The Jensen Connection

March 14 2007

Well, my dad and many other family members (Grandma Johanson, Elder Stephen, Aunt Linda, etc.) have set great examples of regular family letters, and I REALLY want to do better, so here goes! (I am also "cc"-ing to some of our close friends, including those who sent us Christmas letters, so don't hit "Reply to All" or else you might be responding to some total strangers)

Well, GOSH it has been so long since I have written a real "letter" that I don't know how far back to go! Literally, I have not written a family newsletter for almost TWO YEARS... as you will notice when on our family website under "Newsletters," the most recent is May of 2005! (Dave, you can now add this one for March of 2007!) At least we do keep up to date with the pictures on the website, however, so please visit anytime: www.myjensen.com.

Well, let me first sum up 2006. Most of you know the major things that have happened just through word of mouth, but let me mention them anyway for journal purposes. Our son Cooper David was born on March 25th, 2006. (Yes, he is just shy of one year old ALREADY!) He has been a joy! He started smiling at 6 weeks and it is so fun to make him laugh and giggle. He sleeps great through the night just like his sister Natalie did and does (Cooper goes down around 7 and Natalie still goes to bed at 8!). HOWEVER, Cooper is WAY more active than Natalie was at this age. Natalie grew up in a basement apartment with cupboards that never had to be locked, plants and trash cans that never had to be moved, and an entire room filled with scrap-booking supplies and lipstick that were never touched. Cooper, on the other hand, gets into just about anything he can reach! He is also VERY possessive of the remote control (he KNOWS which one you need, and THAT is the one he wants!) and the telephone. It is no wonder why he is so much lighter than Natalie was when she was one; it's because he burns off so many calories rushing around everywhere! (Plus he stopped nursing at 6 months because he didn't like to wait that long to finish eating! Bottles are much faster!) Cooper can stand for just a few seconds on his own, and walks across the kitchen by holding onto the seat of a wooden chair and scooting it around. He is very fast and quite strong. Good luck if you ever have the task of changing his diaper or clothing… if you can keep him still long enough to be successful, it is quite an achievement. Cooper can wave "hello," point to objects, and say "hi," "this" and "tickle." He has 6 teeth- 4 all the way out and 2 just barely coming out.

Natalie turned FIVE in December! That means she got to go get her very own library card, and register to begin Kindergarten in the fall! WOW! She has been attending the Sunshine Square preschool this year, which she really loves. They focus on a new letter and sound each week, plus all of the colors, shapes, basic number sense, etc. in preparation for Kindergarten. Yes, she can already read and write better than half of my first grade class; I guess it just kinda rubs off when your mom is a reading teacher! We are blessed that she loves to learn new things! Nat is also in a dance class with some neighbor girls again this year. I have liked this particular dance teacher the best so far. Natalie actually comes home remembering the various dances and the actual ballet and tap terminology. She is fun to watch. Natalie is into dolls and playing pretend, as well as art and reading books. She likes to ride her bike. We also found her a pair of in-line skates on clearance at Shopko a little while ago… still a little bit large of a size for her, but we're excited to start helping her learn to skate maybe this summer. I sure remember how much I loved to go to "Cal-Skate" when I was young in elementary school… any Johanson's or Jett's remember that place???

Dave has another passion that started last summer: camping. He has been planning and preparing all winter (buying pretty much every clearance or DI item that we might possibly need while camping; yes, we have about 20 flashlights in various places around the house, and almost as many pocket knives) and we are all getting very excited to actually take our first trip of the year. Last year we purchased a pop-up Camping Trailer which hooks onto a hitch in the back of our Dodge Grand Caravan. We purchased it a the end of the season last year in September, so we only got to use it a couple times before we had to winterize it and wait for spring. We will probably take our first camping trip sometime in April or May. Dave is also still working as a financial professional, which he loves. He is currently working at Fidelity Investments. He moved there almost a year and a half ago when we decided that he wanted to get his PhD. He has liked it so much that we may just stay there WHILE advancing his schooling! There have been many opportunities for advancement and promotions, and there are still plenty of others to shoot for. Since Dave is very competitive (in a good way, he fits in well there. He and I have a home teaching calling together right now, to visit & welcome in new members to the ward when their records are received. He also teaches Elder's Quorum 1-2 times a month.

