More Birthday Celebrations for Ryan!

After Deb’s shower on Saturday, Papa & Ryan met the rest of us at The Pizza Factory for Ryan’s birthday dinner with the fam. We had a great time, and we always love The Pizza Factory!

Sunday after Ryan’s ordination and Rara & Papa’s church, we had another birthday dinner at Rara’s & Papa’s, complete with ice cream cake! Ryan just LOVES all of the help he has blowing out his candles!

Ryan’s Priesthood Ordination

Many family members and friends who read this blog are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So I feel that I need to give a quick explanation about the events of our day.

Most people know that our church has a lay ministry. Our leaders are called from the congregation and serve, rather than being formally trained and/or paid. Our young men are ordained to the priesthood at age twelve, and then progress from there. Every level has service and leadership responsibilities. So, even though we do not have a formal theology training to be a professional religious leader, our young men really do begin their training for leadership and service (not just religious, but in all aspects of life) at age 12.

Sunday, April 29, Ryan was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and the office of Deacon. Papa gave Ryan a beautiful blessing. In addition to Pap & Rara, Marc & Frances, and Alice & Claire, Uncle Randy and Aunt Dott were able to join us. We also invited our home teacher, Jeff Novak and his wife, and also Kevin Lemon and his family. The Lemons are our close friends. Kevin has taken Ryan to many BYU football games over the years, and is now in the Young Men’s presidency. Of course, our wonderful bishop, Bishop Bart Nelson presided.

These were the men who participated in Ryan’s ordination.

And here’s our family after Ryan’s ordination.

I’m so proud of Ryan! He is such a wonderful young man!

Easter/Rara’s Birthday Celebration

Since we now have the early church time, we spent Easter morning celebrating the true meaning of Easter. This is one of my favorite Easter messages from one of my favorite people. If you haven't ever seen it, please take the 4 minutes and 25 seconds to watch it.



When we got home from church, Ryan “found” his Easter basket.
It’s always fun when Rara’s birthday falls right on Easter…like this year! Here’s our annual “Rara with grandkids birthday picture.”

I also replaced the dying tulips from my original bouquet with fresh tulips – two different colors of pink. I love the way it looks on the Easter table!
And, of course, the annual Easter egg hunt in Rara & Papa’s back yard. We were so fortunate to have beautiful weather, too!

Christmas!

I love that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Ryan and I had our gift exchange ourselves, and then went to church, where we had the opportunity to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Here are a couple of pictures from our morning. Ryan received (from me) a Star Wars lunchbox, a giant Lego Anakin alarm clock, a Bazinga shirt, some Skull Candy headphones, his SDAT swim team deck coat, and an 11-in-one game table that he and Papa spent the next two days putting together.






After church, we went to Rara & Papa’s to exchange presents with the rest of the family. Marc & Frances gave me a set of cake pop pans, which I’m sure we’ll have fun using. The highlight was Claire and Alice getting princess jewelry sets (complete with crowns) and little stuffed dogs that walked. We joked that they looked like the stereotypical princesses with their jewelry and little dogs!




I love this picture of Rara reading with the girls.
Christmas evening, we went to our annual Jensen family party. We’ve reinstated the piñata tradition the past few years, now that the cousins all have kids who are old enough to enjoy it.



We always have to keep an eye on the kids. As soon as the first piece of candy falls, they fight their way to get it. The kid with the bat is usually the last one to realize, so they often keep swinging! Luckily there were no injuries this year.
After the traditional piñata breaking comes the traditional “burn the piñata remnants in the fireplace with Uncle Randy” tradition.
The girls (and Gage) decided that parts of the piñata looked like Princess crowns.

Christmas Eve on Temple Square

Frances was on call on Christmas Eve, and, unfortunately, got called in to work…more than once. We had plans for dinner together, and then going to see the lights on Temple Square. She got called as we were getting ready to eat dinner.

We missed her at Temple Square! Here are a few pictures of our evening…

Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place State Park

On Friday, December 23, our whole family went to the Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place State Park. It was pretty cold, and almost everything was outside (and dark), so we bundled up!

We loved looking at real reindeer (apparently having a territory battle)…

We enjoyed listening to traditional Christmas stories by the hearth…
Made some crafts...

Watched a puppet show…

Danced…


LOVED the live nativity…


Had fun on the train…
And warmed up with hot chocolate at the hotel…
What a fun addition to our Christmas season!