Happy Valentine's Day!

Mark was home tonight (Yeah!), so we celebrated V-day by making a yummy dinner together.  Baked mac & cheese, pork chops, caesar salad, and raspberry lemonade...soo good!  And for dessert?  Chocolate covered strawberries.  Mmmm!  I want to eat dinner again...  Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow!

We got dumped on last week here in Ann Arbor.  It was the biggest snow storm we have had since we have been here.  Kaylie has been wanting to play in the snow ever since.  I feel like a bad mom cause I haven't let her yet...it's too cold to be outside!  But if it will warm up a bit, we may have to have a snow day.  I am grateful for Beach Boys music and blinds that help me to feel like we are in warmer weather...

Bye Bye Lamp

I'm sad.  My favorite lamp, the only lamp that I have ever purchased at a real furniture store (not Target), and that I searched and searched for until I found the perfect one, was broken tonight.  It happened while I was changing the light bulb.  I accidentally dropped one of the fasteners right on the base, and originally thought it was just a small break that I could cover up by turning the lamp around.  But over the last few hours, more and more pieces keep shattering and breaking off.  I guess I have to start the hunt for the next perfect lamp.  I hope it doesn't take me as long as last time.  Bye bye lamp, you will be missed!

Before

After

Allergic to Something

So we found out last week that our little Kaylie-girl is allergic to something...the question is WHAT??  We were at a baby shower last week when I noticed Kaylie was breaking out in hives and red rashes all over her body.  

We were told by a nurse to give her Benadryl, and keep an eye on her throughout the night until we could see our doctor the next morning.  


When we woke up the next morning, Kaylie's eye and ears were red and completely swollen.  Our poor little girl looked like this:

So sad!  Our doctor thinks that it might have been the amoxicillin that caused the reaction.  (Kaylie was diagnosed with another ear infection 2 weeks ago, and had been on the drug for about a week when the outbreak happened.)  I am allergic to penicillin, so it would make sense, but it's weird that she was taking amoxicillin for over a week before this happened.  I'm nervous that maybe she is allergic to something else too, maybe some type of food allergy.  I guess time will tell.  She is finally better...no more swelling and all the rashes are gone.  But it was scary!  I am so glad she is feeling better now.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Kaylie is just like her Dad, in more ways than one. She looks like him, laughs like him, and she is a thrill seeker, just like him. She loves it when we spin her around or toss her up in the air, or when we drive fast around corners in the car. And now, she likes to flip. Mark has been doing this flip trick to all my nieces and nephews for a while now, and now he gets to flip Kaylie. I was worried that she would be too young for it, but she seems to really like it! :)

Cute video of Kaylie playing with a toy car. (Mainly for family to hear her cute laugh!)

One more video...Kaylie isn't talking yet, but she likes to babble a lot! Her newest thing is this funny "giggle, gurgle" sound she makes with her tongue. It sounds like she is speaking a different language, and I'm just not understanding it. Maybe one day she will speak English!

Christmas and after...

More holiday highlights:

1 - Christmas Day!  We had a great time opening presents, trying on new clothes, and eating yummy food.  One highlight that I am especially proud of is the fact that Mark liked ALL of the clothes I bought him this year.  Not one return clothes-wise...sweet!  We had an interesting visitor this year too (Santa wasn't the only one to visit the Jensen household).  Mark and Ben (posed as Dale Jr) bought gag gifts for everyone from the dollar store.  Everyone had fun opening gifts from Dale, which included a Tinkerbell snap-bracelet for Kaylie, a "Wow" (not a Sham-Wow, but similar) for me, plastic swords for Becca & Kurt, and the list goes on.  The Jensen's hosted an awesome dinner Christmas night for family and friends, and invited more friends to come over later for dessert and games.  Some friends from Ann Arbor (Amy, Nate, and Lucy) were able to come celebrate too.  It was a packed house, and tons of fun!

2 - Football Game the Day after Christmas (Little Caesar's Bowl).  Mark's family was able to get amazing first and second row seats to the Little Caesar's Bowl.

I think Marshall and Ohio played, but to tell you the truth, I'm really not sure.  I don't even know who won.  Kaylie wasn't the least bit interested in watching football that day (or any day for that matter).  All she wanted to do was this...

...and this...

...and this.

She is a walking/exploring machine!  We were out in the hallway for a lot of the game.  It was cute though when she could hear everyone cheering inside the stadium.  She would stop and clap with everyone, and then keep walking.  :)

3 - New Year's Eve!  We had fun celebrating New Year's Eve with the family.  We played a few games (Rook, Tri Bond, and Apples to Apples), and watched Kung Fu Panda.  We were all pretty tired when midnight hit, but made sure to watch the ball drop and drink some sparkling cider.

What a lively bunch! :)

4 - Bowling with the family - always fun!

Now back to real life!  We had fun on vacation, and enjoyed spending lots of time together.  I hope you all had a great holiday break too!

Pre-Christmas

I am WAY behind on my blog posting.  So, to get started, here are some pics of our pre-Christmas fun!

This year, we celebrated Christmas at Mark's family's house in MI.  Mark had three weeks off school (which was AWESOME), so we were able to spend a lot of time with family and do a lot of fun things together.  Here are a few of the highlights:

1 - Gingerbread houses with the Johansson family

2 - Christmas caroling around the neighborhood (in the FREEZING cold!)

3 - Christmas Eve

Everyone got to open a present on Christmas Eve, and Mark opened a present from Kaylie...a U of M snuggie!  Love it!

 Next up, Christmas Day!  To be continued...