Q is for.................quilt.

I was just going to skip this letter cause I didn't really know what to use for Q but Deana gave me the idea for the word quilt. Deana is my best friend in Alva from 6th grade on. She's a news anchor in Tulsa who I wish I got to see more often than I do. Congrats to her and Carson as they just got engaged on Easter!!!!!! So happy for them and can't wait for the wedding!




Here is a pic of the quilt that Miranda made for Jaylen. She did such a great job on it and we can't wait to use it on her toddler bed in a few years!

Well that's all I have time for now as Vivian and Jaylen are both hungary! Off to feed my twins that I have 2 days a week................

I almost forgot............

I forgot to put a pic of my sweet neice, Macy at her first Easter! She's so tiny & cute! I love her "Baby's First Easter" outfit too. You can't see the bottoms of her feet but they had easter eggs on the footies. So cute.

Gavan was holding her in this picture and it took me back to when Jaylen was only a week old and now she's so different! Amazing what 4 months will do to a baby!

P is for ..............picture taking.

I put Jaylen in her easter dress a couple days before Easter to see if I could get some cute pictures in case we didn't have time on Easter Sunday. I had all my family and grandma over for lunch so I was a little busy that day. Here are some outtakes of Jaylen with her easter stuff and then some others from Sunday too.

This actually one of the best ones I got of her and her bunny from Grandma.

She was just about to put the easter basket that Nana gave her into her mouth!

Her feet wouldn't stop moving as you can see they are in motion here.

My sweet hubby & baby!

Here's GiGi (my Grandma) and Jaylen!

One last festive picture!

O is for Online Coupon!

For all of you who hate cleaning the bathtub as much as I do...........you've got to get a Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber! I saw a commercial for it and thought to myself that I wanted to try it. Then my sis-in-law told me that she just used one and loved it. So I used mine for the first time today and I cleaned the tub in about 5 minutes! It worked very well and my back and knees didn't hurt when I was finished! Go to this link, http://www.scrubbingbubbles.com/, and get a $1 off coupon to use for it! I printed it right off and bought mine yesterday.

I think Jaylen has adopted her "blankie". I still have mine from when I was little but it was a normal size baby blanket that was orange and white gingham print. Not much is left of it but I still have it. Just this past week I gave her this snugglie that was given to us by Doug & Dixie when she was born. It's one of those little square blankets.....I call them snugglies. Anyways, she loves it. When she's sleepy I put it right up beside her face and she closes her eyes and helps her fall asleep. She holds onto it much more than anything else. I guess if she wears it out, I know where to get another one! Here's a pic with her and her "blankie".

N is for............nap time.

Sweet Angels

Vivian Mae & Jaylen Jane playing under the playmat in matching sleepers!

I'm watching Vivian today, who was born on the same day as Jaylen. They are 4 months old today too! They both ate and have been sleeping for over an hour now so I'm catching up on some "blocking" (the name Gavan came up with for blog stalking). Today has gone pretty good so far. There was a 10 minute span where they both were fussy cause they were tired but they both soon fell asleep. At that point I was holding both of them trying to decide what to do if they both started really crying but they didn't get to that. This is giving me a great idea of what twins are like...........I can't imagine having any more than two at a time. Hopefully the rest of the afternoon goes just as smooth as this morning!

I just checked on the girls (who are sleeping in seperate rooms so they don't wake each other up) and here's how I found Viv..............still sleeping like a good little girl!

Here's how I found Jaylen...........not sleeping but perfectly content and wide awake!

M is for.................Macy!

My beautiful neice was born yesterday and weighed 7 lb 8 oz and was 20 inches long. She's a healthy baby and doing very good. My first thought is that she looks more like Katie than Michael but it's hard to tell right now. She's a good eater and seems like a sweet baby so far. I still can't believe that my brother has a child and a little girl at that! I'm so happy & excited for Michael & Katie to take their little bundle of joy home tomorrow.................and then ask themselves "What have we done?!".

Macy Kate Clark

Michael & I with our girls

The new Clark family!

Now to update you on my little one! First off, she slept 10 hours last night! She's been sleeping good but hadn't ever gone for this long! She had her 4 month checkup today and did great. She's 13 lb 8 oz (60th%) and is now 23 (25th%) inches long. She didn't like getting her shots (who does?) but she handled them very well the rest of the day. She has slept a lot today after her appointment......it wears her out I think. They said we could start cereal if we want but she's doing so well on formula that I'm going to hold off for another month or so I think. She was smiling at the nurses and loving the attention she was getting today! She's really starting to get fun. She smiles all the time and is really "talking" a lot. I feel like I just blinked my eyes and she's now 4 months old. We're loving every minute of it though!

