All in a day's work

The kids and I all tried something new today:

One of Jorgen's friends snuck him a piece of gum without me knowing. Jorgen came to ask me something and I could barely understand him. I asked him what was in his mouth and this picture basically describes how he responded. Amazingly so, it fell out of his mouth before he had a chance to swallow it. I guess my child was bound to try gum sometime in his life.

I been holding my daughter back! We go to the park daily and I still have not let her have at the sand until today. If she did not have contacts, I would have let her loose a long time ago, but sand and contacts do not mix! However, the chances of her losing a contact in the sand are only slightly greater than losing it on the grass so I figured I should stop being so worried.
She loved it!

And thanks to a late night online tutorial from my sister, I cut some bangs this morning.

For the first part of the day I felt like I had a small animal nesting on my forehead but I am slowly getting used to them. Justin is still wondering where his wife went:)

Hot Air, a New Skill and a Messy Face

The past week has been interesting. We started off the week with being bundled up inside the house and enjoying the pleasant temperature outside.

Then a heat wave came! We just finished the last day temperatures in the upper 90s and all I can say is that I am thankful for our portable ac unit! It made life heavenly for us! With such hot weather outside, there is but one thing to do outside - play in the water!

Jorgen loves water but was a little hesitant with the sprinkler.

Toothy grin!

Playing at the water table with her bucket - trying to drink the dirty water!

Shelley often does this squinty-eyed smile when she's outside. I think it's soo cute!

And I'm not sure what to do about this, Shelley points with her middle finger! We need to fix this before it becomes a problem and is offensive:).

Jorgen was such a busy boy, he loved taking water over to the sand and making fun creations.

We love water!

Jorgen learned something new this week - How to spell his own name! He loves to sing so I made up a song to help him remember (J-O-R-G-E-N, that's my name! Jorgen!!! Sung to a made up tune). He also loves eating letter cookies so I make them a part of Mommy School and he learns the letters and their sounds and then gets to eat them!
Shelley is loving all sorts of new veggies! Recently she's added pureed beets, zucchini, and asparagus to her list of yummy vegetables that she enjoys. Beets make for an interesting diaper later on! But hey, we love any shade of pink, even in her diaper!

Two Fun Mom Events

Last week was a great week. We started the week with a wonderful temple trip with some other moms and their kids from our ward. One group watched the kids while the other group did initiatory and then we switched. It was fabulous! We carpooled with our lovely long lost neighbors, the Wheelwrights, and it was great catching up and spending time with them.

Shelley and Winnie had fun sharing and getting to know each other better.

The Wheelwright and Hansen kiddos.

Shelley, Monty, Harvey, Jorgen, Winnie

Jorgen was trying to steal all the limelight.

Shelley doing what Shelley does best....grabbing Jorgen's hair.

My darlings and I.

The week ended with a fun 5K race sponsored by the Young Women of another ward. A few friends, all moms, did it together and we had a blast. Here are before and after pictures:

My friend, Ashlee, that made Jorgen's bow tie just set up her etsy shop and anyone looking to buy something for a special little man should definitely consider buying one of these darling bow ties! Click here to check all the different colors out (and to see a very becoming picture of Jorgen's neck:D).

Easter

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love being able to focus on the life and sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It seems like the Easter Bunny gets more focus than Our Savior to most of the world during this special day, and I know I need to do a better job at focusing on the true meaning of Easter. I do love the egg hunts, the egg rolling contests and all the other commercial things about Easter (maybe it goes back to my childhood and wanting to be the Easter Bunny when I grew up) and I also want to do a better job at focusing not on the eggs but on Our Savior.

This Easter was wonderful! Speaking of not focusing on the eggs and the Easter Bunny, following are pictures focusing on that part of Easter, the egg hunts:).

The kids woke up to a small egg hunt downstairs. Jorgen was so cute and thoughtful; when he found eggs he would split them up between him and Shelley. What a good brother.
Shelley's first Easter.

Before church, we went to the Crowders (the same family who we babysat for during the week) for the best Easter egg hunt I've ever been to. Jorgen filled two bags full of eggs! He thought it was great! Shelley was very VERY excited about just having one egg! She just loved it!

While all the kids were busily finding eggs, the dads smothered little Shelleybean with kisses and cuddles. (I think by the look in Shelley's eyes, she's wishing she was out there with the kids hunting for eggs...though she'll take kisses from Daddy over pretty much anything, except maybe kisses from mommy;D)

Sione and his wife, Tefany, loved holding Shelley and they were so sweet with her. Sione said that most babies don't like to go to him but Shelley went right to him. How cute!Eliza and Emily helping Jorgen fill his bag to the brim!

A very handsome boy! He is wearing his new bowtie made by my friend, Ashlee. I just cannot get over how much I love little boys in bowties! Especially my little boy!

The whole crew!

A couple family pictures.

