Simply Utah

A few months back, my sister Leslie and I decided to create a business together. We named our business Simply Utah and today we are launching www.simplyUT.com! We are so excited about what Simply Utah has to offer. We've found that it's really difficult to find local online businesses that are mainly owned by mom's just like us. We know there a so many people out there who are talented and create amazing products and do various services; we just want to know how to find them!
We're excited to have a directory, feature a new company every day and also team up with the local boutiques and shows so that everyone knows where they can go to find these great vendors and their products in person. We hope that everyone will check out our site, refer someone who would like to be in our directory or on our feature page and use Simply Utah for their shopping needs.
Enjoy!

Nobody's in here...

Whenever we leave the house, we put our little dog, Bear, in his little kennel in the laundry room. And every time we pull onto our street Libby YELLS, "I"M GETTING BEAR OUT!" And so it's pretty routine at our house to let her get the dog out. The same ritual happened today, but I noticed that after about 15 minutes, I still hadn't seen the dog or Libby for that fact. As I walked to the laundry room, I couldn't hear a thing, but noticed the door was closed. "Where were they?", I wondered. So I quietly opened the laundry room door and this is what I saw. I actually had my camera in hand because I was playing around with it, so I took this picture. Then this voice yelled out, "Nobody's in here!" Total out of site out of mind! So there she sat under the blankie and in her own little world, doing who knows what, with her best little buddy Bear...and life was good!
(I love how the blanket even says her name on it!)

Sagey Poo is 8

My girls are getting older and so this just means one more thing...I'm getting older!How does this happen? Sage is 8 today and when I think of Sage all I can do is smile. :) Sage is carefree and easy going. She really reminds me a lot of myself as a kid. Especially the messy bedroom! :)
We love Sage and all of her unselfish acts she does every day. We love her hugs, her giggle when she's excited about something, and her sense of adventure. Sage is a friend to everyone and oh how I love that girl! Happy B-day Sage!

Our traditional birthday breakfast in bed!

!

Sage celebrated her birthday at the bowling ally with a few of her friends. It was so fun to see all of the kids having such a great time being together. I love watching all of these kids growing up.

Sage got an ipod for her b-day and it takes video. Can't wait to watch that video! :)

We bought Sage her baptism dress today and she is so excited to be baptized.
Age 8 is a great age! Love you Sagey!

Shane flies

First of all, sorry for the blurry photos. Shane snagged the camera on the way out, but didn't realize the memory stick was still in the computer. Oooops! So these were taken with a high quality phone camera. Nice!
Shane's employees gave him a certificate last year for this iFLY indoor skydiving. Since the end of the year is upon us, it was about time he use it. The girls and I watched and loved it. We all want to have our turn. Next time! It was so cool and maybe if I did it I could cross off skydiving off of my Bucket List. Would that count?

The wind tunnel is 45 feet high and his instructor did all kinds of cool acrobatics in the tunnel. Good times, good times!

Top of Snowbird

Kate, Sage, Ann and Shelby

Last weekend our good friends the Barkers invited us to head to Snowbird for the day. They were collecting food for the Food bank and if you brought a can of food, you could ride the tram up to the top for free. Can't beat that can you?

Lexi and one of her many boyfriends, Jarom.

Ski season is right around the corner... :)

I love October

Mom and Dad, the Gypsies. Dad took 2nd place!

Grandpa Hammond even made an appearance this year! Even sported a costume! :)

Scott and Julieanne, the gay couple, brought home 1st place. You just had to see this one in person to really get the full effect. So great...

The Bess Family...love this fam!

Why do I love October? It really just might be my most favorite month of the year. The weather is cooler, fall is everywhere (which is my favorite season), football games every weekend, the World Series which, most of the time, I don't care who wins, I just love the series, and of course, Halloween! I love Halloween! I love the school parties, neighborhood parties, church get togethers and last but not least, our annual family Halloween costume party. My sister host this party every year with yummy food and great prizes for the costume contest. This year our family decided that Shane should be Michael Jackson and the girls and I would dress up as zombies from the video "Thriller". My kids were so excited and wanted to even take it one step further, so after some searching on You tube, we found a quack of a guy who taught us steps from the Thriller video. So, one Friday night the girls and I spent a good part of the night practicing and working out the moves to Thriller. Sooooooooo FUN! I'm not a dance, never have been, never will be. No matter how hard I try. Even those tap dance lessons were a crock, fun but more of a laugh fest. Anyhow, we had a great time with our Halloween costumes this year and Shane ended up taking 3rd place. Another successful year for the Jensens! Until next year...
Michael Jackson and the zombies...love my girls!

