mother of all parties

we had heard about the legendary "jensen memorial day party" since the week we moved here in june of 2007. we all went camping over memorial day in 2008, so the party didn't happen last year.

HOWEVER, on may 25th, 2009, the queen of all party planning (that would be lanae jensen) brought it back. and it definitely lived up to the rumors. seriously, what memorial day party is complete without

amazing food (not shown)...

a cotton candy machine...


a huge bounce house...




soccer, volleball, dodgeball, croquet...
a mile long slip and slide...


and of course, an octopus delicacy straight from portugal...
just a quick pic with me and some of the girls. but where are isaac and travis??!?! continue down...

yeah, that's the crap part. poor isaac got sick sunday night with the flu and travis stayed home with him. missed you honey!!!


so, even if no one else looks at this post, at least my hubby (who missed all the fun) and our friend, carrie (who went into labor the morning of the party and who REALLY hates to miss any kind of party) will appreciate the pics.

hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

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status

two horridly swollen stumps with vienna sausage toes attached to equally horrid cankles

+ one severely pinched sciatic nerve

+ larger than life belly

+ not enough time to get everything done before baby comes

= a grumpy jean

HOWEVER...

only 31 more days

+ two centimters dilated

= a bit happier jean

and THAT my friends, is the status around our house. you caught me on an off day...

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the demise of c.f.

well, it's about time i stop living in denial and face the facts (and the future). we have received several phone calls and emails since the news last week of the bankruptcy of chrysler. travis doesn't work for chrysler, but rather the funding company, chrysler financial.

so, what does the bankruptcy mean for us? will travis still have a job?

well...ummmm...hmmmm...let's see...

yeah, that's the problem, we don't know yet!

here's what we do know at this point. chrysler is filing bankruptcy and "starting over." which is good at this point since they have no where else to go. however, the bad part is that gmac will be the new funding source for dealers and customers (rather than chrysler financial). yikes.

however, chrysler financial still has billions of dollars in loans outstanding that will need to be collected over the next couple of years and the company is looking for other opportunities and business partners.

so, to answer your questions, we don't know the final verdict and at this point, travis could have a job for a week or for a year. so, if we come knocking on your door looking for a place to sleep, just let us in for crying out loud.

on the bright side, let's look at the cuteness of my new two year old (he turned two on april 17th). we went exploring at a barn right by our house and he was happy as could be with his boots, "lamby," and dirt. LOVE this boy...

yep, he was DONE.

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hp obsessed???

no, you computer geeks, i am not talking about hewlett packard. i am talking about none other than HARRY POTTER. now, i admit that i was an avid harry potter reader (as was travis) and couldn't wait until the next book came out. but, once i read the series, i was satisified and figured i might get to it again in ten years or so (i'm not much of a second time movie or book person).

but kaleb takes the love of harry potter to a whole new level. he has always been an excellent reader and we tried to convince him for a while to read the books. he finally took us up on it and he read all seven books in about a month. right after he finished, he started the series again and finished them in two weeks.

i thought FOR SURE after round two that he was done, but he immediately picked up book one again and started the series AGAIN! so, now he is on book three for the third time. what the?!?!? and to top it off, he walks around casting memorized spells from the books.

should i be worried that my kid is normal or are there others this obsessed with harry potter...haha!

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a rare moment

here we have a rare moment and a break-your-heart-moment.

the rare moment is the picture of me and all three of my boys on easter day. this rarely happens as i'm the one always behind the camera...

...and i admit it...also because i don't like to get in front of the camera when i am so severely inflicted with the 32-weeks-pregnant-and-chubby-all-over syndrome.


and the break your heart moment (well, at least break mommy's heart), comes to us as we were preparing for easter sunday by giving barrrett and isaac a hair cut...

i'm not really loving this, but i'm ok...

kinda bugged, but i'm still ok...

daddy thinks it is cute to turn me around and show me in the mirror that all of my hair is gone and now i am heartbroken he cut off my white locks of lusciousness.
i am still just downright mad.
i'm so mad, i'm just going to keep crying until this horrid moment is over.
hope everyone had a fabulous easter!!!

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blogs to books

so my friend britnee told me about this great site called blurb.com where you can turn your blogs into books. so, i went on and made a 2006 and 2007 book (currently working on 2008), and realized what a priceless things blogs are.

i know a lot of people consider blogs their "online journals," and i have never felt that to be the case for me since i have journals for myself and each of the boys. well, i came to the sad conclusion that i have not written in my own journal for more than a year and it has been several months since writing in the boys. soooooo, to make a long story short, although i am not a wonder with words, my blog HAS become somewhat of a family journal for us.

so, i renew my commitment to update this bad boy once a week. i really want to. i am going to. most of the time.

HAPPY EASTER to everyone and have LOTS of chocolate this weekend (isaac did)!

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still kickin (literally)

yep...we're all still here! how does a month go by so quickly???

we just got back from utah to visit family and friends. well, i should say me and the three boys went to utah...travis ended up not being able to go at the last minute :(

the boys all did awesome on the plane to and from and everyone around me on the plane must have been expecting serious meltdowns with the pregnant mommy and three boys, because they all felt the need to come up to me after the flights and tell me what well behaved boys i have. oh brother!

anyway, it was so awesome to see everyone again and i'm so glad we were able to visit now... who knows when the next time will be...with the coming of a newborn and now that we will have to pay for isaac to fly (turns two next month). i brought my point and shoot camera and didn't even pull it out once...YIKES! thanks to my mom and allison for pulling out their cameras and giving me the only pictures that were taken while we were there.

me in all of my 28 weeks of pregnancy glory...pulling a really ugly face...

me and my chicks! we were missing a few, but i was so happy i could get together with my friends from high school for dinner. i love these girls and consider myself SO super lucky to have such wonderful friends!

