Settling in

April was a crazy month as well. We love our new house. Our backyard is landscaped so nicely and it is fairly large. Larger than we've ever had. We have lots of big windows that let in lots of natural light and it's glorious. We even have a sunroom :) There is a walking path behind our house that leads right to Azure's new school. Trail Wind Elementary is rated a 9 out of 10 and is less than a mile from our house. She walks to and from school everyday! What a big girl! So crazy! I'm grateful for her new sense of freedom and the time she has to ponder and pray as she walks alone. What a great time in life. This stage is truly a fulfillment of our heartfelt prayers since before Charles and I even met. How wonderful!

Though, we are still living out of boxes. Nothing hangs on our walls as of yet. I'm struggling to find something to replace Vince's preschool. Our activities together last no longer than 20 mins usually. He still has a hard time playing independently. He usually needs me, Zeke or Azure to play with. We'll just have to wait for summer camps and then Kindergarten in Aug.

 

Zeke continues to be difficult. While he was staying with his grandparents, he got a bacterial infection on his finger somehow. He was on antibiotics and his fingernail recently fell off. He's all better, but the nail still looks disgusting. He has at least one tantrum a day. I'm looking into energy healing for him as it feels he has some trapped anger inside him. If anyone has any experience with that, please let me know. When he's happy he is a complete joy and his curly, blonde hair enraptures me and I am smitten with him and his sweet sounding voice. He is now saying Vince's name very clearly which I think started right before we moved at the end of March, but it wasn't until we got here that he started saying it daily.

He drove us to lunacy for about 4 weeks (last 2 wks of March and beginning of April) by taking off his diaper and flinging and smearing his feces all over the place. So badly, that we had to throw out the pack and play that I received as a gift from my freshman roommate at Azure's baby shower. He started doing it the first day he slept in the pack and play after Charles dissembled his crib back in Savannah. He continued to do it nightly on our trip out here, in the hotel and at our friend's homes. He got poop all over Cabe's carpet and his grandparent's. 

I even pinned him, but he took both pins off! We finally wised up on how to do it, so it stopped. It was a rough time cleaning up poop everyday for weeks as we were moving and trying to unpack. I completely snapped our first Sunday here in the house when he did it for the 20th time while Charles and I were napping. Sigh. So grateful our new pin technique is working and we haven't had to clean it up since that Sunday.

 
Nothing is perfect, but I feel a deep satisfaction with our current stage of life. I am madly in love with Charles with each passing day and we're working as a team to raise our children together in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Flying feces, high pitched screams, and towering boxes aside, life is good.

The Jensens move back West

2015 has been a whirlwind so far. In January Charles was contacted by St. Luke's Health System in Boise, ID about the position he applied for 3 years ago after his residency. It was available again and they offered to fly him out for an interview.

Sometimes you don't get to see why things don't work out, but it's been a blessing to know that 3 years ago when this job didn't work out the first time, the Lord was preparing Charles to take it in the future.

We found out in February that he had been accepted for the position and we have been preparing to move ever since.

We left Savannah on Tues morning March 31st and got to Boise around 9:30pm on Easter Sunday April 5th.

I love change and new adventures, but moving is hard. It's hard to say goodbye to the things you love- like warm humid air enveloping you almost constantly. Beautiful green live oaks, friends you can call up last minute to come babysit your kids (Shelly).

It's hard living on the road and in hotels for almost 2 weeks. It's been hard on Azure and Vince. They were used to their school schedule going to bed and waking up early. Now, we have no schedule and are all over the place spending most of the day in the car or in the hotel. Vince has been so defiant and it breaks my heart. I've never seen him act like this before- talking back and misbehaving so much. Where did my sweet boy go?!

Such a wide range of emotions. I also found out on my birthday that my 7 week pregnancy was no longer. I had been waiting to bleed to pass it on my own and was afraid I'd have to schedule a D&C as soon as we got to Boise having no insurance yet. Gratefully the Lord answered my prayer and I started bleeding on my own Sunday night as soon as we got to our hotel.

It has been rough, yet we also feel so blessed. I almost got hit by a car in El Paso, but the car stopped just in time. Shelly, our friend from Savannah drove out with us and helped us with the kids. Cammen, my freshman roommate met up with us in Louisiana and bought us breakfast. Caleb, Charles' brother let us stay at their house and cooked us an amazing dinner. Another friend of ours from Savannah let us stay with them in Thatcher, AZ and cooked us breakfast.

Best friend status: taking care of all of my kids :)

Cousins playing soccer

Me & Cammen: 16 yrs of friendship

I got to see Randa, my MTC companion on the exact day, April 3rd, that we entered the MTC together and met. It had been 13 years!! She would have housed us as well but, we went and stayed with Miah in Yucca.

And, then it "just so happened" that we ended up at my in laws on Easter Sunday and got to celebrate with them and Jon and Erin and their kids. Our children got to see all their aunts, uncles and cousins minus Jen and Zed who's on his mission in Finland on the Jensen side during our cross country road trip.

