The Jensens

October 2010

2011-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit so we took them to Spring Mountain and discovered that water does exist in Las Vegas after all!

Halloween with cousins is always fun! We went to Arizona for Halloween since we had a few days off school. We also got to celebrate James' birthday while we were there.

James and his cousin(my brother Eric's daughter) Alice , were born a few days apart so it was fun to celebrate their 2nd birthday's together.

September 2010-School Starts

2011-06-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

Annika 1st grade

Liesel 4th grade

Nathaniel 6th grade (Middle School)

August 2010 - Legoland/ California

2011-06-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in San Diego, playing at the beach, going to Legoland, seeing the San Diego temple, and visiting the Mormon Batallion visitors center. This is a mix of pictures from our trip. They're mostly not in any particular order, just a bunch of random pictures I liked from our trip.

This was a giant replica of a shark egg. Can you guess the names of these baby sharks?

James has the power!

Liesel and Nathaniel love the waves!

Ben got swept away by a huge wave and lost his sunglasses. We kept looking for them but the ocean is a big place!

We tried to color coordinate so we wouldn't loose each other at Legoland. It really did help.

This was Annika's favorite ride! She rode it 3 times while everyone else went on a roller coaster!

The miniature USA made out of Legos is pretty amazing!

We wish we had this tree in our backyard. It would be great for building a tree house!

July 2010 - Utah

2011-05-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bielefeldt Family Reunion- July 2010

2011-05-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

July 2010-Mt.Charleston

2011-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite things we have found to do since moving to Vegas is taking a day trip up to Mt. Charleston. It's about 20 degrees cooler at the top of the mountain and it's just beautiful in the summer. We had Jacob and Susie and Elsa and Robin visiting us on Fourth of July weekend so we took a trip up on Saturday to get out of the heat and have a picnic. The kids had so much fun playing in the stream, hiding out in forts, playing with lady bugs, and discovering fairy dwellings.

July 2010-Independence Day Fireworks

2011-01-12T10:22:00.001-08:00

To celebrate Independence Day, the men and boys bought a few fireworks to put on our own show in front of our house.

It was so much fun having my brother Jacob and sister-in-law Susie here to celebrate the Fourth with us. We had the best time and we were so glad too that they had brought cousins Robin and Elsa with them! The kids had a blast!

So much excitement!

Little one year old James went around with a flashlight pretending it was a lighter and that he was starting his own fireworks. He made us laugh!

On the Fourth of July, we climbed a hill at a park near our house to watch the fireworks. We had a great view of firework shows going on all around us. I think other people up there were jealous that we had brought popcorn and water. We overheard comments like "I'm so thirsty."and "I smell popcorn." We probably could have made some good money selling ours!

Susie and I enjoyed the show with the kids while Ben and Jacob worked on getting the keys out of Jacob's car which he locked in with the lights on too! Poor guys missed out on all the fun!

June 2010-Father's Day

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June 2010- Liesel's 9th Birthday

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May 2010 Dance Recital

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The girls were so adorable in their dance recital. They all LOVE to dance. Elora was so cute (and such a character) as a little monkey dancer!

Liesel was perfect as a flapper girl!

Annika, who loves all girl-ish things was so bright and animated dancing to the song"I Enjoy Being a Girl"!

Uncle Shawn and Aunt Missy and their four girls were here visiting. It was so fun to have them here to watch the girls perform.

May 2010 Pinewood Derby

2011-01-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Last year Nathaniel designed his pinewood derby car as a banana and won every race plus he won an award for the most original design..

This year he decided to go with another yellow object...a pencil..and you would think a pencil shape would be more arrow-dinamic and go even faster than a banana but apparently not! He still won again for having the most original design. That is what he cares about most anyway!

May 2010 Elora's 4th Birthday

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Elora got to have her sweet cousins Kennedy and Riley join us for her 4th birthday party. We also had the scouts and their families coming and going for their Pinewood Derby weigh-in. So we had a very full house that night with lots of activity and Elora loved all the extra kids to play with. It was like having a great big party!

Two brothers...a little tired...so cute

May 2010 Annika's 6th Birthday

2011-01-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Annika had a busy, day full of fun the day she turned six.

That morning...

Annika was so excited to get a Barbie Mermaid which she had begged for. In the afternoon...

We took cupcakes to school to celebrate with her kindergarten class.

That evening....
We were so lucky to have our cousins, the Nunleys, with us. After a fun party, the boys all slept out on the trampoline and the girls all snuggled down together in the girls room.

Easter 2010

2010-09-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

After all that playing in the snow we headed back down to Plain City for a big Easter egg hunt with lots of Jensen cousins/second cousins. Ben and Marsie got to attend the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference and then we spent Easter Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house. Uncle Joe Bielefeldt joined us for a fabulous Easter dinner.

Snow in April

2010-09-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this look like a Currier and Ives painting? The day after our trip to the dinosaur museum we took a trip up to Ben's parents cabin. This is one of the amazing scenes we got to enjoy from their cabin. It was snowing the day we drove up and it made the ride a little scary. I don't have much experience driving in the snow. Kit was riding with me and I'm sure she had to be a little nervous. But we made it there in one piece and the kids played outside in the snow till past dark, sledding down the driveway! Ben was in Arizona for work and met us up there the next day on April 1st.

Here's Ben taking a phone call just after he arrived. His employees were playing an April Fool's Day joke on him!

Ben helped the kids build a little snow fort on the porch. He is such a good dad. During the day it seemed clear and sunny so we drove out to find a good hill for sledding. We found one but it was snowing pretty good and it was so cold. But we got out and the kids had fun anyway... at least some of them did....mostly Nate and Liesel.

