Weekly Happenings - 2/17 - 2/23

1.  Daddy worked this weekend to finish his project of painting our entryway.  Peyton always loves to help Daddy, especially when ladders are involved!  Not only did she climb this ladder, she also walked on the decorative shelf where Daddy is standing - brave girl!  And Daddy did an excellent job painting - it looks great!  Fresh, clean, a great addition to our home!!!

2.  On Saturday, Grammy & Grandpa came up for a visit!  Grandpa & Daddy spent part of the day checking out the golf show to help kick-off the season (that cannot come soon enough bringing along with it warm weather!) while the girls + Garrison ran a few errands and had a tasty lunch.  Both kiddos got to pick out new shoes at Stride Rite - that was an adventure in and of itself as it was crazy in there!  And at Chipotle we made no fewer than 4 trips to the bathroom in the 20 or so minutes we were there (more on that later...) but we had a good time!  When Garrison woke up from his nap, the kids were excited to show Grammy & Grandpa how they can ride their bikes/tricycles in the basement!

3.  MILESTONE - Garrison went potty on the potty!  Ok, ok, he has only done it twice now but it is a start.  And man was he proud when he went potty at Chipotle!  Of course we told him how proud we all were of him, and he got a balloon, and a sticker.  But hey, it's a big deal!!!

4.  On Sunday, Daddy & Peyton went to the movies to see the new Lego movie.  Peyton was less than thrilled this time around but they still had a good time together and enjoying the popcorn!

5.  Also on Sunday, we were greeters at our church for the first time.  We arrived early, welcomed everyone to church and passed out bulletins at the end of mass.  The kids were a bit on the shy side at the beginning but came through at the end, truly enjoying passing out the bulletins.  I am so proud of them (and us for that matter) for stepping out of our comfort zone a bit and getting involved in our very large church!  I'm anxious for our next Sunday to serve as greeters and have the chance to meet more families in our community!

Weekly Happenings - 2/10 - 2/16

1.  One of my team members had a birthday this week so these two excellent cooks helped me make some brownies to take into work.  They are both great helpers but Peyton especially is an excellent cook. I'm pretty sure if she could read the whole recipe she wouldn't need me!

2.  This week we also celebrated Valentine's Day!  Here are our two funny valentines!  This picture only took about 10 others first to get but I'll take it!

I was also lucky enough to go to the kids' parties.  Peyton's was first up but she "crashed" Garrison's after hers.  Needless to say the sweet treats were a hit all around!  After the parties, we had dinner at Red Robin to celebrate the special day!

3.  On Friday night, Garrison had a make-up swim lesson so Peyton came along for "free swim."  She passed her deep end test without issue and got to swim the entire time on her own - what a big girl!  Garrison is getting to be a much stronger swimmer and even "marched" with his bubble down to the ladder in the deep end and climbed out by himself - what a big boy!

4.  On Saturday, we went down to visit Grammy, Grandpa & Grandma Mintun for the day since Grandpa.  We had a great visit that included a trip to see Grandpa at his bank (Peyton & Garrison LOVED his calculator that printed on paper!), a tea party, play in the bean box, a tasty lunch and more play time!  We headed home shortly after lunch but we had a fun visit seeing everyone!

5.  On Sunday, Peyton had a birthday party for one of her school friends at an indoor pool which was a ton of fun!  Then we finished off our day with a trip to the movies with our neighborhood friends. What did we see?  Frozen of course!  It is definitely a fan favorite.  We listen to the soundtrack ALL THE TIME and Peyotn belts out "Let it Go" with the best of them!  I love how "into" this movie she has gotten and it was fun for her to get to see it with some of her friends!

6.  Of course, Peyton usually doesn't want me to take a picture but today she was into posing.  Here she is in a dress-up out from Grammy's and my long white gloves from a high school dance.  This is how she chose to pose - we may have a budding model on our hands!

7.  And just a few hours later, here she is testing her balance beam skills on the scaffolding that Daddy has set-up to paint our two-story entryway.  Daddy worked VERY hard this weekend on painting our two stairwells and super tall entryway.  He isn't done yet but made a ton of progress.  Peyton loves the ladders being out and climbs them every chance she gets.

8.  And this, my friends, is our wild hair man.  His hair was wild this morning when he woke up and was even crazier after nap time!  He had a quiet day at home with Dad and loved every minute of it.  MILESTONE - Garrison learned to pedal his tricycle in the basement today!  He loves riding his battery powered bike so he can go fast but also had fun learning to pedal - what a big boy!!!

Weekly Happenings - 2/3 - 2/9

This week was supposed to be our week to get back into routine after an excellent vacation but Mother Nature had other ideas!

1.  On Tuesday morning, it started to snow....and it snowed until mid-day Wednesday!  We ended up with a little over 12" after it was all said and done.  Needless to say, we had a couple of snow days.  Since Daddy & I were still playing catch-up at work, our snow days included working full days at home but we made it through and had a little fun along the way!  We put puzzles together, cooked, shoveled (ok, only Daddy did this part), played in the snow and had a play date with our neighbor friends!  Garrison still hasn't played in the snow as he has NO interest in putting on boots to go outside but Peyton has a great time in the snow - painting, doing cartwheels, making snow angels and shoveling!  

2.  On Wednesday, Grandpa Arthur still wasn't feeling well with what he thought was the flu but turned out to be a kidney stone!  After a less than successful surfer on Thursday, he was discharged on Friday to have a follow-up surgery for removal of the stone on Tuesday of this week.  As someone who has had a kidney stone before, I would not wish this on my worst enemy so thankful they are removing the stone vs. him having to pass it!

