Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving Turkey's

 Dinner was delicious! And it was so fun to have my Grandma Naum with us!

 Lincoln played football, soccer, and kickball ALL afternoon!

We have so much to be thankful for.

Sisters, Sisters....

At the beginning of November I went to Alabama for our first ever Sisters Trip. Its really the first time that Karla, Emily and I have spent time together (just us) since we were kids. I moved out when Emily was in grade school and between college, boyfriends, husbands and kids we have barely spent any time together in the last 10+ years.  I timed this whole trip around seeing the Fall colors and leaves were perfect!!!!


Emily lives in the country outside of a small town, so when she would tell us something was "close" it usually meant at least 45 minutes in the car. I can't remember the name of this place, its "close" to Emily's house. Maybe Buck's Pocket. There is a beautiful lake and waterfall, hiking trails, and a playground that had a merry-go-round! Seriously when was the last time you saw a merry-go-round?!? 

You can't tell in the picture but I actually got this ride going and jumped on mid-spin...still got it! Actually I am pretty lucky I didn't break something.

We goofed around quite a bit at the mall. 

 

We were trying to make Karla feel better about being the shortest sister...

We took a trip up to Chattanooga, TN with Emily's husband Jarrod. I loved Chattanooga! (Its on my list of top 5 places I could live according to Find Your Spot.Com). We explored the downtown river walk and Rock City Gardens. If you are ever in the area both are TOTALLY worth the trip.

  I brought 3 of our all time favorite movies, White Christmas, Steel Magnolias and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, classic sisters movies.  
We talked...and talked...and talked...and ate yummy food.

 It was such a wonderful trip!

Pets

"Pets are awesome" - Lincoln

"Pets are plants" - Oliver (what?)

In September, Shawn and the boys discovered a preying mantis on our front porch. We brought him in for the week so the boys could observe him.  Lincoln named him Hicker and Oliver named him Plankly. Obviously this is the coolest name ever. I hope all of our pets have names as original as this.

 We kept him in this vase with a leafy branch. Shawn feed him crickets from the front porch...

 the circle of life right in our home!

 

In October my mom brought the boys a desert tortoise. We are slowly moving in the direction of pets the kids can hold and actually play with.  I guess they could hold Spider-Fish, but I don't think he would like it very much. Lincoln's turtle is named Rick and Oliver's is named Donatello.  Oliver is too scared to actually hold his turtle, but he does like to throw lettuce in the terrarium and show them to his friends that come over.

 

Halloween 2013

Its getting harder and harder to keep up with this everything going on... Halloween was a lot of fun as usual.We had the missionaries Elder Ward and Elder Scheiss come over to carve pumpkins with us for FHE. The boys loved helping the elders scoop out the insides of the pumpkins. 

I finally had the opportunity to help out in Lincoln's classroom with his class party.  I got to see where Lincoln sits and meet some of his class friends. One of the girls even said, "Wow Lincoln's mom, you are pretty"...

with compliments like that how could I not enjoy being there?

 Trick-or-Treating was a little crazy this year. For starters Shawn was sick and was laying in bed when it was time eat dinner and start getting ready to go out. The second thing was  I had to change Adria's costume. She was going to be a flower with this darling petal skirt my friend Sarah had let me borrow. But it was cooler than usual (in the low 60's) and she ended up wearing her Halloween shirt with a pumpkin hat and matching booties my dad had gotten for her. Everything was so busy and the boys were so desperate to get started that I didn't even get a picture of Adria in her pumpkin outfit. Just as we were about to head out my Grandma Naum and Aunt Anahi stopped by with special treats for the kids which delayed Trick-or-Treating even more. 

Oliver was Spider-man and Lincoln was a "Shadow Ninja"...but in the excitement he best pictures I could get are blurry.

 Happy Halloween

Family Fun

This is pretty much what we have been up too since we came back from Utah at the end of July.  Lincoln started 1st grade and soccer, Oliver is doing soccer too. Shawn has traveled around the country almost every week since August. Our ward boundaries were recently changed and we are now part of a completely new ward. I loved our Mt Vista Ward, but I have been anxious for change lately, old army brat habits, so this has been a pleasant change.

We try to stay cool.

 Awesome Monsoon Storms

 I turned 34!

We spend a lot of time at the park.

 Dad brings back neat stuff from his business trips.

Adria gets cuter every day.

 I tried to make homemade bread twice....still trying. But I have finally gotten the hang of cooking and have made some pretty delicious stuff if I do say so myself. 

Life is good for The AZ Jensen's.