The Newest Jensen will be.

Zoey is getting a little.......

We already have a name that we have had since we found out we were pregnant with Zoey.  We are pretty sure his name will be Jet/Jett.  If you would like to debate how his name should be spelled please feel free to comment below or on Facebook/instagram.  I would love to hear your input.  I go back and forth on the spelling and then I laugh because it's just one letter, but it will be most likely become his legal and permanent name. I just don't what to look back and wonder if two "t" were too much or if we shouldn't name him exactly after an air craft.  It's quite a problem in my head.  Justin likes Jet most of the time and I like Jett  most of the time. ... good thing I have 4 more months to really think about this.

Any who, besides our name problem we are very excited for a BOY! Jet/Jett already has a great spot in our hearts and I can't wait to see Zoey be so soft/soft-ish with her brother like she is with all babies.  Don't rain on my parade people, please.  For now I am hopeful that she will be the best big sister ever and I will deal with the problems as they arise. hehehe (sorry for the forcefulness of my tone) I just can't psych myself out more then I need to at this moment.

January can't come fast enough and for our family that reads this, Christmas time travels may very well be out of the question with having less then 4 weeks until I'm due.  Just a FYI! We still love you and will wish you a Merry Christmas.  You are always welcome to come to Southern Utah if you'd like :)

And again, back to the name problem... I just set up a poll.  If you'd like to vote for JET or JETT please feel free.  And if you'd like to give a reason why, it would also be fun to see you side of the dilemma.

Thanks for reading everyone!!

-Lindsey

Title::

I sometimes wonder if the friends and family that stop by to read my blog think the title is cheesy or to clique. If you do, I am sorry. Let me explain why it completely describes our life and that is why I named our family blog what I did. :)

Crazy- because well, life is crazy.  A family of three, soon to be four, still living the college family life.  Working and going to school full time while having family.  It's crazy!  "Then why didn't you wait to start having kids," you may ask.  I thought about that while I was pregnant at times with Zoey (never as a regret but more like a how would my life be different), but now my daughter is and will always be the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I became a mother and that is the best "career" I could ever want and have always wanted.  It is hard at times like many other mothers will attest to, but when I look at my daughter, she was more then a little person who made me a mom.  She is a blessing to my life, an answer to all my prayers and she is the one of two souls (for now) who loves me unconditionally right back.  She is my best friend and my sissy.
But lets go back to the notion that Justin and I decided to wait to have kids.  Our lives would still be just as crazy with school and work and anything else we decided to do to fill our time with.  But what always confirms that we made the right choice for us is that our life wouldn't be nearly as fun without our little Zo-bear.

Beautiful- Well I will just start saying by how much of a hottie my hubby is but I don't want this post to get all cheesy and mushy on you readers. ;)
Honestly my life is beautiful because of what we have.  We truly work everything we have each day. I know that with my family I have everything and it is always a BEAUTIFUL sight and gift that Heavenly Father has blessed our family with.
Hard times and struggles pop in and out of our life.  We go through so many phases and pauses and setbacks at times.  What I am always reminded of is that these experiences aren't set backs at all.  It's growth.  So I am moving forward, it's just unclear at the time. These are beautiful because they are always ended with great amounts of humility, peace, gratitude and love that God has stretched out to us.  I just see all of that as beautiful.

Mess-  This one should make sense to everyone.  Messy, messy, messy life is.  My house is always a mess. The rooms in our house just seem to trade off each week.  Luckily it is more commonly the rooms that aren't as noticeable when company will pop by but a MESS this house still is.  I'm still trying to learn to not stress to much over it and find a balance between keeping a clean house so I can function and remembering that happy kids are better then clean dishes.  It's a work in progress.-- why do you think I cut my hair so short after I had Zo.  My life was flipped upside down!
Besides the physical mess, life it's self is a mess.  We don't know fully understand our journey here on earth. However, as our family strives to continue through, we are able to look back and make sense of what we just went through and why. I guess I shouldn't make it look that simple because sometimes these answers come quick, but sometimes they have taken years for us to figure out.  It's a constant guessing game with our life, but our solid foundation is God and Jesus Christ themselves.  The LDS church brings so much strength, joy and love along with the solid foundation built on Christ and thats how we can somewhat sort through this messy life. They, Heavenly Father and Jesus, give us the light and knowledge we need to get through it.
One thing I have loved about this gospel that I don't think is talked about a lot is that because life is so unpredictable at times, Justin and I find our selves laughing all the time.  We wonder why this happened or how in the world are we could to get out of this and after turning to God and placing faith in him and putting in our own effort, we get our answer and we can laugh about how stressed we were or how we thought we wouldn't make it through. (I am hoping I'm painting a picture of "Joy" happiness and not so much "brushing it off" laughter.)

