McKenna and the Great Pumpkin

She drew some eyes, and lots of zig-zags for the mouth.
She definitley has the concept down.

It was this conversation though that made tonight memorable:

McKenna: Dad, what are you doing?

Dave: I'm carving your pumpkin. I'm carving all of your drawings

And he did:

we have named McKenna's pumpkin the Dinosaur Egg

Thank you Scott & Nancy for raising such a wonderful Dad that takes the time to carve all the drawings.

Eyes and Cheeks

Cruise Pictures (finally!)

Sorry for the delay of cruise pictures.

Here we are - on our cruise to Mexico!
Notice what's missing from these pictures?

No kids!

Ahh.

I can hear the silence just looking at these pictures.

Cabo, San Lucas

When we woke up on Wedneday morning of our cruise, this was the view from our room:

We were in Cabo, San Lucas!




for how huge the waves were, and how drunk the man was who took this picture, I think it turned out pretty good!



We spent the day cruising around the town on scooters, had amazing tacos (our one goal for our trip), and took a glass-bottom boat tour out to the "world famous" arch and Lovers' Beach.

Ensenada

The first thing we saw in Ensenada was this GINORMOUS flag.
It was quite impressive and quite gorgeous.


by the end of the day I was feeling very patriotic. Viva Mexico!


These palm trees looked like huge pineapples.
This shot was for the girls.



seagull.


HUGE shipping yard. We waited all afternoon to watch these babies in action, but had no luck. A ship pulled in right after we pulled out. Bummer.


Dave got to watch the crew test the lifeboats, which made him very happy.


view of Ensenada from the boat. Foggy shipping town.


this sea lion was very close to our ship. Dave & I sat and watching this guy for about an hour. We tried to get off the boat and get close to him, but we got busted by security.

Katie Noticed

Z's kinda look like sideways N's. The N could walk over to the Z and say "Hi Z!"

Little Y's kinda look like little G's

This is the song that never ends...

There's a little "I Know You and You Know Me" (hands motions included), a little 12 Dancing Princesses action, and some fancy foot work.

These girls should go on the road.

Katie's First Workshop

Katie is starting to take music lessons.
We trade off between piano and violin.
She chose to perform a piano song for her first workshop.
She did great!
Not only did she practice hard and perform well, she gave the other students very thoughtful, positive comments after their performances as well.
We are so proud of her!

Here is her performance of "Ebeneezer Sneezer":

Among His Many Talents

Katie's hands inside the giant bubble Dave made (with his bare hands) using baby soap

and McKenna is quite impressed.

That's My Baby

...sitting in a high chair eating banana puffs.

I forget that she's already 7 months old.

I Wanted to Join the Fun

Sour Faces

Brooke by far makes the funniest faces while eating


Katie's sour face. She learned about her senses at preschool and practiced her sour face for when she tasted a lemon.



McKenna trying to make a sour face, but she's nothing but sweet!

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was a great birthday.
- We had donuts for breakfast
- I enjoyed a quiet morning (best birthday present ever!) while Katie was at preschool and McKenna was at playgroup
- The girls cleaned up the playroom WITHOUT ME ASKING
- we went to two of Dave's flag football games and enjoyed the beautiful weather
- I received lots of phonecalls, cards, texts, facebook messages, and more to make me feel very special.
- Dave brought home P.F. Chang's for dinner (YUM!) and a Great Wall of Chocolate. Actually two of them - 0ne for the family, and one for me.

Katie took this picture of me blowing out the candles.
She's a good little photographer!


Me & the girls trying to make "26"


And my birthday present!
A ceiling fan for the kitchen!
Actually, Dave said the present was him putting in the fan.

And here are the Jensen girls
singing their rendition of "Happy Birthday"
conducted by our very own, Brookie Cookie:

I am the luckiest Mom.

And thanks everyone for the sweet birthday wishes!

Oh...and if you're in need of a good laugh, go here.

First Days

Last week school started around here.
Oh how I love fall.
I love the schedule and the structure.
They make this Mom very happy :)

Katie loves preschool.
This is her second year and she's excited to be back.
We picked sunflowers for her teacher on the way there.


Once a week while Katie's at preschool, McKenna goes to playgroup.
She loves it. It makes her (and mom) feel like she's all grown up.


And while the older two are away, I get some one-on-one time with this little angel.

We usually just hang around :)

Sweet Prayer

Tonight in Katie's prayers she said:

"Thank you for Mom...the sweetness"

Makes it all worth it :)

Seriously...

How can I not LOVE this baby...

This is how she is EVERY TIME she wakes up.
Oh how I love her.

Sorry this video is so dark...hopefully you can even see it!

Hiding Places

The house was awfully quite this morning - which usually means trouble - so I went looking for the girls. It took me a while to find them, but here they were...

The were playing airplane. (???)
They even asked me to bring them some snacks.
Like on an airplane...

Bend It Like Jensen - A Video Diary

Today was Katie's first soccer game ever.
Actually, her first any kind of game ever.
And what a first it was!
We saw both ends of the spectrum emotionally and everything in between.
Luckily we ended the game on a high note and we will be going back next week.

Because Dave is in California and couldn't be there, I am posting LOTS of pictures and video so he doesn't miss out. Watch if you want, but if you're going to watch only one, watch the last.

Katie is the only girl on her team, but I don't think she minds so much.


We're lucky she has such a great coach. The above picture was right after video #3.

Neighborhood friends Darren, Kyle, and Katie.

Feeling pretty good after the game.

Now for the videos:

Here she is warming up with the coach and team.
I had to include this one...I love our GIRL :)

Katie's first time on the field. Is it obvious at all that she has never been on a sports team before? Ok, I admit...she's never even seen a sporting event. You can almost hear her saying to herself "why are you all running around that ball?"

I debated on including this next video - it breaks my heart - but it's vital to the story. It will make the end even more sweet. I really do have to hold back the tears watching this. At the end (about 5 minutes into the game) she breaks down. You'll see. She then came running off the field saying "I can't do it, Mom." {{my heart breaking again just thinking about it}}

And then like a champ (after lots of hugs, tears, water, sitting in the shade, and words of encouragement) she has enough courage to go back in and try again - and makes a huge defensive play which leads to her team scoring.

And here is another big play of hers. I love how she steals the ball from that punk #11. Watch and see why he's a punk. He does that again and I might get myself thrown off of the field ;)

And the grand finale. Way to go Katie!

There's nothing like some sideline love & support. Way to go McKenna.
(who taught you to cheer like that?") :)

I couldn't be a prouder mom. Not because she scored a goal (even though that was AWESOME!) but because she overcame her fear & discouragement and got back in the game. She didn't give up. She learned the importance of sticking with it, not letting her team down, and cheering them on from the sidelines. I am so proud I could cry. Again.

Zucchini Anyone?

I cleaned out our garden before we left for our trip.
Even still, I came home to a baby-sized zucchini.
That's not to say that it was small...
It was literally the size of my baby.