Future Jensen Home Update

So this will mostly just be a picture update because there isn't much to say other than they are finally making progress on the house!  It won't be finished on time but should be done by mid to end February :) 

We are getting anxious the closer it gets!  I just want to get in there and start making the house a home and start accumulating the necessary baby items.  Not to mention Ki's little sister Kenzie is coming to live with us while she is attending UVU so she is anxious too!  Currently she is sleeping on her kind cousins' couch and while I am sure it has been nothing but one fun party, I am sure she will be glad to get her bed back, and that Meg & Marci will be glad to get there couch back.  

So you see we are all counting down the days!  I am sure even my mom and dad are about ready to reclaim their basement, although it has been fun to see and spend a lot of time with the family.  Not to mention that having my mom's help with the cooking and such was a huge blessing during my first trimester when I was still sort of feeling lousy and busy with school and my internship.  Thanks mom!  You are seriously the best :) 

Ki observing our new and improved cement hole :)

Made good progress on the framing

Framing and roof almost complete.

Framing of the front room and kitchen area

I think I am standing in our future bedroom... but I could be mistaken :)

The builders would only wire 2 rooms with TV for free so a guy at Ki's work, Tony, offered to help Ki wire the house.  They ran the whole house with RG-6 and ethernet so that one day we can implement my dad's whole home automation system and/or our own security system without having to pay a separate company if we want to.  They also set up our living room with surround sound which Ki is VERY excited about.  I doubt I would have noticed the difference if they hadn't put in all their hard work, but I am glad Ki can have his dream techie home lol.

Ki at work.

Ki and Tony - The Boss :)

So I made them smile for this picture, they were good sports.

Windows in, doors in, shingles on the roof.

Next up for this coming week is the stucco, the rock exterior, and the sheet rock I do believe :)  Maybe even the garage door?  Hooray can't wait!

So... I've been putting this off but...

In case you haven't already heard through FB or otherwise... I'M PREGNANT!!!  I have been putting this blog post off for a while now mostly because I really wanted to make it all cute and creative, but obviously that didn't happen.  Kristin (my cute sis) showed me all these cute ideas that she found on Pinterest for breaking the baby news but I must be lazy or something because I never made time to do any of them.  Maybe next time?

We are expecting a baby BOY, due June 6th!  We couldn't be more excited!  Throw in a few butterflies of nervousness on my part, impatience for June to arrive on Ki's part, and you have an accurate description of our current emotions.

So far it has been a really fun journey and I feel blessed to have had what I would consider a really easy pregnancy after hearing about some of my other friends pregnancies.  I really never got morning sick at all.  If anything maybe a little night sick when I was really tired and hungry after a long day at school/work, but other then that I have been fine!  No mad dashes to the toilet to empty the contents of my stomach, none.  Symptoms that I am experiencing however are fatigue (especially during the first trimester), heart burn (never knew what it felt like until now), and I hate to even say it but... gas.  Don't even get Ki started on the gas stories...  I know it is disgusting, but I have taken to farting more then a High School football team as of late.  It is most unfortunate and SO embarrassing!  I can't help it people!  I just can't.  :)  Why am I including this information on my blog... simply because I don't want to forget it.  Although I hate everything about having gas, some of the stories are priceless and those are what I want to remember haha.  The night at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's especially.  Don't forget it Ash, don't forget it.

We found out I was pregnant at 5:14 am on General Conference Sunday.  Why 5:14 a.m. you ask, well the box said to take the pregnancy test in the morning when your pee was the most concentrated, I woke up at 5:14 and HAD to go.  You know the feeling right?  So I dragged my protesting husband out of bed to come with me to take the test :)  (He was protesting because I had taken a pregnancy test 2 days previously with a negative result)  But I just had this feeling that I was pregnant ya know?  And I really wanted him to come with me to do the test because I was nervous and excited and just needed him.  After I did the test we put the cap on and then went back to our room where Ki immediately climbed back into bed, because he really thought it would still be negative.  A couple minutes go by and I finally get up the courage to look at the little stick and... THERE ARE TWO PINK LINES!!!  I immediately started squealing (quietly though because Kristin, Tristan, Nathan, and Kacee were all still asleep outside our door).  After I squealed, Ki jumped out of bed to come see for himself and then we commenced to have a party in our bedroom.  We were so excited we couldn't fall back asleep for like two hours and then because we were so tired fell asleep during the afternoon session of conference...oops. 

