Believe It or Not

Believe it or not, but Blogger hates me. For some reason the internet disconnects each and every time I upload a photo and it won't let me rearrange my photos. So get ready for a very random, hopefully brief, update.

Believe it or not, but we are alive and mostly well. There have been times in the past 2 months where each one of us wondered if we would live to see the next sunrise, but alas we pulled through.

Believe it or not, but we finally went on a family vacation to see our good friends in sunny California.


On our last day (see there is no order to this madness) we visited the Mormon Battalion visitor center. It was incredible. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip...and the whole trip was fun! It's not what you think with a visitor center. It was super interactive and so well done. I would recommend it to everyone! In the photo on the right Jaxon is panning for gold...which he got to keep!


We spent time on the beach...mostly taking family photos, but we did let the kids play in the water when we were done. Ryker is seen walking away. Anyone surprised he didn't like the water? Yeah, me either. Jaxon, Kyle, and Marie, however, loved every minute of it!

In Old Town San Diego we went to lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant. A man came by and made balloon animals/swords/hats/whatever your heart desired. He favored us with a dinosaur and a sword. For a small tip he sure made two little boys happy!

We took the boys to Sea World and it was everything we had hoped for. It was so much fun to see the boys so excited. They loved it!

We loved our vacation, we loved seeing our friends (make sure you move somewhere fun again so we can make this a regular thing, hint hint!) and we had a fabulous time! And I think it's safe to say that I would be more than happy to live in Southern California in November. It was heavenly! And oh, so depressing to drive home in a snow storm :(

Believe it or not, but one day in October we woke up and decided to drive to Denver that day... with our two kids! So, we rented a car and made the trek. Shortly after arriving in Denver we test drove, negotiated over, and bought a new family car. About 12 hours after arriving in Denver (after a good night's sleep thanks to the very generous Swapp's) we made the drive home in, believe it or not, a mini van! I never thought I would own a mini van, and I certainly never thought I would love it. But I do....on both accounts. Oh, and heated seats are now a necessity!

Believe it or not, but way back in September we strongly encouraged Jaxon to take a ride in a helicopter. Since this was apparently a family outing (I would have been fine staying on the ground) Brian's dad and I also went along for the ride. It's not my first, nor will it probably be my last. Brian has a sort of, oh, I don't know, obsession with things that fly!

So, even though Jaxon begged, pleaded, and cried not to go on the helicopter, before we were done he was laughing and smiling and wanted to do it again. And as Brian often says "The sky is blue, the clouds are white. I'm the dad and I'm always right." He was definitely right about this!

Believe it or not, but we did actually celebrate Halloween this year. It was fun. We dressed up. Ryker was a monkey (a very uncooperative monkey at first...hense no pictures at our house) and Jaxon was a Ninja. I was a....weird nerdy person with really cool hair!

Oh, and I even stepped it up a notch (seriously...so surprised) and tried to make a super fun Halloween meal. Even the pancakes got in on the dressing up action! It was lots of fun (I didn't take any pictures of our dinner....little mummies, bug salad, fingers 'n dip, etc.) and I plan on doing it every year.

And believe it or not, but this very random (and long over due) post is finally over.

Never Underestimate the Power of Paper

Jaxon is at such a fun age. I just love having conversations with him! Here are a couple of funny things he has said lately:

Brian's mom emailed me the following story that took place last week.

"Jaxon is such a sweetie and has such a tender heart and just loves to help Grandma and Grandpa Jensen (Jaxon's great-grandparents) get around by holding their hand or getting them their canes. He was helping Grandma Jensen to the table yesterday for dinner. Scott (Jaxon's grandpa) was at her chair holding it out for her waiting for her to sit down. When Jaxon got her to the chair, he turned to Scott and said..."She's all yours!"

Today we were talking about school as we drove down the road. Jaxon got really excited when he remembered that he had been given a new job at school. This was our conversation:

J:"Mom! I got a new job! I'm the paper-passer-outer!!"
M: "Wow! That sounds like an important job."
J:"It's very important. If the kids don't get their papers then they can't do their work and if they don't do their work they can't learn. So it's my job to make sure they keep learning!"

Sunsets at West Point

The sunset tonight was incredible! I'm sure glad Brian called me away from making dinner to see this. :)

Jaxon's Hero

Jaxon had this little assignment at school. It says:

"Dad is my hero because....he takes care of me and he helps hurt people."

Mostly he helps people who are hurt, but I suppose on many occasions what he does to help does indeed hurt them...I guess he got it spot on!

The boys adore their daddy. As soon as they hear the garage door open at night they come a running. Shrieking all the way "Daddy's home! Daddy! Daddy's home!" They greet him by the door and maul him with hugs. One of these days I should stand by with the camera in my hand so I can document it for when my brain stops working (which might be sooner rather than later!).

