The Jensen Hoard

Goal Update

2012-01-26T08:58:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to give a little update on one of my New Year Goals. I have done pretty good with exercising more. Last week I did all my scheduled training runs, which I haven't done since August. And I started doing some Firm exercise dvds at home. The kids love to build up their muscles with me.

And last night I fit a run in after the kids went to bed. Luckily I had planned it with Brooke or I would of skipped the run and hopped into bed myself. As you can tell we had a hard time getting a picture with both our heads in it.
Gotta keep this up. I just got my legs for Wasatch Back and, if you can believe it, they are harder than my SoCal legs. I need to become a running machine so I don't die.

Night Sledding

2012-01-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

We hit the road/sidewalk sledding during last night's snow storm. The kids and adults had a great time flying down our street. We have been waiting for a storm big enough to make it down our street and we finally got it.

and the kids couldn't get enough of it.

And neither could we.

And it was snowing so much it started sticking on Andrew's head.

I think it was a perfect family night.

Extended Weekend

2012-01-23T10:41:00.003-07:00

We just came off a great weekend. Trent had been planning this St. George trip for a while and I jumped on board last minute. I got work covered, kids covered, a lesson covered, and a talk covered. Can I just say Trent and I have an amazing family who is always so willing to help? Without them we wouldn't have been able to have a nice relaxing weekend away.

Anyways, our trip started Thursday afternoon as soon as we dropped the girls off at Emily's. Even driving to St. George is a vacation when you don't have kids yelling and fighting in the back. ;)

The first morning Trent and I ran together...well Trent left me in the dust on way home, but he stuck with me for the first 2 miles.

Afterwards we enjoyed our drinks of choice in the hot tub.

Jake and Candice joined us that night. We had some delicious food at Don Pedros, had another dip in the hot tub, and went to sleep to get ready for the morning. You see everyone came to town to run a race on Saturday. Jake and Trent ran the Half and Candice did the 5K. Unfortunately I couldn't participate because registration was closed by the time I knew I was coming along. I did get my own run done in the morning before I headed over to the finish line. I tried to hurry, but I missed Candice finish, but I am sure she looked strong and rocked the race. ;)

Next came Trent. He did well and came in 10th.

And then Jake. Love this pic of him in the air. And this was even taken with my phone. Can you believe it?

And one group shot. It was a little cold.

That was all the photos from our weekend. I really need to do better, but when you don't do anything but hang out, what is there to take pictures of?

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. We got lots of sleep, did lots of nothing, ate a lot of good food, and got to hang out with two of favorite people.

And like I said before it wouldn't have been possible without our families. Emily, Grandma Teri, Grandma Holly, Brooke, Kimmy, Cameron, Jill, and even our neighbor babysat for us. It takes a lot of people to cover The Hoard and everyone was so willing to help out.

And here is a peek at what happened while we were away.

The girls got to be girls and play with make up.

And these were the ones responsible for the fun.

And I just had to add another cute one of my girls.

And the whole beautiful group.

For most the weekend the kids were at Jill and Cameron's. The kids love both these two and were so excited for their own weekend away.

They colored a lot. Andrew even came home with a sketch pad and new pencil and got pointers from the artist himself, Cameron.

The kids found a new game of checkers, which Aiden now wants at our house.

They watched some movies.

And even got Happy Meals from McDonalds. They were definitely spoiled.

I think the kids had just as much fun as we did. It is probably just as good for them to have a break from us, as it is for us to have a break from them...;)

Thanks again to all those that helped! It made for a great break for Trent and I!

Birthday Bowling

2012-01-17T08:55:00.004-07:00

We finally had the boys birthday party last night. They have been anxiously waiting. We like to spread things out from Christmas. It is just too much to have another party the day after Christmas. December birthdays are no fun.

We had the family up for a pizza dinner, followed by presents.

And oreo ice cream cake.

And finally, the grand finale.

Bowling.

12 kids, 12 adults, 1 picture taker, 1 baby, 2 little non-bowlers, and 2 late comers made for a hectic night at the bowling alley. We had all the kids on 2 lanes with bumpers. And the adults on another 2 lanes. I think some of the adults wished they had bumpers as well...I won't name names, but Emily was the winner with a score of 40 something...;)

The kids

The Adults

The final score. Andrew won on the "big" kid lane. And Morgan won on the "little" kid lane. I didn't get a pic of the adult's score. But I think Trent and Cameron tied with 150.

Thanks every one for making the journey and celebrating with us. We had a great, crazy night!

Happy Birthday Celebration Aiden and Andrew!

A & A

2012-01-13T13:51:00.002-07:00

We celebrated Aiden and Andrew's birthday at school yesterday. They were so excited and had been waiting for a couple weeks for this. And since this post is about them I had to include a picture and brief explanation about it.

These two not only don't look like brothers, but there personalities are so different its amazing they came from the same womb. One such difference is seen below. Andrew always dresses "nice," he loves his button up shirts and nice pants. Aiden on the other hand only wears the "soft" pants and T-Shirts. And since we have 2 of every shirt, Andrew wears the "same" shirts every day to school. And Aiden is most likely in a Utah shirt.

Anyways, on to the school celebration. We made a poster board, brought treats, and watched the Sneetches for their half hour of school fun. The boys thought it was pretty great. And see, Aiden is in yet another U shirt and Andrew has a nice collared shirt with a sweater over it.

A few things they wanted on their posters were pictures of family, camping, St. George, and some of the stuff they liked-coloring, snow, spaghetti, bubble tape, oreos, and hershey bars. I also asked both of them what they wanted to be when they grew up. Andrew wants to be a Police Officer-I am sure to keep the town in tip top shape. And Aiden wants to be a magician-I am sure to just make things disappear.

Love my very different boys.

YW

2012-01-12T08:00:00.003-07:00

Well everyone, I am doing good on at least one of my goals so far. I went to YW's on Sunday AND Mutual last night. In fact I was in charge of the whole activity. We had a grand time. We made Goal Jars for the new year. Crafts are always fun. And you can't beat making anything with chalkboard paint, right?

(Ours is going to be a Disneyland jar. The kids will need to save money if they want to go!)

Afterwards, there were limited leaders with cars, so we pulled a clown move and fit 8 people in my little car. It was great.

Oh and you can see one of the cute jars they made in the bottom. They all fit a ton of goals in those little jars. Should be a good year for everyone.

Its good to be back.

Fire Station

2012-01-11T16:45:00.002-07:00

We had a field trip to the fire station today. The kids thought it was pretty cool.

I love that these 4 are all the same size, but there are 2 1/2 years between the oldest and youngest.
It was a good time.

And yes, the pictures really suck. Camera phones are crap. I need to get my travel camera fixed for sure, cause this just isn't going to work for me.

Snow, Finally

2012-01-09T18:32:00.004-07:00

The Hoard was so excited to wake up to snow on Saturday.

They spent the day making snow men.

And a killer snow cave.

Brooke and Trent were awesome enough to help the kids.
Trent actually really got "into it." Ha, that was a total Jake joke.

Aiden and Morgan were able to squeeze in together.

And Morgan thought it was pretty dang cool.

And after the fun was over, I think Morgan was pretty exhausted.

We love snow around here.

It just needs to keep coming so we can start snowshoeing.

Broken

2012-01-05T10:40:00.002-07:00

Well, I have been meaning to blog about our New Year, but my camera is not working. I took my little travel camera with us to St. George and during the first vacation day I dropped it. Now it will not turn on. Bummer. So, no fabulous St. George New Year post this year. However, if you look at last year's post here, it is probably fairly close to what we did this year.

Another thing that is not up to par around here are my blogging skills. I just can't seem to fit it in any more. Sad huh? It makes me sad, because I love my blog and the record of our life it keeps.

You ask why I am so busy? It's because I never stop working. Not the typical Mom work, but stuff I actually get paid for. I go hours sitting in this spot taking phone calls, charting, solving problems, and NOT sleeping. Hence the reason I have been in this outfit for for 2 1/2 days. When you never go to bed your day never ends right?

At least it is a cute outfit, one of the cardigans I found shopping in Vegas over my fabulous New Years down South that you will never see pictures of. Dang it.

Anyways, I hope things settle down around here and I can get caught up on all things in my life, cleaning, blogging, exercising, cleaning, YW's, kid stuff, and SLEEP. It is hard to do anything when you are dead tired.

And that brings me to my Goals for this year. I need to fix what is broken in my life and unfortunately there are many.

Get back to cleaning regularly. It is not good when you go a month between vacuuming or scrubbing toilets...

Exercise. I miss this, but I can't seem to get up and going when I don't make it to bed until 7 am. Any one want to swap kid watching so I can run during the day? I AM going to figure something out to fit it into my life.

YW's. I have been MIA for the past month. Between vacations, work, wind storms, Holidays I haven't been around much. I miss my girls and need to dive back in.

Budgeting. I am really going to do it this year. I don't want my constant working to go to waste. It seems that we spend whatever we make-no matter how much or little it is. I really want to decrease my spending and start saving for important things like having 5 kids in college at the same time or maybe having 5 weddings all at once. Raising The Hoard is going to get pretty expensive I'm afraid.

