The Keggins Krew

Still Here!

2011-07-19T16:26:00.000-05:00

OK I'm still here, hopefully somebody out there still is too! It has been a crazy busy life lately! Anyway, I left off with March and us going to the rodeo. After that, we got some great news that we were accepted to buy a house of our own here in Texas! We are so happy to have a place of our own. Peyton loves it and so do we! Bailey enjoys his yard!

Me and Peyton got our first of many mother/daughter pedicures! We had to have pretty toes for vacation! We had a blast!

In early April we went on a family vacation! Peyton's first cruise! It was so beautiful and so much fun. Peyton loved it. You know how much she loves to swim! It was a great family vacation. We got to spend a lot of time together just relaxing and hanging out!

As soon as vacation was over, Seth's parents came in for a visit and we closed on our new house! We slowly started to move some things from the old house to the new house too.

That same weekend was our first Easter in Texas! It was definitely different and we missed our families terribly, but we had a nice day just the three of us!

A couple days after Easter my parents and cousin Megan came down to help us do the big move! It was busy and tiring, but so much fun!

OK I think that is enough for today! I am almost caught up! Lots more to come!

WOW

2011-06-02T13:45:00.001-05:00

We have had so much happen in the last couple of months! I feel horrible not keeping up with this blog. I really want to, but things have been so crazy! I am promising myself now to stay on top of it! So, my last post was Christmas?! Wow.

Peyton has been learning to ride a bike with training wheels instead of her tricycle.

We took Peyton to a princess tea party at the Disney Store and she loved it!

We have spent a lot of time outside, which we aren't used to from living in Maryland. It has been nice being able to play outside year round!

We had a Valentine's Day photo shoot.

Peyton loves to play with her new sand and water table.

Peyton got her very first hair cut in February! She wasn't so sure about it at first, but she did really good and it looks much better. We only got it trimmed up to even it out. We love it long!

Peyton is doing excellent in gymnastics! She loves it so much!

We found a small petting zoo and play place near us. It is so much fun! We plan to spend many days there!

We have been working on some school work at home to keep us busy!

We went to the Houston zoo with some friends at church!

We experienced something everyone in the Houston area must experience - the Houston Rodeo parade and Houston Livestock show and Rodeo! Peyton loved the parade - her 1st one ever!

We signed Peyton up for soccer and she loves it! She does so well!

My parents and sister came into town to go to the Houston Rodeo with us! It was our first time and it was so fun!

So that is part of what has been going on here! More to come!!!!

Christmas Vacation

2011-03-14T15:09:00.001-05:00

Peyton and I had an extended vacation in Maryland after all the holidays! We stayed until January 15th with my family. We really enjoyed being able to just hang out and spend time together! Aunt Susan and Kenny stayed at my parents house while we were in Vermont so they were still there when we got back! Peyton loved playing with them!

Peyton also enjoyed playing with my parents dog Max! He is the exact same type of dog as our Bailey, with curly hair! We had fun playing and visiting other family!

We got to watch Emily play basketball and got to play in some snow!

We had a birthday party for Emily the night before we left

As you can tell we had a very busy, but very fun vacation! I am so blessed with a wonderful family! They're the best!

Christmas in Vermont

2011-03-12T15:02:00.001-06:00

Wow it is so crazy how much we travel anymore! Peyton is such a good traveler too. That helps a lot! Poor Seth had to return back to Houston to work and Peyton and I took a road trip with my parents, sister Emily and cousin Megan up to see Johnny and Gab in Vermont! I always love a good road trip! Vermont is so beautiful this time of year with the snow and everything, but cold!

We had a good trip and a great time having Christmas with them! Peyton absolutely thinks the world of her Aunt Gab and Uncle Johnny!

We got to enjoy some snow - Peyton's favorite! I kind of feel bad sometimes that she can't experience snow here in Texas like she did in Maryland because she just loves it so much! Just means more trips to Maryland and Vermont!

We celebrated Gab's birthday at her parents house with her family - lots of siblings! So Peyton had a blast running around and playing of course! They have an ice rink in their backyard so we spent a lot of time out there playing hockey and playing in the snow! Gab's father builds it bigger and better every year!

One of the highlights of our trip was a horse drawn sleigh ride in the snow! It was so awesome, but so cold!

We spent some time just hanging out at Johnny and Gab's beautiful house enjoying our time together. We watched movies, played games and ate very well!

On New Year's Eve we enjoyed some scenery and then celebrated at Gab's parents house with a bonfire in the snow! We also played games and ate too much! Peyton tried bacon wrapped scallops and loved them!

Thanks Johnny and Gab for a wonderful visit! We had a great time!

Christmas In Maryland

2011-03-11T16:14:00.002-06:00

Well of course Christmas in Maryland was different this year. I had a hard time with everything on and off leading up to the holidays. I guess you could say I don't do change very well! I missed my family, friends, church family and all of the activities that go along with them! We flew into Maryland on the 23rd with lots of suit cases! It is still kind of weird going back "home" and being a visitor! It was so nice to see everyone. I had to spend a lot of time on Christmas eve wrapping gifts because they suggest you don't wrap them when you are flying. I wasn't happy about that part! Then we went to lunch with our most favorite neighbors and best friends James, Steph and JJ at Bob Evans. Yummm. We had a great time hanging out and the kids had fun playing!

We went to the Christmas eve service at Fellowship. Aunt Susan and Kenny came into town and stayed at my parents also so we got to hang out with them too! They came in as a surprise to everyone! Got a cute picture of Peyton in my santa hat from when I was little! Priceless!

It was wonderful to wake up on Christmas morning at my parents house! I was so happy to be home. We had a great time opening presents together. Aunt Susan made a delicious breakfast for us all! We just had a wonderful time enjoying each other. We all got lots of nice gifts.

After our yummy breakfast and getting ourselves together, we headed over to my Grandparents house for more Christmas fun with the whole big family! It is always so wonderful and I am so glad we were able to go this year. We have tons of food and laughs!

It was nice to have all of my Grandparents children there for a photo op!

The day after Christmas we celebrated with Seth's family. We had another great meal and time together.

I definitely enjoy family get togethers so much more now that we live thousands of miles away from everyone! As you can tell, we had a very busy Christmas, with lots more to come! Next up, Vermont!

1st Texas Christmas!

2011-03-02T15:38:00.000-06:00

I am so far behind, but I want to record everything! Christmas was a lot different this year. It was very hard getting into the Christmas spirit when it was hot outside! I'm not complaining though! I have already grown very accustomed to the warm winter. I love it! I really missed going out shopping with my mom this year too. Shopping was hard because I had to think of how I was going to get it in a suitcase to take home to Maryland! I was pretty emotional also because I just missed the family things we would do around the holidays and leading up to Christmas. I missed my real tree this year too! We have always gotten a real tree every year until this year. We decided since we would be in Maryland for Christmas that it would be safer to have a fake tree. At least I had a tree!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated as a family in Texas with just the three of us (and Bailey of course!) on the 22nd and flew up to Maryland the next day. Like I said already, it was very different, but fun. Peyton had so much fun opening gifts this year. It was fun leading up to Christmas hearing her say what she would like and picking things out. She got a lot of toys and things she wanted! Board games, she is at that age where she loves them, Barbies, Toy Story everything, clothes, a bike, and a sand and water play table. I just loved watching her open things and get so excited! The joy on your child's face is priceless!

Seth and I got a lot of nice things too! I got another Coach purse to add to my collection along with a Coach wallet and camera case! I think I'm addicted! Packing up the rest of the gifts and our clothes for a trip home was the next fun thing! It was tricky, but we got it! We each had 2 pieces of checked on luggage! Thank goodness for Southwest Airlines who allow 2 bags per person for free! We took Bailey to his hotel, and got on our way! They take such good care of him there. Poor Peyton gets so sad when we leave him though. Well, until next time! As always, I post all of our pictures on Facebook!

Whoa!

2011-01-12T14:38:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how far behind I have let this get! I really wanted to use this as a way of journaling our lives, especially the big move! It has been so crazy lately. 2 months is the last time I posted!? Oh my, so much has happened! We had family visits, Thanksgiving, a special wedding, Christmas, and New Years! Peyton and I are still in MD! We have been here since the 23rd of December! Seth had to go back to Texas the 27th, but we were all together for Christmas here in MD.

I am going to back up so I can have it all on here, so bear with me! In early November Seth's parents came to visit us! It was so nice to see family. We had beautiful weather, pretty warm actually! We checked out the Woodlands waterway, which was a beautiful boat ride. We also checked out Old Town Spring for the first time. It is a cute little town with tons of little shops. Of course we had to take them to some of our favorite restaurants we have discovered! Peyton enjoyed having her Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop to play!

Soon after that visit we started preparing for our Thanksgiving guests - my parents and sister! Peyton was so very happy to have Gram, Pop, and Aunt Emily here! (She all of a sudden started calling them that!) We started thinking about how to do Thanksgiving dinner since since it would be our first time ever! Once they got here, we checked out the Woodlands waterway with them too! It's so nice! We happened to run into a book signing while we we there - Alex Debogorski from Ice Road Truckers! He was such a nice guy.

We discovered a delicious steak restaurant - Texas Land and Cattle. Oh my it was so good!

We also explored more of Old Town Spring and ate lunch at a wonderful little restaurant - Wunsche Bros. A cute little, old place!

We started making cakes and pies for the big day! Yummm! Peyton is quite the helper in the kitchen lately!

We celebrated Seth's birthday the day before Thanksgiving. Peyton loves to help with the candles!

Thursday was the big day! We had so much fun embarking on this new adventure of cooking Thanksgiving dinner together! Here is our very first turkey!

We cooked it upside down by accident, and it was so delicious! Now we know the trick to a wonderful moist turkey! Haha!

It's not pretty, but it was the best turkey I have ever had, if I may say so myself! It was definitely a team effort!

It was such a beautiful day outside, so we had a little photo shoot of Peyton in her turkey shirt!

I helped Peyton make a unique, special turkey for her Grandparents. I love how it turned out!!

We enjoyed just hanging out and watching movies, Christmas ones of course!

We had to visit the best barbecue restaurant around - Goode Co. This is such a cool restaurant! Not only does it have delicious food, but it has tons of history displayed everywhere. My Dad absolutely loves it because it brings back lots of memories of his Dad in the rodeos.

We went to the Woodlands mall and attempted to get a picture of Peyton with Santa - did not go well! She was all about it and we waited in line, by the time it was our turn she was scared to death! Oh well, maybe next year! Here is a picture while we were waiting though!

We had a chance to start pulling out our Christmas decorations while everyone was still here too! Seth and my Dad got the lights on the house! And inside we put up our tree. Which is fake this year. Which is very unusual for us, but we weren't home for Christmas so it was the best thing to do. I would love to go to a tree farm and cut one down as a family some day!

My bestest friend Megan unfortunately moved back to MD after Thanksgiving. Things just weren't working out job wise for her. But that's a whole other story!! Thanksgiving was VERY different this year, but very enjoyable. I am so grateful for loving family who sacrificed old traditions to make new traditions with us! One major thing to get used to during the holiday season is the weather! It was so weird decorating for Christmas in shorts and t-shirts! I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit when I was sweating outside!

Well I think that's enough for today! We are enjoying a little snow cover here in MD before Peyton and I head back to TX on Saturday!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-12T14:01:00.000-06:00

Halloween was so different this year! For one, we are so far away from home and the grandparents couldn't come to see Peyton in her costume. It was kind of sad. Another reason was that we didn't get to decorate and hang out with our favorite neighbors! Ever since we lived in our townhouse we would team up with James and Steph to decorate and hang out while we handed out candy. I was so sad I could have cried because we missed that tradition so much.

We did have fun despite those circumstances though. Peyton was pretty aware of what was going on this year and very into the candy! We carved pumpkins on Saturday night. We figured we should wait until then because of the hot weather! Here is Peyton with my palm tree pumpkin and coloring her mini pumpkin.

I found an adorable Halloween outfit for Peyton so she wore that to church on Sunday and then we had a photo op! It was too cute!

On Sunday afternoon we napped and got ready for the fun! Peyton could not wait. She was so excited to put on her Jessie costume. It's the cowgirl from Toy Story!

We had fun finding ideas for our pumpkins! They turned out so cute!! Minnie, palm tree, cheeseburger, and Yankees!!

This picture was the best we could get with Peyton and Bailey! Oh well, maybe next year!

