3 Year Pictures

We had 3 year pictures taken on the kids birthday... like always it was a lot of work for a few ok pictures, I have lots of blooper pictures to post, but here are the best ones we got.

Yep... This really is one of the best ones, Jacob had a death grip on her and it was smashing her face.
He is pretty easy to get a good picture of, so I have a couple good ones of him that I am not posting... it is not because he will hold still, it is just because he happens to be photogenic.
The one good one we got of Claire... she is such a big girl now, she is really losing her toddler look.
These are there Easter outfits by the way.
We've had better, but it could be worse.  At least you can see what everyone is looking like right now!

The New Addition!

Yesterday the newest addition to the Jensen family was born!  Jared's sister Camie had a baby boy and we are all so excited to meet him!  Congratulations Camie and Matt!  You now have a family of 5... WOW!  If you know Camie and want the details she has them posted on her blog!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is my sweetheart's birthday!  He is 28.  I love him!  In honor of his birthday I decided to mix some of my favorite pictures of him with 28 of my favorite things about him, so... in no particular order, here it goes:

1) He is a really good Daddy.

2) He is passionate about sports... I love his enthusiasm about them.

3)He can talk to anybody about anything... he makes friends with perfect strangers in minutes.

4) Kids love him... he is a favorite among many of our friends' kids, they flock to him.

5) He is smart... REALLY smart.

6) He isn't afraid to be silly.
7) He makes me laugh.

8) He's Hot!

9) He laughs as hard as his kids when they play together. (they laugh really hard)

10) He works hard to provide for me and kiddos.
11) He loves to mountain bike (he taught me to love it).

12) He loves to ski (we love to do this together).

13) He loves to dress up for crazy parties... he loves parties in general!
14) His eyes are beautiful blue.

15) He loves his family.

16) He is so patient with his kids.
17) He calms me and reminds me not to be to serious.

18) He can remember just about any number. (I always tell him if we had conversations in #'s he would remember them).

19) His face lights up when he throws a baseball, football, or frisbee... really, lights up!
20) He cares about other people.

21) Stories about children that are sick, orphaned, in poverty, etc... really effect him and fire him up to want to do something.
22) He loves to teach me things... like accounting laws, economic ideas, baseball plays, etc...

23) He encourages me to do things for myself.

24) He has a very competitive spirit and loves to play games.
25) He is a really good friend.

26) He tells me thank you for every meal and quite often does the dishes.

27) He always remembers to say "I love you".

28) He makes me want to do better and be better... he lives by example.
Happy Birthday Tub!  I love you!

The Birthday!

So, I am going to finally post some pictures from the third birthday party that happened on April 18th.  Jacob and Claire were SO excited for their birthday party and their birthday cake and their birthday presents.  They had a lot of fun with their friends and with their cake and all of their presents.  Jacob was so cute to enthusiastically say "THANK YOU" to anyone who told him Happy Birthday and Claire was very sure to make sure people were aware that it was her birthday and Jacob's birthday too!  Here are a few highlights:

Jacob with his new cowboy hat.
Claire checking out a new present.
Jacob modeling the Superman cape that Aunt Camie made (Claire got a supergirl one too, but if you want to see them both go to Camie's blog...her kids will stand still for a picture).
Jacob is still telling people that he got a lawnmower...he LOVES his lawnmower.
I loved these when I was young, so I had to get one for Claire, but she is still a little small for it, so Sarah had to help her out.
Her new trike and helmet!
His new trike and helmet.
The birthday cake...let it be known that frosting cakes may be the thing that I despise the very most!  I made one big cake with a boy side and a girl side.  The party was a colors and letters party so we had colored baloons pink and blue cake with giant colored sprinkles....
And rainbow colored cake...
Colored Jell-O jigglers letters and lots of colored wrapping papers and napkins.  

"I need to use my finger!"

Here's a conversation Jacob and Trisha Casper (one of our friends who babysat our kids) had hile we were out in Portland:

Jacob (in a panic): I can't get it out!!!