Temple attendance. I hate to admit it, but I am terrible at going to the Temple and I hope to do better this year. Even if I make it once every couple months it will be a drastic improvement. That is really sad to admit....

And that is it for now, although there are so many other areas in my life I need to improve on, I can't change everything at once or I might explode.

Cool Runnings

2011-12-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I dislike running in this cold, yucky weather. So much so that most of the time I opt not to run, which doesn't go well for my training or my waistline. But the comfort of my warm bed keeps me from getting up and going. Dang it.

When I do go out, I get dressed to the max. Trent got me this awesome ear warmer that makes me look super cool. Not really, with my boy hair I look like I am wearing one of those hats that looks like you are wearing a headband with funky hair sticking out the top. You know the ones I am talking about? Anyways, these headbands are the best. They are so thin, yet keep your ears toasty warm. If you are in the market for a good ear warmer, you should check these out.

And most of you know I am gross and don't always shower after a run, but now that I have to wear a head warmer my hair is unfixable until I do shower. And, besides, sometimes a shower is the only thing that will warm my body back up. So, for all you those that are usually disgusted with me, you would be proud.

After this run and shower my hair made a miraculous curly Q and I had to take a picture. I am sure none of you will find this as fascinating as me.
Hopefully my motivation for running will out do my motivation for warmth and comfort. So Cal Ragnar is only 4 months away and I picked runner 12 with a total of 19.5 miles. It will be the hardest race I have ever done. Here is a sample of the runs.

Leg 12 8.5 miles Very Hard.

Leg 24 4.7 miles Hard

Leg 36 6.3 Hard

I cannot wait for my last leg. It looks like an amazing route and I am runner 12, so I will be finishing the race for Team Bonk! You gotta love a good Ragnar!!!

Here's to getting my butt out of bed and running!

Lunch With the Ladies

2011-12-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

On Monday I had lunch with my good old HS friends. As always a few are missing. We can never make it work for every one to be there. Maybe some day.

Cecilie, Mikell, Kellee, Chesney, and Me.

I am glad I get to see these girls once a year. We should get crazy and throw a Summer BBQ into the mix....

7

2011-12-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

My boys turned 7 on Monday. I can't believe it. We aren't actually celebrating for another couple weeks. We have to spread the festivities out a little bit around here. The boys were kind of bummed that nothing was happening on their day. Luckily Brooke stepped in and took the boys bowling and out to lunch. Thank goodness for awesome Aunts!

Happy Birthday boys! You are the best boys around. And I promise your birthday celebration will be fun...when I get to it.

Christmas Weekend

2011-12-27T10:30:00.011-07:00

Wow. What a weekend. I've tried to keep it short and simple, but your know how it is when you have Christmas with multiple parties and 2 families to celebrate with. You end up with a lot of pics and a lot of fun. So, we'll just dive right into it.

Friday night we started off the festivities with Dodee and Papa's Christmas party. Dodee serves her famous breakfast for dinner, we hang out, and then Dodee and Papa (and others) shower everyone with gifts. It was a great night. But probably the most amazing thing that happened was that Jackson sat on my lap. That's a first for me and him. Except for when he was a baby and didn't know what was going on. But that doesn't count.

After the party we took the cousins home with us and had a sleep over. I think this is going to be a new tradition for us. You see, the adult Jensen's do breakfast at Market Street Grill the next morning, so we thought we would take the kids so the adults could actually go. And we had a grand time

The girls watched Polar Express upstairs. And keep in mind we started these movies after the party at 9:30 or so. And only 2 out of the 9 kids fell asleep during them. How do kids stay awake??

And the boys (and Oakley) watched Super 8 downstairs.

For our kid breakfast we made cake balls, thanks to the Cake Ball cooker Heidi gave me for my birthday.

After a few balls decorated Annie went straight to eating the sprinkles.

And my girls went straight to the batter.

Girls after my own heart.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting the final things ready for Christmas. Then we headed over to Jensen for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. I had my first taste of a deep fried turkey and it was oh, so delicious. After a food and chit chat we headed to Temple Square to meet up with my parents.

We got a picture underneath my absolute favorite tree, the big red one.

And a pic of the kids by the yellow and orange one, my other favorite.

We headed home, got the kids to bed and got ready for Santa to come.

And come he did. He ate the kids treats they made and left a letter.

I'd have to say Santa did an amazing job...

We always make the kids come in our room and get a family pic. Not the best picture ever, but what can you do.

First up stockings.

I couldn't believe how excited the kids were for every little thing they found in there.

Then on to the presents.

And then the finale. Oakley's face says it all.

And the peace and quiet that followed Christmas is just what Trent and I asked Santa for.

After hanging out, playing with gifts, and relaxing, we headed out to Jensen's for Christmas breakfast.

And since it was Christmas we let Aiden have a block of cheese for breakfast.

Presents followed breakfast and once again we were extremely spoiled by everyone.

Next up we headed to Veigel's for Christmas dinner and more presents. Seriously, I can't believe how many gifts we opened. Everyone is so generous.

I guess Oliver didn't want to sit with all the cousins.

We finished the night off with tons of delicious food at my parents. Then headed home for some much needed sleep.

Phew.

We hope you all had as magical a Christmas as we did.

And here is to a great New Year.

2011-12-25T09:18:00.001-07:00

Kids and the Holidays

2011-12-22T17:02:00.006-07:00

We all know that kids change our lives. It is hard and a lot of of work to raise kids, but obviously worth it. And when it comes to the Holidays kids make them that much more fun. Here are the things I have noticed that have changed since having The Hoard.

*Kids love any craft/project that has to do with anything yummy and messy. Gingerbread houses are no exception and the perfect Christmas Activity. And thank goodness for The pre-made gingerbread houses these days.

Who would of thought candy and frosting could be so much fun and make such a cute house.

*Kids make the countdown to Christmas a daily ritual with numerous advent calendars. You can just feel their excitement grow as they get to take a link off or eat the day's treat. And can anyone else believe that Christmas is only 2 days away? I can't and neither can my kids.

We had 5 Christmas chains this year, once again thank goodness for schools and teachers that do fun things for my kids.

*Kids make it possible to have a Christmas play date and lunch. The girls in my ward (and Kim who will be in our ward some day) came over for a delicious lunch of soup, salad, bread, wassle, and chocolate waffles and ice cream. And as always these ladies are the best and I love that we are such good friends.

*Kids changed our tree. I used to take a long time decorating our tree, making sure each ornament was placed in the proper spot, with perfect spacing and color arrangement. Since kids, I don't even get off the couch while they hang ornaments. And this year we added some home made snow flakes to the ensemble.

With some thank you notes for Santa,

And a few home made ornaments here and there. I think our tree actually looks better than it's "perfect" days.

*Kids bring stories into our home. Now we have a stack of Christmas books as part of our decorations. Most of these were given as gifts, which I am very thankful for. Now I just need to be better at reading them to my kids...

*And, last but not least, our Nativity Scene has changed. Like the tree I would place them in a perfect arrangement, so all the pieces could be seen, and, once again, evenly spaced in their own spots. Now the scene looks like this:

And this:

The kids always place Jesus in the center surrounded by everyone.

My kids are pretty smart.

Jesus should be the center of Christmas.

So glad I have the Hoard to teach me a thing or two and to bring the excitement and spirit of Christmas back into my life. Can't wait for the magical day to get here.

Anniversary Celebration

2011-12-20T09:15:00.003-07:00

We celebrated out Anniversary Friday night. It was a good time. Luckily we have an awesome family who stepped in and took our kids. The Bentleys and Clarks rock. They even let the kids sleep over. And Grandma Teri was nice enough to watch Brooke for us too. ;) Thank you all!

As soon as we dropped the kids off a feeling of total relaxation and happiness came over us. I had to snap a pic of it.

Trent took me to the Mandarine where we ordered a meal for 6 just for the 2 of us. Everything was so delicious. You cannot beat a Mandarine egg roll with extra plum sauce.

Afterwards, we went to a late showing of Sherlock Holmes 2. Loved every second of it. And now I have decided my new movie boyfriend is Jude Law. Loved him in the movie.

It was a great night that had to come to an end, but not before we took a pic in front of the huge lit tree at the gateway, not that you can see much of the tree in a self portrait.

The next morning after sleeping in until 8, I went and did a little Christmas shopping and came across this little doll.

What Mother would ever buy something like this for their little girl? I about died when I saw it. Lets just teach our girls to be sluts from 3 years old on up. Seriously what is wrong with people.

Psycho

2011-12-16T11:57:00.002-07:00

Our girls are very dramatic and psychotic at times. This morning was no exception. They got ready for preschool and Trent took them on his way to work. Or so I thought. I got out of the shower and heard the girls screaming and Trent yelling. For some reason unbeknownst to us and even the girls, they were scared to go to Preschool. What? They have been going for 2 years now and have never had issues like this. After a few minutes of more screaming, crying, threats Trent took them back down. Paige went right in and Morgan cried for another 20 minutes. Disciplinary actions were taken that had no affect on her. Finally, Mrs Eggett pealed her off of Trent in a screaming frenzy. Seriously, who knows what demon posessed Morgan this morning.

