Shooting and Standing

Last month Elle participated in a little photo shoot for a local company to market their products. We were lucky enough to do it with my friend Amy and her girl, Paige, who is Elle's little friend, we had a lot of fun. Elle did pretty well at cooperating except that she always seemed to have the concerned, panicky, look on her face. I don't know why she won't just show the camera her amazing and friendly grin, probably just stubborn.




Elle is going to be walking anytime now! She has been moving around for awhile but just in the last few days she has been standing on her own and feeling pretty confident and proud of herself.

I am also wondering if she is following in her sister's footsteps because all day long she just talks and talks! The funny thing though is that when she is around anyone else she is pretty quiet, except for always saying hi to whoever walks by, she is SO FRIENDLY, I am sure she gets that from Alexis too! But I don't think people believe me that she really does talk and say specific words!

Daddy/Daughter Date

Jonathan and Alexis went on their first official Daddy/Daughter Date to see Princesses on Ice. Needless to say Alexis was in heaven and loved every second of it! It looks like it was a lot of fun, I am kind of sad I missed it, but it was such a great memory for Jonathan and Alexis.

At least I got Halloween pictures up before Thanksgiving!

I knew I could make it before Thanksgiving! I have seriously been such a slacker in putting up on Halloween pictures and I apologize (sorry Jill).

This is how we carve pumpkins at our house! It makes for a great family activity, can't you tell from the picture!?

(Jonathan working on pumpkins, Elle & Alexis eating and watching tv, and I am just trying to keep everyone happy!)

(Tinkerbell and Spongebob Squarepants. These are how the pumpkins turned out, isn't Jonathan talented!?)

(Ariel, Little Mermaid)

(Tinkerbell)

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's again this year to trick or treat and have yummy chili and sugar cookies. Alexis, Elle, Grandma, Aunt Jordan, and I all went trick or treating together, we had a lot of fun together. It was perfect, we went out for about an hour and then Alexis said she was ready to go back to Grandma's and pass out the candy. I think it's safe to say she enjoyed that even more than trick or treating!

(This is where Alexis sat to wait for everyone to come to the door!)

Jensen Family Pictures

We also had family pictures taken recently, again Elle was not liking the idea very much and wasn't too cooperative. But thanks to my Dad, who is so nice to take our pictures, we got some good ones.



It is nice to have my Dad so talented, he is always great to work with, especially because my kids respond very well to Grandpa taking their pictures and Grandma acting silly behind him to make them smile! It definitely is a group effort!

My Girls

We had pictures of the girls taken recently so I thought that I would post a few. Elle was not in the best of spirits, but I think we still have some good ones.

I can't believe how big they are! It happens so fast!

Pearl Jammin!

"The Twins"

Those who know me well know that I am a huge Pearl Jam fan. So much so that Michelle claims that I love them more than her (I don't but it's close). It has been 11 long years since they have played in Utah. During that time I have traveled all over the Western United States to see them play (Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boise, and Las Vegas (twice).

Eddie Vedder - and yes I took this picture.

On Monday night Pearl Jam finally returned to our great state at the E Center and of course I was there! My twin Brother Gavin went with me (We went to our first Pearl Jam concert 11 years ago together also.) and we had an awesome time. We were lucky enough to get basically 3rd row seats and had a great view of the entire show. It is two days after the show and I am still on a high. I just hope I don't have to wait 11 more years for them to return to Utah. Also, please check out their new album Backspacer which is excellent.

Click to listen to a song sample from Backspacer:

Just Breathe
Amongst The Waves
Unthought Known

The Fixer

Elle turned 1

(thanks to Amy Creer for the design! this was also used for her invites! she is amazing!)

We have been celebrating all weekend long for Elle's 1st birthday. On Thursday, her official birthday, we opened presents when Jonathan came home for lunch. Elle didn't understand much of it, but Alexis sure did and enjoyed opening all of the presents for Elle.

(she LOVED "chattering Elmo"! She won't let this out of her sight!)

That night we took the girls to get ice cream and balloons to try and celebrate her actual birthday since her big party wasn't until Sunday. It was a lot of fun to just have our own little family celebration with the 4 of us on her birthday.

And then came the big celebration on Sunday night. My parent's allowed us to use their home to host the party (thanks mom and dad) and we were lucky enough to have almost all of our family and close friends there to help celebrate with Elle.

Jonathan made a great video with photos and music to document the first year of her life. It is amazing to see how quickly they grow up and change. We opened up presents, which I thought she would be a little more helpful with, but it ended up being just me doing that.