Trisha: you can't get what out?

Jacob: I can't get - the boogie

Trisha (holding a tissue): okay, blow

Jacob: It won't come out - I need to use my finger

Trisha: uh - okay

Jacob: I got it!  I got the boogie!!!

Holy Moly...3!

My sweet babies just turned 3 (yesterday)!  I cannot believe it.  Look how grown up they look!

It was really not that long ago that they looked like this!
and this...
Actually, it was 3 years ago!
They had such a fun birthday and we just love watching their excitement and seeing their big personalities come out of their little bodies!  Birthday party pictures to come...

Portland Trip

A couple of weeks ago Jared and I took a quick trip to Portland, OR without the kids (thanks again to all of you who watched them for us).  We had a really great time seeing Portland for the first time and visiting some of our best friends.  While we were there we went out for Thai food in the Pearl District, skied at Mount Hood Meadows, had a fun party with games and food with some old friends and some friends that we met for the first time, did some quick hikes and saw lots of waterfalls, and had a Monte Cristo sandwich party at Jim and Mel's house.  We packed in as much as possible!

There are lots of big waterfalls!
Here is Jared with Jim and their little boy Bridger...we got to meet Jim and Mel (you might remember them from our Mexico trip) anyway...we got to meet there 2 little kiddos for the first time, Kacy was only about 8 weeks old.  Bridger loved Jared (he seems to have the effect on young children).
Here I am...EVERYTHING is so green in Oregon, mostly because there is moss growing up and down everything.
We had a perfect ski day...see all the snow in the trees, that was the amount of fresh powder we were skiing on and it was a lovely sunny day.
There is Mount Hood (our proof that it exists).  It was a very fun trip and we were so glad to see our friends!

Mother of Twins Perks

I belong to a mother of twins club.  It is a great perk to being a mother of twins because twice a year (fall and spring) they have a big sale.  If you are a member of the club you get to shop the night before the sale is open to the public.  It is HUGE!!!!  I have been shopping at these sales since I was big and pregnant with Jacob and Claire and I really outfit them almost completely at the sales.  I have gotten better at shopping each sale, since it does take some strategy.  I bought all of this stuff and a tricycle for just over $100.  I also picked up a great wagon for a friend and a pair of shoes for another friend.  Such a great perk!

Aunt Kaci (aka Peepee) and Toby come to visit

Ok, I am behind again...surprise surprise.  Anyhow, I FINALLY convinced my sister to come visit and in March she and her youngest, Toby, came to visit.  Toby and Claire and Jacob had so much fun together.  While she was here we went to Ikea, we ate Mexican food, we went to Louisville for our friends' sealing and went to the children's museum there, we went to the outlet malls, to the zoo, and to the Gap clearance center.  We had a lot of fun in a few short days.  Here are some pictures (Kaci got more and better pictures).

This is the view Jared had from the driver's seat on the way home from Louisville.  I was asleep in the passengers seat.
Claire and Jacob playing in the water.  Toby had so much fun at this area and actually dumped a huge pitcher of water down the side of some unsuspecting little girl (on accident).
In the rocket ready for take off!
The kiddos checking out the giant disk of tiny mirrors on the way in.
Jacob and Toby taking care of each other on the way to Mexican food.

Girls' weekend Chicago Style

So, once again I am so so behind.  So I will do a quick post to share some pictures from the fun girls' weekend that I had with my mom-in-law and sister-in-laws in Chicago.  The weekend activities were:

*dinner and gifts for Amber's birthday

*sleeping in

*shopping Michigan Avenue and finding great deals

*Make-overs

*Chicago Chocolate Tour

*Chicago style pizza

*Brunch and church with Amber's best friend Alyssa

*Art Museum

*dinner again!

*mini baby shower for Camie

*shopping some little specialty shops in a different shopping district in the city

*lots of chit-chat and bonding time

Camie with her baby shower gifts
Chicago style pizza (after makeovers and chocolate tour walking in the pouring rain)
Chocolate tour stop (also after makeovers and walking in rain)
Chocolate tour stop at 'More' cupcakes!
Amber with her Birthday gifts!

