Merry Christmas!

Ahh, Christmas! I think this picture of Kaylie pretty much sums up what I love most about Christmas morning. Staying in comfy pj's, relaxing, and eating candy. Love it!

Kaylie had a lot of fun handing out all the presents to everyone this year...

...and she was very proud of herself after each gift was delivered! Yeah!

Kaylie's Christmas Gifts
(not all, but the few I got pictures of)

and last but not least...

What toddler doesn't want blue hair extensions for Christmas?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday! We celebrated Christmas at Mark's family's house this year and had a great time. Here are a few pics and highlights from Christmas Eve. More to come of Christmas day...

Playing with the Nativity
Kaylie got pretty good at telling people about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus and the 3 Kings.

Caroling Around the Neighborhood
I wasn't sure if Kaylie would sing in front of strangers, but she absolutely loved it! She stood right in front at every house, and sang with everyone (even when the doors opened.) She is a natural!

Christmas Story (flannel board)

Grandma and Grandpa Jensen with all 3 Grandkids
Kaylie, Justin, and new baby Jada

I love these girls!

We had two of Kaylie's cute friends (Eva and Lucy) over to make graham cracker houses last week. Kaylie talks about her girl friends all the time, and loves to count them on her fingers. (Eva, Lucy, Monae, Dru, and Violet.) It's very cute! It is so nice to have friends that Kaylie does so well around, especially since she is still pretty shy. Thanks Eva and Lucy for coming to play!

Kaylie's friends!

They love their sippy cups!

And Mommy's friends! (Amy and Liz) You guys are the best!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

More Singing...

Kaylie sings Christmas songs almost all day long nowadays. She has a few favorites: Frosty the Snowman, Away in a Manger, and Jingle Bells. I thought I would share just a few of her singing moments because she is just oh so cute! And thank you again Grandma Brown for the new Frosty doll! Kaylie LOVES it!

Frosty the Snowman

Spirit of Thanksgiving

I read somewhere that Thanksgiving for toddlers should be all about the turkeys.  So we "turkey"-ed it up all month long.  :)

Turkey sugar cookies...

Turkey Hands with treats...

Candy Turkeys (idea from Our Best Bites, my new favorite blog!)... 

Turkey coloring pages...

and Turkey Hand painting (with coloring).

Hope you all have a Happy Turkey Day!  

Need to Buy Glasses?

I started working this week as an independent contractor for an online company called Just Eyewear.  And I just HAVE to spread the news about this awesome company.  I have been wearing contacts since I was a teenager, and have never bought a pair of glasses (not even a pair to wear just around the house at night) because I've always thought that glasses were too expensive.  Even buying glasses at cheaper places (like Costco or Walmart) still seemed too expensive to me.  Anyway, I had the opportunity to speak with the owner of Just Eyewear this week, and learned how they are able to make and sell glasses cheaper than anyone else out there.  After working at one of the largest optical labs in the country, the owner of Just Eyewear learned how much it really costs to make frames and lenses.  And it was much, much less than what you can buy them for in stores.  So he decided to start an online company and sell glasses at the price they should cost.  You can save anywhere from 70-90% buying your glasses from Just Eyewear than a regular optical store.  They are up to 64% cheaper than Costco too.  I think I might just buy my first pair of glasses!  :)  There is a 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back.  And unlike other online companies to buy glasses, all of the glasses from Just Eyewear are made in the United States.  Anyway, I am sounding like a sales person, but I really just wanted to pass along this info so if anyone is looking to buy glasses, this is one great place to check out.

Happy Birthday Kaylie!

 

   Yesterday, Kaylie turned 2 years old!  We celebrated by inviting a few of Kaylie's little girlfriends to Chuck E Cheese for lunch and games.  (I was thinking that Kaylie would do better with a smaller party this year instead of inviting a lot of people, and she really did so great!)  She had fun playing with all the games, and just seemed to like everything: pizza, cake, singing Happy Birthday, and all the fun presents!  Between all the presents from me and Mark, friends, Grandma Jensen, and Grandma Brown, Kaylie is in toy/book heaven!  Our house is a disaster with all the new stuff, but Kaylie loves it all!  What a fun day!  Happy Birthday Kaylie!

Best Fajitas Ever!

So my friend, Jamie, recently posted a food website on her blog called Our Best Bites.  I had never heard of it before, but she listed a few recipes that she had tried and loved from the site.  I'm always looking for new favorites, so I thought I would try a few things from the site as well.  I have been trying one new recipe from it for the past few weeks, including Beef Taquitos, French Dip Sandwiches, Chicken Pot Pie (making your own Cream of Chicken soup - I had no idea you could do that!), and then today..... CHICKEN FAJITAS!!!  Oh my goodness.  I can't believe I am blogging about food, but they were seriously soooo good, I have to share!  I am sitting here at 11pm at night still thinking about how delicious dinner was today.  If anyone wants to try a delicious new recipe, here's the website: http://www.ourbestbites.com/.  (Bytheway, the french dip sandwiches and taquitos were super yummy too.  I would tweak a few things on the pot pie, but I will probably make it again.)  And here is the link for the fajitas:  http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/07/fajita-time.html.  We ended up making the flour tortillas and guacamole listed on their site too.  It was a little time consuming (not a 30 minute meal), but they were the best fajitas we have ever made!  Let me know if you try them.  Enjoy!

