The Jensen GANG

First Days of school…

2009-09-19T13:22:00.001-06:00

Jace started Pre-school…

Cyra is in Kindergarten…

Zane is in 2nd grade and Kaysha is in 5th

(I love how you can tell who is the “baby” of the family, he happens to be in EVERY picture)

OF course there are NO first day of school pictures of Gage because he is in 8TH grade…

HaPpY bIrThDaY Zane!

2009-09-19T12:37:00.003-06:00

Better late than never... Zane turned 8 last week. Here are pics from his party last saturday.

Zaney Brainey...

2009-01-13T21:13:00.006-07:00

Let me first start by saying Zane has a totally different way of thinking. He is very creative and always thinks outside the box. So...yesterday Zane was counting his money, when he finished he informed me that he has 557 CENTS. I told him that he must not of counted it right(my brain doesn't think in Cents) but he quickly explained to me that he has 5 $1 bills and $1= 100 cents, then he also has .57 cents so when you add it all together it equals 557 CENTS.

Why did I even question the thinking of my 7 year old...

Jace turns 3...Gage turns 13!!!

2008-11-19T11:02:00.001-07:00

This is Jace waiting patiently for us to get all the kids together so he can open his gifts.

He loves these finger skateboards.

Spike The Dinosaur... We were so excited to get this for him. Anytime you asked him what he wanted for his birthday he would tell you he wanted the dinosaur that talked, walked, roared... then he'd start acting it out for you. At night we'd tuck him in and his last words would be about the dinosaur and all the things he could do with it. So the night before his birthday we went out and bought it. We brought it home, put it together, got it all charged for the next day. Instead of wrapping the dinosaur we decided to wrap just the controller to and let him find the dinosaur hiding in the front room. So he opens the controller and is so excited because he KNOWS its the controller for the dinosaur. He pushed the buttons and got it to walk out from next to the couch,that's when he decided this dinosaur is actually pretty SCARY up close! It didn't stop him from playing with it...he just wanted to play with it from a distance. Anytime it started to get too close to him he would take off in the other direction. This first picture is about as close as he liked to be to him.

We did finally get him to take a picture with Spike but we had to turn him OFF first. I am happy to say 2 weeks later him and Spike are friends and he will now touch him even if he's ON. :)

For dinner that night Jace's choice of restaurant was...McDonalds (no surprise there).

After dinner we went back to our house to have some Birthday Cake/Brownie. He wanted his cake to be a dinosaur cake...this is what I came up with. He was excited about it and STILL talks about his dinosaur cake.

Sharing his cake with Spike. For this picture we had to promise him that we wouldn't turn him on.

A few days later Jace and Gage got a package in the mail from there cousins. This is such a cute knee hockey set. The kids have been having fun with this,

Gage got his favorite thing in the whole world... Money/ Gift Card!

On Sunday we had a combined party at our house for Jace and Gage with both sides of our families .

Here is Gage the morning of his birthday.

R/C helicopters. Hours of non stop fun!

Zane-MAN

Halloween Party...

2008-10-25T22:08:00.012-06:00

Tonight we went to an awesome Halloween party. Halloween has kind of snuck up on us this year so we weren't really prepared with costumes, luckily the kids aren't too picky so we used some old costumes from the other years.

Kaysha decided she wanted to use my costume from last year and be "Sally" from Nightmare before Christmas.

Gage thought it would be fun to be a "Nerd". He put this costume together by himself. I think he did such a good job!

Zane couldn't really decide what he wanted to be (doesn't surprise me) and I didn't feel like going out to buy just anything at the store so he decided to be a "smartie pants". He might decide on something else by the time Halloween comes.

Jace fell in love with Zane's old "spider man" costume the second he saw it. Here he is bored waiting for everyone to finish getting ready.

Cyra found Kaysha's old "Pegasus" costume a couple of weeks ago and decided that was what she wanted to be... that is until we were at the store today and she saw all the other cool costumes...

This is the ONLY picture I got of her the whole evening. Oh well, hopefully I will do better on Halloween night.

Here is MY "Edward"...

I think this was the funniest costumes of the night. Here are the "Simpson's" a.k.a.The Lowrys. Take a look at Russ... Jace was scared of him most of the night.

M"Auggie" is going to kill his parents for this!

There was a pumpkin carving contest. Well, it's not really a contest when James is involved. Here he is trying to hurt himself.

1st Place pumpkin skull head

Gage taking after his dad...

Gages cannibal pumpkin

Zane carving his pumpkin...

Zane designed and cut this all by himself. I think James is going to have some competition in a few years.

Kayshas pumpkin

In order from left to right: Jacob, Bella, Edward. Yes...I WAS dressed up!

Jacob and Edward fighting it out over Bella...

He got over it when he set eyes on this beautiful girl. It was love at first sight...

(Beauty and the Beast)

Thanks for the fun party! Can't wait for next years.

Birthday season...

2008-10-10T21:33:00.010-06:00

Between birthdays and the holidays this is the time of the year that we seem to be having one party after another. We love every moments that we get to hang out with all our friends. On Wednesday it was J-RADS (a.k.a Jared) birthday, so of course we had to throw him a BIRTHDAY party.

