Time Out For Woman

I was able to attend Time Out For Woman this last weekend in Las Vegas and had such a fabulous time! I was so excited to hear from Shawni Eyre Pothier and Linda Eyre, they are wonderful woman that I look up too and strive to implement their amazing parenting techniques in my home! I was happy to get a picture with them and even get their autographs, heehee! I bought their newest book "A Mother's Book of Secrets" and am so excited to start reading it! Here is Shawni's blog http://71toes.blogspot.com/ Here is Linda and her husband Richard's parenting website http://valuesparenting.com/ The sisters awesome website http://powerofmoms.com/ and the sisters blog http://looslifamily.blogspot.com/

I had a great time with these wonderful ladies! We went shopping on our way into Vegas Friday, had dinner and then attended the Friday night meeting.

We heard from Dallyn Bayles (an amazing singer who is currently on tour with The Phantom of the Opera and has also been on tour with Les Miserables.) We also heard from John Bytheway, who is amazing as well, and from Ardeith Kapp! After which we stayed the night at the Marriott and heard from more amazing speakers Saturday. We heard from Linda and Shawni, Mercy River, Brad Wilcox, Jill Manning and Kris Belcher all of it was just fantastic! I can't wait to attend again!

Self Body Drawings

Max had started making his "body" drawing at school and was excited to show us (his secret) at parent night. Well, he had missed school that day, but was "well" enough to go that night, he was so excited to show us and then it wasn't up, because he wasn't there that day. I felt so bad. The parents were suppose to find where their child sat by finding their "body" drawing. Max had been talking about it all week, without giving away the surprise. I felt so bad when he realized his body wasn't up. He acted fine, but I knew he was a little sad. So I told him we will finish his at home and make Hanna and Van one and hide them for dad to find and guess who is who. The kids had a great time deciding where to place/hide their body. My dad was even in town that weekend to find their bodies too. The kids just cracked up showing them off!
Max at the computer.
Hanna on the toilet.
Van in bed. When hiding Van's, it was on the girls top bunk under the covers, but I wanted a better picture. The kids had such a great time doing this!

What Does Yea Mean?

Yesterday during morning scripture reading Hanna asked, "What does yea mean? Does it mean like Yeah! We're going to die, Yeah!" Danny and I thought this was so funny I just had to post it. Aren't kids the best?!

Daisy and Walt Turn TWO!

We had a waffle breakfast for Daisy and Walt on their 2 year birthday and gave them each a gift with just our own little family. Then on Labor Day my mother-in-law was getting the family together for the holiday so we celebrated their birthday again with the Jensen's.
Daisy, is talkative, energetic, gives everyone "loves", has a set of lungs when mad, but for the most part one happy little girl. When I ask Daisy how old she is, she finds it very funny to tell me, "NO!" She's 2 alright!
Walt, looks like a quite little angel with his white hair and his thumb in his mouth almost every second of the day, but if you can't find him you know there's trouble! Walt is still mommas boy! I love how Daisy and Walt ask for one another and bring each other their blankies when the other is upset. They had to learn to share at a very young age, they take care of each other, they are best friends, they fight, and when they are together they seem to get into everything!
We feel so blessed to have these two little two year olds in our family! They bring each of us so much joy! We love you Daisy and Walt! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Back to School 2010

Max started 2nd grade today in Mrs. Dean's class. Hanna will start Kindergarten on Thursday in Mrs. Moores' class, today she had her pre-test and did a great job! Van is officially in my preschool class. This year I'm teaching a M/W morning Preschool class, a T/TH morning Pre-K class and a M-Th afternoon Pre-K class.
Why can't Van take a "normal" picture? Max and Hanna, my "big" kids. Smile Van...at the camera!
Hanna with her Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Moore.

Baby Wasn't Ready

Baby number 6 was not ready to come to our family yet. I had a miscarriage. We know there is a purpose for all things and we are doing fine.

Baby Number...SIX

Jensen baby number 6 is expected to arrive around March 17, 2011.

Yellowstone Trip

We had a great time with the "Gravell" family in West Yellowstone.
• We went to my old roommates in Rexburg, ID and rode horses.
• Danny and I got to go to the Rexburg, ID temple.
• Showed the kids my old school "Ricks" now known as BYU-Idaho.
• Saw bison, elk, wolves and bears (wolves and bears at the museum).
• Danny, Max, Hanna, Van, Micheal, Kurt, Skye, Rebecca, Kristine, Baxter and Greg all got to go river rafting. They were in two rafts Baxter in the front of his and Hanna in front of hers. They had a great time! Thanks to my mom and dad (they forked the bill). My mom and I stayed with baby Vincent and Daisy and Walt. We went to lunch and then threw some rocks in a beautiful little lake in Big Sky MT.
• Went to Mammoth Hot Springs and Noris one day.
• We went to Old Faithful and a little creek another day.
• Walked around West Yellowstone, ate ice cream, swam and relaxed.
• Went to Bear and Wolf Discovery Museum.
• Drove a lot, which means we had to put up with a lot of screaming from Van. The twins did great, it was Van who I wanted to beat most of the drive.
I really wanted to see the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, WY and a few more things, but the trip was already getting hard on the kids. Another time I guess.

