Dinner Partays!

We have had quite the run of party's this past weekend. With all the good food AND not being able to run, I am afraid I will be getting quite large.

Thursday:
We had a fun night with our neighborhood friends at Joy Luck. It really was delicious food and I ate a ton of it! Afterwards we played some Apples to Apples, which Trent loved, then watched Orange County. It is always a good time when we get together with this group!

Friday:

I have no picture of this BBQ, but we had Trent's work friends over for dinner and a movie. Matt and Cari had never seen Transformers, so that was the movie of choice. Another meal that consisted of too much good food. Cari, you need to email me your turtle dessert recipe!!!

Saturday:

Kellee and Scharee were in town so we had a little BBQ at our house with some of the old High School group. I had such good friends in High School and I am so glad that we have remained friends after so many years. And I really hate my body in this picture. Is it the angle or the clothes or have a really just gotten bigger. Note to self: stop eating.

Sunday:


We had out Fathers Day celebration at the Jensens on Sunday, seeing how all the girls were in St. George on the real Fathers Day. And, once again, another delicious meal and good company. Happy Fathers Day to all the Father's in my life!!!

Monday:

Monday night we had our last BBQ of the weekend. Uncle Jake and Candice came up to enjoy some good food and a good movie. We played with sidewalk chalk, hit apples into the forest, watched some You Tube's, ate some very, very good food, and watched Gladiator. Thanks for hanging out with us!!!

So, after all these dinners and making food for all these dinners, I am just about dinnered out. Don't get me wrong, I love a good BBQ, but 5 BIG meals in a row is a little much. Thanks everyone for the fun weekend!!!

"Pretty Bird"

We had another animal visitor on Sunday morning, however, this time a dead one. It seemed that this poor bird thought he could fly through the window. There was a grease smear with a little feather fluff stuck on the window as proof. Poor Guy.
My kids thought it was pretty cool. Aiden was so amazed that he could see the bird's eyes AND that they were open.

What will be the next animal adventure at the Jensen home???

Vacation Theme: Nothing

I had one of the best, most relaxing vacations any mother of a hoard like mine could ask for. People asked me what we did and I would tell them...nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was so very nice. I never got bored once. I may have gained a few pounds from sitting and eating all day, but it was well worth it.

Here is a little recap of our vacation. I really didn't have a ton of pictures because we really didn't do anything beside lay out, shop, and eat. I mean, how many different views of us laying out would people want to see?

The Pool:

We would all slowly emerge from our beds, have a little breakfast, and head out to the pool. I think we were out there every day by 10:00. We went through mutiple magazines, books, and conversations. Most of the laying out didn't stop until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. It was fabulous.

The Pedicure:

I wanted a little pampering so I decided to go get a pedicure. No one wanted to join me so I went by myself and was surrounded by Asians and old ladies. Everyone looked at me weird when I pulled out my camera to do a self portrait. I guess they don't know how important blogging material is???

The Slide:

Yes, we are grown adults, but who doesn't love a fun waterslide? We had a blast and it was nice to cool off in between layout sessions.

The Shopping:

After cleaning up from the pool we would head out to the stores every night. I had carefully planned my budget, saved my money, even sold some things on KSL to plan for my shopping experience. Lets just say all my preparing didn't help much. There were just too many cute things down in SG.

The Food:

Food, glorious food. Everyone should know by now that I love food. Absolutely love it. We made some fantastic salads, dips, and sandwich stuff for lunches and dined out for dinners. We had some In & Out (4 for me actually), Jimmy Johns, Pizza Factory, Durangos, and Cold Stone. Then of course the treats and snacks at the house. I wasn't kidding when I said I gained weight on this little vacay...

It was a fabulous few days in Paradise. I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. I had a great time and got to spend a few days with the best in-laws a girl could ask for. I consider Trent's mom and sisters some of my best friends and had so much fun hanging out and laughing with them. Thanks guys! And thanks to Brad and Teri for sharing the house and letting us have a fabulous girls weekend in St. George. It was Heaven!

And a BIG thanks to Kimmy, Gary and Kristine, and Trent for watching The Hoard while I was gone. I know how hard they are and I appreciate everyone's help. Really, you guys are all amazing!!!

Pea Time!

