Fourth of July!

 This was our third 4th of July in Oklahoma. 3 years ago on this day, I was in Utah student teaching getting ready to fly out and see Nick after being away from each other for some time. That summer I had to stay in Utah and finish teaching while he started Dental School. I flew in on the night of the 4th of July to visit him for a short break. I was so excited to see him. It was weird being away from him. I had never been away from him for more than 24 hrs since the day we met (and during those 24 hrs was when he bought my wedding ring). I remember getting to the airport and I saw him standing there waiting for me and I didn't know what to do. I felt like I should cry or something, but I was more just so relieved and happy to see him. I felt a huge smile come across my face and I quickly made my way over to him. I'll always remember all the 4th's we've had in Oklahoma because that moment started our first one here. And sadly, this could be our last.

I'm kind of upset we didn't get a family picture with Jacob in it. I don't know what we were thinking. He was down below us in his stroller. :'(

The day started out by going to the Edmond City parade.

 Mommy & Kate watching the parade

 Katelyn got a little bored and randomly stepped off to the side and sat on the curb. She didn't want to be bothered. She's kind of silly like that.

 She did enjoy most of it though :)

 There's the cute little guy just hanging out in his stroller

After the parade we hung out at home for a little bit. Ate popsicles outside. Then headed over to a friends' house for a BBQ.

 I tried to get a picture of both of them together. Well, no, I got a picture of both of them together. I should say, I tried to get both of them looking at the camera at the same time-- that's impossible for us.  

After the BBQ we headed over to a University in Edmond to watch fireworks. They put on a pretty dang good show. 

 Katelyn watching fireworks with her friends

 Running around before the show started

 Watching the fireworks

And that concluded our Fourth of July.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Half way- 6 months

Well, we've hit the half way mark through this year. I can't believe how fast time is going and everything that is changing. Here's a list of things I think of when I think about how far we are into the year:

1. Nick is a FOURTH year and is going to be graduating from dental school in less than 10 months.
2. Jacob is 6 months old.
3. Katelyn is almost THREE!
4. One month til the Morris family cruise.
5. My parents are moving this month.
6. We've almost been married for 5 years.
7. My birthday is next month.
8. WE'RE FOURTH YEARS!! Oh.. I already said that.

I can't believe some of the things that are going to be happening.

Mainly Nick graduating. I remember coming into the first year of dental school and seeing/meeting many of the fourth years and thinking "Man, I can't wait until I'm in their shoes." And now we are. And it all seems to have just come in the blink of an eye.

I can't tell you how excited I am at times to think about what comes next. And at times I'm nervous thinking about moving again, starting a new life somewhere else, making new friends, starting a real job. It all kind of gets me emotional, but mostly I'm just glad that school will finally be over. I'm sure if I'M glad, then you can't imagine how happy that will make Nick. I'm so proud of him, he has worked so hard. I'm most excited to be able to call my hubs DOCTOR NICHOLAS JENSEN! :) I think that's a pretty big deal.

Next, I can't believe this little guy is six months old:

He has developed such a loving, happy, smiley personality; just like his big sister. He smiles at us all the time. He is very ticklish. He sits up well now and even tries to crawl. He plays with his toys by himself and also with his sister. He loves when you play with him (maybe a little too much, if I leave his sight he gets a little upset!). We continue to love him more and more every day. I'm so happy he is in our lives. For both of my kids. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. I can't believe at the end of this year Katelyn will be 3! Look at that cootie patootie:

I'm very excited for the cruise we are going on with my family in August! Pics will for sure be coming later.

I'm excited/sad that my parents are moving! I really, really, really am going to miss Utah. I'm looking forward to visiting San diego though!

Ah! Five years of marriage. Nick and I always used to joke "OK, we just need to make it to five years of marriage and then we're good." Well.. we made it.. and I'm happy to say we're still doin good! I can't believe it's been five years though, that's a long time!

My birthday. The only reason I write about this is because for once, I feel like I'm getting old, like that number I'll be staring at for the next year is too high. And it's only going to keep going up. I'm sure some of you remember the day you thought the same thing.

-Lastly, I said it once, and I'll say it again, I'M SO EXCITED this is our last year of dental school!

365 days

I started this thing.."A Photo a Day". I posted a few on facebook, but then decided I didn't want to do that anymore, but I kept going with taking a favorite picture every day of each kid. I've really enjoyed doing it and I think I may make a book of each day of the year for my kids to see how much they've learned and grown throughout the year. So far I haven't missed any days (I hope I can continue that!) Here are a few of my favorites:

 Katelyn excited about the Roadrunner and Coyote characters mom drew for her

 Jacob snuggling with mommy

 Katelyn singing on her karaoke machine, we love listening, dancing, and singing to music everyday.

 Jacob peeking out from under a blanket

 Katelyn giving Leila a birthday kiss after Leila opened her birthday present from her and Jacob

 Jacob being silly by squealing and laughing to himself, and closing his eyes while do so

 Katelyn loves her little bro, she wanted to share her stickers with him, so she put one on each their foreheads

Katelyn using her binoculars she made on our nature walk

Pictures can bring back so many wonderful memories. It's amazing how fast kids learn and grow and I just can't help but try and capture all of these things.

5 Months!!

Jacob is five months old! Every month I think, "How is time flying by so fast?" and I probably write it on here every month too so you guys are probably tired of that. But really, how does time fly by so fast!?

He is such a cutie. He is so happy and is always trying to grab every thing I have. Yesterday he was playing with my mirror and I took it away and he got MAD! I kind of was in shock because Katelyn never threw fits like that until she was older like 15 or 18 months old and now this was coming from my 5 month old! Ha, maybe that's the difference between my boys and girls. Actually, I know it is, when Jacob wants something, he wants something, and he let's us know. He is rolling all over the place now. He still needs help sitting up, but he's getting there. He just gets so excited and like throws himself backwards so he falls down.

