A poem Tim and I wrote for Jared's student of the week assignment for school. It's been "a while", I know understatement, since I've posted anything

I know a boy who can swim in the sea

or kick like a champ, or pop a wheelie

If you want to see a boy run like a Cheetah

who will run really hard in a race just to beat ya

You could travel far and search quite a while,

or just look up front at the boy with a smile,

Jared's his name and playing's his game

Unless he's needed to work just the same

in most circumstances

to pick up a shovel, or load up the dishes

He'll stack all the wood and bring in some more

to the house for the fire to keep us all warm.

He loves to work hard along side his Dad,

and sing and sing and that makes Mom glad

Sometimes when not running or riding his bike

or kicking or throwing a ball with delight,

He may be out sailing, or reading a book

or riding a horse by himself for a look.

He's as strong as an ox as you probably know,

but, his strength from within is what helps him to grow.

I'm sure when he's taller more handsome and cool

he'll also be helpful and kind to you too.

There's more to this story that hasn't been told

We think he's done quite a lot for a 7 year old

This is our boy we're presenting to you

We love him so much, and we'll end with: Adieu.

Gingerella

Jared woke up sick today and threw-up this morning. He was laying on the couch when he asked, "Can I have my Gingerella now?"

Chicken Soup for my Soul!!

I'm dragging my sick aching body over to the computer because I have to post this. My wonderful husband made HOMEMADE egg noodles and chicken soup from SCRATCH for his sick wife tonight! Man, I love him.

Gideon has four teeth now, the maxillary central and lateral incisors just came in.....sorry about the lingo just keeping up with the other day job ;)

I learn so much from them...

When I was tucking Jared in tonight I asked him if he had said his prayers. He said he had. I then asked him if he had listened afterwards to see if Heavenly Father wanted to say anything to him. He paused shook his head then popped it up and said, "You know when I put myself on time out yesterday because I was angry, I said a prayer in your room and he talked to me then." I asked him what Heavenly Father had said to him.

"He said, 'I'll help you, when you do the bad stuff'."

Blessing Day for Gideon

Not bad for his first time with a bow

Tim made the string for this long bow, strung it, and custom made the arrows to fit Jared all himself. I was impressed. We were so proud of Jared who did such a great job on his first try. Tim is an excellent archery instructor.

Pictures of Gideon taken by the ever talented Kari Hennefer

We would like to introduce you to Gideon Hans Mortensen

Gideon was born Wednesday June 17th at 9:04am. He was 21 and 1/4 inches long and weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz. The doctor said if I had waited a week he would have been a 9 pounder. The blessings of having to have a c-section. This was my first scheduled c-section. Jared was an emergency "c" having the cord wrapped around his neck and Mathias was an attempted natural birth but he wasn't descending and I wasn't progressing so they took him after 17 hours of labor. They say you have a 10% chance of a normal delivery after 2 c-sections so we figured we better just do what the doctors advised and schedule the third. It was kind of nice knowing when we were going to have a baby and plan ahead. I was relatively rested and had all my strength going into surgery. Recovery has been wonderful and I am healing very nicely. Tim has been better than absolutly amazing, if that's possible. He has taken over everything and has been super dad and mom together. I couldn't ask for a better support and love. Gideon is a very happy baby. He is predictable, which is a good thing right now, and I only have to narrow it down to poopy, hungry, or tired if he cries which isn't that often. He is alert and follows my face around when I talk to him. Jared and Mathias are so excited to have a new brother, all our neighbors and Mailman have been well informed by them that Gideon has arrived. They are going to be great big brothers. We feel very grateful for this new spirit in our home. Tim told the boys the story about who Gideon was named after last night and brought me to tears. The Lord really does want us to remember with Him on our side and with our obedience anything is possible.

