Tyler and Mary's Wedding

We were so excited to be apart of Tyler and Mary's Wedding. We had a wonderful day at the Temple and then at the reception that night. We are really excited to welcome Mary to our family and to have the Jensen family complete with her.

Audrey took this great picture of Tyler and Mary.

Audrey admiring Mary.

The night before the wedding Audrey said, "Mom, I'm going to look so beautiful in my new skirt and shirt tomorrow but Mary will be the most beautiful in her wedding dress." We have had so much fun talking about wedding stuff and Audrey gets it all at four and can't wait until her wedding day.

Extended Jensen family

I love this picture because the way Mary is looking at Tyler; she is so in love with him.

Talmage was so excited to wear a real tie and he looked so handsome.

All 27 grandchildren and only one crying. WOW!

All of the little girls were adorable in their pink tutu skirts.

This was one of the favorite spots of the kids overlooking the pond.

Our family

Audrey and Mary

The cutting of the cake.

A rare quite moment with most of the adults.

Me and Mary

Me and my sisters.

My Dad's Siblings and their Spouses

At the Reception Hall they had a room downstairs for the kids to hang out and it was awesome. The Cowans also provided snacks and brought a big bucket of legos and a box of crafts; the kids were in heaven. The kids mainly stayed downstairs which was really nice because we could visit with people and not chase after our kids.

Talmage and Samuel playing Army guys.

The boys excited about the legos.

The kids watching a movie

Audrey, Gretchen, and Aunt Janet

Audrey is always talking about my Aunt Janet's dog Gretchen. So, after the wedding reception we had to make a special stop to say "hi" to Gretchen. I don't know how much Gretchen likes seeing Audrey but Audrey loves to see Gretchen and pet her. We also love visiting Gretchen because we get extra time with Aunt Janet; we love her.

Audrey and Adalyn so excited to see Gretchen.

Aunt Janet and Audrey at the Temple.

Jensen Fun Time

While in Utah we had some fun Jensen time. We had a fun time going to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) with some of our Jensen cousins and Grandma Jensen. Each third Saturday UMFA has a kids activity and admission is free to the museum; thanks to our new Aunt Mary we knew about this fun outing.

We started out by doing some watercolor; I think the theme was clouds but the kids mainly painted what they wanted to. Then we made H2O necklaces or bracelets and some of the kids got to build their own water wheel. The museum also had a scavenger hunt of different paintings in the museum that the older kids liked to do. We all had a wonderful time and I would suggest going if you live in the Salt Lake Area.

Holding hands.

Talmage adores his cousins Samuel and Spencer and they connect so fast after not seeing one another for months. I love this picture because it shows how close they are. I don't know who instigated holding hands (probably Talmage) but they held hands the whole walk in. So cute!

Part of the group.

Audrey painting

Talmage's painting "The Origins of a River"

Adalyn loved painting.

Anna, Audrey, and Lauren wearing their H2O necklaces.

We had a fun Sunday dinner at my brother Layne's house while in Utah. The kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins and the adults had a great time talking.

Audrey never misses an opportunity to have her Aunt Sarah paint her nails. When I had Adalyn Sarah took Audrey and Talmage for the day and she she did Audrey's nails; little did she now she had set an expectation with Audrey.

The adult table.

The kid table.

Swimming & Thomas Fun

We had a wonderful time in Utah for my brother Tyler's wedding. On the way to Utah we stopped at a hotel and did some swimming. Within 15 minutes of checking into the hotel we were in the swimming pool and we spent about 5 hour swimming that afternoon and night; we got our money's worth out of the hotel. We thought about pressing through and getting to Utah earlier but our kids we set on going to the hotel and having fun swimming.

All ready to go.

Talmage jumping in!

Talmage and Audrey

I love that they are holding hands.

Adalyn

On our trip we had some fun Thomas time. Audrey and Talmage were so excited to play with their cousins Emma and Dylan and to tickle Baby Ellie's toes. Aunt Lindsee was wonderful and came and hung out with the kids while we were in the Temple for the sealing. The kids had fun walking around the temple grounds, going to the Church History Museum, and the visitors center. We are excited to spend more time with our Thomas cousins this summer at our Thomas family reunion.

