BLUE & GOLD BANQUET!

We are lucky to have people in our ward who love scouting and want to make it so much fun! This year for the banquet the theme was Knights and Shining Armour! The boys made their cake together, they got to make swords, helmets and shields in scouts and they got to play knight games! THEY HAD A BLAST!! (I'm secretly writing this blog post 2 months later and the twins still play with their swords and shields!)

I LOVE MY MAN!

Jared had a day off today and we had honey-do lists and things planned for the next two days. But the  sick gods had a different plan for me and after I went to Bootcamp and the grocery store - I was done! I have been in bed since and bless Jared’s heart he is making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, driving the kids (thank you Kimballs for helping carpool)  and he had to help make a shield cake for the blue and gold banquet tomorrow! He is the best dad and husband around - I hope all my kids are taking notes on his fine example!

YOUNGS CABIN!

Michelle invited us and the Bells to join them at the Youngs cabin over President's Day weekend. Jared was on-call, my kids had sports so I wasn't really sure it was going to work, if it would be worth all the effort and if I was going to need to do this alone. Thursday night we finally decided this was happening! We drove up Saturday as soon as the twins finished their soccer game and had to come home Sunday after dinner. It was 24 hours up there, but it was such a good 24 hours! We would do it again. The kids played outside, hiked, walked to the caves to see hieroglyphics, made smores, played pool, Jocy and Maddie played with our hair, watched the Olympics, played sand volleyball - Eli insisted on playing and I didn't want him to play because the big boys play for high school and I didn't want Eli to frustrate them since he has never played before - WOW!!! He really is a natural born athlete! Nate and Jolley were so supportive of him and he was awesome! Tyson might have a crush on MaKinley Jolley, Tyler and Tyson ran around with Zach, Emma hung out with Nate and Jolley the whole time, Eli and Braxton had a good time together. Such a great weekend!

VALENTINES DAY!

A tradition that started many years ago when Emma and I were going to be down in Tucson for the weekend and would miss Valentine's day with the family. So I created a scavenger hunt for the boys and in the end they found little gifts. Well little did I know that that would turn into something that needed to be done every year - and how can I not do it when each year all the kids look forward to it. We have a special Valentine's Day dinner as a family, a scavenger hunt and then we watch Charlie Brown's Be My Valentine Movie. This year Alyza got to join us in all our festivities except for the movie watching part. Heart shaped pizzas and breadsticks, salad, soda and sodalicious cookies and chocolate dipped strawberries! My World right here!

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK TO BE EMMA!

Most of the time it feels like Emma falls just short of something amazing happening - she is just barely to old or to young, after she leaves a school they start a dance program there, things like that. Some how this week - it just felt like the stars aligned in her favor and it was a good week to be her!

First, I took this cute pic of her using her creativity to help her brother with his News Crew weather report! These two were up past 10pm working on it, because frankly - I'm old and pooped out and Emma is good at this stuff!

Second, for the first varsity playoff game of the season they were short some cheerleaders and needed some JV girls to fill in and they picked Emma as one of them - she couldn't have been more excited to do it!

Lastly, long story short, the best option for her to go to MORP this year was to go with her group of friends that had dates. Morp is March 3rd and so she is technically still 15, but we felt good about it. She asked her friend Santi and told him on her poster board - it was not a date - just friends! She made a cute sign, he had to pop the balloons to find put the pieces of paper together that fell out to spell her name. We thought he was going to be at Volleyball try-outs, but Emma insisted on having a back up plan in case he answered the door. Good thing because he did answer the door and she just said, "someone asked me to give you this!" She was dying! As soon as she got in the car she was telling me how nervous she was! It brought me straight back to my high school days. She knew Santi liked her a friend so she wasn't worried he would say no cause of that, but because he was still 15 she was nervous his parents wouldn't let him go. That night Tatum texted and asked if someone could stop by later that night and surprise her with something and she warned Emma to be cute. Emma ran around the house in a panic recurling her hair, changing her shirt, making sure she smelled good, etc. Then it got to late and he ended up not coming. So the day Emma had me plug in her curling iron as she was on her way home from dance so she could quickly recurl her hair and look cute for when he came over to bring his answer. Tatum was so sweet and texted him finding out the scoop, etc. It was getting late and he hadn't come and she was stressing - it was hilarious! I peeked out the window as a joke right when he was pulling up and she didn't believe me, finally she believed me and ran through the house not knowing what to do. The twins sat on the couch watching her and found it quite entertaining. A few minutes went by and nothing, so I went back to Eli's window to spy and his car was pulling away - we were so confused. I looked out the front door and there was something there, but why hadn't he knocked - I wasn't sure if we should open the door or not - then Emma got a text, "someone told me to tell you to go out front!" She was so happy! It was a great week and she can't wait for the dance - even though some of the people in her group will be riding in cars driven by parents - oh to be 15 and not have a license!