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ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. yeah, that sounds about right. we took a short, spontaneous, wonderful vacation to cancun last week. we're still wannabe world travelers and take any opportunity we can to go on a vacation!

i already posted some pictures on my photography blog and you can see them HERE, but let's get to the good stuff that i don't talk about on that blog!

so, our equally spontaneous friends (from thunderbird), the sherwoods, live in mexico city and agreed to meet us in cancun with a week's notice! they rock! here we are...one big, happy family at the tulum ruins.


well, as we were making our way back through the jungle from the ruins, we happened upon this hideous monster (and he was HUGE).

travis squatted down with isaac in between his legs trying to get a good picture. all at once, the evil beast from he#! started charging travis and isaac at top speed (and those things run FAST). i started screaming for travis to pick up isaac, but my precious husband just kept trying to get a picture.

just as i thought isaac's toes would be gnawed off, it was apparent that the crazed lizard had seen isaac's binkie fall and went after the delicious morsel of food. he put it in his mouth (just like a baby does) and started running. i AGAIN started screaming for travis to GET THE BINKIE...IT'S THE ONLY ONE WE HAVE!!!!!!!!!!! travis reacts to his wife's panic and sprints after the hideous creature.

anyway, the lizard obviously realized the binkie wasn't food and dropped it. but, it was all too late to look casual and composed as we had just gathered a nice little crowd to witness our 28 seconds of smith craziness.

and yes, i WAS screaming.

screaming at the top of my lungs.

i didn't look at the crowd as i'm sure they were all suppressing manaical laughter as we walked away.

oh well. what's a smith vacation without something crazy happening?

first it was me almost drowning in the ocean in hawaii. now this. what's next you ask? well, you'll just have to stay tuned for the next smith vacation.

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i am a rock

I DID IT! i made it through our 20 week ultrasound appointment today without breaking down and grabbing the ultrasound machine right from the unsuspecting technician's hands to find out for myself what the gender of our baby is.

you all thought i would cave and find out what we were having, didn't you?!?!?

well, i guess we'll just have to wait until june 15th...

oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful mother!!!!

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check it out

so i needed to veg for a moment and i came across my friend's blog with a little collage bit on it. hmmmm...looked like fun. so, i headed over to polyvore and made my own little collage of ME! kind of fun, eh? go on, go check it out...you know you kind of want to...


jean by jeavis

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hawaii

Christmas is over (and it was fabulous, by the way), and now it's time to talk about our awesome trip to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago! We went to the Big Island of Hawaii for the wedding of our very good friends, Paul and Staci. The beach wedding was amazing and we had ONE WHOLE WEEK of hanging out with our wonderful friends KIDLESS (thanks Grandma Debbie)!!!

I mentioned on my photography blog about being saved by lifeguards at the beach. I have had several people ask me about it, so I feel it is time to tell the story. I read the Dalpias' blog, and after reading the very false version, I am here to set the story straight...

It was a beautiful day at the beautiful Hapuna Beach on the beautiful big island of Hawaii. We (six of us friends) were playing in the waves and having a good old time. Suddenly, a series of humongous waves started coming in. Holly, Camille, John, and Jean were smart enough to realize it was time to head back to the beach. Jean suddenly realized that Jason and Travis weren't following and turned to see them as tiny specks in the vast ocean. Arms were a-flailing and waves were crashing over their heads. Jean used her sweet swimming skills and quickly made it out to them in record time. They were exhausted and what looked to be near drowning. She grabbed them both (without a buoy OR flippers), told them to hold on to her and each other, and started pulling them to shore. After about a half a mile (maybe more) of dragging them in (they were WAY out there), Jean screams to the lifeguards who quickly sprint to help pull the two guys the rest of the way in. Jean was a bit embarrassed, but took a little bow as everyone on the beach clapped for her.

ok, ok, if you must know the truth,we were all frolicking in the waves...jean kept frolicking but was unknowingly getting further and further out... the waves became gigantic... jean kept playing... jason and travis swam out to tell her to get back to shore...we all tried to swim back, but kept getting pulled further and further out to sea...four baywatch-like lifeguards spotted the three almost drownees and came to drag our sorry butts back to shore. there. you have the truth. can you see why i would want to tell the first version? how embarrassing.

Bring on the pics! I also just posted some pics from the wedding on my photography blog if you care to see the beautiful bride and groom!

we should have paid more attention to the sign..."if in doubt, don't go out."

jason, holly, travis, jean, camille, john, paul, staci

girls being girls

guys being monkeys. out in the middle of a hawaiian jungle. with a car ripped to pieces behind them. what the?!?!

black sand beach
a hike to....hmmmm...dang it....can't remember the name. but, it was beautiful.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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merry merry

merry merry christmas to all of our friends, family, and random blog readers!!!


oh, and by the way....
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one more thing...
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we're expecting baby #4 on june 15th, 2009!!! i am fifteen weeks along, but don't call me up in five weeks and ask me what we're having, because we're not going to find out!

oh yeah...HAPPY NEW YEARS while we're at it!

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giggle with me

the other day, travis and i came across a forgotten folder on our computer. we opened it and just started giggling...had to share some of the gems we found...

about five years ago, travis discovered a program that i had never heard of...photoshop. yep, that's right...the same program is my best friend these days. anyway, he started playing around on this crazy new program and became obsessed with distorting our poor little family.

unfortunately, others were victims as well...his very first distortion was our good friend jason...

it's 1:30 am and i'm tired. maybe these are funnier to me because i am in sleepy land right now...

click on the image to see it bigger.

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