I just picked the girls up and they came out beaming from ear to ear holding their very own gingerbread houses. Their fearful morning forgotten and happiness flowed in the world again. I am now starting to believe that my girls are not possessed, but may actually be bipolar.

Morgan still cannot tell me what her problem was, but says she loves preschool and loves her house with the sleigh in front.

Drama, Drama, Drama.

These girls just might do us in yet.

11 Years

2011-12-14T14:43:00.001-07:00

Trent and I have been married 11 years today. I can't believe it. To celebrate I am working tonight and going to mutual. Sounds fun right? We usually head down to St. George for a weekend away from kids, but since we just went for Thanksgiving we decided not to. I am starting to regret that decision... I do have Friday night off work now, so we are hoping to at least go out to eat. Anyone want to watch the Furious Five...and maybe even let them sleepover? ;)

I was looking through our pictures from the olden days before we had to worry about getting babysitters to do anything and couldn't help but love Trent even more. So much has changed for us in the past 11 years, but we are still best friends. I am not going to get all mushy, in fact I am done talking about it right now. However, I am going to add just one pic from our kidless days. One of our last trips before we started making The Hoard.

And who knows, maybe in 11 years we will have another glorious, kidless vacation. My kids will be old enough to take care of themselves by that time right?

Happy Anniversary Trent.

I'm glad you picked me.

Stools

2011-12-13T21:30:00.001-07:00

I am not talking about the stools I deal with at work, but the stools we have had for the past 6 years in our kitchen. They have been through a lot seeing how we use them for every meal and that we never sit at our kitchen table.

They were permanantly dirty, the "straw" was coming off making it very easy to get slivers, and the paint was chipped.

One was so worn out it almost had a hole right through the top.

It was a few months past time to get new stools. It is very difficult to find stuff that goes with our light cupboards and white counters, but we did find some online. The problem was they were $50 a piece plus shipping.

So, I asked Trent nicely if he would just refinish the stools we had. Not really, I ordered him. And, being the good husband he is, he obeyed. I am not being sarcastic at all here.

Every spare second he had was working on these stools and believe me, he doesn't have a lot of them.

I am in love with how they turned out. Trent did a fantastic job as always.

Nice, smooth, clean stools.

No more slivers in our bums.

I personally think all of Trent's work was worth it. It saved us $300. Trent doesn't really agree, but I am still very grateful.

Thank you Trent, thank you.

Unload

2011-12-12T21:08:00.002-07:00

I asked Paige to unload the dishwasher and this is what I got.

I guess she did follow my instructions perfectly.

Next time I will be more specific and ask her to unload and put the dishes away.

The Big 3-2.

2011-12-11T11:33:00.006-07:00

I turned 32 on Friday. Age doesn't really bother me. I could care less how old I am. I have never understood why people freak out about it. I say embrace it.

I had a very low key, relaxing Birthday. It started with a cuddle from my girls. And don't judge my bed head.

And the boys wrote me Birthday notes. Aiden brought his card to me with 2, 5 dollar bills from his job money. It was really sweet....and his card is pretty hilarious.
(Dear Mom. I love you when you are mad and I like you when you are nice. I love you mom!)

And Andrew drew me I love you faces.

His note said, Dear Mom. Happy Birthday. I love you. I like to see you.

Friday night Blake and Kristen joined us for dinner and a movie (Luke and Kim joined us for the movie and Brooke and Bridget joined us for dinner). We had Pei Pei and 3 cakes. Yes, I said that right. Usually if I don't make a cake I don't get a cake, so I made one. Then Kim took my kids in the afternoon and they made me a cake (the one with the big 32 on it), then Kristen was nice enough to bring a cake and candles. Lets just say I should buy a membership to weight watchers after this weekend.

Everyone sang Happy Birthday and I made a wish,

and blew out the candles on every cake, with the help of Andrew.

We finished the night with The Help. I loved it, the boys not so much.

*
*

The night before Trent arranged a babysitter and took me out to CPK. It was also very delicious. See what I mean about the weight watchers thing? I've got to learn to control my intake.

It was a great birthday. Thanks to everyone that called, texted, FB, messaged me. You are all the best!

Ned

2011-12-09T09:25:00.006-07:00

Meet Ned.

He is our Elf and came to us last night. Santa dropped him off at the door, knocked and vanished back up to the North Pole and left Ned to keep an eye on things. The kids couldn't believe how fast Santa was. They didn't even see him leave, which confirmed that Santa really is magic.

This morning the kids got up and searched for Ned. He had found the perfect spot to watch The Hoard.

This whole thing is brilliant and the kids love it. I read it on Kimmy's and Jamie's blogs and had to join the fun. I also took it up a notch and had Santa send a message to the kid's to tell them what Ned is going to make sure they do. It has worked wonders in the 12 hours since Ned as joined us. I joked that we need an elf for every Holiday to keep the kids in line.

Here are the links to the kid's messages from Santa. If you haven't done it, you should. My kid's were fixated on the screen the whole time Santa was talking to them. And they had to tell everyone about it.

Aiden-always finish whats on your plate.

Andrew-be quieter when your inside the house.

Oakley-always keep your room tidy and squeaky clean.

Paige-stop throwing those silly tantrums.

Morgan-always pick up your toys and put them away.

Luckily my kids were all on the nice list. Hopefully Ned reports they stay that way....

Christmas Pageant

2011-12-08T10:42:00.003-07:00

We had our Ward Christmas Party on Saturday morning.

My boys were wise men. Aiden is right behind around holding his box of gold. We forgot our camera so these pics are from a cell phone. Sorry about the quality.

My girls were angels.
My kids were asked to sing a song. And guess who had to teach them the song? Me. The least musically talented person ever created. So, when you watch the video just remember who their mom is. Considering this, they actually sound pretty good. ;) It doesn't help that the microphone was pointing directly at Andrew the whole time.

It was pretty darn funny....and cute.

A Rather Blustery Day

2011-12-07T11:45:00.006-07:00

I am sure every one knows about the wicked windstorm last week. I have never seen anything like it. Our neighborhood looked like a tornado had plowed through. Tree after tree were blown over. It looked something like this:

(I stole the picks from our neighbor Quinn and Kimmy.)

Luckily our house only had a branch and a few shingles come off.

And since we didn't have power kids were sent home early Thursday and school was cancelled Friday. Great for the kids, big bummer for me.

So what did we do with our extra time?

We did some Christmas and grocery shopping,

Played video games,

Made gingerbread men,

No, I didn't make the dough, someone in our ward gave it to the kids when they got their costumes for our ward Christmas party.

And to finish the night off we hung out at Jill and Cameron's. Jill made us a delicious dinner and then made dessert with the kids while Trent slept and I sat on the couch. She's the best.

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning up. Church was even cancelled on Sunday for a massive clean up. So while Trent did this:

We had a hot lunch. Mine consisted of home made tomato soup and grilled cheese. Delish.

And the kids did this.

It was a very eventful weekend.

And so glad my little Hoard and house came away undamaged. Also glad to have power and all the modern day functions that come with it. Life is hard without it. I shouldn't be complaining because we didn't even get the worst of it!

Here is to a tree-less B-Town.

The Last of the Thankful Posts

2011-11-30T15:08:00.001-07:00

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

2011-11-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-19T09:23:00.001-07:00

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

2011-11-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-12T08:46:00.001-07:00

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

2011-11-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-08T14:03:00.001-07:00

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

2011-11-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-06T09:24:00.001-07:00

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

2011-11-05T15:13:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-04T15:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-03T19:57:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-02T08:49:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-01T20:15:00.000-06:00

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.

Happy Halloween-

2011-10-31T07:39:00.002-06:00

from Super Mario Land

and Forrest and Jenny

One of THOSE Weeks

2011-10-28T11:37:00.002-06:00

Coming off an extreme weekend of every emotion into a week filled to the brim has made me a wee bit ornery. I was hoping to get to posting about the amazing Vegas Ragnar, but that will most likely be coming later. Instead you get to join in a pity party with me. You know the weeks when you just can't seem to get on top of anything? Throw in a couple extra things like, Halloween and a new job and it gets that much more hectic. Here are a few things that have been happening this week:

Preschool field trip to the museum. I don't have any pics because I rented a locker for a quarter and as soon as I locked the door I realized my camera was still sitting in my purse. And I didn't have another quarter, so there it stayed.

Book Club. I just got the book on Monday and the party was Wednesday. Needless to say I didn't finish it. And upon arriving to Book Club (45 mins late) I found out I was supposed to be the one leading the discussion. Luckily my group is awesome and Amber took right over.

I had mutual at my house where we made mini donuts and watched Thriller. I love my Mia maids.

I made more donuts the next day for Aiden and Andrew's class party. I don't care if I see another mini donut for a long time.

I was in charge of a craft for Oakley's party and drove around to several different stores(even the same store twice) to find something to do, finally settling on a mediocre craft. Luckily Kindergartners don't care.

Waiting for the most important part of my costume to come in the mail only to find out this morning that they "can't find the package" anywhere.

Having to schedule a drug test and find babysitters because they won't let you take kids with you.

