-Boo!

All smiles on the big blue tour bus.

My favorite sight of the day: mama and baby hippo snuggling in the water! The baby hippo kept blowing bubbles, smiling and snuggling up closer...too cute!

Tomorrow Jake has his "flight briefing" and we be given more details on when he will be deploying. Either way he will be leaving us by the end of the week. Rorie and I will miss him like crazy but we will certainly have a lot of exciting things to keep us busy. We will write again soon to share more of our California adventures!

Love,

The Kenisons