SUMMER LEFTOVERS!

I have a bunch of leftover summer photos so here they are...in no particular order...

I got an idea from Enrichment one night to make a "Summer Bucket List." So we sat down one night and we wrote down a bunch of different ideas of things we wanted to do this summer and then every Sunday night we would pick out a few to do that week. Emma loved picking out of the bucket. We did it pretty good at the beginning but then, well, you know...life happens and so that kind of got left behind. Here is to next year though!Waiting in line for 2 hours to build something in the Lego store. The kids had a great time but not so much for the parents.
We took the kids to the Temple one Sunday afternoon and walked around it. They seemed to really like it.Thanks to Uncle RJ, Daddy got to take Eli to Sunsplash for the day for a little one on one time. The boys had a great time and Uncle RJ even followed them around on his security cameras and made a video of it (yes, we have proof of Jared leaving Eli alone at the turn style because Eli wasn't strong enough to push it himself). After Sunsplash the 2 of them headed over to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Eli had the best time!Just because they make me smile!
One day Emma had a few friends over and they all decorated giant cupcakes.
Eli took swimming lessons this summer. Next year he will be swimmin' for sure all on his own! (Eli and Cache)So my mom told me this idea that someone gave her to give your kids buckets and fill them with water and then let them "paint" the walls outside. I laughed at her and told her that sounded a little whitetrash...but then...when my kiddos were buggin' me cause they had all this pinned up energy....I gave them each their own buckets and I let them paint the walls in the backyard! They ended up doing this on several occasions!Just because ELI makes me smile! (I called him, "Bubbas" yesterday and he informed me, "my name's not Bubbas, I "E-yie"!" (that's his way of saying Eli - I guess my big boy is to big for Bubbas, Eli it is from now on!)

2 other random Elias stories...

1 - One time when his nose was running, he kept telling me, "my nose is falling!" (i guess that was his way of telling me that his snot was running down his face.)

2 - Before he decided his name was no longer Bubbas, I called him "honey" and he was very quick to respond, "I not honey, I Bubbas!"Here is Emma practicing her photography skills, for those of you who didn't know...she wants to be a dance teacher and a photographer when she grows up!Jared's work had a party at Amazing Jakes. We took everyone this time. The twins were allowed to stay for the first half and then we ditched them at Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers house! (sorry babes).One of our many random trips to get ice cream (mostly I took it because I loved how cute all my kids looked sitting there eating it!)We did the "Harkins Summer Movie Fun" again this year. We have done it since Emma was 3. My kids love it. This year we took the twins to the movies too. The first time they went it was hilarious...as soon as the movie started Tyler just froze there, to scared to move and Tyson, he just kept grabbing on for dear life. They did so good at the movies. They sat through them all and just loved eating all their treats and watching the movies on the big screen.
Finally no picture, but I dont want Emma to forget the great time she had going to the movies with Grandma Rodgers to see Ramona and Beezus so I thought I would add it in here to remind her :)

OH SO TIRED!

What gets more comments at the grocery store then twins?! Eli sleeping in the shopping cart. Everyone had to stop me and laugh and tell me how cute he was sleeping :)

MICRO-BURST OR BUST!

Something exciting always needs to happen when we get together with the Fa'anunus and this time did not disappoint.

The day before they left it was quietly sprinkling outside and all the kids were inside eating ice cream so we told them when they were done they could go in the backyard and play in the rain. They were lovin' it! Jennifer and I went into other rooms to pick up or whatever and we can hear the kids in the backyard. Emma says, "good thing we live in AZ so we don't have hurricanes!" and they all continue to play and have a good time when all of the sudden we hear Emma say, "I think we need to go inside now!" Abby grabs one of the twins and they all start coming inside and right at that moment the micro-burst hits! They can't get the back door to close because the wind is so strong, the rain is coming down like no other and I am in my room and I hear a very loud noise and I think to myself, what in the world did those kids do. I go to look out the back window and my backyard looks empty, I run to the backdoor and walk outside in the pouring rain to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me....my trampoline had disappeared.

