AZ Trip

Sunday, May 10th at about 6pm, I packed the kids in the car and my brother, Adam, and I headed out to drive to Mesa. Jonah did not sleep well nor did anyone else really. I did most of the driving and it was an unpleasant trip. Got to my parents house at about 4am their time and got a whopping two hours of sleep.

Monday saw Dad off to work and Spencer, Gabe, Claire, Jackson, and Chandler off to school after breakfast. Spent the day hanging out with Mom and Sarah. Went to visit cousin Stephanie and two of her kids. Spent the night at Grandma Donna's. Jonah began waking up at sunrise at 5:30 which he did for most of the trip except for the two nights he slept in Robin's closet when he slept in about an hour later.

Tuesday spent the morning with Grandma and then headed over to Robin's house. Went swimming and generally had a blast playing with Henry, Charlotte, and Paisley. Had fun with Tucker when he got home from school too. Swam again. Had dinner with Trent. Everyone in bed early.






Wednesday Henry woke up asking for Jonah. Jonah calls Henry, "Henner". They are fast friends. Went swimming when Tucker got home. Karen came over and hung out with us that evening.

Henry and Jonah playing dress up in Charlotte's princess dresses. Jonah is six months older than Henry but the same height, he has a bigger head and belly though:)


Elora is 4 months older than Paisley but weighs a pound less.


Thursday Jonah and Henry helped Trent with some landscaping in their pajamas and also did a lot of jumping on the trampoline again. Me, Jonah, Charlotte, and Elora headed back to Nanas for the afternoon. I got a much-needed nap thanks to my mom. That evening Teddy and I went out for sushi and then headed back to his place to chat with Lauren. Stayed the night at my parent's house.



Friday, I have no pictures of Friday and a horrible memory. I think we just hung out at Nana's all day and stayed the night there. Oh yeah, Mom, Sarah, and I rented and watched Taken, which was really good.

Saturday helped mom clean the house. Went to Bookman's, one of my very favorite stores. Picked B up from the airport. Went and visited Karen at her work. Took B to get a Krazy sub. Reunited my hubby with his kids. BBQed and swam at Robin & Trent's house. Watched Taken again with Dad. Had Claire sleepover with us at Grandma's.


Sunday spent the morning hanging out with Mom, et. al. Andy & Jennifer Winningham showed up around 1pm to sweep us off to California.
...
Friday we arrived back in AZ around noon. Elora's first birthday. Did a luau dinner and birthday cake with a bunch of the family.









Saturday we hung out with Grandma all morning. Got Ned's Krazy Subs for lunch. Went to visit my oldest friend Autumn and her kids for a little while that afternoon. Michelle, Kaleb, Ethan, and Moqui came over to swim with us at Grandma's late that afternoon. Adam joined us and we all had dinner together and hung out for awhile before the kids went to bed.

Brayden is one day older than Elora.

Elora and Autumn.


Hunter, 3 and Jonah, 2 are great wrestlin' buddies.








Said goodbye to Grandma. Spend the morning hanging out with Dad, Mom, Claire, Spencer, and Karen. Left for UT around 11:30 and arrived home at 1am. Not a terrible roadtrip but I hope to never do that with toddlers again.

My dad with Elora.


Jonah and Elora being pulled around on a blanket by my 15 yr. old brother, Spencer.

Rock Biter

Remember this guy from Neverending Story?


Elora did a lot of imitating him in Arizona, especially by Robin's pool.

Vacation?

Well, I'm back from two weeks of vacation. I'm exhausted and sick. Isn't that always the way? Find a sneak preview of my five-day trip to L.A. here.

Other Mothers

I remember reading an article/essay/story in my African-American Literature class in college about "other mothers." You know the phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child"? Well, it really is true. That's basically what the article was about, but I've thought back on it often.
Approaching Mother's Day makes me think of my Other Mothers. Let's reminisce together...
First there was Grandma Donna. She is such a fixture in my childhood memories and even now makes such an impact in my life. Then, basically all of the moms in the neighborhood and all of my mom's close friends were Other Mothers to me growing up. There was Sharon Allen, Donna Harper, and DeAnne Brady that stick out most sharply in my mind. There was also my sister, Sarah, three years my senior, she did her fair share of helping to raise me. My aunts all played their parts, each influencing me in some small or larger way.

