HISEF!

Jared and I crack up at Emma. She comes home and tells us things that quite honestly are only exciting to her, but we like to listen because she is telling them to us. What makes us laugh is she never tells us the good things, she just kinda skips right over them.

We knew Emma had a science project she had to work on, but she never asked us for help and just handled it all at school with her partner, Penelope. One day while driving to dance she mentioned that their  project did good and it was going to HISEF, but she just left it at that and didn't explain it any further.

Fast forward to parent/teacher conferences, one of the first things that happened at her conference was the teacher had me sign this waver giving permission for HISEF to take Emma's picture if her project wins overall. Then she gave me a letter explaining it a little bit more. All the 5th and 6th grade classes in Chandler did science projects and Emma's went on to compete at HISEF. They ended up not moving on to state, but we are just so proud of her for making it that far and want to kick her butt for not talking it up to us more and letting us know what a really neat thing that was she accomplished!
 




Emma and Penelope

VALENTINE'S DAY 2013!

Jared and I don't particularly like going out on Valentine's day to celebrate, it's to crowded and ridiculous. So a few years ago we started making it a family tradition to make it a family day and celebrate together. This year I thought I would have to work at the studio so I didn't want the day to go by as any regular day so I went a little overboard from the regular stuff, but I am glad I did.

The day started off by me getting up before Jared left for work and running to Dunkin Donuts to get everyone a Valentine's donut. Then I decorated the house with streamers and set the table with pink and red paper goods.

While all the kids were at school, I wrapped presents for everyone in the family, nothing to crazy, just little gifts for everyone. Then I made cookies for the kids and Jared to deliver to Grandma Jensen, Grandma Joyce and Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers while I was at work.  We like to share our love with everyone, especially our Grandmas :)

That night when I got off work early, Jared and I made steak, mashed potatoes, heart shaped corn bread and broccoli for dinner. After dinner we dined on chocolate dipped strawberries! Delish!  After that, we did a treasure hunt through out the house with each clue leading to another clue and finally ending up with the treasure, which was pop corn, root bear in glass bottles and Charlie Brown's Be My Valentine movie.

We had a great time together as a family! I LOVE my family!

Grandma Jensen

 Grandma Joyce

 Grandma Rodgers

 Our dinner table

Our favorite dessert, we all pigged out!

 Tyson

 Emma

 Schmee-zel-bee

 Tyler

 After they found each clue, they would have to bring it back to us so we could all help Eli read it and then the twins could get a running head start to the next clue before the older 2 trampled them...

The end!

$1,200 AMBULANCE RIDE!

Our first and hopefully our last ambulance ride. It's been a crazy 2013 with our medical scares here at the Jensen house and we hope they are all over with, knock on wood.

Tuesday night I got a call from Stacia at dance an hour before dance ended and she told me that Emma was going into a back walk over and blacked out and then landed on her head which gave her a slight concussion and that we needed to go and pick her up. We quickly grabbed Maddy Parry to come over and babysit the boys and we ran to dance to see what was going on. We found Emma sitting behind the desk in a chair curled up into a ball and hiding underneath a large sweatshirt with Pam lovingly taking care of her. Her eyes were dilated and the light and loud noises were really bothering her. Kennis and Jayden took Emma out to our truck to sit with her while we went and talked to Stacia to see what had happened.

We got back in the truck and tried to assess the situation and figure out if we needed to take her to the hospital or just take her home and monitor her. It was hard to figure out what to do because when we asked Emma what she was feeling she would just cry out, "I don't even know who you are!" Well, being the mom that I am, I let her know that was ridiculous and she knew who we were and she needed to quit being so dramatic and let us know what was really bothering her. We decided to take her home and watch her. Jared gave her a blessing and asked her a few questions and long story short, she ended up being fine, Jared took the boys to mutual with him so Emma could rest in a quiet house and I watched her. After I got her situated I called my mom and told her that Emma is my greatest joy in life, but also my biggest struggle in life. I CANT STAND THE DRAMATICS!!!! Emma is not dramatic when it comes to friends or school or anything like that, but if she gets hurt, watch out, a bruised finger becomes a broken finger, a little scratch becomes bleeding to death, etc.

