A Christmas of Our Own

Christmas was a tiny bit different this year. Growing families have made some changes in tradition necessary. My family has always had a big Christmas breakfast on Christmas Day, after we open our presents. But this year, my parents had a talk and they decided it was time for them to step aside and let us start our own traditions with our own families. (We still had our big Christmas breakfast together, of course, we just did it on a different day!) So, after going to our church's Christmas Eve service together, our little family of four came home to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, just us. While it's a little sad to change the way it's always been, it's fun to be the Mom now, making Christmas special for my own family. And it was nice not to have more places to be than I can be in at once!

Getting cookies and milk ready for Santa. (Thanks to Gaga for the cookies. I played the "new baby" card and didn't bake anything this year! Good thing there were some leftover from our Mehok Christmas the day before.)

So excited!

Reading "The Night Before Christmas" on the night before Christmas!

Santa was good to Julia!

And he "gathered" a few things for Jenna, too!

Nice vacuum! When will she be old enough to push a real one?

Guess who suggested the tool bench to Santa? Julia is super interested in tools after seeing Papa and Daddy do all the work in the basement.

What?! The cookies are gone! The milk is gone!

Julia loves her play tent! Perfect addition to her playroom in the basement.

Playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Daddy.

She loved digging in her stocking!

I get everyone a personalized ornament each year. This year, Julia's is a girl with pigtails holding a swaddled baby and it says, "Big Sister Julia"

John's has three black bears on it, one with each of our names, and it says, "Smoky Mountains" at the bottom, because our family trip this year was to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

I got Jenna one, too, of course, although I forgot to take a pic. Hers is a baby in a stocking and says Jenna Hope.

Jenna spent the morning sleeping in her swing, but I thought it was cute that Julia kept bringing her things from her Christmas pile and stacking them there.

Mehok Christmas

John's family came to our house to celebrate Christmas on the 23rd. His brother, parents, and grandparents brought the gifts to us and we ordered pizza! I was thankful that we didn't have to get out.

Gaga, Jenna and Julia. Marlene is making up for the girls she never had with plenty of granddaughters!

Poppy, Nana, Julia and Jenna

Nana is watching all the smiling faces Jenna makes in her sleep.

Julia asked Santa for a sit n spin when she sat on his lap. I guess Gaga overheard!

A computer! Parents love learning toys, thanks Gaga and Papa!

Why open it when you when you can play with it in the box?

Julia is showing Gaga the calendar she got her with pictures of her in it!

John is the master at guessing his Christmas presents. You can't so much as let him see a wrapped present and he can tell you what it is, even down to the size or color or whatever. His Dad challenged him to guess this one. He's thinking hard, but he had nothin'.

A ginormous deep fryer! Nice. Now he can join the masses of men deep frying their turkeys on Thanksgiving! Or maybe it's a hint his Dad wants him to take over the annual fish fry?

Julia is showing Jenna her new toy.

After John put Julia's giraffe bike together the next morning, we found her with the screwdriver, "fixing it".

Daddy helping Julia peddle.

Jenna's First Week

12-16 Uncle Brian came to visit us at the hospital.

12-17 Only one day old. Still amazes me how quickly they change. And it's funny, her hair only stood up like that for the two days we were at the hospital. (I suspect the nurses may have been spiking it!)

12-17 Priceless.


12-18 Dressed and ready to come home.


Welcome home, Jenna!
Notice the gorgeous crocheted blanket? That's courtesy of Gaga (John's mom), of course!

An early gift left under the tree! Not from Santa, though. This miracle came straight from God, himself!

Jenna, meet Julia!
Matching Christmas jammies, of course!

Leaning in for a kiss.

Julia adores her baby sister. During the first days we were home, she kept saying, "Jenna out the belly! Jenna out the belly!"

Swaddled and ready for our first night home, in our own beds.

(Mommy is super excited about this. Hospital beds leave much to be desired!)

12-19 It's a new day! Tay Tay came to visit today, and just about every day of her Christmas break. Thank you so much for all your help! We really enjoyed getting to spend so much time together, Julia especially.

Jenna's first bath at home. I'll let you guess how much she liked it!

