Happy 1st Birthday our sweet Kaylen!!

Today, our beautiful, sweet girl turned 1!! It is so crazy to imagine a whole year ago today. It definitely doesn't feel like that much time has passed! Although, she has already grown into such an amazing little girl.

While Mommy was going crazy trying to tie these cute little pink bows in her hair, smart Daddy thought that it might be better to find some other bows that would be much easier to put in her hair! And boy, was he right!! Thank goodness for Daddy and picking out some perfect bows for her little pig tails! Last night, I made cupcakes for Kaylen to take to "school" for her birthday! Only her, her litte boyfriend, Weston, and one other baby can have the cupcakes, but a few of the teachers had one, too! She had a great day at school! Her friends made her a card with all their handprints on it and two of her teachers gave her birthday presents. We absolutely love how much they love her.

We went to dinner at Iggy's downtown because Leslie and her friend, Abbie came to Salt Lake just so Abbie could meet Kaylen! And how lucky for us, it was a mini celebration for Kaylen's birthday! Her big birthday party with family and friends is next weekend, which also happens to be my Dad's birthday! So, she will get a birthday week! She even had a onesie that Grandma Ruby bought her that said Baby's First Birthday... VERY cute!

It was very sweet of Auntie JJ and Abbie to come down from Logan while Abbie was visiting on Kaylen's birthday! It was a great excuse to go out to dinner! It was such a great day! Kaylen had a wonderful day with her friends and with us! We are so very blessed to have such an amazing little girl!! It's been an incredible 1st year and we're looking forward to each and every day to come! Happy Birthday our beautiful little princess! We love you so very very very much! XOXO

Celebrating 30 years!!

My beautiful, wonderful, amazing, hard working, generous, giving, fun, loving (the list goes on... and on... and on...) parents will be celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary June 14th!!!

AND to help them celebrate, I did my very best to plan a surprise party for them on May 28th. Gregg was not able to join in the festivities as he took the MCAT on the 27th (MAJOR shout out to my incredible husband for working so hard!), so I booked Kaylen and I on a flight for the long Memorial Day weekend months ago. Originally, the plan was for the whole visit to be a surprise, but a week before the big weekend, I got cold feet knowing I needed things to be more prepared for Kaylen. So, the week before, I told them that I booked a last minute trip to Minnesota as I got a great deal on the flight! :-)

To make a very long story shorter, her best friend, Carol, was AMAZING. I love that my Mom had a friend that was so capable of party planning like she is! Carol had all the decorations, bought most of the food, and helped me organize the whole thing. If it weren't for her, the party would've never happened! Although my parents seemed a little suspicious, it went off really well!

It wasn't until the parking lot that their suspicions were confirmed! I did my best to slow time on our way there knowing we left a little early, but my nosy father had to tell me each and every time I was driving under the speed limit... Mr. Backseat Driver! :-) We saw a friend of theirs in the parking lot when we pulled up. The good news is, as I found out later, my Mom id suspect a little party, but nothing like I pulled off! I think we had about 75 people... AND the best surprise of all, Julie and Doug flew in from San Francisco just for their party!! Yep, that one evoked tears... exactly the reaction I was going for! We had a huge turn-out! People changed their plans just to be able to attend! My parents thoroughly enjoyed themselves and Kaylen was awesome and never fussed! The party could not have gone any better!

Congratulations to my amazing parents for 30 years of memories, love and commitment! Thank you for each and every year. You are such wonderful parents. I am so proud to be your daughter and in my later life, I am also blessed to have you as friends. I am so grateful that you gave so much of yourselves to each other and to us. Thank you for always being there... for everyone. I love you so very much.

While Kaylen and I were in Minnesota, we were able to enjoy some GORGEOUS weather and great company! We were able to spend time with Jeff, Julie and Doug, our cousins and lots of friends. It was such a wonderful trip! The only thing that could've made it better was if Gregg could've been there with us.

Tomorrow, our sweet Kaylen turns 1. (BIG SIGH). Let me say, I am very much looking forward to all the fun days ahead of us as Kaylen continues to grow and come into her personality. She has been the most amazing gift in our lives and continues to be each and every day. She has been the most wonderful baby and although she always will be our baby, I guess our daycare friend/ provider is right... today is the last day of her being an "official" baby. It has been such an amazing first year experience to watch her grow and develop. It seems like just yesterday that we were holding her tiny 7 lb body in our arms at the hospital. The times really does fly. And I intend to cherish each and every possible minute of it.