After venting to my mom, I decided to go into my room and have a heart to heart with her. I sat down on the bed next to her and got to tell her how drama was one of my pet peeves, right up there with people who chew with their mouth opened and how their are certain relatives I can't sit by because they do it so bad. We had a good little laugh  and it helped to lighten the mood. I explained how when people turn dramatic, it's super hard for me to give them the attention they need or want because I am so turned off by it that I have to walk away. I told her how when her brothers get hurt I can love and hug on them because they are hurt for a minute and they move on with life and there is no drama, I also agreed that boys are different from girls and that as girls we have to work harder to not be so dramatic. That night Emma and I made a deal, but she said she would only agree to it if she wins, I said it was either a win/win or a lose/lose situation. We decided that she would take out all of the dramatics and exaggerations when she is sick, hurt, or whatever and then I would be more receptive to it and more supportive of it. When we were finished I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to stay home from school tomorrow and I asked her why and she gave me her straight answer, "my head still hurts, I am light headed and dizzy." Little did she know it was just a text to see how much of the conversation we just had had sunk in because Jared and I fully intended on her staying home and resting up, but she passed the test with flying colors.

The next morning I went in her room to check on her and she wasn't feeling all that great, but did say that her finger which had been in a brace for a few days felt a lot better and she could take the brace off now and bend her finger. I was most pleased with this because she was finally starting to "man up" a bit just how I like and I gave her the whole, "I bet it still hurts a bit, but I am so glad you are able to bend it, that's makes me so happy" speech! Throughout the day I would check on her and she just kept complaining of dizziness and light headedness, but even though she wasn't saying it dramatically, I still kinda thought she was exaggerating just a bit, but I did believe she was clearly not 100% yet.

On Thursday I woke her up for school and she asked to stay home complaining she still didn't feel very good, but I had to explain to her that she had to go to school and why she had to. Her and Eli left for school, I took the twins to preschool, came home and for the first time ever hopped in the shower right away, I usually use my free time to run through the house and do some cleaning, but since I was trying to get into my dr's office that day I was trying to hurry and get ready. At about 9am, fresh out of the shower I tried my dr's office again and they still weren't open so I proceeded to make myself a smoothie. The phone rang about 9:05am and it was the nurse, I rolled my eyes because she had only been at school for 30 minutes, what could it possibly be now. The nurse told me she blacked out in class at her desk and the teacher and helped her to the nurses office and they were wondering if I could come and bring her home. Mother of the year here says, sure I will be there in 20 minutes - but that was because I wanted to finish making my smoothie and finish getting ready, blow dry my hair, curl it, etc. I went on to hurry and finish getting ready and half way through curling my hair the phone rang again about 20 minutes later and it was the school again. I answered the phone and it was Patti from the front office. She told me Emma was in the nurses office and I responded with "yes, I know" and then she told me that Emma passed out again and that the nurse was calling 911 because they couldn't get her to stop doing that and they were going to have an ambulance come and take her to the hospital and to hurry and come to the school and to drive safe. I hung up the phone and called Jared and told him he needed to get to the school and what was happening, he asked if he needed to go right then and I said yes! (later I found out he asked that because the way I had worded everything he thought I wasn't going to go and that he needed to do it all and he was confused by that) I then called my dad and asked what they were doing to be polite and then he told me how my mom was gone and then I think I cut him off and told him he needed to go to the twins preschool at 10:30am and pick them up because Emma was going to the hospital in an ambulance and I had to go. I was crying a little bit but nothing to bad. He of course dropped everything and took care of the twins (I found out that night he missed his own doctor's appt and a man that he helps out was waiting for him to come and he never showed up - I love my parents).

Next - going along with my mother of the year award - I FINISHED CURLING MY HAIR!! That is correct, I did not leave to go to the school, I curled my hair! Who does that?! As I am curling the last strand of hair I hear the sirens go by my house, that's when I lose it! OH HELL, THOSE ARE FOR MY DAUGHTER AND I AM HERE CURLING MY HAIR!! I pick up the phone to call Stephanie to make sure she can get Eli off the bus while I get my shirt on and I am a blubbering mess on the phone. She can't understand me. She is actually laughing because she thinks I am trying to be funny. I finally am able to get the words out that those sirens are for Emma, the school called 911, I have to go and you have to get Eli off the bus! Stephanie just had surgery this week and can't walk. She insisted I wait and she was coming to drive me there. I told her no and that I needed to get a grip and I would be fine and then I am pretty sure I just hung up on her.

