Brielle turns SIX.

It is sometimes unbelievable that Scott and I have a six year old.  

It sounds cliché I know, but we just can't deny the facts: Life goes by way too fast, children grow way too fast.  Brielle brings so much joy and sassiness to our family.  We love her and who she is becoming. She is so inquisitive and intelligent.  She's beautiful.  She's sassy but sweet at the same time.  She loves to excel and be recognized.  She loves to read.  She loves to sing and has a sweet, sweet voice.  She can throw the 'best' tantrums in the world...ha ha! She's a good little artist.  

We celebrated on the 9th and hopefully she felt special.  

 

She had school on her birthday, I brought some cupcakes for her class.

They all got in a circle and sang their special happy birthday song to her.  She got a little bashful, but I know she LOVED all of the attention she got. 

Brielle has been lucky to have such great teachers.  They love her and she is learning so much.

I will be so, so sad to leave this wonderful school.  

Later, that day, we opened presents at home. 

She's always asking me to paint her nails.  So she got her own little set of nail polish.  

Brielle LOVES to sing and she's pretty good at it too (at least we think so).  Kem got her this Karaoke Machine.  It was awesome and she loves it. 

Brielle picked Olive Garden for dinner.  

We had a delicious dinner.  

How can you ever go wrong with Olive Garden? 

Brooke was having fun too. 

Kemchu and Tasnim joined us too.  

It was so nice to have them come celebrate with us. 

Our nice waitress brought a little treat for Brielle and we all sang to her. 

...and we came home and sang again!

We were so full, we sang and had cake the next day.

Brielle is now SIX! and we loved celebrating and making her feel special.  

Sometimes, I look at my children and I tell them, "what did I ever do to deserve such wonderful children?" They look at me and they don't know quite what to say.  

I'm in awe of them and I'm lucky to be their mom. 

Braden Turns Five.

 Mr. Braden turned five on the 6th.  Yes, you read correctly...FIVE as in 5!!!!! It surprises people when I tell them Braden is 5.  He is short for his age, with the Jensen/Ramirez genes it is not surprising.  

But he can hold his own, even though he's little.  He has a BIG personality.  

I love my boy.  

He is smart and witty.  

He loves to make us laugh.

He loves to build things with his hands. 

He is thoughtful and helpful.

He gives the BEST hugs.

He is tone deaf (like his father) but we LOVE it when he sings.  

He LOVES his sisters. 

He tells me he wants to marry me when he grows up and he is going to live with us FOREVER! 

He is an amazing little artist. 

He had preschool on his birthday.  He loved all of the attention.  

He wanted good ol' McDonald's for lunch, so we went...and we found one of his favorite classmates from last year there.  She is the cutest little girl and she is just Braden's size!:) Every time she sees Braden she very enthusiastically says: Hi Braden! 

This year was a 'family birthday'.  So I didn't throw a party with friends.  We do parties with friends every other year around here.  It's nice to be together as a family and celebrate.  

I did decorate.  

It makes the kids feel special when you make a big deal about their birthday.

On the 6th, it was ALL about Braden. 

He couldn't wait to open his presents! 

It's always fun to watch their reactions. 

He LOVES gummy bears.  

Thanks Great-Grandma Jensen for the card and the money.  

He is saving it in his piggy bank. 

We sang 'happy birthday'. 

He made a wish and blew all of the candles at once.  

He got that little crown from primary.  He looked so cute!

After opening presents and singing happy birthday, he chose to go to Red Robin for his birthday.  

We had a great time together celebrating our BIG boy! 

Our Mr. Braden is growing to be such an amazing little boy.  

I am SO enjoying this stage.  

He is such a sweet boy, we are so happy he is part of our family.  

He has been the BEST surprise of MY life! 

We love you Braden! 

February│In Review.

February is always a busy month around here. 

It kept us all busy.

I've been taking my camera everywhere I go lately, I don't want to regret not taking pictures with all of the wonderful friends we have made here.  

I don't want to forget them. 

We have been so blessed to meet amazing people.  

The Lacey's had us over for dinner one Sunday.  I love that family.  They are genuine and fun to be around.  Genevieve is a spunky little lady. 

We had such a fun time visiting and eating yummy food.  Those cupcakes were to die for. 

