Christmas Eve Party

I had heard about the Jensen's Christmas Eve festivities and traditions from the time I started dating Taylor two years ago. This year Taylor and I were in Cincinnati to enjoy it together. The decor and ambiance and not to mention the delicious food made me feel like I was in a Christmas celebration captured in a magazine.

Before dinner there was caroling and a talent show. Taylor had worked all week on his slide whistle performance which was a hit.

Look at that dining room. How could you not feel the magic of Christmas eating in that dining room. Nan sure knows how to through a party!

Cincy-style vacation

When in Cincy, there are some essential things to do. Greaters, Skyline, and Montgomery Inn are all on the list. Also on the list are sleeping in, movies, Wii, and eating! Here are some snippets of what we've been up to so far:

1. Skyline-- a MUST.

2: Greaters Ice Cream. We got it the first night here! And the second. Yum!

3: the Nutcracker Ballet at the Arnoff Center downtown. Dad had some extra tickets to the matinee and they were out of town, so we made an afternoon date out of it! The audience was filled with kids, which added to the fun and excitement of it. 

4. Tree Worship. We have a great tree to worship this year!

5. Preparing our christmas eve program songs/pieces/poems, etc. We, per K-Train's request, are singing a song all together. It isn't turning out so well, but hopefully some Christmas spirit will make it better than it is!

Christmas Ornaments

Every year in the Jensen home, we children get a new ornament to commemorate something that has happened in our lives in the past year. Ornaments that I have gotten in years past include a car, an eagle, a tent, a bike, a school bus, a penguin, a suitcase, and many other unique and special ornaments. This christmas, as you may have guessed, Hayley and I got a nice wedding cake ornament from my mom.

As we unwrapped it, she told us the story of Dani and Jared's wedding cake ornament that they got when first married. This ornament fell victim to a fallen-over tree years later. Unfortunately, neither Dani nor my mother can find that same ornament. With that tale in mind, Hayley and I decide to protect our new little cake.

The next night, we decide to take the ornament out of the box. My mom takes it to cut off the tag. Unfortunately, the string she was holding as she cut was attached to the piece she cut, so the ornament fell and shattered on the kitchen floor! After feeling terrible for about 30 seconds, she jumped online and a minute later announced that a new one of the same ornament was on the way! Crisis averted.

 Following my mother's tradition, I also picked up an ornament for Hayley. Surprise! Its another wedding-themed ornament.

AFG Christmas Party

Hay and I originally booked our flights to be home in time for the Montgomery Ward christmas brunch that was suposed to happen last Saturday. Unfortunately, they moved it up a week, so we missed it. But, thanks to my clutch dad, we got tickets to the annual AFG Christmas party. It is a swanky event put on and they always have a concert. This year? Tim McGraw. To make matters even better, we scored seats in the first row! It was a blast, and we were impressed. Hayley was starstruck. Every time I looked over at her, she was singing right along to all these songs.

After the concert, we had the chance to go take our picture with Tim McGraw. Hayley told him it was so great to meet him. He was a nice guy and we now have a picture of us with good ol' Tim McGraw! Thanks, Mom and Dad! After the picture, we had a solid buffet dinner. It was delicious! We decided we need to come to cincy during the holidays more often!

Finals are DONE!

It was a great week for Hayley and I. We are DONE with finals! And, I daresay, I think we did pretty well! We both feel pretty relieved and are ready to relax! I am particularly relieved as the two finals I wrote for the 2 classes I TA for went over well and were not disasters. Now I have to grade 50+ exams, 25 6-9 page papers and 4 8-10 page papers. That can all wait till next week.

Yesterday, Hay and I flew out to Cincinnati for Christmas. I took advantage of already being done with finals and went skiing with Eric. It was a great day-- we found lots of good snow everywhere we went. We got pretty worn out again. Maybe we are getting old? When we were freshmen, we used to ski from the second the lifts open at 9 AM and were the last ones off the mountain at 4:30 PM. We didn't stop for lunch, and felt guilty when we had to stop to go to the bathroom! Now we get on the mountain around 10 and are done between 2 and 3. We are getting soft!

Yesterday, we ended at 2, and Eric dropped me off in a parking lot in Sandy where Hayley and Chelsea/Clayton picked me up and we headed straight to the airport. Later that night, we landed here in Cincy. What a great way to cap off finals week! Poor Hayley had to take one more final, so she had a very busy day. But-- time to RELAX! With Greaters :)

Finals!