Lots to celebrate!

April and May have been a busy couple of months so far. Kaylen got her ear tube surgery on April 23rd. She did such an amazing job! She is really such an incredible girl!! Cherie came to town for a couple days to help make sure we could get everything done and had time to cuddle her. She left that Saturday and my parents came to town later that day. It was very nice to have all the company!

I turned 29 on April 28th! Thank goodness for my one year before 30 cushion!! Gregg liked to joke about how he's married to an almost-30-yr-old! Ahh... isn't he just so funny!! I was definitely spoiled!! It turned out that I had a shoe themed birthday this year! Gregg planned a nice dinner out with some of our friends. We are really lucky to have some great friends here who not only care for us, but love to be with Kaylen. They are all so good to her. It was so great to spend my first birthday as a Mom. Kaylen truly is such an incredible gift in our lives and each and every day, I am so incredibly grateful.

Leslie came down from Logan for my birthday dinner!! It was very sweet of her with just a couple days notice to come down!! It was great to have her! This was Goliath's first trip to our apartment! Jay could only stay for 1 night, so we figured by the time anyone would have a chance to complain about the puppy, she'd be gone. He actually did really well!! We loved having him here! Kaylen had a bit of a love/ dislike relationship. She struggled when he would come too fast or too close, but she always wanted to know where he was at all times! He is adorable!! It was so nice having them here!

We finally got the boys and their babies together for a picture!! Jason and Doug, who are brothers, are good friend of Gregg's. And it's super cute that our babies range from 8 months-11 months. We talked a long time about getting together and finally did just a week ago! From left, Dough and Jordan, Gregg and Kaylen, Jason and Dane. The kiddos had lots of fun together. Doug and Steph have four kids and they are adorable!! We had a good time.

Here is our sweet little girl. This was also my first Mother's Day!! Gregg let me sleep in AND me me delicious blueberry pancakes!! We went to church and then spent some wonderful time outside!! It was great!! I ended up picking out a necklace from a catalog that I ended up hating. So, today, we actually picked out something to replace it! Gregg spoiled me as this new necklace is a bit nicer than the one I picked out previously!! I have the most wonderful family. They make it so easy to be me.

Kaylen turns 1 in just two weeks (June 4th)!!!! Holy crap! I really have NO idea where the time went! She likes to stand up by herself now. I don't know how close she is to walking, but I'm just fine with her taking things at her own pace! She blows kisses when she wants to and claps when you say, "Yay Kaylen!" or clap with her. She loves to wrestle with her Daddy. And in just two short weeks, she'll be one... big sigh. Sometime after she turns one, she'll head to the first toddler room at daycare. I already have anxiety about her leaving the infant room. We (especially Kaylen) are super attached to those girls. But hopefully, she'll enjoy the big kids and adapt well. We're planning a big party June 12th (also my Dad's birthday!) for her. Gregg's family will come from Wyoming and Logan and my parents are planning to fly in from Minnesota. They say the 1st party is mostly for the parents and I'm all for it! It's a great way to celebrate with family and friends that love her. It's a big milestone!! As they same, time flies and I've never realized just how fast it does until Kaylen came along!!

Gregg takes the MCAT in two weeks (May 27th). He is doing such an amazing job studying and preparing for it. He studies many hours a day and takes practice MCATs, which are 4.5 hours a piece!! We are so proud of him. His tutor through his prep programs also sings his praises. He has worked very hard and continues to work hard. We will be hoping and praying that his test results reflect just how much he has put into it.

Easter and the Aquarium

What a great smile! I think she was trying to show off her two tiny bottom teeth! We've been super spoiled lately by all the family that has come to town! The Jones side (minus JJ who had to work) came to Salt Lake for the kids' Spring Break. It wasn't exactly Spring Break weather, quite the opposite really, but we had a great time!

Cherie brought delicious dinners for each night they were here! We got quite spoiled by them while they were here! The second night, Cherie treated us girls to the movie, Alice in Wonderland! It was a good movie and so nice to get to the theater! It had been a long time!!

