Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I did not send out Christmas cards this year, perhaps next year you'll get one in the mail. This is our digital Christmas card to you.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Busy Jensens

December has been such a busy month for us. We've been on the road a lot more then was expected and now we are happy to be home and in our own bed! First my Grandma was sick, then we had her funeral.

The weekend after the funeral my little brother got married.

Newlyweds, Hayden and Ashley

My brother Seth kissing William

Luncheon

 I feel like I've been on an emotional rollercoaster and the holidays don't feel quite the same. Kaden had to do almost all the wrapping this year because I had NO desire to. So strange since I am usually done wrapping right after Thanksgiving and especially done buying Christmas presents. Of course this year was a little different with William and all, but that isn't my excuse at all! I finished today though (which the stores weren't as crazy as I thought it would be). Anyways, Kaden and I took William to see Santa today! We waited in the line for an hour and then took our 1 alloted picture. Surprisingly it turned out very cute (coming soon)! I guess William isn't scared of strangers.

We William also played in the snow.

Our goal tomorrow is to make a snowman but that may be a little too ambitious.

Clapping Pirana Baby

Yesterday William performed for us. Here is a video. Kaden didn't know how to stop it so sorry for the motion sickness at the end.

These next ones are funny. Maybe listen to them without sound because we were watching Jerseylicious (Yes, Kaden was too because there were some fights in it haha) and there is some profanity. I didn't think about it or else I would have turned off the TV. Too late now, but what William is doing is too cute not to post.

Last night William was giving kisses to us. So Kaden stuck out his cheek for a nice slobbery one, instead he got a BIG bite! Ouch. Here are the marks from those 4 teeth. Might I add that right after giving Kaden a bite he gave me an open mouth slobber kiss on my cheek, no bite. The marks were pretty bad on Kaden's face. He said to me that he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry because it hurt so bad and yet it was so funny that William bit him so hard.

I also took some pictures of William near the Christmas Tree and Santa. We have a full size one so don't worry this one is just decoration upstairs. He soon lost interest in Mommy taking pictures of him especially since he couldn't see the tree. The vent is much more interesting apparently.

William has become MUCH more mobile just in the last week and now we REALLY have to keep an eye on him. In fact, he has a fascination with the cords under the computer and we may have to move the computer into our room somehow. It isn't like we let him get the cords but sometimes he is so sneaky and crawls under the chair. No matter how many times we move him he remembers his original destination and goes after it again and again and again, naughty boy. Although he can be a little monster, we love him to pieces!!

Grandma, I will miss you

Yesterday my Dad called me to tell me that my Grandma passed away. She was in a coma for about a week and placed on Hospice. She was 92 years old so I knew that she would pass away sooner rather than later. This week I have experienced a mixture of sadness and joy. Normally I don't associate those two emotions with one another and yet I felt them at the same exact time all week long. Sadness because I truely love my Grandma and I will miss her, miss visiting with her, miss hearing her cute voice, and miss kissing her goodbye until our next visit. Joy because she is reunited with my Grandpa after 22 years. I can only imagine what it was like for them to hold one another again.

Ever since I could understand that my Grandma has lived without my Grandpa, I've wondered how it was possible that she could do it. Anyone that knows my Grandma, knows that she loved my Grandpa so very much. I didn't know my Grandpa since I was just a toddler when he passed away, but I felt like I knew him. I felt like I knew him because my Grandma would show me pictures and tell me all about him. Now that I am married I even more so wonder how she has been able to live without him for so long. I can't even handle Kaden being gone for a weekend even when I'm in constant contact with him over the phone. I admire her so much for being such a strong woman and knowing that her family needed her here on Earth.

I don't often talk about my parent's divorce but I must admit that my grandparents being constants in my life really helped me in so many ways. For a couple of summers after the divorce my brothers and I would stay with my Grandma in St. George. My dad would come up on the weekends because he sort of lived there (all his stuff was there). We also spent many weekends with my Grandma as well during those couple of years. I am so grateful for that time I spent getting to know her even better. We had so much fun there and I think she made being away from my mom easier for me. When Kaden and I were dating, my Grandma let me stay at her house. I remember one time she asked me to bring Kaden inside because she wanted to make sure he was a good boy. She was always looking out for me.

Even now as I think about Grandma not being around for me to see, I feel this calm and the spirit telling me that she is where she belongs, that she is with my Grandpa, and that she is unbelievably happy. I am so grateful for all that she taught me and for her example in my life. She was truly a remarkable woman and although I will miss her I know that I'll see her again.