Like I already mentioned, I am teaching again half-time: 1st grade A.M. I only have to teach literacy, and my partner teacher teaches math and all of the interconnections (science, social studies, art, health, etc.) It has worked out great so far. It has also made it possible for us to purchase our first house back in September of 2005! Our address in case anyone has not updated their records yet is: 3325 Westbrook Dr., West Jordan, UT 84084. Our phone numbers are the same. We even still live in the same ward we were in before while renting Dave's folks' basement apartment! We are lucky to live so close to one of our sets of Grandparents. Which reminds me: Natalie & I got to go to a primary activity last Saturday where we as a primary sang songs at a nursing home then got to go back to the church to make some cards. Natalie and I counted EIGHT grandparents that she has! She is so lucky! OK- where was I… oh yes, our move. We were able to put in new flooring, paint, put in new lighting, etc. (THANK YOU again to all of those brothers, sisters, moms, dads & neighbors who helped us out during that renovation!) to make the house our own. We absolutely love it here in this neighborhood- lots of friends for Natalie to play with, and very close to Grandma & Grandpa Jensen, close to church (of course, here in Utah everywhere is close to church) and close to all of our favorite shopping centers. I am still the Primary Chorister of our ward (it is my 3 rd year). I am also still of course doing my Mary Kay whenever I can… sometimes more, sometimes less. It is so nice that while I was pregnant with Cooper and when he was first born, I was able to put it on the back burner till I was able to spend more time on it. I love it as always. In the new house I have my own "office" where I keep all of my inventory and business supplies, as well as all of my scrap-booking and office supplies for the home. Dave is so nice to let me have the whole room! The poor guy has practically no where to keep any of his own things… except for maybe a small portion of a corner of the garage; what a good sport! Actually, he really has been able to spread out a little more than that; he got to purchase some exercise equipment with fitness money that Fidelity lets us spend each year, and Dave has set it up in the family room (treadmill and free weights.) But I digress again…

We have enjoyed having visits from our GA family- Grandma LeeAnn and Granddad Jim Jett, and also Dan, who ended up STAYING here in Utah after his visit! We are so excited for and proud of our Mom Jett to be getting her nursing degree this year! We sure love being able to have great ties with all of our family. We can even email Stephen on his mission… I can't believe how easy it is to communicate these days! By the way, Steve, sorry we don't write more often. Be assured that we think about you all the time. Just the other day Natalie was talking about "the uncle who's on a mission." Whenever we have the missionaries come tracting to our door, we get excited that our Uncle Stephen is probably doing the same thing in France! We always give the missionaries treats!

To sum up the past 2 months (January and February of 2007), we got to go to the temple once for Ward Conference (don't you just love those ones where you get to eat dinner as a ward first?) and once with John, Elisa, Scott & Sarah (we also ate there at the temple cafeteria that time!) We have a goal to go 10 times during the year, including 2 full days of temple service, one on April 12 th and again on October 12th. I have never even done more than one session at a time, so that will be pretty cool. We also celebrated my 29th birthday on 1/18 by eating Papa Murphy's and yummy chocolate cupcakes. We got to spend a day down at Paul & Tamra's so that Dave could help Paul with the basement, but he wasn't able to do much because he wasn't feeling too good that weekend. We'll have to go back again soon! On Emily's 7 th birthday we went down to the Provo cemetery and took pictures- Cooper's first time down there! I have been able to attend 2 Mary Kay Director Debuts, and attended the all day Robert Jones Advanced Color training which I like to go to every year. One of the most fun things I did in February was do a Mary Kay class up in Ogden with cousin Jennifer and Aunt Laurin; Elisa came up with me, and we had so much fun being with all of the Hubbard girls! We really do need to get together more often- maybe a family picnic since the weather is getting so nice!

OK- I should really probably end here and leave SOMETHING to talk about next time! Besides, I am tired and that's all I can think of right now, AND my hands are getting a little sore from typing for so long! Hopefully this isn't TOO long for you to read. I really did have to play a little bit of catch-up since it's been so long… I would like to do the same as my dad and keep this for my journal, too. Next month won't be as bad. ;o) LOVE YOU ALL and hope that you ALL respond in kind with a family newsletter of your own- even if you are a family of ONE right now! We love to hear from you!