Casey and Jeff...and Breanne and Sophie and Maya

some medellín

2012-01-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

the land of juan valdez, shakira, juanes, the farc, pablo escobar, eric jensen...

...colombia!

jeff's brother has been here for 4 years, so it was about time some family pay him a visit. jeff's parents came down for a couple days, and jeff and i left the 3 little girls at my parents' house to come down as well. jeff came once before when i was pregnant with the twins.

cable cars are connected with the metro as part of the public transportation. very cool:

it goes kind of high:

at the very top is an eco park, and some stands with the usual homemade food and trinkets:

jeff's stomach can handle it, so he digs in:

we waited for an english speaking guide, but the guide was out for a long lunch, so we ventured off on our own. we ended up hiking for a while, not knowing exactly where we were. luckily, we came across jonathan's house instead of the farc in the trees, and he walked with us back to where we started:

half way down the hill, during a stop to change cable cars:

back down in the centro is a spot with botero's sculptures:

of course, this made me think about 3 little girls back home. this is his rendition of "my little pony:"

last time we came to visit eric in south america, he lived in brazil, and portuguese speakers called him ericky. in colombia, it's erí.

more botero:

how i escaped colombia without buying a colombian sombrero, i don't know:

cute old guy with his stand:

chicharrónes and blood sausage. my favorites!

driving to guatapé /el peñol:

what's that off in the distance?

la piedra del peñol! whoever built those stairs on it is crazy:

we got side tracked walking from the car to the stairs, and ended up eating in a restaurant. jeff found a great urinal in the main dining area, separated only by these little saloon-like doors. i need to remember to keep my mouth shut instead of jokingly daring him to do something:

eggs and an arepa (bland tortilla-like thing) with cheese:

buen provecho!

it's good to know that the reflective strip on my jacket works. now that our stomachs are totally full, let's climb 649 stairs!

half way break:

at the very top:

erí comes here to meditate 5 times a day:

jeff, i know my spanish isn't as good as yours, but i know that the sign two feet away from you said "for your safety, do not lean against the sides:"

coming down:

adiós, piedra del peñol:

empanadas stop:

interesting frutas at the supermarket:

the security guards busted me for taking this photo. there are enough armed police, guards, security people, etc around here that the fruit section of a tiny corner supermarket has 2 guards watching over it. it's good to know these pitaya fruits are safe:

horse show with 18 billion juan valdezes in attendance:

church- always one of the best parts of traveling:

nubia and oswal invited us over for family night:

jeff and erí surveying their land:

gracias a erí por vivir en un lugar tan interesante!

hasta la próxima, medellín!

scenes from christmas 2011

2012-01-07T23:11:00.003-07:00

we had church at 8:30, and came home to a surprise. after naps, we went over to my parents' for dinner.

maya and her cupcakes:

sharing with her dada:

sophie:

maya and her "how i's:"

breanne:

after watching the rudolph cartoon, and going on the matterhorn at disneyland, "snow monster" became a part of our daily lives. snow monster eats our toys when we fight over them. he also shows up in sophie's dreams. when the twins pretend something is chasing them, it's usually pirates, ghosts, or snow monster.

a cardboard house to color:

babies from france:

intense present opening:

lastly, one of my favorite things about this time of the year- snail chocolates from france. they didn't last long.

a little winter

2012-01-07T23:11:00.002-07:00

it's been a very mild winter so far, so when we finally got an inch of snow, we spent the half hour that it takes to dress everyone to go play outside, and took photos. i believe this was maya's first time to don a snow suit and run free in the snow.

sophie, breanne, and maya's new year party

2012-01-07T23:11:00.001-07:00

balloons, streamers, junk food, drinking, screaming, running around with out a lot of clothes on....

even at their young ages, they know how to celebrate appropriately.

we had so much fun that the girls went to bed at 9, and i fell asleep at 11.

maya at 18 months

2011-12-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

maya at 18 months...

loves stars. she calls them "how i," from the song "twinkle twinkle little star."

loves ah-planes. hopefully it is just a one year old phase and won't turn into a need to fly like her dada.

-loves cuh-cakes

-is still slapping people in the face. now she seems to think that as long as she strokes your face nicely afterward, that it makes up for it, so it's okay to do it.

-plays along with her big sisters, and probably thinks she is one of them. she calls them the wrong names, so doesn't seem to be able to tell them apart yet. she is pretty fast, and tries to keep up with them when they all inevitably start running laps before bedtime, but sometimes gets lapped. she also face-plants a lot while trying to keep up.

-most of the time is sweet and happy, but has fierce tantrums that last a long time over small things.

-is usually the first one to go to bed and the last one up in the morning. she takes naps really easily. 95% of the time i put her down with some milk, and she is out before i go back in to take the milk away.

we love her so much. maya wearing her "how i pj's:"

mid december...back home in utah

2011-12-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

we came back to utah for my grandpa's annual christmas party chaos...

...complete with giant chocolate santas to be eaten in the room with beautiful light colored couches and carpets:

here is little maya. i don't know if it is because of the holiday season or what, but several people have said she looks like cindy lou who:

Coming back home is always nice, but during the winter it means being inside most of the day. That means little girls fighting. Maya is starting to be into some of the same toys as the twins, so it's getting a little crazy. I'm guessing on average, 8 times a day someone is running laps as fast as they can while holding a toy. Behind her is one of her sisters screaming and chasing her for that toy. Never mind that there are literally billions of other toys in the house, and that often there's an identical toy because we got two so that the twins wouldn't fight...

The device that I'm typing this on automatically capitalizes the start of sentences. I don't like it.

I heard this yesterday, which seems to be a scenario that plays out frequently:
Sophie, from one room in the house: "um, daddy? i think I need pinkie pie." (Pinkie pie is a pony toy)
Breanne, frantically scrambling off the toilet, and running out of the bathroom, yells with great urgency: "um daddy? I think I need pinkie pie!"

