Jenson Family

Sunday morning we got a call at 8:00 a.m. asking us to come help clean up the neighborhoods.  If we had any equipment, (chain saws, trucks, or trailers) then we should bring them to help with the clean up effort.

We were scheduled to have Stake Conference.  Misty was going to be doing a musical number for the Priesthood leadership session at 10:00 a.m., so she wasn't sure if she should be getting ready for that or not.  I went outside at 8:30 a.m. and there were people from all over our Stake helping clean the debris from the streets that we had piled there yesterday.  Trucks and trailers were lined up and it didn't take long for everybody to load them and send them over to the Stake Center to have them unloaded.  I had my chain saw and was helping cut down trees that had partially blown down (or blown down completely).  At about 9:30 a.m. (I was not really sure of the time) we heard that the priesthood session had been cancelled and that we should keep helping.  I had slowly made my way up the street and across Main street helping and cleaning as we went.  Misty called me and asked where I was at...  a few minutes later I see Misty driving our van with signs on the side and the back that said, "Snacks, Drinks, Rides."  Misty pulled up and opened the back of the van.  She had water, Gatorade, granola bars, fruit snacks, and other items for everybody.  She had gone to Costco a few days before and so she had plenty of items for everybody.  I wish I would have had a camera to take a picture.  It was pretty good.  She was like the modern day Clara Barton.

We kept working throughout the day and got the word that Stake Conference was going to be cancelled.  Our ward seemed to have everything taken care of, so I headed over to the Stake Center and helped with unloading trucks and trailers.  At about 2:00 p.m. they had soups, chili, hot chocolate, and cookies in the church for everybody.  About 4:00 p.m. I headed home to finally sit down and relax.

I realized that I did not have any video of the clean up, so I grabbed my video camera and headed back over to the Stake Center to document everything.

Video of Cleanup

Wednesday night and Thursday morning we had a massive wind storm hit Davis County.  It was gusting pretty hard and made it difficult to sleep, however our kids slept all night.  When Brinley woke up in the morning (at 8:30) she started crying because her night light wasn't on and started demanding that her night light be turned on.  Our power was out from about 7:00 am on Thursday until about 12:30 Friday morning.  Brandon (our "techy") had withdrawals from not being able to use any hi-tech items.  (We were also conserving the batteries in my iPod).  Brandon would try to turn the T.V. on every time he went by and would repeat "Troubles, troubles" over and over.  Brinley was annoyed that we wouldn't just turn on the lights.  (50,000 homes lost power.)  Bryce was thrilled to have school cancelled two days in a row! 

We were prepared and had our wood burning stove to keep us warm.  We all slept downstairs and the kids thought that part was great fun!  We had our grill and camp stove to prepare food.  We kept the fridge and deep freezer closed.  It was predicted we wouldn't receive power for 48-72 hours in our area.  Brandon kept asking for milk.  We mixed up some powdered milk for him to try but he about gagged and pushed it away in a hurry!  He quickly learned to be content with water.  The crank radio and flashlights were great.  Misty's brother Justin lent us his generator which we hooked up to the fridge and freezer long enough to keep them cool.  He and his wife Avry let us come hang out at their place for a visit.

Our street was hit pretty hard.  Most of our neighbors lost large trees and lots of shingles.  Several had trees hit their houses.  The wind took out both our side fences (which we planned to replace soon anyway) and some shingles.  We feel very blessed.  Our neighbor around the corner on main street had three big pine trees knocked down onto his house.  They were 100 year old trees.  Good Morning America showed his house when talking about the storm.  Some people in our ward couldn't find their trampoline.  It had traveled 2 blocks (including across Main Street).  Apparently Centerville was the epicenter of the storm.  This is where many of the semis rolled.  (I know of at least 10).  One golf course in the area lost 400 trees, another 200...  Here are a few pics from our place...





Here is a video that I took from just around our house.  I now wish that I had gone around the neighborhood and documented a little more of the damage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e15_wQjid90
(paste this link in your browser and it will work)

More to come on the amazing cleanup ....

