Jensen Update -- November 2021

Another busy month!! 

*Janelle continued with her mission preparation and we did a pre-mission photoshoot. 

*Jenna, Josh, and Jaiden went to Youth Conference in Bryce Canyon at the beginning of the month. 

*The middle of the month brought a busy, fun-filled weekend with extended family!! The Westras stayed at a condo and we all met up at the All-Abilities Park (Thunder Junction) on Saturday. We had a pizza party at our house that night and then everyone came to see Jaiden in The SpongeBob Musical! It was so fun!  

*Sunday everyone came to support Janelle for her missionary farewell and then we came to our house afterwards for a luncheon of soups, rolls, crackers, and desserts. We were SO grateful to have so much family support us this weekend! Janelle was set apart that night as a full time missionary!

*Janelle started HOME MTC!! (From November 15 to November 30). 

*Jaiden got her Senior pictures done and they turned out SO pretty! 

*Jared continues to date a ton of different girls and often brings them to our house for various creative activities! 

*Josh had his awards night for United FC and his team was recognized for being undefeated this Fall. 

*Jaiden got asked to Junior Prom (which will be held in January). 

*We celebrated Thanksgiving and cheered Josh on at his Soccer Tournament that weekend. I got some great video footage, which I hope to add here later! 

*Janika and Brandon also posted the news that they are expecting!! Yay!! 

*Jaiden went to Sadies and also had her Sadies day date, which they had on a separate day. They had a lot of fun! 

Sadies!!

Jaiden went to Sadies last week with her friends. Her date had a cross country race in Arizona that day and was hoping to make it back in time for the dance, but then the race was delayed and there was traffic, and he never did make it. But Jaiden was a good sport and still went to the dinner, dance, and games after with her group of friends and still had a great time. The girls knew about the race, of course, and so they had planned the "day date" on a completely different day -- in fact it was a week later. The kids made pancakes (pancake art) at our house and then we did a photoshoot at Tonaquint Park. Jaiden had asked me if I would take their pictures. It was fun! 

(Emily Williams and Topher Belmont; Lizzie Bryner and Elijah Ence; Jaiden Jensen and Tanner John)

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we had everyone here, except for Jase and Ellen and Evan who had gone up North to be with Ellen's family. We had a lovely meal of turkey, candied yams, pretzel jello, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, four step pudding, and pies. I have everything covered in foil in the picture in order to keep it warm and half of the food was on the snack bar. So it doesn't look pretty in the picture, but it sure tasted yummy! We are grateful that Janelle could be with us for Thanksgiving (as she is currently in home MTC). She had the day off to spend with family! Jenna helped me do a lot of the cooking the day before Thanksgiving and so the Thanksgiving Day went pretty smoothly!  

Janika and Brandon also chose today to share their "baby news" on social media!! 

The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving Josh had a soccer tournament in St. George with two games on Friday and two games on Saturday. Everyone attended at least one of the games. I think I went to all four of them. Josh's team won two games, tied one, and lost one. It was fun to watch and I was finally able to get some great video footage of him making some goals! (I will have to add the video footage if I can get them copied over to YouTube.) A few days after the tournament Josh's knee started hurting though and we think it due to one of his falls during the tournament. 

Recently Josh wanted to get a soccer ball bag for when he goes to practice shooting at the high school. He now has a whole collection of balls. He already had a couple balls and his friend gave him about five more and he seems to pick more up here and there!  

The Sunday after Thanksgiving I taught my RS lesson and it went well. Janika and Brandon headed back home right after sacrament meeting. That night we had a family devotional online with Janelle from the MTC called "Come and See" to help missionaries and their families know what to expect this coming week! 

 

Promposal for Junior Prom!

 Jaiden got asked to Junior Prom... even though it isn't until January!! 

 

United FC Awards Night

Tonight was the United FC awards night in the SCHS auditorium. It was fun -- lots of cheering and prizes and a cool slideshow. Josh's 06 team was recognized for being undefeated this season!! 

Creative Dates

One of Jared's favorite date ideas is to bring a group to our house and have each couple paint a canvas together. His groups have ranged from small to large. They always seem like they are having a lot of fun! 

Jaiden's Senior Pictures

Our friend, Melissa Julien, took Jaiden's Senior pictures at Tonaquint Park. She took about 100 photos and they turned out SOOOO pretty!!! Here are a few!!  

The SpongeBob Musical

We absolutely LOVED the musical this year! It was SO much fun for Jaiden to be involved in and for us to watch and cheer her on. But we didn't feel that way at first! When Jaiden found out that the musical her Senior year would be The SpongeBob Musical, she was NOT happy, and neither were we. We were so disappointed in the choice. The musical had been cancelled last year due to Covid and this would be her last chance to be involved in the school musical. And SpongeBob?? Why?? We had never even seen an episode of SpongeBob before. Our children claim that we didn't even allow them to watch SpongeBob as a kid. I am not sure if that is entirely true since I can't ever remember it ever coming across our TV screen in the first place. 

