before & after

We've had this beauty since we got married... and you know how it goes, I loved it then, but now I'm wondering what I saw in it. It's been through a lot, 5 moves, 4 kids, & 3 different T.V.'s just to be specific. It was a little dinged up. We wanted to get a new entertainment center, but we were waiting to get a new t.v. (about time we joined the 21st century)
Ben's brother, Eli, moved to Iraq for his new job. We're so sad to see Eli go, but he's excited for new opportunities. We love him and miss him.
There are of course a few reasons why we love Eli:
1. he's the best brother/brother-in-law
2. my kids love their Uncle E
3. he's so helpful, whenever we need him, he's there.
4. he lets us borrow his cool stuff
5. when he gets tired of his cool stuff, he gets new cool stuff... and who gets his hand-me-downs?

Okay, so the t.v. wasn't free, but he did give us a screamin' deal. He wanted to get rid of some of his things before he left, and the T.V. was one of them. Yea for us! I decided in all of my cheapness, it would be better to try and make this entertainment center work for us. Ben took out the upper cupboard, glued on a piece of wood, made shelves in the bottom cupboard, I primed, painted, and glazed it. I had previously measured the e.c. and the t.v. with my arm, so I was really glad when we put it in, and it actually fit.
Not sure if I would do it again... it was a lot of work. But it was a lot cheaper than buying a new one. The total cost was 30.76.

I followed the steps from my favorite blog, allthingsthrifty.blogspot.com

My Luke is SIX!

Luke turned six years old on Wednesday. I love how grown up he is becoming. He is the best brother to all his sisters. He loves going to school and reading. He loves to draw, and play with friends. He got two parties this year, the regular party with Grandmas and Grandpas and his first friend party.
his Grandparents watching Luke open his gifts

He is starting T-ball soon, so we gave him all his equipment.

Luke's favorite gifts were the Legos. Both Grandparents gave him Star Wars Legos, and he was beyond excited.

Bad Mom moment:
I cut the cake up and started handing it out, when my Mom reminded me that we hadn't sung Happy Birthday or had Luke blow out his candles. I can't believe I forgot, but luckily Luke was just too anxious to get back to his new Legos that he didn't even care that there were pieces missing.

His friend party was Star Wars, of course.
Luke's really into Star Wars lately. He loves General Grievous, or any of the other bad guys. Whenever I ask why he doesn't like the good guys, he tells me that they're not as good at fighting.
Here's all the kids in there 3D glasses, eating pizza.

the kids each made their own lightsaber and then went on a secret Jedi mission to destroy the deathstar. I was trying to make the clues easy enough for the kids, but apparently I made them way too easy, because one of the kids told me so.

Here's Abigail taking a swing at the deathstar

The victorious Darth Vader

We ended with another game, cake, and presents. The party turned out great, but it's going to be a long time before I do another bday party.
We're lucky that Luke has lots of friend that live in our neighborhood, close by. They're always out playing, switching back and forth between yards.
Happy Birthday Luke, I can't love this guy enough!

phone pics

Lately, life has revolved around my sweet Hailey. This girl has been sick for weeks. It's just been a yucky virus that hasn't gone away. Throwing up, diarrhea, and a cold. Nothing to treat, except for the symptoms. It finally got bad enough that on Saturday she was dehydrated. I took her up to the hospital to get an I.V. After the trauma of the needle wore off, she slept. She didn't even wake up when they poked her finger. As far as hospital visits go, this was pretty good. Hailey perked right up after her nap and all the fluids. The Dr. gave her anti-nausea medicine, and she's been keeping all her food down. She definitely still wants me to hold her all day, but I can handle that. I just hope she keeps getting better.

On a much better note, we took Abigail, Carly, and Luke to Disney on Ice. Luke and Carly liked it... Abigail LOVED it! Her eyes were glued to the stage the whole time.

Luke's favorite part was when Jack Skellington and all the villains came out. Not really a surprise there. Carly liked the Toy Story guys.

Now to end the post with a picture of my cart full of kids.
I love these guys!

Random

I have some random pictures from the last little while... what they may be lacking in excitement, they make up with cuteness. Here they are in no particular order

my sassy, little Rapunzel

Ab building a snowman with her Dad

My sweet Hailey.
This little girl can't seem to get feeling good...

But I finally got her to crack a smile :)

Luke, with his little snowman (the snow refused to be packed, so he just made a little mound instead)

One of our many sick days in Feb.

Reading her favorite book, Baby Dear, to me.


I'm glad that the weather is starting to warm up. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside, it's so refreshing.

9 months

My sweet Hailey muffin is 9 months! I can't handle the rate life going at lately. My kids are all growing up too fast. It seems like just yesterday, Luke was being a unruly little toddler and I was wishing he would grow-up. Now he is doing things all by himself. On our way to the dentist last week he told me in the car that he didn't need me to come back with him and that he would be just fine, I could watch t.v. in the waiting room if I wanted. I love that he's growing up, but I just wish it would slow up a bit.
Now Hailey is already so big, I'm not ready for the baby of the family to change so quickly. Which is probably why she's spoiled and coddled. I just can't help myself.
Her 9 month stats are:
20.7 lbs. 75%
29 Inches 90%

She's such a little ray of sunshine, always happy!

You can tell she's grouchy/tired when the fingers go in her mouth...

But you know she's not messing around when she puts her other arm in front. She sleeps with her fingers in her mouth and her arm across her face. It's like she's holding her fingers in. Even when I'm feeding her a bottle, she puts her fingers next to her mouth and her arm over her eyes.
I love this little girl with her big bright smile, and her little giggles. She says, mama, Dada, and No. Funny that she's learned so young to say no. Ben was feeding her peas the other day and finally she had had it. She shook her head saying, "no no no no".


Now for the my excuse as to why I haven't blogged for a while. Well, Ben got a kindle for Christmas/birthday. When he got it, he kept urging me to use it and I kept telling him no. He decided he would just put a book on there for me and leave it at home. So of course I read it and I was hooked (which is why I didn't want to use it in the first place). Having free books instantly at anytime of the day without leaving the house was amazing. I started begging him to leave it at home during the day and then I wouldn't give it back till I went to bed. If you've been to meals with the Jenkins you'll know that moderation is not our strong suit. Ben realized that after we got married and he saw that we have to ration out the bacon and rolls (Jenkins favorites). Thomas Luke still doesn't think 5 rolls per person is enough. I could write a book on my and maybe some of my sibs. obsessive behavior over the years, but I'm getting off subject... Well, back to the kindle. Ben being the sweet guy that he is let me use it. Then I think one day he'd had enough, and he started taking it to work, and he even bought me a book to read. Well he could see I was going through kindle withdrawals, and he found one on KSL and drove down to south jordan to pick it up for me. He's the best. It kept me great company through all of February, because we have all been sick for pretty much the entire month. I don't even want to know how many books I've read in the last 2 months. The bad part is that, they're mostly the free crappy ones off amazon. So it's not like I've been expanding my horizons through reading. But now I've decided to change my obsessive book reading behavior, and I've cut back. Now that the kids are all feeling better, we've got stuff to do, things to clean, and fun to be had.

Now if you don't see or hear from us in a while you'll know I've gone back to my old ways and I might need rescuing. Seriously.