Mom Day

Did you have a fun Mother's Day? 

 I hope so, because I sure did!  I love all the little handmade notes, the Mother's Day cards good YM leaders give to the boys to fill out in class...(Parker wrote me a darling poem:)  the sacrifice of pooling money to buy me a gift, but most of all I enjoy all the extra smiles and hugs I get on Mother's Day. 

 I'm one blessed mama!

Parker's Deacon's Quorum treated their moms to a delicious dinner date at the church.

Karl and I hosted a Jensen Mother's Day BBQ on Saturday.  It was originally scheduled for Sunday evening, but we changed it at the last minute and held it on Saturday.  Good thing too, it rained like crazy on Sunday!  This is me, Lisa, and Eleanor!

Lucky me to be their mom! 

Ashlyn saw this cute key chain that says #1 MOM on it.  She priced it out, and worked really hard for a week to earn the money to buy it for me. 

So thoughtful!

The kids all pitched in to buy me this great cookbook I've been coveting!!

So excited to try it out!  I spent at least an hour perusing it with Alyssa, and we came up with some yummy meal ideas.

Karl treats me like a queen, he put together a beautiful day for me!

Fun cards...Taylor's Kindergarten class filled in a fact sheet on their moms.  Did you know I'm 24yrs. old, 41inches tall, and only weigh 31 lbs?? Pretty awesome huh?

At the end of the day, the kids treated me to Paradise Island. 

This is one of the best ideas ever to hit the Jensen family!  They gather around me, and one kid lotions my feet, another my hands, and someone takes the head for a lovely head massage! 

 It's heaven!

The Lists

Do you remember a line in the movie Ratatouille, when the mean turned nice, food critic Aton Ego says the following;

"You know what I'm craving? A little perspective. That's it. I'd like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective."

Well, I got a little of that fresh, clear, well sesoned perspective this morning when I went to write out my "To Do" list for the day.  (I'm a little/lot OCD about lists, and have been this way since I was little, so there you go...) but anyway, I took a look at my note pad, and tore off my previous list

(Below)

And found the following:

(below)

Good 'ol fashioned PERSPECTIVE!

Happy Spring....?

I know it shouldn't surprise me to wake up to snow on the last day of April in Utah, but somehow it still does...

It wasn't a lot, just an inch on the ground.

Taylor and I decided it was too good to pass up, so we played in what turned out to be the best packing snow of the season, and made a.....

Hint:  Once there was a....

Isn't he cute?  

(the snowman's not bad either!)

By the end of the day, Frosty was the only man standing...so we went to a soccer game.   Go figure!

Sunday morning was fabuloso, so the kids, Karl and I played outside in our jammies..

(OK, I had already been to 2 meetings by then, so I was in church clothes, but the rest of the gang enjoyed a relaxing morning!)

Two weeks in the life...

The following is a little from my brag bag, and a written mental/physical stress history,

in case...

I'm committed in the near future.

Just in the last 2 weeks we...

Temple with my kids (could do this every day!)

7th grade campaign posters, speech, assemblies etc.

Jr. Honor Society kid

Alyssa to California for Choir Tour (if you think it's cheap or easy to get a teen ready to travel....think again!!)

Perfecting the back flip on the trampoline

Baby Bro. graduating from BYU...wifeless???

Stake Primary Mtg.

Book Club

Jr. Year class registration  (2 Extra-Extra Strength Tylenol after that!)

Making Drama 3 after a stressful audition process!  (yeah Alyssa!)

Violin recital rehersal

Piano recital

6 soccer games

Space Exploration Merit Badge Pow Wow

Sick boy with 102 temp. on and off for 5 days...three cheers for the antibiotic

Running a 5K (after taking the winter off..agh!)

Perfecting the double pass jump rope (go Ash!)

Constructing a pavilion over our sandbox...(handyman Karl, and side-kick dad, Reilly.)

Research Papers, reports and posters galore...why does this all come at the end of the year?

Easter baskets, breakfast and family gatherings

ecetera, ecetera, ecetera! 

Oh yeah, and we went and saw "The King and I".

In the movie "Charlie" (book by Jack Weyland), there is a scene where Charly is talking to Sam's mom after having an amazing day with Sam's family and she says,

"are all days like this?" 

The mom replies in her down to earth, honest way,

"Oh no, this was just a really good day!" 

For me this day at the temple was just a

REALLY GOOD DAY! 

My mom has been researching family names, and had prepared some names for baptism.  To have Alyssa and Parker not only worthy, but thrilled to do baptisms for the dead was like heaven for me!  So great to be with my parents as well!

Connor ran for 7th grade officer.  There were about 10 kids running and only 3 positions.  He didn't win, darn it, but they said the voting was extremely close.  I was so proud of my boy!  BTW, he gave out stress balls and they were a hit!

Parker was one of 5 presenters at the Jr. Honor Society meeting.  He was awesome, and is such a great student!

Connor worked for hours to get his back flip down, and did it!!

We had a family dinner celebrating Jonathan's graduation from BYU, and Adrienne made this poster for him.

The Big Day!  He was all smiles, and so were we, so proud of the great man he is! 

On to dental school!

Connor and I signed up to run in the school fundraiser 5K.  We've had really cold, wet weather, and I haven't been very motivated to prepare, so I was kind of dreading it, but it went really well, and I beat my time! 

Connor the speed demon, took 3rd in his age group, and 21st overall out of about 300 runners!

Our church doesn't start until 1:00pm, so we had some time to enjoy a yummy breakfast burrito Easter breakfast.