I gathered my composure and my smoothie and ran out the door. I got to the school saw the firetruck, grabbed my purse and ran into the school. They were waiting for me and opened the door as I got there and took me to the nurse's office where they opened the door and I see Emma on the ground and several firemen standing around her and working on her. All I could do was turn my back to her. It was a shock to see my daughter like that. I cried. I didn't want her to see me crying. I knew that wasn't going to help her. I then heard her start to cry for me. 2 firemen came over and assured me she was going to be fine, I gathered myself yet again, turned around and went down to her. I assured her she was going to be fine, stop crying and dad was on his way. I looked up at one of the firemen and blurted out, "hey, I painted a room in your house!" Yep, way to focus on your daughter.

They asked me some questions and I told them about what happened at dance in case it was all related and then they loaded her up on a stretcher and took her to the ambulance. The principal, VP principal, nurse, Emma's teacher and the office ladies told me not to worry about all of Emma's stuff that I could leave it there and they would watch it. The firefighters told me I had to time to do what I needed to do so I took her stuff and then started to walk out and turned and looked at Emma's teacher and said, "I have a kindergartner." She was very much aware of this and the importance of him getting off the bus with Maddy and the headache we would have to go through to get that approved. She assured me she would take care of it right then. I walked out and put Emma's stuff in my car and went back to the ambulance. I climbed in and Emma wanted her dad and I told her he was on his way and would be there any minute. Then she started saying she needed Maddy, she had to see Maddy and she needed to talk to Maddy. I was confused by this and just assured her that we could do that after school. I could tell she was a little out of it.

The firefighters said we could wait for Jared to come and right then he pulled up behind the ambulance. He climbed inside and gave her a kiss and checked on her and Emma wanted both of us to ride in the ambulance with her, but only I was allowed to go and he followed right behind us. They wanted to take her to Cardon's Childrens Hsopital so off we went. As time went on, Emma was definitely getting better and I had a strange calm feeling that she was going to be ok.

We checked into the hospital and they checked her out, etc and then she had to go to the bathroom really bad, but they also wanted a urine sample so we decided to do that now so she could go to the bathroom. I walked her to the bathroom and showed her what to do and how to do it and I asked her if she wanted me in there or if she was ok and she told me she thought she was fine. So I went back to our room to wait for her. Jared got on his iPad to do a little work and I sat there and watched tv. A few minutes later I told Jared that I thought I should go check on her. As soon as I walked into the hallway I found 2 nurses gathered around her and picking her up off the ground, she had blacked out again and fell on the floor. They quickly put her in a wheelchair, took her back to our room and immediately took her vitals and the other nurse said we needed to move now to a more monitored room for her.

We changed rooms and ran more tests on her and then waited, waited, and waited some more. By now it had been a couple of hours and we were getting hungry. The nurses showed Jared the mother load where we could just go and help ourselves to food. So, Jared did what he does best when his girls are stuck in a hospital bed and can't eat...oh he EATS! Right in front of them. Emma wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything that this point. Sadly, Jared turned me to the dark side and I joined him for a turkey sandwich, crackers and drinks. I did have him snap a picture of me because I had never been on the eating end of things and it was kinda nice, so Emerson.

The doctor came back in to check on us and said there wasn't a whole lot that we could do for her. All the tests were coming back good. So he was going to release us, but we asked him a few more questions and then he decided he didn't want to let her go just yet either. He decided to give her another bag of IV fluids and take it from there...which would mean at the end of that we would take her home and see our pediatrician or she would get checked in for the night.

As the new bag was making its way through her she started to perk up quite a bit. The lady who had to clean up every room that we left LOVED Emma and would keep coming and checking on her and us. She came by one last time to see if she could get us anything and to say good-bye because she was leaving for the night, but she wanted to give Emma a little stuffed animal and a couple of packs of playing cards to help entertain her. She was such a nice lady (with a mustache).

That is Jared being a dork and Emma looking at him and giving him a look that she is too cool for him


After Emma wiped that IV clean she was doing much better and the doctor decided to release us. He decided that we were going to chalk all this blacking out spells up to dehydration exaggerated by the head and chest cold she was fighting. He also wants her to get on a heart monitor this week to just double check that because when she would go from lying down to sitting up and then from sitting up to standing her heart rate would spike.

