Nickell's Dream Vacation....

Oh the places I want to go. First would probably be Paris. I so badly want to go visit Versaille I can taste it. I want to cry. I am now accepting sponsors p.s. Anyway this is the hall of mirrors. It looks amazing!

This is the cottage that the king built for Queen Marie Antoinette so that she could bake bread and have a "normal" life... The gardens there look amazing!

Then while I am over there I can go to Italy. It is another place I want to go so desperately! Look at it! It's amazing!

Really? Who wouldn't want to go there!

Krisit's Dream Vacation

I guess this would have to be my dream vacation. I will never get to go to this place but it looks amazing!

San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile's southern coast

It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons of water. Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.

Dave bought Court a new trombone so now they can jam together. They were playing "Be Still My Soul", wish I could have audio to go with the picture, it was awesome.

Mom Catching Up....Finally....

This is Mom, Grandma,

We've been offline for a while so I get to catch up again. It took me half a day to catch on the blogs.

I don't remember what I liked as a child to eat. I just love food. I think it was potatoes, and greeen beans. I didn't realize that everyone else ate differently until I got a best friend and she invited me over on Sundays to watch Bonanza and eat potato chips and dip and Dr Pepper. It was so good. We had carob for chocolate and deer meat instead of beef, whole wheat everything, and lots of carrot juice and tigers milk. Yuck. Now I love everything except beets and whole wheat cereal.

When I grew up I wanted to be a swimming star like Ester Williams, then an ice skating star like Sonja Heine. And on and on. I never could make up my mind. But I did want to be a mom. And it was the best.

My dream vacation I've already taken. I really wanted to go to Europe. It was great but needed to be 2 weeks in each country, It was very hard to see much in two weeks but it was a great trip. Our trip to Israel was something I never thought we could do was possible. It was amazing. It makes the scriptures come alive. You can just picture where everything is. It really makes it real. Hawaii was so much fun and our trips to Canada were great, and to Colonial Juarez and Diaz. It was quite fun to be the foreigner at the temple there and have to wear earphones. I would love to go to Machu Pichu also. My cousin Mike went on a mission to New Zealand and I'd love to see that. The Scandinavian countries also. But Ireland and Scotland would be great for geneology. It would be so fun to see the home of the Brakenrigs. There are lots of places I'd love to go to look at cemeteries. I can't even pick just one. I feel very blessed to have been to the places I've been to. A cruise would be such fun with all of us. Maybe the girls can go sometime.

I love the blog. Keep it up. I'll try to do better. I just love to read about what all of you and your beautiful children are doing. Don't I just have the best looking and the nicest children and grandchildren. Love you all.

Mindy is Changing....

I just have to add to my dream vacation answer. Jason told me there's a paid summer externship, that you can apply for after the second year of law school, in Samoa. How cool would that be? What an incredible opportunity to take our family to Samoa for 2 months and get paid for it! Talk about a dream vacation! We need to find out more information, but if it's as good as it sound I'm going to talk him into applying for it. I can already see a problem -- that will be the summer of 2010, which is reunion time. That would be bad. Does anyone know what the difference is between and externship and an internship?

So I've Been Waiting to Post These.... (Warning: Picture Overload!)

I have been trying to get these edited for so long! Finally I am finished. We took family pictures when we were in California over Christmas. It took forever because we were doing the tri-pod action. But here are my favs.

First, this picture just shows how much Kade loves Brock. If Brock was anywhere in site, Kade was watching him.

He was doing this for probably 8 pictures in a row. So cute!

I just thought this one was funny. I was getting the camera ready with the tri-pod, they were all being bored. Kelsey was touching her hair for the millionth time during this shoot. Seriously I had to delete so many pictures because she is touching her hair!

For the following pictures, two Christmases ago I got enlargements of each of my siblings for a very long wall that has been blank in my mom's house for so long. A few of the pictures needed replacing so we took some new ones.

I love Kade in this picture!

If you would like to see them all, here is a link. Jensen Family Pictures.

Holly's Dream Vacation

First of all, Nickell, your family looks way too cool in that new picture. But I like it. My dream vacation at this point in my life would just be to go on a vacation. Since I married a teacher, I have pretty much given up on the idea of going anywhere except Dairy Queen. But if Matt's book gets published and hits the New York Times Bestseller list, then I would want to go on a cruise to Scotland and Ireland (or do the driving bed-and-breakfast tour). My biggest dream for some reason has been to go to Machu Picchu, Peru, to see the ruins. I would love to be in good enough shape to take the 3 day hike up so that I could find wild orchids and see all there is to see. I also wish I could go to Alaska with Dad to see where he lived. Basically, I would love to go visit anywhere in the world except Asia. For some reason it has never interested me.

