Bye Bye Goopy Eye

For 8 months and 25 days on this earth Kaylyn has seen the world through globs of green goop in her both of her eyes (clogged tear ducts), but yesterday her left eye cleared up! We didn't dare call it officially better until she slept through the night and woke up without her eye stuck shut, but sure enough it's clear! Her right eye is still full of goop, but now there's sure evidence that one day that eye will clear up too:)
BEFORE:

 Both of her eyes have always been either red from both of us wiping them so much, stuck shut, or...

 ...full of goop (still such a happy baby as she's never known otherwise)

AFTER:

 But now her left eye is clear and she's stoked about it!

 One of these eyes is not like the other:)

We sure love this baby girl.

Exercise and Instagram

Micah: I think I might start exercising.
Rachel: Why?
Micah: (while pinching some of his leg) Because I need to get rid of my winter coat otherwise it's going to be way too hot this summer.
I love that Micah's motivation for exercise is to avoid too much sweating during a hot summer. Nothing to do with looks, just comfort. I love him just the way he is, winter coat and all. For a man who has never done any deliberate exercise in his life, I've been impressed at his diligence and consistency. Then again, everything Micah does is accompanied by those two virtues.


Rachel: I think I'm going to get an Instagram account.
Micah: What does it do?
Rachel: I don't know. Everybody's doing it and I just need to get with the times.

Summer Kickoff

Summer is so close I can taste it! Quite literally on Saturday night as we started a family tradition of kicking off our summer of camping with tinfoil dinners and s'mores. We invited Willie "the Sheriff" Talbot along with us and had such a great time! The weather was a little cool, which made the fire that much more enjoyable.

 Micah found firewood on his out of the Lowe's just before he came home that afternoon. He had that fire roaring in no time! What a man:) 

 Willie likes his marshmallows burnt to a crisp!

 After we ate our tin foil dinners we met up with Trent & Megan for some free ice skating with our Pass of All Passes. Willie babysat Kaylyn for us! He was great. On our way out of the rink a little boy pointed at Willie and said to his mom, "Mom, is that a real cowboy?" Willie didn't pass up the chance to shake the little boy's hand and tip his hat to him. I'm sure it made his week! (the boy and Willie:)

Gelato

After Kim, Clay & Ellie came over for haystacks and a little game of Wipeout, we went on a little family outing. The weather has been so wonderful today so we decided to walk to Gloria's Little Italy for some gelato.

Kaylyn tried her very first ice cream (it was actually gelato)! Coconut (Mom's favorite), raspberry, and cherry chocolate. Is it any surprise that she loved it? That's my girl:)

We had a great friends weekend. On Friday night we "tripled" with the Ellis's, Jeremiah and his date Natalie. We went to dinner on Main Street in Park City then went to the Deer Valley condo to play games. We didn't sleep over because we had to up early the next morning to go to the Republican Convention to hear Micah's dad give his campaign speech for State Senator. It was fun to go support him and see him in that role. We stayed for a couple of hours to walk around the various booths while we were campaigned to as though we were state delegates. Eric and Nakita were there too for the Governor's office.

We snapped a photo of Kaylyn trying on her first cowboy hat. She smiled and did her little "huh uh" laugh when we showed her this picture. Micah loved it!

Micah and I were super tired from such an early morning so we tried to take a nap, but I made the mistake of keeping the munchkin in bed with us in hopes of her sleeping too. Needless to say we didn't sleep much. On Saturday night we went to Comedy Sportz with Willie "the Sheriff" Talbot and Grauling. 

Sunday afternoon we went to Jacob & Rachel's baby blessing of their sweet new baby Lucy. There is something so special and so pure about a baby being blessed by their father. I suppose it's knowing that the earthly father is acting on behalf of Heavenly Father- both of whom love this little child so much and want to bless them with everything they need to one day return to live with God. One thing that stood out to me as Jacob blessed Lucy was that she would understand who she was as a daughter of God. That is one of the most important things that I want to instill in my children. I feel like so many of the issues and challenges that people deal with are because they don't understand who they are as a child of God and how important they are to Him. One of the songs in Kaylyn's bedtime lullaby medley is "Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God." I hope those words sink deep into her soul!

Dad and daughter playing. These two love each other so much!

We hung out at the Jeppsen's home for several hours after the blessing. It's so great to be with friends and have hours to just talk and be together. Friends make life so enjoyable. 

On Monday night we went to "drive a house" (auction lingo) in Payson for family night. The only people we know in Payson are the Fitzgerald's who used to live in our ward so we stopped by their house after we ate at a chinease restaurant. Turns out they are moving this week so we were lucky to catch them home! They're a great couple. I love surprise visits:) 

The Jazz just beat the Suns and are going to the playoffs! Sweet dreams:)

Yesterday morning Kaylyn and I hung out together reading stories and listening to a little song CDon the laptop. The screen played images to the music and Kaylyn was mesmerized. I love hanging out with her!

Look at her little hand on mine. So sweet!

I also was able to go swimming at the gym while Kaylyn took a nap and Micah stayed home. I'm so grateful to be able to do that every once in a while. It's so energizing! Last night Micah and Kaylyn had some major bonding time as we all were in the living room watching American Idol (a very rare occurrence) and Micah played non-stop with Kaylyn for over an hour. She was in heaven! So was I in that there are few things better than watching your husband play so lovingly with your daughter. He is definitely the parent she goes to for fun and entertainment. They sure love each other. I'm so lucky to have them.

Classic Kaylyn posture

Tonight Kimmy watched Kaylyn while Micah and I went to the temple. It was nice to see some of the ladies I used to work with on Tuesday nights. I think that the greatest two things I get and feel at the temple are PEACE and PERSPECTIVE. I'm reminded of how much Heavenly Father loves all of His children as evidenced by the great blessings He offers to us. I'm so grateful for my little family and that I'm sealed to them for eternity. 

Today is tax day so McDonald's had a deal for buy one BigMac, get one for 1 penny. Clay let us know about the deal so after we picked up Kaylyn we headed straight for Mcee Dee's. Nothing like a burger at 10pm.