TAWZER TIMES

I love St. George!

2012-01-23T21:01:00.004-07:00

Golden's Great Grandma had her 90th birthday in January, so Grandma and Grandpa Tawzer threw a big 90th birthday part for her, which kind of was a family reunion! Last minute, we decided to drive down, and we had a BLAST! I only took 2 pictures. Sad, I know. I'm completely regretful that I didn't take a million pictures of us with the whole family. Anyways, we love our family, and we really love St. George! Here is a picture of Jensen on the drive down. He did so great on the drive, he actually liked being in the car all day.

This picture of Jensen and Tieden by Grandma and Grandpa Tawzer's house, at their neighborhood clubhouse basketball court. All the big boys were shooting hoops, and the little kids were running around. So fun!

This isn't in St. George, but we recently went over to Grandma Wanlass' house to see how she is doing, she turned 85 (I think?) on Christmas day and we didn't get a chance to see her on her birthday. This is Golden's mom's mother. She is the sweetest woman. I love her. Her and I finished a difficult puzzle together, it was sweet :)

My little best friends and I. The loves of my life. Silly time before bed.

The Dentist

2012-01-23T20:38:00.009-07:00

We have a great pediatric dentist in town and Jensen went to the dentist for the first time. He did so great. Everyday since then, which was a couple weeks ago, he asks to go to the dentist so they can brush his teeth. It cracks me up. He laid there and let them clean his teeth for a good 15 minutes. When they were done, they gave him a goody bag and he was really happy. I was a proud mama, for sure!

Here are the boys playing!

Pinterest Fun

2012-01-23T19:58:00.011-07:00

Since I found this homemade laundry detergent recipe on Pinterest, I have been quite excited about it. I saw it all over Pinterest months ago but never re-pinned it because I prefer liquid detergent and not powder for our HE front loader machine. But a few of my friends started making it and raving about it, so I started to consider it. I decided to give it a try and now I am completely sold. It cost less then $2o for about 9 months worth of detergent. Which will save us about $250-$300. Detergent is expensive and this cost practically nothing to make. Yay for saving money!! Golden is quite proud of me :) He's always telling me to take up coupon and stuff like that, ha! You can find the detergent recipe and instructions HERE.

My husband got me a new kitchen toy for Christmas, I am VERY excited about this. She is my new baby, and she has yet to be named. But boy have we been eating good since this baby entered our lives!! I have been able to successfully create MANY foods, and I am so excited to use it for years to come! It took 4 years of marriage to finally be worthy enough get one! ha! And he completely surprised me, my husband, a man who does NOT buy gifts...he did GOOD. Kudo points for LIFE.

Alright, I didn't make this with the kitchenaid but I had some leftover turkey from a roasted turkey we had for dinner, and so I decided to make a full sized turkey pot pie. Turned out SO good! Don't worry! I'm posting links to all of the stuff I'm making, so you can make it too!! The recipe I used to make this turkey pot pie can be found HERE. I might have switched a few things, but this is still the base recipe i used.

Here is a recipe I found on Pinterest that I am VERY excited about. Homemade french bread. I swear it is MUCH better than the grocery store french bread (I love albertson's french bread, we buy it often). I've already made this a couple times and we gobble it all up very quickly. Gosh, now I want some right now! The recipe can be found HERE.

The best chocolate chip cookies EVER. Which I think is the actual name of them, "Best chocolate chip cookies ever". They were perfectly chewy and fluffy. Not flat, but not too puffy. They were VERY good. I like to make big batches of them now and keep the dough in the freezer for a cookie dough snack or to bake some up when we want some, without the mess! The recipe can be found HERE. Enjoy!

One of Jensen's favorite foods is BAGELS. Seriously. He is obsessed with store bought bagels. Well, I saw a recipe on Pinterest and thought I might try it! They tasted SO GOOD but they look half deformed! It is kind of hard to form bagels, you wrap the dough around your hand, put the seam, facing down, on your palm, and roll the bagel against the counter to connect the seam. Lets just say...practice makes perfect. So, my next batch will probably look a lot better. The recipe was really great though! The recipe can be found HERE.

4 years!

2012-01-23T19:50:00.003-07:00

Golden and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on December 29th! His sweet mom watched the boys and we went out and had such a FUN date together. I can honestly say that we are much more in love now than we were when we married, which is hard to believe. We have been having so much fun together lately. It's amazing what laughter can do to a relationship. I think it's so important to make time to have fun and laugh together, and keep that flirty vibe between the two of you. It really keeps positive energy around. I'm so excited for the year 2012, we have SO much to look forward to this year!! AND....our next anniversary is the BIG 5!! Exciting! Here is a little pic of us in the car on our way home from our date :)

Christmas!

2012-01-23T19:01:00.008-07:00

We had a great Christmas! It went by way too fast. Jensen was so excited for the weeks leading up to it. We didn't take very many pictures because we were too busy having fun. But we did get some fun ones of Jensen. Also, my sister-in-law Aubri was up in Rexburg right before Christmas, and so Jensen and his cousin Jaidyn got to decorate some Christmas cookies together. It was so cute!

Christmas Crafts

2012-01-23T18:55:00.008-07:00

I got into some Christmas crafting early in December. Here are a few of the projects I had fun with. THANK YOU PINTEREST!

^I got the idea for this wreath HERE. Below: I found these cute trees tutorial HERE.

The Boys' Birthdays

2012-01-23T18:18:00.018-07:00

My babies had their birthdays in December! Time is going by TOO TOO fast. Jensen turned 3 and Henry turned the BIG 1! They had a great time. We celebrated both of their birthdays on Henry's day. We started out by driving to Idaho falls to have lunch and take Christmas cookies to the firefighters (Jensen's request!). That night, Golden's family came over and it was a very memorable, perfect evening with our family. Jensen and Henry were very happy boys with their new toys. They both had their birthday doctor appointment a few days before, and Henry weighed 24lbs and Jensen weighed 40lbs. Big boys! They were both in the 90s percentile for height. Tall boys! Happy Birthday to my babies. Here are some pics of the fun day we had...

I got the idea for these hilarious angry birds balloons on Pinterest.

HERE is the recipe for these awesome Christmas swirl cookies!!! I had 2 recipes to choose from, they were similar but different and I almost went with this other recipe, you can find it HERE. They both will probably be successful, but I used the recipe from the first link and they turned out a little crumbly, but VERY good. Heck, how could BUTTER cookies, NOT be good!? Mmm!

Here are a couple pictures of Jensen on his day! Golden worked that day but we were able to go out to lunch as a family. Jensen wanted to go play and get chicken nuggets and an ice cream cone!

date night

2011-11-09T20:03:00.004-07:00

Saturday we spent the day with Golden's mom and his younger siblings. Then, Golden's mom stayed with the boys so golden and I could go on a date! We haven't gone on one in a while, so we were so happy to get out of the house!

My man drinking something yummy. We weren't hungry for dinner but we went to applebees and got drinks and appetizers. It was really fun to relax and not worry about the boys. Then, we went to walmart (Yes, i know, i do not consider walmart in rexburg a date) but we didn't have the boys with us, so we wanted to buy a toy for each of them for Christmas...hehe (Jensen is VERY excited for Santa this year...) All in all, we had a great night together. I'm really grateful for Golden's mom. She is awesome.

I believe that date nights are very important in a marriage! Keeps things fun and spontaneous. I love my husband!!

October and Halloween

2011-11-03T21:15:00.000-06:00

When Henry was napping one day, Jensen and I carved 2 of our 4 pumpkins, he loved it! he kept saying, "mom! I love it! So fun! I love pumpkins!" it was adorable. His pumpkin is the one that looks more scary, and he picked out the face he wanted to do.

Here are the boys ready for trick or treating! I had to bundle them up under their costumes because it was very cold and very windy that night. We had a GREAT time trick or treating, Jensen loved knocking on the doors, he would say, "trick or treat! happy Halloween!" and then they would give him candy and he would say, "thank you! thank you very much!" as he walked away. it was the cutest thing EVER! he had a huge bucket full by the end of the night, after a couple neighborhoods. we were exhausted and the boys went to bed easily, at around 9:30. Golden and I got some take out to eat and watched twilight! Our first time watching the movies, we LOVE them now. Here is my little spider baby...such a cutie.

Skeleton boy, he looked so cute and creepy. little babies cried when they looked at him.

Golden had costume contest at work on Halloween, so last minute he asked me to paint his face and he wore a black shirt and jacket. He looked super freaky! We had black hair spray paint stuff and white and black face paint, so this is what I came up with. He won $15 dollars. haha!

On Saturday we went to our ward's Halloween party. It was really fun, I wish i would have taken more pictures, especially of my little Henry. But we had fun, Jensen loved wearing his costume for the first time before Halloween.

A couple Saturdays ago, we went with daddy up to the school to go play some basketball, Jensen loved running around, SO MUCH SPACE!
On Sunday, our ward put together a small primary program that our family participated in. Our ward only has 5 nursery children, Jensen being the oldest and the only kid that can talk. So he said a few lines and it was sooo cute. I felt so proud of him! This is the best picture i could get of the boys before church, Henry would NOT sit still!!! I made them matching ties that week.

J+H

2011-10-21T18:09:00.001-06:00

I love these boys more than anything! We went to the park today, it was a beautiful fall afternoon, cool outside and a little grey. My favorite. J had fun running around, and H laughed his head off when I put him in the baby swing. I feel really thankful today. For my family and a lot of other things in my life. I'm a lucky mom to have these boys as my children.

Herb Roasted Turkey

2011-10-11T21:12:00.000-06:00

Alright, this is one of my tried and true BEST EVER recipes. You can't really go wrong. It is a dinner to really please the entire crowd. I made it today for dinner and I wanted to share with everyone, so I snapped a few shots!

Herb Roasted Turkey

Boneless Turkey (I use those little butterball 3 lbs boneless turkey's they come in all white meat and also white/dark meat combo. BOTH are great, just whatever you prefer. They don't sell these bad boys at albertsons, I've ONLY found them at winco.)

1/2 c. water (you can change depending on how much gravy you want)
3/4 package of cream cheese
2 T. butter, softened
1 T. soy sauce
2 green onions (if you don't have any, 1/4 c. minced yellow onion works, today I did dried onion)
1 clove garlic (if you don't have any, I've used about 1 tsp. garlic powder)
1 T. fresh parsley (sometimes I don't and it still turns out great or dried parsley)
1/2 t. dried basil or a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. poultry seasoning
1/4 t. pepper

Unwrap your turkey, still frozen, I usually set mine out 30 min. before so it's not rock hard, or i run warm water over it for 5 minutes so it's not impossible to take the netting off. Remove the netting and gravy packet. You can discard the gravy packet or you can use it and add a cup of liquid from the turkey (after it is cooked) to the gravy and it actually turns out really great. Put your turkey, with no net or gravy packet attached, into your crock pot.

