Merry Christmas!

December is a very busy month for us seeing as Payton's birthday, Seth and Caleb's birthday, my mom's birthday, and Christmas ALL span from the 9th to the 31st.  A few days before Payton's birthday, he spiked a fever and continued to get worse, so I took him to the doctor on the 18th (the day before his birthday) and of course they just told me it was a nasty virus and there was nothing they could do.  He was SO sick!  I felt so bad because we had tickets to see Playhouse Disney Live the next day on his actual birthday!  We had bought them months and months before.  We considered selling them, but decided it was an opportunity we didn't want him to miss.  He was feeling a little better that day, so I gave him some Motrin (the wonder drug LOL!) before the show and off we went.  I am so glad we did because Payton absolutely LOVED it!  I definitely recommend it to anyone who has small children who like Mickey and all of the other fun characters on Playhouse Disney.  I ended up taking Payton BACK to the doctor on Monday and what do you know, he had an ear and sinus infection.  We got him on an antibiotic and we was much better for Christmas.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We sure did.  This Christmas was so fun with Payton.  I'm not sure if he understood that Santa brought him presents or not, but he sure knows who he is!  Every time he see him anywhere, whether it be on an ornament, on TV, in the mall, or where ever, he says "Sanna, Ho Ho!"  It's so funny!  He would also say that when we would ask him who was coming to visit him on Christmas Eve.   He also absolutely loves Christmas lights too.  He calls them "works" because when we were putting up our tree, I would plug in our lights from the previous year to test them and when they would come on I would say, "these work," so Payton is just sure that is what they are called!  He is just so much fun!  He loved all of his presents Christmas morning.  He got WAY too much.  With his birthday and Christmas just six days apart, we are completely overloaded with toys!  He loves it!  I think I have finally figured out a place for everything now, so that's good.  Well, that's all for now.  I hope everyone has a great and safe New Year!

Helping make Santa's cookies.  :-)

He was very impressed with his stocking!

"Sleeping" on his Backyardigans couch Santa brought him.

Playing with his train/car table Santa brought him.

Opening a present with Daddy.

4-Wheeling on his Power Wheels.  (He still has some trouble turning if he's not in a big open space LOL!)

Payton in his new police car.

Payton's 2nd Birthday Party!

Well, Payton will officially be 2 on Friday, December 19th, but we decided to have his party the weekend before.  I try to do his parties as far away from Christmas as possible!  We just had it at our house and invited a few friends.  It was lots of fun!  He got a bunch of great things.  I hoped he would be interested in opening presents this year, and he was a little bit, but once we got the first thing opened, he didn't realize there were lots more things and just wanted to play with that first toy.  I ended up getting help from some of the other kids to open the rest of them, LOL!  And he is definitley too little to understand the concept of blowing out the candles on the cake.  We did a football themed party because Payton absolutley LOVES football.  We have to take a football with us everywhere we go and sometimes he even sleeps with one!  Thank you to everybody that came to the party and for all of the wonderful gifts you gave him!  He has been very entertained with new toys and books!  

This is Payton wearing his Uncle Seth's giant football helmet.  He thought it was pretty darn cool that he got to wear it!!!

Payton loves the Longhorns.  He associates any football with them and calls all footballs "buttball horns."  I probably hear those words 100 times a day!  ;-)

Payton's football cake!

This is Payton's "football watching" chair!

Payton LOVES Diego.  He calls him "Gogee" (with hard g's).

Payton's new police rain jacket and rain boots!

Tis The Season!

Hello again!  I can't believe how fast November flew by and that Christmas is almost here!  This holiday season is going to be so much fun for us because Payton is at an age where he is actually interested in what's going on.  He absolutely loved to help pick out and decorate our tree this year.  All of his ornaments ended up in the same spot on the tree until he he figured out he could stand a couple of feet from the tree and throw them at it, and they would stick most of the time.  It was hilarious to watch!  He is also very interested in all the presents that are under it.  When I wrapped them, I told him they were "no, no's" and now every time he sees them, he points at them and says, "Mommy, no, no's."  He's going to be very confused on Christmas morning when we hand them to him and tell him to rip the paper off!  I can't wait!!!  :-)  His birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, so I will post pictures of that soon too!

Payton and Mommy getting ready to go look at trees.

Payton wanting us to HURRY UP!!!

He thought that tree looked good.  ;-)

He was AMAZED when we turned the lights on!  

He carefully placed each ornament (in the same spot on the tree).

Then he figured out it was much more fun to launch them into the tree.

Happy Halloween!

Payton did so good trick-or-treating! He would walk up to the doors and knock all by himself and I of course would say "trick-or-treat," but he would reach into the bowl and get his own candy, and then wave bye, bye to the people, and head to the next house. He also held his very own bucket! He would scream at me or Rich if we tried to take his bucket to hold it for him. He was very aware that what he was getting to put in that bucket was candy. He had a great time trick-or-treating and we had fun watching him! After we went trick-or-treating, we headed up to the hospital for Payton's first visit with cousin Braxton. He would say "baby" when he saw him and just look at him. It was very cute. We tried to get a picture of Payton and Braxton together in their costumes, but Payton decided not to cooperate (little stinker!), so we got pictures of Braxton by himself. Payton did however let us get a picture of him bending down to give Braxton a bye, bye kiss. It was very sweet. :-)


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Fall Fun!

