AJ's Bracket Challenge Wrap-Up '11

It is way past due for a wrap-up on my bracket challenge, we have been waiting for a picture of Brett, so Ali could merge them into the traditional trophy hand off picture, looks like it finally came. Now to the results!

1. Brett 81-Another Rookie Season Winner!

2. Jeremy 67-Welcome to the bracket Challenge!

3. Blake 66-You really need to stop picking Duke! (That is the 3rd year in the top 3, if we gave a prize for consistency you would win it.)

4. Dexter 65-Well done little man, Is it time for me to pass the torch?

5. Tyson 63-No win but you did hold the lead the longest.

6. DeeAnn 59-Well done Mom!.

7. Kevin 59-Much better than only picking the odd teams to win.

8. Ashlee 57-Sorry, no prize for 8th.

9. Ashton 55-Hmm.. I don't like it down here

10. Ryan 53-Good job on your rookie season

11. Ali 52

12. Eric 52

13. Michelle 50

14. Leigh 49

15. Curtis 46

16. Devon 46

17. London 45

18. Matt 43

19. Alissa 42

20. Crayson 32

21. Kayla 27

-And this year's Better Luck Next Year winner is:

22. Karen 10

Brett is our 7th winner (and the 4th rookie season winner, not counting my win the first year of the challenge) I like the new scoring, so we are going to keep it. I will work on adding a bonus for those (Karen) who pick every upset in the first round. Thanks for playing, see you all again next year!

You Better Believe It!

The Jenks' "Boys Only Club" is about to be crashed. We are having a sweet little girl join our family in August! I had another ultrasound today (standard procedure at the clinic I go to. An ultrasound at every routine checkup. Lucky me, I get to see her every month!) and asked if he couldn't just double check for me. He chuckled but gladly did and she is still a girl!!!

I had a pretty good appointment. Baby girl looks great. The top picture is proof of her "girl parts". The middle picture is a 3D profile. Her arm is going across her face so it makes it harder to see. The bottom one is her cute little profile. Awww, I'm in love!

I did however, receive some not so good news. My blood pressure is high (again). Bummer. I thought when I was pregnant with Dexter, that it was partly due to me working and the stresses that come with that, but I guess not. This is just how my body handles being pregnant. Yuck! I get to go in weekly now so he can monitor it. Hopefully though, this is as bad as it gets and I don't have to do anything more than that.

Haircut: Daddy's Choice

I know that I don't post on this blog much, so, you know this must be important. See, Dexter (and I) got haircuts yesterday and for a change I got to pick Dexter's new look. Ali always chooses what I consider to be a boring regular haircut. You know the one, short on the sides blended to the top. (Think missionary cut) While this is a great haircut, I decided to push my choice a little more toward the edge. I weighed my many options:

MULLET

MOHAWK

SPIKES

BUZZ CUT

REVERSEHAWK

In the end, these all seemed a little TOO extreme. So I went with a cut that I think will be making a comeback soon . Why will it be back? Well, it was popular when I was a kid, I figure now that all of the kids from my generation are having kids it will make a little surge in popularity. That's right you guessed it, maybe, no? Ok. My son is rocking the Bowl Cut! It is awesome! I think he looks adorable. It was my first time giving a screaming wriggling kid a bowl cut so it is a little lopsided (kind of hard to judge from the back as the kid only has one ear) but adorable still, here are the pictures.

Idaho Trip

I just realized that I hadn't posted anything about our Idaho trip! I am totally blaming it on pregnancy brain! I have had it more often this pregnancy than I did with Dexter. I even called Brett for his birthday a day early. AND I still didn't even believe him that I was a day early, 'til I found a calendar. OOPS! At least it was early instead of late!

On to the trip...