Amy Catching Up....

I have always wanted to travel to Australia. I think because I have always had a dream of singing in the Sydney Opera House. So what I wanted to be as an adult and where I want to travel are sort of the same question. But I always dreamed of being a veterinarian because I love animals. And, strangely enough, I wanted to be a nurse. If med school didn't take so many years I would probably have done that instead. I guess nursing will have to do for now. I may eventually go for a CNM but that's years down the road. I have also always wanted to go to Austria and see the Von Trapp family home and where The Sound of Music was filmed, and Ireland-I don't know why. Maybe Mindy and I will go together someday.

JD's Address

So I gave some people Jd's address in boot camp, but one of the Unit numbers was wrong, so here's the entire address correctly:

AB Jose Diaz de Lope-Diaz

326 TRS-Flt 215 A8 PSC3

1320 Truemper St Unit 941015

Lackland,Tx 78236-5570

He would love to hear from anyone or everyone, so if you get the chance, write to him

Teresa

Teresa's Dream Vacation

Anywhere new. I think if I could pick I would love to go to Africa, Egypt probably. But if I could go anywhere I would. Im pretty excited to go to Idaho in 2010 cause Ive never been there and to Utah cause now I have a husband who will go adventuring with me. :) I do prefer warm weather though, so anywhere warm would be best I guess.

Jeny' Dream Vacation

I would love to go to Tahiti someday. I wan't to stay in one of these little houses. They have a glass floor (not the entire thing, but just a part) that you can look down and watch the fish swimming by, and you can just go snorkelling anytime right off the porch. I love warm, sandy, non-Matt-bed places and I love snorkelling! Isn't it beautiful!

Heidi's Dream Vacation

My biggest dream vacation is New Zealand, too, but Willow was the movie that first got me interested in it. Lord of the Rings just made me ache for it more. I did a report for social studies on New Zealand and learned that the sheep outnumber the people 3 to 1. That's a lot of sheep! Plus the accents are cool. I knew a Maori girl at BYU who never had to wear maternity clothes because she honestly never showed and she said they don't even really sell maternity clothes there. Not fair. She had a C-section on a Tuesday and was in church the following Sunday doing ring around the rosies with the nursery. She was amazing.

I would also love to go on safari again. That was just incredible. We were close enough to the lions to touch them, but hardly dared to even breathe. Hippos are pretty funny and very noisy, too. The Disney Cruise of course was awesome, and Jason and I plan to do that one again for sure. I guess I like expensive vacations!!

Mindy's Dream Vacation...

I've always wanted to visit New Zealand. I don't know why, really, it just seems like a beautiful place. The Lord of the Rings movies made me want to go there even more. I'd also love to tour Europe, Ireland, Hawaii. I hope we can travel some day.

In Memory Of...

Kylee will kill me for putting this picture up but it is the only one I had. This was my dog Charlie. She was adopted by my family shortly before Christmas. I am not usually a fan of small dogs, I think they are loud and obnoxious. However, this cute little dog was so sweet. She would just come and sit next to you and she NEVER barked. Poor little Charlie fell into the swimming pool Monday night. I was going to steal her from my family when we had a home where pets were aloud. Unfortunately, when she was let out to take a potty break Monday night it was too dark, and she couldn't see where she was going. Becca found her and I really am devastated. I loved this little dog.

Question of the Week...

Where would you most like to vacation, and why?

Just a little P.S. to everyone. I am so glad that this blog has worked out. I think we are all a little close though it may be through cyberspace, we all get to be more a part of one another's lives. Thank you to all that contribute. Congratulations on 400 posts!

Change of Plans....

So after many a post we have discovered that summer of 2010 would be better for all. So lets plan it. I have decided that Tere and I are the most organized. No offense to any of you since as Lori stated in a previous comment you are all very sensitive. So get over it. Tere and I are going to plan it. Ok Tere?? Ok. Summer of 2010. Plan on it!

Proposal...

I am going to make a proposal, and I know it is out there but I have to try. Jeny, you are volunteering your house for this just so you know. 2010 Christmas at Jeny's? That is almost 2 years away so there is time to save and make arrangements? We might even be able to do it at mom's if they are ok with that and it might be easier for everyone. I don't know. Anyway, what do you think? There are a lot of my family members I haven't met. I also know that mom would love this more than we can all imagine....

