Oh Christmas Tree... Oh Christmas Tree...

We went and cut down our Christmas tree last Sunday, we usually do this on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but with it being late this year and I will be out of town this weekend, for a girls getaway, we decided to go ahead and get our tree early! Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year, I love everything about it; other then the over commercializing of it. We were going to wait to decorate the tree until this Sunday when I got back, however Porter insisted on decorating the tree yesterday, he loves Christmas just as much as I do!

We found the tree we wanted and Ben cut it down for us! Seriously if you have not gone to a Christmas tree farm and taken the time to cut down your own tree, it is a magical experience; one that I am so thankful that we

My three favorite guys with our tree!

 

Our tree, undecorated

Adalyn and Daddy decorating the tree

Porter decorating the tree

Braylon reaching for the stars!

Porter was responsible for unraveling the lights, he did an awesome job!

 

There is our tree all decorated.

 

This is the first year that the kids have taken a real interest in helping me decorate the tree; they helped from start to finish. I am fully embracing all of their Christmas spirit!!!!!

 

Basketball

Braylon entered Kindergarten this year, my heart aches still! So with kindergarten comes the opportunity to play B-A-S-K-E-T-B-A-L-L! Which in our household is a big deal! Braylon had his first practice on Saturday, I really enjoy watching him play sports and develop his skills.

  

Chest pass

Shooting, he made 3 of 4! 

Washington D.C.

Benjamin has been going to Washington D.C. every other month, for a week, for the entire year of 2013; for a total of 6 weeks! November marked his graduation from the National Automobile Dealers Association; he flew out on Sunday to attend his final week of classes. Ben's parents and myself flew out on Thursday morning, luckily... I am not an expert flier and I will admit that I worry far more about if my children had enough socks to make it the 4 days that I would be gone, then about if I made sure I had everything. We were waiting to check our bags when I realized that I didn't have my drivers license with me, 2 hours from home and our flight is leaving in 40 minutes, who does that???????? Through some serious interrogation and a very thorough pat down, I was allowed to board the plane without my driver's license. Ben was very on top of things and had it overnighted to us in D.C. so that I would be able to come back home when the time came, I don't think that I give him enough credit for all that he does for me! Once our feet hit down in Washington D.C. my nervous system was finally calmed down and my pulse had returned to a normal pace, and other then a small bout of the flu bug the rest of the 4 day trip went off without a hitch!

I was so excited and honored to watch Benjamin receive his "diploma", he worked very hard to achieve this and I am so proud of him!

Ben received his diploma!

The group that Ben graduated with.

Myself, Ben, Joan, and Rick

Proud parents!

Proud Wife!

His name was called!!!!

 

 

After we were finished with the graduation ceremony on Friday, we headed into D.C. for the rest of the weekend. We went site seeing on Friday evening.

Washington Memorial was under construction from an earthquake.

The front of the white house.

A daylight view of the Washington Memorial

The capital

The capital at night

Before heading out on Friday night. My favorite part of this entire vacation was getting to spend 4 days with my husband without our children. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we can pick up right where we left off when it is just the two of us.

My favorite historical site, I LOVE history and I LOVE Abraham Lincoln even more!

Relaxing before heading out Saturday morning.

Our boys received these bomber hats and aviator goggles!

Dinosaur exhibit at the Natural Science museum. Bray and Port would have gone crazy over this!

Flying home!

 

It was a wonderful 4 days, Congratulations again Ben! I love you so very much and am so proud of all that you have accomplished!

 

First Snow Fall of the year!

The beginning of November we had our first "major", I use that term loosely, snow fall of the year. Ben was in Washington D.C. and luckily it wasn't enough to warrant getting out the tractor snow blower out, because well frankly I am not sure how to use it... The kids were so very excited to see all of the white stuff all over the ground, and the best part was we have a ton of trees, so it took a few extra days for it to melt!

The boys jumped out of our bed and immediately peaked out the window and instantly started screaming because there was SNOW!!!!

The B-E-A-UTIFUL view from our bed!

The view on the way home from dropping the boys off at school!

Adalyn checking out the snow, she loved it last year, but doesn't remember what it is; she continued to ask me, "What that?"

After Porter was done with Pre-school he spent the better part of the morning and afternoon outside! Exploring all the new stuff...

 

I guess when you live in Minnesota if you can't beat them... join them...

$5 worth of fun!

We had to run to Menards this morning to pick up a few things for the house; Braylon asked if he helped me remember to get a new toilet seat cover (ours has been broke since the second day we moved in and every time I go to a store with the intent to get one it seems to slip my mind) could he pick out a toy. I told him we would walk down the toy aisle and see what they had. As I was getting ready to head to the checkout, just as promised Braylon reminded me off the toilet seat that we needed. So I held up my side of the bargain and we walked down the toy aisle. He spotted a box with a helicopter on it and asked if he could get the it; it was a build your own helicopter and car, included paint and decals, at $4.98 I agreed to let him get one for him and Porter (he was at pre-school).

