2007 Christmas Newsletter

Merry Christmas from the Jensens!  We hope you are enjoying this season as we all reflect on our Savior and the many blessings we have been given.  We have enjoyed catching up on your lives and would like to share an update on our family as well.

Janika just turned twelve and is an absolute delight – I would be tempted to keep her this age for a few more years if I could!  She is a wonderful baby-sitter to her younger siblings and is a fantastic cook.  She LOVES to sing and has sung many solos this year.  She has thoroughly enjoyed school choir and especially enjoys performing as a Hands in Harmony Caroler.  She is a very good student in all her subjects and was one of the winners of the Reflections contest in literature. 

Jase just turned ten. This year he participated in soccer, school choir, piano lessons, and scouts.  This was his first year performing as one of our Hands in Harmony Carolers and he did an awesome job!  He loves friends and video/computer games.  He is a top student in all his subjects and enjoys playing football and basketball with his friends.

Jared is seven.  He is very energetic and LOUD!  This year he was involved with soccer and piano.  He loves to play with friends and with his brothers and sisters.  He is a good artist and writes fun stories with illustrations.  He is also a great performer (when he is willing).  He just sang a duet with Jase for our ward Christmas party and everyone commented on what a little ham he was.     

Janelle turned five in October.  She loves writing her name and has taught herself to write a few words like “go” and “cows.”  After writing pages and pages of “Go Cows Go!” we concluded that we had better start expanding her repertoire of words.  She is sensitive and  always concerned for everyone.  When Josh had his finger pricked at a doctor’s appointment and then put his finger in his mouth she worriedly exclaimed, “Josh just ate blood – is going to turn into a vampire?” She is very imaginative and outgoing and will talk to anyone who will listen.

Jaiden is three and a half and still as feisty as ever.  She goes to pre-school with Janelle.  She and Janelle are very good friends and are constantly playing (or fighting).  Seconds after they get into an argument Jaiden will ask Janelle, “Can we be friends again?”  Jaiden has no fears. One time Wendy saw a spider in the living room and Jaiden shouted, “I will save you Mommy!”  Then she sang, “Super Girl!” as she ran into the room with her Kleenex as a weapon.  The spider was flushed in no time!

Josh is twenty months.  He loves to run around the house, dance in circles to music, and empty all of the spices out of the cupboards.  He loves to play outside and insists on being where all of the action is!  He says lots of words and has a big smile and contagious laugh. When he wants something he points to it and shouts, “I do!”   

Rick was taking classes towards his Ph.D. earlier this year, but since we weren’t moved to an area where the program is taught, he couldn’t really continue.  So he decided to go ahead and direct the Hands in Harmony Carolers again this year.  He was also involved with EFY again – session directing in Logan, and teaching in Idaho and Virginia.  This year he was transferred to the middle school for Seminary and absolutely loves it.  He is less than a mile from home and so he walks to work (and Wendy walks with him to keep him company).  

Wendy stays home with the kids but still does a little free-lance interpreting for the Deaf as well.  Last Spring she compiled and wrote the e-book “Celebrating Motherhood: A Tribute To Mothers,” which many of you contributed to (thank you!) 

Rick and Wendy co-taught at a local tri-stake couples’ conference and also taught the youth and family class for a seven-week “Strengthening Families” program in St. George. 

We had a little break from the kids by going to Jackson Hole in the Spring and celebrated our 13^th wedding anniversary in July by taking a week-long cruise to the Hawaiian Islands. We also had some fun vacations with the kids including a week long stay at our time-share at Powder Ridge.

We feel very grateful for our family and friends and especially for our knowledge of the Savior. We wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and fantastic new year! 

Cruise to Hawaii!

Fourth of July!!

Wed. 4:  Happy Fourth of July!!  When we woke up this morning, Janika was already in the kitchen cooking red, white, and blue pancakes.  She is usually the last one up but she manages to get up earlier for a holiday. I brought the five oldest to the festivities at the park in town.  Rick doesn't particularly like going to those kinds of things and so he offered to stay home with Josh. While at home he put together some DVD slide shows and home videos of the kids.

The kids did the free games and won several gift certificates to various restaurants and so we took advantage of all of their "free personal pan pizza" coupons to go to lunch afterwards.  The kids also did the big slip-and-slide and the blow up slides.  We all went swimming in the afternoon and then ate a big dinner of barbecued chicken, potato salad (which Janika made all by herself while I took a nap), jello (also made by Janika), green salad, corn on the cob and home-made ice-cream (made by Rick).  We had gotten a nice ice-cream maker as a wedding gift and never opened it until now! I hope it wasn't from any of your reading this or you might get offended that we took thirteen years to open your gift! Now that we know how to use it however, I am sure it will get a lot more use!