 

 His new thing is sucking on his hands and fingers. He does it ALL THE TIME.

 He giggles a lot when we tickle him. Especially his back.

 He has deep dark blue eyes and I just love them! Katelyn's are much lighter now, but they kind of started out the same way.

Jacob is a little chunker. People ask me if he's 9 months old and I laugh. Katelyn was always so little so it's kind of fun to have the opposite now. I've told my mom and siblings I have the best of both worlds. My kids are so similar, but in many ways they are complete opposite, starting with one is a girl and one is a boy. I have had a big chunky baby and a skinny delicate baby. Jacob has always slept SO well and Katelyn, well not as well. One has brown hair, the other blonde. One is super sweet and always nice and Jacob demands when he wants something. It's actually quite fun comparing the two. I Love them both so much.

Jacob loves it when I slowly say MOMMA or DADDA or KATELYN or JACOB. He loves watching me talk and watching my mouth move. It makes him smile and laugh. He likes to watch Katelyn and he's just so curious as to who this crazy little girl is jumping up and down next to him all the time.

He hasn't started rice cereal or anything like that yet, but I'm thinking I might start it soon.

His hair on the sides is getting pretty long again, so he may be needing his 3rd hair cut soon.

He scratches his legs up SO much. He is like always scratching. I'm not sure if it's because they itch or he just doesn't know what he's doing.

He wakes up happy and talking to himself in the morning and then when he's bored and wants to get out he starts screaming until one of us gets him.

He drinks mostly formula now. I was hoping to go longer with breastfeeding, but I feel like it's just not working with watching every thing I have to eat and wondering if he's getting enough or wondering if something I eat makes him break out. So I just feed him morning and night now. Good thing both my kids love bottles.

He takes 3 naps a day.

And I don't think he'll be trying to crawl this month. Katelyn took her first crawling movements forward at 5 1/2 months..Jacob can't even hold himself up on his hands and knees yet, haha. That's alright though, I like my immobile baby, it gives me more time to do things like dishes, getting ready, cleaning, etc.

Colorado!

During our break we spent some time in Colorado. It was, and always is, nice to visit there. Nick loves Colorado and he takes me to do fun things outside. I think my favorite thing was trying to fly Katelyn's kite outside. It was SUPER windy at his parents house and every time the kite would go up, it would dive straight back down. Katelyn and I would run away from it and scream. I love being outside with my little family, we have so much fun!

Here's some things we did: we went to parks, Katelyn and Nick rode horses with Papa, we got to visit with Hayley, Pierce, and Sydney, and we played games late at night. It was a lot of fun. The best thing we did was go see the Avengers. Both Nick and I love all of those super hero movies and so we LOVED the Avengers.

I don't know who's fault it is that we never get pictures on our camera while we're in Colorado, but I'm going to throw it onto Nick ;) I will leave you with this picture of us traveling back home to Oklahoma though. It was a LOT of driving. We calculated we did 3,000 miles of driving this trip. We were glad to be back home and the kids did great on each trip.

I'm hoping to get more pictures from Colorado off of Nick's phone... Oh if only I had a smartphone.. :)

Utah Visit

We just got back from a nice long visit to Colorado and Utah. It was so much fun and a bit sad as I said goodbye to my home in Utah for the last time. My parents are moving and will no longer live there after July. I'm glad we got to make it out one last time! I'm looking forward to visiting California (where they will be living after this) and starting some more memories with my family there. And maybe even looking at potential places to live-- ha just kidding (kinda).

Utah was so much fun, as always, well at least in my opinion! We did a lot of fun things and even got a surprise visit from Lu & Ellie who we didn't think would be there! I love Ellie and we became good pals during the short time they were there.

 We left on Sunday and drove half way to Colorado. We decided we would get a hotel since this was the first time traveling with Jacob (more an excuse that we didn't want to drive the whole distance ;) ). And we wanted to go swimming!

 Katelyn was a little freaked out, but she got some practice in swimming on her own.

 She held on VERY tight to Nick. Normally she likes it, I think she thought Nick was going to dunk her haha. I do the same to him too, thinking he might dunk me :)

 Then she practiced floating on her back-- didn't like that either.

 We played with sidewalk chalk outside with Isaac, AJ, and Lauren. They made up this game called Hot Scotch. It was pretty fun!

 Nick tryin out Hot Scotch (Yes I know what I'm saying, it's not hop scotch, they call it hot scotch ;) ).

 Uncle Ike!

 WE (especially Katelyn) love Uncle Ike. She asks me about him every day. And I'm not lying.

 Katelyn loved being able to play outside on the grass

 Jumping around!

 Playing outside

 Me and my little girl

 We went to visit the State Capitol in Utah. It was, no joking here, the first time I've ever been. I insisted we go take pictures.

 Our little family in front of the Capitol.

 Having fun with Dad outside

 Kiddos

Riding bikes!

We also went up to the City Creek mall & Lu took some pictures of us with her awesome camera at the park.

 We spent so much time at the park. Picnics, playing, & walks.

 The grandkids love their grandparents..I promise :)

 Katelyn loves water! These were especially cool at the City Creek Mall

LOVE her! She's basically like my adopted daughter.

AJ & Lauren had their second reception while we were there. We were so glad to go and help out. All siblings are married now except Isaac; I'm waiting for the day that I can add his invitation to our fridge! I'm so happy for all of my siblings!! Married life is great and since we're the veterans at it I can give them advice right? :) Going on 5 years now and still madly in love.

We had a great time in Utah. I'm sure going to miss going to our house there and visiting. It's where I grew up.