While he was at work we snuck down into his place and decorated it with balloons, streamers, signs and treats. The kids we so excited that he was going to have a party down there...that is until we told them it was a grown-up only party.:(

You can't have a party without sour patch kids, peanut butter M&M's and chips/salsa...

Here is Darin demonstrating to Jared how he should be wearing his new gear...

For dinner we met some friends over at the new Olive Garden that just opened up a couple of days before. We expected it to be so crazy there, being opening week, but it was great. It was so fun and relaxing, even though poor Darin and Darcie had frozen lemonade spilled all over their table, and Jared didn't get his meal until everyone was just about done eating...it was still a fun night.

After dinner we planned to go back to Jared's for cake and ice cream but that didn't happen since we were forever at Olive Garden (we got there at 6:30 and left at 9:30). So only a couple of us went back to his place to watch the new Brian Regan DVD (This guy is hilarious... if you don't know who he is look him up!)

Since we didn't eat the cake and ice cream Wednesday night the kids all got to go down to Jared's Thursday after dinner to sing Happy Birthday to him and eat the cake... (oh yeah... and drive him crazy as they all ran around!)

Jace waiting patiently for cake...

Cyra eyeing the piece she wants...

Happy birthday to you....happy birthday to YOU... Happy birthday dear Jared...happy birthday to YOU!!!

You're awesome Jared! Thanks for being such a great friend to all of us and for all that you do!

We love you!

The Jensen Gang

HaPPy BiRthDaY ZaNe...

2008-09-17T21:18:00.010-06:00

Better late than never... Zane turned 7 Years old on Saturday Sept. 13th. Zanes personality is such a 3rd child, he always seems to go along with whatever is happening. Hardly ever will you hear him complain about not wanting to do something. When he giggles it is so contagious, there is no way you can not laugh along with him.

One thing that I will always remember and love so much about Zane... This started when he was just little (maybe 3 years old) He would be watching a show, or playing outside, or playing with toys... he would stop whatever he was doing, come up to me and say "mom... I love you". Sometimes it would be follwed by a big hug but most of the time he was in the room just long enough to say he loved me then run back to whatever he had been doing. This would sometimes happen 5+ times in a day. It was the best when he would come all the way from outside just to tell me that. It has slowed down some as he has grown up but he still will occasionally stop what he is doing to tell me he loves me. It melts my heart every time.

So... since he is such an amazing kid his birthday kinda snuck up on us. (the other kids are usually counting down for their birthdays and reminding us DAILY) We were such slackers when it came to planning his party. It was Wednesday when I told James "we really need to plan SOMETHING for him." When we asked Zane what type of party he wanted he couldn't decide...it was a toss up between Star Wars or Transformers, so we did Star Wars.

I looked online to find some ideas for his party. I read about someone that taped up black garbage bags around the whole room to make it look like space. It sounded like such a great idea that we had to do it. James informed me AFTER he was done that he will NEVER do that again. It did look cool though, and the kids just loved being in there.

James putting up the garbage bags...

View from the kitchen...

The kids put up a ton of white sticker dots all around the room to make it look like stars, then we used our black light from Halloween to make everything glow. It doesn't look as cool in pictures as it did in person.

I know...LAME cake, but Zane thought it was cool.

Gage was in charge of the Jedi Training. He put together an obstacle course for the kids.

Here they are using their Jedi mind powers trying to figure out what the other is doing...

...and of course you need to practice you fighting skills if your going to become a Jedi Master.

Zane and his Buddies!

We had no idea what to get him this year. We were out shopping Thursday when we spotted this electric scooter and knew that was the gift. It took him a minute before he realized that it wasn't a regular scooter... after that all he said was "Awesome...awesome..."

Happy Birthday Zane-Man...We LOVE YOU!!!

HaiR CuT dAy...

2008-09-10T22:08:00.010-06:00

I was so tired of Kayshas hair always looking scraggly, so we decided yesterday that it was time for a hair cut. I have been mentioning it to her for the past few weeks to prepare her for this time. She really wanted to grow it out, but finally changed her mind after I showed her pictures from the last time she did it.

Look at this Hair!!!!

Cyra loves any opportunity to go out, so she came along on our girls "bright" out (according to Cyra it can't be a "night" out if the sun is still out, so she decided it must be a "bright" out) to watch Kaysha get her hair cut. Well, right before we left Cyra decided that she also wanted HER hair cut. I talked with James about it, as we were walking out the door, and he left it up to me to decided. The whole drive there I kept asking her over and over again if she really wanted to do it. I told her it would take a while to grow back and once she did it she couldn't change her mind. Each time I asked she insisted that she wanted her hair done too. We get there and I continue to ask her if she is sure, she always says yes. She did want Kaysha to go first though. So they get started on Kaysha and are about 2 minutes into it when Cyra tell me she doesn't want to do it anymore... 1 minute later they call her back to start on her hair. I ended up having to drag her to the chair, with tears starting to form in her eyes, when I sit her down she tells me she is afraid of the lady COMBING her hair. She is such a silly girl....

