MAY 2018

May was a sweet month for us!

McKenna GRADUATED from University of Utah with her Bachelor's of Science in Health Sciences specializing in Athletic Training.


She has been offered a position starting in August with BYU Track and Field!  HOORAY!

We were so happy we could be there to celebrate with her and Braden!

The cute couple!

And the traditional "U" photo...which prompted the discussion of WHY THE Y does not have someplace like this?
Where is the Y at the Y for photo opps??

We had the Janulis staying with us that weekend when they came up to Utah for a wedding. We went to Thanksgiving Point gardens for a walk.

And, the next day we walked in a real greenhouse garden when we went plant shopping.

We went to the BYU Art Museum and enjoyed the exhibits there.

MOTHER'S DAY found us at the MTC all day and into the evening as we stayed with our missionaries calling home.

We had to say good-bye to some missionaries we had gotten really close to...those going to Turkey.  Well, they got reassigned to other missions after all the missionaries got pulled out of Turkey while they were in the MTC.
Seriously some of the most amazing young people we have met.
This is Sister Anderson reassigned to WA, DC.

My cute Pre-K classes waiting to visit the Kindergarten at Sunsetview.
They have grown so much this year!!

And the really special thing was, that the class we visited had 9 of my former students in it (1 was on a trip) so I got to interact with all of them!

And, we got a group hug which a couple of my current students wanted to join in on!  Love it!

Our flowers in the yard have been just beautiful this year.
It is almost like they are taunting me for deciding to build a new house and have to start a new yard.  It kills me to think of leaving all my lovely perennial gardens and my trees!!!

Here is my AM class at Graduation in the backyard!

And my PM class at the start of their program.








Another visit to the Gardens with our friend Jessica.
The koi are getting HUGE!!!

BEST BIRTHDAY SURPRISE EVER!!!
Having one of your kids show up to surprise you!

Thanks Austin for arranging your trip to fall on my birthday!

We all went up to SLC to hike with Breanna and Elliot at a cool place called THE LIVING ROOM!
As you can see, we are sitting on the stone couch! (Braden created a stone remote to put on the arm of the sofa)

Beautiful view from the top of our hike looking over the Salt Lake Valley!



The next day we got to celebrate Tanners EAGLE COURT OF HONOR!
This was a special one for us because of what he did for Breanna's school!  Awesome job Tanner!  The kids LOVE the new books!!

Scott traveled to BRAZIL for about 10 days this month to do some stories for Church News.  He had a good experience (other than his 46 hour return flight drama)
This is the beautiful Sao Paulo Temple.

Meanwhile, we were here celebrating the life of Mom up at the cemetery in Orem.  We love to talk about Mom and all the things she was so good at and how we each are like her in different ways.  The flowers alone remind us so much of her!
We loved that Dad gave each of us daughters a vase of flowers in her memory.

This beautiful view was the last Sunday of the month on our way to the MTC.  My friend snapped this shot on her way in!  Amazing!

And here we are with our latest and greatest batch of missionaries headed to Germany, Hungary and various ASL locations.

And a "Girls Pic" with our 5 Sisters in the Branch right now.  We really love these young ladies!

APRIL 2018

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS FROM OUR MONTH...lots more from Austin's family!

April has been so much fun and so busy.

We started out the best possible way by visiting Austin and Laura's family in Washington!

We got to help out with the kiddos while Laura and Austin went on a 10th Anniversary trip to Vancouver, Canada.

Evan has more energy than me...he was practicing being a "runner" while we waited for the bus!
Oh, and his shirt was because he loves TARANTULAS right now.

This cute Mackenzie face was her photo smile...we were coloring CTR shields for a Home Evening activity!

And this cute and messy Brooklyn face is the result of the treats...S'mores!!

We spent time every day doing something for Brooklyn's dollhouse.  This is the master bedroom we put up wallpaper and made bedspread and rugs for!

And in the nook of the drainpipe is the WOODPECKER who thought it was funny to wake us up several mornings at about 6 AM.
It was SO LOUD!!!

Back home in Utah it was trying to decide if it was winter or spring still.

It finally decided on spring.  These are the lilies I planted over Addie's grave and they are coming up beautifully!

Scott and I have been seeing SANDHILL CRANE several spots near our home and by Utah Lake this spring.

One of our walks took us very close to the lake this month.

Remember my empty hall closet from last month?  Well, this is how it turned out.
It is now a fully functioning PANTRY.  It has a light that is motion and light sensitive to come on when we need it and is so nice!  We really made over a basic closet into something really useful!

This was our Branch at the MTC in April early in the month.

This is just one of the tulip beds at the MTC near our classrooms!  Beautiful!

And a group of our RM Sisters that came for dinner one night and we brought them to the MTC for a visit afterwards.

And our Branch later in the month.
It changes all the time!








We spent a lot of time this month helping Jennifer move...but of course, I do not think to take photos of things like this...or when Amanda and Jimmy came to visit with the kids!  I miss so many photo opportunities!

We finished the month by taking Lori and our kids to Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival to celebrate Lori's birthday!  One of our favorite family traditions! 

Cool new statue dedicated to WOMEN!















Happy Spring!

MARCH 2018 / MY DAD TURNS 90

What a great FAMILY MONTH this has been!

We always have lots of time with our MTC family...which has been lots of missionaries headed all over the world.
This group was leaving for Hungary.

And these are Sisters Dunn and Warner from the Branch Presidency with me and young Sister Nordgran.

This month TANNER completed his EAGLE PROJECT and I got to go with him to deliver the books to Breanna's School in Salt Lake City.