Anyways here are a few pictures from the pregnancy so far :)  Nothing as spectacular as the cute pictures you will find on Pinterest but they do the trick for documenting the pregnancy.

So excited! 

He was even more excited! 

Just a little blob at our 9 week ultrasound.  11/1/2011

14 weeks.  12/7/2011

16 weeks.  12/21/2011

It's a boy!!  18 wk ultrasound 1/4/2012

19 weeks 5 days.  1/16/2012

Christmas!!

Christmas Break was so awesome.  So much time spent with both of our families, and with each other!  It was hard to let Ki go back to work after we've been able to spend every second together the last couple weeks, but like every adult does - I am adjusting haha.   Here are some of the many things we kept busy doing over the break. 

December 18th - The day after finals ended. woot woot!  Also, the day we were able to join in the celebrations at the Jensen family Christmas party in Circleville.  We had so much fun, but I of course didn't remember to take pictures the whole weekend.  My favorite memory from the weekend is probably the drive from the Church in Circleville back to Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house with brady clinging to the front hood of the car and Jorie turning on the windshield wipers, and his brand new shirt getting soaked in windshield wiper fluid.  haha.  Other highlights include playing games with the whole fam later that night, and last but not least feeding some of Ki's uncles' horses before we left town the next day.  I had SO much fun. I can't wait until this summer when they said that I can go riding with them!

first time feeding the horse, you can see the fear in my eyes haha

petting the horse

I seriously had a blast.  I have secretly always wished I was friends with a horse.

 

Feeding the horse Wesley broke.  Wesley is the cutest little cowboy.

December 20th - I went to Temple Square with my family while Ki had to work late.  It was FREEZING but worth it to see the lights, and get into the Christmas spirit.  Later that night when Ki got home from work, and we got back from temple square we made gingerbread houses.

The family at Temple Square minus dad the photographer :)

Ki and I hard at work on our gingerbread house

The gingerbread house builders!  Mine and Ki's is probably the least inventive haha. 

Christmas Eve - We went to the new Sherlock Holmes movie with the fam (which I loved by the way), and then had Christmas Eve dinner, the story of Christ's birth, and the traditional unwrapping of Christmas Eve pajamas.  It was so much fun to spend the night with my family.  

Tristan, Kristin, and Kacee.

Ki and I

The kids in front of the tree with our "mystery" gifts haha

my cute love with his annual Christmas beard

my parents opening their Christmas jammies :)

Christmas Day - Went to church with the fam, saw old friends from the ward I grew up in, and was glad Christmas fell on sunday when we got to listen to Christmas Songs all throughout the meeting and feel the spirit of Christ's birth!  Then after church we opened what Santa brought, and then took it easy while we waited for the Greenwood Christmas party later that night :)

In our cute Christmas church clothes :)

My dad has photography skills.

Typical stair picture before opening our presents from santa!

Christmas cuddling!  I love my bear.

Kacee LOVED her new present and was in doggie heaven.

Opening presents in our

a BOSCH!  Santa must love me ALOT ;)

Kacee and cute brother Nate. 

The day after Christmas - We headed down to Henderson to visit Ki's mom, Jaxon, and Brady for a couple days.  On our way we stopped in Cedar City and saw his sisters Kenzie and Jorie who had work.  We had a blast playing games, and talking with his fam.  Even if we stayed up way too late!  Ki's mom did my hair, we went to Red Robin, watched planet of the apes (it made me feel sad), and Ki got new birthday shoes from the mall with his madre.  It was so fun to spend time with them.  I really wish we hadn't forgotten our camera.  bah humbug.

December 31st - Went to the party Tiff and Jake had at their apartment to celebrate the new year!  We had meat and cheese fondue, baked potatoes, and an awesome cheesecake that Ash made.  It was so fun to spend time talking, eating, and playing games with good friends.

January 2nd - My babe's 25th birthday!  He took an extra day off, we slept in, went to lunch with a gift card I had at Magelby's, he spent the afternoon playing Halo with my brothers while I made his favorite cupcakes, and then we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my family.  I got him tickets to Brian Regan for his birthday and he is way excited, so yay!  I am improving in the birthday department.  I think I am finally getting used to his birthday being so close to Christmas.  In past years by the time Christmas was done with, I couldn't think of anything to give him for his birthday.  Go progression. 

Happy New Year everyone!  Here is to 2012, I think its going to be a great year!

