We Love Visitors!

We have had visits from so many awesome people the last 3 weeks or so, which is one reason why my Google Reader got up into the 90's for unread posts this last week. But we've been having tons of fun, which is what summer is for! Here's a look at some of our visitors and some of what we've been doing with them.

My Mom was my savior as she came to help me when Avery was born and was here for over 2 weeks. She cleaned, cooked, did laundry, entertained Sophie, and was truly an angel sent from heaven to get me through those first few weeks when I couldn't sit down. (I bruised my tailbone pretty good in the delivery and can only now sit without too much pain. I don't recommend it.)

Julie also came for the last few days and it was very fun to hang out with just the girls while Joseph was at a training in Charlotte, NC.

This last Sunday we got to spend dinner with Kenny and Bobbie Newton who had come down to go on a cruise with his family (which is why they were sans kids). Kenny and Joseph were best friends in high school and it was very fun catching up with them.

Joseph's brothers Hyrum and Erik also came down to stay with us last week for a few days and we had a ton of fun with them here. We walked the Universal City Walk and took a picture in front of the Universal Studios sign.

Erik and Hyrum played a little football on that walk as well. They had some foreigners giggling a ton during their photo shoot with all their crazy poses.

Joseph took a day off work and the boys all went to Six Flags Magic Mountain together. They rode all the big rides and only got a little sick on some of them.

They also went to the beach and tried out Joseph's new body board. (Neither Hyrum nor Erik had ever been to a beach, so this was really fun for Joseph to take them to one!) Here's Hyrum laid out perfectly parallel to the sand as he dives for a frisbee.

They also went in the pool almost every evening and did crazy stunts and contests, because Jensen guys are so darn competitive! :)

And no trip to California would be complete without eating at In 'N Out. This was Erik's first time in California and so his first time eating here, and he thought it was just okay.

Erik was pretty disappointed that they flew home the day before the earthquake here so he missed that, but otherwise I'd say they had a pretty authentic taste of Southern California, and we loved having them here.

Missing You/Memory Tag

Joseph is gone today with his brothers who are visiting from Utah to Six Flags. So I am here with the girls all day long, and it's made me realize more than ever since we moved to California how much I miss my girl friends. I've never before lived away from everyone, all my friends and family (other than my mission, but that doesn't count for so many reasons), and I miss having people around to visit and do things with. Our ward has been great, but I feel like I haven't seen anyone from it in so long since I've been MIA for a little while during this (too long) recovery process after having Avery. And don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and spending my day with my girls, but I was spoiled living in Utah near my family as well as friends from my undergrad BYU days, my Salt Lake days, and the many we made while back in Provo for graduate school, and getting to see so many of you so often. I want to go to a Baby/Bridal Shower again, attend an MBASA Book Club or activity, or just have a girls night out with friends.

In short, I miss all of you dear, wonderful women in my life who have been such great friends to me. I wish I could call each of you individually to chat and thank you for being my friend, but since I can't reach everyone, I thought this might be the next best thing. Thank you for being a part of my life, for continuing to enrich it and share your lives and stories with me through your blogs. I will make new friends here, but I truly believe in that old adage "Make new friends, and keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold." You're all gold in my book. I love you all!

So in this vein of recognizing how blessed I've been in my friendships throughout my life, I'm going to do this Memory Tag. (I first saw it on Erin's blog and I modeled the directions after her--thanks, Erin!) Here's how it works:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you have of me or Joseph or Sophie (or Avery if you have one!) Some of you I've known a long time, others just a short while, but it doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, just write something you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is the most memorable for you.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Obsessed

...with a deer.Sophie has truly become obsessed with the movie "Bambi". I guess if you're going to ask to watch a movie a million times a day, this is at least a good and innocent one for it to be, but it's getting ridiculous. Without fail, the first thing each morning that I hear out of Sophie's lips are "Watch a little bit o' Bambi?" (Here she is doing just that.) And if I'm not letting her, she'll rephrase to "Watch 10 minutes of Bambi?" (which never ends after 10 minutes. 10 minutes to her is the entire film.) She thinks if she eats any food that it should be immediately rewarded with watching some of her favorite deer and rabbit. (She's also obviously having a hard time eating lately.) So I've been trying really hard to come up with alternate activities that she'll enjoy to get her mind off of Bambi.
When my Mom and Julie were still here this week, Mom made playdough that they made into our family.Notice how Bambi even had to join the playdough family?
My Mom also made the most adorable little playhouse for Sophie. She has loved spending time in there and often drags her daddy in with her. He's such a great sport and indulges her quite often.
We really hope this Bambi obsession will end as quickly as it started, but that just might be wishful thinking. Wish us luck!

Wordless Wednesday: Avery Jane

My Day Old Child

Day Old Child

My day old child lay in my arms,
With my lips against her ear.
I whispered strongly, "How I wish--
I wish that you could hear,

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say,
(a tiny cough and a nod),
hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."

