Twas the night before Christmas...

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.

My family has this Christmas tradition that every Christmas eve we have a big family feast of all you can eat Nacho's. It's kind of a long boring story about how that came about. Lets just say I LOVE that tradition, and it didn't disappoint this year. So following our visit with Santa, we had our usual big Nacho feast. It was wonderful.

As soon as we were done with dinner and said our goodbyes, we came home and took a long, nearly 3 hour nap as a family...my favorite thing in the world! So far, it has been an absolutely perfect day (with the exception of being super sick), and we are excited to celebrate Christmas tomorrow. We are grateful for our Savior who is the real reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday and for his birth and life. We are grateful for our beautiful daughter who is joining our family this year, and are excited for many more Christmas' to come.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

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!

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:

At Birth -

weight 7 lbs 14 oz; height 19 inches

They kept telling us that she was a very average baby.

Now, at her 2 month checkup -

weight 11 lbs 14 oz - 50th to 75th percentile

height 23 1/2 inches - 75th percentile

Head circumfrance 40 cm - 75th percentile

One of the questions our pediatrician asked us was whether McKenna was cooing or not yet. We told him that she did little ones here and there, but not very often. He told us to watch for that because that is a big developmental sign. I don't know if she heard that and that was all the encouragement she needed or what, but that night she started cooing and babbling like crazy and hasn't stopped since. When we talk to her, she'll get a big smile on her face, kick her legs excitedly and just start babbling like we can understand every word she's saying. It has been so much fun watching her grow and learn new things. She is already so smart and expressive, and we have so much fun with her. Our baby is anything but average.

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!

McKenna with Auntie Carrie

My niece Miriam

My niece Madelyn

The kids at their kiddy table

McKenna got her first set of vaccination shots today (3 shots, and one sugary drink that contained vaccintation for 3 other diseases... I was SO glad she didn't have to have all 6 shots, like I thought she would!!!). She did VERY well, and I was so relieved that she did much better than we thought she would. She did cry when the first one went in because the nurse accidentally stuck her with the needle in the wrong place before she took the needle back out and stuck her in the right place to give her the shot (I think she was nervous because Curtis is somewhat intimidating...and right before she gave McKenna the shot he asked her to be careful and gentle since the nurses at the hospital were not so gentle). McKenna cried hysterically for the first few minutes, and for 20 seconds her face was red and she forgot how to breath, she was crying so hard. But the nurse did the rest of the shots quickly and without any problems. McKenna finished crying, and almost instantly fell asleep (thanks to the Tylenol we gave her right before we went...and due to the fact that she's such an awesome baby!). She took a very long nap afterwards, and we will see how she does the next couple of days. I am SO glad that part is over and we don't have to do it again for another 2 months! Yikes! I can't tell you how long I have been dreading that doctors appointment. Well, actually I can, and it was almost from the time I first found out I was pregnant. Seriously!

That's us for right now... hopefully we'll have more to post soon! Until then, here are some pictures for the grandparents... since we know that's why you read our blog in the first place. :) XOXO

Count your blessings...

I feel like I have so many things in my life right now to be thankful for, and I never take the opportunity (until this time of year when everyone else also takes the opportunity) to sit down and really think about those things. So yes, I am sharing my list of things that I am thankful for with all of you...but they are not in any particular order.

1 - A beautiful, happy, healthy daughter who we absolutely adore and who makes our home and family complete. I know that sounds totally cheesy, but seriously, she is awesome and makes me laugh SO hard...and she doesn't even really do anything yet! I honestly don't know how we lived without her.

2 - An amazing husband who works so hard to provide for our wants and needs. I know that he will always take care of us and that I will never have to go without anything. He takes care of me when I am sick, he adores our daughter, he makes me laugh like no one else can, and for all these things (and more) I am so grateful to have him in my life.

3 - The gospel of Jesus Christ. It has always been hard for me to publicly bear my testimony, for some reason, but I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that families are eternal and can be together forever. I am thankful that the church and the gospel are so constant, and I have been so blessed through priesthood blessings and the atonement. I am positive my life would be very different had I decided to take another path, and I am glad that I didn't. I feel truly blessed to be apart of this church.