The Hole

Ki and I are now proud owners of... a giant hole in the dirt!  Hooray!  :)  I know you are all dying to see pictures of our hole, so today we drove up to Cedar Hills to document it.  Okay, okay... so mostly we were excited to see it, but we documented it nonetheless.

Our Hole :)

There it is folks.  In all its dirt and glory.  The actual residence in which we will be living one day won't be complete until approximately February 8, 2012.

Also worth updating you on is the fact that Ki has an ulcer :(  He has been feeling sick for a long time (months!), and finally went to the doctor last week.  They did an endoscopy and found the ulcer this week.  No bueno.  I had started getting impatient with his constant complaints of feeling yucky, and then when he ended up having an ulcer I felt really bad.  Note to self:  make your husband go to the doctor much sooner next time!  He is on medication to get his body to produce less acid for at least the next 6 months.  I guess excess acid was the reason that he is not only a daily tums popper, but is also the reason his ulcer formed.

I finished my last day of school EVER (most likely ever) this week.  Hallelujah!  Everyone keeps telling me I will miss it in a couple months (probably true) but for now I am looking forward to being done.  This week I just have 4 finals to take and 1 paper to write and then I am officially a free woman

Today while my husband forbade me from being in the same vicinity of the house as him (he was
wrapping Christmas presents) I found the pictures from our Linx Cruise that were lost.  So I figure I will post a few on our lovely blog.  That is all folks!  Good luck with finals, work, last minute Christmas shopping ( I have yet to do mine... ) and whatever else is on your to-do lists.

forgive my hair.  I had been watching Ki play shuffle board all day

Ki and me in Mexico

Lunch in Mexico with friends!  L to R:  Mike, Ki, me, Lindy, Jerrica, & James

 

 

Ki and me in front of our cruise ship.  This port smelled like poop.  seriously.

Formal dinner

Ki and Jake - finally the shuffle board champions this year

Weekend Stress Assignment

How I have felt this past week :)

For my MCOM 320 class, we were assigned to find someone more stressed then ourselves and do something nice for them this weekend.  My first instinct was to think that nobody could possibly be as stressed as I felt at the moment we were given this assignment (self-centered?  yeah.  I will have to repent for that thought)    On deeper thought, I realized that every college student goes through the same slew of stressful projects, papers, and finals, all mixed in with church and work responsibilities - which immediately brought on a feeling of guilt.  Then I thought about how stressful it would be to be a provider for a family and lose your job, or to have medical expenses you couldn't afford etc and I felt ashamed for feeling bad for myself.  One day I will be a more perfect person.  But for now I will just do my best and every now and then be pushed again in the right direction with assignments like these, and touching church lessons. :)

For this assignment I thought of two easy targets.  I currently have a brother and a sister enduring the last couple weeks of school, and figured one of them HAD to be more stressed then me.  Then when I told my mom about the assignment, she showed me a text she had received from my sister a few days previous about her terrible day, and I knew my sister was a deserving candidate.

There are few things better then a back massage when you are feeling tense so I decided that would be my gift to the chosen stressed soul.  Since my sister Kristin was coming to my parents for dinner I figured I would take the time to do it after dinner and games.  It made me feel nice to forget about how I felt and remember to think of others, and to give my sister a back massage.  It is silly that I needed reminding, but I am grateful for the reminder nonetheless.  Thanks, MCOM.  Although I will forever loathe you for constantly stretching me to do things I feel uncomfortable with, I will be the first to admit you've been good for me in a lot of ways.  I won't get a good grade in the class, but I still feel like I've learned a thing or two.  Which I suppose is the whole point of being a student. 

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving break was seriously awesome.  It was so great to have a break from school, work, and get the opportunity to see family that we haven't seen in a long time!  The food was fantastic as expected, and even though I have eaten thanksgiving dinner like 6 times since Thanksgiving I still just love it.  We got to see the Lundgreen side and the Jensen side of Ki's family and it was fun to see familiar faces, and even meet some family members that I have never met before.  Grandma & Grandpa Jensen were good enough to let us stay with them for a few nights in Circleville, and Grandpa even gave me the history tour of Circleville.  I feel like an official member of the Jensen family now :) 

It is going to be hard to get back into the last couple weeks of school with all the final projects, papers, tests etc after the break.  Luckily it helps that I know I only have 3 weeks of school left ever!  That is a pretty nice light at the end of the tunnel if you ask me :)  I am glad that I chose to stick with school and that I will have a degree even though school has never been my favorite thing, and that getting good grades hasn't really come easily to me.  I don't think I will ever have a major career, but I feel like I have learned a lot, learned how to do things that I hate that are hard, and it also just feels nice to have accomplished my goal of graduating from college. 

