Let the Celebration's Begin!!!

In true Jill Style, I have tried to plan as many birthday celebrations as possible this year. I have done a pretty good job in years past and have tried to live up to the same expectations this year. I think I just might have my best year of celebrations yet.

The celebrations started last Saturday when Shannon's Bollywood party had a birthday party incorporated into it. It started off with singing of "For She's a jolly good Fella"... Followed by some gifts...
The presence of this cute boy...
And topped off with my all time favorite dessert: Oreo Pie. Made with love by Shannon...
Today the celebrations continued with a birthday lunch with some of my favorite co-workers. It is common for us to meet at Chili's at 11:30 on any given day, it is one of my favorite traditions, today just happened to have a special purpose, MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Most of the celebrations are yet to come, and I can't wait! I am down to two days away and there is so much more planned:

Wednesday: Birthday date with Steve
Friday (The Big Day): NO WORK and getting to sleep in. Lunch with my sisters, mom and Maga, followed by pedicures. An evening planned by my good friends in my ward (still a surprise to me, I love surprises!).
Saturday: Breakfast with another fellow birthday girl Kimmy, at my favorite breakfast spot Market Street
Sunday: Birthday dinner with my whole family, filled with all of my favorite foods (and people).
Wednesday: Dinner with my mom at the Melting Pot, one of my favorite restaurants.

I know, a little excessive right? I don't know what it is but I just love my birthday. I love to celebrate it and enjoy every minute of it. Everyone is always so nice to accommodate me and humor me with their support.

Welcome Baby Ethan!

Our good friends Trevor and Kara had their baby last Friday. Little baby Ethan Watkins! I have been so excited for them to have their baby and couldn't wait to see him.

Sunday we had some free time and decided to head up to the hospital to meet the little guy. Of course, the visit was well documented.
Kara is one of the nicest people I have ever met and it was so fun to get to see her and Ethan, she looked great and was in such good spirits and so nice to let us hang out all afternoon with them...
There is something so sweet about new little babies, I love how tiny they are...
Isn't he so cute? I love that little babies look like little old men...
I think I love this picture, so cute...
We spent the whole evening with Trevor and Kara and got to play lots of games with them. They were nice to let us stay and hopefully it was a bit of entertainment for them.

Usually when I see cute new babies it makes me so excited to have my own, not the case this time. I hope that isn't a bad sign. Recently I've joked with my mom that I am never going to have kids, maybe it has sunk in a little too deep... I just might have to work on that.

Love This...

I found this little gem on YouTube and I think I am in love with it...

Beauty School Drop Out

I have one very brave friend named Shannon. The other day we were hanging out and she came up with this crazy idea for me to cut her hair. Mind you, I have never stepped foot into a beauty school and have no training whatsoever!!! I was a little surprised by her request, but if she was up for it and trusted me, I was up for the challenge. She didn't want a huge change, just more of an A-line and thinned out and layered a bit more - not much to ask right?

Right before the point of no return...
Wish I had a better before picture, but this is all you get...
I started to cut and took a good inch to inch and a half off of the back. I was a little nervous the whole time about getting it even and making the shape work and the angle of the A-line. Cutting hair when it is wet doesn't give you the best idea of what it will look like dry so it feels a bit like a guessing game, but that is how you cut hair. Again, I am no expert.

We finished cutting it and blew it dry to see just how it really turned out. Surprising even myself, I was pretty impressed with how it turned out...

I was very flattered that Shannon would trust me enough to cut her hair in the first place and hope that she likes it. She told me she did, but I feel she is too nice to really tell me otherwise.

Pizza in the Park

Tuesday night Jamie threw together a fun little family get-together. We met up at Tanner Park (a park to which I have never been, but think I fell in love with) and had a gourmet dinner of $5.00 pizza. It was so fun that people were up for getting together on such short notice.

The gang (not pictured: Amy and all her kids - who joined us later)... Me - Yes, I know I ALWAYS have self-portraits, but I just feel the need to document that I am at events when I am the one behind the camera...

The weather was perfect and the kids loved running around and playing. Heidi was on for desserts and she brought cupcakes, which these girls loved...

I don't know what it is, but I love this picture. It just epitomizes how I feel about summer. Paige was so cute crossing her legs eating her cupcake, in the sun and loving life...

After the sun went down it got a bit chilly and we headed to Jamie and Mike's to catch the Jazz game. I don't remember the last time I watched an NBA game and I only caught the first half, but it was fun to hang out.

I think I have just about the worlds greatest family and I love when we are able to get together, which luckily is quite often.

Beautiful Day for a Game

Yesterday the U played USU in lacrosse. Steve plays for the U and his friend, Tyson, plays for USU. Tyson's family is basically Steve's second family so I was so excited that they were going to be at the game. This second family just so happens to be where I know one of my favorite people... Kara. I loved getting to sit and hang out with her.
It was perfect weather to sit and enjoy the game and it got me so excited for many warm days to come. Utah won by just a little with a victory of 18-1. Not much excitement, but it was so fun to get to hang out with the Watkins...

