Graham Crackerz

I actually have a lot of pictures to post, but right now I just wanted to let you all know that I got the scores from my Praxis exam (the federal exam that teachers must take to get certified to teach) and I PASSED! YEAH! I actually received really good scores and I am so glad that I don't ever have to take that test again. What a great Christmas present.

It is starting to feel excessive, but the girls are so pretty and we have been so blessed. This weeks dresses were bought by their Dad. He saw them and couldn't resist. And I mean it, Marcus picked them out and bought them for his girls. They actually wore them to my graduation too and I think they will fit them next year. Here they are together. Kaitlyn was not happy about this picture, but at least I got one.

That is the first thing that my husband said to me on my birthday. I have to say though, that it didn't bother me at all to turn 30 on Saturday. It was really a lot of fun. Marcus bought me a new flatscreen TV for our living room for my birthday/graduation gift. I also got a robe and manicure and massage from my sister Lisa. A set of Christmas plates from my other sister Heather. A new purse/bag from my mother-in-law Judy. A gift certificate from my Mom and Dad and Jay, Sarah and Kaitlyn bought me Mamma Mia. I was very spoiled. Thank you all for the wonderful and thoughtful presents. Here I am blowing out my candles.
Kaitlyn really enjoyed my birthday cake. She is saying "cheese" in this picture. On my birthday we went out to eat with a group of friends. There were 8 of us altogether. It was so fun. I laughed so hard all night by the end my cheeks were hurting from smiling and laughing. I hope we do it a lot more often.

Jay's basketball season ended on Saturday. To say the least, he had a blast. It is going to be nice that he will not be shooting baskets all over my house anymore. I tried to get a team picture on Saturday, but it was snowing pretty hard and the whole team was not able to make the game. Here are the ones that showed. Thanks Coach Shawn for a fun season. We'll see you next year!

Usually the kids visit with Santa Claus at our ward Christmas party. But this year my graduation and the party were the same night. Luckily, Santa was at the mall tonight. So we took the kids down there to visit with him and put in this year's toy requests. Kaitlyn of course would not have anything to do with him so I just held her next to Santa.
Jay wanted to make sure Santa knew about two of his gifts that he forgot to include in his letter. Santa said he would see what he could do.

I walked into the kitchen the other night and found my baby just like this. Jay was working on some crafts and forgot to clean up after himself. It was too late for anyone to get in trouble, so instead we just took some pictures and Jay promised he would clean up after himself from now on.
Kaitlyn was so proud of herself, I could hardly be mad.

Well, Jay wanted his picture posted with his missing tooth. I can't really say it fell out. It was pulled out by Marcus on Friday. They worked at it for almost 30 minutes. Here is his new grin. This weeks holiday dresses. These were also from Grandma Graham. Thank you Judy, for all the beautiful clothes you send to my children. I don't know what I would do without your love and generosity. But the best present you give my children is your love. They adore you so much and we all can't wait to see you at Christmas.

It finally happened! I graduated from college on Friday. For those of you that don't know the whole story, I'll recap my adventure briefly. I completed my freshmen year of college in 98 after high school. Over the summer I went to Colorado to work. Well, I started working at the bank, met Marcus and needless to say, my summer job lasted a little longer than one summer. In January 2006, Marcus and I decided to move back to Idaho for a number of reasons that I won't go into here. I decided to take advantage of being so close (1 hour) to BYU-I and finish my degree. Three years later, with a lot of love and hard work from so many people that I love (Lisa, Marcus, Mom and so many others) I accomplished my goal. Graduation was Friday and I am so lucky that I was able to share the experience with my children and loved ones. Here are a few pictures for all of you who didn't make it, but I know you wanted to.

Kaitlyn and Sarah are very spoiled this year. They were both given numerous holiday dresses. I am planning on them each wearing them over the next 4 weeks and I'll post pics of them all. These first dresses were from Grandma Graham. While we were taking pictures this morning before church, I told the girls to say cheese and Kaitlyn did. I was so shocked I almost didn't even get the pictures. Here they are looking beautiful.

On Saturday Marcus and I hosted a Murder Mystery. It was a redneck theme. We had a lot of fun and we hope all of our guests did also. I took pictures because I thought the costumes were all so great.

Austin and Lisa Webb or Dusty Diamond (Karaoke Star) and Twyla Fleetwood (Trailer Park Owner)
Marcus and I or Rowdy Lawless (Bad boy) and Sheriff Sissy Wesson.

