EASTER!

 We were lucky enough to have Emma and Hunter with us for Easter this year. We haven't spent Easter with Emma since she was in high school. They needed to come down and do bridals so it all worked out that it was a holiday weekend. They got in Saturday night just as the Jensen Easter get together was ending so we picked them up at the airport and gave them our car and they raced off to the Mesa Temple Pageant. Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, went to Sacrament, waited for the rain to stop so the Easter bunny could hide the eggs, they all raced over the yard to find all the eggs! This year we hid $260 worth out in the yard. The boys found the golden eggs (even though I hinted to them where they would be) and everyone else raced throughout the yard! Then Grandpa and Grandma Jensen came over and we smoked a turkey, had dinner, ate on our Grandma Joyce's dishes, made homemade ice cream and then all the boys played Nintendo while Emma picked out her wedding music. Monday morning she got her nails and toes done, they went to their Frost taste testing and picked out the flavors for their wedding and then we went and took all their bridal pictures! She looked BEAUTIFUL!! Tuesday they flew home and life continued on as normal! We love it when they come and the boys really love Hunter! I am always so grateful to have all my kiddos at home with me under the same roof!! Grateful for our Savior who died for us and Grateful for this time of year to reflect on his resurrection.

STAKE SOFTBALL!

 We had our Stake Softball Tournament! It was hot, but the boys had fun, a couple of the games Eli was able to rope some ALA baseball players into joining our team! We only won the first and last game, but no one cares about the middle anyways! 

ALAQC VS POSTON BUTTE!

 Eli pitched a phenomenal game against Poston Butte! he pitched the first 4 innings and could have gone more, but his coach was trying to let other people get in the game. He only allowed 2 hits, 1 run and had 9 strikeouts! 

BASKETBALL BANQUET!

 The twins had their basketball banquet. It was fun to be back together with their old teammates! We LOVED them! Me and Kati did the decorations and made the video. It was weird they didn't hand out any awards...and weird but also not weird that Coach Pippert just made each boy tell what they learned this year and didn't say anything nice about them like the other teams coaches did....but he did say that they were not a talented team but that they came together as a team. He's something else! All we could do was laugh! Great Freshman season boys!! 

TYSON THE TWERP!

 Tyson the little twerp monkey.....had some friends over and told Tyler he couldn't make a difficult basket and if Tyler did then he had to do a dare....so they dared him to jump the wall and go jump in our neighbor's pool. So he did! Then they came in and told us about it. Sadly, we had to get angry and send friends home and then text the neighbor at 10:45pm and apologize for what he had done. Our neighbors thank heavens found it hilarious! They weren't even mad a little! Now Jared and I secretly found it hilarious!! Jared even admitted he totally would have done the same thing....but if we tell him them how funny they are they will push it even more....so we had to be mad on the outside and laugh on the inside! Life with boys for sure keeps us on our toes!! Thank heavens for innocent fun! Twerps! 

ELI'S WEEKEND WITH EMMA!

 Jared and I thought it would be good to send Eli up to Utah for a weekend with Emma and to go to a UVU baseball game before Emma graduates and we can take advantage of the free tickets! Eli won his game against ALAGN and then raced home to shower and head to the airport! It was his first solo flight and we got to teach him how to read a plane ticket and how to find your gate, seat, etc. They got in late and went to Ashley's to sleep and then got up in the morning and went to Waffle Love together, picked up Peter and went to the baseball game, bought a shirt, returned Peter, went to lunch at Holy Taco, toured UVU, worked out at UVU, went to Pizza Pie Cafe, hung out at Ashley's for a bit, went to the Nickel Arcade, went back home, his flight was delayed 8 hours and then he was back home with us! It was a super short trip, but a good one! We got lots of texts from both of them, they both were having the best time, Eli followed Emma into the girls locker room because he wasn't paying attention, he won a switchblade comb and flicked it up, combed his hair, gave the camera a smoldering look and put it away - he's funny! Every time he ordered food somewhere Jared knew exactly what plate was Eli's because it was exactly what he would order! My heart is so full that they got to have this time together to bond and make memories to last a lifetime!! 

