7 months......

Can't believe my sweet baby turned 7 months old this week. I feel like I blinked and now its been 7 months. Her newest and most exciting thing is that she is saying "Dada". Of course, Gavan is excited and we cheer when she does it so she thinks its funny or something. So cute. She sits up all by herself and plays with her toys but isn't interested in crawling yet. She'd rather not play with that toy she can't reach instead of trying to crawl to it. She'll get there on her own time I guess! She's a pretty good eater. We are just starting fruits, which she loves of course but sweet potatoes are still her favorite! I gave her a Cheerio today but she did not want anything to do with it. I think it freaked her out that is was hard and not soupy like her food. She loves swimming in her little pool with me and swinging in her swing. She's such a happy baby and we love watching her little personality come out. She is such a blessing to us and we couldn't ask for anything else right now. I'll leave you with some pics of Jaylen in her first and maybe only bikini!

Jaylen's cousins, Corbin, Ethan, Spencer & Sam, gave her this bikini..............she thought she'd sport it for some 7 month pictures!

Look at all my rolls!

And no, daddy doesn't know I'm wearing my bikini!

A video.....finally!....and Jaylen in the pool

Finally a video of Jaylen.........I'm going to try to post more of them. It was time for Jaylen to eat tonight and she was already sleepy but I thought I could get her fed before she went down for her evening nap.........but I was wrong. Watch Jaylen fall asleep while I'm feeding her! All we could do was laugh at her.....

Here are some pics of Jaylen is the pool and her new swing from Grandma & Grandpa. We actually bought the pool for Paisley but she only gets in it when one of us gets in it but Jaylen loves it!

She loved kicking her feet and leaning forward and splashing with her hands.

I just thought she was so cute from the back.

Her pink rubber duck

She loves her swing and likes watching Paisley run around while she's in it.

We went to a Clark family reunion in Independence, KS on Saturday so my dad got to show off his granddaughter and my grandma got to show off her great-granddaughter. Jaylen did great with all 100 people that were there. She loves drinking water out of a regular cup. She usually just blows bubbles in it but she's starting to swallow some!

As soon as she sees a glass in front of her, she leans into it with her mouth open....so cute.

No, she didn't taste any Pepsi.......she just liked holding the cold can and putting her mouth on it.

"Triplets" in bible class......

I finally got a picture of the "triplets" yesterday in bible class together. I still can't believe they will be 7 months old in about a week. So neat to watch them grow and get their own personalities. It will be interesting to see them a year from now too.

Jaylen, Vivian, Addisyn

This is Viv & Jaylen playing this morning in the pack 'n play.......they are finally starting to interact with each other a little bit.

Random........

Not much new to post from this week.........just some random stuff and pics. I'll summarize:


1. Paisley had her annual checkup and we found out she has an ear infection (from going to the lake a month ago). Now I get to put ointment in her ear twice a day for a week.....not easy or fun.


2. Went to Team USA softball game Friday night with some friends from Chesapeake.......lots of 13 year old girls taking TONS of pictures of the players.


3. Went to the lake on Saturday........boat stopped working after only like 45 minutes on the water (of course this always happens), Gavan got up on the wake board twice but nobody else got to go and we got a ridiculous sunburn cause we were stupid and didn't put any sunscreen on....I guess cause it was overcast and didn't think about it.

4. My garden is thriving....well except for the bugs that are eating my plants......I'll try to take a pic tomorrow.

5. Got to take a long nap with Jaylen this afternoon, which doesn't happen very often so it was nice......such a cuddlebug.

Here are some cute pics of her from the last week or so.......

In Subway on the way to Colorado (she wore this shirt for Katie!)....

Just happy in the car sometime....

New shirt I got her on sale at BabyGap.......this is Gavan's favorite picture of her....

Trying a teething biscuit for the first time......it got everywhere but she loved sucking on it

I just love her face in this one.......her personality is really starting to show

Colorado trip part 2..............

All of our family left Thursday morning after the graduation but we stayed a couple more days to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Gavan surprised me with a night stay & a spa package at the Broadmoor. I LOVED my herbal bath soak and hour long pedicure.......yes, I said hour long! They did a hot stone massage on my legs, which was awesome. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel that night too. Jaylen was scared of the lighting and the guy running the grill with the smoke and fire so she was not happy during dinner but the nice hostess walked around with her for us and then she was better. Our room was as nice as I thought it would be and the view of the mountains was great. If you are wanting somewhere to celebrate an anniversary or whatever, I would recommend the Broadmoor. I did feel a little out of place when they valet parked our car, carried all of our bags right to our room, picked them back up when we left, and had men opening the doors for us. I'm just not used to that but I guess I could get used to it!

I took this from a balcony......it is the entrance to the hotel/resort.

This was the tower that we stayed in.

We walked around the lake after dinner....it was a gorgeous night.

The hotel towers & wings surrounded the lake and the pool was just on the other side of the bridge.
There were 3 golf courses here and I hate it that Gavan didn't get to play but I'm taking him back someday so he can play at least once! We went to the zoo while we were there too. Jaylen is in a phase right now where she doesn't want to ride in her stroller so we traded off carrying her up and down the hills in the zoo since it was in the mountains. We got up close & personal with a giraffe when people were feeding them........their tongues are amazing! We saw 2 monkeys having some "alone time" too. That was interesting........good thing Jaylen isn't old enough to ask us what they were doing. We left Saturday morning and drove to my parent's house in Wichita to stay the night and then got home Sunday evening. Jaylen did great on the way home and had zero meltdowns.......thank goodness for our sake.

