The Last of the Thankful Posts

Sorry about the lack of blogging. I have turned into a very sub par blogger and I am not liking it. I just don't ever seem to have the time anymore. Hopefully I can find more time to squeeze in some blog posts.

So, better late than never here is my last Thankful Post and my recap of our fabulous Thanksgiving in St. George.

First up, bright and early (it did feel really early because some of us hardly got any sleep the night before) we gathered together for another Gobble Gallop. Such a different experience from last years in the -16 degree temps.

All the participants-minus Jill and Cam.


We all finished strong.


Next up came the boy run. Josh and Aiden were the only ones interested at first.

Then the girl run. You have to click on this pick and make it bigger and see all the little girls faces. They are awesome.

Once Andrew saw how fun it was he joined in for the cousin run.

Then dinner preparations were started. We had such a delicious spread-Turkey, corn, rolls, 25 lbs of potatoes (yep, I said that right), salad, jello, and delicious pies. It was a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but with some extra deliciousness.

Since there are so many Jensens now we had to divide up into 4 different tables.

After dinner we started preparing for some Black Friday shopping. We headed to Walmart and 10:00, then went off to Target to stand in 2 different lines for 2 1/2 hours. Trent and I got what we went for thanks to some work from Trent's sisters.

After a long night of shopping the boys went golfing the next day. And Trent followed my instructions perfectly and took a great picture.

After the intense game of golf we watched the Utah Game.

And throughout the trip there was swimming of course.

And the kids love when their Uncles are around. They have so much fun being thrown.

There was lots of cousin time, which is the best.

And this little Maisy Mo finally decided she liked me. I think it was the chocolate pie that sealed the deal.

I did some more shopping on Saturday and Trent was nice enough to watch The Hoard. Instead of sitting around they went to climb some red rock.

They crawled through some very small openings.And found a mini Delicate Arch.

It was a fabulous week of fun, family time, shopping, playing, swimming, not so much sleeping, more shopping, and more swimming.

By the end of the week we were all exhausted.

So at the end of November I am most Thankful for family. I have the greatest-hottest husband, the most awesome kids, and the best family and in-law family out there.

I couldn't be more blessed in my life.

Twenty Three

As I said earlier we went down to St. George for Thanksgiving. Hopefully more to come on our trip later. This was the only picture I took down there, so I am hoping my sis-in-laws will pass some pictures on to me so I can do an appropriate post. Anyways, I am so thankful for being able to journey down to St. George. We go down there a lot and every time we arrive there safely and it seems like each journey gets a little easier the older our kids get.

This last trip was the best one yet. We made it all the way to St. George without stopping. Not once.

It was a Thanksgiving Miracle!

Twenty Two

I am thankful for my at home waxing system. I got it back in September on our girls trip and it has already paid for itself. I no longer ever look like a Mr. with my stache, but a women with a smooth and hair-free upper lip. And I have to say my eyebrows look so much better cleaned up a bit.

And to top things off, I had forgotten a razor when I went to Texas, so I decided to take advantage of the grossness and wax my armpits for St. George. It was so nice not having the ugly armpit stubble the WHOLE time we swam it up in down there. Once again, I am so thankful for this machine AND for Candice who helped me get the right stuff. You are an awesome sister-in-law with amazing beauty skills!

Twenty One

I am so thankful for the abundance in my life. We are blessed with so much. We have a nice house, an excess of clothes, cars, toys, and plenty of food. On Monday we received a Thanksgiving card from Maga with a story in it. It told of the pilgrams and how on the first Thanksgiving they had so little food that all they had to eat were 5 kernals of corn. Seriously? 5 kernals?

Well, as it turned out, our meal for that night had corn in it and Aiden would not eat it. He sat there from dinner until bedtime, refusing to eat his corn.

But at least he didn't go to bed hungry....

Something is seriously wrong when your kid won't eat corn and chooses instead to eat his own toenails.

Twenty

I am thankful for this girl. She is always so willing to help with anything around here. For example, last Saturday she offered to watch the kids that night so Trent and I could go out. Not only did she watch them that night, but pretty much most the day. She took them to the store, bought stuff to make and decorate cupcakes, made those cupcakes, delivered them to our neighbor, cleaned it up, and had a movie night with my kids. She is the best.

