Family Sign

My Sister-in-Law made this sign for us. I love it! I haven’t hung it up on the wall yet, but it is standing up on our counter now that it’s cleaned off:) Thanks, Shondee!

My First Senior!

I just did my first official Senior session 2 Saturdays ago. Well, technically, it would be my second if you count my brothers session last year, but this was a girl in my ward who was going to go to “The Blue Studio” here in town. I did my intern ship with them and they aren’t that great so I told them I’d give her a free session, but no pressure to buy any of them. It was so much fun! We were out for about 2 hours. Her mom came with us, which was helpful because she held the relector.

Anyway, Mark edited them and here’s the link. Check them out and tell me what you think.

http://www.meganblethenphotography.com/mjensen.html

Lazy Days

Ok, so I don’t know what the problem is, but ever since we’ve been back from our little vacation I can’t get back into the swing of things! Argh! It’s so annoying! Usually I can stay on top of doing the dishes (Mark will say otherwise because if they aren’t done one night a week he thinks that means I haven’t been doing them all week:P I told him he should be a wife and stay at home mom in his “second life”. LOL) and laundry and folding the laundry and cleaning the table off, etc. This past week has just been horrible. Not only did I realize how much of a Scedule we really have each day, but I can’t get back into that schedule now. The kids went to bed at almost 11pm every night we were with cousins and we have a strict 8 pm bedtime at home. Then I had to share a room with them since their cousins were in the other room with their parents so now they have a hard time going to sleep without me. I feel like being lazy every day even though there’s cleaning and laundry to do. My ward has a playgroup every Tues. & Thurs and I don’t feel like getting ready to go:P How do I get out of the dumps and back to work? !

Sorry this post is such a downer. I’ll post some pictures so it’s not so grim!:)

get ready, set, GO!!!

last Saturday our Pediatric Office had their annual “Fun Run” where kids sign up and get to race. There was 3 different groups. Jonas and Brynnan’s group was first. They weren’t to excited about it while everyone gathered around the starting line, but once the word Go was yelled into the microphone Jonas took off running, leaving us behind… until he realized we were behind him! LOL he came back to get us, but then wanted on Marks shoulders! LOL It was fun though. I’m glad we went. They loved jumping in the puddles around the track and walking with each other or being held by mommy or daddy:)

We made it to the finish line!

Each of the kids that ran got a medal that said “Winner” on it. They had a whole ceremony for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place runners. We missed it because we were only half way through the race when they did it!:) LOL, but they had a run way with balloons to where the finish was and they got their medals.

Cheese! I love this picture, isn't he so cute?!

Well, I think we are going to go to playgroup after all so I better stop blogging and get us all ready to go:)

Shooting the Wind

I don’t know what it is with boys but it’s all about guns! A gun was the first thing Jonas made with his legos when he first got them a few years ago. Brynnan got some Mega Bloks for his birthday and I bet you can guess what Jonas made, or tried to, out of them:) It was a little more difficult with how big they are.

Anyway, today has been a very windy day. I had the windows open this morning to cool down the apartment and the boys don’t like the wind. Jonas decided he needed to shoot the wind to stop it. He found this plastic tree toy from his Dora legos and started using it as a gun. I have to admit that it does kind of look like one. The part he’s holding onto is supposed to be a branch. LOL

perfect shot

Brynnan is trying to hide from the blowing wind.

I guess he wasn't close enough.

So Blessed

The last time we were down at Primary Children’s Medical Center for a Spina Bifida clinic we saw the orthopedic doctor who talked about how Jonas might need surgery on his right foot if it doesn’t get corrected by the braces (it’s slightly going clubbed). This has been on my mind ever since (back in April). I really don’t like the idea of him having another surgery and especially not on his foot! Who knows how long it would take to heal and if he could walk on it right away. He’s doing so well with his walking that we’d rather avoid surgery if at all possible. At a check up with his pediatrician about a month ago we talked about getting a second opinion. We set it all up with an orthopedic doctor that comes over every couple of months from Boise.