Before:

During:

After: (with thier HannahMontana/camp rock posters they got from the salon)

Cyra after:

Kaysha After:

They both LOVE their new hair. Cyra didn't want to go to bed last night because she didn't want to mess up her hair, plus she didn't want it to be long again when she woke up. :)

First Day of School...

2008-09-02T22:21:00.001-06:00

Today was Cyras first day of school! Last year at this time she had such a hard time going to school. Each time I had to bribe her with something and she would still cry, after a couple of weeks she finally got use to school and never cried again. It is so funny, to this day she still tells me how it was so silly that she use to cry at school. So this year we decided since she loved that school so much we would send her back to the same place. All summer long she would ask if it was a school day. She was so excited this morning to finally learn that TODAY was the day.

Cyra just LOVES clothes and shopping... so it was a hard decision this morning when she had to decide which outfit she wanted to wear today. She loves to wear dresses and skirts, but is very particular about what they look like. They can't be plain, they must be fancy... they need to flow when she swishes side to side. If I would just let her wear tutu's life would be so much easier for the two of us. :)

Jace and Cyra are so funny together... On their "good" days, he is really going to miss her while she is at school.

And thanks to Aunt Cyndi for all the fancy flowers for her hair... Not a day goes by where she doesn't want some type of flower for her hair.

Park City Getaway...

2008-08-30T20:58:00.013-06:00

This weekend James and I got to spend the night (kid FREE) in Park City at the beautiful Hotel Park City. This place was amazing...

This is the view from the balcony of our cottage...

Inside there was a bed...

and a shower...

along with 2 flat screen TVs, Bose system,washer/dryer, kitchen with a microwave, stove, dishwasher and even a kitchen SINK. Let's not forget about the personal hot tub outside on the back deck. I don't think this place was missing anything... except all our friends to hang out and party with!

After we finished checking out our new pad we got dressed up for dinner where we had reservations at Ruth's Chris. Being our first time there we decided to order Julienne Potatoes... we now have learned that Julienne Potatoes are "FANCY" for "French Fries". Besides our fancy fries (which we sent back for PLAIN mashed potatoes) our food was amazing...also check out James' "fancy" water.

After dinner we changed our clothes

...and went to see Babylon A.D.--- Thought is was an awesome show until the END... then it left us totally CONFUSED (still 2 days later)

Then we were back to our room to contemplate the show while sitting in the hot tub...

Once our brains were fried from that, we thought it was time to snuggle on the couch to watch our all time favorite flick...

Of course you can't watch a flick without your popcorn and treats...

We paused the show to go out back to see some fireworks...

Of course we had to hit the Outlet Stores before we left...

and it wouldn't be a birthday celebration without James getting some sushi.

We wish we had more time to enjoy the place, it is definitely a place we will be returning to... next time we will have to stay a few days though.

Thank You to all those that made this birthday such a great one. We are surrounded by so many awesome people!

Thanks a butt load :)

BiTHdAy DiNNeR...

2008-08-26T22:03:00.016-06:00

It's James' BIRTHDAY tomorrow (mine was yesterday) so our friends took us to PF CHANGS for dinner. It was my first time REALLY eating there, (we went there a few years ago but I wasn't into that type of food, I've finally grown up)I was surprised that it was very good! Darci was so concerned the whole time about what I was going to eat, but what she recommended was just what I wanted. Thank you for saving the night Darci! After we finished our meal the waiter brought out a HUGE Costco cake that Jared and Darin got for us.

This is CYNDI's piece of the cake. She requested the yellow balloon, so James strategically cut it out for her. Boy did SHE enjoy THAT...MMMMM....We didn't want Darin throwing a fit about not getting anything so we gave him a gift (his birthday was the 17th) and let him "pretend" to blow out the candles. He's so easy to please...Can you tell how excited Darci is that she will now be losing her husband for the next few weeks while he masters the next round of Rock Band?James' Fortune: "The sky is the limit"

See what I've had to put up with for the past 29 years... (29!? wow cyndi, you're getting old)Poor Russ gets to deal with her now... (sorry Russ, No returns or refunds)The waiter must of slipped something into our waters because everyone was a little crazy...Russ REALLY enjoyed his meal...

Happy Birthday JAMES!!!

Fun, Fun, and more Fun By: James :)

2008-08-20T12:50:00.012-06:00

It all started at Brian Regan...

Russ and Cyndi excited as usual... Russ sneaken a leg grab....Whoot!

Darci showing off her new face (after having the mumps). Darin showing off his new face...

Jared and me chillen waiting for the show to start. Wondering why we don't have any treats to shove in our faces. They didn't have any treats at the show...huge over site we all agreed. I think we should all write in and tell them just how we feel.

----JACK JOHNSON----

Same Week different Show...Yeah...we like to party!

Darin and Darci back to play with us. Ok so we bought our tickets for both of these shows like 4 months ago so we could get seats for the show. Darin and Darci used their mind powers to trick other people out of their tickets the same day... or

They got them from their alien friend that showed up next to us on his flying saucer.

