God Wink

I love the term "God Wink." I learned it from a dear friend that described it to mean 'something that only God could orchestrate.'

We experienced one of those moments just yesterday and I couldn't wait to share.

Back in May, our Director of the Kids Ministry at our church asked if Little JCrew would read the scripture for a service during the Summer. During the past two summers they have involved the kids ministry in reading a scripture during the service. Little JCrew jumped at the opportunity. We were then provided dates during the month of July that would work for us and we were then told our date and told our verse to rehearse.

Yesterday was Little JCrew's turn. I was torn about videoing the process, because I like to be "in the moment," but I turned my phone on and tried to do both.

I showed the video to my mom when she got home. She watched it and then asked if I knew the verses. She then explained the importance.

I have a brother that died when he was seven. I was born shortly after his death (that is a whole different God story.) Before his death, he learned Philippians 3:12-14 to earn his badge for Jet Cadets. Those verses were read at his funeral.

And here Little JCrew is, 1.5 months shy of his seventh birthday, reciting that same verse. No one knew this story, yet those verses were chosen for the Sunday that my little one was chosen to serve.

*God Wink*

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

December 2013 Update

I owe you a quick update....

All is good here at the home-front. Dad came home a week ago and is improving every day.

Little JCrew had pajama Day at school. They had pancakes for lunch and lots of fun.

Later that night he played tug of war with Kates. When she is on a carpeted surface, she can win.

When she's on the tile or wood floor, she fights, but is pulled around by Little JCrew. When she wins the tug-of-war, Little JCrew gets very upset.

Mr. Brigglesworth is a ham. We knew that early on. He smiles at us all the time. He's just a happy baby.

He's learned a couple words recently; one being "uh-oh." He likes saying it so much, that he creates opportunities to say it.

I admit, it's cute.

These kids ... we just laugh all day long!

A quick update: All that potty-training we attempted at the beginning of this year was not a waste!! This morning I left Little JCrew undressed from the waist down while I was getting ready. I knew I could trust him but I had no idea he would come around the corner and tell me he had to use the potty! I asked him if he needed to use the potty and he said, "Yes!" And he did. We were already going to start the training up again over the Christmas holiday. I guess he heard our plans and took the initiative. Go, Little JCrew!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving 2013 Recap

Whew! We had a great week! My little surprise last week that I mentioned was that my sister was coming into town with her three girls!

It was the best surprise. Mom had no idea. Kendal and the girls came to my house first. I then called Mom to ask if I could borrow an egg. We loaded into the car and had Caroline go knock on the door. Mom was expecting it to be me.

She couldn’t believe it!

My sister, Kerry was also in town. She comes twice a year to hang out with my mom and see the boys. She didn't know Kendal was coming either. I was told to keep it a secret, and I did. Only Mr. JCrew knew.

We had a great time letting the cousins play. Little JCrew immediately loved Camryn!

She was so great with him and they played non-stop. They are ten years apart, as she is the youngest cousin before Little JCrew came along. I think she liked not being the baby of the family for once.

Mr. Brigglesworth just loved the attention from everyone.

We loved having a house full of guests and lots of mouths to feed.

 Thanksgiving was a lot of good memories.

We even took advantage of the opportunity to get a group picture!! (Minus my brother and sister, Kyle and Logan.)

And a shot of the grandparents will their grandkids (minus the two oldest, Carley and Alex.)

I was dancing behind the camera trying to get the kids to smile. Dad started dancing with me, and I caught it. 

Mr. JCrew and I even snuck away for an hour to participate in Black Friday. We came back empty-handed, but it was fun to see the chaos / organization!

Dad went back into the hospital, but I think this time is already better. My two sisters are nurses and they were concerned. They checked him into the hospital Thursday night and he is doing better.

It’s actually very frustrating and sad. We have put our trust in the doctors and been let down. Each time we leave the hospital, there has been no diagnosis and no plan to keep him out of the hospital. Just weekly doctor’s visits!! My sisters said this circle was about to stop. It also helped that one of my sisters is an attorney AND nurse. She used that power to benefit my dad. People are listening! We have high hopes for him coming out and having a plan that will keep him out of the hospital. I won’t go into details, but there were signs the doctors missed. And things we listed as family illnesses that were ignored as a possible diagnosis.

Moving on, having my family here, we had a lot of fun. I put my nieces to work picking up sticks in my yard! My sisters, Mom and nieces helped me put up the Christmas decorations.

It was actually a fun time. No one minded helping and it went so much faster with extra hands! And everyone said that was one of their favorite parts of the week!

We really did enjoy having everyone at the house. Little JCrew has never said the word “girls” before, but when we got home from running errands the day they left, he was asking to see the girls! I told him they were going home and not here anymore. He was sad. Then Mr. JCrew asked if we needed to adopt some little girls and he responded, “Umm, yes!” We’ll get right on that!

Our last surprise of the week came Sunday. My oldest niece, Carley came to see my dad.

 It was a brief stop on her way home to Florida, but my parents were thrilled to see her.

All that was missing from a week full of family, was my little brother and sister. I just love having a big family. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful time filling your bellies and your hearts. 

The Jenson Boys September Update

My little boys are growing up! Little JCrew just turned two, and Mr. Brigglesworth is less than three weeks away from turning one!

Little JCrew and Mr. Brigglesworth are at my favorite age. Well, it's my favorite that I know of. Each age gets better and better!

Little JCrew LOVES to read. I found him in his room on his own with the train book he loves.

He and Mr. JCrew read it a lot. It's one of my favorites, too!

Story-time with these boys is awesome. Mr. Brigglesworth is more into it.

Their 'Animal Faces' book from Aunt Logan is a favorite. Lots of laughs come from that one.

Mr. Brigglesworth gets better and better with his walking. I put shoes on him now to go to church. Now that he wants to walk everywhere, his feet get dirty. He wasn't too sure about the shoes. (Shooies, as Little JCrew calls them.)

He loves to walk holding on to our hands. When we say we're going to go brush our teeth or go upstairs, Mr. Brigglesworth is all about walking like a big kid!

Little JCrew started preschool after Labor Day, going two days a week. I wasn't planning to do it this soon, but an opening came up while we were on the waitlist and I didn't want to miss the opportunity. So far, he loves it! He kissed me many times when I picked him up the first day. I took that as a "Thank you" for letting him have so much fun!

The boys have so much fun playing together. Mr. Brigglesworth is in love with his big brother.

He can be discontent with Mom and Dad, but as soon as you let him be with his brother, all is right in the world.

Mr. Brigglesworth had a growth spurt, but he's still not as tall as Little JCrew. One day, I'm expecting them to be the same height.

Mr. Brigglesworth can multi-task!

I love this boy's crazy hair. His bed-head is fantastic. It's getting to where it lays down a little bit more, but I just love it!

I'll leave you with a video of Mr. Brigglesworth and his improved walking skills. We see less of him using the wall as security and more walking on his own to get to different rooms. It is so neat to see him and Little JCrew walk side-by-side! Little JCrew doesn't know what to think yet!

And another video of Little JCrew singing along to his Little Einsteins video from the Williams. Annie asks viewers to help her purple plane lift off by singing and raising their arms up.

Okay, one more video. I know the family loves these. Here is Mr. Brigglesworth talking on the phone. He and Little JCrew knew what to do with a phone VERY early on. The aim is way past his ear, but he still gets the concept!

I'm ready for the weekend. We are taking to boys to the Oktoberfest activities, and I think they'll like it. They may be too young for the rides, but they love being outdoors with lots of people.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Video Updates - Colors, Dancing and Walking

I have more videos to share.

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I am in love with the above video!! This was taken at church last Sunday. I wish I knew how to download it to save, but embedding it in this post is good enough for me right now.

He's already a performer. I was known to break out into song and dance in my preschool years. I think I even got an award for being the entertainment in class. HA!

Little JCrew had his two-year old doctor appointment. We are rarely early and I was excited to think they might call us back early. Instead, we watched others come in after us and get called back. So, we played a game in the waiting room. After we had been playing a while, I decided to record it. He lasted just a little bit longer before being distracted.

His favorite color is orange. He loves to find everything that is orange in the produce section of the grocery. And at the doctor's office, they asked what color room he wanted to go into... the Orange one!

And I finally got a decent video of Mr. Brigglesworth walking. He is improving everyday.

