Off to Wichita....

Well, we're off tomorrow morning to another family christmas at my parent's house. They've been anxiously waiting for us to get there since we didn't get to see them on Christmas Eve or Day. They really only want to see Jaylen. Gavan and I are just a bonus! That's how it is when your parents become grandparents! It's been over 2 weeks since they've seen her and she's filled out quite a bit since then. We'll be up there for several days which will be nice because we will get to see their new house and we haven't been up there for several months now.

We did get a jogging stroller and I think we'll like it. Thanks to all of you who commented about it. Amber, I'll post a picture when I take one of it! Gavan and I are starting up an exercise routine after the new year. No, it is not a new year's resolution to get in shape. I have my 6 week checkup after the delivery and then I can start exercizing again. The stroller is all assembled and ready to go! Paisley is going to love me for starting up our walks again. She's been neglected in that department due to my bedrest and Jaylen.

Well, I've still got some packing to do tonight so I better get. Hope you all have been enjoying the holidays with your families like we continue to do.

Happy New Year!

Thoughts on a jogging stroller?.....

We're going to be getting a jogging stroller and I've been trying to decide which one I want and what features I'd really use on one. We have a nice travel set for shopping and things like that but I want one for mainly walking and some running.

Give me some feedback on what you have found works and things we don't need on the stroller. Swivel front wheel, odometer, music hook-up, extra storage, etc.... I'm thinking of just getting a lower priced one to used cause I'm sure we'll get a double when we get 2 kiddos in the next several years. Just not sure what to do.

We had christmas with Gavan's family this past weekend and we are going to my parent's house this weekend and then my grandma's house the next weekend. Jaylen is finding out early that her parents like to travel a lot, especially around the holidays. She did pretty good out at the Byrd's house but slept better last night here at home, which is understood cause we all sleep better in our own beds. Our holiday season is lasting longer this year but I love the time with family.

I think Paisley is a bit jealous....

Just a quick post about our jealous Paisley. She's done this several times since Jaylen was born and I think I've decided why. Paisley likes to get diapers out of the trash can and bring them to me. Actually at first she didn't bring them to me cause she thought about eating them. One time I found her getting behind our christmas tree with a diaper in her mouth and another time I found her in the nursery getting behind the glider with one. She hasn't ever gotten to sit and chew on it cause I've caught her but I'm sure she would of. The last couple times she has just gotten one, brought it to where I was and set it right by my feet. I think she's trying to get in trouble so I'll pay more attention to her and not Jaylen cause she knows she's not supposed to be in the nursery or get diapers out of the trash can. Poor thing. Before Jaylen was born she was our little girl and now we're always holding Jaylen and taking her "on the carpet" with us. Paisley isn't allowed in the back part of our house, which is all carpet. She will stop right where the wood floor and carpet meet cause she knows she's not allowed.

Anyway, this is the only thing I can think of as to why she is bringing me Jaylen's dirty diapers! We're really trying to pay attention to her too but obviously the new baby comes first! She'll learn this and accept it I'm sure. She is really doing good around Jaylen and doesn't really bother her much. Well, I'm back to baking and cleaning the house. Doug & Dixie are coming in town tonight and then we're leaving tomorrow so I've got lots to do. Ethan just turned 1 last week (the day before Gavan's) so it'll be interesting how he reacts to Jaylen!

Hope everyone has a wonderful christmas weekend. Drive safe if you are traveling and bundle up cause we're expected to get some snow tomorrow and possibly a white christmas as well!

Happy Holidays!

1 month old....

Can't believe Jaylen is already a month old. It has gone so fast and she has changed so much so quickly. She is as sweet as can be and we couldn't be more in love with her! She's quite the shopper too. I drug her around for several hours today doing hopefully the last of our christmas shopping and she slept the entire time. Can't believe christmas is in 6 days either!

Only about 30 minutes old...

About 1 week old...

1 month old...

1 month old......our sweet angel.

Happy Birthday to Gavan....

My wonderful husband.

Well, I was reading about Pick's birthday on their blog and felt bad that I hadn't mentioned anything about Gavan's birthday, which was Saturday. He turned the big 27 as well as Pick did. Yes, this is him in the picture above last year on Halloween. Matt Mayhew and him went as white trash guys or something. Yes, he actually went to work like this all day long. I had to put 2 tatoos on him before he left that day too!

