the moose, the mama, the mini

Zoe in Petsmart

2011-11-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

Zoe LOVES puppies. We took her to petsmart & she started going CRAZY! As soon as we turned on the camera she calmed down a lot, but you can see a bit of her dog-love. Turn up the volume so you can hear her say "OOOHH-puppies!"

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Since we missed the ward Halloween party this year, I didn't bother to get Zoe a costume, but then I started feeling guilty this afternoon that she was missing out on the fun. I found this little baseball outfit in her closet & decided that a photoshoot and a few pieces of candy would have to do for Halloween this year :-)

Bathing Beauty

2011-09-28T20:30:00.001-07:00

Surfer Girl

2011-07-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Pictures for Grandma Neva

2011-07-18T14:50:00.001-07:00

Another version

2011-07-16T11:01:00.001-07:00

I took another stab at editing the picture that I posted last night - I think it came out better this time. What do you think?

15 months (almost)

2011-07-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

I really need to blog but I have no time.......

2011-05-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

Zoe's 1! Hopefully I can get some more pictures of the festivities up here soon.

Zoe's new favorite food

2011-03-23T18:43:00.001-07:00

Lately Zoe has been a picky eater. She used to eat anything we put in front of her, but the last few weeks she hasn't wanted to eat much of anything besides baby food, and even that was touch and go sometimes. We are getting pretty sick of her spitting her oatmeal back at us, so we keep trying new foods in hopes that she'll finally like something. Well, tonight we discovered that she likes fettucini with tomato cream sauce and italian turkey sausage. I guess it's really just glorified spaghetti :-) I made the pasta with tomato cream sauce recipe from the Pioneer Woman and just added some italian turkey sausage - delicious! After most bites Zoe was saying "YUM" and "MMMMM" and gobbled it all up. I even gave her seconds and she ate most of that. SUCCESS!

Check out those baby blues!

With a red goatee - just like daddy!

Look at those cute top teeth coming in!

Lately whenever she sees something new or exciting she makes this face and keeps saying "oooh" over and over again. It's hilarious - I'm glad that I finally got a picture of it.

Cheese!

2011-03-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

New Pictures

2011-02-22T20:16:00.001-08:00

She's really taking off now!

2011-02-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

Another walking video

2011-01-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

WALKING!!!

2011-01-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

I have a few more videos, but blogger was taking FOREVER to get them up! I'll try again a little bit later.

8 Months

2011-01-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

7 month picture

2011-01-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

I realize that this is 6 weeks late, but I finally got around to editing her 7 month pictures. Hopefully I'll have more done soon :-)

Coming soon to a mailbox near you......

2010-12-05T16:11:00.001-08:00

6 months!

2010-11-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

old pictures, new page

2010-10-14T17:06:00.001-07:00

I finally got around to making a scrapbook page for these pictures - I'm so behind! I'm trying to get some pages done in the next few days because I start a new part-time job teaching at an online school on Monday. Needless to say, my schedule will be pretty full between 2 jobs, a baby, and a husband in grad-school full time. It's never boring around here :-)

5 months!

2010-10-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, so she is really closer to six months now, but here is her 5 month picture.

Here is what Zoe's been up to lately:
-She can crawl like a maniac! She's really fast now, especially if she sees a cell phone that she wants
-She sits up by herself. I'm actually very impressed by how straight she is sitting up now.
-She can easily go from sitting to crawling to sitting
-She is starting to pull herself up on things like the couch and the sides of her crib. Once I found her all the way up on her feet, but usually she's just standing on her knees with one hand on the couch or baby gate.
-She LOVES to eat. Surprising considering her parents :-) She has liked everything we've given her so far but I think that carrots and oatmeal are her favorites.
-She likes to give kisses
-She has 2 little bottom teeth
-She loves bathtime
-She likes to flip over onto all fours when we're trying to change her diaper - not cool
-She loves sitting in her new big-girl carseat, sitting up in the cart at the store, and going on walks in her stroller
-She notices whenever we leave the room and screams for us to come back
-She's getting better about going down for a nap when we just put her in her crib and tell her that it's naptime
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now. We sure love this little girl!

Crawling!!!

2010-09-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Zoe is crawling! She's not super fast yet, but I'm sure she will be within the next few days. You can see her 3 favorite toys in this video - the snot sucker, my cell phone, and an empty pepsi bottle. Seriously, why do we even buy her toys when these are her favorites?!?!

the rest of the story

2010-09-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

she's on the move - as you can see from the photos - and doesn't like to sit still for pictures anymore. i guess i have to start chasing her now!

Are we done yet?

2010-09-06T11:28:00.001-07:00

We tried to do 4-month pictures this morning - she obviously was not very into it :-) She's down for a nap now. Hopefully we can get some more good ones later!

Rice Cereal!

2010-08-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

"talking"

2010-08-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Zoe has been talking a lot lately. We have no idea what she's saying, but she's trying really hard :-) We took this video about 2 weeks ago, but I just remembered that it was on my camera. Oops. Oh well.

Coming home from the hospital scrapbook page

2010-08-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

3 month pictures

2010-07-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Scrapbooking

2010-07-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

Like most people, I'm WAY behind on scrapbooking. BUT, I just learned how to do some digital scrapping really quickly and easily. The best part is that I can have the files printed in 12x12 and stick them in a traditional book or have them printed and bound. Here's one of the pages from our spring break cruise last year that I never got around to blogging. You'll probably see a lot more scrapbook pages on here for the next little while :-)

She was not very happy about another photoshoot...

2010-07-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

more of that photoshoot....

2010-07-07T18:55:00.001-07:00

2 months old!

2010-06-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Little Squeaker

2010-06-18T14:43:00.001-07:00

Zoe is getting so big! She is really starting to enjoy bath time. She likes the water and doesn't seem to mind it when I dump it on her head to rinse out her hair. I can't wait to see what she'll do in the pool later this summer!