7 hours later we finally got to leave the hospital. Emma crashed out in the back, poor thing.

She took Friday off of school and then Friday night she was doing some tricks at home and went all pale so we quickly shut her down and then the same thing the next day at dance, while running through a dance she went all pale so Stacia pulled her out and sat her down. The rest of the weekend went pretty good, she stayed home from church and rested up so more.

Today, Monday, she made it through the whole day without a single call from the nurse, it was a good day in deed! We delivered cookies to her class because they all signed a poster board with well wishes on it for her and a couple of girls made her some chocolate dipped strawberries. We gave some cookies to the school nurse, principal, VP principal and the 2 office ladies and Maddy, all the people who were concerned about her.

Tonight when I picked Emma up from dance she told me she blacked out again for a few seconds and I thought she was exaggerating again and said we would talk about it later, but then Nick stopped me and told me what had happened...perhaps our heart to heart really hit home and she has cut out all the drama because she really was being honest. Poor thing. Gotta get this crud to stop happening. sigh.

A week later we went to the fire station to bring the firefighters some cookies as a "Thank You" for taking care of Emma. They let the kids play in the fire truck for a bit, yep, no pictures of Tyler, he was too shy to do it :)



Another funny story about people being concerned for Emma. The day of Jump Rope for Heart, the school nurse called to get some follow-up questions answered for her report she had to fill out and I jokingly told her, "I told Emma not to jump rope every hard today and to take it easy so if she ends up in your office today, tell her it's her fault!" I found out later she ended up calling Emma's teacher to ask what time she would be jumping rope and she went there and watched Emma the entire time to make sure nothing happened, that is funny and sweet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

We had a little birthday party for Grandpa Rodgers since Ashley and Caryn were in town. RJ got us all passes to Golfland and we went goofy golfing and then headed back to Grandpa's house for dinner and presents. The kids had a great time and were glad to spend Grandpa's birthday with him! 

DISNEYLAND!

Growing up we always went on family vacations, that's one of the things I remember most. One of our most popular vacation destinations was Disneyland. I remember always going to Disneyland before it opened and working our way up to the front of Main Street and we would wait behind the ropes for the park to officially open and my dad would pretend to run in place and then when it did open we would take off running to Star Tours. I loved it! One of the things on my must-do lists is to go to Disneyland with my parents. Finally, we were able to accomplish that goal of mine. It was everything I had hoped it would be (minus Emma having a fever for two out of the four days)! Six months before we went we started getting the boys pumped for our big vacations. We measured them to see how tall they were and what rides they would be able to go on. They each had a goal, Eli 46 inches so he could go on the ride with "the man and the whip" (Indiana Jones), Tyler 42 inches because there were several with that height requirment and Tyson 40 inches to he could enjoy himself and be apart of our family without missing out on too many of them. We were pretty confident that Eli and Tyler would make the requirements because they were so close but Tyson, he was another story.   We would randomly grab him and stretch him out just because he thought it was funny, but our favorite was talking the boys into eating all the fruits and vegetables because that is what will make them grow taller so they can go on the good rides at Disneyland, it worked!

On Sunday Jan 6th, we headed out to Disneyland. My parents and Caryn and Cade left about an hour and half after us and we all got to the hotel about 15 minutes apart from each other (poor Jared had to stop and change a totally flat tire on the I10 on the way over, it was not a good start to the trip). After we all got checked into the suite we decided to go to Outback for some dinner. The kids were super pumped for the next day! Jared had to get up earlier than the rest of us and go over to Discount Tire to get a new tire and while he was gone I got up and started getting the kids ready and  myself - Conner got his hair done like his cousins.

When we finally got to Disneyland the line looked longer than the one in California Adventure so we ended up spending the day there instead. As soon as we made it through the gates, Jared took off running with our tickets and grabbed us some fast passes to the new Cars ride while I took everyone to the Monsters Inc ride. Its a nice warm-up ride with no lines so it's a perfect starter ride. We rode it two times in a row, the second time we rode it because Jared scooped up Eli and Emma and took them off to go ride Tower of Terror.

