Has it really been six years?

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you more everyday!

sorry about the picture quality, I couldn't get the photos out of the album to scan them....I think they're glued in!

Make Your Mamma Proud

So I saw this on my cousin, Rikki's blog, and I thought it would be fun. It was kind of hard, but I enjoyed doing it.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title.

Your Artist: Fastball
Are you male or female: Mercenary Girl
Describe yourself: Morning Star
How do you feel about yourself: How Did I Get Here
Describe where you currently live: Perfect World
The first thing you think of when you wake up: Warm Fuzzy Feeling
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: We'll Always Have Paris
Your favorite form of transportation: Airstream
Your best friend is: Don't Give Up On Me
Your favorite color is: Red Light
What’s the weather like: Better Than It Was
If your life were a TV show, what would it be called: This is Not My Life
What is life to you: Falling Upstairs
What is the best advice you have to give: Love is Expensive and Free
If you could change your name, what would it be: Angelie
Your favorite food is:Drifting Away
How I would like to die:Human Torch
My soul’s present condition: She's Got the Rain
The faults I can bear: Emotional
How would you describe your love life: All I Was Looking For Was You
What are you going to post this as: Make Your Mamma Proud

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We FINALLY have a sitter!

Way to go, little lady!

Passing on those irrational fears (this is a long story)

Its a well known fact that I am completely terrified of spiders to the point that I may need therapy. Its a little less known that I am also afraid of bees and monkeys, but nowhere close to the extent of the spiders. Monkeys are creepy because of their humanish faces and bees are just scary, but I don't lose it over either of them. I try to avoid contact with bees, and just cringe at monkeys. Spiders I cry over, have nightmares about, can't even go in a room where a spider is residing, I avoid looking at spiders at the zoo, I can't see them on tv without getting the willies, its rediculous. Well I'm no longer alone in my rediculous phobia, Corbin has joined in on the craziness, only his fear is with the bees.

Over the last few weeks a wasps nest (I assume, I don't really know the difference between bees and wasps) has developed on the under side of our bbq grill. The grill is right next to our sliding door, so we see zillions (thats right zillions) of bees (or wasps) come and go to that nest all day. As I mentioned semi-recently, Corbin was stung by a bee a few weeks ago, but I didn't mention that Dex was stung just a couple of days ago. It has been getting a little out of hand. Last week we went out to bbq up some dinner, and Scott had to move the grill a little, and that made the bees mad. Corbin was out there with Scott and the bees surrounded him. I said (through the screen door, I was in the house because of the bees), "You better watch out Corbin, the bees are going crazy." I thought it was an innocent remark and that he would just move, but instead he started screaming and flailing about. This didn't make the bees happy, just more angry. In the midst of the chaos I opened the door, grabbed his hand and pulled him in the house. By this time he was inconsolible. He was crying and screaming and genuinely terrified. He was convinced they had stung his ears (which they hadn't, just flown close to them, possibly touching them). He didn't stop crying for a good twenty minutes. It was really sad because I knew exactly how he felt. Well in order to avoid this same situation happening again, Scott tried to knock down the wasp nest with a pipe, then he ran like the wind. He succeeded in getting a chunk to come off, but quite a bit still remained, and it basically just made the bees very angry! We didn't go in the backyard for 2 days.

Anyway, today the bug people came back, and I made them spray the nest and kill the bees. Corbin was so happy to see those dead bee bodies on the ground. I set up the little pool at the bottom of the slide, convinced corbin that the bees were gone, and finally got him to come out and play for a while. After about an hour or so, he decided he was done and went back in the house. Dex and I stayed outside, he played, I read. After maybe 3 minutes I could hear Corbin screaming like crazy. I couldn't tell what he was saying, I could only make out screams. I ran inside fearing he had gone in the kitchen with his wet feet, slipped on the tile floor and broken a bone. I found him cowering in the corner by the fridge crying. He said there was a bee inside. I looked all over our house for that bee.......didn't find anything but flies. I calmed him down after a while and tried to tell him that maybe it was just a fly. He said that he was sure it was a bee and that it must have turned invisible to hide from me, so it could sting him when I wasn't watching. Poor kid! I feel so bad to have fueled his fear. Dex getting stung, me staying in the house to be away, and Scott running to get away all added to it. How could he not be afraid? Maybe the two of us should go to therapy together! I really hope they are gone for good this time.

Update anyone?

I just wanted to do a quick update on how things are going. Right after we arrived at our home in Boise, Ivy's nurse, Nancy, paid us a visit to check on Ivy's progress after her cath. She was doing well, her sats were 83 without oxygen, she'd gained 2 1/2 ounces, and she was happy as a clam. Nancy agreed that it would be okay to take off the oxygen as long as her sats stayed above 75, so that's what we've done. She hasn't needed it since. She can sit up now, but only for a minute or two before she falls over. We have an appointment with the physical therapist, Katy on Friday, and hopefully with the back specialist, Pat at the same time. Katy is a little worried about the curve of Ivy's back and thinks she may have signs of scoliosis. Ivy also tilts her head to the right side all the time, so we just want to be sure to start working on those with a specialist before they get any worse.