On days like yesterday, days where he is gone before they open their eyes in the morning and home after they are fast asleep in their beds, those are long days. The phone call at dinner time to say goodnight has to suffice for the wrestling, hugs and kisses, and other manly games.

He's the best kind of daddy and a very super hero indeed.

Is There Anything Sweeter?

I walked by the boys room one morning a few weeks ago and saw Jaxon helping Ryker do this:

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

3 John 1:4

It's about time!

Well, it seems I've been MIA in the blogland for quite some time.


You know how it gets when you get so far behind that just the thought of catching up (or at the very least hitting the highlights) sends shivers down your spine? Yep. That's me.


Be warned. The following posts are long. And probably really boring. And I'm sure no one out there really cares just what we've been up to.


It's much easier to keep up than to catch up. I'm sure you knew that. I tend to forget the reality of it.


Enjoy!

Updates: Ryker

Ryker is 2 1/2...and good at it! He's getting taller (but not fatter) and is chuck-full of personality. He loves to yell "football!" and run and tackle you to the ground. Wrestling with Jaxon and Brian are a daily occurrence. He races everywhere he goes and swings his left arm behind him while he runs. He would play baseball out back every minute of the day or ride his plasma car out front if he could.


He continues to yell at you until you make eye contact. Saying "What?" is not enough. "Mom, mom, mom, mommy, MOM, MOM, MOM!!" (or dad or Jaxon)over and over again until eye contact is made. It can drive you near insanity at times and the rest of us usually get yelling at the other person to just look at him.

He is completely irreverent during family prayer at night and will refuse to say prayers some nights until we give in and tell him it's time for bed. Then he becomes completely undone and will cry until he can say his prayers. Yeah, he's 2.

He loves his Mr. Bink. I tell him often that Mr. Bink is going to go bye-bye but I just can't bring myself to do it. He goes down for nap and bed so great. I guess I should just gear up for it and toss the dang thing. He's had the same binky for over a year now. Eventually it's going to break right? My only consolation is that he doesn't want it until he's tired so he doesn't walk around with it in his mouth. I'm justifying. It will be gone soon. Well, before kindergarten anyway :)

There was a day not too many months ago when he cried and clung to me when I dropped him off at nursery. Now he is waving and yelling goodbye as soon as the closing prayer is said. He loves nursery. One Sunday we were talking about nursery as we were getting ready for church and I asked him "Who are you going to play with in nursery today?" He responded with "Ree, Jessen, baby Jesus!" He loves nursery and playing with his buddies Reed and Jensen.

This look usually comes with a plead to be held...in which I usually oblige. Good thing he's only 22 lbs. One day he'll have to walk on his own. When I tell him he's a big boy he tells me "Me Baby!". Yeah, we're working on that too.

He was such a brave little man during his last round of allergy testing. Notice the two bandages on his arm? They were able to get the blood draw on their second attempt and we didn't even have to drive to Primary Children's to get it done! His reward was the skittles and he earned every last one of them! He did so great.


The results came back so encouraging. Just for a reference point for all you non-allergy folks out there: anything less than .35 is considered normal (meaning there is no allergy) and a high level of allergen is anything 3.51-17.5.

In April Ryker's results were: Milk 28.1, egg 2.45, peanut .90, cashew 1.41
Now, 6 months later, his milk has dropped to 7.1, egg is now .98, peanuts are .31. He didn't run the tree nuts on the blood test, but they still came back positive on the skin test.



With results like this I can actually begin to believe that he'll out grow these allergies. There is a very slim chance he'll outgrow the tree nuts. Only about 3% of people do. Hopefully they drop even more in April when we go back!


He still doesn't eat hardly anything at all (hence his weight). He loves chips and salsa, corndogs (but just the corn part), fruit snacks, and chicken nuggets. Last night I caught him trying corn (wahoo!) and he didn't even gag and spit it out! There's still hope.

Ryker had a blast at Lagoon on Jaxon's birthday....that is until they told us he couldn't ride the rides anymore. We thought that when we called and asked if kids 2 and under could get in for free and they said 'yes' that meant he could also ride the rides. Silly us. Apparently he could walk in to the park for free but he couldn't ride the rides unless we paid for the ridiculously over-priced child's ticket.
Luckily he was able to steal a few rides before we learned of our mistake. Here he is excited to ride Puff the Magic Dragon with Brian.

After he was banned from the rides he enjoyed pushing his stroller around while we waited for Jaxon to ride. His stroller was just as much fun as the rides, and it was free.

Updates: Jaxon

Jaxon is a good kid. A really good kid. I know I'm his mom, so I might be a little biased, but every once in awhile I will witness something and be amazed that someone so young can be strong.