No Easter dress- she lost 2 cardigans on this trip

Monday we started looking for places to live and on Wed we decided on one, applied and got accepted. We're grateful it only took 3 days. We get to move in tomorrow!

Another one of my old roommates lives here in Boise and she watched Azure and Vince for a few hours to quell their boredom and give Charles and I a break from their bickering (something they're only begun to do frequently the past few months). I have been messaging a girl that I'm in a Facebook group with, whom I've never met, yet she offered to watch our kids and feed us dinner. We finally met her tonight and the kids loved jumping on their tramp and playing in their backyard. My in laws have been watching Zeke all week so we could find a place without his shenanigans. (Though Azure & Vince definitely made up for his shenanigans while he was gone!)

I'm constantly relearning in my life that there really are silver linings to everything. It's such a testament to me of God's goodness. There are countless blessings if that is what you're focused on. That doesn't mean that life will always be happy, easy, or good, but for one door God closes, He truly opens another, or at least a window. I praise His goodness!!

{New Boise sights}

Lake Lovell

Only 13 mins from the temple instead of 3 hrs!!!

Such gorgeous Spring colors!

Cafe Rio!

Vince turns 5!

This time 5 years ago I was impatiently waiting for Vince to come into the world. I was anxious about having a VBAC. I'm grateful I did and got to experience it. However, after having 2 VBACS now and tearing so badly with both, a C-section recovery really isn't so bad...

Vince started preschool at the Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church downtown just one block north of Forsyth Park on Tues. Jan. 6. It is a beautiful historic building- built in 1890. It is Gothic architectural style with it's tallest spires 196 ft high. His teacher is the Primary President in our ward, Miss Becki or Sis. Riquelme, depending on the day :)

He is doing so well and I know we made the right decision to put him in. Just goes to show that every child is different and you need different things at different times. I homeschooled Azure for both preschool and Kindergarten and wouldn't have imagined that I would be putting Vince into a private preschool. It definitely helps that we are financially able to afford it, which was not an option when Azure was 4 (huge blessing).

Before preschool he was writing his capital Es with 5 or 6 lines instead of 3. I didn't make a big deal about it. It was actually kinda cute. Reminded me of some kind of arthropod. At Miss Becki's suggestion, he started making lowercase e's in his name but, they were unrecognizable. Around this same time he started having trouble writing a c, though he was doing fine before this.

I had him practice when he got home but, he still couldn't figure it out. So, we tried writing in salt to "spice" things up ;)

That did the trick for e's right away but, took another week or two to master c's. He's doing great!

Vince: "Mommy, when I'm a Dad, I'll always call you."

"Is this a deal? We can play Mario Kart 8 after we clean our room."

Saturday we had his birthday party at Forsyth Park. They recently finished a new fenced in playground and it was perfect. He requested Ninja Turtle theme. We bought pizzas from Little Ceasars, had a veggie tray, cheese sticks, mini water bottles and cake. It was fabulous. Colton and AJ came from church, and 2 other new friends from preschool- Thad and Luke. I'm so happy that he's making new friends and gaining more confidence.

The weather was a bit cold- about 50 degrees with some slight wind. And, since we set up our table in the shade it felt even colder. This has felt like an unusually cold winter for Savannah. Can't wait for it to warm up!



Age 4 has been a really big year for Vince! He’s learned to use the toilet and was completely potty trained w/ only a couple accidents a week right after turning 4. He’s learned to get himself dressed and undressed (thanks to OT), learned how to go up and down the stairs the correct way- alternating legs (thanks to PT), learned how to ride a balance bike, he learned to unbutton and button up his shirts, he learned how to buckle himself in the carseat (in Aug), still can’t unbuckle, though. Still waiting for that. He learned how to write his name! That came out of the blue, I think the first time he did it was when we were sitting in the foyer during Sacrament meeting on the magnetic writing board maybe in Aug or Sept? And, he started going to preschool! What a big boy! Such a big year for him!

He's hilarious, loyal, affectionate, and quick to forgive. He was 9 days "late", which makes perfect sense with his personality. He's been teaching me to slow down and learn to wait and accept God's timing and his own. His future wife is a blessed woman, for he loves purely with all his heart just like his Daddy.

Today for his actual birthday he requested that we put a wrapped present in his room. So, I wrapped up mini cereal boxes so he could pick one for breakfast. Last night we made cupcakes so he could bring them to class. When Charlie got home we went to Chick Fil A for dinner and as we walked through the door Vince saw the picture of the founder and asked, "Mommy, what prophet is that?" So funny!

They played for awhile, then we opened gifts, played with a new video game Charlie bought for him, sang him Happy Birthday again with his leftover cake and with candles this time (I forgot to bring them to the park Sat). Then we watched the slideshow I made for him for his 1st birthday. Long day, but tonight he said, "This was the best birthday ever." Then it was all worth it. Love you sweetie boy!