melts my heart

I was washing the dishes this morning and heard Zoe squealing and laughing. I stopped to see what was going on. Toby was 'getting' her like I do sometimes! I love when they play together!! This melts my heart!

She's coming to you soon mom & dad:)

Words that describe

crawling. talking. growling. destroys. funny. precious. smily. chunky. lovable. squeezable. interested. curious.

I love getting my Zoe time in every day! It's rare to get her to myself with out anyone else around. I love when I get to give her my full attention!

Thank you Taylor for taking this amazing picture of her! I absolutely love it!

I can't wait to see who she continues to become!

Bath time

Toby. Zoe.

Lets see, it's been a while since I updated you on what is happening with Toby and Zoe. So lets start now,

Toby. He is a character! He loves to laugh and make people laugh. He is HUGE into playing any kind of sport or anything on the Wii! Right now he is struggling with listening to us! Maybe it's because he hangs out with college kids all day that don't have parents telling them things they can and cannot do or maybe it's because he is 3. All we know is that it is tiring and makes for some rough days! He always wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed. The other day he wasn't wanting to take a nap and I had to focus on getting Zoe to sleep, this is how I found him ! :)

I guess he was tired!! ha ha!! He has been using the big boy potty for a while now and wearing underwear (when he is awake) regularly. The other morning he decided to wear them on his head!! what a goof!

You can actually have a full blown conversation with him! I don't have to translate for other people anymore! We will be in the school cafeteria and he will just be wondering the tables (well usually its running) and will talk to who ever is around!!

Over all Toby has been growing up so fast and we are trying to love every minute of it!! Some days are more of a challenge than others but he is a great boy who is loving life!!

Next on to Zoe. She is 9 months already! How is that possible? She has 5 teeth and last time I weighed her was 24 pounds! She CRAWLS!! Toby never crawled so it's very strange to have a baby that crawls. However she still loves to walk. Walk with holding your hands, walk along the couch and around the ottoman. Needless to say she is everywhere!! She loves to be on the move!

She sings and talks all the time. It is wonderful! For Halloween she dressed up as one of her favorite people of all time..... TOBY!

We didn't do anything really for Halloween, we opened up our building for the kids in the neighborhood. Toby would have rather played in some of the guys rooms so he didn't even dress up as anything! Zoe has been struggling with sleeping. Well getting to sleep and staying asleep during the day. Some naps it would take 30 -45 mins for her to fall asleep and then she would only sleep for about 25 - 30 mins!! Not worth all the crying!! We thought we had moved past this but it is still happening..... I guess we will wait and see if maybe its another tooth coming in.

She is discovering things all the time!! I love seeing her face as she studies something. She found pumpkins last night at a harvest party we were at. She had to be touching them at all times when she was by them. It was funny! And yes she still has her famous hair that sticks up!! :)

I love seeing the 2 of them interact together! Zoe LOVES Toby and could watch him all day long! He can get her to laugh so easily! I wonder if she will like to play with dolls or girly things, right now all she wants are cars and balls!! :)

We feel very blessed to have 2 wonderful children in our lives and can't wait to see them grow up (not to mention grow 'out' of the things they are dealing with right now!!) But this is our life right now and we love it!

RIP Daddy fish

On my way to bed tonight I noticed Daddy fish laying on the bottom of the bowl. It has happened. He died. The bad thing is I just gave him new water tonight so I feel I am to blame for his sudden death. I do feel horrible.

Now we have the death talk with Toby in the morning....

Daddy fish: 10/10/09 - 10/19/09

yup he is just laying on the bottom.

First pet

Yes it's true, Toby now has a pet! At homecoming last weekend they had a street fair on campus that had lots of activities. Toby stopped by one booth where you had to throw a coin into a bowl. Well being the natural athlete that he is, he made it! So his prize was a FISH! He now has a fish as a pet. It's still alive (which secretly I am surprised by already) and he loves to feed him everyday. The name you ask? Well Toby decided to name him 'Daddy'. Awe! :)

Here he is with his Daddy fish!