Anyway, I bought the digital Broadway version of The SpongeBob Musical on Amazon Prime and Jaiden and Emily and I watched it. the girls were bummed because almost of all of the lead parts were for males. Jaiden didn't want to be Sandy or Pearl and couldn't see a part that really fit her. After some deliberation she finally decided to just go for it and audition for SpongeBob. She had been working on a song with her voice teacher for a while and her audition went really well. A few days later the cast list was posted and Jaiden made the part of SpongeBob!! She was very excited! I was too, but I was also nervous. Would she even be able to hit the notes? After all, they were written for a tenor and she was a first Soprano. It was a challenge for sure, but she did it and did it well! 

After becoming familiar with the music I absolutely loved it! The songs are so fun and catchy. I felt like I had them stuck in my head ALL of the time, ha ha! I did her hair for every performance, and for two dress rehearsals and it took a good hour every time! She did it for the first dress rehearsal because I was working, but it didn't turn out very well, which is too bad since that is when they were taking all of the school pictures. But I came to the Matinee and took a bunch more pictures which I shared with the cast later. 

One time Jaiden called me in a panic because their director said that they were filming the show during their rehearsal, which was right after school, and so they needed their hair and makeup done. So I ended up going to the school and doing her hair during one of her classes, ha ha! I am glad that Jaiden didn't have an issue with her mom joining her for school, ha ha! And thankfully it was a chill class and the  teacher was totally cool about it! I went to every single performance of the show -- even the two matinees -- and loved it every single time! Jaiden did such a great job and it was so fun to watch her! The other cast members did great too and they all looked like they were having a great time! So it ended up being a fantastic choice! Here is a video of one of the songs from the show! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_Tsb-s1xI)

   

Since her show fell on the same weekend as Janelle's missionary farewell, I thought it would be fun to see if any of the extended family wanted to come down! Alicia's family decided to come down and said that they would be renting an air bnb if anyone wanted to join them. Then Grandma Westra said that she would pay for the air bnb and food if Alicia was willing to put it all together! So we ended up with Shane and Alicia's family, Derek and Danielle's family, Chris and Kim's family, and Grandma and Grandpa Westra. It was so fun! Everyone from our family came out also. Jared came on a different night (I forgot to get a picture) and everyone else came on Saturday. Fun times!! 

 

Janelle Missionary Farewell and Setting Apart

Janelle had her missionary farewell today! When I found out (a few days ago) that there was no musical number planned we hurried and threw one together. I found a pretty arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" and we asked a few of Janelle and Jaiden's friends to sing it (Clay McFadden, Jaiden, Emily Williams, Alex Merdes, and Trina Lang). They didn't have much time to practice, but it still sounded nice. Janelle had worked hard on her talk and did a great job. We had a lot of family who came to support her (Grandma and Grandpa Westra, Chris and Kim and Camden and Cayson, Shane and Alicia's family, Derek and Danielle's family, Janika and Brandon, Jase and Ellen, Jared, Jaiden, Josh, Jenna, and of course me and Rick)! She also had LOTS of friends who came to support her! (They took a picture at the church, but I can't find it, so I will have to add it later).

We had a little luncheon at our house afterwards for our immediate family and also for our family members who were in town and for Janelle's friends. I also invited a few of our friends (the Williams, Phillips, Wildes, and Amy Ences family). We had a variety of soups (taco, white chicken chili, vegetable, broccoli cheese and potato) and desserts. I wish I had thought to get a picture of Janelle with Grandma and Grandpa Westra! Rick and I had talked about doing a poster for the door (as shown below) and Rick was about to order one online but thought that it would be nicer (and cheaper) to make one. So her enlisted Brandon's help and Brandon made the sign and Rick got it printed. It turned out really nice! 

Sunday night Janelle got set apart at the church. We had all of our immediate family members (except for Janika and Brandon who had already headed back to Pleasant Grove) and Grandma and Grandpa Westra were also able to come since they were not going home until the next morning. President Nadauld had everyone share some thoughts and advice for Janelle (so that was emotional!) and then he set her apart. Her blessing was SO incredible and powerful and she was given some amazing blessings!!! 

All Abilities Park

A bunch of family came down for Jaiden's play and Janelle's missionary farewell. Grandma and Grandpa Westra stayed at a condo with Shane and Alicia's family and Derek and Danielle's family. Chris and Kim came down with Camden and Cayson and stayed at another condo nearby. Jenna stayed overnight at the condo also. Today we arranged for everyone to meet at the Thunder Junction (All Abilities Park) so that the cousins could play and the adults could visit! We had a fun time!! After the park some of the cousins went to the condo to go swimming. Later we met back up at our house for a pizza dinner and then we all went to see Jaiden perform in The SpongeBob Musical!! Jaiden did a great job in the show and we were grateful for all of the family support! After the show Jaiden, Janelle, and Adria went to Emily William's house for Emily's surprise birthday party!! (See last picture)

Emily William's Surprise Birthday Party!!