All About Payton and Parker

Parker Rolling Over

2012-01-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

Parker rolled over for the first time today. He's just 17-weeks-old! For the past couple of days, he would just roll onto his side and stay there, but this afternoon he decided to continue onto his stomach! Here was his strategy! :)

Curl the legs first....
Make sure he's got a hand in his mouth....

Lift upper leg...

Swing it over....

Put both hands in mouth....

Keep pushing...

Ta da!!!!

Snow Day

2012-01-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

We have had very little snow this year. So when it finally snowed last night, we played in the snow with a few of the older kids that live across the street.

There was still now on the ground this morning, but it was starting to melt, so we decided to go out and play with our friends before it all melted away.

Cute little Parker all bundled up at 17 weeks old today. Payton with our neighbor's snowman.

Cute boy.

All ready to play!

Payton is trying to build a tiny snowman.

Posing with Caleb. Say cheese!

Payton was having a mini snowball fight with Caleb and Andrew while Parker was fast asleep in the stroller.

Just Some Cute Pictures

2012-01-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

I love my family. I also have to say that I think these are the cutest kids that have ever lived on the face of the earth!!!!! :)

Our Weekend

2012-01-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

We started off our weekend with Payton trying on a pair of 80's sunglasses that I got at the D.I. years ago. She thought these glasses were hilarious and wanted me to take a bunch of pictures of her with them on.

Payton loves Parker and Parker loves Payton. Every time Payton is around, Parker's eyes follow her wherever she goes and he gives her huge smiles. Payton loves to hold Parker and help take care of him.

On Saturday, Payton and I went on a little date to see Happy Feet 2. It was a really cute movie. There were only about 4 other families in the theater. Payton danced to all the songs and thought it was so fun to have me to herself. We got lots of treats and enjoyed some one-on-one time together.

That night we went as a family to a fun center type place.

Payton got to ride the carousel twice...

We went surfing...

Played some games...

Posed with a gigantic stuffed bear...

And finally danced to the music at the outdoor mall.

Our studly little Parker wore this cute outfit to church today.

And finally, Payton ended the weekend with awesome hair. I put her hair into two little buns for church today, and this is what her hair looked like after I took them out. We had some friends over for dinner tonight, so Payton went to bed 2 hours after her normal bed time and was extremely tired. That's why she is crying in this picture.

Jailbird

2012-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Payton... Parker...

Payton...

Parker...

Payton...

Parker...

Payton...

Parker...

This is another outfit that is gender neutral that Payton wore when she was in a baby and now Parker finally fits into it!! I can't believe I caught so many of the same poses of the two of them in this outfit!!

15 Weeks Old

2012-01-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

Our little dude is 15 weeks old today!!

Halloween Jammies

2012-01-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

Which one is Payton and which one is Parker????

The top one is of Parker today, January 9th, 2012. (Yeah, yeah, I know that Halloween is over, but Parker fits into the pajamas, so he's going to wear them!!) The bottom one is of Payton October 2008. I can NOT believe how similar these two look!!!

Beauty Parlor

2012-01-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

Payton always asks to do my hair. After I got out of the shower tonight and had brushed my hair, she told me she wanted to make it look pretty. I gave her the brush and a bunch of her little claw clips and here's the result:

Hairdresser in the making!!! She's for hire, folks!!!

1st Day of Sunbeams

2012-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

I can NOT believe my sweet little Payton is in Sunbeams this year! (A class at church for all the kids who will be turning 4 this year.) To say she was excited would be an understatement!! We picked out her outfit days ago and laid it on her floor. She was thrilled to be able to wear "the outfit" today. I curled my hair for church today and she wanted to have hers curly just like mine!

Outside and all ready to go!!

A classic Payton silly face.

So pretty! If you look closely, you will see a tiny red scar on her forehead. We went to our friend's house last night for a New Year's Eve party. As we were getting ready to leave, Payton bent down to get her boots out of the diaper bag which was sitting right next to their TV stand. She was standing a little too close to the corner of the TV stand and gouged her forehead. There was actually a little hole in her forehead last night. Poor girl. :( She's a trooper. After she had a pink Barbie band aid, she was good to go! At church all ready to go in!

With her mini Book of Mormon.

Her teachers said she was a good girl in class. I got to do the music in primary and it was so cute to see her sitting with her class. They got to color, learn and eat a sucker!! It's bittersweet to see my firstborn child grow up! I'm excited to see what this year will bring!!

1st Laugh

2011-12-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

Parker laughed and laughed and laughed for the first time tonight. It was adorable!!

Bumbo

2011-12-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

This was Payton in 2008 when she first sat in the Bumbo. I'm not sure exactly how old she was in these pictures.

Here she is in December 2011 trying it out again.

And then here's Parker's first time trying out the Bumbo. He is 13 weeks old today!!

New Year's Resolution

2011-12-27T10:29:00.001-08:00

Goal for 2012. To look like this again: So here's the picture to help motivate me for my New Year's Resolution. I was in the best shape of my life before I got pregnant with Parker. I had lost 45 pounds in 2011!!! My goal for 2012, starting on Monday, January 2nd, 2012, is to get back down to this size!!!

Here's to eating and exercising like crazy!!! Wish me luck!! :)

Funny Face

2011-12-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

I captured Parker making this face on my cell phone!!

Love These Kids

2011-12-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

These kids are just too cute!! I take a million pictures of them and I could put them all on this blog because I have the hardest time picking which ones I like the best.

Midway

2011-12-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

We went to Midway this week and had a great time! We met in one of the condos and had pulled pork tacos. Afterwards we went swimming!

Here's Payton and her cousin Elisabeth who is just two weeks younger than her. Payton and cute little Emmery!

Payton and Ashlee.

And with Daddy!

There were so many of us there that we took up the whole pool! I think there were only four or five people that were there that weren't part of the family.

Payton absolutely LOVES swimming! She was laughing, kicking and splashing the whole time.

Payton, Elisabeth and Aunt Stacy.

I just hung out on the side with Parker and took a million pictures. You wonder why I didn't go in the pool with Parker?? Look at the next picture...

Here's why!!! We took off Parker's pants and just put his feet in the pool and he started screaming!! I guess we'll wait a while before we try again!

All wrapped up after swimming!

It's Almost Christmas!!!

2011-12-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

We went to the mall today so that Payton and Parker could sit in Santa's lap and have their picture taken. These are the cute outfits they wore. Payton keeps changing her mind about what she wants for Christmas. We've seen Santa at a few different locations. First she told him she wanted a "giant mirror." Today she told him that she wants a doll house and a chapstick. We'll have to wait and see what she actually gets!!

Parker

2011-12-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

I just can't get over how stinkin' cute this boy is!!! He will be 11 weeks old tomorrow!!!

She's pretty dang cute too!!!!

Payton's First Dance Recital

2011-12-09T16:43:00.001-08:00

Little Miss Payton had her very first dance recital last night. She did such a great job and wasn't nervous at all! She strutted her stuff on that stage!!

Here we are getting her all ready! She was so excited to have hot rollers in her hair and wear eyeshadow and lip gloss. All ready to go!!

This is Payton's new smile. She had to have a "sneaky, sneaky" face in one of her dances and she liked doing the face, so now she does it for pictures. Here she is with Scott before the show!!!

They did two dances. For the first dance they had to wear red on top and black on the bottom and danced to I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Here's Payton with two of her good friends that did dance with her. Reagan, Payton and Kaylee.

Sitting on the blankets with her class waiting for their turn to dance.

All dressed for her second dance. They had to wear any combination of white, red and pink and danced to Up on the Housetop. I made matching hair bows for her whole class.

Mommy and Payton waiting for the second dance to start.

"Sneaky, sneaky" face again.

We filmed it too, but here are some still shots of her dancing. She's a pro!!!!

The whole class.

Parker just chilled with daddy the whole time.

Payton and her dance teacher, Miss Kathryn.

Our big girl all done with her dances!!!!

Parker's Blessing

2011-12-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

Parker was blessed at church today. He looked SOOOO adorable and slept through the whole thing. So many of our family members came to support us and we are so grateful for them. We went to our place to have brunch right after the blessing. We had bagels, cream cheese, breakfast quiches, muffins, cookies, juice, grapes, bananas, milk, and chocolate milk.

I couldn't pick my favorite shot of Parker because he looked so cute in all the pictures!

Beautiful big sister Payton and her adorable baby brother!

Family picture outside the church.

The whole gang. (Minus two brother's-in-law who had to leave a little early.)

Me, Parker and my mother-in-law Royan.

This picture has really bad lighting, but this is Aunt Linda, Great Grandma Roberta and Great Grandpa Roy.

Stacy, Justin, Parker and Scott.

Parker's oldest cousin Braydon.

My parents, Ray and Jitka.

Today was such a special day that I will never forget. I am so grateful to be a mother to this sweet, cuddly, laid back, gorgeous little boy. I love you Parker!!!

2 Month Check Up

2011-11-29T12:24:00.001-08:00

Our little dude is 9 weeks old today. We had his 2 month well baby check at the doctor. His stats are:
Height: 22.9 inches (47th percentile)
Weight: 10 lbs. 15 oz. (30th percentile)

Payton was almost the same height and weight when she was this age. She was 22 inches and weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz.