And finally, the worst one, we are speaking in Sacrament on Sunday. And when I say we, I mean all seven of us. It should be a grand meeting. Anyone is welcome to come, you might get a few laughs.

And all you moms know what it is like to do everything while taking care of kids, so while I was making my second batch of over 100 mini donuts:

Paige, Morgan, and Oliver decided to empty out their entire wardrobe into the living room.

Let's just say it was the icing on the cake....or should I say donut.

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-23T06:33:00.000-06:00

We went to the pumpkin patch (aka Kim and Luke's) and picked out our Halloween pumpkins. You see, they plant pumpkins every year and had enough for each one of The Hoard. I, for one, was very excited to be saving ourselves $20.Oliver was freaking out because I took him out of the picture and the kids think it is funny when anyone other than themselves is crying/getting in trouble, hence the reason for the huge smiles on my kid's faces.

I'm One of THOSE Moms

2011-10-21T06:28:00.001-06:00

Before I had litters of children I always wondered how a mom could take her kids out in public looking like orphans. Well, now I am one of those moms. I usually just 'forget' to do Paige and Morgan's hair. More times than not they look like this when we run errands.

They have even started referring to themselves as orphans. It's sad really.

Argh

2011-10-19T09:59:00.000-06:00

We went to the Capson's on Saturday for a Pirate Party. Trent always says he isn't going to dress up, but then pulls something together at the last minute. This time he raided my closet for some Mr. Smee clothes.

It is sad when your husband looks better in your clothes than you do...

The Capson's house was totally decked out in Halloween and Pirate garb. They even had everyone pose with the hung pirate at the door.

And here are all the wenches that came.

And while we were partying it up, Kim was nice enough to take care of The Hoard. She even managed to make some sweet Halloween cookies with them.

Thanks Capson's for a fun night out. They even got Trent to play some games....which is worth documenting alone.

Mini Mandonelle

2011-10-17T16:14:00.002-06:00

The girls got to do Mini Mandonelles this year. They were pretty excited. I asked them to pose and this is what I got.

Maren is one of my miamaids and the reason for all this fun.
The girls performed at the football game. Brooke and I chatted it up during the first half.

Oakley did great. Paige and Morgan, on the other hand, did not. They were running around and away from the real Mandonelles. Lets just say Trent and I were not happy. However, watching the video all three of them are as cute as can be.

Toothless

2011-10-13T11:36:00.002-06:00

Oakley has had a front tooth that has been bothering her for a while. It got to the point where she wouldn't eat much because it hurt. And if you took a gander at her tooth it looked like the whole inside had popped out. No wonder it hurt. So, she begged to go to the dentist and so, to the dentist she went.

She was pretty happy until the needle came out, but she was brave and only cried a little bit. And who can blame her? Those needles hurt.
And once the tooth was yanked out we went to Family Dollar and picked out a prize. Of course she chose coloring stuff. And don't you love her numb lip smile?

And a shot of her gap. Trent really wanted to try and fix the tooth seeing how Oakley probably won't get her adult teeth until she is twelve, but since she is not on our insurance (dumb story), I opted for the cheaper route. And since Oakley is our Brad Pitt, she can make any look rock for at least a few years. ;)

She really has loved the fact that she has lost a tooth. She tells everyone she sees. And another bonus-the tooth fairy. She couldn't wait to put her tooth under her pillow and go to sleep.

She is one happy, toothless girl.

Making Ourselves at Home

2011-10-12T10:09:00.000-06:00

We go to the movie store so often that the kids think it is their second home and they treat it as such...

All they need is the popcorn.

New York Visitors

2011-10-11T09:57:00.002-06:00

We were able to hang out with some New Yorkers on Friday. My kids were so excited to see their cousins from far, far away. And I was so excited to meet the newest addition to the Veigels, Jude.

My kids, especially the girls, love babies and Jude was no exception.
And my girls couldn't get enough of playing with James and Jack. You can barely see Jack's head poking out from behind Paige and Morgan. And James was so nice to let my girls climb ALL over him.

Thanks for the fun time boys!

These Are My Friends

2011-10-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

No, not my thunder thighs, but my running shoes. They have been stuck in my closet collecting dust since the middle of August. I got them out last week and ran down in St. George. It felt so good and so bad at the same time. It was so good to get out again seeing how there is nothing like running. But it felt so bad to see how much I have lost in a month and a half. I only have 2 weeks to get back in shape for the Vegas Ragnar. I really hope I don't die down there in the desert.

And I promise I will come back to blogging soon. I have been home for all of ten minutes this past week and I am hoping things will calm down soon. So, all of you that are still faithful bloggers, just know I am reading and will get back to my commenting soon.

Until next time.

St. George Marathon

2011-10-04T16:30:00.005-06:00

We just got back from St. George, where Trent ran yet another marathon. You know the one that he went to the extreme to get into. We headed down South Thursday night and stopped at a Burger King. It seemed that China had exploded in this small BK in a random city. We were surrounded by Asians. Seriously.

Once we got to St. George we did the typical swimming, eating, relaxing, shopping stuff. I was not very good at taking pictures at all, which I always regret after the fact, but I do enjoy not worrying about pictures during the fact.

Now on to the race.

The kids couldn't wait to see Trent come down the chute. And Trent did a fabulous job as always, He finished with a PR of 2:42:02 came in 27th overall.

See what I mean about no pics? I don't even have one of Trent crossing the finish line. Granted I was videoing it, but with our camera we can video and take pictures simultaneously, I just didn't think about it. So here is a quick family shot we took on the way home from the race.

That night while the boys were at priesthood, we tried to fit as many people as we could in our car and headed over to play at the park, while I devoured In & Out.
We stopped off at Grandma Veigel's on the way out of town.

And Trent got to "watch" football on the drive home. Its amazing that his phone fit perfectly there don't you think?

Once again it was another fun mini vacation. Can't wait until the next one.

Favorite Pastime

2011-09-28T09:06:00.002-06:00

If you come to our house you might find at least one of The Hoard coloring. They have all decided that it is their favorite thing to do. More often than not our counter looks like this.

And our table looks like this.

And the girls love to tape up all their pictures in their rooms.

Brooke said their rooms look like The Friends episode when Monica tried to find out what the switch turned on and off and covered all the holes with drawings.

And they love to color pictures just for us. We usually have a few pictures placed on our nightstand every day.

Who knows, maybe we have a few artists in the making.

Thorup Reunion

2011-09-26T17:41:00.003-06:00

We had a reunion on Saturday for Trent's Grandma's family. It was a good time. My kids absolutely love Dodee and Papa and were pretty excited when we told them we were going to see them.

I don't know if we have ever had all of us in one pic before. Once again, it is very difficult to get my kids to look and smile at the camera at the same time.

We played a game that resulted in a lot of unused yarn. The kids loved the aftermath.

Thanks Dodee and Papa (and everyone else that helped) it was a fun night!

The Only Child

2011-09-23T13:45:00.003-06:00

I only had one child today for 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was magical. Really. After we dropped the girls off at preschool, we went on a short, but steep walk per Oakley's request. After we sweat it out for a minute Oakley did this:

So I couldeat breakfast in peace and watch a few minutes of The Today Show. And I promise I didn't pose my breakfast and condiments, I just don't put anything away until I am done eating. You never know if you'll need a little more splenda to make Cream of Wheat edible.

And while I was trying to eat a semi healthy breakfast Oakley snuck in from playing and consumed some treats from Oliver's BDay party.

I also got to do paperwork and a telephone interview without being interrupted. So, so nice only being in charge of one child and when that child is easy Oakley it is even that much nicer.
***

I went to get my photos from my quiet morning and it appeared that Paige and Morgan had a little fun with my camera during their alone time with Mom.

Morgan's eyes look kinda creepy.

Kind of a little Brad Pitty from 12 Monkeys.

I have a feeling I am going to love Fridays.

Addendum

2011-09-22T09:50:00.002-06:00

I got some pics from Jamie from our girls trip. And since they were some of the highlights of my trip I thought I would add them in.

First, my photogenic classes. As you can see I couldn't quite get it.

Next, our dinner at Chilis, where I tried to eat healthy. I did steal a few of Candice's fries and had some chips and salsa. But compared to what I used to eat, that was pretty dang good.

And last, but not least, meeting cute little Miles. We even flashed some gang signs back and forth.

Sorry about the repeat post, but I wanted these in my blog book of life. Maybe tomoroow I will have some new material.

Lazy in St. Geezy

2011-09-20T11:57:00.004-06:00

I just got back from a very extended weekend in St. George with just (some of) the Jensen girls (plus the cutest little Miles). We went down Wednesday afternoon and had a wonderful, relaxing, lazy, good time.

We had a million and one magazines to go through in 5 days.

We spent a little bit of time soaking up the sun AND shade by the pool.

We went to a very little market at Tuachan, where I was able to restock my Scentsy stash.

We ate a lot of delicious food. In one night we visited Cafe Rio.

Jimmy John's

In & Out

And Twenty Five Main

Lets just say we tried to please everyone and I think we succeeded.

