Saturday Sledding Adventure!

Cory surprised us with a sled when he came home from work this afternoon!  He went to five different stores before he finally found one at Lowes.  As soon as he got home we all bundled up and headed outside to try out the new sled on the fresh snow { 8 inches total! }.  Her first time down the hill with Daddy, Hal squealed with delight.  It's safe to say she has a need for speed!  The sun was bright and the weather was beautiful and warmish.  Finnley ran up and down the driveway barking at Hallie and Cory as they raced down the hill.  What a great memory made :)  Here are some pictures of our wonderful Saturday afternoon...

Ciao for now :)

PHOTO FRIDAY

Enjoy our photo recap of the last week...

Kate and Hallie enjoying the splish splash station at the Children's Museum.

Self-timer family picture before our Valentine's fondue.  The flowers in the background were a special gift to Hallie and Mommy from Daddy.

One of Hallie's favorite things to do these days is sneak into the bathroom and unravel the toilet paper or pull out the tissues one by one.

Sooooo big!

Kisses for Daddy during breakfast.

Kisses for Hallie during breakfast

Always making a silly face these days.

Stacking blocks with Daddy

Hallie's Nursery { Finally the big REVEAL...with sources! }

Well, better late than never.  Hallie is going to be one in a month and a half and I am just now getting to photographing and posting her nursery pictures.  I have a few pretty good excuses: 1) Being a new mom was a HUGE adjustment and it took me a while to get back into the swing of things, 2) Hallie's room is in a corner of the house that is under the covered porch and therefore doesn't get very good light.  So photographing it is very tricky.  I finally had a nice sunny day and still had to set my shutter speed to 1/15 just to get these "okay-ish" pictures, and 3) I can't think of any other good excuses, so without further ado, here are the photos and the list of sources.  Pin it if you like it!   

Paint Color - Grizzled Gray by Sherwin Williams

Paper Floor Lantern - IKEA

White Chair - IKEA

Grey Pouf - CB2

Monkey Pillow - CB2 no longer available

Green Pillow - CB2 no longer available

Grey & White Chevron Pillow - ETSY 

Yellow Love Pillow - ETSY 

Rug - IKEA 

Custom Subway Print - ETSY 

Green Oversized Jack - Target no longer available

Pink Quatrefoile Tin - From a friend

"XO" & "LOVE" - Paper mache letters from Hobby Lobby painted with craft paint

Heart Print - Custom painted by Hallie :)

Striped Tote - Target

Green Tote - Target

Curtains & Bedskirt - Custom made by my Mommulls\{Metro Living Circles Grey fabric}

Crib - Custom made by my amazingly talented hubby and Hallie's wonderful Daddy, Cory

"Run Wild" Print - ETSY

"I Luv U" Print - ETSY 

White Frames - Custom made by Cory

Mobile - Homemade from paper lanterns and clearanced Christmas ornaments

Grey Crib Sheets - SHEET WORLD 

Yellow Poms - ETSY

Peace Sign - CB2 no longer available

Green clock - TARGET

Curtain Rod - TARGET

White Floating Shelves - Custom made by Cory

Yellow Wagon - Custom made by Cory

Circular Wall Mirrors - CB2 no longer available

Grey Table - IKEA

Orange Lamp - IKEA

If you have any questions, just ask :)

Ciao for now!

Happy Valentine's Day from Hallie! {Paint Splash}

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY from the Jensen household!  This is Hal's first Valentine's Day, so we had to do it up big!  I got the idea to do a paint splash photo shoot to commemorate it.  My good friend Lia, of Lia Larson Photography had the same idea {something that seems to happen to us all the time these days :)} and I can't wait to see how her photos turned out!  I purchased an inexpensive canvas from Hobby Lobby along with some non-toxic finger paint and a roll of vinyl wall decal material.  I cut out a heart shape and stuck it to the canvas and then put dollops of pink, orange and red paints on the canvas.  Then I let Hallie do her thing.  Obviously, she was more interested in "tasting" the paint than actually painting with it.  But I think she had fun.  The painting turned out a great orangey-coral color, which works perfect in her nursery.  

Enjoy the photos and cherish your loved ones this Valentine's Day!  We're headed to the Children's Museum with Carla, Kate and Clete and then home for our Valentine's fondue with Daddy :)

{ Mantel Styling } Coral and Turquoise

I am slooooooooooooowly making my way through my living and dining room remodel this winter.  I was telling my mom yesterday that I was feeling overwhelmed with everything I have left to get done {ideally before Hal's 1st bday}.  Her advice to me was to start with the smallest project first and move on from there.  Good advice Mommulls :)  So, today I tackled a small project...finishing my mantel styling.  My colors for the remodel are coral, turquoise and grays and I have been collecting items here and there for a while and they are crammed in the empty rooms just waiting to shine.  I gathered up the items I had in mind for the mantel and arranged, rearranged and arranged them again this morning.  And here is the result...

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I like clean, bright and simple and I think this fits the bill.

The Keep Calm print I ordered from Etsy.

The white frame/matting is from Target.

I have had the silver "J" forever.  I think I got it at a store called Sugar Bakers in Omaha.