We did have a fun time for Halloween.  Misty dressed up as a witch and Brinley was so excited to see that there were other witches besides Mommy.  Brinley also though that all of the kids that were dressed up were her friends.  This might have been because a few days before Halloween she went Trick or Treating with her Pre-school class.   Here is a picture of Brandon and Brinley with "their friends."  Brinley is Cinderella and Brandon is (was) a knight.  He took all of the armor off so it looks like he is a Ninja or something.


For Halloween Brandon decided we wanted to wear a frog costume that we had.  Unfortunately it was too small for him so it looked like he was wearing capris.  We opted to let the legs "flop in the breeze" behind him so it looked like he had two tails.  The kids wore their costumes all day.  We went to Costco and all over.  It was fun to see the reaction of all of the people.  They loved Brinely's costume the most.


Here is a picture of us out in the neighborhood.    It was funny because a few seconds before this picture was taken our neighbor says, "goodbye cuties." Brandon turns around and says to her and her daughter, "goodbye cuties!"  It was pretty funny.


I didn't dress up this year.  I got a lot of comments that they were disappointed that I didn't dress up this year.  I guess I will have to dress up next year.

Bryce was Ginga from Beyblades.  Here is a picture so you can see what Ginga looks like.

We could have bought a Ginga costume but we didn't because of two reasons (this is what Bryce told me) 1. He didn't want to and 2. Mommy didn't want to.  Bryce thought the hair would feel weird, so we decided to make our own costume.


We had fun.  Brandon and Brinley had so much energy.  At every house they would yell, "Hi" or "Happy Halloween" with so much energy and enthusiasm.  I think the people loved it more than Brandon and Brinley.

Bryce got crazy taking pictures of his toys.  He took the pictures and made this movie. 

Bryce loves his soccer games.  He enjoys being part of a team and having fun.  Tonight they played a team that was made up of a lot of the kids that were on his team last year.  I think Bryce had even more fun because he knew all of the kids that were playing.  Both teams played really well and it was an exciting close game. 

Here is a picture of a direct kick by the other team.  Bryce's friend, Caden, kicked the ball.  Bryce is the one that is about to be hit by the ball.  Half a second after this picture Bryce was doubled over on the ground.  The ball hit him right in the stomach and dropped him fast.  To Bryce's credit, he was right back up on his feet chasing the ball.  The game ended in a 2-2 tie. 

Brandon also likes to go to Bryce's games, but for a different reason.  He will either play on the slide and swings at the park or he will sit and watch a movie on the ipod.  Here he is watching a movie on Misty's ipod.  He doesn't like the earbuds in his ears, so Misty just hung them on his ears and he was still able to hear the sound.

Bryce and I went to the BYU football game against the University of Central Florida.  Bryce decided that BYU was going to win by a score of 15 to 14.  What would be a football game without a little tailgating?


Bryce had fun at the tailgate party in the parking lot before the football game.  He kicked the soccer ball and tried to score against the BYU women's soccer team.  He hit it off the left post (so close to scoring).  We then went over and Bryce rode the mechanical bull.  He was a little scared (you could see it all over his face), but he said he wasn't scared at all.  I took a video of it on my ipod, but Brandon deleted it today while he was playing with my ipod. (sorry Bryce).


Here's Bryce in the stadium before the game.
Here we are after the game.  Can you tell Bryce is happier knowing that BYU won 24-17.  Bryce said his favorite part was when BYU scored their last touchdown.  He said it got really loud.

Last weekend we went up to Pocatello to visit Misty's brother.  His son, Mason, was getting baptized. 
We went up Friday night and the baptism was Sunday morning.  As I was packing to leave, I only needed a few things so it didn't take long.  On Saturday morning as I was getting dressed for the baptism, I was horrified when I pulled my dress shoes out of my bag.  They didn't match!! 