My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled her ear,
But a kind of light passed through her eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:

"How I wish I had a voice and words,
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget, I'd tell you of God --
I left Him yesterday."
--Carol Lynn Pearson

I'm a little slow on posting this since Avery is now 4 days old, not one, but I wanted to still share this wonderful poem that I memorized once upon a time as a very little girl. It has always meant a lot to me. I love you, sweet Avery!

"Born on the Fourth of July!"

Introducing our Yankee Doodle Sweetheart, Miss Avery Jane Jensen!

She was born on the Fourth of July, weighing in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.

Labor and delivery went well and quick, a full four hours from start to finish! I wish recovery would go as well, but we'll take it anyway.

Our little firecracker has brown hair and is such a good baby so far! She sleeps a ton and eats really well. Sophie wasn't so sure what to think of her crying, but she sure loved to look at her new baby sister. (We hope this picture isn't a foreshadowing of their future relationship!)

Our hospital visitors before they headed off to watch fireworks. Grandma Lamb is loving being here with her THREE (almost 4) grandbabies!

Joseph agreed to name her Avery Jane as long as he could call her AJ. That's totally fine with me, so here's the proud dad with his little AJ.

We Made It!

Our baby can safely come now that it's July. We are officially insured as of today and I can stop worrying that I'm going to go into premature labor and that we'll have a $7000 baby. Silly, I know, but I've been counting down the months, then weeks, then days, and yesterday I even counted down the hours until it was safe for me to go into labor. Not that I'm doing that, but now I could and it would be okay. :)

Here is a picture we took a few weeks ago on Father's Day before church. Sophie's finally allowing me to put her hair in pigtails, not that it stays that way very long (like they come out on the ride to church--dang fine hair!) but at least she looks more presentable for a minute or two each day.

Swimming at Papa Lamb's

We went to Papa Lamb's house last week to go swimming and it was so hot outside that the water was really warm and perfect for swimming for long hours.Sophie made her way around the pool in this raft.

Joseph not only dropped Sophie off the diving board a couple times, which she loved, but he also jumped in with her from the side and she thought that was awesome.

She no longer minds going under and thinks it's fun to get dunked now!

Sophie was a hugging machine all day. She hugged everyone at least 10 times each before the day was through and especially loved hugging Austin.

Ahhh, cousin love--so sweet!

Random Musings on Pregnancy

Before I'm through this construction project that's taken over my life, I want to share a few random thoughts I've had about it. Just bare with the pregnant lady a moment, please.



There is a delicate balancing act going on in my fridge lately (read: the past several months) called I'm-Pregnant-And-Can't-Stand-Leftovers Syndrome. It basically consists of me making a new meal for dinner every night and then shoving the half in the fridge that we didn't eat, saying it'll make a perfect lunch for the next day. Now Joseph has been a champ about taking his share of the leftovers and disposing of them for said lunch meal, but me and Sophie? We've not done so hot. I can't abide the thought of rewarming something up the next day for me, and since I'm responsible for Sophie's sustenance, she doesn't get leftovers much either. We have managed to choke them down every once in a while, but generally the dishes just continue to pile up in the fridge until they've covered every inch of space, creating an almost complete solar eclipse with the fridge light. It's not cool when you have to search for the butter with a flashlight.



I want to know how women who get huge bellies right away sleep the rest of their pregnancy. Maybe it's not hard when baby is still small, but when the baby is full-term and you know they're just as uncomfortable in there as you are having them there, how does anyone get any sleep? Every time I lay down on my side, I swear I can feel myself crushing little toes, only to flip over (which right now is a MAJOR accomplishment alone) to the other side where I know I'm causing brain damage to a little head. So my solution? I just quit sleeping on my side altogether and sleep away on my back. I know "they" say to not do it, but my doctor gave me the go-ahead to sleep on my back since I don't have any kidney/heart/other internal organs issues that would make it dangerous, so I do it. That way I only imagine my baby also having to lie on its back strung out over my belly from side to side like a beached whale. I know, I have issues.



And could somebody please explain the whole nesting thing to me? I hear some women have a sudden urge to clean their entire house in preparation for baby to come, but I think that's a bunch of bologne. That's just a cover-up explanation for what I'm feeling right now: a need to make my house look spotless because my mother is coming to stay with us next week. Not that our house is dirty because I do my best to keep it clean even when bending over to sweep causes Braxton Hicks contractions that last for the next hour. But when your mom comes, it's gotta be ultra clean to prove that you're not spending your afternoons when toddler girl is napping writing a blog post instead of cleaning the toilet. And the funny part about it is this is completely self-inflicted; she doesn't say things that make me feel I have to do this, I just tell them to myself and Joseph just rolls his eyes.



Last but not least, what poor brain surgeon did they con into doing a study that discovered that women lose brain cells while they are pregnant? All they had to do was ask the millions of moms out there who've gone through it! I can tell you right now that my memory is daily being sucked through the umbilical cord, never to return again. But they needed a scientific study to prove this. Pregnant brain is not a myth, unfortunately. I have it bad, which is why I walk out of WalMart with everything in my cart but the two things I went there specifically to get, or stand in front of the full length window in my room, looking outside with my daughter, only to realize that I haven't in fact put my clothes on yet over my underwear? Sorry neighbors! (Apparently my dignity is also being sucked away.)



