Jakers is 3!

Jcob turned 3 (yes, at the end of September, but here it is.) Jacob wanted a Lightning McQueen birthday party, so we had some race car cupcakes on a racetrack...


Here, let me help you take off the paper... and the candles.

Grandpa made a race track for the kids to play with!


Each of the kids painted a little race car.

A little birthday attitude from our brand-new three-year-old.

Nothin' like spending the rest of your birthday in your birthday-suit. (No guests present.)


Jacob is an energetic little jokester. According to the pediatrician, he is off the charts in his verbal skills (what's new around here) and so we enjoy listening to the kids pretend-play and hearing what they come up with. Even though Dan expresses his dismay when Jacob dresses up in full princess attire, Jake is all-boy: climbing, vehicle sound effects, rude humor, dirty fingernails, wrestling moves on any living object. His latest trick is to pretend to zap us with laser beams (complete with "psssshhhh" sound effect) if we ask him to do something which does not suit his fancy. Stink bug. We love you, Jacob.

Hefty Blog Entry

Hi everyone! We need to catch up, so here's a fatty entry to let you know what we have been up to since we graduated and moved from San Francisco. So, if you do not have the time or the interest in a long entry, I don't blame you.

For those of you who are looking for a little free entertainment, read on for a peek into our family adventures. In this picture, we are moments before driving out in that huge moving truck you see behind the kiddos! Someday, we are going to look back at how little they were when we moved.



We settled into our little home in Carson and did lots of playing around this summer. Here's a picture of Dan to prove that he had time on his hands....





Over the summer, we did a lot of gardening and playing in the backyard. Since the kids haven't seen the sun much living in SF, they liked enjoying the yard in their undies (two out of three photos, the one on the slip-n-slide I included so you would know that our children actually DO own bathing suits).






When we would garden, the kids got a kick out of finding ladybugs and then holding them FOREVER. McKenna was explaining to Jacob how you need to be gentle with ladybugs and that he probably shouldn't hold them. He indignantly put his hands on his hips and said "But I'm a good ladybugger!" That's right, folks. He is pretty good at buggin' the ladies.

Here he is watching his ladybug. They would drop him in the grass accidentally--"Where did my ladybug go?"--the poor thing would think that he got away--and then, "Oh, here he is!" and they would scoop him back up for twenty more minutes of climbing all over their hands.


We went to Lake Tahoe a few times....




We visited Dan's family in So Cal. Here's one of the kids' favorite activities: riding Grandpa's electric chair around the park.




We spent a day at Disneyland with Grandma and Papa Joe! McKenna got some one-on-one time with the princesses! She was in heaven! (Jake was busy riding the train with Daddy.) In her sugary-sweet voice, each princess would talk to McKenna and ask her questions and tell her to "use her princess smile" for the picture and "we could be sisters because you have pretty blond hair just like me" and McKenna ate it up!



Hannah and Daddy at D-land.


We'll see if Papa Joe is so eager to climb in when she's sixteen...


Talk about crazy drivin'...

Grandma and sweet girl.


Mischievous Mickey...


Done for the day...


Look at these pretty aunts just lavishing attention on Hannah! I think she loves it.






The kids had swimming lessons when we got back to Carson...




Hannah met her Great-great Grandma. Here she is with Grammie (my mom) and Great-great Grandma Jensen.


We hiked up to Angora Lake....
(Note the big stick that little boy is holding. Typical.)



We went camping at Sugar Pine Point (up by Lake Tahoe), and between the hammock, dirt, tent and s'mores, the kids couldn't have had more fun! Here's Hannah snuggling in the sleeping bag in the morning--it was cold! She's not quite ready to get up yet.









Aunt Lauren visited and we went to the beach and rode the steam train...




McKenna started a Pre-K program. First day of school! She absolutely loves it, and we've been told by other parents that their girls come home talking about McKenna. Apparently she's a star. The teachers say she is far ahead of the curve and quite ready for school (but in Nevada, you must be five in September to start Kindergarten and McKenna's birthday is in October).


Dan started work! Long time, no income. Dr. Budd is in da house!! Dan is working four ten-hour days at a salaried position at a clinic and the other day each week at a dentist's office in Carson that we are looking to partner into. We made a banner for our Daddy to come home to after his first long day of work.



Here are some of my favorite random photos from the last few months.