Jay's school had a Christmas program this week. They sang Christmas songs for all of the parents. It was pretty cute. Well, it was when we could see him. As you can see, he was hidden most of the time. But it was fun anyway.

Well it definitely is not that nothing is going on. Life has been so hectic lately I don't even know where to start. We'll just start with the last holiday, Thanksgiving. We were fortunate enough to get to spend the holiday with the Graham's in Colorado. It was so wonderful. We drove out to Colorado right after Marcus finished his grave shift Tuesday morning. I drove the whole way and it was hard but worth it. The kids were amazing. We made it there by 5 o'clock. Thanksgiving was perfect. Judy did a great job with dinner and we all had a blast. Here are some pictures from our trip on no particular order because I thought that it was more important to get them posted than not at all.

The dinner table, isn't it beautiful!!!

Sarah and her cousin Maddie were serenading us the whole week.

Well two weeks ago were Jay's Parent Teacher conferences. He was so excited to take us to his classroom and meet his teacher. In first grade they don't exactly have grades. But Mrs. Price showed us the classroom scores for math, reading and citizenship. Jay was first in his class in math, second in reading (she told us that he is reading at a third grade level!!) and is doing wonderful in citizenship. She also informed us that she nominated one student for the Principals award. It's only given once a quarter to one student from each grade. She said that she had nominated Jay and he was selected. Each student that gets selected is interviewed by the Principal and the winner gets to be Principal for the day. Jay's question was, "What would you do for the school if you were given money for it?"

I also took the Praxis test on Saturday. Basically it's the federal certification tests to be licensed as a teacher. Since No Child Left Behind went into legislation in 2001 teachers must be deemed "highly qualified" in order to teach in public schools. So the federal government came up with the Praxis tests for them to take. However, since education is controlled by the states, each state then comes up with their own passing scores. So for instance, passing in Idaho might mean a score of 173 and passing in Colorado might mean getting a 200 on the exact same test. In addition, not every state participates in the Praxis exams. Some states have different ways of determining "highly qualified teachers". That's okay as long as their method is approved of by the federal government, they can still receive their NCLB funding.

I'm sure this is way too much information for some of you, but I just get excited about being so near the end. Anyway, I took the exams on Saturday. I have no idea how I did, because it takes 5 weeks to get your scores back. I did feel pretty good after the tests were over.

Graduation is December 12th and I cannot wait. I still don't know where I am student teaching in January, hopefully I will find out soon. Well that's it for now.

It's been awhile since I posted pictures of Kaitlyn. I love playing with her everyday and watching her grow. I took some pics recently that I thought you all might enjoy also. I walked into the living room yesterday and this is how I found her. Kaitlyn is my busiest child. She gets into more places, makes more messes and has more energy than either of my other two children combined. Or maybe it just feels like it. At any rate, she loves to climb into small places. This is just one example.

The same night that we got back from Boise we received a phone call from my Dad. He let us know that my Grandmother had passed away a few minutes before. We knew that she was ill and could pass soon so it wasn't a shock, but we are very sad all the same. Grandma Jensen was the Grandmother I grew up with. Every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas was spent at her house. I have numerous fond memories of playing in her home as a child and I will miss her very much. Her funeral was Thursday and so I made arrangements to head back to Boise for the services.

It was a very nice day. I enjoyed seeing all of my cousins from my father's side of the family. Here is my Dad and Grandpa Jensen visiting during the lunch after the services.
Lisa wanted us to all take a picture of all the siblings that were there. From left to right: Lisa, Mom, Me, Grandpa Jensen, Dar and Dad. Jared and Bill are down in front.

Well it's been awhile since I updated and I am really sorry. Life has been so crazy and hectic I just haven't had any time to dedicate to my blog. I actually should be doing homework now, but I really wanted to post a few things first. It's all about priorities you know.

A couple of weeks ago my brother Jared called an offered Marcus a ticket to the BSU game. We found sitters for the elder children (by the way BIG Thankyous to Hilary and Dara) and I drove Marcus over after he got off work at 7 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. I spent the day getting to know my new neice Cambry and Marcus, Jared and Ty went to the game. As boys go they wouldn't take any pictures, but Marcus did take this one of the field from their seats. As you can see, Jared got them great seats. Thanks Jag!!!! Marcus had a lot of fun. Here is my new niece Cambry Jensen.