One morning when opening their bedroom door,
Sophie: "um mom, we were fighting."
Me: "why were you fighting?"
Sophie: "because the sun is up."
Breanne: "we are fighting because we are sisters!"

Any tips on helping kids not fight?

start of december

2011-12-26T15:14:00.001-07:00

after thanksgiving, jeff, the twins and i drove down to california. maya flew down because she is diamond elite, so we met up with her there. we got in a lot of disneyland time. we went with my brother nick's family while they were down there for a week. my dad joined in one day while he was doing some work down there. the next week we went with jeff's parents, eric, brittney, and cousin max. we are always down for disneyland.

party on the teacups with cousins maddie and isaac. jeff always seems to have the most fun:

max came from manhattan to see cousins and go to disneyland for the first time. that was quite the week with just about everyone in the house getting a stomach flu, and some getting an awful cold. it was a christmas mickey mouse miracle that we could go together to disneyland without anyone throwing up!

holding hands with little cousin while waiting for a ride:

sophie and max:

uncle eric was scared on the jungle cruise:

maya's first submarine ride:

here's our family christmas photo for 2011. out of all of the photos of us together this year, this was the best one:

max and maya very serious while waiting to ride a spinning ladybug:

donald duck made a rare appearance. sophie and breanne have attempted imitating donald's voice for quite some time now, but unfortunately, they just sound like monsters. they crack themselves up every time though.

back at nonna and papa's house, the girls spent time with max. i love that sophie and breanne still fit into these swings together, and have fun at it. max and maya weren't so sure:

max and maya on a teeter totter...looks pretty intense:

everyone put on their sunday best for the special event of feeding the ducks:

the morning that max flew home, we had mickey mouse pancakes. breanne was good at helping make them:

maya and max were good at eating them:

and sophie, as she often is, was intensely and furiously coloring. she sometimes has slivers of crayon fly up and stick on her sweaty face. lately i hear her complaining that her arm hurts, but she continues to color through the pain:

maya at sunset

2011-11-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

we've had beautiful sunsets during the past week. maya has especially enjoyed them:

nacho jensen

2011-11-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

sophie: "hey mom, it's dada playing soccer!"

poconos

2011-11-02T16:11:00.003-06:00

ever heard of scranton or the poconos?

"scranton. what? the electic city!.. they call it that 'cause of the electricity!"

-micheal scott and dwight schrute

we met up with all of jeff's family for a week of poconos partying. here's maya looking tired at the scranton airport. this was her first time to pennsylvania:

i think this was sophie and breanne's second time to pennsylvania, as they had driven through a couple years ago. sophie really liked the name "poconos," and excitedly proclaimed on the airplane ride over, "we're going to the coconuts!" autumn leaves and rainbow in the coconuts:

they haven't shared a bed since they were about 3 months old when they started keeping each other awake with their rolling around, so this was fun for the twins:

awwww:

lots of family fun activities were waiting for them in the poconos. hot tubbing with uncle eric-y:

3 girls getting their game faces on for their first ever bowling match:

sophie was mostly interested in the arcade tickets:

check out breanne's perfect form:

maya eating her canadian cousin sidon's food:

breanne being a cookie-making helper:

amazing how many helpers volunteer when there's cookie dough involved:

watching a cartoon with uncle eric-y:

nonna, papa and their 5 grandkids:

jeff's family:

i really hyped up autumn for the twins, and we had waited and waited to see leaves change colors and fall down at home. they were in autumn wonderland in the poconos:

maya looking for leaves on her nature walk:

sophie and breanne excited to find a little bridge over a stream:

awwww. i think this might be going into my favorite photos folder:

maya gets the award for cutest bum. sorry jeff, i know that award was one of your top aspirations:

sophie and breanne were glad they wore their sweaters with big pockets on our walk, and filled them with dirt, rocks and leaves. check out breanne's front sweater pocket:

autumn time!!

twins looking for stuff to throw at the ducks:

dance parties. always:

freeze when the music stops:

autumn maya:

sidon and maya, just hanging out on a vintage slide in the forest:

soph:

all together now, "awwww":

the twins when left alone in their room- breanne jumps on the bed, and sophie calls for room service:

goats!!! looking at the twins' sweater pockets kind of explains all the surprise rocks and leaves that i found while unpacking our luggage.

sidon cracked me up with his goat noises:

breanne's horse ride:

...followed naturally by sophie's horse ride:

...which would have naturally been followed by maya's horse ride, but she was having a melt down because someone took a stick away from her.

3 little girls will quickly surround you if you have a popsicle:

the jensen poconos gathering was fun. (except for that incident where jeff and all 3 girls were in a tub after swimming, and sophie pooped.) i wish my little nephews weren't so far away so that we could see them more often. hopefully we will see you guys soon!

october

2011-10-31T23:37:00.002-06:00

photos from cornbelly's:

it's cold enough to put on our coats:

...and here's maya and her yellow dress, two of my favorite things together:

halloween

2011-10-31T23:37:00.001-06:00

a cat, a duck and a cat:

action shot:

breanne cat with her candies:

sophie had some issues with maya taking a couple of her candies. she tried to protect them all:

...but maya got one, and sophie was shocked:

and then angry:

...and then feeling better once she opened 3 lollipops to eat at the same time:

dihneyland

2011-10-08T22:29:00.000-06:00

we just drove through awful blizzards in southern utah to come back home from california trip #18,362. this was our first time driving since having kids, and we survived it. it's so nice to have grandparents that live so close to disneyland, or "dihneyland," as some in the family currently call it.

maya playing with whiskers, breanne giving a hug, and sophie joyfully flying:

maya hasn't quite figured out how it's supposed to be fun to give someone in a dog suit a hug. here's happy twins, and maya getting scared of the huge dog whose mouth is always open, ready to bite:

i wonder if they're embarrassed by him yet...jeff and his 3 little girls:

maya likes to run away as fast as she can whenever she's freed. her big sisters like to follow her squealing, which makes her scramble to run away even faster:

playing with their colombian uncle eric-y:

sophie and jeff:

goofy. anyone else think goofy's a little creepy?

don't know what's going on here...

