potty talk

Bryant to Todd:  You have to go potty, dad?

Todd to Bryant:  No, I don't have to go potty.

Bryant to Todd:  Yes you do, I smell you!

He he he!  Bryant also says, "I sarted" and laughs.  He can't pronounce his F's...  :)  Isn't he cute though?

Cold winter day!

Bryant in a basket...  This is the snow we got over night Sunday night.

Church is cancelled!

I can't remember church ever being cancelled in a ward I was attending...but it was yesterday.  We were at a friend's Christmas party and  got the message that church was indeed cancelled for the next day.  It snowed all day long and overnight too.  A few families got together, we ate potluck, watched the Seahawks, played the Wii fit and rock band, and went sledding, or some of us did.  This is Taylor and a friend.

This is Sydney and her friend.

This is Bryant whining about it snowing in his face and complaining that he wanted to go home!  He wasn't the only one.  So the moms took the little ones home.

I put these photos in backwards order, this is Taylor opening an early Christmas present...because we were going sledding, of course!

Jensen family Christmas Party

Here are friends cutting out our cinnamon ornaments.

Next year we will do lunch and decorate the gingerbread houses, they adults had way more fun decorating them, and with so much detail!  Yah, we even had a couple of dads show up.  It had snowed that day, and they were working from home... :)
The cinnamon ornaments were 1/4 cup applesauce to 1/2 cup cinnamon... that easy!  we pressed our dough out and used cookie cutters in Christmas shapes.  Let them dry at least over night, if thick, and glue a ribbon on the back.  
We also decorated and ate sugar cookies.  This is Taylor's friend and her little brother.

Syndey's class Winter Party

This is Sydney's third grade Winter party.  We had it on a Wednesday, which is good as school was canceled Thursday and Friday.  Monday morning another mom and I "glued" the graham crackers together to make the houses for the kids to decorate at the party.  I need to vent... We have a room mother who is very nice and avoids confrontation... we have another mother who is controlling and is running everything.  Other mothers want to help with the parties and feel like they aren't wanted...  I didn't really care, because I was going to show up whether they wanted me to or not.  But others were upset about it.  I really do not like the room mother politics!  Does anyone else have these problems or does everyone all get along?  This is my friend Cathy, we are innocent bystanders, and her daughter, Valerie, she is Sydney's friend.  Also they asked for donations of $3 from each child, they had way too much candy for the houses and way too much food for snacks, they had just had lunch before the party... how dumb, they didn't even need snacks!  So, all in all, they wasted so much!  I've always been in a classroom where the children each donated something, like a bag of chips or carrots.  Too many chiefs and not enough indians the teacher says!  he he!  I am just not going to worry about it.  I'll just be an Indian and bite my tongue for Sydney's sake.  It is supposed to be fun, right?  Thanks for listening...

In the background is the nonconfrontational chief... and Syd and Trent playing mad or something.


This is one of the Chiefs...

The "Big" storm of '08

They had been talking up this huge snow storm to hit the Seattle area for days and this is what we got!  An inch, maybe...  But of course the kids dug out their snow clothing and boots and headed outside to play!  We had three days of 90 minute late start at school this week and Thursday and Friday off.  An early start to Christmas break.  Yeah!  I must report that to the north and south of us got dumped on, somehow it missed us and Seattle.

Christmas card photo shoot

A couple of days ago I received our first Christmas cards of the season, and went... oh, no!  I had totally forgotten about sending cards out!  What is wrong with me, I am like a chicken running around without a head most of the time now days!  Ugh!  So last night I made my wonderfully, perfect, proper children put on white shirts and Santa hats to pose properly for me to take the best photo ever, if that is even possible with my camera, it was free so I shouldn't complain too loudly.  I got maybe ten photos to choose from... this is one of them I narrowed it down to...

This is the second one and the one I chose (I think).  We'll see when I pick them up tomorrow.  he he he.
I must say that Sydney was putting up the biggest stink.  I seriously would have used this photo, except you can't see Taylor's face at all.  You can see Syd's tonsils! Did I spell that right?
Weird tongues and constipation going on in this one...
Naughty Santa boy!  He wouldn't put on his shirt!
Hope all your photo shoots go better than mine did!

Renton downtown

Last night we went to some friends for dinner and meant to make it to the lighting of the trees in downtown Renton.  We got to talking about adoption and missed it.  Everyone was gone and they were packing up the chairs.  The kids had fun running around and rolling too.  Look at the wet knees on Tay and Bry.  Bryant kept trying to touch the lights on the plants.  He likes to touch the ornaments on our tree too.  I'll post those photos later.