Don't worry, we found it...IN THE NEIGHBORS YARD!! These pictures are my trampoline in my neighbors backyard.So then from my original perspective I could not see just how the trampoline landed - I couldn't tell what kind of damage it had done to their roof, so I run to the front door open it and start to run outside when I see this!That would be my tree on my cousin's car. I walk back in not sure what to say so this is what exits my mouth, "uh, Jennifer - my tree is on top of your car!"

I have to say, if my tree was going to fall on any one's car I am so glad it was her car. She remained so calm. She kept a smile on her face the whole time, grabbed the camera for blogging purposes, grabbed her cell phone to text pictures to people and never once panicked or got angry at me.

Denise happen to send me a text and say, "should we be worried about our kids coming home on the bus in this weather?" My response, "Emma not at school today. My trampoline in neighbors yard, my tree on cousin's car."

Then I get a text from Stephanie, "glad we don't live in FL with real hurricanes" I sent her the same text I just sent to Denise and she responds, "I'm being serious." My text back, "me too!"

I finally get a hold of Jared and he starts to head home but in the mean time, Denise and Chad come straight over from the bus stop and get straight to work. I still couldn't wrap my head around things, I was so nervous what my neighbors would say or how they would sue me or something. Chad hops on Jen's car, inspects the damage and tells her how to pull forward so the tree will fall to the ground without damaging the car - He was fantastic!

Then my neighbor comes out and they are Korean so there is a little bit of a language barrier there so he tries to tell me how the trampoline is in his yard and I try to apologize and let him know he will move it ASAP. After the car is taken care of, Denise and Chad go straight to work on the trampoline...they were like these 2 muscle machines...they dissembled that thing like no other. Then piece by piece we started chucking it over the brick wall (which did have bricks knocked off thanks to my trampoline) and then we all hoisted the rest of it over.

We then went back out front and helped another neighbor remove a tree off of his car and we started to clean up the cul-de-sac a bit and put trash cans where they belonged, trees back in the greenbelt where they came from, etc.

Now that the storm had calmed down the kids came outside and went to town in drizzly rain.Jared and I were nervous at first. How much damage had this storm done and how much would it cost us?! Well, we can truly say we were blessed.

Jennifer's car cost - nothing. No damage done to car, phew.

Trampoline cost - $30 on stuff to anchor it to the ground (our neighbor was quite nervous seeing it put back up).

Fallen tree cost - it was the world's heaviest tree. 5 grown adults couldn't even pick it up an inch. I sweet talked the HOA landscapers into removing it for us at the cost of some homemade cookies and gatorade!

Brick wall cost - - $100.

Roof repair cost - $200 (2 tiles off each roof - ours and the neighbors).

All in all - it was a lot of time spent making several phones calls, time put in by the Ecalonos and Blake and the whole thing only cost us $333 out of pocket.

Now here is where it gets amazing... A week after the storm Jared got a random $500 bonus, which after taxes covered the wall and the roof. Then he got a $25 gift card to Lowes which covered the anchors for the trampoline. I say, blessings of paying tithing, yes!

LMNOPreschool!

Today was a very exciting day in our house! We had to wake up Eli so he could get ready to go to preschool (a real preschool). Emma was so super excited too! She wanted to make him a lunch and do his hair :)

Eli was very excited to wear his new shirt, new shoes and his new "pack pack" (back pack) that Grandma Rodgers got him.I called Ms. Nikkii the day before school started to let him know that at "Meet the Teacher" he loved a toy tiger she had and that if he is whiny for something and she can't figure it out - he probably wants the tiger and if she just gives it to him, he will be as happy as can be sitting there and holding it. So what happens first thing when we walk up to her door, "mom, miss mickey has a bwack tiger!" As soon as we were inside he went straight over to get it. I sat him down on the seat, told him to listen and be good, we gave kisses and I was out of there!I picked him back up and the first thing he said to me in the car was, "mom, I wike my miss mickey school!"Jared and I are so excited to have another child in her preschool and we can't wait to see all his growth - she is amazing!

side stories:
later in the day when the 3 boys were eating chips, I told them, "you only get 2 more chips then no more." Eli quickly told me, "no, no, miss mickey says 3 chips, 3 candies, no more."