After we picked Porter up from school the boys got to work...

 

Porter painting his helicopter

He wasn't afraid to use all the colors of paint...

Braylon wanted his to look just like the army helicopter on the side of the box; so he stuck with just the army colors :)

He is so detailed with his work!

 

It was easily the best $5 I have spent, it entertained the boys for most of the afternoon and right into the evening. We may need to add some more of these to our Christmas Lists...

The projects are now drying and waiting for the decals to be put on, more pictures to come.

Bouncing Boxer

 

Reese is usually a bouncing, licking, loving, energetic, snugly dog, so when he goes a few days not acting like himself, it causes alarm... When it has been a few weeks it causes panic! There were a few warning signs, not wanting to go running, not eating, and lack of energy. We took him to the vet last Monday for some testing, they wanted to follow-up with more testing on Tuesday. All those tests we ran and there was nothing found, they said it was probably a bacterial infection in his intestines. We would treat it with an anti-vomit medication and some bland food. We were instructed if he wasn't better to bring him back for some more testing...
On Friday the fun really began; Reese began drinking gallons and gallons of water. Well as most of you can guess, with increased water consumption comes increased urination; we were going outside about every 15 minutes and he was still having a few accidents in between. We could not figure out what was going on. My initial thought was diabetes; Ben thought damn dog just wants attention (he really does love Reese, even though he puts up a hard front). I was up with him 6 times on Friday night/Saturday morning. Saturday was worse, he couldn't relax or lay down for more then a few minutes. I had to head to the store when Ben got home from work, I was gone for 20 minutes when I got a call, telling me to please come home, Ben had been outside with Reese numerous times and he still had two accidents in the house. I got home and found Reese was standing by his missing water dish whining. After a call to the emergency line to the vet, it was determined that if his UTI culture came back negative they couldn't do anything for him until Monday; so we made an appointment for right away Monday morning.
The weekend was slow going with bathroom breaks every 20 minutes and an extreme lack of sleep; but Monday came and I was hoping for relief, Ben had left for his last week of class in DC on Sunday, leaving me as the sole care taker of our three children and our suddenly sick canine. When we met with Dr. W; he said he was doing some extensive research before we arrived trying to figure out what was going on. There was an extreme zig zag of symptoms and none of them added up to anything concrete. So we decided do to some more blood work, to compare it last weeks blood work; and Reese and I went home. At 3pm Dr. W called me to tell me that Reese's blood work came back normal... But Dr. W decided to run an enzyme culture on his blood as well and he found some alarming results; Reese's Potassium level was off the charts and his Sodium level was barley detectable. I had no idea what that meant; so I asked for further explanation. Apparently the combination of the two is a good indicator of 'Addison's Disease', it is very rare in humans and just as rare in dogs; most dogs go undiagnosed which can result in death. Dr. W said that their office usually sees less then 5 cases a year. To make 100% sure that this is what Reese was suffering from we had to take more blood and send them to an outside lab to have the test run.
So we brought Reese back to the vet for another round of blood draws and Dr. W gave him an injection of medication that he will need to get better from this.
I am so thankful for a Veterinarian that didn't just stop after seeing the second round of blood was normal, but decided to take it a step further and help us find an answer! Reese is a huge part of our family and I am looking forward very much to having our bouncy Boxer back!

 

And for him to begin snuggling with me at night again! I do miss that.

New blog

Welcome to the Jensen's new blog, I have imported our old blog into this one, so that I have it all at my fingertips! I will do my best to update often about the happens of the Jensen's! Check it out often! We look forward to entertaining you :)

Things are changing...