Yesterday was the day of the appointment. Jonas was such a good sport! Not that they tortured him or anything, but there were 3 other people in the room besides the doctor, me and Brynnan. It was kind of overwhelming, but he did what Dr. Showalter asked him to do. The whole time the doctor was saying how amazing Jonas was doing and how great he looked! A lot of people tell us how lucky he is and that he is doing so great. I’m used to people saying this, but today it hit me again, how blessed we really are. Jonas is so strong and after talking to Dr. Showalter it made me realize that even if Jonas does have to go through surgery again, he’ll be ok. He’ll rise to the challenge like he always has.

We are also blessed with great family and friends who have been so supportive over the past almost 4 years! Thanks for all your help and love!

Elder Paulos

I can’t believe that my baby brother is an Elder now! I was telling him on the way to the MTC that I remember the day he came home from the hospital after he was born We spent the car ride reminising about when we were young and lived in Sacramento. It was sooo great to spend a little time with him before he left! Of course it was nice to see Mom, Dave and Ethan too:)

Mom and Matt pose outside in front of the Missionary Training Center sign.

Elder Paulos and his favorite sister:) He's so TALL! a whole head and a half bigger than me!

My half brother, Ethan, Elder Paulos, Brynnan and my stepdad, Dave.

Basketball

We left Oma and Papa’s house Tuesday afternoon and traveled down to Provo to meet my mom, stepdad, and brothers. My brother Matt would be going into the MTC on Wednesday and I wanted to say good-bye and hang out before he left for 2 years. It was a lot of driving over 5 days, but I’m really glad that we went down. There was a basketball court at the hotel we stayed at so we all had some fun.

This is my brother Matt. I thought this was a fun picture with his tongue sticking out!:)

My younger brother, Ethan, was wearing this headband, but Jonas and Brynnan both wanted a turn. The first time Jonas put it on he pulled it onto his eyes and thought it was funny so kept doing it. We all got a great laugh out of it!

tickling Brynnan:)

Throwing the ball. Jonas loved to"Throw it into the sky!" he would say.

Our Favorite Place… in Boise

Well, besides the temple, of course! The kids and I went to the zoo with Oma, Papa, Uncle Ian, Uncle Brigham, Aunt Shondee and cousins Brig and Liam on Saturday. We didn’t get there until 11 am, which was horrible because it was so hot, but the kids had a lot of fun. Brynnan and Brig loved to pull the wagons around. Jonas kept talking about seeing the zebra, which is always his favorite part of the zoo, even if we don’t see one!

The boys loved going on the carousal. They wanted to go again!:)

Brig wanted to pull Jonas up the hill, but he had to call Liam for help! Jonas all the while calmly eating his fish crackers. It was so cute.

This is a Komodo Dragon. It's huge huge! The boys watched this guy for a while.

Brynnan humored me so I could take a picture of him with ears like a Muir Cat (I think that's what it was called).

Brynnan showing Papa how to do it:)

A ZEBRA! I thought he would get all excited about Finally getting to see a zebra, but he didn't. He just watched it stand in the shade under this tree. You probably can't see him, but he's there:)

Twin Falls Temple Open House

The kids and I took a little vacation this past week. On Friday, we traveled over to Twin Falls and met half of Mark’s family for the temple open house. Brynnan and Jonas were meeting their cousins, Brig and Liam, and Aunt Shondee and Uncle Brigham, for the second time, but they didn’t remember them (it was 2 years ago!). Jonas was really clingy to me for this reason. He didn’t even want to go to Oma! Brynnan was kind of clingy as well, but would go to Papa every now and then. It was nice to go inside the temple, again. I say again because we went to the Rexburg open house and they’re pretty much the same, as far as I can remember. Afterward they served us cookies and water. Jonas, thankfully, started warming up to his cousins, and wasn’t so clingy to me, because they were chasing him and Brynnan:)

Oma, Papa, Brynnan, Liam, Jonas and Brig

Brynnan loved running across this wall. Papa was close by at all times.

I was able to stop the kids from running long enough to get a picture of us:)

Our Favorite Place

Can you guess where it is? . . . . If you guessed the zoo, you’re correct!:) A friend from our ward got a free pass to the Zoo last week so she invited us along. You’re probably tired of all the zoo pictures, but it’s my blog so I choose what you see:) LOL

We've never had the donkey come over to us. The boys were calling "Come here, Donkey!" and eventually one came over. Jonas started laughing and backed up because it came right up to his hand!:) I think it surprised him.

This time I went into the goat pen with them. Jonas loved walking around and petting all of the goats!:) He didn't want to leave them.