A much needed update!

* Warning-  This may be the longest post in blog history.

I apologize for the lack of posts in the last couple of months. Life has been wonderful, but I haven't been much in the mood to write it all down. I hope I can remember everything.  First off, we will start with Halloween.  Deklan was a spider for Halloween. The cutest spider I have ever seen.  Our ward had trunk or treat at the church with a chili contest and karaoke.  It was a great party and Deklan got a ton of complements on his costume.

This is Deklan and his friend Heath, the Pirate. 

I have never really been into decorating for Halloween, but having a baby kind of changes things. I found the pattern for this banner online and my mom and I both made one for Halloween when I was home in September.  I love it and want to make one for every holiday.

My birthday was the first part of November and my only request was to go the beach.  We live only about 40 minutes from the ocean.  So we packed up the car and headed out.  It just so happened that my birthday was the windiest, coldest day we have had since we have been here.  We stopped at the ocean briefly took some pictures, and decided that we would head up the coast to Cocoa beach and hope for a little less wind.  There was an air show on Cocoa Beach that afternoon and we ended up spending most of the day in horrible traffic. So we did get to see the ocean for my birthday but only for about 5 minutes.   Deklan didn't care much for the ocean, I think it is because of the noise. It is so big and even a little scary for me, I can't imagine what it appears like to him.  

Deseret Ranch has a visitors center not far from our house. The senior missionaries serving on the ranch run the visitors center and give tours of the ranch.  We decided on day to go on the tour.  The visitors center is great and below you will see a picture of Deklan sitting by an alligator. This is a gator that was found on the ranch in the orange grove.  It didn't harm anyone, but made the orange pickers a little nervous, so they harvested the gator.  His name is Gus, he is about 13 feet long.  While on our tour we saw a turtle crossing the road and we saw our first wild gator. 

November was a great month!  I was called to be the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society and it has kept me very busy, but we did have time to make another trip to the beach and lots of playdates and daily trips to the park.  

Cute little piggies in the sand

Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came to visit for Thanksgiving and it was absolutely wonderful having visitors. Deklan loved the extra attention and Grandma loved all the playtime with Deklan. We took them to the beach and to the Kennedy Space Center.  Grandpa Jensen loved the Space Center. He and Nate could have spend days there.    We had Thanksgiving with the Walker family. It was a wondeful meal and we love spending time with their family.  The day after Thanksgiving, our ward had a campout.  They had a pot luck- dutch oven meal that was great.  We didn't camp this year but have every intention of doing so next year. Everyone who camped out seemed to really enjoy themselves.   

It was wonderful having Grandma and Grandpa Jensen here to visit, we were so sad to see them go and hope them come back soon. 

Deklan is growing like a weed.  He was 9 months in December.  I can't believe the time is going so quickly.  

At nine months he weighed 24.9 lbs and was 30 inches long.  Everywhere we take him, people say "Wow, he is a big kid."   He is big, and adorable and funny.    

He is crawling and climbing everywhere. He has 4 teeth, two on top and two on the bottom.  He loves to clap and we are working on waving bye bye. 

We had family pictures taken the first part of December for our Christmas cards.  Sister Walker took our pictures in her yard and did a wonderful job.  Deklan loves Sister Walker, she can always make him laugh and smile.  

Deklan hates wearing bibs while he is eating, he is constantly trying to pull them off, which usually turns into a fun game of beek-a-boo, while I am trying to feed him. Whenever I get the camara out and start snapping picture he starts squinting when the flash goes off. It makes me laugh everytime, he is such a ham. 

Immediately after Grandma and Grandpa Jensens'  visit, I put up our Christmas tree.  Every year I tell Nate that we have the prettiest Christmas tree and this year was no different.  Also, it made our new house feel a lot more like home once we put up the Christmas decor.   Deklan didn't bother the tree too much at first, but by Christmas he had destroyed the lower portion of the tree, what baby hasn't right??

Deklan often crawls over to the mirror, pulls himself up and talks to and kisses the mirror. Nate is convinced that he is self absorbed, I am sure he doesn't know it is himself yet. I think he just like other kids.   Whatever the case may be,  it is dang cute when he flashes a smile in the mirror.

Nate and I got a new camera as an early Christmas present.  Nate had a great time playing with all the features on it.  He loves this picture of Deklan and I will admit, it is pretty funny too.

Here are some other random pictures that I took of Deklan throughout the month. I just can't get enough of him and how fun he is.

I had to capture how cubby those little legs are. The picture doesn't do them justice

Getting ready to go to church.

