Although we have all (Curtis, McKenna, &I) been unbelievably sick and miserable this whole week, we have had a wonderful Christma Eve today. The day started with the three of us sleeping in until about 10:3o this morning, We then got ready for the day and went to my parents house to meet Santa and get pictures with him. We have a good family friend who is now a professional Santa Claus, and the closest thing to the real Santa I have ever met. It was a lot of fun getting family pictures taken with him, and taking pictures of McKenna on his lap. She has just recently found her hands and really figured out how to use them. Once she found Santa's beard, she wasn't about to let go of it. Good thing it is the real deal or he would have had a lot of disappointed little kids, and a lot of explaining to do.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Twas the night before Christmas...
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 8:08 PM
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Autumn Nelson
We have a new niece on my side as of this morning, and we are SO excited. Autumn Mary-Hazel Nelson makes the 11th grandbaby on my side of the family. My sister said that she was born around 10:30 this morning after only 3 hours of labor from start to finish, and that she is absolutely beautiful. She is small, weighing only 7 lbs 1 oz and is 19 inches long. We haven't ventured out to meet her yet because we have been sick, but we are so excited for Emma and Andy, and can't wait to see how big brother Calvin handles the new addition. Congratulations you guys!
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 1:13 PM
Cooing
As I mentioned before we went to the doctor a couple of days ago for McKenna's 2 month check up, where she also received all her immunization shots. She was measured at the doctor, like they always do, and here are her stats from when she was born until now:
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 12:40 PM
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving & shots
We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving with my family, and we were supposed to celebrate the day after with Curtis' family, but everyone was sick, so we had to postpone that one. Thanksgiving day, we slept in (McKenna included...which was very nice!), then we had an amazing dinner with my family. The food was delicious, and the company delightful, especially since we haven't really socialized a whole lot since McKenna was born. It was awesome to get out of the house and be around people again. We were surprised and happy with how well McKenna did, since there are 9 little kids in my family (nieces and nephews) who range from the ages of 11 months to 5 years (8 of which were there for the dinner), and McKenna in the past has gotten upset and anxious around little kids...especially screaming ones...and there was a lot of that at Thanksgiving. :) But she did really well, she was happy the whole time, and everyone loved seeing her. We ate too much, talked and played a lot, and then came home and relaxed. It was a really fun day, and I was so glad to have celebrated this year. I was so looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner this year (last year Curtis and I celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas by ourselves... which was a LOT of fun, especially since all we ate was stuffing and pumpkin pie.). It was the perfect day. We missed you Francks & Nelson families!
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 2:13 PM
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Count your blessings...
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 9:11 PM
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Another post by Curtis...
So, friends, family and blog stalkers, you were right. My last blog post was not my last post…obviously. And you also convinced me to get a facebook account. If you haven’t received my friend request, well, you may not at this point. It isn’t that you aren’t important—being that we probably haven’t talked in years, or were never really friends to begin with. But, I am always open to you adding me. In fact, I learned a cool trick from my wife. You see, she is too nice to ignore those requests, instead she adds you… giving the illusion that you are suddenly BFFs, and then waits a week and deletes you from her friend list. I’m coming along in all of this social network and social media movement. As I alluded to earlier, this is my second blog post.
We’re not great at keeping up on the ol’ blog. But with fb (that’s Facebook for all you newbies to the social network scene) you can keep up with what’s going on—I’m going to make my second wall post on there soon. For those of you that really read the blog to get updates, I apologize. Here is the quick version: We got pregnant, bought a meth house, decontaminated it, remodeled it, fought Provo city and their slimy politicians, and power driven zoning boards, moved into the drug house( you can see all the before and after pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mbfenn) ; although we should probably call it something else; and now are patiently awaiting a daughter. And by patiently I mean, eating spicy food, castor oil, trampolines, long walks while high stepping… and all the other lame advice people have given to go into labor. The due date is tomorrow. Which wouldn’t have been such a long wait, except the doctor told us almost three weeks ago, “you’re about ready, that baby can come any minute.” Great, thanks doc. Since then, every cough, sneeze and fart makes me jump up, run for the diaper/ hospital bag ready to go. Maybe tomorrow.
I’ve learned a lot in the last nine months. I learned that sarcasm isn’t always funny—who knew, right? – I learned that chocolate is a food group, women are stronger than men, that my wife knows me all too well getting me to read pregnancy books by taking away the Reader’s Digest and putting the book on the back of the toilet, and that my wife is absolutely amazing. I always knew that, but pregnancy is crazy, and she has never once complained. You’ve heard about the “miracle of birth”? I am pretty sure the miracle is that anyone does this twice…
It’s also been fun to see how genuinely excited other people are for us. Thank you all so much for you kindness, presents, prayers, meals, etc. I’m thanking you in advance, because I’m about to let you know a few ground rules that no one ever says out loud… isn’t blogging awesome!