This year Karl and I let the Easter Bunny know that the kids didn't need very much, and that candy and maybe a DVD would be awesome! He comes on Saturday morning at our home, and it worked like clockwork!

Happy Jensen bunnies!

Ashlyn practiced, and practiced and PRACTICED to get the double jump down.  This means the jump rope passed under her feet 2x before her feet hit the ground. 

Good going!

California with Choir tour!  Beautiful girl!!

Alyssa's friends.  Such an awesome group of teens!  The blond girl in the middle was the  solo cellist at the LDS General YW Mtg. last month...yeah!

Everyone should have a big hairy friend...:)

The guys worked on this all day on Saturday, only to realize the pitch on the roof was way too steep, and they needed to re-do it.  So maddening!! 

It will be beautiful when it's done though!

Do you have a headache after seeing our craziness???  Yeah, me too! 

Come visit when I'm institutionalized.

Family Pics...

When we were in Californina, I hired my photographer friend to take some family pictures at the beach...it's no doubt a stressful process, (coordinating colors, making sure the hair looks good and teeth are brushed.., holding still and cute smiles etc), but I think they turned out awesome!

We had the kids all posing together for a kids shot, when out of nowhere, a big wave came and splashed over them!  Needless to say, that was the end of our photo shoot.  It was really funny, but the kids weren't too happy...:) The look on their faces was priceless!   We just went back to the van, changed our clothes and enjoyed the beach for the next couple of hours.  I got what I wanted and went away a happy mom! It's a great memory, we just look at these pics now and the kids exclaim

"oh remember the WAVE"? 

Yup, priceless!

Our little bedlamites...

Last week Allyson came to UT. to spend a little time with us, and of course brought her little Emma!  We had some good extended family time, and she and I had some sister time too as we went out to lunch, shopped at the outlets, attended the temple and enjoyed our children. 

Also, remember my Taylor's love of holidays?  Well, they broke the mold when they made him.  He went all out on April Fools Day!  He took a whoopie cushion and a fake chewed wad of gum to school.  Apparently his teacher was a really good sport and actually sat on the whoopie cushion, (although he said it wasn't as blown up as he thought he'd left it...I can't help but wonder if she deflated it a little first when he wasn't looking...)  He put the gum on her white board eraser and she just said, "oooh, gross!  Was this Taylor again??" 

Glad I wasn't there. 

 Taylor, I'm sure, was rolling on the floor! 

When I went to use the bathroom that day, I found out (too late mind you), that he had cut off two pieces of clear packaging tape and put it sticky side up on the toilet...uh...yeah.  The girls in our family got the "sticky side" of that one!  

The kid kills me!

One of the greatest things about being an aunt, is that I get to just snap pics of the common TP obesession, and laugh!  Heaven knows I've had my share of kids drawn to the toilet paper magnet! 

While at a family dinner, Adrienne pulled up the hilarious youtube movies called "Kid History".  Slowly everyone gathered from the 4 corners of the house following the explosive laughter to see what was up, and soon joined in...it was great!

Parker had a Health assignment to put together a creative project outlining the negative effects of smoking, drinking and drugs.  What did he do???

Parker's Potter Puppet Pals!!

(try to say that 3 times fast)

I let the kids cut up some white gloves, and use the fingers as puppets.  They spent all day Sunday listening to General Conference and using the hot glue gun.  Parker then came up with a script and the kids put on a play while I video taped. It was HILARIOUS!  The play was about Voldemort giving Harry bad stuff, and Hermione describing the ill effects of each substance.  In the end, Voldemort got blown up with a smoke bomb...so...yeah. :) 

I hope his Health teacher finds it as funny as we did...

Kindy 500

This month I felt kind of smug, because we didn't have anyone in cub scouts, that had to make a Pinewood Derby car.  I know the boys love it, but I hate the work, and the stress, and I worry about all the boys feeling sad, SO anyway....I was feeling pretty relieved until...the note came home...

"would you please help your child make a car out of a box for the Kindy 500...all you need to do is get a large cardboard box, put large paper plates on it for the wheels, and small paper plates for headlights.

YEAH RIGHT!

There may not be a Derby car to build, but I definetely didn't get off easy!

Taylor was so excited, he could hardly stand it!  He had it all figured out to the smallest detail. 

 "Mom, I want a Polar Express train!"

I think I sat a just stared at the empty cardboard box for 1/2 hour, not sure if I should cry or scream!  I am NOT good at art, and this kind of a project can be overwhelming for me, but Taylor pulled me through, and just started cutting holes, gathering supplies, and we went to work.  One by one my other kids would come in and check our progress and make an awesome suggestion on something we could do to make it better, and..well...what do you think?

We had some candy cane striped ribbon that we used for straps.  The back box was labeled "COAL", and we put some real coal in it. The spokes were with some heavy glitter paper, so they were really sparkly! Don't you love the Santa hat?

Taylor really wanted a light in the front, so we used a miners head light. He also insisted we have a bell, that could be rung by pulling a string.  Thank goodness for Christmas ornaments!

After the activity, Taylor came home and put on his PJ's and his Polar Express robe that he got for Christmas! :)  

The teachers set up the gym as a track with historical stops along the way.  My job was to teach the kids about the Liberty Bell. We gave them some leftover chocolate Christmas bells, and a little dye cut picture of the Liberty Bell as a bumper sticker. Each of the cars were so creative and darling!

After all was said and done, it really was a fun project, and I loved working with Taylor!  He is such a creative boy, I love the way his mind works!