17 days and counting

At 17 days old, here are some things that Kailyn enjoys:
-Snuggling with her daddy
-Constantly being held
-Having very noisy bowel movements for such a small person
-Squirming
-Napping
-Nursing
-Drooling
-Sucking on her hands

There are also a few things she does not enjoy and they include:
-Getting in her carseat
-Putting clothes on or taking them off
-Taking baths
-Getting her diaper changed
-Being swaddled so that her arms can't move freely

So now you may feel like you know our sweet daughter a little better now, she really is very cute. And just to keep you all updated, she has finally passed her birth weight (because she lost quite a bit while she was sick) and she has also gotten an inch and a half taller. She's doing really well and we're still all slightly exhausted but figuring things out better each day!

Baby Kailyn

For those of you who may not know yet, we had our baby on November 4th. Her name is Kailyn Rei Strong and she weighed 6 lbs 4 oz at birth and was 18 and a 1/2 inches long. She went through a slight bout of jaundice and has been recently acting somewhat colicky, but other than that she's doing great. She's growing a ton and she's very cuddly. As far as Garrett and me, we are also doing well. We are working hard at trying to figure this whole parenting thing out, but she's so dang cute so we've still been able to have fun with it. And I made it through the delivery! Epidurals are the bomb. Thanks everyone for your support and help with everything these past couple weeks; we love you!

She's a cutie, huh?

Our Halloween Fun

I wasn't always planning to, but at the last minute I decided to make a scary dessert for our Ward Halloween party. So I looked up some recipes and decided I'd try to make these Spooky Witch Fingers. I had never made them before and Garrett helped out a lot, but here they are. I think they turned out really well and we actually got a 2nd place prize for scariest dessert! They are sugar cookies died green with almonds and red decorating gel. Creepy, huh?


This is us dressed up as a Bun in the Oven and a Bun Maker. We actually got a prize for this costume too; it was very unexpected. But cool.

These are the pumpkins that we and some friends carved on Halloween night. We also carameled some apples and had steak dinner. Then Garrett and I played games and watched the Twilight Zone movie. We had a fun Halloween this year. It was probably the last one we'll have where we aren't doing the kid trick-or-treat thing so we enjoyed it one last time. But we're excited to do that next year still!

Maternal Love

So we decided to take some pregnant pictures so the baby can know that we loved her even before she came out. And we only waited this long so that I would look decently pregnant. This is as big as I think I'll get this time seeing as how it's 38 weeks and she's not doing a whole lot of growing anymore, just chunkin' up. So here are some that we thought turned out well. Let me know what you think:

And just to update you on how I'm feeling: I'm finally not really sick anymore, yay! It only took me 8 months to get to this point... But it's okay because it's also fun-ish. She's a very active little fetus and she is constantly rolling around and jabbing me. I can see different parts of her sticking out and when I press on them, she'll react to me, it's cute. She probably gets bothered, but maybe not, it is the pretty much the only interaction she gets after all... Anyway, Garrett is sooo ready to have her come out. He asks me everyday if I'm in labor and when is the baby going to come out. I used to want her to come out as bad as he does, but then I went to a Childbirth class. Now I'm terrified. I do want her to come out, I just wish she could come in a less awful way. Like maybe she could diffuse through my skin or something...? Let me know if you have any ideas of how to work something like that out... Anyway, things are good and we have 15 days left till her due date, so things should start happening soon. It's very exciting. And incredibly scary at the same time.

A Shower... For the BABY!

This was not your typical baby shower. My kind friends decided that rather than play games and junk (since that can sometimes be a little lame), we'd do fun, creative, useful crafts! It turned out really well and I had a great time. Here are some pictures:

My sister-in-law, Michele, taught us how to make cute little hair bows and accessories so that the baby can look like a girl. How fun, right?

And she made little skirts and brought the same fabrics so we could decorate white onesies with different matching shapes. I thought this was a super cute idea. She also made that diaper bag near the front of the picture, which happens to be the same pattern as the crib bedding in the baby's room right now. So cute!



Here are the refreshments. I believe Elizabeth (and her husband, Chad) did a lot of this part, but of course they had a lot of help (I didn't help plan any of it so I'm not positive who exactly did what, but either way, it turned out great so thanks everyone!). There are little strawberry and chocolate cheesecakes on those square plates. And Chad worked on those cupcakes arranged on that cute cupcake holder thing. We also had purple icing-ed oreos and different candies and water bottles with cute decorations on them and yummy fruit punch stuff with little duckies floating in it. It was all very lovely.

And here is cute Michele.

Here is another cute Michelle. She was so sweet to help hand me each of the gifts to open.

This is me! I have a lovely Mommy-to-be sache with a fluffy crown on, compliments of Carol. And there's the baby too, sticking out. She's so cute.

Here are cute Elizabeth and cute Debbie.

This is cute Briana and cute Mom Strong.

Here is cute Mom Strong again and cute Carol, cute Holly, and cute Katie.

And this is me opening a gift while everyone stares at me. And again, cute Michelle.

Anyway, we had a really nice time and I'm so grateful to everyone who helped out by planning and coordinating things. Also, thanks to everyone who came. I had a really nice time and I have the best, cutest friends and family. Our baby is so lucky!

Alaska and Bump

We recently saw the movie "The Proposal" which takes place in Alaska. Now, Garrett wants to move to Alaska (not just because of the movie though) and I'm almost interested. For those of you who know me, you know that I do not like cold weather and in Alaska, pretty sure that's all there is. But it does look pretty. And it's really cheap to live there. So, I have told Garrett that I think there may be ONE way that I might enjoy living there. Part of the reason I don't love the cold is because I don't have appropriate clothes since I've never really needed them. If we agreed to move there (someday) then I told him he has to let me buy a whole new wardrobe that is cute and wintry. That way, maybe I'd enjoy it. And also, he has to let us visit Florida and Arizona during the summers sometimes. So that is our little Alaska arrangement. I realize it couldn't be farther from everything I've known, but, I encourage you as readers of my blog to come live there with us. Perfect solution. Let me know what you think.






Also, this is what I look like right now. I just took this picture, like 5 minutes ago. Anyway, this is the baby at 34 weeks. And I recently had to get another ultrasound and we found out that she is still a girl, phew! That bedding wouldn't have really fit if we were having a boy. We're excited, only 6 weeks to go!



And I've been thinking about this, we are super lucky to have gotten pregnant so quickly. Not everyone gets to right when they want to and it doesn't really seem fair. I guess life isn't fair and the Lord has plans for all of us, but all I'm saying is, I'm grateful for this blessing. A lot of people really struggle with this and I can't believe how lucky we've been so far. Anyway, just wanted to add that in really quickly.

Baby Crib

My very sweet mother-in-law decided to make us baby bedding as a gift to us so we picked out fabric together and this is how it came out:

This is before the bedding is all finished, but you get a good view of what the sheets and dust ruffle look like (and also how the bumper pads will look)

This is the bumper pad a little closer up, the color's slightly off in this picture but the fabric is brown and pink, while the ruffle is pink and white striped.




Here's the little matching comforter.




And this is what it looks like as a finished piece. She worked so hard (and she actually finished it really fast too) and I think it all turned out so cute! Don't I have the best mother-in-law?



By the way, in a couple of these pictures there are little baby outfits in the crib that we like to pretend are our real baby. They even have little newborn diapers shoved inside them, in case you were wondering.