Baby boy #2

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and found out we are having another boy! Kurt and I(and everyone else I think) thought it would be a girl...then the ultrasound tech lady asked if we had any guesses and when I said the word "girl" I knew in that instance it was going to be a boy! He was being a little shy at first but after alittle shaking and wiggling he decided to show all! And there are no doubts that he is infact a boy! I think some where deep inside, Tyson understood. Because for the rest of the day he was extremely hyper! We were chasing him around last night while he laughed, trying to get his P.J.'s on and I couldnt help but think how fun it will be chasing two little guys around! Call me crazy but I am excited for those times.

Lets start with Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was low key this year. Kurt, Tyson and I stayed here in Nevada. Our families live far away and in places where it likes to snow a lot. So instead of spending the outrageous amounts of money that airlines like to charge over the holidays and instead of risking our lives through the ice and snow storms, we have decided to spend the winter holidays at home and travel to see family in the safer summer months. I must say it was hard to be pregnant over Thanksgiving! I wanted to eat everything before it was even made and when thinking about eating one thing it would trigger another craving. I tried to keep the "steph" foods to a minimum but I still made way too much and ended up not eating half of it! But I did attempt to make everything from scratch which I did except for the mashed potatoes!

 My mom makes awesome pies and knows how to fold the edges just right to make them look perfect. Mine however....did not look so great!

 I am not very good with baking things that require yeast and raising. But this year I made a recipe of my Mother in Laws which turned out great!

 Kurto even helped make the stuffing!! Such a good husband I have!

 We also continues my families tradition of playing cribage...which I won!

The day after Thanksgiving we put up Christmas Lights on the house for the first time!!

 And decorated the tree! Sometimes I wish we could travel and see the whole family over these Holidays but I really love making our own traditions and making memories in our home with our new family!

Finding the Time

I wish I had time to blog everyday or atleast every week like I use to...but between an 18 month old, a Christmas tree that is very appealing to that 18 month old and baby that is keeping me very tired and very sick, I cant seem to find the time to sit down and write. I wish I did because I really love it. I need to post about Thanksgiving, about the baby, about Tyson, about my week trip to Wyoming, about my birthday, about our fencing blowing down, about our house full of sickies and oh so much more. So please be patient as I slowly catch back up!

Come and Play

 Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came to visit this past week! We had a fun and productive time. I always feel bad because there is NOTHING to do in this sad little town of ours. You have to drive an hour to Reno to do anything halfways exciting- but hopefully they enjoyed there visit anyhow.

 Tyson was of course shy for the first couple of days...accept at the dinner table. He seemed to think we always needed dinner and a show! He loved to jabber in his little language he has come up with and loved the attention and laughter her got each night(notice the Cardinals World Series shirt!!!)

 He did love to knock down blocks that Grandma and Grandpa would build into towers! And REALLY loved posing for the camera!

 We gotta put our guests to work right?!!! The tree in our front yard grows like crazy and especially this year. It hid our entire house by the end of the summer and people started calling that were coming over because they didnt recognize which house was ours. So we went out and started cutting. Kurt and his Dad got up on the ladder, in the tree and cut about 6+ feet off of the top.

                                    

 We piled the branches into the driveway(this picture shows about 1/4 of them!) the first day and Marita and I used small hand clippers to cut all the branches up into small enough pieces to put into garbage bags. The next day the guys helped with that part and we plowed through it all in 2 days!

 By the end people were pretty sore and pretty worn out! But we are SO greatful for their help and it looks 100x's better now! Tyson also warmed up to them by the last day(of course) would even put his hands out for Grandma to hold him. Stayed by himslef in his bedroom with her and read books, played with Grandpa with out needing Dad right there and even gave them hugs and kissed goodnight! Thanks for the fun times!

Halloween with the Jensens

This was Tyson's first Holloween that he actually got to participate! And he really enjoyed it!

Here is our little Tigger. He looked SOO cute!!

                                    Kurto is starting to love carving pumpkins as much as I do!

                                                             Tyson's first house!

                                                          Here is my 2011 pumpkin!

                                                    And Kurto's 2011 pumpkin!

        Tyson's first pumpkin. He liked coloring on the paper better then the pumpkin which suprised me. I      thought if he had the opportunity to color on something else he would but I guess I thought him well!