  

We met up with my friend Jenny and her two precious kids Lilly and Leo. Lilly loved holding Brooke...and I had to snuggle with the miracle baby, Leo.  He's so cute and every time I look at him I'm amazed by him and his mommy; who was on strict bed rest, pretty much the whole time she was pregnant.  Jenny is a trooper, in every sense of the word. 

These three have so much energy!:)

Then came 100 days of school for Brielle.  The same week as Valentine's! It was a little crazy! But we got it all done.  We found this cool design and Scott (who is amazing at these kinds of things) put the butterfly together.  Brielle was the assistant and helped glue all 100 buttons! 

It was a lot of work! But it turned out, just how we had envisioned it!  

Happy 100 Days of School! 

I didn't get a single picture of the valentine's we made.  They turned out super cute! 

The kids got their share of candy for the month! Now there's Easter...man! all of these holidays with candy! Thank goodness we'll get a break until Halloween...

One of our favorite young women from our ward, Liz, left on her mission to NYC last week.  We were so sad to say goodbye, especially because we won't be here when she gets back.  The Portugal's are  Peruvian, so I'm so fond of them.  They are such wonderful people.  Liz has babysat for us on occasion and our kids LOVE her! She's such a sweet girl.  We will miss her but know she will do well on her mission. 

We've been enjoying having Scott home a lot lately.  

He had a 2 week vacation and it has been so good for all of us.  

Scott is such a good dad and the kids absolutely LOVE spending time with him.  

They love it when he reads to them.  One evening, I had to run to the store and when I came home this is how I found them. 

They love the time he gives them. 

Since Scott's been on vacation we've been trying finish our D.C. bucket list.  

Time is FLYING! We only have 2 1/2 months left here!

Scott is not fond of going to D.C.,  the commute for the last 4 years has KILLED this man! 

Me, on the other hand, I LOVE going there.  I'm sure it's because I don't have to commute 2 hours a days every day.  It means a lot to me that Scott's been willing to accompany me to my D.C adventures.

What am I going to do without this AMAZING city? 

We headed to the Museum of the American Indian. 

It's beautiful inside...

We saw a lot of cool artifacts.  Some Incan stuff, which I thought was awesome, since I'm from Peru. (for some reason, before I went to this museum, I thought it was mostly native American from the U.S. but to my surprise there is a lot from all of the Americas.) 

It was a nice surprise, one I appreciated. 

There's a fun little area for kids.  

We colored until Braden was done and said, "this is boring, let's go!" 

Braden was mesmerized by the cool rainbow effect one the ceiling windows was making.  He said it was one of the 'coolest' things he's ever seen!

We had lunch at the Mitsitam Cafe in the museum, I had heard such good reviews about the food there,  we had to try it.  I must say that our Navajo taco, which Scott and I shared was very tasty...not bad, but it was definitely not worth the  $12.50 we paid.  

But then again , Scott and I are as cheap as they come!:) 

Since, we still had time to hang out in D.C. before we had to go pick up Brielle from the bus, we decided to go to the new Martin Luther King Memorial. 

We thought it was a beautiful memorial.  

Braden was being a little stinker and when I asked him to turn around for the picture, he instead buried his face into that wall.  

Then I saw this group of little African American children.  They were all so stinkin' ADORABLE, I wanted to go and give them all hugs...I didn't...but I wanted Braden to go stand by them, so I could capture the moment...he just about had a fit! He was not cooperating! Little stinker!:) 

The statue is majestic and beautifully done.  The sculptor is an amazing artist.  I'm amazed at how the artist was able to capture the expression...it's a beautiful piece of work. 

Brooke enjoyed our outing! That little baby is such a good sport!:)

40 Days.

The other day I realized how much extra time I had when it was just Brielle and Braden.
I am not complaining.  Brooke is SUCH a good, mild mannered baby.
She is not demanding and she is predictable but she is another little human being after all;
a little human being that NEEDS every ounce of my being almost 24/7.

I haven't been taking pictures as much as I would like to and as you can already tell my blogging consistency is struggling!

January brought the strangest weather to Virginia.  We have had ONE snowfall and it has been amazingly warm, the other day we hit 70 degrees, 70! In the middle of winter.

