It's officially summer!

Summer officially began for me last Thursday. Before 8:30, Payton had been stung by a wasp and I was in a panic. We recovered relatively quickly and spent the rest of the day shopping. We spent the weekend at the lake hoping the rain would go away the entire time.

Payton on the other hand, actually loved the rain! She stood on the porch with it pouring on top of her. She was having a ball, so we didn't stop her.

We did get in a little swim time with Kayden. He was fearless and had to show Payton the ropes.


First boat ride of the year. She loved helping her daddy drive.

In other news, our baby is now 15 months. We go to the doctor next week for her checkup. She has started to outgrow some of her 12 month clothes which just reminds me how fast she is growing. She insists on eating with a spoon these days (although very messy) I have finally given in and let her take over. She loves reading and learning new words. It's amazing to me just how much a 15 month old can learn.



I am very much looking forward to spending some extra time with this sweet girl in the coming weeks!

Sunny afternoons

Payton loves spending the afternoons playing in the backyard. This is yet another example of what a climber she is. She doesn't want help, and let me assure you that the child has determination. It doesn't matter how she lands, she always stands up smiling.

April

Seriously? Is it already May? If you knew how few of pictures we have taken of our child this month you would think we were bad parents. The truth is, after Easter, we haven't really done anything picture or blog worthy. We all three have had some type of sinus congestion, cold mess throughout the month. Our baby girl turned 14 months a few weeks ago. Notice I said baby girl, I'm trying desperately to hold onto anything "baby" left of her. When I look at her play and interact, I realize just what a big girl she is becoming. She is so much fun these days. Rarely does a day pass that she doesn't make me bust out laughing for something.

Some things about our baby at 14 months: (this is really for us, so please feel free to skip)
Words: bye-bye, hey, mama (mommy), dada (daddy), Mollie, ball, dog, cup, nigh-nigh, all done, please, thank you, shoe, sock, nose, eyes, teeth, fish, bath, trash, stop, my least favorite- NO, I am sure there are more that I am not remembering right now... she will repeat most anything you say (love you is my favorite)

She has cut seven teeth the past month. YES- I said SEVEN. That might be another reason I haven't blogged in a while :)

Eating is still a challenge, but is getting better by the day. She desperately wants to use a spoon, but doesn't have the coordination yet and has no patience for anyone to help her. Therefore we normally end up looking like the picture above since she refuses to let you feed her. One day she may love something, and the next day hate it. She is very unpredictable, but as I said, we have made major progress in the past two weeks. Her favorite foods include: bananas, apples, broccoli, chicken nuggets, goldfish, multi-grain cheerios, yogurt, graham crackers have been an all time favorite but she is shying away from them.

She is still generally taking two naps a day. There have been days where she's only had one, but you could also tell it by her mood. :)

She is a busy little thing. We still call her monkey because she climbs over anything and everything. She loves "reading" and playing with shape sorters. She has no problem getting dirty or rolling around on the ground.

The past few days she has been giving out hugs and kisses left and right. All I can say is that I'm in love. Don't get me wrong, we have our challenging moments (and days), but life is much richer with our sweet girl.

These pictures actually weren't from April, but I thought I would include them anyway. We had fun playing in the pool with Ella today! As you can see from the last picture, Payton was more into getting in and out of the pool than actually swimming.

An "egg"cellent weekend

Whew! It has been a very hectic, yet very fun past few days. It all started Thursday afternoon with an Easter egg hunt hosted by some teachers at my school.


Friday after school, a sweet friend invited us to her husband's gym to play and run wild. Payton had such a good time playing with friends and being her typical monkey self. I think it's safe to say that the trampoline was her favorite.





Straight from there we headed to dye Easter eggs at Nana and Pop's house.


I told you the weekend was exhausting...Payton sleeping through Wal-Mart.

Saturday morning we went to an Easter egg hunt. We met Ella and Chase there (along with a few others). The weather was perfect and I think everyone had a great time.




We then made a quick stop to visit Granny. She looked so great!


Saturday afternoon we celebrated Chase's 2nd birthday.



Are you tired yet??? I'm wondering why in the world I decided to blog about all of this at once. But hang in there, we're just now getting to Easter...We went to church. Well, as we left the nursery headed to church, we could hear our child crying half way around the building. We did go back and peak in the window to find that she was calming down a little so went ahead. When we picked her up, she was passed out in the worker's lap rocking. I wonder why she was so tired???


After church and a nap, we headed to Waverly to celebrate Easter with my family, as well as celebrate Kayden's first birthday!





Our last trip of the weekend was back to Auburn to celebrate Easter with Jonathan's family and another egg hunt.




What a blessed, fun, and exhausting weekend. Payton has been asleep since the car ride home (no dinner or bath yet) but I have no intentions of waking her up. That sweet girl needs some rest.