We were still at the Lawrence's on his birthday and we all slept in pretty late due to staying up watching "Blades of Glory" the night before. G, Jeffery and Chad (Hannah's boyfriend) went to Pole Position to ride the big boy go-carts. They had fun and all came back with t-shirts they got for something. We went out to his parent's house that afternoon and had a nice evening with the family. He said he actually does feel older at this birthday. Probably cause we have Jaylen now.

One proud dad.

Gavan and his clone.

Happy birthday to Gavan. You are a wonderful husband who I continue to fall in love with everyday and my best friend since we were 10 years old. I can't believe we've known each other for 17 years now. It all started when we were kids and now we have a child of our own. I'm so proud of you for your caring heart, loving spirit and christian lifestyle. I love you so very much.

Gavan and Melody = Forever

(That is what we used to say and write on all our letters when we were kids.)

Just a few things.....

I know it is late but I just put Jaylen down after her bottle and just want to make sure she is really going to sleep before I get snuggled up in my bed and then have to jump out of it in 20 minutes when she wakes back up. I just thought I'd post a quick picture of the Byrd cousins. We tried to get a picture of all of them for Nana's x-mas card. As you can see Samuel is not a happy camper in this pic and Dayona wasn't really into it either. But our Jaylen was perfect. She did what she does best. Sleep. Well at least during the day that is!

Samuel (with Dennis holding him in place cause he wouldn't stay put), Ethan holding Jaylen, Corbin holding Dayona and Spencer

Shawna gave me a couple of headbands that Dayona doesn't wear anymore and Jaylen wore one for the pics today. It looked so cute on her. Gavan thought the bow might be too big but I loved it. Here are the 2 granddaughters. Bev couldn't be happier to finally get some girls!

We didn't take near enought pics of our time with the Lawrence's but here's one of Cooper and Jaylen snoozing on the couch. Cooper LOVED Jaylen and always went and sat right beside whoever was holding her.

A big thank you goes out to Jeffrey & Miranda for housing us for 5 days. We had lots of fun with you guys and really appreciate everything. Now Cooper can settle down from having his space invaded by us and especially Paisley!

Well, its past midnight now and today is the 17th, which was my original due date for Jaylen. I can't imagine just now having her and how uncomfortable I would be. And to still be laying on the couch! No thanks. Today also means that Jaylen is 1 month old! Can't believe it but am loving every minute of it!

Let there be light.......

I've never been so excited to see my porch light on when we drove up to our house today! Yep, that's right. Power is back on at 2137 Barclay Rd. It came back on today about 2:45 in the afternoon and I was jumping up and down cause I was so excited to hear my heat running when we walked inside. Gavan and I came home to get a few things and found the power up and running again. We're actually going out to his parent's house tonight and will be back tomorrow so I won't get to enjoy our warm home tonight but hopefully my father-in-law will have a fire going when we get out there. I love it when he makes a fire at their house. Well, we've got to get back to the Lawrence's house. Jeffrey was babysitting Jaylen for a few minutes while we ran home. We didn't want to bring her since it's been 50 degrees inside our house. I'm sure she's been sleeping the entire time. That's still pretty much all she does still.

Hopefully everyone is warm and cozy today cause baby it's cold outside!

Sorry about the ranting.......

Thank you everyone for letting me rant a little bit in the last post about the doggies. They really are good dogs but just like to pick at each other. The dogs settled down after a while, especially when everyone got home and I had help. Sure, then they acted like angels.

I called our house earlier this morning to see if our phone was working and the electricity back on but it wasn't. Gavan went to an O G & E walk up area last night to report that we still don't have power but that was it. They weren't able to tell us anything of course but at least they have our address.

These dogs are driving me crazy.......

Still no power at our house. Still living at the Lawrence's house. Still living out of bags. Still trying to keep Paisley & Cooper from killing each other. So this morning Miranda and Gavan left for work and Jeffrey left to go study again and I stayed home with Jaylen and the dogs. Jaylen is great but the dogs are seriously about to drive me crazy. They can't stop picking at each other. I've had to break up several fights already this morning between them.

For example: If one goes into the other room, the other dog has to follow & investigate what is going on. Fight breaks out. If one goes to get a drink from the water bowl, the other has to follow and do the same. Fight breaks out.

