Peyton's First Halloween Party

Today was Peyton's first Halloween Party. The Prince of Peace Mom's group that I'm involved in had a Halloween Party so of course we had to go and show-off our beautiful princess! She had a ton of fun running around by totally crashed on the way home. Isn't she adorable?!!?

This was Peyton decorating her pumpkin cookie (she decided to taste test the icing to make sure it was ok to put on her cookie!

Peyton & her buddy Evan -

Peyton & Mia, we had to get a picture of the two Snow White's at the party!

Peyton's First Trip to Springfield

We had a GREAT weekend! Peyton had her first trip to Springfield - yay!! Friday night at Peyton's bedtime we headed to Clinton so that we would be half way down when we got up on Saturday morning. Like our typical good little traveler, she slept the whole way down and went right back to sleep after we got her out of the car and into her crib. Saturday morning after a visit Grammy & Grandpa and head to Great Grandma & Grandpa Mintun's for a tasty breakfast we packed up the car and finished our trip. We visited with several friends and even took a trip over to campus. Things have changed a lot since we went to school at Missouri State so it was fun to look around! Our visit was too short as always but we had so much fun! Apollo enjoyed his Clinton vacation spending time with Grammy, Grandpa & Murray and slept the entire way back to Olathe this morning. Here are some fun pics from the weekend!

Peyton's first trip to Lambert's. I think she'd like to go back! She enjoyed some prime rib, corn, candied yams, fried okra and of course a throwed roll!

Peyton at the fountains on the Missouri State campus - she was so enthralled with the fountain!
Enjoying a walk around campus on a beautiful fall day...
Here Mommy, this leaf is for you!
Peyton playing with Mommy's friends' kiddos - Abby & Leah - they had a ball!

Peyton Updates

Peyton is growing up so fast! On one of her take-home sheets this week we got the note that Peyton has become quite the little helper! :) Apparently Peyton now likes to help pickup toys and put them up back on the shelves to help the teachers. Plus she even likes to take toys to the other kiddos in her class - such a good sharer.

Peyton also is on a big kick of trying things for herself. One pic below is of Peyton trying to put on her shoes. Obviously she hasn't mastered this yet but it is super cute to watch her try! Tonight, though, she did managed to get on and off of her little bus by herself. She was quite proud of herself in doing this and rocked back and forth as if to say "Mom & Dad, push me!!!"

Here is Peyton taking a snooze with Daddy last weekend, absolutely precious!

Daddy's Birthday & Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday was Chad's birthday and to celebrate we invited our friends Kip & Marla to join us for dinner at Pierpont's. While we enjoyed a great dinner and even better conversation, Peyton and their son Evan (aka Peyton's boyfriend) kept Grammy & Grandpa Arthur entertained at home. Here is a fun pic of Evan giving Peyton a sweet hug - awe!!!

Then on Saturday after we had our family pictures taken Chad played in the neighborhood golf tournament down at Sycamore Ridge so Grammy, Grandpa, Peyton & I took a trip to Deanna Rose. What a wonderful place to go and visit - lots of fun things to see! And this time of year they even have a pumpking patch! After a short hayride to the patch we had fun walking around, going down the slide and even picking-out some pumpkins! It was warmer than it had been but it was still a little chilly so Peyton was very bundled up. Peyton has never been much of a fan of hats but she managed to keep it on that day without fighting it too much. Here are some fun pics from the day! We had a great visit.

Arthur Family Pictures

On Saturday we headed to Portrait Innovations to get updated pictures taken with the Arthur side of the family. I think they turned out great!! Enjoy!

Communication

Peyton is obviously a long way from full sentences but is really starting to communicate with us more, which is great! Recently she has been working very hard on her pointing skills and has moved from a whole arm/hand point to more of a single finger point. The hard part is still figuring out exactly what she is pointing at but if you carry her over to the area she is pointing at she loves to pick-up or touch whatever it is she is interested in seeing. This morning I was in the bathroom with her and she pointed at my make-up brushes - she just wanted to see what they felt like - so cute!

