Could you resist?

They made $6 total, $3 each. They each spent some of it buying junk from garage sales, but I am pretty sure the most exciting part was paying 30 cents of tithing.

The boys and the girls

I have a lot to post about, it makes my head hurt, so I will keep it simple. Here are the boys and the girls.

Happy Due Date

Happy Due Date babies! Thank you for not waiting until today to come. Tomorrow is the 5 week mark.Liam was a little sleepy for the pictures
See how chubby they are getting!

In Some Trouble

On Thursday Jacob and Claire were playing together so well.... they usually do, so I tried to just let them since whenever I pass by there room recently I am usually asked to "please not interrupt their game" or "please go away!" In the afternoon when I came out of the bathroom Jacob came in the room to say "Mom, I think we might be in some trouble. We cut Claire's hair, but we used bags!" Used bags they did! I found three target bags in their bathroom garbage, each with a wad of beautiful red hair in them.

When I got the details Jacob said that he did not actually help, I asked Claire if she did it herself and she said "yes, because he is telling the truth!" she then added "But Jacob watched!" Jacob told me he did watch and "I just reminded her that you might not like it!" I found hair in two rooms and child safety scissors. At least she followed the rules about which scissors she is allowed to use!
See the short chunks there.
Her hair was fixed like this and she cut on the little pigtails on both sides. I may have laughed a little bit, then I found her crying in the bathroom and when I asked her why she was crying she told me she didn't want people to laugh at her because her hair looked funny. She also was upset that her hair wouldn't be red anymore... I told her it would still be red, but it would be short. I was trying to figure out how much sympathy you are supposed to have for a child that cuts her own hair. See below how she felt about it.
We went that evening to get it fixed, it is shorter and layered to fix the problem. I am not sure I love the fix... I may have it fixed again and all one length (like I originally asked for). I was not really too upset and I was feeling grateful that she did not cut right up to the pigtail or try to make bangs.
This was after our ward picnic... thus the butterfly.

4 weeks old

The babies are 4 weeks old today (or minus 1 week if you are counting by due date). They are growing so fast and are doing really well. Good eaters, still pretty sleepy. We all really love them.

Tiny and Sweet

Hospital Pictures

Liam and Kate are over 2 weeks old now, so I am trying to catch up. Here are some pictures from the hospital. Jacob and Claire and my mom were able to come visit and meet the new additions. Our nurses were having a great time dressing them up with things that the volunteers have made, they found some interesting things.

We were so happy to go home just 2 days after they were born, we feel so blessed that we had such healthy babies that are such great eaters.
More pictures to come... they are getting chubbier every day.

July 11, 2011

Twins 2.0 arrived! Sorry it has taken so long for me to get this up. My goal was to make it to 35 weeks and on the 10th I was 35 weeks. At 1 AM on the 11th my water broke... I made it 1 hour past the 10th. Labor started very quickly and the lovely nurses were able to get the nice man to come quickly for my epidural. I was very lucky to not have a C-section this time as well. Everything went beautifully and our sweet Kate was born at 6:48 followed by Liam at 7:07.

Kate Afton Jensen, 5 lbs. 1 oz, 18 inches
Liam Kip Jensen, 5 lbs. 12 oz., 18 1/4 inches.

Kate on bottom, Liam on top. They were amazingly healthy babies for 35 weeks, and really great (even if they are sleepy) eaters. We were so lucky to be able to bring them home just two days later on the 13th. More pictures to come... they are already over a week old and have past their birth weight.

35 weeks!

Sunday marks 35 weeks, and the lifting of the strict bed rest Dani has been on for the past weeks, which has felt like an eternity to Dani. We're very happy to have made it this far.

One day, Dani was looking at her profile in the mirror, and she came out, and said, "Jared, look. This side...

is SO much smaller thank this side (see below)!" Right in front of her forearm, you can notice the bulge of the girl. The girl is very much on the right side, and the boy is basically right in the front and right-front side.

We went to the Hornibrook's to watch fireworks... the first time Dani had been out of the house for something other than a doctors appointment in maybe a month or more.
and... here's a GREAT shot of just how big the belly has become. She's thrilled that I'm posting this.