After the game we all headed to Wingers for dinner and had a blast. It is always so fun to get to be with good friends...

Just A Little Update...

So I have heard back from the sellers on the house and they have ACCEPTED MY OFFER! This is very exciting, but not the longest part of the process. Next, the offer goes to the bank and is in a negotiating/approval process to get the approval from the bank. They sellers have put in a date to hear back from the bank by the middle of June. The bank will be the one to take the loss on the sale, so it is really their acceptance of my offer that I want. So now I am just in a waiting period and hope to hear good news back from the bank.

The best part of the seller's accepting my offer is that the house is now "under contract" and they are no longer showing it or taking offers. This insures that my offer is the only one they are working with and someone won't come in and over-bid me (which is common with short-sales). They will work with me and negotiate terms on my offer alone.

I will keep you posted and hope to have great news to tell you in the future...

Girls Night In

Last night Trent and Amy took advantage of having 2 less kids, 1 babysitter, and 1 last night before Trent leaves and Amy is housebound with kids. Their little dinner date left me with the "three little girls" (oddly enough, the same thing I was called with my two little sisters).

Our night in consisted mostly of just laying on the family room floor. Morgan was sick and just crawled on my stomach and laid there the whole time. Loving the moment, I didn't move either. This left Oakley and Paige to entertain themselves, which they did. Paige was Oakley's little shadow following her everywhere. I think that Oakley was loving the attention and being in charge with the boys gone.

The activity soon turned to doing my hair. Since I was laying there it worked out perfectly. Oakley made about 25 trips to the bathroom to keep getting more and more supplies. I think she touched my hair for only 5 minutes , after 45 minutes of preparation. I think it was all worth it...
Quite the 'do right? She kept saying how pretty my hair was, and I think she was right.

Trent and Amy came home and made the comment of her looking like an 80's rock star. I started singing 80's songs to her and she loved it! So we sang and danced the night away looking hot like this...

Isn't she so cute?

We ended our girls night with a little sleep over in my bed. This only lasted until about 3 am when her coughing in my ear was just too much to take.

It was such a fun night just chilling with the girls. Life sure is different without the boys around and we were actually able to just lay there the whole time. What am I going to do when I don't have the 5 cutest (and smallest) roommates around?

House Hunting

For the past couple of weeks I have been house hunting. It is something that has been in the works for just a little while, but has now finally gone into action. I have gone looking a couple times and found some great places.

I fell in love with the first house we went to. It was one I had fallen in love with online, but knew that seeing a place in person is much different. Much to my surprise, I liked it even better than I did online. It is a condo/townhouse and is basically the upstairs front section of this building (the windows and deck you can see is all the house I am looking at)...

So today I took the next big step towards becoming a home owner: I PUT IN AN OFFER! I have been a little stressed in deciding what place to go with, but I feel really good about moving forward with this one. It is a short sale and I just might be in for the long haul on it, but in the end I think it will be worth it.

I never thought I would be growing up this fast! Who ever thought I would be buying a house at age 22?!? I sure didn't! I am so excited and have appreciated every one's support and excitement for me. Hopefully things will work on on this place and I will have good news to report soon...

Mega Updates...

...I haven't died, I have just been building up my blog material to post all in one day! I have several updates, so if you care to, just keep scrolling so you don't miss any of the excitement (ok, it's not that exciting).

An 'Egg'cellent Easter

Growing up and not having a family of my own puts me in a bit of an odd situation when it comes to holiday's like Easter. My mom is nice enough to still invite me to the family activities that go on at her house for the holidays.

Saturday morning I headed out to join the girls in dying Easter eggs. Always a fun activity, but a little different this year. I'm sure it has been different the past several years, but it struck me as funny that all of our attitudes were more of it being a chore than an activity. It was still fun and i was glad to have the time with my sisters. I even put on our little kid apron for the festivities to re-live the memories...
The "three little girls" as we are most commonly referred to. We aren't so little anymore, and are now more the singles of the family...

I think of everyone Brooke was the happiest to be participating, can't you tell?...

Jenny eventually just took over and started turning out colored eggs like a factory. She made her own little system to get the eggs in and colored as fast as possible...

I think I just made this activity sound bad, when it really was fun. Most of us just got caught up in talking to each other that we didn't stay on top of the eggs. It was more fun that we just got to be with each other than dye the eggs. I am so lucky to have such good relationships with my sisters.

Sunday was our traditional day at Dodee's. I was again in that awkward category where I am not the one participating in the egg hunt nor am I helping little people with their eggs. I just kind of watched and thought it was crazy how fast my own childhood went by. I could remember the Easters that we got to have the egg hunt, or the sad years when the cold weather or rain would avoid it from happening. It was fun to watch all the little kids, but enjoyed my time just sitting with my mom...

