Easter Weekend

I wrote this awhile ago... but I'm just getting around to putting it up. It can't wait any longer and I keep forgetting to get our dinner pictures off of Nick's phone.. so I stole a couple from my friend Amy's blog.. (hope you don't mind Amy!)

This was a really great Easter weekend for us. Having Katelyn around and spoiling her a bit with Easter eggs filled with candy made it fun. I decided on Saturday that it might be fun to do a little Easter egg hunt for her and invite some of her little friends over. We had pizza, did our egg hunt, and just had a good night talking.

She loved going after the eggs! She wouldn't really carry her basket. She would leave it on the ground then go get an egg then come back to her basket and toss it in.

 putting an egg in

 friend Blake. He was good, he gathered up quite a few eggs!

 Showing mama all of her eggs

 One of the twins, friend Hannah. She wanted to go after those eggs, but she's still a little tiny! She enjoyed some chocolate though :)

 Katelyn going after an egg daddy hid well behind the bush. 

She was also really slow because she knew the eggs had something good in them so she would pick it up.. shake it... then realize there was something in there and sit there and try to open it instead of just trying to collect them all. ha. She just wanted the candy.

On Sunday we had a good time at church. We had a little Easter lesson as a family. Then we went over to a friends house for dinner. My friend Amy is cute, fun, and SO talented! I was so impressed by what she did for all of us. At the time of writing this I was actually devouring the delicious cupcake she made. :)

 She had everything so nicely decorated. And behind the napkin are those cute little cupcake's she made that look like Easter bunny's! They were delicious too :)

Everything looked really nice. Afterward we had a chocolate cake contest. A few of the couples made a chocolate cake and we voted (don't think we ever really decided on a winner) on who's tasted the best. We really appreciate good friends, thanks for having us Amy!

HaPpY bIrThDaY!!!!

Nick's birthday was yesterday. I always love when it's his birthday. Actually, I love any day when there's reason to celebrate (valentines day, birthdays, fourth of july) because it gives you an excuse to do extra fun things like go on a date or make a cake.
That's basically what we did. We went out to dinner (when I say we went out to dinner I mean we did take out.) We usually don't like going and sitting in a restaurant so we order it and enjoy it back at home. :) Ok, Nick might say that's a lie.. because I do like going and sitting in the restaurant, but that's only if we are alone because it's easier with out Katelyn and we get time to talk, but she was celebrating with us so she came along and we just went back home.

I made a really easy and yummy cake (recipe from a friend) and it turned out good, as always. 

SO now Nicholas is officially one year older! I'm so happy to have him as my husband.

BYE BYE BINKY

The binky is officially gone now! I hope. Katelyn hasn't had it this whole week and most likely she won't be using it EVER again. I feel like my baby is so grown up now. Wow. It wasn't too bad and I recommend to any mom.. get rid of the bottle/binky before they can say the word and whine for it!

Random

I know I have a few things I want to blog about. I have tons of pictures everywhere (on Nick's phone, my phone, our camera) so I will just use what I have right now. Let's see.. we haven't been up to a whole lot lately.
We redid our front yard. We took out all of the dirt in the flower bed, went and bought some natural stone, mulch, flowers and then got busy! I really love how it turned out and I enjoy doing family projects like this.

(you can see how boring our flower bed used to be-- behind Katelyn)

I don't have a picture of the outcome, kind of pointless, but just know it turned out nice :)

I'll admit, working on our home makes me love it so much more. I won't want to move from Oklahoma when we are done. I already know that. I miss being around family so much, but it's so beautiful here. I love our neighborhood, our friends, and the people. I just have felt really good living here. It's crazy how you don't think of something a certain way until you actually try it out. When we first found out we'd be moving to Oklahoma I just thought "WHERE? Oklahoma? What is there to do there?" and I wasn't too thrilled. Now, I could tell anyone that it is an awesome place to live (despite the tornadoes, massive hail storms, and unbearable heat).. it really is a good place to live. :) At least for me.

Next... Katelyn had her 15 month check up. We did the whole shot thing, it made me sad, but I know you've already heard that. We put her on the scale and the numbers went up.. up.. jumbled around... and came out to a whopping

19 lbs. 8 oz.

We both we're like "what?? you're kidding" Haha, not that I care, but we thought she'd at least be 20 pounds by now. If we had to wait until she was 20 pounds like the toddler car seats tell you to do.. then she'd still be in that tiny little infant car seat. Everything looks great though and the doctor isn't worried about her weight, so that made us happy. 

Katelyn is growing up SO fast. She says quite a few things now. She sometimes (I say sometimes because usually she'll do it for us and when we try to get her to say it for other people she acts like we are crazy) will say:

-Thank you

-Hi Dad

-Gamma (grandma)

-duckie/birdy

-uh oh-- this is her new favorite. I don't know how she learned it, but one day she just started saying it and now we hear it ALL THE TIME. She will throw something down like her binky (on purpose) and then say "uh oh..." 

She thinks she's sneaky ;)

It's definitely starting to feel like summertime here. The weather is nice and warm and we love being outside. 

Does she look like she's ready for summer? :)

Unfortunately we don't get a summer break like last year. Nick's school just made it so that they will be in school for the whole summer (or at least that's what it feels like). We will get a break in August and hopefully have time to visit Utah and Colorado. I may have to sneak in a vacation before August to go see my sister and her new little baby girl!! She is due the end of June.
Well, there's not much more to say. I'm going to do a little Easter egg hunt for Katelyn today. We'll see how that goes..
Happy Easter everyone!

