Fun Family Day

Monday was a fun family day we were all looking forward to. It's Joe's day off of work and Joleigh and Noelle were off of school too, for Columbus Day. So we made a plan to do something fun. Joleigh and Noelle made a list of what they wanted to do and we did it. First thing after breakfast, we loaded the girls' bikes in the van. Joleigh told us that she is the only one in her class that doesn't know how to ride a 2-wheel bike without training wheels (not sure if that's true), but we told her we would go practice. She also wanted to go buy a keychain for her backpack (apparently that is a very popular thing in the 1st grade). Well, after loading up the bikes we could not find the girls' bike helmets anywhere, so we headed to the store to get them new ones and while we were there Joleigh and Noelle got to pick out a keychain for their backpacks and we also got slap bracelets and some fang teeth. We are so fun...I know.

After the store, we decided to head up to the church. We knew there were lots of places to ride bikes and also play on the playground.

The girls have been asking for quite awhile to climb the mountain at the church, but it has been way too hot, so it was the perfect time to go yesterday. It was such a great time! We hiked the mountain and stopped along the way to pray together as a family. The girls were so excited when we got to the top and could see the view and the cross up close. On the way down we went into the empty tomb and Joleigh told us the whole story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. It made me so happy and proud to hear her retelling it and then talking about one day getting to go to heaven because she believes in Jesus in her heart.

After our hike, we headed home for lunch and then nap time. We laid Naya and Jaelyn in their beds to sleep. Then Joe and I went to take a nap too, while Joleigh and Noelle had quiet time in their room. Next thing I knew both big girls crawled into bed with Joe and I to take a nap with us. Everyone fell asleep and took a great nap together.

Thinking back to our day just makes me smile. I just adore my family and treasure our special times together!

Sisters Having Fun

Noelle had Clifford Day at school and made special dog ears and nose. Jaelyn really wanted to play too, so I decided to make her and Joleigh a matching set and couldn't resist making one for Naya too. They are so cute all dressed up and it was hilarious to watch them all crawl around pretending to be puppies together. Later that day, they got to have a ride with Daddy. We all have so much fun together!

My New Newer Haircut

I have never been one to have long hair. In fact, if it starts touching my neck I immediately must cut it off. I think the last time I had really long hair was in junior high and freshman year, but it was permed and somewhat in style. Well, after my last haircut, I decided to let it grow out and see if I liked it. I have very thin hair, I have a lot of it, but it is still thin, so the longer it gets the more I am aware of just how thin it is. I discovered a fun way to curl my hair though and I loved how it looked and the fact that I could wear it for a couple days was a bonus too. I was happy with it a bit longer (for me), but was worried all the curling was damaging it AND I kept finding adorable pictures of short hairstyles so I decided it was time to cut it off.

So last weekend, I went to my fantastic hairstylist, Hannah (if you are looking for an amazing stylist, please let me know) and showed her what I was thinking. There were 2 pictures one was super short the other a little more cautious. So I went with the cautious look in case I wanted to grow it out sooner. So here is the before and the after.


So after a couple days of playing with and styling it a little, I knew that I wanted to go even shorter. I think I prepared myself for chopping it all of and it just wasn't short enough. I also wanted to add some highlights. So Thursday night, I got impatient and decided to have Joe help me pull my hair through the cap and I added the highlights, which we have done many times before. But Joe left before the highlights were done and I went in to check on them and thought they were done, but apparently they weren't because my hair was now this orangy caramel color. So first thing the next day I called Hannah and she was able to get me in and fix the hair color and while I was there she also cut my hair shorter. It is exactly what I wanted and I absolutely love it!!!

Our Little Staycation

Our family just got back from a little overnight staycation at the Desert Ridge Mariott. My good friend had a timeshare there for the week and let us use a night of it to get away as a family and relax together. Joe was originally supposed to be gone for a trip, but at the last minute wasn't able to go, so fortunately for us, he had already cancelled his meetings for Thursday, so we took advantage of it.

We picked Joleigh up from school on Wednesday and we were off. We grabbed some dinner to eat at the hotel, then got in our suits, caught the shuttle and we hit the lazy river. The girls had so much fun in their tubes being pushed around the river. Even Naya seemed to love just relaxing with me in the inner tube.

Here the are all the girls on the first night, drying off and getting ready to head back to our room for popcorn and a movie before bedtime.

They were so cute...we explored the resort a little and they climbed up this rock and all posed for this picture.

The girls did great sleeping, even though there were six of us in a one bedroom room. We made it work. I had brought cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but somehow burned the bottoms of them. So, Joe and Noelle went and got us all yummy bagels. We had to lay Naya down for a quick morning nap and Joe took the girls to this awesome playground to play. When they got back everyone changed into their suits and we headed to the lazy river again.

Here we are waiting for the shuttle to pick us up.

We spent the morning floating on the river and going on the water slide. The girls had a blast and so did Joe and I creating more memories together.

This truly is the life...our life! I sometimes still can't believe that we have 4 daughters! But every opportunity I have to spend with them is such a gift that I will always treasure. It's the little things that make us appreciate everything that God has given us. These fun times away that make us happy to be home and getting to do the everyday things together.