Her nickname is Squeaker. If you watch these videos, you'll see why. She loves to squeal and yell all the time. She's starting to like her toys, but she can't really figure out how to control her arms to play with them very well.

smiles and more

2010-06-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

Zoe loves to watch tv - she must be related to us :-) I think she probably likes the flashing light more than the programming, but I hope she's learning a lot from the Food Network and HGTV (and hopefully not learning much from the Bachelorette!). Here she is in action:

She also likes to nulti-task. In the picture below she is eating, holding dad's hand AND watching tv!

This morning she was all smiles and giggles and I finally caught a few on camera. I don't know what she is doing with her tongue......

today's photoshoot

2010-06-03T18:37:00.001-07:00

What a guy....

2010-05-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have the best husband. He is always trying new recipes and making me delicious food. Tonight he turned our bbq into a smoker and smoked some DELICIOUS ribs, along with grilling some great chicken and zucchini. Check out the ribs -

Zoe has decided that she doesn't like her bouncy chair right now. I think she's figured out that we put her in there when we need to do something other than cater to her every whim. It's hard to tell in this picture, but she is putting her feet on the battery box and standing up in the chair in protest. I guess we need to start using the seatbelt so that she doesn't catapult herself out of it.

On Friday I went to school to show off Zoe. She was very good the whole time and even impressed some of the football coaches with her burping abilities :-) Although I already knew it, it was fun to have so many people tell me how cute and sweet of a baby that we have.

The other day Zoe was sitting up and watching TV with her dad. How cute! I know, she's screaming in this picture, but she really was enjoying herself until the camera turned on. I swear that girl can hear the noise that the camera makes when it is turning on because no matter how happy she was before, she starts crying every time the camera turns on. Oh well.

I can't believe it!

2010-05-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Zoe is growing so fast - I just can't believe it. At her doctor's appointment last week she weighed 10 pounds already! Here's a peek at what she's been practicing.

Zoe says hi

2010-05-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

I'm just trying to learn how to upload videos. Here's a little clip of Zoe saying hi and smiling (kind of). Please ignore my high-pitched voice.

The Great Zo-dini

2010-05-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

The other day I mentioned to some friends that we don't even try to swaddle Zoe anymore - she doesn't want anything to do with it. I have many friends who swear by swaddling. They say it is the best thing to calm your baby and help them sleep. The problem is that Zoe just gets even more upset when we try to swaddle her. My friend suggested that I try those specialty swaddling blankets that have the velcro on them so that you can wrap them really tight and make sure they stay that way. She even loaned me a couple of the blankets that she wasn't using. We decided to give it a try last night. I wrapped that thing as tight as I could get it - far past the intended velcro fasteners. For the first 10 seconds of swaddling, Zoe was quiet, but looking at us with these huge eyes that said "what do you crazy people think you're doing?" 30 seconds (and some loud screams) later, she had managed to do this:

She pulled her arms out of the swaddling blanket that was specifically designed to keep the arms in. At least she knows what she wants :-) I'm thinking of buying some straight jackets so that she can practice her escape and make us some money in a travelling circus. What do you think?

The Last 2 Weeks

2010-05-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe that it's been just over 2 weeks since the little Zoester was born! Time is flying by already. Here's what we've been up to in the last 2 weeks (minus the eating, pooping, sleeping, trying to sleep, etc)

My mom came to visit for almost a week and was a huge help. She stayed up with Zoe every night so that we could really rest for the first week - I know, we're spoiled. But seriously, I think it helped me recover from the c-section 10 times faster than if I'd been up all night that week. Thanks, Mom!

I don't know exactly what she's doing in this picture, but I thought it was SO cute!

This is actually her second sponge bath, but we were unprepared for the camera the first time. She doesn't really enjoy getting bathed. But then again, she hates it when we take her clothes off or change her diaper too. Modest little girl :-)

These are a few pictures that I took today. She had her 2 week checkup today. She is now 8 pounds, 10 oz (50th percentile), 20 1/2 inches tall (50th percentile), and her head measures 37 1/2 cm (75th percentile).

Every day she changes her mind about which binky is her favorite. For the last 2 days the purple binky has been her favorite - she even keeps her hand on it to protect it from falling out.

All in all, we're pretty lucky to have such an adorable, good baby. Hopefully she stays this way!

She's Here.........

2010-04-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Zoe Kate finally arrived on April 21 at 11:26 pm. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 oz and 20 inches long. We got home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and are enjoying every minute with her! Here are a few pictures:

Finally Finished!

2010-01-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

I finally finished Zoe's quilt and I LOVE how it turned out! I started it over Christmas Break, but got distracted and didn't finish it until last night. Moose picked out all of the fabric - isn't it cute?
The front:

A close up of the raggedyness:

Part of the back:

I'm Lazy

2009-12-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

I don't know why it's been so long since I've blogged...........there are really no good excuses besides laziness. In the last 4 months since I blogged there has been a lot going on with us. Here's a list of the highlights:
-School has been going good for me. I'm having a great year NOT being the Student Council advisor. While I enjoyed doing it for 3 years, I'm loving having more time to do other things.
-Moose started a new job working for a specialized foster care company. He is working in a group home for kids who have a dual-diagnosis of mental retardation and another social or behavioral disorder. It is a very challenging job, both physically and emotionally and has definitely been a big adjustment for our family. He has to work most nights from 2-10 so we really don't see each other very much besides on Sundays :-(
-We moved WAY across town. We are loving our new place, but it has definitely added to our commute times. It has been fun for us to explore our new area, get to know new stores to shop at, and living next door to our good friends, the Pullins'.
-As most of you already know, we are expecting a baby GIRL in April. I'm about 21 weeks along and feeling great. I have had a very easy pregnancy so far (knock on wood) and my belly has really started to grow in the last couple of weeks. I know that lots of people are really into posting the belly pictures on their blogs, but that is SO not me. Sorry.
-We are going on a cruise for Christmas this year!!!! We're going to the Carribbean and are VERY excited about it. It will be a much needed break for both of us. It will be a great last hurrah vacation before the baby is born and will be fun to spend some time with Moose's family. We LOVE to cruise, but have never cruised over the holidays, so it should be fun. I will definitely post some pictures when we get back - you might even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the belly from those.

