Jake's 6th Birthday

Today is Jake's 6th birthday! He has always been physically and emotionally older than his age. He grew up so fast that I can hardly remember him as a baby. 6 things that you need to know about Jake:

1. Jake's name is an acronym that stands for all of the members of my family.
J - Jana & James
A - Aaron & Allison
K - Kelli & Kyle
E - Elizabeth (my mom)

and his middle name is Bradley after my dad2. Jake is an extremely gifted athlete. He has had a perfect jump shot since he was one. He can mimic the actions of any athlete. So, for example, when he was 3 and had never golfed before, he was given a club and could swing it correctly simply because he watched golfers on tv.
3. Jake's hobbies have only been about sports until recently. He has discovered Pokemon cards and is completely addicted.

4. Jake makes friends easily. He is well-liked by all. For how loud and crazy he is at home, though, it surprises me that he is really reserved when we are in public.
5. Jake likes to dress up according to what is going on. If he's playing football with the kids outside, he absolutely has to have a football uniform on. If the kids decide to then play hunting in the field, Jake has to come in and get his camouflage on. Then if the kids decide to play cowboys, he has to come in and change again. (And people wonder why I have so much laundry to do!)

6. Jake really loves his brothers. He and Max love to talk for hours in their beds before they fall asleep. Before he goes to Kindergarten everyday, he plays with Devin for several hours. Devin absolutely adores Jake. I feel totally comfortable leaving Jake with Mason for a few minutes at a time if I have to run somewhere really fast. He will be a great babysitter. The following is a picture of Jake after I told him that he was in charge of Devin & Mason for 10 minutes. He came out in his combat gear saying, "Jake's in command. Sir, yessir!"

I don't know what we would do without him. He definitely brings a lot of life and excitement into our home.

Happy Birthday, Jake. We all love you!

Valentine's Day

Is it too late to discuss Valentine's Day? In years past, I have thoroughly hated this holiday. My expectations were too high, and I actually wanted a very creative day planned and executed in my behalf. That never happened.

Recently, I have come to enjoy this holiday. I enjoy doing little things for my kids and little things for Nate. We don't go all out on this day, but we all at least think about each other with the little things that we do.

Valentine's morning, I actually woke up early and made breakfast for my family. Now, this may seem like a normal thing -- maybe something that you do every morning at your homes -- but our family is all about cereal for breakfast. So, making breakfast really means that I put forth effort.

I wrote a little Valentine for each of my kids and gave them a little gift. Pokemon cards for Max & Jake, a little football for Devin, and a big bath sponge for Mason.For Nate, I found a copy of his favorite children's book, and I bought him a bathroom Sonic Scrubber.
Sounds like a really dumb gift, right? But it's perfect! Nate likes to sit and meditate in the shower while scrubbing the grout on the Travertine. So, to help him out, I bought him an electronic scrubber. He was actually excited about this. And, my shower doesn't look half bad, either, after he's scrubbed it everyday.

Nate bought me a single red rose. It was beautiful!

He also bought me Heart's greatest hits. I think that Ann Wilson has one of the most powerful, effortless voices. I've enjoyed it.

We then ordered out and watched "The Devil Wears Prada."

Overall, a very relaxed and enjoyable day -- no expectations, which resulted in happiness all around.

Jenn sent me a lovely package in the mail -- which included an adorable hand towel. (I ate the rest.)Michelle sent me a beautiful hand-made card. Once again, her creativity is amazing and definitely from the heart. (And, sadly it's almost 2:00 am and blogger will not let me add the picture of this beautiful card! Ahhh!!!!!) Anyway, thank you Michelle for thinking of me.

Tagged (from Jenn & Claudia)

6 Weird Things About Me

1. I have a real problem with certain sounds. I can't listen to:

• a box being scraped on the concrete
• someone writing with a pencil that is not sharp
• shoes being shuffled on the sidewalk
• birds chirping in the late night or early morning
• someone shoveling snow off of their sidewalk

2. I can eat almost anything except a combination of mint & chocolate

3. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday

4. I didn't own a pair of jeans in highschool. Being from Arizona, I wore a lot of shorts and mini skirts.

5. I have an awful habit of picking my lip. My sister has a very prominent point on her lip -- that not one person notices but me -- but that always bugged me growing up. I was afraid that I would develop this pointed lip, so I started picking my upper lip. Sadly, it's become quite a habit to this day. And even more depressing is that I don't even notice this pointy lip on my sister any more.

