New Year Goals 2008

Yearly goals is something I love to start, but after a month hate looking back at. This year I plan to review my goals weekly, which will hopefully help me accomplish them! I will repent when/if I do not accomplish my goals and I will start again.

1) Daily personal prayers (including morning) and scripture reading.
2) Daily family prayers and scripture reading.
3) Work out 2 days a week.
4) Read a children's literature book to Max & Hanna 15 minutes a day.
5) Give Danny a hug & kiss when he gets home from work/daily.
6) Do 1 thoughtful service each week.
7) Accomplish monthly R.S. "Pursuit of Excellence" goals.
8) Read 3 enjoyable books.
9) Read a book that will teach me how to be more patient and control my anger and then strive to apply the teachings to my daily life! (Any suggestions)
10) The first Saturday of each month I'll have 3 hours of personal time.

Wish me luck!

Christmas Day 2007

Danny and I decided to start some traditions this year since Max is now at the age to remember things. So hear are our traditions... 1) Each child will receive a gift from Santa, a gift from dad, a gift from mom, and a gift from each sibling. 2) I will make a homemade gift for the kids and they will have a fun scavenger hunt to find this gift. Here are the twin quilts I made (with a lot of help from my friend Autumn and my wonderful mother). Thank You Ladies! 3) We will open gifts one gift at a time and Santa's gift won't be wrapped. 4) After our Christmas Eve party we will read (or tell the children) the Luke II story. (The kids are still young and we got home late so Danny just told them the short story). These are the ones we plan to do every year, if anyone has other traditions they'd like to share please do! It is very nice that our kids are still young and don't have expensive wants. Max's favorite gift was from Hanna, which was a backpack (from Goodwill) with some of Danny's old camping equipment. Hanna's favorite gift was from Max, which we got from her cousin Olivia it's a doll house with furniture and dolls. Van's favorite gift was 2 cups of Rice MILK! He wasn't sure which one to drink, he kept going back and forth, he was in Heaven! Danny and I are both cheap and simple. I got him a racket ball glove and goggles (bought from brother, Jeff) and some socks, everything he asked for. I got a new straightener (Thanksgiving weekend) and then we'll hit the after New Year's sales for some clothes. We had an enjoyable morning with our family and then at 2:00 we went to Danny's brother Jeff (and Cindy's) house for their annual Christmas Day open house, where we enjoyed lounging around and visiting with family and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas 2007!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we go to Danny's oldest brother Tom (and Becky's) house. There the cousins do the Nativity play, perform, exchange gifts and eat lots of yummy food! We eat the food that is most like what "Jesus ate". We have hummus & pita bread, pomegranate chicken, a way strong lemon chicken, basmati rice and a bunch of other yummy stuff. We all had a wonderful time! Above: Jensen Cousins Wise man (Max) talks to Mary & Joseph (Ruby & Zachary) The Nativity Cast Hanna & Ruby performing

Christmas Sunday

My mom has always loved to dress her children in matching Christmas Sunday outfits and she continues to do so with our children. I think it's cute, but Danny told Van that he was sorry for dressing him in his outfit. Max, Hanna and Van Gandma Susan and kids Jensen Family We had a great day at church today, the sacrament program was really good! Young Women's was good too, we brought food and yummy treats and blankets to sit on the floor with. We ate, listened to a story and then each of us leaders bore or testimonies, I think the girls really felt the spirit it was a great day!

