Just a Few Pics

 We have a bit of sibling rivalry going. Even while they sleep. So often one of them turns in their sleep and can't help but kick the other one. Can't wait til they get older and it gets worse.

Here's Tori kicking Gunner in the ribs.

Gunner knows how to get even though. He fights back hard kicking Tori in the head.

There are times though they just have to be close without the hostility. I love when I go to check on them and they have wiggled so their heads are together. This happens more often than the not.

Sometimes we can just be taking pictures because they are so stinkin' cute...

then out of nowhere...Blamo! Right in the kisser!

These two keep me hoppin'. I am so glad my mom lives just 4 blocks away and loves to come and visit her grandbabies.

  Daddy loves lovin' on the two of them at the same time too!

You would never guess how proud he is of his two little ones, would ya?

This pic I just had to throw in.

Gunner seems to be out growing Tori by a little bit. This picture is the only one that I could find that really shows how much bigger he is than her. She's still my "baby girl" but he's my "big guy".

Can you tell whose hand is whose, just from the size? If not here is a hint: Tori's skin tone is olive like her daddy's.

 I love my family and I thank Heavenly Father for all of them every day! Allen is such an cute daddy and an amazing man, I wouldn't trade him for anything! Tori and Gunner, well, they are our little miracles and such a huge blessing in our lives and to our family!

Attack of RSV

On the 8th we took Gunner over to the ER because he had been sick for a couple days but Easter morning he was so bad. His sinuses were so full of boogers and he had drainage like no other going down his throat. It was to the point he couldn't eat because the drainage would make him gag and then he would throw everything up. Not that he could get much down due to the fact he couldn't breathe through his nose. It was so sad.
They tested him for RSV and it came out positive. Pretty much they said they couldn't do anything for it except suction his nose out and prescribe a nebulizer and write up an order for the "suction clinic". The suction clinic is just so we could take him over to the hospital anytime to get him suctioned. The order was good for two weeks. We also had him write an order for Tori since they co-bed and had been sharing bottles.
I am so glad my mom lives close and could come and help me! Gunner was sick for about a week super sick for 3 or 4 days. I would wake up and have to go make sure he was still breathing if I couldn't hear him through the monitor. He was on the mend and starting to feel better when Tori started on her way down. She too was sick for about a week and super sick for 3 or 4. Her nose and sinuses are a lot smaller than Gunner's so I kind of worried more about her at night when I couldn't hear her, in general her breathing was a lot louder and more labored. We ended up using the nebulizer on her more than him because her lungs tightened up worse and made it impossible for her to have productive coughs.
The thing that killed me though was the trying to eat and it making them cough and cough and cough then it would get the phlegm moving and make them gag and in the end there would be phlegm filled puke everywhere. Not only was it disgusting, it was one of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced because I couldn't fix it or stop it! Then they would look at me with red eyes from the whole experience and start crying. Talk about heartbreaking!
Before it was over we were ALL sick. And we were all exhausted. It seems though that things are on the up swing and we are all getting close to being over and done with it. YAY!
I wish someone could tell me I would never have to see my babies that sick again. Yes, I know, that kind of stuff just goes with the territory of being Mom.

Wow! 5 1/2 Months later!

Tons has happened since the last post. The whole birth story I won't be publishing on this blog because it belongs on my other blog so for those of you who check this blog I have pics and that's about it. :)

This is in the end of first week or the beginning of second. They still had their PICC lines in, and it was their first day cobedding.

This is in the end of the second or first of the third week when all they had left was the feeding tubes.

Third week within the first few days of being home.

6 wks old

9 1/2 wks old in their blessing outfits. They were blessed on March 4th, 8 1/2 wks old.

Allen and I are so blessed to have Tori and Gunner in our home! They raise a ruckus every now and then but life would be empty without them. Thank heaven for the little people!

