Christmas Festivities

***I don't know why my post posted when I wasn't finsihed, but here is the finished product***

We had a great Christmas at here at the Hoard. Lots of parties, food, families, gifts, and fun. I was a little lacking when it came to picture taking though. I was just having too much fun relaxing and enjoying things to be taking pics. But here is a quick recap with pictures and without.

We started out the celebrating with the Johnson Progressive Dinner, on the 19th. This is a big dinner with Trent's Mom's family. We had a ton of delicious food. Unfortunately I got called out to work and didn't get to eat the main course, which was actually a good thing because I was pretty full from the first house.

The next celebration was Thursday night with the Jensen's. And when I say Jensen's I mean Trent's Dad's whole family. Dodee and Papa always throw a fantastic party. We consume the traditional breakfast for dinner and exchange gifts. And as always, Dodee and Papa are amazingly generous.

After this dinner we told Trent's sibling we would take their kids home for a sleep over so they could attend the Christmas Eve Breakfast at Market Street. The breakfast is for adults only, which doesn't really work for The Hoard.

We hung out the rest of the day, went to lunch with some of my family, and then met up with the Jensen's for Christmas Eve dinner. Once again a lot of delicious food. After dinner we went and saw the lights at Temple Square. We used to do that every year growing up and it was fun to do it with my family.

And it is nearly impossible to get a picture with all the kids smiling AND looking at the camera.

See what I mean?

When we got home from lights, we opened our Christmas PJ's and went to bed.

Christmas morning came and Paige and Morgan woke up at 7:30. We waited for the rest to get up and finally decided to wake them up at 8:00. That is a first for our kids. They never sleep in and they decide to do it on Christmas morning. Go figure.

Christmas Stockings. Always fun.

The kids saw some watches back around Halloween and thought they had to have them. Aiden had is broken an hour later.

Always fun watching your kids open presents. Isn't Christmas magical?

And the 'big' gift from Santa was a basketball hoop and balls for the playroom. I think the adults have actually played with it more.

Our last Christmas celebration was a Veigel dinner with my dad's brother and his family. We had everyone over for dinner, some rock band, and basketball. It was a good time and we partied late into the night. And when I say late I mean 10:00.

So, all in all, it was a great Christmas. We were spoiled by our families. Thanks to everyone who made our Christmas one to remember!

Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Jensen Hoard

The Giving Season

I wasn't going to do the whole neighbor gift thing this year. I think most the stuff you get or give ends up in the garbage. I mean, you can only eat so many treats, right? But then I started feeling guilty and thought I should be a 'nice' person and just do it. So, we decided to do mini donuts.
The kids had a great time. They loved putting the sprinkles on all the donuts. And don't worry, I made them wash their hands before we began AND every time they licked their fingers. We probably went through a whole bottle of hand soap during the whole sprinkling process.

I think they turned out dang cute, but anything miniature is cuter right? Thats why my kids are so stinkin cute.

And no matter how many times we washed hands, Morgans were going to stay pink from the red sugar crystals. She couldn't quite understand why it wasn't coming off.

During the whole process I wondered why I decided to be nice. I am not one of those moms that loves cooking with kids. Things get spilled, messes get made, every one's fighting because they can't reach/see, and I turn into the Mr Hyde version of myself, which as of late is trying to take over entirely. That being said, I am glad we did them. The kids do need to learn to be giving, even if it is from Mr. Hyde. And trust me, I am trying to get my multiple personalities under control.

Advent Calendars

Having kids have made the Holidays a lot more fun (and a lot more work). They are so excited for Christmas to get here. And they ask every day how many more days until Santa comes. Enter: The Advent Calendar. We have a few around our house.

First Up: The Classic Paper Chain
The boys made these in school. They were pretty excited when they brought them home.

Second: The Hershey Kiss Chain

Oakley's Sunbeam teacher brought one of these over for each of the kids. All my kids love her and I think she might like them a little too. :)

Last: The Muffin Tin Countdown

I saw this on a blog and decided to try and make one. You just get a mini muffin tin ($4 at Walmart), cut out numerous circles, get a bunch of embellishments, put together, glue magnets on the circles, put candy in the holes, and cover the holes with the cute circles you've made. And Voila, probably the cutest Advent Calendar out there.

Hope you all are enjoying your own Christmas countdowns.

Friend Lunch

I apologize for my lack of blogging. I can't seem to get on top of things. I am working a lot more, which means things get pushed to the back burner and, unfortunately, blogging is one of those things. However, I was able to make time to go to lunch with my High School friends. We try to get together at least once a year, if not more-usually when ones that lives out of state come into town. Yesterday we decided to meet at Arella's and it was delicious.
As always, it was a good time. It is amazing that we only see each other a few times a year, but we just seem to pick up right where we left off. I guess thats the nice thing about picking good friends to begin with. We missed those that couldn't make it and I am already looking forward to the next dinner date!