TANNER'S MISSION CALL!

 It's been a lot of fun this last month going to several mission call openings and watch Eli get so excited about them! He says he for sure wants a lot of people there when he does his! Tanner got called to Spain and it was great to see how excited everyone was for him! It's crazy that now we are watching his friends get their calls! One more year to go then we will be doing the same thing! I am not ready for that....

ST PATRICKS DAY!

 While we were in St George, the grocery store had a whole display of green things so it inspired me and Jared and we decided to buy them and take them home for our own St Patricks Day party! We don't do anything crazy, but sometimes it is fun to mix it up a bit! The best part was it forced us all to sit at the kitchen table together for dinner and everyone talked about Youth Conference or the party Eli had at Jenn's dog sitting! Also, I'm 1/8 Irish and the kids are 1/16th Irish so we should be celebrating our heritage! ha ha! 

THE LORD IS IN THE DETAILS!

 Sunday after camp we had 8 youth share their testimony about camp and then Bishop spoke for a few minutes and I spoke for a few minutes on camp. Here is my talk that I am putting in here so some day my posterity can see a little glimpse into my testimony!

As it’s been said, the theme of camp was “All In”. Our goal was to get the youth to be all in! All in with each other in the ward, all in with their testimonies, etc .

I feel pretty confident this was accomplished! As leaders we LOVED watching a transformation of this ward! Our ward is very unique in the fact that our kids go to 10 different high schools so it's hard to become close with each other when you only see each other for an hour on Sunday and if you happen to go to mutual that week then 2 hours during the week. The girls and boys actually interacted with each other and became friends!  Instead of retreating to their cabins they retreated to the kitchen and played uno and spoons till they had to stop! 

Friday night the Bishopric did a special devotional on the faith that the 3 witnesses had to the Book of Mormon and we learned more about them and the sacrifices they made. The Bishop taught us that “The Lord is in the details!” 

It was very evident that the Lord was in the details throughout this week at camp! 

If your youth haven’t shared with you the story about the man getting electrocuted by 800 amps during camp - ask them about it. He was in the details and saved his life, Collin having an allergic reaction,

On Friday as we were driving back to camp from the beach Emily and I were so thirsty and so were the kids in our van but none of the other vans wanted to stop and get gas so straight on to camp we went. The thirst was getting the better of us and Emily and I decided we were going to go rogue and if we happened to drive past a McDonald’s we would pull in and go through the drive through! 

We were following Brother Johnson and Brother Langens van and then we saw the McDonald’s, ditched them and hit it up. As we pulled out of the drive through we ended up being right behind Bishops van! Who happened to only be that far behind because the van he was following missed their exit.

 Right after we got behind them and waved and smiled I noticed our van was smoking and so did they! So we pulled right over to the first street we could exit the main road from. Emily pulled over and I told her to pull into that parking lot to get us off the road and it ended up being a Napa Auto Parts Store! As soon as she put it in park the smoke got worse and all this liquid spilled out. 

Bishop and Bazzell were right there helping us out and Brother Langen and Brother Johnson dropped their kids off, grabbed tools and came back to help us too! 

On Saturday morning we got up and went to the Mormon Battalion Museum. While there we learned about the Saints. The saints wanted to move west and needed to figure out a way to do it….the President of the United States at the time, President Polk, asked for volunteers of 4 or 5 groups of 100 men each to go fight in the war with Mexico. The same government that wouldn’t protect the Saints and their religious freedoms wanted them to give up everything to fight in the war against Mexico. The Saints were upset about this and couldn’t wait to hear what Brigham Young would have to say. Brigham Young said - this was the answer to our prayers. This is way for us to move the saints west and at the cost of the government. 

