Day Trip to Hardware Ranch

I'd always heard of Hardware Ranch up in Logan, but never been there. Mom had the idea to all take a little trip up there one weekend to check out this destination where elk hang out and let horse drawn sleighs come right up beside them. It sounded like something the kids might enjoy and I was curious too.

It ended up being a gorgeous day. Sarah and Natalie posed in their sunglasses.





Now that I look back on this picture, I guess Angela wasn't feeling too great the whole day. I thought she was being cute and snuggling with Chrissy, but I think she's not feeling great and wanted to be carried.

Russ modeling some sunglasses too. Nice. (O:

The kids waiting in line. Grandma gave all the grandkids some cute Valentine bags that had a pair of sunglasses for each of them. They ended up being very handy this sunny day!

Nat using her binocs to check out the wildlife.

There they are - the stars of the whole show. We got much closer than this, but I liked this picture best.

The horses were very sweet and beautiful.



On the way back, we were helping Christine get to an institute choir activity in Bountiful. We made really good time and were going to get her there too early. We had to kill some time, so we went bowling! It was the coolest bowling ally we've ever been to. They had couches rather than hard plastic seats to sit on between turns. And the pins were glow in the dark. The music videos were fun and distracting at the same time.

Angela doing her adorable through the legs form.

By the end of the game, Angela was not feeling well and had a fever. Poor thing. We got Chris to her party, fashionably late (about 15 minutes) and Angela recovered by the next day.

Mary the Basketball Star

Mary is an anomaly. After having three boys, she is the girl my aunt Jill thought she'd never have.

She finally had a girl to dress up and do girly things! But Mary wasn't so into all that. She does not like, or rather hates, wearing dresses. And as she got older and had so much fun watching the Lady Utes play, she found her passion! Mary is an awesome basketball player for Skyline High School. She is not a senior, but she starts on the varsity basketball team. In short, Mary rocks!

Jill laughs about the fact that not one her boys ever really got into sports. She doesn't know where this gift and passion come from. Playing basketball is not a talent that any other Jensens possess - that I know of - maybe my cousin Connor?

I was excited when Jill invited us to come watch Mary play and asked if I would take a few pictures before the season ended. I haven't done many sports "shoots" before. I learned that it is really hard! I wished I had a really fast and long telephoto lens. My 300 mm zoom was great, but my slow (not wide enough) aperture forced me to slow the shutter speed down which is bad for action shots. In other words, it was tricky, but I think I got a few fun ones. It was good practice and fun to see Mary at the same time! Unfortunately, the game wasn't super exciting because it was JV and they CREAMED the other team, Cypress High. I heard the Varsity game was more exciting.


Mary's team let the girls pose with them - they were cute girls.



This is Sarah. She is mad at me in this picture, can you tell. (o: I don't think taking her picture helped. My cute aunt Jill was so sweet and helped her feel better.

Look how cute. The girls hangin' out with Uncle Dave. At some point they got him to take out some money for them! I guess they have him wrapped around their little fingers.

The girls got all dolled up for the game and insisted that I get their basketball camp shirts out from their summer clothes to wear to Mary's game.

Lady in Waiting

This was the beautiful dress Chris picked for her winter formal at the "U". Sooo classy and absolutely gorgeous. I LOVE this dress.

So the night of Christine's dance, my mom and dad were going to be gone and my mom mentioned being worried about Chris being able to get in her dress by herself. She needed say no more . . . I was so there! I thought of all the times I missed out on helping her get ready for other similar occasions because we lived so far away. She was only 10 when we moved to Oregon.

So on this lovely Friday evening, the girls and I headed over after taking some pictures at my cousin Mary's basketball game. (It was a fun family-filled day.)

When I arrived, Chris was working on curling her hair and showed me a hairstyle "how to" she found on YouTube. Now, I am not a hair expert. It is not one of my strengths. My girls are most often wearing the washed and combed style. Sure we often throw in a headband or barrette, but buns, ponytails and piggy tails are usually about as fancy as I get. I would LOVE to learn how to do more and have tried on a few occasions, but consider this a weak area for me . . .

So when I created this . . .

I was positively giddy!!

I was so proud I posted it on Facebook right away.

Christine looked like a princess and the girls oohed and ahhed enough to give Christine a nice big boost of confidence just before her date, Jake, arrived.

Natalie always provides some comic relief wherever we are. Looks like she found the coconut bra! Why didn't we think of that! It would have been a nice touch with the dress.


Another view of "the" hairstyle.

Before Jake arrived I briefed the girls on things not to say or ask that would embarrass Christine. Things like, "Do you like Chrissy?" "Are you going to marry her?" "Do you think she looks pretty?" "Are you going to kiss?"

They did pretty good and were cute and acted a little embarrassed around him. After all, he was a handsome boy in a tuxedo - girls always get a little weak in the knees at that!

The coast was clear for Chris until just as she was shutting the door, Natalie whispered kind of loud, "Are they going to get married?" (o: I tried.

Here are Christine's pretty flowers from Jake that I put in a vase after she left.

And here's a funny thing I found while taking care of the flowers. Must be the work of dad or one of my brothers. The Jimmer fever was a little annoying to them, I guess. (O:

Be Mine

Ahhh, that time of year again. This time I had three girls in elementary school - which equals about 90 valentines to make! I prefer to do something a little more hand made than the ones you get at the store. I take many shortcuts in other areas of my life, but for Valentines, it just feels more special making something. Nothing fancy, mind you.

I found a bunch of foam on clearance at a store going out of business and some cute foam sticky hearts. See what we came up with . . . It was really pretty slick. The cutting took the longest, but we all worked on it while watching TV and it went pretty quick. The next steps were sticking on the hearts, writing names and then I hot glued the giant smarties on.

