October 15th, 2015

HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY BREANNA!!!!

Wow! Our oldest is 19 yrs. old today! It is a little hard to believe, but it's a reality! :)

I am very impressed with the Young Lady she has turned out to be! And all she has accomplished so far in her 19 years and I'm excited and pleased with her dreams and aspirations for the near future! She is attending BYU now and then plans to go on a 18 month Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the beginning of the New Year 2016. I know she will do a great job in all her endeavors!! I also know, that it was not so much of what we did as parents to get her to this point, but a LOT of help from above and a lot of her own Divine Nature! Love you Breanna! Walk Tall Your a Daughter of God! :) We miss you and Love you lots!! (:

Here's a little video to enjoy - a little glimpse back in time...

(I made this for Breanna's Graduation, but finally figured out now how to put it on Facebook. Better late than never! I tried to put it on my BlogSpot account, but that didn't work! I'm surprised my BlogSpot account still exists! I kind of forgot about it! It's been 7 yrs since I posted on there [if you read some of my old posts on there, you might figure out why]. Life has been busy, busy, busy!)

Oops! see the video on Facebook...

 

 

Long overdue update...

Ok here's a little update: I wanted to rearrange the typing because I actually started typing the Fifth paragraph first (not counting this paragraph), but when I brought in the photos it messed it up and I can't cut and paste to fix it. Frustrating! This is why I don't blog much...I can't figure out how to do something that I can do in another program or I work and work and then the computer freezes up before I remember to save it. ugh!!

This shows the mischievousness of Zerrick - he knows he is trouble, but he knows he's cute so he can get away with almost anything! Don't you just want to squish those cheeks?

Zerrick dumping corn on his sister's head without any prompting from anyone, just observing those around him. Poor 3 yr old sister gets the brunt of a lot of hitting and dumping from this toddler! The frustrating thing is that she doesn't move or anticipate Zerrick doing something, she just sits there and lets him keep doing it until I come and rescue her or she gets in his face and provokes his aggression - uuuugh!

Don't you love the face? This shows Zerrick's true character! the next photo shows it too - he picked up a little pumpkin that was near by and while I was trying to take a photo of one of his siblings, he threw the pumpkin into the watering tub that was for the duck races. Zeeerrrrick!


I usually see this picture...Zerrick running away from me. If I'm in a public place and I let go of his hand, he has no fear, he just runs - and he's a fast little bugger! (Even in rain boots!)

Yes, I'm horrible at keeping my blog updated, but I have good reasons! I wish I could capture the business that I have in most of my days. I told myself I really should start keeping a journal and just write down my daily schedule for each day - even the mundane stuff, because in years to come that may be interesting to my children to see what their mother did for them as a stay-at-home mom. My daily schedule is somewhat self-inflicted, somewhat friends or family inflicted, but mostly child-inflicted. More specifically 22 month old child inflicted. My almost 2 yr. old makes at least 5 messes a day and is constantly into something he KNOWS he shouldn't be in to. Here are some photos to prove it...

I took this picture after I quickly picked up the gallon jug of milk that was pouring onto the floor. And yes Zerrick is showing all drama because mom already said "Zerrick! Nooooooooo!" I was starting to clean this up like clock work (but begrudgingly) when I remembered that I had started this blog entry and thought this would be another great photo! usually when Zerrick makes a mess, I'm NOT in the mood to take a photo! I usually want to throw all toys, clothing, furniture (and sometimes kids) out the door!

Other messes of Zerrick's I did not photo journal...
- at nap time (several months ago) he took off his poopy diaper and threw it towards the door and then peed on the crib & floor. When I came up because I finally heard him stirring around (he is quiet sometimes!) I couldn't open the door easily and when I did, it smelled very stinky! I did the thing that Dave on the Chipmunks does "Zeeerrrrrick!" Needless to say, he wears onesies for nap time now because he can't unsnap the snaps.

- I let the kids eat dry cereal in a bowl and watch TV and this particular day the big girls were supposed to watch him, well, Zerrick was trying to fill up his bowl himself and dumped out almost a the whole box of cereal on the floor (a freshly opened box) ugh!

- many times at lunch Zerrick decides he's had enough food and uses the left over yogurt or milk as finger paint to decorate his highchair tray. This only take a few seconds and I'm in the kitchen too.

- My kids are sick of picking up after Zerrick...he will go play in his room, but that means dumping out most of the toy tubs in the room. Many times this has happen just after we spent time picking them all up!

- while the family was playing softball and it was his turn at bat, he hit the ball and then proceeded to run to 1st (with our prompting) and then when he got there he laid down flat on his belly and started to do a sand angel in the dirt (without our prompting).

- many a meals worn instead of eaten - including the food hairdo

Well, I think you get the picture: a typical toddler you say? I'm not feeling the love...of this! I think I'll be glad when this stage has passed!