Also, he asked me, "Mom, is this a big TV?" I said, "yes," then he responds with, "no Miss Mickey's TV is big!"

A FABULOUS BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

This week Mom Jensen had a birthday and we decided to make a fun weekend out of it. 76 days earlier we all decided that everyone should be in town for this one and we would do a grandkid party on Friday and an adult party on Saturday. We wanted it to be a surprise that everyone was coming in town for it and surprise her with all our plans, but we have learned there is no surprising her :)

Friday night we had a dinner/swimming party with everyone at my grandma's house for our annual "swim at Carol's grandma's house" party every summer.

The twins in a floaty together.The blur is Tyler jumping in the pool. That kid continues to surprise us. Every time we think we have him figured out he does a 180 on us. The boy who wouldn't get in the water most of the summer decided to jump in without floaties, he sinks to the bottom and then comes up to the top, Jared picks him up, puts him on the step and he runs around to do it again.While the older kids were still swimming I caught these 4 buddies hanging out together sharing 2 plates of food :)After we were done swimming we sang Happy Birthday, ate cheesecake and cupcakes and opened presents.That night Emma went and stayed the night with Maddy and Eli had his first sleepover ever! He had his buddy Isaac come and stay at our house, even though they are 4 years apart Eli really likes him and Isaac is super nice which makes for a good pair of buddies. (not a very good pic, but it is the most recent pic of them cut out of a group picture)The fun didn't end on Friday night, Saturday we had some very special things planned. First, we met at the Temple to have Mom sealed to her parents and other family names done as well. All of the siblings were able to be there and it made it a very sweet moment for her.Then afterwards we headed over to Mi Amigos for dinner and joined up with the rest of the in-laws who couldn't make it due to babysitter reasons.The fun didn't stop at dinner either, after dinner we headed out to the movies to see, "Sorcerer's Apprentice." We sure do love all the kiddos, but it is fun to do just grown-up things too. Happy Birthday Mom Jensen, we love you!

A FALLEN HERO!

A Chandler Police Officer was killed in the line of duty last week. He stood in front of his partners and took the shots for them. A true hero. It is important for me to show my appreciation for what the Police Officers do for us on a daily basis. Its not much but I want them to know how much we appreciate them.

I took Emma out of school during lunch and recess, gathered up the boys and Kiki and we went and stood on the side of the road to pay our respects. I want my kids to grow up appreciating them and all they do for us.

An officer helping with traffic gave each of the kids a flag to hold and Emma held up a sign saying, "Thank you."It was really neat to be able to talk to Emma about what this man had done for his fellow officers. I loved how she was taking it all in and asking questions. She stood out there in the middle of the 110 degree weather with no shade holding her sign and waving her flag and never letting it drop for 30 minutes straight.

I loved how excited the boys were to see all the motorcycles, fire trucks, police cars, buses and anything else with lights on it that had come from all over (Phoenix, Mesa, Casa Grande, Border Patrol, Cottonwood, Payson, Prescott, Avondale, Chicago, etc). I appreciated the officers sounding their sirens for them, waving back at them and even taking pictures of the kids while we took pictures of them. I loved how Kiki said, "my daddy's friend died" as she had a very reverent manor about her while waving her flag. As the hearse went past us I told Emma what was in there and we were very quiet. I didn't know if I should wave or take a picture, so I just stood there, holding back the tears and appreciating everything that man had done.