New family pictures

We've had a few candid family shots taken recently, so I thought I'd post them.

This picture was taken on Saturday the 27th. We hiked out to the face of the Mendenhall Glacier with our good friends the Daltons and the Rosenbruchs. Wendy took this picture for us, and it turned out great...even with coats on!




This is the picture we sent out with our Christmas cards. I didn't want a picture with our coats on, so we went out to the glacier in September, before it got too cold.

This picture was also taken by Wendy. This is our family at our ward's Christmas lu'au that was on the 5th of December. The videos of us all dancing are further down the blog.

Christmas traditions

Ever since I can remember I have eaten strawberry waffles on Christmas morning. It is a tradition that as far as I know is carried out by everyone in my dad's family; including his six sibling's families, my 37 cousins and since more of them are married with children than aren't now...however many of their families too. I of course, shared this tradition with my husband and children and we enjoyed strawberry waffles on Christmas morning. Maybe sometime, I will try and come up with how many spouses and children my cousins all have, but for now...it will just be numbered as a lot. =)

Sledding and a frozen lake

Darwin and the kids went sledding on Saturday. I was sick, so I stayed home in bed the whole day. Anyway, he took them up to the Mendenhall Glacier. It has been SUNNY and between 3 and 23 degrees for 9 DAYS now! It is absolutely beautiful. The lake at the glacier is frozen solid, so after going down the hill for awhile, they all walked across the lake up to the face of the glacier. It is amazing...the glacier. I'm sad I missed it, so we will have to go back out when we are all well again. (Caleb, Isaiah and I have had the pukes)

MaNiC mOnDaY

POP QUIZ: ARE YOU USING YOUR CAMERA WEEKLY?

Today's theme is to test your photo taking abilities and to see if you are putting those cameras to work. This Manic Monday will have three pictures to it...If you haven't been using your camera lately, then you will just have to post this saying, "MISSED EVENTS OF LAST WEEK, WILL TRY TO DO BETTER IN THE FUTURE."

That is right, this is like a pop quiz!

First picture: Any picture of your choice taken between December 6th-9th
Second picture: Any picture of your choice taken between December 10th-12th
Third picture: The 12th picture you took on Thanksgiving Day

Make sure you list the date the picture was taken and a little caption describing the photograph

This picture of Brooklin was taken on Dec. 5th (cheating by one day...does this count??) at our ward Christmas party. We didn't take very many actual pictures, because we were video taping the whole thing.

This picture was taken on Dec. 10th. The kids were decorating a gingerbread house.

Picture #3

"MISSED EVENTS OF THANKSGIVING, WILL TRY TO DO BETTER IN THE FUTURE."
(We ate at our friend's house, and she took all the pictures, and I haven't put them on my thumb drive yet.)

Kung Fu Fighting!

We bought a PlayStation 2 in Dec. of 2002. We bought it because of one particular game ... EyeToy Play. We were introduced to the EyeToy game by Darwin's sister Lisa while we were visiting Idaho for Christmas. We played her playstation every other night, because it gave us all such a work out, we were too sore the next day to play it again, and had to give our bodies a break. We left his parent's house and headed to my parent's house, and we didn't have a playstation, so we went to Toys R Us and bought one...and the game. We came home and played it with my family. My parents came home one night, and from their car they watched us through the window. They didn't have any idea what was going on in their living room. All of us were sitting around watching one person standing in the middle of the room flailing their arms around wildly. We always said it would be fun to video tape someone playing EyeToy, but we never did it.

Fast forward to this week...Dec. 2008. We dusted off our well used copy of EyeToy Play, and set up a bunch of lights. We haven't played this game for at least a year. We were all having a great time. Then I suddenly remembered that we never did get any video of us playing the game. We have this GREAT video camera, called a Flip Video. I ran into the other room and snuck up on Darwin playing the Kung Fu game on EyeToy. He knew that I was taping him after just a few seconds, but that didn't stop him from playing. He wanted me to try and beat my old score, so he could tape me, and these are the videos. Enjoy! Oh...I did beat my old high score, and if you have the high score, it takes a picture of you for the leader board...that is what I am doing at the end of the video. Posing for my picture. =)

...Oh so soft and cuddly!

Do you remember these!!

Monchhichi, Monchhichi, oh so soft and cuddly!

