Sneak Peek!

I have been SO busy! We have had parties, Christmas, normal stuff and we are also painting our bedroom! But, I know some of you are waiting patiently (and not so patiently :) ) for previews of the pictures from the family party. So, here are a few! I will have more of an update and Christmas pictures posted soon!

Jaden and Zane

The McGrails

SageyCakes

Aspen, Sage, and Kyson

Aspen

Shannon and Luke

Kyson

Noah

The Contratto/Harrison Family

Snow Day!

It is COLD. My In-Laws only got an inch or so. We got over 8! I will just let the pictures do the talking! But yes, their father throws them into snow piles and burries them in snow!

Making Ornaments

So my friend Sarah is one of those creative fun people that you just want to be! Her family made some ornaments from a dough that consists of equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. She showed pictures and raved about the wonderful aroma.

So, we tried it.

First batch of dough in the trash. Second worked better (I had to do a bit more cinnamon than applesauce) We made the ornaments and they smelled divine. And then they cracked and I threw them away. But, the important part is how much fun the kids had making them. They were terrifically messy! Here are some pictures!

Mixing the Dough

Rolling It Out

Gross Hands Sagey!!

Totally Messy Kyson!

The Finsihed Products!

I admit it, I am spoiled

So my wonderful husband bought me THIS flash as an early Christmas Gift. It came tonight. These pictures are all ones while I was trying it out. All the lights were out, so it definately will do its job as I doubt I will shoot in 100% darkness often. Sage is also showing off her new cute jammies (Carters is having a HUGE sale)

This morning Britton and I drove down in horrid weather to Tai Pan to get some Christmas things for the photos I am doing Saturday at our family party. I got some super cute things. All their fall decor is 75% off, so I also got some neat things for fall pictures coming up next year! I love that store and want to go back and get things for my home soon!

I hope you are all having a wonderful week as you prepare for the holidays. Have safe travel and good times.

The Things We Do

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, & try not to be a SCROOGE! Copy this entire post & paste onto your own new post!Change all the answers so they apply to you. Then tag a bunch of people you know....Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper. I think it looks much nicer under the tree, and its harder for kids to peek. Not that peeking would EVER cross my kid's minds. :)
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. Real ones scare me. We always hear about people's homes burning down.
3. When do you put up the tree? Um, this year it was up by Nov.7th. For once it wasn't me who jumped the gun!
4. When do you take the tree down? Jan 1stor so....
5. Do you like Egg Nog? NO WAY, Sick! Farren and the kids love it though.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A baby doll that looked SO real. My Mom had it wrapped in a blanket and in a wicker basket. LOVED that! In fact, it JUST went in the trash a few months ago because her fingers were falling off.
7. Hardest person to buy for?Farren. He hates getting gifts.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I want the Willow Tree and the Fisher Price one so bad!10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?Ummm...no comment
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love so many. The Christmas Shoes I just watched and bawled.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Julyish
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but we did a wedding gift once. *blush*
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Shirley's DEviled Eggs just ROCK.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, I like white, though this year I have started to like the multicolored.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Believe by Josh Groban. LOVE IT. If you haven't heard it, You TUbe it.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay Home, everyone but Codi is here :(
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Can anyone seriously not? What a SHAME!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Nothing
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open one gift on Christmas Eve, and save the rest for Christmas Day
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?traffic
23. Favorite ornament theme or color?This year we have a candy tree. Its not what I would choose as a favorite, but the kiddos LOVE it
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A new flash and some photo editing software.


I tag: Tiffani, Mary, April, Sarah, Brandee, and Stephanie.

My Cute Neice Lexi

Started a blog! She is my sister Raquel's daughter, and is 10. Please drop by and leave her a comment, I KNOW she would just love that!

http://adayinthelifeofalexis.blogspot.com

Six Girls and HighSchool Musical

So tonight we are lucky enough to have the Kirkham girls and the Dent girls over for the night. So, that is 6 girls. They are watching HighSchool Musical 2 and signing and dancing to EVERY song. It is totally cracking me up. These girls are just too much fun! They have popcorn and are singing and jumping on the couch! Im so glad that my kids have such awesome friends! They are truely lucky! What a loud night this will be!

Poor Kyson is sorely outnumbered! He needs a BOY here!

Bagels and Babies!

Yesterday morning I dropped Sage and Jes at school, then Brit and I headed to Einstein Bagels to meet some friends for breakfast. It was so much fun! I decided I don't get out to see friends often enough! The food was yummy! Tiny Brit ate the entire thing! Thanks Vanessa, Taryn, Laura, Lori and Cynthia! You guys are GREAT company!!!!!!!

Then we went to my Moms school to deliver her birthday present and treats for her class. I hope she can get lots of use from her new toy! Happy Birthday Mom!

Off to our school to sort and pass out fundraiser stuff. We didnt get home til 6. After I fed the kids I put them to bed early. (I am guilty. I wanted to leave and Farren had to get some sleep, so I grabbed a Christmas present out of my closet and let them all fall asleep watching Horton Hears a Who.