Teddy Bears

This is the face of a happy girl!  Not only did we get to hang out with teddy bears at the Teddy Bear museum today, but Kaylie found teddy bears that are her favorite colors: blue and yellow!  I love that she loves stuffed animals! 

Minnie Mouse!

Every year, the MBA Program at Michigan has a Trick-or-Treat on campus for all the MBA kids.  We got to take Kaylie up to Daddy's school on Thursday, and collect candy from the Dean and other staff members.  After Trick-or-Treating, they had a fun Halloween lunch set up for all the kids, along with some Halloween coloring and stickers to play with.  I had fun...Kaylie not so much.  She had fun coloring and with the lunch part, but she did not like Trick-or-Treating.  They whole time we were walking around, she just kept saying, "No, No, No Mommy", as we would go up to different strangers to get candy.  One of the last staff members we went to reached out to console Kaylie, which scared her and caused her to meltdown.  Ah, the joys.  But doesn't she look so cute in her Minnie Mouse costume?  I can't wait for Halloween fun this week.  We will see how Kaylie does.  :)

Happy Halloween!

Fluent in ASL or Deaf?

Random question...A girl that I visit teach is majoring in Deaf studies, and she is looking for people to interview around the US for a huge project she is working on.  Do you know anyone who is Deaf, or someone who is hearing and is fluent in ASL?  If so, would they be willing to do an interview with my friend sometime over webcam in the next few weeks?  Please let me know if you know of anyone.  Thanks so much!

Three Cedars Farm

Since Kaylie is obsessed with animals nowadays, and since the weather has been so nice, I thought we could have a little "Mommy and Kaylie" outing today.  We went to Three Cedars Farm in Northville, and had such a great time.  The farm was so cute!  Kaylie loved seeing the cows and goats and pigs (even though most of them were fake).  And she loved playing in the corn and pushing the little tractors.   Such a fun day!

Wiard County Fair!

I love this fair!  I got to go to this fair last year with my friend Amy (her apartment complex gives free tickets to all residents and a guest each year), and I made her promise that she would invite me again this year.  I'm so glad she did!  We went to the fair on Saturday, and it was just as great as I remembered it.  The weather was perfect, and Kaylie and Lucy had so much fun running around.  We went on a sweet hayride, rode a fire engine, jumped in a bounce house, saw some farm animals, and danced to the music. It was such a great day!

Picture of Kaylie and Lucy last year...

Halloween Sugar Cookies

I found out that Kaylie loves sugar cookies!  We made these cookies with some friends on Friday, and Kaylie managed to sneak 3 cookies, plus a bunch of frosting.  Oh my goodness, I have never seen her so hyper!  (Mandy - I wish my camera battery hadn't died because then you could have seen a video of Kaylie when she was REALLY on tons of sugar!)  She came home that night, and just danced all over the place, practically running into walls and just cracking up.  It took us almost two hours to get her to calm down and get to bed.  It was hilarious!

Coloring with Daddy

New favorite activity...

Kaylie Dancing

Weekend Getaway

Mark's 31st birthday is coming up this weekend, but I decided we needed to celebrate a little early this year with a weekend getaway.  This was the first time that Mark and I have been gone without Kaylie for an entire day.  (Is it bad to say that it was really nice??)  I love Kaylie to death, but it was nice to spend some time with just the hubby.  Mark's family volunteered to watch Kaylie so I could take him out to hit some Memorial Day sales (and get a few b-day presents) at the Prime Outlet stores just an hour away.  

Mark has been talking about these slim-fit/non-iron shirts from Brooks Brothers that I guess EVERYONE in the business world raves about.  They are usually about $200 for 3 shirts, which was way to expensive for me to justify for a b-day present.  BUT, there is a Brooks Brothers outlet store at the Prime Outlets, and with Memorial Day discounts, we got the same shirts for only $35.  SWEET!  We stayed at a hotel right across the street from the Prime Outlets on Friday night, and then went shopping for almost the entire day on Saturday.  (I had no idea that we would last that long, but there were some killer deals.)  Let's just say that this birthday getaway for Mark turned into birthday gifts for Mark and me, Father's Day and Mother's day gifts, and maybe a little bit of Christmas.  :) We went a little crazy, but we had a lot of fun.  

Outside our hotel

I discovered that Tommy Hilfiger outlet is my new favorite store.  Who knew??

All our bags.  Yikes!  What did we do??  I laughed the whole way home, trying to remember what the heck we bought.  :)

We heard about Tony's Restaurant on Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives (show on Food Network).  And so we HAD to stop by to try this...

...BLT with ONE POUND of bacon.  We decided to share it.  And it was delicious!

Gotta love the shirts!