Other highlights of the trip

*Trying to stay on my new diet while vacationing. I must admit I did pretty dang good. In fact I got broccoli instead of fries at Chilis and DID NOT eat some of Jenny's molten lava cake.

* Some pretty fierce games of Words With Friends where I had my highest word of 99 points. And I got Jill hooked which made it that much for fun sitting right next to her and playing.

*Getting to see baby Miles for the first time. He is so little and so perfect.

*Shopping, shopping, and more shopping. I had the best of luck with every store. Which isn't the best of luck for my savings....my tummy tuck is now further down the road.

*Photogenic classes. I had no idea how much went into being photogenic. I fear I am a lost cause though. I wasn't able to make my collar bone stick out, suck my neck in, look down, smile, and still look normal. Let's just say my sister-in-laws have skills. And wouldn't you agree they are all very photogenic?

*Getting to enjoy my Kozy Shack Tapioca, because I was on vacation. And being made fun of for having that as my treat.

*Watching the Utah game knowing Trent was loving every minute of it back home.

*Lots of pregnancy/fertility/adoption discussions. It took me back to my infertile psychotic days.

*Candice giving every one a wax (just eyebrows and staches) and me buying all the stuff so I can do it at home. We will actually see if I can do that to myself.

*Cuddling with Jill at night. Not really, but we did share a bed and had a great late night conversation and multiple games of Words.

*And getting to see my Grandma. She is awesome.It was a great weekend.

Potty Training???

2011-09-17T09:42:00.000-06:00

I know, I said I was done with all this mumbo jumbo, but it appears Oliver may be on the verge of going potty in the potty.

He has gone in the potty twice for me, but he also peed his pants once. And once was all it took to be back in a diaper. See what I mean about me having no patience what so ever?
When he does stay dry and go potty he gets M & M's and 3 Hip Hip Hoorays from his cheerleaders .

First Day of Preschool

2011-09-15T09:27:00.000-06:00

My girls finally started Preschool. I had to work on their actual first day, so we did all their first day stuff today.

Paige
Morgan

They were so excited for preschool that they tried leaving 1/2 hour early, but luckily I caught them. Remember when my boys went to preschool early and I didn't know they were gone for a half hour? If you don't you can read about it here.

So now I only have 2 kids (we have Oliver a few times a week) at home in the morning and it is so nice.

Good Mom Moment

2011-09-14T06:45:00.002-06:00

I finally had one, a good Mom moment. Yesterday morning I was making a list in my head all the things that I had to get gone, and it was a long list. In fact I still haven't completed the list. As the list was growing in my head Oakley came up to me and asked if I would play cards with her. My first thought-no, I have too much to do. But I actually put aside my usual selfish feelings and sat down and we played a killer game of War and Oakley loved it. And just so you know, this good mom moment followed a lot of bad mom moments, like me getting so frustrated with Oakley as I tried to help her read, I really have no patience.

Its a shame really, my kids deserve more of these moments...but I am working on it.

Garage Project

2011-09-13T06:48:00.002-06:00

Well, like I said earlier we have had 2 projects in the works for a while now (one of them 2 1/2 years actually and that is not the one that is done). We, I mean Trent finally got one of them completed-the garage. We redid the garage so we could fit everything from our shed into it. You see, I want a fire pit area in the back yard, but the shed was in the way, so Trent went to work on solving that problem for me.

We don't have a before picture of our garage except this. You can at least see the color, but you can't see the old cupboards that were falling of the walls...
This is what I call the fun side of the garage. All our outdoor equipment for any season is on this wall. Oh and Trent has bought more of the green totes so he can switch the old ones and have them all matching. ;)

We even got new doors, which are so much nicer than our old ones. And behind the wood door is project number 2, which I am hoping will be done by Christmas, give or take a year. ;)

And this is the work side. Don't you love how organized and straight everything is? Well, that's Trent for you. It was fun to watch him figure out where he wanted everything.

And there you have it. Hopefully next Summer we will be roasting marshmallows in our backyard.

Who Says Summer's Over?

2011-09-10T12:02:00.000-06:00

Not us.

Oaks in Soccer

2011-09-07T09:22:00.000-06:00

The boys and Oakley all started soccer last week, the problem is their games are on the exact same days and exactly the same times and in different cities. So, Trent and I have to divide and conquer.

I was assigned Oakley last week and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Oakley is a midget and to see her cruising around the field, kicking the ball, and heading into the "mosh pit" was awesome.

She gave it all she had and was always bright red when she came off the field. And her little determined face was the best part. She really wanted to do well.
I think I need to video a game so you can see how cute she is. Or you can always come to a game in person.

(I get the boys this week, so I will do a post on them after I get some pics.)

The Ward Campout

2011-09-06T08:45:00.007-06:00

We had our Ward Campout this weekend. And Trent, being the good dad that he is, took all the kids by himself. You see, I was supposed to be running this race, but with my current foot problem I had to drop out. But since I was planning on running I didn't take the weekend off work, so after all was said and done I had to stay in town and be on call. Bummer.

Trent and the kids went up to Heber Valley, which in my book isn't real camping, but it works. the kids had fun around the camp fire roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

They also got to go to Legacy Lake to canoe and play in the sand.

And they got to sit and listen to something. Not sure what it is but I liked them all lined up. And of course Oakley was sitting with our neighbor girls.

I think the kids had a fun time running around, getting dirty, and playing with their friends. Naturally, Aiden was the only one that did the obstacle course. He loved it.

And since I had alone time with NO responsibilities, Brooke and I hit up the new shopping that is happening in Farmington now. Can you believe that these 3 stores are all right next to each other? (if you can't tell from the pic the 3 stores are Marshalls, Home Goods, and Ross!!)

The rest of my weekend also included a dinner at Pei Wei, which was horrible. It took me 30 to get my food and then they didn't bring Brooke's food for another 20 minutes. Seriously it was pretty bad. On Saturday I slept in, did a visit for work, had a visit with Maga, went to lunch with Brooke, Heidi, and Teri, did some more shopping and finally came home to be reunited with The Hoard.

It was a great weekend.

Randomness

2011-08-31T07:22:00.005-06:00

I had a lot of random thoughts and random pictures on my cell phone and camera, so this post is going to cover a lot of random stuff. And I am going to see how many times I can say random.

First of all, I am loving school. Oakley really started this week and it has been lovely.

We watched Rio for the first time last week and I loved it. Has anyone else seen it? The reason I loved it was because of the music. I was so happy when Oakley wanted to download it.

Like I said in one of my earlier posts, I am a Mia Maid advisor now and guess who the 1st counselor is? Ardeth Kapp. Yep, I have given 2 lessons with her sitting right next to me. Can I just tell you how nervous I was?

I was reading a book in my living room a while ago (with the snow on the tree you might think it was a long time ago, but remember that we had snow in June) and this was my view from my couch. It was a perfect setting for relaxing and reading.

I am missing ponytails, but I love the easiness of my hair. Should I grow it out or keep it short? Any opinions?

I had this pic from the day of my half marathon. We got up at 3:30 to get ready. I was actually up at 1:30 because I got a call for work and then couldn't go back to sleep because I was so scared for the race. We were on the road pretty darn early. Its amazing what you do for running and racing, but it is so much fun.

I have been on a diet for 2 weeks and haven't lost any weight. It sucks.

I was shopping the other day at TJ Maxx and came upon the Halloween aisle. I could have bought everything on the shelf and amazingly I didn't buy one thing.

My house needs a serious deep clean and I can't bring myself to do it. It is so hard to get motivated when you know the kids will have it messy again in 2 minutes.

The other day I was driving to work in the morning and the sky was amazing. The picture didn't capture it at all, but there was rainbow, lightning, and pink clouds from the sunrise. It was pretty cool.

Most of the framed pictures in my house need to be switched out to more current ones. I just always have a hard time going through the hundreds of pics and only picking a few faves.

Whenever I drive I am amazed at all the really bad drivers out there. It is amazing that there aren't more accidents. Case in point, I pulled up to this intersection and this van was right in the middle of it. They didn't even try backing up which makes me wonder if the driver even knew something wasn't right.

We have 2 projects that are close to being finished in our house. I have been dying to post the final results.

I am sad that Summer is coming to a close. It seems like it just started. However, I do love Fall and the attire that one gets to wear when it gets cooler.

I have book club tonight and I am so excited. It seems like it has been forever since our last one. We have such good food, good conversation, and good fun. I love the group.

And lastly everyone be prepared for the depressed Amy. I tried running yesterday on my foot and it didn't go well. I am afraid I am out of the running game for 4 weeks, at least that was how long it took last time. And when I can't run or exercise I get angry, depressed, and even fatter than I already am, which just adds to my anger and depression. But here's to hoping I can recover in time to get retrained for the Vegas Ragnar in October. It kills me that I am going to lose some speed and endurance.

So there you have it, a lot of pointless, random stuff in my life. But sometimes the pointless posts are the ones I like the most.

One Morning

2011-08-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Trent and his girls relaxing one morning. You gotta love those days.

And I am dying to redo my bedroom, so if you see any amazingly cute bedding that is gray let me know. And if you have any ideas how I can change the mirrors without a big project let me know that as well. We hate those things.