Next there were some really great Young Women's leaders at church. Then at 19, I married Brandon and acquired the best mother-in-law a girl could ever ask for. Then there were a few college professors that really helped me discover who I am and several friends who helped me grow up. Then Linda, my second mother-in-law (my FIL's wife) came into my life to enrich me further.

And now I see my kids being mothered by others and I am grateful for their help.
Brandon and I acquired a step-grandmother while we lived in Oklahoma and my kids got their GG Viv. Vivian is Brandon's stepdad's mom and we love her! And not just because she is such a good babysitter. We sure miss having her around though.
Raquel, my good friend here in Heber, watches Jonah and Elora a couple hours every week while I run errands or whatever (and I reciprocate). It is clear that my kids love her. Angela, my other good friend here, also sees her fair share of my kids and they know and love her. Then there are the Nursery leaders at church who don't see Jonah that often (as he is usually asleep at home while I'm at church) but he is obviously happy to see them when he goes. Linda, Andy, Kathy, and Katie also get to see the kids regularly and are so good with them.
Lisa, one of my oldest and best friends, is estranged from her only sibling and his kids, so she has taken on my kids as her own nephew and niece. My closest friends, Lacey, Victoria, Alisha, Elaine, and Jen, all show special interest in my kids I'm grateful to have them in my life. Brandon's two out-of-state sisters and my four sisters each show their love in unique and special ways to my kids and even though my kids don't see some of them very often, Jonah will look at a picture of any one of them and tell you who they are. They are good aunts.


So this Mother's Day weekend I say thank you to all the special women in my life. I love you all.

Archeologists

If you were looking for dinosaur bones, you might use a brush similar to this:


Or you might wear a hat like this:


Last Friday I took the kids and went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was pretty great. Jonah doesn't have books or movies with dinosaurs so he didn't know what they were so I kept calling them 'monster dinosaurs', so now he calls them 'monstosaurs' 'monsaurs' or 'lions'. I don't know where lion came from. We bought several dinosaur things at the gift shop. He really likes the pills that dissolve in water to let out a small dino-sponge and his 18 inch inflatable monstosaur that he's been sleeping with all week.

Most Recently

As of today, Elora prefers to do all of her traveling by foot.


Alisha & Scarlett, Deidre & Colton, Me & Teeny Woman at Gary's funeral on Saturday. These babies were all born within two weeks of one another.


Saturday morning the first green sprouts of our pea plants started showing up.


The boys leaving to go four-wheeling in the rain on Sunday night.


Jumping on trampolines is absolutely Jonah's very favorite thing in the world (followed closely by motorcycle rides).


Elora, Jonah, and Scarlett.


Adam, Jocelyn, Alisha, Jamon carrying Scarlett with Elora and I at a park on our walk on Monday.


Playing with Uncle Adam.

Gary's Obituary

Brandon's uncle Gary passed away on Tuesday evening. He was Alan's closest sibling and he lived next door to Alan, Andy, and Brandon for many years. Please keep his family in your prayers that they might have comfort at this time of grief. Gary suffered from Crones disease for twenty years and was recently diagnosed with leukemia and I think his body was just too worn to handle chemo. He was the cutest Grandpa, always taking those boys fishing. We will miss you, Gary.



Our patient, humble dad, Gary Lee Jensen, 59, passed away April 28th, 2009 after a brave battle following a bone marrow transplant. He was born September 22, 1949 to Charles Auer and Doris Irene Jensen. He grew up in Delta and Provo and attended BYU and the University of Utah. He served an LDS mission in the Cumorah, New York Mission and loved to share his missionary experiences. He married his sweetheart, Jacquelyn Morris in the Salt Lake LDS Temple, August 11, 1971. They were best friends and shared 37 wonderful years together. They have three daughters that he taught to bait their own hooks, change a tire and pitch a tent with the best of them! He also made sure they knew the make and model of every car on the road. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for his girls.

