House guest

Since last Monday we have had a few extra people sleeping at our house. Some really good friends of ours are temporarily homeless because they sold their old house but the their new house isn't finished yet. We have the wonderful company of their two oldest children Carrie and A.J. They are staying with us during the school week so they each can have their own room with a bed and their own bathroom. It has been so great having them around, Payton is loving it, thinking they are there for her entertainment. It feels so weird having the house full, but nice at the same time. They will be here for the next month. I have even spoiled them and made breakfast a couple mornings. It has been really fun and love having them with us.

Happy 30th

On Monday Mitch turned 30 years old! Hard to believe that is possible. I was working with a couple of his friends and his brother Sean for a surprise gettaway for his birthday. We can't just pick up and leave any weekend we want to since that is when I mainly work. So instead of us going somewhere for the weekend I decided he would love to have a boys weekend. He got to spend 3 days with no wife or daughter. Just hanging out with his big brother and friends playing golf. They had a great time together and did lots of drinking. The golf scores weren't all that great, but they had a blast, which is most important.

I think his first 30 years have been good. He grew up with a great family who is still very close. He graduated college, got married to a great girl :) , has a home, a beautiful daughter, almost finished with a master degree and loving life. I am looking forward to filling the next 30 years with wonderful memories. Happy Birthday babe!!

Pacifiers No more!!!

So the big event that happened a couple of weeks ago was putting up all the pacifiers. She only would get one when she was sleeping/napping. I decided to just try it without. We survived the first nap, then that night I had to rock her to sleep a little bit longer because she was upset she didn't have her pacifier. She fought me on that a little bit. Then she woke up at midnig looking for it and couldn't find it. She was upset and up for only about 10 minutes. That was it then she slept until morning. She hasn't needed her pacifier since. She adapted very well, I am so proud of her. We are at now a pacifier free home

Quietude

A week or two after coming back from vacation Mitch and I got a wild hair. We have really been talking about how the inside of the whole house needs to be repainted, it looks terrible with that cheap builders grade paint that scuffs up and you can't clean. We actually acted upon all the talking and decided that we were going to paint the kitchen and entrance from the garage one Saturday morning. It was beautiful outside and we had the windows open so we thought it would be a great day to paint. Mitch left to go buy paint and I immediately called for back up. I called to see if my grandparents were willing to come spend the day with us and work. Mema got the best job she played with Payton so she didn't get into the paint. Poppop is a good painter so he assisted us. We actually put some paint on the walls by 11:30 and we had finished painting and got everything back in it's place by 4:30 when I needed to shower and get ready for work that night. I was so excited we did really good and pretty fast. So now our kitchen, garage entrance, and laundry room are Quietude( a blue color) I know blue, I was surprised at first to that I picked blue, not really a normal color for me but it turned out really good I really like it. .

The laundry room got painted the next weekend. Mitch surprised me and stayed up half the night on Saturday night and painted it and put everything away after he put Payton to bed. I think he was up til 3:30am. I was very surprised when I got home from work the next morning.

We are done with blue now. We still have the remainder of the first floor with the exception on the dining room and then upstairs. The entryway will not be fun at all.

The Kitchen

Kitchen

The Laundry/computer room and garage entrance

Beach baby!!

We just got home yesterday from a wonderful vacation in sunny Florida. We went to Orlando, Fl to visit one of our best friends Luke, Amy and Noah. We started our trip on July 7th, this was Payton's first plane ride and she was a great traveler. She slept half way and talk and sat on our laps the second half.

Amy and Noah were there to pick us up in the crazy thunderstorm. Wednesday we went to the outlet mall to do some shopping. Amy and I haven't gotten to do that together since they moved. We had a great time and Payton of course made out the best. Mitch and I got a couple of things. Thursday we got up and packed up the car and headed for the beach. We traveled about 2 hours to Siesta Key. We rented the cutest little house a 1/2 a block from the beach. We were a little worried when we got there is was raining and continue to rain the remainder of the evening. We lucked out though the next day was partly cloudy and we spent all day at the beach. Payton had a great time, she loved the sand and had a ball bull dosing all of the sandcastles that Mitch built. She loved the water too, played in layed on her belly and let the waves crash into her. They were small waves since we were on the Gulf side. She even took a nap under the umbrella next to Noah. Nap time

The beach baby and mom
Daddy's girl
Payton with her Auntie Amystud Noah
Both of the kids did great. Amy and Noah had to stay inside a little bit more but that is only expected with a 7 week old baby.

beach photo opp

Besides being close to the beach we were also close to a strip mall around the corner with awesome restaurants. Amy and I had the best crab legs ever one night. Even Noah got close enough to taste them.

After dinner back at Amy and Luke's place, the mommies and their angels

Possibly husband and wife someday. An older woman!!

The last day we went to a park close to the house and it had tons of swings, slides, and a water spray area. Payton ended up being the only one for about 30 min, just enough time to have all the fun she needed. She loved it, even though she got it in the face a couple of times.

We had a wonderful trip and had so much fun with the Helm's. We are looking forward to our next trip whenever that might be.

Happy 4th

This year the 4th didn't really go as planned. Originally Payton was going to get to be in her first parade. Our Neighborhood does a 4th of July parade. We unfortunately were driving home from the ER. Since it was a Saturday and a holiday there were no doctors offices open and we had to take Payton to the ER after being up every 45 min. all night long screaming in pain. She had been extremely cranky the day before and not the happy go lucky Payton she usually is. We thought she was just getting in her "eye" teeth. After surviving the sleepless night we took her first thing in the morning because I decided it must be her ears. She did have an ear infection and she had an infection in her mouth and down her throat, which explained the lack of appetite, which we originally again thought was just teething. Poor baby had a very ruff day. It is amazing how much your heart aches when your little one is in pain and you can't make it better or even sometime figure out exactly what it is.
We spent a little bit of time at mom's house to celebrate Mema's birthday and grill out with everyone. Payton did OK after getting all of her meds into her. We only lasted a couple of hours and then took her back home and tried to just get her to rest. I worked that night and Mitch was left at home to man the house and look after the sicky. Maybe next year the 4th might be a little more exciting celebrating our Independence day.

3 rolled into 1

There were 3 great events that all happened on June 21st. The best was Mitch and I Anniversary. We have now officially been married for 6 years. Can you believe it? I can't, that seems like such a long time, 6 years. WOW! Each year just keeps getting better and better. We celebrated the night before at Carli and Scott's wedding, which was so much fun. Payton enjoyed her self running all over the place and dancing the night away.

The Lyman family

Enjoying dinner!
Our official celebration was a surprise to me. Mitch had planned an evening out for us. He arranged for Payton to be taken care of and he set up the rest of the evening at the Culinary Institute. We went to a cooking class and learned how to make a fabulous Italian dinner. Which was to die for. What made it even more exciting was we had to cook the 4 course dinner. I would recommend it to anyone, we had a great time. In the blink of an eye it will be 7 years.
Sitting on Daddy's lap The second event was Father's Day. Mitch got to celebrate his second father's day being a great Dad to the cutest little girl who LOVES her Daddy. She picked out his card and a small present for him. We had the family over for brunch that morning and all ate together. The girls loves all the messy food. We also got to celebrate Roxanne's 3rd birthday and she opened up her gifts.

Getting them to all 3 sit still was a chore!!
It also was the first day of summer. It defiantly has been hot enough to believe that. We love summer as long as we are around the pool a couple times a week.