...but sophie and breanne know the appropriate goofy expressions for talking with goofy:

goofy walking away with my children:

they were pretty happy to forget about their parents and just walk away. it's kind of alarming:

i'm not sure where they were going, but maybe it's time to learn about stranger danger:

someone's still looking a little torticollis-y. breanne's first french braid:

i took maya all by herself for a mama-maya disneyland day:

small world sensory overload:

she really just wanted to play at the toontown park:

sophie and breanne with their nonna and papa, and some creeching guy, waiting to give mickey a hug:

sophie and breanne had fun on the rides (nemo, is currently their favorite), but what they really wanted to do the whole time was see mickey and friends. after looking at photos of breanne hugging the characters tightly, i really hope they are all played by girls:

"mimi:"

i remember someone telling me when the twins were babies that they looked like baby birds the way they would wait together with their mouths open for food. breanne still does it. the icecream parlor:

sophie:

just take your time enjoying that icecream, jeff. i don't see anyone else around who seems to want any:

first day of school fail

2011-09-25T16:31:00.000-06:00

sophie and breanne had their first day of "school." they are doing joy school with some neighborhood friends. the first day focus was on the letter A, and all of the kids were supposed to bring something that starts with the letter A for show and tell. so for their FIRST EVER homework assignment, the girls brought....

NOTHING!

apparently their mama forgot to help them find something. i told jeff about it afterwards, and he said he would be taking over their education.

sophie and breanne are 3

2011-09-07T21:43:00.000-06:00

first photo as 3 year olds!

we had a christmas morning-like birthday. maya was still sleeping, so we thought it was the perfect time to open presents and spend time with just the birthday girls. ready, go!

sophie as a bunnyfly:

sophie's first ever mr. potato head creation:

success! she was quite proud of it:

blowing out candles:

we finally let maya out:

happy birthday to our sweeties. we love you! (sophie and breanne, not daisy and minnie.)

labor day

2011-09-07T21:40:00.001-06:00

the week with labor day seems to always be eventful- change of seasons, new schedules, etc. for me, i can remember the past 7 off the top of my head-

7 years ago it was the start of the school year when i was teaching english at my cousin's high school in france.

6 years ago i went on my first date with jeff to latinoamericano fest in provo.

5 years ago jeff and i were in costa rica and came back in time for latinoamericano fest.

4 years ago we had been married for a month and a half and were in france meeting my relatives.

3 years ago jeff pushed me in a wheelchair at latinoamericano fest, then we had the surprise induction and 21 hours of labor to have the twins.

2 years ago we went to latinoamericano fest with babies turning 1, and we went to california with some brazilian friends.

1 year ago we went to latinoamericano fest with the twins turning 2, and baby maya.

it looks like the twins birthday and latinoamericano fest are going to be the theme of our labor days from now on.

this year, the twins spent their last day being 2 years old on labor day. they went swimming and then had dinner/birthday celebrating with their moss family:

as requested, pink for sophie and purple for breanne:

sophie:

breanne:

cupcakes and blowing out candles = happy

opening presents with cousin maddie:

breanne:

kelliemonster and bre:

lazy sunday afternoon

2011-09-05T22:22:00.000-06:00

computer time with twins:

maya and mama:

scenes from summer time 2011

2011-09-05T22:20:00.002-06:00

looking at rainbows and potty training...ugh:

watching murdock canal be covered up and made into a trail-- the tractors and orange construction cones have lost some of their initial fun obstacle course-like magic:

swimmin:

breanne disobeying the rules of the sign:

swimming lessons:

making messes with yummy summer food:

maya thinking it's hilarious to put raspberries on fingers:

where would she get such an idea?

hmm...it's scary how much she learns from the 2 year olds:

maya has a daily blueberry eating streak of over 2 months. she's the most anti-oxidized person i know:

watching a show after a long day in the sun:

here's maya tripping and face planting over breanne. i guess there's not enough room for them to spread out, even though we put the couches in the very corner of the room:

fact. summer is the best time of the year. i don't want it to end.

artwork

2011-09-05T22:15:00.000-06:00

these two love to color:

some of the coloring is starting to get really good. this is "totoro" by sophie jensen:

it's pretty much an exact replica of totoro. i can't even tell them apart:

sometimes the coloring doesn't go so well. we are near the end of a 20 day ban on markers for the tattoo incident. breanne:

sophie:

first dance

2011-09-03T15:08:00.000-06:00

sophie and breanne got asked to their first dance by some guy named "dada." we borrowed some dresses from their cousin, and got ready for the event:

sophie:

somehow she knew that she needed some accessories, and was quite serious about picking them out:

breanne gets ready too and joins in:

at the dance:

breanne:

sophie:

breanne:

sophie:

breanne:

this was a daddy-daughter date put on by our primary. i think it's safe to say they had fun.

