November Happenings

Bryan has taken up a new hobby--golfing!  Each time he goes he brings along one of our kids (they all love to drive the cart.  Even though they're not really supposed to do it, Bryan lets them anyway.  What kid doesn't love driving a golf cart!?  I remember driving one into a little river/stream at Wasatch State Park golf course when I was about Miles's age!  Yikes!)  

  

For "Activity Days" (the activity group for girls ages 8-11 in the church), they hosted a special recognition night for all these sweet girls.  Each girl brought a bag that represents them (sports bag, dance bag, school bag, etc.), and then inside they put 3 things to represent some goals they've worked on this year.  (Kind of like the scout badges/awards for the boys.) Here's cute Tess with her bag from ATK that she got at a STEM camp, because she wants to be a scientist (astronomer) when she grows up.

And here she is showing off her cross-stitch that she has been working on.  Tess is always very creative and loves to make things with her hands.  

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Jensen side, at my dad's house.  Bree, while playing in the famous "red room" (my old bedroom from childhood with red carpet!) she found a sheet of small smiley-face stickers and decided to decorate her face and arms with them!

 After dinner we made these cute little turkey crafts, filled with Reese's Pieces.  They were really fun!

And finally, Miles and his BFF Westley both earned their Wolf Badge in cub scouts.  So here they are with their newly painted faces.

Special Birthdays!

There were 2 big milestone birthdays in our family this month.  My dad--Papa--turned 70 and then a few weeks later, his mom--Gramma J--turned 90!  Pretty awesome!  We got together both times to celebrate these two wonderful leaders of our family.  I love them both dearly!

 (Every time there are big group pictures like this, there are always several people standing and snapping pictures...so the people in the picture are always looking in different directions from each other.  Oh well...)

Here is Papa with his 9 grandkids, 6 girls and 3 boys.  (Every family, including my parents' own family, has 2 girls and 1 boy!)  From left to right is Bayli Vario, Emma Jackson, Miles, Tess, Bree, Papa, Aiden Jensen, Sydnee Jensen, Brooklyn Jensen, and Jared Jackson.

We sure love our Papa!

The original Jensen fam, minus my sweet angel mother.  (Melanie Jackson, Papa, me, and Blake Jensen.)

And here is our beautiful Charlotte with Papa.  We are so thankful that Charlotte is in our lives!

Bree made this cute card for Papa and I just had to write down the funny story behind it...  I said to Bree, "why don't you draw a duck on the card?  Papa likes ducks!"  So she did draw a darling little duck swimming in the water.  Then Bryan said, "why don't you draw Papa shooting the duck?  He likes to shoot ducks!"  So she did!  Then Bryan said, "why don't you draw the blood squirting out of the duck?" and at that point I had to tell Bryan to be quiet!  Ha!

 At Gramma J's party, the whole fam-dam was there.  I think it's been years and years since we've all been in a picture together, so this one is special to me.
(top l-r: Blake, Brooklyn, Sydnee, Aleisha, Tess, Bryan, Michonne, Bree, Miles, Emma, Jared, Bayli, Ryan, Melanie, Mathew.  middle l-r: Aiden, Randy, Darlene, Rob, Gramma, Charlotte, Kathy, Denny.  bottom l-r:  Chloe, Joshua, Kyrie, Justin, Mike, Stephanie.)

 And here's beautiful Gramma blowing out the candles.  Luckily for her, there were 19, not 90.  (Sounds similar, but much easier to blow out!)

Happy, happy birthday, you two!

Ogden Nature Center

I was happy to be able to go along with Bree on a Kindergarten Field Trip to the Ogden Nature Center.  It's always fun to ride a bus with the sweet, excited 5 year olds!

 It was cold that day, but I was just grateful it wasn't rainy, like it was on the day before!

 Here's Bree's whole class, trying to fit inside the replica of an eagle's nest.  It's huge--the whole class did fit!

 Bree thought exploring the tepee was pretty cool.  She loved that the Native Americans were matriarchal, so the moms "owned" the houses and the women were always allowed to enter first.