20 Wk U/S

It's been a while since I've updated...
Our last u/s was on Sept 21st, it was our 20 wk u/s (just so happened it was 20 wks right on the button). We registered at the hospital and then went over to radiology. The first appt was at 1:00 ours wasn't until 2:30 but we were the first ones to show up so we got right in. That was nice, not having to wait.
Our tech was really nice, we both really liked her. She answered all of our questions and was really good at making sure we knew what we were looking at. She measured the circumference of their heads, stomachs and the length of their femurs. Somehow the computer takes those measurements and figures how much they weigh. The figured weights were 13 and 14 oz. Woohoo! Almost a pound a piece. lol
She also checked their hearts to make sure all 4 chambers were there and seem to be functioning correctly. At this point I asked her how big their little hearts would be. She told me they were probably about the size of a pea.
Honestly, how anyone can seriously think there is not a God, at least a supreme being, that created everything...I just don't get it. Think about it, at 7 wks on the u/s we could clearly see a flicker of a heartbeat, then just days later there is clearly 4 chambers to this little heart that is the size of a pea. Okay, climbing down off my soapbox now.
She looked at the umbilical cords to make sure they went around the bladder. I don't remember what it would send a red flag up for if it didn't. Luckily both our little one's had their cord going in and attaching where it was supposed to.
She also looked at and measured their stomachs. She checked some space in their skull around their brains...I wish I could remember what she called it. That's what I get for waiting so long to write it all down. She checked their little feet for club foot, their hands for all fingers, and their faces to make sure they didn't have clef pallet. Baby A had his arms up so his wrists crossed at about the bridge of his nose. So she was lucky to be able to see his lips and be sure there was no clef pallet.
Then came the fun part, finding out the genders. She started with Baby B. This little one was so cooperative and opened up his legs so she could get a clear shot of his boyness. He is definitely a boy.
She moved to find out Baby A's gender. This proved to be not so easy. His little legs were clamped shut and the cord wrapped right between his legs and around. She tried bouncing my tummy to get him to move. This way and that way. I've got to give her credit, she tried so hard for about 10 minutes. Baby A would not budge. Finally she said, "Well, I'm going to leave the gel on you and go get the perinatologist (high risk dr). He might want to try or look at something if the pics aren't good enough."
The dr came in looked through the pics and info on the computer and talked to us for a couple minutes. Then he tried to figure out the gender. He tried telling us it was a girl. Neither Allen or I believe it's a girl, we feel very strongly it's another boy. But we just kind of said okay, whatever.
The tech was there and waited for him to leave the room. As soon as the door shut she said, "I wouldn't bank on it being a girl." Then she showed us the picture he was looking at and explained what we were looking at was not the classic "3 lines" that shows it's a girl. We were looking at the cord wrapped between baby's legs and legs. The picture was good enough we could see that. Then she said, "I don't like anyone to leave without having at least an idea of what their having if they want to know. I'm gonna try again."
She poked and prodded and bounced my tummy some more. Little Baby A wouldn't move. Then she had me go pee. I guess sometimes that's all it takes to get them to move. I went pee. And I pushed and prodded and bounced my tummy just to try to ensure baby would've moved by the time I lay back down. Haha!! No such luck! That baby was still all balled up and legs shut tight.
So now we are anxiously awaiting the next u/s which isn't until the 19th of this month. If that little rascal is being uncooperative again, boy....there's gonna be trouble. lol

20 Wk U/S Pics

My Allen

I am soooo proud of my Allen! He started working out about a month ago. He's doing P90X of all things! I didn't think he would stick with it this long but he has. I am so proud of him. I feel bad though because now when we have a wee one he's gonna have a hot, hunky daddy and a big fat mommy! Maybe that will give me the motivation I'll need. Anywho, he has only lost 4 lbs so far but his muscles are growing and getting a lot more defined. It's not an easy program he works out for at least an hour every night, usually an hour and a half! Sure there are days he misses due to "life" happening but I think he's only missed three maybe four times! I just had to give a shout out to him because I am so proud of him! GO ALLEN!!!

New Arrival On It's Way!

We've been trying and waiting for a dozen years, but it's finally happened! We are expecting a little bundle of joy in February, the 8th to be exact! Today we are 12 1/2 weeks along. We tried naturally conceiving, foster care, and even adoption. None of them worked. Allen losing his job was the biggest blessing of all time!
I was excited for the future when he lost his job. I had no clue as to why at the time. I now know it was because that needed to happen in order to make it possible for our family to grow. His new insurance covered IVF. Lucky for us we only had to do one round! First try less than six months after he lost his job and we got pregnant!
I just hope now that we have gone public with it that nothing devastating will happen and we have to tell everyone it's not happening anymore. Everyone keep your fingers crossed and prayers would be appreciated too.

Easter

I know it's late but here it is. We had our traditional type of Easter Egg Hunt. I am so glad years ago Allen and I decided to stop and shoot our eggs after a failed egg rolling day. I had never been Easter Egg Rolling (still haven't) but that was the Jensen thing to do. Not anymore once we shared with his family what we did with our eggs, it's now all aobut blowing 'em up. We started with 10.5 doz eggs and went home with none. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me. lol

Here are some very random pics from the day.

The Fierce Karena

Dead Eggs

Here Little Bro Let Me Share My Treasure

This Is My Hot Self.  LOL

Found Somethin' Under a Rock

Pulled the Trigger No Go Boom

What a Cute Stinker

Reloading Supervisor

Allen Helping Big J Take a Shot

There Are Eggs Out There...I Promise

Hmmmm....Where to Put Them?

How 'bout in a Sage Brush

I LOVE My Man!

This Was MY Easter Egg Tree (1.5 doz eggs there)

Nap On the Way There. Wouldn't Drop the Gun

So Proud of His Work!

These Are My Beauts

Sorry so random. Just no energy to fix it for now...maybe later.

