Mederios Family Visit

We are always wanting our friends and family to come visit and we had our fair share in April. After my mom and dad left, Julie and Chad and their kids came down for their spring break. We had a great time with them here and enjoyed taking them to our favorite restaurants and even trying a few new places.

Ryan and I both have some of our favorite places that we like to take company to. Tia Rosa's is a great Mexican place (love the fish tacos) in Mesa and LGO (Le Grande Orange) is the first place Ryan ever took me when I came down to meet Dave for the first time. LGO is like a bakery, gift store, deli, yuppie place all rolled into one. They have to die for red velvet cake (6 layers alternating with cream cheese frosting) and a gelato place next door. I introduced Julie to Sprinkles cupcakes...Red Velvet rocks. Can you see a trend with the red velvet and eating? :) We also went to Canal in Old Town Scottsdale.

Since it was the kid's spring break we did enjoy a few other activities other than eating. The kids loved our pool and we used our fire pit for possibly the third time and roasted marshmallows. Sarah seemed to be really excited about those. I also went to our Children's Museum with everyone. That was quite interesting, although it made me realize how much I've forgotten. Sarah knowing more about a black hole than me means that either she's really smart, just had a lesson on that in school or I am not as a smart as a 5th (or even 2nd) grader. I was pleasantly surprised and had a good time.

Birthday Wishes

I'm sending out a shout out to Chase and Dave who just (sorta) celebrated birthday's! Parties aren't what they used to be, but we had a good time. We celebrated Chase's b-day early during our Super Bowl party and than Dave took him and Amanda to dinner at Water's Edge, while I was in Hawaii. They had a good time and Chase is now officially an adult (18).

Dave's birthday was on April Fool's Day. I met him at his office with cupcakes (no, I didn't make them) for his co-workers and took him to lunch. Unlike me, Dave does not enjoy going out to dinner, so since it was his birthday, I decided to do what he wants and that was to make him dinner. I guess I learn new things about him all the time because when I asked him to cook his favorite thing, he wanted chicken tacos. Now, I know his fav food is Mexican, but we have been married over 1 1/2 yrs and I have NEVER made chicken tacos. Dave, you have to let me know these things!!! :) Anyways, I slaved over the stove (not doing that again for a while) and made tacos, spanish rice, cornbread, dips and his favorite white w/ sprinkles birthday cake. We had Chase and Amanda and our good friends Joe and Kristen over. My parents came into town the next day, along w/ Judy and Christen and Ryan and Jodie and we all went to Water's Edge again.

Christmas Update

Alright, I know I'm a blog slacker, but I really do have good intentions. I was lucky enough to see a lot of friends and family over the holidays, which must be my excuse on why I'm so behind on blogging about it. :)

Christmas 08 was fun, cold, snowy and also done in shifts. This year each of our had slightly different agendas and in order to make everyone happy we "celebrated" with each child on it's own day.

As most of you know, Amanda LOVES horses. She has an Aunt and Uncle in VA that have horses, so she flies out there when she can to ride horses with her cousins, chase foxes and gets extremely spoiled (lucky girl!!) :). We celebrated with her about a week before Christmas and before I flew to UT.

Chase loves the snow, climbing and being with his best bud, his dad, Dave. They drove up (yes, they were kind enough to "demand" that I fly to Utah while they drove) and spent a couple days climbing on the way up. They had higher ambitions to do more hiking while in Utah, but because of all the snow, they didn't get more than a couple hikes and a ski trip in. Dave, Chase and I spent Christmas Eve with both families, Christmas morning with our family and than saw Dave's mom on Christmas as well.

Of course, we couldn't forget about Moni!!! Monica didn't get home from U Mass until Sunday (Dec 21st) due to a snow day on her last day of finals. What made her most happy was to be home in her own bed and be in the warm weather, so she passed on the trip to Utah. We drove back (yeah, I sucked it up) from Utah and she came over and we got to celebrate one more "gift giving" night.

It was fun to extend the holidays as long as we could. Holidays are such a great time to be near family and friends. Even though sometimes it's hectic and not a vacation, I wouldn't change the hustle and bustle for anything! All the craziness of our families, all the snow storms, all the thoughtful gestures is what makes Christmas memories.

Being Grateful

So I've been a slacker on the blog front, but did want to share some of our memories of the past Thanksgiving week. Dave and I were lucky enough to host Thanksgiving for 13 people. After having it at my house for the first time (even with lots and lots of help from mom and dad), I have to say it maybe an overrated meal. I am one of those "chefs" who likes to make the dinner look gourmet, but isn't above buying my homemade rolls, finding the shortest recipes and outsourcing to others. I'd say I'm a half motivated Martha Stewart and I definitely couldn't have done it without dad and mom in the kitchen. There is a lot of work that goes into that 30 minute dinner, but definitely some good memories. Dave and I are really grateful we had so much family to share it with. Monica, we missed you, but were glad to have Chase and Amanda there. We also had Ryan and Jodi over, as well as our good friends Tawnie, Ed and Kenzie.

