One year older & wiser too...

Guess who had a birthday!? I'll give you a hint: It wasn't me!

Sad this is the only picture of us I have of us, and it is from 2008! 

He still looks the same! And umm...now I want to diet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!

We love you! You are the best father/in law we could ask for! Family oriented, great example, Christ-like, and fun! We look up to you! And Wesson thinks you are just about the greatest Papa! 

to celebrate we had a delicious dinner at Buca De Beppo and walked around the GORGEOUS City Creek! It was fun and low key, I like that! 

 this is my little niece livi, i LOVE her! She is probably the most beautiful little girl in all the world! and this is how she looks at Ryan CONSTANTLY it is adorable!

 Wesson getting a kiss kiss from Grammie, not his cutest picture but it is sweet. She is pretty fond of our little guy and he likes her too!

 the whole fam-damily, the setting must be off because it gets blurry in the back. which sucks because this isn't my best picture! haha! but it was a fun group!

 Papa even shared his birthday dessert, mostly with wesson, not because others didn't want, but because wesson would FLIP as soon as that spoon was not in his mouth! he gets that from me...and ryan...poor pre-diabetic sugar-addic boy!

this is the only picture from City Creek. Ike & Craig enjoying the fountain show- umm maybe enjoying is the wrong word, watching... :)

Happy birthday again Papa!

Every artist needs a canvas...

signs of a Jensen boy:

1. a slightly large nose.

2. unmistakenable determination and work ethic

3. serious passion to things you love (mostly guns)

4. insane artistic/musical ability

(a true Jensen boy must meet three of the four qualifications)

well wesson was spared the nose (thanks to my countless prayers during pregnancy) he does have all the other traits down pat (i don't know if i used that expression right but i was here, and i gave it my best shot)

with no further ado...(again sorry about the cliches)

 We have been working on his letters and I swear there is an A and P in there, I would say child protege but hey, I am bias. 

 this sucker was hard to get a good picture of...but worth it because I KINDA love it and Ryan made me clean it off.

you can't see his portrait in this picture, but I wanted to give you an idea on where he chose to display his artwork. and a shout to Levi Ballsteadt for my FABULOUS new blinds I LOVE them!!!)

Thanks for the memories...

When scrapbooking used to be cool, Ryan used to say 

"aww, memories that is what these are" 

so, when I started a blog, which to him is just a scrapbook on the internets 

(intentional "s") 

I decided an appropriate title would be, Memories...That's What These Are. 

And I guess he is pretty right, I wish I used my blog more to share things I know I will want to remember for ever. However, I do keep a pretty good journal so hopefully between the two I won't be the crazy mom who can never keep her children's stories right when she is in her 50s! So...a memory...starting with a riddle...

1. Where did Ryan and I have our first kiss?

2. Where did we break up?

3. Where did we get back together?

4. We brought all our first furniture home in?

5. What did we take on all our hikes, four-wheeling adventures, camping, hunting, and create so many memories in...

Answer:

"Daddy's BLUE truck!" (which was actually black but he is cute so we let it go!)

Good bye...thanks for the memories...

umm...I won't miss driving you, or filling up your tank! 

Better late than never...

We had our first legitimate Family Home Evening  

To be honest, as I prepared a 30 second lesson and 4 minute activity (that is Wesson's fabulous attention span) I felt so ridiculous. 
Everything online seemed really cheesy and I thought about giving these lessons to my kids when they are older and how corny I would feel. 
My parents didn't do Family Home Evening so I didn't really have any experience to go off of. (I take that back, we did sing In Our Lovely Deseret and play Phase 10 quite often on Mondays...) 
But Ryan's family did the whole 9 yards, the cheesy 80's Family Night song (ie. visit grandma, ride our bikes, have a picnic, go on hikes...) a prepared lesson, a fun engaging activity, followed by a delicious dessert. 
To say I was aware of the expectations was an understatement. Then I remembered my audience, my sweet little Wesson he is goo with no judging and everything would be fine. (And Ryan has about the same attention span so he would be good with anything!)

I thought for our first lesson we would start with the very basic.

I just printed an LDS clip art of Jesus with the children.

I told Wesson how much Jesus loves him.

How much he loves everyone.

 And I know he lives.

Then I asked Wesson, "who does Jesus love?"

He responded so confidently and with so much enthusiasm:
 "ME, mommy, daddy and Cosby"
(that is the neighbor's dog...and he is right, although I didn't teach him that part) 

I love that boy. I love being his mom and the one who is entrusted to teach him that Jesus does love him! 


Then on to the activity...

like father like son...

You'll see Ryan decided to help rather than just spectate...


Oh and don't worry we did have a delicious treat as well! (they are go to treat from March until...I run out of all the Cadbury eggs I stock up on...sometimes July!)

So after one night I feel like I have had my pay day. It may be cheesy but I look forward to visiting Grandma, going on hikes, teaching my son and building memories of being together as a Family.

They are the most fun boys to spend my Monday nights with anyway!

Sledding

Have I mentioned, I have the funnest husband in the world? (not to mention hottest, but that is for another time) he has been waiting ever so impatiently to take Wesson sledding…

Well we got sick of waiting for snow so we just went with what we have! We have found the most perfect hill up by McKay, Wesson LOVED it! He wanted to go “faster” the whole time. Ryan and I both may have enjoyed going down as well! I am so grateful for my new fancy shpancy camera for such fun pictures! I love my little cheeser, and my sweet husband to is just a little kid at heart!  (just disregard my super obnoxious voice. and it was my first time recording...tricky tricky)

a thrifty mom find...

I hadn't been to tjmaxx even though I had heard great things...

but then I needed to just find a shirt for Wesson quick

and I was in the parking lot anyway...

well boy am I glad I snuck in…

I found the CUTEST snow suit

originally $46

I got it for $10!

 I think he loves it too!

But he is still my baby and needs help getting it on

Now if only it wasn’t 50 degrees outside! 

"Up High"

These are the words that echo in my head all day long. Wesson LOVES to climb "up high". He loves to stand "up high". And he loves to jump from "up high". When we hold him we hold him "up high"...

i have no idea where he gets it...