This summer we had some major dental drama. To say Jaxon is afraid of the dentist would be the understatement of the year. Petrified. Out-of-his-mind-crazy scared. As it turned out, Jaxon had a cavity and our insurance wasn't going to cover a pediatric dentist fixing it. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I was sure that Jaxon would rise to the occasion and surprise us all with his new found bravery. Not so. He tried to be brave. He really did. But the mind can be a powerful thing. (I should know. I can scare myself better than the freakiest movie.)

On the way to one of our appointments we talked about being brave and just letting the dentist do his job. It wouldn't hurt, and it would be over really fast. He was so scared. He asked me if we could say a prayer so he could be brave. After a heart-felt prayer from a child I was certain this trip to the dentist would be a success. How could it not be?

Tears, crying, grabbing at the instruments, and lots of "Wait! What are you going to do?", an hour later we walked out of the office without any work done. It was so frustrating and heart wrenching at the same time. I knew he was safe. I knew that if he would just calm down he would also realize that all his fears were completely unfounded.

In the car on the way home Jaxon cried in the backseat. "I tried to be brave mom, I really did, but Jesus didn't help me." And then he cried some more. Faith. I tried to teach him about faith. How do you teach faith, real faith, to an almost 6 year old? I don't know, but I tried.

We tried about every trick in the book. Bribed him with a trip to the dollar store, the D.I. (his all-time favorite store!) and even Lagoon. Nothing. So we did what any good parent does. We banned him from anything sweet until he let the dentist fix his cavity. No sodas, fruit snacks, candy, desserts. Absolutely no treats of any kind.

After the ban we made another appointment with a different dentist who would be able to sedate Jaxon. The only problem was the next available appointment was 3 1/2 weeks away. And in those 3 1/2 weeks we had birthday parties, 4th of July parades, camping trips, and a summer party with his preschool class. All of which meant treats galore.

And you know what? He did it. Even without us there reminding him. He told his preschool teacher that he couldn't have any of the treats at the party. He told his church teachers. He was 100% faithful in keeping his promise. I was honestly shocked that he was so strong. Most kids would have tried to sneak a treat or at least take one when offered when we weren't around.

Oh, and eventually he did get his cavity fixed, but we haven't overcome the fear of the dentist. Or the fear of dogs. Or automatic flushing toilets.

Happy 6th Birthday!

We surprised Jaxon by taking him to Lagoon for his birthday. This was his first adventure and he loved it...but not at first. When we pulled into the parking lot he was not excited. He started to panic and said "I can't go on those rides! They're too big! I'll be too scared! I don't want to go to Lagoon!" So much for our big surprise.

It didn't take long before we had him convinced that he would indeed be safe. He started out small on rides in kiddie land (all except for the Dino Drop...that was too much for him) and ended the day on rides like the White Roller Coaster, The Bat, Odyssey, and the new dragon ride.

After Lagoon we took the boys to Applebee's for dinner per Jaxon's request. He remembered that in the past he's recieved a free ice cream sundae and a birthday cheer from the waitresses. He reminded our waitress over and over again that it was his birthday and asked when they were going to sing to him. When it was finally time, our waitress came and asked Jaxon what kind of dessert he wanted. His reply, "I don't want dessert. I'm having an ice cream cake at home. I just want you to sing to me!"
Jaxon with his Oreo Ice Cream Pie. Have a mentioned that we aren't big cake eaters at our house? This was a hit and oh, so delicious!

Jaxon with his presents. A bigger bike and a bow with arrows.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

Kindergarten Rocks!First day of school with the obligatory "picture at your desk". He was so excited for school and is just as excited every single day. He loves it and I love that he loves it!
After school on the first day with his chocolate chip cookies and kool-aid.

School was a big "Two Thumbs Waaaay Up!"

Jaxon's school gives out Builder Slips. I'm sure it has something to do with the Peace Builder program that most schools participate in. They get a Builder Slip if they are caught doing something good. Jaxon is thrilled to get a slip and gets so excited to tell us when he's received on. He's acquired quite a collection of these slips.

Jaxon is doing great in school. He loves his teacher, he loves doing homework, and surprisingly enough when I ask him about school I hear about more than just recess! It will be interesting to see what his teacher says at Parent-Teacher Conferences next week.

How am I handling school? Honestly, it's hard to be so out-of-the-loop. Being there makes me miss school. I miss having a classroom full of kids. I miss planning lessons. I miss teaching. But if I were in the classroom I would miss seeing him off to school everyday. I would miss the one-on-one time after school talking about his day. I would miss being fully invested in his education. And that's just not something I'm willing to miss.

Conversation at Lunch

R:Mom, mom, mommy, mommy, mom!

M: Yes, Ryker?

R: Please snack.

M. Lunch first.

R:butter-honey?

M: Do you want a honey sandwich?

R: Hmmmmm. No.

M:Do you want nuggets?

R: Hmmmm. No.

M:Do you want a corn dog?