3.  On Friday, Grammy came up to spend the night - the kids were thrilled and so were we!  She brought McDonald's and Valentine's treats - can't beat that!  Since she was in town, Chad & I were able to sneak away for an early Valentine's dinner as well which was awesome!  We tried a fairly new place - 801 Fish and it did not disappoint.  The appetizers/salads, main course and of course dessert were all fantastic and the atmosphere was very well put together.  Hopefully we get a chance to return at some point as there were more things on the menu we wanted to try than our stomachs could handle.

4.  On Saturday, Grammy & I went to my Great Aunt Jean's funeral.  She was my Dad's aunt but since he was just released from the hospital on Friday he was unable to attend.  Unfortunately, it takes events like these to sometimes bring family together.  Although we all regretted the reason why we were together, I am thankful I had an opportunity to visit with many of my family that I haven't seen for 2 or more years.  Aunt Jean was a very loving lady and she will be missed but I am very glad she did not suffer for long and now is in a much happier place. :)  Since the visitation, funeral and family dinner were all back to back, we decided it would be a bit much for the kids so Daddy stayed at home with them.  Grandma Todd also came up on Saturday to join in the fun and help keep the kids occupied while we were having some work done at the house.  The kids were spoiled seeing both grandmas this weekend!

5.  On Sunday, we had a very productive day around the house.  We reorganized several rooms, rearranged several things, cleaned things up and even purged a bit.  We also took our first shot at decorating a Valentine's box for Peyton!  She was very excited!  We went pretty simple this year but she was thrilled.  She picked-out the stickers, paper and foil at target and did not leave an inch of the box without a sticker!

6.  Part of the kids' Valentine from Grammy & Grandpa was the infomercial ice cream maker.  I was a bit skeptical but Peyton was pumped so we gave it a try this afternoon.  I must admit, we had creamy, tasty ice cream just 3 short minutes later.  Peyton lasted about 1 minute of the "shake" time but I didn't mind taking over since she had managed to hit herself in the head 3 times with the shaker in that amount of time!

7.  MILESTONE - Garrison gave-up his "my" or his pacifier on Sunday.  We simply told him they were all gone and that he was a big boy now (mys are for babies).  He was less than thrilled for 2 nap times and one bed time, telling me, "I not a big boy, I a baby."  But all in all it was a very easy transition and we are very proud of him giving up one of his security items!  As a reward, he got to pick-out a special toy and he chose a talking Jake at the Disney Store.  Next up, potty training!

Weekly Happenings - Our Trip To Disneyworld!!!

Where do I start?  Last week, we spent an awesome week at the happiest place on Earth - Disneyworld!!!  Grammy & Grandpa also joined us for our trip and we were so glad they got to experience all of the fun & excitement with us and the kids!  Peyton quickly set-up shop in Grammy & Grandpa's room but Garrison decided to stay in our room.  We stayed at the Polynesian and it was a beautiful resort.  The rooms were great, there was a beach along the Seven Seas Lagoon, we had access to the monorail & a boat to the Magic Kingdom and the Tonga Toast at breakfast was pretty hard to beat!  We covered a LOT of ground and all got less sleep than we probably wanted/needed but we had a ton of fun!!!

I found 24 pictures to include in this post which is a lot for one post - it was hard to choose from the 450 pictures I now have (from the almost 900 I came home with!).  There are too many memories to try and capture in one post but here are some of my favorites:

The Spirit of Aloha Luau - great show, awesome food - Peyton wanted to be a fire dancer...until she saw what that meant!  Still impressed but no longer wants this as a career!

The pre-park opening show at Magic Kingdom - a great way to kick-off our first full day.  That and the look on Peyton's face when we turned the corner and she saw Cinderella's Castle - a look of complete awe, priceless!

Riding so many of the rides with the kids for Garrison's first time and Peyton's first time she will probably remember!  The all-time favorite was definitely the teacups!  Other fan favorites were the carousel, It's a Small World, Dumbo, Under the Sea (new for this visit!), Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean and many more.  

Peyton's trip to the Bibbity Boppity Boutique - she was a little disappointed as she wanted to get the Elsa dress (which they were out of) but chose the Aurora dress and she looked beautiful.  She really enjoyed getting her hair, make-up and nails done before putting on her gloves and moving along to her princess photo shoot.  She was a natural!  

Character meals - all were fantastic!  We ate at Cinderella's Castle where the kids got a wand & sword and visited 5 of the princesses - the food was delicious and the atmosphere was amazing.  We met the Disney Jr friends at Hollywood Studios, dined with Mickey & pals at Chef Mickey & The Tusker House and finished our trip with Winnie the Pooh & friends at The Crystal Palace.  The kids both loved meeting the characters and it was awesome to see them jump down from their seats to give them hugs, high-fives and get their autographs!  We also dined at the Beast's castle which was so much fun!

Characters was really were it was at on this visit to Disney!  Peyton especially was really into it this time and they filled two autograph books a piece!  The best was our visit to meet Elsa & Anna, the princess sisters from Frozen.  Peyton was in awe.  She is in love with Elsa and we waited for almost 3 hours to meet her and her sister.  She never complained and could not wait to meet them.  Priceless!

DiveQuest - Chad & I had the opportunity to dive in the aquarium at Epcot and it was incredible.  The water was crystal clear - 203' of visibility - the marine life was amazing (we even had a tiger shark swim right over our heads) and we got to "talk" to the kids through the glass!  I hope I never forget seeing Garrison waving so big at us when they first saw us and telling Peyton I loved her through the glass with sign language.