Camping

Our family loves camping (especially Max and especially if his cousin Zachary is going too). I even enjoy camping, but with two 6 month old babies that's a whole other story. Also, with a bigger family it's a lot more work to pack and unpack just for one night of camping. We wanted to camp at the Valley of Fire, but sadly it was all full. The same thing happened last year so we found another campground not too much further past Valley of Fire by Lake Mead called Echo Bay.
The kids were just happy to get to a campground even the babies had a great time camping during the day, nighttime was a different story. I was nervous for the night because I know that with one baby and camping I usually nurse all night, but with two I wouldn't be able to do so. Danny and I didn't get much sleep, Walt wanted to nurse all night, Daisy did pretty good but still wanted to be held so Danny got a little taste of my camping trips with a baby. Hopefully, they'll be better at our next camping trip in August at the beach because that one is a whole week.
The kids had a fun time playing at the lake before we headed back home.

Creative Kids

I tried posting this one with my post yesterday, but I ran out of time.
Thanks to Danny and the missionaries our play structure is up, yea! Yesterday, I found the kids doing this activity... Van would bring toys from the shed to Max and Max would tie them to a rope from the ground and Hanna would pull the rope with the toy up to the top of the structure. If you look close enough you can see the scooter hanging form the rope. I thought this was so creative, (even if I didn't want all those toys up there).

Last Weekend Events

Max was the cuttest "little" skunk in the Cummunity Play last Saturday. This is another wonderful thing about small towns everyone gets a part in the community play. I grew up being a part of the Chino Community Plays and had a lot of fun doing so even if my parts were never a main one like my Sister Rebecca or Brother Michael's.
Me and the kids cooking some bread that Hanna got as a birthday gift. As you can see Van did not want any help mixing.

Hanna Turns 4 Years Old

Hanna turned 4 years old Saturday March 7th. We had two very busy days. We had a birthday party for her on Friday with her friends from Pahrump and on Saturday we had an early morning pancake birthday breakfast with our friends from Vegas. Her party on Friday I had asked the few people I new to tell all their friends to come as well because I wanted to get to know more people. I wasn't sure how many would be coming so I made a big pot of spaghetti and made cupcakes for the kids to decorate and a cake just in case there wasn't enough cupcakes. We had a big turn out (about 30 kids), it was a lot of fun, but a little bit crazy too! Luckily, I had a sweet mom ask if she could take pictures for me, good thing she did or I would have completely forgotten.
Friday night there was a small circus in town so we had Hanna's cousins Ruby and Zachary come with us to that and spend the night too. While at the circus Danny and I kept talking and saying that we felt we were in another country. It was a little strange but the kids really enjoyed it.
On Saturday we had planned for our friends from Vegas to come out to see the house and so we were going to have one big party for Hanna in the day, but then sadly Danny's cousin passed away and his funeral was then planned for that same day. So I decided to have our Vegas friends come out early and have a pancake birthday breakfast for Hanna instead. It was so great seeing all of our friends especially the Risenmay's who now live in UT and were in town visiting our friends the Blackwell's new baby girl. I wish I had had more time to visit with them all, but I had a funeral to go to at 11:00 and a funeral luncheon at my house. So I was busy cleaning up the breakfast and getting ready for the luncheon while they were all over. It was a very busy two days!
Hanna we are so lucky to have you in our family. We love you and Happy Birthday!

The Kids

Daisy and Walt are officially 6 months old and they are growing so big! Well, Walt is; Daisy just a little thing. People get so confuse because they are such different sizes they’re not sure if they’re twins or not. Walt is in 6-12 month clothes and wearing size 3 diapers and Daisy is in 3-6 month clothes and her pants still fall off and in size 2 diapers. Daisy has her 2 bottom teeth already and Walt dosen't have any teeth yet. They both roll over, but neither of them is sitting up yet. We feel so blessed to have these two precious spirits in our family. OK, enough about the babies yes, they do have other siblings…

Hanna went with Grandma Susan to CA last weekend and she got to go with Aunt Rebecca and her cousin Baxter to the San Diego children’s museum, she had such a fun time. I hear that it’s so much fun, the next time we’re in town I've gotta go! Aunt Rebecca got Hanna this cute dress for her birthday; I think she looks so cute in it. We all missed Hanna so much, but I think Max and Hanna missed each other the most. They just talked and played so well when she got back, it’s so nice to see them getting to be such great friends. (Oh, and by the way, Hanna is not short her brother just keeps growing! These are size 7 pants he's in (thanks to adjustable waist bands)and he's already growing out of them).