It's that time of year again! Growing up we waited anxiously each Spring for all the new peas to grow big enough to be devoured. Fresh peas from the garden is one of my favorite things. Along with the good taste, they bring back so many memories. One particular memory involves Autumn and Pom Pom. Autumn and I had a great idea to pick all the peas and see how many we could fit in our mouths at once. Lets just say that Pom Pom wasn't too happy and we received the famous crooked finger shake...

And now I get to share one of my favorite things with my kids. My mom is one of the best gardeners around and she has so many peas right now. We go down to visit, pick peas, and play. All the kids love them, except for Aiden of course.

I love that my mom was saying 'cheese' too. She really is just like one of the kids!

Aiden kept himself busy with other things.

So, if we aren't home when you call or stop by, we might just be at Grandma Holly's picking peas and having fun. Next up fresh raspberries!!!

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And that cool pic of the peas is courtesy of Luke and Kim's blog. It was so cute I had to steal it! Thanks Kimmy!

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Soon to come, a St George post. I am just waiting for a certain someone to email me some pictures. You know who you are...

"Phat's ha good me-ball!

The simple layout and unrefined composition of this post will most likely reveal that was posted by Trent and not Amy. I have been given the gift of a true Fathers Day weekend and as such feel compelled to document an unexpected act of kindness.

Though some might mistake this meatball feast as payment for singing lessons, it was infact someone's unsolicited idea for a Fathers Day gift. It amazes me how toughtful people can be. I usually only help others when they ask me first. Every bite I took I thought about the time it would take to make all this food. Thank you for thinking of me. The meal was absolutely delicious. I even enjoyed the salad.

"I feel like I'm stealing from you Rosie."

I would like their identity to remain anonymous so if anyone recognizes the dishes please do not reveal the owner.

Melting the Minds...

Some good old Baby Einstein

5 kids sitting in the same area without fighting

A very happy Mom!

The Pirate Dog

The kids came running in the other morning saying there was a "pirate dog" in our backyard. I had NO idea what they meant by that so I followed them to find out. And there it was, a cute, tiny baby deer. It was so small and looked like it was barely alive. We called animal control and they said to just leave it there. They explained that the mom will just leave a new born because it has no scent yet, so the predators can't find it. If the mom stayed, the other animals would be able to smell her and, therefore, the baby. So, the mom just comes back every once in a while and feeds the baby. Amazing. What you can't learn from animal control.

So, that was our little adventure this week. We had a pirate dog in our yard. Why my kids didn't say there was Bambi in our yard is beyond me. I guess they just like evil plant shows (Little Shop of Horrors), anything pirate (you know, like the pirate teeth I showed Andrew to get him to brush teeth) , the balloon guy show (Big Trouble in Little China), Luchidor show (Nacho Libre), and anything that is gross and scary. Are we failing as parents? I think so...

New Do!

I cut my hair.

Here are the before and afters:

All long, thin, and scraggly.

Short and looking healthier.

Just a view to see how much I actually chopped off.

And the verdict is....

(and do you see those monstrous "trophy's" we got from the Bear Lake race on the table in the last pic. Even though we felt like death at the end of our races, doesn't mean they had to give us a tombstone...)

Chancho, I Need to Borrow Some Sweats

Kim, being the fun Aunt that she is, brought the boys back some Luchidor masks from Mexico. Lets just say they love them. And now their new favorite movie is Nacho Libre. They reenacted the final wrestling match from the movie they other day. Pretty funny.
They decided to take their fighting skills to the tramp. You can see they are serious about it. Here Andrew is throwing a punch at Aiden.

Aiden finally pinned Andrew. Andrew was screaming for him to get off because he "was already dead!"

On Sunday we had ALL the boys in the family bring their masks to family dinner. It was quite a sight and so was the wrestling match that followed...

Kim also brought home some cute little Mexican dresses for all the little girls. It is amazing that all these girls are practically the same size while having a 3 year gap between the oldest and youngest. We really do produce midgets around here!

Thanks Kimmy for thinking of us while you were soaking up the sun and shopping in Mexico! All our kids love their gifts and I love mine too!

