Baby Shower for Ellen (and Evan)!!

Normally at Baby Showers you see an expectant mom looking VERY pregnant -- not thin as a rail cradling a tiny newborn! So this was a little different than the norm, but we were grateful that Evan was able to attend his own shower and that the guests could oooh and aaah over him! I neglected to get pictures of the guests since I was busy visiting, but here are some pictures of everything else! I was grateful to my friend, Allison, for helping with the food. It was delicious! She made mini brownies, mini rice-krispie treats, and swedish cream with berries on top. Janelle made homemade salsa for the chips. We also had watermelon and grapes. Ellen requested blue raspberry lemonade and added a few rubber duckies to float around -- although they flipped upside and so that didn't work very well. It was a cute thought though! 

Ellen had baby pictures of Jase hung up on one side of the fireplace and baby pictures of her on the other side and several pictures of Evan around the house. Ellen received lots of nice gifts including a really nice car seat (group gift), gorgeous home-made quilt from Jase's boss at DFCU, diapers, clothes, shoes, moccasins, socks, and many baby accessories. Grandma Jensen had sent down another beautiful quilt that she had made, along with a darling book that highlighted other family members who were also named "Evan." Those gifts had been opened previous to the shower. Several friends and family members donated money to a group gift or to other things Evan might need. The "decorating onesies" booth was a lot of fun and she got loads of cute decorated onesies for Evan! The kids especially enjoyed decorating the onesies, but we had a few adults do it also! We ended up with about twenty decorated onesies! We didn't have a very big turn out, but I was grateful for those who could come and it looked like everyone enjoyed themselves! 

  

Jensen Update -- July 2021

 

Baby Evan was born on July 1st!!! Click on the link for more info. 

* July 1: Baby Evan was born!! 

*(July 3) Visiting Evan in the NICU as he received a blessing from his daddy. Welcoming Ellen home from the hospital and having her parents over for dinner. 

*Jared's friend got baptized!! 

*Sparklers for the Fourth (I think the kids had them leftover from last year!) 

*Janelle boating with her friend Ellie's family at Sand Hollow 

*Jaiden's Executive Council Leadership Conference at Dixie State University

*Jenna -- summer dance camp at Westside Studio with her friend, Sammy

*Josh morning soccer practices in Little Valley for his club teams

*Wendy walking the sand dunes barefoot at Snow Canyon with her friend in the mornings

*New Kitchen Cabinets!! Staircase and kitchen table stained and new chairs (pictures to come!)

*Father's Day Flee!!

*Rick teaching FSY

*Kids got their Covid Vaccine (Jenna, Josh, Jaiden got their 1st shot and Janelle got her 2nd shot)

*Jenna, Jaiden, and Janelle sang in the 5th ward. Wendy taught Relief Society  

*Josh working at Icebox in Ivins. Josh Driver's Education

*Jared trainer at Dutch Bros (they gave the trainers a free trip to Lagoon!) 

*Jenna Annie Kids' Camp at Broadway Bound Theater in Washington

*Rick and Wendy -- lots of interpreting jobs!! 

*Evan came home from the hospital!! (July 23rd)

*Rick and Wendy overnighter at The Honeymoon Trail Inn for their 27th Anniversary 

*Jaiden overnighter with Emily and Emma Walter at Emma's Dad's work party at a ranch in Hatch. Mechanical Bull, ATVs, movies, bounce houses, swimming, pool...

*Jaiden Madrigal Retreat at a ranch in Central: music, games, paddle boats, kayaks, swimming, BBQ

*Ellen/Evan's Baby Shower!!  

*Janika and Brandon leave for Costa Rica! 

Here are some of Jared's pictures from July...

Baby Evan is Home!

 Look who came home from the hospital!! 

Father's Day Flee

Pictured Above: Jenna, the house we stayed in, Jenna and Taylor and Peyton painting, Reed Jenson and Skyler, Brandon with his birthday cheesecake (his birthday was on Sunday), Melvin the Moose -- a screenshot of Josh's video, the kids playing "Granny's Gonna Get Ya," Jenna on a walk with me, Jenna decorating her hand with markers, and the girls playing Rummikub. Pictured below: Hot-tubbing with the family! 

Father's Day Flee was pretty chill this year! The theme was "Seeking the Lord" from Doctrine and Covenants 88:83 "He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken." We missed Jase and Ellen who were home spending as much time as possible with their new baby Evan in NICU. Rick rented a house up in Mountain Green (in Morgan). It was an older home, but it was roomy with big windows overlooking beautiful mountain views! Our only complaint was that the AC didn't work very well and so it got really hot during the day. Part of this is probably because this is an unusually hot summer. We didn't go on any excursions (besides some little walks and hikes), but stayed at the house the whole time and hung out and played lots of games! 