With all this being said, I know everyone choses the life they want to live and your life might be very similar to ours, or very different.  I will be a 23 year old mother of 2 and Justin will be a full time student and employee at the age of 24 with a family of 4.
With so many choices to pick from that this messy life has to offer all of us, lets all remember that it is those choses that make us different. Not better or worse, right or wrong. Just different from each other.  We each have own life to sort through with Heavenly Father.  With great love, support and respect I give to everyone who choses a life for themselves.  We learn our "own" things in our own time.  That is what truly makes this a crazy, beautiful, mess of a life.

Love you all!

Love,
The Jensen's XOXO

p.s. The babies gender will be announced soon! (Hopefully by the end of this week!) STAY TUNED!!

My mom's hand on Zo's head trying to fix her hair in the picture... she never smiles for pics.
Happy 19th Birthday to my always little sister and my soon to be sister Sister missionary :) So proud of you Bamber!

Oh me oh My family!

Yeah I'm back on the blog today!!

We have been having lots of fun recently!

As most of you know we moved a couple months ago into our new home and it is WONDERFUL!  Just last week I got rid of all the boxes and we are officially here to stay until Cedar is no longer where we need to be.  We honestly love it here.  We miss being able to be around our family more and go to our friends weddings and parties and such but we have done so much GROWING here in Cedar in so many ways.

Justin and I have loved living away from our hometown because it has taught us to really rely on each other.  We were best friends before we got married and this friend and I are in it for the long haul.  Our time here has been so good to us.  We will be sad to leave one day.

[speaking of leaving, our dearest friends Jared and Dani just left to medical school in Washington and we love and miss them all the time. Here are some goodbye pictures we took of them with Zoey.  She is their first adopted child and now they get to have one of their own!! Just before them (not pictured) we had to say goodbye to Weston and Vanessa Smith! Love all 4 of you guys!]

"i love you"'s to Dani

3 awesome people! Yes, very much!

Thanks Dani, for our new favorite trick! "Can I see your teeth?"

Zoey obviously was born here in Cedar and it has been such a fun place to raise our little girl.  It's small and simple and with everything in close proximity we get out and are apart of a lot of the little festivities that Cedar is know for.  As well as our great friends always live so close so play dates are a breeze!

she loves the State Farm bear just up our stairs

These are a few pictures just recently taken over the past couple of months. This lady gets more adventurous and our days become more eventful the older she gets.  She loves picking out colors and she like to organize boxes at the stores.  She can say pretty much any word you thrown at her, has a couple of phrases down and loves singing her ABC's and spelling her name. Her favorite thing to play with now is babies, dolls and stuffed animals.  Anything that will fit into her stroller really.  She loves loves babies though! Last time we were up north in American Fork, Zoey and I got to watch her cousin Luke and it was so funny to see them interact and how much Zoey just wanted to lay be him, play with him and do what he did.

we love baby lucas XOXO

Seeing Zoey interact with other kids and how well she does with younger kids and babies makes me very hopeful for the future journey we are about to come upon in January! I'm currently 17 weeks and a couple days.  For those of you that don't care for the numbers, (lol) I'm pretty much halfway!

this is a very real ultrasound people!

So as you can see, we really have loved everything about Cedar and can't wait to see what else this chapter in our life here will bring us until we leave the first place we called home. We love all of our wonderful friends that we have met and it's been so hard to say goodbye to so many of them also. We love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Linds

Happy 24th of July aka Pioneer Day!