One more thing - we're getting ready to register for our baby shower and are a little bit overwhelmed by all of the "gadgets" out there for babies today. Experienced moms and dads, please comment and tell us what your "must haves" were when you had infants. What were the basics that you just couldn't live without that we should definitely get? I don't want to waste our money on things that are just not worth it. Thanks for your help!!!

New Look

2009-08-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Do you like the new look of our blog? I'm assuming that your answer is yes :-) I MADE it! And not just the header - the whole background and everything. Some of you may already know how to do this, but it was a big feat for me. I have been getting into digital scrapbooking this summer and have learned A LOT about my computer, photo editing, graphic design, etc. It has been really fun.
Other than that, we haven't really been doing anything blog-worthy. Just working, teaching piano, watching TV, and relaxing. My sister Lisa came to town and I don't have one picture to show for it. She was so much fun to have here because she likes lounging around as much as we do! She also helped me clean out my kitchen, try a few new recipes, and make a few crafts.
We're going on our last vacation of the summer tomorrow and then it's back to work/school on Monday. Where did the summer go?

Christmas in July

2009-07-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things that I should be blogging about right now (like our AWESOME trip to Arizona, the latest crafts, our camping trip, etc) but it seems like too much work for right now.

What I'm really interested in is CHRISTMAS. Yes. I know that it's only July - stay with me. I read online about some women who did a Christmas craft exchange and I want to start one!

The rules are simple:
1. Post a comment, email, or call me to tell me that you want to participate ASAP!
2. Make a Christmas-y craft that you would be willing to give away between now and November 1st. Yes, you must make it. It can be any kind of craft that you want - sewing, scrapbooking, painting, graphic design, etc.. Nothing perishable, please.
3. Do not spend more than $30 on your craft (but feel free to spend less if you're a good bargain-hunter!)
4. Shortly before the November 1st deadline, I will give you the name and address of someone else in the group and you will send them your craft.
5. By the second week of November you will receive a Christmas-y craft from someone else in the group. Think of it as opening a present early!
6. WHATEVER YOU DO: DO NOT put your new craft up for display in your house until AFTER Thanksgiving - that's just wrong :-)

So, what do you say? Are you in?

Latest projects...

2009-06-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the projects that I've been working on over the last few days....

I got the pattern for this skirt for $0.99!!!! It was normally 16.95, but all McCall's patterns were on sale for 99 cents - what a steal! I already had the green fabric and just had to get the brown for the trim, so this is my $2 skirt. I'll be honest - this is probably the most detailed pattern that I've ever followed - complicated pleats, a zipper, lined waistband, pockets, etc. but it was worth it - I'm so excited to wear it......now I just need a shirt to go with it :-)

I know - it feels like you've seen this quilt before. This is the second one, and for the most part, I like it better. I think that the blocks on the quilt are a little bit more randomly spaced and I love the silky pink binding. I got much better at my machine quilting, but unfortunately I didn't check my bobbin first and the bottom looks a little bit crazy. Overall it turned out fairly well, but I think I'll give this one to Project Linus and the first one to Courtney for her baby shower.

I even figured out how to miter the corners pretty well!

Here's what the quilting looks like on the front:

And here's what it looks like on an acceptable piece of the back:

So I've seen these cute baby wipes cases all over the internet and have been dying to make one. Alas, I have no use for a baby wipes case, but I made one that matches the quilt for Courtney and another one just for fun. I'm sure I'll find someone to give it to soon being that I have TONS of friends who are pregnant right now.

Next on the crafting agenda: Covers for our dutch ovens, basket liners for some decorative baskets in our laundry room, that cute apron from the last post, the list goes on and on!

Happy crafting!!!

I REALLY WANT TO MAKE THIS!!!!

2009-06-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

It is the CUTEST reversable apron that there ever was! If you want to buy the pattern for me, you can get it here. I have to go to a conference all next week, so you have plenty of time to order it and have it shipped to me in time for me to start on it next weekend :-). If you are feeling really generous, you could also buy me some cute fabric for it here. Thanks in advance - you're the best!

If you're also of the crafty inclination - check out the whole new section of links that I added on the right-hand side of the blog titled "Fun Blogs". There are TONS of crafty and fun blogs that have totally consumed my weekend and given me SO many ideas to fill my summer with. Enjoy!

Another post.....so soon???

2009-06-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

I think the best motivation for me to post is when I have something to post!!!! Now that I'm off of school I've been feeling very crafty (as you could probably tell from the last post).

I have a good friend who is having a baby soon and I wanted to make her a baby quilt. I went to the store and picked out the fabric (actually Moose picked out the fabric - strangely enough he has a great eye for fabric) and when I got home and pieced it together, I realized that I had enough to make 2 crib-sized quilts. I was really excited about this because my stake is doing "Project Linus". They have challenged every woman and young woman in the stake to make a blanket (any kind of blanket) to donate to a foundation that gives the blankets to really sick kids. The extra blanket that I'm making will not only go to Project Linus, but it will serve as my practice for the one I'm making for my friend. YEAH!!
Although I have done lots of sewing in my day, there were a few things that I did on this blanket that I've never done before, so I was a little bit nervous. The first was the binding. I've made a few other blankets, but my super-crafty mom has always done the binding for me because I was so intimidated by it. Sadly, I live way to far from my mom to get her to do the binding for me, so I was on my own. While the corners aren't perfect, I think they turned out pretty good.
The next thing was actually quilting it. I have always wanted to machine quilt instead of just tying the quilt. My new sewing machine has a free-motion quilting function that I tried out. It was really fun, but I learned a few lessons. The first is that it takes a lot of patience. The second is that I need to draw the pattern before I start. Randomly creating a pattern was fun, but doesn't look quite as professional as it could. Here's the finished product for Project Linus. I'll let you know how the quilt for Courtney looks when I finish it.