Peyton's vocabulary is starting to expand a little bit too. It is still hit or miss if she decides to break-away from babbling with an actual word but they pop out every now and then, which is super fun to hear! The latest is "down" which has been heard a couple of times so far. A few other words have been uttered but only once so we're not real sure if we truly heard the word or if we just made the word out of her babble because we knew what she wanted. Only time will tell!!

Peyton the Model

A couple of weeks ago we headed down to the Nelson Art Gallery to take some pictures of Peyton. One of my old co-workers at Sprint is starting a photography business on the side and needed some baby/toddler pics for her website. Of course, I love getting pictures taken of Peyton so when she asked if Peyton would be a "model" for her I was super excited!

Sick Day

On Monday we got the dreaded call from daycare - Peyton has a fever! Oh no! This is the first time that Peyton had really been sick while at school and for some reason it just hit me hard and I was a nervous wreck. I'm sure at least part of it was driven by the fact that there have been a few confirmed cases of H1N1 at the school but luckily none in Peyton's room yet. I called the Dr.'s office on the way to pick her up and they said to just let her rest and give her some Tylenol as long as her fever didn't get above 102 or last more than a day. As soon as I got her home I took her temp and found that she really didn't have a temp at all. I think that maybe she got warm when one of her teachers was holding her since she was extra sleepy - her body must have been fighting something off.

Just to be safe we kept her at home yesterday so Daddy had a fun day with his little girl! When I got home from work last night both Daddy & Peyton were doing great and looked like they had quite a ball during their sick day at home. I think Daddy even had a chance to rock Peyton to sleep - there is nothing better!

Hopefully all of Peyton's sick days result in such a happy, healthy little girl! :)

Another couple pics

Happy Birthday Evan

Yesterday was Peyton's boyfriend Evan's birthday and he had a great party! Here are a few pics of the two kiddos playing at the party.

Evan - I'll race you up the stairs! Peyton got a little bit of a head start but Evan pulled ahead in the end. A little home court advantage came into play when Peyton got distracted by the stair lights!

Let's play Peek-a-Boo
Evan, since you have that cabinet covered, I'm going to try to get into this one.
Wheee!!!!

Meat, Meat and more....MEAT

Last Saturday we headed to Lexington for a visit with Grandma & Grandpa Todd. Along with several other Todd's we butchered 3 cows and Saturday was the day to pick-up our 1/4. I still can't believe how much meat resulted from buying a 1/4 cow! While several of us sorted the meat, Grandma Todd had the tough job of entertaining Peyton. We had a great visit - here are a few pics!


Splish Splash Grandpa!
Let's have a tea party Grandma
What do you see outside Whitney??
Thanks for helping me stand so I can run, run, run Uncle Clint!

Our little walker

Peyton is now walking pretty much 100% of the time. Just about the only time she crawls these days is if she needs to pull up to standing on something. And since she is a walker now she always wants to walk! We were at Toys R Us and Home Depot over the weekend and she wanted nothing to do with being carried. Guess she is a big girl now!!

Some of Peyton's favorite activities

A new favorite of Peyton's is to get into our recliner and have Daddy rocker her back and forth - the faster the better!

Mommy, I think I'll have a little milk while I read the Sunday Funnies...

Peyton now knows exactly where the tupperware cabinet is and she loves to see how fast she can empty it. Yesterday, she took a piece of tupperware out of this cabinet and put it into the cabinet just to the left and shut the door - cute, cute!

Another one of Peyton's favorites is to give out lots of hugs and kisses - and Mommy & Daddy love all of Peyton's hugs. What is really funny is when Peyton is in a particularly "huggy" mood she will hug everything in sight - the table, floor, chair, desk, etc. Apollo even tolerates Peyton's many hugs during the evening.

Peyton & Apollo are such great friends, it is so fun to see them together. Apollo also lets Peyton take his toys away for Mommy & Daddy to throw. Then she giggles like crazy watching Apollo run to chase his toys!