I was at Safeway...the grocery store weird enough...and they had Monchhichis for sale! I so couldn't believe it! I went to get milk and bread, and came home with a little piece of my childhood. It was so funny, I kept touching them in the cart, because I couldn't believe they were in Safeway and I could buy them! I called my mom immediatly to tell her about them. One year I even dressed up as a Monchhichi for Halloween. I wore a brown sweater, brown pants, I put my hair up in a ponytail on top of my head, and my mom made me a bib and I even painted my nose brown (if I remember right). I've added a picture below of me when I was seven or eight holding a Hershey bear and my Monchhichi. MOM, if you even try to post a comment about why I was laughing in this picture, then I will have to beat you to it. =) I was laughing my head off in the picture because my mom said smile, and instead I.... well I cut the cheese...and I thought it was totally funny, especially because I was sitting on a wooden rocking chair and that seemed to amplify the sound.

Gingerbread House

The kids made a gingerbread house (from a kit) last night. I remember doing Gingerbread houses with my family when we lived in Arizona, but that is the only time I remember doing them. I think this is the first one we have done with the kids.

Our Hair Kid

Brooklin is a hair kid. I'm not actually sure what that is, but one of my seminary teachers used to call kids that...but I think when he used it, it was to let them know that they were getting on his nerves. Anyway, I digress. Brooklin loves to do things to her hair. She has TONS of hair, and it is curly. One of her favorite things to do is brush it out in the evening, and see just how big she can get it. She also likes to make herself look like a poof ball head, and then put it all in front of her face, and then put her glasses on over it, so she looks like a very puffy Cousin It. Her friend has some video of her dancing to music looking like that, that I hope to see on facebook soon (Wendy).

Tonight, she came up with a new way to have fun with her hair. What a goof ball!

Ward Christmas Party

This is going to be quick, but we had a ton of fun at our ward christmas party tonight. It was Aloha themed, and each organization did a dance. Primary did Hawaiian hula, Young Womens did Tahitian, Relief Society did Tongan, and Elder's Quorum did Fiji. Oh, and the Young Men did Samoa, and the High Priests did New Zealand...but I didn't take video of them, since none of us were in them. We had a ton of food, and then did our program. The videos follow this post. Who knew we would all learn so many Polynesian dances AFTER leaving hawaii?! There are a lot of Tongans and Spanish people in our ward, so they all just taught us the dances. It was really fun.

Isaiah singing a solo

Isaiah sang his heart out!

Caleb, London, and Isaiah doing hula to Pearly Shells.

London is second behind the girl to Isaiah's left, and Caleb is in the back of the next over from London.

Darwin dancing Fiji style

The Elder's Quorum did a dance from Fiji. It was funny, they were supposed to have music, but someone forgot it.

Melissa doing a Tongan Dance

The Relief Society Sisters did a Tongan Dance....check out my feathers!

Brooklin dancing at our ward party

Our ward's Christmas party theme was Aloha. Each axillary did a different dance. Brooklin's was from Tahiti. She did Awesome!

Talent show entry...from YouTube

MaNiC MoNdAy

Name Game

First folder is the number of letters in your first name.....7
Sub-folder is the number of letters in your middle name....3
Posted pictures if the number of letters in your last name....6
(As always, if you do not have a sub-folder add the second and third numbers together and choose your photo that way)

This is Caleb's 4th grade class getting ready to preform their May Day dance. It was taken on May 16, 2008

What are little girls made of?

London and Isaiah are at the breakfast table right now (yes we are still eating breakfast at 10am...it's Saturday). They are arguing about what little girls are made of. London is saying "No! they are made of sugar and spice and everything nice!" and Isaiah is saying "NO! They are made of gun powder and lead!"


Thanks for this laugh go out to Miranda Lambert. If you haven't heard the song, click here and watch this video...it isn't the real music video, but it pretty good. They've heard this song on the radio frequently, so it was really funny to hear them this morning

I guess I think we're boring now... =)

Sorry I've not been keeping this up very well this month!

Family Updates:

Darwin: Dar left on Monday morning to go to his grandma's funeral. It was this afternoon. He gets back on Saturday, and I am glad for that! I haven't been going to bed until late all this week, and I almost fell asleep in the library this morning while I was doing my homework...hehe. He told me that he is so glad he was able to go and be with his family. He got to see a lot of his cousins and such, that he hasn't seen in probably 10 years. He also got to see Jared and Sarah's newest addition, Cambry. I am jealous, but grateful that he could go. He never really tells us about work, so I think it is just going fine. He has to leave or be on the phone forever at least once a week during his "home time" to help fix a problem, but it isn't too bad.

Melissa: I am having fun in college. I have two classes, communications and math (elementary algebra), and am doing well in both of them. In communications, I have given three speeches (A, A, and A-) and have a group debate on kids and computer games tomorrow (Friday), and a group presentation on geocaching on Monday. After that I only have a pursuasive speech (due Dec 3rd) that I don't have any ideas on...yikes!...and two papers to write. There isn't a "final" for the class, just a portfolio (the two papers and the final draft of my pursuasive speech). Math is fun. The professor is a hoot. I have taken three tests so far (99%, 100%, and 99%) and have another test on Monday. After that, I have one more test and a final exam on Dec 8th. I registered for spring semester on Monday and am taking three classes (10 credits). I will be taking math (Intermediate Algebra), music appreciation via the internet, and a photography class that meets at night once a week. Also, I started learning a Tongan dance for our ward's Christmas Party. The Young Women are learning Tahitian dance, and the Primary children are doing hula. The men are doing something also, but I can't remember what.