Grandma, I will miss you but I'm so happy that you are with your sweetheart in heaven.

 Again, I am sad but also very happy. These are the kind of days that I realize how much the Savior did for us and I am eternally grateful for that.

Clapping

William has learned to clap! It is so cute to watch. Once I get a video I'll definitely be posting it!!

Videos

I have no desire to post pictures or tell stories today, but here are some videos of William lately.
Jumping very fast:

Crawling to the Christmas Tree:

Nicholas taught William how to play the piano... Isn't he really good? 

Okay, okay, he is no Beethoven and it isn't pleasant to the ear but I think one day he'll make beautiful music.

Our Mini Vaca...

We left on Thursday morning to head to Overton. We didn’t have anything planned for Thursday so it was so nice to be able to take our time and stop whenever we needed. We stopped in St. George to see my Grandma. I should have brought my camera into her house to take pictures of her and William but alas I forgot until we got back into the car. William was a crazy baby rolling, crawling, and talking the whole time we were at my Grandma’s house. She was impressed with all the tricks he did for her and how active he was. He really had so much energy from being in the carseat and not being able to move. I really love my Grandma and I am so glad we were able to stop and that William was a happy boy so that we could enjoy our visit! All I can say is that I never leave her house without a huge smile on my face because she is such a funny woman!!

On Friday we had family pictures which I’ll post as soon as we get them. We’ll be luck if William is smiling in any of them but hey at least there were no frowny faces or tears. We hung out most of the day and later we went to a Seafood Buffet in Mesquite. We really had such a great day with family, although we wished we could have spent more time with Kaden’s brother Kyle, his wife Katie, and baby Zoe. We aren’t sure if we’ll see them at all in the coming months but hopefully we can get together again sooner than April.

On Saturday we went to the Moapa Valley High School Football game. This game was the one that would determine whether or not they would play in the State game. They won so they are in fact going to State. We really only know two boys on the football team because they are close family friends but my little brother marched in the band, my other little brother’s girlfriend danced at half time, and Kaden’s dad is one of the chain guys. There will be a scrapbook page of the game later because it was William’s first football game ever! He has watched plenty on TV with his daddy but none in real life. It was rather warm most of the game, which was so refreshing since it is SUPER cold in Utah, so we stayed the entire time. Later that day we went to visit my Dad. He normally works on Saturday nights but he had an important church meeting to attend so he took it off which was nice because we were able to spend a little more quality time with him. We had a great Saturday.

The drive home on Sunday wasn’t as good as the drive down to Overton, however, we were able to stop and visit one of my dear friends that I’ve known since middle school. She lives in Cedar City and really William needed to get out of the car so it really was a great idea to stop. It was so good to see her again too! Kaden and I haven’t seen Dawn or Tyson for over a yr since they got married. It really makes me feel like such a bad friend but generally Kaden and I are in such a hurry when we travel that we just want to get to our destination.

Even though we had such a great weekend I am so happy to be home again and to sleep in my very own bed. When I sleep in other beds not only do I not sleep well but it somehow messes up my back or something which causes massive headaches. I’ve been battling them all week!! William has been a little irritable lately too. Yesterday Kaden said William wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with him. Which leads me to what happened this morning when I got home from work. William woke up around midnight and started screaming. It took me forever to calm him down and I really could not figure out what was wrong. I finally put him in his crib, got ready for bed, fell asleep for maybe 15 minutes, and woke up to him screaming again. He had a little congestion so I took him upstairs to get medicine and that’s when things turned for the worse. He basically woke up everyone with his screaming and finally after I calmed him down he played until 2 a.m. He didn’t like me putting him in bed and so Kaden got up with him. I am not sure how long Kaden was up but around 5 a.m. it started all over again. I was completely and utterly exhausted because William had woken up relatively early on Tuesday morning. I got up with him for a little bit and then we tag teamed it and Kaden stayed up until William went to sleep. It really was an awful night especially because I felt so helpless. I honestly did not know what was wrong or how to make William feel better. Kaden figured out that William had a really bad tummy ache (poor kid!). William woke me up around 10 a.m. this morning and I’m really not sure if he was up long before that but at least I got a little more rest then I though I would since William generally doesn’t sleep past 8 a.m. anymore.

I was just thinking today that I really truly have the most amazing and selfless husband ever. Kaden sacrificed his sleep last night (and many other nights and mornings before that) so that I could get some sleep. I was talking to him this morning and he said that he was really tired. I told him that I should have gotten up and let him sleep since he had to wake up early and then he said, “No, you need the sleep more than I do. Even though I am tired, it is worth getting up so you can sleep.” Gosh I feel so lucky. I hear about some dads that refuse to even change diapers and I am so grateful Kaden isn’t like that. He does what he needs to do because William is his son too. I can’t even begin to describe how much I love and appreciate him!

