Happy Easter!

We had an awesome Easter weekend celebration with all of our family! We started our celebrations in Clinton where Peyton enjoyed at least 4 Easter Egg hunts (including one up on the square), dying eggs and dinner with the family! Peyton also found out that Grammy had fun colored band-aids and suddenly had several boo-boos for which she needed band-aids. Before the end of Saturday she had a band-aid on her leg, arm and even her chin! She was hilarious!

Grammy was in-charge of the basket during one of Peyton's first Easter Egg Hunts -



Peyton & Grammy checking out her Easter Basket -



What is in all of these eggs Papa??



Grandma Mintun helping Peyton develop a strategy for the hunt up on the square. We got there about 15 minutes early and the hunt was over in less than a minute! Good thing Peyton was quick with picking up her eggs!



Dying some eggs for the next hunt -



YAY - I DID IT!!!!



Where are you guys hiding those eggs? I'm ready to get started!!



Look Mommy & Daddy - I dyed my eggs - TWICE -



Just loved this picture -



And on Sunday morning we got up early to head the 7:30 mass. Peyton looked absolutely adorable in her Easter dress. We were running a little tight on time so we decided to hunt eggs and open her basket from the Easter Bunny after church. Of course, the bunny had already visited so we had to hide her biggest item, a new baby stroller, so that she would actually be ready to head to church. Too bad her eagle eyes had already spotted her stroller and when she came downstairs all she said was, "where's my stroller??" Too funny! Guess we aren't as quick as we thought!



Can I fit in the stroller??



Peyton wanted to pose with Daddy - don't they look great?



And a pic with Mommy too! I'm quite impressed we made it to church with time to spare and even got a seat in the main sanctuary!



Time to check-out treats from the Easter Bunny -


After church we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Todd's. Peyton loved playing with Wyatt & Whitney and enjoying yet another Easter Egg hunt! We also enjoyed a tasty family lunch.

Papa Todd is helping Peyton check-out what the Easter Bunny left for her at their house -


And Uncle Landen, Aunt April, Wyatt & Whitney found a chocolate bunny that is almost as big as Peyton!



Of course, after finding all of those treats we have to check some of them out right away, right? Peyton thought so - Grandma helped her open one of her marshmallow bunnies for a snack before lunch time.


Whitney was quite the little helper making sure Peyton found several eggs during their hunt!



Since we can never seem to get a pic of the three kids together, this is the best I could do. They loved running around looking for all of the eggs!

Peyton, the Star Student

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so (though they are pretty random)!

A cute one of Peyton & Daddy - Peyton was having Daddy help her put on all of her bracelets. Grammy had given her a package of silly bands and Peyton loves to put the whole package (of at least 10) on at the same time. Hopefully her practice is helping with dexterity...



And last week Peyton's school had their Spring party. I was lucky enough to attend - as you can tell Peyton LOVED her cupcake. She, unfortunately, did NOT love the Easter Bunny! She did tell us that she got a purple egg with Goldfish in it from the Easter Bunny - guess she likes the concept just not the actual bunny!



And every month Peyton's class has a Star Student - this month it is Peyton! Here is her very own bulletin board. Needless to say, I am a proud Momma! :)



In the month of April we have been going to swim lessons at the Y. Peyton has done an excellent job this year and has learned how to hold onto the wall by herself, get into the water and hold on to the wall and even swim on her own with a swim belt on (she was quite proud of this last one!). Peyton has also continued to work on her kicking/paddling/bubble blowing skills and loves to sing along with the songs during lessons!



And what else should two accountants teach their 2-year-old? That's right...how to use a calculator! :)



And one more funny story - we were sitting at dinner the other night and Peyton asked where Daddy's ice went in his cup. He told her that it melted and asked if she wanted to know what melting was. Her response, "No, I don't want to know." And that was the end of it!

Omaha Day 3

And on our 3rd day of vacation the Mayberry's drove over to meet us for another day at the zoo! Peyton and Evan had such a great time exploring together and us parents enjoyed a great visit! The weather started out a little chilly but warmed up throughout the day. We even got to ride the train around the zoo on Saturday and Peyton loved it as long as she could cover her ears - the train and speaker were loud! With Evan being more adventuresome Peyton decided it might be ok to sit on the sculpture this time (can you believe Evan is only 1 month older - Peyton looks tiny compared to him in this picture!) - Here they are very into the orangutan exhibit - And the Mommies & kiddos on the train - Luckily, Evan wanted to ride the giraffe & Peyton wanted to ride the pink horse AND they were right next to eachother!

And here are a few more pics from the day -

Omaha - Day 2

Day 2 in Omaha was rainy and COLD! We took our time getting ready in the morning and then headed to a local diner for breakfast. Before leaving and while we were finishing getting ready, Peyton even shared some of her morning snack with Jeff, isn't this adorable?? After breakfast we headed to the Children's Museum. Peyton had a blast playing with the water exhibits, doing some art, playing a huge lighted piano and doing some grocery shopping. We did ride a carousel here too but unfortunately she was very upset as right after the ride started she wanted to switch horses - worst carousel ride we have had for quite some time!!! We headed back to the hotel after the museum for nap time but Peyton wasn't interested so we decided to check-out the indoor water resort across town. This turned out to be a VERY bad idea as the buckets randomly dumping (primarily the big pull but even the little one's pool had small buckets). After about 10 minutes we gave up on this and ended-up checking out Nebraska Furniture Mart and the mall to wrap-up our rainy day!

Omaha Vacation - Day 1

Since BBT is coming in August we figured we probably wouldn't get away for much of a summer family vacation this year so we decided to take a long weekend and head-up to the Omaha Zoo for a couple of days. What a GREAT decision! It was a little over 3 hours to get there and Peyton was an excellent passenger. Doesn't she look relaxed?? Once we arrived at the zoo we found the Treetop restaurant where they had a few tables that looked into the Leid Jungle - Peyton LOVED watching the monkeys - we even eventually got her to eat a little bit too - After lunch we started exploring. So much of the zoo is indoors that it didn't matter that it was raining most of our visit! Here's Peyton & Daddy checking out some more monkeys - And Peyton pretending to be a monkey... Peyton had a blast running up and down the wall giving the penguins high-fives - it was adorable!! And the butterfly exhibit was really cool (though catching a butterfly on camera is about as hard as catching a toddler with a smile on camera!) And Peyton's favorite from our first day - the giraffes - she even picked one up as her souvenir in the gift shop after comparing it to about 10 other animals. It was so cute to see her try and convince us to get her the giraffe AND another animal "too" but when we told her only one she always went back to the giraffe. "Jeff" is now one of her favorites! And about half-way through the zoo Peyton started to get worried about the animals getting her saying when we would see the next animal "no get Peyton" - we still aren't sure why this started 1/2 way through! She was even worried about the statues "getting" her! The gorillas were an awesome exhibit - check-out the baby gorilla playing with the kids on the other side of the glass. And of course, if there is a carousel, we MUST ride it! Peyton, in true family fashion, was never afraid to tell us "move on" when she was done. Guess she is just like us after all - never wanting to spend too much time in any one place!! :) After the zoo we headed back to our hotel. Peyton thought it was great fun in the room and the first thing she asked for was to "watch TV" - she always likes to have the TV on but rarely pays much attention to it unless Mickey and a few other shows are on. They "upgraded" our room from two queens to one king which normally would have been great but that left Peyton with no where to sleep! They brought us a roll away instead and that worked out great - Peyton loved having her own bed and slept very well both nights we were at the hotel. Can you tell she is excited in this pic??