At the end of July we were so happy to have 4 out of the 6 siblings of Christina's that live out of Utah come into town. Everyone stayed at our house, which was really so much fun! All the cousins loved being together and teasing each other. We talked about this trip briefly before, but the main reason for this trip was for Mark from Oregon to come and switch cars with Nate from Nebraska. Ginger came along with Mark and stayed a few days longer, and at the end of the weekend Julie's family from Nevada even joined us! So with Sarah and Jana and Christina we had 7 out of 9 siblings! That is pretty much unheard of. We took advantage of the time together by going up to the Jenson cabin. It's great to have a place to get away up in the mountains.
The kids loved the time outside and swings, as well as the family walk to Frogberg lake. We were so impressed how well all the cousins played together, and Carter didn't too bad himself. Him and Joey actually bonded pretty well that weekend. Jana's father-in-law, Lyle, was even in town so we had just a great party up at the cabin on Friday.
We also enjoyed cruising around on the bikes, and eating smores with Nutella and GINORMOUS marshmallows! We even played this Ninja attack game, that was fun to play, and even more fun to watch. You have to try to slap the hand of the person next to you with only taking one step, and then you have to freeze in that position until it's your turn to try to avoid getting hit. A few other things we did that weekend was go to the dinosaur museum, and the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Then we ended off the weekend with the Cousin Reunion. We love to have family come and visit and we can't wait to see everyone again!

My wonderful sisters, Jana and Sarah, threw me a baby shower for this little girl last night. They went way over and beyond, and it was so much fun! They got all this great food from Costco, games, prizes, and we had plenty of people show up to enjoy it. They even got a couple of "Nothing Bundt Cakes" and they were divine! My nieces helped decorate inside and out, and they did a great job
A big surprise was receiving a diaper cake from my sisters. Jana spent a lot of time to put this together and it was her first time! It was surrounded by the cutest blankets, toys, and onesies. Carter of course thinks all the toys are his now.
The best part about showers, even above the presents and diaper cake, is all the friends and family that come out to support you. We had a lot of Jenson and McElhaney family come out, even an aunt that lives in CA was in town. We also had a couple of Habel aunts and cousin, as well as some close friends and neighbors. We love our neighborhood and our neighbors! Everyone that came to visit commented on our neighborhood, and we really did luck out.

The games that were played were "Who knows Christina best?" and a candy bar game where you had to guess which candy bar described which baby thing, such as chunky baby, contractions, epidurals, hospital address, etc.
After all the good food, visiting, and games, it was finally time to open presents. I had cheated on a few and already opened them since the giver had to leave early...at least that was my excuse. :) I got so much pink cuteness in outfits that it made me SUPER excited for this girl to come! Thank you to everyone for all the sweet gifts, words, and encouragement. You truly are the best and I am so lucky to have such great family and friends. Everyone is voting for her to wait until next Sunday since 10-10-10 would be a cool birthday, and right now it seems like she might wait that long so we'll keep you posted!

Happy belated 24th of July!

Two of the best things about living in Utah are mountains and fireworks twice in July. We were able to enjoy both over the 24th of July weekend. On the 3rd we saw a fantastic show in Sugarhouse, and then for the 24th we decided to make our own show.
We invited family and friends over for a huge dinner of fried chicken, bbq ribs, steak, and sausage...just a little bit of everything. After we stuffed ourselves silly we set up all the chairs we had for the show. We love living in a circle which allowed us to have plenty of uninterrupted room for our pyros to have fun. :) Everyone brought $5-10 worth of fireworks so we had plenty to go around. Mike even brought out the blow torch to help light everything. The girls just enjoyed the show, and Carter was fascinated with it all.



The boys definitely had fun lighting MULTIPLE fireworks at one time. James built his tower that got so bright when it was lit that you practically had to turn your head. We had a great time and our neighbors enjoyed the show as well...although they might not have enjoyed when we lit a couple of M80s after 10 o'clock. It sounded like a gun just went off.




The next day we headed to the cabin to enjoy a few more fireworks and more yummy food. We made blueberry pancakes for everyone, but without a spatula! Some of the dishes had been taken down to be washed, but they forgot to bring them up. So Mike being the craftsman he is chiseled me a spatula. It worked pretty decently for the eggs, and then we ended up using a pizza cutter for the pancakes. Fun times!

Drum roll please.....

ANDREW JOSEPH JENSON
has been called to serve as a full time missionary in the
WASHINGTON SEATTLE MISSION!!!

We were so excited to have Wednesday come this week because we were hoping that Andy would receive his mission call. The timing was up in the air though since it is General Conference. We weren't sure if there would be time before since everyone is so busy in preparation. Plus, the mailman always delivers mission calls to the door and on Wednesday he was 2 hours late! Cheri and Andy were going stir-crazy waiting for him, and the mailman apologized. He was also the same mailman that delivered Mike's AND Dan's mission calls.

We had a ton of family and friends show up for the big news. It was great to see everyone. Andy went and got donuts and chocolate milk as a treat that hit the spot. We were all surrounding him on the deck when he started to read the infamous yellow paper. Once we heard the mission call we all just knew that it was the right place for him to go. We had a list of places that people had guessed, one country and one state, and Terry actually guessed Washington state! They also were just there a couple of weeks ago when they flew to and from Hawaii. Andy is super stoked to finally have his call and he actually reports pretty quick to the MTC...November 17th!

We're going to miss you tremendously Andy, but know that you have lots of lives in Washington to touch and bring to the gospel. You rock our faces off!