Happy Birthday Evan #1!!!!!

I have mentioned more than once, that my parents are moving 6 HOURS away soon....so we did Evan's little festivities 2 weeks early so they could all be here to watch. We just had my parents and Jake's parents here for the short notice (we'll do another one for the rest of the family and friends we couldn't get a hold of) party and I just quickly made cupcakes and his first cake. We had spaghetti and the kids and I ran errands the whole day full of dinner, cake, balloons, and gift stuff! We were pooped! But it all got done! And the end result:

He LOVED it! He dug into the cake right away, as soon as we were done singing. He got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly, and after he finally got to open his OWN, (so many great helpers around here) he had a blast with the paper. We tried to get his little coupe car ready, and we had it ALMOST built, but the 2nd half of the instructions didn't come in the package! So, the next morning I finished it online with their video instructions (so much easier!). I was so proud of myself! I'm NOT an instructions kinda gal!

Evan loved the attention, and while he was opening presents my dad was non-chalantly whistling. Evan was searching the room for the noise, and we all weren't sure what he was doing. He was looking and twisting and completely done with the gift for the moment. We finally figured it out and pointed to Dad. Dad kept going and it was so funny to watch Evan's expression of concern turn to enjoyment and curiosity. It's so fun to see him enjoy and explore new things!

Kelton put together a game of Evan's favorite things, and so everyone had something on their back and had to guess. It was fun. We also played a "pin the ocean creature in the spot" game and had kind of a blue/green theme. Didn't take much work, and we all had so much fun celebrating Evan. I love their first birthdays the most!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!!!!!

Kimber's 4H Horse Show ~ August 8th, 2011

Kimber made State Qualifiers for a few events with her horses: BULLET (gray) and Cisco (brown). She did great! Great Job Kimber!

Taelin was on Grandpa like white on rice this day. I didn't have to worry about her at all...I knew wherever he was, she would be. She just sat at talked to him, I thought it was very ironic that it was the same show that last year made her shield him for like 8 months (she would talk through grma to him, "grma tell grpa please can i have an mnm")!

Anyways, this is our last week with them, and its making us all sad. We cry randomly.

Lagoon July 23rd

Jake's company got AMAZING price tickets (once again, we do enjoy the company benefits) to Lagoon! After a few years of not doing it since we usually visit Florida for Jacob's family (until they moved here...see below post) and get to Disney World, we thought since we had great tickets, we'd make it a family thing! Kyle and Courtney drove up with her neice Rhianna, Mom and Dad with the 4 kids came and we brought Ashley and Josh too. There were a lot of us, and next time we go, we'll have a different plan in "meeting places" so everyone can play with eachother but still get to more rides. I had a difficult day...so here's the

TICKET STORY: Kelton's shoes were soaked before we got there (we stayed at the campground and someone (talea) told him it was ok to get into the river (he's so gullable)), so I grabbed my ticket and his and we headed back to the campground through the empty parking lot since most of the people weren't there yet, we get to the campground, and no shoes for him (they were locked in the excursion and jacob had the keys in the park), so I grab Chase's shoes, we get 100 yds to the campground office and Kelton already has a blister. So, I RUN all the way back and get him socks while he hides behind a tree. :) K, So now we have socks and shoes and we're heading to get a bandaid and just wear those shoes till Lunchtime at the Park. I don't have my wallet (thank goodness i grabbed my phone), but we get to the main gate (after weaving through a 1/2 FULL parking lot) and I look into my pocket and NO TICKETS!!!! Urgh, I'm frustrated, my mind is racing and I'm so mad at myself for not doing what my mom suggested and going through the park first and exiting through the campground exit (not sure where it was, so I thought it would be faster to head back the way I knew). So, I see costumer service, I walk in a ask her what can I do, she says "NOTHING, I can sell you another ticket..." (um no thank you!) as I am crying. I call Jacob and ask him to come out...we get frustrated at eachother and I end up spazzing out and balling. I carry Kelton ALL the way back to the campground and scan the ground looking for the tickets, I stop at the campground office and see if they have it, NOPE. HONESTLY, who on EARTH would turn in a perfectly good TICKET that they can use to get in for FREE now! So, off Kelton and I go all the way back to the campground and look around, retracing our steps. No ticket. I cry, and cry. I must have looked like the world was gonna end. (it had been a fairly stressful week anyways, so some pent up stress just came streaming once I started crying) Kelton told me he didn't even care about going anymore. I told him he would love it, he hugged me and said everything would be ok (not one of my greatest moments). :) What a sweetie I have for a 7 yr old boy. My dad calls...."I'm coming, are you at the campground? I will come and we can buy you a new ticket." Something I REALLY didn't want to do! I was so frustrated and mad at myself!!!! So, we head back and try everything we can think of to get in dishonestly (rub off the stamp, go through the gate, etc.) not even thinking that someone else used it, just thinking it was lost. So, we head back to costumer service and I call Jacob again to come and bring all the other tickets. I show them all to a new lady and she finally gets the whole story instead of just shutting me down. She sees how much we paid for the others, sees me cryin again (we are 2 hours into it, you'd think i would have gained composure) and says she'll ask her boss. She talks to her boss, (the mean lady, remember?) and the boss lady says she can sell me them for the same price we bought them for ($27.95), and Jake flaps out his card right onto the counter. The boss then says casually, "for the 20 price." and the Girl at the desk thinks that means "$20", which she gives ME!!!! So, we finally get in at 12:00 instead of 10:30 like everyone else in our party....so Kelton and I hit his FIRST HUGE rollercoaster! (He was 47 1/2" and he had to be 47") He was so brave and did so well!