Enter to win!

Today is our giveaway at: giveawaycorner.blogspot.com
Head over there now for a chance to win!! All you have to do is enter your name. There are additional entries, just follow the rules on the form.

We are giving away three flower clips with three headbands. These would be a great gift for a sweet little neice or a friend who is having a little girl (if you don't have a girl of your own ;) ).

Don't miss it! Visit them today:

GIVEAWAY CORNER

http://giveawaycorner.blogspot.com

GIVEAWAY!

I follow a lot of giveaway blogs. They are usually easy to enter and who doesn't like something that's absolutely free right? There is this new site called the Giveaway Corner. This girl is offering tons of fabulous items and all you have to do is enter your name to win!

NEXT WEEK, APRIL 19th, she will be giving away THREE of my headbands for FREE (no shipping and handling charges or anything) and all you have to do is enter your name to win.

More details on that will come later.

However, this week she's offering a free $100 visa gift card!! So be sure to head over there (http://giveawaycorner.blogspot.com) and check it out for your chance to win $100!! Wouldn't that be nice? And don't forget to put my name "DANA JENSEN" in the "who referred you part" ;)

15 Months/Spring Break/Picture Overload

Another month down. Katelyn is growing and learning so much every day.
She can say no, momma (although her new favorite thing is calling me "MOM" she'll say it over and over just to get my attention and have me respond, then she just smiles), dadda, nana (what we call nick's mom) and that's about it. We are working on more words, and she's trying hard I can tell, but she can't put the sounds all together yet.

 Here she is one day. She was trying to climb into one of the shelves in our bookshelf. She got in and kind of just lied there scrunched up. It was so funny.

 Then shortly after she decided she wanted to sit in this tiny little box. She finds the funniest things to do. And.. if you can't tell from her very cheesy smile in the picture.. she thinks she is just so darn funny. I think she is too :)

 Here she is with her crazy hair after I took out her piggy tail. About to read something

 And Here she is on her BIG pillow. She LOVES her big pillow (it's actually mine from when I was pregnant with her, so I guess she can have it now. ) She'll just lay on it and hug it and roll around with it all the time.

 This was spring break in Colorado. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Nick and I have been before and it's my favorite zoo. You get to touch the giraffe's! They get sooo close to you. And you can feed them.. but I haven't been that brave yet. Katelyn was definitely not scared to pet the giraffe.

 if you're ever in colorado springs... go to this zoo!

 Katelyn and cousin Leila looking at the little animals. They are so cute together.

 Daddy and Katelyn at the Will Rogers shrine.. also part of the zoo, which you'll want to check out too

 The view at the Shrine. It's amazing!

 Nick's funny picture that he had us all pose for. Camera shot looking from the ground up.

 THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART OF OUR SPRING BREAK TRIP. Recognize that picture? It's a little different..... but hopefully I can remind you....
This is the place where Nick proposed to me... (get it, he's acting like he's proposing, but this time it's Katelyn in the picture... haha). I wish I could find the picture, but we haven't put all of our pictures on our new computer yet.
We went up to Garden of the Gods and hiked and found the exact spot and rock where it all went down. I loved being there and loved having Katelyn there. It showed me what one little question all led to. It was a lot of fun.

 Now I do have this picture....^^ of when he proposed....

see! now we just added Katelyn into the picture :) Such great memories..

 Katelyn's rock.. we kept asking her "where's your rock" and she would point to it, I thought it was really cute.

Taking a ride in Grandpa Jensen's tractor.

Ok... so back to her 15 month update:

She loves making noises of different animals. She does 'the elephant' we call it. She'll toss her arm up in the air by her nose like an elephant and go 'eeeehhhhh' or however they sound like.. I wasn't quite sure. She'll go "eeh eeh aah aah" for monkey. She says "woof woof" for dog. She makes a "caaw caaw" nosie for birds. She loooves animals.

She LOVES to climb on things. There is a daycare at the gym I go to and I asked how she was doing the other day and the lady responded "Good, she just likes to climb on things a lot.... but she listens when we tell her to get down." I couldn't help but laugh because I knew exactly what these ladies were dealing with as I've seen it many, many times at home. Her favorite place to climb up at home I think is either the couch/ottoman, or the coffee table.

So, here's a quick story talking about the daycare. I took her in for the first time and she acted like she really wanted to go get down and play. So I left as the lady took her from me. I only worked out for about 25 mins then went to check on her. I could hear someone crying and I thought "that sounds like Katelyn." I looked in and the lady was holding her, then gave her a ball and set her down. I asked if she had been crying and the lady said that she had. So I went in (Katelyn hadn't seen me yet) and I called her name and crouched down and held my arms out to her. She turned around and right when she saw me her little lip flared out and tears came to her eyes and she started bawling. She drug her little feet and ran over to me and hugged me. It was so sad. So I left with her and felt so bad. If any of you know me, you know I am certainly not one to leave Katelyn with ANYONE else. I get scared leaving her with my own family.. haha.

I try to go only when Nick is home now and can watch her, but I have taken her a couple other times after that and she LOVES it now. The past two times I have gone in I'll call her name and she'll look at me and smile and keep playing and wont want to come. So things have definitely gotten better.


Wow. hopefully you all didn't get bored a 1/4 of the way through that! thanks for reading...