The Hunt Begins

Our church traditionally has an Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Of course it was raining, and ironically it rained last year too. That didn't stop the Easter Bunny from coming out to play with the kids, it just got moved inside. Payton had much more fun this year compared to last year. She was in love with the Easter Bunny, she ran over and hugged him at least 5 different times. Even when other kids were trying to take their picture with the bunny, Payton thought that was an open invitation to her also. Little miss has absolutely NO fear at all. She jumped in the moon walk, and loved it. Well she didn't actually jump, she really just got bounced around like a rag doll but she thought it was great. She won the drawing for the 2 and under hunt, she got a huge basket, plus all the eggs she collected during the hunt. She really participated in two egg hunts because she couldn't let her cousins get their eggs without helping them. She got to find some more eggs and help put them in their baskets. A.J. was nice enough to take her on the big kid obstacle course and the big slide. She did pretty good and wasn't scared at all. It was very sweet of A.J. to take time away from flirting with his girlfriend to play with Payton for a little while. ( You remember how freshman boys are!)

Mitch did really well getting around and was a trooper considering it was his first outing and on his feet walking around since his surgery. Once we got home and feed her lunch she pooped out once we put her down for her nap.

Payton with the Easter Bunny

Payton with her prize basket

A.J. climbing with Payton

Picking out all the best eggs

Nana and her girls

Under the Knife

Thursday Mitch went in for his 6Th knee surgery. Everything went really well. He did great and the surgery only last for about an hour. They cleaned out his knee and removed a quarter size piece of bone fragment from in front of his patella. That should make things a lot less painful for him without that floating around. He came out of anesthesia very well and once we got home, got him comfortable on the couch with ice and his was good. His parents brought us dinner that night, which was great so I had one less thing to worry about. Our friend Erin kept Payton for us so she could nap and play with her daughter. Besides Mitch getting a new knee we couldn't have asked for anything better. He is getting around great now and hasn't used his crutches once. Thank you Lord for keeping him safe!

We have a Big Girl Now!

Last week it became official. Payton moved into her "Big Girl" room. After learning how to crawl out of the crib we decided to move her into her new room. She now is sleeping on a twin bed in the room next to the nursery. She has done really well with the transition. She picked up the routine pretty fast. We started Monday night, after Daddy got the room ready. We put a rail on the side of the bed and we got her furniture mounted to the wall so she pull it over onto herself.
The first night she got up and down frequently but caught on that I kept just walking in and not talking to her and walking her back to bed. By the fifth time walking in she turned around to walk back to her bed the minute she saw me enter the room. It only took her a little over an hour to go to sleep, and the best part was there was no screaming.
It only took a couple of days, now she lays right down and doesn't get up at all. She loves her new bed and she doesn't get up during nap time either. I am so proud of her. I keep thinking how lucky we are at how well she adjusts to things. I hope all of my children will be this easy. I know better, I am sure they won't but a mother can dream! I think next week we are going to make our first attempt to potty train. We will see how that next obstacle goes.

Won the Battle But Not The War

Day 1:Starting on Wednesday Payton decided that she didn't want to go to sleep as our usual routine. She normally gets on her P.J.'s, brushes her teeth, reads a couple of stories, we turn on her music and rock in the rocking chair for 1 song, we lay her down, say her prayers and she goes to sleep. Sounds like a pretty good process, right? She doesn't think so anymore. She screamed and cried off and on for a couple of hours that she wanted to " rock". I had gone in and rocked her and Mitch also tried a couple of times. Each one ending the same way, once we got up to lay her down, more screaming. I kept thinking maybe she didn't feel good, or something was wrong. We finally did get her to sleep and laid her down without waking her up.
Day 2: Thursday then came, I figured during nap time we would see if she had the same fit or went to sleep right away. Everything started off great, she even laid down and I covered her up, then it was like she remembered that she was being a pain in the butt, she jumped up and started screaming "I need to rock" again. I told her to just lay down, I shut the door and left. She cried it out for over an hour and then finally fell asleep. That night took around an hour of crying also.
Day 3: This now brings us to Friday, nap time today was better probably only 20 minutes or so and that night the same. She did wake up through out the night 6 times needing covered up or her lovey but then would go right back to sleep. I was thinking this better stop soon, it's getting ridiculous. I don't even have an infant to be up all night with, we are way past that stage of the game, and haven't started over again yet. Little do I know about what is to come.
Day 4: So last night Mitch had her by himself while I was at work and said she barely cried and went right to sleep. We thought "home free this should be the end of the fits" We proved to her that we won and we didn't back down, she had to sleep because we weren't coming back in to get her up. Were we wrong or what?!!
Today Mitch laid her down for nap and she started her crying fit. She even started saying that she pooped so I went in to change her. Guess what NO poop. Nice way to get me in there though. Then of course she was wanting to rock, I told her "NO" and laid her back down. Was she pissed or what. Screaming bloody murder like someone just broke both her arms. That went on for a while. She would get quite for a little but then started crying all over again. After 3 hours we decided at 3pm that if she was still awake we will just get her up. She had been talking to herself but not crying the last 20 minutes. Well 3 rolled around so I was walking up the stairs to go to her room. I heard the door moving around like the wind was blowing against it. I was thinking to myself, that is impossible there is no way she is on the other side of that door pulling on it. Guess what? You are right, there she was, as I opened the door I hear " Hi Mommy, I get out". Of course I was thinking, " Yeah No shit I see that". So just as I thought we stood strong and held our ground that we weren't going to give in, we showed her who's boss. She showed us that we can have a whole new problem to deal with now. Gotta love 2 yr olds.

