Thanksgiving Snapshots

Thanksgiving was extra special this year because the whole Jensen crew was able to be together.  This hasn't happened since our wedding two years ago.

I love these people so much! 

Here are some snapshots from T-day...

Baby E working on her solids. 

The nephews and nieces looove "Uncle G."

It was so cute watching all the cousins together.  This was Esther and Carlee's first meeting.

Photobombers!

The kids all love the racetrack at Nana and Papa's.
Lots of time was spent playing (and fighting over) the track.

It was the best to just sit around and shoot the breeze, as Patrick would say.
Andrew's deer hunting story was epic!

That face! Aubrey, how do you get anything done? I would just want to pinch and kiss those sweet cheeks all day long...

Quincey and her long locks. She is looking so grown-up. 

The pies are always the highlight of Thanksgiving dinner.
Dad and Andrew are both amazingly talented in the pie baking department.
However, let it be know that these two boys thought my crustless pumpkin pie was the best!

The Montana Jensens at the Zoo

Andrew, Nicole, and their three kiddos (The Montana Jensens, as Patrick and I like to call them)

made the drive down to Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving.

They stayed for a full week and it was the best being able to spend time with them on several occasions during their trip.

When they asked if I would like to spend the day with their family at the Hogel Zoo I could hardly contain my excitement.  I. Love. The. Zoo.  And since retiring as a nanny, I don't seem to go there much these days.

(Believe me, that will all change once Baby Marks arrives!)

The end of November may not seem like the ideal time to go to the zoo, but it turned out to be perfect.

It was so quite- it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

There were no crowds to lose the kids in! No swarms of strollers to dodge!

The animals were all out and about and we could take our time watching them without worry about being in the way of other people.

And as long as your were bundled up, it didn't feel too cold.

Sterling, Quincey, Andrew, and Nana Banana checking out the new African Savanna exhibit.

Here's Sterling posing with the lions and showing off his best roar.

Doesn't Carlee's little hat remind you of a barn owl?

 I usually have a hard time getting decent photos of Quincey... She is always too busy to stop and look at the camera.  I was happy to get not one, but two good photos of her cute face and fun hair.

 Hooray for family outings!

"Grouch" Performance Schedule

Desert Star Playhouse

November 13th through January 3rd

Order tickets HERE.

The following dates and times are only for the shows that I will be performing!

NOVEMBER

14th 6pm & 8:30pm

15th 11:30am & 2:30pm

19th 7pm

21st  6pm & 8:30pm

22nd 11:30am, 6pm, & 8:30pm

26th 7pm

28th 6pm & 8:30pm

29th 11:30am & 2:30pm

DECEMBER

2nd 6pm & 8:30pm

3rd 6pm & 8:30pm

5th 6pm & 8:30pm

6th 11:30am & 2:30pm

8th 6pm & 8:30pm

10th 6pm & 8:30pm

12th 2:30pm, 6pm, & 8:30pm

13th 11:30am & 2:30pm

15th 6pm & 8:30pm

17th 6pm & 8:30pm

19th 2:30pm, 6pm, & 8:30pm

20th 11:30am, 2:30pm

23rd 2:30pm, 6pm, & 8:30pm

24th 2:30pm

26th 6pm & 8:30pm

27th 11:30am & 2:30pm

31st 6pm & 8:30pm

JANUARY

2nd 6pm & 8:30pm

3rd 2:30pm

Year of Dates: November

For our November "Year of Dates" date, we headed back to our old Sugarhouse neighborhood.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Chipotle and then moved on to the evening's main event- a visit to Game Night Games.

Game Night Games is literally two blocks away from our first apartment but for some reason we never made it over to the store while living there.

Boy, were we missing out! This store is packed. I had no idea there were so many games in the world. Ha ha!

Our favorite thing about Game Night Games is the game room located at the back of the store.

They have open gaming nights where you can browse their collection and demo games.  It is always so hard to know if a game will be fun or not, and since most quality games are not cheap, it is great to have the option to try them out before making a purchase.

We played a round of BATTLE SHEEP (I won)...

 ...and a game of PIRATE VERSES PIRATE (Patrick won).

BATTLE SHEEP was our favorite of the two.

Although we didn't purchase anything during our date night visit,

I have a few games that I know I will eventually be making a trip back for!

Anniversary #2

Monday evening Patrick and I celebrated our *second* wedding anniversary!

We love being able to prepare and eat dinner together. Unfortunately our current schedules don't allow it to happen nearly enough. We agreed a homemade dinner together would be a nice way to spend our evening.

We used the delicious Maya Kaimal Coconut Curry Simmer Sauce from Costco to jumpstart our Indian meal.

(We had Indian food on our first date so it seemed the appropriate choice.)

We made sure to use our fancy glasses (Thanks, Lisa P!) to make the meal feel extra special.

The past two years have been amazing!

Sitting down for dinner and taking time to reminisce about all the wonderful memories we made so far reminded us how extremely blessed we are to have each other.

Indian curry isn't the only thing we've cooked up lately...

We couldn't be happier to announce we have a little bun in the oven!

Set the timer for May 2015!

How They Do Halloween in Erda...

Ma and Pa Jensen invited us out to celebrate Halloween Erda-style.

It was a beautiful and warm fall evening complete with a gorgeous sunset.

Witches, goblins, and ghouls gathered at the Motor Vu Drive In for free burgers and hot dogs,

trunk or treating, and a movie on the outdoor screen.

I am a minimalist when it comes to Halloween.

Animal ears and painted noses was as good as it got.

We put together a little bean bag toss the trick-or-treaters had to participate in order to earn some candy.

The kids had to toss the doggie treats into the dog bowl.

It was extremely windy out.

Those are rocks holding the green table cloth down, not little doggie surprises all over the yard! Ha!

Patrick was so cute with the kids.

For something so simple, the game was an absolute hit!

The little town of Erda sure knows how to do Halloween right!

Patrick's Birthday!!!

Patrick had a birthday! I was very excited about this because I love any chance to I get to celebrate this awesome man!

Sometimes I think best in themes.  So my gift-giving theme this year was "Things That Remind Me of Partick."

Inside his birthday card I had written some words with missing letters and he had to fill in the blanks to figure out what 4 things I chose about him before he could open each corresponding present.

Incase you're curious... basketball, cars, skinny ties and colorful socks, and pizza remind me of Patrick!

We went and grabbed dinner at the new PizzaRev that recently opened at the Valley Fair Mall.  

We thought the customer service was fantastic.  The employees were super friendly and eager to help.

PizzaRev reminds me a bit of Subway. You walk down the line and choose your crust, sauce, cheese, and unlimited toppings.  

We were both quite pleased with our pizzas.

(The gluten-free crust I had to order was definitely one of the best I've found, so far.)

I gathered up some potential recipes for Patrick's birthday dessert and he choose the Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes from the "Savoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites" cookbook.

These peanut butter cupcakes have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup baked in the middle and are topped with a peanut butter and chocolate swirled frosting.

They were a hit with the husband!

Patrick wanted a night in on his birthday so we watched an episode of our favorite show, "Shark Tank."  October had been a super busy month and we hadn't had a lazy night at home together in awhile so it was the perfect ending to our little celebration.