He did it!

Bryant finally wee'd in the toilet! I pumped him full of juice and set the timer for 15 minutes.  After two accidents, he says I have to go potty as he was weeing, I set the timer for 10 minutes and it worked.  He wee'd three times.  Then it was off to Target, as I had promised him a train if he went.  Then today, nothing.  He wouldn't even put on the underpants!  We have playgroup at our house tomorrow, so we'll try again!  Wish us luck!  

Lunch at McDonalds

I really don't think I ever took my girls to lunch at McDonalds... because I don't like it! But, Bryant is another thing all together.  We go to get out of the house.  Our friends live around the corner from us and then it is a short walk, just a couple of blocks, to McDonalds.  This day our friend Rylee was wanting to be called "Hopper" from A Bugs Life movie.  Today at church the graduating nursery kids, we have three, went to singing time in Primary.  They were asked to introduce themselves... Rylee said, "I'm Picasso".  Bryant said, "I'm Bryant, call me Hopper!"... he he he!

Toilet Training and training and training...

Bryant will be four in April.  He refuses to use the toilet!  He won't even let me put underpants on him anymore.  Today he walked by me and I smelled a pooh.  So, I asked him if he'd gone in his diaper and he said, "No Mom, I farted!"  I laughed at that!  Yesterday and today he's come up to me right after he'd gone and has asked me to change him...  Maybe this is it, I think we are getting really close.  Did it take anyone's child this long to even be interested?  I spent $42 on a box of diapers yesterday at Costco... yikes!  Think of the money I'd save, that I could spend elsewhere!  :)  just kidding Todd!  What have your toilet training troubles been?

Toilet troubles

Sometime during the week our downstairs toilet got plugged up.  So after many different attempts to unplug it and it not working, and Todd out of town, and Bryant twice flushing unbeknownst (is that even a word?) to me and standing water left on my hard wood floor TWICE!  and a wet Woody doll dragged across the floor... I figured something must be stuck, something like a toy put in there by Bryant!  Todd tried to unplug it and couldn't either, that made me feel a bit better!  We ended up keeping it locked up while our guests were here and made everyone run upstairs to use the loo, and hoping they made it!  This is Saturday night... Todd made Bryant reach in to see if he could feel anything...  we ended up buying a toilet auger, that thing they call a snake, and it didn't bring anything up... so Todd sent me to the store for a toilet seal part and he took off the toilet.  Way at the bottom of the toilet he found a knight!  It was Bryant after all!  Now it is all fixed and I will be watching Bryant a little better now.

Thanksgiving

This is my sister Molly.  She made a boat load of sweet potatoes!  They were yummy, but I still have tons leftover!  

Here are the men watching some movie, oblivious to our slaving in the kitchen all daylong!  Look at all the toys and train tracks all over the floor, I'm glad I didn't get sued from someone tripping!
The kid table... not sure why Bryant is looking at the lights...hmmm...
Starting with Todd, to his left is Lindsay and my brother Ben (they must like each other, she is still hanging around.  We first met her this summer at my Grandmother's funeral reunion... he just moved in with her, so she must like him.  We have to tease him as this is the first girl we've ever been introduced to and yes, we like her a lot too), then it is Molly (sister) and her husband Casey, then Cliff who is married to my other sister, Shana.  
See this rainbow jello salad... about ten years ago my friend Stacey Hansen taught me how to make this and I have made it every year since for Thanksgiving, once a year is enough!  It takes FOREVER to make!  You have to set each layer for 25 minutes each. Every color has a cloudy and a clear layer... but it sure is yummy, even with all those flavors!  

Thanksgiving morning

Two of my sisters and their families came from Walla Walla, Washington Wednesday night for the weekend.  This is Thursday morning after, we're bored!  Todd went to play in the Turkey Bowl with some friends from church, my brother in laws weren't interested, and so I walked the kids to the park nearby.  On the walk home I carried one scooter and a trike!  The little ones were too tired and Bryant was walking the dog.  