Have any of you ever wondered these things, or am I losing a lot more than memory with this pregnancy? Oh well, kids are supposed to make us a little crazy, right, so I guess it only makes sense that it starts when we're carrying them. :)

The Waterpark

We went to a waterpark last Saturday when it was blazing hot and the cold water felt wonderful. It is attached to a dam but this park is especially made for little ones and we had so much fun!

There was water shooting up, out, and down from every surface of the structure. Sometimes it got annoying, but mostly Sophie just loved it.

We were so glad daddy could be there to play! (Isn't he a hottie?!)

There were two slides and the long, twisty, skinny one was the best.

Can you tell if we liked it?

Under Construction

2 things around here are currently under construction. They both might be over at about the same time, but we'll just have to wait and see. The first one is the changes on our blog. Because this was primarily a blog built about Sophie, the current title's been fine. But now that we're about to add another star to the blog, the name will be changing, and the URL probably will too. So stay tuned for the new URL address we'll tell you about soon. (We just have to come up with it first.) We'll continue to post things until then, we hope.


The other big construction project has been going on for almost 9 months now and is coming to a close in 2 weeks. Baby Girl Jensen #2 is set to make her patriotic debut into the world on Friday, July 4th. That's a week earlier than her due date, but we're hoping that by inducing at 39 weeks we'll avoid me going into labor at home and not making it to the hospital which is an hour away in Newport Beach. Things went pretty quickly with Sophie last time, so we're not taking any chances. So that's the little update on that. I'm feeling very big and having trouble sleeping and even walking as she likes to sit on a certain nerve of mine. But otherwise, life is good and we're just so excited to get her here! Here's a picture of the belly, almost full-term.

To the Two Most Important Men In My Life...

First, to my Dad (since I've known you a little bit longer),

Thank you so much for being my wonderful father! You have always been someone I admired and looked up to, and I always felt growing up that I was daddy's little girl and was a princess in your eyes.

Thanks for teaching me how to dance and play baseball and how to work hard, as well as a hundred other things I've learned from you.

Thank you for loving Sophie so much and for being the greatest Dampa Yam a little girl could ask for. Her pillow is yours anytime you clap for it. Happy Father's Day! I love you, Dad!

And to my husband, because you're the most important man in my life now,

Thank you for taking a chance on me a little over 3 years ago

Thank you for choosing me to be your bride and eternal mate,

Thank you for setting wonderful examples for our daughter. She adores you and wants to be just like you.
Thank you for loving your role as a father and being such a fun, patient, and amazing one.

And thank you for continuing to love me and serve me so faithfully! You are my best friend, my confidante, and I'd still rather spend an evening with you than anyone else on the earth! I love you! Happy Daddy's Day!

Wordless Wednesday: First Time Finger...er...Body Painting

One Nice Thing About Being 8 Months Pregnant

I'm clearly looking for a silver lining here since I really couldn't name anything else that's nice about being 8 months pregnant, other than it meaning that you only have one month to go. But it was pretty handy to have such a nice shelf to rest my horchata on the other night. "Look ma, no hands!" :)

Disneyland!

We bought ourselves the year round Southern California residents pass to Disneyland and were able to enjoy visiting the park twice before Joseph started work this week. Yahoo for living a half hour away from Disneyland! The first time was just our little family, and the second was with my brothers Geoff and Scott who were visiting for the Memorial Day weekend, and with Peter, Abby, & Austin. We had a great time, even if Abby and I were confined to the smaller rides and to pushing strollers all over the park while the guys did the fun stuff. It's Disneyland tradition to take a picture in front of the entrance, even when this big a belly should never make it into any photos.

One day Sophie will actually care about Sleeping Beauty's Castle that's in the background, but for now, she was just trying to figure out where on earth we'd taken her. She said "Dineyland!" (and no, that's not a typo--that's how she says it) the entire way there, however, and we think she had a lot of fun.

She loooved riding the horse on the carousel!

And Dumbo is a favorite story to read at home, so she thought it was very cool that we were now riding him!

We couldn't get her to look for any pictures because the more exciting things were always behind her!

Here's the entire gang on Main Street on Memorial Day. We had so much fun with you all!

Joseph took Sophie on the cars because apparently pregnant ladies are fine driving their own vehicles 65 mph (or more) on a freeway, but no way can they go 5 mph on a Disneyland track! Way too dangerous!

We are allowed on the train and other rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Jungle Cruise, though. Thank goodness!

Sophie and Austin loved the view from the bridge high high up on the Tarzan Treehouse. We ate at a place nearby this and watched the Indiana Jones fight on this bridge several times while we ate and rested.

We were glad the boys got to enjoy so many of the big rides together. Joseph's favorites were California Adventure's "Soaring Over California" and the rollercoaster there, and then of course "Thunder Mountain Railroad" and "Space Mountain" at Disneyland. I can't wait for my turn to go on all the fun ones, too!