43 months (that’s 1309 days) ago, I married the most remarkable woman I’ve ever known. I thought so at the time, but the more I’ve gotten to know Amy, the more I’ve realized it’s true. Here are some things I love about my wife (we’ll see how much I can list before she gets home from Costco and finds me out!).

• Makes my oatmeal or eggs every morning (with raisins and banana in the oatmeal!)
• Makes my lunch every day (this semester in the mornings before I head to campus for work/research)
• Makes supper every day

(Amy tells me these things are “expected” and “no big deal,” but if I were responsible for them, I’d eat less, buy lunch on campus way more than I do — which is never — and rarely have a good dinner.)

• Gets up every morning with me to read a short devotional and to pray
• Watches Becca all day
• Actually plays with Becca all day (instad of, say, watching soaps while Becca shifts for herself 🙂
• Trains and disciplines Becca throughout the day
• Teaches piano lessons Wed and Thurs evening and Sat morning to help contribute to the family income
• Is content with our rather limited finances (she thinks we’re rich, in fact!)
• Shops for groceries every week (and makes the grocery list and plans the meal schedule), even though shopping is not at the top of her “favorite things to do” list
• Never nags — ever

Someday we’ll be old. I’m glad I’m married to someone that I’m excited to grow old with!

After my miscarriage last year, I had a hard time with being content with just one child. I was supposed to have two children (everyone else seemed to be having more kids), and it was something that was ever present in my mind. One day it hit me that I really needed to be enjoying just having one. Instead of moping about not having the children I wanted, I needed to be enjoying to the fullest that gift God had given me (one – Becca). So I did. In the summer and fall I enjoyed doing all sorts of things with Becca that would have been harder if we’d had two. I stopped moping and enjoyed the gifts God had given me and learned to wait for His good.

Throughout life I need to stop thinking about what I don’t or should or would like to have. I need to enjoy the place God has me (single, married, having one, two, or six children, or even being empty nesters). I need to take what God has given and enjoy it to the fullest.

(Note – the panda bear outfit was a Christmas present from Uncle Jon and Aunt Ashleigh. Also, Becca has started asking to wear my “pink shirt” a lot…this is why you see her in an oversize red shirt. I try to tell her it’s not pink. . . . she doesn’t believe me!)

Speaking of enjoying Becca, I’m working at enjoying our last months with just Mommy and Becca. Our Mondays and Tuesdays are usually our down days (Wednesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays I teach piano lessons). Let me give you a rundown of this past Monday. After breakfast, we enjoyed swimming in the bathtub together (I swam, Becca took a bath). Then we read books on the couch (after bath time Becca gets to be wrapped up in Mommy’s towel and we read a book on the couch). After Becca was dressed, we had a photo shoot in her new dress from China that Anna Martin brought back as a gift. Then we built a tent, flew in an airplane, had lunch, napped, flew in the airplane again, read, and then waited for Daddy to come home while I made dinner. We have a lot of fun. Today I let Becca look at the door while she was waiting for Josh to come home. All of a sudden I heard, “Daddy – where are you?” being yelled loudly to the whole apartment complex.

About that airplane we flew in: Becca, on her own, made an airplane using our chairs. She loves sitting on her airplane and likes Josh and me to join her. Sometimes it’s a little boring, since Becca wants you to look straight ahead. We read books on the plane, and sometimes I let Becca eat her lunch on the plane.  The other day Becca fell off her airplane – it was rather a disastrous fall, but not as bad as falling out of a real airplane.

Becca had a movie night during one of our Friday family nights. She loves eating popcorn and really enjoyed the puppets on What’s in the Bible?. Becca also enjoyed watching Aunt Emily’s band concert webcast live from Dover, PA. Yay Aunt Emily.

The other day, Josh was reading on the couch and we told Becca to get a book and read next to Daddy. We died with laughter when Becca went directly to Daddy’s bed stand and came back with John Paton’s autobiography. Guess when she decided to read next to Daddy, she decided to read just like Daddy!

The rest of this post is cute things Becca has said recently.

One day after lunch I was wiping Becca’s face and expressed concern about wiping the sore chapped spot near her mouth. Becca’s response: “It’s not so bad after all.”

“Becca NOT yummy”, when we say were going to eat her up.

“Mommy NOT go teach piano lessons. Mommy stay with Becca!”

Around 8:45PM (Becca being in bed at this point) Josh had responded to Becca’s call from her room. While he was in there I heard her say very loudly, “Daddy NOT sing Jesus Loves Me.” He wasn’t even planning on singing.

We told Becca she was not supposed to push her chair away from the table while we were eating, Becca responded “Mommy teach piano lessons, Daddy go to work – Becca do it.” (Wow – at least she’s honest!)