Ben played and had fun with the kids even though it was freezing!

Annika lasted a few minutes and then sought the truck for refuge.

Liesel was pretty determined to have some fun regardless of the weather.

Although James is smiling here he did not like the snow in his face one bit and didn't have any fun till he was back in the warm truck.

Elora didn't last very long either before she gave up and climbed inside too!

I mostly sat with James and then near the end got out and had a ride down the hill on a sled a couple times. It was bitter cold! Growing up in the Valley of the Sun in AZ I am pretty much a wimp in snow! But I have to admit it was kind of fun sledding down the hill with my kids. : )

March 2010

2010-08-25T22:45:00.001-07:00

A kind neighbor let the kids pick some of her daffodils to give to G. Grandma Jensen who had just had surgery on her toes.

I love daffodils. It's too bad they have such a short blooming time.

Annika lost her first baby tooth. It's always a little sad for me somehow. It always catches me by surprise. It seems like she just got them and now they're already falling out!

James absolutely loves riding this with Grandpa Jerry.

We went to a great dinosaur museum in Utah while visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

James is such a funny boy. I love all his little personalities. He is silly....

... A little fragile at times ....

.....And LOVES to show-off and be a tough guy!

He found a stick and pretended to attack the dinosaurs with it!

My Dangerous Creatures...Okay they are mostly soft and cuddly and cute but when they are hungry or tired...Watch OUT!

James falls

2010-05-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

"Fallguy" James does his own stunts!

Two Long #2

2010-05-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make my 2nd "Two Long" post something controversial. I decided to list my 2 favorite underwear models! Yes, I realized this could take a lot of research and time, but I was able to skip all of that because I already had two of them in mind!

Marsie can correct me if I am not remembering this right - but I think this was one of those rare mornings when the kids wake up before the parents, get themselves dressed(well, put shoes on, anyway) and head out back for a day of fun. I know this was in Albuquerque, but I'm not sure how old they were. At least this time wasn't as surprising as the time Nate and Liesel work up early and decided to shred a few heads of lettuce and spread it all over the living room to feed their imaginary pet bunnies. Ahhh, memories...

February 2010

2010-04-25T22:54:00.001-07:00

In February my Grandma Sevey turned 90 so we took a trip to Arizona for the celebration. This picture is at the end of the night and I think she was a bit worn out. She was watching a slide show on the TV and I don't think she realized we were getting our picture taken with her! She is a wonderful Grandma and has so many wonderful traits that I admire. She is so resilient and a hard worker. She and Grandpa farmed together. She has done an incredible amount of genealogy work and is so knowledgeable about the work she has done. She also continues to sew and crochet even though her hands are very shaky! I have some wonderful things she made for me over the years like dolls, baby quilts and a beautiful wedding quilt. She is an intelligent, talented, hard-working lady.

Last year in March 2009 my Oma Bielefeldt turned 90. Here she is in the picture below with my kids. I admire my Oma (which is German for Grandma)too! She has so much enthusiasm for life and is so very creative and fun! She was an elementary school teacher and was a special education teacher for many years. She has so many fun stories to tell. She spoiled her grand kids and it was always exciting to go visit her and Opa. She was always making us things or doing sewing and craft projects with us! And she was the best cook! I love my Oma!

These two intelligent, accomplished women are such examples to me of faith, hard work, and dedication. I am glad I was named after both of them. My creative Dad combined their two names together Margaret and Dessie and came up with Marsie which is why I have the unusual spelling. I really miss my Grandpas who passed away several years ago but I am glad I still get to have my grandmothers around.

While in Arizona we also got to spend some time on my sister, Beth's, farm. There were lots of spring babies to hold. The kids loved it!

Below: Elora, Liesel, Felicity (in the back) Elsa, Nate, Samantha, Allyson, Annika

Below is my niece, Felicity. I thought this was too cute of her holding the little goat that matched her outfit. : )

Piano Notes Game

2010-03-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

The following is a link to a Piano Notes game Nathaniel programmed all by himself! Check it out!

Scratch | Project | Notes

He still has a few bugs to work out (and still needs to edit his instructions for it!) and he is planning on doing several different levels to eventually cover all the bass and treble clef notes. It's been a ton of work and he has learned so much!

Leave a comment and let him know what you think. The game works best if you have a Scratch account but you can still play it if you don't.

Two Long

2010-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

This is Ben writing. I have felt the need to lay bare my soul to all the world - and since I don't have a blog of my own, I will do right here! I know, exciting, huh? But I really don't have a ton of time for soul baring, and nobody out there has time to read about it. (OK, if it was really exciting, I know you would make time. But guess what? It's not.)

Anyway, I thought I should come up with some great gimmick to hook readers. My first thought was, "Ben and Julia!" and I would cook all of the recipe's in one of Julia Child's cook books in one year and write about it. But I found out it has been done. So then I thought of "Ben and Chef BoyRDee!" Only this time I would open a different can of stuff every day for lunch and write about my increasing weight.

But I abandoned that as well and I have settled on, "Two Long." I will post a list of and/or review a list of whatever I feel like. But to save everybody time, my list will only be two items long. I figure it is way shorter than a top ten list. A top three list is currently taken by the Olympics with their whole 'gold, silver, bronze' thing. But a list two items long is still twice as long as a list of only one item.

For today's post, I shall list my top favorite prayers said by children in my family:

1. Elora (age 3), "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for......MEEEEEEEEE! Amen."
2 Annika (age 5), "...and please help me to stop sneaking into Nathaniel's room and stealing his Halloween candy..."