Gary understood the value of hard work from starting his own egg business and raising chickens as a young boy to being a respected dental lab technician/owner for over 38 years. Some of his best friends were the doctors and associates at Highland Dental Center. He worked tirelessly to give his family the best of everything. His favorite memories were spent on the beaches of Kauai, (sitting in the shade), camping in his trailer at Washington Lake and fishing with his grandkids on the pontoon boat at Fish Lake. Gary found true joy with his family. He served in many church callings, but none he valued more than being a faithful home teacher.

He is survived by his wife, Jacque; daughters Marne’, Aimee (Jerry) Shuldberg, and Whitney (Russ) Boyer. He adored his grandchildren Canyon, Coleman, Easton, Noah and his little sunshine, Hope. They were his greatest accomplishment. Also survived by siblings: Verl (Margene) Jensen, R’Lene Hoggan, and Alan (Linda) Jensen. He was preceded in death by his parents.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 2, 2009, 12:00 noon at the Brighton 2nd Ward, 2525 E. Bengal Blvd. (7600 S.) where friends may call prior to service from 10:00 to 11:45 a.m. Interment Mountain View Memorial Estates. Online condolences may be left at www.cannonmortuary.com.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the amazing doctors and nurses at LDS Hospital East 8 and ICU. You are our heroes. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the LDS Missionary Fund, 50 E. North Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150.

Talofa Malia!

After over seven years of trying, our best friends Ryan and Elaine, are finally parents! Their little girl was born this morning around 7:00.
Welcome Malia Ardella P.!
7 lbs. 3oz.

Brandon's Favorite Commercial

Not Just Good Food

Awesome weekend so far. Friday I left the house at 5:45pm. I drove down to Salt Lake and went to dinner with Jen and Sara Jane. It was Sara's first experience with Indian food and she was pleasantly surprised. India House in Midvale/Sandy on State Street was delicious and their chicken tikka masala is better than Bombay House's. We were back to Jen's house at around 9:30 but stayed up talking until 2am! Slept in til 9am. That's right folks, I left the kids at home and not only had a girl's night out but also a sleepover. Oh, and the fun doesn't end there. Jen and I had 10:30 massage appointments this morning and then met back up with Sara Jane (she had work and a baby shower) for lunch at Normandie Cafe & Bakery, a Salt Lake gem I was previously unaware of but will definitely be returning to soon. Home and family were pleasant all afternoon and evening and I'm heading to bed extremely content.

Super Star

So, Monday, on our way to the zoo, we stopped at our friend Cole's new store, Super Star. Cole is a very good friend of mine from high school and he and Brandon have always gotten along very well too. Cole took the gutsy move of opening his own store this month. I have great confidence in him as a small business owner. Cole has decided to fill Salt Lake City's niche for designer underwear. Yes, you heard me right, underwear. His store carries men and women's lingerie, swimwear, and jewelry. I bought some really cute frilly panties and if I had my six-pack back and didn't own too many swimsuits already, I would have bought a KanDi swimsuit, because let's face it, who doesn't want to look as tasty as a cupcake.

This line of dessert swimwear is absolutely delectible and exclusive to Super Star in Utah.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle pt. 2

Steven L. Hopp, Barbara Kingsolver's husband, argues that saving a little money purchasing industrially grown foods rather than locally grown is costing us the following:
-$22 BILLION in tax dollars annually used subsidize agricultural fuel used in growing, processing and shipping the products
-$3 billion in direct subsidies to large-scale, chemical-dependent farming (Farm Bill for corn & wheat)
-$10 billion for treatment of food-related illnesses annually
-$17 billion in agricultural chemical cleanup costs
-$8 billion in collateral costs of pesticide use
-$20 billion in costs of nutrients lost to erosion

I admit he may be stretching things here, not defining some of these things more clearly, but he still makes some very valid points.
Organic farming practices build soil, not deplete it. They eliminate pesticides and herbicides. These farmers apply a knowledge of many different crops, rotating crops and using cover crops, etc. Their methods require extra time and labor and small farms bear higher costs for packing, marketing, and distributing which forces the buyers to pay a little bit higher sticker price. But isn't good health and a healthy environment worth a few pennies more?!

Hopp also claims that "each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles." He continues, "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That's not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast."