Peter's Graduation

Joe's big brother Peter graduated with his Masters Degree in Construction Management from BYU. We are so excited for him and proud of him and all of the hard work he (and his family) have put in. We are learning more and more how "huge deal" this is, even tho we already think he's pretty awesome. (Apparently, it's been a significant number of years since anyone has finished a Masters in Construction Management at BYU due to the difficulty of the faculty and lack of good support. Most have dropped out and/or switched emphasis.) Pete's wife Marisa thew a wonderful and very fun party to celebrate his awesome achievement.The Jensen family made a new quilt for their bed and gave it to them at the party. I still need to get a good picture of it, because it is awesome and amazing! It was a lot of worked and turned out great! It has a little bit of each family represented, along with each one of their 5 kids.

The rest are just fun/cute pictures of Brek at the party. He was dressed in party colors - the blue and white in honor of BYU, and the orange is Peter's favorite color. And really, who can deny the fact that he is indeed cute AND clever. :)

With his awesome cousin Sara

Daddy's Toy

Brek was given this rocking horse. It was here when he and I returned from California. The exciting part about it is that this was Joe's rocking horse when he was a little kid.You can tell that he likes it!

Actually, his 2 favorite things about it are: 1) the handlebar that moves, even comes out, and sucking on it; and 2) standing alongside the horse (not riding it, mind you), and rocking it back and forth. It's pretty darn fun to watch, especially because now, anytime he finds things that move or rock, he will rock himself.

Trip to CA for Heather's Baptism

In April we made a quick trip to California. Well, Joe's end of it was really quick, as we drove out Friday, and he drove back home on Sunday. Brek and I were lucky and got to stay a week and drove back later with my cousin Emily. It was so nice to have time with family.Brek finally got to meet his cousin Annalies. She is about 7 months older than him. Their "play time" was really the first time Brek has ever interacted with another baby. Annalies taught him how to defend his toys, and ever since then he has been quite the bully when it comes to other kids. :)

Gotta capture that sweet Katie. She is such a good big sister to Anna, and loves her cousin "Baby Brek."

So, the reason we went to California is because my oldest niece (on my side of the family) Heather, turned 8 and chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She was baptized and confirmed by her father, my big brother Mark.

It was a very special day to share and be apart of with our family, and especially with Heather. We are so proud of her decision. We are grateful for her example. It is important to make good choices, repent of the mistakes we make, and do our best to be like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Here I am with Heather before she was baptized. This dress was the same one I wore when I was baptized. Actually, several of my cousins and my older sister Tracy also wore this dress. My aunt has embroidered all the names of those who have worn this dress for their baptism, along with the date they were baptized. It was very exciting for both Heather and myself to share this dress on such a special day!

We love you Heather! And we were so excited to be apart of your baptism day!

Picture Update: February thru March

Well, here I am, finally posting pictures from our past 2 months. Now that we don't have to send pictures every month to Brek's birthmom, I've noticed I don't take as many pictures, and I haven't been attentive to the blog. My apologies. It has been a busy time for us as well, so I'll just let that be my excuse. Brek has discovered hair, and he LOVES pulling mine. It must be in retaliation for everyone always touching his head. It's pretty cute watching him try and get the strands. He was definitely the driving force in getting my hair cut.
Brek loves, and I mean LOVES, cups. He sure thinks he's a big kid. He does pretty well if we only put a tiny bit on the bottom.

Just a side view

Gotta love that sweet face!

And that one too. Whenever I really just take the time to look at him, I fall even more in love.

Aunt Suzette introduced him to the piano. He had a look of pure joy when it first made noise.

Now, if anyone tries to play he insists on joining them, and then usually he removes your hands from the keys so that he's the only one playing.

Just capturing a sweet smile.

Daddy let him play on the computer.

For about 2 weeks Brek made this little "scrunchy face" and then would breath deeply through his nose. It was one of the most hilarious things I've seen. I wish he still did it.

why hello there.

I think he's getting sleepy.

Brek loves when Joe plays the tuba. In fact, he INSISTS on "playing" too, or at least touching it.

Gotta give all the important parts a good taste.

Yum!

He makes me laugh

Joe made this basket from strips of t-shirt. He complains that the cutting and sewing of strips together took much more time than the actual crocheting. We use it for Brek's toys. I think it's pretty awesome!

He got caught after his first time tearing apart the diaper bag. He also discovered his toes.

The man that helped us with our taxes gave us this GINORMOUS fortune cookie. He made it himself. It even had a fortune inside printed in size 40 font or something like that.

Brek enjoyed his portion of the cookie until he realized that his didn't "crunch" like mommy's and daddy's.

Here's another picture of a picture from his 6-month shots. This is his Christmas outfit that my mom made him. He technically matches all 6 of his little girl cousins. Sadly, we haven't all been together to get a shot of them, and Brek only fit his outfit for about 3 weeks. He's been doing some major growing.

We had Brek's first naked baby pictures done too. He had so many good shots that we only got this one. His little brown bum is so cute!And one more picture of a picture. I love this little collage of his "suit" pictures.

Sure do love my boy!

Helping mommy with the laundry

yeah, get me outa here!

Alright, there you have it! I still have more to update, but these millions of pictures are gonna have to suffice for now.

Brek's Blessing Day

The day after Brek was sealed to me and Joe, Brek was blessed by his father. Thanks to my Aunt Diana, we actually have the blessing recorded. It was beautiful.

Here's a picture of Brek with all the family members that were in the blessing circle. We also had a couple friends from Church that joined in, but we weren't able to catch them for the kodak moment.
Back: Dustin Belt, Great Grandpa John Bennett, Uncle Mark Biggs, Uncle Peter Jensen, Grandpa Guy Biggs, JD Bennett (Amy's cousin), and Marte Green (Amy's Uncle.)
Front: Joe Dixon (Amy's cousin), Uncle David Biggs, Uncle Matt Asplund, and Joe Jensen with Brek Jensen.

After Church we did our best to take some pictures. Here's Brek all studly in his white suit and the special baby blanket from Bethlehem.With Grandpa Biggs

With Grandpa and Grandma Biggs

With Grandma BiggsWith Brek's 3 Uncles - David, Mark, and Dustin

With Daddy

LOVE this picture!

With Mommy

Our family picture

After that photo shoot we changed Brek's clothes into a very special outfit, which of course called for more pictures. Brek was a pretty good sport through most of it.

I got several of these pictures from my sister

LOVE this one too!

This one makes my heart meltChecking each other out

Playing with Grandpa

I think this was about the time that he was DONE.4 Generations

With Grandma Great, as we call her

And with my Papa, who is now Grandpa Great

The rest of the pictures are from my sister - she's much better at capturing fun moments. These are from all throughout the weekend while hanging out.

We were SO grateful to Joe's sister and brother-in-law that let all of my family come and stay at their house so we could all be together and still have room to breathe. :) We had a wonderful time!Our first day together: Tummy time for grandparents and babies. That's my niece Aurora next to Grandma. Aurora is 5 weeks younger than Brek.

Showing off that cute brown body. Cousin love!
This was the first time Brek acknowledged another baby; he sure loves them now.Just a cute picture of Aurora and Brek
Hanging out on Sunday - me, my dad, and my oldest brother Mark.

And ending with a picture of Adelynne (dressed as Belle), Amy (dressed as Ariel), and Grandma (dressed as herself), playing Sorry.

It was such a wonderful weekend. And I LOVED being surrounded by my family - it doesn't happen enough! Wish we could have done more photo shoots with Grandma Jensen and all the Jensen family that was around too, but it just wasn't able to happen. But you aren't forgotten!