Craziness...

I can't believe we are already half way through November!!! Where does the time go?...These last two weeks, my kids seem to have acquired this out-of-this-world never-ending energy...Brielle has decided that she doesn't want to nap anymore...but then she's tired and grumpy and just not fun to be around at 6 in the evening, right at dinner time...she won't eat dinner, because she's so tired, all she wants to do is go to sleep!!! She has been talking non-stop...it seems like she's talking every single second of the day!!!! Braden has been talking so much too these last weeks, it's like something happened and he's just talking! He's been putting subjects and verbs together...the other day he said "I want"...I was surprised when I heard him say that...and I was also very surprised when he got into our bathroom, where we have all of the medicines and ate almost a whole pill of sudaphrine!!!! They are usually not allowed into our bedroom where our bathroom is, I have a child proof door knob thing for our door, but I must have forgotten to close the door because they were both in our bathroom playing with the drugs...oh my heck!!!! ...thank goodness he threw up, yeah because it probably tasted disgusting!!! I called poison control and to my relief the lady told me that he would be fine...but man! These two kids are ALL OVER the place and going NON-STOP every second of the day. How am I ever going to get the guts to have another child???...It's not going to happen for another 50 years...may be during the millenium...I've lost it a couple of times and yelled and screamed at everyone and all I wanted to do is go to a deserted island with no humans...ha ha! But for the most part we've had great days and I have found that the key to having a successful day is to fill our day full of activities...I told Scott that I've decided to run my home as a day-care, so we have our schedule written out and try to stick to it as much as we can...we have reading time, singing time, dress-up time, snack time, etc, etc, etc...it's been helping...they are both so eager to explore everything around them...I'm sure those of you with children can relate...I wish I had their energy...they are the light of my eye though and I seriously cannot see my life without them...as always we manage to have great times together.

These are super late halloween pictures, but we took the kids trick or treating and I think Scott and I had as much fun as the kids...we loved watching them approach the doors and both of them would say trick or treat! Braden kind of mumbled it but he was at least trying to say it...we had a fun night...it was the perfect fall night!

These are few pictures of our "backyard" that I took a about a week and a half ago...it's kind of a backyard, it's a slanted area full of trees...we go out there almost everyday to feed the squirrels peanuts and the kids like to throw rocks out there... I'm always nervous though, because like I said it's a slanted area and I'm afraid they are going to go rolling down the hill and hit a tree...anyway...it's a good thing I took these pictures then because all the leaves a basically gone now.

The sister missionaries stop by our house at least once a week when they are in the neighborhood, sometimes they bring us goodies or they just come by to chat for a few minutes. The other day on their service day, they came and mopped my floor, did my dishes and watched the kids while I jumped in the shower...it's amazing how attached you get to the missionaries, there is such a special spirit about each of them. The kids love them and Brielle calls them by their last name "Bertucci" and "Yano", the sisters think it's hilarious...last Sunday they were singing in front of the whole congragation during the Primary presentation in sacrament and Brielle very loudly yelled "Hiiiiiiiii Bertuuuuuucciiiiii!!!!!!"

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our library??? It seriously ROCKS!!!! We love it! We go every Monday and I let the kids play in the kid area and they have such a great time, we read a few books and we pick out a few movies to watch throughout the week...we love going there.

These two fight a lot...but they sure love each other!!! The other day Brielle was hiding behind Braden's chair and then she'd jump in front of him...he thought it was hilarious! I think one of my favorite things about being a mom is hearing my kids laughing!

This is what I mean, when I say craziness...children, children...

That face...

Elder Withers, Sergio, Scott, Elder Shapiro & Elder Leiser

Our friend Sergio got baptized on Saturday! What a special moment for him and for everyone who attended! I couldn't hold back the tears when he was actually baptized. He has changed his life...he stopped smoking and you can tell there has been a genuine change in his heart! We are so happy for him!!!

Our dear Elder Withers, what a great missionary! An Idaho boy, from Blackfoot...those Idaho boys are great!

Oh! And to finish things off:

Brielle put her naked barbie in time-out!

Happy Halloween!