I feel like time is slipping away. My boys are growing up. I just want to play with my boys all weekend and soak up the innocent age they are right now. Discover along side with them and enjoy their smiles.

Happy Saturday!

My Boys ... and Girl!

My little boys are growing up!

Little JCrew turned two and became a big kid all in one day. He is saying so many words, I've stopped keeping track. Up until three weeks ago, I was able to write down his new words in his memory book. Now I don't have space for all the words.

For my birthday, Mr. JCrew surprised me with a new puppy!

Her name is Kates.

Little JCrew can say her name so well and he loves to call her.

It's so different to say "she", "her" and "girl" in this house full of boys!

At last week's party for Little JCrew, I set up the duck pond early to see how hard it would be to get the signs in the yard. Little JCrew loved playing in the duck pond and I couldn't get him away.

Mr. Brigglesworth is a ham! He is on the move. The day after Little JCrew's birthday, he took his first steps!

I haven't caught it on video yet, but he's taking those steps on his own. In the video, you can see how well he can keep his balance.

At the dinner table, we're working on him feeding himself.

He loves food and he makes a mess to show his enjoyment!

And if you ever see something random posted by me on Facebook, the blog or by email, it would be from my assistant, Little JCrew.

Caught him on my Facebook account last night.

I'm very excited realizing Monday is a holiday and football season has started! UCF played Acron last night with a 38-7 WIN! Go Knights!

Happy Friday, y'all!!

Giggling Warms the Heart

Now that Mr. Brigglesworth is interacting with us more and more, it's so much fun to watch the brothers play together.

It's more like Little JCrew doing his own thing and the little brother crowding his space. Mr. Brigglesworth wants to know what his brother is doing at all times.

Here, the brothers are playing in the dogs' crate. Little JCrew loves to get in there. Mr. Brigglesworth took the opportunity to shut the door on him. They kept opening and closing it and the giggles became contagious.

I for sure thought fingers were going to get smashed.

Little JCrew's favorite song is "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." His 'piano' plays ten seconds of that song. The piano has to play through its cycle of songs, but once he gets back to his favorite song, he gets excited and starts dancing.

In this video, the piano plays its part, and Mr. JCrew does his best to finish the song. Little JCrew just can't get enough of it.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Animal Lovers

I grew up around animals and loved it. But I can’t claim to be the animal lover in my family. That goes to my sister, Logan. She runs and manages a sanctuary for once neglected and abused farm animals. It’s called Kindred Spirits Sanctuary.

Logan has always been identified as an animal lover. Each Christmas she asked Santa for an Ostrich! She is such the animal lover, that she is a devoted Vegan. It makes sense.

I knew I would raise my kids around animals, and I’ve had so much fun seeing Little JCrew’s love for animals grow. We have two dogs that get all kinds of crazy attention from the little guys.



Little JCrew was young when he started hugging his play animals.



He even tries to feed is play animals.



He loves our dogs and gives them hugs and kisses.



Yes, in the above picture he is attempting to shave Anderson. I don’t know how friendly this looks. But, I promise, the guard was on and once I snapped the humorous picture, I took the razor away. Maybe he thought it was a scratching tool?



I have been so impressed with how our dogs are handling two kids. Mr. Brigglesworth pokes them in the eyes, puts his finger up their noses and pulls their ears.



And they still come back for more.



This love extends to all kinds of animals. He talks to and pets the fake bunny in my mom’s yard. He points out every bird that flies overhead.



My sister sends videos of the animals she works with. On Monday’s she volunteers with exotics, so we’ve seen pictures of tigers. One of his favorite videos was of the cows. They came out to see him. He immediately started “Moo’ing” back to them.

Kindred Spirits Cows

His current favorite animal is the cow. If I were to throw him a party for his second birthday, it would be cow-themed. He has toy cows that he puts on the window ledge at my parents' house. They look out the window and are there when I pick him up.

I can’t wait to take him to the zoo. And I can’t wait to take him back to the Sanctuary. He was just a wee one when we were there last. And he slept through a lot of it.





I can’t claim to be the animal lover like my sister, but I do love animals. Animals make me so happy, and it makes me happy to see my boys enjoying them, too.


Have a great weekend!!

(Note: All pictures are of Anderson. Colby is still warming up to the kids, but is doing a really good job. He’s just camera shy and Anderson wants all the glory!)