Rough Week for Peyton!

Last weekend while we were at the lake I had a 24-hour flu bug. Unfortunately, Peyton must have picked up something similar and was home Tuesday/Wednesday and then after being back at school most of the day on Thursday a few more symptoms hit her - poor girl! Daddy spent Tuesday & Wednesday home with her and I think they had a great time! Peyton surprised Daddy several times with her ever-expanding vocabulary and counted all the way to 10 - what a big girl!

Here's Peyton "reading" Go, Dog, Go! She has always LOVED this book and can recite most of it!

And Peyton practicing for the Price Is Right - she is quite a wheel spinner! ;)

And on Friday, I stayed home with Peyton. Though technically she can't go back to school she felt well for the most part so we had some fun! We started the day with waffles & pumpkin butter (thanks to a tip from Daddy that Peyton loved it earlier in the week) -

Followed by making some cupcakes (thanks Aunt Mary for all the fun makings for Halloween Cupcakes) - Time for the prep work -

Then some stirring (Peyton loves her Crayola spoon)

Then comes the waiting game - every couple of minutes Peyton would run into the kitchen and wave at the oven - "Hi, cake, HI!!!!"

Then we iced them and added some festive sprinkles. Peyton did an excellent job and didn't even steal a taste until we were all done!

Funny Conversations with Peyton

Peyton: Mommy Cry (after noticing I just took a shower)

Mommy: No, Mommy doesn't cry when she takes a shower - she likes to wash her hair

Peyton: Oh

Mommy: Peyton needs to take a bath tonight

Peyton: I gonna cry

But luckily she didn't cry tonight - YAY!!!

Anytime we are going anywhere in the house or around the house -

Peyton: 'mon ______ (fill in the blank with Apollo, Daddy, Mommy or whoever is around) - repeated until said person/animal follows her!

At bedtime tonight -

Daddy: Good night Peyton

Peyton: Night Daddy (focusing on picking out her book)

and after reading books - Mommy: Do you want to sing some songs Peyton?

Peyton: No Mommy

Mommy: Ok, night Peyton - Love you

Peyton: Night Mommy - Love you

I LOVE how easily she goes to bed almost every night!

Livin' the Lake Life

A couple of weekends ago we headed down to the lake to visit Uncle Mark, Aunt Mary, Grammy & Grandpa! Unfortunately, Friday night I got a 24-hour flu bug and spent most of the night up. Luckily, I was the only one that got sick (over the weekend at least). We had a great time hanging out around the condo and catching-up with everyone. Daddy & Papa snuck in a round of golf, we took in a little outlet mall shopping and enjoyed a big win by the Mizzou tigers over Oklahoma!

Peyton enjoying her first fudgecicle - what's not to love, right??

Peyton LOVES the outdoors and I swear she would live out there if she could! Here's Peyton hanging out with Papa on the deck -

And helping Aunt Mary roll cold cuts for snacks around the condo -

And helping butter some bread for dinner - don't you just love Peyton's "cheese" face?! Aunt Mary may have stab marks in her butter for many weeks to come!

And an ice cream cone - this actually went better than I anticipated (aka, ice cream was not strung all across the condo!)

I was very thankful to feel back to normal (at least as normal as I get) by the time we headed home on Sunday morning, whew! What a fun weekend!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

Last weekend we had a blast celebrating Daddy's birthday! We started with dinner out on Friday night at Buffalo Wild Wings followed by a trip to Peachwave, a family favorite these days! It was almost past Peyton's bedtime by the time we got home so she quickly scooted off to bed and I started to work on Daddy's birthday cake - Cherry Coffee Cake - YUMMY!!!

Then, on Saturday morning we loaded-up and headed to the Renaissance Festival. We hadn't been since before we got married so it's been a few years! Peyton loved it, especially the start of the joust match (aka horses, music and lots of clapping!) and the elephant & camel giving rides to kids. She desperately wanted to ride the elephant but we were quite positive that would turn out about the same as her previous attempts at riding ponies so we passed this year, maybe next time. Peyton also was quite confused by the swinging chairs - she wanted to ride the swings, but didn't but didn't want to leave the swinging chairs - do you see a pattern here?? Here's a couple of pics of the birthday boy with his favorite little girl at the petting zoo and the joust -

Saturday night Chad even started a fire in our fire pit to have s'mores - a great cap to a perfect day!