“Soup – yummy! Green beans not yucky – green beans yummy – chew them up – mmmmmm!”

After talking to Becca about being sweet to Mommy, I taught her to cup my face in her hands and say “I love you Mommy.” Then I told her to find Daddy and do it to him. Becca promptly found Daddy (who was sitting on the floor), cupped his face in her hands and said, “Hello, my pet!” I guess we’ve been reading Snow White too much.

From a conversation when we were outside: Becca: “It’s windy”. Mommy: “Wow – Becca – I didn’t know you knew that word. What does windy mean?” Becca: “Blow a lot!”

“I do myself!”

“Becca NOT________” This started in SC with not wanting to blow her nose and not wanting to go potty.

“Mommy leave the door open.” Becca started saying this after we read her Bedtime for Frances. Oh the things she learns from books.

“Becca walk please.” Becca often says this when we’re driving somewhere . . . not what I want to hear when I’m driving!

This is something Becca often recites before Josh reads the Bible at the table: “Daddy read Bible, Becca not say yayayaya. Daddy read Bible (to) self, Becca say yayayayay.”

“Where Christmas tree go?”  Sadly, we took down the big Christmas tree this week while Becca was sleeping. She is missing it…but we left the little one up for her.

We’re happy to announce that we’re expecting a baby boy on June 4^th! We reached the halfway mark (20 weeks) this past week, and so far everything is progressing nicely. Becca has been rooting for a baby sister; she wanted a little girl so she could name her Goldilocks or Snow White. She even told me that Corduroy wanted a baby sister. (Sorry Becca, I don’t think those names are going to make it to our list.) Right now we’re calling him Brother.

We had our 20 week sonogram yesterday morning and so far everything looks good. [As you can see above – and as you may recall from when we had Becca’s sono – Amy’s OB has really great ultrasound equipment. By the way, there’s a T on the front of that hat – you just can’t see it because of Brother’s angle in this photo. -JMJ] We won’t know if there are any complications like Becca’s until later on in the pregnancy. Becca had a perfect pregnancy until the weekend before I entered the hospital due to lessened movement. This little boy is a mover – I felt him really early on, so hopefully that will help in noticing decreased movement, if that becomes an issue again. My doctor expects everything to go fine.

A lot of people are asking me how I’m feeling (in relation to Becca’s pregnancy). I feel fine. . . . Actually, now that I’m in the middle of 2^nd trimester I have to say compared to 1st trimester, I’m feeling good. Now that I’m feeling myself again, I realize how crummy I felt 1^st trimester. Everything seems better and not as bad as it did a few months ago – teaching piano lessons, church, making dinner, etc. One night at dinner I looked at Josh and said, “You’re way better looking than you were 1^st trimester.” I was too busy at dinner feeling yucky and being tired to notice how good looking my husband is. Of course, I did have the added stress of the miscarriage last year. First trimmest was a time of practicing faith in God’s best for our loves. There was one weekend of this pregnancy when I was pretty sure we’d lost the baby (wasn’t hungry – had extra energy). Glad to be out of that period. God is good and we look forward to what He is going to do in the next 20 weeks for our little boy.

Saturday we got together with Lap’s family (one of Josh’s Jarai consultants). They were in the area for the weekend. As you can see, Josh and Lap even did a few minutes of work (with prepositions – in this case, “on top of”) while they were visiting.

This past weekend we had our 4^th annual MLK Day getaway (Sunday-Monday). We used up our credit card points and stayed at an Embassy Suites in Dallas. Becca loved swimming in the (cold) indoor pool, feeding the swans, and riding the elevators. On Monday we went to the Dallas Zoo (“Penguin Days” for Jan/Feb are $5 per person). The weather was perfect and we spent a few hours looking around.

 Becca’s favorite part of the zoo visit was the bronze statues. Her other favorite animal this time was the tiger. He was pacing and roaring quite a bit at his door (maybe waiting for lunch). Becca wanted to go back and see the tiger again and again to, “show Mama something.” Becca does a pretty good imitation of the tiger roar. We ended with a ride on the carousel. It was a great getaway. It’s one of the few holidays that we get Josh for the whole day without also entertaining others . . . a sweet treat for all of us.

The day after Christmas Josh, Becca, and I rented a car and drove to PA to spend a week with my family. Becca and I were sick about half of our time in PA. My siblings were there in shifts. Jon and Ashleigh went back to SC on Wednesday, so we overlapped with them one full day. Sam, Ashley, and Colette came for New Year’s weekend. Dan and Isabelle did not get up to PA this year. I didn’t take a single picture in PA  but had over 500 pictures from the week from other people. So nice when everyone else is taking the pictures.

