Jud Austin Jenkins

July 24th was supposed to be like any other Wednesday for us....or so we thought.  

Since our house is not quite finished (it was supposed to be finished by the time Jud was due August 16), we were still living at my parent's house.  They left town for a couple of days because my cute and pregnant sister Emma was graduating from BYU-Idaho with  her associates degree.  Austin woke up and got ready for work, came in like usual said family prayer, gave me a kiss and left for work around 7:00.  I decided to stay in bed a while longer and try to go back to sleep.  As I was laying there I had a sharp pain in my abdomen, and quickly rolled onto my back to re-position myself so i'd be more comfortable.  It was then I realized something was going on.  I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom just as my water broke.  I called Austin, who was luckily only about 10 minutes down the road instead of the 50 minutes he could have been if he had made it all the way into work.  He turned back around while I called my mom and the hospital to make sure my it was my water and not some weird coincidence or something.  

I made Austin take a picture of our count down clock my Grandpa and Denise gave us when they found out we were pregnant.  Mostly because I was a little bit dazed and had to actually ask Austin what the date was and what month we were in.  I knew our baby was due on August 16th, and that the date wasn't the 16th, but from there I was drawing a blank.

We got to the hospital around 9:15, and realized we didn't even know where labor and delivery was.  We had planned on taking a tour of the hospital, but hadn't scheduled it or anything since we had just had our very first weekly appointment.  The lady at the information desk looked at us a little bit funny when we asked, told her thanks, and then headed down the hall.  The lady who was cleaning one of the elevators looked at us weird too.  She asked if I was in labor, I told her, "I think so."  She asked if we wanted to use the elevator she was cleaning, we told her we'd take the next one.  The nurse who helped us once I figured out we were headed to the nursery instead of the labor/delivery side of the maternity ward wanted to know why I was walking and not in a wheel chair.  I told her I was okay, she laughed at us, but took a hold of my arm like I was about to fall over any minute.

Short story even shorter...Jud Austin Jenkins was born 4:26 pm weighing 6lbs 8oz, 19 inches long with dark hair, and pretty much the cutest early package ever. 

 We had a little bit of a hard time getting him to nurse, we were told that "pre-term preemies" (which he qualified for since he came at week 36) have a harder time nursing a lot of the time because they aren't quite strong enough yet.  They had to check his blood sugar before I would feed him to make sure his numbers were high enough and his little heals had a lot of little prick marks on them by the time we left.

I had an outfit all picked out for him to come home from the hospital in.  However, all our baby things were over at our house.  We're lucky we remembered things like toothbrushes.  Nurses and staff would come into our room and ask if we had any blankets or beanies we would like him to use.  I told them I didn't even have a car seat to take him home in yet, let a lone a beanie for him to wear.  Our favorite nurse brought him a little green crocheted beanie to wear.  And luckily Grandma Jo saved the day and bought him a cute little football-hippo outfit and matching jammies to wear. 

 (We couldn't quite get it together for our first family picture)

 Thanks to Kelsee, Tyler, and especially cousin Kent for letting us borrow their car seat until we bought one.  Lucky for us Kent had just grown out of his.

 No blanket for the first ride home....had to use my sweater)

Millie meets Great Grandma and Grandma Tanner

Grandma and Grandpa Tanner got to visit Whitney and Millie at the hospital before they checked out today. Soon after Aaron arrived with their car all packed, and he, Whit, and the baby headed to Afton, Wyoming to their new house.  My mom and dad will take Hallie and Dean there tomorrow.  So, so, so excited for the Vickery family and their new adventure in Wyoming.  

Green Grandbaby #5 is here....

Whitney and Aaron added to their cute little family.  Their baby girl, Millie was born late last night.  She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz, 20 inches long, and has dark hair.    

Her little face looks so much like Hallie's when she was born.  Hallie is super duper in love, and didn't want to leave the hospital.  

Walls Coming Down....

As soon as we bought the house we knew  we wanted to see if we could take the wall down between the kitchen and living room.  Luckily I have a handy husband and it just so happens we have an electrical engineer and construction guru in our Branch.  After making sure the wall wasn't a weight bearing wall we wasted no time.  Brother Jensen came over and helped Austin remove all the electrical from the walls and down they came.  We are super excited with how open the room feels now.  