6. I have a very noticeable hand raise -- like you would raise your hand in class. I was an extra in the movie "Singles Ward" in the Family Home Evening scene. After the movie was released, I had a really good friend from Arizona call me to ask if I was in that movie. I had not talked to her for quite a while, and she had no idea that I was even asked to be in it. I couldn't figure out how she would even have noticed me without knowing to look for me. She said that she and her husband were watching the movie in the theater, and she turned to her husband and said that I was definitely in that movie. She recognized me not by my face but by my hand raise.

6 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Watching "24" with Nate at night after the kids have gone to sleep while we both work on our laptops.

2. Being in my craft room upstairs by myself.

3. Spools of ribbon

4. Summer time -- sandals, swimming, tanning, ice cream, the beach

5. My decorating epiphanies. I can't decorate anything in my house until I get what I call a decorating ephipany. So, for example, I have a James Christiansen picture that I framed for myself 2 years ago. I could not hang it up until I found the perfect table to put underneath it. I couldn't hang curtains until I found the perfect fabric. I can't frame a picture for myself until I can see the colors in my head and can picture the arrangement on the wall. I couldn't finish hanging hooks in the mud room until I could envision how it would look. But when these epiphanies come, there is no stopping me. I have to get the project done right away. I'm still waiting for the epiphany for my music room. I want to totally change it, but I haven't received the ephipany about the paint color, the pictures for the wall, the arrangement of the furniture, etc. So, for now, I don't like to look at my music room, but I'm confident that the epiphany will eventually come.

6. Devin waking up in the morning with his hair looking like Dupree from the movie "You, Me, & Dupree" and having him running and giving me a hug and shouting, "Good Morning, Mom!" and then laughing maniacally.

Little Bits of Heaven

Well, judging from the last time that I posted -- 2 months ago!!! -- I would assume that everyone will understand how out of control I've been. This post can easily be several pages long, so this is definitely for my own benefit and documentation.

My last post read that "Hell Has Frozen Over". Well, if it has indeed frozen, then I won't dwell on anything hellish that has happened recently and focus on the little bits of heaven that even adversity can provide. Let me tell you about pieces of heaven that I have experienced since my last post.

Thanksgiving:
My family came up to Utah to spend Thanksgiving here. This was also the first time any of them had met Mason.

(My brother, Kyle, with Mason Kyle Jensen)

There were 19 of us all together. We took advantage of the neighbor's vacant house next door while they are away on a mission and sent half over there to sleep.

(Me with my mom & two sisters)

While everyone was here, my mom told me that there was a time in her life when she felt like she had lost all control and organization of her home and life and it took her a while to pull herself back together. I think that this holiday season was that time for me. I'm pretty put together, but after the stress that has happened over the past year and a half --miscarriages, a funeral, a baby, sickness, etc., I think that I about lost it and that I am just barely starting to recover.

The little bit of heaven that happened during Thanksgiving was Mason's blessing.

(Mason's blessing)

We blessed Mason right after Thanksgiving on a Saturday afternoon in the Relief Society room of our chapel. All of Nate's family was there except for an uncle and a cousin. All of my family was there except for Trudy -- but I know that she was there in spirit. Both Nate & I have been blessed with wonderful families. I put together a little program for the blessing -- my sisters sang and both of our dads spoke. I loved every minute of it.

Another bit of heaven that happened during Thanksgiving was that my sister, Kelli, put together a talent show where everyone in my entire family participated. In my own little family, Nate sang and played a song on the guitar, I played a piano solo that I had arranged, Max played a fabulous song on the piano, Jake played a little song on the guitar (although he hadn't started lessons, yet), Devin played "Star Wars" on the piano (an imitation of Max's piano playing), Mason's talent was just looking cute.