January 2010: New Year's

2010-02-03T00:09:00.000-08:00

Daniel and Jodie drove down from Utah on New Year's weekend. We had so much fun with them and their kids while they were here.
This is Liesel and Emma Kate at one of our favorite hamburger places. These girls are such good friends.

The restaurant takes a picture of you with this giant hamburger if you can eat some ginormous hamburger. No, Nathaniel did not do it, but some other kid did while we were there and they had left the prop sitting out so we snapped a picture of Nate with it.

We took care of the kids while they were here so they could do some fun things downtown. Here's Annika with Sadie.

Here's what happens when Ben watches the kids. Can you believe these pictures?!

Did we scare you?! I know I was a little startled when I saw these. Ben took the kids to the top of a hill at a park near our house. He assures me that it's not as dangerous as it looks! He says the ground was actually only a few feet below the girls so they would only get a little hurt if they fell.

December 2009: Christmas

2010-02-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, T.Jay (Ben's brother) was flying from Texas to Utah and had a layover in Las Vegas so we picked him up and went out to eat for Christmas Eve. Then we took him back to the airport and went downtown to the Billagio to see the amazing Christmas displays. There was a giant Christmas tree, giant polar bears made out of flowers, huge snowmen made out of flowers, a huge rocking horse, reindeer flying near the ceiling and so many other magical things. It was pretty amazing!

Outside of the Billagio we watched an amazing water display synchronized to Christmas music. While we waited for it to start I tried to distract the kids from looking at some inappropriate advertisements going on in the distance. Do I look worried?!

And then it was Christmas morning. Maybe not as spectacular as what we had seen the night before but still plenty of fun.

We got a family gift of Lego Rock Band for the Wii. It is so much fun and better for little kids than the regular Rock Band. You can also see two of Liesel's most favorite toys she got. I wish I had a better picture but you can see laying on the floor a little mermaid my sister Beth made and a doll Grandma Kit made. The girls each got one and they absolutely love them. And Aunt Shaunna sent the kids all pajamas to open on Christmas Eve. Liesel's wearing hers here. We are so spoiled!!!

The girls got these adorable dresses from Aunt Colette! They absolutely love them and would wear them every day if I let them!

The day after Christmas we headed up to Cedar City where we met Ben's parents and his brother T.Jay and his wife Crystal. We all stayed in a hotel, swam, and just enjoyed each other's company as much as you can while being crammed in little hotel rooms with little kids (mostly James)who don't want to sit still! The kids also had a chance to play in a little snow! Each of them had different reactions. Actually, they all liked it except for James!

And these following pictures are of Sunday night, back home, relaxing enjoying some of our Christmas presents and just enjoying a time of no stress!

December 2009: before Christmas

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The girls have been taking ballet from one of our sweet friends in our ward. She comes to our house and teaches a couple little groups of girls in our big empty living room. We are in no hurry to get furniture for now because having ballet in our own home is just so convenenient! And Miss Crystal is the best, sweetest, dance teacher!
The three classes taking a bow at their dance recital which was held outdoors on a beautiful day. Nathaniel tripped on the way in and skinned his knee pretty bad so he and Ben missed the whole performance while they went to clean it up! I tried to video it while James climbed on me like a monkey so it didn't turn out too well! But the girls did a great job and were so cute!

My parents came up for a few days before Christmas to help us get ready for Christmas Day. They let Ben and I shop all day and late into the night, and helped us get our house in order, and helped the kids make us a cute Christmas book, and took them all on an outing to the park and to Bass Pro. We had so much fun while they were here! They were such an answer to my prayers! Christmas is such a wonderful time but can be a stressful time too, but they helped bring the spirit of Christmas into our home so that we could feel the joy of the season!

Ben had been gone out of town for work for the first two weeks in December! It was to hard but we survived. The day he got back Kit came to stay with the kids while Ben and I went to his Christmas work party. She spent a whole day helping me shop for an outfit to wear and then took care of the kids for us! Ben and I have such kind, generous parents! They always do so many things that help us with the challenges of raising five kids! I hope I remember to be as thoughtful and helpful to my kids when they are grown with their own families!

November 2009: Thanksgiving

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We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with my family and also got to see Jerry and Kit who were there for a big family reunion. Every three years all of Kit's mother's siblings and their families get together for a huge family reunion at Thanksgiving time. They are such a close knit family. There are seven siblings and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that all get together. At least everyone that can come is there and it is quite the crowd! It's pretty amazing. It makes me realize how big our gatherings could be for my siblings and I about 40 years from now. You can see in the last picture below that we are already a pretty big group (37 of us) when we get together. We also said goodbye to my baby brother Jared(below with Elora at my sister, Beth's house where we had Thanksgiving). He left at the beginning of December to serve a mission in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been there two months now and he's loving it!

We also managed to squeeze in a little time to visit some of our friends, the Ridgeways. Here's our kids with their kids and their two foster baby twins that were just tiny newborns when we moved

November 2009: Nate and Liesel in Utah

2010-01-31T16:44:00.000-08:00

Near the beginning of November, Nathaniel and Liesel were on their track break so we put them on an airplane by themselves and sent them off to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jensen for a week. I don't know who was more nervous...me or them...probably me. They had a great time though, arrived safe and sound, had a great week and didn't even get homesick! We gave them our old camera to take some pictures. Here's a couple from their visit to see the dinosaurs at Thanksgiving Point.

