After a LONG journey, we are settled.

We have now been in Bismarck, North Dakota for nearly four weeks and fairly settled.  We are diving into activities and school work since we've been sort of 'off' for about a month with packing and moving.  I think we are all enjoying the normal rhythm of our school, work, errands and outings.  Packing and being in upheaval is not that great on three young kids, so it is great to being back in the normal swing of life.

Since arriving in Bismarck we have been overwhelmed with the incredible welcome from our new church family and the amount of great homeschooling families we have meet.  It has been an tremendous blessing and answer to pray for our family!  We have joined a homeschool P.E. class that meets two times per week and at our church there are a handful of families that are in our stage of life that homeschool also.  We are so very thankful for all of this!

We are settled in a cute but small rental house near the YMCA, so we are excited to get involved there during the upcoming cold months.  Also, we are beginning to look for a house to buy, so we are praying that God would bring us a great home for our family and that we would know it when we see it!


Here are a few pictures of our kids.  Cora 12 months, Evie 5 (kindergarten), Leyton 7 (2nd grade).

The Jensen Journey

Photo by Jared

Well, we've done it again.  The Jensen Clan is moving!

After a very difficult month of thinking, praying and soul searching we have decided to move to...wait for it...Bismarck, North Dakota.  Yes, North Dakota, the final frontier.

Let me explain.  We have not been looking for a job or place to move other than possibly buying a house here in Lake Oswego/Portland.  However, our former senior pastor from Omaha recently took a new pastoral position in Bismarck and through the grapevine we connected  about a worship position at his church.  Initially North Dakota was a pretty big deterrent, but once we visited and got our heads around it we began to get excited.  So, after a pretty long process (it's been well over 3 months) we are heading to Bismarck in October.



Jared's will be the worship pastor at the church.  The church is First Evangelical Free Church and it's an established church that is approximately 40 years old and has a Sunday attendance of 500-600.  We are so excited to be around our former pastor and his wife, Bob & Ruthie Thune, and be on staff with them again.



We would love prayer for these things as we transition if you are able to pray with us:

• Housing - very hard to find in Bismarck because of the booming economy
• FRIENDS!  We need friends.  If you've moved you know what I mean.  Please pray for each of our family members, that God would send us each one good friend.
• Classical Conversations - this is our homeschool 'co-op' and it doesn't exist in Bismarck, so I will be trying to direct a new community in the fall of 2013.
• Travel - that our kids would do well and we would all be in good health
• Emotions - leaving somewhere you love is hard.  Pray that each of us would deal well with leaving Lake Oswego as it has been an amazing home and community for our family.

 Thank so for keeping up with our family as we meander around the country!

Summer Travels

Oh...again thank you to the five people who read this blog!  I love reading yours and keeping up with your families, so hopefully I can catch you up on what we've been doing this summer.

We took a 1500 mile trip to South Dakota...in the car.  Yes, that is 3 days there and 3 days back.  As in and total of 6 days in the car with 3 small kids.  We survived and it was great until the last day in the car and things started to break down.  The trip was great though and we are thankful for the chance to see where Jared's parents are in there new house in the Black Hills.


Here are a couple pictures of our adventures.

Washington - swung by the Koethke's new pad, love it!

After passing by Washington, Idaho & Montana's signs we decided

 to stop, while Cora was sleeping and of course 

she promptly woke up the second we were out of the car.  

But...the trip must go on.

 Leyton getting in some good target practice at G&G Jensen in the Black Hills.

 A wonderfully restored one room school house in South Dakota -

 I love this kind thing!  Can you say Little House on the Prairie!?!

 Mt. Rushmore

Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns.  Jared and I went here 14 years ago, 

it was so fun to take the kids.  It's an amazing cave over 300 feet deep!  

 Leyton's souvenir from the trip, a wooden gun from Deadwood, SD.

Wowsers.  It's been awhile.  Can't say that I'll be back in full force, but I love all you friends who check this blog and want to keep posting pictures of our family to keep you in the loop since I am a partial Facebook boycotter.  Here are a handful of snippets from life.  Sadly, I'm giving you the Cliff Notes version, hopefully more details soon!  

Lego Star Wars has taken over our house...

T-Ball!  Rockin' the field!

Cora, ready and raring to get baptized!!!  Praise God for the gift of baptism!  

 Fresh from a bath and happy about it!

Cowboys on the run.

Leyton's temporary braces as he recovers from the bone above his front teeth being broken and his tooth being knocked out of the socket.  Yikes.  Praise God the tooth (left top front) is still alive.  Hoping that the tooth continues to live and we can fix it later with real braces.   

Chubby

Just thought I'd share the chubby lovin' we are getting with our little Cora.

