Pieces of November

So, I uploaded these pictures a while back, but never got around to posting a blog! Gregg and I celebrated our 4 year Anniversary November 5th! He made reservations at the restaurant we went to for our 1st year Anniversary. It's called Cafe Molise... yummy Italian! Our 1st year trip was so memorable and I can say that our 4th one was as well! Not quite as eventful, but WONDERFUL! My husband is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I am one LUCKY girl!

We've started giving Kaylen solids. We started out with the typical rice cereal. We got a little bit of a delayed start as she was having such a hard time getting rid of her ear infection. We then moved onto a jar of sweet potatoes over Thanksgiving... which she Loved! But she ate the whole jar which was a little much for her system. So, we back tracked a little to oatmeal and then started back to some green vegetables. So, far she seems to love peas, likes carrots a little less and we're moving onto green beans... probably tomorrow night as Gregg works tonight and I always like for him to be around for the first night of the new vegetable! But above is a picture we LOVE! Sometimes she could take or leave her vegetable feeding, but sometimes she gets ecstatic! Just last night, Gregg was saying how she just plunges her face toward the spoon! Obviously, in the picture above, she just took the spoon right out of Gregg's hand!

Grandpa Marv and Grandma Ruby came to visit... early November. My Mom and Dad did lots of reading and playing with Kaylen. She does a little better with board books because of the books have paper pages... you have to watch her closely! She likes to grab for the pages so I foresee a lot of missing pages in books!

We took her outside to show Grandma and Grandpa how she loves the swing! Which she did! We had to bundle her up really good so that she didn't freeze her little tooshie off!

Gregg and Kaylen made snow angels!

Much much more has happened as it is now nearing Christmas! I'm going to try to get a picture or two up from Thanksgiving hopefully before Christmas with a few more updates!

Halloween.... late! :-)

How cute is that little sweet pea!? Wearing Daddy's sweat suit from when he was a baby. She's ADORABLE!

This is our happy little girl in her early Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Koski. They bought her an exersaucer but wanted her to get to use it sooner than later! Plus, that is not something we could've hauled on the plane with us! She loves it, so thank you!

Auntie JJ came down from Logan for Halloween weekend. The Utes were playing the University of Wyoming. Gregg kept joking around with Jay that her costume was being a "loser" since she wore Wyoming gear and Wyoming was going to lose. We let Kaylen wear her Wyoming shirt that Jay bought her for part of the day so Jay didn't feel so alone! :-)

Kaylen had three costumes; a pumpkin, pea pod and ladybug. The pea pod seemed to be the overall favorite and I love the above picture, so had to put it up!

Gregg decided at the last minute Halloween morning that he was going to be Wolverine. And he did SUCH a great job for last minute! He shaved his beard and styled his hair perfectly! So, I guess I was the only party pooper without a costume! But as she gets older, I'll have to start getting creative! Gregg was super excited to not have to work for the first Halloween since we've lived in Utah. He loves getting to pass out candy to the kids who come to the door. At one point, he even tried to fake them out by trying to give them bananas. It was pretty funny. Don't worry, they all got candy! :-) One thing is for sure, we had a wonderful first Halloween with Kaylen!

What a great Fall!

Gregg picked out this super cute fleece outfit for Kaylen and she's so cuddly in it! The little ears on the top of the hood are especially cute! My parents finally did it! They came out to visit Salt Lake and we drove to Star Valley, Wyoming so they could check out Gregg's neck of the woods! It meant a lot to all of us to get to share that with them! It's about a 3.5 hour road trip there and it went well! We had a good visit Friday when we got there and Saturday we drove up to Jackson Hole. My Mom fell in love with the canyon drive up to Jackson!

It wasn't a great day to check out The Tetons and it was especially hard to really see how great the Grand Teton is because of the low clouds, but we at least had to take the picture!

We stopped in at the visitor center, had a yummy lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Jackson and did a little walking around town. We got a great picture in front of the Elk Horn arch, my Mom got to check out the Million Dollar bar with saddle bar stools and to top of their Jackson visit... a visit to the Elks Lodge! I swear, if my parents find out there's an Elks Lodge around, they definitely try to stop! It was wonderful having everyone together! Leslie came from Logan to hang, so it was a wonderful weekend! Great company, great food (thanks Cherie) and good times! Well, I suppose the only downfall to the weekend was Gregg getting super sick on Sunday. We got nervous it was one of the "flus"and didn't want Kaylen to get it, so we went to the ER in Star Valley to make sure it wasn't the flu. Turns out Gregg had a bacterial infection of some kind and got some meds for it. I ended up having to pack the car and drive us back to SLC, but for all the times Gregg has done it... well, pretty much every time but this one, it was definitely my turn! Too bad more of us caught some of it! The only people that didn't get it was Katie, Ian, my Dad and Kaylen! Sheesh! But we're all over that now... Kaylen just has a pretty awful cold!