Pour in your 1/2 cup of water. I've put anywhere from 1/4 c. to a full cup of water in there and it's great. I've even used chicken broth, or water with chicken bullion in it as well.

Mix together your "herb butter". Cream cheese, butter, soy sauce, onion, garlic, parsley, dried herbs, and other seasonings. Mix it all together until combined and creamy. I use a fork to mix it all together. Quick and easy!

Then take a spatula and spread all over the turkey in the crock pot (as you can see in the picture below)...then put your lid on and turn on low for 7-8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours. When it's done you take 2 forks and shred it up. It pulls apart very easily and smells SO good!

It creates a lot of gravy in the crock pot, so you don't really need to make an alternate gravy but if you don't want to waste your gravy packet, you take about a cup of the gravy from your crock pot and combine with the gravy packet in a small sauce pan, heat until boiling and thickening up. It's great over the turkey or mashed potatoes.

That's what the turkey looks like. 3 lb boneless turkey roast. They come in breast meat OR white and dark meat combo (I prefer the combo but my husband prefers the all white). I've only seen them at Winco. They don't sell them at Albertsons. (You could also do this recipe with chicken, it would turn out SO great or other boneless turkeys, whatever fits in your crock pot).

Herb Butter mixture

Remove netting and gravy packet and set turkey in crockpot

Spread with herb mixture and turn on your crock!

This is a great recipe, we've made MANY times with different combinations, depending on what I have on hand. It feeds 4 adults easily. It pretty must tastes just like thanksgiving. We always serve with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, etc. Good stuff! Enjoy!

We always have lots of leftovers and enjoy for lunch the next day on rolls or just as it is.

4 years ago...

2011-10-11T20:53:00.001-06:00

4 years ago tonight...Golden and I went on a romantic walk through a beautiful garden. He really caught me off guard that night. I was so surprised when all of a sudden he got down on one knee and looked up at me and his eyes were tearing up and he told me he loved me and wanted to be with me forever. He pulled a GORGEOUS diamond ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. We both cried, hugged and couldn't believe we were finally officially engaged to be married in the temple FOREVER! We walked like a mile back to our car in the FREEZING 20 degree weather, laughing. One of the best memories of my life. Such an exciting time! And....Golden came home from work today with some beautiful red roses for me. What a surprise! I love surprises and I have the best husband.

...and here is a cute picture of Jensen I took tonight while he was being goofy!

Sunday Best

2011-10-10T08:35:00.000-06:00

Our close friends blessed their baby yesterday. So, we went to their ward and to their parent's house after to celebrate. We stopped by Grandma Rosie's house before hand, and had her take some family pics since we were all dressed in our Sunday best. We had a great Sunday, and we were so exhausted at the end of the day!

Henry smiles.

2011-10-06T10:15:00.000-06:00

I love this baby sooo soo much. He's almost 10 months old now and he has been teething lately, which makes for a very cuddly baby. I love him! Please don't grow up so fast.

Family

2011-09-23T11:11:00.000-06:00

Golden had a lot of cousins that were in town last weekend so we went to Grandma Wanlass's house to see everybody and we got to ride lots of horses and take family pics. Jensen's favorite thing was picking up all the old apples on the ground under the big apple tree and we would go up to the horses really close and they would eat the apples out of our hand!! eek!! Jensen said WHOA THEY HAVE BIG TEETH! haha. We had a fun evening with our family.

Here are 2 cute pictures I had to post. Look at Jensen's curly hair! We are growing it out and he seems to be getting all the attention of the local ladies! Everybody has to make a comment on his curly hair. I didn't realize curly hair was such a big hit with people? But he looks really cute and handsome. Henry of course, is as SMILEY as ever. Love him. We are really excited fall time is here, it's my favorite season! It's so cool, crisp, and cozy lately. I love cooking warmer meals and fall time favorite treats.

Matchy matchy! Love them!

9 Months!

2011-09-14T09:56:00.001-06:00

I love this kid so much. He has brought so much happiness into my life. 2011 has been a rough year for me and I KNOW that my Heavenly Father put this baby in my life for a reason. He has blessed our family with his sweet, happy, loving spirit. He is so easy going and doesn't complain. All I have to do is make eye contact and he grins as wide as he can. He has made my life easier and I feel SO lucky that he is all mine.

buddies

2011-09-12T17:38:00.000-06:00

here are the boys playing with their toys in the kitchen. they always scream back and forth, which is funny. or if henry is saying dada or mama then jensen will say it back to him and they talk back and forth. i'm so glad that henry is in our family so jensen can have a fun play buddy! they have a lot of fun together and henry is still a baby, i can imagine in the future they will be running around wrestling and chasing each other in the back yard having a blast. so cute!

Emily's Lemon Blueberry Muffins

2011-09-09T21:38:00.000-06:00

A while back I tweaked a few different recipes to make this one, tried and true blueberry muffin recipe! They are plump, moist and super flavorful (secret ingredient is lemon zest!). I made some tonight and they turned out super good, I had to post the recipe. Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

3 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
10 tbsp. (1 1/4 sticks) softened butter
1 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c. plain or vanilla yogurt (I use Tillamook vanilla bean yogurt)
1-2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 1/2 c. blueberries (if frozen, coat in 1 tbsp flour)

375 degrees for approx. 25 minutes

Whisk flour, power, soda, salt. In separate bowl, cream butter, sugar, eggs one at a time, lemon zest. Beat dry ingredients and yogurt alternating. DON'T OVER BEAT! Gently fold in blueberries. Makes exactly 2 dozen if baked in 2 cupcake pans. Spray pans with non-stick cooking spray. Olive oil or butter flavor.

TIP: Bake until barely golden. Don't over bake or they may become dry. It's almost better to take them out when you think they aren't quite done and they will be perfect. I usually set my timer for 18ish minutes and then keep a close eye after that. They will bake up to 25 minutes depending on your oven.

SURPRISE!

2011-09-01T14:28:00.000-06:00

Fun Saturday

2011-08-29T09:42:00.000-06:00

We had a fun day on Saturday. We got up early and left to go to into town to hang out with Golden's family for most of the day. His little brother had a 6th grade football game, it was a lot of fun. Then Grandma Rosie watched the boys so Golden and I could go have a quiet lunch date. We went to buffalo wild wings for the first time (decided we weren't fans) and we went and walked around a furniture store dreaming about how we would furnish our future dream home. (I don't know why but both Golden and I think that is really fun). It was nice to do something that we normally couldn't do if the boys were with us. Here is a cute pic of the boys before we left the house.

When we got home around dinner time we decided to go on a quick family fishing outing since golden has had MAD fishing fever lately. He went and got a fishing license and we got in the car and started driving. It ended up being a nightmare because the place we wanted to go finish turned out to be completely not family friendly, and we couldn't get the kids down the side of a hill/cliff to get down to the water. But we did eventually find a small shallow part of a river, we threw the fishing pole in for about 10 minutes but more than that, Jensen couldn't wipe that darling smile off of his face when he was playing with rocks in the river. He was so happy, every time I said, "Jensen, look at the camera and say CHEESE!", He looked at me with the same HUGE, eye squinting grin. It was so funny.

St. George

2011-08-13T14:46:00.000-06:00

School got out for Golden a few weeks ago, so we decided to take a small family trip to Utah. We stayed with some friends in Salt Lake for a couple days and then drove down to St. George for a couple days. It was fun and SUPER HOT! It was like 110 degrees in St. George for the few days we were there. The first day we were sweating and couldn't believe people could live there and by the last day we were used to it, loved it and said "hmm...we could live here!" We had a great time visiting our grandma and grandpa tawzer, who we love so much. They had a neighborhood pool that Jensen loved to go swimming in. My 23rd birthday was on the 10th, which is the day we drove home, but we took a few pictures of me and the kids that morning before we headed back on the 10 hour drive to Idaho. (which didn't make for a very exciting birthday, but the trip in itself was nice to get away). I did feel loved, however, when my parents and siblings called to say happy birthday. Thanks for the love guys :)

On the drive down to St. George, Jensen had a DVD player which kept him quiet. (LIFESAVER!)

Me and the kids on my birthday.

My big 8 month old!!

Us with Grandma and Grandpa on my birthday a few minutes before we left St. George on the long drive back to Idaho. We love them SO SO MUCH!!! They are the most amazing, humble, loving, selfless people. We wish we lived closer and could see them all the time like we did when Golden and I were dating. Before we left, I also asked Grandma about a lot of her secret family recipes, which MADE MY BIRTHDAY. I felt like a kid in a candy store when she was telling me how she does things. And she even gave me some of her special spices for different dinners. I'm so excited to attempt to make some of her food!

All in all, we had a fun, but exhausting trip! I'm not sure if we will travel again anytime soon. I think we will wait until the boys are a little bit older. It didn't help that Henry was cutting his 2 front teeth during our WHOLE trip and still is right now. Poor baby!

my little crawler

2011-08-03T18:02:00.001-06:00

Henry is now mobile. Isn't he the cutest thing in the world? That smile is irresistible.

Jensen lately

2011-07-30T15:24:00.001-06:00

Golden works for the city of Rexburg and the city had a big work party for anyone who has city jobs and their families, at the new water park. We had a lot of fun! It was our 2nd time there. Jensen loves it. We put his life jacket on and he goes crazy on that structure behind him there. He loves that green tunnel slide it has but we have to wait at the bottom and pull him out of the water by his life jacket when he comes down because its really deep. but he has a lot of fun! There is also a lazy river, and we like that.

Jensen is addicted to Popsicles. It has gotten out of hand so we are taking a break from buying them. He would want like 5 in a row and when we said no he would throw a fit. haha. or right when we would come down in the morning, he would say POPSICLE PLEASE! and didn't want to eat breakfast. Not ok! What can I say...he loves them.

Golden went mountain biking last Saturday, so while he was gone all day having fun, me and the boys decided to hop in the car and go to grandma's house. They have a 4-wheeler or "motorcycle" as Jensen calls it. He is obsessed and LOVES to go on rides. So Joe, Rosie, and Charlie all took him on rides....and he STILL wanted more. It was so cute though!