The lord is in details. It might not seem like it sometimes or at that moment….like when you are being sent to war or when your car breaks down and your on a youth camp trip, but if you stop and pause and think a moment….you can see it. 

Those Saints who agreed to fight in the war - well they never had to fight against any other soldiers. The enemy was never in their path when they were supposed to be. They made it west.

The broken van situation…had we not pulled off to McDonald’s we would have ended up breaking down in the middle of the no where probably on the one way roads as we get closer to camp but instead everything fell into place and  We broke down in a Napa auto Parts parking lot with men who knew what they were doing and had access to every supply we needed to fix our car and get back on the road. 

I hope our youth can remember these experiences we had at camp this year and remember to be ALL IN with each other, the church and that the Lord loves each of us so much, he knows what we are all going through and he is in the details! 

YOUTH CONFERENCE - CAMP WILDWOOD RANCH!

 Last year at girls camp the girls all told me they wanted to do a youth conference this year with the boys in our ward because for a lot of them - it would be their last chance. I talked to the Bishop and we decided to go ahead and do it. We booked the Church camp in Ramona, CA called Camp Wildwood Ranch! It was perfect! Cabins for everyone, a kitchen, eating area, amphitheater, soccer fields, basketball courts, softball fields, hatchet throwing, arrow range, ziplining, rock wall, pool, etc! We drove up Wednesday and all the girls hopped in their vans and the boys hopped in their vans and we were off! We got to camp, ate lunch, set up cabins (me and Emily shared a room and then Katy and Quinn joined us), then played a human soccer game with a 6 foot ball, ate dinner and then Emily and I did a devotional with balloons and taught them if you are always looking for your own happiness you'll never find it, but when you are helping others you'll find yours along the way. Then we ended the night with a glow in the dark dance party - we were hoping to break down the walls and get people out of their comfort zone. The next morning we did 2 different rounds of mini Olympics and then it was free time. Tyson and some boys drank some Dr Peppers that weren't theirs but they didn't know it. They lied about it so they wouldn't get each other in trouble and because they lied to us about it they had to take a 5 1/2 mile walk into town to buy replacement sodas for the family. Meanwhile the rest of us did ziplining, etc. That night Emily and I did a game show with everyone. They had the best time trying to beat the leaders and each other. They really got into it and we loved it! The next day was the beach day! We hung out at the beach all day, played football, made pyramids, played duck duck goose and watched several of us eat it in the same spot, then our van broke down while we were driving back to camp and while it was getting fixed the boys entertained themselves by pelting each other on the back with these blueberry things they picked off the bushes. That night our devotional was about the Book of Mormon. Each youth got a copy and it had the leaders testimonies printed inside, they got to write their testimonies on the inside and then we had a testimony meeting. Saturday we packed up camp and headed out to the Mormon Battalion Museum. Then we went took everyone out to lunch at Coyote Cafe and hit the long road home. The twins were so mad about going! They wanted to go to the beach with Nash Hall, but we couldn't because of this. But in the end, they were so happy they went! Everyone became friends with each other! In their free time they spent it all playing cards together forever! By the time we headed to the beach there were no longer boy cars and girl cars, they were all mixed together now. They created group chats when the camp was over and some of them even hung out on Monday together. I hope they can continue these bonds together now that they have formed them. I have our next mutual set to be a combined game night to keep that going and then we will have a General Conference Viewing Party at my house to hopefully continue those bonds. I am sad Jared and Eli had to stay home because of baseball. Although, Eli ended up living his best life dog sitting at Nate and Jenn's house and having his friends over every night and playing video games to who knows how long, basketball, whiffle ball, etc. I love my calling and getting to hang out with the youth and spend time with them. I might not be feeding them the most spiritually, but hopefully I am conveying a message of how much we love them and care for them! One of the girls has popped by our house randomly in the last 2 weeks and stayed till 11pm. Our doors are always open to anyone who needs it! I am also so grateful for Emily and being my go to girl for everything!