DATE WITH DADDY!

What to do, what to do...what do you do to entertain your kiddos during October break that is more fun than just laying around the house watching movies but doesn't cost any money?! This October break we are going to have to get very creative to see how to make this break exciting since we are trying not to spend any money. Idea #1: Take advantage of the fact that Emma still loves spending time with her parents before it's too late. Yesterday Jared wrote her a little invitation and handed it to her at breakfast time inviting her to go on a date with him that day. They packed a picnic lunch, went to the park to eat it, played croquet or "crow-key" and "crow-ket" as Emma kept calling it because she couldn't remember the name to save her life and then we used a buy-one-get-free ice cream coupon and they went to Cold Stone and ate some ice cream!Emma had the best time and gave me every detail in order when she got home.

Saddest part of the day...Elias realized that Daddy and Emma were going to go outside and he didn't have any shoes on so he ran to his room, climbed on top of the box of wipes and grabbed his shoes off the shelf (even matching ones at that) ran and gave them to me so I put them on and then he ran outside only to discover that he was all alone, they left him :( (sorry the picture isn't very clear, no time to take a great shot, had to get it in the moment.) Don't worry, super mom to the rescue, I chased him around and around the bushes in the front yard and then when that bored me (a couple of minutes later) I brought him inside and let him eat 2 bowls of ice cream with sprinkles!! Excellent mother of the year, ha ha!

YES ON AZ PROP 102!

Our church leaders have come out and asked us to do what we can to get people to vote yes on Prop 102. They aren't telling us who to vote for for President but they are asking to support this propisition and do what we can to spread the word and get voters to support it. To the right is my small contribution but a good start right?! (Thanks Austin for the idea!)

NEAR DEATH EXPIERENCE!

OK not really but we came awfully close. I was at Karli's (my soon to be sister-in-law) bridal shower when Jared sent me a text message..."prepare yourself. Emma has a brush stuck in her hair and it might have to be cut out." My immediate response back, "don't touch it, I will fix it." As soon as I got home Jenn (my other sister-in-law who does hair) and I went over to go and inspect the damage. Being a girl, I too have gotten my hair tangled up in those stupid round brushes but I have always managed to get it out, minus a few pieces of hair. This time it was looking like a different story. Jenn and I couldn't believe it. We worked at it for a while and nothing was happening. Bless Jared's heart, he told us that peanut butter gets hair out of brushes and we let him know peanut butter only works for getting gum out of hair :) If Jenn would have had her scissors with her we would have cut it out but because she didn't, we worked at it for a few more minutes and somehow, by some miracle from above, the hair came out. Emma was crying, I almost cried because she is supposed to be a flower girl in a month and if we had cut her hair it would have been to her chin, not really long enough for an updo at all. That night when Emma went to bed she said her prayers and said, "thank you for letting me get the brush out and thank you for not making me cut my hair and please don't let me get it stuck in there again." PS - when we thought we were going to have to cut it out Jenn reminded me to take a picture for the blog and that made Emma cry more because she didn't want me to post this picture on here but I assured her that if we have to cut her hair when she is 15 years old she will think this is funny :)

BLESS ALL OF OUR HEARTS, WE TRY...

"VOTE HERE/AQUI". So I thought it would be fun to earn a little spending money by working the polls on Tuesday. I worked for 16 hours and made approximately $70 after taxes...AWESOME! That comes out to be $4.37 an hour...I made more than that at my first job when I was 15 years old, excellent. It was pretty sad at the polls I must say, hardly anyone came out to vote but those who did well let me break down the majority of the voters for you. They were either LDS (fact, because I knew a lot from my parents stake and you could see the garments) and the others...Hispanics wanting to know how to vote so that Sheriff Joe Arpaio didn't win. I have never been one to get political on my blog but now I am. I love America and all the freedoms it gives me and what I don't like about it, I can complain about because I vote. Please go and vote. To make it easier for you, I am including a link you can click on to become an early voter - translation - you can sit on your lazy butt and vote from home and mail it in for free or drop it off at any voting precinct without waiting in line. https://recorder.maricopa.gov/earlyvoteballotnet/ ok I am done.