Megan and Peyton hanging out!

We had a good night and the weather was beautiful! Peyton met a little girl right across the street who is close to her age and they played in our yard for a while. We will be playing more with her soon I'm sure! We didn't even know she lived there! I really am trying to get caught up on this blog. We have done so much here lately and I want to share it! Stay tuned!!

Peyton's 3rd Birthday Party!

2010-10-21T09:37:00.014-05:00

My baby is 3! I can't believe it. How can time go by so fast? I was just watching videos of her starting to walk and talk - made me all teary! Now she is running around saying everything she can and doing gymnastics! We are settled here in Texas for the most part. The house is not organized and put together perfectly, but we'll get to that. Or maybe not! I wanted to do a post on Peyton's birthday party and her birthday celebration here in Texas. I am so far behind. We will be caught up eventually. We went home to Maryland this past weekend for our home church's 25th anniversary celebration. I was also very home sick and wanted to see my family! More on that later!

For Peyton's birthday party we did Minnie Mouse theme and had a big bash at my parents house in Maryland. It was a beautiful day! A lot of work went into making this day possible and I am very grateful for all the help we had.

We had so many adorable and yummy desserts. The Minnie theme was so fun!We got a moon bounce with Minnie and Mickey on it too! Peyton absolutely loved that!I can't believe how big she is. Here's our big 3 year old:

It was sort of a bitter sweet day because the next week we moved to Houston. It was nice to be able to have a big party for Peyton and see everybody one last time before we left. Here is the new Texan gang:

They had a cake just for us too. It was nice. Then it was time to move on to games and presents!It was a wonderful day weather wise and even better day celebrating our wonderful 3 year old. We are so thankful for those who were able to celebrate with us and those who helped out so much!

The BIG Move

2010-09-20T21:48:00.013-05:00

So we have officially moved to Houston, Texas! It is so crazy to say that and I think I am still in shock. It is nice down here, but we miss our family and friends at home in Maryland so much. We arrived on Saturday September 11th around 8pm after a very long 2 day drive. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to our moms who couldn't make the trip with us. We got the rental truck on Wednesday and started loading it up. Thursday was major pack up day and Friday morning about 6am we got on the road! Of course I took tons of pictures along the way!

We ended up needing more space than what the moving truck had so Seth's Dad got his truck with a trailer and helped us. We are so grateful. Unexpected, but it all worked out!

So we split the 24 hour drive into 2 days. We were so sad to leave, but once we got on the road we had a blast! It was Megan, Peyton and me in Megan's car. My Dad and his good friend Mr. Mike driving the moving truck, which was pulling our SUV, and Seth's Dad and my Uncle Joe (Megan's Dad) driving the other truck and trailer. We had our own convoy! Our first state to go through was Virginia and we were in Virginia for hours! Then we hit Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and then Texas.

The first day we got on the road about 6am and left from my parents house. It was so horribly hard to say goodbye to my Mom. We headed for Virginia with Megan driving. The trucks couldn't go as fast as us so sometimes we would go ahead and lead the way for a while and let them catch up to us. Peyton and Bailey did well in the car. Bailey slept most of the time in the back seat with Peyton. I wasn't sure how he was going to react on such a long car ride, but he exceeded my expectations! Peyton had her moments as always, but she kept busy with lots of toys, books, and movies. Megan and I played the license plate game and between the 2 days we saw 29 different states! That kept us busy trying to look at every car we went by! We switched drivers in Georgia. We had lots of goofy conversations and saw some crazy stuff along the way. While I was driving Megan lost her phone down the crack between her seat and the door. It was hilarious! She couldn't find it at all! She was taking pictures under her seat to see if she could see it! We had to wait until the next time we stopped to get it out! Since she couldn't use hers she was facebooking on mine, under my name! That was fun. At one point Peyton's fingers got smashed in her window (poor baby) and we cracked up at a Shoney's sign that actually said Shoy's! We stopped in Alabama for the night and ate dinner very late at Cracker Barrel! Here are some views from the first day of driving!

The second day of driving started out at Waffle House right next to our hotel. We got back on the road at about 7:30am. We drove through Greenville Alabama and saw Panther Creek. My Dad's Grandfather's name was Greenville Panther! I thought that was interesting. Megan's memory "card" was full this day so things were crazy! We went through Mississippi and had rain. Then we also discovered a crack in Megan 's windshield that grew as the trip went along! Peyton's ear started bleeding and she was all of a sudden miserable. When we stopped at a gas station some interesting man came over to us when we were looking at the cracked windshield and told us to use super glue on it! We were rolling in laughter! in Louisiana Seth's Dad's trailer got a flat tire. It wasn't just flat, it was shredded! So we got separated and we were waiting at another gas station for them to come by. it took a while to get everything settled. On the road we saw a lot of dead armadillos! We finally got into Texas at 5:15pm. We were all of a sudden driving in the shoulder because there were no lines on the road! Unfortunately the same trailer got another flat tire and we sat on the shoulder for a while with them while the moving truck just went on. We were so close to the house! So we drove around on side roads looking for a tire place, none were open! We gave up and drove slowly on. We were just ready to get to the house!

We arrived at the house at about 8pm. We were all so exhausted and hungry! We unloaded a little then went to eat some delicious Mexican food at Alicia's! I was pleased with the house that Seth and our Real Estate Agent here picked out. It's cute! Seth did a great job! We almost have the house put together and then I will post some pictures of it! There are as lot more pictures of our trip and the house so far on Facebook! I also have to do a post from Peyton's birthday party!

Another Houston Visit!

2010-09-01T13:30:00.003-05:00

I am trying to keep up with the blog, but it has been hard lately! By the time I have settled down for the day, it is too late and my brain won't work! So much has been going on lately, it is crazy! Peyton and I visited Seth in Houston again for 2 weeks this time, and it was a blast! As soon as we got there they were having a party for Kaezee's 1st birthday! We spent the day doing this:

and this:

The food was different, but delicious! See for yourself:

The kids had such a fun day! Once it was dark, there was sparklers and fireworks for all to see!
Some of us wanted to watch the fireworks from inside because they were too loud!
Peyton and Kyle had a time of singing after the band was done! The next day was 4th of July and we visited a church then had Sonic for lunch! Peyton had on her cute patriotic dress! I had to get some pictures! We also went swimming as a family because nobody else was home!
Later on, the kids had a blast running around playing. They actually had a blast everyday together!

Monday Seth had off for the holiday so we got to spend the day together! We went to check out Kemah. It was beautiful, but extremely hot!
There was a boardwalk with all kinds of places to eat, shop, rides and an aquarium! We got some pictures of the cutest cowgirl in the world!
Peyton had so much fun that she slept the whole way home!

We had fun going out to eat with Brian and Zim a few times. Peyton and Kyle always have so much fun together!

We had a few fun nights of playing Wii Just Dance - it is such good exercise! We will definitely be buying that as our next Wii game! It was so much fun. Peyton and Kyle also had a lot of fun playing together as always!
The backyard of the house where Seth has been living (Brian & Zim's house) has a beautiful pool and hot tub that they just had put in. It also has a waterfall and nice palm trees and flowers around it. It was such a cute place for pictures that I had to do a photo op!
We were there for 2 weekends so we had a lot of days to do things as a family! We went to the aquarium in downtown Houston. It was really neat! They also had a lot of things to do outside, and a white tiger!

Well, I think I may wrap up this post for now. Will continue about our Houston trip on my next post - this one is way long! As always I have tons more pictures on my facebook!

By the way, how can today be September 1st?? My baby will be 3 years old in 2 weeks!!

Oh, and we are still living apart from Seth right now, but getting ready to make a big move to a rental house because we have not sold ours here yet!

My Grandma

2010-08-13T14:07:00.001-05:00

My Grandma Irene was a wonderful person, inside and out. She was a very special lady to a lot of people. She was so beautiful. I will treasure these photos I have of her forever. I am so happy that Peyton got to know her and I hope and pray she will remember something about her when she grows up. I am very thankful that we visited her often when she was at the Peartree House and always had my camera! I have many wonderful photos!

Grandma loved to knit, and I absolutely love this picture of her! It shows her sweet smile and sweet spirit! She was born in Ohio, lived in Kentucky in her childhood also. She eventually moved to Roswell, New Mexico, which is awesome and where my Dad was born! She enjoyed square dancing with my Grandfather in their younger years! They moved to Linthicum, Maryland and raised their family. My Grandfather passed away in 1986. A few years later she moved into our home with us. Just a couple years ago, while I was pregnant with Peyton, my family decided to have Grandma live in an assisted living home because she needed more care than what we could give her. It was a wonderful place who loved her and treated her so well. She was very happy there and it was nice and close to our homes so we could visit her often.

Grandma just lit up when we would bring Peyton in to see her, and it melted my heart! I loved watching them interact together. When Peyton got older, she found a ball in Grandma's room and would always play ball with her. They both loved it! In Grandma's room she was surrounded by many pictures of her family.

Grandma also loved to sew, cook, travel and cutting hair! She worked as a cosmetologist for about 25 years here in Maryland. When we were younger she always cut our hair for us right in her kitchen or ours! We called her Mom-Mom Cuts! She loved it! I can remember as a teenager going to Sally's Beauty Supply or Rite Aid to get supplies she needed. I always loved going along with her and wandering the stores along side her. She almost always would buy me something, usually nail polish! My Grandma had awesome finger nails! They were always long and painted nicely. She always took great care of them. She loved to wear beautiful scarves around her neck no matter what season and they always complimented her outfits! Grandma loved the colors turquoise and purple. She also loved turquoise jewelry! She had so many pieces of it and it is beautiful. I can clearly remember a certain big, turquoise ring she always wore on her pointer finger. She loved that ring!

I was so privileged to have my Grandma live with us. We got to be so close. I got to travel with her a few times on her trips to visit family. It was so fun! Sometimes I would just sit with her in her room and watch TV and talk. A lot of nights I would ask her to come in my room and tuck me in! I remember her favorite show for a long time was Golden Girls! We would watch it together all the time. She also loved to watch the Orioles play, and watch the weather channel!

When I got my license, she would ask me to go to the store with her, and she would let me drive! I felt so special. My Grandma made me feel special all the time. I can still see her smile and hear her wonderful, contagious laugh. (that is making me cry right now) I am glad she could communicate a little with us in the hospital and when we asked her to smile sometimes she would. I cried every time. She actually did laugh a time or two also! She also told us she loved us a few times and for that I am so thankful, even though I know she did, it just lets me know that she heard what we were saying to her. We were constantly by her side talking with her and rubbing her head and arms. Sometimes she would squeeze our hands when we would ask. It was a very rough and emotionally exhausting 2 weeks that Grandma was in the hospital. She was rarely alone. Our family is so thankful for my Dad's cousin Paul who came to visit and stayed up all night to do the overnight shift with Grandma along with my Dad. It meant a lot to us. I am very grateful that I along with my Aunt Sue were next to my Grandma holding her hands when she took her last breath. I can still see it and hear it like it was yesterday. I am glad I was there, but it was so hard and we bawled our eyes out and didn't want to leave her. I could tell she was going because her breathing changed all of a sudden. Even though we are very sad, we can take comfort that Grandma is in heaven with Jesus and she is not in any pain.

It's been a while...

2010-07-25T21:28:00.005-05:00

Wow it has been a long time since I have posted and I'm sorry! Life has been so hectic lately. Peyton and I were in Houston for 2 weeks, as soon as we got back home we had a week of Vacation Bible School at our church, and that leads us to tonight! Unfortunately I left my camera cord in Texas, so I have to wait to get that in the mail before I can do anything with my tons of pictures! I am going crazy not being able to upload my pictures! I just wanted to let you all know I am still here and plan on getting back to this blog regularly very soon! I also wanted to jot some things down that have been going on so I don't forget! I will elaborate on some of them eventually when I get my pictures!

Peyton is officially potty trained as of about June 29!!!
We had a blast in Texas for 2 weeks visiting together
Peyton had a horrible ear infection that started while in Texas and is still on medicine for it
We just had a wonderful week of VBS at church
Yesterday we went to the unveiling of an amazing field for adaptive sports for children with special needs
Our house is still on the market and we have been living apart for 3 months now
I tear up just about every night when I put Peyton to bed because I love her bed time routine and I know it won't last forever!
Our fishy who we got last summer is no longer with us :(

Well, that is most of the craziness we have been dealing with lately! Will be back up and running very soon with my pics hopefully!!