Jensen is so much fun lately. He is talking so much and he is getting really smart. We were coloring today and he has starting to actually draw things now and not just scribble like a crazy person. He counts to 100, knows all of his colors and shapes, he is very polite and always says please and thank you. He LOVES Henry and always hugs him and gives him kisses and will give him a toy to play with (without me telling him to). Every night when he gets in his bed he says his own prayers to Heavenly Father, without us helping him. He always starts out and says, "Thank you for my friends." sometimes he says that like 3 times in a row and then i have to tell him to say something else. haha! and then he says he's thankful for his family and names all of the family members that are on his mind. Sometime's the list is really long with like 10 names or more. He always says thank you for nursery which we think is funny. He is so funny and Golden and I just sit and laugh to each other all the time at the funny things he says and does.

7 months old

2011-07-14T09:38:00.001-06:00

Henry is 7 months old today! He is such angel baby he seriously needs to stop growing and stay this age forever. We love him so much!!!! We are so lucky to have him in our family!!

Here are some other pictures of Jensen. As crazy as he is lately, he is so cute too! He keeps us so busy, but he is such a sweet kid. A sweet kid....with never-ending amounts of energy. We've been having lots of fun lately, especially at the little splash park and at the playground!

We are going to the big water park tonight, so more pics to come! I haven't taken any pics of us there yet...It will be so fun tonight! Can't wait!

The Rexburg 4th of July Parade

2011-07-04T13:54:00.001-06:00

This morning we went to the Rexburg 4th of July Parade. We had a blast. It was Jensen's first parade and he loved it! He got lots of candy and loved all of the (in his words): "Loud, BIG fire engines! and BIG trucks!". Henry didn't like those so much, he got scared and cried because they really were SO LOUD! But Jensen won't stop talking about it. We had a great time, we were there for 2 hours and when we left, the parade was a little over half way over. It's a 3+ hour long parade and this is one of the things we love about living in a small town, it's full of people who really care about where they live and everybody is so friendly. The ENTIRE town came together for the events of this morning. Thousands of people crowded everywhere! You could never get that type of feeling in a bigger city (but don't worry, we don't want to live here forever...). Happy 4th of July!

Andrew was the face of the BYU-Idaho float! HAHA! I'm sure we will be teasing him about this for a while. It was so funny, we were cracking up! Way to go Andrew!! Lookin good!

We met up with our friend's and neighbor's, Kayla and Drew. Drew was so sweet with Jensen, they ran into the road together to catch candy and other things when the floats were throwing stuff at people. It made Jensen's day! Thanks Drew! He is showing us the candy he got...

We can't wait for next year!

I just wanted to post this cute picture of Henry from last night. He is so chubby and lovable!

Lately: The boys, Golden and my Health

2011-06-29T11:09:00.001-06:00

I have been bad at blogging lately. I felt like giving the blog a little face lift this morning and writing an update for you and so I can look back and read someday!

Jensen and Henry both had their half birthdays 2 weeks ago. I can't believe I have a 6 month old and a 2 and a half year old! It's so weird to me still, the last few years have flown by. I feel so happy with life right now. Henry is SUCH a funny baby!! He never stops smiling and he has been trying to talk a lot lately. He rolls around EVERYWHERE! He eats baby food jars, and loves them! His favorite seems to be sweet potatoes or squash. The boys have been sharing a room for a couple weeks now and that is going great. Henry loves his crib and Jensen does well in his twin bed. They are both doing really well and we have been enjoying the warm summer days lately. We have been outside all day, everyday pretty much for the last 8 or 9 days. We all are black now! Jensen enjoys swimming in our kiddie pools in the back yard or going to our town's splash park.

Golden has been very busy lately. Schools gets out in 4 weeks and he if off track from July to January. He only has 1 more semester left after this. 9 credits! That's it! But...it's not over for us then...when he graduates next April, we are going to move not too far away and he is going to complete his 1 year masters of accounting program and sometime during that take the CPA exams. Which will be a bit crazy but I know he can do it. THEN, after that we can get a real job and hopefully move somewhere we will enjoy a bit more (not so extreme weather, we are sick of 10 month long snowy winters!). Golden has been staying very busy, he works at city hall doing accounting stuff right now but he just took another job (we couldn't pass it up) so once school gets out instead of working full time for the city, he is going to work two part time jobs. He feels good about it, as it will give him some variety. He hates the some old routine everyday. So, as for now, he is just trying to endure the next 4 weeks until school is out for the next 6 months. He is feeling a bit overwhelmed but I know he can get through the next 4 weeks. He is so amazing and works so hard. I feel extremely grateful and lucky to be married to a man like Golden. Not to mention he is an amazing dad. The boys are so in love with him... and I am so in love with him! We have been trying to go to the temple more often and go on dates (thank you grandma rosie!!) and that has been amazing for our marriage and for each of us individually.

Here is an update on my health, since some people have been asking what's up. I am doing well! I have had some health issues for about the last 5 months. It all started when Henry was about 2 months old. I passed kidney stones with both of my pregnancies but never when I wasn't pregnant. So, we were confused why I was randomly sick all of a sudden and I wasn't pregnant. The first time, It started out with severe kidney stone pain, along with that I would get really high fevers (102-103.5) and I would get so achy and dizzy. Golden would have to play mommy for a few days until I could get the medication I needed. That was happening on and off again for a while. Passing all those kidney stones was and still is causing many many infections in my body. I've gotten to the point where I know when an infection is coming on, so I am able to get antibiotics and take them before I start to get too sick. I have had probably about 20 infections, every other week for the last 5 months. I have lost 12 lbs because of that which puts me 4 lbs below my pre-preg weight with Henry which is about the same as my high school weight. Anyway, I passed about 10 kidney stones with Henry's pregnancy alone and in the past 4 and a half months I've passed about 12 more and there are more stones in my kidneys that my body cannot pass. So, I never know when they decide to start passing, which is scary. I will be feeling great one day and the next day I can't get off the couch. Very unpredictable. After several different sessions of testing with a specialist, I have low citrate which causes me to pass calcium kidney stones (at least thats what we think is happening). But he is concerned because usually that doesn't cause someone to pass as many as I do. But I am on 2 different medications right now, I have to take 7 pills a day, and we are hoping (but not certain) that they will reduce my kidney stones which will then hopefully eliminate all the infections. We might go get a 2nd opinion with an endocrinologist but we are going to wait and see how my medications affect me for now. As of today I'm feeling good and hoping the medication can end all of this. It has been hard to be a mom of two boys and to randomly not be feeling well at the same time!! But Heavenly Father has blessed us all and we have gotten through it and have learned a lot about ourselves. Henry is an amazing baby, I don't know how I would have gotten through the last 5 months if he was a difficult baby. I feel very blessed to have Golden in my life, he has supported me through all of it, the many times he had to take work off or sacrifice time for homework so we could drive an hour to see the specialist and drive an hour to their office just to turn in a bucket of pee for testing. haha. It's been a roller coaster of a ride these last 5 months! But things are leveling out now, and we are all happy and for now, healthy. Yay!

Life is good. We are happy it is summer time and I have been staying busy having fun with the boys. We are going to get family pictures done sometime in the next few weeks, I'm excited for that.

If you get grossed out easily, I'm sorry for posting this picture. I figured, I talk about passing kidney stones, so why not show you just a few of the bigger ones I've passed. Sorry for TMI. lol! But isn't it interesting how someone's body can form those? It's a little creepy. Also, most people's kidney stones are the size of the 2 smallest ones....and usually people who pass stones the size of those bigger ones, they have to be surgically removed or laser blasted out. I feel sorry for men who pass kidney stones, I think it may be a little bit easier for women to pass them.

'

Twins

2011-06-07T12:03:00.001-06:00

Aren't they darling!?

5 months

2011-05-15T09:43:00.000-06:00

Henry was 5 months old yesterday. He is such a sweet, smiley, happy baby. He is so much fun and we love having him in our family. He has been growing a lot lately. We started rice cereal a couple weeks ago, he pounds down a huge bowl of it in one sitting and wants more but I have to stop because I don't want his stomach to explode. He's been drinking some formula lately and when his bottle is empty he wants another one. This kid can eat. It really is difficult to keep up with his massive appetite! He rolls around sometimes but he hasn't as much lately because he's been growing so fast and getting so fat that he is having a harder time. haha! Love it. I haven't weighed him but we are pretty sure he weighs somewhere in the 19 lb range, probably more. He loves to go on walks. He loves Jensen. He doesn't sleep well at night (because he is so hungry), so we are trying to figure that out. He loves to play on the floor with toys and he loves to sit in his bumbo. His hair has been growing lately and his peach fuzz is a lot longer now. He's such a cutie. Love him!

Easter Egg Hunt @ Grandma's

2011-04-30T09:45:00.000-06:00

We had a great time hanging out with Golden's family. Golden and I put a bunch of candy in eggs and put together Easter party bags for all the kids. We've been eating Easter candy all week long! Jensen had a great time running around finding eggs and putting them in his Halloween bucket used as his Easter basket. ha! We rode the 4wheeler around a little bit. Jensen calls it a Motorcycle. Golden and J went and looked at cows and one got really close to Jensen up at a fence and was mooing. haha! So now, he talks about riding the motorcycle and looking at cows a lot. Fun times!

Happy Birthday Golden

2011-04-30T09:33:00.000-06:00

Golden turned 28 this last Wednesday! We had a mini party the Sunday before at his mom's house on Easter Sunday. We also had an easter egg hunt for Jensen and the other kids, I will post more pic of that in another post. On Golden's birthday, I filled our entire downstairs with balloons and decorated the house while he was at work. He came home and was pleasantly surprised. Later that afternoon, we had to go to Idaho Falls because I had a doctor appt but I ended up surprising him at his favorite Chinese Restaurant with some of our friends waiting there for him with a bunch of funny balloons. Then we headed back here to our house to party the night away with some of our friends. He opened presents and got some guitar stuff to go with his new guitar he got for his birthday and we ate some yummy DQ ice cream cake! I think he had a great birthday! Jensen has been singing Happy Birthday To Daddy ever since. It's pretty funny. Happy Birthday Golden!

Best Friends

2011-04-16T21:22:00.000-06:00

We have some train tracks about 300 yards away from our house. We can hear the trains as they "CHOO CHOO", and then Jensen will run to the window to see. We can see a little part of the train in between some buildings. Jensen goes CRAZY and yells "CHOO CHOO TRAIN!!", and always runs to the window. Golden thought Henry should have a peek too. It was such a funny sight to see the bums of both of the boys looking out the window. So, here's a sweet picture of them enjoying the choo choo train. Jensen loves Henry so much and I know Henry loves Jensen too because he is always watching Jensen and he laughs and smiles at him all day long. I'm so excited for when Henry is older, maybe when they are 2 and 4 years old or something, I know the will have a blast together. Sometimes, I feel so complete with these 2 boys, I don't know if I will ever want to change the family by adding more kids. I think they will be best friends growing up. And I think they will stick up for each other and do everything together. I'm so happy we have 2 boys. They are so much fun!

