So, what did we do between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

 Christmas isn't the only celebration going on at our house in December.  Erin's birthday is on the 7th, and she could hardly stand the wait to be 3!  We let her open presents in the morning.  The only thing she wanted was a 'Tinkerbell Camera', which of course she got as well as a few other things.  Nana and Papa came down for dinner and gave her this awesome guitar.  She is thrilled with it and definitely has the long fingers for playing such an instrument.  Happy Birthday to our little princess!

 Random picture of Noah, he's starting to lose that baby look and will be a toddler before we know it. :(

 Aunt Amy and Glendon stopped by on their way back to Moab one day, and they came bearing gifts! 

 I love this little guy.

 Ben constructed a temple, and was rightfully quite proud!

 Noah ate his first Cheeto!  Naturally he loved it, he's a Jensen!

 Our friends gave us COAL for Christmas.  It was a delicious mess!

Lastly, Brandon had a BIRTHDAY on Christmas Eve!  I am a huge slacker and didn't take any pictures.  So, all we have are ones of Erin eating a sucker that Brandon took.  (Wife of the year, I know!)  We had a fun day together and my parents even came down to deliver our Christmas present, which was also for Brandon's birthday.  However, you'll have to wait for the Christmas post to see it!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

November blurp

 I realized I didn't post much about November, and December will be way too full to add on anything.  So, here are just a few of my favorite pics from November.

Best place for a baby haircut? The bathroom sink of course!

 Here we see Ben sporting his awesome scorpion tattoo.  It was surprisingly realistic.

Time to decorate!  I let the kids decorate all by themselves.  Then, after they are in bed, I un-cluster the ornaments and forbid them from touching it again.  It works....mostly.

 More to come...very soon!

A long anticipated photo shoot...

We put off taking family pictures for way too long, so then we had to deal with October's unpredictable weather.  This was our 3rd attempt against the weather and while it was a fairly nice day, a cold breeze started blowing as soon as we started pictures.    The big kids tolerated it pretty well, but Noah could not be enticed to smile. We went to the old Sugar Beet Factory by our house, it has some really cool backgrounds.

I couldn't resist getting some of Erin with her daddy.

I love the one above just because it shows the kids' personalities so well.

Here's Ben being goofy, Erin loving every minute of Ben's antics, and Noah looking for more of the food I had been sneaking him.

Our last spot was in front of the smokestack.  It was an awesome scene, but with the sun going down and the wind picking up, the kids were officially DONE!

So, we warmed the kids in the car and then took them out one at a time for a few more pictures.  They were troopers, but you can tell they're cold!  At least now I have individual pics for an update!

Ben- I love this kid's imagination!  He'll pretend play anything, anytime.  He's getting the hang of reading, but my new favorite thing is his notes.  He'll make big signs to help bring me into whatever he is pretending at the moment.  Last week he put up one that said, "Nobudes Hom" (nobody's home) on the monster's house, so I would know it was safe to go in.  Five is such a fun age!

Erin- I often forget that this lively girl is still only 2!  She wants to do everything Ben does, wants to do it all by herself, and insists on at least helping with anything she's not allowed to do alone. (Like make dinner.)  She's finally lost the 2-year-old temper, for the most part, and is becoming such a fun girl.

Noah- A 9-month-old in 18 month clothing!  His growth is slowing however.  He's in the 

70th percentile for height and down to the 60th percentile for weight.  He just barely cut his first tooth and can officially do a real crawl, but still prefers the army scoot for speed.  His favorite word is "Hi!"  He loves to hear it, say it, and wave for it.  After these pictures I finally gave him a big boy hair cut.  Since his hair is the same color as his scalp, however, it's really hard to tell how thick his hair actually is!  You can't tell from these pictures, but he really is a smiley, happy baby who is adored by his family.

October means...

 In the Jensen household, October = Hunting Season.  This year Brandon got a spike elk tag for the first time.  Unfortunately, he didn't actually see any spike elk.  We went up the mountain the week before the hunt to scout out the area and found this cool 'treepee'! 

Sunday newspaper reading is getting pretty serious around here.

 Especially now that they've realized they can start giving mom and dad birthday/christmas ideas.

 Little Noah...

Who am I kidding?  There's nothing little about this kid!  He hit the 8 month mark in October.  He's an active, happy, chatty baby.  He loves to sing and bop his head.  He is quite efficient at army crawling, but at this point he would often get up on his elbows and knees and rock back and forth until it propelled him backwards.

 Preschool was at our house this month and we made rainforest animal puppets.  The kids had a great time putting on shows for me.  (And yes, Erin is wearing a beanie inside.)

October also means BIRTHDAY time for Ben!  Our little guy turned 5!!! I can't believe he's so big already.  At least I have one more year with him before he's off to kindergarten.

 He invited some friends over for a Halloween themed party.  He's not a huge fan of cake, so he had a doughnut cake.  He loves being 5 and is fully embracing the idea of increased independence.  Every day he tells me something new he can do by himself now that he's 5.

Halloween Spooks! 

 Erin, of course, was Tinkerbell for Halloween and couldn't have been more excited about it.  Ben had a hard time deciding what to be, but knew he wanted to be something scary.  In the end, it was a skeleton.  Noah just gets to inherit costumes from the collection.  Yes, he LOOKS like a bear, but this is actually a monkey costume. Either way he's adorable, right?

And that was our crazy October.