This is Sophie.  She belongs to Grandpa and Grandma Jensen.  The came in Sunday night and flew out Monday morning to Texas to stay with Todd's sister for a week and a half.  We were dog sitting.  The first night we had her on our own was a nightmare.  I went out to get the mail in the evening, Todd was in Portland, and Sydney was to shut the door so the dog wouldn't get out.  I came back in and asked where the dog was... no one knew.  We searched the house everywhere!  Then I drove the neighborhood with Sydney in the car yelling, "Sophie"  in the freezing, dark!  I recruited my friend and her daughter who searched near their home, they are a couple of blocks from us, in the cold and dark...  No luck!  So after nearly 45 minutes Taylor called me.  She had found the dog under her bed, asleep!  It must have been really tired to not have answered us, the many times we called her!  Or, maybe she was just scared and was just hiding from us!  The only thoughts running through my mangled mind was having to call Todd's Dad and tell him we lost his baby and she was out there freezing somewhere, or hope that someone took her in and was calling the name on her collar... except for the fact that they were still in the air flying to Texas and that it would be late by the time they got the message and then called me to pick her up... oh the thoughts rushing through my head and to top it all off... Todd was in Oregon and no help at all!  So, I'd like you to meet Sophie!  Bryant refused to take off his helmet after riding his bike to the park.

This is my sister Shana, she was in charge of craft for the kids to do.  They made pilgrim hats and turkeys, they sure were yummy!  Sydney, was of course, the last one working... she is so detail oriented!  Aren't they cute?
Taylor enjoying some snack foods, we ate dinner around 3:30pm.

Got it!

My little sister helped me.  I had to pick minima first and then add the gadget.  I'm still learning...

Help!

Okay bloggers,

I need help!  I am trying to change my background on my blog, but for some reason it will not change the brown part to white... what am I doing wrong?

Midnight Showing of Twilight!

So... I gave in and went to the midnight movie of Twilight.  We had 42 in our group and they opened another theatre for us!  Wasn't that nice of them?  I am not a fanatic by any means.  I liked the books and after all my friends were raving about them I just had to read them to see what all the hype was...  I really can't remember the last time I was up at 2:30AM, probably pulling an all-nighter in college.  I agreed to go to the midnight showing because I thought that Friday would be a late start Friday for the girls and I could sleep in a bit... no such luck, we have half days because of conferences!  I also knew Todd wouldn't be interested at all.  I did like the film.  I think they cast Bella spot on!  She was wonderful!  I didn't like Edward at first, he wasn't what I imagined him to be like.  But because he is Diggory from Harry Potter, he grew on me.  They did a good job condensing down the book and my friend, who hasn't read them and still may not, totally understood everything.  We were sitting in the theatre for over an hour, just chatting, it was fun and I wasn't even that tired, but I am right now.  I just had lunch and am sitting down in my recliner with my nice warm laptop on my lap...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, oh, sorry about that!  Definitely go see this show! 

New background!

Yes, to answer any questions... I did finally figure out how to change my background on the blog.  I really was getting tired of the old one.  Now I will join the rest of you and keep on top of the changing seasons and holidays!

Sydney is home today and tomorrow as she has half days until next Thursday, due to conferences.  Bryant is so excited to have someone other than me to play with, although they are on their second viewing of Kung Fu Panda!  

Todd has started traveling again.  He is still with Infosys Consulting here, but is on a new project.  Get this... Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon!  Just where we came from!  I can't believe it!  It is driving me crazy that he is there and we are here!  If you couldn't tell... I'd go back in a heartbeat for sure!  He leaves Monday mornings and is home Thursday nights.  I am once again joining my "single" mom friends Tari and Michelle!  This is our first week, so wish me luck!

Volley ball Dad!

Todd is the one in dark shorts and a white t shirt about to hit the ball.  Our ward men's team made it to regionals, can you believe that?  They are so big into sports here in the Seattle area and pretty competitive too!  

Sydney was the ring leader/babysitter for all the kids not watching their dads, which was all of them.  Sorry dads!  They played follow Sydney, train, and played with her littlest pet shop animals.

Hiking trails to the park

Last week we had the Monday before Veteran's Day off of school for a teacher day, so we met up with some friends and took off on a hike near their home.  The trails go all around and include a park with tables, benches, and play structures to climb.  To tell the truth... the kids had more fun hiking through the trails and so that is what we spent most of the time doing.  The trails head toward another park, so we tried that park out too, but as soon as we got there someone had to go to the bathroom!  So, we hiked back to the house and played some more.  We ended up staying for dinner and FHE.  Our friend's dad went to Italy for his mission and so we had some yummy pasta for dinner.  The kids put on a talent/fashion show, whichever they were in the mood for!  It was a fun, long day of playing.  Six hours is a long time, but the kids did well.