High of 25 degrees today......

The high was 25 degrees today but we are enjoying our time up here with family. Not quite everyone got to come but most of them have been here for several days. We had our traditional family soccer game yesterday, the North vs. South, but we lost 4 to 2. Katie & I had the only goals for the South! Normally, the ground is covered with snow, which makes the game even more interesting but no snow this year. One year we played on the frozen lake but there was too much falling going on! I've got a nice, big bruise on my shin & sore muscles from it but it was fun. We had a bonfire wiener roast for lunch after the game.

Pictures to come after we get home. Michael, Katie, Macy & us are heading the Minneapolis tomorrow to hit up the Mall of America & then the Vikings vs. Bears game. Should be a fun time.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Heading north....

Is grandma, grandpa, aunt myra, a bag full of new toys, dvd player with box set of baby einstein & lots of snacks enough to keep Jaylen happy the entire way to Minnesota? Yes, I said Minnesota & yes it is a very long (about 15 hours) drive. We're heading up there tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. We'll probably have about 30-40 people there, including her 3 sisters that live there. It will be a fun time to see everyone. Most of them have never seen Jaylen in person.....just in pictures.

And for those of you who were at the JSO GNO at Terra's, yes this is the 50's costume themed get-together and yes, Gavan, Michael, Katie & I learned the entire 6 minutes of the Evolution of Dance & will be performing (if you can call it that!) in the family talent show. It should be highly entertaining!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday with family & friends!

Fun in the leaves.....

It turned out so nice today that we decided to get out & rake up some of our leaves today. We have a HUGE tree in our front yard that always scatters it's leaves all over our yard as well as all our neighbors. Gavan took advantage of the nice weather & actually hung some of our xmas lights too. Jaylen LOVED playing outside in the leaves........you can tell from the pictures!

Very big game tonight................Boomer Sooner!

One year old......

Well, today is Jaylen's actual birthday and at this time last year I was packing my bag to go to the hospital. I was finally off bedrest & had been to a doctor's appointment at 1:30, where I was able to disconnect my terb pump & found out that I was dilated to a 5......but not in labor quite yet. Then went to Target to grab the last few things I needed.....yes, I was crazy to do that. Went home to finish packing my bag when the contractions started picking up speed and about 5:30 we went to the hospital and had Jaylen at 8:48 that night. It was quite an adventurous first week but now here we are a year later with a beautiful, healthy little girl! She is truly the joy of our lives & I can't even imagine life without her. Happy Birthday sweet baby Jay! Me 3 days before she was born...

Just hours old.....

Now here is our baby at her first birthday party! Still hard to believe a year has flown by!

The birthday girl....

A few of her gifts....

The cake....

It was a great day spent with our family & friends. A big thanks to Miranda for being my photographer for the day!

Pics coming.....

Miranda was my photographer for the birthday party and as soon as I get the pics, I'll post them! Until then, here are a few I took the day of her party before everything started!

Miranda gave Jay this shirt as a pre-birthday gift! She sported it the morning of her party.....as you can see, she's excited about the shirt & party!

The big birthday girl! So cute.

Big party tomorrow.....

Jaylen's birthday party is tomorrow so I'm busy today with her 1 year checkup, picking up the cake, getting balloons, cleaning, doing laundry, decorating a little, etc. No time for much of a post now but look for party pictures!

Catching up....

Well, to report on Jaylen's new bedtime routine........it's gotten better. We went out of town this weekend so that set us back a bit but she's getting back on schedule now. This system really isn't new to us since this is how we taught her to sleep all night when she was younger but it's never easy to hear them cry.

Last Friday night I went to Theta's 40th anniversary party. I was very surprised to see almost 200 alumni & current members there! It was fun to look through some old photo albums, composites and watch the slide show of pictures. I sat at a table with Emily & Lindsay so of course our table was full of laughs!

Saturday we went to Lookeba and visited Gavan's parents since we won't see them for Thanksgiving. It was good to see our niece, Dayona too. Christmas is going to be fun with these two!The only 2 granddaughters........Day Day is 22 months & Jay Jay is almost 12

Back to the grind this week but an exciting weekend ahead with Jaylen's birthday party! Yep, she's going to be a year old next Wednesday. She's super excited about opening presents and eating cake on Saturday.......well, maybe I'm more excited!

My big girl!

I LOVE these two!

New bedtime routine.....

We are changing Jaylen's bedtime routine this week and up until right now it was going awesome. She's learning to put herself to sleep instead of falling asleep while taking her last bottle. The first 3 nights in a row she did wonderful and was asleep in less than 20 minutes with very minimal crying. Tonight though..........completely different story. I hope she doesn't hate us in the morning.........

Pumpkin Patch pics.....

Miranda & I took Jaylen to Under the Sun and took tons of pics of Jay. The ones that were taken under the tent have a yellow tint to them but they were just too cute not to post. Miranda did an awesome job on these pics! Thanks Mir! Oh yeah, out of the millions of pumpkins that were here, I chose a rotten one to have Jaylen sit on......but it made an excellent seat!

There are a ton of them but enjoy!

Little Chicken.....

We had a fun first Halloween with Jaylen. Her costume really didn't bother her since she could still crawl around in it. We trick or treated our neighbors and then headed the the North's for our bible class Halloween party. Gavan & I dressed up in matching cowboy shirts, boots, jeans, hats & everything but do you think I took a picture? No. So here is a picture of us from several years ago at a western themed party wearing our matching shirts. This is pretty close to what we looked like this year for Halloween.

This is Gavan at work on Friday.......all day long.

Here's our little chicken!

On Thursday, we had fall parties at Sonshine School and all the kids wore their costumes and got to trick or treat each classroom. It was a super crazy day but lots of fun too. The babies were all so cute dressed up and riding in front of chapel in the buggy!

Jaylen the chicken & Vivian the ballerina....