Right now Parker will smile and coo. He goes to bed at about 9:30 p.m., sleeps for about 7 hours, eats, then goes right back to sleep for the rest of the night. He is a calm, sweet little baby. His big sister loves him and smothers him all day long. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

Anniversary Celebration

2011-11-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

Scott and I started our anniversary date night by seeing this movie: I thought it was a pretty good movie. I've read the Twilight series twice and I've seen all the movies except the third one. It had it's cheesy parts and funny parts, but overall it was pretty good.

Then we drove up to SLC and ate here:Scott was in heaven. He has been drooling just thinking about this dinner for weeks! We each ordered an EXPENSIVE steak and a few sides.

And then I ended my dinner with this:

Scott loved the food. I thought it was so-so. It was VERY fancy in this restaurant. The bathroom was even fancy so I took a picture of it! :)

A HUGE thanks to my mom who babysat our kiddos so that we could enjoy a night out. Happy Anniversary Scotty-Poo!!! I love you!!! :)

7th Anniversary!!!

2011-11-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today is our 7th Anniversary!!! This picture was taken after we had been married for about a week. In the past seven years, we have lived in 5 different places, had two kids, Scott got his Bachelor's Degree, gone on many fun vacations, learned and grown from each other, gotten jobs, changed jobs, had many laughs and made plans for our future. Scott is such an amazing husband, father and provider. I love you Scott!!!

Age Progression

2011-11-11T18:33:00.001-08:00

We can't believe that our little guy is 6 1/2 weeks old. Here are a few pictures each week leading up until now.

Minutes old... 1 day old...

And the rest are self-explanatory!!

Visitors

2011-11-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

I'm still trying to play catch up on the blog from Parker's first couple of weeks since I didn't have time/energy to do so when he was first born!!

We had some family and friends come and see us while were were at the hospital. First was Great Grandma Roberta. Parker is one of many great grandchildren!! We were so happy she was able to make the drive down and see us!
Next was Grandma Royan. Parker is her 12th grandchild! Great Grandma and Grandma Royan each brought a beautiful blanket down for Parker. Royan was such a huge help our first weekend home. She stayed with us for a couple days and played with Payton, held Parker, made us dinner and let me sleep!!

I also had some of my good friends come and visit me in the hospital but I forgot to get a picture! I was SOOOO exhausted in the hospital and a little loopy from the Percocet. :)

11.11.11

2011-11-11T13:32:00.001-08:00

I wanted to spend some quality time with Payton today. She's been having some separation anxiety since Parker was born and I know her world had been turned upside down and I wanted to have a special day with her. She got dressed up in her new winter clothes and insisted on bringing her backpack. She looks so grown up! I took her to the free museum up on campus. She LOVED looking at all the animals.

We went into the kids play area where she played with toys...

...And had a dance party with some of the toys that played music.

Afterwards we went into the gift shop and I let her pick out a little toy. Then we headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. It was a fun day and I know she loved spending some quality time with mommy. Parker was there, asleep in his little sling the whole time, but I was able to focus all my attention on Payton, which she loved.

Nana's Visit

2011-11-10T11:06:00.001-08:00

My mom came to visit/help/save my sanity last month when Parker was a couple weeks old. We had a GREAT time visiting with her!!! Payton wanted to do silly poses with Nana and have me take pictures of them. Here are a few of their poses. Sleeping beauties!!!

Silly face!!

Scared face!!!

My mom has made each of her grandchildren a quilt when they were born. Parker's turned out beautiful!! Thanks mom!!!

Me and the little babe.

Payton wanted to try on Nana's reading glasses. Here's what she would look like with glasses. She looks so grown up!

Payton helped Nana make dinner.

Great buddies!

Another pose kissing Parker.

And another one just being sweet.

Baking and frosting cookies with Nana.

It was so nice to have my mom here! She was such a HUGE help and so fun to have around. We miss her, but we are SO excited to see her again next week!!!

Fall Fun

2011-11-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

It is definitely fall here in Utah, meaning that it is COLD!!!

Scott went outside and swept the driveway the other day. Payton REALLY wanted to go outside with him and help.
She thought it was hilarious and had a great time spending one on one time with daddy.

Payton and I took a little bike ride around the neighborhood.

We made some brownies and Payton licked the spoon.

We ate some candy that made our mouths blue.

And this little dude is 6 weeks old today! In honor of his 6 week birthday, he slept 6 1/2 hours straight last night!! Hallelujah!!!!

We are in love with this little guy. We are so glad Parker is a part of our family. Of course our family wouldn't be complete with our Payton Grace either!!!

Parker's First Sunday

2011-11-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

We went to church yesterday for the first time as a family since Parker was born. We wanted to dress him up in real clothes instead of pajamas. This outfit he is wearing is the one that we bought when we found out we were having a boy. It's 0-3 months and it's still huge on him. He's wearing a Superman onesie under it that you can't see. Father and son. I love how he's gazing (squinting) up into Scott's eyes.

And finally our little Payton all dressed up and ready to go.

Halloween!!!

2011-11-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

We had a BUSY and very fun Halloween this year!! Payton had many opportunities to dress up and took advantage of it! She was the Girl With Many Disguises this year!!! She was able to dress up for Joy School and decided to go as Belle! What a beauty! At school there was another Belle, a giraffe, Rapunzel and a ballerina.

Concentrating hard on her coloring!

Scott and I took Payton and Parker to a cute little fruit stand down the street that had this tower of pumpkins and a ton to choose from. It was FREEZING and windy when we went, so we were only out there for a few minutes.

Parker's first time to pick out a pumpkin.

This is the pumpkin that Payton picked out for Parker. It's just his size!

Here's Payton being a good sport in the wind! Some of the pumpkins were bigger than she was!

We got out our Halloween dress up box and Payton decided to try on a few. Here's Ghetto Fab Payton.

Crazy Scientist Payton.

Surfer/George of the Jungle Payton.

And Clown Payton. She was laughing hysterically as she was trying on all these wigs.

We also carved pumpkins. And by "carve" I mean that we got out our Mr. Potato Head faces and put them on the pumpkins.

Imitating our pumpkins!

The finished products.

Payton was also able to dress up for dance class. Here she decided to be Cinderella and her cute friend Reagan was Belle.

Our church put on an awesome Halloween party. Payton was Cinderella again and Parker was our little tiny monkey.

Our family Halloween picture outside the church.

All the cars were set up outside and the kids were able to Trunk or Treat. Payton was thrilled to get so much candy!

After Trunk or Treating we went inside for chili, cornbread, dessert and homemade root beer! The place had amazing decorations. There was a DJ playing music. Payton and her friends danced for almost an hour straight and had a great time doing it!

Payton, Caleb and Reagan. So cute!!

We also went to a corn maze with friends that's just down the street. (I told you we were busy!!!) Payton, Caleb and Tabitha. They ran through the maze holding hands and laughing.

Stopping for a picture opportunity.

And finally was actual Halloween. Payton was dressed up as a witch for trick or treating and "Parky Park" was still our cute little monkey.

Payton was such a big girl and wanted to walk up the stairs to some of the houses by herself. At the first few houses, she opened the door and started to walk inside instead of ringing the doorbell and letting someone answer it! We quickly stopped that and she started ringing the doorbell.

Daddy with the kids.

Me with our little trick or treaters.

One of the houses had this cool blow up haunted house.

Payton with all her loot.

We had a great Halloween this year and we think our clown monkey enjoyed his first Halloween too!

Parker Scott Smania

2011-10-27T12:26:00.001-07:00

Our little Parker arrived exactly 1 month ago from today. He was born on September 27, 2011 at 7:27 a.m. He weighed 6.89 pounds and was 19 inches long. He has black hair and a mouth when he screams that looks exactly like Payton's did when she was born. Welcome little man!!

Mommy with son.

I made this big sister shirt for Payton and she was ecstatic that she was finally able to wear it!

Mom of TWO children!!! Wow!!

Proud daddy and his kids.

Payton was instantly in love with her "Parky Park."

Hospital family photo.

Getting ready to go home.

Scott and Payton had gone to a party store and surprised Parker and me with a Welcome Home sign and some balloons!

Our tiny little guy in his bed his first night at home.

Four days old. Look at that little smile!

I had a much different pregnancy this time around. I did not barf my face off for nine months straight like I did with Payton. I had a fairly calm pregnancy. I still had major heart burn, threw up every once in a while, back pain, sciatic pain etc. At 33 weeks I was put on bed rest for a little scare that I had. I was doctor ordered on bed rest for four weeks. I didn't do so well on bed rest. I got very stir crazy, but thanks to some amazing friends, I had plenty of books, dvds, texts, phone calls and lots of help that made my time easier. After I was officially taken off bed rest, I just had to wait for this little guy to come.

I put together a little "field trip" for Payton and some of our friends on Monday, September 26th. We went to a U-pick farm and picked some raspberries. "I kept telling everyone that today was the day that I was going to have this baby!!" Although deep down I was pretty sure he was going to wait until his due date which was October 6th. I felt fine all day long.

