Winter

Yes, the big "W" is here. It just snowed & hailed for a few minutes so Will wanted to make a snow man. First he came in with a little snow ball, then a bigger snow ball, then a snowball as big as a head for the snowman. It is freezing!

Carving Pumpkins - fun times

Meg beginning the task. She didn't want anyone to help her with anything. She is very independant and likes to do everything herself.

Will taking out the "slimy" insides. He was done in nothing flat and had to wait a long time until Sam and Meg were finished.

Sam guarding his "masterpiece" so no one could see what he was going to carve.

The Finished Products!

Sam's pumpkin "Mater" Sam (Mater), Meg (Kitty), Will (Bat)

If I used the flash this is what is looked like and you couldn't see the pumpkins. So this is with the flash so you can see who carved the pumpkins. It was hailing and freezing cold as we took pictures.

I can't get the videos to go where I want them to go in the post, they always end up at the bottom. But they are worth watching. They are cute.

Jensen Family Night

This is the Halloween parade - there were only a few participants, but they loved it and we did too.

If you look very close you can see Janie & Kory's baby Jack. He is really cute, he is about 4 months old I think.

After the parade, Ben showed us just a few pictures from his trip to Russia this summer. It was really interesting, but I needed a map. Ben told about right before he was going to leave on his trip he was in line to get an autograph from Mehmet Okur and he asked where he should go while he was visiting Turkey, all that Mehmet said was, "ISTANBUL". Ben said the security guard asked him if he could remember all that Mehmet said. It was pretty funny, or maybe you had to be there. Anyway we had a good time and for dessert, Jill made homemade carmel apples....delicious.

The Pumpkin Patch

I don't know how there are sooooo many things that have become traditions, but we do. Here is the annual "tradition" of going to the pumpkin patch. What I have noticed is that every year it is just a little different. This year they had face painting and a food cart in the front.

Will with his pumpkin, and of course a ride in the cart.

Meg with a pumpkin, which was traded later for a bigger pumpkin.

Meg getting her face painted!

The finished product! She was in heaven - she wore it for two days and was thrilled.

Meg and Will entering the maze.

Will wouldn't get out of the maze, so Meg and I found different places to take her picture while we waited for him to finish.

Will in the maze. He loved being in it.

Meg and Will going through the maze. You can just barely see Will's head over the top of the bales of hay. Sorry about the background noise, three busses came as we were getting there and they left as we were finishing up. Perfect timing as usual!

Will's 1st fish

Will helped reel in a fish at Rockport in August when Sam was helping him try to catch a fish. Will wouldn't claim that as his fish because he wasn't holding the pole when the fish was caught. Sooo...we were fishing at the pond this weekend when we went to Echo Island Campground for fall break and Will was fishing at dusk when they feed the fish. Will's bubble was bouncing around and Mark, the man next to Will and me were all hollering at Will that he had a fish, but he didn't understand what was going on. It took him a minute and then he realized, he was able to reel it in all by himself and he was pretty proud. He said "it is even bigger than Dad's fish".

The reason he is laughing was because he wouldn't smile for the picture so I kept saying things like say cheese, or ice cream and then I said, say "I love Lucy". He laughed because Lucy is a little girl that we tease him about every once in a while. He doesn't like her, but she likes to play with him.

Will's story about the "Big Fish".

Jeff's Birthday

I decided to make Jeff's birthday dinner on conference because Adrianna and Brett were down and Jeff's schedule is really busy right now with school. It was fun because we hadn't had sweet and sour chicken or ice cream pie for a while.

I love this picture because Peyton (and Jeff) has such a cute smile. The only thing missing is a picture of Jessica.

Conference Weekend

Okay - everyone knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE conference weekend. I love the family getting together and listening to our living prophets. It is also fun to see how traditions get started. I know I didn't have chocolate milk and donuts on Sunday morning because I thought I was starting a tradition, but I am now reminded every conference about the donuts and chocolate milk. Marianne even said she was thinking about it when she was watching conference. I decided to do the donuts like I used to do for after school treats. They were as good as I remembered.