To do better...

Have I really been this big of a slacker with my blogging? AHhhhhhh! Let's just say today is a new day and I'm vowing to myself to do better. So here's to a new start of blogging the Jensen clan....

What do you do after school when it's still HOT?

You fill a cooler up and use it as a swimming pool with your best buddies!

Then you dance a little, shakin' your bootie,

and you sit and relax in a nice little cooler for two!
(They'll love this photo when they're 16, won't they?)

My auto focus was acting up so sorry for the in and out of focus parts. I think these kids are a riot!

She's out the door running!

Lexi was chomping at the bit to get out the door today for her first day of kindergarten. Aren't most little 5 year olds a little timid, a little scared, a little something? Not my little Lexi. She's ready and willing to face whatever comes her way.

At breakfast Sage was telling her that all the big boys sit in the back of the bus and Sage said they like to squish you if you sit next to them. Lexi in all seriousness said to Sage, "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it!" What does that mean? I know she's in Tae Kwon Do, but does she think she can take out the big boys? Man, she is so funny! Shane then proceeded to tell her that she can't punch kids at school. She argued a little and I think she began to understand the concept so I sure hope I don't get a call today from her teacher. :)

She waited to be the last one on the bus, so I got this great photo of her. She also didn't want me to come to the school to see her, but I ended up tagging along with my friend Camille to see our little ones before they went into school.

Lexi had to fill out a get to know you paper for her first day. Check out some of her answers:
Favorite food: Broccoli soup (so most 5 year olds like broccoli?)
Favorite color: Black (Really? Black?)
Favorite thing to do in spare time: Relax with my mom (No coaching by me on this one. She really is tenderhearted and my biggest snuggler)

So she's out the door running off to her first day of kindergarten. No looking back for Lexi!
Love you Lexi Lou!

2nd Annual Amazing Race

This last weekend we participated in our friends' 2nd annual Amazing Race and it was so incredibly AWESOME! I must first say that my friend Caran and I should receive the award for looking the most ridiculous(okay, maybe Brian Byrge out did us with his orang mohawk), but what the heck, we weren't going to win, so we were out to just have fun! We were paired with our friends Scott and Caran Leeds and we had such a great time.

We started the race in Daybreak and had to complete a really challenging mind puzzling game. rom there we were sent to the lake at Daybreak where we had to canoe in pairs to different docks around the lake and find sticks at the dock with our team color and numbered 1-4. The catch was the first pair out had to bring back sticks 1 and 2 and the 2nd pair out had to bring back 3 and 4. I don't think I've been canoeing since I was 13 at Girls Camp, so it was great! From there we headed to a pool and we had to jump off a 30 foot platform high dive. Talk about YIKES! I so wish I would've had my camera for that one. There's a real fear of heights out there and it was amazing to see people TERRIFIED, but yet force themselves off the ledge. It was Awesome!

The next clue took us to ride horses through these poles in less than 30 seconds and 2 members of our team had to rope the steer. Who knew that my husband knew how to rope? He nailed the first two he tried! He's a natural! I was on the horse and he kind of had a mind of his own...or maybe I just didn't know how to ride him...either way, it sure was fun.


We had to ride bikes along the Jordan Parkway, find garden gnomes (btw, what's with gnomes and the Amazing Race? They were apart of our Amazing race at our family reunion too?:), we had to go to a house and play Rock band. 2 people had to play on medium and 2 people played on easy. Then we ended the day out at Utah Lake. We had to ride a water weenie and stay on for a total of 60 seconds or ride wave runners and find things out in the lake and bring them back. AMAZING!!!!
This was a truly amazing race with so much preparation put in by those who put it together for us. We had such a great time! I love having such fun friends and creating these lasting memories with them. We did come in last, but hey, there's always next year!


Aren't we a couple of hotties? lol

Back to School

Summer has come and gone and wow...the kids started school this week. We are in the boundaries of a new school and so this year is full of changes for our kids. New school, new friends, buses, and school is now from 9-4 instead of 8:30-3:30. All in all, we can't complain!

