Happy Valentine's Day!

Normally Rick does a big breakfast for Valentine's Day, but his flight from Reno was delayed (he was there interpreting for a conference earlier this week) and he would have gotten home at 3:00 a.m. or something. So I told him to stay over in Vegas and come home today. Jenna had Madrigals anyway (she did singing valentines with the Madrigals today) and Jaiden and I didn't really want to get up that early, ha ha. But he emailed me all of the love letters and I put them out with some candy! 

I have had a cold this week and it is always worse in the morning. I was glad that my regular job was cancelled and that I only had one short appointment. I went to Costco and got a couple rotisserie chickens and some fruit and then came home and fixed a chicken and broccoli casserole for dinner.

Janika and Brandon arrived just in time for dinner. We then just cleaned up and visited. Jaiden went to the Red Cliffs Temple with Emily and out to Chick-fil-a. Jenna went out with Ethan, swing dancing, dinner, and hot-tubbing. They all had a nice time!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Last week was Parent Teacher Conferences at the middle school. I hadn't been in a few years and decided to go. It was fun to meet Jenna's teachers. They all RAVED about how wonderful she was. So it was fun to be able to come home and tell her all of the compliments that I received from her teachers!

Monday 12: Today I worked from 10-3. Then I turned in a new W-4 form. Rick started doing our taxes... the good news is that we made way more money than last year! The bad news is that now we owe $9000.00 in taxes!! (It ended up being quite a bit less than that, thank goodness, but I can't remember how much). That was really depressing news! So we had to update our W-4 forms for our jobs so that they take out more money next year so that we won't be hit with such a big unpleasant surprise! 

Tuesday 13: This morning I went to the temple for an endowment session. Afterwards I went home and ate lunch and then went to UT to interpret for an afternoon class. Tuesday night Jenna had hip hop. Sami wasn't feeling well and stayed home, and so I had Jenna drive both ways for driving practice. She did well! 

Wednesday 14: Today was Valentine's Day. Jenna went to the temple with the young women at 5:15 in the morning. Rick still wrote love notes for everyone and left them on the table, and I had purchased some candy to add with the notes. 

Josh participated with singing valentines with the Madrigals. But they hadn't advertised at all and so they did hardly any. He said that they weren't allowed to drive around different places anymore after the experience Janelle had in 2019 (a little fender bender). I don't know if that is true or not. I am sure they would have a lot more if they had actually advertised. When I went to Jenna's PTC last week they were selling candy-grams which they delivered today. I had bought one for Jenna, and so that was a nice little surprise for her. 

Rick and I both worked today and then we had a nice dinner. Instead of the traditional Valentines Day breakfast (since both kids were gone in the morning), Rick made a nice steak dinner instead. He had given me a coupon for a full-body massage that night, given by him. So that is what we did! It was really nice! That was something I didn't realize how much I needed until I received it! Then I stayed up and watched a romcom (The Wedding Planner) with Jenna. Nice day! 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We woke up to decent weather, but by mid-day it was pouring outside and then later it even started snowing!! Jaiden sent us a Marco Polo from SUU and they received several inches of snow! Josh participated in singing valentines with the Madrigals, only they didn't drive around to various businesses  and homes like usual, instead they just sang for various people at the school. Apparently the district is against them leaving school and going around singing to people. Too bad!

We decided to do our traditional Valentine's Day breakfast for dinner instead (omelets, hash browns, sausage etc.) Rick did love letters for me and the kids and I wrote a love letter for him and put out some treats (chips, chocolate, and popcorn). Then we decided to watch one of Rick and my all-time favorite movies, Sleepless in Seattle. Love that movie! Plus it came out in 1993 when Rick and I were dating and so it brought back a lot of memories. Jenna asked if she could do my nails during the movie. Fun evening! 

And some cute ones from Ellen's Social Media of Eli and Evan...

Cute recent pic from Janika, Brandon, and Everett...

And Jaiden...

Valentine's Day

Rick started a tradition years ago where he would wake up early and fix a big breakfast for the whole family on Valentine's Day and write everyone a personal love note. I have loved this tradition, but this might be the last year that we have it -- which is sad! The kids already have to get up early. Jenna gets up at 6:00 a.m. in order to get ready and catch the bus, and Jaiden gets up early for Madrigals. Me and Josh usually sleep in until 7:30. The girls didn't want to get up even earlier than they already do and said that they can't eat that early in the morning anyway. 

With that in mind we switched the early breakfast to Sunday, the day before Valentine's Day. But we still couldn't get everyone up and to the table. So Rick said he wasn't going to do it next year. Boo Hoo! It is difficult losing long-standing traditions. But I actually don't eat breakfast either, so maybe we could switch it to dinner instead next year -- we will see! Anyway, Jaiden went with the Madrigals on Monday to perform singing valentines for people. I don't think the rest of us did anything. Jared brought some roses to "the favorite women in his life" on Sunday and the other roses were probably to Jaiden from Lane. Happy Valentine's Day!! 

I am constantly finding pictures of Jenna on my phone... the queen of selfies and she doesn't even have a cell phone -- and won't for a good while. Heaven help us! 

Valentine's Day and Cousins!

The Westras came down this weekend for Adria's soccer tournament and our girls were thrilled to be able to spend time with their cousins! They painted canvases, painted nails, played games, made bracelets, ate snacks, watched shows (we all watched the newest episode of Wanda Vision), went on a scavenger hunt, recorded a funny podcast in the studio, jumped on the tramp, and watched Adria's soccer game. It was a fun weekend! 

