Everything Jensen

It was a very Merry Christmas in the Jensen household this year. For starters, Adelaide let us sleep in until 6:15 am.   An amazing present from our early-riser! We’re also very excited to have Melinda’s parents sharing the holidays with us.  And, we were able to Skype Matt's little sister, Kristin, who is serving a mission in Frankfurt, Germany. Kristin really glowed with happiness when she spoke about all she's been doing. We're so proud of her. Grandparents! Kristin! (Left) We imagined that Adelaide would be filled with glee and delight at seeing all the brightly colored packages under the tree. Actually, there was a bit of a panic. Adelaide’s Fisher-Price nativity has been set-up under the tree for the past month, and she was beside herself to see strange boxes and bags in its place. Fortunately, she quickly located it on the shelf right next to the tree. Yes, they are all still there. We improvised on the fireplace. It didn’t take long for Adelaide to ...

Up until now, almost every baby or child item we owned, with the exception of Adelaide’s clothing, has been “neutral.”  Shades of green and yellow dominate our nursery and toy shelves. Now that we have a confirmed second girl on the way, we felt it wouldn’t be out-of-place to feminize things up a bit. After all, we'll have at least two daughters to use our girlie doo-dads. Oh, we started small…with some pink sippy cups from the Disney Store. Where did my dinosaur cup go?  Those went over well, so we did the next logical thing. We ramped it way up! Armed with a gallon of purple paint from Home Depot and visions of sugar and spice – we set about to create Adelaide a toddler room that knew no neutral ground. We put in several very late nights this week to get it finished, but we’re pretty pleased with the results. Adelaide loves playing in the new room, though we haven’t transitioned her over from the nursery quite yet. Still need a few finishing touches (like a safety ...

Adelaide’s day didn’t start out great. Her reoccurring cough, well, reoccurred and she had to get picked up early from day care to go home for some treatments on her nebulizer. Yuck! She even missed singing time, so sad. But, her day got considerably better when the postman delivered a package from her Granny (Melinda’s grandma).  It wasn’t a Christmas present – it was a “just because we love you” package. And, aren’t those the best kind, especially on bad days? After helping Mommy open the box, Adelaide was overjoyed to discover a new baby doll. Usually, our boxes are from Amazon and have boring things inside like diapers and wipes. Playing with her new doll. Mom and Dad were very impressed with Adelaide’s nurturing skills. She was very sisterly. We purposely choose the word “sisterly” and not “maternal.” After feeding the baby, giving it a hug, and kissing its head, Adelaide shoved it off the couch and laughed. Yep, that’s a sister! Remind us not to leave her unattended with...

It’s hard to believe it’s almost December! Maybe that’s because the weather has been so warm lately. This weekend, we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s while touring DC with Justin and Christopher. Perfect day to see the sights... and run around on the National Mall. Justin and Christopher were so much fun to have around! We think they went above and beyond as houseguests when they moved a queen bed from our third floor to the basement. Thanks guys! We were also excited to put our Christmas decorations up this weekend. Say what you want about encroaching on Thanksgiving – but one month just doesn’t seem like a long enough time to celebrate Christmas. Matt and Adelaide were up early on Black Friday to hit an important sale. They rushed out to join the (small) crowd at Home Depot. The competition was (not so) fierce, but they were able to score a light timer for our Christmas lights. Melinda was thrilled by their success, as the thought of crawling under the Christmas tree to plug it ...

On Sunday, we asked Adelaide what she was grateful for and without hesitation she answered, “Elmo…Dadda.” It was a good start to a long list of things that our family is so thankful for this Thanksgiving and year round! Our adorable daughter, another little girl on the way, loving family, amazing friends, good jobs, a beautiful home, and so much more. We are so blessed! This Thanksgiving, we are so lucky to have two of Matt’s cousin visiting us. Christopher is up from Fort Eustice, and Justin flew out from Boise, ID. Adelaide has been a little shy with having two new friends in the house. But, not shy enough that she doesn’t try to steal their water cups when they aren’t looking. Yes! Matt's turkey shirt made its annual appearance. Adelaide was also festive with her turkey dress. Adelaide was a big help when it came to making dinner. Everything Mom did on the counter-top was mimicked on the floor – where Adelaide had a wooden spoon, mixing bowl, and whisk. Yum! The two chefs a...

We love carving pumpkins, and usually go all out. Typically, we carve our pumpkins a few days before the main event. We’re not sure if it’s the quality of the pumpkins or the humidity here in Virginia. But, in recent years, our sculptured squashes have quickly spoiled and folded in on themselves – not lasting to greet the trick-or-treaters. This year we forced ourselves to wait until the night before Halloween for the Jensen carving party. Adelaide was pretty excited about the pumpkins when we bought them, especially the little, “Adelaide-sized” pumpkin. But, she was much less enthusiastic when she found out we were going cut them open and stick our hands inside of them. Hanging out with pumpkins, good times. Wait...why did we cut it open? Ew, Ew, Ew! No, No, No! I guess we can’t blame her. If we put our thumbs in our mouths as often as Adelaide does….we probably wouldn’t want to stick our hands in weird sticky pumpkin goop either. So, for Adelaide’s pumpkin, we broke out some mor...

This morning at the Falls Church Farmer’s Market, one of the vendors told us that this was the first time it had snowed in Virginia in October since the Civil War. Now, random teenage fruit vendors complaining about frostbite to get out of work are probably not entirely reliable sources. Nevertheless, snow at this time of year is unusual. We seized on the opportunity to test out Adelaide’s new snowsuit from Grandma and Grandpa Parker. Adelaide loved playing in the “snow”…such that it was, which is to say, not much. Adelaide likes wearing puffy outfits  as much as Melinda likes putting her in them. Yo! What up snow? This is Puff Laidey. Waterproofed Style The forecast says our weather will be warming up next week. So, this was only a short winter preview. While we are looking forward to snowballs and snowmen in months to come, for now we’re happy to get back to enjoying our comfy sweaters and autumn leaves.

Adelaide is much too young to understand Halloween, pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating. But, she’s never one to turn down an opportunity to wear a super hero cape either. So, she was pretty excited when we dressed her up for our church’s Halloween party earlier tonight.   Mommy and New Sister wore a costume too! Thanks to Melinda’s Mom for sending us this cool shirt. Adelaide spent most of the party chasing down renegade balloons. We're pretty sure she was trying to live up to the valiant super hero image - making sure no unsuspecting party-goer was... umm.... bothered by the decorations. No balloon can escape... She also really enjoyed doing the cakewalk. What could be more fun then marching in circles with a bunch of other kids? She found out when she won a cupcake. She was one happy girl!  She was pretty good at walking in that circle. The Sweet Taste of Victory! While Adelaide tore around the room vanquishing balloons and dev...