We are awfully lucky that we have brave kids who LOVE riding these rides and don't chicken out. As soon as those 3 were done on that ride, they came running back to us and insisting that we all go on that ride. So we did (minus Grandpa who stayed with Conner). Tyson acts scared each time before he rides this ride and acts like he doesn't want to go on it, but then as soon as its over he acts like a tough guy and likes to tell all of us that it's not really that scary! Tyler cracks up the whole time out loud and finds the ride to be hysterical especially when your body rises off the seat and then likes to repeat how the ride tickles his "cha".

The first time for Emma and Eli

The first time with the whole family, including Grandma and Caryn

The last time with just us 6 plus Caryn

We spent a lot of time in the Bugs Life Land riding all the nice and easy rides for the little kids and then we went to the Bugs Life show and that freaked them out when the bugs crawl across your seat, when the spiders come down towards you, some times the boys would remove their glasses hoping that the things would go away!

Flick and the boys

The kids loved getting autographs from their favorite people. I didn't buy the twins very nice autograph books because I thought for sure they wouldn't want to go up and get signatures - especially Tyler, but dang they proved me wrong, they loved it!! Their very first one was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

As we were walking to meet up with the rest of our group the boys spotted Mickey Mouse!

Tyson was determined when he very first got his book "I need to get Pluto cause Pluto is my favorite dog!" Phew! We got him! Conner might be a little unsure of this, but Tyson is most pleased with himself!

Finally that night it was our turn to cash in on our Cars ride fast passes. We get on the ride and we are cruising along enjoying ourselves, but I really can't figure out what all the hub bub is about, then its time for the "race" part of the ride and you start flying - now I get it! We had to break up and go into different groups  and its fun to see everyone's different expressions when they are on the ride for the first time.

 Here is Caryn and Grandma and Grandpa one last time on the ride....

Here we are one last time...

The boys riding a ride in Bugs Life Land

The girls on the same ride

The spinning Lady Bug ride - I don't do spinning rides, sorry kids :)


All of us waiting to go watch a Bugs Life Show

Tyler and Eli swinging on some rope swing thing

All of us at the top of some playhouse/rope thingy we climbed...

Grandma and Grandpa on the Mater ride

We finally left California Adventures that night just after 8pm and headed back to the hotel and had Red Robin take out for dinner and then crashed!


The next morning was pretty much the same thing - Jared had to go back to Discount Tire first thing in the morning to get the tire they ordered for our Armada and we stayed behind and got ready. This was officially the 3 youngest first day at Disneyland!

I have decided every time Eli comes to Disneyland, he will have to take a picture with the man who he is named after...

 We headed over to go ride the Jungle cruise ride, another first day starter ride for the little ones :)

 Eli pretending he is too cool for the "slow" rides just kept begging and begging to go on Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. We slowly worked our way over to those rides. He couldn't have been more thrilled to ride them! (I am not sure how he weasels his way to the front of every ride, but some how he manages it!)

This picture is of course one of our top favorites because of Grandma's face! 

Me and Grandpa stayed behind with the 3 little boys while everyone else went to go ride Indiana Jones...we had our own fun!

Some more autographs...

 The Queen of Hearts was mine and Emma's favorite, but that's because she was so in love with Emma! She kept touching her hair, curtsying at her and then Emma would curtsy back and she actually lovingly pushed some other girls aside to be with Emma some more, dang good thing Emma is so cute because the Queen was diggin' it!

 I just think this is the sweetest picture of Tyson holding his book for Eeyore.

Each day late into the afternoon, the little ones would crash and take a little nap on us while we waited in some long line. While I was sitting down in front of Matterhorn holding Tyson, some dad and his son walked by and he asked if I wanted a picture taken, he said, he has lots of little kids and really thought we were cute sitting there. Eventually Conner couldn't hang any longer either and made his way over to us too. (This is probably the last time I will have one of my kids crash on me for a nap ever in my life, tear).


So the pose is weird we know, but our boys refused to take their hands down because the sun kept shining in their eyes so the photographer had us copy them!

At about 5pm, Grandma and Grandpa took all the kids back to the hotel for the night so Jared and I could have a little date night to celebrate his birthday! Caryn snapped this picture of the boys in front of the Main Street Christmas tree, good thing too because it had completely disappeared by the next day!