Shelby has adjusted quite well. She has lots of friends from our neighborhood in her class, which has made the adjustment smooth for her. Sage on the other hand has had a little more anxiety about the changes. She was great the first day, but when the second day rolled around, the alligator tears began rolling. I felt so sad for her that morning as I had to watch her walk onto the bus while she quietly wiped those big fat tears off her cheek. And then I could just see her silhouette through the tinted bus windows as she continued to wipe those tears. Talk about a heart breaker as a mom! It appears that everyday is getting a little easier for her. Let hope so!

Lexi Lou starts Kindergarten on Thursday and that will have to a post in and all by itself! Although, she has already informed me that she will be riding the bus to school and back and that she doesn't need me. Is that true? She doesn't need me anymore? (sniff sniff) I guess I've come to expect that from little Lex. We'll see how brave she really is.

July 4th fun

I have promised the girls since last year that I would take them to participate in the Riverton Fun Run for the 4th of July. I was exhausted from being at TREK all week, but stuck to my promise and took Shelby and Sage and Libby because she was awake. I threw in the stroller and we were off. I should have known, but just after the first 200 feet Sage started complaining about her legs being tired. "We just started," I would say to her, trying to show compassion, and then tried to encourage her to keep running. Then I made her sit in the stroller for a second but Libby was getting mad and began screaming and kicking her. I'm sure we were quite the site! Sage ran for a little more and then we made it out to Redwood Road and I had her sit on the front of the jogging stroller and I started running and pushing the stroller. She for some reason decided to put her legs down and BOOM- Sage did a face plant right there on the road and since I was running, Libby and I ran right over the top of her. Are you kidding me? I couldn't help but laugh a little. Thank goodness she wasn't that hurt, just a little shook up. So being the competitor I am and realizing that we had ended up in last place at that point, I was determined to finish the race not in last place. I told Sage to pick up her feet and to start running. We were getting so close. Then of course, she got a bloody nose.(She gets them all the time) I luckily had one tissue in the stroller and I told her to park it in the stroller and we were going to finish, bloody nose or not! So off we went and we finished that stinkin' race with a bloody nose, scrapped knees and screaming 2 year old that just sat in the stroller the entire time. That's how we started the 4th! Good times, good memories! I was proud of Shelby for running her little heart out and for Sage for pushing to the end. We will prevail, right Sage?

We hadd breakfast over in Daybreak with Shane's family and then we were off to run some errands, clean up some more from TREK and do a little yard work. We saw "Ice Age"at the movie theater with the Besses and then came home to get ready for the fireworks. I love going to Riverton Park to watch the fireworks. It's so much fun to be there with family and friends.

Shelby and Grandpa just chillin'!

Sage and her friend Emma.

Me and my two buddies, Laney and Libby.

Again, good times, good memories!

TREK

Shane and I had one of the greatest opportunities this last week. We went on TREK with our stake as part of the food committee. I have always wanted to go, but when I was YW Pres a few years back they didn't allow the youth leaders to go and I was so bummed. So this year we were asked to help with the food so we jumped on board. Being a part of TREK was such an awesome experience for me. It was something I needed spiritually.

The picture above is of our 5th wheel loaded to the max with 40 coolers and bread and rolls and paper towels and everything else that we needed. We also had our 4 wheeler trailer there with boxes of potatoes and apples and cantaoupe and watermelon and whatever else you need to feed 300 people in 4 days.We cooked 3 meals a day. Some were for all 300 people and some were just for the support staff of 60. We were exhausted at the end of the day and slept out under the stars and we were woken every morning by cows mooing or the seagulls. It was beautiful! There were 4 couples in our committee and we had so much fun together. Good times!

We participated in the women's pull and I gained a new appreciation for the pioneer women and all that they endured with their journeys across the plains. I pulled and pulled with a family up this enormous hill and was completely spent when we got to the top. I walked to try to regain my strength and breath when I saw Shane walking toward me and I broke down. I began sobbing like a baby. It was such an emotional experience to push myself to such a point of exhaustion but to think about those women who did this with their little children along the way, without the support of their husbands and sons. My tears were for them and it was then that I knew for myself that I can and will endure anything that comes my way. Those pioneer women give me strength to endure! My struggles are simple but I will always remember this experience and will always draw strength from this experience and these pioneer women.
I'm thankful for the time we spent on TREK. I loved being with my husband and our friends and enjoying the outdoors together. If I get a chance again down the road, I will definitely go again!