Scott and I wanted to do something fun with Payton that night so we took her to a family fun center and played mini golf, some arcade games and Scott went on the go-carts. While we waited for Scott to go on the go-carts, I started getting some random contractions. We decided to go eat dinner at Golden Corral afterwards and that's where I was having mild contractions every 5 minutes. When we got home after dinner, the contractions were more spread out but getting a little more severe. We put Payton to bed and Scott and I just kind of hung out, he cleaned the garage, we watched TV, and finally I decided to go to bed. Well, the contractions didn't stop. They kept getting more severe, but they weren't really close together. They were 12 minutes apart, 5 minutes, 22 minutes, 7 minutes. I decided I didn't want to go to the hospital yet because I was afraid they were going to send me home.

Finally at 3:00-ish a.m. on September 27th, nine days early, we decided to go to the hospital. I had thrown up which doubled me over in pain. So we called my awesome friend, Rachel, who lives right beside us and she came over and stayed at our place with Payton while Scott and I headed to the hospital.

We got checked into my room at the hospital at about 3:30 a.m. Much to my surprise, I was dilated to a 5+. I was shocked!! My water still hadn't broken, but I was admitted to the hospital because of how far dilated I was. I got an IV. The first nurse who tried putting it in blew my vein and I got a huge bruise. The second nurse got it in my other arm after also blowing my vien and getting blood everywhere. The anesthesiologist came in and I got my epidural. I didn't care how long that needle was or how much it hurt for them to give me the numbing shot. As soon as the epidural started working I was in heaven!!! I progressed fairly quickly. At one point I had to get some oxygen on because Parker's heart rate would slow down.

It finally came time for me to get ready to push when I was fully dilated to a 10. My water still hadn't broken!! Of course my OB was in Europe, so I had to have a doctor deliver Parker that I had never met before. He broke my water and told me that I needed to push on my next contraction. I pushed for ten seconds. Then he said okay, push again on this next contraction...they got to about 5 seconds and Parker was out!! I only pushed twice!! The actual birth happened so fast that Scott wasn't able to help deliver him. Blood did squirt him in the face though when the doctor cut Parker's umbilical cord.

The nurses took him and cleaned him up and weighed him. The doctor stitched me up and said that he was surprised how fast and easy everything was and that I had lost very little blood. Scott went with the nurses to the nursery and filmed his little bath and took pictures. He is a small little cuddly thing and we love him already.

Scott went home and got Payton at about 10:30 a.m. and brought her to the hospital. She was so excited to see and hold her new little baby brother. We hung out all day long at the hospital until she had to leave for dance and take a nap. Then she and Scott came back to the hospital for more family time.

We only stayed in the hospital one night (by choice) and left the next night at about 9:45 p.m. When we got home, we changed Parker's diaper, got peed on by our new little bundle of joy, put Payton to bed and took a deep breath and realized that we now have TWO children!!!!

Tie

2011-09-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have love, love, loved having a girl for SO many reasons. One being that I can make jewelry, headbands, flowers, tu-tu's, shirts, etc. for her. Now that we are having a boy, I've started thinking if there was anything that I could make for him. I saw these in a store once and thought I'd try to make one. I got a plain white onesie, some fabric, and a tie pattern. This is what the results were:

It turned out okay, but there are a few things I need to fix before I make another one. I decided to make a few of these in infant sizes before he can actually where a real tie.

My Latest Project

2011-09-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make something special for Payton to wear to the hospital when her baby brother is born. I bought a plain pink t-shirt, cut out the letters to spell Big Sister, sewed them on the front and then put a few flowers of the same fabric on the back. I thought it turned out pretty cute! I think I am going to make a matching flower for her hair.

The front:

The back:

Joy School

2011-09-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is growing up way too fast. This was a picture of her yesterday going to the first day of Joy School. She went last year and was a bit young for it, but this year she was ready for it and so excited to be doing another big girl thing. (I don't know why I didn't notice before that one of her piggy tails was on the side of her head instead of on top like the other one. We'll blame it on this pregnancy! :)

First Day of Dance

2011-09-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Scott and I took Payton to her very first dance class today. She LOVED it. We signed her up for this class a few months ago and she has been looking forward to it ever since! She picked out a cute little pink leotard with purple stars on it, had a pink tutu and pink hair wrap in.

Waiting with Daddy and Mommy for class to start.

Getting ready for class to start.

Payton, Kaylee and Reagan. These are a couple of Payton's friends from our neighborhood/church that are taking the class with her.

I was worried that Payton would be distracted and talk to her friends the whole time, but she actually listened to her teacher really well and really got the hang of the dance moves they were doing.

Scott and I were smiling and laughing the entire time because it was so cute.

What a little cutie!

She is so excited that she gets to go to this class again. After four months she will perform in a recital!!

Park

2011-09-01T11:15:00.001-07:00

So this pregnancy threw me for a loop when I was put on bed rest two weeks ago. Without going into too much detail, I woke up to contractions 3 to 5 minutes apart and bleeding at 33 weeks. I'm now 35 weeks. The baby is fine and I'm doing fine...mostly just bored out of my mind. I've had great support from family and friends with visits, phone calls, dinners, etc. I was the most sad about being put on bed rest because I wanted to spend this summer doing fun things with Payton. I went to the doctor on Thursday and he said that I am now on "modified bed rest" which means I can get up a little bit more, but not over do it. I am taking full advantage of that and I am doing fun things with Payton where I can sit and just watch her, but where she can still have a great time. I took her to the park yesterday in the blazing hot sun and she had a so much fun.

Such a sweet, pretty girl!!

Payton has been amazing through this whole bed rest thing. She and I play games on the couch, read a lot of books, have play dates with friends, watch princess movies together, and she is so good about playing by herself so that mommy can rest.

Owlz Game

2011-08-14T20:46:00.001-07:00

We finally went to an Owlz baseball game. The season is over in a few weeks, so we thought we should go to a game before it's over. Payton was so excited to go to a baseball game. She wore her Owlz hat, had snacks and got a free pen when we walked through the gates. Here she is showing her excitement to be at a baseball game.

The family.

The game.

Payton's excitement wore off by the fifth inning, so she ended up playing games on daddy's phone.

Scott took Payton down by the guys sitting on the bench and asked them if they had any extra baseballs. The guy told them that if a foul ball came she could have it. Scott waited for a while and they never had a foul ball go past them. A few minutes later the guy called Scott over and just gave Payton an extra one they had laying around. Payton was super excited, but then she wanted to throw the baseball back on the field! We told her she couldn't throw it down there, but she got to keep the ball for a souvenir.

Just a few silly pictures with daddy.

And mommy. I love her expression in this picture.

It was around 9:00 p.m. and they were only at the top of the sixth inning when we decided to head home. We had a great time and hope to be able to do this again soon!

Purple Cat

2011-07-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

We went to our ward carnival last night and had so much fun!! Payton got her face painted as a purple cat.

It was about a million degrees and I was sweating like a pig, but still managed to have a great time. Unfortunately Scott had to work, so it was just me and the pipsqueak!

There was a clown that made balloon animals, games, a picture booth, a cake walk (which Payton did about 7 times and won a bunch of cupcakes) and a BBQ. Payton was afraid of the clown at first, but when I asked her later that night what her favorite part of the carnival was, she said it was the clown. I guess I better not show her the movie "IT."

4th of July

2011-07-17T21:14:00.001-07:00

We had a busy, yet fun 4th of July. We started out the weekend by moving from our apartment into a townhouse. It was a little bittersweet leaving this apartment. As small as it was, it was filled with memories. Payton learned to walk and talk there and grew from 14 months to just over three years old. We will miss it, but we are very excited to be in a townhouse.

We had a bunch of friends come and help us move and Scott's mom came down and helped us move the last few things out too. It made our move SO much easier with all their help!! My parents came to visit over the weekend. They helped us beautify our new place. They helped unpack, hang up pictures and mirrors and clocks. Payton played the "Remembering Game" with Nana. (Memory.)

We went to Freedom Days and walked around for only about an hour because it was SOOOO hot. Remember Moses from The Biggest Loser? He was promoting some singer in his booth so I got my huge pregnant picture taken with him.

Payton sported a cute patriotic dress for the 4th with a red, white and blue flower in her hair to match.

Payton being silly with Big Poppy. I have about 20 pictures of the two of them together from this little photo session, but this is the best one I got out of Payton.

Moving into a new place meant a new tv, new couch and new tv stand. So Scott, with a little help from Payton and my dad, put together the new tv stand.

We went to a parade with some friends on the morning of the 4th. We saw marching bands, fire trucks, police cars, floats, huge balloons, etc.

As always, Payton danced to the music during the parade.

We had a little time to ride bikes in our back yard.

That night we had a BBQ before Scott left for work, then we had some friends over for a few fireworks. The kids loved/hated the loud sparkly fireworks...

And LOVED the sparklers!!!

Awesome Outfit!!!

2011-07-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

Payton came down the stairs after getting herself dressed. Her outfit of choice was a pink knit hat, polka dot shirt, flower pants and Hello Kitty slippers. She announced to me and Scott, "I need to go to Walmart so I can buy something!!" This is what she wore earlier in the day where her outfit actually matched!

Carnival

2011-06-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

We went with some friends, Kaylee, Kennady and Shara, today to the city carnival. It was so fun! We watched a few dance performances... Answered a fire safety question...

Danced along as we were walking...