Will Read for Food

2011-08-28T09:28:00.000-06:00

Last year the boys earned a bunch of reading coupons for various resaurants. Like I said in my previous post, they have a lot we haven't used and they will be expired at the end of this month. So we have started using them up.

First stop was Jason's Deli, which is a favorite of mine. I get the turkey wrap, it's delish. And you can't beat the all you can eat ice cream cones...

Even though this pic was blurry I had to add it. I love everyone's faces.

Next up Spaghetti Factory. I know, I said I didn't like this place, but somebody had to take the boys. And they loved every second of it.

However, I do have something that I LOVE there. It is the baked spaghetti squash and I ate Aiden's salad that came with his meal, so it was perfect.

The boys devoured their spaghetti. At home I cut everyone's spaghetti up, so the boys were in heaven twirling, slurping, and eating the long noodles.

So, even though I complained about it earlier, I had a delicious meal and a great time with just my boys.

And to end the night we found some cool Batman lunch coolers for the boys and a back pack for Oakley at PB Kids. Dang window display.

BBQ

2011-08-26T08:26:00.003-06:00

On to the next party/event we had over the weekend. I told you our weekend was busy. Jake and Candice were in town so we had a little BBQ at Heidi's Friday night. And as always we had sooo much good food and I was trying not to gorge myself seeing how we had to be up bright and early running.

There is usually a self portrait or two at every event.
The boys relaxed.

The kids and Brooke went down the slip n' slide.

And the girls chatted it up with some delicious oreo truffles.

It was a good night.

The Beach Monkey's Turn 4

2011-08-24T15:19:00.005-06:00

We had Paige and Morgan's Birthday Party on Saturday. Every morning prior the girls would ask if it was their party yet. The just couldn't wait.

We decided to rent a huge water slide to celebrate the beach theme and the last day of Summer.

Most everyone enjoyed it. The boys played on it from 11:00 to 7:00, stopping only to eat and do the other party stuff. Paige and Morgan were a little intimidated by the thing, but when everyone left they finally warmed up to it. We were glad they finally had a few runs seeing how it was their party.
Present time! Everyone was so nice, as always.

The girls got to blow out their 4 year old candle, and then enjoy some ice cream from the ice cream bar. Unfortunately I didn't think the ice cream turned out to good, but the toppings were delish!

I can't believe my babies are 4. Is that weird to anyone else?

Hope you had a good one P & M and here is to hoping you won't be as dramatic in your 4th year of life.... ;)

First Day of School

2011-08-23T08:56:00.002-06:00

We had a great day yesterday, as I am sure a lot of you did. We did the whole first day of school business. The boys were pretty excited to start first grade and to tell you the truth, so was I.

Aiden
Andrew

(Trying to get my boys to smile real smiles proved very difficult-actually impossible.)

Oakley went to Kindergarten orientation. I think she will love it. And I never have a problem getting her to smile for the camera.

At the end of the school day I went and walked with the boys. On the way home our group walked right into a swam of hornets. Andrew (among 3 other kids) was unlucky enough to be stung. Not a good way to end your first day. We did ask the boys what their favorite thing about school was and, of course, it was recess. They were so excited that they will be having 3 recesses now instead of one. I remember that being my favorite "subject" as well.

Here is to a great school year!

Hobble Creek Half

2011-08-22T07:46:00.002-06:00

We had a ton of stuff going on over the weekend, but the first I am blogging about is the Hobble Creek Half Marathon we ran on Saturday. It was an awesome race. Jake and Candice drove up from Sin City to run it as well.

It was a beautiful run with the majority of it in the canyon. And it was another down hill race, which always helps.

Trent was the first to finish with a time of 1:15:48 and he came in 12th overall. And since he was the first we don't have a picture of him.
Jake came in next with a time of 1:41:41 and he was 204th

I finished with a time of 1:46:38 and came in 282th.

Candice crossed the finish line with a time of 2:15:46 and 823rd.

It was a great race but I am glad it is over. It was an awesome course and I felt really good during the whole run. I wish I could say I feel that good now, but I can barely walk and my left foot feels like I may have a stress fracture, which makes me very angry. I don't know why I always have an injury. I am starting to feel a little like a hypochondriac-Do I smell burning feathers? ;) Hopefully it is just sore from the race and I can get back to running asap. I've got another race in 2 weeks!

A New Low

2011-08-19T16:33:00.002-06:00

I have been really lazy this week. I think the fact that I haven't had to run/exercise as much or go anywhere have been major factors in this laziness. I have been so bad in fact that I wore the same clothes for 3, maybe 4 days in a row. Not only did I do that, but Paige and Morgan did as well. We may or may not have slept in them too.

And Oakley is the photographer. She had a little bit of a hard time getting a clear picture of us. But I am actually thinking I might look a little better blurry....

Nothing

2011-08-18T08:03:00.002-06:00

I have nothing to post besides Grey's River and I can't seem to get motivated enough to go through the 300+ pictures and pick only 10 or so for a post. I should promise that I will have one up tomorrow just so I get it done. Because once I promise something I have to do it. Just like Rapunzel.

So until tomorrow you get a picture of Aiden in his ugly night shirt (which Trent absolutely hates) holding up his (and Andrew's) free meals at the Spaghetti Factory that expire on the 31st. Neither Trent or I like the Spaghetti Factory. It is hard for me to justify spending $10 on a plate of spaghetti that I can make at home for $1. However, I do love their spaghetti squash. But I am thinking they need their fun Aunt Brooke to take them seeing how she is in love with that place.

We do have some fun stuff coming up that I will be able to blog about-Jake and Candice will be in town, I have my first half marathon on Saturday, and we will be celebrating Paige and Morgan's 4th birthday with a Beach Monkey theme and a gigantic blow up water slide.

Fun times are ahead here at The Hoard.

Lesson Learned

2011-08-16T11:06:00.003-06:00

We started Family Night with good intentions of working in the yard together. From the picture below you would think we succeeded.

Nope. Paige and Morgan were the only ones that "helped" us.
Andrew sulked the whole time because he wanted to know what the reward would be for working. We were trying to teach a lesson about working without knowing what you may get. Cause lets face it, we don't always get a reward after hard work. Anyways, Andrew didn't like that at all, so instead of working or even playing he did this:

Oakley and Aiden simply didn't want to work, so they played in the sandbox.

So, in the end Paige and Morgan were able to go get an ice cream cone for their reward. The other 3 were pretty upset. Hopefully they learned something from this.

And afterwards the girls got the special reward of washing the jeep with Trent. They thought it was hilarious when Trent pointed the air blower towards them and it blew their pants down.

Such a perfect Family Night.

Beehive Camp

2011-08-12T09:18:00.005-06:00

They rearranged the YW presidency a few months ago and I was released as 1st counselor and called to be the Camp Director. However, this year our Stake did Trek, so girls camp was cancelled. Seeing how the Beehives couldn't go on Trek, we planned a Beehive Camp. I say camp, but there was no camping. We stayed in a cabin up in Oakley.

The girls were very excited to go. While we finished loading up a few things they got in a game of Spoono.

Sister Clark was my lifesaver. She planned all the spiritual stuff, while I focused on the crafts and the food.

When we arrived we realized we had forgotten the secret sister station. We created these cute envelopes while we were up there. I think it actually worked better. The girls loved it!

And since we were "camping" in a cabin there wasn't much for our priesthood leaders to do but sit and relax.

And we crammed all 8 girls in the loft to sleep, leaving the two bedrooms for Maureen and me. .....And I use the word sleep very loosely.

We had lots of devotionals, which the girls were in charge of. These girls are amazing.

We went on an almost 5 mile hike.

And ate our packed lunch and ice cream at the top.

I wore my new trail running shoes, which don't look new anymore. We had to cross the river a few times and I slipped in while I was helping the girls. I did get to run back to the cabin and really test them out. Even running with them soaking wet they felt really good. I may have to try running up to The Rock now.

The girls did a hilarious skit before our testimony meeting. They did a workout video from the 60's. The 1860's that is. It was a pioneer workout. I don't know how they come up with these things.

They are a great group of girls.

But, as you can tell, I was really excited to be going home. After 2 weeks of camping I was ready to be done.

And my career as camp director was short lived, 2 weeks ago they called me back as the Mia Maid advisor. Which I am very happy about, I was missing my Mia Maids. :)

The Family Pic

2011-08-09T08:00:00.004-06:00

I didn't get around to blogging, so here is a teaser from our trip.

Every year we get our family picture taken up at Stump Lake. Who needs cute matching clothes, hair done, and makeup?

The Boy Who Lived...Come to Die

2011-08-08T07:00:00.003-06:00

We just got back from our week long annual camping trip to Greys River. It was a fantastic time as always. The theme of the trip was Harry Potter. Everyone got hand carved wands and there were many fierce duels between the kids. So, in honor of our themed camp we had a Pottathon weekend. We watched the Deathly Hallows part 1 late Friday night after we got back. Then we took the older kids to see part 2 on Saturday. I think their favorite part was the popcorn...

We then vegged out all weekend and watched multiple movies, which included 2 more Harry Potters. It was nice to be couch potatoes, but now it is on to real life, which includes, for me, getting ready for girls camp this week. Wish me luck.