Houston Trip!!

2010-07-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

I think I may have a little time right now to finally post about Mine and Peyton's trip to visit Seth in Houston! It has been a long time!!! Things around here got pretty crazy for about 3 weeks while my Grandma was sick and then passed away. This trip to Houston was almost 2 months ago already! This summer seems to be flying by. Well, as you can tell, we really enjoyed our trip to Houston! We made some wonderful new friends and enjoyed every minute of our visit with Seth. Peyton and Kyle clicked right away and played so nice together. Kyle is one of the sons of the couple who is so graciously letting Seth stay with them. We are so grateful for them! We did some swimming, some shopping, a lot of eating, and took the kids to play at Itz!

As you have already read, my grandma Irene did pass away from her illness. She went to be with Jesus on Saturday June 12 at 4:10pm. I had the privelege to be holding her hand along with my Aunt Sue, as she passed. It was so bittersweet and so hard. We knew it was coming, but nothing can prepare you to watch a loved one die. Her funeral was held at our church on Wednesday June 16. It was a time of laughter and tears as we remembered my Grandma. We truly appreciate your prayers for us during that time. It was so stressful and exhausting. we were at the hospital all day, everyday for 2 weeks. Grandma had good days and bad days, but her body just couldn't take it anymore. She fought hard though! She was a lot stronger than we thought!

We had a lot of family come in for the funeral and at one point 16 of us were staying here at my parents' house! It was a good time of visiting , just wish it was under better circumstances.

Well, Peyton and I are getting ready for another trip to Houston already! We leave Saturday for 2 weeks! It has been such a busy summer! Sorry to lump all this together, I'm just trying to catch up!

Please keep praying for our house to sell here. That is why Peyton and I are still here. This situation is starting to get tough. I miss my husband and Peyton misses her Daddy so much.

Grandma Update

2010-06-09T21:52:00.005-05:00

We have been on such a crazy roller coaster ride the last 2 weeks. Grandma was so bad off when she first went to the hospital. Late last week she started waking up and trying to converse with us a little bit. Sometimes she would answer yes or no questions. She couldn't do much because she was still on the ventilator. On Monday, they took the tube out and put her on a heavy oxygen mask called a bi pap. This is a step down from the ventilator. The intensivist still thought everything was looking better and she was going to pull through.

Today was a different story. We met with her primary doctor this morning who said things are not going well at all. Kidneys are still not working properly, she can't get rid of all the fluid she has throughout her whole body and many other problems are going on. He said we should think about making a decision on whether to continue this aggressive care or not.

After fretting over this decision for a few hours, we went back to the hospital and met with the intensivist and her nurse on duty, whom we love the most! He pretty much said that her quality of life will not be very good, if she makes it past the 40% chance to make it after a ton of aggressive care, that her body probably couldn't handle. After many tears and conversations with family, we have decided to stop all the medicine she is on to fight the underlying condition and to just give her pain medicine and oxygen to keep her comfortable until the Lord takes her home. This is such a horrible decision to make, but the doctor assured us we have made the best decision for her. She won't be suffering for much longer. It hurts us so bad, but we can take joy in knowing for sure that she will be in heaven with no more pain!

Prayers for our family are greatly appreciated.

Prayers Needed Please

2010-05-29T10:16:00.003-05:00

My Grandma Irene (my Dad's Mom) is not doing well at all right now. She was rushed to the hospital early yesterday morning unresponsive. They thought it might have been a stroke. After many tests they discovered a huge blood clot in her leg and a piece of that broke off and went to her lung. They could not get her to wake up at all. She is on life support. Can't breathe on her own at all. I stayed at the hospital with my parents all day just waiting to see what was happening. Her blood pressure has also been very low the whole day. They gave her some extremely strong medicine to dissolve the blood clot in her lung quickly. They have yet to even get her stable enough to take her downstairs to do a cat scan or any other tests they have to do out of the room. We were talking to her some even though she wasn't awake. At one point when I called her name, she tried really hard to open her eyes. I was so happy! We eventually came home to get some rest so we could return today. So, that brings us to today...

When my Dad called this morning to check on her before they went, the doctor said it is not looking good. Now some of her organs are starting to fail. Her heart has been sick for years, so that is getting very weak also. They can't get her to wake up still. My parents have already gone up there to be with her. Seth is here now, so we have some things to do then we will be heading up there.

Please pray that my Grandma is not in a lot of pain. She is almost 92 years old! Also pray for us, especially my Dad, who has to make some very difficult decisions soon. This is so hard to see. I would not wish it upon anyone to go through it. I was not doing well at all when I first went to see her yesterday because she looked so bad and all the tons of machines everywhere hooked to her. I am very happy we got to see her on Thursday before this happened. It is crazy though how fast this happened - she seemed fine then! Please pray for Peyton and my sister Emily as they are tossed to and fro to different babysitters! Thank you sooo very much to everyone who has helped us with them and who will watch them in the next few days! We greatly appreciate it! Thank you for your time and your prayers everyone.

We're Still Here!

2010-05-27T23:15:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here, just unbelievably busy!! I have so many pictures to show from the million things we have done lately, just not much time to post! Hopefully tomorrow! We still need your prayers, as we have not had any bites on the sale of our house yet! Thanks!

Girls Will Be Girls!

2010-05-13T14:02:00.008-05:00

I have always wanted to do girlie things with a daughter! Peyton is just starting to get to the point where she can enjoy doing some girlie things! I am so excited. We were at the store the other day and she wanted to get something. So I let her pick out nail polish! She could not wait to use it! So one evening after her bath we painted nails! She loves it and so do I! Those tiny nails look so adorable with pretty pink polish!! I did paint her toenails last summer, but I have never done her fingernails! How cute is this!We had a wonderful Mother's Day! Seth came home for the weekend. It was very nice. I had tears in my eyes when Peyton saw her Daddy in the airport and she went running to him! It was the sweetest thing! She was on top of the world with her Daddy this weekend. It was a short, but sweet visit with him. I got many sweet gifts. We had a big get together at my parent's house on Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day, mine and my Dad's birthday and to visit with Seth. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

We had a very busy but fun weekend!! We are missing Seth so much. I am very excited because Peyton and I are flying down this Saturday to stay with him for a week!!! Peyton is so excited too!

Please pray that God will send the right buyer to our house soon! Time is getting short and we need to start making some other decisions. Please also pray for Peyton that her ear will be healed very soon. She was diagnosed with an ear infection last Monday. She seemed to be getting better, then she got worse again and saying she couldn't hear. That scared me a bit so I took her back to the doctor this Monday and she said that Peyton's eardrum has ruptured. That is not good! She has been in so much pain and I couldn't do much for her. They changed her antibiotic and I have been giving her ibuprofen along with it. I think she is slowly feeling better - she has been playing a little more today. I just pray that being on an airplane doesn't affect it!

Zoo Trip

2010-05-03T09:34:00.014-05:00

Peyton's whole school went to the Baltimore Zoo on the most beautiful day! It was so nice - not too hot, not too chilly. Of course Peyton absolutely loved it! Her favorite animals were the giraffes and monkeys. She was laughing hysterical at the monkeys running around! My favorites were the giraffes and zebras. They are just amazing animals!

Peyton had fun running around looking at the animals and playing with her friend Michael. They are so cute together!

I think they truly do love each other, even though they bicker like crazy in the church nursery! I had fun trying to take some creative pictures of the animals.

It was such a fun field trip! I can't believe Peyton's 1st year of preschool is almost over! So sad. She is growing up so fast!

We would really appreciate your prayers still for the sale of our house. We had one person come through and we are very thankful for that, but we have had no other bites or offers. We miss you Seth!!

Photography

2010-04-21T13:54:00.016-05:00

Sometimes I catch some great pictures that I wonder if I should start my own business! It's not that often though! I'm not that good, but when I catch great pictures I get so excited! It is really hard to get good pictures of Peyton lately because she never wants to hold still for pictures. Then to get her to smile is even harder! So I try to always have my camera and just shoot away when she isn't paying attention. I have taken many pictures that I love and I want to put them on here. I will start with the most recent. These are from my sister Emily's baseball practice last night.She's not smiling, but they are such beautiful pictures! Now here are some others that I may have already posted before, but I want them all to be in the same place and to show them off again!

Now, for some non-Peyton ones!

What do you think? I love taking pictures, can you tell?! Our computer is so very full of pictures it's crazy!

Enjoying the Beautiful Weather

2010-04-19T09:14:00.007-05:00

We have had many nice days here the past couple weeks! I love getting outside to walk and play! Peyton does too! We don't use our stroller much anymore, but Peyton uses her baby stroller! She looks so adorable while she is walking and running around pushing her baby. Every once in a while she will stop and check on the baby and talk to it! I love it!

We have also been doing some gardening - trying to spruce up the yard a bit for the new buyers. Peyton is becoming quite the helper around here lately!

Now if I could only keep the crazy squirrels away from my flowers everything would be ok! I have to go out everyday and check on my plants because they dig in my pots and take some bulbs, or just uproot the flowers. They are making me crazy!

I got this cute picture of Bailey the other day and I love it!Bailey is loving the beautiful weather too!

We are really missing Seth, but we are making it! Only by God's grace am I staying this calm about everything! Please keep us in your prayers. Our life is still crazy and we have a lot of unknowns right now. I know God has a plan and He already has everything laid out for us, so we are just trying to trust Him in everything. Our house has been on the market for 2 weeks with no bites yet. If God's plan is for us to move to Texas, and we believe it is, then I know He will have our house sold. It is just really hard without Seth near us and we just want our family to be together again!

Port Discovery

2010-04-15T15:30:00.006-05:00

Last week we did a lot of family things since Seth was leaving. We decided to take advantage of him not working and do fun things together. Thursday we took Peyton to a children's museum called Port Discovery in Baltimore. It is such a neat place! I have been wanting to take her there for the longest time. It is a very educational place with many things to play in and on. Peyton had so much fun running around this place!

The price was very reasonable and it doesn't have to be an all day thing. We were there for about 3 hours and we did everything and saw everything! Some things more than once! There are many things for older children too. They would understand the educational things a lot more than the younger ones! If you are in the area you should check it out! Let me know and maybe Peyton and I could go with you!

Well, Seth has arrived safely in Houston and is starting to do technical things like registering the car and what nots! We are missing him horribly, but we believe God has a hand in this and He will get us through this tough time! Your prayers are much appreciated! Seth starts his new job on Monday!

Easter Fun!

2010-04-12T14:13:00.009-05:00

We had 2 Easter celebrations this year! On Palm Sunday we celebrated with Seth's family. We had lots of yummy food and fun! Peyton had a blast playing with her second cousin Madeline. They ran around, played with Easter eggs, and did an Easter craft!They are so cute! On the Saturday before Easter we had a party at church and Peyton did an Easter egg hunt! She loved getting the eggs and putting them in her basket!

That night we dyed eggs, after I had to hunt for a long time for the dye kit! We have been cleaning and putting things away so much and I keep forgetting where I put things! Craziness!

Peyton is becoming so independent, so she kept wanting to do it herself! It got a little messy! Easter was a busy, tiring, but wonderful day! We started the day off with a sunrise service at church at 7am. So early, but so nice! Then we had breakfast at church and our regular services. Seth is our choir director, so this Easter cantata was his last one to direct! It was sad.

After church we had dinner at my Grandparents house. It was yummy of course! It was nice to have most of the family together and spend time with each other. Of course we missed the out of towners as always, and it was sad to think that next year we will be out of towners too! Sooo many changes to get used to. We had a little egg hunt for Peyton - she is the only one who was age appropriate, but she had lots of help!

Peyton was so tired by the evening as you can tell! I hope your Easter was as wonderful as ours!

As of right now, Seth has left and started driving to Texas - we are so sad. Peyton keeps asking to see her Daddy. It is going to be very hard, but with God all things are possible! I know we will get through it! He will be driving today and taking a break tomorrow then back on the road on Wednesday. Please pray for his safety and for all of us while we are apart! Also pray that we will have some bites at our house! We can't buy anything in Texas until we sell this house!

Wow!

