Holiday Resolutions?

Here it is, post-Christmas, and I am just getting to a holiday post! I think every year I go into the Christmas season full-steam ahead, ready to take it on, and at the end of it I am wondering "Um, what just happened?!"

Even with the hectic month of details, we really had a great Christmas this year. For the first time, I did almost 100% of Christmas (i.e. - shopping, staff party, other gifts, decorating etc.) I don't know if most married people operate that way and I have just been lucky to have Mark's involvement in the shopping aspect in years past? But this year, that poor man was so busy at work that I did almost all of it. Abe wrapped. That was new! Thanks Abe. We had lots of wonderful get togethers with our staff (who are the best, by the way), our friends, and our cousins in the area.

Did I mention that my Uncle Steve and Aunt Joyce are living in the Spokane area now to be close to Liza and Jane their daughters that I grew up with? That has been fabulous! We had our traditional Christmas eve dinner with June Denny and Dave and Sonya Coates. Our Christmas day brunch with the Julians - all of these people are our friends who feel like family. Our day-before Christmas eve nativity with the Mclellands. And Christmas Day dinner with the Lees, the Frasers and Steve and Joyce. We are truly so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives who we absolutely love!

I am one of those cruel mom's who generally doesn't get the kids what they THINK they want, because I think I know what they REALLY want! Plus, I figure not getting what you think you want developes character that they will appreciate much longer than they would anything tangible I could give them! This year we got it right on the money. They didn't get a lot, but what they got is still keeping them busy (four days later) - this is sad, but that is not always the case! So I will call it a success.

Stating the Not So Obvious

It is family night.

Thanks to a recent tragedy in the family of a friend, we are reviewing "safety" with our bodies - trying to instill safety precautions without freaking anyone out. Is that possible?! There is a lot of interesting discussion about our "private parts" from the 11 year old who gets what is going on, down to the two year old who is giggling and rolling around on the floor. Sophia who is four keeps saying, "Let's not talk about this!"

And Kate (6 yrs) is apprehensively asking questions like, "What do you if a baby touches your privates?!"


Kate is becoming more and more wound up even though we have assured her she doesn't need to worry about it if a baby accidentally touches her privates.


Finally she blurts out, "WHY DO WE EVEN NEED OUR PRIVATES ANYWAY??!!"


That's a quick way to wrap up family home evening discussion.

A Conversation with Sophia

Out of the blue.......

Sophia: "Mom?"

Mom: "What Sophia?"

Sophia: "How come Jesus had the last supper?"

Mom: "Wellll....... before He died, He had his apostles together where they ate, He did service for them, and they got the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Sophia: "Mom, were we there when Jesus died?"

Mom: "Wellll.... maybe we were there, but it was before we came to earth, so we didn't have our bodies yet."

Sophia: "YOU MEAN WE WERE JUST HEADS????!!!"

I guess it is time for the "hand in the glove demonstration."

Ahhh La Lake!

Okay, my record keeping has become quite "ridoncules!" as my kids would say! I guess when you have the most ridiculessly busy summer on record, there is no time for blogging! So here I am, recording some of our summer adventures a few months after the fact! Our first trip this summer was to Utah for the Glen Hanson family reunion. I did not take a single picture!! I think I was burned out. We had a great time -- missed Kath and Jarom's families. But it was great to get those of us together who could come. We were home for a week before we headed off to Loon Lake, a local lake where we had rented an old house on the lake with my cousin Liza, her husband Chris and their families. We had a WONDERFUL week there. The lake was beautiful, peaceful and the beach was perfect for the kids.

We had more smores in a week than I think I have had all of my life! Every night we roasted smores down by the beach.

My favorite part of the place we stayed was this amazing dock. My dream was to get up one morning and do yoga out there on the dock before anyone else got up. And I did. It was seriously the best yoga ever. Unbelievably peaceful. Later that afternoon, the 80 year old world-war II veteran and owner of the home we were renting, who lived next door, came out to the beach to tell me how flexible and limber I was! And he asked what I was doing out there? His wife had told him I was doing yoga. Two things I gleaned from this exchange. Number one, it feels good to be told how flexible and strong you are, even if it is by an 80 year old. (because in reality, to people my age, I am neither!) And, number two, I am glad I did not know I had an audience -- it would have blown my perfect yoga moment! Things being what they are, I hope he enjoyed the "show!"

Chris and Liza's family were fun to be with. It is fabulous having family nearby and they were laid back and easy to share a house with! Jane and Rob's family came up for a day too which was great. The little girls always appreciate having the cool teenage girls around.

Elsa celebrated her 9th birthday while we were there. Let me just say that Elsa is an amazing young lady. She is incredibly smart, outgoing, nurturing, sensitive and a tease all at the same time. I watch her from a distance all of the time and think "wow, I can't believe she is my first baby girl" - she impresses me. Elsa has always had to work really hard in school with reading and writing. This year we discovered she is mildly dyslexic. The more I find out about dyslexia, the more amazing my daughter becomes to me. School has been such a challenge for her academically, and yet she has never, in four years, had a day that she didn't want to go to school! I think that is incredible!

She is a fighter.

She is a nurturer.

She is AMAZING at the monkey bars!

She has a great memory.

She is a good teacher

Happy Birthday Elsa!

