Easter 2011.

We had a very enjoyable Easter here at the Jensen's. Last Friday, my neighbor told us about an Easter Egg Hunt that was going on at one of the local high schools around here. We didn't hesitate to go since we had missed our Church's because the kids had preschool.

So we joined our nice neighbor and her cute little boys to the Easter egg hunt.

The kiddos were patiently waiting for them to scatter the eggs on the football field.

Braden was NOT in the mood for me to take his picture.

The time finally came for their age group to go hunt for eggs. It was a little bit of a mad house...but they both managed to collect a few...plenty, if you ask me.

Brielle and Braden were both thrilled to have met the Easter Bunny.

The Easter egg hunt was sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, so they had their cow mascot there. Brielle was desperate to meet the "girl" cow. Braden was mesmerized by it too, I think.

Easter Morning came around, and the Easter Bunny had made its way to our house. I do enjoy these little traditions, even though I often feel like they detract from the real meaning of things...but the magic of being a child only lasts for so long...and I thoroughly enjoy making things magical for Brielle and Braden.

They were both thrilled...Scott and I were awakened by Brielle's excited little voice, saying,

"The Easter Bunny came to our house!"

They got a few fun things in their baskets and then we talked about Easter and what it means. We all watched a little children's video that we have about Christ's resurrection and it set the tone for the rest of the day.

Our Church service was so special and I think we all felt the true Spirit of what Easter means to us.

For me, it kind of started the Sunday before. Scott was on call that Sunday. The kids and I managed to get out the door almost to make it on time for sacrament meeting. We frantically made it when they were singing the opening hymn. As we were sitting down, I looked up to the stand and to my surprise I saw a face that I didn't expect to see...

I saw the one and only, Elder Uchtdorf.

An automatic feeling of peace overwhelmed me. It wasn't something I had planned to feel...as a matter of fact, I felt kind of frazzled walking in with my two kids, running a little bit late, trying to find a place to sit and wishing my husband was with us instead of the hospital doing rounds. When I saw Elder Uchtdorf, I felt peace, it was a feeling that caught me by surprise.

I couldn't wait to hear him speak. It was such a great surprise.

I was uplifted beyond words.

He analyzed D&C 12:8

"And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care."

I can't even put into words how much that scripture touched me.

As he spoke, I couldn't hold back tears. I was humbled. Things like these are not coincidences. Heavenly Father knows us individually. It sounds so cliche. But sometimes truth sounds cliche and we neglect to deeply reflect on what they really mean. I needed that visit. I felt so loved by Heavenly Father. I felt like he is so aware of me.

As Easter approached I felt so grateful. That visit, by an apostle, somehow, made me realize how individual Christ's atonement really is. Yes, he died for you and me, but it is so much more individual and personal than that. Although, His sacrifice is general, I'm coming to slightly understand that it is also very specific.

It was nice to spend time together on Easter Sunday. I'm SO glad Scott wasn't on call last Sunday! (He was incredibly sad that he missed Elder Uchtdorf's visit the Sunday before!)

We talked to Brielle and Braden about the special people in our lives that we will be able to see again some day because of our Savior's sacrifice.

After our yummy Easter dinner (Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast recipe)!!! So delicious!, We had some good family fun dying eggs.

The kids loved every second...

it was the first time we had done it together as a family.

This little girl cracks me up!

Showing off our little creations...

Scottie was getting a little carried away...:)

We have so many hard boiled eggs in our fridge now...

...we have been eating egg salad sandwiches around here!:)

Wishing you a...

Spring.

Confession- Lately, I have no clue what I'm doing as a mother. It seems like once I have a stage down another one comes around and I become completely clueless. We are going through the fighting stage and the back-talk-to-mom stage right now.

Can someone please just come up with a parenting guide with all the answers? I don't need one with a bazillion steps, just one or two steps would make me happy.

Like say some kind of chant and my kids become these perfect little angels.

That would be nice!

They really are good little children, but man they have been fighting non-stop (it's a love-hate relationship) I guess, you would call it a normal sibling relationship...I was talking to a friend and she suggested a "repentance chair". I liked the idea...I chose a "repentance corner"...they both have to sit there and think of what they did wrong and then tell me what they did wrong, not what their sibling did wrong but what each of them individually did wrong. I come back a few minutes later and surprisingly, very few times have they started to blame each other but they recognize what each of them did wrong.

It has helped some.

Even though, I have been feeling clueless...

...the other day I became the coolest mom on earth.

I fed my kids the unhealthiest lunch ever...Lunchables, otherwise known as extremely processed cheese and lunch meat and a processed drink called capri sun.

We have been trying to stay away from food that is 'too processed'.

But for one day, they thought I was the coolest for feeding them a lunchable...

and what made it even better is that we took our lunchables to Frying Pan Farm and had a picnic there.

Brielle was not too fond of the mama goat, because she had a 'goatie' and she insisted it couldn't be the mom, it 'had' to be the dad because it had a goatie.

They had a bunch of babies at the farm, they were so cute!

That mama pig was HUGE! and the little piglets so stinky but adorable!