Me and Anne team drinking...we should have stopped at our first $3.50 bottle of water.

BFF...no need to say anything elseRuss and Cyndi totally Stoned!

"I promise, I never exhaled, I mean inhaled or shoot I don't remember...lets get some nachos"

Cyra Grace with her new friend... She played and played with it until it's wings fell off. I think if Cyra believed in reincarnation she would want to come back as a butterfly. Cyra, again working on her modeling career... She is a natural. I did want to call her Cyra Banks :) I knew it from the beginning. Zane the lady killer! had so much fun running around in the rain. Mini Zane (Jace or JAYZ his stage name) Such a new experience for a 2 year old... I could just hear him saying in his head..."This is the BEST day ever!" From Left to right: Zane,Dallas and Corbin. Dallas pulling his Gang face..."What UP! you looking at me?". If kids weren't made out of rubber Jace's legs would have broken off. he jumped off this rock ledge at my moms house at least 40 times screaming " SUPER MAN!" Man those were the days.My moms new dog...Cyra's new best friend. Every model needs a cute dog, just kinda fits. His name is Peanut but everyone calls him Peanut Head.Jace and Peanut going head to head in a battle for the fluffy bunny. It was the funniest thing all day. Who doesn't like Peanuts? Besides Mom.
Last but not least the kids had their first day of school sporten their cool new digs.
Kaysha Started 4th grade and Zane started 1st grade. There are no pictures of Gage because he started junior high and he is way to cool for pictures.

Stay tuned for pictures from Second Hand Serenade-Playradioplay concert and our yearly end of summer bbq bash coming up...

Magical Midget...

2008-08-05T11:57:00.003-06:00

I went upstairs the other day to see that my room had been visited by the magical midget.

To explain this "magical midget"... One day, about a year ago, I got very frustrated with the kids becasue I felt like I was always picking up after them. They would take things out then leave them. Finally out of frustration I said" Who do you thinks going to clean this up... the magical midget!" Since then, any time things get cleaned up with out anyone seeing, the kids and James joke that it must of been the "magical midget" that cleaned it.

So on Saturday, to my surprise, the magical midget finally visited ME!

Not only did the magical midget visit me, she also visited everyone elses rooms.

This Maical midget is nicer then the usually one... she left treats for everyone! We love our little magical midget!

NapkinJournal.com

2008-07-30T19:50:00.012-06:00

For anyone that is into Journal, or know the importance of journaling, you've really got to check out Napkin Journal. Napkin Journal is James' "baby" he has been working on the past few months; I swear it is the ONLY thing he can think of lately. It is a video journal website where all your journal entries are saved on Napkin Journals servers, so you don’t have to worry about ever losing them. Think of how great it would be if you could "see" your parent’s journal from when they were your age... see their personality, excitement; our kids are going to be able to have that for their kids. It is so awesome, even at age 2, Jace can record in his own journal. He is adding new features all the time, the newest feature is the ablilty to upload pictures into your journal entry so you can talk about them and explain why it's important to you or what is happening in it. So check it out and let us know what you think! Start saving your life TODAY at http://www.napkinjournal.com/

Bear Lake 1 and Bear Lake 2

2008-07-24T11:19:00.014-06:00

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Well, we are finally back from our LAST Bear Lake trip. I wanted to put pictures up from our first Bear lake trip before we took off again but didn't find time between re-packing, cleaning the house and Napkin Journals launch party (more on that later). The kids just love it at Bear Lake. James was putting Jace to bed last night (couple of hours after coming home) and Jace asked him if we could go to bear lake in the morning.

Our first trip to Bear Lake was with a big group of our friends. This was the 4th year we have done this, each year it seems to get a little bit bigger (This year we had 9 families join us). It is so much fun to relax at the beach with all your friends. We are already counting down to when we can book our spots for next year!

Who loves Bear Lake??

How could you not love Bear Lake when you have all this....

Friends...

(kaysha and maddie)

Sea shells....

Sand....

Fish...

(I think this is the most disgusting thing EVER!)

Ice cream...

(mmmm... bubble gum ice cream) Water...Family...

(we took a break from the beach to get pizza and ice cream)And did I mention SAND....
(the kids built onto this sand hill for hours)

You will have to check out Cyndi's blog to see the one little accident that happened on our trip, besides that everyone had a great time!!

Our second trip was our annual Jensen bear lake trip. We have been doing this with James' family for 7 years straight. This year we had almost everyone come, were only missing his brother Paul who had to work.

Here is Kaysha with some of her cousins, getting there legs buried.

Zane and max making a castle.

