Living and Loving

2012-02-13T11:03:00.006-07:00

One Year!!

It has been one year as of yesterday that our good frien nds James and Kelly have been living in our basement. It is longer than we all expected, but we honestly can't complain. James & Kelly moved in while they looked for a house, and at this anniversary they are just about a month away from moving into their first house! We are so excited for them, but really sad to see them leave. The kids love them so much!

James and Kelly beat us home from church yesterday so as we walked in they were holding our 1 year anniversary cake. So cute! They even made us lunch...our very first eggs benedict. They were delicious! The kids of course were super excited for the cake and after singing a modified version of Happy Birthday we dug in. What a great day yesterday and a year ago too!

5 kids!

2012-02-10T19:38:00.001-07:00

This week we took on a new challenge...being parents of 5 kids under the age of 8. My sister Sarah and her husband are on a business trip in Mexico this week so we got the youngest of their 7 kids. It truly has not been as bad as I thought it would be. The kids play pretty well together, and they are good helpers. I did have to help with lots of 2nd grade homework, cook more food, and brush more teeth than I ever did before, but it was fun! We always thought that we wanted 5 kids and though I can't speak for Mike, I would say that I still do as long as I don't have twins like the boys. :) Before I thought getting a good picture of my two was difficult and now I know with 5 it is impossible. All of these pics are the best out of many many tries. :) Anyway, they go home tomorrow morning and we will miss them.

Mowhawks

2012-02-02T14:44:00.001-07:00

So I have never done mine kids hair like this before but after their bath this morning it just seemed fun...for me anyway. :) Carter let me style it and then complained about it for awhile after, and Savi didn't really want me to touch her hair, but she could care less what it looks like.

2012-02-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

I just had the following conversation with Carter:

"Carter, who do you get your craziness from, me or dad?"

"Um..you."

"Who do you get your funniness from, me or dad?"

"You!"

"You do? Well, what do you get from dad?"

"Um, Treats!"

I had to document it before I forgot it. :) He is saying so many funny and grown up things everyday. I wish I could just record every conversation.

2012-01-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

We finally got some snow here in Utah and of course it is already melting. The best part is that it is perfect for making snowmen. By the end Savi was a wreck, but Carter and I loved it.

Silly Sav!

2012-01-19T10:29:00.001-07:00

Carter is really starting to repeat things I say and sometimes I am like oh no, I have to stop sounding like that and other times it is cute. He loves to tell Savi no, no when she does something she shouldn't, but he also says "silly sav!" when she is being funny. Savannah loves to get into things she shouldn't and there are plenty of things in drawers like pens and permanent markers that she has sneakily found and used. She also is throwing quite a few tantrums for things so we ask her to ask nicely and the one pic is of her saying "please." They are both so much fun and are growing so fast. We are truly blessed!

Fun times with cousins

2012-01-19T10:27:00.001-07:00

Mike went to Vegas last week for the Consumer Electronic Show so we spent some time with Sarah and her kids. The boys use to not get along at all, but now they are really good friends and excited to play with each other. They were being silly and doing the opposite of what we asked them to do, so we would say don't smile and they would and open your eyes and they'd close them. They both love to tease. It is Ella's 8th birthday next week so the adults and her went out for ice cream. She got raspberry and black cherry yogurt with sour gummy worms on the bottom. Ahh, to be a kid again. :)

2012-01-02T12:05:00.001-07:00

It's a Wonderful Week!

At the end of every year we get to have a crazy yet wonderful week. Christmas, Mike's b-day, our anniversary, and New Years all within a week's time. The week starts off with the annual Jenson Christmas Eve party. This year it was held at Mike's cousin's house in Alpine. It was so fun to see everyone. A couple of the fun traditions that we do is we reenact the nativity scene. This year Savi was suppose to be baby Jesus and Carter was to be a wise man, but Carter decided not to and we only get this two quick pictures of Savi, but it was still so fun.

Another great tradition is a talent show. Carter has been really good at singing songs so we let him take the stage with the mic. He did a great job. Then we had Savi say a few words and it made everyone laugh. The best part of course for the kids is that Santa comes and we each get a present. Savi didn't want to sit by herself, but she did let Mike hold her in the end.

Christmas gets more and more fun each year with the kids. Carter was super excited for Christmas and wanted "lots of swords" from Santa. He loved all of his gifts, besides the clothes of course, and Savi was getting into it as well, especially with the candy. :) We got some great presents from my brother Dan's family that had us, and Mike and I got more than we expected. In the past there aren't too many surprises under the tree for each other, but this year we both did a great job and we only knew like 2 presents each.

After a nice Christmas morning and early afternoon at our house we finally headed over to the Jensons for more presents, and more importantly we got to talk to Andy! He looked good and is doing well out in Washington. He was so nice and sent everyone presents that we opened in front of the little web camera. He knows us so well and got us some sweet Bacon loving things.