I was trying to break them up this morning and Cooper actually bit me on the wrist! He snips at Paisley so then Paisley thinks he's playing and tries to play like a big dog. Well, my hand got in the way of Cooper trying to bite Paisley and he got me pretty good. I had a nice row of teeth marks on my wrist. The skin didn't break but now it has swelled up and is a little sore. Oh my. Here they go again barking and fighting. I'm begging you O G & E to work on Barclay Rd in the Village! I love Jeffrey & Miranda but I'm ready to be back home to get my dog in her own yard and my baby in her own crib! Ice, ice go away & don't come another day. I'm really just hoping to get back to our house before we get dumped on with snow!

My parent's are coming down today to pick up Myra from school and to see Jaylen, of course! My dad hasn't seen her for a couple of weeks now so I know he's missing her. Oh yeah, these dogs are driving me so nuts that I was 30 minutes late feeding Jaylen cause I was trying to keep them from fighting. Jaylen kept fussing and I kept wondering why. Seriously.

Ok, so I've been gone from the blog world for a few days due to the fact that during my shower on Monday night at 9:00 our power went completely out. I finished the rest of my shower in the dark and then found Gavan in the living room trying to finish feeding Jaylen and lighting candles and getting batteries in the flashlight. We called Jeffrey & Miranda to see if they had power; they did and said to come on over. So with a flashlight we packed some things and headed to their house, which is only like 2 blocks away.

Now, 2 days later we are still living at the Lawrence Motel and have completely invaded their space. It's been interesting living here with a 3 week old baby! She's such a good baby so it hasn't been too bad. Miranda was off work Tuesday, Jeffrey has test block this week so he hasn't been here that much and Gavan went to work Tuesday at noon and today. We are just going to our house each day to get more clothes, bottles, burps, formula, etc and checking to see if the power is back on. I had to go empty the freezer/fridge today so things don't start stinking and leaking. It was 51 degrees in the house today and I was there for about 45 minutes, which was plenty cause I was freezing.

There are only a handful of houses on our street without power so I'm sure we won't be on the top of the list to get to. We are so thankful for Miranda & Jeffrey for opening their home to us and can't thank them enough for putting us up for the time being. Jaylen had a doctor's appointment today to make sure she got above birth weight and she was much above it! She was 6 pounds 2 ounces today, which is 10 oz gained in the last wee! She's getting bigger everyday and we can't believe how much she has already changed.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we brought Paisley (lab) over here and they have Cooper (morkie)? We'll just say that they don't get along too well so it's like we have 2 toddlers we have to keep from fighting constantly. Fun for us!!!!!!

Pics from baby shower...

Well, it is 11:30 p.m. and we still have power here at the house, which is good. The news keeps saying that people in the village are without power but we must be one of the lucky ones. My computer finally let me upload some pictures on here of the shower too. Thank you to my sis-in-law Katie for being in charge of my camera during the shower. She did great at taking the pics; however, I now realize that I did not get one taken with her!

Me & my lovely hostesses

The table looked so cute.....and the cake, cookies & punch were wonderful.

Katie Rowten made this super cute cake for the shower. Her little business is really taking off! If you need a cake for any occasion, you need to call her!

Myra, Me, Mom

Me & Miranda....feeling the belly.

Me & Mom

Adorable diaper bag Bev had made for me. Love it!

Now, I'm not sure Jaylen's daddy is going to let her wear this two-piece swimsuit! Thank you to her boy cousins who got her this!

Miranda made this beautiful quilt for Jaylen and I absolutely love it. She borrowed my sewing machine to make some pillows several months ago and I wondered what was taking her so long to sew them! Little did I know that she was making the quilt! I actually ran into her at the fabric store by our houses when she was picking out the fabric for it. She told me it was for more pillows that were for her sister! The quilt is SO cute!

Baby Shower

I wanted to post about my baby shower since I haven't mentioned it yet. We had the shower the day before Jaylen was born so I've been a little busy! This was the first weekend I had been out of the house other than to go to the hospital for an appointment. It was so good to see so many of my friends and eat some good cake too! I had a great bunch of hostesses who put on a wonderful shower. I was overwhelmed (in a good way) with the amount of ladies that came to it. Gavan and I felt so blessed after the shower and thank everyone who helped out in any way. I'll just show some pics to highlight the shower. Thanks again ladies, you're the best!