This is the back

This is the front.

I know that you can't really see the machine quilting, but that's probably better since it's not perfect. When I do Courtney's I'll take a close-up of the quilting.

What we've been up to....

2009-06-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted! I'm out of school now, so I've had much more time to lounge around and scheme up projects for myself. Moose has started a new job, but the training aspect of it hasn't been full time so we've enjoyed spending a lot of time together this week. We're on a mission to go through all of our stuff and de-junk our house. How did 2 people wind up with so much stuff? Anyway, we've already taken one trip to DI and plan to take a few more. We spent a leisurely morning at the pool on Friday and both wound up with sunburns - looks like we're not made for sunbathing. We've also been trying our hand at some new things around the house. Here are a few pictures:
Homemade bagels. They're not the prettiest bagels I've even seen, but they were fun to make and even more fun to eat!

I made some new pillows for our living room couches. We love curling up on the couch and watching our favorite shows, so our pillows get quite a workout. These are cute, eh?

I used some of the old scrapbooking paper that I had on hand to cover this old box to help organize some of my craft supplies. I'm so excited to have time to be crafty this summer! I already have about 10 projects on my list. I'll post them as they are finished.
This wasn't a very exciting post, but at least it was a post. I'll try to be better now that I'm not so busy with school.

YAY!!!

2009-05-11T16:11:00.001-07:00

Avoiding Posting

2009-04-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding posting on the blog because I feel too overwhelmed by everything I need to catch up on. I'm still working on getting the photos from our cruise uploaded and edited and ready to share, so those will have to come later. In short - our cruise was fabulous! We had a great time, relaxed a lot, and ate WAY too much good food :-) Right now, life is super busy for both of us. The last crazy week of student council is coming up next week: dress up days, lunchtime activities, prom royalty voting, a pep assembly, and the prom. Moose is trying to finish up the last of his classes before he graduates on May 9th. That's the quick update for now - I promise I'll post cruise pictures when things slow down in a couple of weeks. For now, here's the graduation announcement that I just finished working on.

Busy and fun weekend

2009-03-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! This was a great and busy weekend. Here's what we did:

Friday:

We celebrated our anniversary (which was actually on Sunday). We celebrated by going to dinner at the Melting Pot - delish!!!!! Here's a picture of us at the restaraunt.

We also opened a fun present from my mother-in-law. About 2 weeks ago she gave us a huge, heavy box wrapped in newspaper comics and told us that we couldn't open it until our anniversary. If you know me at all, you know that this drove me crazy! I was pretty famous as a child for finding all of the hidden presents and even occasionally opening and re-wrapping presents :-) Because she's really nice, Shelie let us open our present on Friday, since we were celebrating that day. We were pretty confused when we opened it: a paper box filled with 2 reams of paper, 2 rolls of toilet paper, 2 rolls of paper towels, and some paper napkins. Turns out that the first anniversary is traditionally the "paper" anniversary - hence all of the paper products - very cute!

Saturday:

It was the big day for my piano students: piano recital! They all did pretty well - some kids are just never going to practice as much as they need to. It was really fun for Moose to get to put faces with the names that I tell him about all of the time - kids and their parents!

Then we went to Travis and Rochelle's house to help them with their backyard. They are doing a overhaul of their backyard - building planters, planting gardens, etc. We helped to dig trenches and build and install sprinkler lines, cover it all up, and lay sod. It was really nice to spend time with them and also to be outside in the gorgeous weather. This is the best time of year in Las Vegas!

Sunday:

Sunday was pretty relaxing - the perfect end to a fun weekend.

Monday:

Okay, I realize that Monday is not technically part of the weekend, but I just thought I'd share that we had a fantastic shopping trip on Monday. On our receipt it says that we saved $63.86! That was 38% off of our total bill! I love getting deals. It is almost like a sport - there is strategy, competition, and the feeling of winning is spectacular!

Rachel Ray: You Stink

2009-03-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Rachel,
I was given your cookbook, 365 days: No Repeats, as a gift about a year and a half ago. Every recipe I have tried has failed miserably. Don't even try to blame me for being a bad cook. I will fully admit that I am not a great chef, but I know how to follow instructions. In fact, I have made recipes from other cookbooks and even other Food Network personalities (i.e. Alton Brown, Guy Fieri) and they have all turned out deliciously. Additionally, my husband, who is an EXCELLENT cook, has had zero luck using your recipes. My major complaints are as follows:
1. The recipes call for WAY too many ingredients, many of which are very unusual and hard to come by.
2. The recipes take a long time to make. Case in point: I made the tex-mex macaroni and cheese. It took about 2 hours to prepare because of all of the strange ingredients and mile-long list of directions, plus cook time.
3. Everything tastes BLAH! With so many ingredients, you would think the food would have a little bit of flavor - not the case. The tex-mex macaroni? Yeah, it tasted pretty much like hamburger helper with less flavor (and it cost more money because of the strange ingredients - see complaint #1).
4. You don't have any pictures in your cookbook. I think that this is because you really can't cook either. You had a book deadline, made up a bunch of crap and then threw it into a book. That could also be the reason for the conveniently timed commercial breaks on your television show.......hmmm.
If you have any rebuttal to these complaints, please post a comment to this blog.
Thank you,
Katie Jensen

It's getting close!!!!!

2009-03-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Apr 04 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES
Apr 05 AT SEA
Apr 06 AT SEA
Apr 07 PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO
Apr 08 MAZATLAN, MEXICO
Apr 09 CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO
Apr 10 AT SEA
Apr 11 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOOSE!