Happy Birthday

Happy 32nd Birthday Keith! We hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Holly's Catch Up....

My favorite food is, has been, and will always be chocolate. I can't get enough. It's so good! Real food, though, I would have to say the chicken Bryan at Carrabas or the filet mignon at Tepanyaki. I will eat almost anything! I don't like anything that comes out of the ocean, and I don't ever want to eat tripe or anything like that. Gross.
The first thing I remember really wanting to be when I grew up (besides a mom--I always assumed that I would be a wife and mother) was an astronomer. I used to keep a star journal and everything. Then I found out that it requires a doctorate to get into the field, and that it is mostly math, so I quickly gave that up. I, like Heidi, wanted to play professional baseball for a short period of time. Then in high school I realized that my true love was medicine. I wanted to be an OB. Then when I learned Spanish I realized that I could be in the medical field and not have to have a job where I would have to worry too much about being sued or that I would have to re-certify for every two years. My current occupation is by far my favorite. I love making dinner for my family and cleaning up and stuff. I'm 31 years old and I still feel like I'm playing house!

We Didn't Take Any Pictures!!?!!

We had a super fun night last night and of course we have no pictures to prove it, but we do have one word - FARKLE! Nickell, Aaron, Kade, Holly, Shannon, Leah and my family had our version of Chinese new year, with lots of Chinese food that real Chinese people would probably never eat, leftover birthday cake and Farkle, a game played with dice. Mark was the big winner of the night with his amazing dice luck, and Nickell was a close second because Mark left early. Thanks for coming over you all! I had a great time!

Jeny Wanted to Be...

I always wanted to be an office manager at Telcom Marketing so I could beg my family to post more things on their blogs for me to look at while I'm at work so I don't go insane! Whoops, too late.
Really I don't remember what I wanted to be specifically, I just wanted to be everything. Now I do know what I want to be when I grow up, though. I want to be a nerve specialist so I can poke needles into peoples nerves and make them move. That is so cool! But most of all I love being mom. Like Mindy, I think that's what I wanted most of all. But I have to say, although Mindy's kids are super, mine are the best!

Heidi Wanted to Be...

There were oh, so many things I wanted to be when I grew up! Holly, Matt and I were going to be real Ghostbusters. The three of us together were actually quite the entrepreneurs! We came up with all sorts of money making businesses, and I think the lemonade stands at garage sales were the only things that ever brought in money. Even then we had to fork out our profits to mom to pay for the ingredients to make the lemonade and the cups. I enjoyed winning as many coloring contests as I could to earn some money, but never did aspire to be an artist. I wanted to be an astronaut. I also wanted to be a concert pianist. There was even a time I wanted to be the first female major league baseball player. Then I realized I would actually have to be able to play for that to happen, so I moved on to Broadway star. My dream was to play the part of Grizabella in Cats. Sadly, because that show is no longer running, that dream can never be realized. Maybe some other musical?? As a teenager, my big ambition was to be a voice in a Disney animated film. I would still absolutely love to do that, but realize that it isn't a very likely possibility. I don't think being a mom was ever something I considered. Not something I remember dreaming about, anyway. But you get what you get and you don't throw a fit and now that I'm here I might as well enjoy the journey!

Teresa Wanted to Be...

Okay this is fun! I always like looking back and seeing how things changed as far as my goals.

The earliest carrer I can remember wanting is an artist- I thought I was a fabulous painter. (This is fourth grade) Soon I realized I was not good at anything but cartoony stuff. But not really good like cartoon shows, more like one picture comics. So that ended.

Soon after that (while mom was in nursing school) I became quite fascinated with surgery. I decided that brain surgery was the way to go. Thats all I wanted to be for like 3 years. Then I realized there is a great deal of patience and precision needed or people die. Knowing I lacked in both those areas, I decided that was a bad idea.

Anesthesiology was the goal briefly in middle school when I started taking Chemistry, but that was very briefly.

The longest lasting goal was Linguistics. I wanted to be an Intel Linguist for the Air Force for probably 5 or 6 years. I was good with language and I loved the Air Force- win/win

I don't think I ever wanted to be married or have kids. I enjoy having kids and being married now, but I still don't like staying at home all day. Crazy how it changes!

Nickell Wanted to Be....

