Good Morning Baltimore!

This last Saturday, we headed to Baltimore, Maryland. We had such a fun time!!! I had heard of Baltimore before and since the movie Hairspray came out I've been wanting to go visit. It's about an hour drive from where we live. I have to say that Hairspray did such an amazing job at depicting the feeling that you get when you visit Baltimore! There was music and people dancing. Everyone was having a great time! We walked around the harbor, grabbed a bite to eat and enjoyed the fun atmosphere.

Here's my brother Kem, my sister Nya, Braden and my mom. It was such a beautiful day!

My brother Kemchu!

Carnival Cruise had this festival going on all day and when we got there this guy was singing. He was amazing and the songs were so groovy!!!:) You could't help but want to dance!

My mom and Brielle went down to dance! People were just dancing and having a fun time!

This is the USS Constellation. According to my internet research, she is the last existing American Civil War-era naval vessel and was one of the last sail-powered warships built by the US Navy. We didn't go inside, but the outside was cool and it was huge!

The whole fam, minus Scott...you guessed it!...he was studying! :(:(:(

That cool looking building (the closest one) is the Baltimore Aquarium. It is supposedly, one of the best aquariums in the nation. We are planning to go once Scott gets done with school! Can't wait!

It has been such a wonderful blessing to have my mom and my sister here in Virginia. I'm so grateful that we got to live close to each other this year. Brielle and Braden love their abuelita so much. She is such an amazing grandma! We are going to miss them deeply when they go back to Utah tomorrow. My sister will be starting school at Provo College and my mom will be moving with her...to keep her in the straight and narrow!!!:) We are going to miss them both!!!!!!:( Just thinking about saying goodbye tomorrow makes me want to cry!!!:(

We walked around the harbor and enjoyed the breeze!

My brother took these of Brielle while we were eating. He's always able to capture the moment!Brielle has such a fun and spunky personality!!!:)

I have to say, that Baltimore was amazing!!! There were soooooooooo many people but it was worth going and enjoy such a beautiful day together!

Frying Pan Farm

Last week we went to this really cute farm called Frying Pan Farm. We drive by it every Sunday to go to church and we had been there once last fall, but hadn't had a chance to go again. (Jen, thanks for reminding me about it the other day!) :) This little farm is so much fun! We will definitely be going there A LOT this summer. They had brand new little piggies, lambs, and goats. They were so cute! We all had such a fun time watching the animals. It made me feel grateful for the amazing creations of our Heavenly Father. It also made me realize that life is precious, even when it comes to a newborn little piglet (too bad I didn't take any pictures of the little pigs) :( they were sure cute! and stinky!

This peacock was AMAZING! We were just looking at him and the kids were talking to it and we were teaching them what its name was, etc, etc. We were marveling about its beautiful feathers, when all of a sudden he started to open them! It's not often that you see this happen. I think I've only seen it happen very few times in my life. And this is the first time Brielle and Braden had ever seen this happen!!! It was such an incredible thing to watch! The peacock has got to be one of the most beautiful animals Heavenly Father has created!

At the farm there is this little area where they have 3 little old tractors. Children can climb and pretend like they are driving them. Brielle and Braden were entertained playing with the tractors for a long time!!!

This little girl has so much attitude! Can you tell by this picture?

I've mentioned this before but my kids LOVE my brother! They both call him Kemchu (his nickname). He is such a good, thoughtful uncle. We love you Kemchu!

Grandma & Grandpa Jensen in D.C.

Scott's parents were here last week and we had so much fun visiting with them! Scott's mom won a trip through her work to come to D.C. on a nurse conference at the Gaylord Convention Center & Resorts in National Harbor, Maryland. Karen decided to bring Scott's dad along. They came the weekend before her conference started so we got to spend the weekend with them and saw them almost everyday after that. We went to D.C., went out to eat, went to the pool at their hotel and were able to do some catching up! We wish we could have spent more time with them but nonetheless we were so happy to see them both. Brielle and Braden were especially happy to see their grandparents. Braden was a little hesitant at first, but it didn't take him long to warm up to Clay and Karen.

