Happy Birthday, Jenna!!

Jenna is 17!! Love this girl so much!! Rick and I were on a cruise and were supposed to get home the night before her birthday, but due to transportation problems we ended up not getting home until tonight. Jenna was gone pretty much all day and evening with Ethan anyway on an extended birthday date! 

Happy Birthday!!

Today was my birthday. I woke up to a nice text from Jared. Janelle left this morning to head back to Provo, but before she left she gave me a sweet note for my birthday that she had written and I was able to give her the missionary book that I had made for her. She arrived home one year ago on my birthday! It is hard to believe that she has been home a year already! The book took me months to make since I did a lot of editing on it, but it turned out really nice! 

Rick prepared a nice dinner for my birthday and Jenna walked all the way to Albertsons, over a mile away, with her friends after school to buy me some flowers. I thought that was really sweet of her! I was also able to have a video call with Jaiden, which is always nice! 

I wanted to go see the Musical Revue at the high school and tonight was the only night I had available, so I decided to go with Jenna. Rick wasn't interested and didn't understand why I wanted to go see it, especially on my birthday, since none of my kids were in it. But I thought it would be fun to go with Jenna and maybe it would get her interested in auditioning next year. Josh and Bridget came too and met us there. I am glad I went. The in the show did a great job and it was fun and entertaining! 

 

Ellen's 25th Birthday

Jase and Ellen's family and Janika and Brandon's family all came down for the long weekend (MLK Day), so that was fun! Jase and Ellen were able to celebrate Ellen's 25th birthday while they were here. They played laser tag with friends Friday night and then went to the temple Saturday morning and to Sakura that night. We got to spend lots of time with the boys over the weekend and enjoy some outside time at the park!  

Party at the Park (Happy Birthday, Rick!)

Janika headed up a little party for Dad to celebrate his birthday. They ordered a bunch of pizzas and then they "kidnapped" dad and blind-folded him and we all met at Vernon Worthen park. It was fun! The weather was being a little bipolar. Usually this time of year is beautiful in St. George, but the weather had turned cold and drizzly and was raining when we left. It stopped while we were at the park, but it was still cold. I was wishing I had brought a coat instead of just a sweatshirt. Boy, we really are wimps! Poor Jaiden is in sub-zero temperatures and we complain about temperatures in the high 40s. But the grandkids had a great time and we all loved playing with them -- and Dad loved the little surprise!! 

A little incident happened near the end of our stay. There was this man a ways off that was shouting all sorts of things, including profanities.  It was really unsettling. We quickly decided to leave since it was time to go anyway, but that sped up our departure. He started walking closer to the park and others there were getting nervous also. Several people called the cops and they came and arrested him. Brandon looked up local arrests later and found that the man had been arrested for drug use, drug paraphernalia and a few other things. Crazy! 

Beware of water, snow, and wheelchairs: Jensen Weekly

Here are some of the happenings for this week in the Jensen household!! 

Ellen came down with her family for their Fall Break. They stayed at an Airbnb for the week. Jase came and joined them on Thursday night and we celebrated Eli's first birthday over the weekend with a barbeque and family and friends! Happy Birthday, Eli!!!

Jared had come down for his Fall Break last weekend, and is back to work and school this week. I didn't get any pictures from him this week, sorry! 

Janelle is loving teaching at the MTC and had her first district come and go! She came down with Logan for the weekend to attend her friend, Anika Boettcher's wedding. She and Logan went to the temple open house while they were here. 

Jaiden arrived in Mongolia!!! We are grateful that she and the other members of her district arrived safely!! We are excited for her P-Day so that she can catch us up on everything! The tidbit I did hear was that all of the missionaries had to go to the hospital to get x-rays and blood drawn to make sure they don't have TB or something!  

Josh is in the middle of Water Wars at the high school. Water Wars is not an official high school activity, but a student run event that lasts several weeks -- or until there is only one team left. The students choose others to be on their team and then they pay a combined amount of $20.00 for their team of around four people. It seems like practically the whole student body is involved. They all get wrist bands and have very specific rules to follow. They get members of opposing teams out by squirting them with a squirt bottle. 