Ready for Church!

2011-04-13T15:52:00.001-06:00

Little cuties....

2011-04-11T13:48:00.000-06:00

^"Cheeeeeese"

^This is Jensen "flexing his muscles" like mr. incredible.

^Being silly!!

^Here is my little ALMOST 4 month old! He's growing up too fast.

Playing outside on April Fools Day

2011-04-04T10:20:00.000-06:00

It was really nice weather on April fools day so most of the neighborhood moms and kids were outside playing including us! Henry loved it outside and obviously Jensen did too. It was nice to get out and not be stuck inside the house because its too snowy and cold. Jensen had fun riding a bike, taking rides in a wagon, and running really fast all over the place! The sun came out and I was even worried all of our pale white skin might get sunburned! So, I kept Henry's bald head covered. We had a lot of fun. Golden even took his bike out of the closet and got it all ready and went for a nice long ride! April Fools day was truly a "tease" because the next couple days have been 30 degrees. So COLD! I put in a picture of Jensen after his bedtime bath that night too. Handsome boy!

Every time I get the camera out now, Jensen stands still and says CHEEEEESE in his most cheesy face. It is so funny! and finally its so easy to take pictures of him, he used to just stand there and look annoyed at me.

Look how fat Henry is! I love it. He is 3months 3wks old. I weighed him and he weighs just over 15 lbs! He is sooo chubby we have to move him up to size 3 diapers pretty soon. I wish he would slow down! I'm not ready for him to grow out of being a baby yet!!!!

3 months old

2011-03-14T23:30:00.000-06:00

Henry is 3 months old today, March 14th. Time goes by way too fast. He is growing rapidly. He wears size 2 diapers, and wears size 6-9 month clothes right now and some 12 month stuff that runs smaller. He is a VERY smiley baby and smiles if someone just looks at him. It doesn't take much. He has started to laugh too, it is VERY cute. he rolled over a couple times several weeks ago but hasn't done it again since. He really loves jensen. Sometimes I catch henry watching TV. He loves finding nemo, barney, and baby Einstein. He is a very sweet baby and is so easy to take care of. He eats a lot. He loves to be held but also loves his naps which allows me to get lots done around the house. I love him!

Here is a fun picture of Jensen, not to leave him out on this post :)

I love henry! This picture was just a couple days ago. It was the warmest day we've had in several months, a whopping 40ish degree day. So I took Henry out for his first time and Jensen's first time playing outside pretty much the whole winter. It was nice for all of us to get some fresh air. Henry enjoyed his outing, he was being very smiley as usual and Jensen was having a blast throwing melting ice chunks around. ha!

I'm a big kid now!

2011-02-23T20:52:00.001-07:00

BITTERSWEET is all I have to say. Jensen is officially in a big boy bed. It took 3 nights for him to "get it" but he fell asleep on his bed tonight without getting up and running around. Does this mean I have to turn into a REAL mom now and get up at the crack of dawn when he runs into my bedroom and wakes ME up?

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day from our ward's nursery! Jensen loved his messy treat!

Happy Valentine's Day from our little Love Monster!! Henry is 2 months old today!!

We love our family and friends!

Henry's Blessing Day

2011-02-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. We had Henry's baby blessing at church. It was beautiful and Golden said some beautiful things in his blessing. Golden is an amazing father who loves his children deeply! We had a huge turkey dinner at our house after church and lots of dessert. Great day with our family!

Baby Smiles....

2011-02-01T20:40:00.001-07:00

Look at that face. Its enough to make any tired, boring day feel like Christmas morning. Henry is 7 weeks old today and has been smiling A LOT for about the last week. Everytime he wakes up from a nice nap, I look at him and he gives me the biggest gummy smiles and I just feel the most joy any human being can possibly feel. He is SUCH a doll!!!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T19:15:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year! Here are some pictures of Henry from yesterday and today! He looks so different than he did 3 weeks ago. I can't believe how fast time is flying, he is so much fun. I'm excited for the new year and I have some goals for myself and my family! Here's what I've come up with so far....in random order.

1. I want to start "home schooling" Jensen and teach him lots of cool stuff and start teaching him how to read, etc.
2. Potty Train Jensen before he's 2 and a half
3. Get Jensen in a big boy bed soon
4. Lose 10 lbs! and eat healthier
5. Read the Book of Mormon all the way through in the next few months
6. Study the New Testament as a family
7. Be a positive thinker and more optimistic in my life, and be a happier, more involved mom and not be judemental of others because you never know the whole story or the behind the scenes. (ok i guess that was 3 in 1).
8. Watch less TV (for myself and especially for Jensen)
9. Expand my cooking brain and experiment more with a variety of meals
10. Be more of a supportive wife(especially! now that golden started classes and is BUSY BUSY), mother, daughter, sister...

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

Welcome Baby Henry!

2010-12-20T20:16:00.001-07:00

After weeks of thinking we were having a C-section because baby brother was breech...3 days before our scheduled C-section we went in for our last appointment and ultrasound and he FLIPPED! My doctor said I had to be induced as soon as possible so on Tuesday, December 14th we headed to the hospital to be induced! They popped my water at 8am, and didn't want to start anything for 2 hours because I needed an antibiotic in my IV, at 10:30am they started pitocin, I had an epidural at 11:30 (which only worked on my right side of my entire body) and baby was born at 1:39pm! I pushed for about 4 or 5 minutes. He weighed 6lbs 7oz and was 20 inches long. He is SO beautiful! He will be 1 week old tomorrow and we are having a blast! We named him Henry, and he is such an amazing baby! He sleeps a lot, but eats a lot as well. He NEVER cries and doesn't have his days and nights confused, he sleeps great at night and wakes up every few hours to eat. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world! Jensen is so sweet with him when he does notice him. but most of the time he doesn't really notice him. Everyday he notices him a little more and he wants to give him lots of kisses! We celebrated Jensen's 2nd birthday yesterday and I will post lots of pics later this week. I'm feeling AMAZING for just having a baby, we are doing great and are excited for Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree!

2010-11-26T22:05:00.001-07:00

A cute little tree for our cute little house. Jensen was going crazy throwing all the ornaments all over the place. Thanks mom for the adorable stockings! I'm so glad you gave us an extra one for our second baby "someday" and that someday is NOW! So we all have one! I can't wait to put his name on it, so it is his! Now we just have to think of a name and decide....

Look at that big belly. yikes.

THANKSGIVING!!!

2010-11-26T21:53:00.001-07:00

Look at that handsome man. Here is Golden carving the turkey! (my first turkey!)

Here I am with my first turkey before we cut it up!

Here is most of the feast! Everything was SO delish! (this post is mostly to torture my parents)

Please keep your chubby chubster comments to yourself. After all...I am just about 37 weeks pregnant (full term) and it IS thanksgiving! Give me a break!

My first triffle! The women in my family would be so proud. It was SO GOOD!

Here are our neighbors, the starbucks! We had thanksgiving with them! All of eastern idaho was pretty much snowed in for thanksgiving, so they weren't able to drive home to be with their families. Golden and I were happy we all were snowed in because we could enjoy our big dinner with great friends!

Glorious. A pregnant woman's dream.

J's COOL NEW CHAIR!

2010-11-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

My neighbor had this old chair she was going to donate to DI, she asked my if I wanted it and I thought about it for a day or two and realized I could reupholster it and make it like new to give to Jensen since he was needing a comfy chair of his own. So I said YES! It is made of sturdy foam pieces on the inside and the original cover was ugly lavender with an old K embroidered in it. It was so ugly and old. We washed up the cover and that is still under it. Golden and I found cute fabric on sale and I got sewing. I still think I'm gonna quilt a cute bit J onto the backrest of it, maybe in some cute plaid material or something. It took about 7-8 hours and it was REALLY hard and it isn't as fitted as I'd like it to be but I still think it turned out better than I thought since I had no clue what I was doing! It has full velcro closure on the bottom and the cover can come off in case of a bad stain. He LOVES the chair and looks SO cute in it!

Here is Jensen being goofy before we gave him the chair. It originally was a birthday present but we couldn't wait to give it to him considering we watch a lot of movies since we are snowed in. He needed a chair of his own!

What a cutie pie!

First Snow Day!

2010-11-08T17:37:00.001-07:00

Here I am! 34-35 weeks pregnant! We got almost a foot of snow today! Everyday last week was 60 degrees, pure sunshine and today....it hasn't stopped snowing like a blizzard! Golden got home from work and I said, come outside with me, I really want to shovel some snow! It was fun but now my back is suffering. So, I think that was my first and last time shoveling snow for the entire winter. We bundled Jensen up and this was his first time playing in the snow since I never let him run around in it last winter. He LOVED it today, we need to go get him some snow boots so he can play in the snow all winter long. He loved making snowballs and throwing them. So fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2010-11-01T12:33:00.001-06:00

We had fun on Saturday night (Idaho's halloween). We took Jensen to 2 trunk-or-treats around town and then we took him to a big halloween thing up at fat cats (it used to be "the rex" but fat cats bought it out and remodeled) and they had lots of candy food and fun up there. We left because it was a bit too crowded and headed back to our ward trunk-or-treat in front of our house. We had SUCH a fun evening, we were all so tired that we put Jensen to bed at 7:30 and Golden and I had a candy chow down. I never realized why moms take their kids trick or treating....and why moms always "go through" their kids candy after the night is over....hehe all in all, it was super fun! and Jensen's costume matched his personality PERFECTLY. He is such a monkey boy! We REALLY can't wait until next year when he will understand Halloween a bit more and we will for SURE take him trick or treating next year. p.s.-these are the best pics we have from the night. It was the WORST night of pictures! Jensen refused to pose for the camera, Golden wore a jacket that reflected the flash and made a blinding light in every picture....so I'm sorry!! I wish the pics were better but some turned out cute :)

Playground Fun

2010-11-01T12:06:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I took Jensen to the park to play and we had so much fun!

Happy Birthday Pops

2010-10-31T16:53:00.001-06:00

^Dad with baby Jensen, 5 days old

Happy Birthday Dad, we love you and we miss you!