We found this to be the easiest way to keep track of all the kids. heheSandy...i mean, KayshaCyra doing some modeling for me.A snake that Gage and Zane made.Finding Nemo.... ( made by James)Surfer dude...Iron Man...Monday night we celebrated Grandma Jensen and Cassidys birthdays. You can't have a birthday without a pinata.Jace thought it was cool that cyra was shorter than him.Kaysha knee boarding.Zane did awesome on the knee board. He got right out there and just did it.So, funny story to end our trip. I took Cyra and Kaysha in to shower before we left the camp ground (since we were going to be getting home just in time for our ward party). Kaysha was showing first and Cyra was waiting on the bench when suddenly she says in a really shocked tone "Kaysha use to be WHITE!" Both Kaysha and I just burst out laughing. Kaysha definitely has my skin, she can tan so easy.

Vacation...Vacation...Vacation...

2008-06-27T21:50:00.009-06:00

I feel like that is all we have been doing lately. Between our trips and summer band (thankfully today was the last day!) I have neglected my blog. I still can't seem to focus... so i will leave you with a few pictures from our trips.

This was taken in Manti while we waited for the Manti Pageant to start.

Gage hanging out with grandma Jensen, still waiting...The next day we spend at Palisade Lake. This is Kaysha relaxing in the sun.Zane taking the Kayak out for the first time. He had to sit on a life jacket so he could reach the water, but he did an awesome job and was going all over the place.Here Gage is bringing all the kids back from that dock behind them.James taking Jace and Cyra for a kayak ride. Jace would usually come back asleep, he couldn't handle those rides.After playing in the water the kids all decided it was time to go on a hike around the lake to search for lizards.They saw many lizards but this is the only one that was caught. I am thinking it was a little too FAT to run away! Since it's tail was missing we are guessing someone already tried to capture this lizard.Cyra and I STILL walking! That walk was a lot longer than we thought it would be.Cyra and Maren taking a quick break to pose for the camera.Gage at the half way point!After our long hike it was dinner time!Then... it wouldn't be camping without going to the local shake place.Our next trip was to the Jensen Family Reunion that was held at Silver Creek in Idaho. This is Zane digging while others are fishing.Here is Gage catching one of his MANY fish from the weekend.Even Cyra and Oaklie were catching some.Oh my goodness! Cyra would not leave this poor fish alone. Cyra is doing one of the many activities they had planned for the kids. This is her "tinker bell" house she is painting.We were not looking forward to our LONG drive home. This is Jace hanging around at a park we stopped at on our way home.Kaysha and Cyra have a loving sister moment... too bad these moments don't last long.Time to start driving again!!Less than 2 weeks until our next trip. First I need to clean the house, clean the trailer and then pack all over again...

Jace at 14 months

2008-05-30T09:12:00.004-06:00

This is the funniest video of Jace trying to eat his lunch.

Jace...

2008-05-29T16:37:00.003-06:00

I found Jace hanging off the couch yesterday while taking his nap.

It reminded me off all the funny pictures we have of Jace sleeping in all kinds of positions... Enjoy!

Hiking at Payson Lake

We were getting ready to go see the lights at Temple Square. It was about 5:00 and he hadn't had a nap all day. I just figured he'd take one on the drive up there. He was too tired to wait for the drive... he was even too tired to make it all the way on to the couch.

Here he was watching TV when he passed out.

waiting for mom to get dressed in the morning...

In the boat a bear lake...

walking...

This one is by far my favorite! I have no idea how he even fell asleep like that.

Cyras 1st sleepover

2008-05-28T13:41:00.006-06:00

Over the weekend Cyra had her very best friend over for a sleepover. It was such a fun thing for her to get to do, she is already asking when she can do it again.

They were so cute, at 6:00 we were getting the bed ready and they were both begging to go to sleep. Here they are pretending to be sleeping.

After that they found some lipstick. The rest of the evening was spent getting ready for the "ball". They were in the bathroom putting the lipstick on for 30minutes straight.

Look at those beautiful lips!

You can't have a "ball" without a handsome prince... with lipstick on!

and of course, a sleepover is not a sleepover without some silliness going on.

Here they are just before I was about to turn out the lights. They were a little excited...

Happy Birthday Aunt Cyndi!

2008-05-19T09:49:00.010-06:00

It was Cyndi's Birthday Friday. We had a nice relaxing party over at her place Sunday, after church. Cyndi with her FRUIT PIZZA "cake"

Tori and Jace playing ring around the rosy
Xander!

Look at the flexibility on this kid!
Okay... the next few pictures are Jace and Cyndi making faces for the camera. Jace would copy whatever Cyndi would do.

This is when Cyra noticed the camera was out and decide SHE needed to get in on this action.

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-12T12:45:00.005-06:00

We had a great mothers day yesterday. After church we had a bbq over here, with lots of GOOD food! (BBQ'd Beef ribs, BBQ'd chicken, chorizos, baked chicken, homemade rolls, corn on the cob, potato salad, green salad, watermelon and Birthday cake!) Luckily the weather stayed nice enough for us to be outside.

Here is the "fancy"cake Cyndi made for Cyra. She thought that was the BEST! What was even cuter was how proud Milo was that HIS mom baked that "all by herself". Way to go Cyndi!

