We've been busy!

Hi, everyone!

It’s been awhile since we’ve blogged, so there is a lot to catch up on! Ariel will be three months old tomorrow, November 3.

She had her first vaccinations earlier this month and also caught her first cold. It’s been a tough month for her, but she also got to celebrate both aunties’ birthdays & her first Halloween. But before we get to that--I'll catch you up on the latter part of September.

David & I cleaned up the garden for next year. We had quite a few cherry tomatoes, some cucumber & rhubarb too. Our carrots didn't grow well though, and the bugs got all our spinach. Better luck next year! My mom came over that day to help with Ariel, and brought her outside to see what we were up to. She looks so cute in her sunhat!

And of course Grandpa Alan has been over too to spend time with Ariel.

She also sees her Grandma Janeen quite a bit. She's a real hit among the grandparents!

Patrice’s birthday was October 15, and she turned 25. We dressed Ariel up in a cute white shirt with bell sleeves and pink pants for the special occasion.

We had dinner & cheesecake at Janeen’s house.



Angie’s birthday was October 20, and she turned 29. So close to the BIG 30! Crazy to think I’m right behind her—I’ll be 28 in December!! We went to Carino’s, an Italian restaurant, to celebrate and then played games & ate cake at Alan & Moma’s house.


We carved pumpkins a week before Halloween at our house with Angie & her boyfriend, Steven. Ariel was really fascinated by the pumpkins. We got little ones for her & Zada too!


She dressed up as a little pink leopard for Halloween, but she wasn’t too happy about it!

Her costume was a bit too hot, & she kept wiping off her whiskers & little pink nose that I drew on her face. So, eventually David & I gave up on the costume idea & simply took a few quick photos!


We’ve also been enjoying fall here in Boise. It’s so beautiful when all the leaves change colors. We’ve been on the Oregon Trail quite a bit, taking in the scenery & getting some exercise.


Ariel usually falls asleep on our walks. She prefers naked time, looking at her mobile in her crib, or playing on her activity mat. ;)



And Ariel has been smiling every day now, and making a lot of cute baby noises—coos & squeals. You’ll get to see her in action in a little video we’re posting.


It’s been quite a busy month! We're all exhausted!

Now we have Thanksgiving to look forward too. Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos! Have a wonderful day! We send our love to you all!

Cute Girl Update

Hi, everyone!

We thought we would share more pictures of our beautiful daughter.  She will be seven weeks old on Sunday, and already she is starting to grow out of a few of her newborn outfits because of her long legs. ;)  She definitely did not get those from her mom!

She is now smiling socially, which was a big milestone for her to reach & certainly one of the most rewarding for us!  It's always hard to catch it on film though since she does it during diaper changes mostly.  We'll try to get one on film for the next blog if we can!

She is also following things with her eyes very well & looking around at everything now.  She's very curious, and she likes music quite a bit.  She also LOVES bath time!

We took a photo by the tree we purchased to grow as Ariel grows as discussed in a prior blog.  Here are the photos so far.  The next will be taken when she turns one.  

As for Mom & Dad--we are doing well too, getting more & more used to being parents.  We celebrated our third year marriage anniversary on September 8 by going to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival to see a play.  (For anyone that may be confused, we celebrate two anniversaries--September 8 is when we got legally married in the courthouse prior to David's long deployment to Afghanistan & April 28 is our wedding anniversary.)  It was nice to go on an official date, and Grandma Ginny and Grandpa Alan got a chance to babysit Ariel.  

And of course Grandma Janeen and Aunty Patrice have been over frequently to 'help hold' our precious girl and give Mom and Dad a break.

Finally, we recently received a package from the New Zealand Family with loads of good stuff for Ariel including a teddy bear (her first one!), a small sheep (ram) to match her large one we bought while visiting NZ, some clothes and her very own buzzy-bee, which is a traditional NZ toy. Cheers!

Well, that's all we have for updates now.  We'll continue to post blogs when we get the chance so you can all see Ariel grow!

Love to you all!

Bye bye for now!

Adorable Ariel

Hello, everyone!

Ariel is nearly one month old now, and it's been awhile since we've posted as we've been preoccupied with parenthood. We're both adapting to our new roles as mom & dad, and you could say we've been officially initiated into the realms of parenthood since Ariel has on more than one occasion spit-up on us & projected both poop & pee on us during diaper changes.

Even Zada, our cat, has adjusted to Ariel. She didn't like her much at first, but now she tolerates her and is generally curious about the new family member.

Of course Ariel is the main attraction these days among our families. No one can resist cuddling her, which gives us time to catch up on chores & relax a bit while they spend time with Ariel.

Laurice, Ariel's great grandma, made her a beautiful quilt with a jungle theme, which is great for Ariel's tummy time. Trish (Nana), Ariel's great grandma from New Zealand, made her a sweater, booties & cardigan before she was born. She looks so adorable in them!

We have gotten the courage to take Ariel a few places already--always a challenge for first-time parents. But she has been very good & loves car rides!

Overall, it's been a whirlwind of a month! It is still so surreal that we are parents now with a beautiful, little daughter!

We'll be posting more pictures for you all to enjoy in the weeks to come. Lots of love to you all!

It's a Girl!

Ariel Marie Jenkins was born at 9:48am on Sunday, August 3rd!! She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 19in long.

Tammy had gone into labor at about 2:15am that morning when her water broke. Dazed and a little disoriented, we headed to the hospital at once. We arrived at the St. Alphonsus Family Maternity Center and were shown to our room. Soon after Tammy began to have contractions and it became evident that it was a good thing we had taken a childbirth education class. About 4 hours into labor, even though the breathing and relaxation techniques were being put to good use, Tammy requested an epidural for pain relief. However, test results from her blood indicated that this would not be a possibility and at that point she had to proceed with a natural childbirth! After two hours of pushing, Ariel was finally delivered into the world by the hands of Tammy's skilled obsterician Dr. Janowiak. The doctor announced that we had a little girl and we were both very suprised since almost everyone had predicted it would be a boy, even the doctor and Tammy!

Ariel is doing at home well after a 2 day hospital stay. Mom and daughter are well and Dad is helping with tasks around the house and diaper duty.

Enjoy the pictures and we will keep everyone updated in regards to our new family!