Now at this point you may be thinking, "man doesn't that mother watch her kid?" Well, most of the time, yes. Many times I'm in the same room as him, but with my back turned and not suspecting anything (or hearing anything- he's quiet & sneaky), other times he gets into stuff that my older kids leave out that I don't know about yet, or he gets things I just don't realize he can get to. For example the milk gallon - he was scooted away from the table (because we've learned that) but I guess he was close enough to the table that he could reach over and pull his chair up to the table and then reach anything within 15in. of the edge of the table. Also, many times he's making a mess while I'm cleaning up another mess of his. I'm not trying to excuse myself, because definitely I can watch him closer, but I'm talking about every second I need to watch him and that gets very tiring! Also, I learn every time he makes a mess, I say to myself "OK, I can't do that again" or "can't leave that out again" - but he just keeps testing his limits - constantly!

Oh, did I mention that he can climb out of his crib and play pen so there is no real confining unit right now? He needs a padded play room with only his toys in it. uuugh!

P.S. while I have been trying to edit this entry Zerrick has climbed up to the kitchen counter to get a Vitamin bottle and opened it, he's hit his sister twice, dumped balls everywhere that were picked up in a bag, hidden the TV remote and he has done many things that has interrupted me and caused this to take way longer than what I planned! Yeah, this is why I don't update much. Sorry!

Now that you have your Tax return, what are you going to do? We're going to Disneyland!!!

April 28 -
- May 2 =
Legoland &
Disneyland

We had a great time! We spent 1 day at Legoland and 4 days at Disneyland. We went with Mark and Angie and I think that really helped because they knew where things were, what to expect and what to do, etc. In talking to others who went during spring break (etc.) it sounds like we hit Disneyland just at the right time. We went Tuesday thru Friday and it was most busy Thursday & Friday. The longest wait we had was 45 min. a few times – the rest were more like 10-20 min. We got to see almost everyone’s top choice in the first day there, so the last three days were easy sailing. We planned the days out as best as possible the night before and that allowed us to see a lot of things quickly the next day. I was tiring but fun!
















The tea cups were a must to ride - it was kind of like the "scrambler" which was one of my favorite carnival rides to ride as a youth when we went to the County Fair.

We saw:
JEDI TRAINNING ADCADEMY = where the young kids trained to become a Jedi and actually fight Darth Vader or Darth Mal. We were the first ones picked to go up on stage, the kids were excited! Jacob, Breanna, Kyle (all jedi attire) & Aubri (Princess Lhea) were all decked out in costumes. we chanted "Jedi Power" while the kids held up 1 sign each spelling J - E - D - I. (I took mostly video of this event - more to come later).

PRINCESS FANTASY FAIR = our 3 littlest pricesses went to this and got to see several of their favorites pricesses dance & sing, tell a story and take pictures with them.

ALADDIN PLAY PRODUCTION = Awesome! this was a full-on broadway kind of play (well, at least to me - I haven't been to broadway to know). Anyways, this was nicely done and a definate thing you want to see. I almost missed it because Breanna and I got separated/lost from our group w/o tickets to go into the California Adventure park where the Aladdin production was and we didn't have a cell phone to call Zac either. Zac & I finally caught on to where the other was waiting and we were rescued. we squeaked in at the last min.!





ARIEL'S GROTTO = The kids got to visit with and then take a picture with Ariel and then while we were served lunch 4 princesses walked around and talked and took pics with each table group or child. All the kids liked it! - Jenelle loved it because we finally got to see her favorite princess = Snow White. Aubri was excited too because she got to see Ariel & Jasmine = her favorite. Ariel told Aubri that she looked like her little daughter Melody. The kids had fun over all and probably paid attention to the princesses more than their food, but it was money well spent just for the memories and pictures alone.


























Zac's Favorite character = Buzz LightYear - Zac happened to return from getting fast passes for us all just in time to step in and take a picture with his favorite pal!

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR RIDE = this was Kyle's favorite ride - he probably went on it 5+ times. Two of those times were basically right at closing time - 7:40 and then again at 7:55 (the park closed at 8pm but they let people go in to the line up 'til closing time 8pm. - so we sqeaked by again)

Party, Party, Party

January is full of Birthdays in our house! We actually have all the Jensen boys' Bdays in January: Jan. 5th = Zac's, Jan. 15th = Zerrick & Jan. 18th = Kyle. Crazy, uh?!!

Can you guess how old Zac turned?

(Hint: look at the cake). Zac enjoyed his Saturday Birthday relaxing, watching Football, playing with the kids, eating food, opening cool presents and eating yummy cake to end the day.

Argh Matey! Zerrick is 1 yr. old now

...Let's have a Pirate Party to celebrate!

Zac had found this fun pirate toy set that we decided to give to Zerrick (even though we knew the older kids would play with it more). I decided to go with the pirate theme to match the toy set. I also saw the neatest cake at Fred Meyer that totally matched the theme as well. Since I don't like spending $30+ on a store bought cake with frosting I don't like, I decided I would buy the accessory kit and make it myself. It was harder than what I thought, but I think it turned out really cute. Cousins Jaidyn, Kailey& Porter came over for the festivities and a treasure hunt. Grandma B, Cousin Lucy,"Captain" Willie (with parents respectfully) joined us as well.