As I stand in the shower; it looks unfamiliar to me; there is no longer a hanging basket filled with rubber duckies, boats, squirt bottles, or buckets... The basketball hoop that once hung at eye level, is no longer hanging. I throw open the curtain and reach for the towel that once hung on the towel hooks to my right, with each child's "bath" picture displayed above the hooks; there is no towel, there are no hooks. I look to my left and see the folded towel sitting on the seat of the toilet. There are no pictures displayed in the bathroom, there are no longer pictures on any walls in the house. I feel like a stranger in my own home; a strange feeling, one that comes with mixed emotions. I walk through an empty house until I reach the master bedroom, where the reminents of a late night lay scattered around the perimeter of the room; decisions about which clothes can get toted and which need to stay, are stacked in piles.
Oh the joys of moving...
Moving is such a whirlwind with three young children; the boys are adjusting magnificently, they did such a great job helping pack up their toys, each could have one backpack that holds their nearest and dearest toys. Mommy packed Adalyn's backpack of toys, she isn't that impressed with what I picked for her, she is having a difficult time adjusting to an empty house, no couches and only a tv in the basement, her only saving grace is Lumpy. That darn Heffalump can plaster a smile right back on her once always smiling face and she sings and dances and sits on the floor and soaks up every second of lumpy that she can; and as a desperate Mommy for my smiling always happy little girl back, I let her watch Lumpy over and over again; sometimes I even sit next to her and enjoy the show that she puts on while watching her favorite friend from the 100 acre woods!
We all have our own emotions and feelings with this upcoming move, 10 days can not go by fast enough! Ben is ready for it to be done; he lucks out though, because he leaves on Sunday to DC and gets to worry far less about getting house cleaned and closing then I do; when he returns on Friday evening most of the things will be moved into our new garage. The kids and I will be swimming at the Holiday Inn (we are staying there Friday night, because although we close on Friday we don't get full possession of our new home until Saturday morning). He gets the easy part!
The boys are SO very excited to have a park in their "front" yard; they are already plotting how they are going to make sure to always watch for cars and be very careful crossing the road! They have not been to the house, they have only driven past it and I think they were focused on the park more than the house, I am sure that they will be so impressed with the huge yard and all the trees they can climb, helping Mom garden and pick weeds (we have a lot of flowers and plants to keep up). They have picked out their room themes for their very own bedrooms, that are on the same floor as Mommy & Daddy, and Adalyn; Porter wants a construction room, Braylon wants either a fishing room with boats or an airplane room, he is still working on the details.
Adalyn will be excited once we are moved in and things are put away and she realises that this is now her home. She is a girl of a different mind set; our boys were always so flexible, schedules didn't mean anything to them and change never bothered them, Adalyn is not that way, she is most comfortable at home, with her own toys and her own surroundings. Adjustment will be difficult; especially with us staying at Grandma Pammy's and Papa Todd's most of next week, with three dogs in a house, three kids, and 4 adults it will be a big adjustment for our little princess.
Reesey, Ressey, Reesey... Oh our 4 legged friend, will not know what do all of the land he will  have to run, he will be on high alert I suspect for the better part of a week; but once he feels at home, I am sure I will find him sleeping in the three season porch most days allowing the sun to warm him from the outside in.
Like I stated earlier in this growing post, for me it is a bittersweet moment, mixed with different emotions. I have never been a huge fan of our current house, never thought it felt overly homey, never felt like I was "home". However seeing it now, without any of the pictures on the walls, no decorations around the house, no toys scattered from room to room; I miss the way it looked before. It is the house that I learned how to be a Mommy! I walked all three of our kids through that back door as newborns. I watched in amazement as Reese figured out they were not leaving, and he learned to love them like they were his own. I listed to first words, watched first moments of sitting up, crawling, and those precious first steps under that very roof. I learned to love someone so much that it made my heart ache; so much that I tear up thinking up our children and the love that I hold for them. I learned how to become a wife in that house; although Ben and I have only been married for a short while, I was a wife to him long before we were actually married! Ben and I have been through a lot in that house, but I have watched my love for him grow, change and develop every single day in that house. We went through our first major renovation in that house and we both lived to talk about it! Although it makes me sad leave the house I have built so many memories in, it also makes me so excited to think of all of the memories we will make in our new home! Our old house was used to raise newborns into toddlers even two pre-schoolers, our new house will be to grow toddlers and pre-schoolers into young adults! I am over the moon to watch the people they become, to watch as they walk down the stairs dressed up for their first day of school, and as they walk down those same stairs dressed in their cap and gown and leave to become a high school graduate. I will welcome the day that Ben and I are sitting on our maintenance free deck (I am so excited not to have to paint three decks any longer); enjoying a drink and conversation as empty nester's... I look forward so very much to the Jensen's moving!

May these next 10 days fly by and may you have a safe and happy 4th of July Holiday! I will be finishing packing as my husband and two boys are enjoying fishing/jet skiing/ and fireworks!

Mommy - Boy date!

On Friday the boys and I joined Auntie Nicole and Cousin Candon for a movie theater date at Monster's University. It was a hilarious movie and so cute! The boys enjoyed it, once it started, we thought there would be a long line, so we arrived extra early... Turns out there was not a line and we ended up having to kill time in the theater instead. Once the movie started it went great. It was Porter's first time at the movie theater and he is already plotting his next go around, he doesn't care what movie we see, he is plotting the snacks he wants! We will be putting this on our calendar's to do more often, it was a great evening... Thanks again for joining us Coley and Candon!

Looking very cool in their shades!

 

I blinked and 18 months flew by...