Then it was cake time! She devoured that cake! I have never seen someone love something so much, not to mention she stayed focused on eating it for about 20 minutes.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for coming, supporting and loving our family and girls.

Elle is such an amazing little girl, and probably the happiest, most pleasant, and loving girl I have ever met. We have loved every minute of this first year of her life and it is getting more and more fun each day to watch Alexis and Elle start to learn how to play together. We are so lucky to have her in our family and she has definitely given us lots of good laughs and memories already. We love you Elle!

Update on the Jensen household!

I have a few things to update on the blog, but mostly just pictures to post, so this is going to be a brief catch up.
We had a blast checking out the new Pirate Island Pizza in Orem.

Good scary face Alexis!

As you can see Alexis had a hard time convincing Jonathan that it was her turn to play the game!

The Utah County fair was in Spanish Fork this year, I was excited to go and see all of the animals. We were able to see and do so many fun things, the kids had a blast, especially since we convinced Grandma to go with us! As you can see Alexis was fine with petting the animals, but she did not think it was a very good idea for me to hold this baby goat!

Alexis got this dollhouse for her birthday and I think that Elle plays with it just as much as Alexis does. This is usually where you can find her playing for most of the day!

Our plastic, hard swimming pool finally died on us at the beginning of the summer. We finally bought a new pool and the girls love it! Elle thinks it is amazing that she can "swim" in the pool by herself.

Alexis had her 1st day of her 2nd year of preschool a few weeks ago! It couldn't have come soon enough for her and for me too! She loves school!! She is in a new school this year with a new teacher and of course my little social, independent little girl adjusted the first day! (She was so bugged that she had to bring me along on her first day!)

Elle is now crawling up a storm and pulling herself up on everything and anything to get herself moving around! She is finally now crawling "normal", and has already had her first injury to the face when she fell into the bookcase.

And to end the Jensen household update her is a picture of my cute girls enjoying their bath time together! They are such good friends already, I love to see it!

She's 4 and proud of it!

(it says, "Happy 4th Birthday Princess Alexis Jensen")

Alexis turned 4 years old on Saturday and is so proud to tell everyone how old she is now! We had a fun day filled with lots of birthday fun!

The festivities began on Friday afternoon when Alexis & I went to have some "girl time". The local hair school has a "birthday package" where they do her hair, nails, and toenails. This was her first time having someone pamper her like this and she loved every minute of it. It is so fun now that she is getting older and I am realizing all of the fun "girl" things I will be able to enjoy with my 2 girls!

(All finished! Doesn't she look so old!?)

That night she stayed up late helping us make the "Tinkerbell" cupcakes for her birthday and boy was she helpful! She woke up the next morning and went with Jonathan to pick out donuts and chocolate milk (her favorite breakfast) and put the finishing touches on her party cupcakes. We then headed to Orem for her little party.


We invited some family friends, the Chases and Creers, and Grandma and Grandpa to come and party with us starting at McDonalds for lunch and then over to Chuck E. Cheese for playing. The kids went crazy using all of their tokens for games and then picking their prizes with the tickets they earned. (Even Elle tried to get in on the fun!)


Alexis always seems to be so excited about her birthday and wears herself completely out before the morning is over that she is grumpy and needs some "down time". So after Chuck E. Cheese we headed home for some much needed rest time before our next birthday event.

Now it was time for dinner and Alexis didn't care where we went she only wanted pizza. So we picked California Pizza Kitchen and enjoyed some yummy pizza there as a family. And off to the Orem Owlz baseball game with a bunch of our family! Alexis loves to go to these games and it is nice because they are cheap and we can sit on the grass so the kids can run around as much as they want. My parents, brother & sister came as well as Jonathan's mom and a bunch of Alexis' cousins.

We figured this was the perfect end to Alexis' birthday because she loves to be with her family and it couldn't have worked out better because there were fireworks after the game that we convinced Alexis were done just for her birthday!

(exhausted after a long day, but she refused to let go of her presents!)

Thank you to all of our friends and family who were able to help us celebrate our little Alexis' birthday! She is such a joy to have in our family and I am excited to see all of the things she is learning. She is incredibly smart and has overcome some obstacles with her hearing loss that a lot of other kids don't have to worry about, but her amazing, social personality has definitely helped her through the doctors visits, hearing tests, speech therapy, etc. We are so proud of her and can't wait to see what this year brings!