The next day, everyone but me, I had to work, went to the Aquarium in Sandy. Gregg said Kaylen loved it! There is a new penguin exhibit that she loved and she really liked looking at all the fish through the tanks! I have yet to go there, so hopefully we can get there again this summer! Waz treated the boys and I to the Jazz game, which they won! It was a pretty late game, so we didn't take Kaylen. She got to stay home with Grandma and Katie. But we definitely took the opportunity to get her all dressed up in her Jazz jersey to show her support!

We could not have had a prettier princess for Easter! She was so pretty in her little dress and had a little cardigan sweater to go over it! She was quite the hit at church. Everyone in the pews around us loved her! She got to do an Easter egg hunt while G & G Jones were here and got to do another one on Easter for eggs we gave her and G & G Koski left some for her the last time they were here as well. Let's just say... Kaylen made out like a bandit! :-) We appreciate how much our family does for us. We are very lucky to be so loved. My mom will be happy to know that we did our Easter Egg coloring! The eggs turned out great, now we just have to eat them!

We had a wonderful Easter with Kaylen. Of all the years getting spoiled by our families, it was a lot of fun to continue the traditions now with Kaylen. We had an absolutely wonderful day and had such a great time with Gregg's family! We are blessed with the most amazing families!

Ahh the mountains, how I love thee...

Now that is one cute kid! Kaylen was the lucky girl with TWO St. Patrick's Day outfits and this was one of them! She had a great smile to go along with it!

We were very lucky to have my parents and my sister, Julie my brother-in-law Doug, come out for a visit!!! Julie and Doug live in San Francisco and it was Kaylen's first time meeting her Auntie Julie! And it was wonderful! Julie is not exactly a "baby person", but she soon realized that my bragging about our wonderful, perfect baby girl is quite a reality! Julie and Doug stayed in a nearby hotel so being together was quite easy. We decided to spend Saturday skiing, so we went up to Snowbird, which was my first time. My parents actually gave it a whirl... their first time skiing in well, um... a LONG while!

And they did great! I don't think my Mom was very prepared for the altitude... a lovely gentleman we passed just walking up to the resort when we got there thought she may have been hitting the bottle bright and early (which she wasn't) because she had to stop for a breather just as we were walking up to the lodge! Ha ha...At almost 8,000 feet, it's quite the altitude change from a measly 1,000 feet in St. Paul!! It was funny! It was like riding a bike... quite a few years later! Their skiing skills are very in tact! But they called it quits and watched Kaylen for the majority of the day, which gave us the day on the hills! We managed to find our way to a double black diamond, NOT what we were looking for and took a bit for us all to get down! But it was such a great day with the family! We're so glad we went!

Kaylen and her Auntie Julie

Because Julie and Doug were already staying in a hotel, my parents decided to stay a night so that we could make good use of the pool Sunday afternoon. It was Kaylen's first time! She had been a little under the weather, so there wasn't much laughing, but never any tears. She did so great! Gregg even dunked her a couple times in the water. She was A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E in her little tiny swimsuit!

Well, the bad news is...we took Kaylen to get her ears checked and we've pretty much exhausted all of the antibiotics available. The Ped gave us a list of her recommendations of ENT docs to see for what will most likely result in tubes. We're actually going to see one of the two she preferred and it so happens that our friend Ali, who is a nurse at Primary Childrens recommends him as well. I've already informed her that she will need to be around and go back with Kaylen since we won't be able to or I might just go crazy. It's nice to know that if we can't be with Kaylen when she goes back, someone we love and trust can be. I just love having friends in high places! :-) As much as we aren't looking forward to tubes, we also can only feel so good about going round after round of antibiotics. Her body is just not responding well to them and we've really struggled with them. We've heard positive feedback from others who have had the surgery for their kids and most of the time, it has wonderful results. So, we'll just pray that everything goes well and that the tubes (should that be the result) bring her pain free living! We see the ENT on April 6th and will schedule things from there!

The Jones family will be in town, minus JJ ( :-( ), this coming week as the littlies are on spring break. Cherie's already planning to bring some yummy food for dinners, we have a Jazz game planned, Kaylen will get to take a trip to the Zoo and we might get a girl's movie night! We'll have to see what pans out!

