It's the simple things in life...

Family practice rotation has been treating the Jensen's wonderfully. I don't think we have enjoyed this much time with Scott in a while. The kids have been constantly demanding their father's attention...

...and they get it...because Scott is a child at heart himself.

Church is now at 1pm. Not my favorite.

But, I guess it gives us a little more time together as a family in the mornings.

Last Sunday, the kids and Scott made a fort.

They pretended it was a space ship, they were cruising through the galaxy visiting different planets.

I could hear them saying, "let's go to Mars now!"

Brielle and Braden have way too much fun with their daddy.

Then, last Tuesday, this happened.

Everything was covered in ice.

Braden and I went out to explore...while Brielle stayed home coloring because she didn't want to "feel cold", in her own words.

She's been asking things like, "when is the pool going to open?"

...not for a while I'm afraid.

This ice rain, whatever you call it...was crazy! I've never seen anything like it before.

Braden and I were freezing!

But we had a great time exploring, he even brought his little camera with him and was "taking pictures".

He would "take a picture" and then show it to me. It was cute...until he feel on the ice and then it was time to come inside!

The rest of the week was pretty much spent inside, kids went to preschool, I ran a few errands during the week...kids did A LOT of coloring, worked on some ABC's, we had a playdate...we attempted to go to the playground for a few minutes...minutes is the key word there!..and that's about all we did!

Sounds so incredibly exciting no?

I very much dislike being in hibernation mode...and the fact that it is sickness season makes it even worse!

I have however been feeling more in tune to trying to enjoy the simple things in life...

Like the fact that we had dinner as a family, almost every day this last week, all 4 of us!

and also...

Being able to hear my kids in the background using their imaginations all day long...and they both have such an imagination. They have so much fun together and entertain each other pretty much all day, aside from a couple of fights during the day, they are such good friends. I remember people telling me, how good of friends they would become, since they are SO close in age...it is true.

Yesterday, we headed to the Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center here in Virginia. It about 15 minutes from our house...and if you get there right at 4pm. Parking is free. So, since we are as cheap as you can get, we decided to do that. It only gave us an hour and a half to look around.

We had such a great time together.

First thing we did was go up to the Observation Tower to see the view and the airplanes landing on the Dulles Airport.

The view was pretty and we watched a couple of airplanes land.

Brielle and Braden decided to sit on the floor to rest for a bit.

Then we headed down to see the rest of the exhibits.

This is the Blackbird. The fastest jet in the world.

It was amazing!

I love that it was a pretty open place.

This space shuttle was HUGE!

Braden wanted me to take a picture of him in front of this thing-whatever it's called.

I told him to smile, but instead he made a sad face. :(

These are just rocket models.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the Star Wars R2D2 mailbox! Braden hasn't stopped talking about it since he saw it! He thought it was the coolest things he's ever seen!

That little boy was seriously in heaven with all the airplanes, space crafts, missiles...he was making airplane noises the whole time we were there.

He is such a boy.

This was the perfect little outing on a very cold winter day.

{"It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary."}

-Paulo Coelho

Before Christmas.

Brielle and Braden's preschool had a little Christmas party in each of their classrooms. It was hard to split between the two classrooms, Scott couldn't take off from his rotations so I did my very best...but I was sad when I got to Braden's class and I had missed the singing!!!:(

I saw plenty of singing from Brielle's class though! They did so well and Brielle knew the words to all of the songs, except she had the major 'wiggles' during the whole presentation!!! She was all over the place!!!:) Man! That little girl sure has lots of energy!

I got to Braden's classroom as fast as I could and this is how I found him! Having his little snack! If it would have been Brielle she totally would have noticed that I had missed her singing. I don't think Braden even realized! Which was good but I was so bummed that I didn't get to see him sing. It was a good day, nonetheless, and we headed to the chapel to have a Christmas sing-along with the rest of the preschool.

The next day, we had some snow! We bundled up and went to play.

As always, they had a blast in the snow.

Snow is always such a novelty to these children...

They, especially, LOVE eating it! They are just curious little monkeys!

I have to say, that these two have been so much fun to be around lately. They do and say the cutest things and I absolute LOVE and enjoy watching the camaraderie between them. They love each other so much. It's a wonderful and special thing to witness.

