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!

So, this was Kaylen's new accomplishment the week of Thanksgiving! She learned to sit up by herself! When she was in her crib for this picture, she went 10 minutes without help! As soon as Gregg went to get the video camera and turned it on, she fell! But so it goes! She's so adorable though sitting up all by herself! This was still in November and now she doesn't even really need the help of a pillow, etc! It's fun to watch her sit and play!

We hosted ALL of the Jones family in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving! Gregg had to work that day so it was the only way for us to have it altogether! And it was wonderful! Minus a few sleeping arrangement hangups, it went super well! We crowded everyone into our tiny kitchen to eat. There was just enough room to fit the card table the Joneses brought so everyone could sit together. We pulled Kaylen's highchair up close so she could play while we ate! Cherie did a WONDERFUL job making ... yep, everything! I was in charge of a couple appetizer-ish foods and that was fine by me! I really am going to have to learn one of these days! But she did a great job and it was appreciated by all!

Tradition called for putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, so that's what we did! We bought our first fake tree this year! Kaylen was curious about its going up, but was most interested in the lights! The Jones side brought most of their gifts as we weren't going to get a chance to see them again before Christmas. So, our tree had LOTS of presents under it very quickly!

I had to put up a picture of Kaylen's best pal, Dane. Outside of daycare, it's her friend she gets to see most! Dane is our friends, Jason and Ali's baby boy. He is just over a month and a half younger than her! He's adorable! We've already thought about arranging their marriage!

And yet another adorable picture of our little boo boo! Light of our lives, apple of our eye, center of our universe! Yes, we gush and gush and gush. But seriously... look at her! Who wouldn't! :-)

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!