We all enjoyed being with everyone. Becca loved having lots of people to interact with. She had been looking forward to being at Aunt Emily’s house since Thanksgiving. Becca loved running around the house in a circle (through the dinner room and into the kitchen). I’ll recount one funny conversation she had with my dad. Becca has a habit of slamming the toilet lid down when she’s finished using the potty. My dad was concerned about the porcelain and turned to Becca and said, “Becca try not to slam . . . oh nevermind, you’re a sweetie, you can do whatever you like.” I love how grandchildren change people.

Tuesday we had Christmas with the gang who was in town. Mom saved the cinnamon rolls for the day, we read the Christmas story and sang carols. This was the second time for Dad, Mom, Emily, Jon, Ashleigh, Joey, and Lauren to read the Christmas story and sing; they did another whole round for us. Becca enjoyed putting the flannelgraph up. Becca also enjoyed my parents’ dog Toby. She would call him loudly, “Toby, come back!” She now also says “big dogs scare you, little dogs don’t scare you.”

Becca loved opening her presents — actually she enjoyed opening anyone’s presents who would let her help. But she did show concern for others. She got a baby doll and was then told that the other present was for the doll (doll clothes). Becca sat the doll in front of the presents and tried to help her open the gift. It was really cute.

Uncle Joey was a big hit. For the second year, he gave Becca a candy cane. Last year he gave Becca her first candy cane. He also let Becca have some of his Mountain Dew (she spit it out). Who knows what else he gave her . . . got to watch those young single uncles! Uncle Joey gave Becca a pair of pink Converse shoes and an ‘apple computer.’ The shoes are a little big (smallest size available), so Becca will get to grow into them.

Thursday we took a trip to NJ to visit with Grandma Sutter, Uncle John, and some of the other Sutter family members.

Friday Sam, Ashley, and Colette arrived. Becca seemed to enjoy trying to teach Collette big girl things. Becca would roll on the floor with Colette – very cute.

We had Christmas again with Sam, Ashley, and Colette – it was a shortened version. They gave Becca a train and she loves it. It’s the perfect size for our apartment and Becca enjoys putting her Nativity pieces in it for a ride. Sam gave Josh a book that he instantly started reading. He just finished it the other day.

Monday night Aunt Emily, Uncle Joey, and Lauren babysat Becca while Josh and I went out to dinner with Dad and Mom (thanks Grandma B). We all enjoyed our steaks, while Josh is still wishing he had ordered a steak instead of a hamburger. Becca did great – this is when the Mountain Dew incident took place. Tuesday afternoon we flew back to Texas.

Ok – you made it (or I should say I’ve made it through posting and getting all these pictures up!). We had a great time visiting with family, but it is truly wonderful to be back home with nice water pressure, all the hot water we want, and lots of heat when it’s cold – our poor parents who own their own houses and have to pay for their utilities! (Not that we froze or couldn’t take hot showers at our parents’ houses, of course!) We’re looking forward to all God has in store for our family in 2012. His will be done.

Monday, December 19, we headed out for two weeks of Christmas travels. We spent the first week (Dec. 19-26) with Josh’s side of the family and the second week (Dec. 26-Jan. 3) with my side of the family. We had free tickets (credit card deal) and were able to fly from TX to SC and from PA to TX for free. We rented a car and drove from SC to PA the day after Christmas. One of the highlights of Becca’s trip was meeting Santa Clause at the airport. When we flew back to TX, Becca expected to meet Santa again.

Tuesday and Wednesday we visited with Grandma Martin in GA. We also spent some time with the Doug Martin side of the family. It was good to catch up with everyone.

We also did a little extra visiting in SC. We spent time with Mrs. Burch, and Becky, Evan, and Adam Wilbur on Thursday. And we visited with Grandpa and Grandma Hess Christmas Eve morning.

Becca ended up catching a cold and from Thursday morning on had congestion and a nasty cough for the rest of the visit. This is the first time Becca has been sick and we count ourselves very blessed that she’s been so healthy. She kindly passed the cold to me on Christmas day. Both Becca being away from home and being sick made for some rough nights. She usually woke up 3-5 times a night, sometimes screaming and very confused.

Friday we enjoyed the Jensen Christmas get together, which included a gift exchange:

We had a lovely Christmas day with Josh’s immediate family. Becca and I stayed back from church Christmas Eve and Christmas Day because of her cold. After church, we had a great meal and enjoyed time with family. Becca enjoyed playing with her cousin, Bella (9 months younger than Becca). Bella loved hugging Becca. As you can see from the pictures, Becca was not always too keen on being hugged for an extended amount of time. It was quite humorous to watch Becca run away from Bella’s open arms.