In honor of this Thanksgiving season, here is a list of a few of the MANY things I am very thankful for this year :)

1. My very cute, supportive, understanding, and ever patient husband.  I am imperfect in so many ways, but he loves me regardless.  I honestly don't know what I would do without him.  I get sad when he has to work late because I get SO excited to see him by the end of the day, but I am grateful for how hard he works and that he has a good job.
2. Amazing family.  We are blessed to have supportive loving family on both sides, but this year I am feeling especially grateful for my parents.  We are currently living in their basement and they have been so good to put up with us.  It has been a huge blessing this semester to have my mom around all the time and I don't know if I would make it through the week without everything she and my dad do for me.  I also have been feeling grateful lately as I have reflected back on my schooling that they have paid for my education, and been supportive even if I am not the "brightest bulb in the bunch" :)
3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I am so far from perfect.  There are still so many things I continually fall short on, but I am grateful that I know I can continue to repent and keep trying to be the best me I can be.  I am grateful that I know my purpose in life, that families can be together forever, and for the hope that the gospel gives me in everything I do.
4. Health and Strength.  I feel blessed for the health I have had this semester.  It has been a busy one since I am trying to finish up all my internship hours and class requirements, so I am very grateful that I haven't been sick!
5. Friends.  I have some really supportive amazing friends.  This list of course includes my awesome family, but my other friends who also have a huge impact on my life you know who you are!  Thank you, a million times over, for everything you do and of course for making life that much more interesting.

These are just a few of the bigger things I am thankful for since to list every small thing would take much to long.  I mean the list would start saying things like:  dishwasher, washer/dryer, that chocolate was invented, back massages, food, microwave, my car, car heaters so I don't freeze on the way to work at 5am, my phone, pink fuzzy socks that always keep my feet warm, my pink key chain that  helps me not lose my keys, etc.  You catch my drift that this list would soon get tedious to write don't you? 

Well I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving Breaks as well.  Good luck with work, school, Christmas shopping, or whatever is that is on your to-do list for this week!

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Disclaimer: another picture-overload post.

Our journey to Switzerland tested our train transferring abilities to the fullest.  We first took a train from La Spezia, Italy - to Milan, Italy.  There we had a three hour gap before our next train, so we put our backpacks in the train stations luggage storage station, and headed off to see the "Duomo" church that is famous in Milan.  But first, before tackling Milan's subway system, we sat down and ate because as always - I was hungry.

My cute husband, and the most delicious pasta I ate the whole trip!  I seriously wish I could recreate that pasta.

We made it successfully to the Duomo via subway!

Milan's outdoor shopping mall.  It was SO hot.  I am pretty sure we went through like five water bottles in the three-hour layover.

 After our little excursion in Milan, it was back on the train.  This train took us from Milan to Spiez, Switzerland.  It was the most beautiful train ride ever.  Seriously.  Ki and I debated whether we could ever seriously move to Switzerland... but then I realized I would miss my family too much, and that I suck at learning foreign languages. :)  Bummer.  The train from Milan to Spiez was by far the best train we rode on the whole trip.  It had air-conditioning!  In fact, it was so air conditioned I had to wear my jacket, and my delta blanket.

Ki on the nice swiss train.

All bundled up.  It was a shock to the system to be somewhere with air-conditioning again :)

 The following two pictures I almost died trying to take haha.  As we got off the train in Spiez, the sun was setting and it was getting dark so fast, but I really wanted to get a couple pictures of the beautiful lakeside town.  So while Ki went to see what platform our next train left from, I ran across the street from the train station to the bridge to get a few pictures.  Only... I forgot to check and make sure that no cars were coming before I ran across the road... Ki about had a heart attack :)  The guy in the car that almost hit me was probably thinking "stupid American tourist".

The picture I almost killed myself trying to get.

picture #2 that I almost killed myself trying to get.

From Spiez is where the real train transfer fun began.  We took a train from Spiez to Interlaken; a train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen; a bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stetchelberg; and a cable-car up the mountain from Stetchelberg to Gimmelwald.  Wow I was a tiny bit stressed.  All the train rides were already only like 5 minutes apart, so I wasn't too surprised when we missed our bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg.  