R:Dotdog!Yes!

We got the corndog cooked and we were sitting at the table ready for lunch.

R:Mom. Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mommy. Mom. Mommy.

M:What, honey?

R:Da fly.

M:Yep there's a fly.

R:Back. Fly back.

M:Yep. The fly is back.

R: Prayer!

M: Okay, fold your arms for prayer.

R: Bip (dip...which is ketchup) Dat way. (tips it upside down) Dat way. (puts it right side up)

M:Ryker, fold your arms.

R: Dat way. (turns it to the right) Dat way. (turns it so the side is facing him) Prayer! Bip.

M:After the prayer.

We are finally able to say the prayer.

M:Where do you want the dip?

R:No! No! No dip!

M:Do you want me to put it back?

R:Da fly.

M: (acknowleding the fly) Yes. Do you want dip?

R:Mom, mom, mommy, mom!

M: Yes, Ryker?

R: Bip! (pointing to his plate) Da fly! Baseball. Yuck!

It's hard not to laugh at his conversations. They are so completely random! Earlier this week we were driving down the road as a family and Ryker started jabbering. We had no idea what he was trying to tell us, but he was very adamant about what ever it was. Jaxon suddenly says, "Oh, I know what he is saying! He said he wants chicken nuggets from Wendy's!"

We Love Sports of All Sorts

Before we begin I would like to apologize for the lack of uniformity in this blog post. Since this post has been in the works since June (JUNE!), I am going to ignore it and just publish the dang thing!!

TBALL
Once upon a time, at the beginning of summer, Jaxon played T-ball and loved it! He's a natural when it comes to things of the athletic nature (a quality that most definitely comes from his father) and this was no different. He's been hitting the ball since he was 2 (thank you mom for your daily baseball games while I went to work) and I don't see an end in sight. Here is his super fun team. Most of the kids are neighborhood kids. Lots of fun friends and super awesome coaches!
After the last game of the season all the teams were treated to a hotdog party where they received their trophy's. Jaxon loves trophy's. Seriously. He loves them.

This little blip isn't the best of quality (sorry about the fence), but it shows the true nature of t-ball. Notice how our little friend forgets to run to second base. It was so much to watch. Little kids and sports are hilarious :)

RODEO
In the month of July we took our boys to their very first rodeo in celebration of the 24th of July. (Thank you to the Ogden Clinic for free tickets or else I don't think I could have convinced Brian to go!) It was Armed Forces appreciation night. Without going into great detail I will just say that this was one of the most touching experiences of appreciation I have ever been a part of. By the end I was very literally choaking on my sobs. Thank you to all those who have served, are serving, and will serve. And thanks to your families. You're sacrifices aren't going unnoticed and we love you.

We had the pleasure of having Adam and Emily join us before they took their trek across the US of A. North Carolina is their new home and we are jealous. We miss them, but we won't talk much about it because it makes us sad. Family is meant to stay close and it really stinks when they move far away. The end.

The boys loved the rodeo. Brian loved the motorcycle stunts at the end...and the rodeo as well. I loved it all. Well, maybe not the horses crashing into each other. That was traumatic. All in all it was a great night.

SOCCER

Jaxon started fall soccer on Saturday. This year his team is the Green Panthers. What is it about panthers? Oh, well. He is playing AYSO soccer this year. So far so good. He made 3 of the 5 goals on Saturday. I think it helps that there are only 3 kids playing on each team at a time and there isn't a goalie (not that the goalie did much last year). He had a blast and can't wait for his next game.



GOLF

Immediately following Jaxon's soccer game we went golfing. So immediate that he had to change from his soccer jersey into his other clothes while we drove. It's a good skill to have and I'm sure he'll thank us later! It was the annual Jensen Family Golf Tournament. Every year for Brian's grandpa's birthday we go golfing. It is the only time I golf...and it shows. I didn't get any pictures of Brian's grandpa since he was in a group way ahead of us, but apparently he got out and putted on about 6 of the holes. Not bad for 92!

Do I need to even say it? Jaxon did great. He out drove me on multiple holes (is that hard to imagine?) and the one that we measured was about 77 yards. He got clubs for his birthday last year and this was the first time out to use them. At the golf rates these days he may also only golf once a year!

We smuggled Ryker on to the golf course with us. (Shhh!) He rode with Grandpa Vincent and Great-Grandma Jensen. Grandma and Ryker kept each other very entertained and Ryker was great at staying the cart. The picture of Brian's dad shows how windy it was on Saturday. It was incredibly windy! We're blaming the wind on my pathetic golfing abilities. Overall, our team was 3 under par (thank you cousin Josh and Brian!) and we had a great time celebrating the life of our wonderful family patriarch!

Yes! I'm done! Now on to Jaxon's birthday, the rest of the summer, and Jaxon's first day of school.....