My sweet girl is already 16 and 1/2 months! But most days I feel like she might as well be 3......she seems like such a big girl! I have been home with her for a couple months now since its summer time and I can hardly believe how much she's changed  in such little time.  She is talking like crazy, I feel like she learns a few new words every day. I'll say something once and then all of a sudden she's added it to her vocabulary (mommy sort of thinks she's a genius, haha!).  I wish I could remember all of her words right now but a few of them are: dog, no-no dog, no-no Ba-ma (Boomer), Osh (Cash), moo, brush, hot, wow, more, water, ball, moon........and more! And even though she's been able to say Ma-ma for awhile, she for some reason likes to say it all day now........which I love :) And every time she says Da-da, she says it in a whisper......we think its funny :)


She also definitely started entering her "terrible twos" this summer even though she's not two! She has gotten much better but for awhile there, I was scared! She is not afraid to let her sass show but she's learning what is ok and what is not ok.  But, while she may be starting with her fits and what not, she is still such a sweet, sweet angel! Her precious smile and kisses melt my heart daily.  I'd have to say the thing that gets me most is when she pats me and rubs me on the back and lays her head on my shoulder when I pick her up . She's been doing this since she was little bitty but I still melt a little every time! 


She is still in the high 90's in her percentiles..........big girl! She is wearing 2T now in most everything. I'm sure she could wear 24 mos in some stuff but I don't buy it because I know she'll grow out of it asap! That little belly is definitely rounding out, so precious! Here are some cute pics I've taken lately.  Gotta love those tooshy pics!

I had to add a heart tattoo, how could I not?!?!

This is one of her favorite things to do right now, not a very flattering picture but oh so cute to me! :)

This one I snapped today because she was actually keeping her bow in her hair!!! This child DOES NOT like anything in her hair.......which I would be ok with except that it is OUT OF CONTROL right now! Nobody warns you about the horrible stage their hair has to go through while it is growing out.........ick! It grows straight down into her face and it doesn't seem to bother her, I just don't get it :)

A few other things that Kinley loves right now:
-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-Bubble Guppies
-Books! Moo, Baa, Lalala is probably her fav right now
-Bubbles!
-Gymboree class
-water
-coloring (on everything)
-blocks
-singing "the itsy bitsy spider" &"if you're happy and you know it"
-walking around in the backyard
-stacking and putting things inside of other things
-"helping" with the dishwasher/dishes
-playing in the dog water bowl, ugh!
-Most of all, THIS GIRL LOVES HER DOGGIES! I never ever thought that she would like them as much as she does.  She constantly has to be patting one of them or cuddling with them.  Boomer didn't care for it for a long time but now he doesn't mind her at all, thank goodness.

Love you Kinley Ann! Not sure how Mommy is gonna be able to go back to work after spending some of the best months of my life with you this Summer! :(

Where has the time gone?!?!?!

 Oh my goodness, I can't believe how long i've put aside this blogging thing! I am so afraid im going to forget everything about my sweet girl's 1st year! New moms at work ask me questions all the time about Kinley's baby stage and I ALREADY can't remember A LOT about it, eek!
There's no way to catch up on everything I've failed to post over this crazy year (selling our house, living with my parents for almost 3 months, going back to work at the same time, moving into our new house, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, my bday, Jay's 30th, and countless other "firsts" for K) so I'll just start with her 1st birthday! This is our sweet little chicken on the morning of her big day, opening her presents from mommy and daddy :) She was the happiest ever that morning!
 

 And this was her later at her polka dot themed birthday party, not very happy at all! She had been really sick the week before (our first big sickness, almost 105 fever :( ) so she was still getting over that......and I don't think she liked having all those people in her house, there were A LOT more than there ever have been.  But everyone still had fun and she got a lot of great things to help her enter the "toddler" phase. 

 These are some shots I took of her yesterday morning in her 1 year outfit (even though she's 13 1/2 ish months already) because I didn't really get any good ones the day of her party.  I worked hard making this 1 onesie so I wanted to make sure I had a good pic of it! :)

Around Easter time, it dawned on me that we HAD to take her picture in the beautiful Texas bluebonnets.  I remember doing this as a kid so I wanted to do it with her too.  Here are 2 great shots, gosh she's cute! :)