Sunday morning we woke up to our traditional Valentine's big breakfast cooked by Rick and Shane! Muffins (including sausage muffins, which were kind of random, but actually tasted pretty good), hashbrowns, homemade yogurt, and fruit. We also received our love notes and candy! 

Jaiden left right after breakfast to sing in our old ward. Christin Olson had asked her to sing with her at a funeral yesterday and in their ward today. So Jaiden left at 8:30 to go sing with her and the other girls and I watched her musical number over zoom. They sounded great! 

The girls decided to go do an A-B-C scavenger hunt where you drive around and take pictures by signs starting with each letter of the Alphabet. I told them to be home by noon to get ready for church and Jenna sends me the following text from Jaiden's phone: 

I was freaking out a little over the first text, but then realized she was kidding when I got the second text! Here is their picture collage! 

       Then we went to church and then to Young Women where Jenna and Clarissa gave a great lesson...

Then Jaiden, Janelle, and Emily practiced their musical number for next week and I took a nap!

 Janelle headed to Mission Prep and Jenna and Rella painted their nails and the rest of us finished up dinner. We had a delicious dinner of Cafe Rio Pork (prepared and cooked by Rick). Yum! Then Shane and Alicia and I went to go visit Aunt Sharon and Uncle Kent and pick up some family history pictures that Chris is going to scan. I haven't seen them for a long time and it was fun to visit! The kids played and did face masks and played games and watched home videos while we were gone. 

It was a great Valentine's Day!! 

 

Jensen Family LOVE CD!!

I mentioned that we were working on a family LOVE CD for Valentine's Day. Everyone participated, except for Janika and Brandon (since they live too far away) and Jared (because he didn't want to). Janika has a fun song picked out to record and will have to do it next time they are in town. I wondered why Josh was so accommodating this year, but then I realized that he is going to send his song to his "Valentine" as part of his gift. Yikes! 

Jenna decided to write her own song! We were pretty impressed! Of course Rick had to come up with all of the background instrumentals, but she wrote the lyrics and the tune. Pretty darn good for a 12 year old!  (She is really into the show "Once Upon a Time" right now, which provided some inspiration for her song, "Fairytale.") 

Rick also wrote his darling song "I'm Fortunate," which you probably already saw on Facebook. Jase and Ellen chose "A Whole New World" but switched the boys and girls parts. I had never heard the solo songs that Jaiden and Janelle sang before. I really like both of them! Anyway, hope you enjoy this Valentine's Day gift from our family!! Click HERE to download the CD!! 

Happy Valentines Day!!

Busy day!! This morning Rick fixed his traditional Valentine's Day breakfast! Jaiden and Janelle headed to school and then got checked out of school in order to perform singing valentines with the Madrigals. They had sold tickets ahead of time for a fund raiser and then divided up into small groups and sang to whoever purchased singing valentines. Thank goodness they had beautiful weather this year instead of pouring rain like last year! I got Jenna off to school for her Valentine's Day party and then headed to work in Cedar City.

Jenna had come up with this cute idea for a vending machine for her Valentine's Day box. She put it all together with things she found around the house! She is pretty darn creative!

Josh had a soccer tournament this weekend and tonight was his first game and so Rick went and watched him play. 

Monday Jaiden had accepted an invitation for her and Janelle and Emily to sing the National Anthem at the girls' basketball game tonight. I was really against the idea since we had SUCH a busy week and I didn't want to have to worry about one more thing! Plus, Janelle had been sick with a bad cough the past three weeks or so and was starting to get better but was still doing a fair amount of coughing. Emily had also been sick and had missed a couple of days of school this week.

Plus, Jaiden was also starting to come down with a cold. Not only that but we were heading out of town tonight to go up North for Ellen's Bridal Shower. So it was really NOT a good time to accept this! But Jaiden insisted they could do it. Christin Olson had put together a three part arrangement for the National Anthem. They didn't have much time to practice, but somehow managed to pull it off! Since it was Valentine's Day they wore red and pink dresses.

I couldn't go because I was totally stressed trying to get everything ready to leave town and wanted to stop by Lolly Graff's wedding reception before heading out of town. So I asked Allison if she would video their performance for me! They didn't have time to memorize their parts, which is why they had to have the music, but at least they sounded good! Click HERE to listen to them sing!

After their song we headed out -- around 8:00 p.m. and arrived in Salt Lake around 12:30 a.m.  I was SO tired the last hour or two and kept praying that I could stay alert and awake and get us all there safely. I was grateful that my prayers were answered!

Valentine's Day

Valentines Day was rainy and cold! Rick woke up at 5:00 to make his traditional Valentine's family breakfast. He made muffins, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns! He also wrote everyone a very sweet love letter! I sure do love being married to Rick!

Janelle spent the day doing singing valentines with the Madrigals. The rain made it cold and difficult to get around around! Someone rear ended the car that Janelle was in. The girl driving the car that Janelle was in didn't see any damage and was late and in a hurry and so she said it was fine and left. But the other driver must have reported it because the police called the girl later and she got a citation for leaving. While they were running around singing I went to Jenna's Valentine's Day party. These two cuties are both Gluten Free and so they decorated rice krispie treats instead of cupcakes!

Jenna and Clarissa are not in the same class this year but made matching Valentine's Day boxes one evening when Jenna was over at her house. I was so grateful because I somehow missed the memo that they were supposed to make their own boxes this year!

Valentines Day

Rick woke up early to fix our annual Valentines Day breakfast!