Seriously, look at her organizing the decorating. My kids are lucky.
And they all enjoyed themselves immensely. At least I think they did. As soon as they started decorated Trent and I escaped to watch a movie in the basement...

That's Trent's lazy face if you are wondering.

But really, we are lucky to have such a fun Aunt live in our basement.

Nineteen

While I was gone all week something had to be done with The Hoard. Kim stepped up and took over. She is amazing, not only does she watch my kids, get them ready, drive them around, fix meals, clean my house, and everything else that goes into kid raising, but she also did this cute craft. I am in love with it. So funny and so perfect for Thanksgiving!

Thanks Kim for all your hard work! I knew I didn't have to worry about a thing back home.

Fourteen-Eighteen

The reason for my lack of blogging is because I went to Texas this past week. Yep, thats right, Texas. Why you ask? The new job I talked about earlier is in Texas, so I had to go there and do some intense training. I flew in Sunday night and did some late night training with my friend Sara. She is the one that got me the job. Monday we ran some errands and drove past the Cowboy's Stadium. That thing is huge! The picture doesn't do it justice.

The funny thing about this picture is just a couple streets before they had a sign that said texting and driving was illegal in Texas. I wanted a picture, but was nervous I would be pulled over if a cop saw me trying to take a picture-I figured it was the same as texting. Anyways, I hurried and took the picture and when I got home and looked at it there was a cop right in my picture. Funny right? Luckily he didn't pull me over. Just like with our windshields, Trent and I are cursed with being pulled over all the time. ;)

Sara asked me what I wanted to do in Texas and I had no idea. I asked if there was anything special about the restaurants in Texas (because lets face it, the best thing about vacations is eating right?) and she said, of course, their BBQ. So we headed to Spring Creek BBQ for dinner one night.
And it was so delicious. Loved my sandwich, the fries were awesome, and their hot rolls were sooo good.

The rest of my time in Texas was spent in Sara's house. In between training and work I sat around and introduced her kids to the wonderful technology of smart phones and Ipads. I don't think Sara really appreciated this too much...

I did hit up one Marshalls and one Ross down there and miraculously didn't buy one thing. I think this is a first for me on a vacation. I think the Jensen girls will be very disappointed.

After a week of work, late nights, visiting, and pure laziness it was time for me to go home. I made it back to the airport, returned my car, and headed to my plane. Upon boarding I found a guy sitting in my seat. He said he wanted to see if I would switch him seats because he wanted to be by the girl next to him. I said okay and come to find out his seat was in first class! So, I got to fly home in comfort.

It was a great week. I am so thankful for Sara getting me a job, letting me stay at her house for a week, feeding me meals, and training me everyday. And to top it off she did all this 8 months pregnant, which is why I don't have a pic of her. She would not let me take one. Duh.

Thank you Wades for the great week!

Thirteen

This is another Thankful Post about Trent. On Sunday I got called out to a death. It was a snowy weekend and when I went out to get in my car Trent had already brushed all the snow off for me. Its the little things like this that make Trent amazing. He will do anything to make my life easier.

Twelve

Now that my kids are getting older they are able to "help" clean our house and they actually don't complain about it. Saturday mornings are our new cleaning time. The kids all get their assignments, complete them, and sometimes even ask for more. Weird right? However, I will enjoy it while it lasts. I am so thankful that I birthed a whole cleaning crew. Even though it takes twice as long to clean anything, I love the fact that they are so eager to help. We will see how long it lasts.

Eleven

Once again, I am so behind in blogging. So, going back to my thankful post from the 11th. It just happened to be Veterans day and I am so thankful for all those that served and are still serving our country. People have paid a great price for my freedom and I am so thankful for that. I love my life and all the things I get to enjoy in it.

And to make the day even better Trent had the day off, so we were able to hang out and go to Training Table. It was a good day.

Ten

Since we have been sick the kids have missed some school, which brings me to my next Thankful post. I love school. It is the best thing ever. It has saved our lives here at The Hoard. I am so grateful for the teachers that take the time to teach my kids and, luckily, all my kids love their teachers too.