My Mom is a sucker for great deals, so she bought costumes for a baby before Gregg and I were even thinking about having a baby! But good thing she did because look how cute she is in all of these! We had to have a fashion show so we could see what fit and which ones we liked the most! There is this pumpkin one, a pea pod and a lady bug! She was cute in ALL of them! We'll probably have to find excuses so she can wear all three come Halloween!

We don't have apple orchards here or at least none close that I know of, so we took our sweet pea to the pumpkin patch! She tried to sleep through it, but we couldn't let her do that! She got her picture taken with lots of pumpkins and seemed to enjoy herself! We bought a good size pumpkin that Gregg and I will carve, two littler ones and one tiny one just for our tiny one!

It's been a beautiful weekend here, so we sure made the most of our day! We got professional pictures taken in the morning, had lunch, went to the pumpkin patch and took a walk before dinner! Daddy is going to be busy tomorrow. He's shadowing a Dr in the morning, will come hang out with us for a few hours and then has to work until midnight! But we're sure glad we had him while we did!

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Kaylen had her first trip to the zoo! We went to the Utah Hogle Zoo just up the street from our apartment Saturday September 26. The weather was starting to get cooler, but it was supposed to be a great day and it was! It was gorgeous! We got there nice and early to get a good parking spot, which we did and to avoid some of the crowd, which we did! The picture above is how she spent a good portion of our trip, asleep in her car seat, but she did get to see some great stuff!

There was a new baby elephant, a baby girl name Zuri! She was SO CUTE! Kaylen was awake to see the baby elephant! She didn't have much of a clue that she was looking at the cutest little elephant around! To commemorate the occasion, we bought Kaylen a super cute stuffed elephant, of course!

Usually the bears are in the deep hole that's right below so normally we don't get that great of a view, but that day, they were out and playing. While I was feeding Kaylen her bottle, two of the bears actually stood up on there legs and were wrestling around!

There was also a baby giraffe! Isn't he super cute! Kaylen was asleep by this point, but I took lots of pictures of the giraffe! As we were about to leave the area, the baby giraffe laid down, so we had great timing!

And there's adorable Daddy! It was such a great day to go to the zoo! She got to see the new baby elephant, the baby giraffe as well as the baby snow leopard and the baby tiger cubs! Gregg and I already love the Zoo, but it was a fun experience to take Kaylen for the first time! It will be lots more fun when we take her and she understands it for the first time! :-)

Rolling Over Machine!

Kaylen rolled over for the first time on Sep 20 and I missed it! I put her down on her play mat, seriously went 7 steps to get a banana, came back and she had rolled over! I attached a picture of what I saw! I could've died! I tried to get her to do it again, but she wouldn't... not then, but the next time we saw her do it was at her 4 month Dr. appt in front of Gregg, myself and the Dr! She was definitely trying to impress the Dr! It was adorable! We all just sat there and watched her roll right into the wall! It was SO CUTE! She only likes to roll to her left and once there, it doesn't take long for her to get mad. She doesn't quite get the cause and effect thing... she likes to roll over, but doesn't realize it's her fault she's on her tummy! She's flipping adorable! Now, she's a rolling over machine! She loves to roll from her back to her tummy. Now we have to work on tummy to back!

So, I have to start somewhere! It's been FOREVER since I posted! Work has been crazy, life has been crazy, and not much time to get on the computer! I thought I would start here for once. For once I tried to put her down for a little nap before bed and thought I would try the pack-and-play. So far so good! Normally, I just want to cuddle her, but I thought I would try it this time so I could get a few things done!

I've been back to work for over a month now. When I got back to work, I was given two new jobs because another person got a promotion. Would be a good thing if I got paid more for doing those two new jobs on top of mine, but nope! So, now I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off every day. I keep hoping there will be a slow day, but nope, not yet! It's definitely been a transition. It got easier bringing Kaylen to daycare, but it's still hard. I wish I didn't have to, but it is what it is. They are very good to her and take very good care of her. It's nice to not have to worry about the care she's getting.

Gregg's been working his new job. He works Sundays now, which stinks to give up half our weekends, but he's home more nights during the week. He really enjoys it. He has a lot more patient involvement and has been doing such a great job! He's been really busy just getting ready for when he'll apply to med schools. He's shadowing doctors and has to do a ton of hours for an internship that will start this week. He's a busy guy and we hate every minute that he's not home, but we are VERY proud of him. He works so hard and is doing SUCH a great job!