The semester is soon coming to an end, which means that its finals time! Hayley and I have done really well in our classes this semester, so hopefully that means that we won't have to study as hard for finals! Thats wishful thinking, huh? Hayley and I generally eat pretty healthy food, but during finals week and this past week, we don't quite as much. Hayley caught me in my onesie sneaking some chocolate chips. Turns out I had done this at an earlier point in my life as well...

As tradition mandates, I went skiing with Eric yesterday on a reading day. We were THRILLED to have 7 inches of new snow while we were skiing! It made for one incredible day. We were spent--we are skiing some really challenging stuff and pushing ourselves hard. We didn't have nearly as many rock scrapes and scratches on our skis as we did last saturday when we went up for the first time this season. Having a day like yesterday this early in the season is absolutely welcome! We put up our christmas tree to celebrate the winter season:

Earlier this week, I had a big moment in my life. Ever since I was a freshman, I had the goal of winning a BYU intramural champion T-shirt each of my four years. My freshman year, I won it with our men's volleyball team. Sophomore year, it was co-ed soccer. Junior year it was Dodgeball. And now, I am proud to announce that our men's soccer team has won the upper division soccer championship!!!! It was a crazy run to the title. Since we lost our second tournament game, we had to beat this team twice in order to secure the title. We did so, and it was a proud proud moment for us. We entered the tournament as the #1 seed, something I had never had happen before. We had some moments of drama and controversy on the way to the top, but the T-shirt feels good to have. Here is the proud picture:

Now its time to start crunching for finals! (PS. Hay and I are voice-less today after an EPIC comeback victory from the Cougar's basketball team against Utah last night. Wow!)

Organized Living

We love our cozy little apartment in the Enclave Village. It is a singles place with 4 married apartments. It has a pool and a hot tub and underground parking. We really like the space we have-- we've decorated it and organized it to the max to fit all our stuff in! Hayley went to town on organizing the fridge and cupboards yesterday, and they look so good! So, here are some pictures of our place:

Thanksgiving Part 2 and a New Piano!

We flew in to SLC on Friday evening and were picked up by Malcolm and Melanie who were in town for thanksgiving. We went straight to Happy Sumo for some yummy food. We ate a TON of sushi! I am a proud VIP member at the Happy Sumo, so we get good deals, which makes it easy for us to eat more than we should. We made a quick stop after sushi so I could do my business while the Greaves went and saw the Temple Square Lights.

On Saturday, we all hung out and had a nice Skyline lunch. Yum! We hosted Malcolm, Melanie, Chelsea, Clayton, Kalle and Roxi. Yes, I did feed some Skyline to her. She liked it! (Of course!) It was one of the better batches of Skyline I've made.

We are also excited to announce that we have a piano in our apartment! Malcolm and Melanie drove up Hayley's Clavinova from Hemet this past week when they were here for Thanksgiving. We have LOVED it so far-- its good to have around, especially when we have a few minutes and want something other than school and cleaning to do for a bit. We'll try not to drive the neighbors crazy!

Trip to Portland for Turkey Day

Hayley and I got to go to Portland for Thanksgiving! We lucked out because Dani's mother in law had a companion pass on Delta that she was trying to give away. We both got up there on a direct flight from SLC, so that was great. We don't have Friday classes, and only were going to miss 1 class on Monday of Thanksgiving week, so we got up there early. On Friday, Hay and I had some exams to take. We finished those, and then I had a soccer game at 6:15. We won (I had one heck of a game!), and then we hit the road to the airport. We flew out at 9:20 and made it to Portland.

On Saturday, we hung out with the twin twins for most of the day. In the afternoon, we went with JJ, Jacob, and Claire to the Columbia River Gorge. It was beautiful! It was a bit rainy, but we had our raincoats and were ready to go. Jacob and Claire had their cameras and were sure to document each angle of the places we went. Unfortunately, I could not get their pictures to post here. I'll let you imagine. We visited several waterfalls, including Multnomah falls, Bridal Veil falls, and Latourell falls. Here are some pics:

Multnomah:

 From the bridge:

Latourell Falls:

 We found a nice log, so we kinda owned it:

Bridal Veil Falls:

For more on our trip to the Gorge, see JJ and Dani's blog HERE

Saturday night, JJ, Dani, Hay, and I went out for some dessert. We went to Salt and Straw-- Hipster Ice Cream in Portland. It was interesting-- they had some very unique flavors including Stuffing, Salty Caramel (super salty), Minced Meat, Pear and Caramelized Ginger Sorbet, Strawberry balsamic with Cracked Black Pepper. Some of them were delicious, some were so-so. Hay and I got Cinnamon Snickerdoodle and the Pear Sorbet. The waffle cones were a MUST- they were so good!