I headed to Lyndas house and we made jewlery. I made a SUPER cute bracelet. Well, okay, I suck, so April made most of it for me!

Thanks Lynda, Vanessa, Mariah and April for the great company! You guys are the BEST! I will add a pic of my bracelet soon!

(Oh and Tiffani, I really did think he was annoyed that I was going to go out with you. When I got home he wanted to know why the heck I was home. Sorry. Sometimes his humor is hard to read and I dont know if he is teasing or not. I hope you guys had fun!)

Hallmark Movies and our Tree

Are Hallmark Movies sappy? Of course! Thats why I love them! I love the Christmas ones even more. I have my DVR recording most of them that come on, and at night after the kids are in bed I get toasty under a blanket and watch another one. I LOVE them! They almost always have happy endings. (Minus the Christmas Shoes, I bawled through that whole movie!) On weekends the kids will all get blankets and stay up and watch them with me. What a fun time of year this is. I didn't take any pictures of my tree this year, but its still the same ol' tree with the same candy decorations as last year!

When we bought it, Farren thought I was crazy for wanting a 12 foot tree, but now he loves it too! Let me see if I can find last years pictures.

(We have since added more ornaments to it)

This one is Savannah's Baby First Christmas. I couldnt find the other kids last year. They may have gotten ruined in the flood. We will order new ones.

Kyson

Kyson had his SEPs last week. He has perfect marks on almost everything. (He got a 4 instead of a 5 on talking too much, but of course, I have NO idea where he gets that!) He is on honor roll and doing SO well. He is the leader of his class with AR points (for the week, til Lacey beats him again)

All this comes naturally to him. He has the Leap Frog Globe, and on it you can play games where you have to find cities, oceans, whatever. We were playing countries a few days ago. It would name off a country I have never heard of and Kyson would say Mom, look near Belgium, look in Northern Africa, ect. He knows where almost all of them are.

About a year ago we were watching the travel channel. It was about Sea World, and they showed the Killer Whale. I said WOW look how big that is. And Kyson pipes up, "actually Mom, the Blue Whale is the largest weighing in at X weight. Then he gets his encyclopedia out to prove it to me.

He is always doing things like that. He is so smart. I am so proud of that boy!

It was all good til she grabbed my butt.....

Last night was Farren's work holiday party. We look forward to it every year. The food is AMAZING!!! Yesterday I went shopping and bought a new top set and some new jewelry. Did my hair and we got all spiffied up (I was really going to take a picture Brandee, but I forgot) We got our sitter, who I am begining to think is the world's BEST sitter ever, and off we went.

A bit off topic, but we called her a babysitter and Kyson freaked. She is our KID sitter because they are not babies. Had to laugh at that! Don't call that boy a baby.

Anyhow, we went downtown to the party. Saw some of Farren's good friends, and had a wonderful meal. The lady I sat next to reminded me of my dear friend April, who we really miss since she moved to Idaho. It was great chatting so comfortably with someone who I didn't know. It made me miss April though, so Farren says we should go up and visit after the Holidays. We will see what we can do.

We were getting ready to leave after dinner, and a friend of my husbands (a woman) said well, if HE (meaning farren) doesnt want to dance, then we can dance. So we did. It was all good til she started rubbing my butt. I think I jumped 3 feet in the air. Totally caught me off guard. I look over and Farren is laughing so hard. I about died. We left a few minutes after that. I did get Farren to kind of dance for one song........

At home the kids were baking cookies, having dinner, watching Movies and having a blast. All day today I have heard about how nice the sitter is, and when are we going out again. So, that is the most important part. They had fun in quite capable hands.

It was a fun though interesting night..........

(I only put this here because I have faith that she will never stumble onto this blog)

Make Your Own Snowflakes!

My kids really enjoy playing with this site!

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

Game Night at the Jensen's!

Last Winter we had family game nights all the time. When summer hit we were outside all the time and never home, so we stopped doing game nights.


Sunday we got started again. Kyson was playing with his cousin, so he wasn't there. He tries as hard as he can to beat me, (he is his Father's son) so it was a much quieter game last night. We started off with CandyLand. Usually we pop some Popcorn, but we are smack out of it!

Sage is the Queen of CandyLand, and of course, beat us all. Way to go Sageycakes!!!

Then we played the family favorite. Blokus. If you don't have this, I suggest you get it. Its great for all ages (Sage is starting to be able to figure it out) You have to think and plan ahead, so its great for the adults too!

The first round Farren won, and the second round I won. Woohoo!!! (I beat him by a ton, but winning isn't everything so I won't gloat!)

It was tons of fun, and can't wait til Sunday again! We do need game suggestions though. We almost always play Blokus and Crocodile Dentist. If you have a favorite game, PLEASE leave it in the comments.