Got some balloons, looked at booths...

And rode a few rides.

Payton was SO excited to drive a boat...

And a car!!

Then we went over and did a craft and did face painting.

Payton sat very still and was so excited that she was allowed to have paint on her face!

Her artwork of choice?? A heart that says MOM! It was so fun hanging out with our friends and getting out in the sun!! Next time we hope daddy doesn't have to work so that he can come too!

Swimming!

2011-06-07T16:19:00.001-07:00

It was FINALLY warm enough to go swimming yesterday!! We went with a bunch of friends to a water park and had a great time!! We went in the toddler pool, the kiddie pool, and I took Payton down the lazy river in her tube 12 times!! The water was so warm. I made sure to slather up Payton with sun block two times, but I forgot to put any on myself. Needless to say that I got FRIED!! OUCH!!! I have learned my lesson. Even though I have a slightly darker complexion, I still need to put on sun block!!!

The weather started to get windy and cloudy towards the end of our day. Payton does not like to be cold!

We have a season pass to this water park and we can't wait to go every week!! Hopefully this weather will stay nice for more than two days in a row.

Jump

2011-05-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a place called Jump On It. It's a place with some bounce houses and tons of trampolines. Payton had a great time!! This is a picture of her laying on the trampoline with her hair full of static.

It's a.....

2011-05-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

We found out yesterday that we are having a BOY!!! We are very excited!! Payton is so excited to have a little brother and be a big sister! After our ultrasound we went to Old Navy and bought a cute little outfit. Scott was like a little kid in a candy store. He was so excited to buy little boy things!!

Our baby boy is growing and developing properly as far as they can tell in an ultrasound which is a relief!!

Baby Stuff...

2011-05-08T18:47:00.001-07:00

In case you were wondering, this is what our baby looks like at 18 weeks and 3 days. Well, not exactly...this is a picture off the internet, but you get the idea. I have 151 days to go!!!!

Is it a boy or a girl???? We find out next Monday, the 16th!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

3 Year Dr. Check Up

2011-05-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry this picture is sideways, but my computer won't let me rotate it. This is a picture of Payton at her 3 year doctor check up today. She was so good at her appointment, sat so still, asked the doctor a lot of questions and understood everything he was asking/telling her.

Well, petite Payton is finally over the 5th percentile for weight! In fact, she weighs 27 pounds which puts her in the 16th percentile! She is 36 inches tall which puts her in the 26th percentile for height. I guess she's just going to be a tiny little thing!!

Ice Skating

2011-04-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

On one of the episodes of Special Agent Oso, Oso helps a girl learn how to ice skate. Since that episode, Payton has been dying to go ice skating for the first time. Scott had a Friday night off so we took advantage and went ice skating. Payton was SOOOO excited. She was a little unsure of what we were doing when we put these funny shoes on her.

Due to my growing belly and the fact that I am the world's WORST ice skater, I decided to sit on the sidelines, take pictures and cheer them on!

Payton LOVED the ice skating. Well, I take that back. She thought the actual ice skating was okay. She LOVED zooming around the ice rink in Scott's arms. She laughed so hard and said, "Weeeeeeeee!!!!!!"

They had little ice skating assistance things which they tried out, but the ice was still too slippery for Payton.

I'm quite impressed with Scott...he's a pretty good ice skater!! He got pretty tired carrying Payton around the whole time but he was a good sport and held her because she was having so much fun!

Easter

2011-04-24T19:27:00.001-07:00

We had an Easter party at church yesterday. They did an Easter egg hunt and a yummy dinner. The Easter egg hunt was going to originally be outside but it was pouring rain that day so they decided to set the eggs up all over the church. Payton found a bunch of eggs was excited each time she found a new one.

We also did our own Easter egg hunt at home. We hid about 45 eggs with coins in them instead of candy. Again, Payton was thrilled to wake up and see that the Easter Bunny had visited our house. The Easter Bunny left her a dress, a shirt, a children's Book of Mormon Stories picture book, Book of Mormon Stories DVD, sandals, bunny ears, a light up toy and a cake and frosting to help make with Daddy.

We tried to incorporate the true meaning of Easter with Payton this year. She is able to understand things a little more this year.

Our little Easter Bunny.

More eggs!!!!

All the treasure!!!

Payton let me put hot curlers in her hair today. She loves having curly hair for church.

She's a good sport for letting me put curlers in her hair. Unfortunately the curl only really stays in her hair for about half an hour before it starts to fall out.

Payton in her new Easter dress. So pretty!!!

Strike a pose!

Scott had to work tonight so we didn't really have our own Easter dinner. I quickly made tacos before he left for work so that we could eat together as a family.

We hope you all had a great Easter!!!

March 2011

2011-03-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

March has been a very busy, yet fun month. Scott had a big milestone birthday. He turned 30!!! On his actual birthday we had a doctor's appointment where we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Well, we heard it for like .02 seconds, then it kept hiding, so we barely heard it at all. That morning, we went to breakfast at Kneaders (yum!) and had a little while before our appointment so we decided to go walk around the temple. That night we had dinner and cake for Scott. Little did he know that I had a 3 day celebration planned for him. The next night we went up to SLC where he was surprised to see his whole family at Buca Di Beppo. We ate a yummy dinner and had a delicious Costco cheesecake. It was fun to see everyone and I was so glad everyone could make it to this surprise.

The following night I threw a surprise party with all of our friends. Scott found out about the party 30 minutes beforehand and was a good sport and acted very surprised when everybody jumped out and yelled "surprise!!" A bunch of friends showed up and the party was so fun!

We played pin the toupee on the old guy. Here's Payton having a turn.

And the birthday boy having a turn.

A bunch of the kiddos.

Payton also got really sick this month. She is usually not one to throw up when she gets sick, but I woke up one night to her crying in her room and found her covered in throw up. She threw up about 16 more times in that day. I was very worried about her getting dehydrated. The next few days she had really bad diarrhea. It took her about 5 days to recover fully. The picture below is after I ventured to take her out for the first time after being cooped up for so long. She was SO exhausted when we got home that she fell asleep on the floor with her coat and shoes still on.

It was snowing the first few days of Spring here, so when it was finally sunny outside we took full advantage. We went to the playground and Payton played in the sand with some of her new sand toys.

And finally, to sum up some of Payton's silliness, this is what she likes to do. She LOVES to play games right now. She took all of our weekly grocery mailer ads, lined them up and then played hopscotch on them.

She's also way into playing hide and seek. Scott and I have been playing with her. It's SO funny! One of us helps her hide while the other parent counts then looks for her. We will say "ready or not here I come" and we will hear lots of laughing and shrieking coming from a hiding Payton. As we are looking for her, we will talk out loud and say "where is Payton?" To which she will yell out "I'm in the hamper!" or I'm behind the door!" She doesn't quite get it yet that you're not supposed to give it away where you are hiding.

Career Choice

2011-03-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Payton said to me tonight, "When I go to college, I can be a doctor. When I'm a doctor, you can lay down and I can take your temperature. And I can listen with my ears."

Dream big, Sweetie!!

Dance Party!!!!

2011-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Payton decided to take off all her clothes, put on one of my shirts and have her own little dance party to the Solid Gold Oldies station on Comcast. She has quite the moves!

My new hair cut....finally!!!!

2011-02-22T20:29:00.001-08:00

I finally had a LONG overdue hair cut. It has been a little over a YEAR since I had it cut last. Uggghhh. My hair literally was down to my waist and was so heavy and thick and badly needed something done to it. I got a coupon in the mail for a nice salon and made an appointment.

Before... Another before...

After. I got eight inches cut off and tons of layers.

I look weirdo in this picture and it doesn't do the cut justice, but I really like how the stylist cut it. My hair feels way lighter and I always LOVE the feeling of my hair after they use the expensive salon shampoo and conditioner in it!!

(I think I lost a few pounds getting all that hair cut off! :)

Valentine's 2011

2011-02-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

This is my little Valentine yesterday before church. What a cutie pie!! I decorated part of our dining room last night so that when Payton woke up, she would be surprised. She was thrilled when she woke up and saw tons of hearts and Valentine's gifts for her, mommy and daddy.

Payton got a little drawing desk, a shirt and a Barbie DVD. Scott got a pair of pants and a puzzle and I got a gift card and a perfume. Scott also surprised Payton and me with our own bouquets of roses.

We had pink pancakes for breakfast.

Then Payton and I went to a little Valentine's party with all of her friends. We decorated cupcakes and the kids played with toys while the moms talked.

We ended the day with a yummy dinner cooked by Scott. Pork roast and roasted potatoes. Later for dessert I will be having Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. YUM!! After Payton goes to bed, we will watch the movie You Again.

It was a fun day!!

Princess Party

2011-02-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

BYU put on the ballet Cinderella. Unfortunately we didn't look for tickets in time and it was sold out, but we were able to go to a Princess Party Meet and Greet before the ballet. Payton was so excited to go to a Princess Party.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to, right? (She's crying because she was freezing and we hadn't put her jacket on yet.) Once inside and after warming up she was a happy camper.

She got to meet the whole cast of the ballet. Here she is with Cinderella.

We didn't know who all of the characters were but that didn't seem to bother Payton. She talked up a storm with anyone who would listen.

