First Days

Clara has super intense eyes. I hope she uses them for good!

Life is exhausting!

First bath with Daddy

Christmas 2008

Christmas was very special this year with a new little one to share it with. Quinton had a lot of fun with his cousins around and did pretty good at opening his gifts. Of course, he loved stomping in all the garbage on the floor the very best.

Grandma Packer made Clara a very special Christmas dress

Christmas Day Quinton and his daddy went and played in the snow. Barry made an enormous snowman and they both made snow angels.

Quinton and Triston are already good buddies.

It has been a very special time for us and we're enjoying spending time with our two beautiful children.

Clara Grace

We welcomed Clara Grace Jenks to our little family on Friday, December 19th and we are so glad to have her! She is such a sweetheart. She weighed 6 lb. 2 oz. and was born at 7:45 am. 

We had to be at the hospital early that morning. Unfortunately, there was a big snow storm and driving was pretty rough. It took us twice as long to get from Rigby to Blackfoot than it normally would. But once we got there they checked me in quickly and prepped me for surgery. I was so numb from the spinal tap that I didn't feel a thing. In fact, as I was laying there with a sheet in front of me (I guess they don't think it's a good idea for a person to see their own body cut open) I asked the doctor, "When are you going to start cutting?" and they said, "She's already almost out." I was a little surprised. Once I got to see her and her big, dark eyes I was relieved. She was beautiful. She did kind of have a look on her face like, "Why did you rip me from my nice, warm home?"
The nurses were nice to watch her so I could get some sleep at nights. On the day we left, the nurse said to us, "She sure is spunky!" A few minutes later Clara spit up all over her nice going home outfit. I think it might have been an omen for things to come. Now we're recovering at my mom's house.

The night before we left for the hospital.

Quinton was excited to meet his new sister and has been having a lot of fun as we stay at Grandma and Grandpa Packer's house.

Preparations

It's been a bit longer than usual since our last post, but things have been a little crazy around here with finals for Barry and preparations for the new baby and Christmas. Since our last post, we had Quinton's birthday party, which was a lot of fun. Even though he started off the night with a fat lip from falling, he still had fun playing with his cousins and eating cake. He even dug into the frosting before we cut him a piece!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Oakley and spent a few days with Barry's family. It was nice to see them and the food was great! The day after we went Christmas tree hunting (well, it was mostly Barry because it was so cold and Quinton was not feeling very good) and got a nice tree that we took to my parents' house since that's where we'll be for Christmas.

Quinton sure is growing up. He has 6 teeth coming in! Almost all of them have broken through now and he's been a real trooper through it all.

Quinton inherited the spaghetti-lover gene from his mom and thoroughly enjoys getting into a bowl of it. You can see his classic scowl in the second picture. He gives us this look when we aren't doing quite what he wants. Silly boy.
Barry made it through his first semester as a graduate student with flying colors! We're so proud of him and all his hard work. Now he has a month off so we are getting ready for the baby to come. We're having her by c-section this Friday at the Blackfoot hospital in the morning. It's nice knowing when it's going to be and I'm definitely looking forward to not going through labor. We'll probably get to leave on Sunday and then we'll be spending a little while at my parents' house for the holidays and to have some extra help which will be really nice. A few of my friends in our ward threw a little shower for me so I could have a few girl items. It was so nice of them!