2010-04-10T09:43:00.003-05:00

It has been way too long since my last post! So much has gone on that I don't even know where to start! It has been unbelievably crazy busy around our house lately! As I have mentioned before, we have had some major decisions to make as a family. Well, it is official - our house is on the market and we are moving to Houston, Texas!! It is so crazy I am still in shock I think! It was so hard to make this decision, but we feel it is what God wants for us right now. I will admit that I was very against it for a long time. I really do feel at peace with the decision right now, even though I am still very sad. We all are sad. It will be very hard, but we are excited to see what God has planned for us! Seth is very excited about his new job opportunity. We think it will be very good for us as a family. It can be a new vacation spot for everybody we know!

Seth and I flew down to Houston last week and explored the area. We also hooked up with a real estate agent and started looking at houses. It was exciting to see the prices of houses! They are so much cheaper down there and we can get more for our money! I have to admit, it is a beautiful area, I just wish we could take all of our family and friends with us!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera (crazy, huh?) so I don't have many pictures - I took some with my phone. It is a nice area, pretty flat! They have wonderful schools out there, so we are happy about that. Seth is actually leaving this Monday to start driving down. He starts work on the 19th already! Peyton and I are staying behind for a couple months so she can finish up preschool. In the mean time we hope to sell our house here and buy one in Houston! Seth will be staying with a friend when he goes down there until we can find a house. Crazy stuff!

It has been so busy around here because we have been working hard trying to get our house ready to be put on the market. So every spare minute we have had has been spent doing house stuff. We are finally ready and have had a nice week of relaxing and just trying to keep the house clean! We decluttered, freshened up paint, cleaned and planted flowers!

Well that's enough for now. I am glad that I started this blog - it will really come in handy when we move away! I will hopefully have more time in the future to post more frequently! We had Easter and a bunch of other happenings! Stay tuned!

Fun With Trees

2010-03-17T14:52:00.014-05:00

I just can't help myself from taking a ton of pictures! Every time we play outside I have to take my camera! I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to catch a great picture. We are having some beautiful days here so we have been spending time outside! Peyton had fun running around in the grass and hiding behind the trees.

I think I got some really great pictures. She also checked out our little garden we have where there used to be a tree in the middle, but the tree died. She found some tulips coming up! I found more, but they have been eaten by crazy squirrels. I am not happy about that.

She also drove her car around a little. She had a blast on this beautiful day!

Since Peyton loved playing around the trees so much I decided to set her in one to take some pictures. She loved it! She wanted to stay up there forever!

We are enjoying this weather so much. I can't wait until it is here to stay! I am happy to announce that our snow piles have finally melted!!! At least the ones in our neighborhood. They were here for at least a month! That was crazy! I did notice some trees budding on our walk the other day. Yay! Spring is really almost here!

We have an extra busy weekend ahead of us! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Never A Dull Moment

2010-03-12T14:32:00.012-06:00

Life is so crazy! We have been thrown many curve balls lately. Yesterday Peyton and I were having a nice relaxing morning at home playing, reading, drawing, doing crafts. She made some beautiful pictures!All of a sudden Peyton starts screaming "my finger!" I look over and there is blood everywhere! I found blood dripped all over the floor and it was all over my clothes and Peyton's clothes. She bled through 7 napkins (not exaggerating). I was very scared, but I think I held my composure pretty good. She cut her finger on kids scissors! It was horrible, I was sitting right next to her I promise! She cut her finger really bad. Thank goodness my dad was available to come over and help me get her to the ER. Somebody had to hold the towel around it the whole time. They got us right in because we were bloody and she was crying! She had to get 3 stitches in her tiny finger! Poor baby. I felt so bad. It took 5 people to hold her down and do the stitches! They wrapped her like a burrito in a sheet and left her one arm out. They were really good with her too. I was definitely happy with the service we got at the hospital. They got her all fixed up! She hasn't been too miserable, just a little whiny and says it hurts every once in a while. I have been giving her Motrin when she complains.

On a better note, we went to Emily's last basketball practice and awards ceremony on Monday. Peyton loves to watch her Aunt Emily play basketball!

It was a fun time and Emily did an awesome job! We are so proud of you Emily!

Please continue to pray for us. We have some crazy things going on here.

100 Posts!!

2010-03-10T14:54:00.010-06:00

I can't believe this is my 100th post! It's been almost a year too! I have really enjoyed blogging about our life. Hopefully you have enjoyed reading about it! I may not be a good writer, but I love it. I love to record the things we do and milestones that Peyton hits. It's nice to have all these things written down. Maybe I will get Seth to do a post soon! Are you tired of hearing from me?! Well I am sure you have noticed by now that our look has changed! It took me forever to decide what I wanted, but I think I like it! What do you think?

Speaking of milestones, I forgot to mention the other day that last Tuesday Peyton said her first prayer that wasn't just "Dear Jesus, Amen"! It was the sweetest thing ever and I had tears in my eyes! She has definitely been paying attention! Peyton had spring picture day at school Monday. I got her a new springy outfit and she looked adorable if I may say so myself!Hopefully she did her pretty smile and not her fake smile! She has no eyes when she does her fake smile!

Monday and Tuesday were so warm and beautiful. We finally got outside to play and walk around the block yesterday. Seth and I also got the weeds out of the gardens so our flowers can hopefully come back! Peyton had lots of fun of course running free and blowing bubbles.

Please continue to pray for us. We are in the middle of trying to make some big decisions in our lives. These decisions will affect a lot of people. We want to make sure we do what God wants us to do and not be selfish and do what we want to do. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Stay tuned for a post about my sister Emily's last basketball night and awards ceremony!

What a weekend!

2010-03-08T15:21:00.009-06:00

This weekend was so beautiful! I am so ready for warm weather. Friday we took Peyton to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time. We have been a little leery of it because of germs, but we decided to go anyway! She had so much fun! James, Steph and JJ went with us too! I was so happy to see Peyton so excited and having such a great time! We played games and ate dinner. Peyton played in the huge tunnels for a very long time and made friends! She just had a blast!I had to put the thought of germs aside and just let Peyton enjoy herself. We used a lot of hand sanitizer when she was done! She was a sweaty mess after playing in the tunnels and running around! Peyton's new thing when you tell her to smile is this fake smile you see in most of these pictures. She squints her eyes! Oh my!

Saturday we went to Downs Park to enjoy the beautiful day! It was our first beautiful mild day this year and we just had to get out! James, Steph and JJ went with us too! We played on the playground and then we walked. It was so beautiful along the water.

Peyton found what little snow is left to play in! We had such a wonderful day. We had fun spending so much time with our wonderful friends and neighbors!

We also had a wonderful day at church on Sunday with the kickoff of our spring quarter of Sunday School. We had a wonderful breakfast and opening ceremonies with a great turn out! Sunday School was great and my class had 8 students when we usually have none! It was a wonderful start. If anyone is ever interested to come you are always welcome! We will be doing all kinds of special things!

Too Short

2010-03-03T15:26:00.011-06:00

Ever wonder what to do with dresses that are too short? I love this idea!!Now, I don't think I could ever pull this look off, but how cute is this?! It was very hard to get her to smile as always, but I love this outfit! She was attached to her recorder this morning. Or as she calls it, her whistle! I gave her a bath this morning so I got her hair in a pony tail easily! I love her in a pony tail, but it is so hard to do when her hair is dry.We had to do some self portraits today too:

On a side note, I have been trying to be crafty lately. I made Peyton a hair bow hanger a while ago and it turned out so adorable!

I have made others for baby girl shower gifts too. This week I have made 2 more for some little girls that should have had them a long time ago! Here they are:

I really enjoy doing these. They are so easy! I may be making Peyton a 2nd one soon! She has so many bows! I love making these and giving them as baby girl shower gifts! I am thinking about maybe starting to make a lot of them and selling them on a website that I found where people sell all handmade things. We will see what happens! If anyone is ever interested in one, let me know! I would be happy to make it!

Ski Trip

2010-03-01T16:00:00.008-06:00

Saturday Seth and I went with our youth from church on a ski trip. It was such a beautiful day and so much fun! We went early and we were about done by 4 in the afternoon because we were so tired.

We actually were really hot when we were on the slopes. My gloves were soaked in sweat! I hung with Seth and 2 other guys from church. They did not want to stay on the little slope all day, so I went with them to the big ones! I had a blast, but I think I fell about a hundred times! I had many face plants, rolls, and somersaults down the hills! I just had to laugh at myself! It was pretty funny and I'm sure even funnier for those watching! I lost my poles and skis a lot. I thought I would be able to do the tricks I have been watching on the Olympics, but that didn't work out. Ha!! Not even close! I had such a hard time but it was fun. I am definitely feeling it though! I hurt my shoulder, neck, elbow and knee. Everything else in my body aches too! Maybe I am getting too old for this! I didn't take my camera because it would have gotten destroyed, so the only pics I have are from my phone. They are pretty good though!

The view from the top of the mountain was so beautiful, it was breath taking. Thank goodness we only do this once a year! That's about all my body can handle!

What a Week

2010-02-24T14:14:00.008-06:00

Does this mean she will be following in her father's footsteps?? Haha.

We have had a long week and it's only Wednesday! Peyton had belly issues Monday night so she had me up most of the night. Everything finally came out and I think she is feeling much better now! I think we are still trying to recover from that long night. I am also really tired from staying up too late to watch the Olympics. I wish it wasn't on until midnight every night!

Peyton and Bailey love to hang out together on the couch! They are best buds. Bailey just had his 9th birthday! I can't believe it. He has had some leg issues lately, but besides that he is in good health!
I want to ask you to please pray for our family right now. We are having to make some major important decisions right now and need so much strength and I know through prayer we can achieve it! I'm not going to go into detail right now, I'm sure it will come out eventually. Just please pray for us. We truly need it.

Damage And Then Some!

2010-02-19T15:37:00.010-06:00

The 2 blizzards we had back to back really did some damage to the trees everywhere. I have mainly noticed it really bad along a main drive we have around here that we frequent. On our first drive down this road I really wish I had my camera because the trees were still in the road blocking lanes. You had no warning that your lane was blocked though! It just all of a sudden appeared. Not very safe, but very interesting. Anyway, I finally got some pictures when I finally remembered my camera. I tried to take some with my phone but they didn't turn out at all.

These poor trees! There are crews out trying to clean them up finally. The trees are not used to all this snow!

I wanted to show off the cupcakes Peyton and I made for Valentine's Day. They turned out so cute and Peyton had so much fun helping me!

Peyton made the cutest and my most favorite valentine ever at school! I absolutely love it!

Peyton had fun looking through her valentines from her friends at school. They finally had their party this week!I am almost at 100 posts already! I think some kind of change is in order! Stay tuned and have a great weekend!

Silly Girl

2010-02-17T13:07:00.006-06:00

That's our silly Peyton running around the house in her Mommy's boots! This girl just makes us laugh so much! She is such a joy to be around and can always put a smile on our faces no matter how we are feeling. She has also been saying some really funny things lately:

"You crack me up!" This is because we say it to her all the time!

"Turn it up up" When she wants a song turned up on the radio

"Hey dude, what's up?" I have no idea where this came from!

"You're my bestest ever" She says this to Seth and I a lot - melts my heart!

I'm sure there are more but this is all I remembered to write down! I have to write things down so I won't forget them!

Peyton is definitely entertaining! An update on the big girl bed situation - she has only fallen out of it once in her sleep! Poor baby, but she was fine. She is doing really well staying in it and sleeping good. She has a ton of stuffed animals in there with her and if I take some out she notices and asks where they are! She does not miss a thing!

Random Thoughts

2010-02-15T13:49:00.009-06:00

A good reason to blog and to follow blogs is contests and giveaways! A lot of blogs that I follow frequently have these and sometimes I participate. About a month ago I found a good one on Lauren's blog and I entered it. All I had to do was leave a comment! It is that easy! Most of the contests are that easy. So, you want to know what I won?!Isn't it adorable? I love it and I was so excited to get it! I was shocked that I actually won something! This proves to me that these contests are so worth it!

On another random thought, I was so sad to find Peyton's hat like this one day:

We love this hat! I wasn't sure if it was fixable or not so I left it sitting around for a few days. Well during the snow days I figured maybe I should try sewing it! Sewing is definitely not my thing at all! I usually don't have a clue about it! I studied it for a while and then tried it!

It worked! Don't look too closely at it, but it is sewn back on and I also tightened the other side so we hopefully won't have the same problem again! I just want it to last us through the rest of winter! I was very proud of myself for this!