Bear Lake Races

Friday afternoon we headed up to Bear Lake to compete in some races. We stopped in Logan to get the usual pre-race meal, Quiznos, and then cruised through Logan canyon to Bear Lake. We picked up our fellow runners and went to pick up our packets. It was an exciting time because this was Melissa's and Stephanie's first race ever and Alyssa's first 10K.

Alyssa, Me, Melissa, and Stephanie. Very excited to get our bibs.

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We woke up early, caught the bus, and started the run. Unfortunately for me, my knee started hurting at mile 1. I ended up taking my support strap off, which helped a little, and stopping every 5 minutes to rub and stretch. I pushed through the pain and was so shocked when I crossed the finish line and they told me I was the second women to finish! It made the pain worth it. The rest of the girls did awesome as well and all finished under an hour. It was a great race!

This is the only picture I have after the race. Trent did amazing as always and got second over all in the marathon. We had a little family reunion for 5 minutes with the Karrens. Clint, Sam, and Brett ran the Half and also did great. Jessica, being cute and pregnant, cheered everyone on! Congrats to all that trained, ran, and rocked their races. It was so fun!

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We started heading home to relieve all our babysitters and stopped once again in Logan to gorge ourselves. Although this time the meal consisted of focaccia bread, chicken cordon blue pizza, Texas BBQ pizza, cokes, and, of course, a FH'zzookie. Very delish and an excellent way to reward ourselves after completing our races.

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Thanks to all those that joined us in the race this year and for all those that stayed behind to babysit the Furious Five!

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Until next year...

A Mouse in the House

I was eating some cheese and crackers (one of my favorite treats) and left to change a diaper or something. I came back to find that someone (or something) had nibbled on my block of cheese. I asked who did it and Andrew replied, "I was just being a mouse."

The Audrey III

The other day Andrew came in the house and wanted to show us an "Evil Plant." He had picked one of our flowers and said it had teeth and was just like the one from the plant show, aka Little Shop of Horrors. The resemblance was amazing. Trent wasn't too happy about him picking our flowers, but I thought it was a funny comparison. At least Andrew thinks the plant is evil and not the hero of the show...

This morning Andrew came running in and told me to come look at the evil plant. I came out to see one of the Audrey's had blossomed. I told the kids it was so pretty and they said no, it was evil. I love the way their minds work...

Depressed

My knee is still hurting. I couldn't even run 1/2 a mile today. Sad. I have been training all spring for the Bear Lake 10K and my knee decides to stop working 1 week before the race. Seriously? It makes me very, very angry. So, in hopes of a miracle ,I have been trying to ice it as much as possible. My kids were nice enough to make a stool and blanket fort while I relaxed with an Enfamil ice pack wrapped around my knee. I knew those free ice packs from the hospital would come in handy...

Slivers

We have one of the nicest decks around. So nice in fact that almost daily we have someone with a sliver, sometimes 2. Usually it is a fight to get them to let us dig it out. However, the other day Trent found Aiden like this:

Here he is trying to reach it with the tweezers...
When that didn't work he went in with a needle! You will have to blow up the pic to really see it!

What kid will round up tweezers AND a needle to dig out a sliver? It was such a nice change from the kicking and screaming that is usually involved in the whole sliver extraction process.

Neighbors

Last night Trent and I had a date night thanks to our great neighbors. The Marstons offered to take ALL 5 kids so we could have a night to ourselves. And a night to ourselves is always very much appreciated around here. We started the night off at Yanni's, who I might argue have the best fries around. Then headed over to SL Running Co. and purchased some new running shoes in hopes of curing my hurt knee. We finished the shopping spree off at REI where we spent some of our dividend. Isn't it fun to get things for free? We picked the kids up as they were consuming some bowls of Fruity Pebbles and headed home for bedtime. We ended the night with a showing of Sixteen Candles and were joined by the Capsons. It was a great night and we, once again, are so lucky to have such good neighbors!

Star Wars

Last night I shared my wisdom of stool space ships with guns with Aiden. Soon all the Hoard joined in the action. They built this huge 'ship' which I think is a pretty close resemblance to the Millennium Falcon. I think Hans Solo would be proud.

You Thought I Was Kidding...

Here is Morgan a few mornings ago. Once again she woke up with poop all over. Although this time it was not only all over her crib, but her face as well. I don't know what possesses a kid to do things like this. Pretty gross if you ask me...