Christmas Day at Grandma's House

We went to my mom's house for lunch on Christmas day. My sister, Melissa, and her family also came over. Mom made a wonderful lunch of spicy enchilladas that were really good. Mike thought that they were spicy, which means they were really hot. After our lunch, we exchanged gifts and then Melissa started prepping a bedroom downstairs to paint.

Janey and Kenneth actually sat still long enough to pose for a picture together.

Janey got an MP3 player for Christmas and Uncle Mike loaded a bunch of music onto it for her.
Grandma, Melissa, and Janey explore the farm that Janey got.

Christmas Present - Guitar Hero II

Sometime late last night or early this morning, Santa dropped off a Guitar Hero for Kenneth. Mike and Kenneth hooked it up to the PlayStation to test it out and it is pretty fun.
Kenneth is assisting Mike earn more points - Mike picked right up on it no problem. I was a completely different story - the audience was booing and I didn't make it more than 1 minute before the game stopped because I was so bad......I'll have to tray again later.

Kenneth is pretty happy about his new toy. He has played it enough today that he is already getting pretty good at it - he has pretty good rhythm.

Christmas Crepes

Our traditional Christmas breakfast consists of orange juice, the most amazing crepes we have ever tasted and lit'l smokies wrapped in bacon cooked with brown sugar - basically a heart attack on a toothpick. I found both of the recipes last year and we decided that it would become our tradition to make both for Christmas morning.Kenneth loves his breakfast so much that we actually caught him licking his plate. And take a look at the plates - Mike got them for me for Christmas. They are red on top and black on bottom. I got an entire set - dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, and mugs.

Ricky and Jacque Present Their Gift

Ricky and Jacque passed out gifts to each couple and we all opened them at the same time. They were little baby bottles filled with pacifier candies. There was a tag attached that said "We are Pregnant". Grandma Jensen is pretty excited about grandkid number 13 (I think that number is right).
A closer shot of the bottle with the exciting news. Cameron is excited to have a baby brother. We are all excited for them!!

Zachary Gets Stuck

We're not sure what happened, but somehow Zachary got himself stuck between the bars on the back of the chair he was suppose to be sitting on.

He kept trying to pull his head out of the chair - but it just wouldn't fit.


Good thing that Daddy was there! Danny helped him crawl back through the way he had originally gone.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We hosted the Jensen Christmas Eve party at our house this year. Mike's parents and all of his siblings and their families were able to come except for Leslie who is living in Kansas. We had a big and very delicious dinner with the standard ham, turkey, potatoes, rolls and all the trimmings. There were 22 of us total. We ate in the basement since that is where we have the most open space.



The kids (minus Kenneth) get to all sit at the "big" table. We have a tall table downstairs that we use as a game table - the kids like to eat at it because it is tall and all 7 kids can sit at the table together.

Rose Loses Her First Tooth

Rose was so excited to show everyone that she lost her first tooth - as soon as she got to our house she had to show everyone she saw!!!

Sledding on Christmas Eve

We have a "park" kitty corner from our house. It is basically a big pit that has not been developed yet. The developers donated the land, but the city has not developed the area yet because of petty stuff.....however, it works out really well for the neighborhood kids to use as a sled hill. They just have to dodge all of the weeds still sticking up. It has snowed on and off all week and we actually have a snow base now. It snowed last night and has been snowing most of the morning - so Kenneth and Emily took advantage of the new snow and went sledding.

Christmas Decorations

I love to decorate the house for Christmas. We have had the same tree and decorations for 13 years now. However, I think that it is time to retire this tree since some of the branches are falling apart.

This shot is from the front door. I love the vaulted ceilings - they really open up the living space. I also love to collect snowmen - that is what a lot of our decorations are.

I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and create this wreath last year - it is really large and fits nicely above the staircase. My mom did a fantastic job making the bow. I simply picked out the ribbon and she did the rest.

A close up shot of the wreath above the stairs.

Kenneth's New Adventure

Kenneth has decided that he wants to participate in a triathlon - the Idaho Falls Aquatic Center is sponsoring one on August 11th. He has to swim 2 laps, run 1/2 mile, and then do an obstacle course on his bike. He has been "training" for the past several days by running in the neighborhood or at Rigby Lake. He can run a half mile in about 5 minutes without stopping - he is improving everyday. He needs the most help on his swimming, so he starts swim lessons tomorrow afternoon. He is in a stroke class where he will learn 4 different strokes - I hope that prepares him enough. If anybody wants to come see him it will be Saturday, Aug 11th at 8am in Idaho Falls. I will post pictures after the big day.

Family Pictures

This is my favorite picture that we took last week at the gardens at BYU-I. Mike and Kenneth spend so much time together that this just seemed like a natural event for them.

Trip to Oregon and Washington

I had to travel to Portland for some training for work and Mike was able to go with me. After spending a couple of days in Portland we were able to head north to meet up with one of Mike's friends in Tacoma. He was gracious enough to be our tour guide and took us into Seattle where we were able to visit the Space Needle. Since I am so scared of heights, the best picture we could get was inside the space needle - we did venture outside, but it was pretty windy and I came back in pretty quick. It was incredible to see the city from such a height!

This is at the base of the Space Needle - the thing is absolutley enormous.

We were also able to go to the beach. This is the first time I have actually been to the beach in the daylight and it was absolutely amazing!!! Although I wasn't prepared for how freezing cold it would be - and we didn't even go in the water. We walked along the beach and found a few shells to take home to Kenneth.

This is at Canon Beach - in the background you can see Haystack Rock - apparently it is a famous place - they filmed part of the movie Goonies here. I mostly enjoyed just walking on the wet sand and having the water rush up the beach.

Our Latest Photo

One of Mike's friends has started taking pictures and he took a bunch of family photos for us. My favorite pictures ended up being the black and white ones. It has been about 5 years since Mike and I have had our picture taken together, so this was a great opportunity to get it done.