The dangers in our unlanscaped backyard abound but this little guy will find them regardless of how safe any area is. In this case he was jumping onto the swing, tummy onto the swing, over shot his aim and ended up face down on the dirt. After a lot of blood and bruising we realized that it was a pretty good scrape. That lovely scrape turned into an even lovelier scab that he scratched at in his sleep... yes, you can imagine. That's our Evan.

Beauty Shot

Need I say more? My little girl smiling happily on a work in the yard day. Hmm... I wonder how that worked out.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

For Mike's 38th birthday little Mads orchestrated a lovely party. She was in charge of the decorations, the type of cake and her own homemade gift. She encouraged her brothers to make their own gifts as well. Daddy had a great time and really enjoyed wearing the birthday hat she picked out just for him.

Almost Ten Months

This baby took a great liking to being pushed around on this little car. You wouldn't be able to tell because of the permanant fixture in his mouth, but he really did like it.

My Garden Runneth Over

So what if I don't have any tomatoes, my garden is fabulous. We probably had over 20 ears of corn (although they weren't very good) and I will have so many stalks to decorate my front porch with come fall. I have canned a bunch of pickles so far and have had more cucumbers than I know what to do with. My green beans are lovely and the greenery climbing my trellis is doing fantastic. It makes me so excited. I have some cleaning out to do and then I can add my homemade compost and get ready to plant some fall veggies!!

First Day of School

It is hard to imagine it is here again. Another school year starting, another set of everything to learn. More homework, more projects, new sight words, more artwork. It means fall will come and soon it will be winter. That right around the corner spring and baseball and then it is over and my babies are another year older and in the next grade, wearing the next size in clothing....Sometimes I want to bottle it up. And sometimes I want to send them off to school.

Evan packed his backpack with glue for his first day of preschool. At preschool he cried for most of the morning and then got a lot of love from Teacher Nessa who promised to be there again for him on Thursday.

Ethan was all smiles, no nerves and ready to go this morning. He walked to the new school with Dad and all the neighbors and was off before Mike could even tell him good bye.

Madeline started her day at Foundations Kindergarten. She was very brave, very excited and mostly concerned about the items in her backpack and how many of them she would be able to come home with. That was really all she was worried about. She waited bravely beside me , kissed me goodbye when the whistle blew and was off.

Late night swim lessons

Madeline is playing soccer this season and all Ethan wanted to do was take diving lessons. So while he practices every night, Evan goes to a swim lesson (or sits and watches his swim lesson) and Mads sits on the bleachers and wishes she were in the water- except on the nights she is at soccer. She was so patient waiting for them to be done... and a little sad too.

Ethan from the lower spring board.

Evan getting ready to go home.

Baby Number Four

I never would have let this happen with my first three, but heck, I was washing dishes and he got away. When I turned around, well I just got the camera out. He screamed when I moved him away so I let him crawl back again and shot video of it. I kept thinking, it's dirt, he'll clean off. And then I completely removed everything he was wearing and washed him down. I know my friend Tanya has got to be cringing as she reads this.

Scott's Flat

Our weekend camping trip took a little detour- like a three hour one once we arrived at our decided campground and it was FULL. We headed back via the "scenic route" aka Mike's adventure all the while promoting how much fun it was to go on an adventure like this and arrive at another campsite at 10:30 at night! Whew.. Thank goodness for our tent trailer. Twenty minutes and the kids were in bed, still asleep. The weekend was fun and once again the kids were begging not to leave.

Complete Defeat

I can't even say we were a block from home when the heat and distance got to her. So much for a fun, evening walk to the park. It was really just a lot of complaining and sadness. Although... the way home, downhill, proved to be a much better time of things.

The Jensen Family Get Together

A rare occasion when all four siblings are in a photo. I did get the shorter twin. (Note: His rudy cheeks are due to the evil poison oak.)

Tree People

The gathering place of little and big kids. A perfect cypress tree to climb in.

It only became a problem when they got stuck- as was the case with Evan. And by being stuck I mean seriously tangled up in a web of branches. How he got himself into that I will never know.

Evie Bear

Evan and Dani at Santa Barbara Mission.

Cheeking it up for the camera!

The Santa Barbara Coastline

The windblown beach hair.

Watching for dolphins and seals.

Daddy introduced her to the sling shot over at the polywog pond we found.

Mission Santa Barbara

Here is what our kids do in a cemetary. Climb on things. We had to work on the voice level and where we walked.