My cute little princess.

The whole cast was really friendly and kept saying how cute Payton was and asked her if she was going to be a dancer to which she replied, "Yes!!"

We went with our friends Steph and Reagan. It was impossible to get both of these girls to look at the camera at the same time!

The two princesses in training!

Lately...

2011-02-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

Here's what's been going on with us lately.

We have found out that Payton is freakishly flexible. She can do the splits. Not kinda do the splits, but for real do the splits! I cringe in pain every time she does it but she loves to do it and thinks she's hilarious.

Payton has a bunch of dress up clothes and wears them daily.

My friend Sara inspired me to start doing crafts with Payton. It has been a success. I have started out with very simple crafts but she loves it and asks multiple times a day for more craft time. Here we traced my hand and Payton put feathers on it and made it into a turkey.

We bought some jungle animal stickers and Payton made a jungle scene. I have many more ideas and I'm excited to do them with her.

Scott's inner Bobby Flay has come out and he has been cooking a lot lately. First he made some delicious taco soup, then some steaks, and then yummy shish kabobs. Thanks Scotty Flay!

I paint and re-paint Payton's nails pretty much every day. Sometimes I am patient and let her paint mine (with most of the paint scraped off the brush.) She is very girly and loves to have pretty nails. She wanted to try a new style so she put stickers on all of our nails.

Payton is very funny and goofy lately. She decided she wanted to sit on her potty in the bathroom and read a book. What a silly girl!!

Magic Kingdom--Disney Part IV

2011-01-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

So the last park that we went to on our trip was Magic Kingdom. This was the park with all the rides that we really wanted to go on. We got into the park before it opened because we went to Winnie the Pooh character breakfast. Payton met Piglet and Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.

I was so excited to take Payton on Dumbo. She loved this ride so much that she went with me...

And Scott!

We took a ride on It's a Small World. Oh, man. That song sticks in your head!!

Took a few rides on the carousel...

Spun around on the Teacups...

And rode the race cars...

I let Payton steer the car. Let me tell you...it was a bumpy ride!

We met a bunch more characters.

Stopped and ate lunch. Look at the glare on Payton's face!

We waited anxiously to take a ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpet.

We watched yet another parade with the cousins. Payton did not disappoint. She danced, laughed and waved the entire parade.

The princess in front of her castle.

The line was like three hours long to meet Rapunzel so we decided to take a picture from afar and not waste our time!

Taking a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

And finally, I was executed at the end. What a day!!

Scott also rode Space Mountain. We watched Mike Wazowski's comedy show, watched a 3-D play thing that freaked Payton out so we had to leave in the middle and so much more!!! I don't know what happened to the pictures, but we also saw the Cirq de Soleil show La Nuba. It was AWESOME!!!! This was a late celebration of our six year anniversary. We had an awesome time in Disney World and hope to be able to go back again. My next post will be about our adventure to Daytona Beach.

Disney World Part III

2011-01-30T17:11:00.000-08:00

I'm finally updating my blog! Continuing on with Disney World stuff...

We went to Animal Kingdom. I liked this park a lot. First thing we did was go on a safari ride. It was really fun. The weather was still fairly cold so not all of the animals were out. It was neat to drive right next to them though.

Sorry that half my pictures are sideways. I got the pictures off of my picture CD and it wouldn't let me rotate them. This next picture is a picture of a lady on stilts dressed up in leaves and vines. When she is sitting still, you can't tell that it's a person. Then all of a sudden her fingers start to move, then her head and then she starts walking. When Scott and I walked past her, we didn't know what this group of people were staring at because she was leaning against a wall with her face hidden.
We took a little train ride out to a little petting zoo type thing. I can't remember exactly what the name of the area was. There were characters to take pictures with...

And animals to pet. Payton liked brushing the goat and talking to it.

This picture is a little blurry but this is Payton and her cousing Elisabeth who is two weeks younger than her.

Payton's favorite ride was the Triceratop Spin. It's the same thing as Aladdin's magic carpet ride, just in a dinosaur. She went on this ride three times.

We saw a short production of The Lion King. It was awesome!! Their voices were amazing and the props and characters were very cool.

This is us waiting for yet another parade. Payton of course loved it and danced the whole time and waved to the characters as they passed.

This is a picture of the huge Tree of Life that is the center of the park. You can't tell from the picture but the whole trunk is carved with characters and animals.

After the park we went to Downtown Disney. It's not a theme park but it has little shops, restaurants...kind of like a river walk. Payton is standing with a Lego family.

We at a restaurant called T-Rex. It was so cool. Each room was full of Dinosaurs that made noise and moved. I almost got eaten by a dinosaur as you can tell my this picture.

Payton with Aurora outside of the Bibidi Bobidi Boutique.

Payton and Cinderella.

This is out of order but this is Payton having a conversation with the Triceratops.
This guy was painted red with red props and a red set. He would just stand still and not move and then sometimes when someone was standing next to him he would scare them. Payton went right up to him and he shook her hand.

There were a bunch of street performers. As we were leaving, we came across this guy. There was a huge crowd around and Payton just started dancing in front of everyone. The guy came out and started kind of dancing with her. We stayed and watched him perform for like a half hour with Payton dancing the whole time.

Payton and her new favorite Rock Star. After each song that he performed he would thank his back-up dancers!!

Disney-Part 2

2010-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

Our second day at Disney World was one of my favorite days--Hollywood Studios. It's not the biggest park but we did some of the funnest things there! We saw a Little Mermaid play thing, where there were real characters but they also used digital images and sound effects/mist, etc. Payton did not love this play because Ursula was humongous and scary and so were the eels! Payton LOVES Playhouse Disney and the Mickey Mouse Club house. We went and saw them do a little play on stage. Payton jumped, laughed and sang right along!

We met some more characters. Here we are with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins.

We then went and saw how some of the characters came to be and how they were drawn. We met a few more characters and then Scott took a short art class.

Scott told Mr. Incredible that he wanted a picture with just his wife. Mr. Incredible told (well, acted out) that Scott better watch his back! Then...

Mr. Incredible told Scott he wanted a picture without him in it!!

Scott went on the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride. I refused to go on it because A) I don't like elevators in the first place and B) I'm claustrophobic.

Payton developed a new love of parades on this vacation. She's seen some before this, but never quite enjoyed them like she did here. She danced and laughed the entire parade. P.S. the Disney employees are Nazi's. If you're foot barely goes over the line during the parade, they come over and yell at you.

Payton's grandma watched her while Scott and I went and watched Lights Motor Action. This was SOOO cool!! It's a movie set where they show you how they do chase scenes, action scenes, etc in a movie. At one time there were about nine cars on the set at once, going so fast, almost hitting each other, swerving, going around a building, coming back, almost hitting each other, etc. It was SOOOO awesome!!

My favorite ride was Toy Story Mania. You wear 3-D glasses, sit in a little car thing and shoot a digital dart gun at targets and try to get as many points as you can while the car is moving and spinning you around! Just for the record...I beat Scott. Big time!!!

We watched a play of Beauty and the Beast. Payton loved it because there was nothing really scary in it. It was just a little short version of it in an outdoor theater.

We finished our day by riding the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. It's in the dark, very fast and very loud. Scott loved it but it made me a little motion sick!! It was a VERY fun day!!!

The next day we had to take Payton to a doctor. She didn't feel too sick, but her eyes we both boogering shut and getting worse by the day and she was coughing all night. We don't have great out-of-state insurance, so we ended up having to pay the entire thing. Suck! We got her the prescriptions she needed and she slowly but surely got better. Despite her being sick, she still had a great time at the parks.

Disney World (Part 1)

2010-12-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

I literally took about 1,000 pictures while we were in Florida, so I figured I better make a few different posts, otherwise I won't be able to fit in as many pictures as I want to!

Well, we left on Monday, December 6th, from cold Utah, excited to go to warm, sunny Florida. We found out that Florida was having record breaking cold temperatures out there the week that we were going to be there. Awesome! It was Fr-fr-fr-freezing! The only difference was that there was no snow on the ground. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, but it was just COLD!!! We arrived Monday night and got lost on the way to our condo. Stupid toll roads took all our money and it took a few hours to get there when it should have only taken about 45 minutes!!! We went to Walmart that night and bought some hats, gloves and scarves because we didn't come that prepared for winter weather. Here is Scott and Payton being cold on our first day in the park!

Our first stop in the Happiest Place on Earth was at Epcot center. It was AWESOME. You will probably hear me say that a lot when talking about our Florida trip because we had such an AWESOME time!

We had a game plan going into all the parks. We would have Scott run and grab a Fast-Pass (a pass to get us in the short line at a later time in the day). While he was doing that I would take Payton and go wait in line for another ride that we wanted to do. This little plan worked out well for us. After Scott rode a ride (one that was claustrophobic and that I would NEVER go on), we went and waited in line to meet some characters. I wasn't sure how Payton would do meeting characters because she's been a little afraid of mascots that we've seen before. We saw some other little kids with autograph books, so I stayed in line and Scott ran and got one for Payton. When it was our turn, Payton ran right up and was SO excited to see the real Mickey Mouse!!

She got autographs and pictures with all of them!! I think her favorite is Minnie!!