Mine changed a lot too but only between a few things. I would eventually like to be educated in all of these areas, for now I am just working on the one. And this is what they were...

Photographer. (Currently going to school now to make it "official" I guess.)

Interior Designer. (I've thought about applying to FIDM again, I don't think I will do that just because it requires so much attention and I'd rather pay attention to my kids. I'll probably just take classes where I'm going to school. At least I can say that I got into FIDM though!)

Cosmotologist. (With this one I wanted to cut hair. I pretend to know what I'm doing if it is more than a trim. Someday I want to go to hair school just so I have the skill, not necessarily to work in a salon, but just have the ability to not need to take my kids to the salon! But I want to be good at it, not just ok.)

There was also a time that I just wanted to be an artist. Painting, drawing, whatever... My mom and dad told me I'd be a struggling artist my whole life. Code for: you're not good enough to do that. So I dropped that dream and now it is just a hobby.

Mindy Wanted to Be.....

I think my career choice changed weekly as with most kids. But one thing that never changed was my desire to be what I am, a mom. As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a mom. And now that I am, I love it. I have the best kids, and I'm blessed to stay home with them for now. I love it!

Question of the Week

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Mindy's Favorite Food

My birthday dinner was either Yakitori or steak when I was young. I still love both. Actually, I'm with everyone else, I just like food. A lot. I love Nickell's chicken and pasta with asparagus and red pepper, which is kind of funny, because I didn't think I liked asparagus until I had that. Yum. I love baby back ribs, tortilla soup, chicken salad in a pita pocket. There's a pomegranate salad that I recently discovered from my sister in law Shalee. It's fabulous! I'll put it on the recipe site. I'll put a couple more on there too that have been a hit with my whole family. I've been trying to introduce more grains in our diet because we don't get enough. These both use barley. Lentils are really big around here, so I've been learning how to use them too. There's even a big lentil festival in the fall. We missed it this year. Shucks! Weird people.

J.D. Leaves...

Here are some pictures of this past Sunday night. I had J.D. and his girlfriend, Aimee, and Nico over for dinner for J.D.'s last night before leaving for basic training. We had seared scallops with lemon sauce (one of my experiments that Aimee had really liked before), a Basmati and wild rice combo with toasted pine nuts, and sliced cucumbers in sour cream/dill sauce (one of J.D.'s favorites). For dessert I made homemade chocolate pudding which is also one of J.D.'s favorites. Please keep him in your prayers. He's going through a tough experience at this very moment and for the next 8 weeks. I'm sure going to miss him!!

Here are some late pictures of Christmas morning at the Lori Diaz home!

Nickell's Favorite Food...

This is incredibly hard for me to narrow down. I love food. Most food even. I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving dinner, it's just all the good stuff. It's even better if the turkey is fried.. I love also roast with chile sauce, so delicious. I'm a meat and potatoes girl. However, my choice for my birthday is always Red Lobster so long as we can afford it.... Crab, shrimp, even the cheesy rolls. Weird though, I don't like Lobster...

Fried zucchini I love. I prefer veggies over fruit, though I do love fruit as well. I've found that in all the different cultures (ex: Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc...) I can find something that I will love.

I love appetizers, the snacky stuff.

I love pastas, especially when the pasta has some kind of seafood in it.... I'm hungry too and I don't know what to make for dinner.

Jeny's Favorite Food....

When I was a kid, I didn't like much, but I did like zucchini (and I liked tormenting Lori and Kristi with it) and spaghetti. I'm sure there are other things I liked, but I'm too old to remember what they were.

Now I love Red Lobster's Salmon and Crab dinner, and everything at La Casita, and everything that I don't have to make myself. I think we answered this question partly awhile ago, because I remember saying that I love when Amy cooks for me, and I love David's breakfast omlet and I'm now a huge fan of Trish's stuffed chicken and Amy's African chicken in the family recipe book. I'm sure as I cook more and try other recipes in this book I will have other new fabulous favorites.

Teresa's Favorite Meal...

When I was little, I couldn't wait to go to Spain with my dad because they have the best cereal there. My favorite meal was breakfast as long as I had this cereal around- Chocapic. (My dad still brings me boxes every time he goes) If I didn't have that, I guess Pizza from Little Ceasers and Crazy Bread. Yum!

Now my favorite food is chicken. I really like chicken. The best ways though are Jack Daniels grille at TGI Fridays and the Cajun Chicken at Dixie Cafe. With potatoes and yeast rolls to top it off, I could probably eat these everyday!