We walked around for a while. The ducks were very friendly. We found some of our favorite people, Alisha, Geneveive and Emory at the farm.

I LOVE your smile Alisha!:)

The kids had a fun time with the tractors as always.

The weather was perfect and the little baby animals were adorable!

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We have been enjoying some beautiful spring days around here. It makes me so happy to be outside...and my kids love it too. One day, Braden took his car track and played and played forever.

We watched our little friend Lilly twice last week.

My kids always have such a fun time with Lilly, she is the sweetest little girl.

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Scottie got done with his Pediatrics rotation on Friday! Woo hoo!

One more rotation and he will be a fourth year!

It's always so nice to have my husband home and mostly stress-free...

although...here comes confession #2:

He was on-call like 4 times the last 3 weeks. He hadn't been on-call for a while and I had forgotten how much I DO NOT like it when he's on-call because that means we don't see him for over 24 hours.

It made me so scared for what is to come during his first year of residency!

I guess, for now, I just have to enjoy the moment...and that means that I will have him for a whole week this coming week for spring break!

I love how much laughter there is when Scott is around...he's always teasing or tickling the kids...and they both LOVE it! They call him the Tickle Monster!

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This little girl is becoming such a good helper. I love it that she and Braden can clean their bedrooms all by themselves. Brielle's is the one that is usually a wreck! But now, all I have to do is ask her to clean it and she will!

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...this photo is just a random one from last week, that I just have to post because that tree in the background is just amazing!

A few more confessions:

confession #3- I bought my very first pair of maternity jeans the other day! and can I just say how comfortable they are! I don't know what I was thinking when I was pregnant with Brielle and Braden.

confession#4-I have been eating way too much candy lately! All of these holidays, become just an excuse to eat all of that refined sugar...but it just all tastes so good.

I discovered Peeps dipped in chocolate...so good! Talk about refined sugar at its best!:)

Spring is here!

The Greatest Show on Earth.

After we went to see the elephants downtown a few weeks ago, Braden was so incredibly disappointed that it wasn't the 'real' circus!

I found a coupon that gave us $8 off each ticket, so I decided to splurge and get some tickets to the Ringling Brothers Circus that was in town... (It was also Scottie's 30th birthday present.)

It was really amazing and they are not kidding when they say that it is the "Greatest Show on Earth"!

Scott, Braden and I had such a fun time...

About 30 minutes into the show, Brielle was done and insisted that she was ready to go home!

How to please a 5 year old? Seriously?! She whined and whined!

Braden was mesmerized by it all.

These guys were amazing!

The whole show was very well put together. All of the numbers were entertaining and it is amazing what people can do!

Brielle refused to come be in the picture with us.

She was just done by the intermission.

But then the elephants came and I think that settled her down for a little while.

We got descent seats, considering how cheap we got the tickets for.

We had a fun time, minus my daughter's whining! I could have definitely done without that! :)

We are having a...

We are having a...

BABY!

You will have to send all complaints to Scott for that one! He is determined to keep it a surprise until the baby comes! We could have found out last week, but I was strong and kept my promise not to find out what we're having! I was so tempted to ask the sonogram tech to take a quick little peek for me...but a promise is a promise.

I did get to see this little life inside of me and these sonograms always make it more real for me...well that and the definite kicks I feel througout the day!

I can't hardly believe that I'm half way through this pregnancy!

V.I.P.

Two very important people came to visit us last week. I wish I could save all the special moments we had with them in a little capsule and revisit those moments every once in a while. Scott's grandma and Aunt Penny came to spend a week with us. It was wonderful to have them here. The week prior to their coming, the kids, especially Brielle asked every single day, fifty million times a day, "are they coming yet?, are they in the plane?" Both, Brielle and Braden couldn't wait! They were beyond excited. It almost felt like they were waiting for Christmas to come! The day came and we couldn't have been happier to have them in our home for a week. We did some of the usual things that we do in D.C. when we have visitors. It was the little exchanges of kindness and love that I will remember though, toward me and Scott, but especially the way they both love my children. It's funny how it is those little things that make the most difference, like Aunt Penny fixing Braden's fishing pole countless times and Great-grandma Jensen reading a goodnight story to Brielle.

Such special moments.

We tried to keep busy, despite the bad weather we had most of the week they were here. It was such a bummer that it rained so much! But I think we made the best of it and they got to see some of my favorite places in D.C.

The first day we headed to the beautiful Library of Congress.

That building is amazing and I love what it represents.

Grandma got a little tired of walking around so she and the kids sat down in this really cute children's library that the Library of Congress has inside. Penny and I took part of a tour, and we learned some really cool facts about the Library. The tour guide told us there are about 700 miles worth of bookshelves, making it the largest library in the world! Isn't that amazing?

The following day we headed to the Archives Building to see the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The lines were crazy but it was worth it!

It was Scott's birthday that day and he got done early at the hospital. So we met up with him and he joined us. We took Grandma and Penny on a little tour of the National Cathedral. As always that building is just breath-taking!

We did part of a tour, until we all got tired. I do love the tours, the guides always have such interesting facts to share.

