The night before Christmas

Before we get to Christmas day, we need to show the show Jacob and Claire put on in the Jensen Family's annual Christmas Eve Party show.  My parents have a tradition of having two families over on Christmas Eve, and we all do some sort of talent for the show.  Claire and Jacob made their debut this year... over and over! 

 

After hearing the applause, they each had to do a solo!

Notice the M&M's below - Claire started taking M&M's after every performance, so I think that's one reason she wanted to perform so many times!  She loves candy!

They did another duet upstairs, then when the show moved downstairs, they did another duet on the hearth.  I think it's funny how Jacob bows - he did this after every time!

HAPPY (early) BIRTHDAY DANI!!!

Dani turns 26 on Christmas day - since her birthday often gets overlooked, I decided to dedicate a post to her a couple days early with some of my favorite pictures of her

- Mexico.  Awww, cute.
- Red River Gorge, KY.  This is something I know she would love to do more of - maybe without having to carry a child on her back, though!  I love that Dani loves to be outside.
- I love her cheesy happy smile face.  Her eyes can light up a room.

- I love that Dani loves to entertain others, whether it is throwing an Olympics party, a golden birthday party, an ugly Christmas Sweater Party, murder mysteries, or dressing up as Vanna White, and making her friend do likewise, for a ward relief society party.  She throwing parties and thinking of ways for people to have fun.

- She loves to do the hold-the-camera-out-and-take-a-picture-of-yourself thing.

- I had lots of pictures to choose from - not as many that got her in the picture, though!

Happy Birthday to a loving wife, mother, and best friend.

Story time with Nana and Papa

One of the few times we can get our kids to hold still is when reading.  Here they are reading with Papa

Nana was the third person to read Claire this book in 10 minutes! 
He may be still, but he's up to something - click on the picture and get a look at that face!

Jacob-style reading - watch his legs never stop moving!

Ploby Super So Blogging

This post is dedicated to what these two are up to.

Claire's favorite thing to say might be "ploby" (trans. Probably) but she uses it for most everything, not just things that are probably.  Example: I just went downstairs to where my children use the lamp as a 'music stand'  holding a board book (aka music) to sing or 'play oboe' (a sippy cup, block, etc...).  Anyhow, they knocked down some pictures from the music stand and when I walked up Claire declares "they ploby fall down."  She also told me earlier that the rubber band for her hair was "ploby Claire's" and that the big one that she knows is mine is "ploby mommy's."

Jacob's ploby favorite thing to say is..."super so".  Usually he uses this if he is "super so stinky." Sometimes he is "super so playing" or his lunch is "super so yummy."  The best part of when he is 'super so stinky' though is the way that he says it.  It is a deep throaty "AH oHHH SICK, I super so stinky, sick mommy."
Claire also likes to repeat everything you say, so if you are on the phone or reading a book or if Jared and I are having a conversation at dinner or in the car there is a constant quiet mumble happening as Claire tries to quietly repeat every single word.  She has also started singing about everything...usually to the tune of ABC/twinkle twinkle.
Jacob has started to break out in song.  He is always singing something that I had no idea he knew and I have to rack my brain to figure out where he would have heard it.  Yesterday I was sitting next to him and he sang "glory to God, glory to God, glory to God" over and over, I figured out that he was singing "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains" and I sang "Peace On Earth" which finally moved him on from the "Glory to God" part.  I think we sang it either in church on Sunday or at a concert on Sunday.  He has a good memory.

Their favorite things to play together are:

*making and eating a meal (usually their beads are marshmallows or their blocks are nuggets, etc...)

*Playing oboe and singing at the music stand

*night night, they like to put each other and me to bed and they have been dragging blankets, bears, and pillows all over the house and they go through every motion (even a prayer and a drink of water).

*Going on a trip.  They pack up their suitcases or their back packs with random small toys and then come tell me that they are going on a trip and to give them a kissy and say "I love you" then they walk off and go either upstairs or downstairs then return to start over with packing up. (sometimes they are going to work, usually if there are a pair of daddy's shoes around to wear on the trip.)