Just a little bit of pictures...

Nothing from this weekend has made it onto the computer yet. Hopefully I'll get some more done this week especially since it is almost Thanksgiving and I will be spending lots of time with family. Or maybe William will have another episode similar to last night (or rather it was in the wee hours of the morning) where he screams his head off unless I am holding him. I figure that I might as well scrapbook because he'll at least let me do that. There is more to come with that story later but for now here are some pictures from October of William.

We've been busy...

We've been so busy lately that I'm not sure I'll get to write a real post until next week. I haven't even had much time to scrapbook too : (. I have so much to do before December too so hopefully I'm able to accomplish all that I want to.

William had his 6 month checkup today. The doctor said we don't go back until 12 months (I thought we were supposed to at 9 months but he said that only if we absolutely had to). He got lots of shots but only cried for a minute or so. He has only gained 1 pound in the last two months but since he is still in the 50th percentile for weight the doctor said he is just fine. Look to the right for his new weight and height.

We are heading to Vegas on Thursday and will have 4 WHOLE days together!! We are both so excited mainly because we really need a mini vaca.

Happy Halloween!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

At 6 months:

I did not edit so if there are errors don't judge... I'll find them eventually, or you can be ever so helpful and tell me.

I'm off to eat lunch with my hubby! Happy Halloween everyone. I wasn't going to dress William up and I'm still not sure I will but I may change my mind tomorrow.

Happy 1/2 Year Birthday

My baby boy is 1/2 a year old! I just can't believe how fast time has gone by. Kaden and I feel so blessed to have William in our lives and we love him dearly. It seems like just yesterday we were talking about and dreaming about what it would be like to start our family. We've certainly learned so much from William and we look forward to learning much more.

Last week I ordered some sample scrapbook pages from a website. They came yesterday and I am so pleased with how they turned out. I can't wait until we have some extra money again (we just spent a TON on developing 4 and 5 month pictures for everyone and then paying postage. I think Kaden paid extra postage to get them to people faster.) so that we can develop all of the pages we've done so far.

I am working on a 6th month scrapbook page so once it is done I'll post it but until then enjoy the ones I've done recently. Most of these pictures I have already posted before but oh well, they are still very cute!

Here are some new pictures:



Just to show you how mean we are I've taken a video of us helping William to crawl. He has to get really mad in order to do it.



I was planning on putting up two videos but the second one will have to be another day because blogger is taking WAY too long to upload just one.

Peek-a-Boo

William's new thing is to play peek-a-boo. He will put his burp rag or any other cloth over his face and make lots of noise until someone grabs it off. If no one comes he'll take it off himself and start laughing really hard. It is the funniest thing I've ever seen a baby do. He is so smart!

I was on the computer in William's room while he took a nap. When he woke up he was just talking and stuff. When I turned around I figured out why he was talking so much. He was peeking out of his crib at me. He has learned how to pull his bumper pad down so that he can see out of his crib.

William tried green beans on Saturday, but he didn't like them too much. I made Green bean baby food about a month ago and we have tons so he will eat them whether he likes them or not. Yesterday he ate the rest of the green beans from Saturday night though. He still made weird faces but at least he ate them all gone and I didn't have to throw them away.

I've gotten a couple more scrapbook pages done. I have a lot more ideas but I still haven't transferred all of our pictures from the laptop to our desktop. Maybe I'll get to that this week or maybe not, we'll see.



I'm not sure I like the text on this one of William with his Great Grandpa. I may change it, but I'm still thinking about what to change it to.

It is football season, therefore, I can scrapbook or play on photoshop as much as I'd like and not feel guilty about it because Kaden can watch football! I don't like watching sports much at all and if I am watching TV with Kaden we rarely watch a game.

On Friday I made dinner using a recipe from Pioneer Woman called Three Cheese Stuffed Pasta (she posted it on Oct.5 and it is SUPER yummy, check it out). This is only the second recipe of hers that I have used but seriously both have been to DIE for, and they are SUPER easy. Lets just say I don't cook, I don't like to cook, and I'm not a good cook but these recipes must be fool proof because I haven't screwed them up yet. It is really helpful that she has step-by-step pictures to guide you through the process. This is my version (I put 1 lb. of sausage instead of 1/2 lb. that the recipe called for).