31-32 weeks

2010-10-19T13:49:00.000-06:00

Just about 32 weeks pregnant, I CAN'T wait for baby brother to get here!

We drove up to the temple and walked around it for FHE last night. We had a little lesson and taught Jensen about the Temple and we sang I love to see the temple. The sun was just setting and we could see all the fall colors around Rexburg. It was really fun. Jensen liked the Angel Moroni on top of the temple. We feel really blessed to have a Temple less than a mile away from our house.

We took Jensen to feed the ducks a couple weeks ago because we had some old bread and thought, why not? It was really fun, he was chasing them around. Typical boy?

Here is Jensen making a whiney face, he is so cute even when he is whining. He wanted to look at the pictures on the camera. We were about to go on a walk with our friend's Michelle and Mia.

27 week preggo pics!

2010-09-18T23:31:00.001-06:00

Here we are! 6 and a half months pregnant already. Time has gone by SO fast this pregnancy. It was the opposite last time. Baby brother is gonna be here before we know it, we are SO excited!!

Here is Golden's Preggo picture....hehe jk.
I feel weird in front of the camera so I had to take a picture of golden posing too. Lookin GOOD!

Family fun lately...

2010-09-15T10:13:00.000-06:00

^We went to the Eastern Idaho Fair in Blackfoot, It was really fun! More pics below...

^ Golden's Dad was visiting Island Park at a cabin, so we went up and visited him, there was an indoor hot tub, I didn't go in of course, but Jensen and golden had fun playing in it!

^We took Jensen to his first MOVIE at the movie theater! Toy story 3 in 3D! We had a great time! The movie was sooo cute.

^Don't mind the morning beauty ;) We made a nice breakfast just for fun last saturday since golden can never be home with us in the morning since he works pretty early everyday. Love those German pancakes!

^Here are some cute pictures of Jensen and the animals! He really liked them and tried to get too close to them most of the time, so we had to watch him closely! His favorites were the mini horses and the birds (chickens, turkeys).

^The whole evening we were at the fair, Jensen would start laughing and pointing at the sky (probably 40 times all night), he kept seeing little tiny balloons in the sky that people had accidentally let go of, sometimes they were so far away we couldn't believe he had THAT great of vision. I guess that's a good thing, since I'm practically blind.

^Elina came over for dinner last night, she just arrived in rexburg for the fall semester last week and I told her we would have her over for dinner, so we did! She was SO sweet and brought a way cool present for Jensen. He LOVED it, it was a BIG hit. They were nesting and stacking colorful blocks. He's been playing with them all morning today. We had a great night!

PREGNANCY UPDATE: I will post another preggo pic soon, I keep forgetting to have Golden take a picture of me. I'm 26 weeks today, so 6 and a half months already! Time is FLYING! I just told golden that I'm worried this pregnancy is going by so fast, and we haven't even bought ONE thing for the baby yet! Luckily, my sister katie bought baby brother a way cute newborn outfit, so he has something of his own. But we need to do a little shopping soon. My belly is getting bigger, I've only gained about 9 lbs, i thought i had gained more but i just weighed myself yesterday and to my pleasant surprise....this pregnancy weight gain is exactly like jensens. not much. but i feel healthy, and i eat like a mad woman, ask golden. He makes jokes at me all the time, like whoa slow down oinker or somerthing haha. but i dont care, we just laugh. The baby kicks like CRAZY! he's a wild boy in there, i'm sure he will be like his fun happy crazy brother Jensen.

JENSEN UPDATE: Jensen is SO funny lately. He is so darn happy everyday, and he loves to play soccer, football and basketball with Golden or myself. He has been talking up a storm, lots more REAL english words. His favorite movie is The Incredibles and Monster Inc, we have to watch them almost everyday, he BEGS me. He has started to notice this belly of mine, i think he kept thinking i was hiding one of his toy balls under my shirt but then i showed him i wasn't and he looks confused. he kissed my belly yesterday and was touching it. It was funny. He's doing so well, and I feel SO lucky that he is such a happy kid. oh ya, he LOVES to pray, which is so cute. Whenever we say "PRAYER" he runs up to us and folds his arms and bows his head, and he has just stared to say amen everytime. its so cute! I can't believe he's gonna be 2 years old in a few months already. Time flies!

My Birthday Adventures!

2010-08-12T14:50:00.000-06:00

Here are the boys on the carousel. Golden Just got a job as an accounting intern for the city of rexburg and they give all of their employees a carousel pass for unlimited rides. haha! so we've been taking Jensen on the carousel a lot. There's a pic of Jensen and I riding it below.

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My 22nd birthday was on tuesday and I had a great day! All I wanted for my birthday was to spend time with my family and EAT really great food and A LOT of it. haha! I've been so hungry lately, and finally have started to gain weight in my pregnancy and I'm feeling great. So here are all the pics from my birthday, a couple of the ones here at the top are a couple days before my bday when we took Jensen to the park and rode the carsousel, fed the ducks and played in the city playground. We had a blast! Then on my bday, andrew and keali came over and made me the BEST dinner EVER! huge steaks and homemade onion rings. I felt like BOB on What about Bob when he was loving every minute of a good meal. I had a great birthday and I have the best family ever. Here are all the pics....Oh and my first preggo pic too!...

^I shared my birthday Icee with Jensen and He was trying to guzzle down the whole thing!

^First preggo pic. I was 21 wks, on my bday. Crazy thing is...I didn't look like this until 28 wks with Jensen. It's weird! Baby brother has been kicking a lot lately! It's so great!

BEST DINNER EVER! I was in heaven. Everything I was craving all on one plate.

^My famous Jello birthday cake! I've had it every year since I was very little. It's my very fave

Here are the boys!

2010-08-05T13:51:00.000-06:00

^Introducing baby brother! Isn't he CUTE!? I can't wait until he is here!

^and....Here is Big Brother to be!!! I just took this pic while he was eating a snack and watching elmo's potty time. ha! Isn't he adorable!? He's just about 20 months now.
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I feel so lucky to be a mom of two boys. I always saw myself having sons. Obviously, Heavenly Father knows just what I need. I love my boys! xoxo

NEW BEST FRIEND!!!!

2010-08-04T10:52:00.000-06:00

Okay everybody!.......we just found out that Jensen is going to have a LITTLE BROTHER!! We are having another BOY!!!

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We are SO excited and just CANNOT wait until December!!! I'm 20 weeks pregnant now and today was the big ultrasound day. It went GREAT and the baby is healthy and looking wonderful. We are already calling him baby brother haha. Baby brother is doing GREAT! He was SOOO cute on the ultrasound screen. We saw his cute face and little body and he is gonna be the cutest little thing! I feel so great now that I know he's a boy.

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Golden is really excited too. He is such a good dad and loves having sons! We cant wait until December. Once Jensen starts to understand a bit more that he is gonna be a big brother and have a new baby brother, I know he is going to be thrilled. He has been around babies lately and has been so kind, soft and nurturing to them. (Totally NOT like him, he usually doesn't care that a baby is in the room and pretends it doesn't exist. which is better then hitting or something but he usually doesn't even care about babies....) so i'm SO excited he knows how to treat little babies. He gets sad when they cry and wants to help them and says, "its ok" and he will put their passies in their mouths or to get the mom if the baby starts crying. So, i am 100% confident that Jensen is gonna be the best big brother ever! and he's gonna be such a good helper to me, as he already is! We can't wait!!! I don't have a preggo pic to post yet, but i will soon, I just need golden help me with a little preggo photo shoot. I'm starting to finally pop lately! and Maternity clothes are a MUST! Love you all!

Happy Birthday Sista!!

2010-07-21T15:15:00.000-06:00

I don't have any cute recent pictures of us since I haven't seen you in over a YEAR!!! BOO! But...HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you very much, and Jensen and I wish we could visit you! Hopefully that wish will come true sooner than later! Have fun today!

Busy Busy Week of FAMILY!

2010-07-03T09:30:00.001-06:00

We have been VERY busy lately! For the last 7+ days we have been spending time with Family NON-Stop. It's been a blast. Grandma and Grandpa Tawzer celebrated their 50th anniversary this last weekend and they threw a huge party in Idaho Falls. Lots of people flew in or drove in from far places to show their love and celebrate with them. It was nice to see all of the family together and to see family that we haven't seen in a while. It's not very often where all 8 of goldens siblings are together in one place, So I think Rosie really loved having all of her 9 children together for a few days. We had 2 pools parties at the Skidmoore's house in IF. Jensen LOVED the water way more than I thought he would. He didn't want to get out! We also celebrated Dallin's 24th and Tieden's 10th birthday while everyone was in town, which was so fun! Every night we had differen't Tawzer children staying with us in our small apartment and Jensen sure loved it! We stayed up late every night playing settlers of catan. SO FUN! I know Golden really loved being with all of his brothers. Here are several pics from the week. Big thanks to Dallin's wife Morgan for taking all these awesome pics.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T14:11:00.001-06:00

Happy Father's Day Golden! We love you so much! Thanks for being such a fun Dad and best friend to Jensen. I've never seen a kid more obsessed with his Dad. If Jensen could tell you this, I know he would say how grateful he is that you play with him all the time and take him on bike rides and play basketball and stuff. Your the greatest dad ever and definitely win the #1 dad award. Love ya! I'm sure baby #2 will love you millions too. p.s.-Aren't these pics cute? Also, Just so everyone knows, Jensen is 18 months old now!!!! I will post pics of our recent splash park swimming adventures soon!

Mr. Talker

2010-06-17T10:29:00.000-06:00

Jensen was TALKING and TALKING in the bath tub this morning, so I had to take a video of it. He kept saying the same phrase over and over again and he would lower his voice. It was so funny. What a goof! Oh and if your watching closely, he whispers "ball" a couple times. He runs around yelling basketball all day long, so I don't know why he wouldn't say it for the camera.

Drum Roll Please.....

2010-06-09T10:54:00.000-06:00

Baby #2 is officially on the way! I'm in my 2nd trimester now, I got to see the baby on ultrasound today at my doc appt and it's healthy, it looks like a big normal looking baby now (not a gummy bear with a heartbeat), AND it was sucking its thumb like big babies do!! (he took a picture of it sucking its thumb but FORGOT to print it out for me because it was a quick ultrasound, I'm so mad!) I didn't think it would look so big at 12 wks! It was moving and swimming around and waving its arms and kicking its legs! Most of you probably already know we are pregnant again but I just had to post it on the blog to be official! We are SO excited and can't wait until December 22nd!!!! Jensen is gonna be the best, funnest, coolest big brother EVER!!! p.s.-Isn't it totally random that this exciting post happens to be my 100th blog post?