Brooklin: Brooklin isn't doing any sports right now, but is doing amazing with her piano lessons. Her teacher asked her (and only one other student) to be in her husband's violin recital (playing the piano...mom...) =) because she is doing so good. Most of the other students are beginners, so she didn't want us to have to sit through Old MacDonald and Mary had a little lamb over and over...hehe. We just got her report card, and she got a B in pre-algebra, A- in Advanced language arts, A's in Spanish, Science, and Social Studies, and A+'s in PE and Reading academic skill.

Caleb: Caleb is doing well at indoor soccer. He is also in a lego robotics club that meets after school once or twice a week. They are building and programming robots that complete some sort of mission. He just told me that one of robots they are building is supposed to raise a flood barrier. It is really interesting. Later this month, they are going to have a competition with their robots...each mission is worth points, and there are several missions for the different robots to complete. Very cool if you ask me! =) Oh...and they don't get their grades for another week or two, but at the parent teacher conf, his teacher said he was doing awesome.

London: London is also doing well in piano. Her song to practice this week was "Once ther was a snowman" She doesn't practice without being asked, so last week I told her that if she could go a whole week without me reminding her to practice (because honestly, I don't remember that often), I would buy her ice cream. She practiced EVERYDAY! and got her ice cream. On a side note the other kids are being bribed with ice cream as well...Brooklin gets it if she can go a whole week without rolling her eyes and harumphing at me when I ask her to do anything (she hasn't made it yet). Caleb and Isaiah will get it if they make a goal. Isaiah has received (I was going to type gotten...but I wasn't sure if that was a word) two ice cream treats for making a goal in two different games, and Caleb is still working on his. Anyway, back to London...she is doing awesome in school and her teacher said she is a natural helper to her classmates.

Isaiah: Isaiah is so much better at soccer this year, it's like night and day. He rarely follows the coach around telling stories during a game, he chases the ball the whole time he is in the game, he watches his teammates when he is on a break, and he has only done three or four fake falls this year. (Last year, he was on the ground more than he wasn't, and most of those falls were self inflicted)...little nerd! =) He is getting easier to understand, and he catches himself saying words wrong, and tries to correct them himself. His teacher said he needs to work harder on recognizing site words, but that he was a very well behaved student. For our Christmas party, the lady in charge of the program, asked if Isaiah could do the "Pearly Shells" hula by himself. She is tongan, and she was so impressed that he knew the whole thing and could also sing the hawaiian part. He learned it in kindergarten for his May Day dance and still remembers it and sings the song often.

OK...I hope I don't wait so long next time to update this. I'm really not that busy...mostly in my free time, I'm either sewing, or playing on Facebook, and I have a lot of free time, so no excuses! =)

Goodbye Grandma Jensen

Last night, Darwin's grandmother passed away. She hadn't been eating for a little while and had gone into a coma in the past day or two. I don't have many details, but she was an amazing woman and we will dearly miss her. This is a picture of the last time she came up to our house in Juneau. We were fortunate to see her for the last time this summer while we were moving up here. Grandpa is so sad. I guess he finally let go and asked Heavenly Father to comfort her, and she past shortly after. We got the call late last night, and went straight to the internet and got a ticket for Darwin to go home and be with his family for her funeral. Darwin and I have lost three grandpas and one grandma, and have never been able to attend any of their services. The first one we missed was my mom's dad. We had just moved to Kodiak, and didn't have the funds to go. Our other two grandpas services were held while Darwin away at some training for work, and I wasn't able to go since we needed someone to watch children for us...and the costs were too great to take everyone. We haven't used our airline miles for three years (Alaska Airlines didn't fly to Hawaii until just after we moved back!) so we were able to get him a "free" ticket home.

Goodbye for now Grandma Jensen! We love you and will see you on the other side!