One more random item! Since we were stuck in the house for so long last week, we really tried to buckle down and work on this:

AAAHHHHHHHHHH is how I feel about this! I am so stressed over this potty training stuff! Peyton really wants nothing to do with it right now. I tried the pull up way and she just peed right in them constantly. So then I tried putting her in underwear. Well, she won't go in those, but she won't go in the potty either! She would just sit on the potty for a very long time and not do anything. She holds it until I put a diaper on her for nap or bed time. I don't think that is too healthy for her so then we just took a break from it. One evening she actually went a little in the potty. We put her underwear back on and celebrated, then she let the rest out all over the floor!! We tried to stay calm and let her know that it was ok but that she should have done it in the potty. She was crying and very upset over peeing in her underwear! Anyway, we are still trying to convince her that using the potty is a good thing. I am just a little confused about why she won't use the potty because on her 2nd birthday she went pee in the potty for the 1st time and for a while after she was going every night before bed. Then all of a sudden one night she went number 2 in the potty and now she won't even barely sit on the potty without a fight. I think it scared her! Ha! Well, I know she won't wear diapers forever and this too shall pass but it is very hard!

Ok enough of my rambling of random thoughts. Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. We just laid low and didn't really do much for each other this year. It's snowing right now but it's not supposed to do much this time around, hopefully! We are still fighting the snow from the last 2 blizzards!

2 Blizzards In Less Than A Week!

2010-02-12T14:40:00.007-06:00

The weather here has been so incredible! We had our 2nd blizzard Tuesday and Wednesday. This one brought a lot of wind with it so it was really hard to get an accurate measurement but between the 2 storms back to back we got around 50 inches of snow. How crazy is that?! There are major snow drifts everywhere and huge snow piles! It is still hard to drive on the roads because you can't see around the snow piles, or the road all of a sudden goes from 2 lanes down to 1. There are also trees down everywhere. It looks like a war zone! I hope I am not boring you with snow pictures but I just can't help myself! The snow is amazing and beautiful and we have been playing in it so much.We have also been spending a lot of time with our wonderful friends and neighbors! Here is Peyton and JJ hanging out in their pj's!You all know by now that Peyton could spend all day playing in the snow if we let her, so more snow play pictures wouldn't surprise you, right?!
Maybe my next post will be about something other than snow, but I can't promise it! There is supposedly more snow coming on Monday - insane! I love the snow but I am so ready for summer after all this! Happy birthday to my mom tomorrow!!

More Blizzard!

2010-02-08T12:46:00.011-06:00

We have been having so much fun in this blizzard! I just keep getting more and more great pictures! Saturday evening we went outside again to shovel a little more and to play. Peyton just has way too much fun in the snow! She absolutely loves it! Bailey wants to go out with us every time too! Sometimes I just stand out there and look around and smile. The amount of snow is unbelievable! It is so beautiful. God has truly shown us what beauty is all about! As we were playing, this beautiful sunset appeared right before our eyes! We hadn't seen the sun in a long time! It was such a relief to see that after all this snow! Saturday night we had our wonderful friends from next door over for some dinner and a movie. We have been enjoying spending a lot of time together the last few days! That's what neighbors are for!! Sunday morning, because church was cancelled, we were back at it again! More shoveling and trying to get the cars out!We finally found the cars after 3 days!! We ended up with around 30 inches of snow! It has been really nice to be stuck at home with Seth and Peyton. Lots of family time! I definitely want to get out of here soon though! Here are some more fun in the snow pictures:

Since church was cancelled, we got to watch the Superbowl! We went over to James and Steph's house for dinner and to watch the game! So much fun!

We tried to build a snowman yesterday but it didn't go too well - the snow wouldn't stick together very well. Maybe later! I can't believe we are supposed to get up to another foot of snow tomorrow night! This is crazy!

Blizzard '10

2010-02-06T13:26:00.008-06:00

We are in the middle of a huge blizzard!! It is crazy the amount of snow we have right now and it is still coming down! It started yesterday around 11 am or so but didn't really start laying until around 4 or 5 pm. It is so beautiful! We have gotten a lot of things done around the house and have also had time to play! We have about 26 or so inches and still more coming until tonight! I always like to let my pictures tell the story, so here goes!This is when it was starting to lay, about 5 in the eveningWe had pizza and games at the Shaws, our great friends and neighbors!This is at about 9pm - starting to pile up!This is this morning at about 8am - couldn't open the door!The cars are missing!This is out our back door!What is better to do on a snow day than to make waffles with your baby girl!
It's a winter wonderland!Peyton loves to play in the snow!Bailey loves the snow too!We have been having so much fun! Can't wait to go back out in the snow this evening! Tomorrow when the snow is done, we may try to do a snowman!

Simple Pleasures

2010-02-04T13:27:00.013-06:00

I saw this idea on another blog called Kelly's Korner that I follow. I have been thinking about my own simple pleasures so I have decided to list them here! These are just some easy simple things that make me happy!

Peyton loving on a baby doll

Chick Fil A or McDonald's sweet tea

Laughing until I cry

Seeing Bailey so excited whenever I come home

Pedicures

Unexpected kisses from Peyton - that don't happen very often anymore!

Laying on a beach on a hot summer day

Getting my hair cut

Lazy summer days hanging at the pool

Watching Peyton swim like a fish!

Hanging out in front of my parent's pellet stove on a cold day

Crock pot dinners

An evening at home with nothing to do except spend time with Seth, Peyton & Bailey

A great big happy "hi mommy!" every morning from Peyton

Silly moments like these:

Beautiful moments like these:

Life is good! What are your simple pleasures??? We are anticipating a big snow storm this weekend!! More snow pics to come I'm sure!

Snowy Day!

2010-02-02T13:56:00.006-06:00

I can not believe it is February! Time flies when you are having fun! We got another good amount of snow this past Saturday! I think we ended up with about 8 inches. It was beautiful, but I really wanted to get out of the house!

Well, I didn't get out of the house, but we did get Peyton's room cleaned and organized! I feel so much better about her room now! Her room has been such a mess almost since she was born. We just have too much "stuff" and no storage in this house! We also switched her bed from a crib to a toddler bed! I am so happy we got the convertible crib for her. It is wonderful. It goes from a crib, to a toddler bed, to a daybed, to a full size bed! I am very glad we bought all of the pieces at the same time so we had them here and ready to go!

I was a little nervous about converting it. It is a whole new stage in Peyton's life! She has to learn to stay in bed and go to sleep when it is time. I really had no idea how it would go. We converted it in the morning so the first try was at nap time. To our surprise she went to sleep fine and never tried to get out! She didn't even get out when she woke up! She was still laying in bed when I went to get her. This made us very happy and I was so relieved. She loves her big girl bed and talks about it all of the time! She is almost excited to go to bed now! Unfortunately she did fall out of her bed last night! I felt so bad for her.

My baby is growing up! Here are some pictures of my big girl:

Bailey likes the new bed too! After nap, we let Peyton play in the snow, I wasn't going to let her because it was so very cold outside, but she loves it so much and kept asking me! Of course she had fun and of course I took some pictures!

We had a lot of fun and got a lot done on our snow day! We are expecting more snow tonight and this weekend! Wow! We will see what else we can get into if we have more snow days!

Weekend Getaway

2010-01-27T15:07:00.008-06:00

This past weekend we went to Ocean City with Seth's family. We went from Thursday to Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend of just hanging out and relaxing. We did a lot of swimming, game playing and eating! The weather was ok, not bitterly cold, not that it really affected us because we mostly stayed at the hotel! Unfortunately Peyton was sick before we went. We decided to still go, because we weren't going to be doing much. She was miserable at some points, still had a fever, but she enjoyed herself a lot too. I can't believe she had a fever for a week straight. She still complains that her leg hurts every once in a while - poor baby.

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures, mostly of Peyton swimming. She did a lot of it, and loved every minute of it! She is beginning to be a very good swimmer! She really has no fear of going out and swimming in the middle of the pool all by herself. With her swimmies of course! Here are some pictures! I took advantage of the empty beautiful beach for some photo ops too. The waves were pretty rough the whole time we were there.

We do this trip every winter as our Christmas present from Seth's parents. It is so much fun to just be around each other relaxing. Thanks mom and dad K!!

New Earrings!

2010-01-19T14:32:00.006-06:00

I have been debating whether or not to get Peyton's ears pierced and at what age. There are pros and cons about it on both sides. I know some people probably don't agree, but we made a decision!

We decided to go with piercing them now. We went on Saturday evening. I was very nervous while we were there. I had to have Seth hold her with him in the chair because I just didn't think I could do it! Megan was with us and she caught a few pictures during the process

I felt guilty, but now she likes them! She only cried for probably less than a minute! We think they are adorable. She lets me clean them for the most part. Sometimes she is hesitant. The next morning she woke up and said, "Mommy look at my earrings!" I loved it. She doesn't really bother them and they haven't been red at all! I tried really hard to get a good picture of her with both of them showing but I wasn't very successful. Here are some of my shots:

That night Megan was over to watch the Ravens game and we played Peyton's game elefun. So I know that piercing her ears didn't traumatize because she was running around and playing within an hour of having it done! She is so brave!

Unfortunately Sunday afternoon Peyton came down with a fever. Overnight it got up to 103 degrees and really scared me. We kept her in bed with us so we could be close and nobody got sleep! We called the doctor in the morning mainly because her heart rate was high too. They diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection. While we were there, Peyton would not walk on her legs. We originally thought it was because she was scared to go back to the room. When it continued at home, we started to really worry. We let her nap and when she woke up and tried to stand, she fell right down. This made me even more scared! So we called the doctor to see what they thought and to see if we should get her to the ER. They said it may be from her fever and that we could probably wait until the morning to come back to the doctors.

So that is what we did, back at the doctors bright and early this morning. They examined her thoroughly and decided it is from her fever. It is called toxic synovitis, it is when they have a fever that lets off toxins and they make the child have joint pain. My poor baby! I feel so bad for her. She wanted to play so bad last night and she would try, and then she would cry and say she can't walk. I will tell you this - it is very scary when your child all of a sudden tells you they can't walk. I am very thankful for the prayers and thankful to God for giving us calmness and patience in finding out what it is. I am so glad it is nothing too serious.

Winter Wonderland Visit!

2010-01-16T13:05:00.014-06:00

Peyton and I went with my Parents and sister Emily to visit my brother Johnny and his wife Gabrielle in Vermont. It was a wonderful trip! There is snow everywhere up there and I loved it! It was so pretty - my pictures do it no justice. We did a lot of just relaxing and hanging out together. We went to some shops here and there and got some goodies like syrup, fudge and maple candies. We visited Shelburne Farms and got some beautiful views of Lake Champlain. We saw some crazy icicles and even played ice hockey in Gabrielle's parent's backyard! They build an ice rink every year! We played in an igloo and Peyton made cookies with Aunt Gab. We ate at Moe's - wonderful mexican restaurant. We played in the snow a lot! Peyton absolutely loves to play in the snow! There was about 3 feet of snow on the ground when we got there! It snowed every day that we were there. There was at least a dusting outside just about every morning! I took so many pictures, I think I will let them show you our trip!
As you can see we had an excellent time! It is so beautiful up there already, but the snow makes it 10 times prettier! There are tons more pictures on my facebook page! Make sure you check them out! Thank you Johnny and Gab for everything you did for us while we were there and for putting up with us! I am enjoying this Saturday of rest - not much to do today and it's wonderful! Ravens play tonight!!

Happy New Year!! (late)

2010-01-13T14:26:00.008-06:00

I'm just trying to catch up here! New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were a lot of fun! After our church service on New Year's Eve we had our good friends James and Steph ad JJ over for some food and games to ring in the new year! Unfortunately Peyton had to go to bed.New Year's Day was more fun with food and games with family at the Stewart's. We mostly played this new Wii game we got called Wii Music. It is so neat! We play it all the time! You can play any kind of instrument you can think of just by using the wiimote and nunchuk. There is even a handbell section where you can have four people playing a song together. That is what we are doing in the pictures! Peyton enjoyed singing karaoke!The day after New Year's Seth's parents had their annual open house. We had fun just chasing Peyton and Mady around the whole time and doing lots of eating!
As you can tell we have been super busy! We have truly enjoyed all of the time we have been able to spend with our family. The moments are priceless!

Spending Time With Family

2010-01-12T14:21:00.009-06:00

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth! Peyton and I along with my parents and sister went up to Vermont to see my brother Johnny and his wife Gabrielle. This trip was already planned before they surprised us on Christmas! We had a great time, but that will have to wait because I am very behind on things here!