Regardless of what stage I am in, I love that holidays provides time with the family. I have a wonderful family and I am so blessed to get to see them so often!

Red Carpet Event

I got a little visit from the "Bunny Man" (as he likes to be called) with a cute surprise on my car at work on Thursday...
I brought the basket into work and began to open the eggs. One of the best parts was the ipod shuffle I have wanted, but an even greater surprise was waiting for me. In the rest of the eggs were little notes. As I read them I was having flash backs to high school and feeling that I was getting asked to a dance. Low and behold, in the last egg was a ticket to the "Red Carpet Date Night" held by the U Institute. Just a little formal event up at the towers at Rice-Eccles Stadium. I was so surprised and shocked, but so excited! How often do you get to get all dressed up and go dancing?

My cute date picked me up, and of course we were matching. I loved it! We headed to dinner at The Garden at the JSMB and were seated right in front of the windows over looking the temple. It was perfect, including the evening sky.

We weren't anxious to get to the dance right when it started so we had some time to kill. We ended up at Memory Grove to take a little walk and, of course, some pictures...

Who knows why we do some of the things we do, but I was sure having fun...

We headed to the dance and had A BLAST! I don't remember the last time I have been to a dance (or any event) and had so much fun! My dance partner said he wasn't a big dancer, but he proved himself a liar. With the ballroom and swing classes he had taken, he was a swell dancer and I had so much fun. I think I laughed the whole time...

We were attempting to get a picture on the red carpet, although you can't see the carpet very well, I kind of like how the picture turned out...

The whole night was so fun and after hours of dancing my feet were killing me and a bit blistered from my high heels, but it was worth it.

St. George

Just a little delayed, but I am finally getting around to updating my blog. St. George was a fabulous get away for Conference Weekend! It was so fun to get away and have time with the family (and enjoy a little pajama church).

Friday afternoon, after leaving work a bit early, my mom, Jenny, Carlee, and I headed off for a wonderful weekend. We arrived in St. George and headed to Iggy's for dinner with the rest of the gang. Who doesn't love Iggy's fries! We spent the rest of the night in the swimming pool with the boys and loved every minute of it!

Saturday we started out our conference watching from the deck with the TV turned up. There are just a few precious hours of the day that you can sit on the deck and "sun." We took advantage of this and I was thankful for every minute I wasn't in Salt Lake in the cold... Brooke and I headed off to run some errands and met up with everyone to fit in some much needed shopping (ya right). We caught a bit of the afternoon session, did our hair, and decided to head to Chili's for dinner. Another entertaining dining experience with the group...For dessert... just some more shopping and another pool night.

Sunday we soaked up the sun yet again and enjoyed conference. It was a much more leisurely day and it was so fun to hang out with the family and finding small ways to entertain ourselves... After conference Mom, Brooke and I headed to her apartment to move stuff out. The greatest thing about doing things with Brooke is that she makes even the most boring of activities, entertaining. She had me laughing the whole time, and all we were doing was packing boxes. The night ended with a viewing of Mamma Mia (minus the dancing this time).

Monday we woke up to a beautiful day and decided to extend our trip to Tuesday. I called in to work to let them know and with a full day of vacation, we decided to head to Vegas. Unfortunately Brooke had to work and couldn't make it. We tried to make the best of it without her. We hit up the typical Vegas stops: Marshall's and Ross. Typical?? Yes, for these Jensen girls that is the attractive lure of Vegas. We did hit up In & Out for Mom and a little Pei Wei for me... We headed back to St. George to re-unite with Brooke. We each went our own ways for dinner. Brooke got Sushi (and I even tried some and liked it!) and I had my favorite treat: Cold Stone. It was such a nice night and we all sat outside and ate...
We finished off our last night there with swimming, relaxing in the hot tub, and a little sleep over down stairs.

Tuesday was another good day. Cleaned up the house, met Brooke for lunch, and I headed in to the branch to catch up on some work. We headed home and back to real life. Why do vacations always have to come to an end?

Cutting Costs

We have all watched over the past several months as the market continues to worsen. Being in the position I am in life, I haven't really felt much of the effects. That has all changed in the past several days. It all started last Wednesday when my company announced that they are no longer going to match our 401K contributions and we are not to expect our Christmas bonuses. It hurt, I was a little more than disappointed.

Little did I realize that the real pain of the economy was yet to come...

These bad boys...



In an effort to cut costs within our own departments we decided to stitch to a cheaper brand of tissues. I have illustrated for you the best comparison possible: Sandpaper. Blowing your nose no longer is just a small task, it has turned to a slightly painful, exfoliation process.

So now my hopes for the economy to turn are not so focused on the real estate or stock market, but for the hopes of one day having softer tissues.