Here and There

Thought it was about time to post a few pictures for the 5 faithful friends who check this blog! Cora Jane (nearly 5 months) is getting so round and cute and full of fun these days! We all just love her so dearly and can't keep our hands and kisses off of her. She brings so much sweetness and delight to our days.

Leyton is full on into Legos and Star Wars. There is just no stopping the power of those two things on a 6 year old. It's-just-too-strong...

Evie is turning 5 next week and so fun and cheerful. She is such a crafter and loves her baby sister so very much. She is often heard saying, "Cora is just so cute, I can't stand it!".

Cora and her cheeks.

Cora and I at Fort Clatsop

Jared took the kids to Mt Hood and went tubing at a resort.

Winterland grand slam.

Leyton + Legos = pure joy

Evie is so quick to laugh, I love that about her!

Cora, our little sweetie.

Smiles and Cycle Cross

That Cora is so much fun! We are getting some smiles lately and we are loving them.

Also, here are a few pictures of our kids doing a cycle-cross race. They did awesome and had so much fun! Mud, barricades and finish ribbons, oh ya!

Sorry for the short post, but having 3 kids is keeping me hoppin'.

Evie, Leyton & our friend Gabe at the starting area.

Evie

Leyton, edging out the big girl!

Look-Alikes?

Our sweet little Cora is nearly 6 weeks old and getting nice and chubby, just the way we like 'em in the Jensen household (as if we have a choice in the matter). The past week we've been seeing more and more little smiles and can't wait for some giggles to start soon. Our family is having so much fun with her, having a baby in the house is just plan wonderful.

I have thinking she looks a lot like Leyton did as a baby and I found this picture of Leyton at about the same age that Cora is right now and was shocked with how much they look alike at this age!

Can you tell which is Leyton and which is Cora?

Cora Jane

Our baby girl, Cora Jane, was born last Tuesday morning and came into this amazing world safely and beautifully! Praise God, I went into labor 1 week before my scheduled c-section date, so we headed to the hospital in the middle of the night (thank you Julie for coming over to watch our kids at 2am!!!) and she was born at 4:53am via c-section delivery weighing in at 8lb 3oz.

We've been home since Thursday night and she is doing great! Our kids are adjusting well and we are so thankful to have my mom here to help us, she drove over on Tuesday and the kids have been enjoying some precious time with Farm Grandma.

Our wonderful Daddy and Cora in the hospital

Big brother with TWO little sisters!

She does a lot of praying...

Big Sister Evie. She is precious with Cora.

Girls Shirt Dress

Recently, I checked out the book, Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts from the library. It's been such a fun book to get ideas from! One of the easy projects that I knew I could pull of quickly before our baby arrives next week was the Girls Shirt Dress, for Evie. Sadly, I just donated about 10 old dress shirts of Jared's to Goodwill and was forced to go buy one. Ya win some ya loose some. All in all the project cost me $6.91 for the shirt and sewing notions (double fold bias tape and thread), not bad for a fun project and a cute dress for my sweetie!

So, this morning I decided I wanted to get this made, and here is the final product. It took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, so it's a quick, easy project. If you hubby has some spare shirts that need to be retired this is the project for you! I will say, I think the pattern template is prefect for size 4-6, anything much bigger and you need to modify the pattern.

21 Days and Counting Until Babycakes #3 Arrives!

My Son Is All Boy

Have I mentioned my son is a serious mountain biker at age 6? This is the mountain bike we got him for his 6th birthday in June and he and Jared have been tearing it up ever since. There are a handful of short trails through the forest area near our house that the two of them frequent, with Evie on the trail-a-bike behind Jared. Yesterday he did a 'jump' in our backyard on a ramp Jared built for him and he said, "that was a sick jump!", I honestly don't know where he picked up that lingo, but it made me smile.

In other news, the crib is up and 28 days and counting.

Can you tell this boy means business?

Swim Lessons

At the kiddie pool on the lake.

Getting to swim in the deep part of the lake with their favorite lifeguard.

Our kids had three weeks of swimming lessons on the lake this year and it was the prefect way to end our summer. Strangely the weather just got warm when we began the lessons the second week of August and it was amazing the entire 3 weeks.

Nearly each day Jared walked down to the lake from our church (a 2 min walk) to have lunch with us after lessons and see the kids in the water. I have to say, some summer experiences are just magical, and this was one of those times for our family. We all had a blast and it was so fun to be on the lake each day and get to spend time with Jared.

Baby countdown: 32 days and counting every single one.

Here I am... in all my glory!

Summer Round Up

At Grandpa & Grandma's

On the farm in Idaho.

Camping in Eastern Oregon. I sure love these two kids.

Girls are Reigning at Our House!

We found out today that our newest family member is a girl! We haven't said much about our newest babycakes until now, but our third baby is due the first part of October, so I'm just at the halfway point now.

Today was also our sons 6th birthday...more on that coming soon!