Oh my! Brielle even got on her knees to eat the snow off the ground! Crazy girl!

...and Braden decided to make snow angels.

When we got back from playing in the snow, we of course had some hot cocoa and then Brielle and Braden made some 'Snowflake Pie'. It was delicious and those two are pretty good little chefs!

Here they are, presenting their final product! Yum!:)

Scottie finished fall semester and finished his internal medicine rotation. We met up with him in D.C. and headed to Santa's Workshop.

Brielle had been having lots of questions about Santa this year and I think some of the kids with older siblings in her preschool were telling her that Santa wasn't real. One day she came home from school and told me: "Santa isn't real!" I was flabbergasted! She's too little still for the magic to wear off! So, I asked her, "Who on earth told you such a lie?" She insisted that she had come up with it on her own and then went on to say, "Santa isn't real but the elves are!" That's when I realized that the magic is still there for her!:)

After seeing Santa in his workshop, though, she was convinced that he is real!

...seriously though...look at this guy! I'm starting to get convinced that he is real myself! ha!:)

He looked so authentic and he had such a soft manner about him. He was a really nice Santa.

Braden was whispering really quietly what he wanted for Christmas to Santa...

Santa had to get a little closer!

Brielle, surprisingly, got a little shy and wouldn't tell him anything!

I think she was mesmerized that he looked so real!:)

We walked around the Ellipse for a little bit...it was a cold day, so we didn't last very long.

We watched the little trains go around the tree, let the kids run around for a little while and then headed back to the car... and back home to start packing for our next adventure:

Driving across the country!!!

Nya & Ivan's Wedding.

I was planning on a very laid-back, relaxing holiday here in Virginia. Just Scott and I and the kids. But everything changed the first week of December, when I got a phone call from my little sister, (who is not so little, she is 21) announcing that she was getting married to her nice boyfriend Ivan...AND that she was getting married in 2 weeks!!!!!

I talked to Scott and considered different options and we decided that the cheapest way for all of us to be there was driving to Utah. It seemed a little crazy but we really wanted to be there to support her and Ivan. So we took off on the 18th of December. We were making very good time on the way there, we were going to make it to Utah at 2:30 in the morning on the 19th. Until, we got stuck on I-80 in Wyoming for 12 hours!!! We were 2 1/2 hours away from Provo!!!!! A huge snow storm hit and it just dumped and dumped...they opened the interstate at noon the next day!

But we made it with plenty of time for the 22nd.

Nya looked so pretty and happy. I still remember the day Nya came home after she was born in Perú. I was 8 years old and she was a tiny little munchkin. Oh how we loved her and played with her! She was a mischievous little girl! I still have this image in my head of her walking around the house in just her diaper wearing my mom's heels.

Right before the ceremony with my mom.

These kids love their tía Nya. I'm so glad we were able to all be there!

Being silly!

My brother walked her down the aisle. It was cute!

Nya's bishop is such a nice guy and did such a good job with the ceremony. He gave them some good advice and there was a really sweet Spirit there.

Brielle was the "ring girl".

Ivan is a really nice guy and we have known him and his whole family for many, many years. He and his older sisters were in our ward in Perú growing up. Both sets of our parents have known each other before any of us were even born! He and his family now live in Utah, obviously! That's where he and Nya met.

The newly married couple.

Ivan's mom, Lucia, Nya, Ivan, and my mom, Ana.

Ivan and Nya with Ivan's sisters and their families (Becky's husband is missing).

Ivan's sisters (Becky and Nani) and I were merry-misses together in our ward in Perú. It had been years since we had seen each other. It was so much fun to see them and their kids and meet their husbands. Last time I saw Ivan, he was 9 years old!:) Crazy!

With our immediate family.

Nya and Ivan had just their closest friends and family there. It was an intimate little wedding.

It was perfect.

Kem and Nya. Kem flew into Salt Lake the day before the wedding after taking his last final the day before. He is now in Bangladesh for 4 months doing a semester for his master's there.

We miss you Kemchu!

With my little sister, she will always be my little sister.

After the wedding ceremony at the chapel, we headed for some yummy Peruvian food! Man! It was AMAZING!!!!

Our good friends the Campbell's were there and we had so much fun visiting with them and with everyone!

It was a happy day for Nya and Ivan and for the rest of us too, as we celebrated their wedding with them!