9 Month Baby Girl!

Our beautiful baby girl turned 9 months on March 4th!!! It's so crazy to think how fast all this time flies and before we know it she is going to be 1 year! It's one of those things that I look forward to and resist all at the same time! Each day, each week, each month goes by so fast! There are too many moments when I wish I could just stop time and stay in it. (Although her habit of waking up at 5:30 AM is NOT one of those moments!) She is seriously such a joy. We find her more beautiful and more wonderful every day of her life... gushy, but true. And at 9 months, she never ceases to amaze us! Two weeks before her 9 mo birthday, she started crawling!! A little slow at first, but she has definitely gained her momentum!

Kay, quick story... so I finally grabbed the video camera to get some video of one of the early crawling moments, turn on the camera and Gregg and I are watching her s-l-o-w-l-y move across the room (straight for my purse) in complete silence. It was so cute because she was moving SO SLOW! After a few seconds, Gregg just comes out and says, "she's not breaking any speed records, is she?"..... A HA HA, it was so funny and so true! I'm in love with that moment.

Kaylen had her 9 month appointment this week, to get all of her stats and also unfortunately to address her ear infections that just won't go away! Bad news first, both ear infections were still there (and had caused a side eye infection) and we're getting close to exhausting our antibiotic options, so she got a shot. She has to get a booster shot tomorrow. It's a fairly gnarly shot, but we're hoping to try to get her into Spring when she might stop getting all the colds and might not get the ear infections. If not, soon we will have to look into tubes. Onto the fun news! She is a very sweet and wonderful 18 lbs! (25%), 28 inches (75%) and has a tiny little head! Good thing it's all brain! She is a smart cookie that's for sure! She has quite the head of hair, loves to pull out ALL her toys now that she can get around and is working on pulling herself to standing. She can get to kneeling... and oh-so-close to standing!
Above is our little Boo Boo crawling! Gregg took her jammies off that morning because she drags her left leg a bit, so her leg keeps going forward and her jammies don't keep up, so she gets frustrated... ha ha. We try to fix them, but it was just easier to take them off! And she's so darn cute naked! :-)

Her ultimate destination is my purse. None of her toys could get her to move across the entire room, but my purse could! And she wasn't interested in the wallet... which I'll remind her about later in life, she just goes for every single piece of paper!! And it's amazing just how much scrappy paper I keep in my purse! There's her little mischievous grin now!

Ahhh, sweet pea at bath time! We love the bath pictures! She's just so darn cute! Picture speaks for itself, she's gorgeous!

SO, at Kaylen's 9 month appointment, Roberta, the Medical Assistant from New Zealand (LOVE the accent.... sorry Cherie! Those Aussies and New Zealanders have quite the rivalry!), gave Gregg and I Tootsie Pops and a little Dum Dum for Kaylen! She told us to let her enjoy it in the bath! I'm a little OCD about what goes in her mouth and sugar isn't usually one of those things, BUT, I thought... heck! Why not! It was the Dr's office that gave it to us after all!!! And they said a warm bath might help with the shot. So, in the tub we went and her "mystery flavor" turned out to be blue raspberry!! GEEZ! It was like crack cocaine for this little girl! If I even tried to take it out to try to get her to swallow all the yummy-ness, she would freak out if I had it out for more than 2 seconds!! It was adorable... I think you can actually see the blue streaming down her chest in the picture! It was very cute! I let her eat half and called it good! But for being such a brave little girl with her nasty shots, I thought the sweet pea had earned it!

As a side note: It was my wonderfully amazing Mom's birthday on March 5th! Even Kaylen got in on the action wishing her a Happy Birthday! Wanted to mention this as I, for one of many, am incredibly fortunate that my Mommy was born March 5th 19...... just kidding, I won't go there. She's as beautiful now as ever and I couldn't be more grateful and blessed to have such an amazing Mom! Thanks Mom for all you do for me and for our family. You are cherished and loved by so many! XOXO

A Happy MN Christmas and WY New Year!