2009-02-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

I LOVE YOU!!! You are the best husband in the whole world and I am so lucky to have you! Hope you have a great birthday - you deserve it!

One more pic of the beautiful birthday girl

2009-02-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

2009-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

A birthday shout-out (okay, okay, it's a few hours early...) to the most beautiful, smart, funny, charming, talented, wonderful, inspiring seventeen-year-old that I know. I can't believe that my baby sister is 17! I love you so much and am SO proud of you for everything that you've made of your life. You are special - and I don't mean "special" :-) I know that you are much more talented with photo editing than I am, but here are a few of my favorite pictures that I took of you over Christmas break.

We love you Lisi-Lu! Hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!!!!

Finally, a Valentine's Post

2009-02-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Look at this delicious gift that my sweet husband got me for V-Day. It was SO delicious. I was very surprised and enjoyed it a lot.

We actually spent Valentines Day golfing with my brother-in-law Kaden and his wife Heather, my in-laws Jeff and Shelie, my sister-in-law Kami, and Moose's grandparents Hal and Beverly. Then we went and stuffed ourselves at the South Point Buffet. Romantic, eh? Just kidding - it was a very fun weekend. Unfortunately, my camera battery died right after the edible arrangement pictures, so I had to leave the picture taking to Heather. I know that she took a ton - now I just need to get them from her!

Getting Crafty Again

2009-02-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

Recently several of our friends have bought new homes, which has made us VERY jealous. Since we're not in a position to buy a place of our own right now, I've committed to try to make our apartment feel more like a grown-up house and less like a college dorm. My project today: window treatments. They're not all that fancy, but they were cheap! We got the fabric on sale and I built the cornice boards out of foam board from the dollar store. I'm pretty proud of my dirt-cheap creations.The other project may not actually be crafty, but it makes our living room feel more homey. We have this HUGE alcove in our living room. It's a great place for the TV, but poses some awkward decorating dilemas. Until now it has mostly been filled with random crap, but I finally got around to making it look more presentable - what do you think?

Because we needed to post....

2009-02-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

1.YOUR REAL NAME:Katie Jensen/Kyle Jensen
2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother and fathers middle names)Marie Jack/Christensen Brooks
3.NASCAR NAME (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)Richard Dick (No, I'm not kidding)/David Hal
4.STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)Jenka/Jenky
5.DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color, favorite animal)Red Robin (Yummmm)/Blue Gorilla
6.SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, town where you were born)Leorene Sacramento/Jeffrey Logan
7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)The yellow diet coke/The black cherry coke
8.FLY NAME (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)Kaen/Kyen
9.STREET NAME (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)Cookies 'n' Cream Chocolate Chip/Cookie Dough Oreo
10.ROCK STAR NAME (current pets name, current street name)Moose Silverado Ranch/Tron Silverado Ranch
11. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)Spike Turquoise/Mitzi Cooper.
12.YOUR GANGSTA NAME (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle)Katizzle/Kylizzle
13.YOUR IRAQI.. NAME (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name)Anleiesen/Ynjelesen
14.YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one of your pets)Black Moose/Black Minx
15. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)Happy Reeses/Black Toffee

Ewww.....Gross

2009-01-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

Moose ordered most of his books for school this semester online. Over the past week or so they have been trickling in one by one. Today he got his last book and found this inside of it:

Seriously - this is creepy. Pray that we don't get any wierd diseases from the book :-)

I'm so proud!

2009-01-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you who knew me in college, you know that I was a big fan of the BYU newspaper, The Daily Universe. Today my brother, Doug, had his first two articles published in the paper! Check it out!
http://www.newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/70699
http://www.newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/70697
Great job, Doug!!!

Thankful

2009-01-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

I know that this probably won't be the most exciting post in the world, but it's been a long time since I posted so I figured I just need to put SOMETHING up.

Today I found out about a terrible situation that one of my co-workers has found herself in. She is a very sweet, young teacher who just had a baby in September with her long-term boyfriend. They got engaged when they found out they were pregnant and were planning on getting married sometime soon. He had been pretty sick lately, but wasn't going to the doctor because he was recently laid off and didn't have health insurance (and since they weren't married he wasn't on her plan). Over the holidays he went to the emergency room where they said that they needed to take out his gallbladder (is that how you spell it) immediately. Once they opened him up they realized that there was much more wrong. His heart was inflamed and all of the valves were leaking and most of his major organs had begun to shut down. He passed away shortly after the surgery in the hospital. Now my co-worker is left with no claim to any of his life-insurance or property because they were not married. Luckily, his name is on the birth certificate, so the baby will be entitled to some of this.

I have not been able to stop thinking about this all day. I can't imagine suddenly losing Moose like that. I'm sitting here crying just thinking about it. I don't usually get this emotional in blogging, but I'm so overwhelmed with gratitude today for all that I have, and especially for Moose. We have only been married for almost a year, but I absolutely cannot imagine my life without him. He is so good to me and I love him so much. I am so glad that we are sealed in the temple and that we can be together forever.

On a lighter note, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit my family in California for Christmas this year. It was great to be able to spend almost 2 weeks there and for Moose to get to know them all (except for Scott on his mission) a little bit better. Moose and Scott have actually never met, so it will be kind of wierd when he gets home from his mission - we will have been married for a year and a half when he gets home! We had a great time over the holidays, got some great gifts, had a lot of fun, and didn't want to go back to work when we got home!
Since I don't talk about him very much, here are some pictures of Scott on his mission in Iowa.

Have a good weekend!

WHAT????!!!???

2008-12-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

That's right - it's snowing in Vegas - and not just a little bit! Every winter, people get all hyper and say that it's snowing when it's really just sleeting, so I didn't think anything of it when my students told me that it was snowing today. When I went out to my car, I believed them. It really snowed for a good 4 or 5 hours this afternoon and the weather guys say that it will keep going through the night. Seriously crazy. I had to document it. It was too cold for me to stay out very long, so you only get a few pics from right around my apartment.
This is our front door (the one on the bottom).