Room Makeover! Well, the beginning at least...

2010-06-02T12:53:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm really excited about this so I had to post a couple pictures to show you guys that we are FINALLY starting our bedroom. We've been married for over 2 and a half years now and our bedroom has had nothing on the walls, we haven't owned real bedding, weve never had curtains, we have ugly metal shelving racks for clothes or whatever. Nothings wrong with all of that, I've just really wanted to start decorating our bedroom so I have a comfortable bedroom that I acutally WANT to spend time in, not one thats cold and uninviting. So, pretty much our bedroom has been the sad junk room since we got married. But you guys know how it is, you can't just go out and buy everything all at once, as college students, you have to slowly buy the things you need and they will then accumulate over time to create the room you want. Our bedroom has been the last room on the list. but FINALLY, we are starting it! I'm really picky about stuff and I change my style a lot, so maybe thats another reason why we haven't gotten anything for our bedroom. But we found all potterybarn bedding on MAJOR discount and I got some gorgeous carmel colored velvet curtains, (picture doesnt really show how great they are) they have a subtle stripe of carmel and almost a gold sheen too. Love it! Golden and I bought the stuff together but i didn't tell him when I would put it all together and so yesterday when he was gone all day i was busy washing and drying and ironing EVERYTHING so i could surprise him. but man, that duvet cover was a PAIN to iron and its still wrinkly but thats okay! I think it looks really beautiful! One bit at a time we will get side tables and lamps and I want to have black and white wedding photos printed to go above our bed. and I have my eye on this SWEET vintage huge wall clock that I will hopefully be able to get someday. I'm excited that its finally happening! I'm sick of sleeping in an ugly white cold BOX every night. I need beautiful color and textures in my life!

New Toys!

2010-05-22T14:02:00.000-06:00

Jensen seems to be a little trouble maker lately because he plays with everything that isn't his to play with. Dishes, kitchen tools, bathroom drawers full of lotion, etc....you get the idea. Golden and I aren't the type of parents to buy a lot of toys for Jensen and we looked at his sad little bin full of lame baby toys and we realized he is 17 months now and is getting smarter and smarter and he needs some fun toys to entertain himself. We realized it's about time we acutally buy our kid some toys. So, we've been doing some bargain shopping lately and got him a few FUN big boy toys. A basketball hoop, a new trike that he can grow into for the next couple years, and we found a really cool plastic chair that he can sit in while eating snacks or watching cartoons. He LOVES the chair haha! He sits in it all the time and he will even bring it into the kitchen and sit in it and eat a snack while watching me do the dishes. He's being so funny lately! So now he has a few fun things to keep him busy and hopefully he will LAY OFF my stuff!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

2010-05-11T09:45:00.001-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our favorite Megan. Jensen wishes he could be with you today on your birthday but when we visit you we will have lots of fun swimming at the beach together! Have a fun day!

Keali's Shower and Jensen's Apron

2010-05-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

Keali's friends threw her a baby shower last weekend. It was really fun! She got a bunch of cute gifts and she's almost 38 wks preg now and we are all waiting for baby boy jensen to get here ANY DAY! Good luck keke! We can't wait to meet him. Also, my friend has been doing lots of sewing projects lately, she doesn't have any kids but she has some neices and nephews and she wanted to come have jensen try on one of the WAY CUTE cars themed aprons she made. He looks adorabe in it as you can see! He really loves my friend, she just smiles and makes faces at him and he always laughs. She holds him during sacrament while I play the organ every sunday and the last couple sundays, jensen has completely fallen asleep in her arms while sitting on her lap. I can't believe that kid sometimes! Also, Jensen has been going to nursery for over a month now and he has warmed up to it pretty well and loves it! I'm so proud of him.

Golden's New Bike!

2010-04-30T21:22:00.000-06:00

Here is Golden on the night of his birthday. He got a mountain bike for his birthday and it came ON the day of his bday! So, he was SO excited. Honestly, he was like a little kid on Christmas morning. I've never seen him that excited. Him and his biking buddy took about an hour and a half to put it together right after the UPS guy delivered it. Jensen is fascinated by it, he always wants to touch it. After we went to dinner at Applebee's (we discovered Jensen's new found love for RANCH, he could eat ranch with a spoon if we let him...YUCK!), it was raining outside but Golden still wanted to take his new bike for a spin in the parking lot. He even gave Jensen a little ride on his lap and Jensen was LOVING every second. I'm really happy for Golden that he has a bike now, he is excited to ride to school on the sunny days this summer. P.s.-When i was looking at the pictures i took of Golden and Jensen on the bike, I couldn't believe how big Jensen looks. Is it just me or does he really look like a little MAN and not a baby anymore. He's getting so BIG! I love him!

HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY GOLDEN!!!!

2010-04-27T08:32:00.000-06:00

Since Golden's birthday falls on his busiest school day of the week, tuesdays, we decided to celebrate his birthday on saturday night with his mom, siblings and some of our friends. We had a great time! We had lots of candy, cake, chocolate fondu, chips and salsa, presents, and we all watched space chimps (Golden thinks that movie is hilarious). He had a fun party! He got clothes for his birthday, and brand new super amazing hair clippers! AND....drum roll....a brand new mountain bike! We ordered that online and it is going to be here TODAY, on his birthday!!! He is VERY excited to get his bike so he can exercise more and ride his bike to school!!!! Last night, I gave him his birthday haircut with his new clippers and he was feeling great this morning. He has school from 7am to about 5pm tonight. But I'll make him a special dinner tonight. I can't believe your 27 Golden, I love you so much. Its hard to believe I've known you for 5 years already, you were only 23 when we started dating. I love you and Jensen loves you too. Thanks for being such a great husband and dad and we are so grateful you were born to this earth so we could share our lives with you. HAPPY BIRFDAY!!!!!!!

Lately...

2010-04-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

Last week, my brother Andrew came over and we had a sibling sewing party. Someone had made me the sweetest homemade Boppy pillow when I had Jensen and so i didn't have to spend 50+ bucks to buy one that isn't even that great. Mine is like way bigger and more dense, its the BEST EVER. I couldn't live without it. Since Andrew and Keali's baby boy is due in just about 4 weeks, we decided to "try" and replicate it with some cool fabric Keali picked out. We had a hilarious time sewing and Andrew was being goofy as ever and It was just so funny for me to watch Golden and Andrew try and sew and they just didn't understand any sewing terminology. They kept calling the bobbin some weird name like "bloppin" or "GOObin", or something. haha! I'm still cracking up. We had some left over fabric, so, I suggested Andrew sew a little fleece tie blanket to match the pillow and he did it all by himself. It was so funny watching him try to sew a straight line. It was looking terrible but somehow after it was all done, it acutally looked really cute. It was kind of an odd shape and it definitely looked homemade but he made it with love and from what i've heard, Keali absolutely loved the pillow and blanket. ha! nice work. It was one of those "laugh your head off so hard you almost pee your pants" type mornings. Obviously in this picture of Andrew you can see how crazy he was acting.

As for the Tawzers, I have been SICK as a dog this week. I seriously don't know what the deal is. My body hates pizza lately. The last 2 times i've eaten pizza (in the last 2 weeks) I have gotten SO SICK... and on wednesday, I had the most SEVERE stomach flu of my life...or food poisoning? I don't know. I weighed myself the next morning and I was 7 lbs down. I'm like HUH? 3 days later, I'm still 6 lbs down. the day i was so sick just happened to fall on the first day of school for Golden. Poor guy was stressed out beyond belief. The day after I had pizza, golden heated up the same pizza from the fridge and got really sick too but not even close to as bad as I had it on wednesday. We made it through and i'm still not 100% but I feel fine today. Jensen has been a good boy and a champ with being patient and watching TV pretty much all day the last few days. I feel like such a bad mom, but what can you do besides get through it.

New Hair!

2010-04-11T13:11:00.001-06:00

I love my new hair! Keali cut it yesterday. Its got a glossy vibrant red tint to it, and suddle A-line. Super piecy and funk-alicious. Love it. Not to mention Golden loves it too, that's always a plus. He's been wanting me to go short since the first week we were married. But i've always been too afraid! But keali works wonders. Its amazing what little pampering does to a woman, I have new confidence!

MY BOYS!

2010-04-06T21:09:00.000-06:00

I am SOOOO IN LOVE with these boys!!!

I LOVE SPRING!

2010-04-05T17:42:00.001-06:00

I just bought this beauty and planted it in a pot that matches my decor. They smell AMAZING, when we live in a home someday, I want a HUGE garden full of these and lots of other beautiful flowers! I LOVE SPRING TIME!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T21:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. I've been sick all week and it seems that Easter isn't going to be too exciting this year. But Golden took Jensen to Grandma's house in Shelley this afternoon and evening, which is an hour away, and i guess they had some fun easter treats and Jensen acutally understood the concept of easter egg hunting! Golden said he had his little bag and was walking around putting the eggs in the bag! I'm sad that I'm not feeling well and I missed it. But Happy Easter to you all! I hope you have a nice Easter sunday tomorrow and enjoy watching General Conference!! We are planning to just have a nice breakfast and have a relaxing day watching conference! We never get to spend time with Golden so General Conference is a GREAT excuse to stay in our PJs all day and eat eat eat! Did I mention...eat?? Happy Easter to you all! We love you and miss our family and friends that we can't be with.

p.s.- When you think of Easter you think of spring time RIGHT? The birds chirping outside...flowers blooming, cool breezes but that spring time sunshine?? Yeah well....We dont know what that feels like here in Rexburg because we just got a foot of snow the last 2 days. It looks like Christmas. Can you say....depressing?! Maybe instead of building a snowman....we can go outside and build a snow easter egg. LAME!

Sunday Best! and more pictures below...

2010-03-28T13:53:00.001-06:00

I stayed up until 2am last night sewing 4 new ties for Jensen. They are so cute! he wore the turquoise polka dot tie today and looked SO CUTE! He is a little stud. He looks a little tattered in his pictures of him in his outfit because 1. i took the pictures of him when we got HOME from church, he was TERRIBLE today. his shirt WAS tucked in before church and he looked PERFECT but you know...he's a boy. 2. when he sees me get the camera out he runs away and doesn't let me take pictures of him. But those are the best pics i could get! haha. He was getting mad at me. I can't wait for him to be able to wear his other ties!