We made a trip to Idaho in February for Devon and Kayla's wedding. The sealing was beautiful, and the bride and groom were glowing. To start us off, we almost didn't make it to the wedding. Our flight was delayed due to a mechanical something-or-other making us miss our connecting flight. The gal checking us in tried to get us to stay a night in Denver (on them) and catch the first flight out. That would have worked, but the flight was booked. Bummer. The next flight into Boise didn't even leave until after the sealing. Ummm, no. So after I explained to her why we were flying and that we needed to be 2 hours away from the airport by 3pm, she delayed our connecting flight. After a mad dash off of the airplane with them calling our names on the loud speaker, we made our connecting flight. I think they only waited a grand total of 10 extra minutes. Why we had to get snide comments as we were boarding, who knows--who cares. The important thing was that we made it!

We flew out Friday evening, wedding Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon Ashton flew home :( It was so hard to say good bye. It was a good thing Dex was down for a nap, because I bawled when he left.

But Dex and I survived and we had fun with cousins, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, dogs...

My mom took a few days off of work and took us shopping :) We had fun. We also had a fun day with Crystal and the kids. The day started off with a train hunt, that Dexter loved, lunch at McD's, and then a play date at Hop-2-It. Dexter loved the ball pit, but he especially loved the ball bouncy house. It had different types of balls on top of the 4 corner pillars and Dex kept asking for me to get them down. I couldn't tell him enough times that they were stuck and not coming down. He also loved going down the big slide. Let me just say, it is not easy to climb up the big slide while other kids are going down (making the whole thing shake) one handed, carrying a 20 month old, and trying not to fall on your pregnant belly. Crystal, what were we thinking! We were quite the site, but it was so worth all the giggles that Dex gave.

We also got to spend some time with the Jenks. We went swimming, which just turned into a game of fetch with the uncles in the pool and my scared Dexter on the cement, not even near the edge. Out to ice cream, playing with toys and Briggs, helping to decorate for a dance, out to lunch, watching the uncles, Briggs, and grandpa get ready for the Klondike, and just hanging out.

Uncle Brett treated us to breakfast one morning at IHOP where Dexter got a balloon monkey. He loved it, but he kept biting it and popped it while in the car. He spent the rest of the day saying "balloon, no-no mouth, all gone". The little smarty. :) We also got to hang out at Curt and Crystal's apartment and play with Lydia, Brody, and Chloe. Dexter loved Brody's bowling set. He would probably set it up and knock the pins down all day long.

We were also there for my Dad's birthday. My mom treated the whole gang to pizza and bowling. Dexter liked real bowling, but didn't like the concept of taking turns. He threw fits, wouldn't eat dinner, and was a real delight. Thank goodness for the arcade section. It was the only thing that distracted him. Beside Dex's fits, I had a nice time with my family.

We had a dinner with Devon and Kayla, Dallas, DeeAnn, and boys, and Great Grandpa and Grandma Hansen. We also drove out to Rupert and saw Grandma B. and George. I was fortunate enough to also see my good friend Morgan and his beautiful bride, Erin at their reception in Rupert. They were married a week before Devon and Kayla.

DeeAnn drove us up to the airport, and I must say, Dex was really good while we were waiting to board. I was worried because I would be by myself, but he listened to me really well. I was definitely being watched over and blessed, I have no doubt. I didn't even get lost getting to our boarding gate in Denver that was clear on the other side of the terminal.

Dexter and I had a fun time with all of our family. Thanks to those who helped us out with tickets, I hope you enjoyed having us there, too.

Friends

A week or so ago, I watched Kevin and Karen's boys and Dexter couldn't have been more excited. He loves to play with ALEX! He likes to play with Ethan too, but Alex is "the man" to this little boy. So we had a fun day. After some play time and an attempt at lunch, I thought it would be fun to build a fort with the boys. What else do you do in a fort but get to watch WALL-E? All the boys had fun. Dexter was just ecstatic about the whole thing. He was also a big help at making sure everyone had a blanket and pillow so that they could watch the movie properly.

Home

About a week ago, Dexter and I got home from out trip in Idaho. It was fun to be there with our families, but it was very nice to come home. Dexter did excellent on the second flight from Denver to Omaha. I think we had excellent pilots. The landing, amazing! Dexter didn't even notice that we were landing until we actually touched ground. Once I showed him that we were taxiing to the airport, he was fine.