Max and Hanna are off with Grandma Susan to St. George this weekend. They went to my cousin’s little girl’s baptism, so we just have our 3 littler ones. Yesterday, I was able to give Van a lot of attention and spend some good quality time with him. I made us popcorn, went to the park, took him to McDonald's and gave him his own bath. He had a fun day! Whenever I make popcorn I can’t decide if I should make butter popcorn or caramel, so I half it and do both. When I placed these two bowls in front of him with no siblings there to share it with he raised his hands up and let out a little giggle/scream and then kept giggling while eating, it was so cute!

The Babies

I finally have Internet, but it's dial-up so I might not be able to blog as much as before, we'll see how it goes. But Because I knew I had no internet I haven't taken very many pictures. I only have taken a few of the babies, so here they are.
Walt and Daisy are almost 6 months and they are getting so cute! Here is Walt and Daisy playing together, I love Walt laughing!
This is our jumper, but our doors are too high for them to jump so they just have to swing, but I guess they like it because they both have fallen asleep in it. Poor Walt's little head on the tray.
Daisy has become a thumb sucker and I'm trying not to let her. I've been trying to give her her pacifier instead. It's so adorable though (as a baby, but not as a 6Th grader). Aren't they so cute?!
I have the cuttest video of Walt and Daisy talking and laughing at each other, I'll have to try and load it another time. This post took me forever, it only let me post 1 picture at a time!

We're Doing Great

So last time I posted the library was clossing so I had no time to post. Well, I'm still coming to the library to get on the internet because we still haven't gotten ours connected. I really hope that we'll have it soon, I'm just dying without it! Anyway, we are doing great! We love it here in Pahrump! The people here are so nice. The first day I went to Walmart with all my kids by the end of my shopping day I had 2 carts and a lady helped me to my car (or should I say bus) which was parked far awy! Then I went to the DMV and got my van registered and when I got home the lady from the DMV calls and says how sorry she is for giving me the wrong plates and that I'll have to go back. Well, she calls me back the next day and asks if I'm going to beable to make it in and I told her yes sometime today and then she says, well were do you live and I said by the winnery and she says me to I'll bring them to you when I get off work tonight. Crazy, huh! The other thing is we go to the Pahrump Nuggett Buffet once a week on Wed. it's only $9.60 for our whole family to eat kids 5 and undre are free and on Wed. we get buy one get one free! And everytime we go everyone is so nice and tells us we have a beautiful family andone night a couple asked if they could give our kids each a $ for being so well behaved! Crazy, huh!
The ward is great and Max enjoys riding the bus to school. Got to go hope to beable to post some pictures soon!

Quick Update

We're doing well, pretty much all moved in and so far loving Pahrump! We have no internet yet so that is why I've not been blogging. The people in Pahrump are so nice and tell me I have a beautiful family. I don't get those mean looks here!

Christmas

Here are some pictures of our Christmas.
Christmas Eve Nativity play at Tom and Becky's
Max really wanted a DS, but we told him no and we got him this instead; it's a control that plugs into the t.v. with 75 games on it.
Hanna finally got her bike.
Van was easy. This is a really fun game EleFun.
All the kids by the Christmas tree in their new Christmas pajamas.
Daisy and Walt's 1st Christmas.
Daisy and Walt's cute little bottoms.
My mom and her friend made this car town for all the grandkids.
Van got to Daisy with a pink marker. How smart he was picking pink.