And hopefully I will get a Greys River post up before I leave again...

Morgan Borgan

2011-08-05T09:05:00.000-06:00

Morgan was so into the movie she was taking notes.

And you gotta love the mismatched jammies. She likes to mix things up a bit.

Fruits and Veggies

2011-08-03T09:00:00.000-06:00

We aren't very good at eating fruits and veggies around here.

Here is what our fruit bowl looks like:

And the veggie drawers in the fridge:

And when we do happen to have (10 lbs of) carrots (thats another story) we go and feed them to the horses.

And the kids love it.

Mouse Trap

2011-08-01T14:16:00.002-06:00

The boys caught a mouse the other day....or just found it dead, who knows. But they brought it up from Little Moose in a plastic cup. They were so proud.

They swore they used sticks and never touched it. I hope thats true. And they wanted to keep it forever, but I made them throw it away.
The grossest part was when they would shake it and the dead mouth would thud against the cups. Yuck.

A Real Date

2011-07-30T11:21:00.000-06:00

Trent and I were able to go on a real date last night. Brooke was nice enough to offer her babysitting skills and she got off work early so we didn't have to do dinner for the kids. Usually when we get a night out we just go to dinner because I am on call, but last night we decided to step it up a bit. We picked up Trent's racing packet, hit up Training Table, and went and saw Harry Potter. I honestly can't remember the last time we did dinner AND a movie, so of course I had to document it.

It was a good time and a nice break from our kid life. Thanks Brooke!

Josh Days

2011-07-29T10:04:00.005-06:00

We were able to have Josh over for a couple of days and my kids couldn't have been more excited.

The kids played the balancing game on the pool.
Followed by a quick splash.
We went to the Zoo and had a couple of runs on the train.

Played with dinosaurs.

Hugged a gorilla.

(No, Oakley was not extremely sweaty, she just got hosed by the giant elephant.

The boys rode the carousal together.

And Oakley found a cute ladybug to ride by herself.

We had some fun times and a late night, and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. They can't wait until the next visit.

Deseret News

2011-07-27T13:00:00.002-06:00

Like I said in the last post, we ran in the Deseret News Races bright and early Monday morning. I ran the 10K with Kim and her sister Wendy. It was a very fun course, mostly down hill. Seeing how it was all down hill I was able to beat my last PR by over 2 minutes. I crossed the finish line with a time of 47:02. Brooke chose to do the 5K with her friend Nicole. They even got medals. Not very fair for us 10K'ers.
We had a little photo shoot while waiting for Trent to come across the finish line. Kim and I laugh at the differences of our bodies. The middle picture cracks us up. You can't even see her number and you can almost see my head. And Brooke and I were turquoise twinners.
Trent came across the finish line in great spirits. He came in 5th with a time of 2:46:47. Lets just say it was a great racing weekend for Trent. He even made it in the Deseret News.
And as always, it is fun to "run" with Trent and even more fun to watch him cross the finish line.
"Oh, Big gulps huh? All right.............well, see ya later."

Our 24th

2011-07-26T14:06:00.009-06:00

We had a fun and busy 24th. Here are the details.

We ate and played at the Bountiful Handcart Days Fair. I loved this growing up, so I try to do it every year with our kids. They love it too. Trent not so much.

Then we watched the Fireworks from our roof. After watching the fireworks you can't really complain about the $2 rides and such.

On Saturday, after The Miracle, we went swimming at Maga's pool. Always a good time. Pictures were stolen from Heidi.

Sunday we had my family over for a BBQ and small fireworks. Sorry no pics.

Monday morning we all rose early and ran a race. That is another post though.

Monday night we headed out to Jensen for another BIG firework show. There was quite a row of spectators.
And we all love to do the "Adult" sparklers.
And I had to post this pic. Teri is so excited and Andrea looks like she is bored stiff.

After the weekend, we went straight home and straight to bed. This morning came too fast. It may be a few days before we are back to normal. Actually, we are never back to normal. Trent and I are always exhausted.

Thanks to all for a great weekend.

A Pioneer Miracle

2011-07-24T09:24:00.012-06:00

I am not talking about one of the miracles that happened with a real pioneer ancestor, I am talking about a miracle that happened on Saturday. You all know by now that Trent is a little obsessed with running. One of his favorite races is the St. George Marathon. And for those that don't know, it is a lottery race, meaning there are 10,000 entries and only 7,000 slots, so the participants are "pulled out of a hat." Trent was lucky enough to get in 3 years in a row, but on May 1st of this year or Dooms Day, he didn't get in. You would have thought a family member had passed with the depression that consumed Trent. He was so distraught he was actually considering "buying" in with a charity ticket, which you can purchase for a small amount of $1,000. Yes, I said that right, $1,000. I told Trent if he even got close to doing that I would be gone. Luckily, he loves me more than running and chose not to do it. However, he has been in a severe depression ever since.

Then he found out that the St. George Marathon gives slots to other races to help promote their race. He found a half marathon a couple weeks ago, but didn't get the slot. Then on Friday night he found another race in Provo that would give the slot to the best pioneer costume. He thought if he could find a handcart and push all our kids, while dressed in pioneer clothes he would for sure win. So, at 8:00 Friday night he went to work on constructing a handcart.

Using a few household items items in the proper proportion Cam and Trent built an amazing handcart.
Our ward had just gone on a Pioneer Trek, so I called a couple of the YW and got their bonnets and aprons for my girls. For Trent and the boys we found some clothes throughout the house and everything was set to go. So, bright and early (5:00 am) the next morning everyone headed out to the race.

It was so early they didn't eat before they left, so they ate on the side of the road after registering.

And here is my pioneer family. Isn't that awesome?

Jenny was the photographer and number 1 fan.

Brooke was my substitute. I couldn't go because I was on call for work.

The Hoard loaded up and waiting for the race. And you really have to know how desperate Trent was to win this costume contest. He NEVER runs in anything that isn't comfortable for running. I was actually shocked that he even considered it. But I guess if you are willing to spend $1,000, you would be willing to dress up for one race.

And the race begins! I think Brooke was pretty excited.

I think Trent was too.

And Jenny.
And here they are approaching the finish line. Even with pushing 5 kids in a "handcart" while wearing pioneer clothes, Trent finished the 5K in 22:45. Seriously, he came in 22nd. He is a pioneer animal.

And Brooke got a personal record and came in with a time of 34 minutes.

Afterwards they held a kids race. Aiden was so excited to participate.

And like father, like son, he was a racing animal and came in 1st.

He won a pair of Skullcandy headphones. He has been listening to Ipods ever since. Actually, sometimes he wears them even if there is nothing attached to the end.

The other kids got their faces painted.

And on the way home everyone crashed.

And if you are wondering what the miracle is, well, Trent won the costume contest and has gotten himself into the St. George Marathon. The fog has been lifted and the sun is shining here at The Hoard.

And a big shout out to Jenny and Brooke who rose early and helped Trent fulfill his dream. I, on the other hand, was able to go back to sleep after they left. I was able to sleep in until 9:00. I don't even remember the last time I was able to sleep till 9. I guess there were 2 miracles on Saturday the 23rd of July.

Time Out

2011-07-21T08:17:00.002-06:00

I am not talking about the kids this time. I needed time out of the house. So, my fellow book clubbers and I went out to the fabulous Training Table (which was a first for Tracy, can you believe that?), saw Jane Eyre at the Dollar Movies, and finished it off with some of the most delicious pink lemonade sorbet from TCBY.

Me, Meg, Tracy, Heather, Kristen, Kim.

And look at those HUGE salads. 3 people could probably share 1 salad. And you can't see the unhealthy food Kim and I devoured.

Thanks for the night ladies. I needed something to get me out of my funk.

I Love Them...I Love Them Not

2011-07-20T13:51:00.002-06:00

Trent and I have wondered what has happened to our kids. They have always been hard and a lot to handle, but the past few weeks it has been multiplied by 10. And yesterday may have been one of the worst days thus far.

Aiden and Oakley decided to pick a daisy. They both had 1 when I caught them. I told them that we do not ever pick flowers and to not pick anymore. 20 minutes later I found this on our back patio:

After they were in time out for an insane amount of time Aiden decided to get one of Oliver's pee filled diapers and smack it on the door a few times....and of course it exploded:
Along with the above there were the normal fights, teasing, messes, and such. And to end the night perfectly Morgan decided she couldn't control her bowels and pooped in my shower.

So needless to say we have spent a lot of time in time out lately:

The rules of time out are the kids cannot speak or make any noise at all and they cannot move. Morgan was the best and didn't move or speak for 10 minutes in the above pic.

But then this morning Aiden redeemed himself and helped Oakley with her reading and writing.

It really was cute and times like this make the hard times barable.

And I really do love my kids ALL the time, but sometimes they drive me insane.

Long Day

2011-07-19T10:23:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a long day. I left my house for work at 7:30 and didn't get home until 9 that night. And since work cut my work out short in the early hours of the morning I ran with Kim when I got home.

It was a good run.

Topped off with a handful (or 2 or 3) of peanut M&M's.