Breanna was a little teary as she introduced Cody and Tanner to her class, and for good reason...

We hauled in over 20 boxes of books for classroom libraries in her school!

The kids were SO EXCITED!  They first got to choose books to put in the 1st grade BUDDY READING libraries...it was a frenzy of choosing books!

Then, they got to choose books for their own classroom libraries, and they wasted no time in getting right down to READING!!

I know it made a world of difference for Tanner to get to see the excitement of these kids receiving the books and then giving them to other classrooms.  It was truly a spiritual experience feeling the difference that we can make in other people's lives!

And as Breanna told the boys, reading is really the key to everything in these kids' lives.  It can help overcome poverty and ignorance and bring self sufficiency, confidence and peace.  THANK YOU TANNER AND CODY AND LeANN for all your hard work on this and for letting us be a part of it!

We hosted our monthly RM dinner group!

Daylight savings brought us some wonderful early morning sun behind the clouds that was worth the time change!

March brought us a pretty special BIRTHDAY!!!



We had so much fun scheming up a FAMILY BIRTHDAY PARTY and then having Clair and Susan come to surprise Dad!

We were surprised by some strange HAIL one of the mornings they were here too!

I talked Clair into going to my SPIN CLASS a couple of times while he was here and it was a really good workout, but more fun just having someone to do it with!


So...have you thought of retiring here in Provo, Clair????

Clair had showed up Thursday morning on Dad's porch like some door-to-door salesman, and Dad at first just assumed that was who he was.


But by the time we brought Susan around on Friday, he was not as surprised, but was just as HAPPY!

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I talked Susan into going to AQUA ZUMBA with me too...can you see a pattern here?

So, have you thought of retiring in Provo Susan???

Yup, I would love to have some workout buddies!!




FRIDAY MARCH 16, 2018 Dad officially turned 90!!!
We all got together for a PIZZA PARTY in his honor!!

Then we had CAKE AND ICE CREAM and cobbler for dessert!

I made him wear the cowboy hat to go along with our Western theme birthday and he was a very good sport!

Saturday March 17, 2018 we hosted an OPEN HOUSE in his honor at his home.


This was a WONDERFUL DAY for he and Carolyn to greet over 127 guests throughout the day!

It was fun for Jennifer to see old ward friends too!

And for us to see old friends as well.

Dee Stevenson visiting with Clair

And cousin MarLynn visiting with Susan.

LeAnn produced the most amazing LIFE HISTORY/PHOTO HISTORY book for us and people really enjoyed looking through it.

GOOD JOB LeANN!!

Carolyn's kids sent Dad a fruit bouquet and we did not notice until later that the pineapple had a 9 and a 0.  NICE!

This woman met Dad when he was her student ward Bishop and has kept in touch. Impressive!

Guests enjoyed watching the wonderful photo video that SCOTT put together for the occasion!  It was really nice and they loved the music in it as well!

Here is a DAD/SIBLING shot..

And with Dad and Carolyn.










We had the largest Branch in the MTC this month as we had an overlap in our large German groups for one week!  70+ today.

This was the group leaving for 2 German speaking missions this particular week.




We had been WAITING FOR A LONG TIME to find out what BABY was coming to the Jensen Family in August...

And we had a worrisome time when Scott lost his glasses for several days...we searched all over Dad's house, Braden's apartment and our house.


Then Tuesday after everyone left, I decided to check out the big chair Scott sits in upstairs...I moved it and did not find anything, but in putting it back, I noticed something on the vent next to the chair on the floor...YUP, there they were!

I sent his this picture asking him if he liked my new glasses:)

LeAnn hosted a nice BABY SHOWER for Vicky, Nick and baby LUCAS!!


I did not get pictures of the WONDERFUL FOOD that they had...YUMMM!!


But got a couple shots of the first people who came over!

We could tell how much people love Vicky in this ward area.

We went to a BYU RUGBY MATCH one Saturday and had so much fun!  It is a crazy sport to watch, but we really like it!

It helps to have Braden there to ask questions to about every 15 seconds...

They handily won the match close to 50 points ahead of their opponent.

We celebrated McKENNA'S BIRTHDAY which is MARCH 27, by taking the kids to PIZZERIA SEVEN TWELVE up in Orem.

 Austin had wanted us to go there because they have lovely, artistic and very tasty pizza!

We tried a POTATO PIZZA

a THREE LITTLE PIGS PIZZA

and a PIZZA MARGHARITA

 They were all very very tasty!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY McKENNA!!

This is my latest project.  I got a bee in my bonnet about changing up the end hall closet to be more like a PANTRY/LINEN CLOSET.


It had deep shelves, which hold a lot, but end up a deep mess.

We are in the process of making shorter shelves which wrap around one side and add a couple more shorter shelves to make more usable space.

Add some storage racks and a door rack and some hooks and I think it will be great!
Why didn't I do this years ago???
I will edit and add photos when I am done in a couple weeks when I get back from SEATTLE!!

Here is what I do most of the time...preschool stuff.

I don't usually put in photos because I am not usually in any of them, but a parent took a few this week so here I am in action.

We were making a SOLAR CLOCK this day and were outside marking it every 30 minutes.  Beautiful day, and we are enjoying the coming of Spring!!

The kids running with RECYCLE PLASTIC BAG KITES...and annual tradition at school!

We enjoyed going up to the renovated Jordan River Temple with Taylor family the end of March.  It is very beautiful inside, and neat to see how they made it look so different and updated.
We had Mitch and Jen in town visiting so that was a great excuse to all get together!