Happy Birthday Emilee!!

It hardly seems possible that it's been 9 years since that day that we waited so long for...the day when you FINALLY decided you would come and join our family. You were two weeks late and we were very surprised when you were soooo big. You've been a character since that day. You've brought a sparkle to our lives that we never dreamed possible. We're so thankful to have you in our family. We love you Emilee!!!!







We have a fun tradition for the girls' ninth Birthdays. Emilee was thinking that maybe she'd been passed over for this tradition. Here's when she found out that she wasn't forgotten.


Opening it up...


Finally an American Girl doll of her own!


Here's her cake. We had chocolate ice cream to go with the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She's a smart girl!


Victoria decorated her cake exactly how Emilee ordered.


Happy Birthday Emilee! We love you so much and are so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to us. Just think...we REALLY wanted a boy so we could be done. Good thing we didn't get what we wanted--we got just what we needed, and we've never been sorry! Just don't grow up any more. We love you just the way you are!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Julia!

Julia's Birthday is March 9th. Scott has been in Boise this week so we celebrated on Sunday before he left. It turns out that was good in more ways than we thought! Here's our sweet 11 year old.


The pile of presents.


Sam and Julia

Emilee and Julia

Jed and Julia

Victoria and Julia

Julia loves to pick out what she wants for her cake. I just didn't have the patience for it this year so Julia was very lucky to have her dad willing to help. I'm sure it turned out better than if I had done it!!

For Julia's Birthday she took giant chocolate chip cookies to share with her class. She wore a new shirt one of her best friends had given her. She has another one of her best friends who's Birthday is the day before Julia's. Julia's friend had given them both shirts and the friend got one too so they all three wore matching shirts to school. Julia was so excited! Well, the day didn't turn out to be quite as good as she or I wanted...

I got a call from Victoria about 12:30 that she had just thrown up at school. She said that she felt fine so she wanted to go to seminary, but would I please pick her up right after that so she didn't have to ride the bus. I went to get her and she said she'd been throwing up during seminary as well. I got her home and settled. Then the phone rang and it was Julia calling and saying that she was sick so she wanted to come home. When I got to the school there was only about 20 minutes left of school so I got Emilee and Sam too. Julia hadn't been throwing up so I took her home and tucked her into bed. My kids' piano teacher was coming to teach Emilee and Victoria piano lessons. When she came I had her teach Emilee. Just at the end of Emilee's lesson Jed called from basketball practice and said that he'd been throwing up so could I come and get him.
I felt terrible that I had Diane in our house teaching a lesson. I should have sent her away when she came!

I decided that I probably shouldn't be going to mutual so I called one of my counselors and told her I was needed at home...remember that Scott is in Boise. We stayed home with Victoria and Jed throwing up all evening. I was really nervous to go to bed! I made everyone sleep with bath towels on their pillows so that if they threw up hopefully it would be less for me to clean up. I had visions of being up all night doing laundry and cleaning carpets and mattresses. I sent everyone to bed early and I went to bed with them. I was thinking that if I really slept until my alarm went off I'd get 9 hours of sleep. I was so happy to wake up at 5:30!! No one had gotten me up! I'd slept all night! I went around and checked and sure enough...all kids sleeping and no one had thrown up.

Victoria was up getting herself ready for the day. She and Jed both headed off to school after eating some toast. They wanted to go. I wanted to keep them both home. I'm not sure who they belong to because any time I was given the option of staying home I did! They must be their father's children. :) The man who got perfect attendance for all 4 years of high school. What a nerd!! It's amazing to me that they care that much about their schooling. Somehow I'm raising responsible children! Julia, Emilee, and Sam are home today. Emilee is complaining of a sick tummy and Sam who couldn't be out done is sure his tummy is sick too. Sam ate breakfast and is mad that he didn't get to pick what they were watching...I think he's feeling fine. Let's just hope it stays that way. Victoria, Jed, and Emilee have a piano adjudication today. I hope they're all feeling well enough to play!

This brings up memories of me throwing up at school in the middle of art on my 11th Birthday. I may have jinxed Julia! Julia was opening her Birthday present from Grandma Jensen and I wanted to take some pictures. She said, "Please not pictures when I'm feeling this terrible!" So I don't have pictures of her opening her beautiful aquamarine necklace. I'll take pictures when she's feeling better. Let's just hope today is less eventful than yesterday!

A busy life!

OK. I'm a terrible blogger! I said a month ago that I would post the "finish" pictures from Victoria's race and I'm just now doing it. This is why I never had a blog until I was stuck sitting on the couch recovering. Now, life is just as busy as normal! We keep plugging away, and I try to keep up with everything. I'm feeling pretty well for the most part. I just get frustrated because I can't run a hundred miles an hour like I want to.

Here are the pictures I promised:

Here's Victoria coming in to the finish.


Here she is with Auntie Berta after finishing.

She's saying, "It was so easy! I'm not even sweating!!"

All I can say is how impressed I am! Victoria trained so hard and did so well. For some reason she doesn't have an official time. All I know is that it was under an hour! She did an amazing job! Next year she wants to train for the half marathon. A special thank you to Aunt Karson who was Victoria's mentor and biggest encouragement. Karson has a wonderful gift of being able to motivate people. Next year I hope to see Victoria running with her Aunt!!

