Why Kaitlyn?!

So my daughter has had long hair and she wanted to cut it short last spring.

So she has been sporting a cute little

above the shoulder length hairdo.

Well then she decided she wanted

it to grow out again.

I don't care.

See in the picture it was growing nicely.

Then why, please someone explain to me,

did she take scissors to her hair!

I know that she knows better.

It isn't like she is a three year old. She is seven for goodness sakes,

just months away from the age of accountability!

Why?

But there is no punishment I can

give her that beats this hair.

She wanted it long and it is going to be

a very long time before she gets her wish.

Thankfully our neighbor cut it the best she could

to fix the mishap and curled it looks pretty cute.

To my chagrin

everyone tells her how cute her hair is!

Oh well maybe I have the next great

hairstylist living in my house.

But I did tell her if she touches her hair again she is grounded for a week!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas!

I am having an awesome one.

Other than the feet of snow we are getting outside I have

my mom, my dad, my baby brother, my in-laws, and

my baby sister-in law here.

My Lemon Pie just got out of the oven and looks perfect!

I am having a wonderful day hope you are too.

Oh yeah and I know its not about the gifts, but this post comes

from my very own laptop!!!

Happy Anniversary To Me

15 Years
Can you believe it 15 years together!
We are becoming such a couple that we each bought
the same anniversary card.
It has been an incredible, crazy, scary, fun, hectic,
maddening, amazing 15 years!
(And I think he is coming around nicely, don't you think?)

15 Things I Love About Being Married to Monte
1. His sense of humor. He makes me laugh.
2. His responsibility to family. I know I am safe with him at the helm.
3. His spreadsheets. He spreadsheets everything!
4. He loves his kids. Its fun to watch, he doesn't always
know how to show it- but he loves them.
5. His intelligence.
6. His body. (You still reading mom?)
7. I love that if I mention I want something, he will
find a way for me to get it. A powerful tool I always try
to use for good.
8. Our Anniversaries. He makes them amazing!
Friends call just to find out what we are doing this year.
9. His love of his Savior. It is evident in all he does.
10. His to do list. He always carries one with him.
He often puts things on it to appease
me when I know in his "real" to do list my items are
on the bottom of the list.
11. Great *!#@ (Still reading!)
12. We do everything together. He would never
make a large decision without truly taking in my opinion.
13. He never puts his tie on for church without seeing
what I am wearing. He doesn't want to clash!
14. I love the feeling of being cherished.
Thank you for that.
15. Our future. Talking about it with him makes
me excited for 15 more great years!

Okay there is my great hubby blog. No more mush!

My blog will have nothing more for the week. Because we
are going away for a few days.
But stay tuned for the things I need to discuss
namely Kaitlyn cutting her hair and the awesome paint job I did
this week!

See you next week.
Have a wonderful last week before Christmas!

Happy Birthday Granmalona!!
We had a birthday party
(a few weeks ago)
for Granmalona's 60th birthday!
And yes that is a piece of wheat bread not cake.
(That's a real treat for a raw vegan!)

Connor loved the real treats
CUPCAKES!!
Between him and my 3 nieces they
went through a dozen!

But the highlight of Connor's night was
the carnival rides.
He can't get enough of riding around the
house on Uncle Ben's leg!

Happy Birthday Granmalona!

Orphan Boy

Don't I look like a complete orphan.

Nobody would ever believe I had just gotten out of
the tubby. But yes I just got out
of the tubby and immediately got
into trouble!

Don't be jealous moms of the world.
I am just that CUTE!

Ice Skating

Our family went ice skating last night. We had a really fun
time. It is a great family activity.
The family who can fall on their butts
together, stays together!

Sydney tried really hard. It's not easy to
be four and stand on a slippery surface.
She went around quite a few times holding
on to Britton and me.

We found out last night, there are skates
that fit Connor. I am not that brave enough
of a mother. He couldn't walk on the ice
in his shoes without falling!!
But he loved Chandler's hat and found his own fun.

As for the other kids. I am always amazed how
fast they pick up on ice skating.
They had tons of fun and are excited the ring
is open during the day while they are
off track!

