Ned

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the participants-minus Jill and Cam.


We all finished strong.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And throughout the trip there was swimming of course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

By the end of the week we were all exhausted.

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

I couldn't be more blessed in my life.

Twenty Three

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

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

It was a Thanksgiving Miracle!

Twenty Two

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

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

Twenty One

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

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

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

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

Twenty

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

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

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

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

Nineteen

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

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

Fourteen-Eighteen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you Wades for the great week!

Thirteen

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

Twelve

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

Eleven

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

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

Ten

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

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

Aiden
Andrew

Oakley

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