It was good to finally see Ashton, and to give him an actual hug. Dexter was pretty excited to see daddy, too. When we got to the car, Dexter had "someone" special waiting for him, Froggy! The ride home, he fell asleep snuggled tight to Froggy. So precious.

When I got home, this is what I came home to:

He finished the chairs and bought me flowers! He is definitely a keeper.

The table and chairs was about a 9 month long project, lame I know. Ashton got the table done in June, but then it got too humid to finish the rest. I got the chairs sanded and painted in October but the staining of the seats and varnish, was put off. Ash finished it while I was gone. Oh how I LOVE him!

Valentines

Dexter helped me with our valentine's this year. We sent cookies to some of Ashton's classmates. He colored in the card (a train with hearts puffing out of it, and sorry, no picture) and helped me cut out cookies.

Rolling them out

Cutting them out

cookies with extra Dexter love

Apparently, I needed help with my part of the dough

What a messy, messy boy!

Dexter

I haven't posted much lately and I know that most of my readers really just want to know about Dexter so this is all about him.

Dexter is a ham. He is 20 months old, (the above picture is from his first day of nursery, so he was 18 months old then) He has a mind of his own, and definitely knows what he wants and doesn't want.

He knows: most parts of his body, can tell you 9 letters: A, B, F, M, N, O, P, S, Y(or yak), make just about any animal sound, play pretend bubble blowing with a whistle/flashlight, feed his baby/stuffed animals, say 60+ different words, and loves planes, trains, and tow trucks.

He said his first prayer, all by himself a few days ago. We were eating a snack and he wanted a prayer so he folded his arms, bowed his head, jibber-jabbered some, looked up at me and said, AMEN!--- Talk about a proud mommy moment!

He also loves people and getting to play with "fends".

The other morning, after I finished changing a nasty diaper, he got up, and wrapped his arms around me, and said "luf oo" (love you). It made changing that diaper so worth it!

He loves balls and tries to shoot baskets when ever he gets a chance.

He is the happiest, silliest little boy and we are so in love with him!

Excuses

So 5 weeks was the last time I posted. Man, that is awful. I have so much to share with you. But first, if you'd allow me to post my excuse for being a slacker...

I'm pregnant!

I'm due August 8th, 2011. Pretty darn crazy, I know. Now that the shock has worn off and I have the "proof" of an ultrasound in my hands, I am really excited. Ashton is, too, and has been from day one.

So I will hopefully tell you about all the stuff you've missed out on soon. Until then, enjoy looking at our new little peanut!

BAHA

Dexter got a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) softband to trial over the Christmas break. I was convinced by our new hearing impaired teacher, that we should try it out and I'm glad that we did. Dexter LOVES it! The first time that I put it on him at home, I whispered his name on his left side and he looked up at me with the biggest smile and brightest eyes that were screaming "I HEARD YOU MOM!" He gets so excited that he is hearing that he messes with the little box and head band, which makes it squeal, which then freaks him out, which then makes him rip it off.

Ya, we're still getting used to it.

Today, however, I put it on him and when I pulled it out, he hopped off the couch, ran over to me, and said "hi" over and over again while pointing at the box. I think in his little mind, he has associated it as being like a telephone (he'll do the same thing with the phone). He knows that he hears with it. He was so excited to wear it, he would hardly hold still long enough for me to put it on him. But I got it on and he actually wore it for about 30-45 minutes! I think the band bother's him, and I don't blame him. It is a velcro strap and isn't very comfortable. If we do get our own, I'll have to figure out a new band for it.

Our stylin' Dexter sporting his BAHA softband. He's just a little excited about it :)

The BAHA

The clip that is attached to the BAHA and then to his shirt so we don't lose it when it comes off.

Go here and learn a little bit more about it. We are trialing the BAHA Intenso by Cochlear on a softband.