Jensen Family Reunion

 This year the kids and I went to the Jensen family reunion in Boise. Drew was on a work trip in DC. We were sad he wasn't with us, but we did have lots of fun with my mom's side of the family.

Ashley stayed in our hotel room with us, and it was really nice for me to have her help and of course my kids always love to have her around. She slept with Darcy. I had a pack n' play for Ezra to sleep in, but the little mattress part is really warped. I thought it seemed like it would be really uncomfortable so I didn't have the heart to put him in it, and he slept with me for the first time in his life. He is a crazy sleeper!! He moved all night long. Every night when he would get in bed he would go crazy running around the bed and laughing and being silly. The first night he was being silly and I finally told him he needed to lay down. He did lay down but he just couldn't lay still. He squirmed and squirmed until eventually he flopped over and laid on his back with his head on my chest. After a minute there he was fast asleep. I was trying so hard not to laugh out loud. I feel sorry for his future wife. Haha.

 My crazy sleeping buddy who loved his first hotel experience.

 Darcy is finally (now that she is almost four) starting to be a good sleeper. She would keep sleeping in the mornings even when the rest of us were up making noise. 

 We went to the Boise zoo the first morning and got to see some cool animals. We also ran into a friend we grew up with in Mattawa which was a crazy coincidence. Matthew is a real animal lover unlike my kids. I thought this picture of him with his face pressed up against the glass was so funny.

 We paid a little extra to go feed the giraffe. They gave us some lettuce to feed him. Darcy refused to feed him. I fed him some lettuce and then put some in Ezra's hand and held his hand up to the giraffe's mouth. He was fine until right as the giraffe took the food from him, and then he lost his mind! He was horrified about what had just happened and wanted to get away fast. 

 Most of the group at the giraffe encounter. If you look closely you can see Ezra's horror.

 This was probably the best part for my kids. The fake animals. :) 

 Here we are with the red panda. For not being much of an animal lover myself, I have to admit that little guy was pretty cute!

 With the lions.

 The reunion was at my Aunt Karen's house and she had an awesome little spot in her back yard for the kids to play in the dirt. Darcy got to play with my cousin's little girl Brynne and she loved her to pieces. We are excited that they will get to see each other again pretty soon at Emily's wedding.

 The group eating and talking.

 The last day we went to this little lake that someone turned into a little beach area and my kids loved it there! Darcy had so much fun in the water.

 Cute little beach comber.

 Matthew and Ezra playing in the sand.

 My grandparents at the beach.

 There was a park right there and Matthew and Ezra had fun with the steering wheels.

 Ezra was determined to swing on this hot swing.

 I thought this facial expression was funny.

 Ezra and my Grandpa enjoying their apples. Ezra loved that stroller and wanted to push it everywhere.

 Darcy wrote this in the sand and we sent it to Drew since we weren't with him on Father's Day.

As we left the reunion these two crashed immediately from all the action.

We also went hiking on the second day but all those pictures are on my mom's camera. It was a fun hike, but I spent the second half carrying Ezra because he was too tired. I was pretty tired by the time we got to the top too. Darcy did awesome and hiked most of the way with a few little piggy back rides from Nick.

We had so much fun visiting my family and I am reminded again and again how blessed I am to be a part of such amazing families and for the good people that make up those families. I am so lucky to have so many great examples and so many people who love me and my little family and who make us better and happier.

Darcy's Dance Recitals

 Darcy's dance class was a tap and ballet combo class, so she had two recitals. It got a little crazy with all the rehearsals, but ultimately I loved watching my girlie up on the stage. She had some pretty rough moments when I had to leave her with the backstage babysitters, but when she got to performance time she did great.

 Hanging out in the hall with her class at dress rehearsal.

 Final bow at dress rehearsal.

 We had lots of family come to support Darcy and we were so grateful for that. My family had to cut out early to go to Ashley's piano recital, but I got this one picture of Darcy with Grandma and Grandpa Christensen who brought her a balloon. She looks kind of crazy in this picture, but it's the only one I have. :)

 Drew, Ezra, and I with our little dancer.

 Here she is ready for her tap recital.

Here she is after the recital with her cute little dancer friend Tessa.

Thoughtful

Darcy has been really amazing me lately with how thoughtful she is. I wanted to jot this story down before I forget.

Last week was a rough week and at the end of the week I hit my breaking point. I was trying to hold on to any patience I had left, but there really wasn't much. I was trying (and failing for the 100th time) to get Darcy to stay in her room for quiet time. When she came down for the nth time I told her she had to go up to her room again and that she couldn't come down until she had put away her pile of folded clothes. She started whining and I reminded her that Ezra was up there sleeping and she needing to be quiet. That didn't work at all. In fact she got a little louder. I rushed up there but I was too late. Ezra started crying, and I got really mad at her. Yuck. I regretted my reaction immediately, but I was still pretty mad. I told her she now needed to put away her clothes and pick up all the pennies on her floor and put them back in her piggy bank. She was sad about it, but did get to work. After a while I realized I hadn't heard the pennies clink in her piggy bank for a while and I wondered what she was up to. I finished a couple things downstairs and decided to go check on her. I walked up into her room, and I was completely floored to find her putting away the last of her toys. She had made her bed, put away her clothes, picked up the pennies, and put away all of her toys. She had gone above and beyond and cleaned her whole room! I gasped as I walked in and she ran over to me to give me a hug with the biggest smile on her face. She said, "I wanted to make you happy!!" I told her thank you a million times. I was so amazed that she had been so thoughtful and sweet. She is 3!

A few days earlier we had surprised Nick and cleaned his pickup when he was home for memorial day, and while we did it I talked to Darcy about doing service and how it makes us feel happy to do nice things for other people. After she had cleaned her room I told her how happy I was, and I said, "Doesn't it make you feel happy to do something so nice for someone?" She said, "Yeah...Hey! I did service!!"