Heidi's Favorite Meal...

I think my favorite meal as a child was either Hamburger Helper or skillet wieners. Maybe both. Now I love anything Italian. Pasta, pasta pasta!! I love my mostachiolli recipe, my chicken almond pasta, tetrazzini, tortellini, and Jason makes great parmesan chicken. With everyone dieting right now for the new year, Nickell, this was kind of a mean question! Now I'm super hungry.

Amy's Favorite Meal...

My favorite meal to eat as a child was Sicilian meatloaf, potato casserole, and cheese beans. That was always my birthday dinner because I loved anything with cheese. Not much has changed these days (I still LOVE cheese) except that my tastes are a little more refined. Now my favorite meal is... hmmm, let's see...food. I love to eat! And it shows. It depends on the day and what I'm in the mood for but there is so much good food out there and so little time. The hardest thing is that the things I really love are all fresh, and with the commissary it's not hard to do. What will I do if I ever have to use food storage?? We rarely eat from a can. Maybe it's time to start.

Happy Birthday

Holly this is the only picture I have of Matt and it is tiny so if you could email me another that would be great! Beside that, Happy Birthday Matt! Matt is turning 29 today. We hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Scentsy

Because I don't have enough on my plate..... I decided to start another "self -employment" adventure! For anyone who has ever been to my home you know how obsessed I am with smells. I ALWAYS have some kind of scent plugged in, burning or turned on. A few months ago I was at a friends house for a "party" and fell in love with my latest find. I loved it so much I bought one for the office and started buying them for my Real Estate Clients. One of the things I always tell a client who is trying to sell their house is to burn a candle that smells like something is cooking. It just makes the home seem that much more inviting. Their are worries with this especially if you have several showings in one day and are going to be gone for a longer period of time. What if you start a fire? With Scentsy that is no longer a issue. Scentsy comes in a warmer and is worked by using a light bulb. it's like leaving a light in your house when you leave. No more black marks from where the flame burned, no more worries about leaving the candle lit, no more fights from the kids about who got to light it last. It's a simple flip of the switch, that's all.

In addition to all that I found that it was even affordable! After the initial purchase of a warmer ( 30.00 you only need one) all you have to buy is the smell you want. You can get an entire brick for 5.00! I love it when I find something I love that is even going to help me save money! My regular 20oz candles were around 20.00 each!

Of course there are other fun things to purchase such as plug in's and car freshners... I love it all. I got so addicted I decided I might as well sell it so here I am. Next time you want to get a candle try Scentsy first, I'm pretty sure you are going to love it as much as I do!

You can check out the products offered at my website. http://www.scentsy.com/tricial if you feel so inclined you can even place an order from there.

Tricia

Question of the week!

Time for another question: What was your favorite meal as a child and what is your favorite now.

(Mindy actually sent me another question of the week too, but we will post that maybe mid to end of this week so that we just have more to post!)

Mom's Many Answers

We did have a honeymoon. We had a volkswagen bug and packed it with camping gear then drove to Lake Louise in Canada. Camping is not something I would recommend on a honeymoon. Especially if it is new for one of you. I hadn't ever been camping. It sounded romantic but camping in June in Canada is not very wise. We even carried a guitar in the car so we could go canoeing and sing romantic songs. I will say we created lots of memories. The snow was deep, it was cold, cold cold, and Lake Louise was frozen over. It's a beautiful area. One night we stayed with a sister Dad knew from his mission, on a very squeaky bed. I didn't dare move a muscle.

My favorite Christmas movie, Now that is a hard one. I like anything Christmas. I love the old movies: The Bishop's Wife, Miracle on 34th street, The old Christmas Carol and Christmas in Conneticut, and It Happened One night. And some of the new ones: The Santa Claus, Home Alone (despite the language at the first), Borrowed Hearts, Prancer. etc. I can't think of a favorite line.

Whoops...

Ok, so I have been sick and last night I was super tired. I was reading comments, and Tere asked about how old Austin is. He's 9 not 5. I don't know why I put 5. Sorry Austin. Happy 9th birthday!

A New Year for the Lauritzens

A New Year for the Jensens

To see more pictures from our New Year's celebration click HERE.

Happy Birthday Austin

Today is Austin's 5th birthday! Happy Birthday Austin, we hope it was a great one! We love you!

Grandpa Plays the Wii...

Dayna's Birthday