Each team has to get someone from a different team "out" during the week or their whole team is out. Each person who gets another person out has to catch it on video so that they have proof. Inside the school or church is off limits, but inside someone's home is not. The winning team gets all of the money, and it is like $2000.00 or something! So it gets extremely competitive!! Josh carries around a squirt bottle wherever he goes and makes us lock the doors whenever he is home. I remember Jared being involved in this also, so apparently it has been going on for years! 

We are constantly getting emails saying that more volunteers are needed at the temple open house. It was Josh and Jenna's turn last Saturday.  The other available times for them were either during school or during evenings when Jenna had dance and Josh had work, and so we had grabbed the only Saturday shift for shoe-coverers that was assigned to our Stake. 

They had both signed up to be shoe-coverers, but then someone there assigned Josh to wipe down the wheels of visitors in wheelchairs, which apparently wasn't nearly as fun as putting shoe covers on people's feet. We were glad that they could serve, but sad that their service time ended up at the same time as Eli's birthday party. They would have loved to be there for the party, but they had signed up two months ago and we didn't feel right about backing out at the last minute. Jenna said it was fun and offered to come again. 

Josh came home completely grumpy and hangry. The shifts are almost four hours long and Josh was tired and starving. It was almost time for them to finish their shift and Josh was counting down the minutes when he was asked to push an older lady in a wheelchair through the entire tour -- tacking on an extra hour to his shift. He apparently accepted, but very begrudgingly! The others couldn't find him and had to wait the extra hour for him as well. Luckily we had extra hamburgers and hotdogs from the party waiting for the kids when they got home! 

Saturday night Josh went to his soccer Halloween party. He said it was fun but he was disappointed that he didn't win any big prizes. Josh got sick the next day -- he went to church, but soon after he was complaining of fever and chills, and was blowing his nose and sleeping all day. He said that it must have been from wiping down all those wheelchair wheels yesterday -- or the party outside in the freezing cold -- or a combination of both. Rick sang in church -- his arrangement of "Did You Think To Pray." It was so beautiful!!

Josh stayed home from school because of his illness. He also missed his last soccer game, which is okay with me because the weather suddenly turned cold tonight. We had our ward Halloween party and chili cook off. (Chili, dunk tank, cake walk, pumpkin painting...). Jenna dressed up as a devil for the party and her friend Clarissa dressed up as an angel. Josh managed to feel well enough by that time to at least go try a few bowls of chili. When I got home he and several of his friends were in the house saying that they couldn't leave or someone might "get them out" (water wars). They eventually left. 

I had tried a couple of bowls of chili at the Fall Carnival and then brought Jenna shopping for her Halloween party -- nothing like waiting until the last minute! We went to several stores looking for a red dress for her costume (Kiss, Marry, Kill) and having no luck I put a request out on our RS GroupMe chat asking if anyone had a dress she could borrow and soon had the perfect dress. 

I started to feel sick while we were shopping and realized that I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate at the party. My chest hurt and the skin around my eyes swelled up. This is the second time that has happened. It happened a couple of months ago the day before we left to bring Jaiden to the MTC after eating some soup at a work meeting and it took two full days for the swelling to completely go away. It has been the same this time. It is so frustrating -- and I don't even know what is causing it! (This one took three days for the swelling to completely subside!) I also feel like I am coming down with whatever Josh had and am praying that I don't get sick! Rick is going to Washington DC with Elder Peter Johnson this coming weekend for Seminary and Institute recruitment and so we are praying he stays healthy too. 

Happy Birthday, Eli!!

 Happy Birthday, Eli!!  Click here for Ellen's Facebook post of Eli's Birthday! 