Knotty

2011-07-17T11:00:00.004-06:00

Oakley absolutely hates having her hair done. So, for the majority of the Summer she has walked around with bed head, looking like a little lost orphan. Because of this (and just cause we like them) Trent, Kim, and I have been trying to get Oakley to get dread locks. We bribed her with lots of different things and finally Kim found the winning combinations and Oakley agreed.

Here is a step by step of Oakley and Kimmy's day of fun. (Does that remind anyone else of something from Friends?)

Once the date was set, Oakley was so excited. She had a countdown to D day. And on the day of, she kept asking and asking when Kim was getting home from work. She really couldn't wait.

The before pic. See what I mean about the scraggly, orphan look?

First up, putting the elastics in so the dreads would look "well" placed.

I really can't believe Oakley sat through the whole process.

Next came the ratting.

Lots and lots of ratting.

Then the rewards/bribes. Oakley wanted Texas Roadhouse so she could have all she should eat rolls and root beer.

Someone at the restaurant commented to Kim that she loved her and her daughter's hair. Kim just smiled and said thank you.

The next reward-ice cream.

Oakley was in Heaven with a large twist ice cream cone and the ability to eat it messily. Is messily a word? If not, it should be.

The last part of the reward was a sleepover with Kim. Just look at those 2 dread lovin' fools.

And Oakley even got time with the camera. She is such a photographer.

And finally, the dreads were done. They are a little crazy right now, but we all love them. The elastics will come out in the next day or two. And it has been so nice to just grab her dreads and put them in a pony tail. No combing, no fighting. Perfect

So, dready or not here she comes.

(And a big thanks to Kim who did all the work, took Oakley to get all her rewards, and even bought her a pack of cute headbands.)

Just a Deer

2011-07-15T09:39:00.003-06:00

Holy cow. This deer scared the crap out of me. I was running downstairs to get the laundry and I caught a glimpse of a huge thing coming towards the window. Once I realized it wasn't a big man trying to sneek inside my house, but just a deer, I slowly moved into my laundry room and watched to see what it would do. It sniffed around, did a few circles, and plopped down to relax.

He was actually pretty cute. I wish my windows were clean so you could see him better.

Now if only they came just to relax in our sand box instead of eating all our flowers.

The End Result

2011-07-14T12:05:00.004-06:00

Like I said before the weekend wore us all out. But doesn't that mean it was a good weekend? I think so. As you know Saturday was our Allred reunion and about 10 seconds after driving this was the scene in the Bohemith.

And this was/is the scene of the back of my thigh. Don't even know which run down the slide made this beauty, but it sure hurts now.
Sunday was even busier. It was Grandma Teri's birthday so we headed out early to surprise her at church. I never know how much of a 'fun' surprise we are, but we enjoyed sacrament with 3 other adults to control The Hoard. Afterward, I did some work visits while the rest hung out at the Jensen's.

Then we went to the next celebration. The Veigel's were celebrating Sarah's birthday, so we enjoyed a delish dinner and dessert with my side of the fam. Once again, I was lucky enough to finish the night off with 2 deaths.

Monday night brought another party. We had the Smith Christmas Party in July this year. It was a great time with lots of fun games for the kids-fish pond, water guns, water balloons, and marshmallow wars.

By the end of that night this was the scene in our house:
Nothing better than sleeping kids after a long, fun weekend.

Unfortunately, Trent and I haven't caught up on our sleep yet. Maybe tonight will be the night.

Allred Reunion 2011

2011-07-13T10:46:00.001-06:00

All right, on to the fun we had over the weekend. We had the Allred Reunion on Saturday and it was awesome. I always look forward to anything with the Allred's cause no matter what we do we end up having fun. We packed up our swim stuff and some food and headed up to Logan for some X-treme slippin n' sliding.

Here is a pic of the awesomeness:

Duh, totally kidding. Here is a pic of the real awesomeness, which actually might just be one of my faves:

We had soooo many pictures so I just chose a few to post. You will have to enlarge to see them better. Some are pretty funny. I think it is safe to say that everyone loved the slide.
Except Oliver. He wasn't very happy with me either

My boys, especially Aiden, were the thrill seekers. They tried and tried going of the jump at the end. After some adjustments from Trent their dream came true.

I don't really have any other pictures of people besides the one below. I loved, loved, loved going to Wyoming when I was little and playing with these 3 ladies. We had such a fun time together.

The reunion was a blast. Thanks to Lisa and Lawrence for sharing their home and all their fun stuff. My kids have asked everyday since when they can do the giant slip n' slide again. It really was awesome.

And now for your viewing pleasure, Trent put some of the clips together for a short video. Enjoy!

Running

2011-07-12T12:32:00.002-06:00

I know most of you could care less about my running and such, but since it is a big part of our lives I thought I would document it for my blog book of life. So, if you don't care just come back tomorrow. I will be posting about our awesome reunion and the X-treme slip n' sliding we did over the weekend.

So, onto the running.

Yesterday I had one of those perfect runs. You know (or maybe you don't), the ones that everything works just right-your body, your clothes, your music, and your time. I even drove home to the sun shining up over the mountains. And I may or may not have heard angels singing. Today's run was not so perfect. Although, it started great, the rain and my big thigh issue created some not so good rubbing. Even with Trent's Glide (some anti-chafing stuff) I finished with some serious raspberries.

The great thing about today was actually the fact that I even got a run in. Trent and I slept in, our strenuous weekend wore us right out. Usually that means no run for either of us. But I called my mom and, as always, she was more than willing to watch The Hoard. While I was chafing my thighs away, the kids were playing with legos, getting their dresses fixed, coloring, dot painting, and eating an early lunch. My mom is the best.

I even got to finish my sub par run with a bowl of the good kind of raspberries, fresh ones from my mom's garden and some delicious cream. Heavenly.

Hopefully, I can continue to fit my runs in and hopefully they will feel as good as Monday's run. My half marathon is just around the corner and I've got to pic up my miles....and work on my time so I can beat my brother-in-law Jake. ;)

Our First Tooth Fairy Visit

2011-07-11T07:24:00.002-06:00

Andrew has had a loose tooth hanging by one string for a month or so. The whole reason it was loose wasn't because of another tooth coming down. He was hit in the mouth with a frisbee while playing Tron. You gotta love boys. Anyways, it finally came out last night and he was so excited to do the whole tooth fairy process.

He woke up early to make sure the Fairy made her visit. When I got home from working out he was already up and smiling from ear to ear with his loot.

Shop (Date) Night

2011-07-08T08:00:00.002-06:00

Brooke and I had a little date night. We started it right with a delish meal at Cafe Rio and then headed out to not one, not two, not three, but 5 stores. It turns out finding a plain white running tank (that fits right) is a lot harder than I thought. We did find lots of other things though, like killer deals on swimsuits at Kohls. I walked away with 2 new tops.

And what a perfect way to end our perfect night than with a beautiful sunset. In fact it was so beautiful Brooke wouldn't stop talking about it. So, I told her we should take a picture because it would last longer. :)
And this morning I got to try out some of the other things I found while shopping. Love my retro top. And I am wondering why it took me so long to buy a running skirt, it is sooo comfy and it does a great job at hiding my own "comfy' areas.

And this shot is also for Brooke who recently said she gets bugged by people when they post full body shots of themselves. And just so you know Brooke, Andrew took the pic and he was so excited to do it.

And I don't know what I am doing with my face.

SYTYCD

2011-07-07T09:14:00.002-06:00

I really wish I had TV and I really wish I could watch So You Think You Can Dance. I watched the first (or maybe it was the second) season and loved every second of it. Then life happened, more kids joined our family, and my tv watching was replaced by Baby Einstein.

I still get glimpses of it here and there when people, like my cousin Tiffany, post videos on FB or Blogs. I loved this dance she posted today.

It kinda reminded me of this one that I absolutely love from a few seasons back.

Or maybe I am just in love with Leona Lewis.

Now I feel like having a dance party. Anyone want in?

The Actual 4th of July

2011-07-06T10:00:00.003-06:00

We had a busy 4th of July, but it was one of the best ones ever. It may or may not have been because of the new legalized fireworks.

We started the day with breakfast at my parents house. Cinnamon french toast, waffles, bacon, sausage, fruit, and drinks galore. It was delicious. Sorry no pics. I wasn't in the picture taking mood all day. All except the swimming pic came from others, so thanks to all!

After stuffing ourselves we went out to Maga's pool. It wasn't the best weather and most of us just huddled around talking.

After a downpour, we rode home in a soaking wet jeep and started getting ready for our annual Jensen Family BBQ and firework show.

Brooke changed her clothes about 100 times and this is what she ended up in. I think she just wanted to be as cool as me and Jill.

I had so many pics from the backyard show. I quickly went through and put some together. We had quite the crew and quite the fun time.

And I had to add this pic all by itself. Aren't they are so beautiful?

And here are pics of my Hoard. Love them all.

We then moved the show to the front yard. It consisted of parachutes (about 100 I think), sparklers, fountains, and aerials. It was a great show.

Trent and I are still trying to catch up on our sleep from our 4 day weekend of celebrating. But it was definitely worth it. We loved every minute of it.