So anyway, after Christmas the festivities didn't stop! Actually they didn't stop until we got back from our trip this past Saturday.

We had a get together with Seth's family where Peyton had a ball playing with her second cousin Mady.

We spent a lot of time at my parents house to visit with Johnny and Gab the few days they were here.

Our Christmas cantata and program at church were postponed because of the blizzard so that threw things off a bit too. Seth and I were Mary and Joseph in the play!

We had Christmas with my Grandma Irene one night too:

We went to see Christmas lights this night too. Peyton loves to look at the lights! She is still looking for them at night and it is sad that they are all gone! She also sings along with all of the Christmas carols and I will miss that until next season! She knows the words to so many! I caught some on video too so maybe that will come eventually - once I get myself caught up!

I think we are almost caught up! Stay tuned! Picture overload coming your way!!

A Very Merry Christmas!

2009-12-29T15:49:00.012-06:00

Christmas morning I was so excited to get Peyton and bring her downstairs to see the tree with all the presents! I got the new video camera and taped her coming down the steps and seeing everything. She wasn't sure what to think at first! After we showed her everything she got to opening right away! Unfortunately she lost interest shortly after. We had to keep convincing her to open gifts! As long as she enjoyed herself! She wanted to open every toy that she unwrapped, and if it was clothes she just threw them! I think I will let pictures do most of the talking. I have tons of them!

We took a break after Peyton lost interest to get breakfast ready for my parents and sister Emily. We had a wonderful breakfast of applewood smoked bacon, pancakes, cinnamon buns, apple muffins and fruit. Our house smelled like Cracker Barrel for days after that! Peyton was happy to see my parents and more presents!

After we had lots of Christmas fun, we got ready to go to my Grandparent's house with my mom's side of the family. While my parents were home, they got a wonderful surprise - my brother and sister in law who live in Vermont were on the front step! So they had to surprise us on Skype before we left. It was great! We had fun at my Grandparents as always! Peyton found a Nativity scene to keep herself occupied!

We had a very merry Christmas and we hope you all did too! Our fun continued well into this week so stay tuned! Lots more pictures to share! If you want to see them now, check out my facebook page!

Happy New Year!!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The year!

2009-12-28T20:12:00.008-06:00

Wow have we been busy! We have been really enjoying ourselves though! The Christmas festivities started on Christmas Eve at Seth's parent's house. We had a very yummy dinner, exchanged gifts, and just enjoyed each other. Peyton got this antique baby cradle with homemade bedding from her Grandma and Pop-Pop K! It is adorable! Once she opened that she was pretty much done. All she wanted to do was play with it!

She also loved to play with the jingle bell tree! I really thought Peyton would absolutely love opening presents this year, but she kept losing interest in them. It would come in waves! She still enjoyed herself though.

We went home and got our Christmas jammies on and then put the reindeer food out! We had so much fun this year explaining everything to Peyton because she understands so much! She definitely knows the true meaning of Christmas - celebrating the birth of Jesus. We also introduced Santa to her so we could have a little fun with that! She was still too scared to sit on his lap unfortunately. The only time we got a picture of her with Santa was her first Christmas because she didn't know any better yet! I almost had her convinced, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year!

My next post will be Christmas Day - I have way too many pictures for one post! So much has happened since then too! Stay tuned!

Blizzard!!

2009-12-21T12:53:00.025-06:00

We had a wonderful blizzard over the weekend! I love snow and Peyton seems to be taking after her mom! We had lots of fun being snowed in together this weekend. It rarely happens, so we took advantage of it! Peyton could not wait to get out in the snow! She was watching from the window all morning until we got outside! We started our day off with giant cinnamon buns:

This is what I found when I opened the back door to let Bailey out:

We had to dig out a spot for Bailey! He loves the snow too!

We played outside a few different times - it was pretty cold and we haven't found snow gloves for Peyton yet. She just had her knit ones! Poor baby. She didn't care though! She never wanted to go inside!

Peyton didn't care too much for sledding down the hill, but she loved to just sit and play in the sled!

Weatherman Seth measured a few times - our end total was 20 inches! It was so great!

Peyton helped Daddy shovel! She is such a good helper!After shoveling twice on Saturday, that night we tried to open the front door and found this again:

This snowfall was crazy! We went back out and played again after Seth shoveled us out, again.

The giant snowflakes kept getting in the way of my pictures! We shoveled a little path between our house and our neighbors James & Steph's house so we could get back and forth easy!

James and Steph and baby JJ came over for dinner and games! I have no idea why Peyton kept putting her hands in her mouth like this! Every picture I tried to take of these two, she was doing it!JJ playing phase 10! How cute is he?! Peyton was relaxing with Steph while eating cookies and playing games!

I made cookies too! I go the very easy way out - ready bake cookies! All you have to do is pick the cookies off the tray and stick them in the oven! Some may say I am lazy, but I think it is resourceful! I don't have to stand in the kitchen forever baking! I made 4 dozen cookies while we played games! They are all gone already! Here are the Christmas tree ones:
We had lots of fun on Sunday too! Church was cancelled because of the amazing blizzard, so we had another day all together at home! I will post more on that tomorrow! This post is way too long!

Happy 17th birthday to my sister Emily!!

I Love New York!

2009-12-19T14:12:00.013-06:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to join Seth on his latest business trip to New York and Connecticut. I was very excited, but very sad to leave Peyton! I only cried every once in a while, not the whole time! I couldn't wait to get into New York city to see all the Christmas decorations. I have always wanted to go there during the Christmas season. We took a train up from BWI to Stamford Connecticut where we actually stayed, on Sunday night. Monday Seth only had one meeting in New York and then we got to spend the rest of the day in the big NYC! I took so many pictures! It was a pretty nice day, not too cold which was good for us! I wandered around for a couple of hours by myself while Seth was in his meeting! I was just taking in the atmosphere and beautiful decorations!

I also explored M&M World! Any color M&M you can think of! This is one of my favorite places to visit here!

Then of course I had to go see the biggest Toys R Us ever! I have a toddler so I had to see what I could get my hands on! This place was so crazy!

I met up with Seth for lunch and then we were off to see some more! The major thing I really wanted to see was the tree in Rockefeller Center. Here it is!

We spent a lot of time in Times Square. One day I will be there to see the ball drop! This picture will have to do though, of where the ball is dropped every year:

We debated going to see the Spectacular Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall, and I am so glad we decided to go! It was a great show! It had the Rockettes and dancing Santa's in it! They also showed the real reason for Christmas in a beautiful manger scene that gave me goosebumps! I did take a few pictures in there, even though we weren't supposed to! I couldn't help myself! Don't tell on me!

On Tuesday and Wednesday Seth had tons of meetings between NYC and Stamford so I just decided to hang around our hotel and explore Downtown Stamford. I did a lot of relaxing around the pool and hot tub! I definitely needed some of this down time! We ate at a few different places and met up with an old friend of Seth's while we were there too! It was a good time away with my husband, but I missed Peyton so very much! This was the first time being away from Peyton for more than one day and night! I teared up every time I talked to her on the phone. She did wonderful though, my parents kept her at their house and she had so much fun that she didn't have time to miss us! Thanks mom and dad! I am very glad for the opportunity to tag along with my husband and see what he does on all these trips he goes on!

On another note, we are in the middle of a blizzard here! I love it! We are having so much fun playing in the snow and hanging out together! Here is a sneak peek - I will post more tomorrow!

Joys of having a toddler

2009-12-10T14:33:00.008-06:00

There are so many joys in having a toddler running around the house! Peyton makes us laugh all the time. She has her attitude moments, but the fun times outweigh them! We were going through some really hard times with her for a while, but they seem to be tapering off. Yay! I have taken some silly pictures of her lately and I wanted to share them! Starting with the top picture, I got this Santa from my Grandma and Peyton loves it! She carries it around the house and talks to it and kisses it! Too cute! He's really not made for that, but it's too cute to tell her to stop! Unfortunately she is afraid of the Santa in the mall!

This picture is hilarious! We were doing a photo shoot for our Christmas card and Peyton did not want to cooperate! Seth's face is priceless!

Peyton does not like her picture taken much anymore! I have to chase her around the house and I rarely get a good picture anymore! She was telling me to get!

This is silly because she was obsessed with this Thanksgiving card from Johnny and Gab. She would not eat unless it was sitting right next to her! She cracked me up!

She has also been saying some really funny things lately! Just about everyday she will say things that catch us off guard because we don't think she should be talking that well, or we didn't know that she even knew that word! In the car if she wants a song turned up she will say " Mommy, turn it up up"! I love that. For a while she would say to us "Hey dude, what's up?"! I have no idea where that came from at all! She definitely keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing with what she says!

We had a lot of fun on our shopping trip over the weekend! It was so cold and rainy on Saturday, but we made the best of it! As always we laughed ourselves sick and ate too much! I didn't take my camera so I have no pictures. I took one on my phone of Megan crocheting though! We watched Christmas movies and relaxed more than usual because of the bad weather. I did put a good dent in my shopping, but I'm not done yet!

O Christmas Tree!

2009-12-03T14:35:00.016-06:00

Ever since we have been married Seth and I have gotten our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I look forward to it every year and this year I was extra excited! I knew Peyton would finally be so into it and interested this year! We went in the morning so we could have all day to decorate the tree and the house. Peyton had so much fun running around the tree lot and playing. Yes, we go to a tree lot where they are already cut. We have always gone to the same one. One year I would like to cut our own though. I think that would be so fun! I got some really cute shots of Peyton running around and enjoying herself: It was so cold, very appropriate for Christmas tree getting! That's why Peyton had to wear this adorable hat!

This is the face she gave me after I asked her which one she liked!

Here she is checking the tree out, making sure everything was OK and there were no squirrels in it!

She was running through all the trees. This is a little blurry, but her face is priceless! She was having so much fun!

Daddy and Peyton walking through the trees. So sweet.

Mommy and Peyton decorating our Christmas tree!

Peyton telling me where to put the ornament! She lost interest shortly after this unfortunately, but that is the attention span of a 2 year old! We had fun while it lasted!

Here is our finished Christmas tree! We did a bow on top this year for the first time. I have never really loved our tree topper and can't find one that I love.

Here is Peyton with our beautiful Christmas tree! She doesn't bother it too much. Sometimes I will catch her playing with a branch and I will just watch and see what she is going to do. She usually just touches it and walks by. She's just a curious 2 year old! I tried to keep the glass ornaments and sentimental ornaments up high. Hopefully we won't lose any this year compared to the 3 we lost last year by those little hands! We will see! We also decorated here and there around the house. We don't do much because we don't have much room to! Hopefully the outside decorations will go up over the weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, I am going on an all ladies shopping trip with the women from my Moms side of the family. I can't wait! We go to the Rehoboth outlets . Whether we do much buying or not, we always have a good time together!

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-01T13:43:00.022-06:00

Wow, it's been a long few days around here! I have been fighting a migraine since Saturday. It was so bad Saturday night that I decided I needed to go the the ER. Thank you so much mom for coming over in the middle of the night to be with Peyton! Anyway, after an IV for 2 different drugs I felt a little better. One of the medicines made me shake uncontrollably for a few minutes. I did not like that! So they sent me on my way after my pain went down some. They sent me home with some regular pain killers. Unfortunately I woke up with it again on Sunday after sleeping for a few hours when we got home from the hospital. The pain meds seemed to work for a while but not take it away. So, I lived until Monday when I could get to my regular DR. She sent me home with migraine meds and a referral to see a neurologist. The migraine meds finally worked! I can finally function like a normal human being again. I do not like not being able to do regular every day things for myself. Thank you to my parents who kept Peyton all day Sunday and took Peyton to and from school on Monday. Thank you to my wonderful husband who did so much around the house and took care of me and Peyton! Thank you also to everyone who offered help and sent well wishes and prayers. I truly appreciate everything. So that is why my Thanksgiving post has been delayed!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to Seth's parents first to celebrate with his family. We ate tons of yummy food and got to just hang out and relax a little. Peyton played her Pop-Pop's drums! One of her favorite things to do!

After we left there, we went to my Grandparent's house. Peyton took about a 10 minute snooze on the way there:

We ate a little more and had some dessert. Then we had fun playing games. We played Mad Gab and Imaginiff. If you haven't played these games you should! They are hilarious games! Peyton ran around and visited everyone.