Women Drivers!

We all know how great women drive. If it is anything like me, just slightly over the speed limit. Nothing like my husband who drives like a Grandpa. Sadly to say my daughter is even worse. Payton got our neighbors old power wheels jeep and this is her first driving experience. She has trouble driving she doesn't keep her foot on the gas pedal and she doesn't understand how to steer the wheel. It is comical to watch her try.

Luckily we have 5 yr old little girls on both sides of us. They are not much better drivers by any means but have driven power wheel cars before so can at least get from point A to point B. Sure they might run over a toe, and kill a little grass in the process but you know they are girls. They are nice enough to come and play with Payton and drive her around in her car.

Of course now she thinks that is how it works. Someone should sit down and drive her anywhere she wants to go. Wouldn't that be nice, I wish that I had my own driver. " I want to go shopping"! That would be the most common phrase out of my mouth I am sure. She also now thinks that anytime we go into the garage it is time for her to get to ride in her car, not Mommy's car. Hopefully through the summer she will learn how to drive herself so she can enjoy her own toy without relying on the neighbors to be outside whenever she wants to play with it.

"Take me home"

boys beware, girls comin through

Ace of Cakes

Ace of Cakes! Anyone a fan? If so you should be watching because I should be appearing soon on the show. Over the last month my neighbor, Amy and I have been taking a cake decorating class. We decided that we should improve our cake decorating abilities so that our children's birthday cakes would look professional, but still made by Mom. Our class was a couple of hours every Monday evening. My co-workers got the perk of cakes each week. I work at the hospital on Tuesdays so I would bring in what ever cake I made on Monday. I don't really think they cared what it looked like, but enjoyed eating it. I especially helped out the couple of them that are on diets. Talk about bad temptation!!

Well even though I really won't be appearing on any cake shows, or hosting my own, we did have a great time. I took pictures of all 4 cakes I made over the past month. They are in the order they were made. I did improve each week but it will probably be a while before I am approached about hosting my own show or opening my own bakery.

My first cake of the classMy cousins baby shower cake

Payton 2nd birthday cake

My 2nd cake made in class

My 3rd cake made in class, the roses are hard.

Kids with 4 Legs

There are a lot of people who consider their dogs part of the family. Life hasn't been exactly the same for our 2 babies since Payton has came along. We still love them like they are children, they just don't get as much attention as they once did. That still doesn't mean it breaks your heart when one of them is in pain. This last weekend our oldest boxer Bailey was out running playfully in the back yard with Bentley when we heard her sh reek and then when she came to the door she was only on 3 legs. After being sedated and getting x-rays yesterday it has been concluded that she tore her ACL, or what would be your ACL in a dog. While she was at the vet all day Bentley was at home worried about his big sister, cried all day until she finally came back home. He doesn't know how to survive without his big sister. We feel so bad for her, she looks miserable limping around on 3 legs. It really breaks your heart when one of your kids is hurting and you wish you could take the pain all away. We got some pain medicine and some pills to help strengthen her bones. She has been moving around better each day getting use to using only 3 legs. Bentley and her are no longer allowed to go outside together for fear that she will want to try to run or play with him and hurt herself worse. We love our sweet puppy!!