Funny story: After I gave Jenna her bath, I brought her into my room where we have the changing "table" set up on my dresser to get her dressed. Kristen was helping me and taking pictures and such. In the meantime, Julia quietly got her stool from the hall bathroom, walked right past us through my bedroom, into my bathroom, and climbed up to get my toothbrush from my sink. (My toothbrush that she knows she is not supposed to have...stinker!) She was so sneaky that both Kristen and I were clueless!

My sister-in-law Tiffany made Jenna this beautiful quilt. It's super soft and warm and perfect for snuggling in on the couch!

We got dressed in Christmas outfits (Matching ones that Nana (my mom) bought!) to take a picture for my parents' Christmas card. Our first photo as a family of four!

Kristen. Julia, and Jenna. Too cute!

12-21 I love it when Daddy holds her like this. (And thanks, Roxanne, for the adorable monkey outfit! Ruffle bottoms are my favorite!)

12-22 My sweet girls.

Birth Day

Here are some pictures from Jenna's big day. I'm working on typing a big long narrative of the full events of the day, which I will post with a disclaimer, should you choose to read it. We'll call this the rated G version.

One last pregnant picture, in the waiting room at the hospital.

We had to wait a couple hours to get a room. So I patienting walked the small circle in the waiting room, and even pushed John around in a wheelchair for a while. Boy, he's got it rough.

John sleeping.

John still sleeping.

Botched IV #1. There were 3 before the 4th was a charm.

John eating breakfast. (Yes, I was starving and not allowed to eat, thanks for asking)

John calling our moms at 8 am.

This picture says it all. Taken about a minute after Jenna popped out.

Jessica: Wow, it's over, and I'm not dead. Did I really just do that without any drugs? Go me!
My mom: ??? You'll have to ask her what she was thinking, but I'm sure that she was equally as grateful to be alive, that she didn't have a heart attack.

Poor Jenna. The cord was wrapped around her neck, so they took her over to her little area to check her out instead of plopping her on my chest for a minute like they did with Julia. John didn't get to cut the cord, either, the Dr did it before I had even delivered her body. John said it was pretty scary, that she looked purple. I was still having my out of body birth experience, trying with everything I had not to push her out, because they said it was dangerous until they got the cord off. So I kinda only halfway knew what was going on. But... she broke free of her chains and after they suctioned her and made sure she was breathing all right, then I got to hold her and nurse her.

My first pic with my beautiful girl. I actually had no idea how much black hair she had until I was in recovery, because they'd already put the hat on when they gave her to me.

Daddy's first pic with Jenna Hope.

Julia is pretty much a mommy's girl, despite looking so much like John. Maybe Jenna will get him wrapped around her finger!

Kisses!

I think this one is funny because it is identical to one that we took with Julia. Check out the side bar.

Here are the stats:

Jenna Hope Mehok

born on December 16, 2009 at 1:21 pm

8 pounds 1 ounce

21 inches long

December 16 is also my Grandma Hankla's birthday! Happy birthday, Grandma!

The Last Page

The last page of the "Family of Three" chapter of our lives, that is. Ten days after these pics were taken, we began a new chapter as a family of four, and Julia took on her new role as a big sister, ending her days as an only child. But Julia, no matter what happens, you will always be my first, and hold a special place in my heart for that. No matter how many babies God blesses us with, I will never run out of snuggles for you! You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine, and you'll never know how much I love you!

Looks like a sweet kandid moment, right? Too bad she's smiling because she is pinching me! Stinker. :)

Again with the pinching.

And just so you know, belly buttons that pop out expose a very sensitive bit of skin. That's okay though, I'm a mom, I'm tough, I can take it.

What secret is she telling? I can't pretend to know. But I'm sure it will not be the last time these girls plot something in secret.

John 3:16

When Julia stays at Gaga and Papa's house, she always reads the Bible with Gaga. Her new goal is to learn John 3:16, and she is well on her way. (Some of my favorite words... believeth and perish.)

Jingle Bells

Julia found some jingle bell ornaments when we were decorating the tree, and they are her favorites. I taught her to sing the song, so she goes around, ringing her bells and singing. Too cute.