Oh Emma my love. She is good at so many things, she can dance, she can read at a 3rd grade level, she is polite and always writes the Tooth fairy a thank you note but Olympic events...just aren't her forte. Her class had their own Olympics, they got into teams and marched out to the Olympic theme song holding their team flag, competed in different events and won medals. Every kid was supposed to win a gold metal at one event so they would all be proud of themselves. Thank heavens for that rule because Emma was on cloud 9 when she won her gold medal. It was so fun to watch her participate and in each event but I am afraid that is the last Olympics I will ever see her in...I don't quite think she will make the 2020 Summer Games at her rate :)

So for the first time I will admit that my son is speech delayed. I always chalked it up to the fact that he was a boy but turns out, its not. Starting next week we will be having a Speech Therapist come out to our house once a week to work with Bubbas to get him talking. He uses a little less then 10 words now but it starting to make sounds that mimic words - yay! It never really bothered us much until recently when he started getting really frustrated because no one can understand what he wants. Since Jan/Feb he has had fluid in his ears that weren't always due to ear infections and the speech lady says that because of the fluid in his ears it may sound to him like we are all talking under water and that's why he doesn't talk (when I say talk I mean use words everyone can understand because the kid babbles like crazy). So today we went and saw an audiologist who ran some test on him (see above picture) and he came back normal, although they did say that he had negative pressure in his ears which meant fluids were about to come and she did say that when he has the fluids in his ears he may have hearing loss but today he was good. We go back in 2 weeks to talk to the specialist there and find out if he needs tubes or not. Poor kiddo, someday we will all understand you and you will be happy with us but for now at least we are doing the best we can and getting him the help he needs, thank you Aunt Caryn and Aunt Richelle for helping us with this.

So I have been sick all week and now it has made its way down through my throat and into my chest and can I just say that I sound like a man, my friend called today and she thought I was a man and Jared was in the shower and heard me talking and he thought I was a man which freaked him out cause he thought a man was going to see him in the shower, but anywho...Emma put some clothes in the laundry basket yesterday and came to me and said, "mom, you need to do the laundry, that has way too much in there." I am trying to decide if that is a compliment because I always do the laundry so she has never seen the basket get that full before or if she was ripping on me for being lazy this week?! hmmmm.

When I was earning my big bucks on Tuesday, Jared had to stay home and watch the kids. That meant, he had to do Emma's hair, get her and her friend to the bus stop which meant loading up all 3 boys, pick them up from the bus stop, make lunches, make dinner, entertain Elias, feed the twins, change oodles of diapers, etc. Can I just say that when I got home, the house was quiet, the boys were happy, Elias and Emma were bathed, the dishes were loaded in the dishwasher, he said Elias didn't watch TV all day (how did Jared accomplish that great task?!) and he had washed our sheets on our bed so they were nice and clean. He was amazing. I was starting to feel that my role as the homemaker wasn't really necessary with such a great guy around but luckily it happened...He was pooped out and wanted to go to work and the best part was, the next day Tyson managed to get poop on our sheets and pee on them, he was so frustrated with all his hard work and how it had been such a waste...I love it! Welcome to my world my love.

UPDATE!

Here is a little update on the Jensens.

To say something that totally bugs my sister, I am amazing! I took the contents in this can...and turned it into this loaf of whole wheat homemade bread!Thank you Jaime V. for teaching me how to be a true mormon and do all those things that I thought only old Relief Society ladies did. I now know how to can apple pie filling and also make homemade bread out of cans of wheat that I have in my food storage since being married...I better quit hanging out with her before I become to perfect and get exalted to Heaven.

Funny story about Emma. Over the weekend she decided to make a fort in the family room. While I was in the den I hear her shout, "Eli no!" I go out there to see what all the fuss was about and I ask what happened and she proceeds to tell me, "mom, he just wrecked my fort that took minutes to make." Jared and I got a good laugh out of her minutes comment.