Liesel and her cute little cousin, Stella

November 2009: James' First Birthday

2010-01-21T00:23:00.001-08:00

James turned one November 2nd. Ben brought home balloons for him and he LOVED those balloons! He ran around excited all night carrying the balloons everywhere. He even held on to them while he opened and played with this presents! I think he only let go once to hold his toy phone!

He was so cute when I put the whole top part of the cake on his high chair. He was sooo excited!

He did not hesitate and dug right in. He knew what to do! It was as if he had been waiting for this a whole year!

October 2009

2010-01-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ben and I celebrated our 12th anniversary in October. We have a tradition started on our first anniversary to eat out at an Italian restaurant. But this year it fell on a Sunday so Ben cooked up an amazing meal for us.

Ben's friend Daniel and his brother, T. Jay came to Vegas and they all went to a U2 concert.

HALLOWEEN 2009

Nathaniel was a dragon tamer. Yes..."tamer" not "slayer". That's a baby dragon on his shoulder.

Annika and Elora were both sweet fairies.

Liesel and her second cousin Rylee were both witches.

This is Annika and the kids' other second cousin Kennedy.

I love this picture below. It's the end of the night and everyone is checking out their loot. James had slept through all the trick-or-treating and woke up to candy heaven! Elora sees him coming though and is not about to let him get at hers!

September 2009

2010-01-17T22:46:00.001-08:00

Annika started Kindergarten this school year. She is LOVING school! We are on a track system here and Nathaniel and Liesel are on a different track than Annika so sometimes she is off and they are on and vice versa. When she is off and they are in session, she misses school so much that she wants to pretend she is going to school. She packs a lunch, gets all ready and does some school projects at home. She has a great Kindergarten teacher that does cute projects with the kids and teaches them lots of songs with actions which Annika adores! She is such a song and dance girl! Since the time she was tiny she has loved music and dancing. She has quite the rhythm too! I don't know where she gets it! She is starting to read and we are just so thrilled that she enjoys school so much and has such a desire to learn! (Hooray for great teachers who inspire and don't squelch kids enthusiasm for life and learning!)

The girls were doing all kinds of silly poses on the first-day-of-school-pictures. Actually Annika was trying to look cute and Elora was trying to be as silly as possible!

Nathaniel and Liesel are both on the Honor Roll as they are every year! I am so proud of them for working hard on their school work. Nathaniel has always loved reading and Liesel has become quite the little bookworm too lately! She loves mysteries and anything about princesses or fairies. She told me recently that sometimes when she reads a book she can think of all kinds of things the author could have added to make it more interesting!

Ben, T. Jay, and Jerry went to Denver in September for a Broncos game. I think it was a great chance for them to have some brother-father-son bonding time! ( I wish I had a picture of the three of them together!)

August 2009

2010-01-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

In August my sister, Missy and her family came to visit. The kids swam and swam and played and played. They were in heaven. We got to see a live mermaid in this fish tank at a hotel! One of the fun things about Vegas is all the cool hotels with free things to see inside them! We have learned that if you park at a hotel parking structure and then go inside the hotels from there, a lot of the hotels are connected and you can avoid all the bad stuff on the streets. This one with the mermaid isn't even on the strip so that's nice! Missy and Shawn got to have a little fun out on a couple dates and watched our kids for us while we went out too! It was so nice!
We discovered a fairly inexpensive museum to take the kids to.

There were some pretty scary dinosaurs there but Annika managed to find one really nice tame one! : )

It was also Nathaniel's birthday on the 7th of August. The Hollenbecks were there to celebrate with us along with a couple of Nathaniel's friends. We went up to Mt. Charlston about 1 hour from our house and had a picnic. It is a beautiful forested mountain with streams and good hiking and amazing views. But I, of course, forgot to take any pictures. Perhaps I was too busy trying to stay warm. It was pretty cold! We knew it would be cooler but it was August so we were thinking cool..not COLD! The kids had fun anyway and it's always nice to get out in nature! We will have to go again sometime and remember to take pictures! I didn't even get a picture of Nathaniel with his cake and his friends! : (

July 2009

2010-01-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

In July for Independence Day we had the missionaries over for dinner and then headed to our bishop's parents' home for a birthday party/4th of July celebration. It was such a beautiful night. I wish I had taken some pictures. There was a full moon, the kids were swimming and playing with sparklers in the Watson's amazing backyard and people were letting off fireworks all around that we could see. Plus everyone at the party brought a ton of fireworks! It was such a fun way to spend the fourth. My parents were up to visit a few days before that so we had a little celebration with fireworks then too. And then again on July 5th we let the kids do a few more sparklers at bed time so there are pictures of them running around in their pajamas. We love living in a state where we are allowed to do fireworks ourselves! We did have one little fire on our grass though that we had to put out. Oops!

We also took a trip to AZ in July and got to visit my parents cabin since the kids, especially Nathaniel, had been begging to go there all summer!

June 2009

2010-01-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

On June 6, 2009 our beautiful Liesel was baptized. It was also her birthday. We gave her the choice to be baptized on her birthday or wait till the next month. She was so excited and wanted to be baptized on the very day she turned eight. It was a wonderful, joyful day!

May 2009

2010-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

In May, things settled down a bit in our house. The floors were done. (You can kind of see how the downsairs floors look in this picture below.) And the yard was completed. This was a relief since as Annika said once that she didn't want to play in a backyard that was covered with "smokes and poops"! There was no landscaping and the previous owners apparently NEVER bothered to clean up their pets' messes and apparently they liked to smoke in the backyard too...A LOT. It really was disgusting! We had a few unpleasant surprises like that. I guess that's what you get when you buy a foreclosed home! Oh well, the "smokes and poops" and relentless animal hair is now gone and it feels like our own home at last. The girls had fun from May to Sept. swimming in our portable pool and running through the sprinklers.