The kids were so cute in their Christmas pajamas!

The parties just keep going for us because Mike's birthday is the day after Christmas. He turned 29!! The movie we saw was the new Mission Impossible, and then we gathered at our house. Mike got set up with some new tools, sleeping bag, bullets for his 22, and a few other great things.

After Mike's birthday we had a day to recover and a day to clean and then we were back at it with going to the Marriott for our anniversary. We were given some reward points to use towards a two night stay and we took advantage with the help of our great friends Kelly & James. You already saw the post below, but it was a great time!

We had James bring the kids up on Saturday and we took the kids to the Discovery Gateway Children's museum. It was really fun and worth it because we had 2 for 1 coupon and the kids had a really great time.

Of course our wonderful week wouldn't be complete without a New Year's celebration! On our way home from the museum we stopped at Walmart for the essentials...sparklers and smoke balls. Carter LOVES smoke balls! We didn't have to push to hard to keep the kids awake til midnight. Carter had no problem and Savi, although her eyes were mostly closed was NOT missing out on the fun. She even said "happy" when we thought she was asleep. We had a great 2011 and we're excited for what's coming our way in 2012! We hope you all had a wonderful week too!

2011-12-30T19:58:00.008-07:00

6 YEARS!!!

We went to PF Changs for our anniversary dinner. We haven't been back since our honeymoon and it was delicious. :) We ended it with a literally Wall of Chocolate.

We were also able to see the beautiful lights at Temple Square. We can't wait for many years of celebration!

2011-12-21T12:41:00.003-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We hope you have a fun filled safe holiday!

Christmas spirit

2011-12-04T23:32:00.001-07:00

I know this pic is not the best, but I wanted to show that we finally got around to decorating our house for Christmas. I don't like things up before Thanksgiving, but I do want them up shortly after because it is so much work that I want to make sure there is enough time to enjoy and appreciate. Carter was a great helper and of course Savi did her part by taking down everything she could reach. ;) Decorating along with the Christmas station on Pandora was just what I needed to put me in the holiday spirit.

Cute kids

2011-12-04T23:18:00.001-07:00

Just a few thoughts and pics about cute kids... I love the picture of Mike with all the kids. The other little man is our Jenson nephew Tyler. Mike can always get him to laugh. Savi totally thinks she is so big and can do anything anyone else is doing. She is definitely our sassy sav. :) One night I was talking to my sister and after a bit of silence Savi comes in the living room with her face covered in ranch and a plate in her hand. When I went to grab the plate she threw it down and took off! We both learned that night that she is tall enough to reach things on the table now. :) Carter is growing up so fast and knows so much! It is rare that he falls asleep on the couch and I just love this picture of my growing "big boy snuggle bug" (i told him he can only grow up if he continues to be my snuggle bug so he came up with the above name. :)

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-04T22:24:00.001-07:00

We had an extra special Thanksgiving because my brother Nate and his two girls Abby and Mia drove from Nebraska. Nate had to tow the Kia back for parts so it was nice that he was able to start for a few days. We ate so much that week with the addition of a Tucanos lunch and of course lots of pie. :) We really wanted to go snowmobiling, but unfortunately there wasn't enough snow so we took the kids to the sledding in park city, but after realizing how much it would actually cost we let the kids go borrow some tubes and go down the "hill", which was just where the lanes ended and dropped down to the line again. It was pretty pathetic but the kids LOVED it! We topped off the day with swimming at a great indoor pool. It was sad how fast the time went but we have so many wonderful memories now and Carter keeps talking about his cousins. :)

Savi's first haircut

2011-12-04T22:22:00.001-07:00

Unlike Carter who got his first haircut at 4 months, we just had Kelly trim Savi's hair a little on the back before Thanksgiving. She did awesome!

Yummy food

2011-11-22T14:04:00.001-07:00

My ward's Relief Society has a blog with all the recipes people turn in, and there are some links on the sides to other websites. There is one that I want to share because we really have enjoyed every recipe we have tried so far:

http://jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com/

I just made her chocolate chip muffins for the second time and they are so delicious! Her recipes are pretty easy and use ingredients that you either have or that are cheap/easy to get. So enjoy!

Precious moment

2011-11-15T12:28:00.001-07:00

One night before bed Kelly put Savi next to Carter on our bed. Usually this causes screaming and crying from both parties, but like magic it didn't. Then when she came back a minute later she was surprised to see Carter snuggling his sister and no screaming or crying! How amazing!

New Car!