Before 

After

We are planning on building a kitchen island and bar in the middle.  The main goal is to have everything ready before the baby comes. 

My "baby" Sis is having a baby too

A couple days after I found I was pregnant my mom asked me if I was going to tell Emma.  I told her we were going to tell everyone.  She said, "You should call Emma...right now."  In my head I wondered if she was pregnant too.  I called her and could tell she was hesitant.  I kept asking her "what's up?" and "what's going on?"  Finally she told me she was pregnant.  I said, "Awesome....me too."  We were both so excited. Then we figured out our due dates were only  two weeks apart.  Even better!  I found this fun idea here and knew I wanted to try making one, and why not make one for my cute sis too.  I made ours a little bit different, instead of using a stencil and fabric paint I decided to use iron on transfer paper.  But they turned out fun. 

 I tried to get us both the same color shirt, but Motherhood didn't have two of the same color and size for some reason.  So I decided to play a little trick on Em.  Her least favorite color is purple.  I would give her the purple one as a joke.  But for some reason she picked it.  She said, "It'll be good for me."  

Emma 12 weeks - Me 14 weeks

Once upon a time I was taller than her....

Listing pictures

These are some of the listing pictures the Realtor sent me.  They were taken back when the house was first listed last fall.  I can assure you the house was cleaned up for these pictures.  

Front Yard View

 Spiffy Front Door

 Living Room

 Living Room

New House

For a while now Austin and I have been trying to decide whether to buy a house or rent.  In our searching we came across a house, walked through it a couple of times, did the math and figured out it would be cheaper for us to buy this house than rent something considerably smaller.  We got a great deal on it, and signed the papers last Monday (April 1, 2013 - for journaling purposes).  

It needs a lot of TLC and work.  But we are excited to change pretty much everything and make it our own little house.

It is a three bedroom three bathroom and sits on 4.2 acres, and we found out after we signed and went over to pick up our keys that apparently the cat is included.  I'm not quite sure how to feel about that, especially since cats and I do not mix....ever.  

The seller must have been concerned about the cat's welfare, because two days after the deal went through Austin found that a 10 lb. bag of cat food had been conveniently delivered.  

If anyone is interested they can have a free gray cat and we'll throw in the cat foot and carrier for free.  In fact I'll pay you five dollars to take it.

Tender Mercies

Austin and I have been married for almost 6 years now.  4 and a half of those years we were blessed with a trial.  One we (mostly me) did not always handle well.  We learned and grew together through this particular trial.  This particular trial as I'm sure most who know us are well aware involved starting a family.  A few years ago we decided that our prayers and goals would not be solely about getting pregnant.  We started praying that our family would be brought about by whatever means the Lord deemed fit for us.  We began the adoption process through LDS Family Services when we lived in Idaho.  However, when we found out we would be moving to Denver we contacted our caseworker.  Upon talking with a case worker in Colorado he found out it would be easier for us to start the process over rather than try to transfer everything to a different state because of the differing laws and regulations.  In Denver we looked into foster care and attended several training meetings.  But after only being in Denver for 11 months we were going to have to move on to another state.  Several months after being in Montana we met with a caseworker  from LDS Family Services again.  We left our first meeting feeling that adoption is something we wanted to pursue, but were unsure how quickly that process would work, especially in this particular state.  The numbers we were told, weren't quite as optimistic as we had hoped.  However, we still knew that we had told the Lord we were on His timetable and would continue to put our faith in His plan for us.

On December 14, 2012 we received a phone call from my mom quite early one morning.  She was calling to let us know my sister Kelsee had gone into labor (3 weeks early) earlier that morning and our newest nephew was here, and that she and my dad were on their way to the hospital.  I was so excited for Kelsee and Tyler and was anxious to go to the hospital to see baby Kent.  Neither Austin nor I could go back to sleep and both ended up getting up and ready for the day.  I told Austin I wanted to go into town and visit them.  I knew he was reluctant to go, not because he wasn't happy for them, but because it was hard for him as well.  However, I knew I couldn't go by myself, and new we should go together.  I picked him up at work and we went to the hospital and met the little sweetheart.  Austin, was quiet through most of the visit, but I wasn't quite sure what to say to him.  My mom and I left the hospital together and she asked how he was doing.  She has always been a sweet lady, and someone I look up to, and I was so grateful for her perceptiveness and concern for my cute Austin.