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a WONDERFUL 34th birthday yesterday. My family spoiled me, and my friends made me a few surprises. I opened the present from Isaiah first. He was so excited about his present to me. He kept making sure that I would open his first, and he even told me right before he opened it that I wouldn't know what it was even after I opened it..he really couldn't stand the suspense! I asked him if it was camouflage, and he said "I can't tell you! Just open it!!" It was three matchbox cars...and he was right, I still couldn't tell what they were. They were called Mystery Matchbox cars, and instead of clear plastic covering the cars, the plastic was black, so you didn't know what cars you were getting! He was so proud of himself for getting me the best present! The cars were a yellow Ford Mustang, a red Chevy Nova, and a blue Scion. London got me a1000 piece Mickey Mouse puzzle, and Caleb got me a 1000 piece I Spy puzzle. I've done a few big puzzles with them, and they must really enjoy doing puzzles with me...hehe! Brooklin got me a PictionaryMan game...we played it last night and it was fun. Darwin spoiled me...he always does. He bought me a new VERY warm winter coat, a quilting book, a self-healing cutting mat (for quilting), and 240 minutes of tanning!! Very excited to get my fake sun for the whole winter! It should help me stay happy, and keep the dark-winter blues from slowing me down!

After opening presents, we went to church and they gave me two "presents" as well. I was called to be on the compassionate service committee AND to be the pianist for Relief Society (the church's women's organization). I still consider myself a learning piano player, so being the pianist will be a good challenge. I secretly told God that I really wanted to be a better piano player, and I thought playing in Relief Society would be the least scary piano calling...small audience, really no preformances for the whole congregation like Primary does...but this week they said the Relief Society is singing in Sacrament Meeting (the whole congregation) in two weeks!! So much for the no preformances! It isn't a really hard song...but I'm glad that I have two weeks to practice it! After church, I stayed for choir practice, and then I chatted for like 20 minutes...totally didn't know that my friends were waiting outside for me (since choir practice ended) with a camera, to see my reaction to what they did to my car! Wendy and her husband filled my van with five contractor bags full of balloons! It didn't fill the whole thing, like they hoped, but they did fill the entire front seat, so it looked completely packed. It was pretty funny! Also on friday at school, before my birthday, my friend Kris made me a tiara, taped balloons to my chair and table, and brought cupcakes and snacks for our whole communications class. They sang to me and signed a card! She also brought me a little present everyday all last week.

I am so grateful for my awesome family and my wonderful friends! You all made me feel so loved! Even Juneau cooperated for my special day, and it was blue skies and sun shiny the entire day! Thank you!!!!!!

Me playing with my new matchbox cars! LOL!

WHAT!!?!

Squished in with the balloons!

My stocking sold!

This will be short...but awhile back, I posted pictures of a stocking I made. It was a felt stocking that had 2 black bears roasting marshmallows over a campfire, and it was beaded and embroidered...all hand sewn. Anyway, I put it up for sale on etsy.com back in September, and yesterday it sold for $88!!! I'm so excited!! The kit cost me $12.95, so I made like $75! It also took over 40 hours to complete, but I enjoy doing crafts, so I just got paid for it this time. I have another one with about 5 hours left to go on it, so when it is finished, I will post pictures of it, and try and sell it too. It is a girly stocking...sugar plum fairy, candy, gingerbread men, and a Christmas Tree.

Costumes

So: we dressed up, we went trunk-er-treating, we ate candy, and we had fun.

Brooklin went to a costume birthday party last week. It was a murder mystery party, and she was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood. We found her a "red riding hood", and she wore an apron and carried a basket. She said it was totally fun.

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes. Brooklin went as a hippie...she reused this costume from spirit week last year, Caleb was Batman, London was Princess Leia, and Isaiah was a shark.

Halloween cartoon

I'll be so glad when this election stuff is over....but this was too funny to pass up! Happy Halloween! I'll post pictures of the kids in their costumes later.

I'

First Snow in Three Years!!

This took too long to post, but if you remember (or read the post We're Still Alive)...the weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do, and I didn't want to know if the snow was going to stick. Well, Saturday morning, WE HAD SNOW!! It wasn't very much at all, but it was enough to build a snowman, and have a snowball fight. The kids had a ball! It snowed on Saturday night as well, so they got to play in it again. Monday morning, it was in the 40's and had been raining all night, so the snow was all gone, and hasn't been back.

Speaking of raining......


Juneau has set a record for rain this month. This article was in the paper yesterday...and it rained a lot yesterday...so the total days is up to 33 at least.

Capital gets wet for 32 straight days

Juneau Empire

JUNEAU - Alaska's capital has posted a precipitation record.

The National Weather Service said Juneau has received measurable precipitation 32 straight days, dating to Sept. 26. That tops the previous record of 31 days, set in 1991.

Measurable precipitation is anything equal to or greater than one-one-hundredth of an inch. It's tracked at the city's airport.

Meteorologist Aaron Jacobs said the city has received 61.52 inches of precipitation since Jan. 1. That's nearly 15 inches above the annual average and does not include Tuesday's total.

The city has until Dec. 31 to reach the 1991 record of 85.15 inches.

Jacobs said the short-term forecast calls for more rain.