When we were younger, my friend Michelle had a game I think was called THIN ICE. You had wet marbles that you had to put on a stretched peice of tissue and whoever broke it lost. I loved that game, but can't find it anywhere. I also remember when I got JENGA for Christmas and slept over at their house and her Mom stayed up til what felt like SO late playing it with us.

Lots of fun, but we are ready for a new game!

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. This year was lots of fun for us. We went to my in laws house for lunch.

After we all ate some of us played Pinocle. Afterward Aunt Carrie did the girls nails. They just love that everytime she is here she will cut/color their hair and do their nails. Lots of fun!

Later the kids all made these super cute Turkeys. I am glad someone is creative and thinks of these things, because I sure don't!

At midnight, a bunch of us went to SouthTowne Mall for some Midnight Madness. That was CRAZY. I felt like I was the oldest person there! We didn't buy anything, but my neices had a blast staying up so late. We got home just after 2am. I went to bed about 3, and was up at 330. Carrie, Allie and I were out the door by 4 am and headed to Walmart. This is the first year I have watched people rip items from each others hands. How sad. I grabbed what I wanted (I actually grabbed 4, hoping for some color variety) I took the one I wanted and gave the other three to some ladies I saw who had waited and gotten what they wanted only to have some guys rip them from their hands. We also got some other items, so that was nice.

Then we headed to FYE and the Fashion Place. We hit Sears, Children's Place and a few other places. By the time we were done, I was ready to drop. We got back to my in laws house and I slept for about 1 1/2 hours then got up to go get my kids from my Moms house. I visited with my Mom and sister for a bit and left about 2pm. By 4 pm we were back out the door. We headed to the inlaws again for a dinner of left-overs and then Kyle, Jody, Laine, Kade, Heather, and Emma joined us at Temple Square to go see some lights.

Kyle is Sage's favorite uncle, and I think of all the pictures I have of them together, she is on his shoulders 99% of the time! He spoils her rotten, and she loves it! Aspen stayed next to Aunt Jody the whole time, minus a bit when she was having a turn on Kyle's shoulders. We just love Aunt Jody! She is so kind to everyone, I don't think I have ever heard a negative word come from her mouth.



Saturday I took the kids to see BOLT in 3-D. Sage didn't want to go, so I took her to Grandma's and picked up my nephew Jaden and took him along. The kids liked the movie, but I was bored out of my mind for at least the first third of the movie. Definately wait for Redbox on that one!

Today I had plans to do my kids Winter pictures, but when I got Sage last night I discovered she had gotten into a green stamp, and her forehead is covered in green. Between that and Kyson's face art, I guess pictures will wait a week.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Update on a Poor Chikadee and a Worried Chickadee.....

Just a quick note, Aspen did VERY well on her spelling test! She only missed two words, and not the same too she was having issues with. (Junk and Drink I think were the ones she had issues with) She missed print, she put prent and I can't remember which other she missed. Doesn't matter though because she did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we are super proud of her!

Back In The Olden Days

This was just too cute not to share. The other day, Aspen (6) was in my room. We save our change, and deposit it every few months for something fun. Anyhow, she picked up a quarter from the bucket. After examining it closely and commenting on the syrup being pulled from the trees, she said, "WOW Mom, this quarter is SUPER old. Its from the olden days Mom. It was made is 2001."

I then explained to her that was only a year before she was born, and the same year her brother was born. Certainly not the olden days.........

My bottom hurts, and my back hurts, my neck hurts....

Last night after dinner I started on Twilight. I read the entire book in one sitting without getting up. I am SO stiff today from sitting in the chair that long. We totally need a new couch. My nice couch is SO uncomfy to lay on, and my old couch, which is semi comfy, is ripped. (It was a handmedown and the people I got it from (thanks Marilee), well, it was a hand me down for them also.

Anyways, I enjoyed the book, it was a simple read. Predictable, but held my attention. I bought the second one this morning.

So, all you guys that have read the books and seen the movies, do I have to read ALL the books first, or is the movie based only on the first book?

I Gave Into Peer Pressure

Yesterday I picked up my sweet neice and we went shopping. We went to Build a Bear and browsed the mall, then headed to Costco. I gave in. I bought Twilight. I haven't opened it yet, but I will probably start it later tonight. I have to finish it so I ccan go see the movie with friends. So, I will stay busy in the evenings doing that after kids go home.

This weekend was a bit slow. Yesterday was teh shopping and today we went to lunch then drove up the canyon. I totally spaced grabbing one of my cameras, so, no photos. Sorry, but you will all live :) It was nice, and Farren and Kyson had a blast freezing me out by undoing the windows. We were kinda sad to see that Guardsman's Pass was closed for the season, but we kind of expected it. Its "Our spot" that we go to regularly as a family, and we would have liked to get in one more trip before the season closed the roads.

Here are a few photos from Guardsmans Pass from over the years. The ones from the early days, WAY back when, aren't on this computer.