We had a fabulous, event-filled vacation and anniversary celebration. I really can't believe that it has already been 5 years. They have gone super fast so I guess that means we are doing something right. Gavan, thanks for the surprise stay & spa package at the Broadmoor. It was the perfect place to celebrate but I promise golf next time! If any of you are still reading this.....good for you.......but you probably should be doing something else!

A week in Colorado......

I'm beginning this post with a disclaimer that it will be SUPER long so if you don't like it just skim though the pics!

We started out trip by going to Gavan's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary party. We were in charge of picking up the cake from Raspberries 'N Creme and getting to Hinton without ruining it. Luckily the cake made it except for a few finger swipes the girl did to it while putting it in the box......we just put that part in the back so nobody could see it. It was a great celebration of marriage and they are a wonderful example to us. There were lots of family there so it was good to catch up with everyone.

I'll list the groups of families so you can see Gavan's family. Left to right are The Sheets: Sharbee (Bev's sister), Brad, Andrea & Cody; the Brandon Byrds (G's oldest brother), GayLyn, Corbin, Ethan, Spencer, & Samuel; us (G is the youngest); the Jason Byrds, Shawna & Dayona; his parents: Dennis & Bev and then his grandparents in front are Junior & Deloris (Bev's parents).......wow that was a lot.


Next we headed towards Denver to visit Katie (Wise) & Justin Ross who is my best friend from way back. We stopped in Colorado Springs and toured Pikes Peak, which was pretty cool. It was freezing up top so Jay & I didn't get out. The view was really amazing so I'm glad we made the trek up there......it took over 2 hours to get up and down due to having to drive slow around the curvy roads.

Notice the winding road.....some parts of it were just dirt with no guard rails.......my stomach didn't like that part.

This lake was on the road up o the top and it was beautiful around it.

Unfortunately, the weather turned gloomy & rainy in Denver but we still had a good time the couple days we were there. On Memorial Day we went up to Evergreen and visited her parents & sister then had dinner at Beau Jo's Pizza.......I wish we could of sat outside beside the creek.....it's great. Gavan got to play Tiger Woods golf on the Wii with Justin, we both experienced Guitar Hero for the first time and all 4 of us battled it out in MarioCart too. I was terrible but it was fun. Katie & I went walking both mornings on the trails around her neighborhood, which had some inclines and I felt it in my calves a few days later. It was fun to chat like we used to. We miss them a lot but they are loving it in Colorado.

Us in front of Beau Jo's........I had my camera on the landscape view for Pikes Peak so that is why this picture is fuzzy.

The next stop of our trip was back down to Colorado Springs for my cousin, Kasey's graduation from the Air Force Academy (AFA). Tuesday night was a ceremony where my uncle (not his dad) commissioned him into the Air Force. My uncle is a retired colonel so it was pretty neat for him to be able to do that for Kasey. Jaylen & I didn't go due to it being outside and the weather too cold & windy but here's a pic my sis took for me.

My aunt Susie, Kasey, Uncle E.D., Kellen and my uncle Cliff to the right.....they are pinning his stripes on the shoulders of his uniform.

The graduation was the next morning at 10:00 and the weather was down right awful. It was about 50 degrees, windy, foggy and a heavy mist.......pretty much the worst for an outside ceremony AND you were supposed to dress nice. Since the president was speaking at the ceremony, the security line to get in was forever long so we were about 20 minutes late getting in but we heard most of his speech. The mist let up finally and we were pretty warm on our row with all the family. There were 1012 cadets that graduated and President Bush saluted & shook each one's hand so you can imagine how long that took! The graduation was very neat and at the end the Thunderbirds did a fly over but were unable to do an air show cause of the fog.....but that was okay cause Jaylen didn't like the loud planes!

Here is Jaylen with President Bush on the stage

Jaylen & me snuggling to keep warm......like my dad's flag tie?.....very patriotic.

Here's Ginny, Susie, Kellen & E.D. in background with 2nd Lt. Kasey King!

There was a reception afterwards for Kasey and here he is with Jaylen

The AFA had a very cool chapel with 3 different meeting places inside....1 for Protestant, 1 for Jewish and 1 for Buddhist. The protestant place was the biggest and had an enormous organ in the back. Here are a few pics.....it was very interesting.

This is inside looking back at the organ.....it you enlarge the pic you should be able to see it better. It was incredible.

Here is the outside of it

Stay tuned for another post to continue our trip...............

Home sweet home & the dermatologist........

Well we made it home safely from our trip to Colorado on Sunday evening. No car problems, no flat tires, no sicknesses, no ER visits and minimal crying from Jaylen in the car. We had a great time with family and friends but it always feels good to get back to our routine too. I'm working on a post with all our activities and pictures so it will be coming soon......maybe in segments cause we did a lot.

Our pedi had scheduled Jaylen with the dermatologist for this morning so we went to the appointment at Mercy earlier. They measured her birthmark and looked at the coloring of pigment, etc. They told us that it would be considered a small to borderline medium congenital nevus that has a very small chance of developing cancer from. It basically has the same chance an average mole on your body has of turning to cancer, which is minimal. They want to see her in 4 months to recheck it (they really watch them mainly during the first year) and then after that she'll probably only be seen if we notice any changes. They told us to watch for changes in pigment color and size change. Overall, it was great news and her hair will more than likely cover it up once it grows out so we won't have to worry about having it removed......sometimes people choose to have them removed when they are bigger and in more noticeable places.

Oh yeah, I need to post a picture of my garden too. I buried they plants WAAAAY too close together (beginning gardener!) and it is now out of control but so exciting cause I've got several squash that are like 5-6 inches long! Look for that post soon too!