It was a day I consider one of my worst, but I also think of it fondly because it was one of her best.

I am so grateful for my thoughtful girl.

"May"hem

I had a bunch of random pictures on my camera from May to share.

 We took the roller coaster out of its box again and I put the kids in it which they thought was so fun.

 They had a tea party at Darcy's dance class a couple weeks ago that the kids got to dress up for. 

 All the cute dancers at their tea party. 

 Most mornings Ezra is so happy when he wakes up, especially if Darcy is asleep and he gets lots of one on one time. Drew was working from home this day, and Ezra was so happy to hang out with him. 

 The other day while I was getting ready I let the kids watch a show on my laptop in my bed. I walked in and they were snuggled close and had their heads leaning against each other.

 We were in Mattawa for Memorial Day weekend. Drew's dad had hay down and rain was in the forecast. They needed to get it raked quickly, so Drew got to drive a tractor for a couple days. I thought the kids needed to go have a ride, so we went and joined him for a bit. Neither of them were very happy about getting in that tractor, but once we were in they were alright. P.S. The rain got the hay anyway. Bummer.

 It was supposed to rain on Monday, so the guys had to rake on Sunday. I had to take the kids to church by myself. We made it halfway through sacrament meeting, and Ezra was coughing like a crazy man which he had not been doing until right when church started. He was also crying and squirmy and Darcy was crying, so I took Ezra to Drew in the tractor. He fell asleep on the ride, and Darcy and I enjoyed the rest of church!

 I am realizing now I don't know where these actually came from, but somehow Ezra ended up with these awesome skates on at my mom's house.

 Haley and Brian made this really awesome play house out of a cardboard box Haley found at my mom's. Sunday afternoon we were sitting outside and these guys decided to see how many people they could fit in their house. They were trying to get Nick to get in there with them. :)

 The easiest way for them to all get out.

 Darcy and Ezra watering my mom's flowers together.

 I went to peek at Ezra during his nap the other day and found him with his leg propped up and his hand in the air.

 Cute kids with bubble hats. I was showing them how they looked in a mirror when I took this picture.

This past week our friend invited us to go visit the police station with a big group. It was fun to go check it out, and we all went and played at the park and had a picnic when we were done which the kids loved!

Singin' in the Rain

 On Friday Drew had a busy day (golfing) :) so I took the kiddos to my parents' house for the day. We were playing outside when it started raining. At first we all ran inside, but then decided it would be fun to let our kids experience the rain. So we went outside and did some singing and dancing and jumping in the rain. It was so much fun!

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day started out great. I wish I could keep going with that tone, but unfortunately things took a turn for the worst. All I wanted was a cute picture with my kids!!! Is that too much to ask?? The answer is yes! I told Drew we can never do this again. We can tell right off the bat when we start taking pictures if it's going to work out or not. We need to throw in the towel a lot sooner if they are not cooperating at the beginning. We went to have this little photo shoot right before church and then all of us were really cranky by the time we got to church.

The kids were so wiggly and loud and we were sitting behind an adorable little family with three little adorable kids that all sat like angels through the whole meeting. Seriously. As I scanned the room I determined our children were the loudest and wiggliest. I was trying with all my might to distract them and help them be happy and reverent just like I do every week. Drew had to take Ezra out because he was being so loud, and then Darcy whined on and on because she wanted to go out too. So then I had to take her out for a time out. Then when sacrament meeting was finally over Darcy proceeded to have another melt down (like she does every single week) because she didn't want to go to her class. I have no idea what the speakers were talked about, and I was reminded once again that I have no idea what I'm doing. I could not stop those dang tears from coming, and I gave up. We left. We went home, changed our clothes and headed to Mattawa to try to salvage our day.

The kids both fell asleep on the way there which helped us all. We ate lots of yummy food and talked a lot about how to help our kids be good in church, and our day ended happily. I guess this Mother's Day was just a reminder that motherhood is a roller coaster.

Sometimes I think that motherhood is a much harder test for me than for some, but when I have a minute to reflect I can see pretty clearly how much I have learned and how much I have grown from the experience. My kids are my greatest blessings. I am grateful to be a mother.

(I almost forgot to mention my favorite part of this day! Darcy went up and sang with the primary for the first time. They sang a really beautiful medley of "I am a Child of God" and "I Believe in Christ." She didn't even hesitate (so not like her) and she marched right up there and sang her little heart out. I loved it!)

Hey, how is this picture this good? I swear they were all terrible! :) Oh hindsight.

P.S. I need to mention that I had three different women reach out to me that night or the next day because they had seen those dang tears in my eyes. THREE! I thought that was a lot. Oh so sweet!

Water Babies

 Last week the weather decided to skip spring all together and went straight from the 60's/low 70's to the 90's. It was hot, and my kids were in heaven, because that meant they got to play in the water.

 Darcy cooling off in the hose.

 Darcy loves to run and jump into the pool over and over and over.

 Ezra has learned to jump in the water too. He will basically try anything Darcy does. I don't know how many times he slipped and fell in the water so his head went in. He would come up gasping for air but unfazed, and he would continue doing whatever he was doing.

Darcy getting a drink from the hose.

 Ezra saw Darcy getting a drink and decided he needed one too. Even though he was basically just spraying his whole face with water, he kept doing it.

 I saw this on Pinterest and it was a hit for my kids. They had their own little car wash. At one point Darcy got a hold of the soap and poured soo much into the bucket. They were slipping all over while they were cleaning, and Ezra ended up getting some in his eyes and that ended our fun for that day.

 One day after their fun in the sun, Darcy got them all set up in the living room to watch a movie together on their towels.