Annika turned 5 May 7th. Things had been so crazy for so long that it was nice to enjoy a little party with just our little family. She loved her new bike and rides so fast she scares us sometimes.

Elora also had a birthday on May 19th. She turned 3 years old. She got a wedding dress to dress up in and I think she looked so angelic in it. I know this picture will have to be shown at her wedding reception someday!

This was my first experiment at making an ice-cream cake. Our family isn't too fond of regular cake for some reason so I tried something new. There is no cake in it. It has a cookie crumb crust like a cheesecake and two layers of ice-cream (Chocolate ice-cream and vanilla ice cream with raspberry puree mixed in it with ganache and raspberries on the top. It was a winner. Now everyone requests ice-cream cake on their birthdays. No more wasted birthday cakes! Yeah!

On Memorial Day weekend we took another trip to Utah so we could see my sister-in-law Shaunna and her adorable kids who live in Texas. We rarely get to see them so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity while they were up visiting Jerry and Kit.

We went to Thanksgiving point and visited this adorable little farm! The kids got to pet bunnies, ride horses, ride a stage coach, go on a hay ride and see all kinds of farm animals. It was so fun! Elora still talks about it and calls it "my Grandma's farm"! Annika, Emmerson(Shaunna's daughter), Elora, Liesel

Emmerson and Annika

Ben and James

April 2009

2010-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

I actually posted about Easter in April 2009 so I get to skip this month in this catch up game. Hopefully in 2010 I will do more than just Easter!

March 2009

2010-01-11T12:44:00.001-08:00

In March, we decided we had so much fun moving in that we would do it all over again. So moved pretty much all the furniture out. Okay it wasn't just for fun. Actually we had to get new flooring. It was so bad from the pets the people had. I vacuumed constantly and we could not get rid of the animal fur and there were really bad stains too. So, out with the old, in with the new! It was so much work trying to finish up painting before they installed the floors. Ben was trying to get the hang of his new job which was a ton of work and stress! I felt like I was painting nonstop and the kids probably did too. How do you like my retro pants? Yes, so I'm a little messy when I paint. That's why I really needed to get it done before the new floors were installed. T.Jay, Ben's brother, came to visit us in our new home and he was such a help moving furniture and helping with the kids! What a crazy time! I still can't believe we survived it!

We decided our lives were not crazy enough so we took two trips that month. One to AZ for my Oma's 90th birthday and one to Utah to visit Ben's parents in their new home in Plain City as they retired and moved from Texas at the same time we were moving from AZ to Vegas. Now both sets of grandparents are just a few hours away. Yeah!

Just before we left for AZ we were having the tile installed in the bathrooms and the guys who were putting our toilets back together had another emergency job they had to take care of and were held up. I wanted to say, we are an emergency too! We have four little kids who need to go potty so we can go out of town! Ha, ha! Thank goodness for good neighbors!

Here's a few pictures my brother-in-law took with his camera in Utah. He has a super nice camera. (Yes, I admit I am jealous!)

This is me with James on the farm next to Ben's grandparents and parents house. It is actually his grandparents old home where Ben's dad grew up!

Nathaniel roasting marshmellow

Annika

Liesel

Elora

James gets lots of loves from grandparents. Here he is with Great-Grandpa Ashdown in Utah.

And here he is with my dad in Arizona! Lots of love in one month from grandparents. Maybe that made up for the lack of attention from me during the month! : (

February 2009

2010-01-11T12:27:00.001-08:00

The weekend of Valentine's Day, we got to have a ton of help from family and friends who came to help us paint and get settled in. (They must really love us!) They were a tremendous help and we could not have done it without them! Of course they had to have a little fun too and while Ben and I were at Home Depot they got a little creative with the painting they were doing.

Colette, Ben's sister, gave us this amazing swing for James which was such a life saver during all that we had to do. The kids were great at keeping him entertained and I didn't have to worry so much when he was safe in his swing! They couldn't clobber him too much that way!

Here's the family room with the walls all painted. They did an amazing job! Thank you Jake, Dad, and Jared! And Mom, Susie, and Jenny too! We couldn't have done it without you.

This is before we got the new floors put in . More on that later.

January and February 2009

2010-01-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

I know, I know.... this is a year too late you say. But you have to understand, we had a very crazy 2009. It actually started at the end of 2008 with the birth of our fifth child, James, in November and then a job offer for Ben in December. I am recapping our year more for my sake than anything else. I was feeling a little sad that I didn't do a lot of posting last year. So here it goes...a quick review of 2009. Here is January and February. The rest will come later.

February 2009

The Move

On February 12th after the stress of keeping our house spotless with five kids so we could hopefully sell it we packed up our unsold house and moved to Las Vegas. Shortly after we moved we did sell for a little more than our asking price. Although we lost a ton of money we were glad we were able to sell it.

January 2009

House-hunting in Vegas

In January 2009 Ben, Elora, James and I went on a house hunting trip to find a new home in Las Vegas where Ben was getting a promotion with State Farm. It was a little challenging putting two little ones in and out of the car as we looked at dozens of houses. They were both so good though and although it was a difficult and stressful time trying to find a home in four days, we actually had a great little bonding time with Elora. We had decided to bring her at the last minute so we didn't really have any toys for her. At night she played with Fruit cups and other little snacks Ben's Aunt Nancy gave her. She stacked them and sorted them and put them in grocery sacks. She was an angel all week. My wonderful sister Beth, another angel, watched the other 3 kids for us while we were gone!