Pretty soon, we'll be posting pictures of the two little ones inside! We're excited!

Is that one T or two?

One of my favorite 'kiddo-isms' deals with the misplacement of words. Here's one example, while kiddos were playing and I was making dinner:

Me: Jacob, do you want to have reading time with Mamma before dinner?

Jacob: I don't want to read but.

Also, Jacob told the babysitter this week, after smelling her arm, "Girls smell like berries." She asked, "what do boys smell like?" Jacob responded, "hmm... chipmunks."

Update on the belly!

We've had an eventful last week and a half. Friday the 17th, very early in the morning, Dani couldn't sleep because of a side pain in her left side. The babies are on the right side, so it wasn't the babies, but it was a very intense pain. We ended up in the hospital Friday to get the pain under control and got back home Friday. For close to 48 hours, the pain was kept under control.

Sunday night, it returned and intensified until, around 3am Monday morning, we had to call our neighbor to watch the kids while we went into the hospital. Dani was in pre-term labor at 32 weeks, so they gave her 2 steroid shots 24 hours apart to help develop the babies lungs and magnesium sulfate to slow the contractions. Fortunately, the magnesium worked and Dani's contractions were contained. Dani's pain was also contained. While we were told we would be there for at least 4 days, and we half expected to have the babies, we ended up coming home Wednesday afternoon.

Since then, Dani has been on full bedrest. We've had Jacob and Claire go over to others' houses and have had a friend come stay the day with them since.

It has been a time-consuming process, but we are glad the babies are still where they can grow and develop the best. We hope Dani makes it about 2 more weeks.

We've been grateful for the support of friends and neighbors, some of whom have come over in the middle of the night, others who have watched Jacob and Claire overnight or for many hours, others who have brought meals or visited Dani while she's confined to her room, or others who have made themselves available for us to call upon.

I've also been grateful to work for a company where I can take work home and where I am encouraged to put family first.

Here's Dani today, at just over 33 weeks.

Dani's belly definitely leans to the right, especially during a contraction (as shown below). The peak is where the baby boy is - the girl is (on the picture) on the left. Her pain was (again looking at the picture) on the right side, where there aren't any babies.

We've been eating dinner in our bedroom some nights - not all (I'm scared to bring certain foods onto our carpet!) Kiddos love that!

It's feeling like time is dragging for Dani, but at the same time, it feels like time is flying by for me - my days are more full than ever, and Dani's are slower than ever! We are both looking forward to life in a couple weeks, for sure!

30 weeks

I am supposed to be taking it easy and laying down as much as possible, so it is getting harder to get a picture since I don't always get ready for the day. Yesterday I had an appointment with the doctor so Jared got some pictures. Here I am just past 30 weeks.

Preschool Graduation

Last week was kiddos last week of preschool. We also got to go to Kindergarten orientation and see where they will be going to school next year; they are very excited. They had a little graduation to celebrate completing preschool. It was very cute and the highlight for kiddos was that there was cake when it was over.

Here are all the graduates, each class has a different color hat. Jacob and Claire are right next to each other, you can see them because Jacob is the only one with bright blue glasses and Claire is waving at us.



Jacob and Claire with Jacob's teacher, Teacher Tina.
With Claire's teacher, Teacher Sherry.

Both of kiddos teacher's are so happy with how they have done and know that they will do really well in kindergarten. They keep telling us how much they will miss them both, including watching them deliver little surprises to each other's cubbies.

28ish

These pictures were taken a little over 2 weeks ago, just before 28 weeks. Hopefully we will get a new one in the next couple of days so you can see what 30 weeks looks like. Jared thought we needed to get all angles... so here they are.

26 weeks

This picture was taken a little over a week ago.... I am 27 weeks now, but there have been a few requests for a belly update, so here is the last picture we took. Enjoy!

The elephant in the room

I've mentioned many times about how much like my sister Amber Claire is. We've found yet another couple similarities.