First off just wanted to say that I love Pioneer day.  I also just wanted to mention that even though the 4th and 24th are obviously celebrated in the same month, they are for very different holidays.  I just thought it was very interesting seeing a lot of people USA shirts on the 24th.  I'm sure you can guess where this little, quirky rant is going so I'll just stop there.

Our day was our ward breakfast and then the parade before our dad had to go to work for the day.

We told her not to sit there because it was someone else's blanket saving spots for family. Whatever mom!

Two favorite people! The parade was actually just as fun as their faces are making it out to be :( lame

She was dancing to some music

I guess she decided that she liked the other end of the sucker better

Well, besides my weird confusion with everyone wearing USA shirts on the 24th, our day was fun! Zoey got to experience one of her first parades and if it was a little more exciting, I think she would have liked it a little bit more. Breakfast was good with our ward and the rest of the day we were all so tired that when Justin went to work, Zoey and I took a very long nap.  Mom was very grateful of course.

"I Choose You"

"Let the bough break, let it come down crashing
Let the sun fade out to a dark sky
I can't say I'd even notice it was absent
Cause I could live by the light in your eyes

I'll unfold before you
What I've strung together
The very first words
Of a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

There was a time when I would have believed them
If they told me you could not come true
Just love's illusion
But then you found me and everything changed
And I believe in something again

My whole heart
Will be yours forever
This is a beautiful start
To a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you

We are not perfect
We'll learn from our mistakes
And as long as it takes
I will prove my love to you

I am not scared of the elements
I am under-prepared, but I am willing
And even better
I get to be the other half of you

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you"
             -Sara Bareilles

I know it's lame to post words to songs but I just fell in love with this song.  There are so many parts of this song that speak to my heart and in a corny way, I felt the love of God through this song by everything this song has reminded me of.

It's frustrating, yet amazing how our life makes sense looking back and that through our loving Heavenly Father we can in trust him our future.  I feel as though I am at a lot of cross roads in my life right now with choices to make and things that need to be done.  I told Justin today that I would switch for another weakness... but then thought maybe not.  I am who I am and as frustrating as it is to want know everything all the time, I love looking back in my life and seeing when God turned me into the right direction. The biggest one in particular is what led me right here and now.  Because of this, I am a wife to a wonderful husband and I am a mother to a beautiful little girl and I can honestly say that even though I would have liked knowing that I was going to end up here, it's God's love that keeps me out with my best interest at heart.

Zoey's 1st Birthday and Extra

Zoey's birthday was so stink in fun and she is my favorite little buddy I could ever ask for! I am so grateful for her little spunky, sassy pants personality for blessing my life.

We didn't get to do a big family party like I had originally planned (we kept getting weird buggies at our house), but with our loving friends we had a great time doing something small at home.

Presents, cake and ice cream she loved it! She ate all of her frosting first, and kind of didn't know what to do while being in the spot light.  She loved her one candle and really wanted to touch it.

her absolute favorite part

On down side was the because her dad got home from work at 9 she was so so stinking tired that once she was done eating her cake, there was no hope to do anything else... she was done for the night.

nomnom- like she knew what she was doing

even though she was shy at first

Since then our lives have been turned upside down.  Aside from school almost being out (1 week left YEAH!!!)  for Justin, me starting up school again and Zoey constantly changing over night we are just busy and loving it.

Justin started a new job recently at Western Quality Foods.  It has been a hard change but also one full of blessings so I can't and won't complain.  He loves it and it's a step up for us. 

I starting an online program to finish up my bachelors.  Luckily, I was able to have all but a few credits transfer so things are getting brighter for me and education.

Zoey is almost to a full run now, she is super great with her balance now which means bruised knees and she cut her 4 top teeth all at the same time. Teeth are a serious love hate.  But I'm glad she broke them because she is full of laughs and giggles and hugs.  Her favorite thing in the WORLD is all ANIMALS! Justin thinks one day we are going to HAVE to get a dog because of her. Anything type of animal makes a "woof woof" sound though.  We are working on birds and fishy mouth.