I went from our pedi's office to Hobby Lobby today, which isn't very far, and when I went to get Jaylen out this is how I found her!

I've got to start taking her bows off when we're in the car cause I've found her like this before!

L is for................. Locked in the shed

I thought long and hard about posting this due to embarrassment. So go ahead and laugh at me while I can't hear you............

(this is not our shed but pretty close........ours at least has one tiny window)

I was in the middle of baking some cookies & ran out of flour (of course, that always happens) so I called Gavan and asked to pick some up since he was on the way home from work. While I was on the phone he asked me to run out to the shed and look at what kind of grass seed we had from last year. Jaylen was happy in her bouncy seat so I ran out to the shed. I stepped just inside and looked for the seed and was reading off the label to him when the wind slammed the door shut and locked itself on the outside. We keep a padlock on it and usually put it through the hole to keep the door from closing but this time in was still in my hand! Luckily I was on my cell so I could tell someone that I was locked inside! Gavan just laughed and said I'll be there in a couple minutes.

I freaked out cause: 1) I'm locked in the shed! 2) Jaylen is inside all by herself (at least she was safe) 3) there was no wind in there & only a little window to peak out of. It was the longest 4 minutes of my life! Paisley kept sniffing the door and pawing at it. I tried to tell her to open the door but she's not that smart of a lab! Needless to say, I was fine; Jaylen was fine & Gavan just laughed and said only me would this happen to!

Yes, this just happened yesterday afternoon. Yes, I learned my lesson to put the lock back on the door. Yes, I'm smarter than a 5th grader.

K is for...................Karate Kid

So who doesn't love The Karate Kid.................I think Michael & I just about wore out our vhs tape of this movie when we were younger. I think some of us had a little crush on Daniel LaRusso at some point too. And who doesn't love Mr. Miygi..........he was so cool in this movie with that thing he did with his hands to fix Daniel's knee. And the music was perfect, especially in the final scene with the crane kick!

I posted this picture just for Gavan. He had a major crush on Elisabeth Shue in his younger days so he is a fan of the movie as well. We actually have his vhs copy from when he was a kid and the cover is pretty torn up but it still plays!

I was going to post a video of the crane kick at the end of the movie but couldn't figure it out. I need to learn how to do that. I guess you can go ahead and get out your own copy and watch it for yourself.

J is for....................Jaylen!

Our precious little angel who is almost 4 months old!

I know I said I wasn't going to use people for all my letters but I couldn't pass up this one! I snapped this earlier this week after we got home from some errands. She looked so peaceful in her seat. She really doesn't mind it and falls asleep most of the time we're in the car. We'll see how she does tonight as we drive to Little Rock. The trip is about 5 1/2 hours long and we'll stop for dinner and she'll eat too. Hopefully she does good but it could be a VERY long trip if she's cranky, which isn't that often. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I is for..................almost IDENTICAL.

Let me explain a little about the pics below. I don't think we're identical but needed an "I" word! My mom still has this blanket and dress that are in the pics. She has individual baby pics of us up in her house all sitting on this blanket with Myra and I both in this dress at the same age. She wants to get pics of all the girls in the family in this dress so Macy will be next.

Here is Jaylen at 3 months wearing "the dress". It took us a while to get a good one of her smiling and her feet NOT moving! She is so busy and hardly sits still but we finally got a good one of her.

Here's me at 3 months in "the dress". I didn't have a bow in my hair.......mom said she wished she would of put them in our hair when we were really young but she just didn't.

I don't think that we really look that much alike yet. I still see a lot of Gavan in her face. What do you guys think? Does she still look like Gavan or is she starting to look a little like me?

H is for ................horrible AND happy.

First of all, this is a picture of some poppy seed cookies that I made yesterday...........they turned out HORRIBLE. It was one of those times where you don't have quite the right ingredients but you try to get by with what you have and they just weren't good. So here they are in my trashcan. I usually just buy the package of dough that you break apart and cook because they are so yummy but I thought I'd actually try to bake some from scratch this time. What do you think I did after I tossed this batch? Yep, went and bought a package of ready-made dough and they turned out beautifully!

Because I didn't want this to be a negative post with 'horrible' as my word, here is the HAPPY part of the post!

Jaylen was so content in her bouncy seat yesterday while I was cooking and she was so smiley. What a happy baby!