1. Whoever thinks that it is ok to touch a strangers’ baby, you’re wrong. I don’t walk around grabbing your teenagers cheeks, or tickling under their chin. I don’t get twelve inches from your grandma and rustle her hair. So why on earth would you think that’s ok to do to a strangers’ baby. Smile, wave, let us know if she’s cute, other than that stay the freak away. And for those that are not strangers, this rule applies to you too. Ask before you touch.
2. The pediatrician recommends that we don’t go to public places for 60 to 90 days. I know, you went to the movies, attended church, passed the kid around your AA meeting, and he turned out just fine… I’ll go visit him in jail. We understand that we are over doing it. This is our first. And we don’t really want your advice on when and where to take our baby. Judge us, laugh at us, we don’t really care—our kid is probably cuter than yours.
3. Apparently, despite the huge needle in the spine with intense pain killers, the whole birthing process is pretty intense. The hospital recommends limited visitors in the hospital to allow Mariah to rest, heal, and bond with new baby; in fact, with swine flu and RSV, they discourage visitors. Please keep that in mind.
4. Mariah will most likely NOT answer the door if you do not call first. I am staying home from work for a week. That’s why I work my butt off, to have a job that allows the flexibility to let me stay home for a week, or longer if I need it. We would love to see friends and family, not YOUR friends and family… if you call first, if you aren’t sick, if you don’t have anyone in your family that is sick, if you don’t bring over 20 people at a time, and if you sanitize your hands when you get here…never forgetting rule #1, and if you don’t stay long. I’m serious about the clean hands. I won’t be paranoid forever, I’m not going to walk out of sacrament meeting to rinse off the binky every time if falls on the ground. But, I know how often people use the bathroom without washing their hands. It’s disgusting.
I’m sure I’ll think of more; I just thought it would be fun to use the blog to post that, so when I snap at someone I can always say, “oh, sorry I assumed you read our blog and knew the rules.”
We love all of you, so if we forget to update you in the first few moments with our daughter, we apologize. Look at the updates on facebook and this blog!Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 10:17 PM
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
3 days and counting...
We are officially 3 days away from our due date, so I thought I would make our blog look a little girlier for the arrival of our new baby. We will post photos and info about her as soon as we get the opportunity, but until then we are anxiously awaiting her arrival. We are hoping she comes right on her due date, September 18th, as she would be sharing her birthday with both her maternal great grandma's. We'll take her whenever she decides to she is ready to come, obviously, but that's when we are hoping for... The doctor keeps telling us it could be any day now, but he has also said that for the past three weeks in a row, so I'm not holding my breath. More info and pictures to come.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Last Few Months...
- May 5th we went and had our 20 week ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby and to make sure everything ok and developing normally. We were excited and VERY surprised to find out that we are having a little girl. Curtis and I both asked the ultrasound technician lady to check again just to make sure since we were both pretty convinced that we were having a boy. We also had a name picked out for a boy, and were absolutely positive that we were right. However, we are having a girl, and we are ecstatic! We are struggling with agreeing on names, and when we do agree on one, the next day one or both of us don't really like it anymore. But we have a little ways to go before we actually need to have one set in stone, so it will work out eventually...we hope. We also went and purchased the baby furniture for her room, which was a lot of fun and got me really excited for her arrival.
- We posted earlier that we were the proud owners of a new home (new as in built in 1940 and most recently occupied by homeless people and meth users). We finally got the house decontaminated and started construction on it. Curtis spends 90% of his time that he's not working at his job at the house getting it fixed up and ready for us to move in and rent out the basement. However, the project is a LOT bigger than we thought, there have been many more obstacles than we had planned for (which will be discussed in a later post), and so it is taking quite a bit longer than we expected it to. Since I can't do much on the fix up a
- I finished my last semester of school until after the baby comes. I am really excited to be out of school for a few months and do some things that I actually enjoy before I don't have a lot of time to myself. But I have also found I don't get as much done when I'm not in school or working.
- My baby brother Jesse received his mission call for the LDS church to serve in the Birgmingham Alabama mission. He reports to the MTC July 1st, and we are so excited for him. My dad grew up in the south and always jokes with my brother that the southern people don't really speak English, so he'll be learning a new language entirely. :) I'm sure while it will be extremely challenging for him because of the dominant Baptist faith, it will also be a great experience as well.
- My cute sister-in-law Carmen (Curtis' baby sister) moved in with us for the summer. It has been fun having her around and spending time together. She is definitely the ideal roommate/house guest as she always does the work around the house that I hate. :)
- We spent an awesome Memorial day with my family at my sisters beautiful home in Mapleton and had a large BBQ that was so much fun. We played games, talked, at tons of food, played with my nieces and nephew, and just had a blast overall. Unfortunately, the fun had to end early for us so we could continue work on the above mentioned home as we are on a bit of a time crunch.
- This weekend Curtis' older brother James is getting married in the Manti temple. His parents flew in last night from their mission in El Salvador for the wedding, and we are excited to begin the festivities and celebrations that will be going on most of this weekend. We are extremely excited for James and Whitney, and hope that it is a memorable weekend for them.