Susan Gravell Family Christmas

We're back home to stay, for a little while that is! Sorry, for not letting you all know that we would be out of town and we were at a Mountain House with no reception or Internet, that is the reason I missed my Monday post! We went to CA last Friday and just returned home today. The kids and I stayed the night at Grandpa Ernie's & Grandma Debi's on Friday night. The kids always enjoy spending time with them and Max was exceptionally happy this last visit because grandpa gave Max his Chino Football Hat, which he wants to wear everyday now! Van with Grandma Debi. On Saturday, I got to visit with my friends Laurie and Emily. Emily is now 16 and driving, I started babysitting Emily when she was just 3 weeks old, now I feel a bit old, I had a lot fun visiting with the two of them! Then Danny came and picked us up from my dad's. After which, we went to Murrieta to have a Christmas dinner with Grandma Michaelson at B.J.'s. All her kids and most of her grandchildren were there and that was a lot of fun seeing everyone! We spent the night at Grandma Mike's house and went to church with my Aunt & Uncle on Sunday and then we headed out to Mt. Julian. It is a beautiful Mountain in San Diego County. My sister's partners mother owens a Big Beautiful Mountain home at the top of Lake Cuyamuca and is so kind to let our family visit there. All of my siblings and their kids came and stayed for my mom's family Christmas. (My brother Kurt and daughter Skye from Utah, Rebbecca, Kristine & Baxter from San Diego, Michael from Las Vegas, my brother Greg from San Diego and my mom & my family from Vegas). The kids had fun throwing snowballs at each other the first day, while some snow lasted from a storm a few days prior. Then on Monday we had mom's "Christmas Eve". We had a big dinner with prime rib and turkey...After dinner the cousins exchanged gifts and then we had our favorite family tradition that started way before I was born... SANTA (my brother Greg) came and brought jammies for all the kids. I thought this was great when I was a kid, but now being a mom I'm not sure how much I like it. Last year Max opened his gift so excited to find out it was only p.j.'s, and he still kept a smile. I felt so bad the next day when he asked, "I thought Santa was going to bring my light saber." Then I had to make up a story. This year I just told him before hand that Santa brings his big gift on Christmas when we are sleeping; he was happy about the jammies this year! When Hanna first saw Santa she started to cry and then she hurried and said, "I'm not scared of Santa, I like Santa!" And when it was her turn to sit on his lap she was Happy Hanna! Van wasn't sure what to think of Santa, weather he should laugh or cry. We had plans for the adults to exchange gifts, but a few siblings just brought cash, so we didn't end up doing it. I had brought my rag quilt to exchange (yes, I finished my first quilt and I have no picture to show of it, I'll have to have my sister take one and send it to me), so ended up getting a gift card to Target and gave my sister the rag quilt. My sweet brother Greg gave us a really cute hand-stitched "Families Are Forever" embroidery. The kids had fun with their cousins and grandma and we had fun playing games as adults at night! All and all we all had a wonderful time, we are now happy to be home for Christmas and for the next little while!

Trip to Arizona

We went to AZ this last weekend for Danny's cousins wedding reception. We don't see too much of the Jensen side, so it was a lot of fun getting to know them better! Danny had never been to AZ and I had only been once about 10 years ago with my friends family so I didn't see too much of AZ at the time. Danny and I felt that AZ was no dessert! We kept saying look at all the green and the citrus trees and the dessert grew trees and tall cacti nothing like the Vegas dessert, we were pretty envious! But we still feel that Vegas is our home and we like it! Danny in front of the famous Arizona cactus. I'm so mad because all of our pictures that we took there blurred. I am posting them anyway! A picture of one of us in front of the Mesa Temple. Danny and I were going to do a session at the Mesa Temple, but they were closed for maintenance, so we walked around and took a HUGE lemon off one of the lemon trees because we were so amazed at the size of it. We asked before we picked one they said that they allow people to pick the fruit off the trees (they did say something about January). A picture of Hanna with the huge lemon! Our kids came with us to AZ as well, we had brought my mom so she could watch them while we went to the temple and the reception. It is so wonderful having a mom like mine! Me and the kids went to an old friend of mines house and another old friend was there as well. I hadn't seen either of them for the past 6 years! My friend Tracy is now pregnant with her sixth kid and she is such a trooper because she is deathly ill her first trimester every pregnancy! And my friend Gayla and husband Tom is now on the L.D.S. services adoption site (so if you hear of anyone putting their child up for adoption, they would love to hear, so let me know)! We were able to stay at my friend Laura's house (which was so nice)! She was out of town and it was perfect for all the people we had with us, plus the kids loved the ping-pong table! We were sad we didn't get to see her though, next time! Anyway, we had a lot of fun! We need to visit again so I can see the rest of my friends I wasn't able to see and so we can attend the Temple!

Checkout This Bite!

Last week Max and Hanna got in a little fight and Hanna scratched Max's face and Max bit her arm. That afternoon they got in another fight and Hanna went right for Max's face and bit him! I felt so bad for him, but Danny said he got what he deserved! We just got baby Van's 1 year old pictures back and he was just too cute I bought 8 different poses (I'm just including 4 of the 8). Van just has so many different facial expressions it makes it so hard to choose which ones to get, and with the sheets at $3.99 a sheet why wouldn't I just get them all?! Van loves biting his tongue. Life is getting pretty busy, got to run!