It always seems to get really busy around the end of each month, I guess now with all of these holidays coming up so quickly it won't get any better. These last few weeks have been filled with chasing after my two VERY energetic children (and all of the Halloween candy only contributes to the craziness!!!):), doing visiting teaching (now I have to drive about 15 minutes to visit each of my sisters, no more walking a few feet to do my visiting teaching!!), we've been going out with the missionaries at least once a week to visit with investigators, we've been going to playgroups and a ward trunk or treat, we've been to the library, shopping, cleaning, etc, etc, etc, etc...I think all of you can relate...it's just been so busy...and my two kiddos continue to keep me on my toes every second of the day!!!:) They have so much energy and are so curious, I just can't keep up with them sometimes...with Scott being gone all day...sometimes it's overwhelming doing it all...but we've been managing to have some good fun among all of the chaos!!!:)

Our ward had a "trunk or treat" this last Saturday...it was pouring pretty much all day so they had to move it inside. They decided to decorate a few classrooms instead. We got to decorate our classroom with another couple (Bobbi and Troy), I'm soooo sad that I didn't take any pictures...it turned out really fun! Bobbi brought a bunch of fun decorations and combined with our stuff our classroom was looking scaaaaryyy!!!!!!! The kids went trick or treating and ended up with a bunch of candy! We had a great time!!! Braden was spiderman...he refused to wear the little mask that came with the costume...oh well...Scott and I decided to take the easy road and we dressed up as doctors!!!

And...Miss Brielle of course wanted to be Cinderella...she LOVES everything princess.

We finally got around to going to a pumpkin patch! It was windy and chilly that day, but Brielle and Braden always manage to have a blast no matter what! They had these really fun tunnels and they played there for about an hour.

On Sunday, we had the great blessing of going to watch the Joseph Smith movie at the visitor's center with the elders and our new friend Sergio. Scott has been going with the elders to teach Sergio for the last month and he is getting baptized in two weeks!!!!!!!!! We are soooo happy!!!! He is such a great guy. So, this last Sunday the elders invited Scott and I to go with them to watch the movie and walk around the temple grounds. I have to say that I bawled my eyes out in the movie!!!! Oh my heck!!!!!! I don't think I've cried that hard in a long, long time. What a powerful movie! If you haven't seen it, you better go watch it! It is amazing! What an awesome production and what a testimony builder of Joseph Smith.

My sister spent a few days with us this week, it is always nice to have her come over. The kids have a great time with her and I'm grateful for her help. We went to Chipotle on Tuesday and it was one of those great days that could have turned into a tragic day. We were walking out of Chipotle and we were taking pictures right outside, this place is like an open mall with shops and restaurants and roads between strips of the stores and restaurants...I don't know if you can picture it...but I got distracted for a second looking at the pictures in my camera that we had just taken. Braden was in the stroller but Brielle was walking. We were standing on the sidewalk, when I looked up, Brielle had ran onto the road and was about to get run over by a car...I screamed and everything just started to go into slow motion...I saw the car...then I saw Brielle...the guy started to slam on his breaks, but he wasn't going to stop in time...then my sister grabbed her (she was closer to her than I was). She seriously was 3 feet from getting killed...just writing about it makes me cry. I bawled my eyes out...It was the worse scare I have ever had in my life...we had a serious talk about holding an adult's hand at ALL times when we are outside...and I just held her for a long, long time and I couldn't hold back the tears. I love my kids so much. I can't see my life without them...it is amazing the love that you feel for your children...you just can't describe it with words. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father was watching over Brielle that day and that my sister was with us.

What would I do without my favorite little girl???!!!!:)

Have I mentioned how much I love my little Braden??? He is a boy after my own heart, he LOVES sucking on lemons or limes! Brielle does too. Growing up I'd always suck on limes with salt...hmmmm!!! soooo good! And I put lemon or lime juice on everything! Somos verdaderos latinos!!!!:)

I promise I don't talk politics with my children...ha ha ha!!!! I seriously don't know how she caught on to that...the only tv we watch is Dancing with the Stars and every time, she's says Barack Obama when he comes on and she also knows John McCain...but I guess...she's decided that she'll be voting for Obama!!! ha ha!!!!!:)

Happy Birthday Grandma Jensen!!!

Scott's grandma is turning 87 years old today and we just want to wish her a Happy Birthday. We love you grandma! You are AWESOME and we miss you!!! We wish we could be there with you to celebrate! We hope you enjoy your day!!!:) Sorry grandma...I meant 84!!!:):)

An Unforgettable Birthday...