McKenna lined up all her babies:




Three kids in the tub! We need a bigger tub or we need to stop at three. No, I am not asking for your vote. :)



Hannah and Mommy


Hannah vs volleyball. So cute!



Hannah thinks she's a puppy. She spent the afternoon with this slobbery sock hanging out of her mouth. She was as happy as could be.


Pretty girl. She is getting so big!



Three happy kids.



We are happy and healthy and busy. We are enjoying living near family and hope to see more visitors, so come on over! We will try to be better about keeping up our blog. I am sure we will be posting again soon since we just had Jacob's 3rd birthday and McKenna's 5th birhtday. We send our love to all.

Graduation!

Dan graduated from Dental School on June 14th! Who would have thought we would ever see this day?! I was so proud of him. Dan not only recieved his doctorate that day, he was also awarded the Gardner Award for "scholastic achievement, service to the community, leardership qualities, and demonstrated concern for others". They keep this award (complete with cash award) a total secret until the graduation ceremony and they said it is the most prestigious of awards given within the UCSF Dental School. And Dan got it!!! Out of 80 students, Dan is THE COOLEST! I have to admit that I always knew it.

Dan has done such an outstanding job balancing school and kids and Church callings. He is so wonderful and this is a great chance for me to brag about my dream guy. I love you, Dan. Great job!

Gone Fishing!

As you read above, I recently graduated. The same week, my brother finished his orthodontic residency. As a graduation present, my Dad sent us fishing. We chartered a small boat and went out to different locations in the Bay: Alcatraz, Angels Island, Emeryville shelf, etc. The day before, they were catching 30 lb halibut. Unfortunately, we didn't have that luck - We only caught one 23 in. 5 lb halibut, but we did catch some good sized California Striped Sea Bass. My biggest catch of the day was a 31" 12 pound monster. What a fighter! I had know idea there was such good fishing in the bay or I would have been going for the last 4 years. My brother and I each took home about 6 lbs of fillets. Delicious! I cut the fillets into nice thick strips and dipped them in a milk/egg mix, then coated them with a combination of flour, corn starch, fresh ground pepper, and various other seasonings. Then let it fry in a 50/50 mix of butter and extra virgin olive oil. Boy, that was a good lunch. Courtney got a little more fancy than me. If you want a really good recipe for potato, Parmesan and fresh tomato sea bass, ask Courtney. I have no idea what she did, but it was yummy.

Being caught off gaurd

Some of you who have talked to McKenna recently know that she is a little different verbally. She speaks with the diction and vocabulary of an older child. This often gets me (Dan) in trouble because I tend to expect older behavior from her, when she is still, emotionally and physically, a 4 year old. However, every once in a while, she catches me off guard with an insight I would not expect from a four year old. For example, I called in an order of Tiki Masala (a type of Pakistani Curry that is popular here in San Francisco). We hopped in the car and drove down to the restaurant, and Courtney jumped out to pick up the order while I circled around the block. When I first pulled away from the curb, McKenna said, "Daddy, don't leave Mommy!" I reassured her that I wasn't going to leave Mommy, and that we were simply going to circle around the block and pick her up. She understood, and after we had come around the block to pick up Courtney, she said, "Daddy, silly boy. That wasn't circling around the block. That was more of squaring around the block, wasn't it? Because you turned four times, right? It was a square." I'd never thought of it that way, but her view of the world is untainted. It is kind of refreshing.



She also views everything through a gospel lens with a tremendous amount of faith. She asked me today if everything dies. I told her that only living things died, not rocks for example, and not Heavenly Father and Jesus. She said, "Well of course, they already died Daddy." So we discussed what kinds of things were living and what kind of things are inanimate. I told her plants and animals were alive. And she said, "And people". I said, "Well people are a kind of animal. We are just a little smarter than all the other animals." She said, "but little fish eat the little bugs. Big fish eat the little fish. Animals eat the big fish. Bigger animals eat the little animals." Then she thought for a minute and asked, "If we are animals, what eats us?" "I told her that nothing eats us because we can think better than any other animal, so nothing eats us." She nodded, and responded, "Right, because we are people, not animals." Note that through this entire morbid conversation about death and being eaten, she was not afraid in the least. She has accepted the fact that some day she will die, and go home to Heavenly Father, where we will live again as a family. But, as she says, "that isn't for a long, long time." Her entire view of the circle of life is filtered through the gospel lens, and with that perfect faith comes a perfect lack of fear or dread. She amazes me.