I can't believe that we have a one year old and I can't believe that I still fall more in love with her everyday! I've said this about every stage (except newborn stage, eek!) but this might be my favorite! She is communicating like a real little person! We could just sit here and play and laugh at her hilarious personality all day.  She is not totally walking yet, she's being VERY stubborn about it and can totally do it if she would just take some chances! We're up to about 5 steps on her own, closer everyday.  She will walk the whole backyard if you're just barely touching her.........silly girl!
Here are some other fun things I want to remember about this age:
-She loves all food, especially goldfish and nutri grain bars
-She gives daddy the stiff arm and says "no" if he tries to take her from mommy, hilarious!
-I swear she says dog although I can't be sure since I don't speak baby
-She learned to throw balls awhile back and now loves to throw EVERYTHING, not to be rude......just because everything is like a ball I guess!
-She loves her brothers - she loves to feed Boomer all of her food from her highchair and loves to cuddle Cashy all day. 
-She is a patter, she pats her brothers and pats mommy and daddy as if she's saying "i like you, good job"
-Still like to fall asleep with mommy or daddy holding you while watching tv
-love patty cake and still love to play peek a boo
-love the water and can't wait to swim more this summer and at Mrs. Maret's pool
-like to sit in your big girl polka dot chair
-dance and sway to EVERY tune you hear, whether its a real song or a cell phone
-like to go on wagon rides in  your cool new wagon
-say "whats that" which sounds like "uh sah"
-love saying "uh-oh" and love to drop things just so you can say it.  You also say it whenever mommy gets a text which cracks me up. 
-climb the stairs every chance you get

I know there's so much more but thats a good start! Here's some other memorable photos :)

It's been a crazy, crazy, crazy year for the Jensen family.  It has NOT been fun at all being a working mommy, lots of sad days, tears and emotions for this momma........... but you gotta do what you gotta do and we are so very blessed to have an amazing babysitter, Mrs. Maret - to take great care of her while we can't.  I absolutely cannot wait until summer so I can spend everyday playing and taking care of my girl!

I guess I should also mention that me and Kinley are very, very proud of Daddy right now.  He will be DONE with his MBA in a few short months (big graduation party in the works!) and got a new job that he starts on Tuesday! This job is something he's been waiting for for a looooong time and he will finally have a chance to put that big numbers brain of his to work! Now if he can just become a millionaire, we'd very much appreciate that! :)

Dear Kinley, you're the best!

Kinley,

I can't believe you will be 4 months old this week! You are growing way too fast, I want to freeze this 3-4 month period and keep you this way forever! I know I'll love lots of stages but this is the best. You're still a cuddly baby but at the same time you're so strong and ready to do things on your own! You couldn't be funnier, your dad and I can sit and laugh at you for hours......and you could sit and smile for hours with those sweet dimples. Everything that you or anyone else does cracks you up, and you are letting out huge chuckles!

I don't have much to compare to but I seriously think you are the best baby ever. You are so easy going, whether we're just chillin at the house or if I'm dragging you around town in this awful heat......you just go with the flow! The only time you get fussy is when you're hungry or super sleepy......and you're a VERY good sleeper! I can't wait to take you to the doctor next week to see how big you've gotten! Here are some things that you're doing right now, right on track!:

-Lifting up on your arms and holding head up for long periods of time, you're finally liking tummy time.
You're a roly poly (which is cute because that was your brother Boomer's name when he was a little bitty baby before we got him :)........you will not stay on your back - you love to roll over and over and over.

-Still love to "stand up" and stomp your feet or walk up mom and dad.

-Sitting up in your bumbo and playing with toys on the play tray

-Chewing on teethers and drooling like crazy

-Spitting up still! A lot!

-Your favorite toy is your puppy that you snuggle with every time you sleep. The toys have gotten out of control around here now that you can play with them!
-Responding to your name, man your head turns fast!

-Almost sitting up in your new entertainer and playing with the toys on it

-Putting everything and anything in your mouth

-Cuddle in my armpit to go to sleep and like to have your puppy over your face and eyes

-Still loving bath time & swimming

-Still waking up in the morning and just playing around and talking to yourself, as happy as you can be!

-I could keep going on and on!!!!

We love you so much little chicken, you make us SO happy everyday! I'll try to keep writing you on here every once in awhile so one day we can look back at it together :)

Love,

Mommy!

House Update

Well this has been one crazy week! We went from having the house sold and having a closing/moving out date......to the buyers backing out! I keep trying to stay positive and say it wasn't meant to be but really I want to find them and rip their hair out a little!


We were having tons of showings and another couple came back a second time and were very interested, but then it all stopped when our status said contract pending.........and now we haven't had any showings after the jerks backed out! Woops, another venting session........sorry!