Tis the Season

For an early morning showing of Tron.
Trent gets to go see movies for "work" every so often. A company that sells to the CU rents out a theater and invites all their clients to the show. This time Cade and I were lucky enough to go. You see, Trent and my brothers are long time Tron fans. My brothers would pretend to be sucked into computers and play the disk fighting with ice cream lids. It was a good time. And I've got to say that I really like the new one. It was pretty awesome. Trent said it was the best sounding movie he has ever been too and thats saying a lot-Trent is a tough critic. All in all it was a fun outing. Thanks to the babysitters back at home. You guys are awesome too.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9...

10

Thats right. The big one oh. Trent and I have been married for ten years today. Amazing. Seems like we have been together forever and at the same time is seems like we were just married.

Our favorite thing to do to celebrate is head down to St. George, kidless. Honestly, we could be anywhere without kids and it would be a vacation. But, luckily, we have a couple of really nice options down south.
We left Wednesday afternoon, made a stop, and enjoyed this fantastic sunset. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Every morning we slept in, went for a run, hung out, shopped, and did whatever the heck we wanted. It was amazing.

Trent and I even ran together 2 mornings. That might be a first for us. We are on very different levels when it comes to running.

I was walking through the house on our trip and realized Trent and I are basically the same people we were when we got married. I had stuff scattered all around the house:

And, of course, Trent's stuff neatly organized in a drawer:

Luckily, Trent can over look my mess and still love me.

Our trip also consisted of lots of eating, movie watching, heading down to Vegas, visiting with Jake and Candice, and hanging out with Grandma Wiggles, who is in the hospital with pneumonia(boo). I was too into relaxing to take too many pics.

***

Since this is a pretty monumental Anniversary I thought I would write some of the things that have happened over the last 10 years.

* We both graduated from school, which helped us get jobs we love.

* I have had 9 different jobs and Trent as only had 1.

* We have lived in 3 different houses and 2 different cities.

* We started our family with 2 dogs, Milo and Ody and finished our family 5 kids later.

* Went through the crappy infertility treatments trying to get kids here.

* We have both gotten "fixed" to fix our new found fertile problem.

* We have found our permanent home to grow old in.

* We have been on a few different vacations, all of which have been awesome.

* I have gained and lost almost 200 lbs. I was a BIG pregnant person.

* I started running and have ran in 9 races, trying to lose said weight. ;)

* Trent has ran 15 marathons and won 2 of them.

* Still trying to figure out how to survive children.

* And still best friends.

Thanks Trent for a great 10 years!

The Gingerbread House

My kids love doing Gingerbread Houses, but as a mom I am not a fan. It always ends up me being mad, kids spilling everything, and having a huge mess to clean up. So whats a mom to do?

Get the babysitter to do it for you.

While Trent and I are vacationing I thought it would be a good activity for our sitter to do to "take up time." Little did she know I was just being selfish and trying to get out of doing it myself. And, like always, Kim did a fantastic job with the kids. She even documented it.
Kim is awesome, but I think I have already mentioned that once or twice before. And if you are thinking you would like her babysitting service for yourself I am sorry. I have her booked for the next two years.

Papa Bob's B-Day Bash

Well, I don't think it was supposed to be a BASH, but when you get Heidi's family and our family together it turns into utter chaos. Put in balloons and you've got yourself a very LOUD situation. Not sure how much Papa enjoyed it, but it was good to see him.
The kid were pretty excited to see him too. I think Morgan gave him kisses 3 different times. And I bet Papa's best birthday present was having everyone coming to visit, but more importantly everyone leaving as well

The Hoard got to take some of his birthday balloons home. Lucky kids.

So, Happy Birthday to Papa. He looks pretty darn good for 91!

Cade

My brother Cade is soooooo awesome. He is my favorite of all.

My Victory

As I previously mentioned I was the Champion of Lightning from the 3 point range at the Allred Thanksgiving. I must describe this event so you can see why it is such a big deal...to me. The line usually starts out with 30 or so people and only 7 0r 8 girls. And a lot of these boys are superb BBall players. Lets just say that the odds of a girl winning is not very good.

At the beginning of the 3 point game all of us girls lined up together to give us a better chance. However I was the last girls, which means that I had boys behind me. I expected to be out quickly, but us girls over came all odds and we ended up filling the top 2 spots.
Ashley and I, we rock!

And you obviously know the ending to the game, but Cade was nice enough to record us in action. I laugh when I watch it because I look so uncoordinated. The funny thing is that during the game someone said jokingly, "What if Amy wins?"

Well, my funny friend. The jokes on you. ;)

Done!

I am so done with my month of gratitude posts. Didn't it get kind of boring? I know I was kind of bored near the end. So, there is probably no way I will continue this like I thought I would. Don't get me wrong, it is good to be thankful and such, but I want to post about all the other stuff that goes on with The Hoard. Because lets face it, it isn't all happiness and smiles around here all the time. Probably not even half the time...

But over the entire month I think I mentioned most every thing in my life except this guy:

He is awesome and I couldn't ask for a better guy to be mine. Its amazing what he can and does do. I have had so many people tell me how lucky I am that I have him and I would agree 100%. I still wonder why he fell for me. I could go on and on or make a list of his amazing traits, but you've heard them all before. Just know I saved the best "thankful" for last.