Beware of Big Brothers

On Sunday big brother and baby brother were playing
one of their favorite games. Britton crawls on the ground
and chases Connor, well in this Connor got so excited
he fell and banged his cheek on the ground.
Bruise #1
Then tonight while playing mom's favorite game of, chuck-stuff-
down-the-stairs-at-each-other, Britton hit
Connor with a toy.
Go Big Brother Bruise #2
But I don't know who was more upset
Connor or big brother.

Holiday Traditions

When our older kids were younger we had an interesting family tradition.
Each year we would go and pick out a Christmas tree with the kids.
Before this Monte would go and pick up my dad's truck and meet us at the Christmas
tree lot. We would look through all the trees and pick one and watch Monte
load it into the truck.
This is where the tradition starts...
The kids and I would then go over to my parents house and have hot chocolate
and play with Mema and Papa.
While at home Monte could feel free to cuss and
scream all he wanted at the tree with no little ears in the way. Once he was
done yelling and screaming and telling the tree how stupid it is and it was standing
up strait with lights on he would call me at my moms and the kids and I would slowly
make our way home.
So that by the time we got there Monte was ready to be a
Christmas-happy-daddy and help the kids decorate.
(Beware there were a few bad years before
we created this wonderful, effective Christmas tradition)
So what are some of your fun traditions?

What a weekend!!!

Lets see I ate too much.
I shopped too much.
And now I'm ready for a nap!
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Our Family Pictures!

So I got my copies of my family pictures that we took
a couple of weeks ago. I am so excited!
They turned out so good!

I am in love with these pictures. There are so many that I love I can't put
them all on my blog so here is a few.
Here is one of each kid that I love.

Oh yeah and if you think those are great look at these family shots that I loved.

And the ultimate favorite picture is....

I am the luckies person in the world that has talented friends.
Thank you. It meant the world to me.

The Symphony

Monte and I got to go see the Utah Symphony perform
last night! They were amazing!
We were in the 7th row middle. The concert was beautiful.

As you listen to the sound coming from this orchestra
it just seems surreal. Then to think a composer wrote a piece of
music that takes 45 minutes to play!
We were tired last night and almost decided not
to go. I am so glad that we went.
What an inspiration.
(Monte didn't like the second piece he said it sounded
like his sister Tonya when she was learning to
play the violin!)
Other than that.... Beautiful!

Pinewood Derby

It's Pinewood Derby Time!!
This is a momentous occasion for the Jensen Family, this is our
6th straight year of Pinewood Derby & our last for the next 6 years!

Chandler did awesome!
He was very proud of how well he did.
It was fun to watch the boys and all their enthusiasm,
not to mention the dads!

Sydney and Grandmalona had a great time too. They watched for
awhile and then made fishy kisses!
Overall, another fun pinewood derby.
(did I mention its our last for 6 years!)

Nothing to Blog

Sometimes nothing is going on in life.
Sometimes we have nothing to blog but
our lazy days of cloud watching!

Sometimes we have nothing to do but lean
against a tree
and smile.

Lounge in the grass and watch your
children frolic!

Sometimes you have nothing to blog about
because you just live a simple life,
spent doing nothing!

NOT!!

Update on Kate

Good News!!
Kaitlyn went to her 3rd visit with her dentist, since she knocked out
her front tooth.
The tooth was saved!!!
We are so excited. Katilyn had the bar, that has been holding her tooth
stable, removed today. Her dentist says it looks awesome. He doesn't need
to see her for 8 weeks and then just check it every time she
comes in for a check-up!
This is the same tooth he only gave a 20% chance of surviving!
Modern technology and the power of prayer! A nice one-two punch!

Friends

What a fun weekend I had! I got together for the weekend with three of my
very dearest friends. It is so interesting to me that no matter how long time
passes between visits its as if we never left each other.

Charlene (left)- Was my roommate in college. She arrived after I had, when I wasn't
home, and was told her room roommate was, "Blonde, psychology major, from California, and oh yeah she's engaged!" Char was devastated! Who would have guessed our friendship
would stand the test of time.

Tammy(one in)-She and I met through Charlene about 5 years ago. We have the same number
and ages of children and don't know what we would do without each other. (Even
if combined we are the flake twins!)

