Family Portrait 2009

We had our family pictures done again this year by Tammy Hall. We did shots of Jorden for his birth announcements, ones of the boys together and family picture for our Christmas card

Sweet brothers

3wks old-he's changes a lot already

Thanksgiving 2009

It was really nice this year on Thanksgiving to not have to drive across town. We went to my mom's house for lunch and she cooked up all my favorite Thanksgiving dishes as well as my two favorite deserts, cherry cheesecake and brownies YUM! Afterward, we were able to go home for a short while since it is so close then we went to Jeff's aunt and uncle's house in Yukon to be with his family. They had lots of yummy food too and the kids had fun playing.

Here's Jensen's annual turkey picture, he cooperated more this year ha ha. I think he outweighs it by about 30lbs

One of the few times I get my picture taken with Jorden

Grandma bought him a precious Thanksgiving outfit that we thought would be way to big but it fit perfectly. We didn't notice until we put him in the carseat that it says "little turkey" on the feet, too cute!

The day after Thanksgiving we went to storage and got our Christmas decorations then put up the tree that evening. Jensen helped with the star

I bought an ornament Jensen's first xmas that had a family of 3 penguins with our names on it. I remember last Christmas looking at it made my heart break because I felt like we were missing one and we weren't having any luck adding to our family. What a difference a year makes though! I bought our new ornament the other day with our family of 4 on it!

Happy 4th Birthday Jensen!

Jensen is getting so tall, strangers have thought he was 4 since he just turned 3 but now he is 4 and growing up fast. I started planning way ahead for his party since we were going to be having a newborn around that time. We didn't want to add any extra stress to our life so we chose to have it at Bart Connor gymnastics. We went to a party there this summer and it was great because they entertain the kids, do the cake and the presents so its easy on parents. Jensen decided he wanted the theme to be Scooby Do so I ordered plates and blow outs and he picked out his cake. Funny story with the cake though. We went to Homeland to order his cake and when we got half way through they said they didn't have the Scooby figures to go on it but if I could get some they could do the background. I told them I was going to try somewhere else and they said they would keep my order in case I didn't find one but to just call and cancel by Thurs. Another store, GFF had 3 Scooby cakes to pick from so Jensen chose the "spooky" one. Well, Sat morning I woke up and realized I forgot to cancel the other cake, shoot! I called and they had already made it so I was obligated to pick it up and pay for it. I was really kicking myself over that! It worked out though because we ended up using the whole first cake and was able to cut the second one for the remaining guests.

First the kids got to play on a bouncy slide thing, then they played with a giant parachute

The staff helped them do an obstacle course with a rope swing and things to jump and climb over. It was great physical acitivity for them.

The kids love jumping into and playing in the foam pit.

Jensen had no trouble blowing out his candles this year

Jensen had about 16 friends and lots of family come play and help him celebrate. He really is a loved little guy

He got lots of cool presents like a dragon fortress, color change hotwheels, rc forklift, and games. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

Big Bed

I haven't been blogging a much as I would like but with a newborn and a new house I'm sure everyone understands!We've been trying to get settled in and got new blinds installed throughout the house this week. That's right, installed! We didn't do it ourselves like we usually would, we went ahead and paid someone to do it and it was so nice!

We also need to get the boys' rooms organized and part of that was moving Jensen to a big boy bed. As a teenager, Jeff had a bed that had drawers and storage underneath and his parents still have it so I asked if we could let Jensen have it so he won't have to have a dresser. Then the dresser he had could go in Jorden's room so his clothes aren't in boxes anymore. So Grandma and Grandpa brought over the bed and set it up and my mom let us have one of her extra mattresses for it. Jensen was a little sad and said he didn't want to give brother his dresser but he came around and was proud to have such a big boy bed. We went to the store and he picked out Cars sheets. He still uses his little music aquarium he's had since he was born so we have to figure out how to rig that up. I guess he's not all grown up yet

Snuggling with baby brother in his new bed

Halloween 2009

Since we moved into the new house the day before, Halloween this year was a little low-key. My dad flew in from PA to stay with us so that was a nice treat. We unpacked all day then went to Jamie and Jerry's to trick or treat with the girls. It was really nice outside so Jorden got to go around the neighborhood with us. Jensen really enjoyed trick or treating this year and ran to each house. After that, we went to my mom's to see her and Aunt Carrie took Jensen to some houses in her neighborhood. He got lots of good candy and with the help of Mommy and Daddy it was gone by the next weekend!


Jensen chose to be a puppy dog this year and I got his costume on ebay. It fit everywhere else but once we got he hood on him it wouldn't stay on so it hung down his back most of the time.

He was proud to hold baby brother. I got this adorable "my first halloween" outfit for Jorden at my baby shower and I just love it

Jillian was Tinkerbell, Jensen puppy and Jenna was Snow White

Since Jensen was born a few days before Thanksgiving we have made it a tradition to take his picture with a turkey to show how much he has grown. Jorden was born right before Halloween so we are planning on doing the same with him and a pumpkin. Here is his first one, so precious!

Moving Mania

At times it seemed like this day would never come but finally it was moving day. There were a million times when we were in the middle of a mess of remodeling that I thought for sure that we would never sell our house but somehow we did it. We had a lot of worries leading up to our Oct 30th closing date since we had to be out of our house and move into the new one all in one day. Even though a lot of our stuff has been in a storage unit, we couldn't believe how much stuff we had left! We rented a 26 foot U-haul truck on Wed Oct 28th and Jeff started loading it with his garage stuff. His Uncle Terry has a heat and air business and he let us borrow one of his big trucks and his parents, brother and our friend Richard helped us fill them both Thurs night. On Friday the 30th, Jeff's parent's brought a 3rd big moving truck up and we loaded it up. We really had to hurry because the new owners were coming at 1:30 for the final walk-thru and we had to be out. It was very stressful but we pulled out of the driveway with 15 minutes left.

2 of the 3 moving trucks

Jeff and Jensen inside the big empty truck

After they got the couch loaded Jeff and Richard took a break!

26ft truck completely full!

Last family picture in front of the house on Mars

The rest of closing day was crazy too. We were scheduled to close on the old house at 2:30pm so we drove the moving trucks to the new house and parked them then rushed to closing. When we got there though, they were behind so we had to wait which was a problem because we had to close on the new house at 4pm. They got us in though and we made it just in time. Then we went straight to the new house to start unloading the 3 trucks blah!We had a lot more help on that end and it didn't take very long but we were so tired after all that! I'm glad we love our house because I do not want to do that again anytime soon!

Bringing home baby

After being in the hospital two days we came home on Friday Oct 23rd. Jensen was with my mom (Mimi) so it was just us and the baby for most of the day. It was very quiet and relaxing which is good because the days after were not!

Riding in the car for the first time

Jensen got a special gift for being a big brother. It is a big marble run and he loves it

Sweet baby All swaddled up- he doesn't seem to like his arms tucked in like Jensen did

Aunt Carrie
Jensen wasn't really interested in baby brother at first but a few days after we got home he asked to hold him. Now I have to remind him to stay out of Jorden's face because he kisses him so much.