Van Swimming

Ok, so I guess my blog can't hold too much on one post, so here it is...

What a Big Boy Van Is!

Van is 20 months now and he is sleeping in a big boy bed! We always move our kids up to a big bed at this age because I'm always expecting a new baby 2 months after, so I don't want them to feel as though they've been kicked out. The first night in his bed he did a really good job, he was really excited because Max was in the top bunk and Van thought that was fun. The next day for his nap Max went and laid in his bed and told Van to go night night and after a few minutes Max came out and said Van was asleep. He has had a couple hard nights, but he has done much better than Max and Hanna did when we switched them. Van is also an amazing swimmer (with floaties)! I've never seen a baby swim like him. He will put his head under for a good 3-5 seconds and paddle his arms and kick his legs and never chock on the water. He'll lift his head up and take a breath and does it again. He loves the water he's a little fish. Van has no fear, he'll jump off my mother-in-laws very high step (waterfall) and diving boards over and over again! I'm so excited I figured out how to video tape him, but of course he didn't perform to his full potential. Never mind, it's not uploading, I'll try later.

32 Weeks

I can't believe I'm 32 weeks already, I'm getting excited, but also very nervous.(Hanna took my picture).

Some of you have wanted to know my birth plan, so I'm planning on having a home birth (I had a home birth with Van). You can have a home birth if you make it to 36 weeks and if everything looks good. My midwife has still had mothers go past there due date with twins I'm shooting for 38 weeks (around Sept. 10th) my due date for a singleton is Sept. 24th. My pregnancy has definitely been different this time around. First of all I've never been this tired during pregnancy before, but that's hard to say because I've never had 3 little ones to take care of as well. My second trimester was probably the hardest (so far), which is usually the very best trimester; if I wasn't constantly eating I would dry heave (which I never get sick) and my legs at night would hurt when I tried to turn over or get out of bed (like my nerves or something) this still hurts, but worse last trimester. I heard it's because everything is growing much faster. I'm much bigger/wider than I've ever been as well. When I met with my midwife at 29 weeks I was measuring 37 weeks along. I'll meet with her next week and she'll check me to see how everything is looking and I'll get an ultrasound as well to see the babies position. The other thing that's different is when the babies move, it's much more drastic (I feel Walt the most and that's because he's more to the top and Daisy is under him). Anyway I'll let you know how my appointment goes next week.

Beach Camping

So we got back from Idaho on Sunday and on Monday I unpacked, washed, and repacked for beach camping. We left Tuesday and came back late Saturday night. We had a few set backs with the tent trailer on our drive, so Tuesday night we ended up staying in a hotel. On Wednesday we found out it would be too much $ to fix the tent trailer so we sold it and my dad came and helped us bring all of our stuff to the beach for us. We still had enough tents and bedding for everyone, so despite our small troubles we still had a wonderful week! Grandma Susan, Uncle Kurt, Skye, Aunt Rebecca, Baxter, Uncle Greg, and our family were all there. Here are a few fun pictures of our trip... Van with cousin Baxter. Van was this dirty after 10 minutes of being there. Grandma Mike came to visit one afternoon with my cousin Heidi and her kids. (I should have made grandma put her teeth in). Uncle Greg with some of the kids. The kids trying to bury Danny in the sand, but they kept throwing sand in his eyes. What a big helper Hanna is!

Visiting Papa

Before we came back home on Saturday we went to my dad and Debi's to swim. The kids always have a fun time there! Having fun swimming! Van telling me where his popsicle went. Van sleeping on Grandpa Ernie.

4th of July

We went to Lava Hot Springs in ID for the 4th of July! We had a Jensen Family Reunion there. Here are a few things we enjoyed doing on our short trip... Watching fireworks Swimming and going down water slides. (Max kept going on these two slides over and over again all by himself, while my mom and I played in the pool with Hanna and Van). Eating lots of yummy treats! Floating down the river. (Just Danny and Max did this one because there were some scary parts. Danny fell off at one point going down a waterfall, he said he did everything he could to keep Max on the tube). Lots of traveling (not so enjoyable, but the kids really did a good job. Yesterday we drove all the way back home and only stopped twice).

4th of July Continued...