Our very snowy sidewalk

The pool :-) The lounge chairs are usually a little more inviting than they look here :-)
Who knew that palm trees don't hold up so well in the snow?

Proof that I was there, in the snow.

We're Crazy....

2008-12-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

Why do we say yes to these kinds of things?
Let me tell you about our weekend.
Friday was an extremely busy day for both of us. Moose's deliveries are getting really busy right now around the holiday season and I had a pep assembly to run at school. I don't even know if words can explain how busy the day was, but I'll move on.
After school and work on Friday, we ate dinner, went to the mall, then came home and went to bed at about 8:30. Our alarm clock rang at 11:30 that night, we got up, got ready, and drove across town to Cimmaron Memorial High school.
Why, you might ask? We got roped into chaperoning the KEY club trip to Magic Mountain because the actual advisors from my school couldn't go.
The entire event was one of the most disorganized things I have ever been a part of. We were supposed to meet at the school at 1:00 am. They put 1100 kids into different parts of the school and made them wait there for 2 hours before they let us on the busses. Why? Really no reason - they were just disorganized. After all 24 charter busses were loaded, we headed for California. 12 busses at a time stopped at the McDonalds in Barstow. Since it was so early in the morning, McDonalds was the only thing open and you can imagine how crowded it got.
We got back on the busses and drove the rest of the way. When we got there, all of the other advisors had this piece of paper that was a ticket purchase confirmation - I was given nothing. I asked the KEY club president why and she told me that our school banker didn't actually send the money in, so we all had to buy our tickets at the gate. HOWEVER, the people in charge wouldn't let my kids (21 of them) get off the bus until they had their tickets in hand. SO, Moose and I had to get $23 (which is how much the peple told us they cost) from each kid, walk all the way to the entrance gate, buy the tickets and walk all the way back to the bus. WELL, when we got to the front gate, we found our that the tickets cost $23 if you bought them ahead of time, and $27 if you bought them at the gate - and they only took cash. Clearly, we did not have enough money. Some nice people who had extra tickets sold us some at the $23 price and then we pitched in what we had brought of our own money. We went back to the bus, got $2 from every kid to re-imburse ourselves and then we all finally got to go into the park.
After all that hassle, we were in the park from around 10:30am-6pm. In all of that time, we were able to ride 4 rides because it was so crowded. The first ride that we went on was totally worth it - it was called Tatsu and it was the scariest ride I have EVER been on.
At 6pm, we got back on the bus, drove back to Vegas, got to the school at midnight, back to our apartment around 1 and slept like babies.
I think we need experiences like this to remind us that we are NOT all that young anymore. I feel like I've been hit by a mack truck. Oh well, thank goodness it's over.

Fwd: You're celebrating...?

2008-12-12T15:13:00.001-08:00

This email made my day!!!!

Hi Katie

I knew you were celebrating but I had no idea you'd go this far. How did you get Disney to do that?

http://www.sun7news.com/index.php?code=512UfU911F7RxG8Wp66S&CMP=OTC-WWYCOVS1001

Cheers,

Douglas

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2008-12-06T22:08:00.001-08:00

We weren't going to get a Christmas tree this year. It's not that we don't love the holiday season, but we don't have much room and will be spending most of the holiday season in California anyway. However, my sweet mother-in-law bought us the cutest little ornament (2 little moose characters holding a sign that says Katie and Kyle: 2008) so we HAD to have something to hang it on. We ended up getting this cute little tree at Target for 10 bucks. I decorated it with some random stuff around the house and voila! it feels like Christmas around here. Moose and I agree that we're glad we got the tree - it feels so much more festive in our apartment now.

When we came home from Target, we found this lovely little card on our doorstep:

Not that there's anything wrong with the card - I LOVE Christmas cards (by the way - email me your address already so that I can send you one) - but I just found it SO funny. I guess in Las Vegas it really is easier to just assume that people speak Spanish instead of English.

Feliz Navidad!

It's that time of year....

2008-11-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas card time! You would think that I would have everyone's addresses since I sent wedding announcements out recently, but I don't :-) Actually, it's been A WHOLE YEAR since I was compiling my wedding invitation list - can you belive it? Anyway, if you want a Christmas card, don't assume that I have your address! Email it to me at katie.haycock@gmail.com
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We really are good dancers - see!

2008-11-23T14:08:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

This is SO Funny

2008-11-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Brittany for posting this on her blog. I almost died I was laughing so hard!

Where should we settle?

2008-11-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

I found this quiz on someone else's blog and thought it would be kind of fun. Here are the top places it said we should settle:
1. Page, AZ
2. Payson, AZ
3. Sandpoint, ID
4. Hood River, OR
5. Dillon, MT
6. Jackson, WY
7. Leavenworth, WA
8. Moscow, ID
9. Bisbee, AZ
10. Salida, CO
11. Sheridan, WY
12. Divide, CO
13. Seward, AK
13. Whitefish, MT
14. Metaline Falls, WA
15. Durango, CO
16. Bremerton, WA
17. Helena, MT
18. Wenatchee, WA
19. Steamboat Springs, CO
20. Sedona, AZ
21. Ketchikan, AK
22. Bozeman, MT
23. Moab, UT

These are all seriously small towns in my book. I really need to get Moose to take it and see what it says for him. One thing I know for sure - I sure don't want to be neighbors with Sarah Palin, so we won't be moving to Alaska anytime soon :-)

I'm trying to avoid anything productive right now...

2008-11-07T16:04:00.001-08:00

On my way home from work today I was thinking that I need a new hairstyle. Low and behold, I found this website where I could try some new ones on. I came up with some new ideas for the Moose while I was at it. What do you think?

Happy Belated Nevada Day!