Skoobers...a girls best friend

My Mom called with some sad news today...
When we were little my Dad repetedly told us we could absolutly not get a dog. My Mom and all 5 children's vote for one, out weighed my Dads vote against one and so....we got him a Dog for his brithday! That was a long long long time ago. Skooby was his name (grubs,scrubs, goobers and skoob were just a few of his nicknames). I LOVE this dog. I can recall the day we went to the pound to get him. We walked up and down the kenels hoping for a dog to "just feel right" and one did! The workers told us not to reach through the fence or to pet the dogs at all but my Mom reached right through to Skooby where she recieved licks and licks of love and I hoped that he would be the new addition to our family! And he was. My Dad wasnt happy with us at all but he fell in love with him almost as quickly as we did and he soon became my Dads buddy! I like to think that this is how my husband will feel when we some day get a dog. He has some negative thoughts about what having a dog is like. But I believe if you train them right they can truely be mans best friend.
I showed Skooby in 4-H for a couple of years which he LOVED! My mom made a bag that I would carry his leashes and treats in when I would take him to "class" once a week. He quickly learned where we were going when I had this bag in hand and even started carying it around by himself hoping to go more often. He would ride in the truck, proud as any dog could be as we drove to class, and then once we were there he would prance up and down the isles as we showed. He was perfect! My instructor often used Skooby as the good example in class. I honestly think he was sad when we stopped going.
He was our buddy, like another brother to us. He went everywhere with us. Even when we would go up to the mountains in the deep, freezing snow we would put his coat on and he would trudge through right along with us. He went camping, hiking, sleding, to outdoor church activities to celebrations. Everywhere.
Well he is gone now. He was getting pretty old. Recently my Mom said that he stopped eating, drinking and even walking. She said he slept all day long and sometimes had little seizures. It had gotten so bad that my Mom finally had to get him put down. I think she is having a really hard time with it especially since she is home ridden for the most part since her back surgery and Skooby was by her side constantly. When she got home from the vet she found a tennis ball and pushed it to the side with her foot and said she thought she heard Skooby run after it. It will be weird going home to visit and not have Grub run up and greet us. But I'm sure he is happier and healthier now where he is and probably enjoying some catch up time with his buddie Chewbaka who passed away a year or so ago, his other buddy frisky who chased him all around the house years ago and my Mom's horse who she passed down to me who passed away after having a stroke.
I hope that some day my children can grow up and share a bond with a pup such as Skooby. A friend that never judges you, you never fight with, will never leave you. But will stand by your side through thick and thin and greet you at the door with his tail wagging, ready to brighten your day from whatever things have gone wrong.
I'll miss you Skooby, and I love you!

Lately

I haven't posted in a while...I havent been feeling good and I'm either busy with Tyson or sleeping! But here are a few things that have happened lately.
I was asked to run a table at a career night, one of the Young Women in our ward was putting on for a Personal Progress Project. It was a lot of fun and the girls seem to really be interested in what I had to say. Some just had silly questions like, "what is this thing on my face!" Which I am happy to help with. But for the most part they hadn't heard of the things I did for a career and found it interesting..maybe a little gross too!!! It made me miss work for about 20 minutes until I came home and found my handsome husband sitting alone on the couch waiting for me and my beautiful boy sound asleep in his bed and I remembered how much I love staying home to be a wife and mother and wouldnt change it for the world!
Tyson has recently discovered tantrum throwing, going limp when you try to pick him up and screaming when he doesnt get what he wants. Its not too fun, especially when it happens in public or at the park when everyone is staring at you. I'm not sure exactly how to handle it in public, Im sure I'll figure it out though. There was a little boy around 3 or 4 at story time that was not listening to his mother and she loudly put him into time out in the same small room where story time is held. The little boy is screaming at the top of his lungs while she is yelling at him to shut up. No one was paying attention to the story anymore let alone could hear it. Anyways the moral of this story is that I know well enough to remove Tyson from the room or area where people are, to take action!
Saturday night we were getting Tyson ready for bed and while running, trying to get away from getting his jammies on, he slipped on the tile in our entry way and landed face first. His mouth instantly filled with blood and I just knew we would be heading to the ER. Kurt instantly sprang into action and got a washcloth to clean his mouth out so we knew if we needed to go. After fighting Tyson for a little while we could see that his tooth cut/scraped his lip all the way up to the outside of his upper lip. It stopped bleeding after 10 minutes or so and we didnt have to go get stitches! THANK GOODNESS! But for the rest of the night and the next morning he couldn't stop touching it. I bet it felt wierd cuz it was pretty fat! It has healed quickly and he seems to have forgotten about it now.
I got my haircut on Saturday. I have been trying to grow it back out but it needed a trim and a change of style for it to grow. I was so excited and told Kurt that everytime I get excited to have my hair done the lady always calls and cancels but luckily that didnt happen. Instead I got there, explained to her what I needed. And then left the chair...sad. I felt like a hillbilly with a mullet. NO- actually my Mom has this punk rocker wig she always use to wear for halloween and THAT is how I felt it looked. The hairstylist gave me very short, choppy layers in the back and chopped my bangs off above my eyebrows. I was not happy. When I went out to meet Kurt, he wasnt there and wouldnt answer his phone. Finally he called back and was still at Wal-mart. Normally that would have been fine, no big deal I would just enjoy the time to myself and go for a walk while he came to get me. But I felt so self conscience about my hair I was very mad at him. I didnt get a good look at my hair before I left so i wasnt sure EXACTLY waht it looked like. All I could image was this girl walking up and down the sidewalks with this punk rocker wig on! People probably thought I was crazy. Then when Kurt got there to pick me up, he doesnt say a thing about my hair which is a bad sign! Usually he'll say oh let me see, oh it looks good. But he just pretended I didnt just get a haircut, which made me feel even more self conscience. I mean I want my husband to think I am attractive, what wife doesnt. Anyways I decided it was time to get rid of my highlights today and dyed my hair which came out a lot darker than I had planned but much to my suprise my horrible haircut didnt look as bad as it did with the highlights. I'm quite a bit happier now and can smile while I do my hair instead of aggressively comb it into a ponytail for the next month while it grows out!
Well those are a few things going on lately! There are a few more but I'll wait til next time for those!