The Saga of the Boat with a father and two sons under the age of 5

How do you describe the excitement of sailing to a 3 and 5 year old. I love the whole idea of sailing but, until my kids are a little older, I won't feel comfortable taking them on a long cruise. But.....one day I had a brilliant idea. Why not have a sleep over on the boat while it sat on the trailer? Seemed like a great idea. I mean my kids are both experienced campers and have been backpacking overnight with Rachelle and I. They know how to sleep away from home in environments not entirely perfect and do great in the out doors. It has always been a joy to share these experiences with them. I thought a night on the boat with lights, a soft bunk, on a warm night would be a really fun experience. Rachelle was in the hospital recovering from the birth of our third son for a couple of days so I thought the timing was perfect. I brought it up to them and they were so excited. We went out there and weighed anchor, in the driveway, and started clearing out the sails and other bags in our Venture 222. We got the cushions wrapped in sheets and pulled the down comforters out. I gave each of the kids a flash light and we were ready. We went out at about 10:00pm and I got the kids settled. Mathias in the front V berth, Jared in the little bench bed, and I was ready to sleep tight in the converted dining table.
We were just getting comfortable when I heard Mathias rustling around in the front. That began the night I will never forget. He couldn't get comfortable and kept complaining of being "stuck". The cushions kept separating and he would fall in the cracks. Jared couldn't sleep on the bench so I traded with him. He was just getting comfortable in my nice big bunk when Mathias got out of his bed and said He couldn't sleep in the front. I asked if he wanted to sleep with Jared in his bed and he said he did. Well, the complaining continued about falling in the cracks of the big bed so I asked Jared if he wanted to sleep in the front and I would switch Mathias into a more comfortable position. Jared finally went to sleep and was out like a light, for a while. Mathias was sooo tired but would not fall sleep. After about 3 different lullabies holding his hand and having all the lights in the boat on I finally saw the droopy eyes and regular breathing that I was waiting soo long for. Unfortunately, Mathias likes to do gymnastics in his sleep and at one point I found him hanging half off the bed. I put him back up right and braced him in with a pillow. I don't want to know how he would fair in a stiff breeze and a rocking boat.
Finally, Sleep at 11:30pm. The dark was enveloping. With a start, the scariest words you can hear in the dark on a camping trip came to my ears, "Dad, I have to go pee-pee!" Mathias, Oh man, I threw off the covers fumbled around for some light which is always impossible to find in the dark on a camping trip, then lifted the seat cover on the port-a-potty and said, "Okay buddy we can go on the boat, fun huh?" To which he exclaimed at 1:00am in the morning, " No, I want to go inside!!!!" Ugh. I new my political skills would be put to the test. I was finally able to explain to him that he probably wouldn't make it to the house so it would be better to go on the boat. He finally relented and I thought that was pretty easy. Well, as soon as he was done and back in bed, he kept saying that his leg hurt and he wanted to get some different pajamas on. That was a contingency I wasn't prepared for, extra clothes. I guess he had a sticker scratching him in his pajamas. So, I stumbled onto the deck, climbed down the trailer, and carried my tired son to the house. I put some new pajamas on him and put him in his own bed and he fell right to sleep. 2:00am. I stumbled back out to the boat and fell into my larger bunk finally and turned out the lights. Thump Thump thump!!!! what was that noise? Again, thump thump. I turned on my flash light to see what manner of beast was beating the outside of the boat. Nothing. Thump, thump. What was that? Sleep was not coming so I listened to this obnoxious sound of the night trying to determine how I had thought this little expedition would have been so much fun. Sleep was just coming on when I heard the words, "Daaaaaaad, my head really hurts." Eh? , " How come Jared?" , " I keep hitting my head on the ceiling........and I have to go potty." At least with Jared he was excited to go on the boat, due to previous experiences. I turned him around on his bed to the higher roofed portion of his berth and he was comfortable again. and sleeping. I listened for a while and the sound of the thump thump was gone. At least I had found out what that was. Darkness, finally, at 2:45. My body began to relax and the sleep which had evaded me was finally coming into my grasp.
5:00am in the morning, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!!!!!!!!! That was so much fun!!!!!!!!!! Can we go in and tell everybody how much fun it was?" WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!!!! Again, stumbling off the boat as the grey of a new day dawned I walked into the house to find that all were sleeping peacefully, except Mathias, who had booted grandpa out of bed and was sleeping with grandma. Grandpa was sleeping on the kids bed in the other room. I told Jared to sleep on the couch for a while until everybody else got up and covered him with a blanket. I sat in the chair and fell into a fitful and uncomfortable sleep. Somebody, graciously covered me with a blanket later on but, I slept right through it.
Normally the smell of frying bacon wakes me up in a happy mood. The smell of bacon this morning meant that at any second UUUmmmFFF!!! It happened, my kids jumped on me and wanted to tell me all about how fun it was to sleep in the boat and they wanted to do it again. Maybe in a few years. On a much bigger boat. Further from land.

These beautiful pictures of our family were taken by my very talented sister Mandi at my parents house at Christmas time in 2008.

We are so grateful for such beautiful pictures. She did such a great job.

Last minute trip to Coloma to get away on a Saturday

Tim tried using the timer on our camera for the first time and it worked pretty good. Tim had to leap across the water to get to the rock just in time and I'm amazed it worked out.

We hiked up to the James Marshall monument and this is a view of the Coloma Valley, beautiful huh?

Tidepooling at Point Reyes with the Murdocks

The boys were so curious poking at the sea anemoni's and touching the star fish. This poor little crab was close to death so it was easy to grab him.

About a half hour later we were all wandering on the rocks pretty close to the water and all of a sudden an elephant seal pops his head up and stares at us. One of Casey and AnnaMarie's daughters was 10 feet away from it and was "encouraged" to run away when it started bumping it's chest against the rocks like it wanted to get out of the water. I guess they can be aggressive Tim tells us and by law you're supposed to stay about 100 feet away from them. I guess you can't help it when they come to see you. It was so cool seeing this huge wild creature so close.

Halloween

What a cute little tail

The King!

Mathias had a lion costume that I thought would have gone together a little more with Jared's costume but Mathias insisted on wearing last years dolphin one. The head barely fit that when he lifted his head it squished the corner of his eyes down. You guys looked great though, Mommy and her funny ideas.

Click here to see an inspirational clip about preparing for the Second Coming

Tim ran 12,500 lbs. of rock in wheelbarrow loads up a ramp in the first five hours of work today. You've still got it, Superman.

Mathias likes corn on the cob......

I was so impressed with our Captain Tim, he took this $2 boat from Wal-Mart and rigged up a sail and working jib, keel, and working rudder. Nice job, the bathtub was filled twice that night to make sure it worked. Good times.

BIG moth, I was proud of the boys for not being scared to touch it. Jared wanted to take it inside and keep it forever. I do have my limits.