Elias is the older protective brother already. We took the boys out for the first time to Costco 3 weeks ago and we were pushing them around in the stroller while we were shopping. Jared had walked away from me and the boys and Elias decided to follow him. While they were gone a lady came over to stare at the babies and talk to me about them. When Eli discovered that someone was close to his babies he came running over and pushed his way through so he could stand in between her and the babies to protect them from her :) Boo on the City of Chandler and their recreation activities. We decided Elias needs to have an opportunity to get out of the house and do fun things like Emma did so we were going to sign him up for this parent/toddler activity which was every Friday for 45 minutes and he would get to run around and play on some gymnastic mats. Well, of course it was full with 4 people already on the waiting list so I was pissy of course and then I remembered reading on Amy's blog that she took her girls to this gymnastic place and let her kids play all over so I gave her a call and found out that less than a mile away from me on every Friday they have open gym from 10am-12pm so we went down there last Friday and the kid went buck wild, he thought he was in Heaven running all over the place, jumping in the foam pit, hanging from the bars, etc. Thanks Grandpa Rodgers for watching the twins every Friday so Bubbas can have a little excitment in his life and get all of his energy out!

Tyler's turn. At 2 months old he now weighs 11 lbs 13 oz (25% - 50% range) and his height is 22 inches(5% - 10% range). He is so fun to have around, its like re-living the baby Elias stage since they are practically identical in looks and personality.
Oh smiley face Tyson, he has been a smiler since in the womb and we actually have the 3D pictures to prove it. He is 10 lbs 15 oz (10% - 25% range) and he is 21 1/2 inches tall (3% for his age). We have never had such small babies before, its kinda fun not lug around a baby in the 95 percentile for a change :)

Ok, so dont ask why they are sleeping in our closet just pay attention to how cute they are. We put them to bed side by side and then found them like this...it cracks us up how Tyson just makes himself comfy on his brother and how kind his brother is to just let him lay all over him :)

BABY BLESSING!

The baby blessing day finally arrived! The boys were 7 1/2 weeks old and we were excited to bless them this Sunday because it was our last Sunday in our ward before the big split so we were excited to share this with our ward who had supported us so much.
It was a beautiful day. We had 63 people come out and support our family on this very special occasion. Jared did an amazing job. I loved watching him standing there in his suit looking all dapper and holding each boy in his arms and giving them a kiss before and after their blessing (I am grateful to the 2nd counselor for pointing that out during his testimony to remind me what a great man I am married to). I even enjoyed watching the circle part down the middle after each blessing so he could have the infamous "Lion King" moment (holding each baby up for all to see). I do enjoy hearing everyone say "awhhh" when he holds them up and I let him know if he didn't hold them up good enough for everyone to enjoy that I would have to take them up to the podium with me while I bore my testimony - ha ha! Tyler's blessing went great and I was really able this time to sit back and just focus on the words that Jared was saying. Then it became Tyson's turn. The first half of the blessing was great just like his brother's but before I could enjoy the second half I found myself quietly running down the aisle chasing Elias who found it most exciting that he could escape because every adult was quietly sitting with their eyes closed so no one was paying any attention to him. Thank heavens my mom and Kara were writing the blessing down otherwise I would have no idea what was said. After the blessing the Bishop had me stand up so everyone could see me, well that was easy to do, I was standing in the middle of the chapel holding Elias so I gave a quick "I cant believe I am standing here chasing my cute son down the aisle who I secretly want to beat right now" smile and went and sat back down on my bench. After Sacrament we all headed back to our house for some food, folks and fun. Thank you to my parents and Jen Rodgers for watching my kids on Saturday so I could prepare everything, thank you to Caryn and Cade for helping with the kids on Sunday while we went to the meeting, thank you to Jared's mom for staying and cleaning up while we ran out to the meeting while there were still people in our house and thanks to my homo cousin Randi for making more pretzel desserts even though I told her not to and now I am stuck eating them all (when I say "stuck" I secretly mean enjoy).
I am truly grateful for the amazing husband and kids that I have been blessed to have in my life. I am so glad they are stuck with me for time and all eternity!

WATER BABIES!

Tonight we had a surprise birthday party for Jared's mom. All the kiddos had a great time swimming, throwing some water balloons (I must confess, mom it was me who hit you with the balloon, not Bryant)eating and the big boys enjoyed diving contests, etc. My favorite part was seeing the twins in their little speedos and afterwards when they wore their bathrobes, sorta reminisent of Hugh Heffner in his robe all chill :)