A Late Christmas Letter...

Dear family and friends,

It is time for the Jensen year in review! We are so blessed and are thankful for all of the wonderful experiences we have had in 2008. We have been living outside of Washington DC for almost 2 years now and we love it! We really enjoy being near all of the history, museums, cultural events, and beautiful scenery DC has to offer. We finally are feeling settled, after a corporate apartment and a 6 month lease on a townhouse, we bought our house in May. I am so happy to be settled and am making our house a home one room at a time. The entire house was white when we moved in so we started with the girls' room and are slowly starting to add some color!

Landon still works at Micron, thank goodness! This year Landon has had a few “super dad” moments including finally teaching Grace to ride her bike without training wheels and to go under water at the pool. He enjoys working with the 11 year old boys scouts at our church and filling in on the organ and piano in primary. He hasn't been traveling as much for work, which makes me happy, but he did get to go Italy and France (jerk).

I have been keeping busy with our three children Grace(6 ½), Claire (4 ½), and Miles (18 months). I think Miles the Explorer should count for two kids! I still enjoy reading, attending book club, photography, movies and hanging out with Landon or my gal pals. I have made some great lifelong friends this year. To echo one of them, I am truly blessed in my friends. Whether it is a girls' night, a movie extravaganza (hello twilight!) talking about life, or rocking out to music in the car these girls constantly make me laugh. When you don't have family close by, you make a family and these gals are a great support to me. Slowly I am starting to get connected on the internet the way all of my friends seem to have been for a long time. I joined FaceBook and got reacquainted with old friends and in constant touch with new ones, and I am also trying out this blogging thing :). You would think since I am actually a writer that I would have done this long ago. Don't expect too much at first but hopefully it will become a habit.

We have had the opportunity to see many new places this year: Virginia Beach, VA, Charleston, SC, Baltimore, MD, Williamsburg, VA, Alexandria, VA, Mount Vernon and many quaint little towns in Virginia. We also frequent DC and are loving exploring all of the museums and monuments. Grace and Claire's favorite monument is “the pinchy tower” which is really the Washington Monument, but the girls think the top looks like someone pinched it. So fun to hear the observations of the little ones. I should write a book about DC from a child's perspective, it would be so funny!

Grace is in 1st grade and is doing so well. She is a sweet girl with a big dash of sassy who loves to please. The 1st grade at her school was overcrowded so they hired a new teacher and added a new class. They asked each of the teachers to pick a couple students they thought could cope well with the transition and would thrive in this new environment. Grace loves her new teacher Ms. Putman and is definitely her little helper. Grace is all princess and loves dolls, music, singing, drawing, cooking and going to her dance class. She is a self proclaimed artist and has recently discovered that her new talent is ice skating. I took her in Utah over Christmas break and I have never seen her smile so continuously! She loved every minute of it, and was very good too.

Claire is 4 ½ and a very unique spirited and crazy little girl. She loves coloring, horses, animals, playing make believe and watching movies. She has enjoyed making friends at preschool and her Sunday school class. She can be happy anywhere and spends a lot of the day playing in her own little world. You can give her anything and in two seconds she will have a little story all set up and is playing with the characters. She often has a stash of interesting things in her pockets from an eraser to a diary lock that are her “property.” Claire has started to be difficult at bedtime recently. After we tuck her and Grace in we often will hear a noise in the kitchen or dining room and will catch Claire sneaking about. When confronted she will give us one of these seven excuses.

“I don't know how to close my eyes”
“My eyes don't want to stay shut”
“My eyes aren't tired yet”
“I'm scared to sleep alone” (Grace is on the top bunk)
“I had a bad dream” (4.2 minutes after I have said goodnight and shut the door)
“I'm thirsty,” followed by...
“My shirt is all wet, I need a new one” (from getting a drink, see #6)

Miles is 18 months old and is the cutest boy I have ever seen! He has the most adorable big bright blue eyes and it is hard to get mad at this angelic face even when he has pulled all of the wipes out of the brand new container or dumped the entire cereal box on the freshly vacuumed carpet. The girls love and smother him all day. He is my little explorer and doesn't sit still for very long.

We have been blessed to have many family members come to visit us this year. My sister even lived with us for 4 months! The girls had a blast spending time with Shelley and seeing her new baby Elsa. Landon has become quite the DC tour guide and amazes me with how he can get around so well. We love having visitors and are constantly trying to talk Landon's sister and her family into moving here.

We love you all and are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! The Lord has been so good to us and we thank him everyday for what we have. I hope that your 2009 is even better than 2008 and that you and your families are happy and well.

Love,
The Jensens
Landon, Jamie, Grace, Claire and Miles