More of Sweet Baby James

Fashionable Elora

Lately I have overheard Liesel and Annika using the word "fashionable". From what I can tell you are considered fashionable by them if you wear jewelry and wear pretty clothes. Here are some pictures of Elora being "fashionable". She was so excited when she discovered on her own a way she can have earrings! She is always wanting to put earrings on and gets pretty frustrated sometimes because her ears are not pierced. She is always wanting to wear her swimming suit too. Here she is wearing her suit on a chilly morning and wanting to play outside. She put socks on with her Hello Kitty glitter sandals and also put a coat on but promptly took it off when she started getting her picture taken.

Bunch of Photos cont.

Bunch of Photos

I was forbidden to post any pictures of Marsie. But I think the post needs a picture of a beautiful mother with her new born son. So I thought I would take the same approach as buying some sort of contraband goods at the grocery store and stick it in the middle of a bunch of other things in an attempt to draw attention away from it...

Welcome Baby James!

Baby James Benjamin Jensen joined us on Sunday, November 2nd! He was 9 pounds, 1 ounce and 22 inches long. We got home today. The children have been so good to him and love to hold him. I'll let Marsie write more about it later, but I thought I should hurry and get some photos uploaded. (Hopefully this works. We've been "blog-slackers" for several months, and I can't even remember how to do this!!)

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

The kids had Primary Activity Day yesterday where they went on pretend missions. I have to give credit to our primary presidency for making it so very REALISTIC. First of all they sent the kids postcards in the mail telling them where the mission call was to, etc. Nathaniel got called to Massachussettes, Liesel to Germany(which whe was very excited about since Ben went there) and Annika to Washington. Here are two conversations I had with the kids.

Nathaniel(quietly): "Mom...(long pause) are these missions calls where we will really go when we go on a mission?"

And later, Liesel who hadn't heard our conversation was telling me how excited she was that she gets to go to Germany on her mission. I said to her, "You know these aren't where you are going for real though, right?" Her response was priceless. Her jaw dropped a little and then "Huh??!" she exclaimed and finally she giggled at herself.

Elora's Loving Nature

Elora was so happy riding along while dragging this doll's head on the floor at our friends house the other day. It was quite disturbingly, funny. Umm... do you think I am going to need to watch her closely when the new baby is born! She really does love baby dolls though and is usually very soft and gentle with them. She also is quite entranced when she sees a real baby. She is such a loving little thing. She give the best, tight hugs. I am always amazed how strong she can squeeze for being such a tiny, skinny little thing. She hadn't been to Nursery for three weeks with being sick and Stake Conference one week. She was so excited to go today. She ran in and went right to her teacher and gave her a hug! She LOVES nursery. She is always asking me "Toys, Class?"

Baby Number 5?

We are all (especially Nathaniel!) very excited that we will be having a baby BOY this fall! Nathaniel feels like he has waited forever to get a brother! He is so cute about it looking for names in the baby name book. He just beams with happiness whenever we talk about the baby boy.

And I don't know why but I like the idea of beginning and ending our family with a boy. The baby is due November 3rd.

While I was sitting helping Liesel at the piano the other day Elora climbed up on the chair behind me and she is such a little monkey and climbs all over us all the time and so I didn't notice her at first saying over and over "Baby?... Baby?" while lifting up my shirt looking at my back. When I finally noticed what she was doing I pointed to my portruding belly and told her that no the baby is in here. She let out a big laugh as if so relieved to have finally found the baby and patted my tummy saying "Baby...Baby."

Snow!

Annika kept asking all winter "Where's all the snow?!" So in February we went up to the mountains and Annika finally saw where all the snow is. They ran and played and went down the hill on a sled and threw snow balls. But Annika and Liesel got pretty wet feet as we were not prepared with snow boots. Near the end we took their socks shoes off and bundled them in blankets and extra jackets. While sitting on this log together Annika glumly said to Liesel, "I wish snow was warm." Liesel agreed. Nathaniel, on the other hand had borrowed some snow boots from cousins and was having the time of his life building a snow fort!

Elora is here on Aunt Rebecca's shoulders. She did not really know what to think of the snow!

Annika's Ears

Hi there! This is Ben posting again. Thought I would share a quick story about our adventure while voting in the primary election on "Super Tuesday." We voted at a baptist church just a few minutes from the house. We decided to just go together and bring the children along for the experience. They didn't want to go, but eventually we all jumped into the car and assured them that it was only going to be a short trip to vote.

Everything went fine until we started to leave and Annika started crying. She was very upset and we couldn't figure out why. She was finally able to explain that she never got her short trip on a BOAT! I swear, that girl has more wax in her ears......

Enjoy these pictures of the one and only Annika Rose!

Ben actually posted these pictures!

Elora loves her horse! She also enjoys scaring us by rocking back and forth as far as she can.

Annika is a Sunbeam!

OK, Nate found our old camera and went crazy. We now have an abundance of very strange pictures. Our favorite is this one with Liesel wearing a bathrobe and pointing a wooden gun. Note the flowers stuck in the robe for good measure. Maybe we should stop letting our children watch James Bond movies....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Disneyworld

For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Jensen took us all to Disneyworld!

We went to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. This is a somewhat disorganized compilation of pictures from both.

Elora was so excited she could hardly stand it!

Annika was happy as can be!

Nathaniel showing off his new pirate hat, Aunt Crystal soaked from Splash Mountain,

and Liesel being a little silly for the camera

Uncle T. Jay helping Elora (It was great to have so much help from Aunts and Uncles!)

Liesel being silly again

Grandma with Elora in a teacup

Our four kids plus a friend they had just made while waiting for the show to start

Nathaniel somewhat reluctantly agreed to this photo.

Liesel fell and hurt her chin. As you can see, Grandpa is applying some "medicinal aid"

The kids all loved It's a Small World.

Aunt Collette was 7 months pregnant and dealing with swelling and still managed to spoil the kids as usual.

Emmerson, our cousin, and Annika riding in a rented stroller. This later became the napping house with kids sleeping on top of the shade and on the inside.

Uncle Ryan, Aunt Shaunna with Emmerson, and Uncle Wayne

Liesel doing what she likes best... no... not acting like a monkey....just being plain silly

When is Pluto going to learn how to talk so they'll give him clothes to wear too?

Annika being cute, Crystal being a great Aunt, and Liesel being silly

And Nathaniel being scared!

Just kidding around above and truly too scared to ride Splash Mountain below

(But to his credit, he did go on everything else except one scary Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom)

Elora pointing at the fish and making a fish sound with her mouth to any stranger who would pay attention to her

It was a magical, wonderful vacation! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!