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

1st Day of 1st Grade

I have to be honest, I have been dreading this day. It was not only Joleigh's day of 1st Grade, but her first day going to school full day. I guess I lucked out that last year I was only away from her during the mornings. I got so spoiled this summer, not only having Joe home for 2 months, but having all my girls home and to myself. This summer flew by and today was the day I had to send my girl back to school.

Last night, I was an emotional mess. I was reliving the past 6 years and wondering how they could possibly have flown by so fast. Joleigh is such a special girl and those that know her know just how thoughtful, loving and compassionate she is and I am having a hard time sharing her for most of the day.

Well...Joleigh was very excited about going back to school. We prayed last night for sweet dreams and lots of rest to get ready for the first day. When she woke at 6:30, I knew she was excited! We had pancakes for breakfast, her special request, and had her outfit all ready to go. She wanted to wear her hair long and curly. After dropping her little sisters off with our friends, Joe and I took our big girl to school. On the way she told us her tummy hurt a little and I knew she was nervous. As we started walking on campus, we could tell she was getting shy and very quiet. We went to her class and saw her teacher, Mrs. Kucik, waiting at the door to greet her. Joleigh smiled and was excited to go in and find her desk with her name tag on it and even had a special pencil there for her. Joe and I waited until the final bell rang and then kissed our girl good-bye. It was hard to leave her and I teared up for sure. I was so thankful to have Joe there to hold my hand.

The day went by pretty slow and I was definitely a little sad. Noelle and Jaelyn were missing their big sister too. Jaelyn kept asking, "Where's Joweigh?" After nap time we all couldn't wait to get in the van and go get her.

They let parents on campus for today only, so I was lucky enough to wait for her outside of her class. Joleigh and I saw each other through the window and she smiled and waved and my heart melted and I started crying. When the bell rang and the door opened she ran and hugged me so hard. She was smiling and told me what a good day she had and that she made some new friends, I was elated. Her favorite part of the day was music class and getting to play the drums. She can't wait to go back tomorrow. Just seeing how happy she was makes me so happy. I'm not ready to let her grow up, but unfortunately I don't have a choice, so I have to embrace this new stage of life for our family and continue to cherish every second of it!

Melanie

Words cannot express how overjoyed I am to have been apart of baptizing my wonderful friend, Melanie Robb, yesterday, August 14th on her birthday. God is so good and I am so thankful that He brought her into my life and now we are forever bonded through Him! I love Melanie so much and she has been such an encouragement to me.

She has been such a great friend to me for the past seven years and I look forward to many, many more years of memories together.

Summer of Joe

We just had an incredible summer! After working 11 years in ministry and 7 of them at Christ's Church of the Valley, Joe was able to take a 2 month sabbatical. We have been waiting for this for so long. I wanted to share some of the highlights of our family time together. We had so many special moments and were able to create some incredible memories together. This time was such a blessing to our family and helped give us a new outlook and perspective on the future. So here are some of my highlights, big and small, in no particular order:

• Celebrating our 11 year anniversary


• Spending the week at Coronado Island
  
  
• Middle of the day hugs


• Summer movies


• Celebrating Ali's Birthday with facials and pedicures


• Joe and I making lunches and dinners together


• Swimming Lessons with Miss Trish


• Playing at Desert Ridge
  
• Family Game Nights


• Joe getting breakfast for the girls almost every morning


• Celebrating Father's Day
  


• Lots of Girls' Nights Out


• Getting to sleep in

• Naya eating baby food

• Having fun and being silly

• Reading Time

• Eating Out

• Jaelyn in her big girl bed

• Vacation Bible School

• Naya saying her first words, "dada" and "hi"


• 4th of July


• Swimming with the girls

• Joleigh playing dress-up

• Baking with Noelle

Joleigh and Noelle officially learning how to swim

Grandma Ryall's Birthday

Joe being home to hunt and remove the rodent living in our garage

Relaxing

Taking naps

• Visiting other churches

• Date nights

• Weekly Massages at the Chiroprator

• Making Homemade Ice Cream


• Jena and Maddie's Baby Shower
  
• The Spaghetti Factory with Uncle Justin and Aunt Candice

Jaelyn's prayer times

The Children's Museum