4th of july

2011-07-08T23:02:00.002-06:00

maya LOVED the street fireworks!

june birthdays

2011-07-08T22:54:00.002-06:00

the oldest and youngest in our family had their birthdays in june:

icecream cake for jeff, as always:

chocolate mouth maya enjoyed the cake. speaking of maya, she had her 1st birthday:

some of the twins' neighborhood friends helped them decorate:

here's the big one year old, looking a little surprised after waking up from her nap:

she didn't dig in and destroy her cupcake, because she was too busy waving hi:

here's maya and her big sisters playing with the ball popper that she got. maya was wearing some of her big sisters' underwear to cheer them on in their potty training. she is always trying to keep up and play with them.

since she misses all the doggies from france, she got a little friend for her birthday:

we love our little sis' maya. she has been a relatively easy baby (not nearly as mischievous as her big sisters were,) and is so sweet. she likes to tease her sisters by taking stuff from them or pretending to give them something and then scrambling away. she loves blankies, outside, dogs, baguettes, playing in the toy room, and slapping people in the face. (we're working on that last one.)

mélange of lots of france photos

2011-07-08T19:47:00.001-06:00

i took over 1000 photos during this trip. it's not often we get to go, so i had to capture as much of it as i could.

sophie at les petits castors:

the twins learned how to give kisses on the cheeks and say "merci." here's their friend aileen teaching them how to "donner des bisous:"

maya and her great grandpa discussing the strauss-kahn affair:

it was really hot. the region was having a drought, and it had abnormally high temperatures for may:

here's my grandma. this young picture of her reminds me of breanne...but not sophie. yeah, yeah, we know they're identical twins, but this happens a lot.

élise, esther and maya:

my mom and her dad:

esther, maya and bernadette:

i love these colors:

maya was entertained at the table (sometimes for over 2 hours) with a piece of baguette. speaking of baguettes, jeff read some harry potter in french and was confused for a while as to why they were fighting with baguettes. it made more sense when he realized that baguette is the word for wand:

best strawberries i've had anywhere in the world. how can i get these here?

...so delicious that breanne makes sure her shoulder conveniently blocks sophie from them when they are supposed to be sharing:

eating, always:

my mom, her dad, and eclairs and tartes from la mie câline:

here's jeff's solution to eating on the go in france. he buys a baguette and a big block of cheese and alternates bites between them:

wes celebrating victory over the bicycle with a basket:

alexi and quentin looking really proud of the dead frog in the spoon:

eva, maya and alicia in the pool:

élise, esther, eva and laurent:

sophie sitting on the wall of l'église st-jacques:

lots of rocks and uneven surfaces to trip on:

wes celebrating victory over bergerac:

true love:

jeff and wes went to the coast with my cousin and friends while i stayed with the girls. i think this is wes building a castle in biscarosse:

i suggested they go to the dune du pyla. it's a huge sand dune on the coast that i remember going to with my grandparents a couple years ago:

at the top you can see the ocean:

and the other side is just trees. you can walk back down the stairs, or fly down as jeff and wes chose to do:

wes celebrating victory over the dune du pyla:

i want this sanglier car:

maya had to get creative finding new things to play with since we didn't have a lot of toys with us:

twins at the big cathedral in bergerac:

wes celebrating victory over the marché:

esther and élise on élise's birthday:

this looks like my kind of restaurant; frog legs, foie gras, gizzards, dried ham, anchovies, snails, goat cheese...yup, all my favorites!

i wimp out and find a fondue place instead:

the serving size was a little bigger than they had described:

twins getting out of bed way past their bedtime pretend to be suddenly obsessed with watching soccer:

marché in lalinde:

bernadette, mom, wes and i visited castelnaud:

wes looking creepy:

wes looking like he doesn't believe a word mom is saying:

surveying my land:

wes celebrating victory over castelnaud:

my mom and her sister:

beynac across the valley:

from our family, jeff, françoise, isaac, sophie, lucas and dennis were all barons of beynac. who knew?

wes celebrating victory over the dordogne:

visiting the ramos family in périgueux:

david and his wife just had their first baby, tatianna:

vineyards all over once you get out of the city:

the twins racing back from one of their great escapes:

picnic time:

maya brought the baguette for the picnic:

she has got to stop being so sweet, cause i can't stand it:

watching mickey mouse clubhouse with aileen:

all three falling down and giggling really hard at themselves:

double time out. the lack of naps made the twins extra 2 year old-ish:

david and nadya came over to see bergerac and visit:

breanne and aileen:

élise and a tarte...we need more tartes around here:

mamie and papi:

aileen and twins, the day before we went home:

great grandpa kicked aileen out of the way to watch tarzan:

nap time:

my grandma has a great memory, and never stops talking and telling stories:

leaving aunt bernadette's house for the last time:

the twins liked the airplanes. it was great to see family in france, but man, the voyage with 3 little ones was rough:

coming home, the twins basically pulled an all-nighter and then fell asleep on landing in SLC. nice, guys. maya surprised us and barely slept at all. we kept thinking she was going to crash because she had to be sooo tired, but she didn't. like i said, the travel part was pretty rough. it was worth it though to have the girls meet their relatives, and to visit with them. posting these pictures made me a little home-sick for france and family there. à la prochaine!

chocolat

2011-06-04T13:35:00.000-06:00

the first breakfast in france was bread with chocolate. maybe it was foreshadowing what was to come...

bordeaux vs paris

2011-05-27T15:25:00.001-06:00

jeff and wes went to bordeaux to watch some soccer, while i stayed home having dance parties with the girls. they met up with the monsieur coulibaly and his son:

i guess the field was built on land where a castle once stood? what's with the moat around it? jeff said his streaking plans were abandoned once he realized the moat was there.

we just liked the scooter with the 2 wheels in the front. i guess it's like a tricycle scooter:

la dordogne

2011-05-25T15:07:00.000-06:00

bergerac has the river dordogne running through it. we walk along it every day to go to my aunt's house:

uh oh, breanne looks grouchy...

...and you get tickled when you are too grouchy!

sophie with jeff-val-jeff:

old guys, wearing their berets, chilling:

looking back at the center from near my aunt's house:

street sign warning:

sometimes we find drunkards along the path:

bonne nuit!

anniversaire...