Sunday was a normal day, if you consider being on a church pew with twin twins normal. Church was fun, and they were sure to promote the Turkey Bowl. I had an interesting lesson in Priesthood on what I call 'Husbanding.' I like husbanding for now-- we'll wait a bit to learn 'Fathering.'

On Monday, we went to a sushi track with JJ for lunch. We then went back to his office for another installment of the Jensen Brothers' Pingpong Duel. I'm sad to report that JJ won 2-1. 

On Tuesday, Nana and Papa came! We liked having them with us. I was a touch 'gamed-out' by the older twins, so it was good that they had some new competition with Nana and Papa there. We went out to a DELICIOUS Peruvian restaurant. We had empanadas, scallops, seared tuna, salad, and other good dishes. YUM! Afterwards, we went to Papa Hyden's dessert restaurant. They have a 2 page menu! I got a hazelnut meringue cake and Hay got a 'baked alaska'-- ice creams, meringue, fudge, and cake. Here are some pics:

On Wednesday, we went out the the OMSI museum with the whole fam. It was really cool! We played around and found some cool things to keep us busy. One of the exhibits they had was the Grossology section. It taught us why we burp, fart, and sneeze, amongst other things. Turns out I am healthy for doing all of the above! It was good for me to validate my insecurities about those things. We had a good time, and the twin twins had a blast. See JJ and Dani's blog for more on their adventure there.

 On Thanksgiving day, JJ and I woke up early for a good Turkey Bowl game on a non-rainy day (the first since we'd been there!). JJ and I represented well-- we were on the same team. He had 2 interceptions and some nice defensive plays. I had a kickoff returned for a touchdown and 5 receiving touchdowns. Some of them were pretty legit catches in the endzone. It was a highlight reel day for both of us out there!

The food was absolutely delicious. I won't mention the turkey since we decided that was the least important part of the meal. We had yummy rolls, super sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, pomegranate grape red salad, stuffing, and I'm sure I'm missing some things. It was delicious!! And the baby twins were asleep the whole time! They missed out!

Post-Thanksgiving, we all hung around and planned out Black Friday pick ups. The girls headed out to the outlets and had some good success. JJ and I went to Target for our first black friday experience. We waited in a relatively long line outside the store and then made it in, where I had to wait another hour or so to make my purchase-- an iPad for Hayley for Christmas (shh! Don't tell her!) ((She knows I got it-- we decided to buy it together)). It was fun being there for black friday.

On Friday, we made a trip to Costco and Target to finish up our black friday shopping, and then, after Claire lost her second tooth of the week, Hayley and I headed to the airport to end our trip. It was a blast and we had so much fun!

We loved hanging out with these babies and laughing at all the crazy things they do. Here are some of our favorite pics:

They were good little travelers:

 They loved getting into their old rockers. Liam was a good little texter from his posted-up position.

Hay liked dressing Kate up in this hat. Got to get ready for Hilton Head!

Intramural Update (again)

Quick update:

Flag football, Ultimate, and Kickball are all done. Sad day.

Soccer, however, is a different story. We went into the tournament ranked #1 overall! Wow! We won our first game but lost our second. It was so close-- I could have played a bit better. The other team was full of floppers as both Hayley and I told the refs several times. Oh well. We dropped down to the loser's bracket and have won two games in a row. The most recent game was my personal best game in a long long time. I had several sick diving saves and 1v1 saves. It felt good to have a good game. On the field next to us, a kid broke his leg and the bone pierced the skin and was sticking out. Ouch. Hayley came to the game a bit late and saw the ambulances and such and her first thought was 'Taylor No! We have a flight to Portland tonight!' Fortunately, it wasn't me. I'll keep you all posted on my intramurals!

Happy Sumo

One of our favorite places is Happy Sumo. They have SUCH good sushi, and we get super good deals because we signed up for their 'VIP' club. Basically, we get half off of most of the rolls, which means we get to go to town whenever we get there. Chelsea and Kalle gave us a $50 gift card, so we invited Chelsea and Clayton to go with us. We ended up getting $96 of sushi for $52. It was awesome! We got lots of yummy rolls, including: Venus, Vegas, Jezabelle, Bacon, Nigiri, Edamame, and some other good stuff.

BYU Basketball Home Opener

Another season has started here at BYU! Hay and I love BYU basketball-- we go to most of the home games and watch a majority of the away games as well. We have a strong liking for basketball because that is where we met- camping out for basketball games 2 years ago during the big Jimmer year.

