Hawaii!

For Thanksgiving we went with my family to Hawaii. I know, I know, these pictures are a bit late since it's almost Christmas but hey, better late than never! I decided to do something a little different this time for our pictures. I'm going to give you the behind the scenes look at our trip. Enjoy!

Carly and Brandon having fun!

Just hanging around!

My sister Jessica and her um, husband Ben. Why is it that guys can't just smile?

Our little encampment by the pool for the day, including baby tent! The pool was great, complete with water slides, pirate ship, and waterfalls.

Tyler snoozing by the pool.

Here's Brandon pretending he's Bear Gryllis from "Man vs. Wild"!

The rest of us chose to stay on the shore and throw rocks in the water. Carly thought it was great fun!

Here's the girls hang out on the beach, enjoying the sunset.

Here's Brandon trying to push over the IOA Needle. This was our second trip b/c the first time we went, it was closed off due to rain!

Carly had a great time running around while waiting for Brandon to finish his bet with Natalie. He had to run up and down the stairs to the look out 7 times for $20! There were 133 steps. No comment.

We made Brandon a little tunnel to run through when he was finished. Definitely not worth $20!

Our second day in Hawaii, we took the advice of a local and took the scenic route back to the resort. It was a long, narrow, windy road and we all wanted to throw ourselves off the cliff about half way through.

Carly and I spent most of the drive asleep after realizing the views weren't really that great!

We went to dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Brandon decided to buy Carly a real lei. It only cost $11!!!! And she wouldn't wear it even for the picture!


Thanks Mom and Dad for the wonderful trip! We had a lot of fun and it was nice to take a break from the everyday!

I WIN!!!!!!

I'm wiling to admit that I'm stubborn, many times very stubborn to be exact. And of course, in all fairness to my mom and dad, I ended up with an often stubborn child. Today stubborn mama and stubborn daughter went head to head.

It was an average morning. Carly was sitting in her high chair, eating peaches and watching her favorite cartoon, Max and Ruby. And like every morning, instead of telling me when she is finished, she dumps the remaining peaches out of her bowl and onto her tray. Well, I've gotten tired of cleaning up the dumped food which usually is just on her tray but sometimes ends up on the floor as well if I'm not paying good enough attention. I asked her to help me put the peaches back in the bowl. I put most of them back in the bowl while she sat and watched so I told her to put the remaining peaches back in the bowl and then she could get down and watch some more Max and Ruby. To which she replied, "No, you pick them up." And thus the battle began.

Forty-five minutes later, Carly was still sitting in her high chair, crying and occasionally screaming and thrashing about but still refusing to put the peaches back in the bowl. And I was still sitting nearby on the couch telling her to put the peaches in the bowl and then she could get down.

After another half an hour, most of which was spent in time out in her room, Carly finally gave it up and put the peaches back in her bowl. I won!!! And despite how frustrated I was, I kept my cool and didn't yell. I think my magazine I was reading on the couch helped. :) In conclusion, I guess I still win for being the most stubborn!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Due to popular demand, here are some more pictures of my cute kids and what we've been up to!

The first Sunday of November, we blessed Tyler. It was a wonderful blessing and a great day with family and friends.

This was the best picture we could get when we attempted to photograph two kids at once. Tyler was not a happy camper and the only way I could get Carly to wear her dress was to tell her it was Ariel's party dress!

Carly was not interested in carving pumpkins. She said they were yucky. She did enjoy painting her small pumpkin.

Below is one of Carly's favorite activities. She calls it "helping mama do the dishes" but it's really playing in the water. She could be entertained for hours with water and a few cups and bowls. It's just too bad we're on the verge of a drought otherwise I would let her do it all day long!

Here are my Super Charger Fans! #21 is Landanion Tomlinson. I guess I need a jersey so I can join the picture. :)

Here is Carly with her BFF, Kaylen. They love playing and fighting together!

I love this picture! One of those rare moments when Carly said "cheese" and looked at the camera!

Carly and her cousin, Christian, at Grandma and Grandpa J's house doing another one of Carly's favorite activities, Coloring!

Tyler lounging on the couch. So sweet! One of his favorite snoozing spots.

One of those sweet moments captured on film! Carly is very sweet to her brother and gives him hugs and kisses.


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Halloween Fun!

Our Halloween fun began with dressing up for our weekly storytime. We love storytime!

Next we visited the pumpkin patch to select the perfect pumpkin. This was actually our second trip to the pumpkin patch. Our first trip was to Bates Nut Farm which was cut short due to heat, flies, and awnry children.