The coral leaf frame is a 5" x 7" from Target.

The gray chevron print I made myself.  Another Pinterest project that was way more work than I thought it would be.

The large letter "J" I ordered from Joann Fabric.  I then painted it turquoise {or more precisely "Jamaican Sea" in FolkArt brand acrylic paint}.

The small silver bird was a gift from my Mommulls.  She bought it on a girls trip we took to Weston, MO a few years ago.

I have no idea where I got the ampersand!

If you like my mantel styling, feel free to pin it!

Ciao for now!

Sunday Family Funday - February 10, 2013

It's been a while since we've enjoyed a leisurely Sunday as a family.  But, Cory has been really busy with work lately and we all needed some time together (Finnley too!).  As usual, Hallie let us sleep in until about 7:30...nice.  Then she snuggled in bed with us and watched the news while she and Dad ate cookies (gasp!) and milk.  Together they polished off 8 cookies (ahem...Cory had 7 1/2).

Then Cory and Hal had real breakfast (eggs and cantaloupe) while I ran on the treadmill.  Then we played for a while in Hal's reading corner and took turns feeding Finnley pretzel bread.  Finn was LOVING all the attention (read: all the pretzel bread).

After nap time we decided to head into Ft. Calhoun (the small town we live about 4 miles from) for a nice long walk.  It was pretty cold, so we bundled Hallie up tight and piled a bunch of blankets over her in the stroller.  

She LOVES going on a walk, so I don't think she minded the cold, but me and Cory did!  The wind really picked up and the temperature dropped when were about a mile and a half from our car...so we trucked it back as fast as we could!

We decided to warm up with some Mexican food.  We tried one of the new Mexican restaurants in Blair - La Vallarta.  Now, our ultimate favorite Mexican food is La Mesa in Omaha, but I have to say, La Vallarta gave them a run for their money!  The food was delicioso and really well priced.  And the salsa was...dare I say it...BETTER than La Mesa!  The margaritas weren't bad either ;)

Now, everyone is tucked snugly in bed and there's a roaring fire in the fireplace while the wind rages outside.  Great day :)

PHOTO FRIDAY!

Once again, enjoy the photo recap of our week...

Taking a ride in the laundry basket

 
Saturday play date with Lia and Rose!  We had a great time sippin' wine and trying to plan our camping trip while wrangling the girls :)

My momma with Stef and the newest grandbaby, Liam, at his older brother Landon's 3rd birthday party.

My brother Josh and his son, Liam...matching blue eyes.

A meeting of the youngest minds in our family

Not a great quality picture, but I just love how happy my dad and Hallie look.  After she warms up to him, Grandpa always seems to make her giggle

 "Reading" the Very Hungry Catapillar.  I didn't bother pointing out to her that it was upside down :)

Eating snacks off the ground

Hal didn't appreciate being left out of Kate's photo shoot

All was forgiven when they got to take a bath in the big jacuzzi

Very attached to her Rudolph still

Kate is ONE!

My sweet little niece, Kate, turned the big ONE YEARS OLD last week!  I really enjoy photography and especially photographing the ones I love :)  So, Carla (Kate's momma) came up with a fun idea (read: found it on Pinterest) to do a paint splash theme.  We set up a little canvas with the initial "K" taped off and then put little dollops of bright colored, non-toxic paint on the canvas for Kate to finger-paint with.  Kate had fun, and in theory the paint idea works.  My only suggestion is to NOT use any green paint.  It started out cute, but by the end the whole painting was a nasty pea green color.  Oh, well.  I got some great photos anyway.  Enjoy!  xoxo

Pregnancy Photo Journal: Hallie Joy Jensen

I was inspired to write this blog by my friend/cousin-in-law Alissa.  What better way to remember the bliss that was my first pregnancy than with a photo recap :)  

A few details first...Cory and I were married 14 years before we decided we were "ready" (hahahahahahahaha) to have children.  I think most people in our lives figured we couldn't have kids or just didn't want to.  In reality, we were really young when we got married (19 and 22) and we just wanted as much time the two of us as possible before we embarked on parenthood (best decision EVER!).  I was three months out from having my thyroid removed when we started trying.  So, we were both surprised when we quickly received a positive result.  Cory's exact words when I showed him the positive test were, "huh, that was fast."  He was happy of course, but I don't think it really dawned on him that it was "real" until our 20 week ultrasound when he saw our little peanut moving and grooving in my tummy.  And once I started showing, he couldn't keep his hands off my belly :)  Never has a man made a woman feel more beautiful while prego than Cory did for me.  I heard "you are so cute" about 20 times a day.  

We decided not to find out the sex of the baby, which led to more fun and anticipation.  From early on, I was sure Baby J was a girl.  And as soon as I found out that the baby my best friend/sister-in-law Carla was expecting two months before me was also a girl, I was CERTAIN.  God knows what He's doing, after all :)  Pretty much everyone else thought the baby was a boy.  Well, we know how that all turned out.  I was right!  

Anyway...here are the photos of my pregnancy with the precious HALLIE JOY JENSEN.  Enjoy xoxo

FIRST PICTURE AFTER HALLIE WAS BORN...