This is one of my very favorite picture of him.  

A whole new meaning to "Oatmeal bath"

Proof that he is a good eater

Just a week or so before Christmas, some of our very good friends moved away from the ranch.  The Birchs moved to Nebraska to work on the ranch there and the Larsens moved back to Rexburg to finish school.  We were very sad to see both of them go and will sorely miss them.  The park will not be the same without little Ruby and Heath.  Deklan loved having other little people around.


                                             CHRISTMAS
Although a little bittersweet, Christmas was wonderful to us.  It was our first Christmas being away from home and family. We definately missed all of our family and friends and all of the wonderful traditions that we have shared with our families in the past.  However, this was Deklan's first Christmas and it was so magical even though he had no idea what was going on. We were able to start some of our own traditions and carry on those we love of our families.    Nate's favorite tradition is, each year on Christmas Eve, his mom reads the story " The littlest Shepard"   It is a wonderful story and it never fails to leave us both in tears.  We love this story and it will be one that we continue in our family.   I loved having Christmas on Sunday this year. What a better way to spend Christmas than at Church. We had a wonderful service and felt the spirit very strongly.  After church we went to the Walker's house for brunch and then came home to have Christmas with our little family.   It was wonderful.  Deklan got spoiled rotten.  We appriciate all the wonderful gifts from our families and hope that we you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. 

Christmas morning

Santa brought Deklan a rocking horse

Lots of books from Grandma Jensen

A twirly tower from cousin Kai 

New sneakers and lots of clothes from Nana

As this year comes to a close, I can't help but remember Nate's sister Natalie telling him last year (2010) that she had a feeling that 2011 was going to be a great year for us.  2011 has been an absolutley wonderful year for us.  We have been blessed beyond belief this year.  I get choked up every time I start to count the blessings that we have, and I cannot deny that we have a loving Heavenly Father who cares for each one of his children deeply and has bountious blessings in store for all of us.     

Deklan's 6 month pictures

I am a little late posting this, but I had to share it.  While we were in Idaho, Natalie took Deklan's 6 month pictures.  She did an amazing job, as always.  Here are just a few of my favorites. 

We love spending time with Natalie and her boys, here is a picture of Deklan and Jens enjoying their bath in Grandma's sink.  Cute little boys!

Blessings

Lately, I have been throwing pity parties for myself pretty frequently.   Tonight, as I was catching up on some of my friends blogs, I realized just how blessed I am.  This year has been full of wonderful blessings for our little family.  We were blessed with our sweet son Deklan, who has stole my heart.  Shortly after we were blessed with Nate's job, there is no better job we could have gotten.  I have been feeling bad because we don't get to be close to our families, but we have yet again been blessed to live in an amazing ward and have been blessed with amazing friends here in Florida.   As I think of all of the trials that some of our friends and family are facing right now, I can't help but be thankful that the only hardship we are facing right now is not getting to have Sunday dinners with our families. We are truly blessed.

I was visited by a sister in our new ward this week.  She was so upbeat and had such a good outlook on life. She left me with a wonderful message, and a desire to be a better person.   This sister has four children under the age of 9, she has once recovered from breast cancer and is now battling numerous tumors in her brain.  Although she is facing this tremedous trial in her life, she is able to seek out the goodness in her life and share it with me.   She left such a wonderful spirit in my home.  

At the end of this wonderful weekend, I have come to the realization that I need to be more thankful for what I do have and not focus so much on what I don't have.

 I do have:

- A wonderful husband who loves me, our son, and his Heavenly Father
- A healthy, adorable, active, sometimes crazy little baby boy
- A family who I miss dearly
- A home
- A body (sometimes I curse it, but am grateful that it allows me to bear children and lets me walk beside them)
- A testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel

I have many other things to be grateful for, and hope that thru the coming month I can remember each of them and show my gratitude for them.

Home Sweet Home

After visiting family in Idaho for a month. Deklan and I are back in Florida and adjusting to the humidity again.   We had such a wonderful time in Idaho, but we did miss Nate an awful lot and are glad to be back.  Idaho was eventful as always. Here is a list of things we did.

1) we got to meet Deklan's newest cousin, Cailee Brielle Chandler.  She is beautiful and I enjoyed snuggling with her very much.

2) Deklan got Rosiola, which resulted in a high fever, a seizure and a horrible rash.  Poor little thing was miserable.

