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.