Joleigh told me her favorite thing about our staycation was, "getting to be with my family." And the second things was, "everything!" I agree.

Fun Times

I just wanted to share a few pics of my girls from the past couple weeks.

Noelle and Naya together.

Family Date Night at Mellow Mushroom

Jaelyn being Jaelyn.

Taking Noelle to preschool. They all love each other so much!

Noelle's 1st Day of her Last Year of Preschool

Today was Noelle's first day of her last year of preschool. I can't even believe it! She was very excited to be back at Happy Apple Preschool. She couldn't wait to see her teachers, play on the playground, feed the animals, do her crafts, eat her snacks, see old and new friends, but especially be reunited with her best friend Lexi.

I make a point to mention her last year of preschool, because I had to explain this to her. She thought she already went to preschool and that she was going to go to kindergarten this year. She knew Joleigh went to kindergarten after she went to preschool, so it's been hard for her to understand. Also, she is more than ready for kindergarten. Academically she is excelling in every way, she is writing, recognizing sight words and even sounding out words as she is reading her books. I'm sure it helps having an older sister and working on everything Joleigh is doing. Unfortunately, she has a November birthday, so it wasn't an option to enroll her early. I'm going to continue to work at home with her and see where that leads.

I just adore my Noelle and was thinking of all the things that make her who she is. Here are some words that I would use to describe Noelle:

• Funny- she loves to make people smile and make them happy
• Smart- she continually blows me away by what she knows. She remembers everything!
• Sassy- you just never know what she is going to say or do
• Sweet- she makes everyone around her feel so special
• Loving- she loves to cuddle, give squeezes and love everyone
• Fancy- she is such a fashionista and definitely has her own style and specific opinion on what she will wear
• Kind-she loves meeting new people and making new friends
• Beautiful- both inside and out

Noelle doing her fancy pose.

She picked out her dress all by herself.

Noelle with her teacher, Ms. Lindy.

I am so proud of my girl!

Noelle's best friend, Lexi

My beautiful grown up girl

Jensen Family Fun Night

Mike and Jeri came to visit this past week from Kansas. It had been over a year since they had been back to Phoenix. We were able to see them this past May, but we have missed them so much. The girls adore their Aunt Jeri and Uncle Mike and love getting to spend time with them and play. The entire family got together Tuesday night at Lucky Strike Bowling Alley downtown for a little Jensen family fun. It was great to enjoy each other's company, bowl a little and eat some yummy food. I love being a part of this family!

6 Months

I wanted to spend some time sharing about my precious baby, Naya. She is incredible! She is the answer to our prayers and the perfect addition that has made our family complete. Naya is most definitely a Mama's girl, but lights up when Daddy and sisters are anywhere in sight. She has become a wonderful sleeper and thrives on being on her schedule.

I cannot even believe that it possible that she is already 7 months old! Naya is blowing me away by all her milestones and accomplishments. In fact her 6th month was jammed pack full of "firsts." Here are what this little lady can already do:

• Eating solid foods. She loves to eat, especially squash, bananas and her rice crackers.

• Waving. She uses her little waves to say "hi," to show us her excitement and also to tell us she wants something. It's adorable to see her little wrists moving like crazy.

• Saying "dada" and "hi." She does lots of babbling, but these words are very clear. She has also said "ma" on 2 occasions, but I've been the only one to hear it, so I'm not sure if that counts.

• Sitting up. This caught us by surprise! She has always been a pretty stiff baby and has enjoyed being propped up to sit and standing up. So when we let go to see if she could sit, we couldn't believe that she stayed. She looks too little to be sitting up already.
• Clapping. Daddy and Naya have been practicing patty cake together and she started clapping on her own. It was so sweet to see her clapping her hands and getting so excited about it.

• Getting ready to crawl. She will be crawling before we know it. She props herself up on all fours and moves back and forth. But in the mean time she just rolls everywhere she wants to go.

Everything is happening WAY too fast! I just want time to slow down, but Naya seems to be wanting to keep up with those big sisters of hers. I just want to hold and snuggle my baby for as long as I can. Fortunately, I can keep doing that for the rest of her life.

I also wanted to give a little update on Naya and her health issues we recently discovered. For those of you that don't know a little over a month ago we discovered that Naya had a serious kidney infection, so the doctors decided to run some tests, one of them being a VCUG. The VCUG revealed that she has Vesicoureteral (urinary) Reflux on both sides of her kidneys. Basically her ureters are bringing contaminated urine from the bladder back up into the kidneys. We met with the urologist and he said that there is a 30% chance that it will heal on it's own. So he wants to wait a year and have us come back every 4 months to do an ultrasound on her kidneys. They also put her on preventive antibiotics to keep away the infections. They will determine if surgery is necessary after a year if there is no change in her condition or if it has gotten worse. So far she has had 2 infections, but seems to be responding to the medication. We are praying, and asking for prayers, that it will heal on it's own and quickly and that there are no more infections.

This is Naya at her Urology appointment looking pretty cute