Christmas party

A week and a half ago was our ward Christmas party, and Dani and I were happy to be there without the added stress of planning it this year! We sat front and center with the Browns during dinner - Jacob loved sitting at the table like a big boy!
Our kids ate a ton! They ate everything, too - rolls, veggies, salad, and ham.
Afterwards, they watched the ward talent show (or at least the first 3 performances):



We then walked with our kids around the gym with our kids, who were searching for anyone who would feed them chocolate. They found quite a few people who were glad to share! We were really just waiting for Santa!

Claire ran right up to Santa and happily sat on his lap.

Jacob would've rather just said, "Santa" and "Ho ho ho" from a distance.

Here's our family Christmas photo. And our christmas tree
We're looking forward to being in Wyoming this year for Christmas!

Random photos (and stories - worth a skim)

Here is Claire with her head in a mixing bowl
Jacob also thought the mixing bowl was better used as a hat. Side note: both of these mixing bowls are in a cupboard they are not allowed in (because months ago, Jacob threw one of these mixing bowls and cracked it pretty badly). Dani was upstairs for 10 minutes ago and came down to her kids laughing at each other and saying, "Hat."
This is a picture at Nana's from Thanksgiving weekend. Claire and Jacob were practicing for the big Turkey day... little did they know that they'd be sleeping through dinner!
They loved to sit up to their own table and play. They're really getting into make believe. Dani watched one day as Claire took one of her favorite stuffed animals (a monkey) over to table with the diapers in it. She took out a diaper, laid the monkey down, and tried to put the diaper on. Very cute!
Click on this picture and take a close look at that face Jacob is making - it's hilarious!

THANKSGIVING TURKEY-BOWL SHOUT-OUT: to my dad! For the first time ever, we had 4 Jensens on the same team, which proved to be a winning combination. The official Turkey Bowl patriarch (by multiple years, may I add) more than held his own, playing quarterback and guiding his team down the field with a very New-England-Patriots-like efficiency. He was the unanimous MVP of the Turkey Bowl. Good on ya, mate!

Once there was a Snowman (videos!)

Jacob loves this song! He's so excited that he's always a few beats ahead. The four or five times before these were recorded, Jacob would flatten himself on his belly by the first time I got to, "In the sun he melted," then he'd lay there until the end, pop himself up, clap, and beg for more.

Claire wasn't nearly as interested. She had places to go.

Walking in the Snow

We recently awoke to snow on the ground, so I took Claire and Jacob out on our deck to walk around a little bit in it.
Jacob wasn't sure he liked it very much. He liked to talk about it, but actually being in it didn't excite him.
Claire, on the other hand, marched right out and did some laps around the table. She loved crunching the snow under her feet (just like she loved crunching fallen leaves). Notice her little turned-out-feet walk (except Vicki, don't notice it because it'll make you worry)
Jacob just stood in the same place the whole time. I got him to move only when I held his hand. It was cold, but he really just didn't want to walk in the stuff!

Little artists

We posted the fingerpainting fun we had with the kids. A few weeks ago, I came home to some more art, hung on the wall! One day, the one on the top was there. The next day, Claire and Jacob done had their own individual art

How fun! Claire really went to town with the crayons.
Jacob grabs the crayons full-fisted and upside down, it's funny!
The table spread and prepared for some artwork!

Kiddos love being outside!

Jacob and Claire love to be outside. Claire is becoming a little bit of a tomboy when she's outside. She loves to play with the dirt, bring rocks and sticks back from the parks, pick flowers, and get dirty. Jacob isn't sure he loves the dirt much. He'd rather run around, bark at the dogs, and point at planes.

We got kiddos a little cozy coupe, and Jacob loved it! He's saying, "oooh," which involves making that little face that moves his mouth to the side. It's cute.
So is Claire. Especially when she takes a handful of dirt and shoves it in her mouth (and all over her face)
Another day, more throwing dirt

One of her favorite things to do is to empty the dirt from the potter (which, by the way, yielded 7 tomatoes from its 3 plants - which is an improvement from the last time we planted tomatoes). Notice this is pre-dirt eating (the second picture).
Crazy man

By the way, we're feeling grateful that our kids have gotten over their colds. Jacob and Claire traded the flu back and forth for almost 3 weeks. Jacob was constantly on the edge of a meltdown for an entire week, then Claire took a turn. They really weren't acting like themselves and it was not fun for anyone (except for Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, which got more TV time than usual!). We're happy to have them feeling better and acting like the happy little energy-balls that we know and love! And Dani is glad to be able to go through a few days without Veggie Tales or Baby Einstein!

Pizza Party!

Months ago, I made up my mind that Dani and I were going to host a little pizza competition, and after much discussion, afew weeks ago, we finally hosted it! Everyone invited brought the pizza of their choice from a different restaurant. We ended up with 7 pizzas from Pizza Hut, Domino's, Donatos, The Works, Bravo (2), and LaRosas.

All the different pizzas looked pretty awesome in their boxes...

But once opened, it looked even better! What to choose...

A little slice of each, of course!

The Domino's pizza gave us the best story. The pizza was ordered for delivery and was late because it was not ordered from the Domino's that serviced our house, but they brought it anyway and included an order of Cinna-sticks. When we opened the box, there was a metal nut in the cheese (look just above and right of the middle of the pizza). Jamie Savage, who had ordered the pizza, called and informed them that there was a nut in our pizza, in it turned out that they had been looking for the nut because it had fallen off the pizza slicer! We ended up with yet another pizza at our house from Domino's!

In the end, I think that the Works might have been the winner, but it was certainly far from a consensus. It was lots of fun!