It made a TON!

Last night Kaden kept saying, "Are you going to do a blog post?" He asked me at least five times! He loves reading our blog. haha.

More Scrapbooking

Enjoy!!

This is what I've been doing lately. I can't seem to get any paper scrap booking done though because William doesn't allow it and when he is napping I have so many other things to do (like eat). Kaden and I really enjoy this little boy and we feel so lucky that the Lord entrusts us to be William's parents.

Kaden has been busy lately with his toe and then with his tires needing to be replaced. We knew one had a nail in it and we were just going to get a plug for that, but then when Kaden came out of the doctor's office he noticed another tire had a gash in it. He has been riding around with the spare on and luckily Billy (my Step-Dad) was able to get us two used tires for FREE! We are so blessed that right after my Mom told Billy that Kaden needed a new tire, one of Billy's customers was replacing his tires. Although we might not have needed to replace the one with a nail in it, we definitely needed to replace the other one which would have cost us at the very least $100. We have an emergency fund and could have paid for a new tire so we weren't SUPER worried but you still worry when something unexpected happens.

Yesterday Kaden went to the mall to get a shirt for family pictures. On his way home he witnessed a really bad accident. Luckily no one was hurt and more importantly Kaden wasn't involved!! He had to call 911 and explain everything, then he had to stay at the scene to give a statement for the police report. I am so grateful that his only involvement was calling 911 and witnessing the accident! On a lighter note me, Kaden, and William all have life insurance now (although Kaden and I still need to get our blood drawn and what not, which I certainly am not excited for! I detest needles!!)

All in all we are doing fantastic! Time is going by too quickly and William will be 6 months in exactly two weeks from today. I'll tell you more about his milestones in his 6 month post!

Silly me...

So I just realized yesterday that I spelled "quite" wrong on one of the scrapbook pages I posted. Don't worry, I fixed it! I suppose I'll need to edit more carefully in the future. So yesterday I finished another scrapbook page but unfortunately it didn't save correctly. When I went to go put text on it this morning it would not open because it was the "wrong kind of file", whatever that means. I know I saved it like I normally do so I'm not sure what happened there. I'm still wondering if all of the brain cells I lost while I was pregnant will ever be replaced. Anyways, here is the page I recreated this morning.

Hopefully I didn't make any dumb spelling mistakes on this one. (How embarrassing!)

Many of you know that Kaden has had a nasty in grown toe nail. He has tried to nurse his toe back to health but unfortunately it kept getting worse (gross!). So yesterday Kaden used our new insurance for the very first time to get his toe taken care of. I am so glad that our whole family has insurance now. Kaden hasn't been covered since we got married and it always scared me that something bad would happen. Next on our list is to get life insurance. We have an appointment set up this week with an agent so hopefully we'll have life insurance for relatively cheap.

New Obsession

I took some pictures of William at 5 months and I've finally had time to sit down to use photoshop on them. Seriously I have spent all morning playing with photoshop and I love it! I could spend all day trying different things on pictures. I have SOOOO much more to learn too!

I can't wait for William to let me do more. He'll be 6 months before we know it and then I'll get to practice some more.

I did these the other day too. Obviously the pictures aren't recent but I really need to catch up on scrapbooking.



Lately

Last week we all got sick. It was definitely no fun at all. Last Sunday night William cried about every half hour or hour. He was so congested that it would scare him when he could not breath through his nose. Kaden was a gem and helped a lot by getting up and calming William down. I slept about 3 hours that night not only because I wasn't feeling well but also because I was super worried about William. I begged (not very hard) for Kaden to stay home with us because I just didn't think I could take care of me and William alone especially feeling as exhausted as I was. We just got insurance this week but last week we were still waiting on it and we weren't sure about taking William to the doctor. Although he didn't have a fever we just felt that no matter the price we really needed to take him because he wasn't eating and he just wasn't feeling any better.
The Doctor we decided to see was great. William was very interested in him and he even let William touch his face (which is William's FAVORITE thing to do with his hands). I was very impressed with the information the Doctor told us and the way in which he treated us. If our new insurance covers him then we will be going back.
William was showing off his toothy smile on Wednesday. He still has some lingering congestion but he is back to smiling, giggling, kicking his feet, and playing like crazy.

His gums look like they are his lips. I promise his lips aren't THAT big.