Tyler thoroughly enjoyed the pumpkins!

Princess Ariel and her pumpkin all ready to go trick-or-treating!

We went trick-or-treating with Carly's BFF, Kaylen, and her family.

They held hands for moral support at some of the "scary" houses.

Here's how Tyler spent his Halloween night.

The next morning, Carly wanted to go trick-or-treating again! Then on Sunday she asked to wear her "Ariel dress" to church. She was finally able to put her dress back on and have some fun with cousin Christian in his spider costume.


Tyler in another pumpkin outfit. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Zwick!

"Protecting Marriage to Protect Children"

My sister's father-in-law emailed us this article from the LA Times. It's an opinion column written by a liberal democrat who is for Proposition 8. I know, who'd have thought. But I really liked what he had to say about the importance of marriage in relation to children. Here is the address to the article, just copy and paste. Let me know if it doesn't work.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-blankenhorn19-2008sep19,0,2093869.story

Check it out and VOTE YES FOR PROP 8!!!

Vote Yes!!!

We need your help! Next month while most Americans will be focusing on who they are voting for president, Californians will be voting on something even more important, MARRIAGE. Eight years ago, Californians voted to keep the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. The vote passed by 61% but here we are again faced with the same problem and in order to prevent this from continuing, we are proposing to amend the Californian constitution with Proposition 8.

Voting YES on Proposition 8 does 3 simple things:

*It restores the definition of marriage to what the vast majority of California voters already approved and what Californians agree should be supported, not undermined.

*It overturns the outrageous decision of four activist Supreme Court judges who ignored the will of the people.

*It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage, and prevents other consequences to Californians who will be forced to not just be tolerant of gay lifestyles, but face mandatory compliance regardless of their personal beliefs.

It is so important to us to protect marriage and protect the future of our children. If you are a Californian, please vote yes on Prop8. If not, you can still help. You can go to www.protectmarriage.com and learn more and donate. Every little bit helps. You can also contact your church leaders and offer your time to call to people in California and make sure they are aware and understand the importance of Prop 8. You can use any form of communication you have to get the word out; blogs, texts, myspace, etc. We need your help! And for those of you who are thinking that this is just a problem for Californians, think about this. California is just the beginning, what if your state is next?

Being a mom of 2...

Of 2 kids or of a 2 year old, which ever way you want to interpret it. So every morning I wake up with a few specific goals in mind. Nothing big. Just the usual things, take a shower, clean up some clutter, take care of my kids, do a chore or two. And yet here I sit, taking a break to gather myself and keep my sanity, having accomplished only one thing on my list at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I spent the morning trying to feed and dress a creature who takes every opportunity she can to run away or just simply be uncooperative. My mom was nice enough to take my creature to story time during which I spent my time taking care of my new little bug who decided to spend an hour eating and not to got to sleep until right when my creature got back. I just finished eating my burnt pizza lunch which became burnt after I had to clean pizza sauce off the hands, face and arms of my creature who was quite upset about having to now go take a nap. So to all the moms out there, I know how you feel and to all the dads out there, this is why it looks like your wife did nothing all day. When in reality, the fact that we manage to do anything and keep our sanity is, on some days, a miracle. But if you ask us, we wouldn't trade being a mom for anything in the world. It would be nice to have a day off once in a while though.

Update!

Well, Tyler is now a month old and is doing great. He is a wonderful baby who hardly cries and sleeps a ton. Carly loves being a big sister. Granted, she has her moments when she wants me to put Tyler down and hold her. (I've learned how to hold her and feed Tyler at the same time.) Carly is very loving and gives Tyler lots of kisses and wants to help change his diapers, feed him and give him baths. And Tyler is a very good little brother. He has tolerated being poked, covered in stickers and had a ball bounced off his head with little or no response. Brandon and I are surviving having a newborn and getting through the day with less sleep. Brandon is great about helping me in the middle of the night and being supportive of my new mom hormones and recovery from my c-section.
Medically, Tyler is doing great. The cardiologist said his heart is doing well and he is still on schedule for surgery at 4 to 5 months of age. He also gave us the okay today to go to Hawaii for Thanksgiving! We've had this planned for almost a year and it's exciting to know that we can still go.
Here's some pictures and hopefully, I'll remember to take more. (I'm sad that I didn't get a picture of the sticker moment.)

Tyler is here!