Thank you girls for such a fun weekend and a much needed get-away!

What a cute girl!

For all who have already read the last two posts and worry that Claire may be scarred when she sees what was written about her as a toddler, we want you to know that Claire is a really, really cute girl!  See!

A tale of two sleepers

Bedtime is always an adventure.  And I'm not just talking about overcoming the seemingly springloaded pillows that shoot our kids out of bed the instant their heads hit them... no, I'm talking about AFTER they are asleep!

A couple weeks ago, Claire decided she no longer wanted to sleep on her sheets at the head of her bed.  She wanted to sleep on top of the comforter at the foot of her bed.  and jammed into the corner by the wall.  It's like she lost something on the floor under the bed that she's trying to get!  Every night she's like this (side note: as I'm writing this, Claire is asleep horizontal to her footboard).  Also, she's a sprawler, taking more square feet on the bed than a 2-year-old should be able to cover.  Her drool makes her hair stick to her cheeks, so when we go in to check on her, we really can't even tell which way her face is facing!  And she snores.  Loud.  We can hear it through the wall in our room!  Sleeping seems like hard work for her!

Then, there's Jacob.  Normally on his pillow and under his covers.  With a little angelic look on his face.

By the way, Dani has since switched the sides of the bed that the pillow goes on - when Claire saw it the first time, she got a huge grin on her face... then stayed put for only 5 minutes after Dani left the room.

"In my airport"

Letting their imaginations run wild

These two little kids fight a fair share...but they are also really really good buddies.  Even in the last couple of weeks they have gotten so much better at playing together and they are constantly lost in their little imaginary world.

Here are some of the latest favorite games to play or things to imagine:

*Sacrament meeting (they say prayers and sing songs about sacrament meeting, they pretend to eat bread and water and say more prayers and sing more songs)

*Going to the Wild Things (this is from the book that Nana gave them "Where the Wild Things Are" now they have to get in a boat and travel to where the wild things are.

*That they are in the cartoons that they watch (they love to pretend Super Why and Claire is always Princess P with 'spelling word power'.  They also play Dragon Tales where Jacob will walk around calling 'Emmy, Emmy!!'and says 'Claire, you Emmy!?!?'  which Claire always agrees to and says 'Yeah, I Emmy' and so Jacob chases her around calling to Emmy.  Often they will assign characters to me or each other.  They also love to make car noises and be "Lighting the Queen (trans. Lightening McQueen).

*Going on a trip (always packing up their suitcases and backpacks and traveling the whole house).

 *Swimming in a 'swimming suit' (They find wrappers and paper and stick them to their shirts calling them 'wimming wuits' and travel to each bed in the house to swim).

*Night night (they put each other and anyone else around, or their stuffed animals, to bed several times every day).

*Talking for their toys (this is very new for them, but they have started to talk for their toys and have their toys interact with each other, sometimes their trains will talk to each other, or last night at Nana's Jacob had Buzz Lightyear and Claire had Woody and they were talking to each other imagining some scenario).

*Making meals and snacks (they prepare and we all eat MANY imaginary meals, snacks, and treat everyday).
Anyhow, those are some of their favorite things, but their are many other things that I get to witness them playing.  Just for the sake of recording, here are a few recent things they have said:

When my mom was bending down to give Claire a kiss her hair hung down in Claire's face and she told her "Your hair's a mess!"

We were headed to Nana's after church and Jacob (knowing exactly where we were headed) asked "where we going?" to which I replied "where do you think we are going?" He quickly told me "no, I talking to Claire" and then asked her again.  Claire replied "Ummm, we going to Nana's" so Jacob said "Oh, Ok, That be fun!"

My dad told Claire that she is a goofball, Claire told him "No, I not a goofball!" and he told her "yeah, you are a goofball!" She burst out in tears and came upstairs where I was, when I asked her what was wrong she said "I'm NOT a goofball... I want to stay upstairs!"