HALLOWEEN 2012!

Halloween was awesome this year, the kids went to the Votaws party, the ward party, trick-or-treating at Jared's work and trick-or-treating with the Parrys (not all the same night of course)!

The twins had been waiting a whole year to wear their costumes since I bought them the day after Halloween 2011. Eli picked Batman, Tyson was Ironman and Tyler was his white guy with a gun (Storm Trooper) and Emma picked the Devil. Tyler hated his helmet and only wore it for the picture after we bribed him and Tyson would live in his costume if he could.

At the ward party...
Emma with Payton, Chiara and Maddy

Eli and Bo

 We had the Jensens all over for an October FHE and after the lesson we frosted Halloween sugar cookies...
Tyson and Nash

Ava and Emma

Uncle Jacob and Eli

Tyler and Brylee

We had some left over cookies and since Baby Conner was in town, we invited him over and he came and frosted some cookies with the twins!


I told Jared this would be the last year that we cheated with our pumpkin carving. We both hate the mess that comes from carving pumpkins, but at some point every child should carve a pumpkin the real way with getting the messy pumpkin guts all over your hands and fingers and inhale the smell and everything else that goes along with it...he says no, I say yes....we shall see!

Here are the steps to carving a pumpkin Jensen style:
step 1: go to the pumpkin patch and pick out your own pumpkins



(sorry Tyson your picture was to blurry)

step 2: get out the potato head pieces and have dad drill holes in the pumpkins so you can insert them into the pumpkin





step 3: go out and get some ice cream somewhere for dessert

step 4: take a picture in front of your pumpkin and ta-da! done!

On Halloween night we got together with the Parrys for our traditional Halloween dinner and trick-or-treating...

Allison from SAS needed some little kids to come trick-or-treating on her show "Sonoran Living" and really wanted little boys so Kati and I took the playgroup there to trick-or-treat on tv. The twins were saying they were going to wave to Eli on TV, they didn't really understand it. Tyler was shy of course and didn't talk and Tyson did pretty good. At the end of the segment the host asked us if we wanted a picture with her, "uh sure whatever your name is"

After they got on tv 3 separate times, we took a picture of them all together in front of the sign. Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers were the only people we told so they made sure to watch them. I got a text in the middle of it and Jenn Jensen happen to turn on the tv and saw them, so that was pretty fun :) It was a great Halloween season and they kids are already talking about next year!

 This made me sad...here is my last little preschool monster cups and pumpkin bottles...all of my kids have done them and I will never have my kids bring home anymore, seriously sad to me.

GUYS TRIP!

In our 12 1/2 years of marriage, Jared finally left on his first guys trip. They got a cabin for a weekend somewhere up north. I was happy to let Jared go, I think its good for them to escape life for a bit...plus then I don't feel guilty about the trips I take, ha ha!  The whole group was able to go...

Ben, Matt, Jared, Brad, Brian and Chad


I am not sure all they did, but I do know there was lots of eating involved, hiking and who knows what...probably talks of the "Butterknife 2000", robofrying, driving parents cars in the middle of the night at age 14, shooting paintball guns at the park patrol office, etc (yes Jared, I am calling you out so someone day our kids will really know what you did :)

SOMETIMES IT HURTS BEING A BROTHER!

Jared was out hanging up the Christmas lights and Tyler and Eli were outside playing. The playing turned into fighting when Tyler decided to take something away from Eli. Eli had a hammer in his hand and decided to throw it at him in anger...it nailed him in the back of the head and Tyler started crying and the blood started flowing.

I could hear Tyler crying from inside the house and I could hear Jared telling him to go inside and see me, while he climbed down from the ladder. I went to see what was going on because Tyler doesn't really cry like that so I knew it couldn't be good. As I rounded the corner he was coming to me and I could see blood on his hands and Eli was right behind him and he was crying saying he didn't mean to hurt him. I asked him what he did and he told me he threw a hammer at him. "YOU THREW A HAMMER?!"  I made him go get me the hammer while I examined Tyler and when Eli came back he showed it to me and it was just a rubber Thor hammer that happen to hit Tyler on his head by the only hard part on the whole stupid thing.