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

So, we started what is to be an annual occasion last week.  We kicked off the Christmas season with an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party and it was a huge success (if I do say so myself).  We had ugly tablecloths and wall hangings to set the mood.  We ate soups, appetizers, and lots of yummy Christmas treats (thank to all of you who helped out with that).  We had a white elephant gift exchange, and ugliest sweater contest, and a rousing game of Christmas Bunko. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I loved the sweaters that people came up with. 

Here are the invitations that I made.

Some of the girls playing Bunko.
Lucky Kyle picked this box to open, he didn't keep it for long though!
Another table during Bunko (do you love the hat for traveling Bunko?).
This was one of the great white elephant gifts!

Yes, I am aware that there are a million pictures on this post and I apologize that I am not smart enough to know how to do one of those blog slideshow thingies, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't leave out any of the great sweaters (I think we missed pictures of a few), so for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the great sweaters that appeared (vests and sweatshirts were allowed).







(sorry that this picture is blurry, I have one in focus but they are sitting down so you can't see how gloriously short Nick's vest is)



Now, which sweater do you think was the winner of the 'Ugliest Sweater Contest'?

Thanksgiving Pictures

So, again, I know that this is late, but here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving, it was our first time hosting a Thanksgiving and it was a huge sucess.  We had our friends the Cupps and the Nickles come for dinner and everyone contributed to the dinner making it very low stress and very yummy for all of us.  Here is the whole crew (Jacob is behind Jared) and my seat is next to Claire.

We had a perfectly cooked turkey (moist and flavorful), homemade cornbread stuffing, Cranberry pomegranate grape salad, sweet potatoes with a sugar pecan topping, whole grain rolls, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pickles and olives.  Here is Jared carving a turkey for the first time.
We all had a great dinner and talked for awhile and watched football, then we got ourselves and our kids in their pj's and watched "Elf" while we ate the delicious chocolate mousse cake and pumpkin pie that we had for dessert.

So, I feel so ungrateful because Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have not posted one thing that I am thankful for, so here is a short list:

*Great family and family that is close by

*Great friend that leave near and great friends that live far

*Two beautiful, healthy, hilarious children

*Jared, he is a great husband, daddy, provider, and friend.

*Potties (even though they don't always get use when they need to, I change ALOT less diapers

*Blogs...I am excited for Christmas cards, but I feel like I know what most everyone is up to

*Food..I LOVE food

*The gospel of Jesus Christ

*My Savior Jesus Christ

..Stay tuned for pictures of our latest party...

Too Much Temptation

We put up our Christmas tree on Monday for FHE and Jacob and Claire were beside themselves with excitement.  I have been constantly coaching them about not touching the tree or the nativity set or any of the decorations.  This morning I woke up just after 8 to a totally silent house…bad bad news.  I just knew that my two little sneaky stinkers had made their way downstairs as quietly as possible instead of waking me up like they do every other morning.  I ran downstairs and found two little children undecorating the tree, they probably had almost 20 ornaments off, one of them in about 40 pieces (luckily it was an ugly nutcracker bulb that I got for free on fountain square one summer).  They really new they were in trouble because they sat in total silence as they watched me put all of the ornaments back on.  I then had to give them a good talking to about how I could never use the ornament again because it was broken and they are not to touch the tree but only to look at it.  Anyway…they have their own little Little People Nativity set that is for them to play with that I keep finding characters mixed in with my nice Willow Tree Nativity Set.  Now they keep setting up the pieces from their Little People set on tables all over the house and telling me “No Touch my decorations Mom.” Oh Brother!

Just hop on in, little buddy

Funny story from last night.  At either 3:00 or 4:00 (my mind was in a fog, so I don't remember when), I woke up and thought something was weird because I was sleeping on the edge of the bed... and I was awake.  I started scooting over, and realized a little person was right next to me - it was Jacob, and he was fast asleep, on top of our comforter, right next to my pillow!  He'd climbed up onto our bed (and maybe right over me!), and fell asleep between us.  