(Max playing piano solo)

The talent show ended with a several page poem that my dad wrote about our family. He is known for his poetry writing -- usually at Christmas time. It was very touching...I may have to

try to type it into this blog some time.

(Dad reading his poem during the talent show)

Sickness
If you will remember, we all got the flu -- including Mason -- when Mason was only 2 weeks old. Then, we all know that this family can never get through the holidays without some kind of illness. I got mastitis during the Thanksgiving holiday. Soon after, I got the shingles. The little bit of heaven that always comes with any illness in our family is that I have so many absolutely wonderful friends who help me. I am forever indebted to them for their kindness.

Reflections Contest:
Max and Jake were both honored in the Reflections contest a couple of months ago. Max wrote the story: "Why Blockbuster Is My Favorite Place" about how Blockbuster brings our family closer together because we can watch movies together as a family. He won 2nd place in his division and was asked to read his story that night. Jake wrote a story called "Trudy B. Loved". His story was about how Disneyland is his favorite place. We went to Disneyland with Trudy and her kids when we went to Newport Beach on a family trip about 3 years ago. Then after Trudy died, we went to Disneyland with Aaron & his boys for Thanksgiving last year. As you walk up the pathway going into the Haunted Mansion, there is a tombstone that reads "Trudy B. Loved". Jake's story talks about how Trudy loved Disneyland, too. He won Honorable Mention in his division. I was proud of both of them.

(Disneyland - Thanksgiving 2005. This is obviously not the Haunted Mansion, but I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was hurting and just starting a miscarriage that I didn't tell anybody about. But, that's a different story.)

Mason -- my little bit of heaven:
Mason is an absolute angel who has brought so much happiness. He has the cutest bright eyes. All 3 of his brothers love him and are big helpers. Mason has slept for 6 hours during the night since he was one month old. He now sleeps between 7-10 hours at night time and is taking about (3) couple of hour naps. He only cries when he is hungry and only fusses a little when he is tired. I know that I have been absolutely spoiled with all of my children being very good sleepers, but I've needed it.

(Mason 2 month)

(Mason's 1st Day of Church -- December 10th)

Christmas:
After baby, flu, Thanksgiving, mastitis, and shingles, it was time to get ready for Christmas. We thought that after 11 years of traveling over Christmas, we were ready to stay home for the holiday. A bit of persuasion by Nate's family meant that we were going to Vegas for Christmas. This time, however, four kids meant that it was nearly impossible for Santa to travel with us. My kids were totally understanding and knew that Santa would have something for them when we got back home.

A few things made our travel plans a little bit difficult. The first one was that BYU played at the Las Vegas bowl on December 21st & 22nd (definitely not an option to miss in Nate's book). The second was that I had already committed to play the violin with the little orchestra in my ward for the Christmas Eve Sacrament meeting program -- and we all know how I feel about following through on committments. So, Nate went to the Las Vegas bowl on the 21st & 22nd. He drove back home to help me pack up and get ready, and then we drove back to Vegas on Christmas Eve after the Sacrament program. I will honestly admit that I was very unhappy packing, buying presents, and mentally preparing to travel.

(Nate's mom with Isaac and Mason)

The little bit of heaven that happened over Christmas was that this was one of my favorite trips to Vegas. Nate's mother was and always has been a very good hostess. We went to a couple of movies, ate really well, went shopping at the fabulous outlet malls there, played fun games (my favorite was Clue on DVD), and even went to Vegas's version of the Price is Right. (I was very disappointed that I didn't get to be a contestant. I would have rocked!) Now that it is all over, the holidays seem to have been perfect.

(Jake with Nate's dad, Steve)

Mason's 3-Month Birthday
Mason turned 3-months old on January 15th. Time goes so fast. This is my favorite stage -- they can respond, laugh, cuddle. I can't get enough of this baby. Heaven to me is just holding him.

(Mason's 3 month)

My Heaven:
I have been extremely blessed in my life. No matter the trials and hardships, I can never doubt that the Lord has given me an abundance. I am grateful for all those who make my life a little more like heaven everyday.