This year we went to Minnesota for Christmas! We had a wonderful time! My parents as always went all out! The first couple nights were hard on Kaylen's sleep routine as we got in pretty late and in the middle of a snow storm! So, she went to be late that night and the next night as it was Christmas Eve and we always go to the candlelight service at church! But I think we've learned our lesson. I do love the candlelight service, but it's not really worth keeping Kaylen up too late for it. She did "pretty good" overall. She did good with naps and sleep, but as the week wore on, she ended up in our bed in the middle of the night. But the nice part of all of it, was having my parents there in the morning! We were spoiled! When Kaylen would wake up, my parents would pretty much take care of everything and feed her... so we got to sleep in quite a bit! I think it was the most sleep I'd gotten since Kaylen was born! It was a wonderful treat!

Here is our beautiful girl all dressed up for church on Christmas Eve! I didn't get any pictures on the blog of Christmas morning, but she was a spoiled little girl! She had a wonderful time eating the wrapping to the presents and playing with her new toys. Her definite favorite was a table top toy thingy that makes noise, has all the flashy lights and does all kinds of things Jeff gave her! Ohh... and quite funny was this singing, dancing donkey my parents gave her. She's still not to sure what to think of that one. We got spoiled by ALL of our family! Gregg's parents sent presents to us in Salt Lake and we had a mini Christmas with Leslie in early December and then they sent a few to Minnesota for us. Our big present to both our parents this year was a 2010 Calendar we made of Kaylen. It definitely hit the spot... but now they've warned us that they expect a calendar every year! :-)

My Mom bought Kaylen her very own tiny sled, so we had to get all bundled up and take her for her first sledding excursion around the front yard! She went down the little slope in the front yard, but the sled definitely handled best on the street... don't worry, no cars! Once her little nose got red, we called it good and went inside! It was fun to have a little time in the snow with her!

These door jumpers are by far her favorite thing to play with/in. There is one at daycare and we actually have one at home, but can't use it! There are no full door frames in our apartment... how ridiculous is that!!! So, my Mom, being as savvy as she is, went out and bought this one toward the end of our trip so Kaylen could bounce like crazy in it! She was adorable to watch. Then, my Mom took it back after we left! How smart!

Minnesota was wonderful! We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas with my family. My Mom held an Open House that Sunday and we got to see lots of people we hadn't seen in a long time! If we weren't able to see people there, we made a point to try to see everyone we could before we left. It was great! But mostly, we spent as much time with my family as we could as they loved each and every minute they got with Kaylen. She is also very loved by her Uncle Jeff! He likes to have little conversations with her... but he doesn't like anyone else to hear them! They are fast friends! Thanks again to my family for being wonderful hosts and giving us a wonderful time in Minnesota!

It was hard on the Jones side as it was for us to be away for Christmas. It's always the hardest part of having family so far apart. But they had a wonderful Christmas in Wyoming with the rest of the family. It snowed a ton in Minnesota as it did in Wyoming! So, we decided to make use of our long weekend over New Year's to head to Star Valley when we got home. Gregg worked New Year's Eve, so we headed to Star Valley New Year's Day and spent Friday through Sunday with them. Again... so wonderful! Kaylen has even more people to entertain her and love on her there! As we have two more grandparents to let us sleep a little extra in the morning! ;-) We played lots of games together and even got a chance to take out the snowmobiles thanks to the new snow! We actually took Kaylen around a couple times with Gregg and I on the sled behind the snowmobiles! Don't worry, we went S-L-O-W! :-) She didn't seem to care for it one way or another, so soon we let her go in with Grandma Cherie and the rest of us played a little more outside! Gregg always comes in the house looking like the abominable snowman! We get to have lots of fun with him! We should be back in Star Valley over President's Day in February for the annual cousins ski extravaganza and Warren's Birthday.

Gregg starts school again tomorrow for the semester. He got a 4.0 this last semester and was taking SUPER difficult classes! This semester his main focus is going to be preparation for the MCAT which he is going to be taking May 27th! He's already started one MCAT prep class and is already stressed out! I think it is going to be a stressful semester, but we'll get through it! We are also trying to plan a now LARGE family trip to Australia this summer! We're trying to work out exactly who's going, then to purchase tickets, then on to the fun details! Kaylen is 7 months now and is really thinking about crawling, but she's not quite there yet... but hopefully soon! Again, I could say I'm going to get better with this whole blogging business, but who am I kidding! Sooner or later, I'll post again!