So, I picked him up and put him back into his bed (having to 'cuddle' and turn on the fan because he woke up just enough that he could request those necessities).

Around 5:30, I heard Dani telling Jacob to go back to his bed - he was apparently back on his way up into our bed!  The funny thing is that we've never even let him or Claire sleep in our bed, even when they were really little!  How does he think of these things?

Big Kid Beds update

Jacob and Claire have been sleeping in their big-kid beds for a month or so now, so we figured it's time for an update.  First, here's a picture that we think is hilarious that didn't make it into the first post - this is Claire showing us how she was going to sleep on her big-kid bed.  Look at that face!

Here's Jacob in his big-kid bed.  He still loves to sleep sideways in his bed.  He's fallen out of bed twice, though it's been a few weeks since the last time he's fallen.  Since the wall his bed is next to is our bedroom's wall, we often hear his feet, hands, and head hitting the wall as he rolls over in his sleep.  Normally, he'll hit the wall pretty consistently for 2-3 minutes, then it'll all stop.

Claire is our adventurous sleeper - she's fallen out at least 4 times.   At least twice, she didn't wake up from the crash.  She often is sleeping this way when we check on her, and even after moving her close to the wall, she falls out.  She also often sleeps on top of her covers with her head at the foot of the bed.  We couldn't figure out why, until we discovered that the top-bunk warning sticker that says 'do not remove this sticker!' was being slowly removed by little fingers.

We recently experimented with putting some books on the bookshelf in their room for the first time.  One night a week and half later, I went in to check on the kids after I heard a little crash upstairs around 10:00, thinking it was a child.  It turned out it was a book Claire was reading, and Jacob was caught red-handed sitting on top of his bed with a book!  I took their books and put them away, and Jacob immediately ducked under his covers, pulling them all the way over his eyes.  He knew he was in trouble, I didn't really even need to say anything.  Claire, on the other hand, was not happy I had put her books away.

Last night, we returned from a Nacho Libre party at our friends' house.  Our babysitter told us she'd had to negotiate with our kids to keep them in bed, as they thought of any way possible to stay out of bed.  When we got upstairs to check on kiddos, Claire's bed was empty!  She had gotten out and gone to 'Jacob's napping bed,' or the pack-and-play in the guest room.  Overnight, she discovered she'd been moved and got out, crying, until she was helped back into the pack-and-play.

Last story - Claire sometimes gets out of her bed at night and comes into our room.  One night, after she'd fought sleep from 2-4 am, she ended up in our room again, on Dani's side of the bed.  We just ignored her and, eventually, she fell asleep on the floor, and Dani put her back in her bed.

Imaginary fights and fall pics.

So, I thought I should share this lovely story for journaling purposes.  No, the fight itself was not imaginary, it was oh so real.  A few weeks ago I was shopping in HomeGoods (one of my favorite stores) with my children who after finishing their goldfish snack imagined up a cookie. I love that they imagine, but there is a little problem with their imaginations.  This cookie they had both imagined was only one cookie and they started to fight over this cookie, then the fight turned into a full force screaming and hitting brawl, Jacob would rip the imaginary cookie out of Claire's fingers and scream "my cookie" which would lead Claire to a full fledged fit and Jacob would take the i.c. straight to his mouth.  At this point Claire shoved her fat little fingers into Jacob's mouth to retrieve the i.c. and loudly declared "NO, my cookie!"  This exchange went back and forth and pushing, hitting, pulling, and screaming got involved.  I quickly tried to separate them and settle the whole thing, but the screaming was out of control, I was able to control the screaming long enough to create an i.c. for each of them so they had 2 instead of one and no longer needed to fight and I evacuated the store as quickly as possible.  On the sidewalk outside of HomeGoods they both got a good talking to and neither one would look up at me because they knew they were in really big trouble.  After that I went in and quickly made my purchases.  Anyhow, the imaginary food fight continue to pop up, today at lunch they were pretending to take food off of each others' plates from across the table and eat it which created a huge fit and a snowball of more problems.  Like I said, I love that they imagine, I just wish they could learn to imagine an extra cookie. 