I had the most bizarre, crazy, funny birthday I've ever had! I started the morning making soup to take to Super Saturday where I was also teaching a digital scrapbooking class at 11am. I didn't sign up for any of the crafts thinking that I'd rather sleep in on my birthday and I'd just show up 20 minutes before my lesson. But I felt bad that only 4 sisters had signed up to take soup so I decided I would sign up to help out. So much for sleeping in I got up at 7:45am worried that I needed to run to the store to get a few things I was missing. I made the soup, got ready and asked Scott if he would help me out, because I had the crockpot, a bag with the laptop and my purse. So Scott helped me out and of course Braden starts freaking out because he is so attached to me and is sad that I'm leaving. We let him come out to wave good-bye. I was pulling out of my parking space and was waving good-bye to Braden at the same time and was somewhat distracted. As I'm pulling out I realize I probably don't have enough room to pull out (this whole time I'm trying to console Braden from the car and was waving good-bye) but I decided to just go for it and pulled out of my space thinking that I'd probably make it out okay, next thing I know I scratched our neighbor's back pumper on their nice white car. What a moron!!! I was so mortified! I asked Scott, "What should we do? We don't even know our neighbors, they live in the building next to us and I have may be seen then once or twice." He told me to just go to my meeting and he wrote a note and left our phone number. Scott was so sweet and didn't make me feel dumb or anything, he made me feel better about it and was really sweet. But, I couldn't believe that happened to me and to make matters worse right on my birthday!!!! I felt like such an idiot. We have some white paint on the right side of our front bumper, but nothing serious. I scratched a little bit of paint off their car, nothing too serious...but still...I would have been so annoyed if someone did that to our car... and now they have to file a claim, our insurance is going to go up, etc, etc, etc...Needless to say, I will be more careful from now on getting out of our parking spot.

I had a great time at the Super Saturday, I taught my lesson and I wasn't so mortified after a while. Then, I came home and my family came to spend the day with us. Scott wanted to take me shopping to the outlets for my birthday, my sweet mom and Nya stayed with the kids, while Scott and my brother came shopping with me. We had such a fun time! I love spending time with those two. Shopping takes forever and by the time we were done it was about dinner time, the kids had already eaten at home, so we (Scott, Kem and I) decided to go to the Macaroni Grill. We had a good dinner and the food was awesome. It was our first time at the Macaroni Grill. I enjoyed the company, the conversation and the food. Everything was great until we headed to the car (and get ready because this might be a little bit too graphic for some)...we were pulling out and my brother tooted! Yes, he tooted (he won't be happy that I'm sharing this but oh well...) so, then I started gagging soooooo bad!!!! I don't even know why because it wasn't even a stinky one!!!:) I seriously don't know what went wrong, but I was gagging and laughing uncontrollably!!! It was RIDICULOUS! Until I couldn't control it any longer, we were waiting at a red light, I opened my door and puked! It was disgusting! I don't know why but I thought this was the funniest thing ever, I was laughing so hard. It was so weird! My brother felt so bad. But we all just ended up laughing about it. I don't know if something must not have settled well with my stomach or what was the problem but I had no food left in my stomach after the incident!

That was my birthday on Saturday! We didn't take any pictures, which might be a good thing considering the events of the day! I did get a few cute things at Forever 21 (my favorite store!) and I am grateful to my mom and sister who stayed with the kids because shopping is impossible when they are around!!!:) I did miss my kiddos though and wished that we all could have gone to dinner together. It was a birthday that I will NEVER forget!!!:) And by the way, I turned 28 and this is how I feel about it:

Brielle's Prayer

Brielle is such a crack up...she's always volunteering to say prayers. This is the prayer she offered at dinner tonight:

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for Denisse and daddy and Braden and Brielle, thank you for Nya's ipod, and thank you for the food. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Nya is my sister, who came to babysit for us yesterday. Brielle must have seen her ipod and had to thank Heavenly Father for it!!!:) I couldn't help it and I laughed out loud!:) She's been cracking us up a LOT lately!:) and she's been calling me Denisse. We were at Wal-Mart yesterday and she was sitting in the cart and was opening every single fruit snack package while I wasn't paying attention. I was pretty stern with her and grabbed her arm and she said to me, "Be nice, Denisse." Children, children...they are a joy to be around...when they aren't acting like little monkeys in the wild!!!:)