Me(middle)- Okay I flipped my hair out in this picture. What do you think? It is hard to tell.

Sue(far right)- Sue later became Charlene's sister in law when she came to
Utah to stop her brother from joining a "cult"(oh yeah did I mention Monte baptized Char's later-to-be-hubby). Well Sue was baptized a few weeks later and it has been fun watching
our families grow (her family grew wider and faster than mine-can you believe it!)

We had an awesome weekend together. I only got out of my pj's once!!
Friendship is an amazing thing. We would have been friends for life but after
this weekend they know too much not to ALWAYS be my friends!

It's November 1st in Utah!!

Can you believe it? This is Connor in a diaper, on November 1st playing in the Great Salt Lake!! We had a great day. So I have a list of things and places I want to visit in Utah.
Since we live in Salt Lake one of those things is to see the Salt Lake!
We did this yesterday.
It was really fun.

The kids played in the water and were covered in a fine layer of salt!
It was so much fun watching them play out there,
especially knowing that we are going to be in winter soon.
We enjoyed the day thoroughly!

I don't know what Connor enjoyed more the water or the
tons and tons of sand!!


The water was low so the kids could run and play in the sand till their heart
was content and we could still see them from the pavilion.

So the whole reason we went to Antelope Island yesterday was for the annual buffalo run. We saw hundreds of buffaloes! It was a really neat experience. (We also learned their proper name is Bison not buffalo)

It was amazing to see the Bison up so close. We watched them run down the shoots
and even had to stop our car a few times for them to walk across the road.

On Antelope Island they have a ranch. We went there and looked at the old homes
that are there and the kids tried their hand at lassoing. This is the closest we
could get to family picture there. Connor was too busy running everywhere to let us sit him
down for a picture.

We had a wonderful day with our cousins!

Help Me--From Connor

Calling all mommies who have told me they love me!! Come get me!!
We have an invader in our house!!
This creature is getting in my way as the baby of the house!

Everyone is saying he is cute-- I am cute!
Everyone is cuddling him-- Cuddle me!!
Today I tried to be nice to him
(and make up for a very small kick to his side-that I shouldn't get in trouble for)
I covered him up with his blanket and he threw up on me!!
How do I get rid of him?
They say he is my cousin who is visiting but he has overstayed
his welcome!!

Please!! If you have ever loved and cuddled me in your home- come save me now!!
I need you- sweet ladies that I love!!

Too Nap or Not to Nap

So when your church is 3 hours long and at 1pm- what do you do?
Do I put Connor down for a nap before church
or
or after church
or
not at all!!!

This is Connor when this past week I experimented with not taking a nap.
So dinner was almost finished and this is what he looked like!!

So how have you solved this dilemma!!

Happy Birthday Chandler!!

Happy 10th Birthday Chandler!!

This is one awesome kid to have around.
It has been fun watching him grow and turn into such an awesome guy!

So here we go!!
10 Things you should know about Chandler

1. He has an amazing imagination!
2. Britton can rile him up faster than anything else!
3. He is such a smartie!!
4. He loves playing with his friends. Wherever we have lived Chandler
has had tons of friends!
5. He loves video games. I think he would give up food for games!
6. Speaking of food- Chandler is the pickiest eater I have ever met! When
he was younger he would tell us he couldn't eat things because they
tasted like paint!
7. He loves his mom. He is still not embarrassed to kiss me! Love that!
8. He is grateful. He is the first to say thank you to Monte and I when
he has enjoyed himself at an outing or playing games or whatever!
9. Chandler is learning to cook. Right now he has pancakes mastered and loves to
make them for us!
10. He is a great kid who has been choosing the right for a long time, and
for this I am grateful!

We love you Chandler!!
Happy Birthday!

Chandler's Scary Party

What a great birthday party Chandler had!! They got to make a haunted house and feel creepy things in dishes. They ate witches fingers and dirt from a graveyard.

Making the haunted basement was so much fun! They spent over an hour down there creating the scariest basement ever!!!

Then the big boys were the "Ginnie pigs". They were "terrified" by the scary haunted basement!! They are such good sports!!
Happy Birthday Chandler!!