Will playing with legos

Adrianna and Brett lounging

Mark and Meg coloring a picture

Sam - he was rocking when I took this. He thinks he is so funny!

Adrianna and I getting dinner ready.

Creatures

Okay - Marianne told me about her scorpion experiences and I was thinking about how happy I was that we don't have scorpions around here and then the next day a boy from our neighborhood was walking down the street with a dead scorpion in his hand. He found it in the mountains when he and his family were going for a walk (lovely). We have enough creatures around here. We just caught our 2nd tarantula, this last one was on the back patio. I'm getting used to them so they aren't too bad anymore. The other day though I was walking out of the garage and I noticed there was a couple of push brooms left out after Sam mowed the lawn. I went over to get them and I looked down and there was this huge blow snake right at my feet. I ran into the house yelling "huge snake in the garage". Mark and Sam caught it in one of Will's nets and then we let it go.

Sam's Day

I am amazed Will looks good in this picture. He always acts so goofy.

Sam with Grandma and Grandpa Jensen

Sam was ordained an Elder and received his patriarchal blessing in one day. Receiving this ordination almost didn't happen. Sam had asked Grandpa to ordain him and so we made all of the arrangements to have Grandma and Grandpa come over for sacrament meeting and Sam had told his Dad and Cindy about it so we thought everything was all set. The Bishop was out of town and so Sacrament Meeting was going forward and they didn't say anything about Sam, so I leaned forward to Bruce Pitt and said don't they need to sustain Sam being made an elder? He said, "yes". We scrambled for a piece of paper and he wrote a note and we sent it up with one of the deacons after the sacrament and luckily it was accomplished. Thank heaven for good people to help me. It was really nice and Grandpa gave such a wonderful blessing to Sam. He does such a fantastic job. He also gave Sam one of the best Grandfather's blessings for Sam with his new adventure of college, and also preparing for his mission. I love my Dad. I know I don't usually say so much, but after Sam's patriarchal blessing when the Patriarch dropped it off, he said that his wife had commented that this young man has a lot of potential. His blessing was amazing.

Camping

I tried to upload a video and it wouldn't work, so I decided to finish up with what I have. I loaded the pictures in order which makes them out of order for the post. Oh well, here goes. And btw Scott, when you said "How long could it take?". I can tell you I have worked on this two different times and I'll bet it has been about an hour or longer. So!!!

Our camping trip to Echo Island Campground. We had a lot of fun and it was very relaxing. We rode bikes, watched videos, fished, went shopping at the local grocery store. I went for a walk and it was so beautiful and fun to run by the cows. It is amazing how much a small town doesn't have though. I went to 3 stores and couldn't find refried beans for 7 layer dip.

The coldest day of the week, but it was fun to have

Jessica, Peyton, Adrianna and Sam come up.

Me carrying the fishing gear

Only children 13 and younger and over 62 could

fish at the pond

Will catching minnows in his net

Meg fishing at the pond. I couldn't get the video to work of Meg catching her 1st fish, but it was also my first time gutting a fish. Very interesting! Meg and Will both had a hard time when it came time to killing the fish. Mark and I didn't want to keep it, but the mouth was damaged so we felt like we needed to. I voted that Mark do it!

Sam answered to Prom

Katie answered Sam in such a fun way.

There were balloons covering his floor

and all over his bed. The note said "Prick Me" - you will

find your answer in a foreign way. When he

popped the balloons they had yes in

different languages. It was fun.Mistee didn't think it was funny -

she tried to burrow herself under our

bed.

Meg & Will loved popping the balloons

and picking up the tiny papers.

Homemade pizza

Sam was so excited to make homemade pizza. We didn't

have time for about a week. Finally we did it on family night

so I combined it as the activity. We all did our own pizzas.

This was Sam's it looked professional, he even did a

stuffed crust.

Meg's ears

Meg was so excited to get her ears pierced, yet sooooo

very nervous. We were going to go last week, but she just

couldn't do it. She thought that if we went to a place where

they did it at the same time she would do better.

They let her squeeze my hand and a stuffed dog.

SHE DID GREAT!

She wanted everyone to know that she picked her

birthstone which is a diamond.