We got there 2 hours early because there was a 'big announcement' for the student section. Turns out they have named it the ROC-- roar of cougar. I kinda like it. It needs to develop into the name-- I feel like any name for something like a student section sounds tacky until the students grow into it. We did well last night-- balloons, cardboard cutouts, and free t-shirts were all there.

We're excited for this season-- we are hoping to see a better year than last year, but we'll see. We have a ton of young talent, so it'll be interesting.

Provo Beach Resort

Yesterday, I went with BYUMA to Provo Beach Resort. We had to go to an hour intro to Qualtrics which had catered pizza and a cool intro/building tour. After that, we headed on over to the resort. We started on the high ropes course, and then found our way to the Flow Rider-- indoor surfing! Surprisingly, I'm not too bad for an inland-er. Pics to come...

Election Day

It was a rough election day. We went to our friend James's house where he had soda, donuts, and other treats for us to help us ease the pain. Our excitement faded and faded until it broke. It was a sad night. Good thing we had tasty bevs and tasty treats!

Murder Mystery Party!

This week we went to a murder mystery party at Colton and Camille's. It was so fun! I was Mr. Rojas and Hay was Mrs. Buttercup. We had to go in costume and act our part. I was a shy horse jockey and Hay was my mother who was overly protective of me. Colt and Camille had fun mocktails and had fancy foods for us. We had a blast-- and the kicker is that no one was the murderer! The guy committed suicide! We're all off the hook!

Happy Birthday, Hayley!

For Hayley's birthday, we escaped up to Park City for a night. We left after I got out of work and drove on up. We made our first stop at Main Street. We walked up and down looking for something to eat. We found the place pretty empty because it is offseason, and it was a Tuesday night. Lots of restaurants were doing half-off specials, including some yummy-looking sushi places. As we continued, we found a place that advertised $9.99 all you can eat Pad Thai. We had been talking about wanting that, so it was perfect. What was even more perfect is that it was in a bar attached to a Thai restaurant. A perfect setting to celebrate Hayley's 21st birthday! The Pad Thai honestly was the best I'd ever had, and I managed to get a plate and a half down before throwing in the towel. Hayley got through about 3/4ths of hers. We were so full. We had thought about getting Pad Thai, then taking advantage of the half-off sushi deal after, but we were way too full!

After dinner, we went to the Tanger Outlets. We found some good stuff. Hayley was on a shopping spree-- she had gotten money from Nan and from me to spend on some new clothes. I've been feeling self-conscious that I have more clothes in our closet than she does. We found some good stuff, then headed off to our hotel at the Canyons. It was really nice and had an enormous pillow-top king bed. We  had a little balcony that looked at the mountain and it was just perfect.

The next morning, after watching the news on a real TV (we never do that!), we headed back to the outlets. We both found some good stuff and returned home happy. It was the perfect mid-week getaway!

Tay's Birthday Bash

I have the best wife ever. On my birthday, I came home from class at my normal time of 5. When I opened the door, I saw our coffee table full of sushi, hotdogs, popcorn, gatorade, and cakepops. There was our tent pitched in the living room with our lovesak inside it and the projector throwing the World Series game 1 on the wall. AWESOME! We spent the night watching baseball and talking baseball. It was a great way to celebrate my 24th birthday!

Third Annual Art Party: Part 3

That time has come. The Third Annual Art Party: Part 3 happened this weekend. For the record, this is actually the third year we have done it. Eric did a great job organizing it and hosting. Hayley and I made a field goal and football field with a pistachio football. We labeled it "BYU Kicker Tryouts." We won an award for it-- always a proud moment at the art party. The party had nice cheeses, quiche, fancy bread, Martinellis, and other yummies. Well done, EZE!

Cornbellys Date Night

This weekend, we went on a fun triple-date. We went with our good bud, James Grant, and his date. We also went with another good friend, Weston and his wife. James and Weston are friends of ours from school last semester. We still get together to go to Sonic every month. We decided we needed to go to Cornbellys to celebrate fall. It was fun! We played games and did the giant corn maze-- it was a Romney head or an Obama head -- and played cornhole. The most awkward part was leaving the place. There was this weird fella wearing a chicken jockey suit (as in it looked like he was riding a chicken). We would go and ram his front part into people and say weird things, like 'I dont like it when ugly guys date cute girls' and such. It was very strange. We timed our exit just right so that we did not have to be violated by the walking chicken jockey. All in all, it was a fun night. Of course, we had to top it off with 711 hot chocolate. So tasty!