After church we went to Tom and Dixie's home for a wonderful dinner. Jorgen had fun playing with all of their grandchildren and we had fun visiting with everyone. To finish off the day, while Justin and I were upstairs putting Shelley to bed, Jorgen decided to unwrap all of the wrapping paper I had out to wrap a present. He came up stairs with all of it unraveled and so Justin wrapped Jorgen up like a present to come show me. He is always full of surprises!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. If you have not seen Elder Holland's "Mormon Message" on youtube, please check it out. It is from the most recent conference and it is simply wonderful.

Jorgen, Our Music Man

Jorgen singing more of his favorite tunes. Shelley is definitely his number one fan.

Join us for tubby time...

Jorgen and Shelley had the fun experience of bathing in a huge tub. We are babysitting some friends for the week and they have a lovely tub with jets, colored lights, and all the works-it's fabulous! Jorgen and Shelley loved it. We love watching the Crowders! They are the best kids and we have so much fun with them. Eliza was a champ tonight and helped me bath the kids, get them ready for bed, and take out Shelley's contacts (which took some effort tonight - I'm glad I had help)! What a gal! I wish I had her around all the time, especially when Justin is studying late at school. She is such a huge help!

The first song Jorgen is singing is from Enchanted and the rest are church songs. Our little Shelley is so animated these days, I think she is learning from her big brother. I love in the first video when she starts moving her head side to side while Jorgen sings. They both love to sing and dance - quite the duo! They are so funny!

Spring Break

The good thing about Justin being in school is that he gets a spring break. The bad news is that he had to go on a study trip to Columbia during that break! So we were left without a husband/daddy and thus decided to head to St. George where Justin's parents have a condo. My parents were worried about me driving alone and so they suggested inviting my Grandma along for the ride. I was so glad she said yes! Now keep in mind that my gram is turning 90 this year but she is not like any normal 90 year old. She is more energetic, capable, and agile than a lot of 70 year olds I know. She is simply amazing! She flew out here from Salt Lake City, drove with us ten hours to St. George, played and helped while we were there, and then drove back with us to California before flying back to Utah. What a woman! I could not have done it without her! Thank you, Gram!

Jorgen had so much fun reading with Gigi and playing trains with her.

While we were there, my dear friend and former mission companion, Tiffany, came to visit. She has a darling little boy, Ethan, and is expecting another baby! It was so incredibly good to see her. I miss her so much!Having fun in the pool.

My sister, Mckenzie, was in St. George with her in-laws at the same time we were there so we got to play with them for a few days as well! I wish I would have got a picture with Kenz!My fun little Jorgs!

Nana and Papa spoiled Jorgen with endless attention and also a trip to the store to buy a Thomas kite, a bat with balls, a frisbee, and a fun little dino toy. Jorgen was in heaven! Jorgen loved the baseball lessons Papa gave him and had fun flying his first kite.

Soaring high in the sky...

Crash!!!!

Another funny face.
We went to the Jacob Hamblin home.And had a fun car ride over to the Brigham Young home.Shelley was making the funniest face. It looks like she is frowning but she was not sad, just practicing her sad face. Notice an exceptionally adorable car seat in the back. She is in her new car seat and loves it - but I might love it more...it is so so so cute!
At Brigham Young's home.

Another wonderful thing about St. George is that Justin's grandparents live there. We we were able to spend a lot of time with them and it was so much fun. They are an amazing couple!!!

Shelley learned a new trick while we were at the condo: She can stand alone without holding on to anything. In this picture, she is barely touching the ottoman, I do not have an actual picture of her standing alone. Shelley loved all of the space to crawl and explore.

What a pair! They had so much fun but they missed their daddy terribly! As did I!!

Our last night there we had dinner with the Gustavesons. We grew up with them and it was so fun seeing them and catching up. Sandy was an adopted aunt of mine and her kids were like cousins!

Holly, Me, and Heather

Heather's daughter, Emma, and Jorgen giving us their cheesy grins.

The drive home went well and we were welcomed by some undiscovered mold in the closet under the stairs! YUCK!!!!!! Maintenance came the next day and delt with it. Turns out, it had been growing for awhile but had dried up. It's in a place that we never go and is used for storage. It borders our outside walls that do not see the sun and where rains puddles. The perfect storm! I was so glad when they fixed it, however, there is still much to be done to prevent it from coming back next year during the rainy season. Hopefully they'll get on top of it because I do not want this stuff growing back! Sick, sick, sick!

Justin had his fair share of fun as well. His study trip to Columbia was busy and interesting. He met with the President of Columbia, Commanding General of the Military, the Minister of Defense, and CEOs from five or six different companies. Here are a few pictures, with more on the way...

San Felipe, a fort in Cartagena.
The Spaniards built it to protect their gold from Sir Francis Drake (who had previously laid seige to the city and took gold).

Justin and his good friend, John, riding horses in one of the coffee regions.

The home of one of the CEOs for a high tech beverage company. The military has a Black Hawk helicopter in that valley and if there is an attack on his home he calls them and they'll be there within 5-10 minutes.

Cute little piglets from that above home/farm.

More pictures to come...