As you can tell we had a very busy, but very fun day! It was nice to sit and visit with the ones we love. We definitely missed you Johnny and Gabrielle and Sharon and Scott! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! On Friday we went to pick out our Christmas tree! That will have to be a whole other post! This one is so long! Have a great day!

Happy 31st Birthday Seth!

2009-11-25T14:36:00.012-06:00

I can't believe my husband is 31! Seems like yesterday we started dating and he was in college. That was a long time ago I guess! I made a spice cake with cream cheese icing. It was yummy! I decorated it too! It didn't look as good as Peyton's though. I have such horrible handwriting! It's the thought that counts, right?! We had some friends and family come over for cake after dinner. We needed help eating that cake!

I hope you enjoyed your day and had a happy birthday Seth! Peyton was so excited to give him that picture of them together. It is so cute.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Time is flying! Christmas will be here and over before we know it! There are a million things I am thankful for. There is no way I can list them all here. But I will list a few!

I am thankful for:

My loving husband
My beautiful daughter
My salvation through Jesus Christ
All of our parents
All of our families
Our dog Bailey
Our house
Wonderful friends
My husbands job
Our church and church family

This list could go on and on! We are so thankful to God for everything. I hope you are too! Hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Make sure you spend time thanking God for everything he has given you.

Grandparents Day At School!

2009-11-20T15:04:00.012-06:00

Today was Grandparents Day at Peyton's school! Peyton was excited until she got in front of all the grandparents! She kind of clammed up! Oh well, it was an opportunity for Peyton's grandparents and great grandparents to see her school and classroom! We can surely tell that Peyton is a well loved child! She had 8 grandparents and great grandparents there to see her! Here is Peyton and most of her class getting ready to perform! Fingers in the mouth shows she is nervous!Here is Peyton with some of her good friends in the class

Here is Peyton waiting patiently afterwards to go eat some doughnuts!

Peyton with my grandparents (my moms parents) Peyton with my parentsPeyton with Seth's grandparents (his moms parents)Peyton with Seth's parentsPeyton with her Grandmas!
Peyton, Megan and I

It was a fun morning! Thank you to Peyton's grandparents and great grandparents for coming to the little program! She was so happy to have you all there! I thank God all the time that Peyton has so much family around that loves her and wants to spend time with her! She is blessed to have so many great grandparents! We love you all!

Busy Week & Terrible Two's

2009-11-17T15:05:00.022-06:00

When Seth came home one of the first things that needed to be done was to help me upload my pictures! Sometimes it is finicky and I need help with it. My husband is so good in the technology area! I just wanted to share some cute pictures I have taken in the past week or two.

You wouldn't think Peyton was going through the terrible two's by the look of these pictures, but don't let her fool you!! She is testing Seth and I so much lately. We need all the prayers we can get about this! I really need a lot of strength some days to deal with the attitudes. Anyway, on to the fun stuff!

Even though Seth was away last week, we still had a little fun! Tuesday we went to dinner at Los Portales (yum) to visit with my cousin Sharon and her husband who moved to Oregon. We had a wonderful time and the food was delicious as always!

Thursday night Peyton and I went to the aquarium with Seth's family to see Polar Express in 4D. Peyton was so scared! She had to leave the theater! She was screaming - poor baby. She still had fun after that though, we got to wander the whole aquarium! Peyton loves the aquarium! It was really nice to see everything without the crowds. There was also free cookies and hot chocolate! We had a great time!

Peyton was scared to see Santa at the aquarium, but she did get a picture with the conductor and Santa just happened to be in the background!

Friday night we just hung around my parents house relaxing from the long week. Peyton helped her Pop-Pop do a little paper work!

It was such a busy week! That seems to be our life anymore! Busy, busy, busy!! Tis the season! I also have to show you Peyton's adorable Minnie shoes she got from my parents. They would have went perfectly with her Halloween costume, but we didn't get them until after! She can still wear them with her dresses to church! They have heels and they light up!

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving! Time flies when you're having fun! Tuesday is Seth's 31st birthday! Wow! Another busy week ahead of us!

Craziness!

2009-11-12T10:57:00.007-06:00

I just wanted to let you know that we have not fallen off the face of the earth! It has been a little crazy around here lately. Seth is out of town for work so Peyton, Bailey and I have decided to stay with my parents for a while! We are having fun, but we have been busy! Unfortunately I am having issues downloading pictures off of my camera right now, so as soon as Seth comes home I will have lots to share! I am so excited to go pick up Peyton's 2 year and Christmas photos today! Here is a sneak peek:
I am very happy with how they turned out as always! JC Penneys Photo always does a great job!

Halloween Fun

2009-11-02T14:10:00.024-06:00

Well, despite the weather being rainy, we had a great day! The rain would come and go, but it was so warm! I am so glad because I didn't have to put a coat over Peyton's beautiful costume! Peyton had a blast, mostly just running around. We had fun just watching her enjoy herself! She was Minnie Mouse. My neighbor and good friend Steph and I took some pictures of our babies together in their outfits early on in the day.

They are so cute! Peyton loves him so much. She wants to hold him all the time! Peyton had to pose with one of our pumpkins:

It seems like all Peyton did all day was eat candy! I feel like a horrible parent! Every time I turned around she was eating a different piece of candy! Bailey stole some from her too, so she didn't eat as much as it seemed!

Here is our Mickey and Minnie! We have had Peyton's Minnie costume for a while, and when we saw the Mickey one for bailey, we just had to have it! How cute is that?! I loved it. Even though it took us forever to get a good picture of them together, it was worth it!

Peyton had so much fun trick or treating. That is, until we walked up to a house with scary noises! She was scared and done! Oh well we enjoyed it while it lasted!

Here is Peyton and Seth - she is eating yet another piece of candy! So is Seth! Peyton enjoyed handing out candy more than trick or treating I think! She would run to give them the candy and say "O, trick or treaters"! I loved it. It was the cutest.

Peyton and baby JJ posing in their costumes after a very long and tiring evening! Peyton was so tuckered out, see:

But she was still eating candy! The funny thing about the candy is that she just discovered it a couple weeks ago and now that is all she wants! I use it to get her to go potty and I think I have created a monster! Speaking of potty training, Peyton has been doing pretty good with going consistently at bath time every night. It makes me happy! It's a start! Anyway, here is Peyton with Aunt Brie and Uncle Bryan who stopped by to check out Peyton in her costume:

And here is Peyton with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop ( Seth's Parents):

It cracks me up to see Peyton eating a piece of candy in almost every picture! She is so funny! We had a wonderful evening hanging outside with our friends as always! Even though Peyton wasn't too interested in the trick or treating, she still had tons of fun and we had fun watching her!

I don't think I have posted the pictures from the Special Olympics Halloween party we went to with my parents and Emily, so I will do that now! She was pretty scared at this party, but she kind of got over it! I think it helped for Halloween night because she wasn't too scared on Saturday! She just backed away from the scary ones! It was funny sometimes she would be so busy trying to get candy to give out that she didn't even notice that it was a scary costume in front of her! Anyway, here are some pics from Tuesday night's party:

She did not want to leave her Daddy's legs! Notice she did have a black nose for the party - yes I forgot to add it for Halloween! Whoops!!

Peyton with Grandma and Pop-Pop (my parents) She did end up having a little fun, until the same scary person kept scaring her!
Here is Peyton and her Aunt Emily! Of course Peyton has candy in her hand! I hope everyone had as much as we did! I can't believe it is November and time to start thinking about Christmas!

Some Moments In Life Are Just...

2009-10-30T14:09:00.012-05:00

Priceless

Always have your camera with you! These moments are so priceless and won't last forever! Kids grow up way too fast! Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween! We are preparing for our hundreds of trick or treaters that come our way!

The Beauty Of Fall

2009-10-28T13:54:00.013-05:00

As much as I love summer, I have to admit that fall is so beautiful! These are just some pictures I have taken lately of the beauty that God has put around us. I of course had to add some pics of Peyton! She is Minnie for Halloween this year!

Disinfecting

2009-10-22T13:49:00.005-05:00

Can you tell who has not been feeling well lately? Her eyes are so puffy and red and gunky. Poor baby. I had her at the doctors last week for coughing and just not acting herself and they couldn't find anything wrong. So yesterday when she woke up looking like this, I decided to take her back. She now has a sinus infection. Hopefully her medicine will knock it all out of her! She is still playing and almost acting like herself. I think she looks a lot worse than she feels, or she just doesn't want to slow down! So I have been on a mission today to clean and disinfect as much as I can! Seth has also not been feeling well so I am trying my hardest to stay healthy! I really don't have time to get sick!

Poor Peyton had to miss school yesterday because of not feeling well, but I think she will be good to go for tomorrow! She loves school so I hate for her to miss.

We have been busy!

2009-10-19T15:44:00.010-05:00

The last week was so busy for us! Lots of fun things have been going on. Seth went on his first business trip in a long time, we were very sad about that. Since I don't like to stay home alone much, Peyton, Bailey and I went to stay with my parents for a while! It's always nice to go back home for a while and hang out with my parents. Of course Peyton enjoyed it! She is always up for some extra cuddling and spoiling! On Thursday evening my Aunt JoAnn, cousin Vera and her husband Koudou came for a visit! We had fun visiting with them. It seemed like all we did was eat and play! It was a nice, short but sweet visit with them. Here are some pics of us hanging out and enjoying each other!Peyton and Bailey laying low on the couch - I think Peyton is teething because she has been really fussy and not quite herself

Peyton got this beautiful apron from Aunt JoAnn - it's from Greece! Thanks Aunt JoAnn!!

Peyton cheesing it up with Vera! They were watching Elmo of course!

Here is a group picture without Seth because he wasn't home yet

Peyton and Koudou - she loved him after he started giving her candy!

A group pic when Seth got home, but Koudou left!

We had such a fun visit - can't wait to see you all again real soon! Thanks mom and dad for housing us and feeding us for a while!

You Make Me Smile...

2009-10-12T15:02:00.015-05:00

Peyton Lynn makes us smile everyday! Whether it's an "I love you", or "I missed you", or just a beautiful smile, she always gets us! The things she says sometimes just melts my heart. Here are just a few pictures that make me smile

I chose these because I don't think I posted any of these before. I was trying to be different!

One thing that you can do to make me smile is go and vote for Peyton in the Gap Casting Call photo contest. I thought we would give it a try. It would be great to get lots of votes!!! Go here and vote please! http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/kegginskrew/123500826/

PRETTY PLEASE!!!!

PS - I know you will probably have to register to vote, but I really want Peyton to win! Please help! And vote once a day too!! Thank you in advance!

Pumpkin Farm

2009-10-09T15:23:00.012-05:00

On Monday, Peyton and I along with the whole preschool, went to the pumpkin farm. It was a beautiful day! We have been so blessed with beautiful days lately when we have something planned! It was a very fun morning. We got an education in all the different types of gourds and pumpkins. We also got a tour through some fields of sweet potatoes and cotton. It is very interesting. Then we got to visit with some animals.

Peyton loves the animals. After the animals we went for a hay ride around the farm and stopped at the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins.

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back with daddy! Don't mind my hair - it was very windy! I am looking forward to this weekend! I have been substituting at the preschool all week and I am very tired! Have a great weekend!

Renaissance Festival

2009-10-05T14:59:00.019-05:00

We discovered the Renaissance Festival this weekend. We had such a beautiful day! Peyton and I have never been and we have been trying to go all season! It was so much fun! There are so many things to do and see. People walk around in costume and do little shows every once in a while. There are a bunch of stages set up where there is always some kind of show going on! Peyton was trying to figure out what in the world was going on! She wasn't so sure at first of all of the people dressed up and the music, but she loved it eventually! The first show we saw as soon as we walked in was fun. Peyton had a great time at the bubble station! I think she would have stayed there all day!

We really wanted Peyton to have a cute flower headband, so we found one and it looked so adorable! She kept it on pretty much the whole day!

The highlight of Peyton's day was the pony rides! She went for a pony ride 4 times! I wasn't sure if she would like it, but she loved it! She cried when she had to get off!

I know this is a picture of her back, but it is so cute! I love it! Seth did as good job on this pic!

We all took turns going with Peyton and the ponies! Peyton also discovered a love for fried macaroni and cheese!

Thank you guys for going with us! We had so much fun! It was so much bigger than what I imagined. If you have never been you should check it out! There are a few weekends left! We also saw a jousting show and an awesome Celtic band. We ate fried macaroni and cheese and fried pickles - so yummy! There is fried everything you can imagine there! I am so ready to go again!

