Weekly Happenings - 4/23 - 4/29

1.  Milestone:  Garrison is now pulling up!  Ok, my little man, you are growing up too fast all of a sudden!  In the last two-three weeks you have gone from sitting/laying only to army crawling, crawling on all fours and now pulling up.  Way to go!

2.  Garrison turned 9 months old this week (Mickey picture will come next week...).  On Friday Garrison had his 9-month check-up.  He weighed 18 lbs 2 oz (25%) and measured 28" (50%).  Luckily he only had one shot this time and a finger prick to check his iron levels - all-in-all, not too bad!

3.  On Thursday we had Peyton's 3.5 year pictures and Garrison's 9 month pictures done and I think they turned out great!  Here are a few of my absolute favorites!!  Peyton is becoming quite a professional poser and listened so well to the photographer.  We took the pictures at the end of the day after school so Garrison was a bit fussier than normal but we were able to get a few of him and his personality as well - enjoy!

 4.  On Friday we headed up to visit our friends the Mayberrys.  This was our first longer trip in the car (3.5 hours) with Garrison so we weren't sure what to expect but both kiddos did great!  We stopped a little over half way for dinner (after Garrison woke up from a snooze) and arrived just after bedtime.  We were so excited to see our friends and meet their new little one, Morgan.  Peyton heard Daddy stir around 5:45 and decided it was also time for her to wake up, she was super excited to see her friend Evan who was in bed when we arrived.  The kids made us blueberry muffins for breakfast before we headed to a touch a truck event where the kids got to climb into the driver's seat of big trucks and tractors.  They loved it!  Peyton even got to give Clifford a high-five!  After a little rest P & E had a mini-fondue party with fruit & chocolate - yummy!  We wrapped-up the day with bath time (love the pic below) - we are going to split-up bath time once Ms. Morgan gets big enough to join the bath time fun! :)  Our trip home was fantastic - Garrison slept until about 30 minutes out and Peyton slept until about 10 minutes out - it was a really quiet ride home!  We had an awesome visit and already miss our friends so much!

 This was the best we got of the four kiddos - Garrison takes up most of Evan's lap!  Peyton loved holding Morgan and took every opportunity she could to play Mommy!

Weekly Happenings - 4/16 - 4/22

1. Milestone: Garrison finally has teeth! This last week he popped through two teeth, both on the bottom. It is so cute to seem him smile extra big now when those pearly whites are shining! :)


2. Daddy headed down to the lake for a golf weekend on Thursday so after work/school on Friday, the kids & I packed up the car and went to Grammy & Grandpa's for a fun weekend! We had a super busy weekend with lots of time spent playing outside, some arts and crafts time, two trips to the donut shop, visits with Grandma Mintun and even a garage sale! Peyton was Grammy's big helper at the garage sale and made a few bucks in the process by selling water bottles. Funny story from the weekend - Peyton woke-up at 2 AM on Saturday morning and told Grammy she was done sleeping. Luckily Grammy convinced her it was actually not time to get up and Peyton crawled into bed with Grammy & Grandpa for the rest of the night. I know how Peyton can be a bit grumpy when she doesn't get a nap - I'd hate to see her on only 6 hours of sleep instead of her usual 10-11! Here are just a couple of pictures from our fun weekend! :)









3. Then on Sunday we went up to Lexington for soon to be Aunt Christy's bridal shower! :) Aunt Christy had lots of fun opening her gifts (with her little helper Whitney). Peyton liked the last part the best - CAKE! I kid you not, Peyton ate her cake faster than I was able to finish half of my piece! After the shower we went back to Grandma & Grandpa Todd's for a while to play with some of the fun toys Grandpa picked-up at Cargo Largo. Check-out Garrison in the Johnny Jumper below (and Peyton practicing her sommer saults behind him).

Weekly Happenings - 4/9 - 4/15

1. Since I started off last week's post with a comparison I thought I would throw one more out there. Friday was the Royals Home Opener so to celebrate, Garrison donned the same Royals shirt his big sis Peyton wore during her first Royals season. Granted, Peyton was about 6.5 months in the picture below and Garrison is 8.5 months but I think you can definitely tell they belong together! :)


2. On Saturday I was up bright and early to run my first 5K. For about the last 1.5 months I have been running a couple times a week trying to build-up to the 3.2 miles for the race. Going into Saturday I had never ran the entire way but I made it - I ran an entire 3.2 miles in 35 minutes without stopping. For some this may not be a large accomplishment but it was for me (the girl that couldn't even run a mile in high school!). Of course, having the support of my family and motivation of some of my friends who ran with me made a ton of difference. Here is a pic of the ladies from my mom's group at church who I ran the race with! :)


3. On Sunday we headed to Lexington to celebrate Nana & Papa's 60th wedding anniversary. We all went to church together and had a tasty brunch afterwards. Luckily, I got Grandma Todd to snap a picture of the four of us before church as you can see Peyton was less than interested in pictures after church when we tried to take one with Wyatt & Whitney and Garrison appears very bored by the concept of the picture - check-out that yawn!!