There were some positives.  They were both black. One was a left shoe and one was a right shoe.  (Can you imagine trying to wear two left shoes?)  I tried to keep my feet moving and keep them far apart so that it wasn't easily noticeable that they were not mates. (People probably wondered why I was walking bull legged)  It seemed to work because I don't think anybody noticed (or they were too embarrassed to say anything to me).  Maybe next time I will look a little closer when I reach into the closet to grab some shoes.

How to fix a VHS tape.  Really?  Does anybody use these anymore, let alone try and fix one when it breaks?

Brandon was playing with one of his Wiggles tapes the other day and not only did he pull the tape out but he broke the tape.  We have other Wiggles videos, but I thought it would be fun to try and fix this one.  I started by taking the screws out of the tape.  I got to the last screw and realized that it was a different screw.  I don't think I have any tools that would get this screw out.

 It is kind of hard to see, but it is kind of like a triangle. (But not really a triangle)  I then decided that it really wasn't that important to save the case, it was the tape that was important.  So opened the case with MY tools.


I then found another VHS tape that I did not need.  I found the instructional video for my paint sprayer (who needs the instructions anyway). 


 I took the case apart and replaced the tape of the instructional video with the tape from the Wiggles.

 I then put it back together.


 I needed to label the new tape so that we would not get confused. 

Brandon loves letters and numbers. He is always pointing out the different letters that he sees. He loves numbers and is always counting. His second love (besides the ipod) is buttons. When I saw this at the store, I knew I had to buy it for Brandon.
He takes this with him all over the house.  He will say all of the numbers as he is pushing the buttons.  I wonder how long it will last him.  High School?

Here is some "need to know" information on how to avoid (and possible retaliate) against the bullies.

 Brandon loves these kinds of toys.  He will play with these forever.  Brinley likes to look at it for a minute and then she goes on to the next thing.  Brandon really loves moving the wooden pieces along the metal track.  This entertained him for quite a while.  Misty on the other hand, found joy in standing in line...

 This is the line for the clown to make balloon animals (or whatever you wanted).  Last year all of the kids wanted swords.  Balloon swords?  How long do you think they last?  Exactly!!  There were a number of crying children when their sword popped right after they got it.  (That was Bryce last year)  I don't know if he remembered that from last year, but this year he wanted a blaster.  Brinley got a flower and Brandon got a puppy. 
 Shortly after this picture, part of Bryce's blaster popped.  Bryce soon started to cry (you think I would have learned from last year).  Since Brandon kept throwing his puppy on the ground, I took his puppy and "transformed" it into a spare blaster part.  We were able to stop the crying on move on to other parts of the fair. 
So the stroller was not rolling through all of the animal "droppings," we left it away from the animals.  Usually they have a section for stroller parking.  I couldn't find the stroller parking, so I found a good spot that wasn't being used.

I didn't get pictures of us having dinner, but we had some nachos, hot dogs, fried rice, and shish kabobs.  All in all, we had a good time.

The other night we went to the main bowery at the Bountiful city park to hear Michael Mcllean, John Batdorf (wrote the music for the music for “Touched by an Angel” and “Promised Land”), and local songwriter Cori Connors.  This was part of the Third annual free summer concert series.

Eventualy the kids returned and made a new friend (sitting by Misty is a grandmother that does not see her grandkids very much) and our Bishop and his wife sitting on chairs.  We had a fun time.

Day 2

They say that the sequel is never as good as the original.  I second that!!

Today started out with us all getting ready to go to breakfast for the commemoration of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood (Fathers and Sons).  We all got ready and showed up about 20 minutes early to see if we could help set up or get things ready.  Brinley felt a little out of place, but that didn't stop her from eating her donut.  One boy said that he was going to go tell the bishop that Brinley came to the breakfast when she was not invited. It was a good start to the day.

