Stylin' Brynlyn

I had so much fun with Brynlyn and my camera today. She was feeling so sassy with those green heart sunglasses on her head that it was making me laugh. What a darling and she's getting so big and so grown up...

April activities

April has been such a fun and busy month, so far. Here is a recap of what we've been up to lately...

Mike and Ashlyn (along with 30,000 of their closest friends) ran in the Pat Tillman Charity 4.2 mile run at ASU. They loved it and had a great time. Ashlyn was really spent by the end of it, but she stuck it out through the entire course. They are already making plans to run it again next year.

Coloring Easter eggs is always a messy highlight of our month. The girls were loving every minute of it and Ashlyn thought she was way too old for this activity so she chose not to join in on the fun.

Easter morning was extra fun this year because we got to spend the day watching General Conference. Definitely a highlight of the year. Mike was so excited for the girls to go and find the hidden eggs and to check out their baskets that HE woke everyone up. Such a cute big kid...

Our good friends Marlin and Chris went out to celebrate Chris' birthday so we got to have fun with their darling kiddos so they could enjoy a dinner out by themselves. First, we played Frisbee Golf at a course nearby and it was so fun! (Of course I completely forgot to take my camera.) It was so windy that day so it made for a wild and crazy game, but the kids loved it. Then we headed home for dinner and more playing. Happy Birthday Chris!!!!

Zachary and Katelyn J.

Kyleigh, Mike, Lauryn, Ashlyn and Katelyn P.

Brynlyn and baby Marlin (MP3 is what we call him) relaxing to some Mickey Mouse.

Ashlyn was chosen to be the Student of the Month for March in her class and she was presented with a certificate at the daily Flag Ceremony. Their awesome principal, Mr. Lee, always presents this to the kids then hangs around for a photo shoot afterward.

Each month the school focuses on a new virtue and the virtue for March was compassion. This is what her teacher said about her: "Ashlyn really cares about the other students' feelings. She is a peacemaker in our classroom and is liked by all of the students. March's virtue was "compassion" and Ashlyn has been blessed with a lot of it. Ashlyn has a sweet and caring personality."

Congrats Ashlyn! We're proud of you.

Ashlyn with her buddy Jade and Brynlyn

We had so much fun at our school fundraiser at Skateland! This is one of our most favorite places to go. The girls love it, and I think Mike loves it even more!!! The girls met up with a bunch of friends and had a great time.

We were so lucky to have Ashlyn's friend Kendyl come and stay the night one night because her parents were out of town for a wedding. We loved having Kendyl come! She's so darling and such a wonderful friend to Ashlyn. Kendyl, you're welcome back anytime!!!

We have a little bird next in our topiary tree in front of our house by our door. This bird has come for about 3 spring seasons in a row. She created a safe little nest and layed 6 eggs and they all hatched! It was fun for the girls to watch this process. The pictures are a little hard to see, but it was the best I could do because the nest was so safely tucked inside the tree.

It's Spring in the Desert, and the Desert is in bloom! Our neighbors have this little cactus and these beautiful flowers bloomed on it. I missed taking a picture of the first bloom of flowers because they only last for about 24-48 hours then they die. So when I saw another bud bloom, I raced over for a picture. It's just so pretty and the picture does not do it justice at all.

Are you ready for some news???

Are you ready for some big news???

Are you really ready? Are you sure you're ready?

Don't ever say I didn't warn you...

Okay, well here goes...

I went to my baby doctor today and he did an ultrasound and guess what???

We're having a........

GIRL!!!!

Wahoo! Daughter number 5. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that I'm going to have 5 daughters.

Really, honestly, think about it. How many people do you know in your life that have the privilege of raising five precious daughters of God. I don't know too many families with that many daughters. But the ones I do know are absolutely incredible families! We really have some wonderful examples to follow, so thank you for that.

So after some initial shock on Mike's part, he started to get used to the idea. I wasn't so shocked because for quite a few weeks now, I have been feeling quite strongly that it was a sweet girl. I have slowly planted little seeds to Mike and my girls preparing them for this fact, but (honestly) they were still all hoping for a boy. But Mike is getting used to the idea and he is excited for another daughter (and he even gets to name her. Lucky duck!)

Here's the story on that one...

When we were first starting to think about having kids, our deal was that I would name our girls and he would name our boys. Well, WHO KNEW that BOYS were NOT in our Family Game Plan. So I have basically come up with the other girls' names (with Mike's full approval on each of the names, of course). Now, Mike gets to name our baby daughter, (but I do have some veto power. ha ha)

Every time I go and get a pedicure at the local salon, the girls there always tell me that if I just "have one more daughter, it's considered good fortune in their culture for a family to have five daughters." Now, I have never found any proof of this to back it up, but I'll take it! I could use all of the good fortune I can get. ha ha

So anyway, we'll be just like Elizabeth Bennett's family in Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice." Mr. Bennett had five daughters, and so maybe I'll start calling Mike "Mr. Jensen." ha ha

Just wanted to share our fun news with you all! And once again, we continue to live in a very pink world.