We got Payton all dressed up and she and I, along with her grandma, aunts and girl cousins went to a princess lunch.

My cute little Snow White!

Waiting for our table.

I for sure thought that Payton would love the princesses, but boy was I wrong. We first walked in and Belle was there to take pictures with. Payton freaked out, screaming and crying and refused to go stand next to her. I had to hold her and hide behind her in order for her to get her picture taken. Here she is with her twin. Notice that I am holding her, leaning away, trying not to be in the picture. She was like this with all of the princesses. She wouldn't look at them or talk to them unless someone was holding her. Payton zonked out in her stroller the moment we set her down in it. Poor thing was exhausted!

After the princess lunch we got back together with Scott and went around the rest of Epcot. We went around to the different countries with Payton's "passport" and she got stamps from all the different countries.

We watched a little parade and walked around exploring the countries a little bit.

We made it just in time to Santa and Mrs. Claus. Payton HATED them too. (She has seen Santa 3 times since this and has just loved him.)

We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant called the San Angel. While we were waiting for our table, we went on a little river boat ride inside the restaurant and followed Donald Duck on his world tour. The restaurant was cool. It had a huge Mayan ruin in the middle of it, music playing, and yummy food!

The day went on, we walked some more, went on some more rides, and Payton fell asleep again in her stroller. This was a great way to start our vacation!

Stay tuned for a bazillion more pictures!! :)

Santa

2010-12-18T04:52:00.001-08:00

Remember this Santa picture from 2008?? I LOVE the screaming Santa pictures!!Santa in 2009 was a little bit better, but Payton was still pretty unsure about sitting in this old, hairy man's lap. Well...

We visited Santa while we were in Daytona Beach, Florida and were pleasantly surprised when Payton walked right up to him and started having a conversation with him. She gave him five, sat in his lap and chatted it up with him. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she told him a "Blue Baby." She actually already got a blue baby doll before we flew out to have on the plane, but that's what she's been practicing saying to him so that's what she told him. Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said, "A Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor." He sat there for a minute looking a little shocked and said, "That's the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting something like that for Christmas!" (This picture is a little blurry because I took a picture of it with Scott's phone and sent it to my e-mail.)

Squatting Airplane Arms and Awesome Hair

2010-12-06T05:30:00.001-08:00

Sometimes my little Payton is a little quirky! She walks around bent over with her arms behind her sometimes. Not just at home. She will do this all over the store, church, friend's house, etc.

And the other day I took out her hair-do and this was what her hair looked like. It was so hot that I just had to share it!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty relaxing Thanksgiving this year. Scott had to work the night before and the night after so we wanted to have a pretty mellow day. We woke up and Scott and Payton made French Toast for us for breakfast! We went an hour early to the movie theater to buy "Tangled" tickets but it was sold out. This was us being sad that the movie was sold out.

And here's Payton being happy that we found another theater that wasn't sold out!

Payton and Daddy waiting for the movie to start.

Payton and Mommy take 1.....

Take 2....

Take 3. Finally! We love, love, LOVED the movie. I want to go see it again!

After the movie we went home and put Payton down for a nap and then headed up to Grandma Royan's house. Payton helped make the fruit salad.

We ate, laughed, talked and hung out. Payton and her cousin's played in their Smania Family Christmas shirts that we are going to wear on a day in Disney World.

They were all too involved in a movie to look at the camera.

We had fun, ate too much and now we are excited for Disney World!!!!!!!!

What did you say?!?!

2010-12-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

If any of you know Payton well, you will know she is a talker. She will blab on and on about nothing. Today she was telling a story to Scott and me that literally lasted for 20 minutes without a pause. I tried to write down as much as I could of the story. Below you will find a short snippet of her looooonnnnggg story!

"Go on a train and stomp your feet and play a bouncy toy, like this, and you pull it off and you can go to bed with your soft cloth and you put it down and dropped it. You pick it up and put it behind my head and you have some pink cereal. You pick me up and have medicine and make you feel all better and medicine's all gone and my medicine, and I got some blue fishies for you to make you feel better. And you blow it up and she do that and she blow it up. Take your shirt up and put it down. Up and down, up and down. She say excuse me. That's icky. I say one, two, three, four...time out! She say roll softly. Go to bed and shut the door and you wake up. She do that with the baby crying. Wah, wah, wah. She bend down and up and up and down. You want to see pictures? She say yeah! Yeah! She do that. You're not doing that. The baby is crying. You go to bed and say ha-shoo, ha-shoo. She toot and she spit. The baby toots. The baby's crying toot. It's time for palace, like the blocks and she takes the blocks away. And she takes the bag and grabs it and hold it. She pick it up or back. She put if for me and spit."

The End.

Dear Santa...

2010-11-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

Payton wrote a letter to Santa this morning. (With just a little help from Daddy.) She told him she was a very good girl this year and asked him for a blue or pink baby doll, a golf set and a piano. A very good source tells me that Santa is going to grant these wishes for her this year along with a bunch of other things. What a lucky, spoiled little girl!!!

Christmas Tree

2010-11-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

We are all ready for Christmas in the Smania house! I know we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but I just couldn't wait! Payton was very excited to help set up the Christmas tree. She helped put the post into the base and put the branches in.

She loves watching the flashing Christmas lights.

She put up lots of ornaments and she likes to take them off as well and play with them. Luckily this year she is old enough to know how to be careful with them and put them back when she is done playing with them.

The finished product.

Well done, Cutie Pie!

And to top off the evening, it started to snow and we woke up this morning with freezing weather and everything dusted in white! We can't wait for Christmas!!!

First Movie at the Theater

2010-11-17T20:27:00.001-08:00

On the Friday before Halloween, Scott and I took Payton to the movie theater for the first time. She was SOOO excited to go see a "big show." We saw Toy Story 3. It was a really cute movie.

Buying the tickets...

Showing us the tickets...

Handing our tickets to the ticket taker.

Waiting for the movie to start. Payton had her own little drink and popcorn. She laughed at random parts of the movie and was telling us what she saw on the screen. She sat in a booster chair and felt like such a big girl. We had to leave twice to use the potty, but then she came right back in and watched the whole show. She got a little restless the last few minutes, but she did really well!

The theater was dark and the flash was bright. Enough said.

Bright flash + dark room = Child who looks high.

It was so fun! I plan on taking her to many more movies. Best of all??? It was at the dollar theater so it was a really cheap date!!

These are a few of her favorite things...

2010-11-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

Our busy, busy two-year-old has many favorite things right now.

She loves to help wash the dishes...
..Sometimes in the nude!

She loves to help cook. She is absolutely thrilled if I let her pour in the ingredients or stir. She is way into being a big helper. She will do anything I ask her to do if I add in "Be a big helper." I will say to her, "Payton, will you be a big helper and put this in the laundry?" She is happy to oblige.

She loves to come with me to the gym. She is such a good sport. She goes either to the gym or walking/running outside with me 6 days a week..sometimes 2 times a day! What a sport. The funniest is to watch her mimic me doing a sit-up or push-up. Funny girl!

She loves to choose what she wears. Sometimes she chooses AWESOME outfits like this one below!! Most of the time her outfits will consist of a tu-tu and some sort of jewelry.

She loves to color. She is getting better at staying in the lines and sometimes just wants a plain piece of white paper to be creative on. She will "draw" something and come up to me and say, "Look Mommy!! It's a dinosaur!!"

She loves to dance to fast beat music, preferably hip hop or rap.

She loves to tickle you and be tickled.

She loves to kiss boo-boos better.

She loves to be chased up and down the hallway.

She loves to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.

She loves to call people on the phone and also pretend to call people on the phone.

She loves to take care of her baby doll, making sure she is "nice and warm" and has her binky and make sure she isn't crying.

She loves to sing and knows pretty much every word to every kid song.

And most of all, my favorite part of the day, she likes to snuggle with me before she goes to bed.

My other favorite thing is when she says, "Mommy, I have a secret." I say, "What's your secret, Payton?" She whispers to me, "I love you!"

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

***Warning---Longest post of all time ahead!!! You've been warned!!!!***

We had the busiest October ever! We did so many things with family and friends, and if you know me well, you know I take 1,000 pictures of everything we do, so here is a visual treat for you all!! :) (These things are all out of order, but I'm lazy and I have a lot to blog about so I don't feel like putting them in order!)

We went trick or treating on Saturday night. Of all days of the week, it had to rain on this day! So good thing we had a back up plan. We went with our friends to the mall to trick or treat.
It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO busy! There literally was a gigantic line slowly moving around the entire perimeter of the mall. We walked slowly from store to store and got candy.

These two little ones got tired after a while so they took a seat on the tray holder thing in front of the Chinese restaurant in the food court.

Then they decided to take a seat in the middle of the mall and snack on some candy! After trick or treating we went to Red Robin with some friends and pigged out!

On another day,we went to our friend's work Halloween Party. It was awesome. Each department has a competition to see who can be most creative and decorate their department the best. You walk through the whole thing kind of like a haunted house. Payton was kind of scared most of the time until we got the Disco. Then she started dancing and running around. Thousands of people show up for this! Thanks for inviting us! Here are the Paul's looking hot in their costumes!

Reagan and Payton anxiously awaiting yet another Halloween party.