Corbin is as cute as ever, he constantly amazes us with his vocabulary and the silly things he says. He had so much fun with Grandma for two weeks that its been a little hard for him to adjust to life with mom again. I'm not nearly as fun as Grandma, and that really doesn't sit well with him. Grandmas are supposed to be more fun right? I'm the one who has to discipline him, which makes me not quite as cool as her, but thats okay. He'll get used to it. He's looking forward to starting preschool in the fall, and in the meantime is actually enjoying primary again. He didn't like it for a while there (I have no idea why), but now he goes without crying, or without us having to bribe him, it's great.

Dexter is adorable. He is getting so big, and he's finally starting to be a little talker. Usually only Scott, Corbin, and I can understand him, but at least that's something. Lately he has been absolutely obsessed with cars. He carries two with him wherever he goes, he even stole two from Grandma's house (we didn't find them until I was unpacking, sorry Marde). He takes them to bed and falls asleep holding them. He wakes up with them and puts them on the table next to his cereal while he eats. Its crazy, sometimes he wants to carry around every car he can find, but his little hands can't hold them all, so he stuffs some in the seat of his little bike, and then gets frustrated when he still can't take them all. It's pretty funny.

Scott and I are getting adjusted to being parents of three kids again, instead of just one. I think we're doing okay, most of the time. We also are once again in charge of our yard, we came home to yellow grass in the front yard, and huge veggie plants and even huger(is that a word) weeds in the back yard. We spent all last week pulling weeds and adjusting sprinklers to get things under control again. We also came home to a new calling in our ward. They called us to be primary workers, working in the junior nursery. That will probably be a good thing since lately Dex is having a hard time letting us leave him there. I think we are both excited to have a calling, but I'm going to miss sunday school and relief society, and that short time I have away from children.

Anyway, that's about it for us, sorry about blabbing on for so long. Also, thanks Marde and Ross for letting us use your stuff in Bear Lake, letting us stay in your house in sandy, and for taking such good care of our boys for two weeks, we love you guys!

Adventures in Bear Lake

This year we were actually able to go to Bear Lake twice, which is pretty good since we were skeptical that we would be able to go at all. We went with our friends before Ivy's surgery date and then since surgery was cancelled, we were able to go with scott's family for a couple of days as well. We had lots of fun, especially the boys who loved hanging out with other kids. Aside from a few bug bites and a nasty ankle injury, both trips went really well. The first set of pics are from the friend trip.

Scott and the boys enjoying Corbin's favorite bear lake activity.

Anna gets in on the action.

Our family

Ivy being as cute as ever.

Bollwinkel family

Hoover family

Brunson Boys

Dex warming up in the sun

Ivy enjoying Van's serenade

And now for the Brunson family reunion pics

Ivy and Juliana

Shawn and Shelley at their "better late than never" wedding shower/reception

Dex was loving that life jacket!

Scott and the kids enjoying morning cartoons

Ivy bug

buried in the sand

Ivy and Great Grandma Jensen

Beach Babies

All the grandkids

silly faces (sorry its so washed out!)

Everybody! Bottom row: Oliver, Grandpa Jensen, Grandma Jensen, Melissa, Bradley, Doug. Second row: Marde, Corbin, Bowen, Dallin, Katelyn, Heidi with Juliana. Back row: Ross, Rochelle, Dexter, Scott with Ivy, Ellie, Collette, Russell, Shelley with Olive, Shawn with Marshall.

Home for the Holiday!

Well, not exactly home, but out of the hospital!

I decided to sleep back at Marde's house last night, to get a good nights sleep, and to see my boys, who I hadn't seen since tuesday morning. It was wonderful, by the way. I think that is probably the first time I've been able to sleep through the night in about 6 months. Anyway, I was getting ready to head back over to the hospital this morning, to hang out with Ivy and pester the docs into letting her transfer back into the surgical unit, when all the sudden my phone rang. It was Ivy's nurse at primary's, he told me to come pick her up, they were letting her go home!! I seriously sprinted up the stairs to tell Scott, and was out the door in less than three minutes.

It took about a half hour to sign all the papers, and pack up her stuff, and we were back at Marde's by noon. What a marvelous day!! I couldn't be more happy that they let her go. Fortunately, I didn't have to see Dr. Jerkface again. Maybe when we have to come back in a few months I will have had enough time to forgive him for being a jerkface and I wont have to fight my impulses to punch him in the face, but for now, it's probably best that he kept his distance.

Here are some pictures from our last 3 and a half days at primary children's. Notice how happy Ivy is in every single picture. That is because she was being her normal, cute, NOT sick self! Enjoy.