Okay, well I'm not able to upload any pics right now. It's probably due to the fact that it's sleeting and thundering and stuff outside right now. To be honest, I'm surprised we still have power. I'll try to post the pics later!

Can you believe it?

Okay, so this look-a-like meter shows that Jaylen looks more like me but it is about the only thing/person that has said that! Pretty much every person who has seen us with Jaylen says she looks exactly like her dad. I have to agree with them too. If you look at our baby pictures, they look very much like each other. Interesting.

She weighs in at 5 lbs 8 oz......

Well, Jaylen wasn't quite back up to birth weight today at her check up so we're going back next week to make sure she is gaining weight properly. Just a reminder, her birth weight was 5 lbs 10 oz and she was 5 lbs 8 oz today. They think since she got down so much that it is taking her a little longer to get back up. Other than her weight, she checked out great. We saw Dr. Stephens' nurse specialist today for the appointment. She was very nice and informative. She answered the few questions I had before I actually asked them. She was great.

I can tell Jaylen is growing cause the diapers fit a little differently. She definately isn't growing out of them yet but the straps just don't have to overlap as much! She should start packing on the pounds now that she is almost back to birth weight. She already looks older to me and she's only 2 weeks! I know exactly what parents say when they tell us that kids grow up so quickly and you don't even realize it.

Well, that's about it. I'm starting my thank you notes today and trying to get the christmas cards mailed out as well. Lots to do and not enough time. Is that going to be my life story from here on out?!

Oh what a beautiful day.....

Did anyone else go for a walk this afternoon and enjoy the awesome weather? At least here in OKC it was super nice. I took Jaylen and Paisley for a walk this afternoon and it was so nice. It felt so good to get a little exercise that I haven't had for over 3 months. Jaylen slept the entire 30 minutes we were walking and Paisley didn't give me any trouble either. I was a little worried that she'd be pulling me in all different directions while I'm trying to steer the stroller too. I think all 3 of us enjoyed it.

Before that Jaylen and I went to visit Gavan at work so his co-workers could see her. Then Gav took me to Moe's for lunch. I love Moe's and haven't eaten it for over 3 months either. It was just as I remembered it. J & I ran to Target afterthat and then home for the walk. It was a pretty busy day for us but I enjoyed it!

Tomorrow is Jaylen's 2 week checkup. She should be close to her birth weight by now so we'll see how she weighs out! It's an early appointment so I better get to bed now. Happy Hump Day tomorrow.

Some random pics....there you go Suzanne!

Grandmother (my mom), me & Jaylen.

Dr. Debbie Huff is AWESOME! She is a wonderful doctor and I wouldn't want anyone else delivering my babies. I recommend her to anyone.

One proud Grandpa (my dad) with his first grandchild!

Nana & Papa (G's parents) here with us and their 6th grandbaby! Now the numbers are 4 boys to 2 girls. The girls are catching up and Nana especially loves it. She can't resist buying girly things!

Gavan's brother, Jason and his daughter, Dayona with G & J. Dayona will turn 1 on January 7th. These two girlies will be trouble in a couple of years!

Gavan likes this picture of her in her hoodie. When she's in her car seat and is wearing it, the hood always falls over her entire face so we have to tuck in around the sides!

Jaylen and her daddy

Sweet baby sleeping on mommy. She always puts her right hand up by her face when she sleeps. Even if we swaddle her with her arms down, she wiggles her hand up to her face!

Jaylen and her new blanket with her name on it.

Love the smile!

My poor baby under the lights with an IV in her little head and her nice goggles to protect her eyes. That was awful. When we had to admit her, I cried pretty much the entire afternoon. Gavan went with her to get her IV cause there was no way I could watch her get it. They had to stick her 6 times in various places before they got it. Gavan said she didn't even cry, which I can't believe.

Sweet Jaylen just getting a suntan! She looks pretty relaxed in there. It was nice and warm so she was probably loving it.

These preemie pants are a little short so they are more like capris on her but we've only got a select few outfits to wear right now. She was pretty long for her weight. She's got long and skinny legs like her daddy.

Jaylen LOVES getting her hair washed! She sometimes fusses when we're washing her body but she just looks all around when we start to wash her hair.

My best friend from high school, Deana, came to see us last week while she was in town from Tulsa. We have been best friends since 6th grade in Alva, where we grew up. We were inseperable and got asked if we were sisters when we went places together.