Kaylen has been LOVING bath time... as long as I don't wait until too late at night to do it! She loves to splash around in her little tub. She didn't like the little hammock it came with because she loves being submerged in the water, but as soon as she was big enough, we took it out and the tub was a hit! Every new thing is fun with her! She is a rather serious little monkey, but she's been smiling more and more lately! She had her first GREAT giggle Oct 3, the day before her 4 month birthday!

Back to Work! :-(

I can't believe my maternity leave is already over! It's truly amazing how 3 months really can fly by! I was SO incredibly lucky for my friends at the court that donated leave to me so that I could have all this time to be with Kaylen. I am so incredibly grateful!

But tomorrow it's back to work. I've had yesterday and today to try to get used to the idea, but I'm not where used to the idea! I dropped her off at daycare for a couple hours both days, but nothing will be as hard as dropping her off for 9.5 hours to go to work! I can't even imagine having to do that tomorrow! I want to be the one to love on her all day! I can't believe how much I already miss her!

It's amazing how your child can become an addiction so quickly. My little heart is breaking to have to do it! So, wish me luck! Everyone says it will get better with time, so let's just hope it gets better sooner than later!

Adventure to Minnesota!

Kaylen and I went on an adventure... home to Minnesota! Quite the adventure it was! Gregg didn't come with us because he had taken a lot of leave with the first couple weeks after Kaylen was born and trip to Montana. I still had a couple weeks left on my maternity leave, so I thought I should head to MN to show off our perfect little sweet pea to family and friends! I booked a DIRECT flight, even though a connection would've been cheaper. The hastle that it saved me was WELL worth it! I went through security with my bottles of breast milk and my freezer pack and ALL our gear and luggage and it all went well! Not exactly easy, but well!

The weather was only nice the day I arrived, Tuesday the 18th. It pretty much poured all of Wednesday and Thursday, but cleared up for Friday. It was chilly, but decent enough to enjoy. Of course, the weather got gorgeous on Saturday, just in time for me to come home! But we definitely got lots of great stuff in! I introduced her to TONS of friends and family! She's only going to be our tiny munchkin for so long, she's getting big so fast! So, it was nice to get home while we could!

Kaylen went on her first boat ride. I, of course, got on the boat with her in the Baby Bjorn only to realize that she needed to be wearing a life jacket the whole time! I wish I could've put up more pictures! You should've seen the look on her face when my mom and dad were trying to get the sucker on her! Ha ha!! Priceless! But she looked darn cute sporting that life jacket (many thanks to my mom for finding one for her to wear!!) Speaking of my wonderful Mom... and very proud Grandma! She went out and got all kinds of gear for her just for the 4 days we'd be home. It was all used and she got GREAT deals! It was all safe, so it was so wonderful not too have to haul lots of stuff with us. She bought a car seat, base, bouncer, swing, bassinet and we borrowed a stroller and playmat! Kaylen was one spoiled little girl! Grandma definitely allowed us to have a home away from home! Kaylen used every single thing and loved them! Above is a picture of proud Grandma Ruby holding our cutie on a boat ride.

She even assisted Grandpa Marv drive the boat! Kaylen slept for much of her two boat rides, but I think she definitely got used to the life jacket and is already loving being on the water like her Mommy!

Kaylen got to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Acapulco! Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a yummy lunch!

Heaven forbid the peanut love the travel swing we have for her! She hated it every time we put her in it. But my Mom finds this old school swing and the girl loves it! She would just hang out for a while and then fall asleep without fail! So, Gregg and I had to go out and buy a swing last weekend, which she likes! My parents had their swing all set to ship out to us, but we might not mess with that and keep the one we bought even if we did pay a little more than we'd like. Hopefully, she'll still like my parents swing at 6 months when we try to make it home for Christmas!

Uncle Jeff LOVED getting his cuddle on with Kaylen! He got the chance to feed her a bottle of breast milk, learned the art of burping her, played with her and loved having her sleep on his chest. He is wonderful with her! He's not sure what to think of her not-so-dainty farts though! :-) She more than surprised him with the amount of oomph she can put behind one of those! :-)

I'm really glad we got the chance to make it home for a visit. We all only wished Gregg would've come with us. It also would've been nice to have a little more time so that we could've had the chance to see even more people, but overall it was a great trip! Thanks to my wonderful parents and all our friends and family, we had a great time and Kaylen got to meet lots of the people that love her!