We got their school pictures the other day and I think they all turned out well. I am really impressed they can get Andrew to have a genuine smile. Whenever I ask him to smile it doesn't look "real" at all.

Aiden
Andrew

Oakley

We love school around here. 1 more year and the entire Hoard will be in school and I can sit at home and do nothing....at least for a couple days.

Nine

We have been sick all week. It hasn't been fun at all. Kids have missed school, we've watched a lot of movies, stayed in our pj's, and taken a lot of medicine. I am so grateful for medicine. How did people survive with out it? I guess they didn't back then huh?

Besides medicine, I am so thankful for our health. If all we have to complain about are colds we have a great thing going. We have been really lucky when it comes to our health and for that I am so thankful.

Eight

With the colder weather we have been enjoying more hot chocolate. Hot chocolate has been one of my favorite things forever, I absolutely love it. My favorite, of course, is Stephens. And on this specific day I made home made whipped cream for our cocoa. It was so, so delicious.

And look at my cute mug. My good friend Kristen (and Blake) gave them to me and Trent, well to Trent, for being an awesome Captain at Ragnar. Obviously Trent's has a T. They make drinking hot chocolate that much more amazing.

Seven

On the way to work on Monday we only had 1 crack in our windshield, the big one going up. On the way home there were two, the HUGE one going across the whole bottom of our windshield joined the fun. For those that don't know us, we are cursed with windshields. I am not joking. We replace 1 or 2, sometimes even 3, a year. This particular windshield was replaced earlier this past summer so we could pass inspection. 1 week later it had its first crack. 1 week my friends.

So, you are probably thinking why I am grateful for cracked windshields? Well, I am not thankful for that, but in the process of replacing so many windshields while we have been married we have tried numerous glass companies. And we finally found one that installs our windshields perfectly, no air coming through, no squeaks or sounds, AND they totally clean your car inside and out. It's a perfect match for us cursed ones.
We love you Logan Glass.

Six

On Sunday I went to Baby Miles' baby blessing. As always it was so good. There is just something about a baby blessing that gets to me. It made me thankful for my 5 babies and Trent's blessings for each of them.

Having babies is such a miracle. It took a lot of work to get started and too many procedures to count, but it was all worth it. It is amazing what they can do medically to help some of us become Mothers. I am thankful for the many medications, shots, ultrasounds, petri dishes, more shots, and medical support that it took to get Aiden and Andrew here. Fortunately for us, all of that got my system going and we didn't need any "help" with the girls.

And since I have no pics from the actual blessing on Sunday I found pics of all of my kid's in their blessing outfits. They make me happy just looking at them.

And just to have it documented, I went through all the fertility stuff while I was a hospice nurse. I had a certain patient that I became extremely close to. He and his family were so excited when I announced that everything had worked and we were pregnant with twins. They threw me a "party" with a baby cake and everything. When I had the boys I went from full time to on call. My patient passed away while I was on maternity leave. His wife called me and said she wanted to buy the boys blessing outfits because it would mean a lot to Joe and herself. So, now every time I see their outfits it reminds me of my patient and life itself. One minute we are being blessed and the next we are leaving our earthly life for the next. And what matters most is what we do with the time in between.

Time flies.

Make the most of it and have an amazing time doing it.

Five

No, I am not thankful for the snow. I am not that crazy. But I am thankful that my kids stay out in the snow for longer than 5 minutes now. Last year the boys graduated from the whiny snow stage and would stay out for hours. This year Oakley has joined them. Paige and Morgan are less whiny and stayed out for a good hour on Saturday. Makes the 20 minutes of getting their snow clothes on a little more worth it.

I love my snow angels.

Four

I am a little behind on my thankful posts. Kind of sums up my life actually. So, going back to November 4th I was so thankful for Trent and his leaf cleaning ability. He came home from work and went straight to picking up leaves-and we have a ton of leaves, 18 bags to be exact.. It took him all night, but he got it done before he left for St. George and before the snow came.

Obviously, I am thankful for Trent for lots of reasons, but on Thursday it was his ability to never stop working. We wouldn't have survived the past 7 years with out Trent's never ending energy. He really is a machine.

