Jensen Family Pictures

When I see this picture I think of the quote, "All because two people fell in love". All of these amazing people are a part of my family, because my mom and dad fell in love. These are my parents, siblings, inlaws, nieces and nephews.
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My parents and siblings
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The Jensens in order oldest to youngest. My parents #1 and #2 then their 11 children.
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Me and my siblings.
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The always classic grandparents with grandchildren picture. Gotta love the babies freaking out because their parents are 10 feet away from them.
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Everyone with their matching family reunion t-shirts. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have a family reunion without getting matching t-shirts.
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Fleur-de-lis

The Fleur-de-lis is a must have decoration in every Louisiana home. I went to a painting class yesterday with some girls and new friends from Brody's work. We all painted a Fleur-de-lis. Now I'm looking the part of a Louisiana gal. Well at least my house is.

t-shirt

I love this t-shirt, because I think it's hilarious that it embarrasses Brody. I got this shirt for Baylor to wear when he was little and now Chase wears it. For some reason Brody gets embarrassed when the kids have worn this t-shirt in public and everyone reads it and then looks at him. I'm kinda bumbed because it's gotten too small. It's pretty much a belly shirt on Chase now, so I may need to find a replacement embarrassing t-shirt.

Surviving the summer

It's the hottest and most miserable time of the year here in Louisiana, but we are surviving by going to the pool, splash parks, the lake, and staying in A/C play areas like the mall and children's museum.


Well besides surviving the heat we have started experiencing what life will be like in Louisiana. We have met so many nice people who have invited us to dinners, parties, and play groups. The people here are great, but we are still not sure what to think of Louisiana. I am convinced Louisiana is unlike anywhere else on the planet. I was raised in Houston, which is only 2 hours away, but it is totally different. I think the only similarities are the southern hospitality, climate, and pride. I know Texas is known for its "Texas pride", but Louisiana is right there with them. I had no idea how proud they would be of their culture, ancestry, and food. I have already learned alot about what it is to be Cajun, Acadian, and even a Coonass. I have learned what a fleurs-de-lis is. I have learned about different foods, such as crayfish, gumbo, turducken, boudin, alligator, jambalaya, and I'm sure there is more to come. I have learned that if you pronounce words like they are spelled than you are saying things incorrectly. They have some very interesting names for things. They call a county a parish, and the parish that I live in is named Calcasieu, pronounced (Cal-cu-zoo). Everything has a french name, so I'm having a hard time knowing how to say things.
We've only been here a few weeks and we have already had great and interesting experiences here in Louisiana. Lake Charles is a nice, family friendly town although there are a few dumpy areas too. We are looking forward to our new adventures here in the south.

Advertising

This is Brody's 3rd week as a dentist. He has loved it! He has been doing awesome. It is so rewarding for him to be in a profession that he enjoys so much.

The dental practice Brody is working for is very much into advertising. They often use the newspaper, yellow pages, internet, and magazines. Brody has been in the newspaper several times since he has started with them. He will also be on the cover of a local magazine from mid August to mid September. The magazine will be in gas stations, stores, restaurants, hotels and other local businesses. He just finished writing a bio to put on their website, so he should be on the website and in the yellow pages shortly. Here are a few of his newspaper ads.
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This ad was an entire page in the Sunday newspaper. Brody even got recognized at the bank the day after this newspaper was issued.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This has been the main ad they have been using. It has been throughout the newspaper several times for the last few weeks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was front and center of the A section last week.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think it's been fun seeing Brody in ads. It's almost like having a celebrity husband. He's up there with Brad Pitt now, right?

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Jensen Family Reunion

We had a family reunion at Aspen Grove a few weeks ago. This place was so much fun for our big Jensen family. It took a lot of time, preparation and organization to get ready for...of which I did none of. I just showed up. Now that's my kind of trip. We had all 53 people in my family there. That included my parents, their 11 children, our spouses plus 29 grandkids. Here are some pictures of our trip.
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The adults did fun activities all day while the kids did activities with their age groups. So I basically didn't have to worry about my kids from about 9-4 everyday. Durning the evenings we did family activities. They had one evening of family games. They had another night that was like a carnival with a western theme.

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Here are some pictures of the beautiful Utah mountains. Some of our family took a small hike to some water falls. The more experienced, or as I like to put it, crazy people hiked to Alpine peak which was a 15 mile hike. I'm not crazy enough to do that so here are pictures from our little hike to some waterfalls.

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Here I am rock climbing with my sisters. Are you impressed with how brave and high we are? Oh, don't be because I actually cropped the people who were standing on the ground out of my picture to make us look higher.

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I may be a little bias, but I think I have some of the cutest nieces and nephews ever. Baylor and Chase are so luck to have such fun cousins.

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Brody took Baylor fishing one day. If you caught a fish they would prepare it for you to eat the next day. They didn't catch anything tough.