Zerrick loved the cake! he was goaded on by uncles, cousins and siblings to get really messy - well the picture shows how messy! (I'm talking in the hair and everywhere!)

Kyle had a WEBtastic 6th Birthday! Spiderman Style!

Kyle had 6 friends and 4 siblings come to his party. I made a "web" out of string. The game was that they each got one end of the string and they had to weave and wind through this web to find the end of their string so that they could find a prize. I tied on the end of the string a goodie bag filled with spiderman candy, fruit snacks, balloon and other spiderman party favors. This type of game I remember doing at a party that I had when I was 6 years old. (I didn't realize all the coincidences until the day of the party). We also wrapped up the "out of control" superheros to try to teach them a lesson. The kids were excited to do this but it turned out to be a lot harder than one would expect. The TP kept breaking and they didn't know quite what to do - Breanna & Aubri ended up doing most of it. It was a cute idea anyways. We also played spidey says (like simon says) and also musical webs. I made some circles out of red & blue plastic plates and Kyle helped me draw spider webs on them. We played spiderman music while they walked around the circle. I actually drew a colored game chip out of a bag and the children standing on that colored web got a sticker. They all had fun!! On to the cake...I tried a new frosting idea with Kyle's spiderman cake. I had seen a picture that I thought was cool, so I tried to minic that. I made a couple modifications, but I think it turned out pretty neat. (it wasn't my favorite tasting frosting, but half the kids ate the frosting more than the cake, silly!) I got several spiderman things from the $1.oo store - including the poster. Cool uh?! We were going to play pin the spider on spiderman, but we ran out of time.

Zerrick is 1 year old!

Wow! time does fly! I can still remember bringing Zerrick home from the hospital and thinking Wow! I have five kids! Wow! How am I going to do this?! Wow! this nursing thing is never easy! Little did I know how fairly easy going this little guy would be over all- besides the sleepless nights, a couple ear infections and a few colds - it hasn't been too bad! (of course that's what all parents say looking back, right?!) To show that it hasn't been all easy breezy, I'll tell you about Zerrick's stubborn side: Zerrick finally got two teeth just a few days apart from each other at about 11 months old. He has been Mr. Gumby for soooo long that it is weird to finally see teeth in his mouth! He also started walking! Really walking! He started walking about 2 weeks ago (anything before that was just falling with style!) I was quite surprised that it took him that long since he had been so stiff legged and would pull himself up on things at 9 months. Actually the day that he took his first steps I was telling Zac that I thought Zerrick would never walk because he'd just bounce every time you would try to stand him up. I figured that Zerrick was just exerting his independence and showing off his stubborn side. Of course as I was talking to Zac, that is when Zerrick decided to up and walk. He took several good steps and has been getting more and more sure of himself ever since then. He walks half way across the room now. Such a little stinker!

I'll have to write more later because it's late - but we did have a fun 1st birthday party for this little guy! I'll have to share more later! It was a Pirate Party - Argh Matey!

Heart of the Valley Children's Choir:

Breanna & Aubrilyn both wanted to sign up for choir this year and we felt that would be a good experience for them, so they have been going there since September - once a week for 1 hr 15 min. I think it has been really good training for them! I'm not sure if we'll continue next year or do piano lessons instead. Breanna will be in middle school and I hear they have a choir there. So we'll have to see. We did end up getting a piano in December and I know Breanna really wants to learn piano! I'm not sure if we can juggle choir, piano, activity days, girl scouts & sports all together. So we'll have to see what gets cut out. We have tried to stick to one thing at a time but that rule hasn't worked that well this past school year. We've managed so far - but Baseball & Softball season hasn't started yet! Yikes!

Our "new" piano -- we looked around for a couple weeks in the newspaper and in craig'slist. I saw this one and I really liked the antique style & carvings! I was really leery, but it sounded good (tune wise) and in talking to a piano tuner he told me what good & bad things to look for in an old piano. I think I got a pretty good deal, but we haven't tuned it yet. After we do, I'm sure the piano tuner will say whether it was a "deal" or we're a "heel!" I like it none the less!

Jenelle the explorer has turned 3 years old!

Jenelle had a Family and then a Friend party to celebrate her turning 3. Jenelle loves Dora and Diego so we had a Dora the Explorer Party for her. We played a few games and had cupcakes - Dora & Diego cupcakes! (the cupcake idea I found on nickjr.com - they were quite the hit!) Actually, most of the Party ideas came from nickjr.com. I got some game ideas from there and the invitation too. I found some Dora & Diego card games at the $1.00 store for party favors and some fun bracelets. Jenelle got a Dora big wheel too from her Mom & Dad, Dora Balloons, Dora Lego's and many other fun gifts! To say the least, Jenelle was in Dora Heaven!