Grown Right Before our Eyes

I didn't really get to post everything I wanted to when Jaylee turned one so I thought I would post again. Better late than never!

It is amazing to me just how fast our little ones grow. Literately right before our very eyes. I feel I have really been able to enjoy every little milestone with Jaylee. It has been so different for us just to have 1 baby this time. I felt like with the twins I was always waiting for that next milestone; can't wait for them to sit up, can't wait for them to play with toys, can't wait for them to start crawling, can't wait for them to feed themselves etc, etc. I was always hoping things would get easier and sadly found myself missing out on the small stuff and really enjoying it. I was more like in survival mode the whole first year. Don't get me wrong they were a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Ryan and I kept telling ourselves when friends and family members were saying how hard one baby was, "could you imagine just one baby, sorry don't feel for ya, try that x 2!!" We now know what it is like to just have one baby and it is pure heaven. (maybe it's because it's a girl!!!)

So here is our little princess growing like a weed ( maybe more like a rose) over the last year!









I know this one is not of her face, but really shows her personality. This was taken at the boys soccer game. Her favorite thing to do there was to push her stroller around and hang from it!

Some of the things about Jaylee . . .
* she loves food. She has always been just a tiny petite baby until recently. At around 11 months she has discovered she enjoys food. She sometimes eats more than the boys and finally it is starting to show up on her little thighs and booty! Finally something to pinch!
* Adores her brothers. She thinks she is such a big girl and wants to do everything they do. And when they tease her, she can hold her own. (yesterday she threw the remote and Logan and it split his lip!)
* Loves the outdoors. She is always trying to escape. If she hears a door open she is b-lining it at full speed.
* Loves the quads. If someone is riding the quads she throws a fit till she has a turn and then again when you take her off
* Loves dogs! When we visit our 140 pound st benard up at the cabin she climbs and hugs all over him. Even back when she was only 8 month old.
* She is a good sleeper. She was sleeping through the night at 11 weeks. (Thanks to the book baby wise!)
* She has a major underbite that she is always showing off. One of these days I will get a picture of that.
* She likes to make others laugh. She is always making this very cheesy huge smile and then when you laugh she keeps doing it. If she starts making weird noises and the boys start cracking up she will get louder and louder.
* Just recently she became a huge daddy's girl!! She prefers him over me now!
* she stares people down until she knows their motive. If you are here to babysit, she knows!
* loves her jogging stroller and loves to run with me.
* favorite video is Baby Einstein, we think its a crack up when she will be watching it and then all of a sudden she is laughing so hard!
* After 12 month of hating shoes, she has finially realized how fun they can be and trys to put them on herself all the time.
* favorite toy is her play baby stroller. She pushes that thing all around the house. Although it must be empty. If you try and put her dolly or toy in there she throws it out right away!
* After 13 month of spitting up, happy to report she doesn't smell like puke anymore!

Next post, birth story and hospital stays . . . ( i know lots of info, but hey this is my journal!)

Jaylee Turns One !!

My baby is "ONE"!! crazy how fast time flies! Jaylee turned one last month and it was fun to have all the family over to celebrate. We had dinner and of course "cupcakes" for the cupcake themed party. The day before Jaylee turned one she also started walking. She took her first step at 11 months, but decided crawling was faster. She must of known her birthday was approaching because all she wanted to do was "practice" walking. Too funny and very entertaining to watch. She became a pro in no time!

At first she was very girly like and just kind of picked at her cupcake . . .

Then is was to "heck" with that and chowed down. You go girl!

Jaylee's favorite gift was her own little chair and a fake set of keys and cell phone. (which she still prefers to play with my real cell phone and car keys!! . . . and yes old cell phones don't work, she know's the difference!)

Jaylee turned toddler overnight!

So when the boys started school back in August (Jaylee just tuning 7 months) I thought I would have at least a month of very easy, just lay there and enjoy kind of moments with Jaylee before she started getting mobile and therefore into things. This little girl had other plans . . .

Literally the first day of school for the boys she decides its time to do some growing up and hit some milestones of her own. She sat up all by herself!

That very same day when I went to get her from her morning nap I find this!

So that night Ryan moves her crib mattress to the lowest setting

So wow, what a lot to take in. But, she's not done . . . the next day she decides she wants to crawl.



and to top it off within the same week she learns to hold her own bottle


What will she do next . . . drive a car?!?! oh wait,

Jaylee's Blessing Day

At the beginning of this month we finally blessed Jaylee. With her being sick on and off the first 3 months we kept her away from the public as much as possible. (in my opinion church is full of germs and there's nothing worse than having the kids sitting behind you sneeze all over your back side while sitting in church, and I admit my kids have done it before as well, so sorry to all of those that sit in front of us at church, or anywhere around us for that matter! :) Ryan gave a very sweet inspired blessing and Jaylee was surrounded by people who love her dearly and support our family constantly.

Jaylee was so well behaved and I was told she just smiled around at everyone in the circle wondering what was going on??!! She looked absolutely beautiful! I took a ton of pictures after church but by then she had had it and wanted her nap. So while she was sleeping the rest of the family came over to celebrate our special day. We had early church so we had a brunch afterwards at our home with krispy Kreme dough nuts, egg and sausage keish, bagels and cream cheese, fruit platter with dip and every breakfast drink possible. Ryan and I both have very large supportive families and for that I am very grateful. We always look for an excuse to get together with great food. Ryan and I also bore our testimonies at church and for me that was the first time in almost 10 years. How sad is that!! I get so nervous that I start crying before I even start talking and then no one can understand me so I think "whats the point", but when I am done I realize what a great thing it is to do. So, new goal for me- Be Brave, and just do it! It's kinda ironic because if I have a script, speech or talk prepared I can get up in front of anyone anywhere to an unlimited number of people but ask me to bear my testimony I freak!!

Jaylee with Ga-ma Ethington

Jaylee with Nauni Phillips

Jaylee when we finally took the beautiful, but very itchy and tight (newborn size on a 4 month old!) gown off. She was very much relieved, but loved all the attention she got while wearing it!

I guess I should have waited to post about Jaylee turning 4 months until I got her professional pictures back, but oh well, what can you do?! My sister Kelli's friend Annie Randall took these pictures and she did a great job. Her website is www.annierandall.com She is very affordable, and even more important, she is very patient which is a must with my 3 kids!

Jaylee brings so much happiness into our home. It doesn't matter what kind of mood you are in, as soon as we look at her she gives us this huge wave your arms in the air kind of smile that makes us feel like a million bucks. She recently discovered her feet and loves to grab on to them. She is reaching for toys and loves to suck on her fingers and her blankies (she has been teething pretty bad these last couple of weeks. She even had her first cold last week since RSV and I was a wreck the first couple of days just waiting for any kind of sign that it was slowing her down to rush her into the Doctor, but amazingly she was a trooper and handled it very well. (she did better than I did!) Her bottom 2 teeth have not come in yet, but looks like they will any day now. I will be sure to post it when she does!

Jaylee turns 4 months!

Jaylee turned 4 months this May and she is getting so big. I wanted to post some random shots of her because they just grow up so fast. I was looking back at some pictures of her when she was a couple of weeks old and couldn't believe how little she was and how much she has changed. When you see them all day everyday you don't notice it as much till you do look back at old pictures! Jaylee has come a long way since she was born (respiratory issues at birth, RSV at 1 month, lung distress in March) and I am happy to report that she is going GREAT! She is the most absolute happy, content, easy going baby.

This was taken at a birthday party at a gym. She loved sitting on the bars . . Maybe a future gymnast??!!

Her first swim suit. We didn't get in the pool though, too cold for us!!