And learning more about Danny's Great Great Grandpa Denmark Jensen. He has a historical sight in a little town called Chesterfield ID. Here is the cabin he, his wife and 9 children lived in (and with the Jensen family in front)...

28 Weeks & Growing

Hanna is Swimming

Hanna just finished up swimming lessons last Thursday and is doing such a good job! There is a lady in our area that teaches swim and preschool and after the 8 days of lessons the kids are pretty much swimming. They still need to be watched closely and need a lot of practice! I had Max take it when he was 3 and since then he's been swimming! We took the class this time with 6 other cousins and then on Friday we had a little swim party to celebrate! Well, at the party there was about 20 kids there and not too many adults wanted to be outside in the heat watching their kids swim. At one point I was the only one out watching all these kids who are still not perfect swimmers and even little ones were outside walking around the pool, I was quite stressed and was watching like a hawk. There were a few older kids who were there and so I guess some of the other moms felt safe about that. Anyway, later that day when all the adults were outside (I was still watching like a hawk) I looked in the pool and Ruby (4) was under the water and trying to get up. Two big kids were standing right next to her and about 4 other little swimmers and I yelled to my niece Raquel (15) to get Ruby and she grabbed her. Ruby was fine just very scared and coughed up some water. I believe this is when a lot of bad things happen in the pool, it's when there are adults around and everyone feels that someone else is watching. Lets make sure we are safe this summer and no one close to us drowns!

Max's Triathlon

Max ran in a triathlon yesterday with Danny by his side the whole way! They first swam 50 yards, then road their bikes for two miles and then ran a 1/2 mile. It was in a little town called Blue Diamond (which is near Spring MT.) so there are a few hills they had to go up and down. One hill they had to get off their bikes to walk up, but other than that I was quite surprised at how well he did! I thought he would have started to whine during the race and saying he couldn't do it, but he didn't at all and he just loved it! I liked that for his first time doing the triathlon Danny was able to do it with him, I know he could have done it by himself, but he might have been too scared to do it. Max wore his new shirt, number and metal the entire day, he was so proud of himself! 50 yard swim 2 mile bike 1/2 mile run Running to the finish line Two tired boys!

Hanna's Dance Performance

Hanna had a little dance performance with her class for the parents to come watch them dance on stage. It was cute watching her, she watched the teacher the whole time and would do just what she was suppose to. The funniest thing to watch was anytime she did a jump or move all she cared about was getting back to her spot on the tape. She wanted to do everything her teacher said to do and never leave her spot!

I'm 6 Months Pregnant

I know some of you have been wanting to see my blossoming belly, so here it is 24 weeks pregnant!

Swimsuit Pictures

I got the kids these green swimsuits for Easter and thought they were so cute in them together I just had to get their picture taken. Aren't they so cute?!

My New Haircut!

The kids, my mom and I went to CA 2 weekends ago. We went for a couple of reasons; my mom was planning on going, my kids love going to Grandpa's house to swim, I wanted to see my friend Carolee (just in case I don't get to see her before she moves to PA), and I really wanted to get my hair done by the girl I go to in CA! I've been wanting a new hairstyle since my friend Hanna's baby shower. I had taken a picture with my friends and when I saw the picture I thought all my friends were all so stylish and then there was me, with LONG hair and so plain Jane. I'm still pretty plain Jane, it's not a huge change, but at least I feel I look more stylish! I was excited to get a new look, I haven't had bangs since I was 12 years old, (I would have liked to have gone way blond, but I'm just way too cheap and I only highlight my hair once a year or so). Anyway, here is my new look... The kids had a wonderful weekend, they swam Friday night and all day Saturday (it was HOT)! On our way back Sunday we called Danny and had him get us a hotel room at State line and meet us there. It was only $20.00 to stay and we just wanted to play one more day and have Danny with us.

Memorial Day

We went to this beautiful park in Northwest Las Vegas for Memorial Day with Tom and Becky Jensen family. We had a BBQ, the kids rode their bikes and scooters and had fun throwing rocks into the pond and feeding the ducks. The kids went on a long walk to see the horses with Danny and they were gone for a while so I only took these two pictures while we were there, whoops. Anyway, we all had a very fun relaxing day!