Mom and Dad and Megan and Cameron came down and spent the week with us. We had a nice time mostly chilling, eating out and seeing a few movies. I'm not sure who was more excited to see Twlight- me or my mom. She even read the book again to get her in the "mood". Megan didn't find it very exciting. We also had a scare with dad. We went to breakfast and on the way, he started to act funny (slurring his words and than walking funny and stumbling to the ground). Good thing Miss PA, Megan was there. She made sure we got dad to the hospital and we found out he had a TIA aka as a mini-stroke. He's okay now, although we are all hoping dad takes care of himself so there are no repercussions from this.

As this holiday and crazy week came to a close, I realized that I have alot to be thankful for. I have such a wonderful, unselfish and giving husband with great kids. I also have a family I wouldn't trade for anyone's- chaos and all!! I realize at times like these, that love, family, good friends, and health are things we may take for granted, but I'm really blessed. Thanks to all who shared this great holiday with me.

The "mom's" visit

Dave and I were lucky enough to have both of our mom's make a road trip down to AZ to visit us. We sure like that they are good friends and it made for a fun trip. We did the typical Jensen outings- went out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, Cafe Rio and Ling and Louies (think Thaiphoon). We also went shopping with Ryan as our tour guide, the moms knitted, diane (the energizer bunny) went to the gym daily and also enjoyed the sun, they cooked us dinner and mom made lemon bars, but the main event they came down for was Chases' football game. We had a great time at the game. Ryan and Jodi came with us and while it wasn't the high scoring game that it typically is, it was a a close game which makes things exciting. It was 7-0 for us with about 2 minutes left, when the other team scored. They decided to go for 2 pts to get the win, but FH held them. Chase played well and was recognized several times for some really solid hits and plays. The weekend ended with a Sunday dinner and a flat tire...dave- were you trying to get out of church or just get us there on time? ;)

Happy Halloween

So here is our attempt at being festive this Halloween season. Without little kids, we haven't really gotten into the dressing up, school parties, etc but wanted to do something fun. Amanda and Chase came over and we carved pumpkins. Amanda is the true pro- this is her third pumpkin she's carved this season. Hers was so intricate that she didn't finish it, so it didn't make it to print as of yet. :) This rather elementary smiley face is my attempt at artwork. Chase seemed to be more interested in Playstation, but was a good sport and Dave worked on the pumpkin seeds and carved a pumpkin too. We wish Monica was here to help out, although she did carve pumpkins back at school as well. Happy Halloween!

Homecoming Week at FHS

This week was Homecoming Week at FH High and there was a week's worth of activities.

The week started with Powder Puff football. Amanda is a Junior and they beat the sophomores the first night and came back to the final game and whooped the Seniors. Amanda played defensive line and she is TOUGH!!! She got several key tackles and really had fun playing. They played flag football and Chase was surprised to hear that when we played powder puff at Davis, we actually wore pads. That being said, I seem to recall mom letting the coaches know she'd rather Heather and I not see too much "action". Thanks mom- you probably saved us a lot humiliation. ;)

Chase got his room decorated by the cheerleaders (they told him his was decorated the best), was in the parade (yes, there is a parade where each class actually makes floats and they weren't the typical truck with a sign on it like we see back in Kaysville) and danced in the assembly on Friday. Think Boyettes- little shorts, tight shirts and cowboy hats. Apparently it's not the "cool" thing to have parents go the assemblies because Chase said "no parents go" and I really wanted to see their dance. The assemblies, dances and skits were some of the funnest memories.

The game was a blowout and Chase played awesome. Final was 69-12. He scored 2 touchdowns, one on a 30 yard pass and another was a 20 yard run into the end zone. He had a lot of tackles on defense and Dave was definitely the proud dad.

Unfortunately the one downer for Homecoming is they don't have a formal dance, but rather a themed dance/stomp at the HS. The theme was "comic characters" so Chase dressed up as Batman and went with his friends. Can you imagine the homecoming queen dressed as Wonder Woman?

I think we can say, all in all it was a successful week and Chase and Amanda have some fun memories. I'm still convinced when I sit at the games, that I really look like one of the kids and not a mom.....yeah, I'll keep telling myself that. We can dream, can't we? Dave is always telling me he thinks that I wish I was still in High School and I have to admit, it's times like this that maybe I do....until I really think about it.

Go Chase!!! Falcons Football

It's that time of year and we are enjoying Chase play football. He's the football stud, just like Dave was and they even share the same #32. Chase plays both Corner on defense and Wide Receiver on offense and also plays on special teams. It's fun to watch him, since he's one of the few players that plays the entire game. He's the fastest on the team and enjoyed being the team captain last week. He also led the team in tackles...next he's looking for an interception. Amanda has even had fun cheering her brother on and even goes to the away games wearing his jersey. The team is 3A so they can travel up to 2 hrs for the away games. They are currently 3-1.