2011-05-19T06:13:00.000-06:00

means birthday, not anniversary in french. tricky.

our little fam:

soph feeding jeff some baguette:

maya and mama:

jeff reading about the scandals:

aunt bernadette:

two little helpers came quickly back to the table when they saw cake and candles. they have a hard time sitting through a complete meal, which is no surprise considering how long we are there:

making sure the chocolate wouldn't disappear from their sight:

yays:

breanne goes in for some cake, but is told to wait...

...as evidenced by the expression on her face in this pic:

after birthday dinner and cake, we had to rush home to watch some tv because eurovision happened to be on my birthday this year. who could ask for anything more on their birthday? the twins were hoping these guys from ireland would win. i wonder why...

oh, eurovision...

lots of bergerac

2011-05-17T16:20:00.001-06:00

amazing how much fun running circles up and down 2 stairs can be:

twins and jeff walking around bergerac:

maya seeing the sights:

maya adores doggies right now. bergerac is perfect for her since they are all over the place. dog-sighting reaction:

maya and the big cathedral:

maya a la mie caline:

lots of foie gras tasting in the area. should we take the twins to try some? they just like the duck signs all over, and of course have no idea what they are advertising:

here's our stroller caravan waiting for cars to pass. sidewalks are rough here:

at the intermarche, just trying to find some cookies takes 8 hours because of the size of the selection:

the orange team:

big cathedral looks a lot less menacing, all cleaned up and no longer dark grey:

at the marche, jeff looking at wife beaters:

this little one has been pretty patient with being dragged all over the place:

style of old bergerac:

maya and cyrano:

this creepy cyrano statue is right around the corner from us. i'm pretty sure it comes alive at night. i remember elise telling me a couple years ago that some people were saying the eyes would glow at night. i wouldn't be surprised:

more old town bergerac and maya:

cobblestone. sure, it's pretty, but it makes an awfully bumpy stroller ride:

more old bergerac:

maya, maya, maya...

it's in the 80's here, so the girls have liked this fountain. maya chose the photos to post, that's why they are all of her:

la famille

2011-05-14T09:17:00.000-06:00

random shot with my grandpa in the background

soph and papi

maya and her arriere-mamie

sophie with her grandma and great-grandma, "helping" in the kitchen

sophie's "helping"consisted of eating all the strawberries, so i told her that was enough. the emotional reaction to that is seen on her face, but her little hand continues to take and eat strawberries.

arriere-mamie playing peek-a-boo with maya

now that it's really time to eat strawberries, sophie is no where to be found...

at the marche with aunt bernadette

dinnertime with my grandparents, aunt bernadette, cousin esther and her boyfriend, cousin elise and her boyfriend, and the locataire:

clafoutis

out the window

2011-05-13T13:36:00.000-06:00

looking out the window in old town bergerac, we have a nice view of eglise st-jacques, but man that thing is loud. i'm not sure why they still have wild bell medlies at 8am. people have alarm clocks these days, and i'm sure they'd like to sleep in every once in a while. it sounds pretty though.

the girls enjoy looking out the window

raaaaaaar!

these two have gotten in trouble for throwing toys out on to the street below

coming home after a long day, these two went straight for the beloved window

the week before our long voyage...

2011-05-10T16:45:00.000-06:00

was a jensen party! most of jeff's family was in town for various reasons, so the girls got to see their 2 jensen cousins, all of jeff's sisters, one uncle and jensen grandparents. photos stolen from brittney:

lots of playing with max who came from manhattan:

grandpa was in from irvine:

aunt brittney:

the twins and their beloved calendar:

aunt courtney and cousin sidon who came from halifax, max and grandpa

aunt ashly who came from austin, texas

our 5 year old neighbor likes to pull over people and give out tickets for speeding in the neighborhood. apparently i was walking to quickly:

a crowd of us went to the farm:

maya loved the piggies:

twins and aunt ashly

we tried to get a photo together, but the twins were slowly crawling away with their faces hidden (in a manner which i know means they think they are being stealth and that no one knows what they're doing.)

jeff's siblings are currently in manhattan, new york, austin, texas, halifax, nova scotia, and medellin, colombia. his parents are in irvine, california. somehow we got to see all of them in utah during the last couple of weeks. the girls were sad to see them go, and were asking about max the morning after he left, and talking about ashly during their long plane ride. i think they had fun.

we are tired

2011-05-09T13:56:00.002-06:00

...but we made it!

not toooo bad of a trip over with 3 little girls, except for the security in stansted that made me take a swig out of both of the twins' sippy cups and open maya's sealed baby food jars and eat some in front of them. so much for being a vegetarian. i shouldn't complain too much though, since they let us leave the sleeping twins in their stroller and patted them down without waking them up. lots of photos to come of our time here since il faut en profiter.

april

2011-05-03T15:19:00.001-06:00

maya is quite a snuggly baby and loves to snuggle blankets. i love it:

when it's too cold outside, we take our walks inside:

and make a huge mess with toys:

easter egg hunting in the rain:

not big enough to care about the easter candy, maya stayed warm inside:

she looks a bit like her aunt kellie:

pink and purple trouble again:

i wish the twinners could always get along like this. being inside too long and doing everything with a twin always by your side can lead to some fighting. we're trying to make sure they are getting days where one gets to go out to the store with mom and one gets to stay home and play with all the toys with no twin sister to steal them from her.

here is yet another little instance of mirroring. silles.

february - march

2011-05-03T15:12:00.000-06:00

oh no, it's been over 2 months? 3 little girls are still growing up. here's a bunch of februrary - march photos of everyone trying to stay busy and happy during wintertime:

lots of coloring going on...intense coloring:

soph:

this evening i heard breanne sing this from "can you feel the love," in lion king:


So many things to tell her
But how to make her see
The truth about my past, impossible
She'd turn away from me

He's holding back, he's hiding
But what, I can't decide
Why won't he be the king
I know he is?
The king I see insiiiiiide?
 