Happy Birthday Uncle Michael!

It's my brother's 32nd Birthday today. We had him over on Wednesday night for dinner and his favorite, mint chip ice cream. Uncle Micheal brought all the kids a birthday present so they really thought that was neat! The kids say thank you Uncle Michael for all there fun gifts! We hope you have a Happy Birthday, we love you!

Father's and Son's

Last Friday Max and Danny had a Father's and Son's outing. Max went early with some friends because Danny had an event and wouldn't be there until 11:30 that night. I had sent Max and Danny's things up with another friend and told him where Max's sweater was for when it got cold. Well, Danny got there at 11:30 and was going up to each tent whispering "Jeff" (his brother) and then someone from the ward pointed to where Jeff was at, as Danny started walking that way he hears, "Hey, there's my dad." Danny sees three little boys, Max, Zachary, and Cruz the only ones awake at the campground. I guess Jeff was sleeping outside, Danny thought they were all going to share a tent, nope they slept outside! His sleeping bags were no where to be found, Danny and Max shared someone else's sleeping bag and Max wasn't even in his sweater when Danny got there. MEN! Anyway, this is what Danny looked like the next day...

He was bit from head to toe by mosquito's. Luckily, they liked Danny more than Max, Max didn't get one bite. Danny took about 4 baking soda baths and kept calamine on him even when we went out to dinner on Saturday night.

Even though he was still in a lot of pain on Sunday and was pretty drugged up, he still gave me a wonderful Mother's Day. On Saturday, him and the kids went and picked out some flowers and a pretty long pot from Home Depot and planted me some flowers, he made teriyaki chicken bowls for dinner, and I was able to take a nap and scrapbook, it was a great day!

Van is 18 Months!

Yesterday Van turned 18 months. This is my favorite stage because they are changing so much and learning new things everyday. There are a few differences in Van than Max and Hanna; he has always loved music and when he hears music his left arm starts moving like crazy, now he gets his left leg going too. Another thing Van loves is books! He loves looking at books and is always excited to find a doggy (or any animal) which he excitedly screams dog no matter what animal it is. Van loves feeding our neighbors dog (doggy Max) with his daddy. The other difference about Van is he throws a lot more tantrums than the others. I guess he just likes to get a good use out of his vocal cords as much as possible, especially when I'm on the phone. I believe the tantrums are partly my fault because with Max and Hanna I taught them a lot more signs and they were saying a lot more by now. Van can understand pretty much everything I ask him or tell him to do he just dosen't know how to communicate back to me very well, so this is a big part of his tantrums and frustration. For the past two nights Van has been sleeping in his crib all night long, yeah! Hopefully, this will continue! We enjoy having Van in our lives and we love watching him learn and grow.

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY MAX!

My baby is 5! I can't believe how fast children grow. Five things I love about Max...

1) Max is our first baby. 2) He is a wonderful big brother! 3) He is understanding. 4) He's friendly to those around him. 5) Max is a good, happy boy! We had a Magic party for Max last Saturday and it went really well. Danny was the Magician and he did an awesome job entertaining the kids. We had over 20 kids at the party, we did a pinata (Max really wanted this, I didn't at all), ate hot dogs, had cake (I made a magician hat cake) and root bear floats (another big request from Max). Grandma Dee, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Ernie, and Grandma Debi were all at your party. Danny and I got Max a new (well used, thanks to Craigslist) bike. He also received a lot of other fun gifts and money as well, he had a wonderful day!

I Can't Belive I'm 30!

Today was my 30th Birthday and I had a great day, thanks to my wonderful mother! My mom came over at 9:30 this morning to watch the kids for the day. I first went shopping with my friend Alena to get me some maternity clothes. We went to ROSS and I found a few cute and most of all comfortable items. Then Danny and I were able to go to my favorite restaurant (India Palace) for all you can eat lunch, yummy! Poor Danny has been sick all day, he had enough energy to enjoy lunch, but soon after was back in bed. After lunch I dropped Danny off back at home and then I went and got a pedicure, which is always so nice! I then picked me up my own personal very yummy Nothing Bundt Cake. After dinner and F.H.E. the family sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me, it was a wonderful day!