We had a blast the rest of the day and all the kids lasted till 11:00 PM! Evan even got to ride a few you had to have a parent for. The kids had a blast: Kelton went with Talea cause they are about the same height, Chase and Taelin were together and everyone got to have fun as a family and in mixed groups! thanks to Court and Kyle who let Jake and I head out together for the last hour! It was a blast! And thanks to everyone for coming and having so much fun. Definitely will have to be one for the tradition books!!!!

We Love WaTeR!

We LOVE water! We visited the splash park the other day, and we have been to Rexburg Rapids 4 times this summer! (only to have ONE pic because of the FuN and lack of picture taking, since I've been there alone most of the time) Kelton got his tooth removed (by Talea's foot on accident) and got $1 from the tooth fairy 2 nights later! wew, that lady must be busy busy!!!!!

Chuckers Game ~ July 17th

Jake's company offers a pizza/drink and Chuckers Game night for only $3! So, we invited Mom, Talea and Lindsay's Family to come on down! We all enjoyed a good dinner, game and my kids favorite....the mascot! My little Chase is always glued to the game, figuring out the rules and who is winning. He loves to find his age on guys' jerseys and decide who he wants to cheer for. Its so cute to see him so glued to the game and so invovled while most kids his age are playing on the stairs (which he finally did in between innings after the 5th). He was super sad when we couldn't stay till 10:00pm and let him run the field with all the other kids. The kids were all pooped out, and we had a big day the next morning. So, we ducked out early and promsied we'd do it next time. We enjoyed the night, and even Evan enjoyed the free balls and eating yummy treats. :)

Evan 11 months

The end of every month reminds me that this first year for Evan is flying by. He loves this horse. one morning while I was sleeping in for a few minutes, Kelton went down and got his horse and put Evan on it. (Kelton is such a great helper with him) We came out to squeals of laughter and Evan holding onto the ears and jumping up and down. Occasionally he will "bail" and dive off. But that just makes watching him all the more fun! We all love Evan and his firey side too. :)

July games turn to giggles

We always try to play soccer on nice evenings, because lately we have gotten WAY too many thunder/rain storms! This evening started the same way...but when Jacob works days and is up at 4:00 am and I have been trying to be a "good mommy", let me tell you by 7:00 pm we are both POOPED! So, we start out our soccer match being competitive and we do tricks, but by the 3rd or 4th goal, we let the kids take a run, and this last time we evened the field with bringing Evan out as goalie and then held him up and let him kick. Oh my goodness!!! He belly laughed the WHOLE time and it was SO funny! Then we all start to lay on the grass, get out the camera and play "low key" style.
Jake's parents came and moved here. Oma moved in with us for a week before Opa came (he drove from FL) on July 12th. But then the moving company they hired had their truck brake down and after 3 weeks, it finally came on August 3rd. It was nice to have them here to entertain the kids for the first little while, I am just not very good at asking people to help. Something I need to work on....