This wouldn't have been so stressful if it weren't for the fact that it was 11pm, the next bus didn't come for another hour, and we HAD to check in before 11:45 at our hostel in Gimmelwald.  I was freaking out, truly I was.  Only I held it all in, and just sat on a bench at the bus station instead of freaking out visibly, cause I could tell Ki was already stressed too.  When Ki is stressed I have learned its better to just be quiet and let him come up with a plan otherwise my stress adds to his stress and it makes the situation much, much worse. :)  

So there I sat on my bench trying to stay calm when all of the sudden out of nowhere this one single car drives past us, then the driver pulled over, then reversed back to the bus station.  Hallelujah!  The man driving the car rolled down his window and asked if we knew that the next bus to Stechelberg didn't come for another hour.  We said yes, but that we really needed to get to Stechelberg because we had reservations at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald.  He then proceeded to say that it was lucky he had been at a conference in a nearby city, that he worked at the cable car platform in Stechelberg, was actually on his way there now, and could take us with him.  OH MY MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!  We knew then and there that our families must have been praying for us while we were gone :)  Seriously.  How lucky is that?  He just happened to have a work meeting in a different city on this day of all days, was on his way back to the cable car station in Stechelberg for his night-shift, and could give us a ride.  This dear soul saved us.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  But I could've kissed him.... ok not really.... but I really was SO grateful that he was nice enough to pull over and offer us a ride.  Total life-saver!

To make a long story somewhat shortened - we finally arrived in Gimmelwald at 11:42 - three minutes before the front desk closed.  We checked in, bought some pasta and pasta sauce from their little food shop, and sighed a deep sigh of relief!  We made our pasta in the guest kitchen, did our dishes, and then promptly went to bed.  We were thoroughly pooped.  We slept like rocks that night even with all the loud partyin going on downstairs where a lot of the other guests were playing games/at the bar drinking/being really loud.  (Also, random detail that I just want to remember is that the room we slept in was shared with 14 other people!  It was kinda weird, but a memorable experience for sure.) 

Because we had arrived so late at Gimmelwald we had no idea the beauty that we would wake up to.  Oh my gorgeousness.  I love Switzerland, SO SO much. We spent the day exploring Gimmelwald, and then doing lots of hiking of course!

The sun peeking over the Swiss Alps in the morning.

Another view: we took a gazillion pictures.  In fact we were so busy taking pictures that we missed breakfast, and ended up having to eat cookies that we bought at the little snack shop haha.

The cable car that is the only means of transportation up to Gimmelwald.

Ki at one with nature :) haha

Ki & me outside our hostel

Ki & me in front of the Mountain Hostel

We took a break from hiking/exploring to come grab some lunch :)

After lunch it was back to hiking!

Taking a break to catch our breath after walking all the way up the hill from Gimmelwald which you see below.

Me hiking to the waterfall

We made it!

Ki got pretty good at taking pictures of us :)

Taking a snack break at a little stream.

Ki wanted to bathe in the river - until he felt how cold it was.  Then he settled for being a mountain man and drinking straight out of the stream.  So far we haven't seen any negative side effects from the water :)

We kept hiking, up and up and up!  Look how far down Gimmelwald is!

Ki doesn't love to hike, but he was a good sport and let me go as far as I wanted.  I love him so much for this!

We bought a little package of swiss goat cheese from this lady.  She had so much cheese!

That night we had pizza back at the Hostel restaurant, played some card games, and laid out our plan of attack for the next day.  What a fun, beautiful, theraputic day in the Swiss Alps we had!  It would have been fun if we could've stayed an extra day, but there was still so much more we wanted to see on our trip so we decided to stick to our plan and leave the next morning.

The view from our train as we were leaving Lautrebrunnen, Switzerland.

As we left Switzerland - we successfully backtracked without missing any of the cable cars/ buses/ trains.  We even grabbed some food at a grocery store in Interlaken in our 30 min break between trains so we wouldn't starve on our way to the next destination.  Success.  Speaking of next destination, we were now headed to Salzburg, Austria!  Or so we thought...  this day turned out to be the longest, most miserable day of the trip.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  This is a post for another day.  I think I've hit my picture maximum for one blog post :)  Not to mention it is 7:30 on a Saturday night, and now that my mandatory blog post for the week is complete, I would really like to go hang out with my cute husband now.  Hope you all have a good weekend!