Later that day we found out the couple whose house we had been staying in and taking care of while they were on their mission were coming home.  Their mission had switched departments and the opening of the visitors' center they were working at had been postponed.  They told us not to worry, and that they were going to pull their 5th wheeler to their parents house.  However, we weren't comfortable with that and wanted them to be able to come home to their house.  With the help of my mom and dad we were able to pack everything up and move out by 12:30 that night.

About a week later I had a small situation with my already love/hate relationship with the monthly menses.  It was not unusual for me to skip this, in fact it's been pretty much MIA for ten years.  After moving to Montana we were given the name of an RE (reproductive endocrinologist) by my naturopath doctor I had been seeing.  He gave us several options, and was surprisingly encouraged not discouraged when we talked with him about my emergency operation and removal of my right ovary due to ovarian torsion in March 2012.  He said, "This may sound odd, but it might do the trick."  While it was nice to hear something positive, we were pretty sure that our kiddos would be coming to us through the blessing of adoption.  But for some reason this missed period this particular time felt a little bit different.  I took a pregnancy test, it came back positive, but it seemed not super clear.  So I took 5 more.  Austin said he only believed the digital one that actual said pregnant.  We were still very skeptical and figured something must be wrong.  I was truly convinced that in this life I would never conceive, and had come to terms with and was totally okay with it.  So I finally showed my mom the tests, she kind of freaked out and said we should call my doctor's office and ask them.  They did laugh at me when I told them we had taken 6 pregnancy tests, but we didn't believe them, so they ordered a blood test for us December 19th.   They didn't get the results back in time and Austin and I left December 21st for a quick trip to Utah.  On our drive we pulled into West Yellowstone, since we had lost service going through Big Sky I had a missed call and a voice mail, it was from our doctor, and he let us know that the blood results were back in and that we were indeed pregnant.  Neither of us knew what to say, Austin had a huge smile on his face, and it just didn't seem real.

The doctor wanted us to schedule and ultra sound for the following Monday, which happened to be Christmas Eve.  He said we were only 6 weeks along, but with my history, and my past emergency operations he wanted to make sure everything was okay.

The following Monday we got the best Christmas present we could have asked for.  Two little perfect ultrasound pictures.  We feel so blessed and continue to thank our Heavenly Father for the trial, even though the blessing didn't come in any way we were expecting...which is weird to say.

In his talk entitled Behold, We Count Them Happy Which Endure Elder Robert D. Hales said:

We are taught in the scriptures that there must be opposition in all things (2 Nephi 2:11).  It is not a question of if we are ready for the tests; it is a matter of when.  We must prepare to be ready for tests that will present themselves without warning.

Several years ago I remember loving Elder Bednar's first general conference address.  He had just left as president of BYU-Idaho where I'd been attending.  He talked about the tender mercies of the Lord.
     "But behold, I Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he
     hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
       (1 Nephi 1:20)

     Recall how the Savior instructed His Apostles that He would not leave them comfortless. Not only would He send “another Comforter” (John 14:16), even the Holy Ghost, but the Savior said that He would come to them (see John 14:18). Let me suggest that one of the ways whereby the Savior comes to each of us is through His abundant and tender mercies. For instance, as you and I face challenges and tests in our lives, the gift of faith and an appropriate sense of personal confidence that reaches beyond our own capacity are two examples of the tender mercies of the Lord....And the persistence and the fortitude that enable us to press forward with cheerfulness through physical limitations and spiritual difficulties are examples of the tender mercies of the Lord.

We feel truly blessed and grateful to a Heavenly Father and loving Savior who know us better than we know ourselves, as well as loving family members and friends who have and continue to show their love and support.

Lastly I think we are super grateful to have each other.  I know I couldn't have learned the things I have and gotten through this small portion of our live without my amazing husband.  There is no one else I'd rather love and laugh with than Austie.