Bear Lake July 5-9th

So, we at the Jansen home are great at getting the exact camping spot that trashes our awnings. Last year, it was the awning on the camper, this year, we got out of a freakish 1 hour storm with nothing ruined or hurt, but our two brand new stand alone awnings were MaNgLeD! The storm came in about 3 minutes. We saw some icky clouds, but they looked like rain. Well, let me back up. We all arrived on Tuesday (my family), Lindsay and Ryun arrived later that day, mom and dad's family later that night. Corey got there on Wednesday. Thrusday morning Dad and KImber left, than Lindsay and fam on Friday morning and Corey about 2:30. We enjoyed fishing, swimming, playing cards, walks, beach time (altho we were not impressed with the beach, but then learned the water was about 100 feet IN from flood waters), and just plain relaxing.
Back to my storm story: Corey had just left, and it was almost 4:00 and we were going to go and see if they had a boat to rent for an hour or two. Jake and Chase and are the rental shed about 100 yds away. Mom, Me, Bryce and the little kids were starting to pick up chairs, toys, etc. and putting them under the trailer pop-out so we could keep everything dry. In about 30 seconds, we see Jake running and then all of a sudden a gust of wind comes. I hold onto the awnings thinking it will be over quickly, and Bryce and Mom run to their tent that wasn't staked down. We tell the kids to run into the trailer and then the party started! Wew! We got trashed, saw tornados of sand over at the beach and overall....everything that wasn't staked down went flying and what was staked down got mangled. Mom and I were in our swimsuits, so we were freezing...but in the end, we just let the awnings mangle themselves and then actually called the stores and they let us return them! Side note to anyone NOT having grown up in Idaho: When you have a severe wind storm, just take the CANVAS off your awning! Born and raised in Washington State, the worse things that come your way camping are RAIN and HAIL....hence the reason you keep your awning UP! :) So, lesson learned.

those of us here the last night, Jacob built a huge fire and we all had to keep scooting back.

kelton, keeping the fire going with his frisbee. it was almost out and he made it burst back alive

Overall, we had a great time, and altho camping with 4 little kids is hard work, we love it (right?)

HaPpY 4th of jUly!

This year, we decided NOT to try and get down to the big River celebration, but keep it closer to home. This is the last year my parents will be here, so we decided to keep it low key and attend the Rexburg Parade and have lunch up with the Choffin's. Abby and Ashley came with us. We got up there an hour early, and let the kids settle in. It always get SO crazy like 15 minutes before the parade and then we get 50 college kids that try to get in our space. Mom moved over 10 times, and more and more kids just kept sitting right on her purse! It was crazy. It wasn't too hot, and the kids got their fare share of candy. We headed to the water park "rexburg rapids" after lunch and hung out there until 5:00. It was a busy day but the kids did just great! They LOVE the water, so they stayed happy the whole day and then crashed on the way home in the car. We chilled at home and got the kids these glow sticks (from out of the laundry room, apparantly I forgot about them last year). They didn't really watch the fireworks very well, but preferred to run around and make too much noise. Half the time we were hushing them. :( Next year, we're gonna sit right under 'em so they will be amazed. Plus, Evan slept thru the whole thing in the car, so it was nice to be parked down at the church where we got to leave and not wait in all the traffic. We came home and did our little fireworks. Papa Larry got all the kids to start throwing poppers at eachother and Chase didn't even cry when he got pelted in the face. :) We enjoyed it all but was glad the day was over (until we heard crazy fireworks outside till 1:00am). Next year, we're doing our little fireworks show the night before! :) Saw some neighbors doing it, and it seems like such a great idea! :)

boy...we heart summer!

In the late of the evening, when the house gets a little hot from the sun beating in the windows from 4-6, we head outside to the front lawn where the kids can ride their bikes, use sidewalk chalk, we play soccer, let Evan scoot to his hearts content, and usually get to visit with friends that are passing by. Jake was working swings this week, so we got a low key evening to try and take some pics of the kids. Chase is in jammies, Taelin in her ripped "comfy" pants, and Evan wasn't quite happy, but hey- this is life. Unperfectly perfect. Jake and I have decided that we have parented quite the group of mini-control freaks (go figure with their parents). Each like to have life their own ways, which usually means lots of compromise and occasional bliss or lots of "loud" compromising and frustrations. I'd rather have them figure out who they are and what they want out of life now, than when I can't do much about it as teens or young adults. So, a toast to high willed children that come to us from Heavenly Father as strong and immovable. :)

Happy 5th Bday Chase!!!!!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY CHASE!

We had a fun outdoor party for Chase! We had balloons, an umbrella for shade, drinks, cupcakes and our pools/slide up. It was so much fun!! Chase was kind enough to let siblings of his friends to come which meant that Kelton and Taelin had friends too! Chase had so much fun and they all got wet and stayed cool. Altho the set up and clean up took me forever, it was worth it to see the smiles on Chase's face. He was so excited and still has an "area" in his closet for all of his presents. :) Chase is the best person to give a gift to, he gets SO excited for each and every one. Its a blast to watch him enjoy his day so much. So, after lots of popscicles and hotdogs, water fights and giggles, we call this day a huge SUCESS!!!

no more bloggin'?

So, this is on my mom's computer because mine will not let me publish anything in blogger now! urgh! Until it is fixed (which means uninstalling Internet Explorer 9),