We are really enjoying this nice, cool fall weather! I love fall and all the festivities that go along with it. I thought maybe Payton would be old enough to enjoy pulling out all of the yucky stuff from the pumpkin this year, but we're not quite there yet! He is too much like his daddy when it comes to getting dirty. He's always been very concerned if he gets food, dirt, or anything else on his hands. Before he could talk he would come up to you with his dirty hand(s) and whine, but now he says, "hands...hands...hands..." over and over until you do something about his messy hands. When we tried to put his hand in that pumpkin to pull the goo out, he looked at Rich and I like we were absolutely insane! He stayed as far away from the pumpkin as possible until it was clean inside, then he decided it would be okay to sit in Rich's lap while he carved it as long as he didn't get dirty. Crazy boy! :-) He really liked the jack-o-lantern when it was finished though! We are looking forward to Halloween in a couple of days! Payton is going to be Mickey Mouse and I really hope he likes trick-or-treating! I will post costume pictures in a few days.

Our Little Chatter Box

"CHEESE!"

Payton is now talking a lot! Over the last two weeks, he just decided he was going to talk! He says so many words now that people can figure out what it is he asking for or wants. It's so funny to hear the way he pronounces things. Every time he sees a camera now, he says, "CHEESE!" whether he is getting his picture taken or not. He has loved to watch the Disney Channel's cartoons since he was a little baby, but now he is also very interested in Nick Jr. shows like Dora, which he calls "Boots," and The Backyardigans, which he calls "Gins." He can now say our dog's name which is Bentley, but he pronounces it "Bentbey." I think one of his funniest pronunciations is the way he says the word "football." He calls it "Buttball!" He loves football. Every football day, he will sit and watch it with Daddy and say "Uh Oh!" when anyone gets tackled or falls down. It's so amazing to watch him grow and develop! The two pictures I put up are of him saying "cheese!" to the camera! He loves having his picture taken!

(He doesn't like clothes very much!)

GROSS!!!

Well, I think this video/picture speaks for itself! You might not be able to get it to play, but you get the idea of what is going on here! I thought Payton was in the other room with Rich and Rich thought Payton was in the living room with me, but little did we know he was taking a swim in the toilet! When I found him, he was COMPLETELY in the toilet, sitting in it splashing around! Most kids just stick their hands in the potty and splash around or throw random objects in there, but not our child! He decided he needed to put his whole self in there! Needless to say, he got a thorough scrubbing down in the tub after this little adventure and we have put door spinners on the doors and always make sure the bathroom doors are closed now!

Bentley

I realized that I've put lots of pictures of Rich, myself and Payton, but no pictures of the littlest member of our family, Bentley the dachshund. He's a mama's boy just like Payton. We got him in February and love him so much! (Well, Payton and I love him, Rich just tolerates him!) Payton loves to lay on him and Bentley is not so fond of that considering he only weighs 9 1/2 pounds. So, here are a few pictures of our Bentley.

Trip To The Lake

Payton absolutely loves to go to the lake. His favorite thing is to drive the boat! He sits on Uncle Anthony's lap and helps him drive the WHOLE time and when the boat is not moving, he pretend drives. He would much rather sit and drive the boat than get in the water! I would also like to say that he has his life jacket right under him and wears it when the boat is moving, but he just HATES it. He throws a huge fit when we put it on him, so we let him take it off when we are parked and just hanging out. It does look pretty uncomfortable! ;-) I think he will enjoy actually being in the water more next year.

Summer Fun!

Well, it has been quite a hot summer! It is 103 degrees today and that's like our 30th day in a row of over 100 degree plus temperatures! Payton LOVES to go to the pool. He will go get his bathing suit out of his drawer and bring it to me to put on him and run over to his wagon and cry if I say we aren't going to swim. His favorite pool is the awesome one at the YMCA. It has all kinds of fun things for him to do.

He has recently started doing this bear crawl (that's what we like to call it). It's so funny to watch him. He gets down on his hands and feet with his legs straight and crawls all over the place! He does it everywhere: at home, the mall, the pool! Here is an example of it at the pool. :-) He's so hilarious!

Night Out!

Rich and I just recently had a night out and went to his 10-year high school reunion. It was a lot of fun! We don't get out much, so we consider it a privilege to do so. Payton stayed with my parents which he absolutely loves to do. I have to wait until we are walking out the door to tell him we are going over there, otherwise he stands at the door and cries to go until we leave!

Wow, I'm blogging!

Hello everyone! I've decided to start a blog for those of you that live far away from us or don't get to see Payton very often. He's growing and changing so much everyday and I want everyone who would like to see him to be able to do so! I am going to try to post new pictures of him and our family at least once a week, so we'll see how that goes!

Payton is almost 19 months old now! Time flies when you are having fun. I am going to post a few pictures from the last year so you can see how he has changed!

This Payton at 1 month:

This is Payton at 4 months:

Payton at 8 months (getting into everything):

Payton at 1 year:


And Payton now (eating french fries and ketchup)!