 Caaaaaan you feel the love tonight?...

it sounded really funny, coming from a 2 year old, and made me think they've been watching it a little too much...

discovering a new favorite food: noonoos

current favorite coif for the twins: "teddy bear ears." maya is working hard on starting her mullet:

it's not easy to get all 3:

snow!

first snowman for the twins:

our little mum mum:

jeff trying to get some work done:

bou and mama

we watched les miserables on PBS about 20 nights in a row

it's happened many times that someone sees maya's light blue eyes and comments on them, and then looks up at jeff's eyes and my eyes. we then see a furrowed brow with a confused look. next a conversation where we remember what we learned in high school biology about genetics ensues. little miss blue eyes:

twins playing "flying babies"

pink and purple trouble... i'm sure bou is up to something good and constructive rather than destructive with that hammer.

yup...watching too much tv:

maya's silly face:

lunchtime action shot:

some mayas

2011-02-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

here are lots of mayas, because we like her. also, we'd better document since she's growing so quickly. she's 8 months now which is an age that i love:

here's maya when she's grumpy:

d-land in january

2011-01-25T17:37:00.001-07:00

entertaining people waiting in line by chasing each other around in circles:

me and bou

sophie was still skeptical of disneyland here:

i have too many photos of bou just like this:

sophie comes around and realizes that it's a great place:

they really like ladybugs lately. whenever breanne has an itch, she complains that there are ladybugs in her ear, tummy, etc. sophie on the ladybug ride:

i thought they would be scared of the characters walking around, but evidently they're not:

love:

they had an extended conversation with pluto, and i'd like to know what they were all talking about, considering that the characters don't talk:

they found duffy the teddy bear, and ran up to hug him. they stayed like this without moving a muscle for about a minute straight:

duffy looking up, worriedly wondering what to do after realizing they weren't going to let go:

after duffy sent them off, they teamed up with another set of gemelas to slowly creep up on him, surround and attack him:

jeff loves this wild carousel, even if it's the world's slowest ride:

actually, this one might be slower and lamer. jeff doesn't let that deter him from having fun:

julius from utah came down to take a break and go to disneyland too:

julius sandwich:

here's jeff taking care of some work. i feel bad for anyone who tries to do work with him over the phone. it always sounds like there's a circus and 3 little girls in the background for some reason:

new years eve

2011-01-17T19:40:00.001-07:00

for new years, we were still at jeff's parents' house in irvine. his parents were out for the night, so we decided to trash the house. we ate gummy bears and m&m's, made forts, had pillow fights with uncle eric, and dance parties to the cd that cousin max made for us:

jeff teasing the twins with someone's binky in his mouth:

getting revenge on uncle eric for holding them upside down by their ankles:

chaos

dancing with their babies:

and a bit of maya's dancing:

jensen family

2011-01-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

since everyone is only all together every 2 years, we have to take 2 years worth of photos during the span of 5 days:

no kids!

maya getting to know sidon:

uncle eric (pronounced ay ree kee). we still call him by his brazilian name.

getting the twins hyper before bedtime:

maya meeting chad and ashly

i had to bribe the twins with chocolate to get them to sit for this:

the twins look worried, probably wondering why the whole family was creeping up on them:

....and....surprise, maya!

maya sleeping

2011-01-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

4 nights in a row:

see a pattern? i think she dreams about flying. she must take after jeff.

christmas #2 in california

2011-01-08T15:47:00.002-07:00

this year was the jensen year for christmas. here are some of the scenes from christmas day...

here's maya, wondering why everyone was sleeping in. she waited eagerly for everyone else to come open gifts since 3am.

she was excited for her first christmas

sophie was excited for the candy canes. she knew santa had been there.

one of her binkies picked up off the floor, and quickly wrapped in some used crumpled wrapping paper...

was the best gift breanne had ever received!

courtney and sidon the reindeer:

eric's gold chain and a wad of cash... seemed like a good photo op:

weirdo:

nonna and papa:

mark and max:

papa and sophie. nope...i wrote "sophie," because i thought it was sophie, but i realized sophie would never snuggle with the pink blanket. that's breanne:

brittney, mark, max, ashly and chad:

byron hiding and courtney:

maya eating bows. it's just what you do on your first christmas:

jeff's family and his kakadelas cousins on christmas day:

i hope i got everyone. it was so fun to see the whole jensen family together.

christmas #1 in utah

2011-01-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

this is the photo the twins wanted to put on their christmas cards:

the scary halloween train in my parents' neighborhood turned into the polar express. the twins didn't cover their faces or say " i don't want it!" this time, so it was successful

sophie got a card and a candy cane from santa claus there, and hasn't stopped talking about santa, candy canes, christmas choo choos and tunnels since.

here we are, the morning of december 18th, opening christmas gifts from santa claus. we made sure to do it that day since it was dumping snow, and we wanted a white christmas. here's breanne opening a book about going on an airplane to grandma's house, which was a clue about the real reason we were opening presents a week early.

santa claus brought maya a twin

apparently the twins can't tell themselves apart. i have several photos of breanne opening gifts with "sophie" written on them:

a moment after uncovering a tricycle, but a moment before noticing that there was a second to uncover... 2 little girls quickly grasped it tightly to claim it for herself:

joy:

they spent the rest of the morning "practicing" (crashing into and denting walls):

little mama

2011-01-06T01:29:00.000-07:00

december got busy with fun stuff, hence the absence of recent posts. so... back to december we go. here are some pics of breanne who enjoys being a helper, and takes care of her younger sisters:

making sure maya has enough toys:

taking care of sophie when they both had the stomach flu:

maya's vacay

2010-12-15T00:30:00.002-07:00

don't hate me for posting this. i know it's winter, and i can see the awful inversion out the window, and i feel bitter anger towards myself when i see my smiling self in these photos. maya went on vacation. can you guess where from the photo clues?