Since we were all together we took some Mothers day pictures. This was the best shot I could find in the many pictures James took(maybe Chely has something better). It was so funny doing them because it was madness going on around, the kids kept going in front of the camera to show us something, Cyra was back behind grandmas wheel chair trying to get me to help her open one of her presents. We really should of took video instead! So I have to show this picture. I was looking through the pictures last night after everyone left and came across this one. At first glance it reminded me of that segment you see on Sesame Street: Which one of these is NOT like the other...
I am thinking maybe I need to get my hair colored... or maybe I really WAS found in the garbage can all those years ago!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy CyRa!

2008-05-06T22:12:00.014-06:00

Yesterday Cyra turned 4 years old! She decided that her party was going to be Tinker Bell/ Fancy Nancy. These are the invites we came up with for the party.
She is such a girly girl... notice in most of the pictures taken of her she is posing. Not once did we ever tell her to pose or how to stand. This is just the way she is... FANCY! :)

Maren getting her nails painted.
Abbie all dress-up

I thought this was such a cute picture of Ashley.
It is not possible to have a Fancy party without inviting Milo!Maren, Milo, Ashley, Cyra,Addy, Abbie, Reese

After the Fancy Party we had to go out to eat at La Vigna Ristorante Italiano (because that is FANCY!) Cyra was very impressed with the glass dishes and the granite tabletop.

After dinner we HAD to go to an Icecream Parlour to get a"Parfait" (to unfancy people that would be a sundae)

James thinks this picture looks like the kids are sitting at some bar :) I guess it IS a bar... just a different kind!After the "Parfait" we decided to walk around Thanksgiving Point to get some energy out and look at all the beautiful flowers.I think this picture looks like some book cover or something. Zane and Kaysha in the background make me think of some poor step children that are left out of the family. :) It was such a fun day! Now to clean-up the house :(

tHaNk YoU Oaklie, Cassidy and Dallas!

2008-05-05T11:12:00.013-06:00

Thank you for the gift for Cyra... She LOVES it! (that is the cutest shirt ever!) Cyra is very dissapointed Oaklie isn't going to be able to make it to her party. I keep trying to tell her that it is too long of a drive for Oaklie to come but her reply is always " but she's my best friend ..." So Oaklie will be missed! We hope we see you guys soon. Since you couldn't be here to see her opening her gift I got pictures for you. If you go through them fast enough its like watching a video. :)

cHiCaGo!

2008-04-29T22:23:00.000-06:00

So to explain the Sept. kids thing (for Janice lol). When I got pregnant with Zane I became part of a online community message board. It was a place women due around the same time could go to to chat about pregnancy and life. This group has now been together for 7 years, we decided a few months ago to meet up in Chicago for the weekend to finally meet. Some of them had met before, but for me it was the first time meeting any of them! It was such an awesome experience and I can't wait for our next get together. It was so neat to finally hear their real voices-not just the made-up ones in my head. lol

This was taken Sunday morning before we all left to go back home. This is such a wonderful group and I already miss them so much!

This is what we did most of the time!...just hanging out talking and enjoying each others company

Here are 3 of the best babies in the whole world! They were so good the whole weekend.

Isn't she just a doll? anytime she had the camera on her she would stop and give the cutest looks.

When Cyra saw this picture of me she asked if it was when I was in Chicago. When I said yes, she got so excited and could not stop talking about how FANCY Chicago is...the curtains, the couch, the wall color. After that she insisted I show her the rest of the pictures. She now has decided that on HER next night out she would like to go to CHICAGO. (man she is going to be disappointed soon!)

I showed her this picture of the outside of the place we stayed (because I thought it was nice) and she said" That's not Fancy, that is just PLAIN" I guess I don't know my stuff.

Dinner at Tuscany Friday night. By the time we finished our dinner it was raining( well not just raining but also windy). We had walked to the resturant so by the time we got back to our place we were all soaked.

Waiting for seats at the cheesecake factory

The Hancock Observatory Building. You ride an elevator to the 94th floor, on a clear day you can see upto 80 miles and 4 states.

The view from the 94th floor. As you can see it wasn't the clearest day, but it was still awesome!

View of the city

guys playing buckets on the streets.

September kids Video

2008-04-29T21:32:00.003-06:00

This is a video I put together for my Chicago trip. It is pictures complied together from the last 7 years from my Sept. board I am on.

**Don't foget to pause the music player on the side if you want to watch this!

SuPeRaD- The name Gage wants to use for his band

2008-04-28T14:24:00.004-06:00

This is from awhile ago but I just figured out how to put it on here. It is Gage playing his Guitar.

Almost forgot...if your going to watch it your going to want to pause the music player on the side.

JaCe

2008-04-28T13:30:00.005-06:00

We were at Grandma and Grandpa Jensens last night and the kids were going across the zip line again. I remembered my camera this time, so I had to get video of Jace going across. Here it is:

Later I will have to post pictures of my Chicago trip!

Goblin Valley!