Merry Christmas

LOVE THE JENSEN'S

Christmas 2008

Since we are busy moving, I'm posting our Christmas letter on my blog this year. You can look forward to our Christmas 2009 letter in your mail next year. Thank you for your understanding!

Dear Family & Friends,

I can’t believe the Christmas season is here already! I must admit I’m not quite prepared this year, but I do have a few good reasons for that. If you have already looked at our family picture you might have guessed why I’m not prepared; it would have to be because of our TWO new babies! Yes, we had twins, baby girl Daisy Marian and baby boy Walt Denmark came into our “little” family on August 26th 2008. I guess we needed to make-up for not having any babies last year. Another reason we’re not quite ready for the Christmas season would be that we’re moving sometime this month (hopefully before Christmas), and I’m not planning on decorating until then so our house just doesn’t feel very Christmassy.

It is a crazy time to be moving, but we have been talking about moving for the past two years and we feel blessed to be able to do so now.

We found our first home of our own in Pahrump, NV. If you have not heard of Pahrump, it is a small town (well, not too small it still has 25,000 people there) located about 40 miles Southwest of Vegas. The commute is not bad at all; actually if you’re from CA the commute is nothing! Pahrump is famous for legalized prostitution (brothels), it use to be a farming community and didn't have phone lines until the 1960's, it really started to develop in the 1980's. Pahrump has a Super Wal-Mart (all you need in a town), three casinos, a McDonald's and other fast food chains. The only thing they don't have is a Trader Joe's which I'll have to have Danny do that shopping for now on.

Danny will continue to work in Las Vegas; he doesn’t mind the commute because he is use to driving to each of his food service locations all across town. Danny’s business “Campus Food Services” is doing well, he renewed his contract with the Charleston Campus this last summer for another 4 years and has also picked up a few more business accounts with government buildings around town. Danny is an entrepreneur and continues to think of and work on other projects to keep him busy!

Our five children under 5 keep me busy daily! Between Max’s homework and off to Kindergarten, Hanna’s gymnastics, Van and the horrible, no good, terrible two’s, and nursing two new babies, let alone laundry, dishes, packing and Christmas, I don’t know how I’m still sane!

It has been nice having Max in Kindergarten this year. He attends my SIL private school located right down the street from us and goes on Tues.-Friday from 9:00-2:30. It’s been so fun hearing him talk about the Solar System, Mt. Everest, repeating poems, and saying his phonogram rules. Max is in a combined Kindergarten and First grade class and is still taller than everyone in his class. He enjoys being in the same class as his favorite cousin Zachary and playing at recess with all his other cousins. We’re going to miss his school when we move, but Max reminded me that he’ll be able to meet more friends.

Hanna is a mini-me when it comes to loving babies! She loves holding and kissing on her new baby sister and brother as much as possible. I didn’t know a 3 year old could help so much with a new baby, but when they both just want to be held I place one in Hanna’s lap while I try and make the other happy.

Van just turned 2 years old in November and can really be a joy to be around if he’s not throwing one of his many tantrums of course! How did I forget these times so quickly? It must be that children bring much more joy to help us forget these hard short moments in life.

Daisy and Walt were born at home three and a half weeks early. Daisy born first weighing 5lbs. 8oz. and Walt was born 15minutes later weighing 6lbs. 10oz. Three hours after their birth Walt had to go to the hospital and ended up staying there for one week because of too much fluids in his lungs. They’re 3 months old now and already showing such differences.

Daisy is a social butterfly who has been smiling since day one. She has a very demanding cry when Daisy wants something, but is as happy as can be as long as she’s being held. Walt is a serious little “man” who is 2.5lbs. bigger than Daisy and is very patient and sweet. When Walt cries we know he’s waited long enough!