TYLER'S BIG BLACK EYE!

Tyler and Tyson have really enjoyed riding their scooters over to the Cardon's house to play with Mikey! Sometimes even Jake and Eli join in the fun together. This particular day - we were gone with Eli at sports and the twins were at the Cardon's and Sara sent us a text about how bad she felt that Tyler is getting a black eye and explained how they were jumping on the trampoline and Tyler's eye made contact with Tyson's knee. We said unless there is a bone poking out of the skin - no need to text us. Here is Tyler's eye - it got even worse! He didn't care about it at all - the only thing he did care about was telling the story to everyone so he made Tyson do all the talking! Good thing these two have each other!

SUPERBOWL PARTY!

Sadly this year we didn't get to do our traditional Jensen/Parry Superbowl Party - Stephanie is still sick so we made plans with the Jolleys and had a party over there instead. Michael Jolley was going for the Patriots and we were going for the Eagles - mostly cause they were the underdog. Watching Michael watch sports is an event all on it's own. He will literally tune out everyone, yell, scream, get sick, everything you can imagine - it's truly the best and most entertaining! So this Superbowl was pretty amazing to witness especially since he is a HUGE Patriots fan! In the end when they lost - he wouldn't talk to anyone and just went to his room and fell asleep on his bed with his patriots magazine on top of him! The kids had the best time and Emma and Taylor enjoyed watching the game and watching Jolley and Tate Romney get upset over their Patriots loss! Ha ha! And yes - Jared had the boys wear all of Eli's Raiders gear to the party!

JV CHEER COMPETITION!

So far this season JV keeps ending up in second, losing points for their stunts being illegal - sorry judges that our skills are too good for you! But this weekend was the best! It was busy and exhausting with 1 football game, 4 soccer games and a cheer competition, but with the ending as sweet as this one was - it makes it all worth it! #finallygotwhattheydeserved #firstplace

2 FUNNY CONVERSATIONS!

So today I had the following conversations...

Emma: "mom! the people who work at Element (her cheer gym) are so lucky!"

Me: "why?"

Emma: "cause they get like pizzas, snacks and they don't have to bring in their own waters!"

Me: "so you just want a job that gives you free water and food?"

Emma: "AND they get cheap tans! AND access to all the cute apparel there! I just need to work there!"

Pay doesn't matter I guess as long as you get free water - ha ha!

On Sunday we took Eli to his Priesthood Preview/ Temple prep night. It was for all the boys and girls turning 12 this year. After they talked about what happens when you go in for your temple recommend interview, etc they split up into boys and girls so they could each learn about young womens and young mens. During the boy talk - the deacons told the guys about teen elect and how you have to dance with a girl. Then the boys let out shy little giggles. I had forgotten all about it. Well today - 4 days later - as I'm driving Eli to baseball this is our conversation:

Eli: "mom, was Kate Olson at the temple preview night?"

Me: "I don't know who that is"

Eli: "she has blonde hair, glasses, she's in my music class..."

Me: "oh ya, she was there, why?"

Eli: "cause I have decided she is the girl I'm going to ask to dance at that thing I have to go to!"

I love how this little guy never talks about girls, and now I come to find out he has been stressing over who he is going to ask to dance! Made my day! Later that night after baseball he tells me, "I told dad why I want to dance with Kate - it's because she is smart, tries hard and plays softball!" I love Eli!