It's very hard and rewarding to watch her grow up so fast.  I love her to death and Justin and I are sure in for a ride with this little girl. I'm excited to see where she will take us.

Thanks for reading

Love us.

Almost a 1yr old.

I am so excited for my little one's 1st birthday-- I am so excited to throw her a party with lots of our favorite people and people that are important to Zoey.

Thats the thing about my baby-- she truly has the biggest heart.  She loves people.  She is sad, when they are sad, and happy when they are.  She is my favorite little human.

As of right now, my two big ideas for her party would be either a book party, or a themed party around her favorite book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  She loves loves loves that book.  If she is ever upset or sad she finds her book and will flip the pages over and over. I want to have a good time and keep it simple, but also something that when she looks back at the pictures when she is older, she will appreciate it. Either way I am so very excited, and I can't believe I will be the mom of a 1 year old.

As of now Zoey can drink out of anything by herself, read books, play, go to sleep, and crawl, sign more, bye and all done all by herself.

She has taken her first steps and is slowly gaining more strength in her legs to stabilize herself when she gets a little wobbly. She has started to feed herself with a spoon as well and that has been fun to watch her learn to do that.

Future things:  She is still learning more signs and signing was so nice to teach her so that we can understand what she wants. We will be buying a little toilet to set in the bathroom floor to get her used to seeing one and to see if it sparks any interest.  I'm not super pushy about things, but I feel that by introducing it earlier it may help spike interest about it sooner.  And, of course I imagine her fully walking at least by 14 months.  If not, then it's okay but I think with all the warm weather it will get us outside and walking more to get those muscles in her cute tiny but chubby legs moving.

She is truly heaven set and has already blessed more peoples lives then I think she knows. She is so special- and she calls me mama.

Have a great day everyone!

P.S.-- if any of you parents or soon to be parents have other tricks and things you did to help with potty training, walking let me know.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Well Hello our Friends

I was having such a good streak! Well, I'll just continue where I left off-

First- I didn't eat sugar for almost 2 weeks and I went to crazy town and back.  I decided I needed a new strategy, filled with less crazies.  I can't really say it's a set out and planned through plan, but it is working.

Justin now is in his (hopefully) last spring semester at SUU and he is so close to being done.  He works so hard and I truly feel like a lucky girl. He is taking all of his upper division classes and things may not turn out exactly how he and we had planned when we first were married back in 2011, but he is rocking' it and it is all working out just fine :)

I starting working again.  In December I got a job working for the Iron County extension of Utah State University. (The title may make it sound like I am a high roller now, but don't be fooled ;)) I work at a program funded by USU in Logan call 4H.  It is an after school program where kids come for 2 hours after school to do homework and we teach them life/social skills.  It's really fun and I love working with  my 7th and 8th graders.  They are slowly starting to see me and FUN and not just their academic counselor that tells them to do this assignment go talk to that teacher.  I truly have been blessed to find this loving gift of teaching.
Speaking of teaching-- I actually now know what I want to graduate in!! HHHHHAAAAAA! (angels are singing- we all almost lost hope.)  I found a wonderful online program and I am getting my teaching degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in math.  Yes you read right, MATH. I start so soon and I am counting down the days.

Zoey- my little baby isn't such a baby now.  I feel bad calling her that sometimes because she is so tall for her age that she looks almost like she would be a toddler. Plus- she's almost there.  She has mastered crawling and is very good at it and now all she wants to do is slid around everything and would love if anyone would hold her hands to let her walk around places.  She is so cute but boy is she a TIGGER. Bouncy, trouncy, pounce, fun fun fun fun FUN! She is a ball of energy.  So far I am not too exhausted by it but I'm also not looking to jinks myself at the same time.  WE LOVE HER.

We love our life and where we are at. We truly feel blessed each and everyday and cliche as it sounds but I only say it because it rings so much TRUTH!!! This family is forever.

-love the Jensen's XOXO