 When it got dark the kids did sparklers and we got some glimpses of fireworks from our backyard.  Rick and Janika and Jase were going to sleep outside on the air mattresses in the pool.  I didn't like that idea for fear they would roll over into the water and be completely incoherent. Jared was so worried (probably because he overheard my concerns) that he was crying and begging them not to do it. They only made it an hour though.  They played cards on the air mattresses in the pool and then came in and went to bed in their own beds. We all slept much better there!

Josh is finally starting to walk a lot more.  He has been taking steps for awhile but then usually reverts to his jungle-boy crawl on his feet (that is so super fast everyone laughs when they see it).  He is now walking more and more though.  He also learned how to crawl down the stairs the right way and so I don't worry as much.   He always "talks," but we haven't quite figured out what language he is speaking yet! 

Happy Father's Day!!

Sun. 17:  Happy Father’s Day! We were in Ogden this weekend and went to Gerilyn’s ward – she was already there with the four oldest kids and we brought Jaiden and Josh. Craig got ordained to be a High Priest by in their Priesthood Quorum meeting. His Dad, Grandpa Jensen did the ordination. Rick said that he did a good job and had obviously done some study and put some thought into it. Rick and I ate lunch and fed the two little ones and then put them to bed.  Then we took a nap ourselves.

 Rick then wrote one of his EFY talks and then we went to switch cars with Gerilyn. We left our mini-van with her since she would have the kids all week and headed to EFY in Logan. I felt bad that we missed both family parties tonight.  Next year I want to keep Father’s Day Flee this week so that we can go to the family parties. They sent some pictures from our family party and they turned out so cute – we were the only family not there.

Here is Jen's Westra Way Post on the Westra Father's Day Party: 

Father's Day 2007

A memorable moment was a family "lightening" tournament ... there's even video below!

Growing Up

This is a little story I wrote about Janika after attending her Maturation Program with her...

Growing Up

I sat in the elementary school gymnasium with my pre-teen daughter as the fifth grade maturation program was about to begin. I glanced around at the many daughters hanging nervously on to their mother’s arm – many of the young girls looking exactly like a younger version of the woman sitting next to them. My daughter looks just like her dad when he was her age – but there is no mistaking that she belongs to me as she puts my arm around her back and lifts her arm for me to gently tickle.

As the program begins I take a moment to reflect on this stage of life. Was I really here with my oldest child discussing bras and menstruation? Not that we hadn’t already had this discussion many times before, but now suddenly all of these changes seemed to be right around the corner. Was she ready? Was I ready? The movie begins, showing several young girls going through many “firsts,” with their moms helping them along the way.

Suddenly feeling emotional, I discreetly brush a few tears away. Soon this little vignette would be my daughter and me. Wasn’t it just minutes ago that I carried her home from the hospital with a little pink bow glued on to her head with corn syrup? I would push her proudly around in her stroller and everyone would tell me to enjoy this new baby because they grow up so fast! And now here she was, wearing false nails and deodorant to school.

I look at her steadily, suddenly taking a mental picture. She is still so little and petite. Her bangs are pulled back in little rubber bands and her long brown hair falls gently down her back. Her dark blue-gray eyes are framed with those coveted long black eyelashes underneath the full arched eyebrows that she inherited from her dad. She smiles -- her big beautiful teeth flashing new braces with purple rubber bands. A sprinkling of freckles covers her button nose with a few stubborn pimples across her forehead.

She is beautiful! I pat at my eyes and my daughter looks over with raised eyebrows. “Mom, are you crying?” she whispers. What could I say? You know those “hormones” they were just talking about? Well, moms get them too!” Of course she has had her moments of being touched by emotion too. Last summer when she and I went to the Broadway musical "CATS," she had tears streaming down her face as Grizabella sang her touching rendition of "Memory." I couldn't help but smile.

Hopefully we still have a few years before too many changes start happening. Right now she is at that ideal age where daughters still want their mothers around. She offers me back rubs and asks me about my day. But soon she will be a teenager. Will she still want “Mommy Time?” Will she still want me to tickle her back and tell her stories? Or will her friends nudge me out of my position, ready to jump in and take priority? Will she suddenly want a cell phone and be too busy texting messages to all her friends to let me know what is going on in her life?

I cannot answer these questions and I shouldn’t worry too much about what I can’t foresee. For now, I can just be here – in the present. And maybe the next time she asks me to tuck her in and tickle her back for just a few more minutes, maybe I won’t be so quick to roll my eyes or sigh with exasperation at her “excuses” for prolonging her bed-time. Perhaps I won’t hastily flip out the lights as I practically run out the door. Maybe I’ll just stay a minute longer in the here and now. Because here and now is perfect.

Jackson Hole 2007

March 10-15 (Will add more details later...)

Jared's Sticker Story