Jason's Birthday...#33

Happy Birthday (a few days ago) Honey!

We Love You! and appreciate all that you do for us.

Love,

Alli, Savannah, Madilynn and Olivia

I had a really fun time with Jason's birthday. Savannah planned the whole thing. She knew what kind of balloons she wanted and what gifts she wanted to buy right down to the colors.

She picked out a Batman balloon with black and blue ballons to go with it and Madi picked out a dark purple one. Then we went a bought him a shirt, it wasn't the colors Savannah had wanted (red, and blue) but it was okay because it was the gift she wanted Madi to give him and Madi didn't want to give him a shirt she wanted to give him a ball.
Savannah wanted to give him a Spiderman movie but when we went to buy it she didn't like that it had a black spiderman on the front with the red spiderman so she changed her mind and found Batman Returns that she really liked.

Madi then found some balls that she picked out all by herself, and very proud of that, that he can play in the water with.

Savannah then had the idea to give him flowers, so I decided that each of us would pick out a flower for him.

We then made his favorite cake and Savannah made him a card.

I thought it was a GREAT party. I loved watching the girls get so excited to give him the gifts they had picked out and show him the balloons and flowers. They were so happy.

more visitors

We have been very lucky, within one month we had two sets of visitors. Jason's family came out this time (mom, grandma, sister, and niece (Jason and 8 women, how lucky!)).

We had a GREAT time, the girls were very excited to see everyone and Jason kept everyone busy... Farmers Market, tour of DMU, see the city, Tulip Time, swimming at the Hotel, walking Grays Lake, Bridges of Madison County, Shopping, Church and then Jason made dinner for everyone for Mother's Day.

Tulip Festival

Savannah, Kierstin, Mikaela, Alli, Madilynn, Jason, Olivia, Grandma Jensen, and Great Grandma Green

Savannah, Madilynn, Mikaela, and Olivia

(as you can tell they did not want their picture taken, this is the best I could find from all we took.)

Alli and Kierstin

(Kierstin, Mikaela, Savannah, Madi and I got caught in a down pour as we were leaving Pella. We were soaking wet and laughing so hard.)

swimming

Downtown Farmer Market...they always have a free craft for kids. This time it was planting Marigolds.

Bridges of Madison County. Jason took everyone there but Olivia and I because he has never been and I have been twice and Olivia needed a nap.

Gray's Lake.

Jason and I love this place, it is so fun to go to at night.

Mother's Day

(Jason and his mom)

Colleen, Kathy, Jason and Kierstin

It was fun to see everyone again. Thanks for taking time out to come and see us.

Mother's Day!

A week ago was Mother's Day and I never posted anything but I did want to thank both my mom and Jason's mom for being such wonderful ladies that I can look up to. They are such great examples to me.

I also wanted to say how grateful I am for my sweet little girls and for the opportunity that I have to be their mother. It is the greatest gift I could ever have and I thank my Heavenly Father daily for them.

Time

I have a few minutes (my kids are playing really well right now) and so I decided to post a few things...okay maybe not, we bought a new camera and now I can't get my pictures off my card... I don't know if it is my card or camera but now I will have to wait until Jason can come to the rescue.

May Day

I am a loser. I don't even know what you are supposed to do on May Day but within 10 minutes of each other two different neighbors brought treats for my kids. I have heard of May Day but never celebrated it. Do you celebrate it? What is it? (I looked it up on the internet but still don't really get it, help me, Please.)

swimmin' lessons

We signed Madi up for swimming lessons at the Y. It was her first swimmin' lessons and she loved it. She just finished her last lesson today, they were every Saturday at 9:30am for about 5 weeks.

She did a good job, especially kicking her legs but she doesn't like to get her face wet. She is too young to be in lessons by herself so Jason or I had to get in the pool with her (luckily Jason was around more and I only had to do it a few times).

GOOD JOB MADI!

Missouri

We decided to take another mini vacation. Jason had Wednesday-Friday off because his attending doctor was having surgery, so he finished his rotation Tuesday night and we had a few days as a family. We don't know how much time we are going to have to spend time together especially after we start Residency next year so we are taking advantage of any time we have together.

We haven't been down to Missouri to see the Church sites so we left Thursday after Savannah's preschool for Liberty, Independence, Far West and Adam-Ondi- Ahman. We had a great trip. The weather was perfect, we got a nice hotel for under $50 that fed us breakfast, we saw all the sites and Jason got to eat GREAT barbeque. (more detail below for Journal purposes)

After we checked into our hotel we went to see the Liberty Jail. That was really neat to see. It was good to hear the missionaries give the history since I don't really know a lot about the saints time there. (even though I had to take Olivia out in the middle of the history and then she pooped when we got into the auditorium which made me concerned for the others on the tour because I knew they could smell it. I still learned something.)

Then the sister missionary at the desk told us of a good barbeque place she had heard about. Jason said he trusts the missionaries to know where the good food was so we headed over to it. It was called Wabash and it was excellent! We even saw the couple missionaries there with their family. Savannah had her first ribs and ate them like a pro, Jason was so proud, but now that is all she wants to eat.

It was late so we headed back to the hotel to go for a swim. The girls love to swim and that is all they can think about when we are in a hotel.

The next morning we ate breakfast, and went over to the Independence Visitor Center. We went on two tour and then the girls got to play in a little log house, which they didn't want to leave and if we would of had more time we would of let them play more.

Then we drove out to Far West. It is out in the middle of no where but it is the most beautiful place. It was so peaceful when we got to the temple grounds. We couldn't have asked for a better day, green grass, the bird chirping, and smell of spring, it was WONDERFUL. You could really feel the spirit.

(Olivia and her smile when the camera comes out)

On our way out to Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman the girls loved it, the road were rolling hills and like I said it was in the middle of no where so Jason drove fast up and down the hill, the girls thought they were on a roller coaster, it was so much fun they laughed the whole time when their "belly's tickled".

Last stop Adam-Ondi-Ahman. It is a beautiful place and really neat to know what is going to happen there one day, you can really feel the spirit. We only wish we had more time but we had to get back so Jason could have his TB shot read.

It was a GREAT trip and we are really glad we did it. Our kids where great (expect for the coughing all night) and it is always fun to be together as a family.