I'm so glad the weather was nice the day we went to D.C.! It pretty much rained everyday after that while they were here. :(

It was so nice to have both of our families together!

Scott's dad's foot was really hurting and he was having a really hard time walking so we rented a wheelchair for him. There's too much walking when you visit D.C. He was able to enjoy his visit with the wheelchair and Scott had an awesome workout pushing him around!!!:)

My beautiful mother.

Three generations of Jensen's! Braden LOVED sitting on grandpa's lap!

Vietnam Memorial.

While Karen was in conferences we came to visit Clay at their hotel. We were able to go swimming at the hotel's pool! The kids had so much fun!

We were so happy to spend time with Clay and Karen! We are so glad they were able to come! We can't wait until next time you come and we can show you more of D.C!!!

Children's Books

For some reason I have the hardest time finding good books to read to Braden. We have plenty of selection for Brielle but good books targeted to boys is another story. Our latest find for Brielle are the Fancy Nancy books by Jane O'Connor. She LOVES Fancy Nancy and I have to admit that I LOVE her too. The illustrations are so cute and the stories are so engaging and I love her little personality.

She also loves Charlie and Lola books and Braden gets into those ones too but the books mainly focus on Lola so I think Braden gets a little bored. I think he likes watching the videos better than the books. Those books are cute because they are about a brother and sister and I think Brielle and Braden can relate.

Then there's the "Dora The Explorer" books which I absolutely LOVE and Brielle does too and even Braden gets into Dora. Sometimes we find Diego books but I don't think Diego books are as engaging. (I'm not sure if the authors are the same or not) I love that it teaches Spanish and my kids actually enjoy that very much.

We also LOVE "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney. If you haven't heard of that one you should definitely check it out from the library and if you love it buy it because that book is requested a lot around here. Anna Dewdney also has another really cute book called "NoBunny's Perfect". It teaches manners and the illustration is so cute!



We have also found two more authors that are so good. I think these books are more unisex and Braden LOVES reading those books. "No David!" and "David Gets in Trouble" by David Shannon. Braden absolutely loves these books and if it were up to him we would read these books 50 times a day. Both Braden and Brielle have both of those books memorized.



Finally, we like Bill Martin with "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and other books that are similar to that one. The illustrations in these books are interesting by Eric Carle but for some reason my kids just LOVE the pictures and they are engaged the whole time we read these books.

Anyway, we have more books that we love but these have been the highlights lately. I'm interested in more books for boys. Braden loves airplanes, cars, boats, trains, etc. So if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them! Even if you have suggestions for girls too, we'll take them!:) What are your kids reading? or if you don't have kids have you heard of other good books for children? Please share with us!

Happy Spring!

Oh man! We have been so busy around here! We have been enjoying nice weather for the most part so that means we have been playing outside a lot! The last couple of days have been a little chilly but today has been in the 60's! I think spring is here to stay!!! (we hope!) The last two weeks we have been going non-stop, we've had one thing after another. I haven't had time to sit down and blog. So this post is going to be long!

My friend Bobbi invited the kids and I to go to the zoo last week. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time...for the most part...Brielle had her moments but overall I think we all enjoyed ourselves. We got to see a bunch of animals and I got a good workout from pushing the stroller around! Thanks Bobbi for inviting us to come! We had a blast!:)

The first two pictures are my attempt of taking a nice picture of the kids and I...as usual...no luck...I'm the only one who is looking at the camera...but then Braden started to cooperate...Liesl (Bobbi's friend) took these pictures and she also helped me out a ton with the kids! She was so good with them!

The panda bear was just chilling outside eating...I'm not sure what he was eating but he seemed to really like it!

I caught the tiger right when it was drinking from the pool! I am amazed every time I see a tiger, I think they are such a beautiful and magnificent animal!

The cheetah was just chilling in that little shelter and then all of sudden it stood up and started walking! This is another animal I think is just beautiful!