2008-11-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a 3-day weekend to celebrate the day that Nevada became a state. Yeah for Nevada. No state income tax and Nevada day are the two best reasons to live in Nevada!
For the long weekend, we went to Pine Valley, Utah (near St. George). The main purpose of the trip was Jensen family pictures (hopefully you can see those soon), but we also had a chance to relax a lot and go fishing.
Here are some pictures of the festivities (apparantly I don't take any pictures of myself)

This is the reservoir that we fished at and also where our pictures were taken

This is Moose's best fake smile. On the outside he may be smiling, but on the inside he was thinking - take the picture so that I can fish already!This is Moose baiting his hook. The fish REALLY liked the powerbait we were using. Unfortunately, they were really smart fish and kept figuring out how to get it off of the hook without biting down on the hook. Darn those smart fish!

If you know me, you know that I'm not really into fish in any form. This is a picture of me being a really good helper and holding the smelly jar of powerbait.
Moose is a really good fisherman. At one point he brought in two of them at a time! Okay, maybe it was just a fluke, but I still think he should be proud.

This is my sister-in-law, Kami and one of the fish that she caught. No one was catching anything for a while and then all of a sudden she got several right in a row. The boys were getting pretty frustrated that she was beating them in the fish count.I'm not sure for the technical term for it, but everyone was catching a lot of what I call lake-weed. It looked like seaweed, but clearly, we were not anywhere near the sea. This is Moose picking the lake-weed off of his hook.
This is my father-in -law, Jeff, and one of his many catches.
While we were out fishing, I read one of Moose's favorite books - The Hatchet. It was a really good book - I don't know how I never read it before. It was especially fun to read outside.

Moose's brother Kaden and his wife Heather were also there, but for some reason I don't have any pictures of them - sorry guys!

I almost fogot! For those of you who know how much I hate fish, you will be proud. I tried some of it and I didn't die! I didn't like it, but I would probably choose it over some other horrible things if I had to. I think my main problem is that I really get nauseous when I have any meat on my plate that resembles the animal that it came from (whole fish, chicken on the bone, etc.) I know, I have issues.

All in all, a great time was had by all. I'm pretty excited about the 4 day weekend this week - Hooray for Veteran's Day!

finally.............

2008-11-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

gObama!

For Your Enjoyment...

2008-10-14T18:06:00.001-07:00

To my Moose:

2008-10-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

Breathing again

2008-10-01T13:11:00.001-07:00

Why has it been so long since I've posted? I know that's the question on your mind, so here's the answer: HOMECOMING. I know, I know, I'm not in high school anymore. Sometimes it's hard to remember that when you're the student council advisor. Here's a rundown of what I've been up to for the last week and a half:
iHomecoming week (like iPod, get it?)

Monday: iRap Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Rap-star relay races at all 3 lunches
Help Moose get the truck push-started when it wouldn't start
Powder Puff Football game

Tuesday: iRock Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Air guitar competition at all 3 lunches
Students vs. teachers kickball game after school

Wednesday: iRetro Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Limbo competition at all 3 lunches
Decorate the gym
Pack the Gym for Women's Volleyball

Thursday: iRodeo Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Line dancing and Hitching Post at all 3 lunches
Make sure everything is ready for Friday

Friday: iRoar Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Set up for school-wide assembly
Host all 2200 students and entertain them for 50 minute assembly
Clean up the assembly
Set up for the dance
Set up for the tailgate party
Host the tailgate party
Clean up the tailgate party
Get ready for homecoming half-time show
Half-time show
Clean up all of the leftover crap

Saturday:
Finish setting up for the Homecoming dance
Arrive early to the dance to meet the DJ and photographers
Work at the Homecoming dance
Clean up the homecoming dance

Sunday:
SLEEP for the first time in a week.

Monday:
Go to school and try to pick up the pieces from a week of madness

Tuesday:
Feel awful and come home from school early.

Wednesday:
Stay home from school
Start to feel better
BLOG

Any Questions?

Magic!

2008-09-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we accidentally got an ink stain on our couch from a ballpoint pen. It wasn't very big, just about a 2 inch line, but it was right in the middle of the cushion and it was pretty obvious. I tried to wash it out with water, but nothing happened. I looked online and found a website where a bunch of people said to use hand sanitizer on it. I was kind of skeptical and a little bit afraid that it would stain the couch, but I decided to try it. Seriously - it was like magic. I just put a small line of the hand sanitizer over the stain, then gently rubbed with a white towel and the stain was INSTANTLY gone! I didn't even have to rub hard at all - it just disappeared. I'm sure this will come in very handy when we have kids. Just thought I'd share since I know that lots of you have microfiber couches.

SO TIRED!

2008-09-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

We moved this weekend and we're exhausted. How do 2 people have so much stuff? Because of the effort it took to move, we've decided to stay in this apartment for a LONG time. Well, longer than we've stayed everywhere else, which is only about 6 months! Other than living out of boxes, things are going well. School is busy for both of us, but we're both pretty happy with our schedules this semester. We are really looking forward to some of our favorite TV shows coming back on and we LOVE it when you guys blog, so stop being lazy and write something already! :-)

Real life is starting again...