We had to take a little time off house hunting to play at the park which was probably good for all of us!

James' Favorite Toys

2010-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

James got this teddy bear from Santa. On Christmas he hardly noticed it but the day after when Elora tried to claim it for her own he decided he loves this bear and she is not aloud to touch it! He woke up from a late nap the other day in time for dinner and had to hold his bear while he ate! It really is a cuddly bear! And James is my my cuddly little bear cub!

This is a fun riding toy James bought with his Christmas money from Great Grandparents. We got it on clearance at an after Christmas sale. He loves it and the kids love to give him rides on it. He is holding another favorite toy-- a chair to the girls' doll house! I don't know why he is so attached to it but he plays with it all the time!

Liesel's Song

2009-12-04T01:38:00.000-08:00

Liesel wrote me this letter /song on Sunday and it made me cry.

We have made it through one week of Ben being gone. Nathaniel and Liesel have been so responsible and have been such a great help to me. Nathaniel has been giving me lots of thanks and hugs of support! Evenings are hard! Especially at dinnertime. James never wants to sit in his high chair. He gets right out of the buckle and stands up constantly. Tonight he stood up and began to teeter and I had a cup of milk in my hand. So what did I do? My reflexes threw that milk all over the kitchen as I went to quickly grab my boy to prevent him from falling! He wants me to hold him and when I put him down he starts pulling apart cupboards. Then he cries to be held. Elora usually feels pretty worn out by this time also and decides she will join in with the crying.

I washed sheets today and never got the sheets back on Liesel's bed and after I got the three little ones to bed I went into her room not knowing what I would see. There she was asleep in her bed with sheets and blankets. She had made it up all by herself and put herself to bed!

James is missing his rough and tumble play from Daddy so I had to fill in tonight. After dinner I sat down exhausted on the couch and James looked at me and started running away laughing and screaming. Translation for those of you who don't know this means: " I want you to chase me and grab me and tickle me and wrestle. And then do it again and again and again until I get out all my sillies. " So I mustered all the energy I could and the girls and I had fun with baby James. So lest you all think that being a parent is just too much work....sure it is work but it is the most rewarding work in the world!

Funny things the kids said today:

Annika: "When is Dad coming home from his vacation?"

Elora: "How will Dad get off the airplane?" (All she knows of airplanes is that they are flying up in the sky!)

Elora

James

2009-12-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

I sure love this boy! He has such a fun personality. He can be tough and growl and hold up a toy sword like he is ready for battle. Othertimes he is so sweet and gives the best little hugs always with a smile on his face. He can also tease his sisters and his mom, just like Ben and Nathaniel do! But when he is mad...watch out!...He gets that from Ben too I guess! I never get mad! ; )

Ben is out of town right now and I have to let him know what he's been missing out on. It's too hard to talk in the evening since the kids are so noisy and needy! And since he's two hours ahead right now he's asleep by the time I have the kids in bed!
We set up the Christmas tree yesterday and James loves it!! He has already managed to break an ornament! Oops! I forgot to make sure all the fragile ones were up high! That was next on my list after I got the mess from setting up Christmas decorations cleaned up! But we had to get the kids from school and when we got back it was time for piano lessons. Since our teacher was running a little late I decided to sit with Liesel and have her run through her songs since we hadn't practice for a week since we were in AZ for Thanksgiving. It only took James a minute while I was distracted to find a fragile ornament hanging on the tree, carry it over to me and throw it on the floor next to the piano! A piece broke off and Liesel and I picked it up and lamented over the loss and then continued practicing. James was being whining and complaining and insisting on being held. I figured he must be hungry so I carried him into the kitchen, walked into the pantry and with one hand got down a giant Costco box of Cheerios and promptly lost my grip and somehow the box tipped over and as I caught it upside down all the cereal from the one freshly opened bag was dumped all over the floor in the pantry. Uggh! I walked away thinking maybe if I imagine that didn't happen hard enough it will not have happened. It didn't work so I went to get a broom. As I walked across the floor I crunched on something very hard! The Christmas ornament! How did that get there?! After that he had a stinky diaper and did NOT want his diaper changed! He cried and threw and fit and managed to get poo poo everywhere! Ohhh will I survive?! I put him to bed a couple hours ago and I hear him waking up now! Thank goodness for those sweet hugs and smiles!

2009-04-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER!

We took this picture above ourselves with the automatic timer. I can't believe everyone was actually looking at the camera!

Easter basket remnants

We have a family tradition started by my mom almost thirty years ago to make "Bunny Buns" for Easter Breakfast. They are orange rolls made into the shape of bunnies.

Sisters, black eyes and starfish

2009-03-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we are in Las Vegas? Life has been pretty crazy. Especially this weekend. We worked on the house and had fun at the park yesterday, but today we were all sick! In a few minutes I will be making up the bed with clean, "puke free" sheets.

Here are a few pictures of the younger kids. Elora was showing off her black eye for the movers and James loves to help his mother cook. He gets so excited when he sees us eating or Marsie cooking that he can't stand it. This picture of his legs while he was striking his starfish pose. You know, it is the thing babys do when they are excited and lose control of their body and just stretch out all of their limbs.

More of Sweet Baby James

2008-11-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

Fashionable Elora

2008-11-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

Lately I have overheard Liesel and Annika using the word "fashionable". From what I can tell you are considered fashionable by them if you wear jewelry and wear pretty clothes. Here are some pictures of Elora being "fashionable". She was so excited when she discovered on her own a way she can have earrings! She is always wanting to put earrings on and gets pretty frustrated sometimes because her ears are not pierced. She is always wanting to wear her swimming suit too. Here she is wearing her suit on a chilly morning and wanting to play outside. She put socks on with her Hello Kitty glitter sandals and also put a coat on but promptly took it off when she started getting her picture taken.