2008-04-20T19:45:00.025-06:00

We spent our weekend at Goblin Valley. The kids had a blast climbing and crawling through dirt for 2 days. We knew it was time to go home when the battery died on the trailer, it ran out of water, ran out of propaine, and the generator ran out of gas. lol It was a fun time though and we took LOTS of pictures! Here are just a sample of the pictures we took. (I got home to put them on our computer and saw we had 520 pictures! That was after deleting picture that just didn't turn out.)
The kids are now SO excited for summer and all the trips we have planned, they are dissapointed that that need to go back school in the morning.

This was the second night sitting aroung the camp fire, after going on a frog hunt. Cyra was scared the frogs were going to come into the trailer while she was sleeping. We had to explain to her that they can't jump high enough to get into the trailer.

This is "lizzie" (named by cyra) on Jaces shirt. He woke up from his nap to see the lizard, he thought it was the coolest thing.

Cyra was SO funny while taking pictures, she had to POSE for every picture!

James jumping a Goblin.

Jace walked so much that day. he didn't want to be in the backpack James was carrying around,he just wanted to climb everything. The next day though, he had a had time even walking to the bathrooms. lol

Another POSE!

Notice jace at the bottom trying to keep up with all the BIG kids.

This is Gage jumping over me from one goblin to another.

You still have to look "Fancy" even if you are camping!

Gage jumping off a goblin

It's kind of hard to see in this picture when it is small, but Cyra is walking up to where Zane and Kaysha are. This was at the first camp spot we were at.

Just hanging around!

Zanes NEW home

Gage surfing

I'm not sure what they were all doing here with there hands.

The first of many...

2008-04-15T12:23:00.022-06:00

We love our B-B-Q's around here and it wouldn't be spring break without one, so last night we all got together to start off our spring break right...

No better way to do it then to have the Grill Master (aka James) to cook the food.

This is Cyndi coming back for Seconds!!! (just kidding)

Brady going for some b-b-q, but not before first stopping to get his potato salad. I made the mistake once of not making the potato salad and will never do that again. I really think that is the only reason they even invite me to these things!

Jared going for the yummy grilled pineapple!

Russ and Auggie

Joel loving the bread sticks

HOUSEKEEPING!

Cyra in heaven with all the dress-up clothes. She kept coming down with one more thing added to the outfit and wanted me to take a picture each time.

Madison relaxing

The GANG!! Take a look at the sunburn on Dia's arms (ouch!)

The rest of The GANG!

It was such a fun night! I can't wait for summer to begin, we are all going to have a blast.

Glazed Strawberry- Lemon Streusel Muffins

2008-04-14T23:22:00.005-06:00

I have been making treats like crazy lately. Here is another recipe I found the other day. I thought it was a very good recipe. I wasn't too sure about the strawberries, but they were actually good.

LEMON STREUSEL TOPPING:
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated lemon peel
1 Tbs melted butter
LEMONY GLAZE:
½ cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
MUFFINS:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 large egg
1½ cups fresh strawberries, chopped
1 tsp grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 375°F. Paper-line twelve 2½-inch muffin cups.
Prepare Lemon- Streusel Topping: Combine all ingredients for streusel and stir until crumbly. Set aside.
Prepare Lemony Glaze: Combine sugar and lemon juice in small bowl, stirring until smooth. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Combine milk, butter and egg in small bowl until well blended. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in strawberries and lemon peel. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle Lemon Streusel Topping evenly over tops of muffins.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Drizzle lemony glaze over tops of warm muffins. Serve warm or cool completely.

Yield: 12 muffins

Here is another one the kids loved! How could you not, rice crispy treat with chocolate, what more could you want!

Extreme Toasted Marshmallow Rice Crispy Treats

12 Cups toasted rice crispy cereal

2 10.5 oz bags mini marshmallows
6 Tablespoons butter

1 Cup chocolate chips
3 Cups mini marshmallows

10 mini Twix candy bars, chopped

10 mini Snicker candy bars, chopped

1. Prepare rice crispy treats according to directions on the cereal box, I doubled recipe. Press into a 9X13 inch baking dish. It will be filled close to the top.

2. Preheat oven's broiler. Sprinkle chocolate chips over rice crispy treats. Sprinkle 3 Cups mini marshmallows over top. Broil in oven just until marshmallows start to puff and turn golden. Watch very carefully, it happens quickly!

3. Remove from oven and press chopped candy bars over toasted marshmallows. Let cool for 1 hour before serving.

The last recipe I will post for tonight ( I made a few more things but will leave them for another day) is the :

No Bake Fudge Cookies of Love
1 stick butter

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cup quick oats

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add next four ingredients and heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for one minute, then remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and oats.Drop mixture by the spoonful onto a sheet of waxed paper, parchment paper, or aluminum foil. Allow no-bakies to cool until firm, approximately 20 minutes.

These are very quick and easy!

It is very late, so I will have to post pictures from the fun get-together we had today, in the morning. We started off our spring break with a great b-b-q!

Night Out...

2008-04-10T16:17:00.004-06:00

This is Jace (drinking his chocolate milk) at Mcdonalds last night when he went on his FIRST night out with dad. He was so excited that it was finally his turn to go. Every week he would cry because he wanted it to be his turn. I asked him if I could come along and he told me" No, you are TOO big." I barely got a kiss from him because he was so excited to leave, but when he got home he gave me a big hug and didn't want to let go. He is growing up so fast! I will see if James got anymore picture of him when he gets home. This is the one he sent me as a text message while they were out.