If you stick out your tongue, it turns out better.



This multi-layered heart design with sparkle hearts was for Angela's teacher.

Say "Yes" to the Dress

This particular Saturday, Marvin* had to actually work - we had been spoiled for a long time and forgot that sometimes people have to actually work on weekends. Something not uncommon from our days with Intel, we'd had a break from that for a long time. But the wonderful thing about living in Utah is that we can call up family and do fun stuff with them to help pass the time! So I called up my mom and we met her and my dad and Chrissy for lunch. It was great fun. Then we found out Chrissy was going to look for a formal dress for her fancy shmancy school dance coming up. Well, my girls volunteered right away to help her with this important task. She couldn't just go on her own - she needed some expert opinions on style and looking royal.

Watching the girls in the biggest formal dress store I've ever seen was a treat! They could not pick a favorite. Everything was so colorful and flowy and sparkly. They were in heaven!

The judges. I love that Natalie happens to be wearing a crown and moon boots. (With princesses, mind you.) AND of course, her foofy skirt. My mom found a quote that so fits her personality - it goes, "The day you were born, the world had to make room for a little more fancy." So perfect for Miss Nat. (o:

Chris was hoping she could hold up under the scrutiny.

Here is dress #1 - the little, black dress. A classic, and you might guess what the girls thought about it amongst all the frills and sequins. B O R I N G (o: Still, I thought it was cute.

Dress #2 - This was one of my favorites - I really liked the unique silver color, and I am a sucker for shiny and sparkly too. Unfortunately, the fit was a little less comfy/modest than a dress Chris tried on previously at another store.

Dress #3 - very pretty and I believe the girls favorite of the ones Chris chose. I don't remember what Chris thought of this one though. Obviously not enough to get it. She ended up choosing to go back and get the dress she found at another store, which will be shown in another post.

This is the dress Natalie would have picked.

This one was Sarah's pick.

I know it is weird, but I LOVED how they had all the dresses organized by color. It looked so pretty. I had just as much fun oohing and ahhing (and gasping! at the prices) - what a fun outing. And I have to say how awesome I think Chris is. I really appreciate that finding something modest was part of her criteria. I have always tried to teach the girls to be modest, but when it is reinforced by their hero, aunt Chrissy, that really brings it home for them. Thanks for your good example, Chrissy. You are awesome!

Hibernation

These shots were taken during a very cold end of January/beginning of February week. We did a lot of hibernating this winter. Above, Angela working on her 100 days of school homework. My girls got in their jammies early many a evening because jammies are just cozy.

Sarah taking a sick day. Just a fever for a couple days, nothing too exciting. I actually like these kind of days. I love having the kids home and hanging out with them. I slow down and enjoy the break from a busy schedule too. I am so grateful to have this luxury - to not have to stress about getting work off when the kids are sick.

Dress ups are always entertaining when one is stuck indoors. This was actually when Natalie was heading over to JT's house for a princess/knight party two houses down. She "rode" her horse there. And she even wore those ridiculous shoes walking over in the cold. No snow, luckily.

Triple Decker Sandwich Recipe

Ingredients: 3 kids - not too skinny, 3 bean bags - nice and fluffy
Begin with one bean bag, then layer one kid on top, repeat three times. Top off with a little dollop of a pillow if desired.

Spring Tease

Every once in a while, during winter, you get those days that make you just crave spring. January 29th was one of those days this winter. We had a little impromptu croquet game. Ralph, our neighbor's dog, came over to play too. (O:

Sarah was mad about something. She's a little competitive!

Angela acting like an old woman with a cane.

Natalie had interesting form. It was nice to get outside!

Thank Goodness it's Friday!

We love Fridays around here! One of the nice things about the schools out in Utah is that the kids get out early on Friday, an hour and a half early. It works out perfect because the rest of the week we are busy with homework, dance, violin and piano. Friday is the day we have playdates and 4H (every other week). They are fun days and we live for them! Above, Sarah and her buddy Sophia are making sun catchers. Sophia lives just down the street - we love having friends that are close enough to walk over!

Angela got invited to her friend Abbi's house for a cookie party that same Friday and brought home a cute new apron and these darling cookies. It wasn't even a birthday party - just for fun. And I believe, this same day, Natalie was playing up in her room with Janie. Did I mention we love Fridays? (o:

Baluga Whale Report

Angela had to choose an animal from the polar climate to do a report on. For a couple weeks we read books and looked online to find out all about Baluga whales. They are pretty fascinating - I think I had the most fun learning about them. For instance, did you know they have a bony head and no dorsal fin which aids them in breaking through ice to get a breath of air?


Ang had to write down three sentences sharing what she learned and then had to present her "pizza box" and do a little oral report. It turned out so cute.

Science Club

These are not the greatest pics from my little point and shoot, zoomed way in, but this was a fun thing for the girls and I. We love science and doing science experiments. We used to have our own little Science Girls club once upon a time. So when I heard our new school has a Science Club, I was thrilled. This was the kick off day and the kids had a ball seeing all the funny stuff this guy brought (I think he was from BYU) to get them excited about science.

It's Official

We are officially Utahns. We have the driver's licenses and plates to show it. I still have my Oregon ID for sentimental purposes, but it is no longer valid. It was kind of weird changing our plates. We put it off for long enough. My brother, Mr. police officer, gave us a little motivation when he told us the fine for having out of state plates for longer than the grace period (60 days) was going up. That was all we needed. And the notoriously horrible DMV was AMAZING! It was so organized and fast, we could not believe it. We had new drivers licenses in about 30 minutes, including the time to take the open book test. Miracle of miracles.

Now we just need to change our Oregon cell phone numbers . . .