windmills

speculaas cookies. perfect timing, since jeff has a weird obsession with delta's biscoff cookies, which are the same thing. these are traditionally made on december 5th/6th for st nicholas day

an interesting mix of languages- dutch, french and spanish. it kind of hurts my head, but i find it fascinating.

a little guy wearing a sinterklaas hat. we saw zwarte piets with their faces painted black on the same day.

hmmm...iguanas. this should start narrowing it down some more.

frangipani, modeled by maya

sigh...warm happy sunny weather clothes

mahi mahi...the only "meat" i've voluntarily and happily eaten in years. my grandma in france would be proud.

searching for delicacies in a supermarket (one of my favorite things to do when in a foreign place), and wearing flip flops. every day should be a flip flop day.

a very hairy man. ok, this isn't a clue, but for some reason it just seemed to fit in here.

lots of eating and lots of relaxing

and...final clue...the beach:

amazing

fine, one more final clue:

notice any little jensens who were absent in the photos? yup, the twins stayed home. it was the first time really away from them. previously my record break from the twins was for less than a day when i was at the hospital having maya. my mom came with us to help with maya, and jeff's mom stayed with the twins at home.

it only took 3 days of being home in the winter to start dreaming of another trip to a warm place.

a moss christmas

2010-12-13T16:34:00.002-07:00

scenes from the 2010 moss family christmas party...

breanne getting in the christmas spirit

a new and beloved christmas tradition was started a couple years ago: tying up our cousin tyler.

cousins sit around, jovially chatting, and watching him struggle to get out:

our little family of 3, watching tyler

where were the other 2? they were using their maurader's map to manage mischief. while mom was out of sight, they were busy pouring out cups of water from the tables onto the carpet downstairs, and spreading the road salt all over the front porch.

we pack everyone in one room and have a short christmas nativity. here's my mom getting ready for it:

our lovely hosts, my grandpa and grandma, waiting for it to start:

after the nativity, grandpa claus makes his appearance:

...and little ones open presents. breanne with my brother wes:

sophie with my sister kellie:

jeff doing what he does best...holding a bunch of baby girls:

...and our final scene from moss christmas party 2010: caleb, heather, brandon and wes with the warm fuzzy christmas cheery norwegian elf

merry christmas!

collages

2010-12-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

i'm trying to figure out how the 2 year olds communicate their plans for coordinated sleep positions

telepathy?

maybe they thought i was serious when i said i was sending them china to start some intensive synchronized diving training?

or maybe they are just practicing for this:

anyhow, while collaging their photos side by side, i was reminded of another collage i did last year. this one is of sophie:

...or is it of breanne? or of both of them? bwahahaha.

a growing maya

2010-12-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

after nearly 3 weeks of awesome projectile barfy surprises, maya decided she was over it. she chunked up almost immediately, and is looking much healthier these days. here she is with cousin lucas:

and starting some solids a couple days ago:

first trick-or-treating

2010-11-09T23:27:00.002-07:00

i hate fall. i don't really like halloween. i hate winter and cold. i feel like the fall grinch when i hear and read all the gushing from others about how much they love the fall weather, fall food, fall fashion, etc. this year, having kids that are old enough to get excited over things like trick-or-treating is taking some of my autumn hatred away. there's a lot more excitement when seeing it through the eyes of a child

we went to my lindon neighborhood halloween train. it was a little too scary for the girls.

my dad was one of the conductors

last year for halloween, sophie was breanne, and breanne was sophie. (we were tired after a busy week, and stayed in.) this year the girls dressed up and did their first trick-or-treating. here's sophie the bee, annoyed by that pesky monkey who repeatedly grabbed her antennae:

it took a couple of houses to realize that all the houses were giving out candy, and that all their neighborhood friends were dressed up and doing the same thing. we loved seeing how excited they were about the whole thing

waving and saying "goodbye" to someone long after they had closed the door:

appropriately finding a black cat on halloween night:

going home

too tired to keep going with those heavy buckets:

they wasted no time to attack the candy:

breanne was too impatient to actually open the box of dots:

yeah, it was freezing cold, and my hands were numb and painful after going out, but it was so much fun watching the twins. i'm actually excited for the next snow this winter so that these girls can go play in it. it's almost as if my cold weather grinchy heart has grown 3 sizes.

jensen halloween party

2010-11-06T11:15:00.000-06:00

to all you jensens who were in new york, colombia, israel, texas, and canada, you missed out on all the jensen halloween party action in UTAH!

maya was a cute barfing pumpkin

sophie was a bee

mass chaos as always

breanne was a monkey, if you can find her in there

the scones made their yearly delicious appearance

...and everyone braved the cold to do a mummy wrap outside

it wasn't the same without jeff's grandma jensen, but we love the tradition that she created for her family

mini maya

2010-11-05T12:01:00.000-06:00

it's been a while since i've blogged. we've been focusing on beefing up our tiny bug maya who dropped off to "below the 3rd percentile" in weight. we started adding formula to her diet, and about a week later she got either a stomach flu that refuses to go away, or formula sensitivities. whatever the cause, it has led to us being busy cleaning up maya, floors, walls, blankets, toys, clothes, car seats, jeff's chest hair, etc. throw in some twin toddlers who have figured out how to take off any article of clothing and their diapers, no matter how many times we wrap them with packaging tape, and it makes for a busy day. oh, and jeff had a trip to new york on short notice during all this. he went to go hang out with elmo and our nephew. see here. this is the explanation for the lack of blogging.