4 - My family. I have the most supportive and loving family in the world. If I call last minute needing something, it doesn't matter what, or that there was absolutely no prior notice, they are always there to lend a hand and take care of us. I have no idea how we would have moved this last summer while I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and Curtis was busy doing last minute projects on the house, or how I would have taken care of my new baby on no sleep and fed my poor husband dinners at night...I realize people do it all the time, but it takes practice for me. :) They have done so much for us, and I cannot thank them enough. They are truly my best friends, and I was definitely sent to the right family.

5 - On the same note, my in-laws, aka my second family. A lot of people complain about their in-laws, and I always feel so bad for them. I am so lucky to have both a mother and father-in-law that I love, but also to have so many of my closest friends be my brothers and sisters-in-law. I gained 7 really amazing friends when I got married! Who could ask for more than that!?

6 - Friends. Although my friend group these days consists of my family, my husbands family, and pretty much a few friends from highschool, some that I gained and become close to since meeting my husband, and places I've worked in the past, I LOVE my friends. I don't stay in contact with many of them, but those that I do, I am so grateful to have in my life. They make me happy! 'Nuf said. :)

7 - Freedom. I am not much on taking a strong political stance these days. I have my views, beliefs, likes & dislikes about government and those that run it. But one thing that I do love and am so grateful for are the freedoms that they can't take away from us...as much as they may be trying. :) I feel blessed to live in this country... I have been to other countries that don't enjoy the same freedoms, and it makes me want them to have what we have. We enjoy so many things at the cost of other people's lives, and we never really give it much thought. But I am grateful that I enjoy those freedoms, and for those who continue to fight to defend those for me.

8 - A warm home & bed. There is nothing better than a warm place to sleep and to feel safe doing so.

9 - A healthy body that allows me to get from point A to B everyday, to run, drive, play with my daughter, see, hear, and just enjoy the simplicity of life. Honestly, I admire people who function on a lot less, and absolutely love life.

There are so many things and people I could add to this list that have blessed my life in so many ways, but for time sake I won't. I love my life. I couldn't imagine it being any more perfect than it already is, and I know I have my Heavenly Father to thank for that! I hope anyone who reads this today will take time to think of the things they are grateful for and realize just how blessed we really are. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Halloween!!

McKenna was a flower for Halloween...the CUTEST flower! However, we only got as far as Grandma & Grandpa Boone's house to show off her costume this year.

McKenna's delivery (9.25.09)

Recently I have been reading friends' blogs who have just recently had babies and reading their delivery stories. As I read them, I realized that I had typed McKenna's delivery story up two weeks after she was born, and totally forgot to actually post it. SO, only 6 months late, here is the story of my labor and delivery, and McKenna's birth. I promise it's not graphic or too detailed, but it may be boring to others. So, just know that this is for my record, others are welcome to read it, of course, but don't feel obligated by any means. :)

McKenna Fenn
Born: Friday, September 25, 2009 @ 2:07 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 14 oz
Length: 19 inches

Thursday, September 24th, I was already 6 days past my due date and I had been having contractions for a good part of the day, however, they started getting increasingly worse by the afternoon. Curtis was at work, waiting for any kind of news, and finally at 4:00 p.m. they were getting so bad that I called and told him to come home, that we were going to the hospital. He came home, we put all our bags in the car and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital and checked in at about 5:00 p.m., and as soon as we were all checked in, my contractions completely stopped. The nurse hooked me up to monitors anyway, and said she wanted to monitor me for about an hour just to make sure the baby was healthy, and from there she would either send us home, or call the doctor to see how he wanted to proceed.

