Happy 7th Birthday Jensen!

Jensen boy turned 7 on December 27th. 

On his Birthday he got to go swimming during the day and then Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and dessert that evening.

Jensen got a remote control drone, stomp rockets, and binoculars from Grandma and Grandpa.  All of which he thoroughly enjoyed.

The year our kids turn 7 they get a friend birthday party.  Jensen is having his party a few weeks after his birthday since his birthday is so close to the holidays.  We didn't want to add to the chaos of winter break. 

A few things about Jensen at 7...

He is in 1st grade and really likes his teacher.  He is such a good student at school and seems to be friends with everyone (although I think he is fairly shy at school).  He loves to run and I hear he often spends his recess's playing soccer or running around the playground on a path.  He doesn't love to read yet, but is great at math.  He is very into how things work, and if he doesn't know how something works then he will just it up in his mind.  He has a very creative imagination.  Jensen is rarely seen playing with toys, but loves running around the house and jumping on the trampoline.  He is an awesome helper with our foster kids and he is so sweet to Little A.  He loves to have mom and dad read to him or play games.  The dollar store is his favorite place to go followed closely by Chick flia to get some chick fila sauce.  Currently his favorite movie is Descendants and Trolls. He is currently taking swimming lessons and loves the time in the water. 

Jensen is excited about life and loves to explore this world.  Jensen we LOVE you!

    

Christmas 2019

Christmas Eve this year was a calmer day for us then it has been in the past. It worked well for this stage of life.  We had plans to go to McKay's moms house to say hello, but in the end she decided to come visit us.  This made our day simple.  We visited with her for a while.  Then the weather was so nice we decided to walk to the park to get the kids wiggles out.  After the park we had promised the kids Chick fil a for dinner and Grandma came with us.  Win win!  We even went inside and let them play on the play ground (this doesn't happen very often).  They LOVE chick fil a  and together they ate 30 chicken nuggets and 4 chicken sandwiches. 

That evening we came home and they all got to open one present.  This present was new jammies that had been given to us by donors who have donated to Utah foster care.   These jammies, along with other toys and books were  all gifted to us by Utah Foster care and servicemen from Hill Air Force Base delivered them to our house.  We are so thankful for their donations and sacrifice of time for these cute foster kiddos.  Their gifts helped make this a special Christmas for the kids.

Then it was off to bed for these 8 munchkins.  

Christmas morning everyone woke up excited to see if Santa had come.  Thankfully they didn't wake up until 7:30 so it wasn't too early of a morning for us.  

Christmas morning over here was a blast.  I was worried about how everyone was going to handle all of the emotions and chaos that comes with Christmas morning... how many fights we were going to have to break up over toys, who would open a present first... etc.  Thankfully the kids were excited in all the right ways.  They were patient and waited their turn to open a gift, and everyone seemed to like what they were given.  Which is a good thing because they were given pretty much every toy under the sun!  This Christmas ended up being our biggest one yet.  The kids had so many toys to play with and they were in heaven.  Once everything was unwrapped McKay and I spent the morning opening boxes and setting things up.  They played ALL day long on Christmas.  I think I saw Nola three times that day.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Nola and Declin played paw patrol ALL day.   Some of the present highlights this year were the mini trampoline, paw patrol tower and toys, new rugs for the living room, a remote control helicopter, and some American Girl type dolls for Addie and Big Sis.    

After presents we tried to get things cleared out and boxes put in the garage.  My family came over around lunch time to have a big meal all together.  It is always fun to hear how everyone's Christmas mornings went and what their favorite parts were.  After lunch the Dads all went over to Larissa's house to help them set up their new trampoline (it is so fun that we live close) and the girls talked home decor ideas (our styles are all pretty similar so it is fun to bounce ideas off of each other).  And the kids kept playing... 

The rest of the evening was full of playing with toys and setting up all our new things around the house.  By Christmas evening I was ready for the Christmas chaos to go away and I was tempted to take down the tree that evening, but I resisted.  haha!   

2019 Christmas will always be a bitter sweet one in our lives.  Bitter, as I know our foster kiddos were missing their family.  Sweet, because we loved having three extra kiddos here with us and seeing their faces light up with each new toy.  Oh the many emotions of foster care...   

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!  

Christmas Parties

This year to focus on Christ during the month of December I started a new tradition for our family.  I bought a prepared box of ornaments that came with corresponding scriptures with each ornament.  The scriptures are stories from Christ's birth and life.  They also came with questions to ask the kids each night so that we could have a little devotional. The kids enjoyed hanging the little ornaments on a tree that sat on our kitchen table.  I was grateful for the opportunity to think about Christ's life each night. 

For one FHE the kids planned and acted out the nativity story.  I always loved their costumes that they come up with for it.  Addie does such a good job at directing the kids and organizing it all.  This year Big Sis was Mary and Declin was Joseph.  Jensen was the Angel and Addie was the Donkey.  Mr. J and I were wise men and Nola was a Shepard. 

On the Saturday before Christmas we went to Logan for the Pace family Christmas party.  The kids always have a blast running through the house with cousins.  We ate food, opened presents, and played a few games.  The kids really got into the games and it is fun to have them getting to ages where it is actually fun to have them be a part of the games.  We barely saw Nola the whole party because she was busy playing with their little animal toys.  She has been animal obsessed these days.  

The Fry Family party was on December 23rd at Brent and Heather's house.  The weather was great that evening as we drove to Francis, UT.  We had soup and rolls which was such yummy comfort food.  The kids did a gift exchange and the adults played the saran wrap game.  No white elephant gifts this year which is crazy because we have always done white elephant gifts at that party as long as I can remember.  Thing change!  The kids love playing with Aunt Heather's fun toys and they are always so entertained by them for a very long time (big win for this mom and dad).   They also love Leah the dog.  At the end of the night Santa showed up to check and see if the kids have been naughty or nice.  Our middle kids LOVED seeing Santa and thoroughly enjoyed sitting on his lab and telling him what they wanted for Christmas.  The babies wanted NOTHING to do with him.  They stayed glued to mom and dads arms.   

Declin and Nola also had another opportunity to see Santa when we went to toddler jump time at Get Air in Kaysville.  They got to jump and Santa was there to say high.  It was a fun morning with the littles while the rest of the kids were at school.