I am not very good at posting- Carissa is usually the one that does it! For those that don't know, Tyler William Jergensen was born on September 1, 2008- yes labor day (fitting for Carissa) and for those that have been waiting- here are some pics of the cute little guy. Sorry they have taken so long to get out. For those doing the math right now and thinking that Carissa wasn't due until the end of september, yea he was born 4 weeks early! Carissa started feeling contractions at 2:30 on Monday afternoon so we headed over to the hospital and they checked to make sure she was in labor, which she was and 7 hours later little Tyler was born. We had to do a C-section because he was breech, that went well, just a little pain still but she is recovering good. Now onto Tyler. When he was born they noticed that he had many features that are present in down syndrome babies and they also noticed a heart murmur. He was taken into the NICU and they made the decision to transfer him down to Children's hospital in San Diego. He has been in the NICU at Children's for the past 4 days and every day is getting much better. Today they decided to take him out of the NICU and into an intermediate care room. Hopefully he should be home in the next few days. YEAH! We are pretty sure he has down syndrome but they cannot say for 100% until the chromosome test comes back which should be sometime this week. He does have a heart condition that is very frequent in down syndrome babies called AV (atrioventricular) septal defect. You can look it up if you want- I have explained it soooooo many times! They control it with meds for the first 4-6 months of his life and then do a surgery to repair the defect. The success rate is very high and we have been comforted with all the blessings and prayers that others have given to us and to Tyler! We are very excited to have this special spirit in our lives and can't wait to beable to bring him home. Here are some pics of the cute guys and if you want more info feel free to call Carissa or I- it is a lot of info to try and write in a blog!

Baby Slings?

So I've decided that I just have to have a baby sling for my new little bundle that's coming in 4 1/2 weeks! I googled baby slings and got about million hits. So I thought I would ask the moms I knew which slings they recommended, brand or website. Thanks!

Also, just an FYI for all you who are wondering what happened to the Jergensens over the past month and a half. We've had a million and one things going on and I'm sure I have a million and one pictures to go with them. One of these days, I'll post some. I think the best thing that happened was that Carly turned 2! My baby has become toddler! And about 2 weeks after her birthday, I had to have minor surgery. Don't worry, the baby is perfect and I am now doing a lot better. I know you all hate the missing details but I'd rather not share on a blog. Feel free to email or call if you just have to know. It's been a long three weeks of recovery but I'm on the upside. I am forever grateful to my family and friends for the hours upon hours of help, love and support they have given my little family and me. I feel truly blessed to have them. Hopefully the next 4 1/2 weeks will go smoothly and we'll be able to bring a new healthy and happy baby into the world. So forgive the lack of posts and info and don't get too excited for very many in the near future until life calms down some. Thanks.

Oh, the joys of pregnancy!

The old saying goes "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Well, I was starting to wonder what happens when life gives you too many lemons and you don't have enough sugar to make lemonade? Yes, I'm one of those women who does not enjoy pregnancy and I'm baffled by women who do. I've now reached 28 weeks which means it's time for the dreaded gestational diabetes test. I had diabetes with my last pregnancy and when I failed the 1 hour glucose test, I thought "here we go again!" I then had to do the three hour test which leaves you starving and looking like an intravenous drug user. As I walked into my doctor's office yesterday, I was mentally saying goodbye to cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, chocolate, etc. for the next 2 1/2 months. Not to mention watching every thing you eat and testing your blood sugar four times a day. When my doctor finally came into the room (it seemed like I waited for a really long time!) she announced nonchalantly "You results came back fine." I was shocked and made her repeat what she said. Then I exclaimed, "I'm so excited!" to which she laughed. And I practically skipped out of the office to my car. Just when I thought I couldn't handle any more lemons, life gave me sugar to make lemonade. Thank goodness!

Out of the Ordinary Summer Fun!

A couple of weeks ago we ventured over to Coronado to hang out with our friends, the Godfreys, before they moved out of the country. They took us to the Navy Seal Base where we had the opportunity to watch feeding time with the Navy Seal Dolphins. It turned out to be a little more than watching and a ton of fun!

We were able to get up close to all the dolphins.

The trainer offered to let Carly and I feed the dolphin but we both declined at the sight of the fish.

I'm now an official dolphin trainer!

Brandon gave the dolphin a belly rub. We couldn't convince Carly to touch the dolphins at all! She did enjoy watching watching the dolphins jump and do other tricks.

It was one of those amazing experiences that you usually only find backstage at Sea World for a high cost. Thanks again to the Godfreys for letting us tag along!

By the way, for those of you who may want to know, the Navy uses their trained dolphins to help patrol the waters. The dolphins swim with the boat and look for swimmers and other things that should not be in that area of water. The dolphins mark the swimmers with a beacon and the coast guard picks them up.