Since Friday is my day off William and I go eat lunch with Kaden. This last Friday we went to Pizza Pie Cafe which is delish! I love that place but it is more like a buffet not a cafe. I sometimes wish Kaden could take an hour lunch because a half hour to actually enjoy a meal and talk to one another is not enough. My mom asked me how come I don't invite her (she was teasing of course) but then she pointed out that Friday lunches are when Kaden and I date. It is so strange to think that our weekly date is for a half hour and during lunch time but when you have lemons you make lemonade. I really enjoy going to lunch with Kaden especially because it is normally during William's nap time. Either William has just woken up from a nap and he is super happy or he is sleeping during our date. Can't wait for lunch this week. Kaden usually picks the places because he knows if we can get in and out within a half hour.

I applied for a Nevada Teaching License five weeks ago and I got it in the mail on Friday. I am still hoping that K12 Virtual Academy will hire me especially for next year but I am also applying to Clark County in hopes that I'll get a job some where. If all else fails I will sub but I'd feel much better having a steady income especially since Kaden and I would like to get completely out of debt. So far we have paid off the credit cards and we have locked them up in a safe place. Being in our wallet has been an extremely bad thing for us and we need to stop spending money we don't have. Kaden has decided that we will be canceling the credit cards in my name since I am guilty of over spending with them; however, i am the one that diligently worked to get their balance to ZERO! Now we are working to pay off student loans and soon we will be selling Kaden's Nitro and buying a car that either won't have a loan or will have VERY low payments. All of this is in preparation to move to Las Vegas (more specifically Overton since we will be living with Kaden's parents for awhile) for Kaden to go to school. I am a little reluctant to move away mostly because change is scary and to change location, job, and move away from my mom will be hard. but if I keep telling myself that we won't move until the end of August then I will be okay. Kaden on the other hand is looking forward to moving. I don't blame him for wanting to move closer to his family or for wanting to get back into school but I am just not as excited as he is. I am excited for Kaden to be done with school and for us to settle down somewhere but I'm just NOT excited for the next four years. Thus is life.

Kaden almost never gets sick so now that William and I are feeling much better, Kaden is feeling much worse. I am surprised that he caught this sickness because really he maybe gets sick once a year. I guess this is his once a year sickness and I am sure that it doesn't help that he gets a lot less sleep now than he did before William was born. Since we've been married Kaden has never slept past 8 a.m. and even that is somewhat late for him. In the last two weeks Kaden has slept until 9 a.m. which has been much needed and hopefully he will be feeling better soon. I just feel bad that I won't be able to take care of him until Friday. At least our sweet baby boy is doing better.

I have so many chores to catch up on. Our room is a disaster and so is the bathroom. We also have created a huge mess in my mom's living room which I am at fault for. There is just so much to do but here I am sitting on the computer just enjoying my quiet time while William is asleep. William has taken interest in the remote, cell phone, and even the computer. He gets mad when we won't let him slobber and bite all of these items. He also gets mad at his toys and boy can that kid throw. Sometimes I am amazed at where I find his toys. He is also very good at launching his binkie several feet out of his mouth. When I say launch I do not mean that the binkie rolls and bounces on the ground several times before stopping, I mean that it flies through the air several feet before bouncing on the floor. Obviously this doesn't always happen but when it does my jaw just drops and I think how does he have that much power. Lately William also wants to hold books and magazines, mostly because he wants to eat them. He isn't happy with us when we don't let him suck on them but come on we don't need little paper cuts on his tongue! I am trying to teach him the concept of books not going into our mouths but it is definitely a work in progress.

A couple of weeks ago my Step Dad and Mom went to the store and took William with them. Billy sent this to me because I was at work. Isn't William such a big boy? My mom said she walked outside with the carseat to find William already to go in the seat belt. (Don't worry they put him into his carseat before leaving.)

Teefers and Rice Cereal

On Friday William tasted his very first solid food, rice cereal. He wasn't sure about it at first because I made it a little runnier than it is intended to be. The faces he made were priceless. After he got used to a spoon being shoved into his mouth, we thickened the rice cereal. I can't believe my little baby is growing up so fast!

William has been teething for the last month or so. We've been checking and checking but couldn't feel anything at all. He has wanted to chew more toward the back so we thought those ones might come in first. Yesterday I was letting him chew on my finger and I felt something sharp in the front. Yes it was a tooth! His very first tooth has broke the surface and it won't be too long before his second bottom tooth manifests itself.

For William's four month birthday my cousin Amy came over to take some pictures. We had a lot of fun and they came out great! Here are my favorites:

William experienced the swing outdoors. Everytime he would come near me he would open his mouth like this. All of my pictures have his mouth open, not exactly sure why. haha.

We just love this little boy so much!