We feel so blessed to have our busy lives with our five beautiful healthy children. We enjoy sending out our annual Christmas letter and look forward to hearing from each of you! We hope your year has brought you much happiness and blessings. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Danny, Jennifer, Max, Hanna, Van, Daisy & Walt Jensen

Email: gojensens@hotmail.com
Family Blog: http://goteamjensen.blogspot.com/
New Address: 2141 S. Cortina St. Pahrump, NV 89048

A Few Cute Pictures

At Opportunity Village



Van has some hot chocolate
Danny and Walt
At Red Rock

Snow In Vegas!

The kids were so excited to play in the snow! Clark County School District even canceled school because of the snow.

Uncle Greg and Van

The Big Red Bus

We sold our "mini van" and bought us a van that our long legs will actually fit in. We thought it would be smart to get a 15 passenger van so that other people like cousins and our moms can fit in our car with us when we go places. Also, since we aren't done having all our children yet, we're just planing ahead. The kids think it's really cool! Wait until they read this when they're a little older.

I still haven't driven it yet, I guess I'm a little nervous!

We're Moving

I've been reluctant to put this up because our loan is still in proses, but since I'm starting to pack and I'm getting very excited I might as well let everyone know we're moving to PAHRUMP, NV. If you have not heard of Pahrump, it is a small town (well, not too small it still has 25,000 people there) located about 40 miles Southwest of Vegas. The commute is not bad at all, actually if your from CA the commute is nothing! Pahrump is famous for legalized prostitution (brothels), it use to be a farming community and didn't have phone lines until the 1960's, it really started to develop in the 1980's. Pahrump has a Super Walmart (all you need in a town), three casinos, a McDonald's and other fast food chains. The only thing they don't have is a Trader Joe's which I'll have to have Danny do that shopping for now on.
We have been talking about moving for the past two years now so it still doesn't seem quite real. Anyway, about our house... It has 4 bedrooms all with own bathrooms, a guest bath, an office, a loft, a family room, formal dining room, living room, kitchen, laundry room, and the garage has been converted to 4 other rooms (which we'll use for storage and my preschool, which I'll start back up next Fall). Most of the house is on the main floor the only rooms upstairs are the loft, a bedroom and a bathroom. The house is on a half acre lot (which is currently not landscaped or fenced in). The previous owner was a custom home builder, the house was a model home and the garage was his office. Let me just say we got a great deal on the house (only $63 a square foot) and we couldn't pass it up! Danny can't bring himself to buy anything unless he feels it's a great investment. We have put about 5 offers on 5 different houses in the last 4 months and this one has just worked out perfectly (so far), so call it meant to be because I'm not even sure how we began looking in Pahrump. I had never been there before and living there had never crossed my mind. Here are a few pictures of the house...
If we enjoy Pahrump we'll have plenty of room to "grow" into this house.
In our current "rental home" we haven't had a working dishwasher for 2 months, only 2 sometimes 3 burners work on our stove, our freezer has a layer of ice in it and our microwave burns my popcorn every single time! Our new kitchen has a subzero fridge and Wolf appliances. I guess I need to learn how to cook and enjoy it now!
My current bathroom is a one man bath. The neatest thing in our new bathroom would have to be the shower, which has seven shower heads! Of course, we will only use all seven on "special occasions". The downfall about this bathroom is we just might get cold.

The office.
Look, there is even a ladder that goes back and forth like on Beauty and the Beast (my friend Autumn pointed out).
The loft.

Reminder to all, we just got a great deal on this house, and remember it's located in Pahrump! All the places we have lived since we've been married have been free rent in exchange for office manager work, cleaning, or we've had students live with us to pay our rent (up until we had the babies). We feel so blessed to be moving into our very own home. Please come and visit us, we'll have plenty of room for visitors!

A "Jolly" Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving we go to a movie with Danny's family and have dinner at his brother Jeff's house. This year we didn't go to the movies we just watched Fred Clause together at Jeff and Cindy's house. We dressed Daisy and Walt in Christmas outfits for Thanksgiving because they won't fit in them next month, so we had to put them to use. They're 3 months old.

(This is the only picture I took on Thanksgiving, oops).

Here is a video of Hanna making Walt laugh...