Claire over the past week has been waking up multiple times at night telling us she can't sleep. This morning, we were awakened by Jacob crying because Claire had come into his bed (oh yeah, we bunked kiddos' beds... pictures to come...) and had accidentally hit him in the nose. Later, we again asked her why she woke up so many times and was in Jacob's bed. Her answer:

"There is an elephant trunk that comes into the room at night while I'm asleep and wraps itself around my bed and it makes a noise like breathing."

Crazy, realistic dreams!!! Thing #150 (okay, I haven't really counted, but it's gotta be close) that Claire and Amber have in common.

So, tonight, the ordeal (outside of an emotional, crying-like-a-teenager-at-an-EFY-testimony-meeting Jacob who needed to hug his mama because, as he put it, "I just love you so much!") was trying to keep Claire safe from the elephant trunk. Dani (the logical one) first tried talking common sense to Claire that it was just a dream with no luck.

So, we tried a different strategy. Here are the steps we've taken, illustrating thing #151, a lack of common sense when tired and convinced about the realism of a dream:

1. I need a bear. "What about your stuffed bears?" No, I need a REAL bear! "Claire, real bears couldn't even get up the stairs - they're too big!" What about a baby bear? "Claire, a baby bear plays even rougher than Jacob."

2. "What about if I put another light in your room to shine on the door?" He doesn't come in the door.

3. "I promise it won't hurt you." It doesn't hurt me. "then why are you worrying about it?" I just don't know what damp means. (!?!?!)

4. "What about robo-panda (a gift they were given for their birthday)? He moves" But he isn't real!

5. "What about the gator-golf (another gift)? If something goes in his mouth, his mouth shuts!" Oh yeah!

Claire and Jacob run back to their room. We go and set up the gator. 1 minute later

6. BUT WHAT IF IT GOES AROUND THE GATOR!!! We go back into the room He can go around the gator. "What about if we put these (decorative bulletin) boards next to your bed?" No, I need real wood! "Claire, we don't have other wood" It has to be nailed with a hammer. "Claire, look, these block all of underneath the bed. There are toy bins there at the foot and a wall at the other side and the head."

7. But I need noise! "The radio is playing." Not loud enough! We turn it up a bit "There you go, it's perfect now."

this appears to have worked. for about 45 seconds after we leave the room.

8. BUT I HAVE TO MAKE NOISE!!!!!

9. "Fine, Claire, let's have you sleep in the green room (okay, it's a white room with a green bed in it - known as the green room)."

we relocate Claire to the green room, get her set up with a nightlight and music, say goodnight, walk out of the room, sigh once, and hear...

10. SCREAMING!!!!! "Claire, what's wrong?" There isn't enough light! "Claire, there are 3 nightlights in your room. Let's go there. We'll leave the door open a little." All the way! "Fine."

So, there you have it. With gator, wooden boards, louder music, an extra nightlight, and an open door (we forgot robo-panda and didn't get her a real bear), Claire is in her room asleep. We'll see if that protects her from the elephant in the room (which doesn't do any harm, but breaths, oddly enough, just like a sleeping Jacob) so that all can get a good night of sleep!

Candy Land Birthday Party

I decided that since 5 is a big birthday I would have an actual birthday party for my kiddos. They wanted a candy land birthday. The invitation.
The Cake.
All the guests sitting on the 'game board' for present time.
Some of the decorations/party favors.
Behind Jacob was the table where they could make necklaces with licorice laces and fruit loops.
This is the table where they could decorate their Princess Frostine or King Candy crowns.
Decorations/favors.
Here is the game board, we used it for a cake walk type game with the songs "I want Candy" and "The Candyman"; they got a prize if they landed on Candy Land Castle.

All the kiddos. Basically we just decorated the crowns, made the necklaces, did the cakewalk game, opened presents, had cake and ice cream, and then filled up everyone's party boxes with goodies and toothbrushes. It was a little chaotic but I think everyone had fun. I have to give a shout out to my dear sweet husband who manned most of the birthday party since I got hit with another inner ear infection right before the party and spent the 20 minutes before it started losing my lunch.