I went shopping for some more summer jammies for Adalyn today, and I found myself in the "toddler" section of Herberger's searching for 2T pajama's!!!! Yes 2T, my baby is less then a baby and more of independent, career chasing, boy crazy women! She is filled with so much life; she is surely our easiest child yet, but she has so much spunk (Ben calls it drama and usually refers to her as the DIVA)... Lately it is blowing my mind as she starts to repeat everything and talks our ears off. She will say every single word that we say, except Porter... She calls Porter Bray, we correct her every time, but she still insists on Bray. She calls Braylon, just that Braylon. I think she is a little confused, especially because 90% of the time we call Porter, Maxie. We have heard her say Porter 3 times, but everything else she says and she says it very clearly. I wish I could rewind the time, because I miss my chubby check, rolly polly little girl! I have captured these few pictures over the weekend and thought they were worth sharing :)

 

She didn't want to sit with Mommy and Grandma at the Softball game last Tuesday night... She wanted to sit all by herself!

She really loves her Giraffe and sippy cup! Walking around the yard enjoying being left alone.

She looks 15 years old in this picture... No longer my baby, she sure is adorable though! One of my favorite pictures.

She even insists on sitting at the table, she kneels at the table the entire time we eat and she does such a good job. Ben said he isn't ready for this yet, but I can't keep her sitting nice in her highchair, so it might be the perfect time!

 

I am so excited for the women this little girl is going to become, but I would be okay if time just slowed down a lot first.

 

Life Happenings...

Well life has been extremely busy for the past month in a half! It is hard to believe that it is the last week of June already... I feel like it should be the last week of May, I feel a little cheated out of Summer this year! The reason for us being so busy, is because we are MOVING!!!! We have been searching for a home that suited or needs... and wants, there are always wants, for over a year now. We finally found the perfect home; it has every need and a lot of our wants all wrapped into one fabulous location! There were a lot of steps to get this house, and everything feel perfectly (not really perfectly, nothing happens perfectly; but I am going to pretend) into place. We will be moving in less then 3 weeks, 17 days to be exact! We will be closing the week that Ben is in DC, we close on a Friday and he gets back late that Friday; which translates to me having to pack everything and move everything with three children by myself (not really by myself, our families would be more than willing to help; but I don't want to burden them with our move), so Ben and I have been busy moving what we can to our rental property garage (which just so happened to open up last weekend, see perfect...), before he is gone for a week. We spent the weekend moving things, lots of things, out of the house, I want as little in the house as we can manage to get by with. The less I have to move alone the better; because although I have 17 days before we actually are out of our house, with Ben gone for 5 days, it is like we have 12 days.
We are so excited about the new house and all of the wonderfulness it is going to bring to us and our family! I already dream of Christmas, Prom's, and Graduation's in this house. Along with the few minor things to make it our own (Ben made me promise NO projects until Winter)... :)

First load to the Duplex Garage...

Dreaming of Paint colors... This is when Ben told me NO projects, not even paint until Winter...

Sold Sign at our new house.... This was a VERY exciting day!

Sold sign at our house! Adalyn loves to walk to the front yard and touch my picture and say MOMMY!

Our empty Living room!

Hauling the guest bed to the garage.

Daddy even hauled the Four Wheeler to the Garage. I told him all of our spare time was for packing and moving, not riding the 4 wheeler...

 

Stay tuned, we will definitely be posting pictures as soon as we have the keys!!!

The end of a School year

Braylon took his "last day" of school picture this morning. It is quite different then his "first day" of school picture. It is hard to believe that my little boy is "graduating" from preschool today! Next year will be the year that I have dreaded since the moment he was born, he will be in Kindergarten! I laid in bed last night asking myself how it happens so quickly, how the time flies by without my control. I don't have an answer for those questions, all I can do is grab a camera and hold on for dear life!

He has come so far this year, I know that this little boy is destined for greatness, in whatever form that might be, he will succeed and be grand! My love for him grows and grows each and everyday and as I watched him proudly get dressed, in "dressy" clothes (yes the below picture is dressy for him, he is usually in basketball shorts and a tee with some sort of construction vehicle, sports team, or sport of some sort displayed across the front of it) and stand infront of the door and smile so nicely, made my love for him blossom a gazillion times more!

 

Braylon on his last day of Pre-School!

We are so proud of you Bubbies! We love you to the moon and back!

 

Spring Program

Braylon did a Christmas Program for school and today he had his Spring program! He did such a good job and was so excited to have such a big "fan" section! He has been singing his program songs for the past 2 weeks, and every time I ask if it is for his program, he tells me that I am not suppose to be listening to him, that it is a surprise!

 

 

Braylon's entire Pre-School class and Ms. Meyer. It is hard to believe that he is almost done with Pre-school and will be moving on to Kindergarten next year!

A little more puppy love!

Porter was so sweetly snuggling with Reese this morning when I got out of the shower! He can be the sweetest little boy when he wants to be!

 

Porter and his "best" doggy!