Again, I am not complaining.
I'm glad not to be hibernating.
We have been outside a lot this winter. 

As always we have to go out and play in the snow. 

It never gets old to Brielle and Braden.  

They had a blast! 

These children are in DESPERATE need of a backyard. 

 

I dream of the day when they ask me to go outside and it's not this huge organized EVENT.  

I wish I could just open the door and let them go outside to a nice fenced yard and they can play for hours and hours without having to worry about a parking lot in front of our house or weirdos.

Hopefully soon.  

For now, the front of our building will do. 

Those two sure know how to enjoy themselves. 

I love watching them be mesmerized by this white stuff every year.  

I wonder if it'll ever get old to them. 

Can I just say how amazing I think Brielle is? I know she is my child.  I am most definitely biased.  

Scott and I are just amazed by this child.  The other day, she read a whole chapter of the illustrated Book of Mormon to us.  She LOVES to read.  She learns everything so quickly and she is so perceptive.  She's always been that way.  I have to say that this age has proven to be extremely rewarding for me.  Brielle used to drive me BONKERS with her strong willed personality, my way or I will torture you with incessant whining until I get what I want episodes.  I even bought a book about 'How to raise your spirited child'.  I didn't know how to handle this child.  I felt so emotionally exhausted all the time!!!  She is maturing beautifully.  She excels in school.  I love her bubbly, social personality.  She's kind and loving.  She is still strong willed, but it has gotten so much better. 

****** 

Mr. Braden is taking a science class at the rec center called Little Labcoats.  The teacher teaches simples science concepts and then she shows them what she's talking about with a little experiment.

The other day they made butter.

They had to shake and shake.  Braden was very enthusiastic about it.   

They shook and shook until the whipped cream became butter.  

It was delicious.  I had never made butter before.  

Braden is loving this class.  He's a curious little boy and has an interest for how things work.  He's always trying to build things or fix them.  

I have been proud of this little boy too.  

He finally got all of his alphabet memorized.  He has known the sounds to all the letters for a while but has struggled memorizing the names of each letter...more like 6 specific letters.  He finally got them all down.  We have moved on and he is quickly catching the reading bug.  

Just the other night, he read a little book with easy words.  

I was so happy.  

I burst into tears.  

He has worked hard and often out his own desire.

I am loving this school age stage. 

******

Brooke is definitely NOT a newborn anymore.  

She's been hitting so many milestones lately.  

She's busy and is starting to have opinions about things. 

I continue to be smitten by this baby.  I sometimes wish I would have been at this point when I had Brielle and Braden, much more willing to give every ounce of my being. 

The other day I was reminiscing about my teaching days at BYU-Idaho.  It made me miss it, being in control of a classroom, my interactions with students, even grading.  Being me, in front of a bunch of college students, that job was a dream of a job.  I loved every second.  

But I wouldn't trade it for being home full-time with my kiddos. 

I'm grateful I can do that.

Look at this face!

She loves taking baths.  It's the cutest thing to watch her flailing her little arms and kicking her little legs  in the water. 

This little girl started on solids.  She's been wanting this to happen for a while now.  But I've been holding off because I wanted to exclusively nurse for 6 months.  Anyway, she's just been so eager to eat.  

So we started on rice cereal last week.  

She loves to eat.  She doesn't seem too excited but she really does LOVE her food. 

She loves her sippy cup too.

Brielle is a natural mother!:) I love watching her mother her little sister. 

Brooke fits right into our family, she even joins in scripture reading before bed!:) 

******

It is so surreal that medical school is coming to an end in 4 months.  It's crazy to think that Brielle was 2 1/2 and Braden was 1 1/2 when we moved to Virginia.  Braden will be 5 on Monday and Brielle 6 on Thursday! WOW!!!! 

Our $1 med school car died last month.  This little chevy nova has been passed on from GWU med student to another for I don't know how long.  We were blessed enough to get it during Scott's second year.  It took him to his early morning shifts to the hospital and brought him home for almost 2 years.   

Junk my car came to pick it up, it was a little sad.  But we weren't too sad when the tow guy gave us $220 for it!

We have to turn in our rank list for residency on the 22nd.  

The countdown has begun.  

 40 days to go 'til match day.