Bunch of Photos cont.

2008-11-07T10:04:00.001-08:00

Bunch of Photos

2008-11-07T09:53:00.001-08:00

I was forbidden to post any pictures of Marsie. But I think the post needs a picture of a beautiful mother with her new born son. So I thought I would take the same approach as buying some sort of contraband goods at the grocery store and stick it in the middle of a bunch of other things in an attempt to draw attention away from it...

Welcome Baby James!

2008-11-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Baby James Benjamin Jensen joined us on Sunday, November 2nd! He was 9 pounds, 1 ounce and 22 inches long. We got home today. The children have been so good to him and love to hold him. I'll let Marsie write more about it later, but I thought I should hurry and get some photos uploaded. (Hopefully this works. We've been "blog-slackers" for several months, and I can't even remember how to do this!!)

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

2008-06-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

The kids had Primary Activity Day yesterday where they went on pretend missions. I have to give credit to our primary presidency for making it so very REALISTIC. First of all they sent the kids postcards in the mail telling them where the mission call was to, etc. Nathaniel got called to Massachussettes, Liesel to Germany(which whe was very excited about since Ben went there) and Annika to Washington. Here are two conversations I had with the kids.

Nathaniel(quietly): "Mom...(long pause) are these missions calls where we will really go when we go on a mission?"

And later, Liesel who hadn't heard our conversation was telling me how excited she was that she gets to go to Germany on her mission. I said to her, "You know these aren't where you are going for real though, right?" Her response was priceless. Her jaw dropped a little and then "Huh??!" she exclaimed and finally she giggled at herself.

Elora's Loving Nature

2008-06-29T23:01:00.001-07:00

Elora was so happy riding along while dragging this doll's head on the floor at our friends house the other day. It was quite disturbingly, funny. Umm... do you think I am going to need to watch her closely when the new baby is born! She really does love baby dolls though and is usually very soft and gentle with them. She also is quite entranced when she sees a real baby. She is such a loving little thing. She give the best, tight hugs. I am always amazed how strong she can squeeze for being such a tiny, skinny little thing. She hadn't been to Nursery for three weeks with being sick and Stake Conference one week. She was so excited to go today. She ran in and went right to her teacher and gave her a hug! She LOVES nursery. She is always asking me "Toys, Class?"

Baby Number 5?

2008-06-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

We are all (especially Nathaniel!) very excited that we will be having a baby BOY this fall! Nathaniel feels like he has waited forever to get a brother! He is so cute about it looking for names in the baby name book. He just beams with happiness whenever we talk about the baby boy.

And I don't know why but I like the idea of beginning and ending our family with a boy. The baby is due November 3rd.

While I was sitting helping Liesel at the piano the other day Elora climbed up on the chair behind me and she is such a little monkey and climbs all over us all the time and so I didn't notice her at first saying over and over "Baby?... Baby?" while lifting up my shirt looking at my back. When I finally noticed what she was doing I pointed to my portruding belly and told her that no the baby is in here. She let out a big laugh as if so relieved to have finally found the baby and patted my tummy saying "Baby...Baby."

Snow!

2008-03-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

Annika kept asking all winter "Where's all the snow?!" So in February we went up to the mountains and Annika finally saw where all the snow is. They ran and played and went down the hill on a sled and threw snow balls. But Annika and Liesel got pretty wet feet as we were not prepared with snow boots. Near the end we took their socks shoes off and bundled them in blankets and extra jackets. While sitting on this log together Annika glumly said to Liesel, "I wish snow was warm." Liesel agreed. Nathaniel, on the other hand had borrowed some snow boots from cousins and was having the time of his life building a snow fort!

Elora is here on Aunt Rebecca's shoulders. She did not really know what to think of the snow!

Annika's Ears

2008-02-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hi there! This is Ben posting again. Thought I would share a quick story about our adventure while voting in the primary election on "Super Tuesday." We voted at a baptist church just a few minutes from the house. We decided to just go together and bring the children along for the experience. They didn't want to go, but eventually we all jumped into the car and assured them that it was only going to be a short trip to vote.

Everything went fine until we started to leave and Annika started crying. She was very upset and we couldn't figure out why. She was finally able to explain that she never got her short trip on a BOAT! I swear, that girl has more wax in her ears......

Enjoy these pictures of the one and only Annika Rose!

Ben actually posted these pictures!

2008-01-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Elora loves her horse! She also enjoys scaring us by rocking back and forth as far as she can.

Annika is a Sunbeam!

OK, Nate found our old camera and went crazy. We now have an abundance of very strange pictures. Our favorite is this one with Liesel wearing a bathrobe and pointing a wooden gun. Note the flowers stuck in the robe for good measure. Maybe we should stop letting our children watch James Bond movies....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

Disneyworld

2008-01-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Jensen took us all to Disneyworld!

We went to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. This is a somewhat disorganized compilation of pictures from both.

Elora was so excited she could hardly stand it!

Annika was happy as can be!

Nathaniel showing off his new pirate hat, Aunt Crystal soaked from Splash Mountain,

and Liesel being a little silly for the camera

Uncle T. Jay helping Elora (It was great to have so much help from Aunts and Uncles!)

Liesel being silly again

Grandma with Elora in a teacup

Our four kids plus a friend they had just made while waiting for the show to start

Nathaniel somewhat reluctantly agreed to this photo.