Stomach virus.........

Well, I guess I was due for some kind of sickness. I haven't been sick all winter (not even a cold), which I can't really believe but am thankful for! I got a stomach virus Saturday evening that lasted until this morning. I've felt better today as the day went on but missed my fitness class. Elizabeth, that's why I didn't show this morning.....sorry! At least I got it over with before we head out of town on Friday. Now let's hope Jaylen or Gavan doesn't get it. My mom was still here today so she helped out with Jaylen while I was spending time in the bathroom!!

I guess I'll do my next letter on this post too. No, I'm not going to use people for all my letters but I couldn't NOT use Gavan for this letter! Enjoy more pics!

G is for......................Gavan.

Gavan 2 years ago on Halloween. Yes, he went to work like this!

Gavan karaokeing at New Year's Eve 2002 in Wichita.

Doug & Gavan enjoying OU's win in the Rose Bowl against Washington State. I've seen these 2 guys after OU loses (OU vs. Oregon 2006) and it's very opposite of this pic!

Michael & Gavan at New Year's Eve 2003. I hate those jeans..........

My wonderful husband of almost 5 years now. I can't imagine life without him. I wake up and thank God for blessing me with such a great man who is a wonderful husband to me and daddy to Jaylen. Oh, how our life has changed in the past 5 years........not to mention what we look like!

F is for..................Friends.

I took this of Doug one day at our house last year. Not sure why he has the nasty mustache but couldn't resist the picture!

Of course I have lots of friends but I'm going to specifically talk about my friend, Doug Gunselman. Doug & I grew up next door to each other in Alva, OK from 6th grade to graduation. We were in the same grade and in youth group together. We became best friends and hung out a lot. He was friends with my brother as well but after Michael left for college it was only us. We turned an old shack in his backyard into our "clubhouse" and actually caught it on fire once. We went to church camp, Singing School, youth rallies, etc together. He basically became a brother to me as my parents let him come over anytime of the day. I know you are thinking, "Wow, you guys must of dated too" but NO, we never became more than friends so my parents never worried about us. I introduced him to Gavan and now they talk pretty much every single day. He introduced me to Dixie (who he met while in college and her in high school in York, NE) and we hit it off great. We are great friends and even share the same birthday! He attended York College and I went to OC where we both married and now each have a child of our own. They live in Little Rock, AR where he teaches and is the head baseball coach of the Central Arkansas Christian (CAC) Mustangs. They have a 14 month old boy, Ethan, who we adore and are expecting their next one in September. We are excited to see them next weekend as we're going out to LR.

Doug & I's friendship has been such a blessing to me and I am so thankful to have him and now Dixie in our life. The Byrds love the Gunselmans and we're trying not to arrange our children's wedding! They are great spiritual influences for us and we cherish our friendship.

I tried to dig out some pictures of us from the past years. Let me preface these by saying Doug is one of the funniest people you'll ever meet. He's always got some weird costume in the trunk of his car that he'll pull out and wear for the fun out it. We've laughed so much at him over the years it makes our stomach hurt to remember! I'll try to briefly explain the pics so ENJOY!

You know all teacher have to take pictures and this is from a year or 2 ago. He always sends us his school picture

Mel & Doug at Singing School in June 2000. We grew up going to Singing School and then after we graduated we started organizing the sports and activities, actually Doug did most of the work.

Gavan & Doug at New Year's 2000. Notice the Theta shirt he is wearing. Not sure about the thing with the index fingers!

Dixie, Doug, Gavan, Mel, & Michael at the Cottonbowl in January 2002.

Wee, Michael, Gavan & Doug at New Year's 2003 in Wichita. Yes, we had a western themed party but Doug looks more like an Amish cowboy.

If there's a party at my parents house you can bet there will be karaoke. Here's Doug again as the Amish cowboy singing "Lady Marmilade"! I guess he was trying to do a little strip show during the song by the looks of his belt. Again, not sure.

+

The beautiful Gunselman wedding in Tulsa in July 2004. We were honored to stand up for them in the wedding party. If you want any details about Doug's bachelor party the night before, you'll have to ask the boys.

This is the 80's banquet at Lariat Creek in July 2005. Obviously Gavan is an aerobics instructor and Michael is wearing "MC Hammer pants" and Wee is like an rocker or something. Then there's Doug.........wearing a mullet wig, neck brace, Santa Claus sweatshirt and athletic shorts. You tell me what he's supposed to be.