Waiting in line to get in!

They had men on stilts juggling, balloon animals, cotton candy, etc! They go all out for Halloween!

Payton requested a butterfly for her balloon animal. It popped about five seconds after we got in the car on the way home.

One of the departments decorated like you were Mario World. Payton apparently won first place, me second, and sorry Scott, you took third!

Another day we went to our friend's, the Carter's place and carved/painted pumpkins. I didn't feel like carving one so we just let Payton paint hers. She did a beautiful job!

We enjoyed hot chocolate and donuts.

All the girls. Our husbands are here but I don't think we got a picture of them.

Another fun night we had was a Murder High School 25 year class reunion Murder Mystery dinner. The theme was the 80's. I was Cindy Crawfish, the Class Flirt. Scott was Randy Reporter, a Journalist/Reporter.

I know I look H-O-T!!! Too bad I was only little in the 80's, and I couldn't dress myself, otherwise you would have seen a lot of this going on!

I was voted "Best Actress" and I was also the most accused murderer! This night was so fun! It was a great group of people. I have always wanted to do a murder mystery dinner.

I had a little kiddie Halloween party for Payton and some kids her age. We had dirt cups for a snack, played Pin the Spider on the Web, and colored. Payton always has fun when friends come over.

The gang.

Me and Squirt with chocolate all over her face. She has been on a sugar high for like two weeks now!

On actual Halloween, we went up to Ogden to spend some time with Scott's family. Grandma Royan gave each of the kids a little Halloween goodie bag with some silly glasses in it!

Great Grandma Roberta, cousin Emmery and Payton.

All the cousins in their silly glasses. For dinner we had chili and soup, bread, salad, pumpkin pie bars and homemade apple pie. Yum!

We also went to Pumpkinland last week with some friends. Payton picked out her pumpkin...

Posed for some pictures....

Ran through a corn maze and played on a playground.

The whole group.

Well, that was our Halloween season! I hope I didn't miss anything. We were SOOO busy. Now I don't have much of anything going on and I feel bored!!!

Halloween Sneak Preview

2010-10-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

We had our ward Halloween party tonight. It was so fun! There was a cupcake decorating contest and I made aliens. I wanted to have a cute back drop, so I made a middle school science project type thing. Good thing there was something to distract you from looking straight at the cupcakes because they turned out U-G-L-Y!!!!! (Oh, in case you really didn't guess already, I didn't win :) We all decided to dress up at Pirates this year. Cutie Pie Pirate Payton!

Twinners---Mommy and Payton. Our costumes were exactly the same. Payton's was just a mini version of mine.

She was SO excited to dress up and go to a party.

Payton has been saying "trick or treat" for weeks, so she finally got to put that into use. They got to go up and down a hallway and at each door they got to trick or treat. Payton's trick or treat back is a little leather bag with gold ropes on it.

This is one of Payton's best friends, Reagan. They get so silly when they are together!

The three of us at the party.

When you ask Payton what a Pirate says she says, "aaarrrrggghh!" We were trying to teach her to sing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a Pirates life for me." She wouldn't do it until bath time after the party. She was crying in the bath because she was so tired, but instead of normal crying, she was saying, "Yo ho, yo ho, yo ho."

They had a donut eating contest. To make it hard, they had the donut hanging from a string and you couldn't use your hands. Who won you ask? That's right, Scotty boy did. Even after it fell on the floor, he picked it up with off the floor with his mouth and kept right on eating. Yup!! That's my husband! :)

There was also a little fashion show for the kids across the stage. When Payton got to the end she said, "I'm up here!!"

Cute little friends, Payton, Reagan and Kaylee.

Payton and Reagan with another one of her best friends Caleb.

It was such a fun night. We can't wait until Halloween is here!!!

Fall Fun

2010-10-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Grandma Royan came down to visit. We wanted to do something fun while she was here so we took her to Hee Haw Farms for a little bit of Fall fun. They had ginormous pumpkins... A really tricky hay maze...

And corn to feed the goats. There was a goat that was such a bully! You would put your hand in there for them to eat out of and it would seriously snort and buck away the other goats! How rude!!

We went into a little area where there were pigs, chickens, bunnies and a few other animals just walking around. Payton loved the pigs.

And yes folks, it's true. My city-slicker self roped a cow. Okay. So it was a plastic head and it wasn't moving, but still, I roped it!!!

Then we went into a corn maze. It didn't take too long to get through, but we had fun while doing it. Payton was our navigator.

Finally we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. The driver of the hay ride had to go back and do some maintenance on something at the farm. He failed to tell another driver that he had dropped some people off at the pumpkin patch. We had to wait for-ev-er for someone to come pick us up. Oh, well. We eventually made it back in one piece!

This striped/gourd/pumpkin/watermelon looking thing was Payton's pick. We all were able to pick out our own pumpkins. Those suckers are hard to get out of the ground! Note to self---don't sit down next to sticky burrs when trying to pick your pumpkin because they will stick onto you for dear life and poke you like crazy!!

We had a fun time and were glad Grandma Royan could come down and spend some time with us!!

Last weekend we went down to Zion's with Scott's dad and Scott's sisters and their families. The whole weekend was a blast. This was the little shack that we stayed in.

Um, this little "shack" was a-ma-zing. Did I mention that in it's back yard were two waterfalls, a hot tub and a little putting green?

The back two walls of the house were glass, so this was our view every night at dinner.

We had a few bbq's, hung out, and played some golf. On Friday we went to Zion National Park. We weren't sure how Payton would do in this hiking backpack because she'd never been in one before. She LOVED it. We watched a little informational movie before we went on our first hike and she didn't want to get out of it. So Scott took it off his back and we just set her on the floor and she watched it in there!

The whole gang outside the Lodge.

Let's just say I came a little unprepared for this weekend. I had a lot going on the week before, so I packed right before we left. I forgot swimsuits, a back pack, a sun hat for Payton etc. Well, all the little cousins participated in this Junior Ranger program. What you had to do is observe and keep your eye out for certain things while hiking. We decided to buy a little hat for Payton that said Junior Ranger on it. She also LOVED the hat and would NOT take it off!

I wish my sleeves were pulled up a little bit so you could see my awesome biceps! :)

Up at the top of the Emerald Pools. (A little side note about the awesome hat hanging from my back pack. Scott went into the Lodge when we stopped for lunch and came out with this hat for me as a souvenir. What a goof!)

I LOVE this picture. I have a picture of me when I was little, sitting on my dad's shoulders, resting my head on his, sleeping because I was so exhausted. Now I have one of my baby girl sleeping on her daddy while hiking.

At Weeping Rock.

The next day the guys went four wheeling and the girls took the kiddos to the pool. Payton didn't spend a whole lot of time in the water, but she sure did rub lotion all over her legs!!

Silly girl wearing a snorkeling mask. The pool was gorgeous but the water wasn't too warm!

We had an awesome weekend. We're glad Grandpa Dave came into town and hope he comes again soon!

We saw Santa today!

2010-10-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

At Walmart today we saw an older man with a long white beard sitting on a bench. Payton yells out, "Look Mommy! It's Santa!! Hi Santa!!!"

I guess he just came from Hawaii because he was wearing one of those colorful Hawaiian shirts!

All That Jazz

2010-10-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Just a cute little shot of Payton throwing out some gang signs when I asked her to pose for a picture! Last weekend we went up to Salt Lake to see the Utah Jazz scrimmage against their own team. We got there and only a few sections of seats were open to sit in. We were standing in the middle of the aisle when they opened up another section so I ran down the stairs and we sat in row 8! We were so close to the court. Best part of the day???? It was free! One of Scott's co-workers told him about it so we thought it would be fun to check it out. Payton was a little unsure of all the noise at first.

We had such a good view of all the players! They had a little dance contest, filmed a few commercials and then played a short game of basketball.

The mascot was super funny. He pulled down one of the coaches pants, took one of the mops that they clean the floor up with when somebody falls and mopped a bald guys head, rode around on a motorcycle, etc.

The fam. (Don't pay attention to the fact that I look high in this picture!)

My Birthday

2010-09-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

I just celebrated my 29th birthday. I feel old. My birthday celebration kind of went on for three days. The first day we went to Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!! I have been so excited to go there! Payton was very excited to go to a restaurant too.

Little cutie pie with chocolate on her face!

I ate. I ate A LOT. We ordered hummus and flat bread for an appetizer, then ate the bread they bring out for you, then I ordered Pasta Chicken Carbonara (so good) and then I had red velvet cheesecake for dessert. Holy cow. Dinner was amazing!!!

Payton and daddy chilling after we got home from the restaurant.

The next day, my actual birthday, we went to a playground in the morning and ran a few laps and then played on the swings.

That night we went to a Fiesta for our ward party. Afterwards, Scott had a little surprise up his sleeve. Here we are driving, me not knowing where we're going...

And here's Scott thinking he's pretty sneaky for not tell me where we're going.

We ended up at Sundance Ski Resort. A few times a year during the full moon, they do a Moonlit Lift Ride. It was really fun, but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO cold. Scott had packed a blanket and hot chocolate which helped a little bit. There were tons of people there so we had to wait in line for like and hour, then the ride was like 45 minutes.