Mischievous Twins

These little monkeys have been getting into everything lately. Here are a few things they have gotten into within the past couple of weeks...
Made there own Bubble Bath (with some help from the ring leader, Van).

Vaseline

*BEWARE I might sound like I'm neglecting my children, but it's just that these twins are so mischievous!

• Walt pulled a chair up to the kitchen counter, got on top rubbed oil and butter all over his arms and legs.
• The very next day (after cleaning Hanna's bathroom of course) I found Walt, Daisy, the sink, toilet and bathtub covered in vaseline. I had to use corn starch and dawn to get it out of his hair.
• Yesterday I was trying to take a nap and I woke up to Daisy, Walt and Van in Hanna's bathtub with the full bottle of bubbles and some shampoo dumped out with the shower going. The kids were sliding down the end of the tub and bubbles were everywhere!
• We were just at my brother Kurt's and when we realized Walt wasn't in the room with us, we knew he was up to no good, we found him coloring himself and the carpet with a permanent marker, sorry Kurt.
• Lots of mornings the babies wake up early around 5:30 and I usually just keep on sleeping, knowing that when I do get up there will be lots of messes for me to clean, like...oatmeal, popcorn, broken glass (I've jumped out of bed a few times to this noise), toilet paper filled in the toilet, usually water on the floor, diapers off, and anytime I start hearing them say "popical" (there words) I also jump up because they've been known to be holding a knife, even a huge chopper, to open the popsicles (I have most of the knives up high, but they seem to always find one).

Beach Camping

Well, we finally got off to our trip Monday afternoon while we waited for our car radiator fan to get fixed and after starting we pretty much sat in traffic the whole way to CA. I forgot about the 4th of July traffic it took us 8 hours to get to the beach when it was only suppose to be about 5 hours, ugh! Anyway, we made it, well kind of... on our way we were thinking this is going to be so much work with all our little ones so we changed plans (we were suppose to go to San Mateo and camp 2 nights with our friends and then go to my sister's and camp one night on her mother-in-laws beach). We ended up staying all three nights at my sister's beach. Our poor friends got rained out after one night and stayed at a hotel the other 2 nights. The beach weather was no good! The sun just never came out! The kids still had a great time playing in the sand, running from the water, swimming in the lap pool, being with their cousins Baxter (and Vincent), being with grandma and of course they enjoyed the camp fire!

Daisy and Walt after falling in the water.

Daisy made her a little spot to watch the water.

We were able to see my Grandma Mike who is doing fantastic, visit with my cousin Heidi while the kids swam with her kids at my aunt Joann's.

We also stopped by my dad's and swam some more, had dinner and enjoyed visiting with Grandpa Ernie and Grandma Debi.

A Day at the Wild Animal Park

Since the beach weather was so yucky, we ended up going to the Wild Animal Park. My sister had free passes which was wonderful! My mom stayed home with baby Vincent (my sister's little guy) and the rest of us went and enjoyed the park!

Van looking at the sleepy lion.

Hanna, watch out for the Gorilla!

On our tour we saw lots of neat African animals and heard some very interesting facts!

The Black Rhino can weigh up to 3000-4000 lbs.!

Happy 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July celebration this year! We first went to our stake breakfast and program, which I always enjoy. Later, our friends Autumn and Jeff invited us to Jeff's aunts 4th of July party (on the 3rd). They had this fun pool that was so nice and warm! Had yummy food, lots of fun treats (homemade ice cream, slushies, chocolate cover fruit and marshmallows on festive sticks, bottled soda...) and some very fun fireworks! We had a great time! On the 4th we went to Jeff and Cindy's for dinner and more fireworks with the Jensen Family.

They had this fun rope swing and this 10 ft. wall that Max enjoyed jumping off of!

Danny doing sparklers with the kids, these sparklers were so nice because they were so long.


Everyone with sparklers.

Swimming Lessons

Luke, Van, Daisy, Walt and Hanna
Like I mentioned early the kids got free swimming lessons so I even took a mommy and me class with the twins. Daisy was doing just fine in her floaties before swim lessons, but poor Walt was too afraid, when I would barley move away from him he would panic. Well, since their swim lessons you would not have known Walt was ever afraid. He jumps off the side (with his floaties on), floats on his back and puts his head under all the time, he just loves the water now.

Daisy swimming (or drowning). Walt swimming.

Hanna enjoyed jumping off this 5ft. high dive with no life jacket and had no problem doing so.

OB, Daisy, Walt and Luke. Van is pretty much swimming without his floaties I just make him wear them because it's much less work and stress on me. Maybe now that my mom's back she can watch the babies and I can watch the others.

Summer

Here is what we've been doing a lot of this summer...SWIMMING!

All kids 5 and under (everyone, but Max) were able to take 2 weeks of swimming lessons through the city for FREE! So I have been taking a mommy and me class with the twins. Thankfully the life guard does it with Daisy for me and uses her to demonstrate. Daisy is like Van in the water, she just jumps right in and loves it! The classes have made Walt feel much more comfortable. Hanna was already swimming she's just improving her strokes and other skills. And when Van isn't being a little stinker he shows his great skills!

My wonderful friend Shelly has this awesome pool and a huge heart! We've been swimming here about 3 times a week. In this heat swimming is all we really can do! So thank you Shelly!

Here is what we haven't been doing enough of...SLEEPING!