After we walked the kids out of the park Jared and I took off to go ride a few rides by ourselves. Space Mtn was our first stop...

After that we decided to head over to Blue Bayou so we could try and be a little bit early and hope to get a table by the water, mission accomplished! We had a most delicious dinner and enjoyed just being there and relaxing with just the two of us!



We had plans to ride more rides together but the after we rode Pirates again, my body was done and we had to head back to the hotel. Which was more depressing when we got to our room and all our kids were sleeping and it was only 9pm, sigh. Happy Birthday anyways Jared!

The next day was Caryn's birthday and the first day that Jared did not have to get up and go to Discount Tire, woo hoo! What a great day it was going to be! This was the day we hit up Toon Town! The kids of course loved it and we adults were sorta bored with it :)










We rode the train around the park while we ate some snacks and lunch and then we all rode Autopia.





More autographs...


 I love how Tyson is looking up to Woody!

Mary Poppins and Bert loved Emma and Eli and Bert wouldn't take a picture until Eli stood like him

In case you didn't know, please don't make the same mistake, Chip and Dale have different noses, I did offend Chip, but luckily Emma knew which one was which and why, phew she saved the day!

Ash Tyler if he got Minnie Mouse's autograph, nope he didn't, he didn't want it :)

Me, Dumbo and the boys, I guess I was the only one interested in taking a picture...

Peter Pan, a classic ride with a totally long wait every time! I will never understand that!


I think Grandpa ruined me when we were growing up. I remember riding the Tea Cups with him and he would spin it around and around and around, too much, I get dizzy just typing this! So, I no longer ride spinning rides, makes me sick. Thank heavens Caryn was there to take my kids on them.


 
Space Mountain!

When the photographer was putting the picture on the CD for us, he thought the little boys looked so brave he gave them Citizen's of Disneyland pins to wear!

Is anyone having fun?

Here comes some fun riding people...

Every trip I have some sort of thing that makes my eyes water up, this time it was Eli. He really really wanted to be picked to fight in the Jedi Training and he got picked! He was so super happy it made me so super happy. Even grandpa gave up riding rides with Caryn, Conner, Emma and Grandma so he could come and hang out with us in hopes of Eli getting picked. Tyler of course, wanted nothing to do with it, but Tyson was hoping to get picked too, until it came down to it, then he changed his mind :) Eli worked so hard to do everything he was taught to do with his light saber. When it was over he asked me, "when we get home, can I go outside with my light saber and practice with daddy so I will know how to fight Darth Vader?"




"engage!" "disengage"







He was so proud of himself!

Those who didn't go to the Jedi Training rode Casey Jr's Train and the Carousel.
 

Matterhorn (dumb new height requirements, Tyson could not ride this one, sigh)

That night we went back over to California Adventure and rode on the Cars ride again and watched World of Color. I have to say, Jared was pretty awesome and would run around getting all of our fast passes at each park for us to save us time in lines, I was pretty impressed!

The next day was our last day. It was bittersweet for sure. The Jensens and Caryn used our early entrance day this day and we got into Disneyland an hour early and rode 2 or 3 rides before the park opened. I might have had to use a little attitude to get us into the park early, but only because a worker the night before had told us wrong and in order for us to go to where we were supposed to be, we would have completely lost the extra hour, so attitude was totally needed.


All the kids got to pick their favorite rides that they wanted to do one last time and we made sure to hit them all up plus a couple of ones we hadn't been on yet. We ate all the treats we wanted to eat one last time, mostly more churros! Last time on Indiana Jones, notice  Eli won't touch the walls of the cave, that's because Jared told him it was made of bat poop so he wanted nothing to do with it!

Emma being crazy with a stuffed cat...

Last autographs...

Caryn needs a little more Disney in her life and a little PBS, she wasn't sure if this was Handy Manny or Bob the Builder, how embarrassing!

 
Emma had one last height requirement she had to make in order to be able to ride all the rides, this year she was tall enough. On the very last day she finally got to ride "Screamin' California" - she LOVED it!

We had such an amazing time at Disneyland! I never regret going, I only regret not going more frequently. I love the memories we made and how we always grow closer together spending that time together. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and Caryn and Conner for joining us on this vacation!