8 month update

Our little Zoe is 8 months!! She has been such a blessing to us and a perfect addition to our family. She is starting to talk a lot more and finding what noises she can make with her mouth. Such as spitting or clicking her tongue. It's so great. She loves to walk when holding your hands, stand and chew on anything she gets her hands on!! She can move around while sitting and playing. She is usually facing a different way or in a completely different spot from when you set her down just by her rocking back and forth trying to reach anything and everything that is just out of her reach. Anything Toby does she responds with a huge smile and laugh! She can spot him across a room (and usually he is running around) and will watch him everywhere he goes. The closer he gets to her the louder her laughter gets! The day that she can move on her own she will be follow him everywhere! Yes her hair sticks up on it's own. We love it! We will be sad when it starts to grow down like normal. She weighs - are you ready for this?! - 24 pounds! When she was born the nurses kept saying she was such a solid baby...... well she is still just a solid little girl! She has brought so much joy and laughter to us and to the people around us! We love our little Zoe!

my kids are great!

New York

While Brian was in RA training and gone everyday all day we decided to go and visit our wonderful friends in Houghton NY for a couple days. So Toby, Zoe, JoAnna and I packed up and headed out!! It was our first time to NY. We had so much fun and we are so glad that we did! Here are some pictures of our trip.

We went to a state park, unfortunately it started to pour right after we got there so this is all we got to see. But it was an awesome waterfall and Toby hasn't seen anything like this! He thought it was pretty cool!

Campbell and Zoe playing with the new food Sarah bought! (and by playing with I mean chewing on! ha ha!)

I love this picture!! It was so hard to get a picture of Toby and Campbell with them both smiling and looking at the camera. This one looks likle Campbell is laughing and Toby is praying over her!! :) Really Campbell was mad that Toby was trying to hold her still so she was screaming at him and Toby blinked!

Toby was the photographer for this picture of us girls!! JoAnna, Sarah and Me.

The whole group! (minus Jeff who was taking the picture!)

We had a great time hanging out and seeing the kids play together! We can't wait to visit again! Thank you Kirksey's!

LOVE

Some of my favorite things that I hear from Toby: 

"I love you Mommy!"

"Mommy, I want to go to heaven to be with Jesus."

"I like you!"

"It's okay, I'm right here baby girl" (speaking to Zoe when she is upset) 

"You my sweetheart!" 

He is so sweet to me and to Zoe. I am so excited to see the two of them grow up together! So far they love each other very much...... I know that will change sometime! :) I cherish their laughter together now so much! 

Toby's first love

Toby's first love Izzy is here visiting and he is loving it. 

More pictures to come....

potty training

No more diapers for this little guy!! Now that deserves some sort of PARTY!! :) He doesn't tell me he needs to use the potty like most kids do. Instead I get "mommy, I peeing!!"  Those are now my favorite words.

Here he is workin those cute little undies! 

Such a cute guy! He has done such a great job! 

Now how do you know when they really have it and you don't have to worry about it anymore??

I am just savoring this feeling!

7 years

June 1, 2002 was when it all started. We created a new Jensen family. 7 years ago today. It doesn't seem like I am old enough to have been married for 7 years and have 2 kids!! 

Here is us on that wonderful day 7 years ago: 

 In honor of today Brian made me something wonderful! He framed 4 of our family pictures and then had our family verse framed and they are now hanging in our living room. The verse is one we picked out together, one that we want our kids to grow up knowing and for our family to function having this verse in mind with everything we do. Here is the verse:

'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. - Mark 12:30-31

what it looks like with everything, 

I had fun finding old pictures of us from our time together. I want to share some with you. I tried to get them in date order, but honestly it was hard. :) I did the best I could. Here we are young, married and childless........

On our honeymoon in FL. 

At our reception in Minnesota. 

At our first Indy 500 as a married couple. 

Back in Fl where we had our honeymoon with my basketball team - so our 1st year of marriage.

Second christmas together. 

This picture was right before I found out I was pregnant with Toby. (in October 2005) 

This was in April of 2005 at a banquet with North Central. 

Our picture we took for our Christmas card. I think it was during year 3. 

Christmas time, obviously, I think year 3. 

Our cat, PJ. Well my cat, Brian didn't like her! I think year 2. 

Brian's graduation May of 2003. 

Summer of 2004. Brian was in a friends wedding. 

Okay so they weren't really in order at all!! I tried! :) So crazy to think back to our lives then. Now 7 years later we have Toby and Zoe and live in PA! I wouldn't change the way our life is at all! I love my husband and I love our children. 

Toby, 2 years old & Zoe, 4 months old

The Jensen Family