I got Tyler all cleaned up and realized he was going to need stitches again. Jared and I calmly and sweetly told Tyler who was not crying at this point that he would need stitches. That's when all hell broke loose. Tyler does NOT do anything that has to do with stitches, not after his last traumatic expierence. He was bawling. Tyson couldn't take it anymore and couldn't even be in the same room as his sad brother so he left the room crying and we sent Emma after Tyson to comfort him.

We then decided to try and make a deal with Tyler. He had to let us shave his head and put some butterfly bandages on it so close it up ourselves and if that worked, great no stitches...if it didn't, he would be out of luck and to urgent care we would go.

Tyler was so nervous and scared he sucked his fingers while we shaved his head - he is NOT a finger sucker. We got him all shaved and bandaged up and replaced the bandaids about an hour later when the blood was soaking through. We never took him in and it is now 4 days later and it seems to be fine - although the bandaids are still on there and we aren't allowing them to get wet for a couple more days, we are treating it as if it had actual stitches in it. Just for the record, had the cut been on the front of his face or some where else where the scar would be visible, we would have taken him in and dealt with the drama but because it was on the back of his head and after his hair grows back it will cover it, we spared ourselves, Tyler and the poor doctor and nurses who would have had to deal with him...it was my Christmas gift to all :)

DATES WITH DADDY!

One day during October break, Jared did me a huge favor and took all the boys out for a day with daddy and Emma had Maddy over so I was left to my lonesome to clean the house all by myself, it makes me giddy  just thinking about it! It was a win/win for everyone I think!

Jared took the boys to go see Hotel Transylvania at the movie theatre and then they went to Peter Piper Pizza afterwards to play video games and eat lunch. They loved it! 

"more tokens please!"

Then one night during October break Chick-fil-a was having a "daddy/daughter date night" and so Jared took Emma to that! They had to reserve a table and they got served at their table...

They made crafts...

They got to ride in a limo for 10 minutes...

and the part that made me laugh/cry the most is that Emma is for sure growing up...she thought Belle was so annoying - guess she is for sure out of the Princess stage, ha ha/tear.

GRANDMA J'S PIZZA!

One night Grandma Jensen came over and made her famous pizza for us, but she didn't just make a couple of big ones, she made little pizza doughs for each kiddo to  make their own. They had a great time making their pizzas and using them as some sort of facial hair, ie mustache, goatee.  

and Tyson didn't make a face but I did find a picture of him using his middle finger which made me smile because he uses it for everything and when he goes to school I am sure all the kids will tell on him for using his "bad" finger :)

ELI TURNS 6!

Eli had kind of a bummer actual birthday, it was on a Sunday and Sunday birthdays are always kinda stinky because you can't go out and celebrate anywhere and to make it more boring, it was General Conference Sunday (Yes, we all love General Conference and love hearing from our prophets) which means when you are 6 years old you are bored out of your mind sitting in front of the tv watching conference and not going to primary and getting sung to...and to make it even worse...Emma woke up with strep throat so the little family party we had planned with grandparents and cousins coming over we had to cancel so we wouldn't get anyone sick.

After we got Emma all squared away with medicines and locked her up in her room for the day (she was really sad she missed out on being with Eli and was sad she ruined his day) we called everyone and canceled on them and then just tried to make the best of Eli's day as we could. After Eli found out Emma was sick he asked with a somber look if he'd still get to have a birthday that day :( He opened his few presents, opened his new big boy bike and went outside and rode around for a bit.

Despite the fact that Emma was sick, all the grandparents still showed up some time through out the day and made an appearance and dropped off a gift for him...I think he might have enjoyed that more actually because he would get presents randomly throughout the day!

A week later he had a little friend birthday party and got to invite 3 friends to go with him to Jambo Park and ride the little rides. After being there for a couple of hours, Jared took all the boys to Sonic and got them food and they opened presents.

We are so lucky that he is such a happy go-lucky kid because he was such a good sport about everything. We sure do love having him in our family, he brings us so much joy and he brings so much love to this family...he is such a lovey.

Eli's stats:
weight: 50 pounds - 75%
height: 45 inches - 50%

 

Bo, Jake, Eli and Logan at Jambo Park

 Eli and his cake - it did have superhero action figures on it, but he took those off earlier in the day and played with them.

 Good thing Tyler was helping him blow out that candle!

 All Eli wanted to do was not eat the cake, but stick his face in it. His friend got to do that at his party so that's all Eli wanted to do :)

 

At Sonic with his friends....