Jase and Ellen had Eli's birthday party over at our house before her family headed back up north. Those who came were Ellen, Jase, Evan and Ellen's mom and dad, brothers, and sisters, Ky Phillips and Callista, Logan and Summer, and Lanae and Brecken, me and Rick. Josh and Jenna wanted to be there, but had already committed to serve at the temple open house two months ago and so I didn't feel right about having them back out at the last minute. Janelle and Logan were in town for her friend, Annika Boetcher's wedding in the Cedar City temple and already had lunch plans with one of Janelle's missionary companions afterwards. So they missed it too. 

Eli is such a happy baby and is almost constantly smiling his big mouthy grin. He is so fun to play with because he laughs so easily! He is such a cute, chubby baby. You would never know that he was a preemie! (Ellen's sister took a ton of pictures at his party and they turned out soooo cute!!) 

We love you, baby Eli! 

Happy 80th Birthday, Grandma Westra!

My mom turned 80 on Monday! She looks and acts way too young to be 80! I emailed all of my siblings and suggested that we do a dinner for her to celebrate. Everyone thought it would be a great idea and so we planned on tonight. I had the farthest to come since everyone else lives up North. I left Friday morning (after helping set up flags in our neighborhood for Veteran's Day) and then drove four hours to Janika's place to visit with her and Everett for a couple of hours before heading to my mom's. My family all met at Asian Star for a nice meal and then mom and I watched a movie and then did an exercise swim the next morning. I was able to go see my newest grandbaby, Eli on the way home! It was a quick trip -- but worth it! Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Wendy's Birthday

Janika and Brandon got me tickets to go see an Improve Broadway show for my birthday (which was yesterday) and so after the baby shower was finished I rode with Janika back to her house where Brandon had a delicious dinner ready of steak that he cooked on the smoker.  Then we headed to the theater in Provo. The cast  did a great job! I don't see how people can come up with dialogue and musical numbers right on the spot like that! I could never do that! It was a lot of fun! Thank you, Janika and Brandon, for the lovely birthday dinner and show! 

Memorial Day and Jaiden's Birthday

This beautiful girl was born on Memorial Day 17 years ago! Jaiden is intelligent, hard working, talented, kind, involved, gorgeous, spunky, and has the most amazing smile ever! She is now a Senior in high school and this coming year she will be involved in Exec Council, Madrigals, Theatrical Productions, Academics, dancing at Southwest Dance, teaching swimming lessons, and working at Tuacahn. She will also be preparing for the State Distinguished Young Women competition! Despite her busy schedule she still allows ample time for the gospel, family, and of course friends! WE LOVE YOU, Jaiden Jensen!! Happy 17th Birthday today!! Click HERE for my facebook post with pictures through the years!! This is one of those rare years that Jaiden's birthday fell on Memorial Day (just like on the day she was born). It is also one of the few years that her birthday didn't fall on the same day as her Southwest Dance Concert (the concert will be this weekend). So Jaiden was able to go out with her good friends -- Lizzie Bryner and Emily Williams. They brought her out to lunch and took her to a flower shop where they took lots of pictures of flowers and plants. They spoiled her with all sorts of cool presents -- yoga mat, yoga blocks, crumbl cookies.... (I can't remember what else -- I will have to ask Jaiden!) In a couple of the pictures above you can also see Jaiden's cook shoes that she painted herself!

Here is a picture of the same three girls on Jaiden's birthday 8 years ago (back in 2013, when Jaiden was turning 9 years old!)

I asked Jaiden what she wanted for her birthday dinner (on Sunday) and she said Cafe Rio style sweet pork. So I headed to the store at 11:00 Saturday night to buy all of the ingredients and started it cooking in the crock pot overnight. It was the first time I had made it and it turned out SO good! I made the lime rice and creamy cilantro dressing also. The power went off about fifteen minutes before we were planning to eat dinner and so the rice wasn't able to finish cookies and I had to finish it on the gas stove, but thankfully everything else was finished before the power outage and everything was delicious! Jase and Ellen and Jared came over for dinner and then we played a few rounds of Balderdash and had brownies for dessert. The power came on about thirty minutes later.

Monday night (on Jaiden's birthday) our family went to Tuacahn to see Annie! We had great seats and loved the show! I forgot to get a picture! That is NOT like me, ha ha!