2008-08-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well it's back to work and school for both of us now, and we miss summer! We finished out our last weekend of freedom with a quick trip to the exotic Mesquite, NV and then decided to spontaneously extend it with one more night in the even more exciting Primm, NV. Where are those places, you might ask - EXACTLY. The middle of nowhere is the perfect place to relax, so that's where we went. Actually, the Oasis resort in Mesquite comps CCSD teachers a 2 night stay during the summer, so we took advantage of that. On our way back to Vegas from Mesquite, we decided that we weren't realdy for summer to be over so we drove right on past Vegas and to Primm which is on the state line of Nevada and California. We had a great time there - rode the rollercoasters and shopped at the outlet mall and just RELAXED!
Now that we've been back, responsibilities have hit us in the face and we're busy, busy, busy. Besides school starting, we're moving in 2 weeks from today and have not made as much progress packing as we should -oh well, it will get done one way or the other. Hope to have a more exciting post for you soon, but for now it is off to bed. Goodnight :-)

Arizona and Lisa

2008-08-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to visit our friends, John and Cindy, in Mesa, Arizona. It was so nice to get out of town for a few days and just relax. My sister, Lisa, was also there visiting so we got to spend some time with her too. While we were there we spent a lot of time sleeping in, playing Wii, lounging around and EATING at tons of great places.
One of our favorite shows on the Food Network is called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. A couple months ago we were watching it and they featured a place called Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, Arizona. It looked so good that we decided to try it while we were there. Seriously, it was the BEST hamburger restaurant we have EVER been to. It is a rennovated old house right next to their farm, so mostly everything they use in the restaurant is really fresh from the farm. I had a delicious cheeseburger, Moose had the Fontina burger, Lisa had chicken strips that you could tell were actually made from real chicken, and we all shared some onion rings. I wish that we had gone back the next day because I'm still dreaming about how good it was. Here are some pictures from our visit there:
Recently, John and Cindy got a new dog named Gracie. She is a really cute little dog and we had fun playing with her. Interestingly, she had a HUGE crush on Moose. Seriously, she followed him everywhere. Wherever he was, she needed to be. Honestly, after a few days I was a little bit jealous :-)
For all of you who know my history with animals, this picture is for you:
After our visit with John and Cindy, we decided to bring Lisa back to Las Vegas with us for a few days. While she was here we put her to work and "let" her practice cooking. She did a great job. We decided to let her have the day off on Sunday and we made meatloaf. Normally meatloaf wouldn't be something to blog about, but this time we made it in the shape of a football in honor of the preseason football games that have started. Moose's favorite time of year is starting up again and he is very excited. I expect that most of our food for the next 5 months or so will have some sort of football theme.

Charity Case

2008-07-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last night some friends of ours that I work with invited us over for dinner and games. We had a great time - they made delicious steak, potatoes, and asparagus, we played lots of fun Wii games and talked for hours. However, the best part was the free stuff. I don't know if people just feel bad for us poor newlyweds or if we are just the luckiest people ever, but look at the cool free stuff they gave us!

It may be hard to tell, but this is the heaviest TV ever! In the picture it looks like it is exactly the same size as the one we already have in the background, but it is really a LOT bigger. We are excited that we have the perfect space for it in our new apartment - that's right - we're moving (again!) in a few weeks.

I have also been wanting to learn how to golf and they gave us these awesome clubs! We've been looking on Freecycle and at DI, but we hadn't found any that were in good shape. These are pretty old, but they'll be perfect.

Haircutting adventures...

2008-07-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight I gave my very first haircut. It was a little more awkward than I thought it would be, but I got the hang of it after a while. It really doesn't help that my husband has curly hair and is still taller than me while he is sitting down, but I think I did a pretty darn good job :-)
Here's the before picture (isn't he SO cute?):

And the after:

What do you think?

Gettin' Crafty With It.....

2008-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was feeling crafty. A while back, we went camping and thought that it would be fun and functional to have some carrying cases for some of our camping equipment. We went to the fabric store shortly after we got home and Moose picked out this cute and durable desert camo fabric. I finally got around to designing the pattern and making the cover for the camp stove (Moose's family calls it a Cache Cooker) this weekend. I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Lessons we've learned in marriage

2008-07-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

In the last four months, we've learned a lot about each other and ourselves. I think that one of the most important lessons we've learned is that we really do like things that we thought we hated. Moose has been a really good sport about watching So You Think You Can Dance with Me (as long as we fast forward through Mary Murphy's commentary). He is actually a very good judge and can predict exactly what the judges will say and who will get kicked off and why!

I have learned what Ultimate Fighting is, and have actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The fighting is actually pretty entertaining once you get past the awkwardness of most of the holds that they put each other in. :-) Last night we went over to Moose's boss's house and watched the fight. They have a really nice house and it was fun to get to know them better - especially since I'm going to start teaching piano to 2 of their kids later this summer.

Have any of you learned similar lessons?

Retail Therapy

2008-06-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started out as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I woke up in a bad mood, when I went to get dressed none of my clothes were cute or fit right, I had a ton of things that I needed to do (including write a talk for church the next day) and I didn't want to do any of them. Moose and I decided that we would go get our hair cut with a coupon that we got in the mail. Turns out the coupon was expired, but we got the hair cuts anyway. Bad idea. I knew from the second that I sat in the chair and she was rude to me that I shouldn't let her touch my hair, but for some reason I just sat there while she chopped and chopped and made snippy comments about how damaged and horrible she thought my hair was. The worst part is that when I told her that I didn't want her to cut any more off the front she told me that she hadn't cut any off the front at all, which was a blatant lie because I just watched her do it. I asked her why the front was 4 inches shorter than the back and she said that's how it was - it is just SO broken and damaged. PUH-LEASE old lady!!!! You're just crazy and trying to cover up your mistake. Luckily Moose had already paid at the front counter so I could let her know that I was very dissatisfied and make my dramatic exit.
After a few tears and then taking a shower and styling it myself, Moose helped me to realize that it's not as big of a disaster as it seemed - it just is really choppy, especially in the front. I decided to cheer myself up with a technique that my mother taught me - RETAIL THERAPY. For those of you who don't know this, spending money really can make you happy! Here are my purchases from yesterday. I know that some of them might not seem that exciting, but they really were to me.

Badly needed eye makeup remover.
I didn't believe that 5 blades could possibly be that much better than 4, but boy was I wrong!
TONS of new shampoo - gotta love Costco!!

Some really comfy sweat-shorts to wear around the house.
Some cute new jean shorts for the HOT summer in Vegas. I also think they'll come in handy on my trip to Texas next week.

A really cute brown swim cover-up dress thingy.

The book I've been dying to read - now I'll have something to do on the way to Texas!

In conclusion, retail therapy works!