2011-11-12T18:46:00.001-07:00

Our little green machine officially died this last week when the transmission went out. The Kia has been a life saver for the almost 6 years we have had it, but it is definitely not worth putting another penny into. So unexpectedly we had to get a new car. Mike had narrowed down the choices so we went to just "drive" them on Saturday. We ended up walking out with a 2010 Honda Accord. It only had 11600 miles and it had been on their lot longer than they liked so we got it for a great deal. We are both stoked! It is a HUGE improvement from the Kia and Mike's long commute will be so much better. Plus it is amazing how much more room it has than the Kia or the Jeep for that matter!

Halloween

2011-11-03T10:43:00.001-06:00

This year the Halloween weather was absolutely perfect so that made the night just right. We took Carter and Savi with Tyler (cousin) and Megan (friend). We just went around our little circle but Megan and Carter loved the candy aspect and were doing pretty well with their door approach. :) Tyler could care less and Savi just wanted to keep moving, but they were all so cute and fun. We topped off the night with a great party and delicious fondue, and of course a "scary" movie. The next day Carter started asking if it is Halloween yet. It might be a long year. ;)

Rose visit!

2011-11-03T10:34:00.001-06:00

We were lucky to have my sister Julie and her husband Nathan and son Landon come for a quick visit from Montana. They were getting all the essentials for Landon to go on a mission to Brazil right after Thanksgiving. This is their second son to go to Brazil and they have two more sons so it will be interesting to see where they will go. A favorite tradition when my family comes from out of town is to go to Tucanos. Needless to say we LOVE it when family comes to town, and wish it happened more often. :)

Excited for Halloween!

2011-10-30T21:54:00.001-06:00

Tonight Carter said that he couldn't sleep because he wanted to go trick-o-treating. He actually has been asking every night for about the whole month if it is Halloween when it gets dark. So he is extra excited for tomorrow night. :) Today we carved a couple of our little pumpkins from our garden. We had to downsize all the templates we had because they were so small but I think they turned out great!

Party!

2011-10-23T21:44:00.001-06:00

So our little girl is not so little anymore. We had a great birthday party for her today with lots of extended family and friends. It was busy but so wonderful to see everyone! I didn't capture a ton of great photos on my phone, but I wanted to share what I did get. I will post more later.

Visit to the zoo

2011-10-22T17:08:00.001-06:00

Today is Savannah's first birthday and though we are having her party tomorrow we still wanted today to be fun and special so we went to the zoo for the first time. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids loved it. Here are a few pictures from my phone.

Catch up-baby savi

2011-10-21T08:47:00.001-06:00

So our not so little girl turns one tomorrow! We seriously can't believe how fast the time has flown. Since she was born I pretty much stopped blogging because two kids and working from home didn't allow for much free time. Now that I can blog from my phone I want to share some pictures of Savannah when she little.

The second to the last is my absolute favorite because she was only like a week old and I just happened to capture this perfect smile. This is when we found out she had two dimples, although the one on her right cheek is still the most prominent.

Catch up-Lake Powell

2011-10-19T22:43:00.001-06:00

We had a great Habel side reunion over Pioneer weekend down in Lake Powell. I have never been and I was hesitant to go with two small kids, but we are so glad we did! I got to see cousins that I haven't seen for years, and it was beautiful outside. Carter loved playing with the other kids and did great in the water. He just had a love/hate relationship with the mud. :)

Catch up-tired girl

2011-10-19T22:34:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I try to keep Savi up so that she will take a nap when Carter does, but sometimes it doesn't work. :)

Catch up-glasses

2011-10-19T22:24:00.001-06:00

Like most kids Carter LOVES to put on glasses. Whenever he puts on Mike's he thinks he is "daddy." Savi of course loves them too.

Catch up-my birthday

2011-10-19T22:19:00.001-06:00

So now that I can blog from my phone I have some catch up to do. :) Just before my birthday, my sisters and mom came into town for the funeral of our cousin. Though it wasn't the happiest of reasons to get together, it was definitely nice to see everyone. Since they were here we had a girls day out by eating lots, shopping, and pedicures. It was the best birthday ever!

First present

2011-10-18T13:59:00.001-06:00

Savi is going to be turning one this Saturday! We can't believe how fast the time has gone by. She got her first present from the grandparents in South Carolina. $10 and a sparkly card...perfect. :) "She" will have to think of something really fun to get with the birthday money.

2011-10-16T00:16:00.002-06:00

We had a great day trip with Mike's family in the ponderosa pines. It was a bit of a drive, but completely worth it! It was absolutely beautiful.

Hmm...dirt!

2011-10-11T23:28:00.001-06:00

Last post for the night...I promise. :) We love going to the cabin but the worse part for me is trying to keep Savi out of the dirt that is surrounding us. After about 5 minutes I give up and give into the inevitable mud mouth and hands, but with a smile like that how could it make you do anything else but laugh! :)