Our Trip to Arizona

I know that I'm late in getting these up, but at least I'm doing it! Victoria has been training for 6 months to run in a cancer benefit run that her Aunt Karson inspired her to do. She has trained hard! I've gotten many comments from our neighbors that have seen her out running our hills. I went down to Arizona on the Tuesday before the race to soak up some sun. Victoria didn't come until very late Friday night and then Saturday we were up well before the sun to get out to the race. The first pictures show how very early it was!

My cousin Luke and his wife, Jen came from New Mexico so that Jenny could run the race. She injured her knee just a few days before, but she still ran the half marathon! In this picture is Jen, Spencer, Karson, Me, Victoria, McKay, and Abby

The kids getting excited for the fun run to start. McKay, Caleb, Carter and Riley (McKay's friends) Emma, Emily (Carter's and Riley's mom) and Abby.

Here's the whole team!

Spencer, Berta, and Victoria waiting until starting time

Since I'm not so great at doing this I will do it in two posts. So here's the "before" of the race. Can't you just feel the excitement!?!

Stay tuned for the finish....

I'm Finished

I just had to post and say that I'm done with my treatments! I had a busy day yesterday so I didn't put it on here, but I"M DONE!!! I am feeling great and so grateful for that. My skin is doing well. One of my doctors asked me how I was planning on celebrating and I said that I'm headed to Arizona to the sunshine. I go in 4 more days. I'm very excited to see my family that's down there! My hope is that when I get back I'm feeling up to being a regular mom again. If I keep feeling this well then I know it will happen.

I am so thankful for all of the support I've gotten! I can't even begin to thank everyone that has helped me and my family. We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and care about us! Thank you for the prayers, meals, rides for me and my kids, hugs and words of encouragement. We made it, and I can honestly say that it wasn't too bad. I know that is because of so many prayers in our behalf. Thank you for your love! Last night Sam said, "Mom, I'm glad you made it through your treatments and you didn't die." I told him that I'm glad too. So sweet! I do feel blessed! I don't think he worried that I would die. I know I never did!

Catching up!

This is going to be a crazy post. Just lots of pictures so you can see what we've been up to.


Sam lost his first tooth this week. It has been loose for so long. Just as he was heading out the door to school I was brushing his teeth and saw the tooth just hanging there. I got a paper towel and grabbed the tooth. He jerked his head away and started screaming at me that it hurt and he didn't want it out. Well, too bad--it was in my hand. Then it bled and bled. He was so mad at me that I had pulled it out. After we got the bleeding to stop he was so excited to go to school and tell his friends that he'd lost a tooth!

After I put the picture on of us on Christmas Eve I got quite a few comments of how tall Jed was. That next Sunday I realized how little his suit was on him. I knew it was time for a new suit so we got online (that's pretty much all the shopping I do these days) and ordered this. I still can't believe that I'm old enough to have a son that wears a real man suit! (He's had lots of suits they've just been little boys suits.) On Sunday Jed and Victoria sang in a wonderful youth choir for Stake Conference. I sat and cried at the army of future missionaries! I also measured Jed. Well, he's almost 5'10''. Exactly the same height he was the day before school started. He grew 8" the first 9 months of 2010. Hopefully he'll keep staying this size for a while before another big growth spurt!

By far my favorite part of Christmas this year was watching my kids make gifts for each other! I loved how excited they were to make and give their gifts! The next three pictures show the excitement of Jed giving Julia and Emilee their bunkbed he made them.

Finally, here are pictures of almost everyone in their new Christmas Pajamas. You can tell who was taking the pictures. I realized after that we should have taken a picture of the three girls in purple pajamas since that's what color mine were. Maybe next year! :)

We are doing really well! I have 4 treatments left this week--just Monday through Thursday. I am doing well most of the time. My biggest complaint is my burn. It hurts really badly and keeps me up some nights with the pain. I am very anxious to be done! I did give in and quit driving. It just hurt too much. I hope to be able to drive again soon. It's so hard to not be independent! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Happy New Year!!

As 2010 came to a close I thought back to all we did during the year. My heart was full of gratitude at all we accomplished and what a wonderful year it was. I do hope that 2011 will be a healthier year, but I can't imagine that it could be better than 2010.

We had a very nice Christmas at our house! It was a nice day, and I was so grateful that I was feeling better. I had spent most of the week before Christmas feeling very green. Maybe just looking pretty green!

Our Christmas tree. This is pretty much all of the decorating we did.

The whole family on Christmas Eve

We've had a wonderful time with my mom here. She's been a life saver for sure! I've been able to just take it easy and she's cooked, cleaned, done laundry and much more. We will be so sad to see her leave tomorrow! I am on the downhill slide with my treatments. I have 13 more to go! I will be finished on January 19th. Then on January 25th I am heading to Arizona for a little sunshine and rest before I get right back to life in February. We are all sad to have the kids go back to school tomorrow. We've enjoyed our time together!

I've tried to get other pictures where I want, but can't so for today that's all the pictures! :)