here's miss maya, who seems to be doing better the past couple of days:

and, because it's something we see once a year at most, here's jeff wearing a suit. i guess meeting elmo was important enough to merit such attire:

photos by jeff

2010-11-04T15:53:00.000-06:00

i tend to take photos of and blog about the little ones in the family. after looking through the photos on our camera though, it occurred to me that maybe jeff should take over as the chief photographer and blogger for the family. here are the 4 most recently taken photos by jeff:

a car torn apart:

fire in the distance:

mystery spots on the twins:

a laptop, torn apart:

should we have jeff blog from now on? i love seeing what he considers photo-worthy. he did take this one, so maybe there's hope for him after all:

myopia

2010-09-29T22:48:00.000-06:00

here's lil maya. she wanted her nickname to be "sugar plum," but i'm afraid i'll be calling maya "myopia," for what she did to my formerly better than 20/20 eyesight.

she's growing...i think. well, she's growing taller at least

i love her overly-sympathetic eyebrows

elephants

2010-09-24T09:27:00.001-06:00

as part of the twins second birthday our fam and nonna took a trip to the zoo. to build up the anticipation, we studied zoo animal flashcards the week before. the elephant seemed to be one of the girls' favorites. on the big zoo trip day, the girls proudly and excitedly wore their elephant shirts. elephants were magical creatures to them until they met this one....

excitement turned to trepidation...

feelings of love and trust turned to feelings of fear and betrayal...

so we moved on. despite the constipated look on everyone's faces, the zoo was fun. i guess they really were traumatized by the fake elephant:

i'm trying to figure out what percentage of the twins' actions are what they do individually, and what percentage is just copying whatever the twin next to them is doing. like this....

breanne:

2 seconds later...sophie:

sillies.

flying lessons with daddy

2010-09-08T23:19:00.002-06:00

no, not in the plane...

here's a nice excerpt from some chatting jeff and i had about the blog today:

cmahovina: we got some cool places visiting our blog

isle of man

egypt

and for some reason, a whole lot of visits from places in the UK

Jeff: isle of man, sounds pretty homo

anyhow, any brits reading this right now, why in the world are you on our blog? i don't know what i blogged about recently that would lead your internet browsing here. btw, i'm sure your isle of man is a lovely place.

2 little girls turn 2

2010-09-07T15:50:00.004-06:00

i love this drawing of the twins that our neighbor quinn did while sitting behind us at church

over the weekend, we visited some jensen relatives, and celebrated all the september birthdays with them.

the twins had their morning balloon surprise. they spent the day a little groggy and grumpy, since they were both sick, and had ear infections. they managed to still have some fun though. their utah cousins came over that evening and played in the balloons with them.

we had some cake and sang. this photo fulfills my ocd need for symmetry. almost.

we ate some cake

they opened some presents

i loved this book when i was little (and all of the berenstain bears books.) every time there's a little kid birthday party, i think of this.

here's "sophie jensen bear and too much birthday." (i think this was after they tackled each other for a toy they both wanted at the same time)

they seemed to remember the birthday fun that they had the next morning since they were still talking about it. while getting them ready in their room, i heard "maddie balloons," and "isaac," and "cars?" and "play!" (while pointing out of their room)

happy birthday fifi and boubou. we love you two sweeties so much.

miscellaneous

2010-09-06T11:09:00.002-06:00

"jeff and girls" fam photo. all looking almost in the same direction! success!

judging by the response we got to the post about jeff's red card and ejection, it seems you were all way too excited at the possibility of jeff being a major jerk. sadly, it's not as exciting as it sounds....the red card was for pushing a guy off of one of his teammates, a once in a decade move for jeff. the ejection from the 8 year old game was for using another coach's coaching card since he didn't have his yet. the ref knew that major damage would be done if he allowed jeff to coach. the ref didn't want his name tied to such controversy and scandal, so he kicked him out. jeff got his coach's card later, and found a photo of himself for the card that doesn't look much like what he looks like right now.

let me paint a more accurate picture of jeff. he goes by "dada." he works hard. he's generous. he makes friends easily. he takes care of and plays with 3 little girls, and sings songs with them every bedtime, and takes care of a newborn all night, so that i can sleep. awwww. great, now you're all going to think he's a major wimp. perfect.

jeff says we are in need of a vacation to disconnect from laptop and cellphone. (i wonder if the whole "having to get a minivan before our 3rd anniversary" has something to do with it too.) where would you go? any suggestions? this is the closest we've gotten - trying to imitate costa rican gallo pinto after the girls have all gone to bed.

what else as exciting as gallo pinto is going on chez jeff? we have had an insane amount of door to door soliciting here. 3 rang the doorbell during one afternoon nap time, and i just about lost it. solicitors all claim to have something to solve a problem for you. if only there were a solicitor to solve my problem of excessive solicitations...
well, on thursday a solicitor showed up soliciting "no soliciting" signs for the door. i excitedly bought one, and it was put on the door.

the NEXT DAY, a vacuum solicitor knocked on the door, and the day after that, the 10 thousandth pest control solicitor showed up. it didn't seem to phase them. i want my money back. maybe they see the sign, and thusly know that i was suckered into buying from one of them, so they think there's a higher chance to make a sale here. maybe it needs to look less cursivey and more threatening?

on a less solicity note, maya is a sweet little cupcake

too sweet...

like, i can't stand it, because it's too sweet.

ok, stop it! i have a sugar headache! she prefers to go by "sugar plum." she's looking cute in her lil white dress from france. she refuses to wear anything that isn't haute couture from france.

we'll end this blog post with miss maya monty burns

"bloons"

2010-09-06T10:48:00.002-06:00

it's a special day at our house today. the twins both got to choose what they wanted to wear this morning, and chose the same thing. they came out of their room to a surprise. here's sophie discovering it:

they took a second to survey the land, to figure out their strategy...

...and attacked. here's breanne:

and sophie:

i wonder what they're going to think when we have to pop all of them.