- And lastly, Curtis is still serving in the bishopric for the BYU 191st ward. It has been a year this week that he was called to serve as the 1st councelor, and we are waiting to see if that call will be extended for a few more months. It has been a lot of fun attending that ward, as everyone is our same age, and has been a great opportunity for Curtis to work with such an amazing bishop.
My mom had an easter egg hunt at her house for my nieces and nephew living in Utah. It was kind of a nightmare getting all the kids to look at the camera...
This is me at 16 weeks pregnant. I am now 25 weeks... so I'll get a more recent one soon.
This was at our niece Kamryn's 1st birthday party. There was so much to do for the kids and it was so much fun.
Memorial Day BBQ at my sisters house.
Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 10:59 AM
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Curtis' first, and possible only blog post...
Old “best” friend: “Dude, you haven’t called in so long, what is going on?”
me: “huh? Haven’t you been reading my blog?”
You may be asking, “do they normally do an ultrasound at 10 weeks?” No, that’s all part of the drama. We have been planning a camping trip for months. My older brother Jared planned it as “a Fenn family reunion.” Not going was not an option. Camping isn’t as easy as it used to be when Fletcher and I could grab our sleeping bags and go to Jewel Basin. Now we have SUVs and SUV tents, propane heaters and LED Mag lights; guns, air mattresses, stoves, fold-out picnic tables, special hotdog roasters, hot water pots, fire rings and firewood, (yes, we had to buy freakin wood to burn). Then you add wives, babies, weather, three wheelers, trailers, and in my case, pregnancy. This trip included, to say the least, weeks of total anxiety and stress.
Two days before we were ready to go, a storm rolled in, making our original destination in Canyon Lands out of the question. So we decided to forget the guns and ammo, and head to a state park by St. George. Jared, Laura, Kamryn, James and Whitney left Thursday night—the same night the freeway was closed due to a 22 car pileup. (Their trip was NOT drama free, but if you google them you may be able to blog stalk them and read all about it.) Tyler, Jenn, Connor and Carmen left in the Durango, with my wife and me behind them in the Murano, at 5:30AM. Yeah, I know, but we wanted to get to our campsite by 10:00AM so we could have the entire day to vacate. About 70 miles into our adventure, we hit some icy roads. If they was any question the roads were icy, the six cars in the ditch over about a quarter mile gave it away. We approached a van in the ditch where no one had stopped to see if they were ok, so being the good people we are, and feeling pretty good about being on vacation, we decided to pull over and see if everyone was ok and to attempt to help push them out.
As we pulled to the emergency lane, I thought, “you know, with as many idiots on the road, I’m going to pull WAY over to avoid any accidents.” We rolled down the window to chat with Tyler who had jumped out to assist the van. Then BAM. One of those idiots traveling, at least what he admitted in the police report, 60-65 MPH, lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the back of the Murano. Sigh. Did I mention it was Friday the 13th? (If the driver of the other vehicle, or his insurance company decides to blog-stalk, I apologize for the idiot comment. But seriously, 65MPH when there was six cars in the ditch before you saw us?)
To make the long story shorter… We decided to go on with the trip. The Murano was beat up, but seemed to drive safely, Mariah needed a vacation, and I REALLY needed a vacation. It will behoove me to tell my mother-in-law, if she is reading this, that it was I that tried to call it off and come home, not just because I thought you would try to kill me, but I wanted Mariah to rest. She is the one that convinced me to continue. We ended up making it to our destination around 6:00PM.
It was amazing, a little cold at night, but we had heaters and motorhome just in case. The sand dunes in the back ground are a popular destination for fourwheelers. We decided to take threewheelers. James and I decided to put them to the test and took them straight up the rocks. I wrecked. Bad. The sad thing is that I didn’t even roll it sideways, which is what makes threewheelers dangerous; their notoriousness for rolling over. I flipped it endo. It would have been cool if I would have landed the front flip, but instead I caught the bike on my chest and head. My head had a helmet, but my ribs didn’t. The doctor said they aren’t broken, I only ripped the muscles that hold them together and to my sternum, no biggie if you don’t plan on sleeping, lifting, moving, or breathing.
It wasn’t all drama. The whole time we were dealing with insurance companies, hurt heads and ribs, morning sickness, etc. Mariah and I bought a house. A drug house; it tested at 45 times the meth levels than what the health department deems as “you should clean that up.” Despite the advice from my brother-in-law to just put up a new sign: “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT” we decided to clean it up, fix it up and start the appeal process to get it zoned duplex to rent it out. The picture below is me on the phone talking to our Real Estate Agent trying to schedule a closing.
And the battle continues. As Mariah and I look back on this month, It istn’t that much different from any other drama filled month. But the pregnancy compounded February 13th. If you’re friends or family, thank you for reading and staying in blog-touch with us. We are doing fantastic and staying busy remodeling a house, fixing threewheelers, throwing up in the mornings, and looking for good deals on baby stuff. For all you other blog-stalkers, I hope you found what you were looking for.

Posted by Curtis & Mariah at 7:52 AM