Peyton and I went with her preschool class to the pumpkin farm today. We had fun and another beautiful day! More on that later!

Sesame Street Live

2009-10-01T13:30:00.011-05:00

We took Peyton to see Sesame Street Live in Baltimore a couple weeks ago. We weren't sure if she would like it or be scared. Good thing she loved it! It was a really cute show. We all enjoyed ourselves Unfortunately it was freezing cold in the arena so Peyton had to wear her rain coat the whole time! She would sing and dance right along with all of the characters! I loved watching her enjoy herself so much.

Peyton never took her eyes off of the show! She would put her hands up to her mouth and yell "Elmo", "Big Bird", "Cookie"! She was calling them to get their attention. I loved it! Of course Elmo was her favorite, but she is really starting to love Cookie Monster too! She loves to sing Cookie's C is for Cookie song!

We decided to go last minute - the day of, but we still had pretty good seats. I am glad we went! Peyton loved it. We didn't buy anything there because it was way over priced! It was another fun family memory!

I can't believe it is October already! We are having nice cool weather to go along with it! Happy weekend and happy fall!!

Fun Times

2009-09-28T15:02:00.005-05:00

My brother and sister-in-law, Johnny and Gabrielle, were here for a few days and for Peyton's party. We did a lot of things and had lots of fun! It's been so crazy busy that I am just getting to write about it.

One day that they were here Peyton and I joined them on a trip to the aquarium. It was Peyton's first time! We all had a lot of fun! She loved to look at all the fish and other things. She especially loved the nemo fish! It is such a neat place. The jellyfish exhibit was crazy! Some of the different types of jellyfish were crazy looking. Peyton loved the piggyback rides from her Aunt and Uncle!

The next day we went to Lancaster to go the little shops around there. Kitchen Kettle Village is such a cute little place! Peyton had fun chasing chickens at our first stop!

We also stopped to feed some animals, but Peyton wasn't so sure about that!

She's such a cute little apple! Peyton got to be up close and personal with a horse and buggy too! It was a nice day to just hang out together. It is such a pretty area.

It was so nice to have you guys here for a visit and to come to Peyton's party! We had lots of fun! Now I need to go get my meatloaf in the oven!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday Party

2009-09-23T14:48:00.016-05:00

It has been so crazy, but very fun around here lately! We have done so much in the past week. We did many things with Johnny & Gabrielle while they were here, but for now I will post about Peyton's party. I think it went very well! I was stressed, but that is normal! God blessed us with such a beautiful day! It was too cool to swim, but it was beautiful! It was Elmo themed and I had a lot of fun finding all the Elmo stuff. We had all kinds of Elmo favors for the goody bags. We also had lots of Elmo decorations and used a lot of red.

I hope Peyton enjoyed herself! I think she did! She loves to play and run around and that is what she did most of the day! She really loves the trampoline at my parent's house (that is where we had the party). She just kept wanting to jump!

We had an Elmo pull string pinata. They don't work! The kids pulled all the strings out, and then we had to get the bat! Maybe there is some kind of trick to them I don't know. It was fun anyway!

There's the birthday girl beating Elmo! She knew just what to do! I loved the birthday cake! When I first saw the picture in the store, I knew exactly what I wanted and we got it! It turned out so well and Peyton adored it! The first time she saw it she tried to dig right in!It has Elmo, Dorothy and Mr. Noodle on top. It obviously wasn't going to feed everybody so we had other desserts too! I made signs that I thought were cute also. I kind of played off the Sesame Street stuff they do:

It was such a fun day and it was very nice to see everyone together having fun! Thank you all so much for the gifts, food brought and for coming! We could not have pulled it off without everyone's help! It made for a wonderful day!

My big 2 year old birthday girl! She was trying to play badminton!

Our family photo! Peyton Lynn we love you so much! We hope you had a wonderful 2nd birthday! You are turning into such a wonderful little girl. God has truly blessed us with you!

Stay tuned for more fun that happened last week! I have lots more pictures! They are on Facebook too if you are interested!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday Celebration!

2009-09-16T13:01:00.013-05:00

We had such a fun day yesterday! I still am in shock from my baby turning 2 though! We decided to go to Lake Waterford yesterday morning for Peyton to play a while and see the ducks. She had fun as always! It was a beautiful day.

We then headed to lunch and met my mom at Chikfila. Peyton loves chicken and french fries and I thought I would treat her on her birthday! I let her play a while too. After nap and dinner, we had the grandparents and some aunts and an uncle come over for cake and ice cream. It was yummy and fun! Peyton got some great presents that she can't stop playing with!

She loved everything! She wanted to open the toys right away! I love seeing her so happy! I can not wait to get her out and about on that tricycle! She is already starting to get the hang of the pedals! I wasn't going to make a cake, but then I changed my mind! I made a funfetti cake with cream cheese icing. I had tons of fun decorating it! I don't do it very often because my handwriting is horrible, but I took my time and it came out pretty good if I may say so myself!

She really enjoyed her cake! It was a lot cleaner than last year! I really enjoyed seeing her happy and enjoying herself with everybody and her gifts. Thank you for her gifts! She loves them! Peyton has her 2 year checkup this afternoon. Can't wait to see how much she has grown!

I have been wanting to post about Sesame Street Live that we went to, but birthdays are more important! Maybe tomorrow!

Birthday!

2009-09-15T13:18:00.013-05:00

Happy 2nd birthday to our beautiful, wonderful baby girl Peyton!! We love you so much! I can not believe it has been 2 years! Time goes by so fast!

Still feels like yesterday when she came into this world, after lots and lots of work! It was a scary day and didn't go how we anticipated by far, but we are all here and healthy now! We thank God constantly for blessing us with this beautiful child and we realize how blessed we truly are.

She is growing into such a wonderful and fun toddler. She amazes us everyday with new things that she does. She speaks in complete sentences a lot. She is starting to really understand what is going on around her. She knows her alphabet and can count to 12. She has now just started telling us that she is hungry and I think it is so sweet! She is becoming very independent. She loves to play with other kids. She loves Elmo, Mickey & Minnie, and Handy Manny. She also loves to play with cars! She likes a lot of boy things which makes me laugh. She does love her baby though! Her baby goes a lot of places with us! We have had a fun day so far, but I will do another post about what we did!

Enjoying the Last Days of Summer

2009-09-10T13:49:00.018-05:00

We have been taking advantage of the nice days we have been having around here! We are so sad to see summer go, but looking forward to fall. I have been slowly changing the decor around here to fall. Besides Peyton going to school 3 days a week, we have been doing a few other things too. Not too much though - school takes up a lot of time! It doesn't seem like it, but by the time we get home and eat lunch, it's time for nap and then when she wakes up it's almost dinner time! The days are flying by. Peyton is almost through 2 weeks of school already! She still loves it so that is good. We are really enjoying the different songs she is coming home singing! It is so sweet.

Last Thursday was a beautiful day so Peyton and I stopped to get my dad who was off work and we went to the park. Peyton loves to run around and play! Her other favorite things at Kinder Farm Park are the animals. Peyton had a ton of fun playing with her pop-pop.

Peyton just cracks me up. Every morning before school she stands in front of the wall where I took her 1st day of school pictures. She then stands there and says "cheeseburgers" until I take her picture! She is so silly. She has gone from never looking at me for pictures to wanting me to take her picture all the time! She also wants me to take her picture every time I pick up the camera! So I have many school day pictures and also random pictures. I love it!

Poor child smiles like her mother - with no eyes! Anyway, we had a lot of fun on this holiday weekend too. We relaxed most of it, then Monday we had a little cookout at my parent's house. We jumped on the trampoline and swam even though it was chilly. We figured it may be our last chance! Peyton went down the big slide! I loved it! I thought she liked it, but then she wouldn't do it again! I only got one blurry picture and her grandparents didn't see it happen so I am a little sad, but hopefully next year she will like it! We had fun playing games too!

It was a fun, fun day! I just realized that I never gave a final update on the pacifier. Peyton has been off the pacifier for almost 2 months! She is such a big girl! I can't believe she will be 2 years old on Tuesday. Time flies when you're having fun! Here is one more school day picture from yesterday:
I got my hair cut yesterday and I am so happy with it! It is easy to fix too! That is the best part! Those pictures and more will be on facebook!

Peyton's 1st Day of Preschool!

2009-09-02T13:26:00.015-05:00

We have been so busy around here! Seems like that is all I ever write on here anymore! Peyton started preschool and she absolutely loves it! She is doing so well. She didn't even cry when I left her on Monday. I didn't really expect her to though, considering my mom is her teacher. She went right in and started playing. I did cry when I dropped her off. I do not like to leave her! I know she was with my mom, but I really was going to miss her, and I did! The time went by pretty fast while she was there, and I kept thinking about her. It is very different without Peyton in the house! I am excited to see what she is going to learn. I am so happy that she enjoys it. Sometimes I wonder if she enjoys it too much though. Both Monday and today when I went to pick her up, she cried because she didn't want to leave with me! I guess it is a good thing, but it makes me kind of sad. I can't wait to get back and pick her up, and she doesn't want me! Hopefully that will change when she realizes this is a permanent routine and she will be back.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Peyton on her first day of school!

Sorry I had to put so many, I couldn't decide which ones were my favorite! Here is one from today I just had to take because her outfit was too cute:

On top of Peyton starting school this week, I have been substituting at her school in the afternoons with aftercare. So we have been very busy this first week and we are very tired! I can't imagine how the working moms do it!

Sunday, Peyton was promoted to the next Sunday School class. I was sad then too. She looked so sweet and big on the platform!

There are more and more signs that our baby girl is growing up! I am in shock I think! Her 2nd birthday is coming up so fast!

Getting Ready For School!

2009-08-28T13:55:00.015-05:00

I can't believe we are getting ready to send Peyton to preschool. It feels like just yesterday she was born! I know it's only preschool, and it's only 3 days a week for 3 hours a day, but I am going to miss her so much! I am just so used to having her here with me and doing things together all day. I will be lonely running errands all by myself!

I do have plans to get a lot of things done around here that I can't do while chasing Peyton around! Hopefully I will at least be able to put a dent in my list! I know she will have so much fun. She loves to play with other kids and there are so many new and exciting toys there! I know she will do well, considering my mom is the teacher! That is the only reason we are sending her to preschool this early! I know she will be comfortable having my mom with her. She will learn so much too! She is so ready for more structure and learning. She also needs the socialization with other people. I am sad, but very excited!

Yesterday we had meet the teacher in the morning and we went just for the fun of it! She loved everything in the classroom and playing with the other kids. Another good thing is that she has a friend from church in her class too! I know they will have fun together! Here are some pictures of Peyton in her classroom:

She is sitting in the Elmo chair in the reading area.This is the science areaPlay dough!She's going to love school!Here is her hook where she will hang her backpack and coat!Peyton with her teachers Mrs. Cathy (aka Grandma!) and Mrs. Annette

Peyton will be starting school on Monday! She is also being promoted to the next Sunday School class at church on Sunday! So many things to rub in the fact that she is growing up! I can't believe she will be 2 in a couple weeks! Where did the time go?!

Yummy Recipe

2009-08-25T15:56:00.009-05:00

I found another very yummy and easy crock pot recipe! The funny thing is that I didn't realize that it is something that my mom makes all the time! I found it on another blog a long time ago and finally decided to try it. When I was telling my mom about it, she said "that is what I make"! Funny. So I will call it Southwest Chicken, thanks to my mom. The title I had for it was pretty boring.

Southwest Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts frozen

1 jar of salsa

1 can of corn drained

1 can of black beans drained and rinsed

Put it all together in the crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours

I served it with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and corn bread. It was really good if I may say so myself! I always love a good simple recipe!

We have been enjoying the last days of summer together lately. I can't believe summer is almost over! My favorite season will be gone before I know it! Peyton and I went to the pool today to soak it up a little more. She loved it as always. I didn't even take my camera! Surprising. I figured I had so many pictures in the same bathing suit, who would notice what day the picture was taken anyway! She loves playing with the kids there so much. I am getting really sad about her going to preschool next week. I know she will do well and love it, but I will miss her so much. So many changes around here lately! She is starting preschool and will be turning 2 in a few short weeks! I am in shock! I will leave you with a cute picture of Peyton at a birthday party this past Saturday. It was Mickey Mouse and she loved it! She had lots of fun. Here she is with her Mickey ears on and one on the slide!