Anyways, its back to cleaning everything every time I leave the house and the worst part is, I thought I was gonna get my boys back in a few weeks :(


Please someone come buy this house!





I didn't want to post about the new house stuff because I feel like it will jinx us (because we have to sell our house in order to have the one we're building obviously).......but Im going to anyway. Glass half full, right?!





Here is our lot! There is a sold sign there now but we won't take a picture with it until the day our current house is sold for real!





Here are some pictures I took at a house that was being built in the neighborhood, same exact floor plan.......they just have upgraded floors and cabinets.

I would kill to have these beautiful, dark hardwood floors. I'll miss the ones we have now but the dogs just don't mix well with them. And quite honestly, as I get older....it hurts my poor bunyans walking around on them! haha!

Love the arches and the stairs, I picked the same spindles that these stairs have.

Open kitchen to living room. Our living room will not have the regular ceiling like this one......it will be open all the way to the top because I wouldn't let Jay have a media room :)

I really love their cabinets too, just like the floors.....but I think when I asked, they were about a $15,000 upgrade. Are you kidding me!

Extra little cute cabinet desk by the back door, built in wine rack! Although I will never have enough to keep any up there, I drink it too fast!

The vent a hood is standard.....a little too fancy for me but I'll take it. Our backsplash will be small tumble tiles like these, but much lighter......theres a pic of one later. I really wanted them to leave it blank so we could do what we want to the backsplash, but they won't. The lady said they are real easy to pop out so I want to find some cute little decorative mosaic tiles to pop into the tumble tile so its not so white.

View of kitchen from living room. The kitchen table nook is to the left and there is a nice, long window seat over there too. I love the island! I've always wanted one........I remember when we saw this house model last summer I sat on the island and wouldn't leave :)

This is the color of the granite that will be in the kitchen. I'm still not 100% on it but I think it will look good once its in there. I wish there was a way to see exactly what all of your stuff will look like together........its too hard to choose!

Granite again, these peeps put it in their bathroom, we won't have that.

Here are the little samples of all the stuff we chose yesterday. The backsplash tiles are at the top. I really hope I like these cabinets, I am in love with the cabinets we have now and I wanted something as close to those as I could get within the standard choices.......because the ones I really loved were insanely expensive, dangit! The granite looks gray here, thats why it scares me......but its not really gray. Then there's the good ol' regular carpet and tile and the little touch of pizazz I want to add to the master bathroom tile around the shower.

This is an exciting but stressful process! I would have a fit if someone else got to buy the home we designed for our family! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed everyday and praying for the phone to ring for showings!

Fourth of July 2011

We had a relaxing, low-key 4th of July this year......which was perfectly fine with us! We went for a little swim that morning and then headed off to Mike and Mistys house for some burgers and beer.......but first we had to change chicken into her PRESH outfit that I picked out at Target a looong time ago just for this special 4th! Here she is :)



One of the very few pics I have with her, please excuse my fatness......when I get it all off, we're gonna have a big, fancy photo shoot together!

Sweet lil' fam

It was so good to see one of my favorite nephews, Barley! He got lots of extra lovin from me since I don't have my boys to love on right now. Look at that face!

Had to do an outfit change after Kinley spit up her entire bottle on me (mainly into my cleavage, yum!) Mommy needed a drink too!

There always has to be props!

And here is Kinley's photo session with ALL the props! :)

This last one is my fav!

When we got home that night, we could see one of the big Mckinney firework shows from our backyard. It was pefect, Kinley even noticed them! Looking forward to many more holidays with her :)

Fredericksburg Girls Trip! June 2011

We had so much fun on our trip! I had been looking forward to this for a loooooong time after being out of commission for 9 months of prego-ness and 3 months of mommyhood! I missed Kinley like crazy but it was good to get away for a bit :)
The highlight of the trip was our limo-wine tour! It was the most fun! We became bff's with our driver George and he let us take as much time as we wanted. So, we did! The wine was flowing like water, we couldn't get enough of it.......and we started the party everywhere we went! The cute little town, beer joints and shopping were fun too.....but the wineries were by far my favorite part!

Here are all the girls!

This is out of order but here is Me, Brook & Erin in Luckenbach.

Cheers!

Ash & I at Grape Creek

So pretty!

Here are some of the girls tasting at William-Chris Winery. We all fell in love with Chris a little!

This is Tika, she tore Erin's foot up and made her bleed after spotting a lizard she wanted! Woops Tika!

Erin, Me, Ash in the limo!

Winos!

Twins!

Luckenbach!