   These are pictures from our trip to Shaw Farms over a month ago, it is where we bought our pumpkins that are sitting on our front porch uncarved.

Shaw farms has a lot of cheesy fairtale/cartoon related kids play stuff with their pumpkins. This llama picture is for Amber because Jared thought that she would think the llama was funny!?!?!???
This is the pirate ship and all the pirates, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy, and my screaming son.
Claire was pretty good at posing for me.
Jacob peaking through the window on the pirate ship.
I dared Jared to get a picture of both of them with the pumpkins looking at the camera, he took the dare even though I told him it was impossible.  This is the best he got, not too bad actually, they are both looking up, there are pumpkins, and they are saying cheese.

Come What May and Love It

I am referring to this great talk by Elder Wirthlin that I read yesterday....great timing for it since today we have a new president and it obviously was not the man I was hoping for.

Today I am not thrilled about this, but I can't say I am surprised or that I am devastated.  I am trying not to be afraid and to be faithful and hopeful instead, last week at church someone mentioned in their testimony "there is no room for fear in faith" which I believe is true so I am trying to leave behind fears that I have of Obama being our next president.  I am going to try to trust in our Father in Heaven, remember to laugh, and also remember that these next four years are going to be such a small moment of time in the eternal perspective.  I am also going to try to dwell on the positive, so here is the positive:

-Barack Obama is the first black president, that is historical and inspiring

-Barack Obama is a great speaker, he is motivating and convincing

-The majority of the USA is happy about this president and looking forward to this time

-Proposition 8 passed in California.....REALLY GREAT NEWS!

-Proposition 6 (casino for Ohio) failed in Ohio

I am sure there are more, but I am still working on the positive thing....so, with that said, please pray for our country, please pray for our new president and remember to Love what is coming, because it is coming!

Meet the Flinstones

Claire and Jacob really got the trick-or-treating thing this year and LOVED it.  These pictures showed up in the reverse order of what I wanted them to, but I am not redoing it so we will start from the end.  They went to town on the candy and at as much as they could as fast as they could.

Claire would not let anybody touch her bag or help her with it in any way....so, she walked around from driveway to driveway (in our neighborhood everyone sits in their driveway handing out candy...SOOO many kids) like this all night...really!
The whole family.
Pebbles and BamBam at the beginning of their trick-or-treating.
A very excited Pebbles and BamBam.  They would walk until they spotted a candy bowl at which point they would run and yell "I'm coming, I'm coming, Trick-or-Treat, I'm Coming."  It was really funny to watch and sometimes they would linger at each candy bowl after the giving of the candy and the "thank-you" and then they would repeat "trick-or-treat."  Jacob also decided that since he was BamBam he needed to hit everything with his club.  He started pounding on the sidewalk and then later he declared "Bubba hit car" and he whacked some car on the side of the road...luckily his club is a hollow plastic bat.

My Talented Friend

On of my great friends is doing a launch party for her incredible online budding business. She did my blog design and a bunch of others, she does custom blogs but also has free blog templates that are great.  Anyhow, she has all kinds of great giveaways from lots of different people using their talents.  Check it out and enter to win something

"http://Leeloublogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">

Proof

So my last post was about how my kids are growing up.  Here is the proof.  Here are their new big kid beds (and the bedding that I am trying to decide on.  I love both and both were a great deal, but I am trying to decide if they work ok in the same bedroom, trying to play off the yellow and green).

This is Jacob's big boy bed, which he LOVES and has done really well at sleeping in (only fell out once).  I love the bedding and it has the same green gingham as their window valance.
This is Claire's big girl bed which she loves loves loves and sleeps in so well at night and for naps.  I am hoping to play off the green and yellow in hers that coordinates with Jacob's, I just put the new quilts on this morning.  Please help, tell me if this is ok!!!!
Jacob his first night in a big kid bed....he was so excited!
This is my so big girl (who is currently throwing a fit on my lap).  She has started to really like posing for a camera.  She is also wearing a ponytail (even if it is messy), big girl panties, and her new favorite rainboots. Doesn't she look so grown up?