Three

I belong to this church and I am so thankful for that. It helps me make it through life, it helps me try to be a better person, it lifts me up when I am down (did that kind of sound like Josh Groban?), it's a perfect guide in this messed up world, it means my family can be together forever, and it has brought me some of my closest friends.

Last night was no exception. There was a multi-regional YW leadership training. I was not looking forward to it and was actually thinking about not going, until my neighbor called and offered me a ride. Unfortunately I wasn't ready in time for her ride, but since she put the bug in my ear I made myself go. And I am so glad I did. It was just what I needed to hear. It wasn't a typical training session to me. It was as though each of the speakers were speaking directly to me and telling me how I can change my life for the better. I wish I would have been prepared with a pen and notepad so I could have written everything down. But the gist of the meeting was that you need to better yourselves before you can better others. And Sister Dalton said to take care of ourselves and our families first, because that is the number one priority.

We sang "How Firm a Foundation." for the closing hymn and the third verse stuck out to me. I feel overwhelmed the majority of the time and feel like I am failing in most aspects of my life. This verse gave me a little boost as I sang (okay, mouthed) the words.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

During the meeting they showed this video from Elder Ballard. It is awesome. Then the concluding speaker, I can't remember his name, left us each individually with a blessing that "everything will be okay." It was just what I needed to hear.

TWO

For my second thankful post, I wanted to talk about the thing that makes these thankful posts and all other posts possible-my blog. What would life be without blogging? Can you imagine? Well, some of you can because you never update your blogs...;)

But seriously, I love my blog because it is my journal. It has been so much easier blogging than it ever was trying to keep a journal. I only wish I would have started sooner. It is so much fun to go back and read through our lives and to see how much we have changed.

Last year for my birthday Kim and Trent surprised me with a book of my first year of blogging (Trent did the second book later). I always started putting my blog into a book and then got frustrated. So, of course Kim had the brilliant idea of doing it for my birthday and Trent had the brilliant idea to make it his way. It took a lot of time to make it perfect, but here is the result.

I love having a hard copy and the kids love being able to look through a book about them. They are huge 12 X 12 books with tons of fun stuff to remember in them. I love them.
I mean, how awesome is blogging?

Thankful

Well, yesterday was the first day of November. And that means it is time for my thankful posts. I have a lot to be thankful for, but sometimes, like one of my recent posts, I focus on the negative in my life, which isn't good for anyone.

So, here we go. I am so thankful that Halloween and last week are over. ;) I know, still a little negative, but what can I say? We had a heck of a week and ended up with pounds of candy. 40 to be exact. That's what you get when you have 5 kids and 4 different trick or treating sessions.
But I did want to talk about how everything turned out last week. Because I lot of things turned out great and a lot of good things happened. If you can't remember my week you can read it here.

• The part of my costume that got "lost" in the mail was my nude unitard. I had a Halloween party Friday night and no costume. Trent, being the amazing husband that he is, called around to several dance companies and found me one. Can you imagine a guy calling dance companies asking for a nude unitard. He must really love me. Oh and my unitard finally came in the mail yesterday. Duh.



• I passed my drug test and background check for my new job. This job has been months in the making and to finally officially have it is awesome.



• Our talks went well on Sunday. The kids did amazing. They were so excited and not one bit scared to do them. Weird right? And every door we went trick or treating to told my kids how good they did. They were pretty proud of themselves. Trent and I are just glad its over.



• We signed up for the So Cal Ragnar. We have so much fun at these things we can't stop doing them. And I promise my post will be coming this week. Not that anyone really cares...



• And as for the Halloween festivities, we went Trunk or Treating with Heidi Saturday, Trent's work Monday morning, Cafe Rio, Maga's (who actually wasn't home, boo.), Dodee's, Grandpa Brad's work, Grandpa Larry's work, Grandma Holly's work, our own Trunk or Treat, Aunt Rauna's, Kim's, and finally around our neighborhood for 2 hours. It was a busy day, but I have to admit I actually enjoyed it. Usually my kids are ornery and tired when we trick or treat out neighborhood. The houses are a little far apart and it is very hilly. But they were so excited this year and ran from door to door. It was what I always imagined trick or treating would be like with my kids. Loved it.

And there you have it. My first thankful post. So very thankful October is over and done with and November is here. We have an excited month planned already. I'll keep you all posted.