We headed to the top of the Cathedral to see the whole city. It was a little foggy.

We got home and we celebrated Scott's 30th birthday with some cupcakes. My cute husband caught up to me!:) We are both 30 now. We all had a little surprise for Scott.

I gathered '30 things we love about Scott' from Scott's closest friends and family (I didn't get everyone!) :(. The kids cut up circles and hearts and we wrote all the wonderful things everyone had to say about him...we ended up with more than 30! I LOVED hearing what people have to say about my husband. He really is a good man and I'm so lucky to have him!

"30 things we LOVE about Scott"

1. I love it when my dad plays candyland with me. You are my favorite Daddy. -Braden

2. Scott is dependable. -Aunt Penny

3. Scott is the most handsome of all the Jensen's! -Jana

4. Scott's sense of humor. -Jon & Daija, Jana

5. Scott is kind. -Grandma Jensen

6. We like that Scott admits when he's wrong. He's humble. -CJ & Lenell

7. I love that Scott is always so genuine. You can always tell that he means what he says... -Stacey

8. I love it when my Daddy plays barbies with me. -Brielle

9. I love Scott's ambition. -Dad, Penny

10. Scott is such a good dad! -Jana

11. I like the way Scott loves his family. -Dad

12. We love Scott's killer dance moves. -Jonathan & Daija

13. I love how much you work for our family. -Denisse

14. Scott is intelligent. -Grandma

15. I love it when my Daddy hugs me. -Brielle

16. I love you because you go to work. -Braden

17. I love how caring Scott is to everybody. -Dad

18. I love that Scott is even tempered and rarely seems to let things really get to him...-Justin

19. We love Scott's ability to speak his mind without reservation. -Jonathan & Daija

20. I love it when daddy plays superman and choo choo trains with me. -Braden

21. I love that Scott loves God and he is genuinely a good person. -Denisse

22. Scott is such a hard worker. -Jana

23. I love everything about Scott. -Nya

24. I love it when my daddy kisses my mommy. -Brielle

25. Scott is faithful. -Grandma

26. I love it when daddy tickles me. -Braden

27. I love when Scott tells me a joke and I laugh, and he laughs because he thinks his own joke is funny too!

-Denisse

28. I love it when my Daddy walks with me on the trail. -Brielle

29. You are my favorite Daddy in the whole wide world. -Braden

30. I love who you are! -Denisse

We love you sweetie! Happy 30th!

The cupcakes turned out yummy!

On Friday, Braden had a field trip, and since I'm one of the room moms for his classroom, I couldn't get out of it...so I left Grandma and Penny for a few hours to go chaperone the field trip to Home Depot. It was really fun and Braden was totally in his element. He absolutely LOVES working with tools. They made the cutest little wooded box and he pretty much made it all by himself! (with a little bit of my help!) :)

On Saturday, we decided to fight the weather (meaning the rain), the forecast said 50% chance of rain...It was an interesting visit to the city...it rained 3 different times. It would rain and then it was shiny and then it would rain and then it was shiny! It was nuts!

But we got to see the cherry blossoms and we saw most of the monuments. It is so much walking that we decided to get a wheelchair for grandma. It was nice to have Scott to push grandma's wheelchair.

The cheery blossoms were very white this year. I missed the little tint of pink from prior years. But nonetheless, they were beautiful.

I was glad that Scott was able to spend the whole day with his grandma!

Beautiful every year!

We had an adventurous day and we got to see most of all the monuments that we wanted to show Grandma and Penny.

The kids were DONE! Walking the mall, always leaves us all exhausted!:)

After a long day of walking, grandma treated us all to dinner! We met up with Ryan, Kara and their children, who drove from Cleveland to see Penny and Grandma.

We enjoyed a lot of good times together. When I asked Brielle, what her favorite part of Great-grandma being here was, she said, "when she read to me!".

Their last day, we headed to the Arlington Cemetery. We were so lucky to enjoy such a beautiful day! It was almost hot!!! I LOVED it! We took the tourmobile and it made it easier on everyone, we got to see the whole Cemetery.

Here I am, with child.

Goodness! It takes a lot of energy carrying that belly!

I almost couldn't keep up with Scott's 86 year-old grandma!!!:) ha ha!!!:)

Grandma is amazing!

We got to witness the change of guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier! I can't believe I've lived here almost 3 years and I hadn't seen it before! It was really neat!

Braden became very fond of Penny while she was here! He loved being around her! and I did too! We enjoyed many late-night conversations.

When I asked Braden what his favorite part of Aunt Penny's visit was, he said, "when she was tickling me!" He just enjoyed spending time with her.

The kids thought Penny was so cool because she could roll her tongue. I've never been able to roll mine, and Brielle and Braden have been so cute about it, they keep telling me:

"Mommy, you just need to practice!"

I'm afraid practice won't make a difference in this case! :)

Sadly, Grandma's and Penny's last night here, Scott was on call at the hospital until midnight! So, so sad!

We will treasure our moments with Grandma Jensen and Aunt Penny forever!

We love you both!