Recent Pictures

2010-03-28T13:30:00.000-06:00

Jensen decided to go skydiving off of the lazy boy about a month ago and landed his face right on the corner of the coffee table. We took these pictures minutes after it happened. He is such a tough kid he only cried for a minute or two. But i felt terrible and i was worried he might of had a concussion but he seemed fine. He still has a scar and a weird bump on his face. I'm pretty sure the tissue on his face will be that way the rest of his life.

Cute Jammies

2010-03-25T09:59:00.001-06:00

I love buying new jammies for this cutie pie. More than any type of clothing for him, PJs are my FAVE! I just got these ones and they look SO CUTE ON HIM! He never stops growing and his entire life has been one big growth spurt. At his 15 month doctor appointment a few days ago he weighs almost 27 lbs and is 33.5 inches tall. His height is 97 percentile but his weight is like 76th. So this little boy is gonna be tall like his Uncle Tanner (6'4") on the Jensen's side and tall like Uncle Dallin (6'5") on the Tawzer size!

Mmmm Peaches...

2010-03-16T15:33:00.001-06:00

15 minutes later...

he ate the peach down to the core. and he needs a bath. that's one hungry boy.

Jensen rode a horse! and Potty update!

2010-03-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm SO SORRY I don't have any pictures! We didn't have our camera and it was too late to take a picture with golden's phone. Jensen rode a real live HUGE horse tonight at our ward activity!! We had our activity at the livestock center for BYU-Idaho. It was like a BBQ and volleyball in the dirt and stuff. They brought a horse out for like 5 minutes and Golden was showing the horse to Jensen and next thing i know it, I look over and Golden is putting Jensen on the saddle and im like OH MY GOSH!! Wait no!! Horses scare me for some odd reason, i dont know why. they are huge and especially huge to Jensen. But he was laughing and smiling and Golden just lifted him up and set him on the saddle and he was sitting there petting the horse and the girl that was holding the ropes to the horse started to walk the horse and golden was holding jensen's hand to make sure he didn't fall off, and jensen was laughing as the horse started walking! It was scary for me to watch but exciting at the time. (i'm just not an animal lover.) Im just DYING that we didn't get pictures. But I wanted to write this so I will always remember that he rode a horse for the first time when he was almost 15 months old. So cute!!!!

p.s.- potty training is going GREAT! He pee's in the toilet about 90% of the time we sit him on the toilet, sometimes we don't sit him on the toilet because i'm in a hurry to get him clean and into his jammies or something. but about 1 to 2 times a day he's been peeing in the toilet. Sometimes we sit him there and I usually know when he isn't going to go because he doesn't care about sitting there and wants to play with the T.P. and is trying to get off the toilet. (he accidentally fell off the toilet tonight, he was leaning over to look in and then completely fell off onto his head, i felt really bad but he didn't even really cry...haha i guess thats why parents usually use those full potty chairs verses the small potty seat thingy we use) but 90% of the time he just sits there and i say, "okay, time to go potty, Elmo goes potty too!" and i might sing a song or two from his favorite elmos potty time DVD haha and he will pee! then i clap and jump up and down and he laughs like "oh mom, come on this is nothing" haha its funny. then i put him in the bath tub. its amazing. truely amazing. im sooo proud of him.

Thank you, Potty Time Elmo

2010-03-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to "Elmo's Potty Time", Jensen's new favorite DVD, Jensen peed in the toilet tonight for his first time. We've been practicing sitting on the toilet on his little elmo potty seat everyday before bathtime for about a week now. And tonight he peed in the toilet! Golden and I were jumping with joy, screaming and laughing, and he was soooo happy and he knew he did a good thing! So we will continue it and see what happens. Thanks Elmo for showing Jensen the way...haha!

Sesame Street

2010-02-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about Sesame Street, but it just sucks children in like ZOMBIES. Jensen is very picky when it comes to TV shows, he really isn't very interested in TV except when it comes to Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which is only on TV at like 8am everyday during breakfast time. He doesn't like little einstiens yet, which he got a DVD of that for Christmas and just walks away when i turn it on. haha. Sometimes it's nice for moms to put a show on for their kids and so they can get some laundry done or dishes or something. We had one sesame street DVD that someone gave to us, and i swear if i have to listen to it one more time i am going to "accidentally break it". All they sing about is eating your fruits and veggies. I just want to scream! but jensen loves it and he has to watch the lame 20 minute program at least a couple times a day. So we finally got him a couple new sesame street DVDs that are a bit longer than the other and when i put it on just now, he once again got sucked in! I think sesame street is cute and he really loves it. Like i said, i dont know what it is about sesame street that he loves but at least it gives me 20-30 minutes to get some chores done!

BUBBLE MACHINE!

2010-02-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a bubble machine that we got Jensen. I apologize for him having no pants on, i feel a little "white trashy" when i let him run around half naked in the winter time, I NEVER do that but i was about to put him in the bath tub for bed time and golden said WAIT lets try out the bubble machine! so we did and OBVIOUSLY he loved it. its a riot. we can also put it in the bath tub with him because it has a suction thing on the back so we can stick it on the the shower a little higher and the bubbles come down on him while he's in the tub and he laughs and tries to hit them and when they pop on him face he LAUGHS! its a riot. i think EVERY mother should get one of these for their children!! kids love it! they are super cheap at walmart too. (we got the idea because the nursery at church uses one for the nursery kids and golden took jensen in there once and jensen loved the bubbles, so golden made up his mind that we HAD to get one).

Thanks Mom and Dad!

2010-02-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

My parents are on a mission in the Philippines and they have come across some amazing wood carving and got this AMAZING plate/plaque carved for us with the portland temple, our name, our anniversary date, and it says "families are forever". all the words have gold leafing or paint on them and the temple is beautifully carved. Thank you so much mom and dad, we absolutely treasure this and think of you everytime we look at it. I re-arranged some pictures on my main focus wall in our apartment, and i put it on a little shelf and it fits perfectly. Now we can look at it all day long and when people come over it's the first thing they see. Thank you so much!!!!! We love you and miss you.

Big boy stuff...

2010-02-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

We waited a bit too long but finally broke down and bought jensen some big boy shoes! he's 14 months old and has been walking since 11 months and he needed big boy shoes probably around the time he turned 1. But we were being kind of lazy so yesterday i got him these shoes. they are SO CUTE on him! haha he needs a little practice but he can almost run in them now. lol, so funny! they are size 6 too! he skipped baby shoes and the little toddler shoes and is in HUGE toddler shoes! holy cow.

"little crazy" is what i call him a lot and i found him sitting in the magazine rack/holder thingy that we keep DVDs in. he just somehow got in it and was sitting on DVDs. it was so funny! he had a hard time getting out but liked being in it for like a good 10 minutes. i also found him in his toy bin in his room last night. he likes to climb in the bins and boxes. its so funny.

Jensen's behavior has been really unacceptable pretty much the whole month of January into February a little. It seemed like no matter what i tried he wouldn't listen, he would continue to do those things that he knew were naughty, like getting into the kitchen cupboards, hitting people, terrorizing the house or other people's houses...haha. i was trying everything so my sister gave me some GREAT advice about being 100% consistent and giving him time outs in a place that he doesn't do other things like in his crib or high chair. so we give jensen time outs in the lazy boy, we just say NO WE DONT DO THAT and go sit him in the chair for 30 seconds and he whines. let me just say....GENIUS!! it has worked for us 100%. jensen's behavior went from absolutely uncontrollable to happy, sweet, listening to mommy, playing with his toys quietly. i don't know how it worked so well, but it did. haha. this last week was amazing, he was such a good boy, i am SO proud of him! i think it was a little phase as well, and he seems fine now. church 2 days ago was a dream, he was such a good boy and i was so happy. I've been much happier this week since he has been being so well behaved. something so small has worked wonders! so we continue to do time outs in the chair but after the first day of doing time outs, he really got the point and doesn't really do those things he used to do anymore. thanks sista!!! you always have the best advice! jensen isn't a wild child any more! he has been tamed. ha.

here is jensen in the tub. he has been swimming in the tub lately, on his belly. it is a riot! and he has been "testing" the water a little bit, he puts his face in and blows bubbles or something. i watch him closely so he doesn't drown himself haha but its really cute! maybe he is getting ready for swimming this summer!!! so funny!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Billett

2010-02-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA! From Emily, Golden and little Jensen. If we were in Vancouver with you today, I'm sure Jensen would want to run around and play with you, being the little "Idaho Terror" that he is. Have a fun day! We love you and miss you! Hopefully we can visit soon.

Jensen's FIRST HAIRCUT!!!

2010-01-30T11:47:00.001-07:00

My iPod named Agnes.

2010-01-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

I know this is lame to blog about but it means something to me! and i can't believe how long this darn thing lasted! its amazing! and my dad might think its funny because he bought it for me. Well, Agnes, my iPod, that I've had since i was 16 years old, the one my dad bought me before our trip to Italy, and the first iPod that ever came out, the fat, chunky, small screen, black and white ones.....it finally died today. I knew this day would come because this thing is seriously ancient compared to the newest and latest iPods out there. and i know people laugh at me when they see me with it at the gym, but this iPod has been everywhere with me all through out high school and in college and it is sentimental! okay! But it finally died today. I have been using it to work out a lot lately and i think that's what did it in. SAD! about 2 years ago it froze for like 2 days straight and i thought it was a goner then...but then it came back to life and its been great ever since. but today it just froze and went dead. Thanks for a great 5-6 years! Thanks for buying me that iPod dad, it was definitely worth the money you spent! ;)

January!

2010-01-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

We've had a great year so far! Andrew turned 25 on jan 7th and we threw him a fun little bday party over here at our place. I made his cake and it was a big hit! he got an REI gift card and bought a new hat with it. Golden started school and his new job on campus. He is VERY busy trying to balance school, work, bishopric duties, being a hubby and dad and most of all, HOMEWORK (at least 4 hours a day)....he has a lot going on! But i'm trying so hard to help him as much as I can. He has been getting really good grades so far and I am so proud of him! The latest for me is that i started working out last week at the school gym. its free for me. and jensen goes to bed at 7:30 or 8 every night and golden is doing homework until at least 10pm every night. so i thought WHY not better myself and get some much needed exercise. i gotta get my swim suit body ready for this summer! jk. it does feel great to have some "me" time and just listen to my iPod and workout. i love it. and i noticed ive been a lot happier since i started working out too! Jensen is 13 months old now and funnier than ever! he has been learning more words like nana for banana. yes and ya. hi and hey. he loves when golden walks in the door and he sais heeeey da da da da. its very funny. he tries to say "bath time" but can't quite ;) ha. ALSO....jensen has been being crazier than ever when it comes to getting into TROUBLE! he broke my 3rd pyrex last night. and ruined our angle food cake dessert. i really have had enough of him breaking my kitchen things. he has broken a couple of my really nice red dishes. and now i dont have complete sets of dishes. its upsetting. haha but i'm going to walmart tonight to figure out some child proofing options. i might just have to move all the food to the lower cupboards and glass and fragiles to the top cupboards. i dont know. he doesn't mean to be bad but he IS bad. and i try to teach him but he isn't a very good listener. reminds me of myself when i was young. i didn't listen to anybody.(sorry mom and dad, i feel your pain and i apologize for all those years of frustration you had to go through!) so i guess jensen has my genes. mostly. all i gotta say is karma! figures i would have a WILD CHILD!

