Birthday Fun and Baby Update

Kailyn and Mommy- she's doing her typical Kailyn thing, looking away from whoever's holding her and where ever the camera is

Garrett and Kailyn using his new birthday present, thanks Michele!

Garrett standing on the table so we could sing Happy Birthday to him

Jeff, Ang, G, Holbrook, Kaitlin, Jason, and Thomas eating


Carol, Pam, and Daniel eating

Clay, Stafford, Michele, Emo, and Mom Strong (Dad Strong's behind Staff too but you can't really tell) eating

Garrett turned 24 last Sunday so we had a "surprise" party for him the night before. I say "surprise" because we told him there would be a party so the only surprise was that I invited his friends in addition to his family. We had a lot of fun. A lot of friends and family came and I think it was a really good turnout. We had it at Pioneer Park in Lindon and, lucky for us, it was a BEAUTIFUL day! We ate steak and potatoes and Michele (Garrett's sister) made cheesecake cupcakes with cherry filling on top as Garrett's birthday cake. The boys played a little football, the kids played a little on the playground, and most of the rest of us just did a little chatting. We had a really nice time. I'm grateful for all the help in putting it all together and for all the people who came to support Garrett in his old age;) On Sunday, Garrett was lucky enough to get to hear me speak in sacrament (I'm not sure how much he could actually focus on what I was saying with Kailyn squealing in his ear, but he did physically hear what I said). Then we had normal Sunday Dinner and a few friends over for ice cream cake. For his birthday, he got: shoes, skinny jeans, a shirt, a belt, khakis, a hiking baby carrier thing, an iTunes gift card, brownies, a party, to see "Robin Hood", and a full weekend of getting his way by saying "but it's my birthday..." in a whiny voice. I think he had a nice time. I'm proud of him for being almost a quarter of a century old. I am especially grateful that Garrett was born because he is such a sweetheart and the best husband a girl could ask for. And I'm sure that if Kailyn could talk a little better, she'd tell us she's also grateful for him because he's the best daddy in the world too.

Also, yesterday, Garrett's mom and I drove up to Salt Lake to see the craniofacial specialist about Kailyn's metopic (sp?) ridge on her head. In consistence with the stereotype, we waited for an hour and saw the doctor for all of 2 full seconds. Without doing a CT scan or even really touching her head or thinking much about it, he walked in and pronounced Kailyn to be just fine. We asked him a couple questions just to get him to elaborate more and he said that babies plates start joining around 3 months and sometimes they form a ridge. No surgery needs to be done because it looks totally normal and as she gets older, her skull will thicken and it will just sort of go away. So, that's that. Her head looks just fine. I'm glad that all the worry was just precautionary and that everything is going well. It was definitely worth all the driving and the stress and the waiting to receive peace of mind.