After breakfast we made a mad dash over to the baseball fields where Bryce had his baseball practice. 
Things were going fine until Brinley decided that she wasn't going to spend another minute in her stroller.  I was helping with practice so I couldn't watch her real close.  Then Brandon decided that he also wanted freedom.  Suddenly I realized what was happening.  I was pitching the ball to some kids for batting practice and Brinley is dragging a bat around trying to find a ball to hit (almost getting hit herself) and Brandon is running around in the outfield (sometimes venturing into the infield) giggling like a little school girl.

Little did I know at the time, but the day was only going to get worse.  Practice for me was over and I took the kids to the van to wait out the rest of practice.  When we got home, we tried to find some toys to play with... Bryce was playing on the Wii, Brinley was playing with her toys, and Brandon was having fun opening and closing the door to the closet.  I thought I had a few minutes to run to the bathroom.  When I came out, I found Brandon in the kitchen with the sliding door open (he recently learned how to unlock and open the door)  and yelling, "Brinley... Brinley."  I could see at once that Brandon had poked a hole in the screen door and Brinley was no where to be seen.  I went down stairs and Bryce didn't know where she was at.  I think he barely noticed that she was not in the room anymore.  I went in the backyard and found her playing in the water.  Brandon and Brinley both sat in their cribs until I had fixed the screen door. 

Lunch wasn't much better.  Brinley had finished eating so I took her in the other room and came back to the kitchen to find that Brandon had dropped his glass of milk and it had spilled all over the floor and wall.  Bryce said it was on accident (and I think it was) but that didn't make it any easier to clean up.  That sealed the deal!  It was nap time whether they were tired or not.  By this time my patience was gone and it was not even 2:00 yet.

A little yard work helped me to relax and lower the stress levels.  Dinner was much better as Brandon only yelled "DADDY.... DADDY... DADDY!" about 15 times.  (that is sad when you think that is pretty good.)  The kids all got baths after dinner and I crashed.  Not before getting something to put behind the sliding glass door to stop Brandon.  It is only a matter of time before he figures out how to get it open again. 

I am not looking forward to tomorrow.  I think day 3 is going to be the worst.  (and I won't be able to do any yard work to lower the stress levels) 

 Misty went with her high school friends on a little retreat.  Do you think that she is the only one that is going to have some fun?  When the cat is away, the mice will play.

Day 1 (actually she left yesterday afternoon, but this is the first official day)

We all got up at 7:30 this morning and helped Bryce get ready for school.  He practiced his spelling words (spelling test today).  All Brandon and Brinley could say all morning was, "where mommy go?"  Once Bryce left for school, the rest of the family went shopping.  We went to Wal-Mart, Kohls, and DI.  I gave my ipod to Brandon to play with while we were at the store.  He loved it, then he turned the camera on and started taking pictures.  Luckily he only took about twenty pictures.  Almost all of them looked just like this:
That wasn't bad.  Sometimes he takes about 100 before I figure out what he did.   At least this time there was a little variety.  Instead of a picture of his shoes, he took a picture of somebody elses shoes.  I guess when you are that short, you tend to look at a lot of shoes.
Sometimes the camera is facing the other direction and I have evidence of who is taking all of the pictures.  Here is some of the evidence of the shutterbug.

By 11:00 we were back at home.  After lunch Brandon and Brinley laid down for a nap and I did a little yard work.  Bryce reported that he got 100% on his spelling test.  After piano practice, he went to play at a friend's house.
Here is a picture of some of our purchases.
The kids are still a live and the house is still standing.  I would say that it was a pretty successful day.

Brandon thinks that is really hilarious.  The funny part is that Brandon doesn't even get it!!  Bryce really loves Star Wars.  The other day he dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi and watched The Phantom Menace.  Not only did he watch it, but he mimicked every move that Obi Wan made.  I watched Bryce during the best part - the duel with Darth Maul.  It was great!!  On a related, but unrelated note...  Bryce made Anakin's starfighter from a few spare parts lying around the house.

 If you can't see it very good, R2-D2 is in the front corner of the starfighter.
Bryce wasn't too happy with Brandon laughing at the force, but in the end Bryce got his revenge...