Then on Sunday, Daddy met up with a friend to play golf so Peyton & I spent the morning at Deanna Rose since it will be closing soon! Since we have been several times this year I just let her run wherever she wanted to go and she loved the freedom! The way she has to always scream when she runs cracks me up! We spent a lot of time with the cows, on the playground and this time she LOVED the turkeys!

After a long nap Peyton was excited her neighbor friends were able to come over and play. Here is a pic of Noelle, Parker and Peyton taking a quick milk break before heading back down to play. None of them wanted to go inside when it was time for dinner!

Daddy then wrapped-up his birthday weekend with the day off on Monday with another round of golf! We had such a fun weekend!!

Peyton is (almost) 2

Since it has been about a year since we had family pictures taken we headed-out to Loose Park last weekend to try and get one and get a few updated pics of Peyton - as always, I know I am partial but I think she is pretty adorable!!

Peyton, the artist!

This week we finally got-out Peyton's art easel and she is a big fan! Her teachers at school tell us that she loves art so we thought it was time to pull this out. Luckily I found some dry erase markers that are washable! She had such a fun time playing with her letters, singing part of her ABC's and of course opening the markers, coloring a little and then putting the cap back on!

And Peyton is still into mimicking everyone - here she is doing some exercises with Daddy -

On Thursday, Chad & I both had things going on so Grammy & Grandpa came up to spend some time with Peyton and then help me out with a few things around the house on Friday. Peyton sure had a good time and so did Grammy & Grandpa! Peyton even convinced Grandpa that they needed to go over to the neighbors to play - Peyton LOVES visiting with her neighborhood friends! We were a little nervous that with Grammy & Grandpa being at the house on Friday morning that she wouldn't want to go to school but she had a great time playing until it was time to go and then she stuck with her pattern and when it was time to go to school she gave hugs and kisses and said goodbye - such a big girl!!!

Grammy & Peyton hanging out Friday morning -

On Saturday morning, Peyton & I were out and about early with our first stop being the bank - Peyton needed to cash-in her piggy bank! She helped me hand the change receipt over to the teller and then was quite proud of her deposit slip - notice it is sitting next to her in her car seat. Hopefully she is learning early the importance of saving! :)

After the bank we headed up to meet one of my friends, Judy, and her daughter Christy at Wonderscope. This was our first trip there and it was, well, wonderful!! There were all kinds of things for the girls to try from a water room, to the art room for some painting, to the Lego room and even a hospital (among many more). They had an awesome time - definitely a place we will be visiting again!! (check-out Peyton's pop-belly in this pic)

Then on Sunday, Grandma & Grandpa Todd came-up to watch the Chief's game with us and celebrate Daddy's birthday. Peyton was excited to see Grandma & Grandpa and of course wanted to take them outside to play - here's a pic of Grandpa helping Peyton with her bubbles - later she chased Grandpa around with her lawn mower trying to run over his feet - oops! She must have been exhausted over the weekend - she took 2-3 hour naps both days - which is amazing for Peyton on the weekends!

Grandparent Filled Weekend!

Last weekend we were BUSY! We started our weekend in Clinton and we had an awesome time! While in Clinton we spent time with Grammy & Grandpa, visited with Granny & Great-Grandpa a couple of times, attended a baby shower for one of my old neighborhood friends and even played some golf! Peyton did great at the baby shower, entertaining as always! Peyton also completely decorated Grammy & Grandpa's and Granny & Great-Grandpa's back patios with her super fine sidewalk chalk artwork. The best part is the fact that she never made two marks at the same time and each time she made a mark somewhere she ran to the other side of the patio to make the next mark.

Granny & Peyton enjoying some breakfast - homemade cinnamon rolls - yum!

Peyton helping Grammy make Chicken Pot Pie for lunch - she LOVED helping roll out the dough -

Then on Sunday we headed to Lexington to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Peyton had all kinds of fun . While we were there we also got to visit with Nana, Papa, Uncle Landen, Aunt April, Wyatt, Whitney, Uncle Clint and Christy. The kiddos had lots of fun playing outside - running around, playing on the teeter-totter. While in Lexington we also picked-up some apples directly from the orchard - it is hard to find apples as fresh as these!

Grandma & Peyton hangin' out -

A quick snapshot we caught of the kiddos together - hard to do with three little ones that are always busy, busy, busy!

Uncle Clint - the ladies man! :)