Audrey and Emma

Talmage and Dylan

Aunt Lindsee and Ellie

I couldn't believe how much she has changed from when we saw her at Thanksgiving.

Emma helped Audrey have a make over and made her self over too.

Audrey loves her big cousin Emma

Surf Party!

Our children must be excited for summer because they have wanted to have a lot of beach parties lately. Audrey was the first to make a surf board out of a piece of cardboard and Talmage and Adalyn followed shortly behind. So, our beach parties consist of getting your swimsuit on, surfing, dancing to Beach Boys music, and drinking lemonade. The favorite song is "Catch a Wave" and is played over and over again. I love that my kids love Beach Boy music and that is it clean so we can just play all the songs and have fun.

Our kids love cardboard boxes and are constantly using them to facilitate their imaginative play. We got some really big boxes from Christmas and they have been put to great use; surf boards, sleds, robot heads, and just big boxes to climb in and out of. I don't remember playing with boxes that much when I was a kid, but I remember my cousin Lauren always had a box that she was playing with. I remember for Christmas one year she requested that Santa bring her a refrigerator box and some rope; talk about one creative girl.

Audrey surfing.

Talmage and Audrey with their surfboards.

Audrey's surf board has pictures of water and Talmage's has flames.

Talmage and Adalyn on their surf boards.

I couldn't get Adalyn to lift her arms higher and she is totally sticking her tummy out and making her swimsuit way to low.

Talmage made this picture of the Beach Boys for me; he copied the idea from one of their album covers.

On the back of the picture he wrote this sweet note to me. I love my boy!

How Much is that Doggy in the Window?

One of Audrey's favorite games to play is doggies. She started playing doggies when we lived close to my sister Lisa and her two children Ashley and Bryant loved to play too; I actually think it was Ashley who initiated it from the beginning. Well, even though we have sadly moved away from those wonderful cousins Audrey still loves playing doggies.

Recently she has expanded this game of doggies to having me buy her at the pet store. She has a specific spot by our couch that is the pet shop and I have to come and look at her through the window first and comment on how cute she is before I can buy her. Once I buy her she is by my side and wants balls thrown for her, to go on walks, food, and loves to sit on my lap while I'm at the computer. The funniest part about her being a dog is that instead of barking she yells, "Eddie, Eddie!" I have no idea where she got this but for awhile this is what she would say whenever she wanted anything while playing doggies. I did finally tell her that dogs don't say "Eddie" they just bark; so now she barks. Audrey would love, love, love to have a pet dog, but I'm too worn out from playing doggies to have a really dog. Anyway it is a very cute game that she plays and I love seeing her pretend.

Audrey also started ballet with my today and was very excited; I'm teaching at two different studios up here. We had quite the morning though because I wasn't able to get her shoes before class and that just wouldn't do. I had gone to two secondhand stores the previous day and neither had her size and I was having a hard time swallowing paying full price for little girl ballet shoes. So, Daddy came to the rescue and went and bought her shoes and then brought her to class, so Mommy wouldn't have to deal with the stress. Anyway she had a wonderful time at ballet class at least most of the time; I'm not so sure it will work out for me to be her teacher.

Some unhappy faces after dance class. Apparently I wasn't doing enough ballet; I forgot to do arabesque and pirouettes. I guess we have read too many ballet books together and she knows more about ballet than I do.

All smiles after getting home and taking a short nap in the car.

We ended up taking the shoes back because they were too big. The lady at the store didn't help Daddy fit the shoes correctly.

Audrey's lemonade stand. She watched the episode of Curious George when he has a lemonade stand and so we had to have a lemonade stand too. We had a Presidency meeting at he house later in the day and she made sure that all of the adults and children had lemonade then too.

The sign she made for her stand. It says Mom, Adalyn (ALYN) , and Audrey (YAeE). She loves to write, and I love the lemon.

Audrey as Snow White. She went to a princess birthday party and of course wanted the Snow White dress that needed to be altered. So that morning of the party we took in the bodice of the dress to make it modest. She had a wonderful time and looked adorable.