This weekend... (before the snow hit)

2008-04-08T09:47:00.011-06:00

These pictures (yes the quality of these pictures ARE awful, but i didn't have my camera with me so I had to use the camera from my phone)are from Grandma and Grandpa Jensens house this weekend.
Cyra was terrified to go on the zip line, but after her first ride down she didn't want to stop. Zane, of course, LOVED it. James even put Jace on it (i was up at the house at the time) and he also loved it. I was so scared he was going to let go and fall into the water. The water is just about ankle deep, for now. James and his dad are talking about digging that part out to make it deeper.
The last picture is the fort that grandpa built for them. There is also talk about making a zip line from the tree down to the other side of the water. I really wonder sometimes if they are just trying to kill the kids. Oh yeah, luckly they have a grandma around because without her there would be no rail going around that fort, he just had it as a platform.
Watching the kids do all this stuff scares me so bad. So far the injuries at their house have been minimal, so that is good. Or that could mean we are in for a big one soon!

My Attempt...

2008-04-02T15:07:00.003-06:00

So, here is my attempt at making a new header for my blog. It will only be up for a little bit...that is until I have James create something better for me tonight. I can see it killing him inside when he looks at the things I come up with and the way I arrange it all. I love to torture him!

Time to breath...

2008-03-31T14:00:00.025-06:00

I feel like we have been running crazy lately. Not sure exactly what we have been doing, but we seem to always have something going on. Here are some pictures of things we have been doing.

Cyra and Jace reading...

Gage doing homework...
Kaysha doing homework...

Where a kid can be a KID... (also known as Chuck E Cheese)Zane showing off all his tickets.
Gage soooooo excited to be there...Who is that masked girl ?

Cyra and Jace helping make "pinkalicious" cupcakes.Jace wanted to see a picture of him pretending to "eat" play-doh.Coloring easter eggs...I'm not sure if anyone knows this but.... the best way to see if you colored your eggs just right is to SMELL it. lol I am not sure what he was doing here.okay, for this picture you must imagine the most annoying whiney voice ( i know anyone with kids has heard it)in the world and hear him saying " PLEEEEASSSSSE!!!!!" He does this so much lately.So, saturday the 22nd was one of our craziest days ever.

It started out at the Easter Egg hunt in Cedar Hills...Then we went to Fat Cats to go bowling with the kids cousins...From there we went over to a park...

Then ran over to Chelys, for Xanders birthday party...We ended the evening at our Ward party!!By the end of that day I was beat! Of course the kids were ready to keep going but alteast the Easter Bunny was coming that night, so they had to get to bed so he didn't pass up our house.

Well that is our last couple of weeks! Enjoy!

St. "Patrick" Day???

2008-03-19T11:41:00.003-06:00

On Monday Cyra came to me with a very good questions... Why do we wear green on St. Patricks Day if Patrick (from spongebob) is PINK? It was a few hours later, while walking though Walmart, she came up with an answer to her own question (since obviously mom couldn't give a good enough answer). She suddenly turned to me and said, " I know why we wear green, because Partick wears green pants!" Why couldn't I think of that answer?

Baking

2008-03-12T13:38:00.007-06:00

My passion lately has been baking. I love finding new recipes and find myself always looking for new ones. It is awesome when I find that "one" recipe that turns out perfect. I find myself trying out one of my new recipes at least 2-3 times a week. The kids take a vote after each time I cook and tell me if its a "keeper" or "not a keeper". If the kids don't like it it doesn't make it into my rapidly expanding recipe book. The latest "keeper" was a chocolate chip pumpkin cookie. I can tell when James REALLY likes something because he makes sure they are put away "just right" before we go to bed. I was informed last night, as he was gently putting these pumpkin cookies into a ziplock bag, that I was not to move them from their spot so they wouldn't all stick together.

Here is the recipe for the cookies. I found this recipe here: http://white-bean.blogspot.com/2007/10/pumpkin-spiced-iced-cookies.html. It really is a good recipe and I will be making it a lot more. The key to making these just right is to NOT over cook them! (this side note is for Chely)

Pumpkin Spiced & Iced Cookies

(I didn't take this picture)

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs15 oz. Libby 100% pure pumpkin

2 cups (12 oz. package) Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Vanilla Glaze: Combine 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 to 1 1/2 Tblsp milk and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract in a small bowl. Mix well.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Combine flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl

3.Beat butter and sugar in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, eggs and vanilla extract.

4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by the rounded tablespoons onto foiled covered baking sheets

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes ( i baked mine 16 minutes) or until edges are slightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes; ( i immediately removed them from the cookie sheet)remove to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Drizzle or spread the vanilla glaze on top of cookies.(Makes about 4 dozen cookies)

Well time is up for me, Jace is up from his nap and is not feeling well today so I need to go help him.