Quick Update

While Al was job hunting, our time to re update our home study came up. New policy is we needed to pay $300 for one (they used to be free) so we weren't able to just do it. The deadline was the end of March then they were going to close our file because we had been on a self-imposed hold for so long. The longer we thought about it the less we felt we should/wanted to keep our file open. So...we are not on the market to adopt any longer. Haven't been for quite a while actually, the first part of March sometime I sent our caseworker an email and just told her to close our file. I think the whole reason we felt so strongly to pursue it was to make it possible for us to get involved with Foster Care and keep the family group of 8 kids together (long story and a long time ago).
Meanwhile, I am now working as a Phys Therapist Aide and loving it! I was so scared to go back to work because the last place I worked was so so so hostile. I hated going to work, so much so sometimes I would cry at night because I didn't want to face another day there. But this new job...LOVE IT! I even go in a bit early somedays of my own accord.
Allen is loving his job too! The atmosphere where he is is pretty laid back (something Micron/IMFT never was) and the people he works with he enjoys. But the work he LOVES! It is his favorite thing to do though, tinkering with little electronic things all day long.
The really strange part about it is our schedules are so similar, we haven't had that since the first couple years we were married. I love seeing him every morning and every night. We even get the same weekends!

Really? The New Year Already? Oy!

Where to begin? Okay, really there's not much to tell. Not a whole lot went on but, emotions and stress ran thick and deep.
Come Christmas day Allen had been out of work for 1 1/2 months. I didn't think we would ever make it if he lost his job but apparently we were doing better than we thought, OR we can really do without more things than we thought. lol
Since the day we found out he may be losing his job my thoughts and feelings have been of excitement mostly, but there has been anxiety and concerned mixed in there. The excitement to move up and on in life never left me though. This was very strange to me. I always assumed if we had to deal with job loss and unemployment I would freak out...and not just a little.
At the same time I kept feeling like there was a lesson to be learned in all of it. Last Sunday in Sacrament Meeting I think I finally figured it out. Not only did it happen to serve us a big warm dish of humble pie (which it did), it made it possible for the Lord to bless us a LOT. By this happening my testimony has been strengthened and I think it's safe to assume Allen's has too (not that his faith ever waivers, he's got such a strong spirit). A quote from a Bible Church sign has been popping into my head since about a week after Allen lost his job, "Is the Lord your steering wheel or your spare tire?". Every time it pops in there it makes me stop and think about how I have been living my life, and of course I know it's hasn't been exactly in line with what I know to be true. Not that it's been way off track but I know I could be doing better. Lucky for me everyday is a new day and I can try to better than the day before. So far this year...I'm winning. Haha!
Allen started his new job on Tues (Jan 4). He seems to like it. It's really nice for him because they are a more laid back company, the biggest reason he likes it though is because he gets to work on small electronic components doing soldering and stuff. He loves doing that! I am so happy he has a job that he likes and is busy all the time, as opposed to waiting for a machine to break so he can fix it. When I look in his eyes now I can see life. He really was done with his previous job. I think it had been years since he enjoyed it. I am so grateful to have a man that would do something he really didn't enjoy (whatsoever) to support his family.
He sent a resume to a company a week or so ago that he really want to work for. He found the posting on the Workforce Services job search. They said on there though that it was taken from an ad in a paper. When he looked up the company to apply their website said there were currently no openings. But because he's always dreamed of doing a job like that he decided to send them a resume and brief cover letter anyway in hopes they would keep it on file for a while and maybe he would get a call if there was a job opening soon. To his surprise (and mine) his first day at work on his first break his phone rings and he answers it. It was this company calling to set up an interview because they are so interested in having him work for them! His interview is tomorrow. I can't wait to see what happens! It makes me so excited for him that my heart skips a beat when I think about it. I really hope this is the "moving up and on" that I have been hoping for. He would be so happy and love his job!
We are really hoping this year is the year our family will get to grow and increase in size. At the present moment though it's a bit impossible unless by some miracle we can find our own birth mother. Since Allen lost his job we don't have insurance and until very recent we have had no income, both of which are necessary to have our profile published. Not only that before we get published we need to update our home study, in order to that we have to come up with $300. Hopefully it's just a momentary set back.
We almost had a birth mom a few weeks ago though. Allen's parents knew someone who knew of a woman wanting to place her baby. Two days though, two lousy days, before they were able to talk to her about it someone else talked to her and they are going to get to adopt the baby. Sad for us, happy for them. =) We're okay with it though because everything happens the way it does for a reason. Apparently that baby belonged in their family.
We've thought about Foster Care to build our family and talked about it. Neither one of us feels that's the way to go at this point though. As far as making a family we are at a loss. We don't know what we are supposed to do (besides adoption...when we are able to get that back on track). I guess we'll see where 2011 takes us, with the Lord as our steering wheel of course.
Oh, by the way, Christmas was good. We spent the morning at my baby brother's house. We were there, my mom and dad were there, my oldest brother was there and of course Sam and Shilo and all 5 of their kids. To say the least it was entertaining. I was going to get pictures but I forgot my camera at home. Oh well, we had fun. Then on the 26th we made a flying trip down to Cedar City to Allen's baby brother's house, on the way we stopped and picked up his mom, dad, grandma and sister. Did I mention we picked up Jayson to take to his dad's. Not to mention all the gifts that were being delivered . The Expedition was full to capacity. Spending their Christmas afternoon with them was fun too. We got to see lots of kids being spoiled this year. Really kind of sad we didn't get to add to the spoiling. hehe It's really okay though, next Christmas will be better.
I guess for not having much to tell I sure said a lot of words. Seems to be a pretty regular thing lately.