3) Went to Utah for a couple of days and got to see Nate's sister and her two adorable boys.  I loved visiting with her, we always have the best talks.  Also, got to see Nate's brothers family in Heber. We never get to spend enough time with them. Nate and I left Deklan with his Aunt Elise for a couple of hours while we enjoyed dinner with Jared and Shauna. That was the first time leaving him with someone besides his grandmas.  Thank you Elise, you did a great job.

4) Deklan got his first tooth. It is so cute!

5)  Crafts Crafts Crafts!  I did tons of crafting. I made a few halloween decorations for my house and then made some Christmas gifts as well.  I love projects!

6)  Repainted and Decorated my old room at my mom's house.  We turned my room into a beautiful guest room with all antique furniture. It was beautiful.

7) Family Family Family!  We spent tons of time just visiting and relaxing with family.  

I took tons of pictures while we were there, but they are on my mom's camera, so I will have to add them to the post later.

6 months

My little boy is 6 months old! ( Well he was 6 months old on the 2nd. I am a little behind on my blogging)   He is such a fun little boy.  He is full of smiles, laughs and energy.  He isn't still unless he is sleeping.  He loves to play rough with his daddy.  He can sit all by himself.  I took him to the doctor for his well-child visit and to get his immunizations.   At 6 months he weighed 22lbs and is 29 3/4 inches tall.  BIG BOY, I know!   Nate's sister was kind enough to take his 6  month photos. She did an amazing job, as always.  Check them out on Facebook at Natalie Heiner Photography.    

A few days after his 6 month birthday, he took his first plane ride. We are in Idaho visiting family for a couple of weeks.  He did suprising well on the airplane and enjoyed visiting with all the other people on the plane.    We have lots of fun things planned while we are visiting Idaho.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday afternoon Deklan came down with a runny nose, then last night he was so stuffed up that he had a hard time sleeping. By this morning he was coughing. So, I called around and got an appointment with a pediatrician for 10:00 this morning.  I made sure to clarify with them that they excepted our new insurance and headed to town (it is a 30 minute drive to anything here).  I get to the Dr. office, check in, give the recepitionist my insurance card, fill out all the necessary paperwork and took a seat in the waiting room.  25 minutes later, the receptionist calls me up to the desk and informs me that they don't accept our insurance. AGGGGGHHHHHH!  (reminder- I asked them when I made the appointment if they accepted our insurance and they said yes). So I call Nate at work, and have him give me the number to another pediatricians office. They have an appointment, but not until 1:30 this afternoon.   Ok, so I decided to cruise around town, run a few errands and explore the area a little bit instead of driving home for an hour just to have to turn around and come back.    I did accidentally find a wonderful shopping center with a Target, Ross, Michaels, Kohls, Maurices, and Marshalls in it, so I did some window shopping to help pass the time.

So, then to the doctor appointment.  I walk in to the clinic to be met by an very unfriendly "Ursula."  I check in and hand her my insurance card. Deklan starts to cough. She says to me in her very deep manly voice, "Mam, this is the well child waiting room, you need to move over there" and looks at a tiny room over in the corner. So I cowerdly pick up all my stuff and move to the sick child waiting room.  Anyways,  besides Ursula, the staff was very nice and super helpful.  The doctor diagnosed Deklan with pnemonia and a double ear infection.  UGH!  The poor kid is so sick.  So, the doctor sent me home with a nebulizer, a list of medications and a treatment schedule.  I get out to the car, take a deep breath and call Nate to give him the news. I am crying to him about how bad I feel that Deklan is so sick and how I feel like such a horrible mom for letting him get so sick and BAMB!  I got rear-ended!!!!!  I immediatly burst into a sobbing mess, turn around to check on Deklan, who is sleeping and pull of the side of the road.   The elderly man and his wife get out of there car to see me in tears, and immediatly start to apologize. I had to explain to them that I was already crying and I wasn't crying about the car week.  Luckily, there was not much damage to either car, just a scratch in the paint and we went our seperate ways.

I might be being a little dramatic but I think I had a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY.  Not near as bad as this poor little guy though.  I sure hope he gets feeling better soon.  Love you little man!

A day in my world.

I love love love staying at home with my little man.  We have so much fun together and some days we don't accomplish much, but every day we do make sure Deklan gets a bath, which he loves. 

We make sure Deklan eats, which he loves to do as well.

We play until we are both exhausted!

and we sleep!

 So last night I was in doing dishes and Nate had Deklan in the bedroom playing.  I could hear them laughing and playing and then all of the sudden, it became very quite, and this is what I found. I guess he was ready for bed.