My eyes were starting to go cross eyed from being so cold!! I kept having to blink so that my eyeballs wouldn't freeze! Even though I was shivering, I had a really fun time! Good job, Scott for planning a fun night!!

The next day we had a little BBQ with a few of our friends. Scott planned the whole thing and was the grill master. We had burgers, fruit, chips, cookies and cake. Yum!!

Here are all the wives. Thanks for coming everybody, we had a great time!!!!

Payton wanted to get in on the birthday princess action!!

I'll tell you what....I'm not looking forward to next year. I'll be 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Utah State Fair 2010

2010-09-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Scott, Payton and I went to the State Fair yesterday. It was hot, hot, hot and very busy, but we still had a fun time. Scott and I both tried to see how buff we were. Can you guess who was stronger?

There is a cute little farm section just for little kids.

They pick up a pail of grain...

Plant seeds and pick the veggies...

Ride tractors, milk cows, get wool...

Pick up eggs, sell their food to a farmer's market, make money, then get to buy something from the store. Payton chose to buy a small box of cereal with her money.

Then we decided to go on a few rides. Payton was SOOO excited to go on her very first carnival ride. She kept throwing her arms up in the air and saying, "I'm so excited!!"

She was a little nervous on the ride and clung tightly to me, but after the ride was over she wanted to go again.

Daddy took her on a pony ride, which of course she loved.

Then we saw some pigeons...

And rabbits. Payton got to pet one of the mini rabbits.

Did you know they sell health food now at Fairs? I got a deep fried Snicker's bar and a deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was so excited to eat these and this was my main reason for wanting to go to the fair, but I was highly disappointed when I bit into these artery-clogging masterpieces. The pbj sandwich was just pretty much peanut butter and dough. The snickers bar was completely melted and everything seemed to have dissolved except for the peanuts. I only took a few bites and then I didn't want any more. Oh, well. At least I can say I tried these things.
Lastly, Scott and I both took a turn on the carousel with Payton.

Payton got a pink paper princess crown on the way out, which I think was her favorite part.

She wore it all the way home.

Nana and Big Poppy's Visit

2010-09-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit over Labor Day weekend and we had a great time as we always do when they come into town. We were busy, busy, busy the whole time they were here. We ate delicious food, went to a few different playgrounds, went bowling, had a BBQ, played basketball, played board games and hung out and played the Wii.

I won at bowling. It's low score wins, right? Just like golf? Oh, it's not? Well then I lost. Big time. Payton even beat me!!

Reading stories with Nana.

My dad sang "I'm a Little Teapot" for Payton in a deep, slow voice. She loved it. She sang right along with him. I got it on video. It's really funny. He also did some awesome dance moves and Payton tried to copy every step. He wouldn't let me film it or take a picture, but it was really cute!

Proud Mom Moment

2010-08-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not biased or anything, but I think Payton's the smartest girl ever! I asked her this morning how you spell her name. She said "P-a-y-t-o-n.com." (No idea where the dot-com part came from.) Such a smarty!!!

Age Is Just A Number

2010-08-25T20:11:00.001-07:00

My conversation with Payton this morning...

Me: "Payton, how old is Mommy?"

Payton: "48."

Me: "Mommy's 48???"

Payton: "Yeah."

Me: "How old is Daddy?"

Payton: "Ummm, 68."

Me: "How old are you, Payton?"

Payton: "I'm two weeks."

Dress Up

2010-08-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Payton loves to dress up and wear all sorts of accessories. I wonder who she gets that from??

You don't get any cuter than this!!

Catching Up

2010-08-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

Seattle and STP

Payton and I went up to Seattle in July to visit my parents and be their support car for their bike ride. (I'll talk more about that further down the post.) Payton was getting restless in the airport and wanted to see if she would fit on the plane as a carry-on. She was fascinated on the plane. She wanted to talk, show people her painted nails and play with the people around us the ENTIRE time. She actually did really well. I'm sure glad it was only a two hour flight though.

As always, Payton had a wonderful time with her Nana and Big Poppy. Here she is playing the piano with my dad. Payton thinks her Big Poppy is so funny.

We went to a little outdoor splash pad one of the days. Being in Seattle in the summer and being in Utah in the summer is a little different. Payton is used to hot weather and hot water. She was a little shy and wouldn't go in the cold water, but had fun regardless.

Another thing she loved at my parents house was their washer. She kept calling my mom over to look into the washer with her at the water spraying down. She could have sat here for hours. (Payton, not my mom :)

On another day, Payton and I went up to my Oma and Opa's house. They have a huge yard and a house full of memories to me. I loved being able to bring Payton up there again.

Payton absolutely LOVED my Aunt Klare and Uncle Ken. She could have played with them all day. We went over to their house also (they live next door) and they helped Payton feed the chickens and pet the dogs.

Payton with her Great-Grandparents.

Oma and Opa have very strong accents. I'm not sure they and Payton with her two-year-old talking understood each other very well. :) They had fun getting to know each other better though!

I wrote earlier that I was my parents support car. Well, my parents and Aunt Klare and Uncle Ken did the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride. It is a 2 day bike ride, 203 miles. Yes, folks, 203 miles in 2 days. My parents and aunt and uncle are freaking awesome!!! I'm so proud of them. They did 127 miles the first day and 76 the second day. They have been working and training so hard!!!

I'm sure my parents are going to love this sweaty helmet head picture, but I wanted to show a picture of them after the finish line. They have already signed up to do it again next year!!! What studs!!!

Colorado

We went to Colorado to visit my oldest brother Boone, Nicole and their family. It was a ten hour drive and Payton did awesome in the car. She had snacks, played games, colored on her Magna-doodle and watched some movies on the portable DVD player.

The looks on these kiddos faces just scream "trouble!" Payton and her cousins made up a silly little song/noise thing. I can't really explain it. They did it over and over again and thought it was hilarious each time!

Payton loved being around Rylan and Rylan did a good job of watching out for Payton.

On one of the days, Scott, Payton and I went to downtown Denver and went on 16th Street Mall. It's a whole street blocked off to cars, where only trolley's can drive back and forth on it, with tons of outdoor shops and restaurants. We ate at a place called Paramount. The food was awesome.

Dinosaur Museum

We went to Thanksgiving Point with our friends yesterday. The Dinosaur Museum was awesome. Here's Payton with her friends Adi and Maylee.

These dinosaurs were huge!! Payton had fun touching everything she could.

Super-modeling it!!

Payton has a weird thing about stepping in sand and having dirty hands, yet she still wanted to play in this huge sand box where you brush off dinosaur bones. You can tell she's having fun!

After the museum I asked Payton what dinosaur's ate. She said "Dinosaur's eat crackers and cereal." Well, I'm glad the museum was an educational experience for her at least! Staci and I had a great time and want to go there again. It was $2.00 Tuesday when we went and I guess everybody in Utah loves a good deal. There were hundreds of people in line in front of us (not exaggerating) and when we left the museum two hours later, there were hundreds more in line!

Just Cute

2010-07-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

We went on a walk with a few friends tonight, one of whom has the cutest, smallest little puppy named Brooklyn. We walked for a few miles and her poor little legs just couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to walk anymore and only wanted to be carried, so Payton was more than happy to oblige.

4th of July 2010

2010-07-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

We started out our 4th of July weekend by going to my niece Ellie's 7th birthday party. It was at a cute little place called Color Me Mine. You pick out a porcelain figurine, paint it, they fire it up for you and then put a gloss on it. Payton picked out a cat. She mixed all her colors of paint and went to town on it. She had a blast. The finished product.

Waiting outside for all the other kid's parents to pick them up.

That night we went to Scott's grandparents house. Every year they put on a big BBQ and do some fireworks in their driveway.

Great Grandpa Roy helping Payton with a sparkler.

Payton's cousin Isaac is a year younger than her and about the same size. She kept insisting that "Baby Isaac" sit on her lap.

Payton went a little wild with her sparklers so I had to help her keep it from touching her own hair and other people.

Daddy and Payton.

I guess the flash works really well on my camera because it looks like it's day time in this next picture. It was dark and all the cousins gathered around the last big sparkler firework and watched it until it died down.

After the BBQ at GG West's house, we headed up to Park City to hang out with some friends. Our friends were house sitting for some of their friends while they were Japan, so a few couples and our kids went up to hang out for the weekend. There was a huge deck with a beautiful view. We had a BBQ, sat in the hot tub, went on a walk, the guys golfed, the girls shopped, we went out to eat and hung out and played games. It was such a fun weekend.

Payton and Caleb eating breakfast together the next morning.

Splashing in the hot tub on the deck.

This morning, my friend and I took our kids to the Freedom Festival in Provo. We caught the very end of a Parade.

After the parade we went and walked around and looked at all the booths.

We had a great 4th of July, no work, just relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. Now back to reality...

Summer Pics June 2010

2010-06-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Sarah has a really nice camera and loves photography. She offered to do a photo shoot of Payton and me. We went around to different locations in the Provo area. We had a fun day and she did a wonderful job. Thanks, Sarah!

Holy Moly

2010-06-24T14:01:00.001-07:00

I'm just going to toot my own horn here for a minute because this is my blog and I want to!!!! I have lost 19.2 pounds in 9 weeks!!! Go me!!!!!!!