We started off with the opening ceremony with our traditional Father's Day Flee Dance. Rick and Grandpa Westra were the only "Dads" there during this part and so they are the ones who did the chest bump! I will add the video later. We didn't invite the Healeys this year because there wasn't enough beds for two full families, but we did invite Grandma and Grandpa Westra and also Grandma Jensen and it was fun to have them along! Rick invited Brandon's parents to come up for the day on Saturday and it just so happened that they were babysitting Peyton, Taylor, and Skylar that day and so that worked out perfectly to add some spice to the mix! Several of the guests left Saturday afternoon and so we ended up having Curtis and Morgan come up for the evening. Steph and the other kids were out of town. It was good to visit with Curtis and Morgan and the girls decorated onesies (a pre-baby shower activity).

We had great lessons taught by Rick, Janika and Brandon, Reed Jenson, Grandpa Westra, and Janelle and Jared. They all did a great job and we were well taught! We also had fantastic food! Rick always goes all out on the food for Father's Day Flee and this year was no exception! Some of the menu items included: A baked potato bar and salad, Cafe Rio style sweet pork, spare ribs, breakfast burritos, pancakes, sandwiches with tons of toppings, ice cream, and plenty of goodies! Great job Rick and Jaiden for putting together the menu and for buying all of the food! 

We also played fun games! Jenna was the "game master." The first night we played "Capture the Flag," which went along with Rick's lesson. Another game we played was "hidden pictures," which went along with the lesson and theme of "seeking." Everyone was given a canvas to paint and we had to hide certain objects in our paintings. The list included a comb, flag, sunglasses, shovel, turkey feather, scriptures, bell, water-gun, spatula, eagle, and Melvin the Moose! Can you see these objects in these paintings? Jared tried to cheat by putting all of the hidden objects on the back of his canvas! Look how awesome Janelle's painting looks! It was the most professional by far. I guess that CE Art 1010 class she took last semester paid off! She and Rick did the best job of hiding the items in their paintings while keeping a natural looking picture. Some of the rest of us struggled, ha ha!  

Josh had an accidental run in with Melvin the Moose the first day and happened to get it on video! Grandpa Westra saw him every morning since he gets up so early. The girls even got up early one morning looking for him but couldn't find him! 

Brandon's Dad did a lesson about seeking the Lord by comparing the search to an investigation of a mission person. It was an interesting perspective! Then we played a game called "Granny's Gonna Get Ya!" It was similar to "Red Light, Green Light." The kids were trying to sneak up on Grandma to get the candy that was placed around her. She would turn around and if she caught the kids moving then they had to return to the beginning! They played several round of this game! All in all it was a nice, relaxing few days with family and we were well fed both spiritually and physically! 

 

Murder in the Dark

Jared, Janelle, and Josh ended up leaving Father's Day Flee Saturday afternoon to head back home. We had pretty much wrapped up the lessons and everything for FDF and Jared wanted to get back for some Sunday obligations and Janelle and Josh volunteered to go with them. The next day Jared sends me this picture. Apparently after they arrived at our house (about 8:30 p.m.) he whipped up an entire group of friends to come play Murder in the Dark at our house! Their version of this game involves actually running around the house in the dark. He said that they had a blast and played until 1:00 a.m. or something. I wasn't thrilled about a huge group of young adults running around our house in the dark -- especially with our brand new kitchen and stair case. Oh well, I am glad that they had fun! (Josh was the one taking the picture). 

 

Kittens

Our kids are obsessed with the neighbors new kitties! Or should I say the neighbor's kittens are obsessed with our kids! I keep telling our kids not to feed them or bring them into the house and to bring them back home. But every time our kids bring the kittens back home they always end up coming back over to our house again! Maybe the kitties love all of the love and attention they receive while they are here! 

Jaiden Executive Council Leadership Conference

Jaiden had a great time at her Executive Council Leadership Conference this week! This was her third time attending this conference. It was held at Dixie State University and included student government kids from schools all across the state. The conference included training, workshops, team building activities, games, food and more. They also went to see a show a Tuacahn as part of the Conference. They even learned how to break boards with a Karate chop (thus the picture below!) 

Jaiden Jensen and Addie Ashton at the black light dance! 

Lunch at Culvers

It is a rare thing when (almost) our whole family goes out to eat! We had invited Jase and Ellen also, but they had forgotten and made other plans. It was fun to go out together! 

Fourth of July!!

Lighting a few leftover sparklers that the kids happened to have on hand was pretty much the extent of our Fourth of July celebrations this year! We joked about how Josh looked like the "The Angel of Music" with the shadows making wings behind him. He and Jaiden blessed us with a rendition from the Phantom of the Opera to heighten the effect! 

Meeting Evan -- Welcome Home, Ellen!!

Rick and I got to go into the NICU so that Jase and Rick and Dean could give him a blessing! We were so excited to finally meet our grandbaby, Evan! It was such a sweet and tender experience! I couldn't believe how tiny he was! We are so grateful we got to experience the sweet spirit that was in the room when we met Evan and when his dad and grandpas gave him a blessing. It was a precious! The kids welcomed home Ellen from the hospital later that afternoon. It must have been very difficult for her to come home and leave her baby behind! She will be spending lots of time in the NICU over the next few weeks!