We will go back to this wonderful place!

i

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What it Can Be

This is Cheryl. She is my un-official little sister. She babysat our kids the first four years we lived in Spokane.
Cheryl is beautiful.
Cheryl is smart.
Cheryl is righteous.
Cheryl found Soren Timothy.
Soren is handsome.
Soren is smart.
Soren is righteous.
They are getting married in August. They were engaged at the end of May. I got to take their engagement pictures. It is wonderful to see two great people who have lived the way God wants us to live, find each other, fall in love, and start a life together. It takes me back 17 years to my own engagement to my best friend. Those are some of the most intoxicating memories! Relief (I found a soul mate!) and excitement (my soulmate actually feels the same way about me!)


Love is supposed to be this way.

Cinderella, Cinderella

Well, I learned some

thing about Kate this week. Kate, who will spend three hours crying and telling you why picking the five things up off of her floor is too hard to do by herself...yah, that's the one (actually, this could be any one of our girls) But, a few weeks ago, Mark was out in the garage cleaning out the car. Kate went out there and decided she wanted to scrub the floor in the garage. Two hours later, she was still scrubbing!!! When all was said and done, my kindergartener had spent 3 hours on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor in the garage!! It was unbelievable. It is amazing what kids can accomplish when it is their idea. So now I am trying to figure out how to make her think that picking up her room is her own idea!!

Charleston Reprieve

I am back-blogging here now. But in February, Mark and I took a few days off and went to Charelston SC to visit my brother Jarom and his wife Liina who are in residencies back there. The bonus was that Kathryn and Kristine and their families came over from GA to visit for a day. So we got to see the east-coast half of the family and experience a part of the country we have never seen. Jarom and Liina really like Charleston and we can see why. It was a quaint little city with lots of history and charm. In Charleston they have a city ordinance in which no structure that is older than 70 years can be altered in any way on the outside. I am sure this can be at times annoying to the people living there, but it makes it fun for tourists!

We spent one day touring Fort Sumpter and visiting the beach. Then when the Georgia girls came, we spent the day in CharlestonWe miss seeing the "little kids" - that is what we called Kath, Kris and Jarom growing up. I can't believe they are all living so close to each other 2 thousand miles away! And that Jarom is reviving patients in a hospital (perhaps growing up the youngest in a family with five sisters prepared him for the trauma of the hospital!)

We had such a nice time staying with Jarom and Liina and to have them all to ourselves. We get the best family visits one on one! We haven't ever been around them like that since they were married. We also loved having everyone together on Saturday. We walked around the outdoor market in Charleston and then stood in line for an hour outside of one of the best known cafes in Charleston called Jestines Kitchen. I wasn't sure if it was really going to be worth the wait outside in the rain -- but it was AMAZING food. Seriously good. Totally authentic Southern cousine. The Crosby and Ellsworth kids wowed us with their patience as we waited outside. They were good little troopers! (Jarom and Hannele)

Down the Toilet and in the Bathtub

There are a couple of places in every household where you can find the most action. They can at times be places of accomplishment and utility, and for those in the younger set of people living in this house, they are places of mischief and adventure. At the Jensen's, the bathroom and the kitchen are often the center of the most controversy when it comes to Ben and Sophia. A few weeks ago, Ben gave new meaning to the phrase "going down the toilet" when he decided it looked like a fun place to hang out. My first reaction was complete horror, because with four other children in the house who manage to flush only 30% of the time, odds were pretty good he was sitting on a little more than just the Tidy Bowl Man! However, you can imagine my relief when I realized my boy-genious had stuffed the toilet full with his blanket before he lit into the bowl. It was so nice and comfy in there, he surely could have played in the toilet all afternoon! Then there's Sophia. She has been our own little live-in tornado since the day she started to walk. She is up on Ben by 2 and a half years in experience with at-home exploration techniques. I am always thinking she will be moving on to a new stage at any moment! But so far, no. This may be an actual personality trait rather than a symptom of age. She has an uncanny ability to breeze through my bathroom in a matter of seconds and unscrew, empty out, try on, roll out any substance she can get her hands on. I am sure I am part-owner of several cosmetic companies due to my frequent replacement of lipgloss and eye shadow. Sophia can define a mean eyebrow with my lipstick. She is a sheer genious when it comes to application technique. Her second favorite passed-time is swimming in the tub.

Thanks for the Gift

It was my birthday the end of December. As I get older, the more ironic I find the way we celebrate birthdays. When one really thinks about it, it is almost as ridicules as the total commercialization of the Christmas holiday and the Easter Bunny. I have had birthdays where I was disappointed or depressed. And many birthdays where family and dear friends are kind enough to acknowledge my existance. But I want to do better at just being thankful on my birthday. Thankful for my life. Just to acknowledge that life in and of itself is the greatest gift Heavenly Father has given his children. No matter what, that is the ultimate gift. What am I doing with this greatest gift? Will He be pleased with me? Am I honoring my parents by the way I live every day? I am thankful for the chance to be here. My kids made my birthday great. It was on a Sunday so Mark was gone early for meetings. They got up and under Elsa's direction set up and prepared a lovely breakfast which included a special birthday mat fashioned by Elsa.


I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends. My local friends are a blessing. One of my best friends is June Denny - she is almost 40 years older but our hearts are the same age! She gave me a card that I loved because on the front of it was pictured to little girls sitting together playing and I thought that is just how our spirits are - just two young girls!

I am so grateful to my parents for my life. For providing me with a home and upbringing where I was taught truth and witnessed their great examples every day. There could be no greater gift besides my life that they could have given me! And wonderful siblings. And my husband Mark is the cherry on the top of it all. Don't know how I got so lucky.

Seeing more clearly with age!