I was hooked up to the monitors for about 2 1/2 hours when the nurse (Melody, who was aboslutley amazing)came in and said she didn't love the look of the baby's heart rate. She said that for the most part it looked good, but that there were spots where her heart rate would increase and then instantly drop lower than before. She said she was going to call the doctor and have him come take a look. That was at about 7:30 p.m. Not 15 minutes after that our doctor showed up to take a look at the baby's heart rate. He said her heart rate was fine, but since I was already a week past my due date, he would go ahead and get labor started (not even mentioning to me that he was going out of town two days later and wouldn't even be there for my normal induction date). (**As a side note... for the prior three weeks before this, I was already dilated to a 2 1/2 and 75% effaced. My doctor kept telling me for three weeks that she could come at any time...and then I was a week overdue.**)


At 8:00 p.m. my doctor went in and broke my water and the nurse hooked me up to the pitocin. The doctor said that it would be about 12 hours before I was ready to deliver, as it takes a while to dilate to a 10, and so he would be back at 8:00 a.m. the next morning to begin the delivery. I was dilated to a 3 when my water was broken at 8:00 p.m.



At 8:30 I received the epidural. :)


At 11:00 p.m. my nurse came in to check me. She said at that point I should be dilated to about a 5, but to her surprise, I was already at a 7, and she could see the baby's head. Since I was already so far along, she said she would check me every hour after that. An hour later, at midnight, I was fully dilated to a 10. She said at that point she was going to take me off the pitocin and let my body push the baby the rest of the way like it's trained to do, and in about an hour she'd call the doctor to start delivery. At 1:30 a.m. the nurse came in and started prepping the room. She had just called and woken up my doctor who was thoroughly confused by her phone call. She had told him "Mariah is ready for you", and because I wasn't supposed to be that far along, he said, "for what?!" So he came in, and a short 37 minutes later, our sweet little McKenna was born. Labor and delivery all together was about 6 hours long, and I only had to push for about 15 minutes total, which I am told is very short and very good. :)

McKenna came out with red curly hair, and the biggest most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. She also came out sucking on her little fingers. The doctor and nurses first comments were on how well she sucked and said she was going to be a great little eater. The sad part was, right after she came out and they took her over to measure her and clean her up, she had been having a little trouble breathing, so they had to stick tubes down her throat... twice. Curtis said that while they were sticking the tubes down her throat, she was gagging uncontrollably, but anytime she could gain control of her gagging reflex, she would start sucking on the tubes that were down her throat like they were a binki or something. It was the saddest thing I'd ever heard, and I was so glad I didn't have to see it.

McKenna, since day one, has been a fabulous little eater, and pretty dang good sleeper (with exeptions here and there). She smiles a lot, laughs and whines in her sleep, can roll from her back to either side without any help, still sucks on her fingers (or anything else she can get ahold of), LOVES taking baths, and is the sweetest little girl in the whole world! We absolutely love her and are so grateful that she is a part of our family.



McKenna had a really bad cone head when she was born (as you can seen in the picture above), and she turned really red when she cried (picture below). The doctors thought there was something wrong because she would turn bright red, so they had to do a couple of blood tests to make sure she was ok.

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!

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.

The Last Few Months...

Since we haven't had a lot of time (or desire, lets be honest) the last few months to update this, I decided to include all the big things that have been going on since the last time I posted. It's a long entry, and I'm sorry. It's mostly for my benefit so I don't forget stuff as pregnancy tends to make me forgetful and slightly dumb. :) So, here is what we have been doing in a nutshell since February.

- 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

t this point, I mostly spend my time running back and forth to home depot and brining the men food like a good little wife. We are both anxious to get this project finished so we can have a life again and see each other once in a while. There will be pictures and updates on the house and its progress later. I don't know about anyone else, but I love before and after pictures (I get that from my mom, I believe), so we have taken a lot of them along the way and will post those as soon as it is finished.

- 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.

The next few months are going to be busy with lots of traveling both to Montana and Arizona, family time and reunions, continuing to fix the house and eventually moving in, getting ready for the baby to come, and so much more. I'm sure I will have a bunch of pictures to post by next time I do an entry, since it only happens every couple of months. But for now, here are a few pictures from the last few months (and by a few I mean 15).

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...

A portion of my family the day my little brother went through the temple.

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.