4. Milestone: Garrison has started clapping!! :) Granted, he claps with his fists but he is very deliberately clapping when he is excited about something and quite proud of his new accomplishment - good job, Garrison!

Weekly Happenings - 4/2- 4/8

1. Garrison got to try mum-mums for the first time - this is the first solid food he has really taken to right of the bat. Check-out Miss Peyton's first experience with mum-mums here: http://keepingtabsonthetodds.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-first-tooth.html - notice the similar smile on their faces - so proud!!



2. Peyton had a dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon so I went to dance class like I often do and at the end surprised her by taking her out to lunch, for a little shopping and some playtime at the park before her appointment, just Mommy & Peyton. We had the absolute BEST time! Peyton chose (completely on her own!) to go to Olive Garden for lunch and ate a ton of salad and pasta with shrimp - the girl LOVES shrimp right now! Then we headed to Target to get plates for her Spring party at school (where she found some adorable Hello Kitty sandals too!) followed by our trip to the park and lastly the dentist. Peyton did an excellent job at the dentist - this time she even let the hygienist polish and floss her teeth and the dentist pick a little bit of plaque off of one of her teeth - she was so brave and I was so proud of her!! What a perfect Mommy & Daughter day!




3. On Friday the kids both had their school Spring parties - this was the first time I split my time between the two kids' rooms but it was great to be at both parties since they are at the same school! I had a ball watching Peyton & all of her friends hunt eggs and while they had their snacks I headed to Garrison's party where the babies all went outside to plant bulbs - Garrison was enamored with Miss Malary watering the bulb he planted - so cute!



4. Friday evening we headed down to Clinton for our first family celebration of Easter. After dinner, Chad & I went to see "The Hunger Games" while the kiddos spent some time with Grammy & Grandpa (and went and picked-up Grandma Mintun as Peyton did NOT want to wait until Saturday morning to see her - so cute!). Peyton got her toenails painted (see below) and they enjoyed lots of outside time before heading off to bed for the night. Saturday morning Grandpa & Daddy headed off to play a round of golf while we got ready for the big Easter Egg hunt on the square. Peyton was much more into it this year and did a great job finding the eggs! After the hunt we headed to Grandma Mintun's so that Peyton could ride her bike and have a quick bite for lunch. After rest time we dyed Easter Eggs and checked-out Easter Baskets before the rest of the Mintun clan (minus Mary) came over for our Easter dinner - yummy - followed by another egg hunt! After a big day we headed home so that the Easter Bunny could visit us at home.













5. On Sunday after church (see our family celebration before church in #6 below), we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Todd's to celebrate with Daddy's family. Peyton was so proud of her Easter dress and "high heels" that she insisted on wearing them until we arrived and never really wanted to take them off but eventually did so that she could play with Wyatt & Whitney. The kids were all excited we started off with opening Easter baskets - even Garrison got in on the action by checking-out his baskets! After a tasty lunch it was time for the Easter Egg hunt - cousin Wyatt was great about walking around with Peyton to make sure she found plenty of eggs, he is great with her! :) Although Garrison didn't hunt eggs he loved being outside and even decided he would take a short snooze outside in the swing with Aunt April! After another big day of fun we headed home to get ready to start our week!






6. On Sunday morning we planned to head to early church (7:30 mass) so our Easter morning activities started extra early! Peyton wanted to see if the Easter Bunny had come first thing so she hunted her eggs and checked-out her Easter Basket in her PJs before getting dressed for church. She did an excellent job finding her eggs and Garrison did a great job supervising! ;) After she found all of the eggs it was time to move on to their baskets - Peyton was so cute showing Garrison everything from his basket and telling him how excited he should be - hilarious! We then got everyone dressed for church and took a couple of quick pictures before heading to mass - I think we all clean-up quite nice! :)

7. Milestone - Garrison learned to sit up on his own this week from laying down. Not only did he learn this skill but he has been practicing it like crazy ever since! Rarely do we not find him sitting up in his crib when he wakes up in the morning and now he will crawl for a while and then sit up to play with whatever toy he is after - so cute!