It was Scott's birthday the day we went to the zoo, but my poor husband had to go to school and had do his clinical hours with a doctor. So he missed the zoo. But later that day, my mom babysat for us and we went to dinner and a movie. It was nice to spend time with my honey and celebrate with him his 28th birthday!!! Now we are the same age!!!:) He caught up to me!!:) We went to Texas Road House! We were so excited to have found one here in Virginia. We saw it one time when we were driving by the highway and Scott said that, that's where he wanted to go eat for his birthday. The food was amazing! We got a really cool waiter and he gathered a bunch of other waiters and they sang the Texas Road House birthday song for Scott! I can't remember how it went right now! But it was awesome!

The waiter made Scott sit on this cool saddle while they were singing to him!

Our waiter was a hoot!

Here we are very happy that we found a Texas Road House in Virginia!!!

After dinner, we went to watch Duplicity with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. It was a really good show! We both enjoyed it and we were the only ones in the theater which was awesome!!! Overall, I think Scott had a good birthday, we didn't do anything spectacular, but we both enjoyed each others company, had great conversation during dinner and enjoyed our movie...I don't think it can get any better than that!!!:)

(Happy Birthday babe!!! I hope you enjoyed our little date!!!:) I love you!!! )

Since the weather has been so enjoyable we have doing a lot of this around here:

Brielle and Braden love the playground!

Brielle has been posing for pictures lately!!! It's so funny!!! and ADORABLE!!!:)

Eventhough, sometimes these two are a lot of work, I experience so much joy when I witness moments like this one! They are such good friends!

We had an Easter Egg Hunt last week with the playgroup from our ward. The kiddos LOVED it! They had so much fun! Since it was raining that day they had to move it into the chapel's gym. But the kids still had a great time. (We also had our own Easter Egg Hunt last Saturday at a near by park.)

The Cherry Blossom Festival was also last week in D.C. We met up with my good friend Daija, her little guy Bridger and also Daija's mom Vicky. (They were visiting Daija's brother who lives in Maryland) It was so nice to see Daija and meet Bridger! He is so ADORABLE! And it made me realize how much I miss my good friend Daija! Although our visit was short, I enjoyed every minute of it!!! I miss you Daija! Thanks for meeting up with us!!! (and thanks Vicky for treating us all to lunch! It was nice to see you too!)

I know I look very cheesy in this picture but Bridger is almost looking at the camera in this one and he looks so cute!

Isn't he so squeeeeezable??? His bright blue eyes are to die for!!!

I don't know exactly what Brielle is doing here...but I love Bridger's face in this picture...he's like, what the heck is going on?

I remember seeing a picture of this exact place with the statue and the cherry blossom in a booklet they sent us about GWU before we moved here...I remember thinking that is was incredibly beautiful! So we had to take a picture there!

sidenote: (I was looking through last years' calendar the other day-I hang a calendar every year and write birthdays, appointments, important things, etc,etc.(I'm sure a lot of you do the same thing)-I was looking through it and it hit me how much our life has changed in less than a year...Scott was waiting tables at Olive Garden and working at Qwest around this time last year...I was still teaching at BYU-Idaho...we paid $550 a month in rent...now we pay 3 times that amount!!!! Scott will be done with his first year of medical school in less than 2 months!!! man! Life sure changes!!! It's just crazy! and I get to see the cheery blossom right in front of me instead of seeing it in a booklet!!!) :):)

What a picture!! whaaaa ha ha ha!!!! Braden cracks me up, Brielle's face is hilarious and George Washington's head??? Where is George's head????

After lunch with Daija, Vicki and Bridger, they had to go but Scott was with us and I convinced him to come see the cherry blossoms again with us. So, we headed to see them again!

Isn't this spectacular???

Brielle posing for the picture!

My little sister Nya and I.

The cherry blossoms were amazing! Can't wait until next year to see them again!

On Saturday, we all headed to the park, had our own little easter egg hunt and...

...my brother bought some kites and it was so much fun! It was the perfect activity for a beautiful spring afternoon after watching the first session of General Conference. Seriously, can life get any better than this? General Conference, my family together flying kites, good food and lots of running from the kids letting go of their kites ha ha ha ha!!!! We had a great time!!!!:)

And I leave you with Brielle's BIG smile and Braden...

he took this picture himself...until next time my friends...kids are calling, laundry is waiting to be folded and dinner needs to be cooked...:)