Liesel fell and hurt her chin. As you can see, Grandpa is applying some "medicinal aid"

The kids all loved It's a Small World.

Aunt Collette was 7 months pregnant and dealing with swelling and still managed to spoil the kids as usual.

Emmerson, our cousin, and Annika riding in a rented stroller. This later became the napping house with kids sleeping on top of the shade and on the inside.

Uncle Ryan, Aunt Shaunna with Emmerson, and Uncle Wayne

Liesel doing what she likes best... no... not acting like a monkey....just being plain silly

When is Pluto going to learn how to talk so they'll give him clothes to wear too?

Annika being cute, Crystal being a great Aunt, and Liesel being silly

And Nathaniel being scared!

Just kidding around above and truly too scared to ride Splash Mountain below

(But to his credit, he did go on everything else except one scary Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom)

Elora pointing at the fish and making a fish sound with her mouth to any stranger who would pay attention to her

It was a magical, wonderful vacation! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

San Diego

2007-12-31T22:43:00.000-08:00

For our ten year wedding anniversary we took the kids to San Diego where we went on our honeymoon. We had so much fun going to the beach, seeing the temple, and

walking around Balboa Park.

Balboa park

The San Diego temple

Our three beautiful flowers in the gardens of the temple.

Annika wasn't too excited about having an adventure looking for sea creatures in tide pools and caves!

Nathaniel was on the hunt for sea creatures. We found crabs, sea anenomes, mussels and saw someone catching lobsters. Nathaniel and Liesel loved it!

Elora was thrilled with the ocean!

A big wave unexpectedly came up and soaked Liesel and Annika!

Liesel laughed and kept playing.

Annika cried and wanted to go home.

Happier on solid ground

When asked what her favorite part about San Diego was, Annika replied, "Going to sleep at the hotel."

Nathaniel is Eight!

2007-12-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel was baptized on August 18th . We are so proud of him.

2007-07-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Elora ate a cherry and painted herself with the juice. She is so creative!

Liesel's Earrings

2007-07-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Liesel made her own earrings! Tres Chic!

Annika is dreaming of having her own!

Liesel's Sixth Birthday

2007-07-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

Elora's First Birthday

2007-06-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

What a fast year it has been! Elora is our sweet one year old now! She is full of love and energy!

Elora got her first baby doll. She is so sweet with it. She loves to giver her doll hugs and kisses and push her in the doll stroller. The other day she climbed into the stroller with the doll. Apparently she thought is was pretty fun until she realized she was stuck and began to cry. It was pretty traumatic for her!

Annika's 3rd Birthday

2007-05-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Annika's Nursery teachers brought her these balloons on her birthday. She carried them around all day singing Happy Birthday to herself.

For Annika's Birthday celebration we took the kids to a jungle gym. It was a fun place for the older kids but poor Annika was pretty scared of the dark tunnels.

Springtime Fun

2007-04-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Nathaniel is enjoying playing socccer!

Oh no! Elora discovered the joys of chocolate (dark chocolate in fact!).
The Kids have been helping with Spring yard work. Here's Liesel pretending to be a tree!

Daddy is just like a big toy! So much Fun!

Annika absolutely loves going to the park three times a week to play while Nathaniel has soccer!

Elora is working on getting her teeth. She has the two incisors on the bottom and one canine and one incisor on the top. Her gums look like swollen popcorn kernels ready to burst! She has been so restless at night. Whenever a tooth pops through it is such a relief!

Easter

2007-04-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

All Cleaned Up

2007-04-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

Making Messes

2007-04-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

Life

2007-03-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

We were at the Renaissance Festival a couple weeks ago and Ben took this picture of Nathaniel and Liesel with the Cardinal. Kind of goofy I know but it's the only recent picture I have of Nathaniel!

I have been feeling so disconnected from everyone lately and we miss all of you. Sometimes it feels like we are living on the edge of the earth out here on Maricopa. We are so distanced from everyone. Ben is rarely home and I feel rather isolated at times, but life does go on even out here in the Boondocks! Here is a little of what has been happening!

The other night Annika woke up crying in the night and we assumed it was a nightmare since she often gets them. But the next morning I noticed her right hand was red and very swollen. Apparently she was bit by a spider. We spent all day looking for it. Finally that night about 12:30 AM just after Ben got home from work(Yes...after midnight!) we saw a giant spider scurrying across the floor. I was so glad Ben was here to be my knight in shining armor and slay the hideous beast! Annika had also burned her left hand on a lightbulb the same day and got a blister. And just days before was stung by a bee. It seems that between Annika and Elora there is always some little crisis going on!

Here are the girls with our (Now Dead) pet turtle Fred. The kids were so thrilled that Dad FINALLY bought them a pet. We tried so hard to keep him alive, doing everything we were supposed to but I guess we were not meant to have pets. It was a sad day. Everyone cried and cried.

We went to the Renaissance Festival a few weeks ago. Here's Liesel with a Turkey drumstick.

Elora has discovered the joys of making messes. This was her first book mess back in January. Toys are now boring compared to what is nicely displayed on a shelf or hiding in a cupboard. Last night she dumped potatoe flakes all over the pantry and this morning unrolled a whole roll of paper towels. She is so energetic and busy. She has quite the sense of humor!
Elora has also come down with some terrible sicknesses the last few months. One week she threw up for 5 days. It was so scary! We are wondering if there is something about Maricopa. All the moms in our ward agree that they have never seen so much sickness in their families since moving here!

Sorry this is kind of a hodge podge but and I am just figuring out how to do this!