End of December

2010-01-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

The green jammies are from the Philippines! Thanks nana and opa. I wanted to showcase them for you guys! They are almost too small but he can probably wear them for a couple more months. they are so cute on him. its funny, size 2T in the philippines is like size 12 to 18months here in the us! they are so cute on him though. he wouldn't let me get a good picture of him during that photo shoot so that is the best i could do. Also, there is a cute pic of him in his Christmas jammies on Christmas eve! they are plenty big so he can wear his Christmas jammies all winter long! and they are extra warm too! Some of the other pics are just goofing around. Golden's 3 youngest siblings spent the night the night before our anniversary and so we just dropped of Jensen and all of them at grandma's house when Golden and I went on our anniversary date that night. We had a good time. When they come over, I like to spoil them rotton as best as i can. So we had some hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows! haha and we watched a movie and played the Wii all night. Tieden wanted to stay awake as late as he possibly could because at home they have to go to bed at 9, the girls didn't make it past 10:30 and tieden i'm sure did last too much longer after that. haha. anyway, we've had fun these last couple weeks. We are so excited for the new year and Golden to start school on tuesday. Now i can get back to real life and keep my apartment more clean and cook meals more and hang out with the other moms in the complex! Not that i dont love Golden being around, i DO!!! but he hasn't been in school since April and he is ready to go back. Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR! We love you guys!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my LOVE!

2009-12-29T12:07:00.001-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my love, Golden. Today we've been married for 2 years and it has been a crazy, amazing, fun filled 2 years. One of our church leaders recently asked us, "what is your favorite thing about being married?" and my answer was not going through life's trials alone. I'm so glad I have my best friend to experience life with, the good and the bad. 2009 has been filled with some hard times but our marriage is stronger than it has ever been and its because golden and I have learned to turn TO each other in hard times rather than turn against each other. Golden is the perfect husband for me and I know that we will live the rest of our lives together here on earth happy being with each other. There is no one else out there for me, only Golden. I love you honey, Happy anniversary. p.s-we have a huge date night planned for tonight, VERY exciting! we never get to go out alone, so we are very excited to hit up one of our fave restaurants for some RIBS, and then to the movies to see sherlock holmes, and then dessert after that! Thanks for babysitting grandma bowman!!

Jensen's 1 year stats

2009-12-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

We had a doctor appointment today for Jensen. It went really well, he is so healthy. We are really blessed to have a healthy boy. Here are his stats:

Weight: 25.6 lbs - 83% (percentile)
Height: 31.3 in - 89%
Head: 19 in - 93% (BIG HEAD) haha!!

I've been meaning to get jensen off of the bottle and more onto sippy cups but i guess i just needed someone to help me along, so the doctor told me to only give him a bottle maybe before bedtime and make the bottle boring with just watter and stuff so he wont want it anymore and give him juice and milk in a sippy cup. so i guess santa had some smart thinking because jensen is getting 2 sippy cups in his stocking on Christmas morning ;) Jensen also got about 4 or 5 shots and he didn't cry very loud but it was more of the really dramatic quiet shaky voice and big crocodile tears kind of crying. it was soooo saaad. i almost cried. but golden stood next to him and they did great. I gave him a little tylonol and he has been sleeping the last 2 hours haha so he should be up any minute. anyways, i just wanted to update you guy on his weight and stuff. i can't believe he weighs over 25 lbs!!!! i knew he weighed more and has gained weight because he has felt heavier to me but GOSH SAKES 25 and a half pounds???? no wonder my arms are killing me and my legs fall asleep when he's sleeping on my lap at church. haha!!!! i love my little guy. i bought him a little dump truck with some blocks in it for Christmas so im excited to give it to him on Christmas morning. anyways, love you all!!

Videos - See pictures below

2009-12-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Big B-DAY from start to finish!

2009-12-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

What a day! It was great. Jensen went to bed at 7pm tonight, he was so tired. AS AM I. exhausted! but in a good way ;). I could have put him to bed at around 5pm but I had to make him stay up. We had a blast today! The party was a success and Jensen was happy with all of the attention. We all had a good time playing the Beatles: rockband that we are borrowing from our friend and all and all today was such a fun day. i can't believe my little guy is 1. im so proud of him, he is so smart and happy.

My baby is ONE!!!!

2009-12-19T10:18:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my little Jensen, the love of my life! We have had a fun day so far! We've been treating him like the little prince that he is and have been giving him all the attention he wants. haha. Golden's whole family is coming over at 3pm and we are going to have a fun filled birthday dinner and party. I got Jensen the cutest cakes ever! Pictures to come tonight or tomorrow! Happy birthday my little love!

2009-12-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Golden's 3 youngest siblings came over and spent the night because it was Rosie and Charlie's 2nd anniversary. They got married right before golden and I did. WE had a blast! we are borrowing our friend's Wii for the whole month of December because he doesn't use it, And we are loving it. The kids had a blast with it too. My pregnant friend, alyssa just found out she's having a boy and her and i have been obsessing over sticky buns lately so she will make them and bring them over and we pretty much eat the whole plate by ourselves. we always get a huge stomach ache after but its SO worth it. haha! jensen has been being so funny lately, golden put him inside a diaper box that he barely fit in and was dragging him around in it and jensen was laughing. it was a riot. and i took some pics and videos of him in the bubble bath last night before bed time. OH YA, also, golden had a bball game last night, it was the championship game for BYU-I competitive bball and they won! they wont the whole championship! they were doing terrible in the beginning of the season but they had a huge comeback and won! they all got free tshirts and their picture taken for the wall in the Hart building. it was awesome. it was a good game. we had fun. anyways, thats whats up this week! now we are getting ready for jensens birthday in 2 days! i ordered 2 cakes, one for the grown-ups and 1 just for jensen to chow down into, im so excited. i will put up pitures and videos from his birthday probably on sunday. we can't wait!

wild child

2009-12-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Jensen from today. His birthday is in 8 days, we are so excited. So, Jensen is truely a wild child. I love it, because im crazy too, so we are a perfect match. but it is challenging sometimes, i can't take my eyes off of him for 2 seconds or else he is doing something crazy. i walked away for 10 seconds and came back and he had climbed on the dishwasher and spilled a cup of water and was just getting into everything. he is so crazy! i got the camera out before he saw that i CAUGHT him. he is getting smarter now and knows what he shouldn't do. and he does feel bad if i catch him doing something that i have previously disciplined him about. he is a good learner though. and then the other pictures are from tonight before bedtime. i wanted to model that cute hat that nana and opa got jensen from the philippines for his bday. thanks mom and dad! its so cute!! jensen loves watching TV, i was trying to take pictures of him but he didn't even care or know that i was there he was sucked into the TV. haha! i love my little man. well...big man.

2 weeks and counting until the big B-day...

2009-12-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Jensen's birthday is 2 weeks from saturday. we are throwing him a big dinosaur birthday party and we are all very excited! i can't believe my baby is turning into a big boy. i sometimes wish he was still the little baby he used to be, but at the same time he is SO much fun nowadays. he has such a hilarious, funny, wild personality and he talks and talks and he's walking around everywhere! he walks about 95% of the time now. he has newly discovered that he loves walking more than crawling. im so proud of him. he is so smart and healthy and golden and i feel so blessed.

Christmas tree!

2009-12-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

We decorated our awesome fake Christmas tree yesterday. we were so excited because we didn't have one last year. well, we really didn't celebrate Christmas at ALL last year because i was so huge pregnant and waiting for the baby to get here any day and we had him on the 19th and life was so crazy. but after Christmas we hit up some sweet holiday clearance sales and got our tree, lights, and ornaments all for mega cheap. we dont have many Christmas decorations because the wonderful college life we live doesn't allow me to buy Chrismas decor haha, but with each other, our tree, stalkings hung, and warm, cozy yule log on the TV, that is all we need! We are really excited. we love our tree! its so relaxing to sit in my lazy boy and stare at it for a while before i go to bed. Merry Christmas everybody! oh and Jensen has been walking all over the place! he is so cute. he is so great at walking now. he still crawls sometimes, but loves to walk now. he luckily hasn't really tried anything at the Christmas tree. we put it up on a red table so it could be seen better centered in front of the window. he doesn't really seem interested in it....YET. ha! anyways, we are excited for Jensen's birthday and Christmas to get here!

I'm Thankful For...

2009-11-24T23:25:00.001-07:00

My amazing husband, Golden. We've been married for almost 2 years. He makes me so happy and I am so excited to be with him forever. I dont know what I would do without him.

My amazing son, Jensen, who is almost 1 years old. I've never been happier in my life then i have since i've been a mom. He has changed my life for the better.

I'm thankful for...

-My family and friends
-My nice warm cozy apartment to live in
-The food in my fridge (im VERY thankful)
-A car to drive
-My parents in the philippines and their example
-The Gospel in my life, and the knowledge I have
-The beauty of our Earth
-Sleep, and my bed.
-Hot running water and modern day appliances and electronics

There is so much more I'm thankful for but I just wanted to publicly thank my husband and son for being so amazing and giving me the best life I could have ever asked for. I love you guys. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMMY!!

2009-11-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday tommy, we all love you so much!!!! Golden, Jensen and I are SO excied to see you and Katie next week! Have fun today on your birthday. p.s.-i hope you enjoy the paint editing of the pictures. HAHA

11 months old!

2009-11-19T09:37:00.001-07:00

Jensen is 11 months old TODAY and now the countown to his first birthday begins!!! i want to throw him a big dinosour party with all of his aunts and uncles and grandma rosie and grandpa charlie and it will be a blast! and most of all we are excited for him to get his very own cake to dig right into!!! i haven't even bought him any birthday presents yet...i better get brainstorming! any advice on good first birthday toys?

walking video 3 (see 2 previous posts for video 1+2)

2009-11-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

walking - video 2 (see previous post for video 1)!

2009-11-17T18:52:00.000-07:00